Chapter 186. Mary, Are You OK?
"No~! No! Call them back right now and tell them we'll do it!"
"We're going to the UN!"
The moment Dae-hun finished speaking, the members started shouting over each other.
"W-What is all this? Hyung, are all the girls there with you right now?"
"Director! Call them back right now!"
A flustered Dae-hun tried to argue.
"It's a great opportunity, but you can't go, can you? If you try to do both, you're going to tear yourself in half."
"We're prerecording the performance! We won't even be in America on the actual day of the game~!"
"What? You're prerecording? Who the hell made such an absurd decision?"
Dae-hun was probably shocked too, but this was already the third time I'd have to explain it.
I was tired of explaining.
Seeing is believing.
He could just watch carefully and see what happened on the day of the broadcast.
After pressuring Dae-hun, we successfully got him to contact the UN again.
Then, to squeeze every possible drop of value out of this situation, I called Sriver.
"Yes, this is Sriver's marketing team."
I spoke with the marketing manager.
"This is Do Jun-hyeok. How's the Sriver commercial we shot recently?"
"You really are busy! It's already airing continuously on television. Youngchae's popularity is shooting through the roof."
So that's how it was doing in Korea?
"Let's air that commercial in America too."
The manager went silent for a moment at my bombshell suggestion.
"Youngchae looked incredibly good during filming. If only Koreans see it, that's already enough, but wouldn't it be better if Americans saw it too? Let's do a little more for national prestige. I'm tired of people saying 'konnichiwa' to me every chance they get."
The manager thought about it for a while.
"What time slot... What kind of commercial are we talking about? Early morning?"
"No. Immediately after the Super Bowl broadcast."
"Hawawa..."
The manager visibly shrank through the phone.
"How much does an ad like that even cost? I think I'll need to discuss it with our US division."
"It'll be expensive. But you'll absolutely make the money back. Spend one billion won, and you'll get ten billion won's worth of effect. Spend ten billion, and you'll get a hundred billion."
I explained that I suspected the second half of the Halftime Show would get pushed back until after the game.
But the American broadcaster didn't know that yet, so the price hadn't changed.
If we bid now, we'd be securing a highly cost-effective advertising slot.
If Sriver won the spot, it'd be good for them.
And it'd be even better for Youngchae.
We could show the entire world just how globally appealing her face was.
"Doesn't Sriver want to expand further into America? If you push the brand hard now, it'll make things easier for years."
"Youngchae's commercial really did turn out beautifully. We'd have to edit a separate version for the US market, though."
The manager thought for a while.
"All right. Let's push it forward. Wish us luck."
"Good luck."
Lady Gagarin and Blue Moon coordinated their prerecording dates.
There was no benefit in syncing up for each other's sake.
They said they'd simply combined schedules out of consideration for the organizers.
There would be no live performance at the stadium that day, but this was still the final version of the performances that would air during the same broadcast slot.
Because of that, all the other participating singers, including Mary Wild, gathered at the venue too.
Nobody particularly wanted the opening slot.
Still, it was meaningful.
This was scheduled to become the longest Halftime Show in Super Bowl history.
At forty minutes, it was long enough that in terms of format, it was practically no different from a normal pop festival.
Lady Gagarin opened the show.
Her immortal hit 〈Poker Player〉 began playing.
Wearing a skin-tight outfit that strongly emphasized her hips, Lady Gagarin started dancing energetically.
The performance used the original instrumental from the song's release.
"Looks like she's going with a hit-song medley. I'm really looking forward to this."
Austin River, seated next to me, bobbed his head to the rhythm.
As expected, there was probably no one who could rival her in dance-pop.
When you thought about it, if you were going to sing onstage, you had to dance too.
In that sense, Lady Gagarin might've been one of the best-equipped artists in the performance industry.
When 〈Poker Player〉 ended, the instrumental for her latest song, 〈Elize〉, started.
Now it begins.
The backing track for this song had sounded suspicious from the start.
There was definitely going to be a surprise guest.
Sure enough, before the first lyric even began, a woman with a similar build to Lady Gagarin walked onto the stage.
"Oh! Beyond came out!"
"Beyond?"
Beyond?
Hadn't she already performed at the Halftime Show eleven years ago?
She brought back someone who had already appeared once?
Was there anyone who could beat that?
Mary Wild found herself relieved that Lady Gagarin had chosen prerecording.
And so Lady Gagarin's shocking performance ended.
