It was late at night, when everyone would normally be asleep.
Yet, for some reason, the members were gathered in the living room.
Chaerin unnie, who was desperate for sleep, was there too.
And in the middle of the living room—
Seoyun unnie was sitting across from me with a table between us.
Covering her mouth with both hands, Seoyun unnie shouted,
“Dohui! You’re so, so pretty!”
Well.
Of course I knew that.
“Ah, really?”
Seoyun unnie’s face twisted.
“Come on. I told you to give me an appropriate, cooperative response.”
“Okay, I’ll do it properly this time.”
Seoyun unnie spoke sweetly once more.
“Oh, and I’m late saying this, but congratulations so much on coming in first on ‘Jeodol 3’! I knew you’d win!”
“Ah, really?”
“Hey.”
“What?”
Eventually, Kim Seoyun grabbed me by both shoulders and shook me.
My head bobbed up and down.
This is fun, heheh.
“Do it properlyyy!”
Harang unnie, who happened to be standing beside us, reached out and stopped Seoyun unnie.
“Please don’t touch the artist.”
Then, pretending to check her wrist, she spoke in a solemn voice.
“It’s time. You’ll be moving now.”
Just as expected of my manager, Jeon Harang.
So reliable.
Seoyun unnie glared at me as she stood up.
“Damn it, Lee Dohui. Don’t live like that.”
“Yes.”
The reason we were doing this was simple.
Our first fan sign event was coming up in a few days.
We were running through a simulation beforehand.
Of course, I had no intention of fooling around at the actual fan sign like I had just now.
I’d heard that several fans had spent millions of won to participate, so I had to do my best.
The next member to sit in front of me was Chaerin unnie.
Just as we were about to begin, Chaerin unnie suddenly said something strange.
“I’m supposed to be a man in his twenties.”
Hmm… Well, we had to practice, so fine.
But there was something fierce in Chaerin unnie’s eyes.
Maybe she was having a hard time because she hadn’t been sleeping much lately…?
For now, I recited a standard line.
“Hello~”
“Hi, Dohui~”
“What’s your name, unnie?”
“I told you, I’m a man.”
Ah, right…
“Try calling me oppa.”
“Come on, you’re still my unnie.”
“Try calling me oppa.”
But was I really supposed to call fans oppa at the fan sign…?
I really hated it…
“Manager Harang, I think this unnie is strange.”
I looked at Harang unnie with sympathetic eyes, but—
“Please hurry.”
Behind me was Harang’s cold gaze.
“Hurry up.”
In front of me was Chaerin’s fierce gaze.
“Oh…”
The word oppa simply refused to come out.
At this point, gender didn’t matter anymore, but I had to say that I felt an especially strong aversion to the word “oppa.”
“Hurry!”
Why was she so scary today…?
“Ooo…”
“Come on!”
“O-op…”
“Just say it!”
“O… opp… brahther?”
***
“Ah… Ah, hello…! Um… what’s your name?”
“Yeeun unnie, you don’t know me?”
“Hmm…?”
“You said you’d remember me last time.”
“But this is supposed to be my first time meeting you…?”
“You’re really killing my affection for you, unnie.”
“Dohui… you’re scaring me…”
“Ha…”
“What’s wronggg…”
Yeeun unnie was the best for relieving stress.
***
The question Post-it note handed to me by the male fan in front of me read:
1) Dohui is playing with Seoyun.
2) Seoyun is playing with Dohui.
“Obviously number one. I’m definitely the one playing with her.”
“Hahaha, you’re saying exactly the same thing as Seoyun, word for word?”
“That’s because Seoyun unnie has an overinflated sense of self. Oh, and this is a real secret, but my mental age is actually around thirty.”
“Then am I your little brother too?”
“Something like that.”
“Then write down the mental ages you think all the members have!”
Hmm…
—Hana: 20
—Harang: 15
—Chaerin: 22
—Seoyun: 15
—Sera: 15
—Yeeun: 13
—Dohui (me): Around 30
The fan in front of me burst out laughing when he saw what I had written on the Post-it note.
But what could I do when it was true?
“Time to move on now~”
A staff member spoke from behind him.
“Such a shame… Goodbye, Jinwoong hyung!”
Since I absolutely couldn’t bring myself to say oppa, I had decided to address male fans as hyung instead.
“You said your mental age was thirty! And call me oppa!”
“Goodbye, Jinwoong dongsaeng!”
“Hey, that’s not right!”
“Heheh, goodbye! See you next time!”
“Next time, you’re calling me oppa, okay?”
Jinwoong hyung picked up his Post-it note, stood, and moved on to the next member, Yeeun unnie.
And once again, I heard the same automatic response from beside me.
“Cute…”
Sera unnie was looking this way.
She seemed to be talking about the hat I was wearing.
It was a rabbit hat whose ears perked up whenever someone touched it.
‘Even I have to admit it’s cute.’
At this point, I’d pretty much accepted the rabbit thing.
I’d already received five rabbit-themed gifts just today… Sigh.
“Dohui~ Look over here for a second~”
“Change your headband!”
Meanwhile, countless cameras kept clicking without pause.
Some of them even had the names of each fan’s favorite member written in front of the lens.
[Please look here, our youngest bunny Lee Dohui~!]
Just like that camera.
I looked at the camera, smiled brightly, and struck a pose before greeting the next fan.
“Hello, hyung!”
“Hyung?”
“Um… hyungnim?”
“……?”
Sorry, hyung.
I know you want to hear me call you oppa.
