In This Life, The Greatest Star In The Universe

Chapter 138:

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: Rxel

Chapter 138

Woojoo wondered what kind of evaluation he would give.

Woojoo stared at him intently, determined not to miss a single word, whether it was praise or criticism.

But what came out of his mouth was not a sentence.

“Hmm…”

The interpreter said “hmm” habitually and then coughed.

They would have laughed if it was a normal situation, but it was not.

Clay Tayler took off his fedora and scratched his head. Then he glanced at the camera and paused.

“Really…” He nodded and said, “That was a splendid performance.”

They felt relieved.

Only then could they breathe easily.

He had deliberately delayed his answer because of the broadcast camera. They smiled and looked at each other, patting their chests.

That was a close call. Really.

He soon started to compliment them with a cheerful smile.

***

HBS MTV Reality ‘It’s the New Black’ Episode 8

Studio

Clay Tyler was responding to an interview with the production team.

Clay: It was an amazing performance. It was a fantastic achievement to produce such a result in a short practice period. It made my heart beat faster for the first time in a long time.

He watched the video of that day and commented on each individual.

Clay: Junghyun has a great sense of rhythm. He plays with the song. Jiho is a master of facial expressions. Rihyuk was… a bit disappointing, but I was convinced when I heard his singing. These guys are singers, not dancers.

He continued to evaluate the rest of the members.

Clay: The other two were brilliant. Bijoo was so flexible that he reminded me of a ballet performance. He was the center of the performance. He was the member I was most interested in before I came, and he did not disappoint me.

Production Team: You really liked him.

Clay: It’s not just liking, I would have taken him as my disciple if I met him in America.

A scene of him praising the main dancer of New Black for 10 minutes was fast-forwarded.

[▶▶]

He smiled happily.

Clay: Woojoo was a perfect example of performance. He was flawless. I was a bit sorry that he lacked creative flair, but he was one of the most outstanding members. And…

Production Team: There was something really surprising that day.

Clay: That’s right. It was the first time I experienced something like that.

The caption asks, ‘What happened that day?’ and the scene switched back to the scene.

***

Woojoo thought he should give him a nickname.

The praise bomber.

He praised them in all kinds of English, but Woojoo couldn’t focus.

Listening to him, it felt like they were some legendary dancing machine group, and Woojoo felt more sober.

Ah, so he was just giving lip service for the broadcast.

Of course, not all of his comments were praises.

“And… Rihyuk?”

“Yes.”

He looked at Rihyuk and started to point out some areas that needed improvement.

Then he ended with some encouragement.

“Don’t give up. Keep going.”

He said he saw potential in him and told him not to give up and keep going. Their main vocal nodded silently.

After receiving a lot of positive feedback for their Masquerade concept, they started to prepare for the real lesson.

“First, I’ll give you a mission.”

“A mission?”

“Do the performance you just did, but this time at a slower speed. Um… maybe 0.7x or 0.8x.”

He turned his head as if to ask if they could adjust the speed of the music, and their dance trainer made an OK sign.

The members all looked at Woojoo at the same time.

They had confused expressions on their faces because of the sudden request.

Woojoo raised his hand and spoke in English.

“Um… Mister Tyler.”

“Call me Clay.”

“Clay, can we have some time to synchronize with the members?”

He nodded.

He said he would give them three minutes,

Woojoo immediately gathered the members around him and put their heads together.

“Why does he suddenly want us to do it slowly?”

“Yeah.”

“Isn’t it just a mission for the broadcast?”

“There’s a reason for everything.”

Their main dancer, who knew the most about dancing, explained.

“Usually, when they ask us to do the moves slowly, it’s to see how well we’ve mastered them.”

“Oh…”

Then the doubt on everyone’s faces disappeared.

They were puzzled because they didn’t understand the reason, but they felt relieved when they found out why.

Now it was Woojoo’s turn to step up.

Bijoo explained the reason, so it was his job to comfort them.

