Fansite masters, most of whom even followed overseas schedules, were not about to miss domestic schedules—especially not concerts.
And the woman in her twenties with a smile spread across her whole face.
Dohui’s fansite master was no exception.
‘From the very first concert, this is seriously insane. Seriously.’
The seat where she set down her things was in Section 8 on the second floor.
Olympic Gymnastics Arena was famous among fans as a concert venue where every seat had such a good view that people said, “If you’ve got a ticket, just go!”
But among them, Section 8 on the second floor, facing the stage head-on, was the closest to the stage after standing seats, and the view was even more open than standing.
In other words, it meant she could enjoy the stage and film fancams and take photos of the members without being obstructed by the audience around her.
‘More than anything, I can just do standing tomorrow!’
Since she had already secured even a standing ticket with the help of fansite masters for other girl groups she was friendly with, she had no regrets.
—The performance will begin shortly. We ask all audience members in the venue to please be seated...
The announcement echoed through the arena.
At the same time, Dohui’s fansite master deftly took out her camera while avoiding the staff’s line of sight and hid it behind her bag.
The arena slowly began to darken.
In proportion to the dimming lights, the murmuring of the crowd gradually died down as well.
At last, when all the lights had faded.
An unfamiliar EDM track she had never heard before lightly rang through the venue.
‘That’s it...!’
But the bass beat carried a deviant siren sound that anyone who had come to the concert would react to instantly.
While Shavenue, SEVEN’s fandom, were lightly bobbing their heads to the rising bassline.
—Waaaah!
Sera’s face, with red eyes, appeared on the screen.
Then the shot moved closer to Sera’s pupils.
Words appeared in Sera’s pupil.
‘Link: to seventh heaven’
The moment the screen was sucked into her pupil.
A crossroads where faint rose-colored fragments fluttered appeared.
And scenes followed of the SEVEN members walking freely through it in their own ways.
Kwon Hana, running even as a rose-colored fragment grazed her cheek and cut it.
Gong Chaerin, holding a fragment in her hand and letting it fly on the wind.
Jeon Harang, wearing a hood and spraying graffiti on the wall.
Yeeun, her face dyed by the brilliant lights of neon signs like those at a night market.
Seoyun, walking out while tying her hair into a ponytail, a hair tie held between her lips.
Sera, throwing her neat school-uniform blazer onto the ground and leaving a gray alleyway behind.
And lastly, Dohui, walking amid camera flashlights bursting nonstop from every direction.
As all of them slowly walked out and gathered at the center of the crossroads.
The screen, which had been shining on the members’ faces in one place, began to show the rose-colored fragments rising toward the sky.
The fluttering fragments formed shapes one by one, until they finally formed words.
‘Link: Log In’
At the same time, the EDM that had been building to its peak synchronized with a login sound effect and vanished in an instant, while the red lasers bursting from all sides of the stage converged in a flash, slicing through the very center of the screen.
Then the screen split open as if cut by a beam of light.
White fog billowed out from behind the wall.
Flashing lights.
The silhouettes of the members inside the fog, glowing with backlight.
And Dohui’s opening line of “Rose Nebula” rang out.
[Seven gift that I’ll reach someday]
—Waaaaaaah!!!
Scream-like cheers poured out from around her.
[Fit, just as I am when I bloom]
The members emerged from the fog and appeared on the screen.
The fansite master screamed internally.
‘Princess! Tomorrow I’ll definitely go right up close!’
Because Dohui was smiling with sparkling eyes.
And the first title stage passed in the blink of an eye.
But she had no time to feel disappointed.
“Aaaaaah! Our Chaerin is a genius, she’s insane!!!”
It was not because of the man beside her shouting while violently shaking his light stick.
Rather, she completely understood his excitement.
Because the accompaniment immediately continued, and the next stage began.
A bass with its final notes processed into chorus, and a funky black-music rhythm.
A song that no K-pop stan, no person crazy about K-pop, could help but react to.
Among SEVEN’s songs, it was also the one with the hottest response, currently second on the annual chart.
“Unsatisfied,” the title track of their second album.
[A transparent thirst never gets filled, and I keep searching for that sweetness]
Two title stages in a row were a surefire combination for heightening the atmosphere.
