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Chapter 263: Again After Rainfall (39)

I will be there

You don\'t need to be afraid

Your time has stopped

The time for our hearts to deepen is forever-

As soon as Joo-Han\'s part ended, the dancers\' hands clung all over me. Joo-Han was pulled back and disappeared as the lights dimmed.

A spotlight shone down on me alone. Both large screens on the sides fully displayed my face and focused on my movements. I felt the gaze of the people as I trudged toward the center of the stage. The walk felt quite long, during which the audience\'s screams suddenly erupted and didn’t stop.

I reached the center of the stage and slowly knelt down. A narrator murmured in my stead.

♪ Forever.

I lowered my head. As the lights that were illuminating me went out, I caught my breath on the floor amidst the cheers. Exclamations and voices came from all around. I listened to them for a while before the proceedings for the next performance began, and then I quickly waved my hands to everyone and hurried off the stage in the blackout.

Running around such a large stage after the incident with the lights was exhausting. If I was this tired after just one song, the other members certainly were completely drained. I headed back to the dressing room with the staff who came to fetch me and, as expected, the members were there already, sprawled out. They were utterly spent, each holding a hairdryer.

“Hey, welcome.”

“Hey. You guys were awesome even from the back."

“Nah. You have no idea how much we struggled without you."

“I realized just how important you are, hyung."

“The center of the stage was completely empty."

“I’m sorry.”

The members clamored and asked why I was apologizing. I got overwhelmed by their loud voices, sat down as the stylist instructed, and quietly dried my hair.

After our performance, we had to wait for a long time. I heard that some artists had already left, but there were still those waiting for a group greeting scheduled toward the end of the festival. Alectroz, who had stayed to mock us and mimic slanted eyes even after his performance, was surely one of them.

During the wait, the team from Again After Rainfall had no specific plans for us. It was an awkward time to schedule anything, so we just walked around the festival with cameras and enjoyed food and games at various booths.

The festival organizers called us at around 2 AM, well past midnight, to wrap up. At the end of the lively festival, people and artists danced leisurely to a DJ\'s mixing. The artists who stayed to be called up all went on stage. It seemed that everyone else knew each other. They mingled and enjoyed themselves, excluding us. It wasn\'t that they were excluding us since we were the ones excluding them.

Well, we also enjoyed ourselves. Songs that one would typically hear in a club flowed from the speakers all around.

As everyone danced and enjoyed themselves energetically as if they had more energy to spend, I found everything a bit too noisy and was about to cover my ears when Yoon-Chan blocked my view and smiled.

“Just focus on the beautiful things."

“What?"

With that cryptic remark, he slipped behind like Goh Yoo-Joon had done during rehearsal and carefully covered my ears with his palms. Just then, a soft \'boom!\' sound of a firecracker was heard.

I flinched at the small sound, startled, and quietly looked up at the sky. The lights shot up high and spread across the night sky.

One, two… another one, so that made it three.

I watched the spectacular fireworks burst one after another, unable to look away. It was a quiet fireworks display without any noise from the bursting sounds or people\'s voices.

“…Thank you, Yoon-Chan."

Had I ever seen anything like this before?

It was so beautiful, and I was so grateful for my member\'s thoughtfulness that it moved me deeply. The fireworks marked the end of the long festival, and Again After Rainfall was left only with the after-party.

***

On the day of the festival, we arrived at our accommodations late at night. All the members were so exhausted that we immediately fell asleep. That afternoon, we woke up one by one and conducted interviews to conclude the Again After Rainfall project.

I couldn\'t wake up for a while, but I was awakened by Goh Yoo-Joon\'s footsteps as always, barely managing to get ready before heading to the interview venue. Fortunately, my mind cleared up just before the interview began.

- Again After Rainfall shooting has wrapped up. What was the experience like for you?

“Um, it was really..."

It had been tough, not just tough, but every single day had been really hard.

“It was fun. Performing in places I usually don’t and interacting with the audience was great. And being in unfamiliar places somehow made it more enjoyable. I also met artists I\'ve always admired."

