September 9th, Samsan World Gymnasium, Incheon;Afternoon at 3 o"clock, hundreds of people were going inside, after showing their pa.s.ses (tickets). Just like every other boys concert, one can find more than 90% of the spectators are ladies, mostly between 13 to 35 years old, taking their seats and looking at the last of the groups, who are rehearsing at the stage for their performance.
Even though they had the urge to cheer them up, they didn"t do so, as it"s an unwritten rule in Korea that they shouldn"t disturb the artists during their rehearing time. Still, that can"t stop them from taking their photos from far away and leaking it on SNS and making the netizens, who are waiting for live stream, jealous. It happens, all the time.
The companies also allow it as it would increase the viewer count during the live stream because the leaks would reveal, which groups are going to perform which song, judging by their ch.o.r.eography. The same thing happened here too.
As expected, the number of people in waiting increased drastically after finding the leaks, although most of them are screaming if anyone had seen any rehearsals of Unlimited. This is why the rookie groups rehea.r.s.e in the early morning, before the audience and even before the other artists enter the building.
By 5 p.m., all rehea.r.s.es were done, and also the Gymnasium, which holds the capacity of around 7200 was completely filled. Looking at the audience from inside, through the gla.s.s, the Chairman YeongCheol nodded in satisfaction and asked, "Taehee, where are the boys?" Taehee replied, "They are taking rest." YeongCheol frowned, "they are still sleeping? Wake them up. It"s almost time. And tell them to do one last light rehea.r.s.e before stepping up. Help them prepare an empty room."
Evening at 6 o"clock, as the lights lit up on the stage, a couple entered onto the stage, surprising the audience, as they didn"t know that MCs are none other than Chung Bae and Cha Ju-Ah, who several awards in different events, for their tv drama "Memory of the wind."
Netizens, who were watching the live stream also got surprised to see them and immediately shared the news in their SNS accounts, which made the viewers count from 18K to 40K, just within five minutes and it kept on increasing. Even the Chairman of Signature was surprised, "just how much are you investing in this rookie group for the sake of the rookie of the year award? Isn"t this a little bit too much, YeongCheol? I wonder what happens if they fail."
Slowly, one after another, rookie as well as some old groups of different small agencies, who have quite an amount of fanbase begin to perform at the event. None of the famous ones are being called, even though Echo can afford it, as it would diminish the effect of Unlimited.
Those who saw the teasers, also have high expectations, not only because of the idols but also because of Sujin, as she always produces. .h.i.t songs, not to mention, To Hoon, whose team made several popular videos, the most popular of his, "I"m really high" by Resonance of ZC, which have more than 700 million views.
At around 7 o"clock in the evening, the MCs were talking about the Kpop dreams and stuff, then as Cha Ju Ah got instruction in her wireless headpiece mic, she spoke, "now, it"s the time, all of you waiting for. The countdown begins now." As they went away, the countdown started on the large screen behind the stage. 60, 59, 58...
Meanwhile, at the backstage, Jun turned back and said, "c"mon guys, we"re only just one step away. Let"s do this." As they nodded, they proceeded to below the stage. Meanwhile, at the countdown hit 1, the light was off on the stage, and scenes began to play on the screen, featuring each of them as a film, their continuous 1 to 2-second videos of their trainee days.
While the audience was looking at the screen, where the videos of them working hard in the training room, eating together, etc... like a memory film. The pictured screen cracked out with a sound of gla.s.s breaking and the "Unlimited" name appeared, and five of their names appeared one by one on the screen with their picture, and meanwhile, Jun and the rest moved up to the stage from below.
As the lights were on the stage, they skipped the intro of the alb.u.m as it is usually saved for the events and the piano music began to play for a few seconds in the background along with the music before Jun, who is in the center opened his mouth with a low tone,
"In this moment where I gradually
feel more of both of our lips, it"s so hot" - Sungjun
"A shiver runs through my entire body," - Dohyun
"Now it"s time for us to write down our
Story(English)" - HaeSeong
"I don"t know why~ (English), without realizing it myself - Sungjun
"I fall for you even more and it"s suffocating me
baby(English)" - Minsu
"I don"t know why~ (English), in this moment
I can"t stop how I feel,
no no no no (English)." - Sungjun
"Make me feel so high (English), I"m going crazy." - Minsu
"I can"t stop myself" - Dohyun
"You make me feel so high, I"m going crazy~ (English)
in the moment looked you looked at me" -Sungjun
"I"m drawn toward you, pull me in more," - HaeSeong
"baby (English)" - Minho
"I"m feelin" so Energetic (English)" - Minsu
"Tonight the two of us
are out of control, yeah (English)" - Sungjun
"I"m feelin" so energetic" - HaeSeong
"Until the moment my heart stops beating" - Minsu
I"ll protect you so you won"t disappear." - Dohyun
"These aren"t... just small promises that last... just a moment,
now tell me,
baby (English)," - Sungjun
"You tell me how I feel" - HaeSeong
***Rapping***
"Uh 1, 2,3, and 4 (English)
The other guys by your side get on my nerves
Who am I, a killer to protect only you,
and I mean it, I"m pretty much a killer, yeah." - Minho
.
.
.
.
"I"m drawn toward you, pull me in more," -HaeSeong
"baby (English)" - Dohyun
"I"m feelin" so Energetic (English)" - Minsu
"Tonight the two of us
are out of control, yeah (English)" - Sungjun
"I"m feelin" so energetic" - HaeSeong
"I"m feelin" so energetic" -Sungjun
As their debut song ended without any mistakes, everyone exploded this time with cheering as they stopped themselves all this while because of their debut song. Now that they officially debuted, the audience began to cheer continuously in a disorganized way, although one can hear that most of them are cheering Sungjun.
Meanwhile, on YouTube, the live-stream viewers already increased to 300K and it kept on increasing every second.
Back to the stage, the members of Unlimited bowed while sighing in relief as they completely sang it live without any issues before exiting the stage to prepare for their next performance.
Meanwhile, Jun got a bunch of notifications in his head;
*Ding* Congratulations, you debuted. You are now a Kpop Idol.
*Ding* You…
Jun then spoke in his mind, "Aria, pause the notifications. I will hear it later." Immediately, it stopped.
Since this was completely a real live performance, neither pre-recorded one nor any lip-synced one, which was airing on real-time on live-stream on YouTube, Jun and others didn"t have the luxury of waiting and immediately went to the backstage, where the staff, prepared with the clothes and changing cabins. Within a couple of minutes, they changed into a new outfit that was ready and make-up artists cleaning their sweat away and applying make up again required for the next song. Meanwhile, the audience was watching the two profile teasers of Dohyun and HaeSeong.
As the teasers were over, it was replaced with the name of the next song, "Burn it up." The lights were on again with,
"Burn it up (English)" - everyone
And the atmosphere completely changed within a second, with light effects along with the cheering of the audience.
"Burn it up" (English) - everyone
"Yeah" (English) - Dohyun
"Burn it up" (English) - everyone
Ooh~ Wuh~ - Sungjun
"Burn it up" (English) - everyone
Uh~ Oh~ - Minsu
"Burn it up" (English) - everyone
Ooh yeah - Minho