Then Blue Moon took the stage.
Maybe because their guest wasn't anything special, they seemed determined to compete using special effects instead.
Even during stage setup, they made an enormous fuss.
"They're already number one in being dramatic."
Let's see how good you actually are.
The stage opened with their recent hit 〈Hippie〉.
Mary could understand why it was popular.
The Korean idol-pop sound felt unfamiliar, but fresh.
And the members were all more than decent singers.
But that was all.
She agreed they were good performers.
Just not good enough for a Halftime Show.
The same went for Kerins's 〈People's Rain〉 and Michael Jason's 〈Ori Jean〉.
They were highly polished, well-trained stages of excellent quality.
But that was still all they were.
Near the latter half, the dance team, including John Parker and Reid Lesson, appeared and performed together.
That gave Mary a slight chill.
Still, she could say it with confidence.
Blue Moon had completely lost to Lady Gagarin.
"I thought they were just old guys who were impressive when they were younger, but they can actually still dance."
Mary muttered.
This time, Austin River responded.
"Doesn't it feel like there isn't one single protagonist? Lady Gagarin's performance felt like a one-woman show. This one feels more like an ensemble piece."
"Well, if you want to put it nicely."
The long-awaited 〈Ori Jean〉 ended.
The dance team moved together toward the back of the stage and lined up in a row.
Every light onstage went dark.
Some time passed.
Then a huge shadow of a man wearing a fedora appeared against the white curtain behind the stage.
"Oh! Looks like they're going for a full Michael Jason homage."
"Probably just another common cover like the ones we've already seen."
The instrumental began.
This time it was 〈Smooth Desperado〉.
A masterpiece even from the first bars.
The instant it began, everyone gathered there let out sounds of admiration.
The enormous shadow of Michael Jason started dancing with rough, powerful movements.
Whoever it was, they were an incredible dancer.
Because they were reproducing his movements perfectly.
But as the dance continued, the shadow removed the hat and jacket.
Naturally, it wasn't actually Michael Jason.
The hair beneath the hat stood up wildly in a style that didn't suit him at all.
And beneath the jacket was a glam-rock-style collared shirt.
"Who the hell is that?"
"Hmm... The silhouette looks familiar somehow. But I don't think it's Michael Jason."
Still, the dancing remained flawless.
The fedora-wearing dancers and the Blue Moon members continued performing Michael Jason's choreography with razor-sharp precision.
Then the first long-awaited vocal line rang out.
"Oh! That voice!"
"...!"
Nobody needed to explain it.
Mary Wild knew immediately.
That was Kerins's voice.
How had they extracted this?
Had Kerins ever sung 〈Smooth Desperado〉?
No.
He never had.
And yet the voice coming through now unmistakably belonged to Kerins.
It wasn't an impersonation either.
A gust of wind blew the white curtain aside.
There was nobody behind it.
It had all been a stage effect.
In place of the two dead singers, Blue Moon's Youngchae rushed to the center and took over the choreography.
Her performance was incredible too.
She moved with the ease of someone who had already performed the same song hundreds of times.
When she briefly removed the fedora she'd kept pulled low throughout the choreography, her cold, slender features were revealed in stark contrast to the intensity of her movements.
Mary nearly stopped breathing.
Austin River, who had been tossing out a comment or two at every impressive point, had gone completely silent.
He was simply watching.
As the song approached its latter half, the members lined up.
Every one of them performed exactly the same movements.
Before the audience could even finish opening their mouths at the precision of the synchronized choreography...
Michael Jason and Kerins walked out on either side of them.
They magnificently completed the climax of the song.
Then, just as suddenly, they dissolved into smoke and vanished.
The remaining members turned around, put one hand into their pockets, and disappeared beyond the white curtain.
"What the hell did I just watch?"
"That looked like... one of those holograms you see in movies."
For a moment, Mary Wild couldn't think at all.
Hologram technology?
Of course it hadn't looked completely real.
And it wasn't simply seeing legendary singers again that had moved her.
What shocked her was that Blue Moon's members had delivered a performance powerful enough to stand beside those legendary figures without being swallowed by them.
How the hell had they managed to bring those two legends onto the stage?
No.
More importantly...
How had Blue Moon managed to reproduce Michael Jason's stage so perfectly?
Could Mary Wild beat that?
Good luck, Mary Wild.
Blue Moon and I had just left behind a performance that would go down as a masterpiece in Halftime Show history.
Then we quietly flew to Germany.
