[Seven Lee Dohui. “Fighting Through an Ankle Injury” - Sportsworld]
An article like this had never been published.
Even if one came out after I finished the stage without any problems, it would only be embarrassing, and people might resent me for making a fuss over nothing.
So I refused to let them turn it into an article in the first place.
Even so, I couldn’t stop news of my visit to the hospital from reaching Mom.
The manager had contacted her out of courtesy.
-Always taking care of everything yourself, yourself. Don’t your sisters say anything?
“Ah, I told you I’m feeling a little better.”
-You always make Mom worry, don’t you?
She’d been nagging me for ten minutes straight.
Ugh, what a hassle.
-You’re performing again today. Do you want to get hurt again?
The SBC Gayo Daejeon was being held today.
-Stop making Mom worry.
She was showing signs of starting another round of nagging, so I changed the subject.
“Okay, I get it. More importantly, what are Doa and Dad doing?”
-Don’t even get me started. Doa and your dad brag about you so much at school and work.
“Doa too?”
-Yeah. Even yesterday, she kept replaying the video of your performance. Whenever you have a stage, she stays up until late at night.
I pictured Doa sitting in front of the TV, staring intently at my performance, and a laugh slipped out for no particular reason.
Could anyone not find it adorable, considering how she acted all prickly whenever we met, only to behave like that behind my back?
-Oh, and these days Doa’s making a huge fuss about becoming an idol too.
“Hmm... Mom, try to talk her out of that.”
Doa had to remain mine alone.
“Dohui, we have to leave now~”
Manager Dahong unni spoke from beside me in the middle of the call.
Finally, the nagging was about to end.
“You heard her, right? I have to leave now, so I’m hanging up~”
-Okay. Take care of yourself. Mom loves her princess~
“I know, I know. Bye~”
Mom worried too much for her own good.
But I really was worried that Doa might become an idol.
It wasn’t exactly a carefree profession.
As for money, I could just earn plenty myself.
Doa only needed to live off me for the rest of her life...
***
The SBC Gayo Daejeon was being held at Jamsil Gymnasium.
There was a public-broadcast network red carpet today, our first one.
Maybe that was why the stylists were especially frantic.
They must have felt some sort of duty to make us look even prettier.
“Ahh, what do we do, Dohui? You’re seriously so beautiful~!”
My reflection appeared in the mirror.
‘Hmm... I do look kind of pretty.’
Today, I was wearing a black empire-waist dress, with the waistline raised to just beneath my chest.
The empire dress made my already-long legs look even longer.
And for some reason, I felt embarrassed.
It was my first time wearing a dress like this.
“Should I put a pin in your hair too? It’d look nice if we put your hair up and stuck one in.”
“Ah, I want to dye your hair ash brown. It would look really pretty.”
But the stylists were desperate to do something more.
After they finished styling me,
I barely managed to sit down in a waiting-room chair and wait for the red carpet.
The members currently in the waiting room were me, Seoyun, Harang, and Chaerin unni.
The other three were performing a special stage today,
so they had gone to rehearse the additional formations.
As for us, we had all the time in the world now.
Instead, we were busy filming a behind-the-scenes camera.
“Shabenu, hi~ We’re here at the SBC Gayo Daejeon today! And we’ll be heading onto the red carpet soon!”
Kim Seoyun, holding the camera, turned it toward me.
Harang unni, who had been sticking close to my side, put on a cute act.
“Hehe, isn’t my outfit cute? I’m Seven’s hidden cutie, Jeon Harang~?”
“Just stay hidden forever.”
“Everyone, even though Dohui talks like that, she actually thinks I’m super cute.”
“I do not.”
Since there wasn’t much content to film, we chatted for a while before deciding to rehearse the red carpet entrance.
It was a hassle, but this was work too, so I had to humor them.
“Please enter! Click, click.”
Jeon Harang was acting as the host.
“Hello~ I’m Seven’s Lee Dohui.”
