Final (2)
Whirrr—
As the lift rose, a bright, lively melody began to play. The cello line stood out most, plucked with a crisp pizzicato that made the notes bounce like droplets of water.
♩♬♪♬~ ♪♩♩~
Clear bells rang out, and Team A appeared wearing epaulets heavy with golden tassels.
With the elaborate hats trimmed in white feathers and gold ornaments, they looked exactly like nutcrackers who had just stepped out of a fairy tale.
Team A stood motionless, staring blankly into space, their arms crossed awkwardly in front of them. They looked like a video paused mid-dance.
Baek Yuri, heart-shaped red stickers pasted on both cheeks, handled the opening line.
[Na nanana na na nana—]
At the cue of Baek Yuri’s soft chorus, which sounded like an actual music box, the others began to dance in their own ways.
They moved like wind-up toys. The motions were smooth yet strange, with just enough deliberate creaking to make the whole thing charmingly off-kilter.
Standing at center, Baek Yuri lifted the microphone.
[Ladies and gentlemen, we offer you our boundless gratitude.
Have you enjoyed the journey so far?]
While Baek Yuri sang with a lively expression, performing as though bowing gracefully at a ballroom, the other members froze in place like toys whose batteries had died.
And when Baek Yuri’s motion stopped, this time Baek Gi-yeom alone waved his long arms and sang brightly.
[Then we’re truly relieved.
We’ve been happy too.]
Next, Gal Neoul sang with small, fussy motions and a shamelessly cheerful expression before bowing politely.
[The performance is drawing to a close.
Right here, tonight!
There isn’t much time left.]
Halfway through the bow, just as he was lifting his head again, Gal Neoul froze as if time itself had stopped.
This time, Yeo Do-bin moved as though a seal had been broken. Seeing the four others frozen in place, he went wide-eyed and looked around in confusion.
[The curtain call approaches in an instant.
The ending credits appear, just as they please.]
Yeo Do-bin raised both palms upward and shrugged, as if he couldn’t make sense of any of it—and then he, too, stiffened like a mannequin.
Lee Gal-chae slipped out between the motionless members and began to sing. The sequins scattered across his face, from beneath his eyes to the bridge of his nose, caught the lights and glittered.
[When the lights go out in the blink of an eye,
the audience will rise and leave one by one—
jo. jo. jo. jo. jo—]
And then came the killing part. Lee Gal-chae, as if buffering, repeated the same motion and the same lyric over and over.
Then his body pitched forward suddenly, as though he were about to fall, and sprang out again.
At last, his movements became natural, as fluid as a human’s, and light returned to Lee Gal-chae’s eyes. With a sparkling gaze, he looked toward the audience, then ran between his teammates, miming the winding of a toy with earnest enthusiasm.
[Wake up! Hyung! Wake up! It’s not over yet!]
Neat narration.
The members Lee Gal-chae had awakened one by one as he passed checked each other, looked out at the audience, and broke into radiant smiles.
Bells rang out. The mood turned, and the instruments swelled richer and fuller.
Right then, in the midst of the musical-theater arrangement, Baek Yuri and Baek Gi-yeom rolled dramatically sideways from both ends like circus performers and crossed paths as they passed in front.
Aaahhh!
The sound of the audience’s dopamine exploding filled the entire hall.
All at once, the dolls-and-toys feeling had vanished completely from the performers. Their dancing had grown much bigger, and their expressions were far more vivid.
Lee Gal-chae returned to the center and sang. His dance lines were honest and straightforward, but light and fluttering enough to make him seem ready to take flight at any second.
[I’ll believe it isn’t the end!
Our story has only just begun!]
Then Yeo Do-bin’s voice, clear yet husky, cut in, bending notes freely as he carried the rhythm with ease.
[If you thought this was the ending,
you’ve come to the wrong address.]
A pair dance from Yeo Do-bin and Gal Neoul. Gal Neoul slapped hands with Yeo Do-bin, spun once, and stepped forward.
With grand movements, he glided through the melody’s wide range as easily as if he were strolling over a low wall.
[This isn’t the ending, but the STARt line of a new beginning.
There is no terminal station.]
Smiling brightly, Gal Neoul and Yeo Do-bin marched in place with vigor, and between them the other members kept dancing, twirling and shifting formation all the while.
Baek Yuri came forward, braced one hand on the floor, and slid down to sit with one leg stretched out. Then he beckoned toward the camera with the other hand. His smile was pure and luminous.
[Come sit beside me.
I’ll tell you a story that has just begun—]
Lee Gal-chae came back to the center, and Baek Yuri used his core strength to rise before slipping softly aside.
The five of them moved in perfect sync. Their voices, too, blended into one.
[Come on! Sing!
Na nanana na na nana]
The choreography was built on big, refreshing movements, with arms and legs stretching wide. It borrowed the buoyant steps of an amusement park parade and the swirling spins of a carousel-like turn, and it kept rolling on without pause.
These were the moves Baek Yuri had hammered out after wracking his brains over how to make everything look more dynamic and more joyful.
[Sing with us!
Na nanana na na nana]
[On a night when the world sleeps, the finale repeats.
A midnight Parade.
Together, we walk a road without an ending—
A Parade shining ever brighter.]
On top of the song’s excited, playful, and cheerful melody, Baek Gi-yeom’s self-written rap added just a touch of wistfulness. Unlike the rough, biting rap style he had shown before, this one had a soft, rhythmic flow.
