Chapter 282: Chapter 282
The news that The Dawn was going to LA spread quickly.
[Been waiting! The Dawn!! XD]
[I’m so, so happy! I can’t believe I get to see them live again!]
Although The Dawn had already visited LA once for the IRIX Cup finals, they had only performed after adjusting to the time difference and immediately departed, leaving overseas fans in the U.S. and nearby regions regretful.
This time, while not much was revealed except that they would be performing on a stage related to IRIX, news spread that they would be staying for quite a while for training as well, and fans were thrilled.
On the other hand, domestic fans were a little sour.
[Ah f*ck, I really thought it was a damn overseas tour]
[Yeah, it’s training in the U.S. plus the IRIX stage]
[Guys, please come back quick, please]
[I’ll hold my breath until they return to Korea]
If it had been Daepaseong’s doing, they would have been cursed at for attempting something without even securing proper routes for advancing into the U.S. market. But now The Dawn was backed by WH Entertainment.
[Even if WH catches incurable American Fever, Seo Hoyun’s just gonna lie flat in Incheon Airport anyway so it’s fine
└ Lololol like an idol would ever do that, but honestly, thinking about Seo Hoyun’s personality, it’s possible lolol]
[Since The Dawn opened 3 consecutive lives, suddenly all WH idols have been opening lives hahahahaha
Yeonhoo’s live popping up right away is so cute T_T]
[Juseong was the most surprising, that guy rarely ever goes live or even posts on Insta...]
Remembering Hi-Five’s hasty overseas advance, fans weren’t ready to fully trust WH Entertainment either. Still, with its solid capital, its track record of successfully launching Black Call, and its rank among the top three domestic agencies, fan backlash wasn’t strong.
Meanwhile, after the IRIX collaboration, Kang Ichae got absorbed in composing game BGM, uploading his work to SNS one after another. Naturally, IRIX users and fans worldwide flocked to him—and some were even famous celebrities.
[These days I listen to this every day. My roommate is going crazy over it.]
Even a famous American band guitarist, who had long declared IRIX as his hobby, uploaded Kang Ichae’s BGM on Instagram, tagging both IRIX and Kang Ichae.
[I already knew Ichae was a genius, but now my old bias is praising him, lol]
[Wow, what a spectacular life The Dawn is living]
Through this, The Dawn’s name spread even more internationally.
On top of that, The Dawn’s “Connected” was highly praised among IRIX fans.
[I thought they were really cool on stage, but they’ve got quite the daily-life gap, huh :)]
[IRIX please give it to me, I’m dying of thirst
The song’s title is “Connected” but right now my mood is “Disconnected”
└ Can’t believe this lame joke actually works lol]
[I wanted a girl group to do an IRIX collab, but it wasn’t bad]
[What are you talking about, it was fcking badass lolol sht, The Dawn’s English was amazing]
[sh*t, every time the beat dropped with the sound effects, my IRIX hype exploded]
[Honestly, the fact that Kang Ichae is that rank makes it even more meaningful...
Kang Ichae... he’s a god]
Fans praised how well the song captured the atmosphere of the newly opened Korean server, with IRIX effects woven into the beat.
IRIX gaming YouTubers with huge subscriber counts all uploaded reaction videos to “Connected,” and when those got solid views, other channels outside gaming followed suit with similar videos.
[The Dawn filling us with national pride here]
[Exactly, it’s so damn comforting that they didn’t pull some cringy “U.S. debut” stunt and just gained popularity naturally]
[And the timing’s perfect. If they pull in fans while they’re already hot in the U.S., that’s it]
Naturally, attention toward Kang Ichae—who had produced “Connected” and most of The Dawn’s songs—soared.
[Kang Ichae must be ignoring my emails, but I still love him (smile-cry emoji)]
[I just want to play IRIX with Ichae, just once!]
But he rejected all the love calls, saying he didn’t even have enough time for the things he already loved and cherished.
While The Dawn’s recognition steadily climbed, WH Entertainment staff were thrown into chaos.
[Hello, I’d like to request The Dawn for an event.]
[Could we arrange a meeting about a CF with The Dawn?]
It wasn’t because of the flood of CF offers, program appearances, or collaboration proposals. WH was used to handling that volume of work.
“What should we do with this one?”
“They’re really on fire.”
“Let’s ask the artists too before we finalize a decision.”
After checking the proposals passed on by the management team, Jung Seonui contacted Lee Jihyun through WH Entertainment’s internal messenger. A reply came within minutes, making her grateful that at least Daepaseong had left behind one competent employee.
“If Jihyun filters these once, we can review them after....”
‘Because The Dawn is a bit reckless....’
She kept the truth inside, but then a groan came from the desk across from her.
“...Team Leader Jung, you should probably see this.”
A bad feeling crept up her spine.
When she stood and went over to the employee’s desk, she saw a community post.
[Title: Do you know what that crazy group who said they were going to LA is doing?
They made a huge fuss about flying to LA the other day for an IRIX performance and training,
and since they’d gone before for Hi-Five I thought “oh, that’s why” lolololol
Those crazy Dawns... our cute little piglets... (not pig sh*ts, piglets!)
But lolololol what is this, f*cking Disney??
They’re dragging around a cart from god knows where, scattering flowers everywhere...
Is this something the company made them do?
But WH’s pride is way too strong to ever force something .]
The attached video showed Kang Ichae sitting in a colorfully decorated cart, a flower crown on his head like a prince from a fairy tale, tossing petals as he was wheeled quickly past.
