Yawns that kept coming without end.
It was because, after spending the previous night comforting Yeeun unni while she cried and wailed, sleep had completely fled from me.
‘Ah, I’m so tired I could die.’
“Dohee, why do your eyes look so hollow today? Are you really tired? Did you not sleep last night?”
“Yeah, I didn’t, but…”
And seeing me like that, Seoyun unni asked.
“More importantly, since when do you worry about me, unni?”
Of course, since I usually took care of myself so well, I wasn’t exactly someone who needed worrying over.
“Don’t tell me you’re still a kid and got so excited playing around that you couldn’t sleep?”
“Ah, of course. I knew it.”
“Haah… This is why you’re still a baby even after becoming a high schooler.”
“Shut up. I haven’t even enrolled yet, anyway.”
Tired of even exchanging words with Kim Seoyun, who was teasing me from the morning, I came out to the living room.
It was to lie down on the sofa and try to get some sleep for a bit.
And on my sofa lay the root cause.
“Unni.”
“U-um…? …? Wh-why are you looking at me like that…! D-did I do something wrong…?”
In any case, after finishing our enjoyable vacation like that, we had to return to our daily lives.
And the beginning of that was a meeting at the company building.
It was to discuss the next album and our final overall activities.
Still, since it was a scheduled comeback, the A&R team would handle all the songs.
The plans would already be laid out as well.
It felt like the end would wrap up neatly.
Maybe because of that, our steps toward the company building felt somehow refreshing and yet regretful.
“Ah, welcome.”
But the person we met at the meeting venue was not the working-level staff, but a director of Shock Entertainment.
And we ended up hearing an unexpected proposal.
“We’ll be speaking with each of your agencies as well, but do you all have any intention of extending your contracts?”
It was about SAVEN’s extension negotiations.
* * *
The various events, stages, and award ceremonies that continued from the end of the year into the beginning of the next.
After finishing all their schedules, SAVEN briefly entered an inactive period.
But SAVEN’s buzz, having won the Daesang at most of the award ceremonies, had reached its peak.
[Live) Seoyun’s Instagram followers surpass 2 million]
[I’m dying for Yeeun on the WE app, Yenrangdungi, please turn it on already]
[Official) SAVEN to remain a seven-member girl group, “contract renewal completed,” contract period is 40 years]
[Enough nonsense, go look at Chaerin’s Bubble.jpg]
[Harang seems to have pride in her thighs;; I’m losing it]
[Looks like Dohee enrolled at Hanseong Arts High? Sightings from new students who saw her on preliminary assembly day are going up]
[Three months before disbandment, I got one hyung at work into Sedungies lololol let’s die together, you bastard lololol]
[There’s a 1.1 million subscriber YouTube channel that hasn’t uploaded a video for three months? Yeah, Kwon Hana, I’m talking about you. I’m seriously going to die]
[They even won the Daesang and passed 1 million first-week sales, so honestly, wouldn’t all the agencies benefit if they extended?]
The fan community’s traffic volume was extremely high as well.
The content and topics of the posts uploaded to the fan community covered everything, regardless of importance, down to the most trivial details.
This was partly thanks to the way their name had constantly been made known under the title of a Daesang-winning group, but also because the existing fans’ affection had grown even more intense.
That was how little time remained until their disbandment, and it was possible that this inactive period might continue all the way to disbandment without any further activities.
Because of that, the fans waited while writing dozens, even hundreds, of posts over a single crumb of content.
However, SAVEN themselves had next to no activities, except for the occasional Bubble post.
At best, what went up were videos on the official YouTube channel, behind-the-scenes clips from the year-end stages.
[SAVEN 2023 MWMA Behind #1]
[SAVEN 2023 Water Melon Awards Behind]
[SAVEN 2023 Gayo Daechukje & Seoul Music Awards BEHIND]
But because of that, the fans were actually able to make one guess.
-This means they’re releasing a final album
It was the deduction that a final album would be coming out.
If not, there was no way they would be this quiet without any announcement.
-But looking at how those bastards at Shock Entertainment do things, you really never know
At the moment, even the release of an album was uncertain.
So this could be taken as good news instead.
-If a new album comes out, it’ll be a full-length album, right? After four singles in a row, shouldn’t we be allowed one full album?
└Project groups usually don’t really get full-length albums… Seasons 1 and 2 only got mini albums too
└But INUS had a full-length album as soon as they debuted? lol And a concert from the start
└They got their comeback pushed back instead, though lolol This is why I fucking hate LE, they see all their singers as cash cows
└Fr, if you look at the recent behind-the-scenes, this album was basically made entirely by the members themselves
Of course, the fans’ dissatisfaction had been piling up over the recent course of events.