But this is the best I can do…
***
Joo Hayeon was confused.
She was a newbie who had only just become interested in idols after watching [blank].
Without giving it much thought, she bought one album and entered the fan sign lottery—and won.
It was unbelievable.
Usually, getting into a popular idol group’s fan sign required buying at least a hundred albums.
Even so, there was no other way to explain why she had won than sheer luck.
Fan sign winners were generally divided into a certain percentage of winners selected by ranking—reserved for people who bought albums in bulk—and the remaining winners selected through a pure random draw.
The number of albums required to win through ranking was what people commonly called the fan sign cut-off.
The random draw, on the other hand, meant exactly that: completely random.
Of course, even among the random winners, it was usually people who had bought fifteen or so albums.
Despite that, Joo Hayeon had won with only a single album.
It was truly a stroke of incredible luck.
And so, she had come to her first fan sign event.
‘I’m so nervous I can’t even speak…’
Everyone around her looked experienced.
Meanwhile, she was bound to seem clumsy, since this was her first idol fan sign.
Still, she had at least seen enough to prepare gifts and question Post-it notes.
She had even thought about what she would say…
“It’s time to move on now~”
But the moment she stood in front of the members, she stammered, answered their questions with nothing but short replies, said goodbye, and was sent on her way.
And now it was Dohui’s turn.
Since Dohui was her favorite, she sat down in front of her with the resolve to speak properly this time.
“Unnie, hello~”
Her resolve to speak properly vanished the moment her breath caught in her throat.
Today, Dohui was wearing a beige bustier that highlighted her long, straight black hair, a white long-sleeved shirt, a warm-toned cardigan, and even a flower crown from a fan. It was the perfect innocent, feminine outfit.
Perhaps because of that, while she usually looked like a cute and pretty youngest little sister, today she resembled an elegant, refined young lady from a wealthy household.
And above all—
‘Her face… She’s insane in person…!’
She had already thought Sera was incredible when she saw her, one of the group’s top two visuals, right in front of her.
But Dohui seemed even prettier.
Surely even Sera’s fans would admit it, wouldn’t they?
—Sera, you’re the prettiest!!!
Hmm, maybe not that person.
But everyone had their own tastes…
In any case, she wanted to tell Dohui she was beautiful right away and use that to get the conversation started.
She wanted to say all the things she had prepared.
There were so many thoughts racing through her mind, but—
“Ah, ah… h-hello…”
Once again, her mouth only managed to stammer.
Feeling like she had to do something, she abruptly held out her question Post-it note.
[Q: Dohui, why do you always wear the same shirt?]
After checking the Post-it note, Dohui smiled with her eyes as if she understood and said,
“Oh, this is that, right? Cutie-pretty. It’s not like that~ Hyah.”
‘Why is her smile so pretty too…?’
Even so, she absolutely had to say what she wanted to say.
She had to.
“No, I mean, why do you really always wear the same clothes?”
“Oh?”
***
On the way back to the dorm after the fan sign ended—
Most of the members had collapsed from exhaustion.
That was only natural after talking continuously with a hundred fans.
In the midst of it all, I was looking through the reviews and photos people had uploaded online.
Reading the reviews made me feel proud enough that my fatigue seemed to disappear.
Quite a lot of photos had been uploaded along with the reviews, including pictures of me wearing the rabbit hat.
Wow… I really do look pretty.
It was good enough to make me consider using one as my phone wallpaper.
Still, the “Fell for You” center shot was the best.
As I searched through posts related to me, a few caught my eye.
First:
[Why does Dohui keep calling us hyung…?]
Even when I ask her to call me oppa, she keeps calling me hyung, fuck ㅠㅠㅠ
It’s cute because of how adorably otaku-like she is, but I want to hear her say oppa…
Also, why is Dohui so good at talking?
It was my first time meeting her, but it wasn’t awkward at all.
—I talked to Dohui about the military, and I’ve only just met her, fuck
└What are you talking about;;
└I told her I was on leave, and she suddenly asked me which division I was from. So I said the 31st Division, and she suddenly got fucking excited and started talking about the military;;
└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ How would Dohui know anything about the military?
└I dunno, maybe her dad talked about it a lot… Still, she intertwined her fingers with mine at the end, so I was happy
The fan who had come with his head shaved was from the same division as me, so I’d gotten excited and started talking about the military without thinking.
I had mumbled my way through an explanation later, but…
It should be fine.
Next:
[Fan sign review) I got lectured by Dohui.]
I told her I’d bombed my final exams,
and she told me to study in advance, review thoroughly, and solve at least one practice exam every day…
She said she still does that whenever she has spare time, fuck…
Since she gets perfect scores every time, I couldn’t argue with her…
—ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Then study, fuckㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—But she still studies?
└Yeah… She says she habitually does it whenever she gets a chance to rest
└That’s crazy ㄷㄷ
I still had to take the college entrance exam.
I should review, even if only occasionally.
[Asked Dohui today why she only wears the same shirt]
Just as I was about to look at the next post, Kim Seoyun, sitting behind me, shoved her phone screen in front of my face.
“Hey, what’s this?”
So she hadn’t been sleeping.
A post was displayed on the screen.
It was the question we had received on a Post-it note: which of Seoyun and Dohui played with the other.
[Asked Seoyun and Dohui a questionㅋㅋㅋ]
“What? You picked yourself too.”
“No, not that.”
Kim Seoyun dragged the screen downward.
(Dohui’s evaluation of the members’ mental ages.jpg)
“Heh heh.”
Busted.