The office worker felt like he was going to develop a mental illness.
For once, it wasn’t because of Department Head Kim.
“Those trash reporters… I ought to shove them into a shredder along with Department Head Kim. Ugh…”
Because reporters were indiscriminately churning out inflammatory articles.
[SAVEN Comeback, and Coral Blue Too… Major Girl Group Clash Expected in the Second Half of the Year]
[Early Summer Music Scene: Battle for the Throne Between Representative 3rd- and 4th-Generation Girl Groups]
[Clash of Two Digital Chart Powerhouses: “Who Will Be This Year’s Summer Queen?” …Summer Girl Group War Begins]
[Once Again, SAVEN’s Dohee Surpasses Coral Blue’s Lira… Girl Group Individual Brand Reputation Rankings]
Monday, June 26. SAVEN’s comeback.
One week later, Monday, July 3. Coral Blue’s comeback.
Articles placing the two girl groups side by side were more than enough to provoke an intense reaction.
Of course, mostly in the direction of SAVEN getting cursed out.
-A major clash? lol Coral Blue’s gonna crush them anyway
-They’re a group that’s disbanding next year anyway, but people keep forcing the connection. Even if they don’t disband, they’ll never catch up to Cobl in their lives lol
-Those mayfly bitches should at least make Billboard before trying to compare hehe
-I seriously don’t get Haru Ent. Why did they send Jeonha and that girl to SAVEN? They should’ve just quietly debuted in Cobl’s junior group
After all, Coral Blue’s fandom was overwhelmingly larger.
-You can’t deny Coral Blue represents the 3rd gen no matter what, but why is SAVEN the representative of the 4th gen?
-This is why SAVEN gets hate lol their fandom makes such a huge fuss
On top of that, fans of 4th-generation girl groups who had been pushed back by SAVEN, such as “Three-M,” “Pure Girl,” “Navia,” and “Catch One,” were also jumping on the bandwagon.
“Why did the schedules have to overlap…”
After checking the bait posts uploaded to K-pop communities, the office worker let out a sigh.
At this rate, it seemed like it would be an exhausting promotion period for both the fans and the members.
“This is all Shock Entertainment’s fault. They should’ve just given the girls a break. Money-crazed bastards.”
But when he actually came face-to-face with the music video, the office worker, who found himself squirming in his seat with joy, was ultimately just another helpless fan.
[SAVEN(세이븐) ‘음(Melody)’ Official M/V]
“Wow, they’re already pretty.”
The thumbnail.
As seen in the teaser, the members were dressed in urban, sophisticated outfits, with a bewitching concept shot.
There was definitely one advantage to being a project group.
Because their story and image had been built through a survival show, there were no limitations on their song concepts.
Still, he couldn’t help but worry.
Because the outfits in the thumbnail looked like they belonged to a sexy concept.
With four of them still minors, it was the perfect setup to provoke backlash over sexualization.
“On top of that, Dohee is sixteen. Hah.”
He started to think that Shock Entertainment, which he had always believed was good at least when it came to songs and concepts, had lost its touch.
Still, he clicked on the music video first.
“I guess I won’t know until I watch it in the end. Whew.”
The music video began in a plaza before an Ionian-style Greek building.
The members stood in dance formation.
Not in the outfits from the thumbnail, but in pure and delicate clothing.
‘Ah, so that’s why the concept photos were like that.’
Around the time he realized that the outfits from the concept photos were from here—
The intro.
A dreamlike synth sound, like beads rolling along, calmly descended the scale.
And as the scale dropped, bass notes were added one by one in contrast.
It was the disco-retro beat he had heard in the teaser.
Not too trot-like, but refined.
‘The composers on Zy’s side definitely have skill.’
Meanwhile, the members, who had been staring straight ahead with meaningful expressions, finally moved.
In time with the bass notes being added one by one, the members stretched their hands in sequence toward the center—toward Dohee, who had once again taken the center position.
Now, the screen was filled with hands forming the shape of a flower.
-Dnn↘Dnn↘Dnn↘Dnn↘
In an instant, the bass dropped again as if descending stairs, and the members lowered their hands.
At last, when their hands disappeared from the screen—
The background had changed into an old-fashioned London street.
And Dohee, who had been standing at the center of the flower, was walking out while provocatively brushing her hand along the street wall.
「Ay, it just won’t be filled
I want you to write down your heart」
On top of that, the outfit from the concept photo he had seen just moments ago—
The innocent white shirt and black corset belt were gone.
Instead, she wore a red knit dress that emphasized her mature charm.
「ad lib lib lib I am just beat. (lips lips)」
The office worker felt exclamation marks exploding inside his head and ended up screaming inwardly.
‘Seriously…! How does she get prettier every single time I see her……!’
「I can clearly see where you are
But I’m still scared, in case it’s something else
Maybe a little bit indecisive」
But before he even had time to let out an exclamation—
This time, Hana, now with black hair and a white cloth covering her eyes,
and blond Yeeun, whom he had thought could never possibly look chic,
appeared in contrast, facing each other as if looking into a mirror, surrounded by paintings.
“……!”
Once again, the office worker nearly let out his voice under the continuous bombardment of visuals like works of art.
But he barely swallowed it down.
Because he didn’t want to miss the buildup of this melody.
‘Buildup…? Come to think of it, does the instrumental arrangement change little by little with each part of the song?’
Thinking he would check again later, he focused back on the video.
「I pretended I’d noticed」
This time, there were three members.
Sera. Chaerin. Harang.
「But in the end, the answer is inside you」
The three were walking down the corridor of an old-fashioned mansion where sunlight barely filtered in through the windows.
But their stylish outfits, coordinated in red and black, made even the dark and heavy background look trendy.