“It’s okay to make mistakes, so just relax.” Woojoo said with a smile, “Actually, in this case, they’re trying to see our mistakes. So let’s go with the mindset that it’s okay to mess up. Got it?”

The members nodded with less pressure on their faces.

Then, with Bijoo’s help, they adjusted some of the key moves to a slower tempo.

Woojoo thought it wouldn’t be easy since it was their first time doing it.

“What the.”

Rihyuk, who had been repeating the main moves several times at a slow speed, said with a slightly surprised face, “Why does this work…?”

Bijoo’s explanation was accurate.

Clay Tyler had asked New Black to dance slowly to Masquerade so he could see the completeness of their movements.

The choreography of Masquerade consisted mostly of fast and agile moves.

Like jumping in and spinning half a turn.

Or quickly brushing their faces with their hands in the chorus.

The problem was the speed.

The faster they danced, the lower the accuracy of their choreography became.

It was a natural consequence.

When any movement was sped up, the small details were ignored and only the big ones remained.

It was like painting a landscape with a time limit.

If they had three hours, they could depict the surrounding terrain in detail, but if they only had three minutes, they could only sketch the important features.

That was why he wanted them to dance slowly, to pick out the minor details that New Black ignored while dancing, and to focus on teaching them.

He hadn’t seen any mistakes in New Black’s performance just before.

‘I can teach them well.’

He smiled pleasantly.

The outline was perfectly drawn, so now he only had to fix the details for the remaining five days.

With that thought, Clay grabbed a chair in the corner of the practice room and climbed on it.

The reality show crew captured his image on camera.

A strange scene of a dancer climbing on a chair and looking down at the members’ performance.

“…”

The members of New Black looked at the American who had climbed on the chair with his shoes on.

The camera caught the image of a nervous cleaning fairy and the members who laughed at him.

Soon, Rihyuk walked over and handed him a bunch of tissues.

“Here, take this.”

As if to tell him to put it on the floor.

“Uh… thank you.”

Clay Tyler, who looked at him with a puzzled eye, quickly wiped the sweat off his forehead and Seo Rihyuk blinked.

His ears turned red.

The other members behind him held their stomachs and tried not to laugh. Meanwhile, the choreographer noticed that part and said with a smile, “Wow, your ears are glowing.”

“Yeah.” Woojoo nodded and answered, “Like a Christmas tree.”

The choreographer and the members burst into laughter, and Seo Rihyuk came back and stepped on Woojoo’s foot to get his revenge.

After the atmosphere was slightly relaxed by the playful scene.

The music started to flow and the members took their positions.

They began to dance to Masquerade at 0.7 times the speed.

At first, it was a bit clumsy and their lines got tangled a little, but overall it was satisfactory.

“…”

And Clay Tyler was bewildered.

‘There’s nothing wrong with their movements…?’

He expected to see some mistakes in the details, but New Black’s choreography was flawless.

If the movements had nine components from one to nine, they didn’t miss any of them.

He was flustered.

‘This is not right…’

He looked again, but there was still nothing wrong.

There was a member named Seo Rihyuk who was not good at moving his body, but he was only awkward, not wrong.

As he stared at the members with a tilted head, the dance trainer Juye Hyung pointed at one of them.

‘Woojoo?’

The member with the most striking appearance, whose hair was soaked with sweat in the middle.

Was he the one who had something to do with this strange phenomenon?

He wondered that when he saw another anomaly.

‘Their lines are perfect too.’

The reason he climbed on the chair was to check the lines of the choreography.

They had paid a lot of money to make the choreography, so Masquerade had many hidden secrets.

One of them was the detail related to the audience’s gaze.

In a studio or a practice room with a camera or a mirror, only the front of the choreography was usually captured.

But in a real concert hall, the audience existed in 360 degrees.

Front, back, left, and right.

He considered the audience’s gaze and made the choreography look great from any angle.

Just like Gunflower, which had received rave reviews for its splendid choreography, Masquerade also boasted a picturesque movement.

