New Morning | A Kpop Idol Life Story

6. The First U Live

~ February 24th, Thursday ~

Your P.O.V.

"Okay, this is not a drill! We're live in one minute!"

Two hours earlier we were sitting in a meeting room, discussing our first live broadcast. It would be shared through a popular app called U Live. Our debut song had been released and the music video was uploaded an hour ago. This live would be our first appearance as a group and we had an ambitious plan.

The dressing room was our regular locker room at the company building and there were at least five people running around helping us get into our outfits without ripping any seams open. In addition we had a corner for professional makeup artist that were ready to splash our faces with green color correction creams and so on.

One after one we were fully transformed into dashing idol look. Today's outfits were the same colorful clothes we had in the music video. Each member had their own color; I had a red crop top and blue shorts with red and black accessories, Haneul had a yellow t-shirt, Jiwoo was wearing blue, Songmin's top had a tropical green pattern, Yeongja was girly pink and Hyejin's theme color was purple. The makeup wasn't that heavy but we all loved especially the sparkling eyeshadow.

The viewers wouldn't know it but we first recorded a performance of our debut song in advance. Doing so spared the team time and energy because they didn't have to rebuild the studio in a short time. It would be aired right before we would start our introductions section. "Alright everyone, listen up!" the director shouted and everyone in the roomed turned to look at him in silence. "This is Lucky Number's first live. Give them a round of applause." With that we were showered with clapping hands and encouraging phrases. I smiled in embarrassment. "In ten minutes we will start the show. We'll start with the song. After that we'll so the short concept animation before letting the girls work their magic."

In the remaining time I took a few photos with the members and we goofed around while filming some behind the scenes material. It was more than relieving because it was needless to say how nervous we all were. Laughing so hard your stomach actually hurt felt really good. But sooner than I would have wanted we were already told to get in line in front of the cameras. "Just remember to use the stage names!" Hyejin laughed.

Lee Eunjeong's P.O.V.

I nearly screamed when the live show started on the TV screen that was connected to my mobile phone. I grabbed Junho's shoulder and shook him like a bowl of jelly. "It's here, it's here! Oh my god it's really them!" In a dimly lit room there were the six members of Lucky Number. The song started playing and the lightning changed so that I could clearly see their faces. Songmin, Jiwoo, Yeongja, Haneul, (First Name) and Hyejin. When I realized I had deduced the right members I shrieked. "Oh my god! Oppa, it's really them, I knew it would be them!"

We started at the screen focused, occasional enthusiastic comments escaping from our mouths. Because we knew the chorus by heart at this point (only a real fan can learn lyrics in five minutes) we sang along like there were no neighbors around.

The song died down but the party was only starting. A bright popping music started playing as an animation rolled onto the screen. It featured all the members in their three outfits (the colorful, the everyday and all black styles) seen in the music video. I could feel the excitement gather in the middle of my body ready to explode in anticipation. Just as I thought the real show would never start a white room with six chairs appeared. Then I could hear chatter. My eyes grew larger as the six girls walked in front of the camera. They stood in straight line, smiling happily yet calmly. Songmin counted in three before they all greeted with a bow: "All in! Nice to meet you, we are Lucky Number!" I felt my eyes wet a little and I shook Junho's shoulder again, this time more slowly. He placed his hand on mine understandingly.

"Hello, my name is Park Songmin and I'm the leader of Lucky Number," the leader started with her introduction before Jiwoo followed her. "Good day, I'm U-yu, vocalist and dancer." I gasped, she had such a fitting stage name. "This is Kim Hyejin, main rapper and the oldest unnie!" A wide smile appeared on my face like I was infected with Hyejin's happy virus. "In charge of dancing and rapping is Skye!" Haneul raised her hand in energetic manner. Yeongja bowed elegantly. "Hello, my name is Hana. I'm a vocalist and the main dancer." Before the last member I noticed Junho getting more tense. His bias was about to make her introduction. "Hello, my name is (First/Stage Name) and I am the main vocalist and maknae. Please take good are of me."

Your P.O.V.

After our introductions it was time for the first corner. We picked up six big sketchbooks from the chairs and sat down. We were given a few fleece blankets to cover our thighs. "Out first corner is 'I am'!" Yeongja announced. "We have written three words describing ourselves. I hope you will learn more about us through this corner!" Haneul was the first one because she sat at the end of the row. "Alright, let's see..." she mumbled and flipped the sketchbook open, revealing the first word. "My first word is energetic. I think it's obvious," she smiled widely at the camera. "She's the happy virus," I added pointing at her with a serious face. "The next I chose is thoughtful. Doesn't helping others make you feel somehow happy?" We nodded and suddenly the atmosphere was slightly more serious. "I tend to be loud but I never want to hurt anyone," Haneul explained herself.

During the few seconds of silence Haneul turned the page once again. "But! My third word is..." We looked at her with wait, we didn't know what the others had written so this was a bonding experience for us as well. Our eyes widened when Haneul raised her hands in the cheesiest 'bbuing bbuing' I have ever seen. While we were acting like we were dead from the cringy aegyo Haneul raised the sketchbook with 'cute' written in big letters.

~

We were live for an hour and I bet we could have kept going on after showing the key points of our choreography and answering some of the fans' questions. I was surprised how much traffic there were since the broadcast almost cut off because there were simply too many people trying to get into the app. Mr. Park came to us while we were taking of the mics. "You were great," he said with a smile. "There's some things you need to learn about the cameras and timing but for your first U Live it was amazing." A sigh of relief escaped my mouth while the staff smiled at us as well.

"Let's check out the charts now," Songmin said while the cameras were still filming our every movement. We gathered around her mobile phone and stared at screen that was a tap away from today's charts. The moment the phone took to load the rankings felt longer than our live broadcast. The BTS material must look amazing when we fall on the floor one by one, speechless and wide-eyed: we had been the first since the the moment the song had been released.