I walked into the waiting room with a faint smile and gave a little wave.
I couldn’t see myself, but I was probably looking quite graceful.
However, the other two burst into raucous laughter.
“Hello, I’m Seven’s Lee Dohui~ Ah, this is so freaking cringey—hah!”
“Lee Dohee here~ Huh-haha-ha!”
Sigh... It was my fault for humoring them.
“Dohui, are you sure you’ll be okay wearing high heels, though?”
Even in the middle of all this, Chaerin unni was the only one looking after me.
“Yeah, I’m fine now. The doctor said my ankle is prone to twisting again, so I just have to be careful about that.”
Regardless, Kim Seoyun and Jeon Harang began imitating me with exaggerated expressions.
“Hellooo~ I’m Seven’s Lee Dohui~”
“Gasp, I’m Lee Dohui too!”
When had I ever made an expression like that?
“Gasp! Then am I Sam Dohui?”
Why were they seriously like this?
***
December 31.
The MBS Gayo Daejejeon.
“It’s over!”
Since we had finished our second-half stage, and this was a year-end public-broadcast performance without any awards ceremony, all we had to do now was sit in the singers’ section and enjoy ourselves.
We had all gotten very little sleep and practiced hard, so once the performance ended, the tension melted away, and everyone dropped heavily into their seats.
But the exhaustion that made me feel as though I could collapse at any moment vanished the instant I looked at the audience seats beside us.
Glow sticks rippled in waves of every color.
I hadn’t been able to properly register it while I was onstage because of the tension.
Only now did it hit me that we had performed in front of more than ten thousand people.
-Thump, thump.
My heart was still pounding.
Before I had time to savor the lingering feeling, Seoyun unni poked me.
“Ooh~ Lee Dohui~”
“What?”
“That person seems interested in you~ Ahh! What are you going to do~?”
She was going “ahh” and acting all flustered.
Sure enough, the member of All Today who had kept making eye contact with me earlier was Jay.
He was a famous member of a famous group.
Whether or not they were popular with the general public, they were top idols with a huge domestic and international fandom, touring overseas and ranking among the top ten groups in terms of revenue.
“So, you know I’m sixteen, right?”
But I guess he was a damn pedophile.
Of course, I was pretty, and I had a good figure too. I was tall, and, well, fairly well-endowed.
But still, I was only sixteen.
My baby fat hadn’t even disappeared yet, and my face still looked distinctly childlike.
“You got a note last time too~”
Not just from him, either.
When we did challenges,
when we went back and forth to hand out signed CDs or greet people in the waiting rooms,
I’d received quite a few notes from people asking for my number and saying they wanted to get closer to me.
But if I didn’t like it, I didn’t like it.
“Unni. You know there’s a no-dating clause, right?”
Our contract prohibited dating for the first two years after debut.
Of course, it was basically a dead letter since all anyone had to do was date in secret.
“Come on~ Of course I’m not dating anyone~”
Hana unni pulled me into a hug and said,
“That’s right. Our Dohui is still a little kid~ She’s a cute middle schooler! We have to protect her!”
“Dohui’s going to be a middle schooler next year too...? So cute...”
Everyone must have finally started to realize that the new year was just around the corner.
“I’ll be an adult next year! Hana unni, how about we have a drink together?”
“Me, Sera, and Seoyun—our ’05 line will be nineteen next year.”
“Hehe, I’m a high schooler~ She says I’m a middle schooler, hehe.”
Must be nice being a high schooler. Good for you.
In any case, the new year was less than an hour away.
I would finally be sixteen.
Not that anything would change.
“Give me some water.”
I took the bottle someone handed me and emptied it in an instant.
Only then did the heat I’d felt onstage begin to fade.
This year had been especially long.
There had been plenty of embarrassing moments, and plenty of days when I’d kicked myself beneath the blankets.
Still, looking back, it had been an exhausting yet enjoyable year.
As I gazed at the stage, lost in the mood, Coral Blue came up amid a dazzling intro.
