Dohui’s fansite master was confused these days, unsure whether to laugh or cry at the situation.
“So this is how it turns out...?”
[Why did SAVEN, a member of the popular girl group, laugh after coming face-to-face with a participant from the new season of Doldol?]
The rumor surrounding Dohui had begun with Wa.
[TopEast announces progress on suing ‘malicious commenters’... “No leniency”]
[Controversy over manipulated photo of SAVEN’s Lee Dohui—“I wrote it out of jealousy”... Perpetrator apologizes]
And then came a whole series of controversies, from the spread of false information to the filing of lawsuits.
[“He’s handsome...” What a female idol did after going to see a ‘Haaland match’ in person]
[Lee Dohui’s explosive fandom in London... Fans captivated by her beauty]
It had all ended with the recent incident wrapping up on a cheerful note.
Whether good or bad, the string of events had greatly increased the number of mentions SAVEN received in terms of traffic.
And the increased interest in SAVEN ultimately meant greater exposure for SAVEN’s title track, “음 (Melody).”
—I seriously don’t listen to idol songs, but SAVEN’s songs play on the streets every day, so I looked them up a few times, and now they’re showing up in my algorithm too... Did I get brainwashed?
└Same, it popped up in my algorithm while I was reading an article. I’m telling you, YouTube really does monitor our personal records.
—The song, choreography, and point moves are all so well made. I love it.
—Enough with this challenge already. Even my older sister is filming it at home, and it’s so damn annoying. She keeps asking me to open the door for her. Does she think she’s Kim Seoyun or something?
└LOL, though Kim Seoyun’s part does stick in your head.
They were even being mentioned regularly on office-worker communities.
And this trend was also clearly reflected in the numbers.
Daily Chart
─ 1 【SAVEN - 음 (Melody)】
─ 2 【CoralBlue - Troika】
The chart rankings had remained unchanged through SAVEN’s third week of promotions.
—Wow, SAVEN is still number one?
—They’re actually going head-to-head with CoralBlue. That’s insane.
—Whoa, I suddenly thought of it after a long time and went to listen, and it’s amazingㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ “Eum-lody” is so good.
—They’re really holding on.
—I’m not getting tired of the song, but this is crazy. It’s CoralBlue... Wow, I never imagined it.
For a song to reign over the charts for a long period, popularity with the general public was essential. It had to become what people called a “Muggle pick.”
But because SAVEN continued to take all the buzz, the public spotlight had been slow to turn toward CoralBlue, who had made their comeback.
“Honestly, it wouldn’t have been strange if we’d been pushed out a week ago...”
The difference in first-week sales alone was double, after all.
[CoralBlue sets new record for first-week sales by a Korean girl group... Surpasses 1.8 million copies]
[SAVEN achieves career high, sets new first-week sales record for a fourth-generation girl group with 920,000 copies]
At this point, it was safe to say that, at least domestically, SAVEN’s buzz had established them as CoralBlue’s clear rival.
But the better SAVEN did, the more keenly one regret was felt.
“I shouldn’t have become a fan of a project group...”
The fact that their third album promotions were nearing an end meant that less than half of their active period remained.
So what if they were doing well?
They would disband in the end.
Perhaps because of that, even CoralBlue fans seemed fairly willing to acknowledge the two-way rivalry to some degree.
—Stop comparing them and just listen to good songs... Why are you all so obsessed with comparing them?ㅋㅋ...
—Both songs are so good. This is really a renaissance for K-popㅠㅠ
—Wow, the fact that SAVEN can even be compared with Cobble means they’ve really risen a lot... Their song is genuinely good.
—It’s true, third-generation Cobble and fourth-generation SAVEN. I like itㅋㅋ I hope SAVEN becomes like Cobble too~
└That’s difficult... They’ll disband next yearㅠ At this rate, they’d be writing girl-group history...
Of course, there were still comments that implied CoralBlue remained the top-tier group.
Amid all that, a familiar username caught the fansite master’s eye.
—Can the fans of flopping groups stop trying to pit successful teams’ fans against each other?ㅋㅋ... Go SAVEN~
“Ah, f—... That bitch was leaving malicious comments last time.”
The fansite master tried to type an angry reply.
But stopped moving their fingers across the keyboard.
Seeing even the malicious fandom begin its masquerade,
they felt that SAVEN had unmistakably entered the top-tier orbit.
***
The third Sunday of their third-album promotions—the day that marked the end of their activities.
Daily Chart
▲ 1 【CoralBlue - Troika】
▼ 2 【SAVEN - 음 (Melody)】
In the end, the chart rankings changed.
‘Holding on for two weeks after CoralBlue’s comeback was already absurd.’
It was a result that had lasted longer than our goal of holding on for just one week. So even though we had lost every music-show first-place win by the third week, the atmosphere was still festive.
Just looking at Kim Seoyun, who was swishing her pink hair around, was enough.
“Kim Seoyun hard-carrying~”
Look at her...
I was the one who did all the struggling...
=======================
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(Photo of Haaland taken from a distance)
@icandohee
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8 days ago
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=======================
I’d even posted something like this on Instagram to stir things up...!
That pink-haired wench...
“What are you looking at?”
—Wow, but Seoyun’s hair and makeup this time are seriously legendary...