But the members themselves had never raised it as an issue.
And with less than 100 days left, there was no way anything would change, so all they could do was trust and wait.
-There’s no joy in my commute anymore…
-When are you coming…? Girls, I’m cold…
One day, while those cries kept repeating.
Finally, recent photos of the members were uploaded to the official SNS account.
=======================
SAVEN OFFICIAL (@SAVENShock)
[Hi hi, Shavenue, did you miss us?]
(Photo) (Photo)
Not really lol only as stars in my heart lol
Chaerin told me not to write stuff like this, but I’m just writing it anyway lol
=======================
All seven of them had appeared with their hair completely wrapped up and hidden.
Since it was obviously the sight of them preparing for a comeback, the fans were so relieved they nearly cried.
-Ah shit lololol You can tell just from the text that Jeon Harang wrote this lololol
But that was not the end.
A new notice was posted one after another on SAVEN’s official cafe.
=======================
[SAVEN 2ND CONCERT ]
Hello.
This is the SAVEN fan club manager.
This is the detailed page notice for
SAVEN 2ND CONCERT.
Please check below for more information.
SAVEN 2ND CONCERT
-Performance Date/Time: March 23, 2024 (Sat) 6PM (KST) / March 24 (Sun) 5PM (KST) + Online Streaming
-Performance Venue: Gocheok Stadium
.
.
=======================
It was a concert.
And at that, the first Gocheok Stadium concert by a girl group.
Naturally, this news spread to various places and became a hot topic.
But unexpectedly, the fans’ reactions alone were lukewarm.
[Ah, so we’re getting a final concert after all]
[Does that mean they’re doing both a comeback and a final concert?]
[I guess I have to go for now, sobㅠㅠ]
[But isn’t Gocheok a first for a girl group? The scale is seriously insane… which makes it even more of a shame…]
Because the mood was turning into confirmation that this was the end.
Thanks to that, the fans were closer to a mourning house than a festival.
But the news that gradually came out began to change the atmosphere.
First, it started with the meaningful reactions of fans who calmly read through the entire notice.
-But why is the concert name 2ND? Don’t they usually call it LAST CONCERT?
└Huh? You’re right? Running Rose and Mono Rush both listed theirs as final concerts, didn’t they? Even before the comeback, they said it was the final album
└It’s just the second one, so they wrote second. Don’t get your hopes up for no reason
-If you look at the intro text, “the us who will be together from now on as well” just feels like there’s blatantly something there…
└Even the B2B ad promotional material says “SAVEN’s first concert of 2024”
└ Aren’t they really extending?
-You believe that? It’s obviously corporate marketing. How many times has LE fooled us?
Of course, there were still more people who were suspicious.
But afterward, follow-up articles began to appear.
[SAVEN, all 7 members heading toward one place… Concert at Gocheok Dome in March]
[First Gocheok concert by a girl group, SAVEN rises]
[Daesang girl group SAVEN proves its trend status, concert at “Gocheok Stadium”]
They were concert articles.
They were ordinary, standard follow-up articles.
But among them, there were a few articles with strangely suggestive content.
[Exclusive) SAVEN, possibility of extension if they fill Gocheok Stadium?]
[Exclusive) Daesang girl group, first Gocheok Stadium, SAVEN: “It would be a shame to disband like this…”]
[SAVEN, to extend activities thanks to year-end awards Daesang all-kill?]
For some reason, the content planted hope in fans that they might extend.
The reporters left room as if there was something there, and gradually, doubtful reactions began appearing in the fan community.
-I heard the members’ agencies have entered discussions about contract extensions, so if things go really well, they might renew?
-So it really is the second concert? And there’ll be a third one too? I seriously hope news of an extension comes like a miracle…
-lololol You think SAVEN will extend, right? Yeah~ I believed that during Season 1 too lolololol I still believe it now, please…
And that expectation ultimately reached its peak when LE, Shock Entertainment’s parent company, issued a statement.
[Exclusive) LE “leaves open possibility of SAVEN extension”… Will fans’ wishes come true?]
[Exclusive) SAVEN speeds up extension discussions… In talks with each agency]
[SAVEN, will they extend activities… “Gathering opinions from agencies and artists” [Official]]
Afterward, SAVEN’s Gocheok Stadium concert sold out every seat.