For instance, the large group formed a diamond shape around a center point and moved smoothly to a square shape.

And now.

The choreography of New Black, seen from above, was moving exactly as he had intended.

He couldn’t help but admire the precision, when the dance trainer pointed to another side.

This time, it was Kim Bijoo, the main dancer.

“…”

As soon as the performance ended, he asked the members a question.

“I sent you the choreography video, but I didn’t tell you anything about the movement beforehand. How did you prepare for this?”

Bijoo answered calmly in English.

Unlike before, when he had blurted out something in excitement, he was quite easy to understand.

“When I practice the choreography, I always draw the movement in my head.”

“…”

“So, I discussed a lot with the trainer teacher.”

As he explained, Bijoo took out a notebook from his bag.

It seemed like he had drawn it to explain to the members, colorful circles with their expressions drawn on them were moving along the arrows.

There was also a description written in an unknown language below.

Clay Tyler, who was staring at it curiously, looked at Bijoo and smiled.

‘He’s a likable guy.’

At first, he didn’t have high expectations for him in terms of performance, as he looked like a skinny and delicate boy.

But he was surprised by the explosive strength and graceful dance line that came out when he danced, as well as his skill in interpreting the choreography.

As one question was answered, he asked another one.

“You hardly made any mistakes in the choreography. How did you practice it normally?”

“Usually, the trainer teacher teaches me, but the leader helped me a lot with the small details.”

At Bijoo’s answer, Junghyun proudly pointed to Woojoo.

“Him. Him.”

At his absurd appearance, Clay Tyler burst into laughter, and Woojoo gave a sheepish smile.

Then he said, “I’m good at understanding the principles of the movements, so I always show them to my younger brothers in advance. Like this…”

As he said that, he demonstrated the point choreography, breaking down the movements from one to ten, from beginning to end.

He felt a strange feeling at that sight.

‘He must have received the choreography not long ago…’

This was the first time he saw such a case.

He had seen many people who could copy the dance after seeing it once, but he had never seen anyone who could analyze the movements like 24 frames.

Along with that, the mystery was solved.

‘That’s why they had such a high level of completion in a short time.’

He thought that when he saw the choreography of Teen Spirit that they had covered.

He thought they had practiced for about six weeks.

But the actual practice time was three weeks.

The choreography of now was not something that could be achieved in the given time.

At first, he thought they were just dancers, but they were actually members who could analyze every single movement and teach the others…

“No! No education.”

The members said in unison.

“Brainwashing. Brainwashing.”

“What was brainwashing in English? Hyuk, Hyung.”

“Brainwashing.”

“Yes. Brain shower.”

“Please, Junghyun, Hyung. Remember the word you heard three seconds ago.”

“…Hey, guys. Can’t you say I’m passionate?”

According to the Korean conversation Woojoo heard through the interpreter, Woojoo had been brainwashing them repeatedly.

He laughed at the sight of the handsome boys who used strange English expressions like ‘It was painful. He tortured us.’

A deep smile appeared on his lips.

‘I like it.’

At first, Tyler planned to check the choreography for three hours a day for five days and point out some improvements according to the contract.

But now his mind changed a little.

‘I can do it.’

He felt his artistic spirit boiling for the first time in a while.

He came to teach them how to draw the outline properly, but they seemed to have drawn it perfectly, leaving only the coloring.

His heart throbbed when he saw such a sketch.

What would it look like when it was finished?

‘For five days, I’ll teach you everything I can.’

Of course, it didn’t take long for him to regret that decision.

***

HBS MTV Reality ‘It’s the New Black’ Episode 8

Practice Room

The first day of the lesson went by lightly.

After the choreographer passionately gave a lecture, he ordered chicken and beer at a nearby pub and chatted with the dance trainer Juye Hyung.

Clay: Thank you for following me so passionately. I really want to take these guys to my academy in the US right now. Especially, Bijoo, there are so many things I want to teach him.

