The voices of admiration and cheers turned into roars of laughter in an instant.
-Puhahahahak!
Not only the MC and the members, but even the production staff were bursting into laughter.
“......”
And there I was, alone and silent like a deserted island.
“Yes! Everyone, a round of applause for the very cool Miss Dohee!”
The MC, who had been laughing heartily at the top of his lungs, clapped and gestured.
-Clap clap clap~
I learned that applause could sound like mockery too.
In fact, the members were openly laughing at me.
Of course, rather than mockery, it was more the kind that said they thought I was cute, but to me it was all the same.
“Applause—pfft, puhahaha!”
“Ah, I knew Lee Dohee would be like that, khahaha.”
“Ah... she’s too cute...”
“Our maknae is the best~!”
“Yeah, you were cool, Dohee! Good!”
Even Yeeun unnie.
“Hng... hup... pffthup......”
“......”
The MC gave an exaggerated double thumbs-up with a beaming smile.
“Oh, I thought you were only cute, but you’re cool too~? Miss Dohee~ You’re the best!”
I was being teased, but I felt a little wronged.
“...But wasn’t I really cool...? I was seriously cool...”
‘Seriously... it was a performance I actually liked for the first time in a while...’
The more wronged I felt, the more delighted the people around me became.
“Of course! I’m telling you, you were cool! Good, good, good!”
The MC, now in full swing.
With a completely excited expression, he began talking to the members.
“Our maknae! From what I’m seeing right now, Dohee is absolutely overflowing with self-love. What do the members think!?”
The first to answer was Kim Seoyun.
Kim Seoyun, affirming it with her whole body, spoke rapidly with passionate enthusiasm.
“Totally, totally! Dohee is just absolutely a narcissist, I’m telling you?!”
“Why? What is it?!”
“There’s seriously, seriously a lot, but just to name one, Dohee’s phone wallpaper is her, I mean, a picture of herself!”
The members immediately chimed in.
“Whoa!! That’s true!”
“Right? I was shocked when I saw that too.”
“Puhaha, look at how red her face is.”
... Still, my lock screen is a photo of Doa.
And is it so wrong to have my face as my wallpaper?
It’s my phone, so my face should be on it...
“Oh my~ How much do you like yourself? Miss Dohee, is that true?”
“No... um...”
Before I could even give my excuse, Harang unnie, who had been chiming in, clapped her hands as if she remembered something and spoke with excitement.
“That’s right, that’s right! Ah, one time, I opened the bathroom door without knowing someone was inside, you know? But Dohee was in there.”
Please stop...
“I thought Dohee would tell me to get out right away, but she didn’t even notice I’d come in and was staring at the mirror, making a fuss all by herself!”
“No, that was just me fixing my hair...”
“What is she saying? You know what she did?”
Harang unnie looked into empty space as though she were looking at a mirror.
Then she put her hands on both cheeks and struck countless poses—coy, cool, bashful, charismatic, and so on—acting as if she were drunk on herself.
“No, I never went that far...!”
I was seriously just practicing expressions I’d make onstage...
Probably...
“I was just practicing expressions and trying them out! If you keep doing that, everyone’s going to misunderstand!”
“Miss Harang! What is the truth?! You must tell us only the 100 percent pure reality!”
“I swear on my idol life, this is 100 percent real.”
“Yes! Everyone! She says this is 100 percent real!”
...I’m not doing this.
***
The dorm with the lights off.
The very little time we had to sleep.
“Dohee, are you asleep?”
“What’s our maknae doing? Are you sleeping~? Are you out~?”
Kim Seoyun and Jeon Harang, who had suddenly entered my room, carefully climbed onto my bed.
“...Go away.”
I pushed the two of them, but they didn’t budge.
Damn, they’re heavy.
Kim Seoyun pulled my arm, linked hers with it, and said,
“Whyyy~ We’ve known each other for four years~ Are you sulking?”
Jeon Harang lay on her side on the bed, staring at me as she said,
“Honey, how are you this pretty even with a sulky expression? No wonder people are crazy about you~”
Sera unnie, too, came over from the bed beside mine, following those two, and hugged me.
“I wanna do it too~”
Ah... seriously.
“Ah, I said everyone get out!”
Chaerin unnie, who was wearing an eye mask on the bed next to us, also murmured a word.
“Yeah... we have a schedule tomorrow too... let’s sleep now...”
“We’ll leave once Dohee stops sulking~”
“Baby, should we sleep holding hands today?”
“I’m just gonna sleep here, hehe...”
Haa...
“But did you guys see how she smiled a little when we called her pretty earlier? Real goosebumps.”
“When did I ever!”
.
.
After being tormented for a long while, Chaerin unnie looked so exhausted that I had no choice but to accept their apology.
***
Sangam-dong LE Center.
Four in the morning, with dawn still far away.
It was only early November, but the air was filled with cold.
Even so, fans were filling the line to the brim.
The gender ratio was half men and half women, the most ideal proportion.
In particular, women in their twenties were the fanbase every agency viewed as a major target.
They had purchasing power, time, and a life they could pour into idols.
And Dohee’s fansite master, one of the main targets here—a woman in her twenties—also entered the LE Center, her whole body wrapped in a long padded coat.
The official fan cafe, opened only two days ago.