Behind him, WH Entertainment staff filming self-produced content rushed along with their gear.
Meanwhile, Jung Dajun hopped around with a massive bouquet, plucking flowers one by one and handing them to people.
For reference, the one pulling the cart was Kim Sunghyun, while Sung Jiwon was standing a little further away, grinning as he recorded it all on his phone.
[Wtf are they doing in the U.S.]
[Lololololol they seriously look like they’re having the time of their lives, they’re insane]
[This is 100% the redhead’s doing]
[This group is legendary in every possible way]
[It’s hilarious how they lose all restraint overseas hahahaha in Korea they hold back ‘cause crowds get too big, but abroad? Totally unhinged]
And that was exactly why WH Entertainment staff were on high alert.
Endless livestreams, unpredictable antics.
Jung Seonui reached for headache medicine, swallowing with a sigh.
[But seriously, why are they even there?? lololol and what’s with all those cameras]
[Aren’t those WH staff following them?
I swear I saw some of those people in Black Call’s behind-the-scenes. WH must be supporting them with some kind of project.
└ Wow WH’s really spoiling them lol]
And then, when they checked the live after the members returned to the hotel, it was even more ridiculous.
Kang Ichae, still wearing the flower crown, chatted with Sung Jiwon about the parade.
【I’ve always wanted to try it overseas! What do you think, Jiwon-hyung?】
【When you’re young, you kind of admire parades, right...!】
[Ah, the new roommates’ chemistry is too cute]
Apparently, they’d originally planned to rent a truck, but the timing didn’t work out. They had even debated whether to do an Aladdin-on-a-carpet concept or a Western gunslinger-on-the-way-to-Valhalla concept.
[Why would you even debate that]
[So what was the point??
└ The fact that it wasn’t a punishment for self-produced content but just for fun is killing me]
Jung Seonui couldn’t bear to watch to the end and turned the live off.
Even if they weren’t mobbed like in Korea, even if The Dawn’s popularity was growing day by day and making money, if they were branded as “unmanageable idols,” it would become a serious problem.
Repeating “The Dawn are still kids...” to calm herself, she turned to the staff beside her.
“...Did Woosung come into the office today?”
She thought to put off The Dawn matters and instead handle the urgent CF case for Joo Woosung.
“No... Joo Woosung flew to the U.S.”
But even that didn’t go her way.
“...I don’t know......”
At last, she let out a long, weary sigh.
Kang Ichae unfolded a crumpled paper and drew a line through “Do a parade.”
It had been on his LA wish list.
He had wanted to scatter snow like in a scene from Frozen Kingdom, but since that wasn’t realistic, he substituted with flowers.
“Ah~, today was really fun~.”
“For real! It was awesome!”
Stretching with satisfaction, Kang Ichae spoke, and Sung Jiwon nodded in agreement. Just then, Kim Sunghyun came out of the shower, toweling his hair, and asked them:
“What do you want for dinner?”
Ignoring ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ Kang Ichae’s insistence on eating LA galbi because “when in LA,” Kim Sunghyun listened to Sung Jiwon’s preference, then moved to ask the maknae as well.
After saying he’d rest in his room, he had been unusually quiet, which made Kim Sunghyun a little worried.
When he gently opened the door, he found Jung Dajun sitting on the bed, sweating and groaning.
Sitting beside him carefully, Kim Sunghyun looked at him with concern.
“Jung Dajun, are you okay?”
Rubbing his knee with a gloomy face, Jung Dajun spoke.
“My knee hurts a little.”
Hearing this, Kim Sunghyun pressed here and there on his knee, then sank to the floor, massaging it gently.
“...Will I be able to stand on stage?”
Soon, The Dawn was scheduled to perform “Connected” at IRIX’s new season launch ceremony.
But instead of the cyberpunk concept centered on Kim Sunghyun, this stage was planned to feature Jung Dajun as the main focus in a completely different style.
“Hyung, maybe we should change the choreography so you and the others are the center instead?”
They had already been preparing and rehearsing this for weeks.
Lately, his growing pains had been severe, and his rapid growth spurt had thrown off his dance lines, hurting his confidence.
When Kim Sunghyun firmly rejected the idea, Jung Dajun buried his face in his hands, sighing again and again, then slowly got up.
“Ugh, I’ll go practice more. I feel uneasy.”
“Then I’ll go with you. Seo Hoyun should be there too.”
“Huh? With Woosung-hyung too?”
“Yeah. They said they were already practicing together.”
As Kim Sunghyun dusted off his pants and stepped out first, Jung Dajun followed with a grimace.
“Ugh, they’re totally fighting, huh....”
As the darkness crept in through the palm leaves, Joo Woosung and Seo Hoyun were absorbed in practice.
The rehearsal room they were using was on the outskirts of LA, a place Joo Woosung visited whenever he hit a slump.
He realized it was the perfect place to grind Seo Hoyun down. Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on 𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚕·𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚎·𝚗𝚎𝚝
Since no one around them understood Korean, he could say whatever he wanted, even the things he normally had to swallow.
“I never thought drinking California water would suddenly enlighten you or anything....”
The words “How would that even work when the one teaching me is Korean?” were written all over Seo Hoyun’s face, but Joo Woosung ignored it and kept talking.
“Yeah, I’ll just give up on trying to understand. Guess that happens.”
“Wait a sec. I’m not that bad anymore, you know?”
Joo Woosung looked at him intently, then shook his head, speaking like a teacher disappointed in his student.
“Where’s your conscience?”
And so another peaceful day in LA passed by.