Although they all had quite unpleasant personalities, surprisingly.

- You really enjoyed it then.

“Yes, above all, I was able to take on many challenges and adventures, like performing songs I often sing on broadcasts or songs I would never think to perform in my life."

- Did any performance stand out to you?

“For me, the first street performance we did is the most memorable. The last festival was great too, but there was something about enjoying the performance together with the audience. Having fun dancing and singing was great."

Following that, questions like \'If you could join Again After Rainfall again, what would you like to try?\' \'Can we expect to hear the track with Callia Lawrence soon?\' \'What segments would you like the viewers to pay special attention to?\' continued. All of them were fairly easy to answer.

The interview wrapped up smoothly, and just as I was about to leave for the after-party venue, I was quickly caught by the production crew again.

- Hyun-Woo.

“Yes?"

- We\'ve surprised each of the members we interviewed by telling them this.

“What is it?"

- The festival segment from yesterday, specifically the last part where you went on stage, will be broadcast on TV.

“…Oh."

“Really? Why so suddenly? What\'s going on?’

I couldn\'t react properly since I was so surprised. I just stared dumbly at the camera and asked, "Really?" one more time. The festival had been a mess, from the rehearsal to the treatment we had received. Thus, I had no expectation of our performance being broadcast on TV at all.

I just kept wondering, \'Why so out of the blue?’

The production crew shrugged and laughed awkwardly.

- I can\'t tell you the details, but anyway, your stage was so good that it was deemed worth broadcasting. Congratulations.

“Thank... you..." I numbly expressed my appreciation to the production crew and left the interview venue. It was good news, but it didn’t feel real.

Usually, things with even a slight possibility happened in reality. An unexpected good thing had happened, but I just couldn\'t understand why and absentmindedly returned to the accommodation.

It was only when the members, who had already heard the news from the interviews, came up to me smiling broadly and we all started dancing in a circle that I finally truly embraced the joy I felt. When all the interviews of the cast were finished, a lavish after-party was prepared at the accommodation where Reina was staying. We went to the after-party happily, thinking that the shooting was finally coming to an end.

***

Apart from Joo-Han, who was over twenty, the rest of us were still under twenty in the US, so we had our cups filled with fizzy cider. Goh Yoo-Joon and I exchanged looks charged with secret meanings. I was not sure about Goh Yoo-Joon, but at least for today, I really wanted to celebrate with a drink to mark the end of this problematic and eventful shoot!

We simultaneously turned our gaze away, grabbed food and munched down on it. We let out a bittersweet sigh. It seemed like Goh Yoo-Joon was thinking along the same lines. Neither of us handled alcohol well, though.

The youngest members, who had never even tasted alcohol, appeared to be having fun eating their favorite dishes. Meanwhile, the adults, including Reina and Callia, had long since started their drinking session.

I worried about Joo-Han getting drunk and nagging us, but he was surprisingly well-behaved in front of the adults even after drinking. It seemed he could adjust his behavior depending on the people he was around. Ah, hyung…

The adults drank among themselves, and we among ourselves let off steam again.

“We worked hard.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

“Let’s visit the US again, just us.”

Although we couldn’t have a relaxed conversation this time due to many watchful eyes, we had fun.

“Ah! Everyone! I have a new song for you! Do you want to listen?”

Our conversation had been quietly ongoing so as not to disturb the adults, but we immediately turned our heads toward Callia. Today, Callia had publicly targeted Alectroz and was the topic of a special news segment as one of America\'s most famous celebrities. She now stood in front of us, drunkenly raising her phone high.

‘It’s truly an honor-’

“Kang Joo-Han and I fought every chance we got while making this song!”

“Don\'t say it like that! Just call it a musical difference of opinions, okay?”

“Oh, Joo-Han, always nagging!”

Callia made a face as if she was tired of hearing Joo-Han and mimicked digging at her ears. After having worked on the song together for a while, it appeared Callia had also endured plenty of Joo-Han’s lectures.