「Raise your hand and write it down」
At last, when the three who had been walking forward stood before a door and pushed it open—
Seoyun stood there alone, her pink hair and lip piercing emphasizing sensuality rather than cuteness.
And when she brought down her hands, shaped into a T—
A momentary drop.
The intense buildup melody and beat vanished.
And the chorus line, restrained yet all the more charming because of it, rang out.
「thats in my score 음─」
Seoyun lightly moved her finger and placed it above her lip piercing.
In the end, the office worker gave up on swallowing his exclamations.
“Seriously, damn…”
He decided to just watch it again from the beginning.
‘I’m probably going to watch it a hundred times today anyway.’
And it seemed like everyone was thinking the same thing.
That much was clear from the real-time reactions refreshing on the screen.
-Do-do-do-do-do-do-Dohee maniacs
-Wow what is this visual punch
-Third hit in a row incominggggg
Even without seeing a performance mixed with choreography, he could tell.
This wasn’t an excessive feeling like a sexy concept.
Following the refreshing concept of their second album, it was even more fitting for summer.
‘A bewitching freshness.’
They had released an insane title track that captured refreshing, innocent, and sexy all at once.
***
Today, too, the area in front of the LE Center in Sangam-dong was crowded.
With the 180 fans who had broken through fierce competition to win spots at Mpulse’s public broadcast pre-recording.
The atmosphere on-site was as lively as the cool dawn of early summer.
People exchanging goods, people cramming the fan chant that had been uploaded a few days ago, people socializing.
Every one of them looked full of anticipation and excitement.
And today as well, somehow, a few fansite masters had won the competition with whatever know-how they possessed.
The fansite masters recognized familiar faces and chatted with one another.
“Oh, you’re here?”
A man greeted a woman walking over from afar.
For someone one might assume followed celebrities around every day, he looked quite neat and presentable.
“Yes. When did you get here, oppa?”
“Me? One o’clock.”
“One in the morning?”
“Yeah. I just stayed up all night at a PC bang. Did some editing work while I was at it.”
“They’re doing a mini fan meeting after the pre-recording too. Are you going to be okay?”
“Come on, of course. I couldn’t sleep because I was so excited about that. When the notice for the mini fan meeting suddenly dropped yesterday, my heart was pounding like I’d been drinking.”
At the man’s exaggerated reaction, the woman laughed and said,
“I know, right? The other photo fans were so jealous.”
“Of course they were. More importantly, what about Jihyeon? Did she fail to get in? Even when she fails, doesn’t she usually come anyway?”
The man recalled the female photo fan he had gotten close to while following SAVEN’s members around.
The woman seemed to know something.
“What is it? Tell me.”
“Ah… you know Jeodol Season 4?”
“Oh, the male version? Of course I know it. What about it?”
“They held the production presentation on Monday.”
“Yeah. But why?”
“Jihyeon said she went to take pictures just to make some money, but one of the contestants there was her ideal type, so she said she’d be shooting in that scene for a while…”
“Huh? All of a sudden?”
“It’s not really sudden. You know she originally used to be a male idol photo fan.”
“Oh, is that so? Well, people who follow male idols do end up going back to male idols eventually.”
“Exactly. When our pretty SAVEN girls are the best.”
“Damn, I lost a friend to eat with.”
While the two photo fans were feeling regretful—
“Oh, it’s Manager Dahong!”
SAVEN’s manager Dahong approached the fans.
“Manager, you’re pretty again today!”
Manager Ju Dahong, who occasionally appeared in the members’ livestreams and had gained some recognition among the fans.
“Yes, that’s enough! Everyone, please gather over here now!”
The fans began gathering one by one.
Once a decent crowd had formed, Ju Dahong raised one hand and shouted loudly.
“Shavenue, everyone knows your number, right!? Starting now, from my perspective, the left side will be numbers 1 through 60! The middle will be 61 through 120! The right side will be 121 through 180! Everyone with waitlist numbers, please step aside for a moment!”
At Ju Dahong’s instructions, the two photo fans also moved while continuing their conversation.
“But you can definitely feel it these days, right?”
“Feel what? The hate?”
Before, there had certainly been many reactions welcoming them as cute rookies.
But lately, the communities had gone insane with people trying to keep them in check.
“Yes, that.”
Since fandoms fighting was nothing new, he had reached a state of enlightenment about it.
If anything, he found the situation welcome.
“A superstar is supposed to drive both the haters and the fans crazy.”
Because that meant they were rising that much.
“We’ll begin checking attendance now! Please take out your ID, album, and proof of music purchase in advance!”
The man thought back to the idol scene of the past.
After Coral Blue won a rookie award during their rookie days,
from their second comeback onward, they began breaking girl group records one after another.
And they were compared endlessly.
Especially with the project girl group that had been enjoying tremendous popularity at the time.
By coincidence, this time too, it was the Jeodol 3 project group and Cobl.
“Your ID, album, and proof of music purchase, please!”
At some point, Manager Ju Dahong had approached the man and was holding out her hand.
“Ah, yes.”
As usual, the man tried to rummage through the bag slung over his shoulder.
“Huh…? Did I leave it at the PC bang?”
The man, who had been pretending to be calm in front of the woman, hurriedly pulled out his phone and showed his own website.
“Manager, I’m a fansite master! You know me, right? You know me!”
He was practically whimpering.
“Yes, I know. You run a Hana fansite. But there’s nothing I can do. Rules are rules. I’ll wait until I finish checking all 180 people, so go run and get it. If you’re late, we’ll move on to the waitlist.”
‘The PC bang is… really far from here…’
Along with the man’s tears, the second half of SAVEN’s promotions began.