—They’re all beautiful, but this song is just Seorodi. It suits Seoyun perfectly...
That was the general opinion among the fans who commented on the fancam.
This title track belonged to Kim Seoyun.
‘After all the effort I put in...’
It was all that pink-haired girl’s fault.
The song had been cursed, so instead of lasting three weeks, it had only lasted two.
“Don’t tell me you’re thinking something weird again.”
“Wow, your hair color is pretty~ Should I do mine like that next time too?”
“Ah, I’m asking what you were thinking.”
I turned my head to avoid Kim Seoyun, who was quick to pick up on things.
Sera unnie was holding her hair in her hand and gently swaying it around.
“Did my... hair essence... work especially well today~?”
She was looking at me, clearly hoping for a compliment.
“Just black hair.”
“Aw... But my hair feels nice today...”
The more time passed, the more fun Sera unnie was to tease.
“What about me...!?”
This time, Ye-eun unnie, who loved imitating the older members, was already swishing her blond hair around.
“Ye-eun unnie is...”
I’d scolded her too much lately.
Maybe it was time to give her a compliment.
“Blond hair suits you perfectly. You’re really so pretty. Elegant and sophisticated. Totally amazing.”
“Hehe.”
She liked that.
“I want to bleach my hair too... I’ll do silver, like Eun Sera...”
In any case, whether sooner or later, having the number-one spot on the charts taken from us had been inevitable.
They were CoralBlue, after all.
So I didn’t think much of it.
I just had to blame Kim Seoyun.
“What’s with that expression? Why do you keep looking at me like that?”
These days, watching Kim Seoyun get irritated whenever I raised the corners of my mouth and gave her my own cryptic smile had become my greatest pleasure.
“Has she only been acting like that for a day or two? Just put up with her.”
“Ah, Harang unnie should’ve been in TopEast. Now I have to keep seeing her for another five years even after we go back, ugh~”
“I’d rather have Harang unnie too, you know?”
Pinkhead.
“Ha~ Jeon Harang, you guilty human being. The life of a popular person. Hah.”
—Knock, knock.
Just then, a knock came from outside the waiting room.
“Yes, just a moment!”
Dahong manager unnie reflexively rose from her seat and walked toward the door.
When she opened it,
six girls wearing white dresses remodeled to give them a slightly warrior-like impression greeted us brightly.
“We’ve come to greet our seniors! Shining, Luminous, Striking! Hello, we’re SLS!”
We greeted them in return.
“Ah, hello~”
Behind them, a man whose face revealed a determination to accomplish his mission approached Hyeonsu manager and politely shook his hand.
“Hello, I’m Gu Imheon from BYS Entertainment. We’ve begun promotions with SLS, who just debuted. We look forward to working with you.”
They were the very picture of managers in the early days of a girl group’s debut.
“Ah, BYS. We look forward to working with you too. You didn’t have to come all the way to greet us. I’m sorry to have put you through the trouble.”
In fact, the custom of visiting waiting rooms to greet senior idols had waned in recent years, since senior idols found it tiring, but there was no sign of it disappearing entirely.
‘I like Dohui-sunbae... Hehe.’
It wasn’t because it was a convention or an obligation.
It was a voluntary greeting.
“Girls, you should give them the album.”
At their manager’s words, the members approached us and handed out their albums.
A short-haired girl came up to me.
“Hello, I’m Mia from SLS! I’m a huge fan of you, Dohui-sunbae!”
She looked at least four years older than me.
Even so, approaching someone younger than herself with such a humble attitude had to be fairly bruising to her pride.
“This is our debut album, and we worked so, so hard on it! We’d be incredibly grateful if you listened to it a lot!”
Even so, they had come to greet us.
To become acquainted with other idols and build friendships.
“Oh, thank you~ I’ll listen to it a lot!”
In an era when countless songs could surge back up the charts thanks to a single challenge posted as a short-form video, becoming acquainted with other idols was practically an obligation.
Sometimes companies even recruited idols from other agencies, turning it into an official schedule.
We had gone around filming challenges with other famous groups more than once or twice ourselves.
“Um... I’m a fan, so could I take a picture with you?”
At the very least, she wanted to take a friendship photo and post it on social media.
The intention was to draw in even a few fans by riding on our buzz, but—
“Of course.”
I didn’t dislike it.
They were simply doing their best.
“But you have to tell us who’s the prettiest here!”
If we were going to socialize, we had to ask at least this much.
“Uh...”
Mia looked troubled. She glanced at our members’ eyes for a moment, hesitating before answering.
“I’m really a fan, so... Dohui-sunbae is the prettiest!”
Correct answer, junior.
“Wow, you really have no eye for beauty...?”
And then the pink-haired one had to object.
“Mia unnie just has a very objective eye, so it can’t be helped. Unnie, do you have a challenge? Let’s go film it together.”
A reward.
I’d let her plug in her straw.
.
.
.
“Thank you so much, Dohui-sunbae!”
“Let’s film another challenge together next time! Fighting!”
I returned to the waiting room after filming the challenge as a show of support.
This time, all the members were standing.
Hyeonsu manager stepped forward.
“CoralBlue came to today’s music show.”
Since the release of the song,
CoralBlue had not participated in a single music-show schedule for two weeks because of overseas activities.
“Let’s go greet them too.”
It was our turn to become juniors again.