“Anyway, listen to this!”

Before Callia could play the music, a somewhat tipsy Joo-Han chimed in. “Just so you know! This is not our title track!”

“SHIT! Shut up, Joo-Han! Just listen to this, guys!”

‘How did they even manage to work on the song together when they act like this?’

Nevertheless, Callia played the song on her phone. Everyone briefly paused their conversations to listen to the song she and Joo-Han had worked on together. This part would probably be edited out or overlaid with different music when broadcast.

It was indeed a song by Callia and Joo-Han. Callia had nearly finished the song, and Joo-Han had added his touches to it. I thought it couldn\'t possibly be bad, and I was indeed impressed by how perfectly it captured the latest trends and emotions from the very beginning.

At first, I was so enamored that I just kept listening with admiration. My second thought was, ‘They must have made a lot of compromises with each other during the creative process.’

How could their individual musical styles be so evenly mixed? Even though they fought so much, it seemed their musical tastes actually matched well.

“But we are not releasing this as the title track? Can there be anything better than this?”

“I know, right? This is so good! It would be such a shame if it’s not the title.”

When I said this, Joo-Han shook his head. “It’s going to be released as a digital single featuring Callia Lawrence. We can’t just bury it, but it’s not suitable as the title track for our first full album. Don’t you want just our members\' voices in that?”

“That makes sense,” Goh Yoo-Joon said. “Are you saying that this song could still get plenty of attention as a digital single?”

Joo-Han nodded and continued, “Maybe it will even get a music video. The title has already been set with a concept in mind for a long time, so it doesn’t match with this song.”

We ended the conversation there before it could go into any more detail.

Joo-Han casually looked at Callia and asked, “Didn’t you say you had something to tell us, Callia?”

Callia had been happily chatting with Reina, but she paused with her face slightly dropping and slowly stood up.

“Reina and unnies, I will be back. I just need to talk to the boys for a bit.”

“Eh? Go ahead.”

Reina graciously let Callia go. Callia sat in front of us, her face very red.

“Uh... Umm… Hi...?" Jin-Sung greeted her, flustered.

“Do you want a drink?" An even more flustered Callia offered alcohol to the minors.

“No, no, no, no..."

We were shocked and simultaneously waved our hands. Callia belatedly realized her foolish action. She put down the bottle.

“What did you want to say?" I asked Joo-Han while glancing at him.

Joo-Han spoke to Callia in a gentle voice, “Callia, you can take your time to say what you promised me."

“That\'s okay! Guys, I\'m sorry."

“What?"

“I arrived late and misunderstood things when we first met, and was very rude overall back then. I\'m sorry."

“Ah, we..."

Of course, we had been quite upset back then, but Callia was too high-profile. Therefore, we were happy being only half-resigned about what had happened. I didn’t expect her to actually apologize to us.

“I didn\'t realize how rude my behavior was until Joo-Han pointed it out during our song collaboration. Our relationship shouldn’t be unbalanced because I didn’t show you the same amount of respect you showed me. I\'m really sorry."

Ah, so Callia had also been subjected to Joo-Han\'s etiquette training.

“Ah... Joo-Han hyung..."

Jin-Sung immediately picked up on Joo-Han’s lectures and sighed without realizing. We somewhat relieved our dissatisfaction and accepted Callia\'s sincere apology.

With the atmosphere slightly eased, we listened to Callia and Joo-Han discuss how working together had been like for them. Jin-Sung asked me and Yoon-Chan to translate because he couldn\'t understand half of what was being said. Then, we continued to share stories among ourselves as the after-party wound down.

“We will now conclude the shooting of Again After Rainfall!"

“Yaaaaay!!!"

Toward the end of the after-party, the director’s booming and refreshing voice rang out along with the clapperboard signaling the end of shooting for Again After Rainfall. It was now time for an after-party with all the production staff involved.

Everyone talked until dawn by sharing how much they had struggled.

The next day, we were still groggy, but boarded the bus to the airport to catch our flight back to Korea.