Gal Neoul slid out from the side.
[This isn’t the ending, but the STARt line of a new beginning.
There is no terminal station.]
[Come play with us.
I’ll tell you a story that never ends.]
[A midnight Parade.
A Parade shining ever brighter.]
The bridge passed smoothly from Baek Yuri to Yeo Do-bin, like water flowing downhill.
And then the chorus returned. The members who had drifted slightly back all took off their hats and flung them high into the air before marching forward.
[Come on! Sing!
Na nanana na na nana]
Aaahhh!
Aaah!
As all five of them broke into the protruding stage with lively steps, the roar from the audience grew so fierce it seemed it might punch straight through the roof of the concert hall.
[Sing with us!
Na nanana na na nana
We sing!
Na nanana na na nana]
Team A danced while looking into one another’s eyes. Spinning, singing, and laughing, they truly looked happy—genuinely, incandescently so.
They made full use of the much larger stage, far more boldly than in the previous round, and did their best to get as close to the audience as possible.
As the bright, exhilarating music that felt like an amusement park parade began to die down, the five scattered members gathered together and lined up shoulder to shoulder.
[I’ll say it isn’t the end.]
[Our story has only just begun.]
[If you hoped the performance wouldn’t end,]
[you found the right place.]
They sang a line each, stepping in unison with their arms linked over one another’s shoulders.
Lee Gal-chae was wedged between the tall Gal Neoul and Baek Gi-yeom, his feet not touching the ground as he bounced and stepped in midair.
[The STARt line of a new beginning—]
Lee Gal-chae made a mischievous face, then jumped down to the floor. He finished with a wink.
Aaahhh! Aaah!
Kyaaah!
Gal Neoul’s home master screamed until her throat went raw.
Her hand on the camera and her shoulder shook violently. She couldn’t think straight from the ecstatic rush surging up to the crown of her head.
Her heart pounded madly, and the tips of her toes tingled. She couldn’t even tell whether the shrieks pouring into her ears were her own voice or someone else’s.
“Crazy! You all need to debut! What the hell! Why the hell haven’t you debuted yet! What the hell!”
She had been biting back her swearing with considerable effort in order to be a refined fan of Gal Neoul, but the adrenaline had shot up so violently that she simply couldn’t hold it in anymore.
The same was true for the viewers watching the stage online and on TV. The chat window, which had gone still for a moment while the performance was underway, exploded the instant it ended.
Gal Neoul’s home master finally got her camera back under control.
She had been so busy watching, yelling, and losing her mind that she hadn’t captured a single decent shot. Now she hammered the button over and over toward Gal Neoul as he struck the ending pose.
You’re the best!
Even the sight of his tousled hair and the beads of sweat at his temples looked perfect.
I’m so proud of you. So happy.
At first, she had fallen for Neoul simply because of his face. Even if he hadn’t been this good, she would probably have ended up a moderately happy fan photographer.
But Neoul wasn’t just absurdly handsome—he was also this skilled, and every time he stepped onstage he delivered a legendary performance that exceeded expectations. As a fan, her life had become dangerously fun. It felt like she was sinking deeper and deeper into something she could no longer climb out of.
This is dangerous.
Had she ever been this deeply obsessed while stanning before?
An alarm bell rang in her head.
She had spent years as a hobbyist fan photographer, cycling through countless idols in and out of her devotion, but she had never gone this far out of her mind with enjoyment. If she had to name a comparable moment, it would only have been when she saw the Breakwater Team’s stage last time.
It was strange, too, that she didn’t even regret missing photos during the performance.
Should I calm down a little and keep my distance...?
But then, through the camera lens, she met Gal Neoul’s eyes.
Maybe it was her imagination, but Gal Neoul looked as though he recognized her as a fan photographer; he blinked in surprise with a small, “Oh?” and then smiled and waved. After that, he turned his head to greet someone else too.
Happy, smiling Gal Neoul filled the lens completely.
Holy crap! There is no such thing as me ever leaving the fandom again!
＊ ＊ ＊
Above the concert hall, dark clouds gathered in the sky without warning.
Flash!
Rumble! Crash!
Thunder boomed out, loud and sudden.
“What the hell. Is it thundering right now?”
“Huh? The forecast said clear weather today, didn’t it?”
“Right? Why are there suddenly thunder and lightning?”
After coming down from the stage, Neoul passed the staff members talking about the weather and headed for the waiting room. The moment he arrived, he shook all over and drank some salt water.
After draining the bottle and setting it down, Neoul sucked in a breath.
It hurts!
The patch he had placed over the mouth ulcer had been shoved off by his teeth the moment he started singing. Still, he had managed not to show it at all. He had simply swallowed the patch down.
Honestly, while he was onstage and focused, he’d forgotten the pain, so it hadn’t hurt all that much.
But the second he stepped offstage, it began to throb hotly and fiercely, as though he’d been burned. The pain was so sharp it tingled all the way to his scalp.
“Patch! Patch!”
Neoul flailed around looking for the mouth-ulcer patch. Baek Yuri found one and threw it to Baek Gi-yeom, who was nearby with Neoul. Baek Gi-yeom opened the box, took out a patch, and quickly handed it over.
“Here! Here!”
Only after Neoul put on another mouth-ulcer patch did he finally feel calm again. The uproarious thunder faded almost at once.
On the TV mounted to the wall of the waiting room, the video for the next team, Team C, was already playing.