“Wow, Coral Blue sunbaenims are on!”
Coral Blue.
A six-year-old girl group from Harang unni’s company, Haru Entertainment.
They were the undisputed number-one girl group and had won the Grand Prize again this year.
Not just Harang unni—most of the members had looked up to Coral Blue, and many had dreamed of becoming idols after watching them.
That was why Coral Blue had also remained number one in girl-group brand reputation rankings every time.
Even when they occasionally ceded the top spot to a rising girl group, Coral Blue always ended up near the top in the end.
Of course, I was number one in individual girl-group brand reputation value for November and December.
Hehe.
“When will we ever reach that level?”
Seoyun unni said, resting an arm on my shoulder.
“Hmm...”
It wouldn’t be easy, but to reach that level, at the very least...
“Even if we get lucky and win a Grand Prize next year, we probably won’t make it onto the Billboard charts until after we disband.”
The Grand Prize would be difficult too.
A year and a half was far too short a time to make it onto Billboard.
“Let’s not disband...”
Sera unni tried to hug me with teary eyes, but I subtly twisted away.
“Is that really up to us?”
Behind the disappointed Sera unni, a staff member signaled for us to prepare for the ending.
As always, the December 31 year-end show ended with a hopeful song by a famous veteran singer or classical vocalist, followed by the countdown.
We slowly climbed the stairs leading to the stage.
[Holding both your hands in mine, right here with you]
[Carve your resolve into the brilliant morning sunlight]
“This year is really ending like this.”
“Dohui, that means we’ve been together for seven years now.”
“True.”
Because of our contract alone, Seoyun unni and I had become inseparable.
Not that I disliked it.
It was fun being together.
[If we’re together, it won’t be long]
[We are the champions tonight, we will win]
Everyone swayed gently to the music, clapping or waving their hands to the beat.
“Dohui...”
Ye-eun unni looked at me with bright, glistening eyes like Puss in Boots.
“What?”
“I just wanted to say... thank you...”
Ye-eun unni was the member I teased the most.
But she also looked after me in countless ways, whether I noticed it or not.
Because she felt like a younger sister.
“What are you thanking me for? We’re friends.”
“Huh...? I’m not your friend... I’m your unni...?”
The song ended, and thunderous applause poured down.
Sera unni stealthily wrapped her arms around me.
Did she really want to do this onstage too?
“I’m Jeon Harang! Two minutes away from becoming an adult! Two minutes away from becoming friends with Kwon Hana and speaking informally to her!”
“We’ll have to practice again today, won’t we, our little Harang~”
“You know I’m joking, right, Hana unni?”
“What do you mean, joking~ Come on, let’s work hard at practicing in the new year too!”
“Our group needs an informal-speech session too...”
Chaerin unni closed her eyes, clasped her hands together, and began to pray. She was probably making a wish.
“...Please let us each have our own rooms... Sewon Kim, Harang unni, and Hana, stitch their mouths shut...”
Those three really did need to be stitched shut.
“If possible, Dohui too...”
...Why me?
“The countdown is starting!”
“Ha-ha-ha! Fifty-six seconds until Jeon Harang becomes an adult!”
“The ’05 line is nineteen now! ’05 line, fighting!!!”
“I’m a high school student now too...! Dohui’s a middle schooler!”
“I already dropped out of middle school, you know?”
[All right, everyone! Let’s begin the countdown together!]
The countdown to the new year began along with the MC’s announcement.
“Ten!”
While the members jumped up and down,
I decided to make a wish.
“Six!”
May everyone around me be happy without anyone getting hurt.
May this be a happy year for everyone.
“Four!”
And as for my chest... It would be perfect if it got just a little bigger than it was now.
I needed to grow past 170 centimeters too.
“One!”
[HAPPY NEW YEAR!]
“Ha-ha-ha! Jeon Harang is twenty! She’s an adult!!!”
The beginning of my second sixteenth year.