After Story 190

“Let’s keep in touch. I see Sinseo-oppa and Jichan-oppa from time to time, but not you.”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know me when I reach out to you later. I really will make calls if you say stuff like this.”

“Just don’t forget.”

Jichan came back after checking everything over. They talked about what happened during the shoot two years ago, and before they knew it, it was time for the concert.

“This is the order of events, and the two of you will go up at this point. We’ll notify you 10 minutes prior to that so, before then, you can watch the performance from here, so go out to the hall.”

The concert began as they listened to the explanations.

Maru and Haena watched the concert on the TV placed in the waiting room. They thought that Jichan was really a musician when they saw him sing and dance on stage.

“Looking at him like this is different.”

“It sure is. I think that guy needs to sing until he dies.”

He chatted with Haena as he watched. After a few songs, there was a session of talking to the fans. Some staff entered the waiting room and told them to get ready.

Maru got the cake he bought for Jichan, and Haena did as well.

They went around to the side of the stage. Jichan was talking over the cake the fans gave to him as a gift.

“Thank you all so much. Actually, I was really nervous. This is an individual concert from Yoo Jichan, not the group Alt. But so many of you have come anyway. Thank you all once again.”

The fans in the audience all cheered and applauded. The candles on the cake lit up, and Jichan blew them out.

“I’ll eat some here and then take the rest home so that I can boast to my family members.”

Jichan sliced the cake and put it in his mouth. In the meantime, Maru and Haena got ready to go on stage under the direction of the staff.

“Before I go to the next song, I’m thinking I should have some time to talk with you all. It’d be rather awkward and boring to talk by myself, so I invited over a few friends of mine. I hope you can give them a round of applause. Miss Lee Haena and Mr. Han Maru.”

A still frame shot from The Witness came up on the screen. Haena went up on the stage first, and Maru followed suit.

In front of them were five thousand people. Yellow cheering sticks, the color that signified Jichan in Alt, were waving around.

Even in his previous lives, Maru had rarely been invited to such events.

“h.e.l.lo. I’m Lee Haena, an actress.”

“h.e.l.lo. I’m Han Maru, an actor.”

They greeted as the staff members told them and sat down next to Jichan. Despite being the middle of winter, the top of the stage was scorching with all the stage lights and the heat from the people.

“First of all, thank you both for coming,” Jichan said.

“You called us here, so, of course, we’d be here. He’d complain about it to me later if I didn’t, so I had to come,” Maru said to the audience.

The main characters of this concert were Jichan and the fans in the audience. It was better to mention Jichan even in trivial conversations or jokes.

After a light joke, he looked at Haena who sat next to him. She kept smiling without a word despite it being her turn to speak.

He had felt this in the waiting room, but she seemed really nervous. Well, speaking normally under the gazes of 5,000 people was definitely not easy. Though, she’d probably get used to it in no time since she was someone who worked with hundreds of people at shoots.

“Looks like Haena-noona has gotten nervous.”

“Right. Everyone, her personality isn’t usually like this.”

Maru talked to Jichan and bought some time for Haena to adjust.

“It’s my first time coming up on such a large stage, so it put me in a daze. How should I put this… I’m rather proud that Jichan-oppa is singing and dancing on a stage like this.”

“People are going to think you’re older than me. Feeling proud of me, what the heck?”

“It’s fine as long as I get the meaning across,” Haena said. Her voice was slightly shaking, but she had regained her usual wittiness, so she should soon be able to talk without holding back.

The staff brought over a huge box. It was the box at the entrance of the concert venue. Maru had seen the fans put something in it before the start.

“You know what this is, right?”

Yes — a loud reply came from the audience.

“Inside are your seat numbers and your questions. Due to the situation at hand, we can’t receive that many direct questions, but I’ll try to answer as many of the questions inside the box as possible.”

Jichan proficiently communicated with the fans as he moved along the event. It was to be expected of an idol 12 years into their career. Jichan pulled out a paper and gave it to Haena.

“First question. This is from the person in 87A. Jichan-oppa, first of all, happy birthday.”

“Thank you.”

Haena continued after Jichan’s reply,

“I haven’t been able to get any sleep because it’s been so long since the last concert. I hope you do more concerts in the future. When do you have the next one planned?”

“I’d love to meet with you all more frequently, but alas the adult circ.u.mstances are not easy to deal with. Also, if I hold one too frequently, that will put all of your wallets in danger, isn’t that right?”

The laughter of five thousand people filled the stage.

“I don’t plan to let go of music anytime soon. While it is important that I see you all as an actor as well, music is my alpha and my omega. I’ll try to prepare as many alb.u.ms as possible and see you from time to time. If I hold a concert next time, I want to hold one in a smaller place. There, we’ll be able to see each other better and chat. What do you all think?”

Good — Jichan was very proficient in communicating with the fans. For something like this, practice was one thing, but innate talent seemed to be a factor as well.

Maru and Haena alternated reading the questions from the fans. Jichan responded earnestly to every question, even bringing up some other related topics for questions that seemed to overlap with one of the previous ones. Maybe that was the secret to being a long-running idol.