Even though it had been created at the same time as the showcase, its membership had already surpassed thirty thousand.
It was enough to confirm the firepower of the fanbase.
And yesterday evening, a notice had been posted on the official fan cafe.
[Notice) 20221103 Mwave ㅡ Mpulse Pre-Recording Participation Guide]
Hello.
This is the fan cafe administrator.
We are informing you of how to apply to participate in the pre-recording, so those who wish to attend, please check the details below.
Date and time: Thursday, November 3, 6:00 AM
Location: Sangam LE Center
Capacity: 400 people (50 on standby)
Attendance check time: Thursday, November 3, 4:00 AM
A first-come, first-served application that sold out in one second.
One of those lucky people was Dohee’s fansite master.
With her long history of fangirling, Dohee’s fansite master had skillfully succeeded in getting a spot.
-Limited-edition photo card for the first recording, nice!!!
Excited to be able to attend SAVEN’s first pre-recording, the fansite master couldn’t even sleep and stayed up all night.
“You’re here?”
Familiar faces greeted her.
They were fellow fansite masters she had frequently run into since SAVEN’s formation.
It seemed everyone had been too excited for the first public broadcast to sleep and had come early to wait.
There were even fans carrying sleeping bags among them.
“What’s this? You’re late for once.”
“It was too cold, so I waited at the coffee shop in front...”
“Ah, you should’ve come here and had some! The girls sent a coffee truck.”
Now that she looked, the fans and fellow fansite masters were all holding warm coffees with sleeves bearing the members’ faces.
When she looked in the direction her fellow fansite master pointed, there was a coffee truck with a banner hanging on it.
“The babies haven’t even been around that long, and they’ve already sent a coffee truck...!”
A reverse fan support coffee truck for the fans attending their first pre-recording.
‘This is exactly why, if you’re going to stan idols, you have to stan the successful ones!’
Later, after the pre-recording ended, when the fan manager handed out various cosmetics and macaron sets as reverse fan support, she was so moved she nearly cried.
***
“I’m so sleepy I could die...”
“Me too...”
“And now we have to do this every dayyy...”
Kim Seoyun and Harang unnie were whining.
They made a noisy club every night, so I knew this would happen.
“I told you to be quiet and sleep yesterday, didn’t I?”
Hana unnie mercilessly pushed away Harang unnie, who was whining and clinging to her.
Of course, it wasn’t just those two; the other members were also huddled together on the sofa with their eyes closed.
They didn’t look comfortable due to their anticipation and nerves for the first pre-recording, but it seemed none of them could endure the drowsiness washing over them.
It was probably because they had only slept for two hours, having stopped by the salon since two in the morning to get their hair and makeup done.
Still, Hana unnie and I were fairly wide awake.
“Dohee, are you okay?”
Hana unnie asked me as I sat alone with my eyes open, drinking an energy drink.
“I’m tired, but I’m just holding on. My eyes can’t get puffy, just in case.”
Of course, I’m pretty even if my eyes are puffy, but I need to look even prettier on screen.
Not for me.
For the fans.
Really.
“As expected, Dohee has what it takes to be a leader~”
That’s true.
Since there was nothing to do during the waiting time, I decided to look around the official fan cafe a little.
On the free board, posts from fans waiting outside, verifying their attendance at the pre-recording, were going up nonstop in real time.
And in the verification photos, each of them was holding a coffee cup.
‘An iced Americano in this weather is a bit...’
Anyway, seeing that everyone liked it made me feel as if my fatigue was easing.
I had been the one to suggest sending it, after all.
Though apparently, they’d been planning to send it even if I hadn’t said anything.
As I was looking through the verification posts, an article titled [First-Week Sales Already Surpass 250,000!] caught my eye.
//(Seoul=Unit News) Reporter Kim Yedam = It has been tallied that the girl group SAVEN, formed through the Mwave audition program “Just Choose Your Idol - Season 3,” has sold over 250,000 albums just three days after debut.
According to their agency, Shock Entertainment, on the 2nd, the third-day sales of SAVEN’s album “AURORA” released on the 31st surpassed 250,000 copies based on Hanteo Chart.
The agency explained, “This is already the highest first-week sales record among debut albums by girl groups in history, and they are currently setting a new first-week sales record,” adding that it was also the highest sales figure among all rookie groups that debuted in 2021 and 2022.
Meanwhile, SAVEN’s first album has also entered the upper ranks of the digital music charts.//
Oh... I see.
Yesterday and today had been so hectic that I hadn’t even known an article like this had come out.
To be honest, since we had sold 200,000 copies on the first day alone, I did know we had broken the all-time first-week record for a girl group debut album.
We’d even held a celebration party right away then.
‘Does this mean we’ll get first place right away?’
We had reached first place on Watermelon’s real-time music chart, and entered the daily chart at third, so whether sooner or later, it seemed like we’d get first place soon.
“Unnie, don’t we need to prepare a first-place speech for today?”
“The first week’s points haven’t been counted yet, so we have to wait until next week.”
“Ah... I didn’t know that.”
“Hurry up and post something on Instagram thanking the fans.”
“I wrote that on the first day.”
“Then this time, post one to commemorate our first music show.”
“I already posted a selfie.”
“What about the caption?”
I don’t know. The fans probably like my photo more than the caption anyway.