In other words, dopamine was exploding.
***
[Shavenue, hello. This is Dohui!]
As Dohui’s voice spread through the gymnastics arena.
The fans’ cheers echoed even louder.
[Really—]
As if overwhelmed by those cheers, her pupils widened and her eyes shone. Dohui drew in a deep breath for a moment before continuing.
[Really, the lights of the light sticks from here are so beautiful. Of course, Shavenue’s smiling faces are even more beautiful. Thank you so much for coming to see us today.]
‘Even the way she talks is so pretty...’
While the fansite master was slightly moved by that gentle way of speaking.
[Shavenue! Our youngest said she spent hours agonizing over what to say and prepared that!]
There was no way Seoyun would leave her alone.
[No, when did I ever!]
[I saw her writing it in a notebook, too...! I really did...!]
And there was Yeeun, who loved framing people.
Just then, the electronic display showed a close-up of a placard a fan was holding.
“Ah...! I should’ve brought one too.”
The fans soon laughed along as they watched Dohui’s face turn red.
While Dohui drank from a water bottle to cool herself down, Chaerin, as if they still had to move things along, took the mic.
[Anyway, our youngest is this thorough with her planning. Isn’t she cute?]
—Yeeeees!!!
Cheers of agreement answered Chaerin’s question.
[But you all know, right? Our leader Hana unni is a capital-J, so she’s extremely thorough with planning. We worked really hard on putting together the stages too!]
The members’ voices trembled slightly, as if they were nervous.
Even so, they looked at one another and continued the talk brightly.
[Of course, there are stages that are very cool and very cute too! You’re curious who’ll be doing them, right!?]
The fans’ cheers.
[Of course, please check that for yourselves!]
The fans’ playful boos.
[Now, our next stage is!]
[We won’t tell you...! It’s a secret...!]
[A secret!]
After SEVEN’s comments crossed back and forth several times.
[Then, is everyone ready!?]
[Shall we get right to it?]
The members got into position.
The stages of their B-side tracks began without a moment to rest.
***
Only after SEVEN finished performing all the B-side stages from the three albums they had released did the lights go dark.
The members, who had run backstage, had no time to rest.
[I think we’ll have to try putting the stages together ourselves. You’ve all thought about what you want to do, right?]
Because during the short VCRs introducing the setlist formation, from solo stages to unit stages, they had to change outfits and prepare for the stage.
“Dohui, here!”
After drinking water, I hurriedly changed into the clothes the stylist unni handed me and fixed my hair.
“Team 1, seven minutes left!”
“Dohui, we need to touch up your makeup!”
“Team 1, please do your mic check!”
And I was the first performer, part of Team 1.
—Oh, and as for Dohui, they’d like her to have one stage where she sings while playing the piano, or just plays the piano.
Compared to the members, who would burn through stamina quickly running all over the stage, I would be sitting in a chair playing the piano, so I had more room to manage my energy.
“Please bring Yeeun an oxygen mask!”
“Does anyone else need an oxygen mask?”
On top of that, though I couldn’t compare to Hana unni, I was fairly confident in my stamina too.
“Team 1, please stand by right now!”
“Team 2, please do your mic check now too!”
***
When the caption appeared on the VCR screen and the screen changed.
The member whose face appeared was Dohui.
“Huh!?”
[I thought about what song I should do...]
And Dohui was sitting in front of a piano.
Since the B-side stages had just ended with a ballad, everyone had expected a cover stage centered on dance to raise the mood to its fullest. But once they actually saw Dohui gazing into the camera in front of the piano, they grew even more excited.
[Up until now, I feel like I’ve only shown you pieces I practiced alone... Since it’s a concert, a song everyone can enjoy would probably be better, right?]
Just as Dohui said, the performances fans had seen from her until now had mostly been competition pieces that looked difficult at a glance, rather than publicly famous songs.
[So I’ll try a famous song!]
With Dohui’s cute smile as the last image, the VCR screen cut to black.
And when the screen turned on again, it showed the concert hall in darkness, with only the piano shining under a white spotlight and Dohui sitting before it in a fluttering yellow dress.
It was a scene that looked like something one would see at a recital.
No prelude was needed.
Dohui’s fingers moved.