“This time, we’ll get some questions directly. If I pull out a seat number and call you out, our staff will hand you the mic. This place is so large, so it might take some time to deliver the mic, so please be patient.”

Jichan pulled out a piece of paper from the box. When he called out the seat number, a scream-like cheer erupted from somewhere in the audience. Everyone’s heads looked that way.

“Your voice is really good. Can you get her the mic?”

Along with murmurs, the mic was delivered.

The main camera shot the audience seats. It was a woman in her mid-20s. She was grabbing the mic like she was holding the precious treasure of her household.

“What do I do?”

“What shall we do?”

Jichan responded with a smile. He calmly bought some time for the fan to ease up.

“Uhm, I’m a fan of Jichan-oppa, but I also really like Haena-unni too.”

“Really?”

“Yes! I was really surprised when Haena-unni came up.”

Haena, who was listening, thanked her.

“Then do you have a question for Miss Haena, not me?”

“No, I don’t really have a question…” After looking around, she continued, “Can I listen to you sing?”

“Miss Haena singing? Yes, of course. Miss Haena, that’s okay, right?”

“What?”

Haena looked visibly fl.u.s.tered. She seemed even more nervous than when she first came up on stage.

“I’m really bad though.”

“It’s fine. Everyone, it’s okay, right?”

Jichan set up the stage for her.

The fans also seemed to have noticed that Jichan and Haena were on really close terms, and urged her, calling her name out repeatedly.

Having said that though, Jichan had a close look at Haena’s face. He seemed to be planning to switch topics if she really looked to be in a difficult position.

“Then I’ll sing a short one. But I’m really bad, so don’t get your hopes up.”

The audience’s call of her name turned into ‘it’s okay’ this time.

Haena grabbed the mic and stood up.

“Can I have the accompaniment?”

“Copyright issues.”

Jichan cut her right off. It seemed that he saw that Haena resolved herself, so he was going to tease her until the end. After stomping her feet, Haena eventually started singing.

The rhythm was okay, but the pitch was rather off. It was a famous song, so even the fans who listened to her song started singing along. After singing around three lines, Haena let out a deep breath and took the mic off her mouth.

“You really can’t sing, huh?” Jichan said with a big laugh.

Haena walked over and slapped Jichan on the arm.

“But we can’t only have Haena sing, can we? We have two guests,” Jichan said.

Maru waved his hand in the air in denial, expressing his difficulty. While he had experienced it a few times, he wasn’t used to singing on a stage like this.

“I think we need everyone’s encouragement. Han Ma-ru, Han Ma-ru.”

The host was urging the audience, so there was no way the fans would stay still. They soon started calling Han Maru and waved their sticks around.

“Maru’s voice is really good. I’m sure everyone heard his voice through Case Number 0, right? Try imagining him singing with that voice.”

“Hey, do it quickly. I did it, so you’re not going anywhere.”

Two people pushed him forward. He grabbed the mic and stood up from the seat.

“I have to sing acapella too?”

“If you sing my song, you can have the track.”

“I’ll sing acapella then. I’m not that good either, so you can all block your ears for a second. We need to quickly get back to Jichan-hyung’s story, so I’ll make it short.”

It had been a long time since he sang on stage. He thought about what to sing before thinking of a track from a musical he had sung numerous times in his previous lives.

“Then I’ll sing one.”

* * *

How many times did one need to practice a song before performing on stage? Jichan was of the opinion that they should not be able to count the number of times. They should repeat themselves so many times until they think that it is impossible to make a mistake.

Only then would they be able to go on stage.

Only then would they be able to show everything properly.

Jichan looked at Maru’s back, who was singing. Nothing was prepared beforehand. Maru ended up with the mic in a sudden turn of events.

A singer would check the state of their own voice and sing their own song. Anyone whose job was singing would do that. But what about actors?

A familiar musical track entered his ears. Even people who did not know musicals would have heard this song at least once in their lives.

All the musical actors who sang it did so with different emotions, so whenever someone sang it, it would be compared with the others.

Jichan thought about a few actors who had sung this song before. Among them were some he listened to with extreme praise. But when compared to Maru? It might be a difference in preference, but Jichan wanted to side with Maru for that one.

It was definitely not easy for an acapella to have so much power. They had to fill the absence of instruments with their voices alone.

The audience seats fell quiet. It was a different reaction from when Haena was singing. Everyone was just listening. It wouldn’t be strange to call it a Han Maru concert.

A moderate distance between the mic and the mouth, suitable vocal techniques, charming breathing sounds — this was definitely not the realm of talent. That was something that could only be possessed by someone who had practiced countless times.

Maru had done musicals before? At least, Jichan himself had never heard of it.

“I’ll stop here.”

Maru put down the mic. A thunderclap of applause suddenly burst in the quiet venue.

“Er, should we not proceed with the rest of the events and just listen to Maru sing for the rest?” Jichan said half-jokingly and half-seriously.

“Why are you doing that again? I’m going to stop here. The people who came here want to listen to you singing, right?”

Maru smoothly changed the topics.

Jichan induced a round of applause again. It was very short, but the performance had depth. A round of applause was a cheap price to pay for that.