"You're here. Welcome. But how did this happen? The Super Bowl game is today, isn't it? Is it really all right for you to be here in Germany?"
We met a white on-site official wearing a UN-style suit.
He seemed to be one of the people overseeing the overall peace conference.
"Ah, haha. Yes. We graduated early."
"I see. You pushed yourselves because we asked, didn't you? Giving up the Super Bowl must've been incredibly difficult. I was the one who proposed you as speakers, but even so, I truly respect both you and the members."
While I shook hands with him, the members politely bowed from the waist.
World peace?
Of course I wanted the world to be peaceful.
If the members' speech could genuinely help world peace, I'd gladly travel to Germany, Manila Bay in the Philippines, or anywhere else.
But world peace wasn't our only goal this time.
The first objective was to gain more fans.
The second was to find out in advance what the breaking-news broadcast was going to be about.
For something urgent enough to interrupt the Super Bowl broadcast, it had to be an incredibly, unbelievably, ridiculously huge event.
And if it was globally significant, there was a decent chance UN officials would know about it.
The official introduced himself as David Hoffman.
After leading the members into the large conference room where the meeting would take place, I spoke with him briefly.
Serin was reviewing the speech she'd prepared beforehand.
She looked even more nervous than she had before the Halftime Show.
"How are international affairs these days?"
"International affairs?"
My question was vague.
Hoffman chose his words carefully before answering.
"Still full of misery. It pains me just thinking about how many tragedies are happening around the world that we know nothing about."
"True. There are so many tragic events now that some don't even make the news anymore."
"That's absolutely true."
Is that all?
Let's dig a little deeper.
"Still, hasn't there been anything major enough to become huge international news?"
"Ah. Of course there has."
Hoffman answered immediately.
"Across Asia and Africa, rebel forces vastly larger than government armies are operating in several regions. They abduct soldiers, wives, children, and murder them horribly. Recently, a five-year-old child was attacked with a sharpened machete... Just speaking of it brings tears to my eyes. If those aren't major events worthy of worldwide reporting, then what is?"
"You're right..."
He was right.
But why did this feel so frustrating?
May the victims truly rest in peace.
But there had to be something that would actually become massive breaking news.
What kind of event was going to break through the constant tragedies of the world and interrupt the Super Bowl?
Had some demon appeared and massacred countless people at once?
"It's incredible. Horrific things beyond imagination can happen and not even get a single line in the news. If something does make the headlines, just how terrible must it be...?"
"...? Indeed."
Forget it.
Apparently, he wasn't going to give me anything beyond the UN speaking opportunity.
When it was time for the peace conference to begin, we entered the conference room.
Representatives from UN member states and journalists from around the world sat in silence.
That quiet atmosphere continued until it was finally our members' turn.
Then Blue Moon stepped onto the podium.
By the time our goddesses took the stage, the Super Bowl game itself was probably already underway.
Serin held the microphone as the representative.
"Hello. I'm Kim Serin, a member of the Korean idol group Blue Moon. I haven't done much in my short life beyond singing, so I'm sincerely grateful for the opportunity to stand here today."
Wearing a clean suit with her tie neatly pulled into place, Serin somehow looked more radiant than ever.
I couldn't let only the journalists capture this beauty.
I quickly raised my camera and searched for Serin and the members through the viewfinder.
"Whatever is in front of you, love it first. Whatever you choose to do afterward will become a decision you can live without regret. Those are words my maternal grandmother, who dearly loved Jesus, often said to me."
Serin's speech properly began.
She spoke in Korean.
Because she'd done a lot of English acting in 〈The Stranger〉, Serin could imitate English sounds well enough to produce surprisingly native-like pronunciation, even if she were only repeating sounds like a parrot.
But Serin insisted on Korean.
Anna stood beside her with a separate microphone and provided simultaneous English interpretation.
"...Our failures lasted a long time, and the pain was severe, but the members and I continued our activities. We were able to endure this far because we loved what we were doing. So I'd like to recommend the same method to all of you. If you want to accomplish something, or if you want to save someone, then first try loving it. If we pour out all the affection and attention we possess, like a full moon shining twice upon a dark night, then our night will become far brighter than it is now."
And with that, Serin's speech ended.
Anna finished her interpretation.
Then the audience rose to their feet and began applauding.
All right.
Now, should we check how the Super Bowl Halftime Show is going?
I carefully hid my phone inside my jacket and searched the internet for Blue Moon.