Juye Hyung: Well… I think you’ll change your mind in a few days.

Clay: What do you mean? (Chuckles)

Juye Hyung: You’ll see.

Clay: Yes?

Juye Hyung: They are usually sweet and kind, but when it comes to work, they are really… the incarnations of desire.

Clay: Desire… what?

Juye Hyung: Just think of them as devils. Our kids.

Clay: (Pupil dilation) Your children…?

The situation where Juye Hyung said ‘My children’ in poor English and caused a big misunderstanding for a moment passed as a laughing point.

The practice room came out again.

Woojoo: It’s nostalgic to see it again.

Rihyuk: Really, he was so sick of us in two days. That choreographer.

Bijoo: But… he said that. If you have any questions, ask anything.

Woojoo: Right. And three hours was too short.

Jiho: Hyung and Bijoo Hyung were the worst.

As they said that, Woojoo and Bijoo, who were in the studio, looked at the distant mountain, and the scene of the practice room came out.

The members who surrounded the choreographer like a bunch of minions.

Woojoo: Clay, I have a question. This part where you wave your hand in Savi’s part.

Bijoo: When you turn, which direction is better to sweep your hair?

Woojoo: And this part. Clay.

Clay: Wait a minute, let me drink some water.

He was flustered by the bombardment of questions and tried to leave the practice room for a moment, but he was frustrated.

Woojoo: Junghyun! Bring him a bottle of water from there.

Clay: …

Junghyun: Here, Hyung.

Clay: Where is the bathroom here?

Bijoo: You won’t know where it is. I’ll guide you. Can I ask you a few things in the meantime?

Clay: …

Woojoo: But Bijoo. Do you know the way…?

Bijoo: …

Meanwhile, the other three who came in no time ran around.

Junghyun: Woojoo Hyung. I have a question about my part, too. Please translate for me.

Jiho: Me too. I’m curious about facial acting.

Rihyuk: You guys are really too much, aren’t you?

Clay: (Moved)

Rihyuk: You guys are too much. I’m the weakest in dancing, shouldn’t I be the one asking the most questions?

Clay: (Resigned)

The members were eager to learn from the world-class dancer’s know-how every day during the choreography lessons.

The scene changed.

Clay Tyler was interviewed by the production team.

His face looked strangely different.

Jiho: Wow… Look at Clay’s face, he lost so much weight.

Bijoo: Oh, what should we do? I feel so sorry…

Junghyun: It’s amazing. How can he lose weight like that in a few days?

Woojoo: We were really annoying…

Rihyuk: We were jerks.

Clay Tyler, with a pale face, looked into the distance and said:

Clay: I said before… I wanted to bring these kids to LA and teach them, but I take that back.

Production team: Did you change your mind?

Clay: Yes…

His voice sounded faint.

Clay: Really… If I hear that New Black is coming to America, I’ll probably hide at my friends’ houses for a while.

Production team: (laughter)

Clay: (forced laugh) I’m not kidding.

…Then he returned to his usual cheerful self and smiled warmly.

Clay: Well, anyway, it was a very memorable experience. It was hard, but on the other hand, I was also fascinated by their passion. I’m honestly sad that it’s over.

He said with a smile.

Clay: I wanted to spend more time with them, but I have to go back to LA already… I really miss them.

Production team: You look very happy.

Clay: (gummy smile) Absolutely not.

Then a heartfelt video message wishing them success for their second album followed.

His face looked strangely relieved.

After the broadcast, the fans made jokes about his gummy smile and said “Clay is free!” with a Dobby reference.

Someone posted an analysis of Clay Tyler’s facial expression, which made the Soufflés laugh.

(A picture of Clay Tyler’s face with a square border)

Anger 0.00000

Contempt 0.00000

Disgust 0.00000

Fear 0.00000

Happiness 1.00000

Neutral 0.00000

Sadness 0.00000

Surprise 0.00000

It was pure ‘happiness’ with 100 percent purity.