"Yes, yes... I understand."
"No, of course. Yes. That’s how it should be."
"Yes, then I’ll take my leave."
Manager O Hyeonsu stepped out of the director’s office and let out a long breath.
"Phew..."
Suddenly reminded of the cigarettes he had quit, Manager O Hyeonsu left the Shock Entertainment building and headed to a nearby convenience store.
"One Masse Light, please."
He asked for the cigarettes he used to smoke in the past.
"Sorry?"
"Ah... the brand name changed, didn’t it. That one. Mevius Light. And a lighter, too."
With the cigarettes and lighter in hand, Manager O Hyeonsu headed back up to the rooftop of the company building.
Then he stuck a cigarette between his lips and lit it.
He coughed a little at the cigarette smoke he hadn’t inhaled in so long, but soon grew used to it and drew in deeply.
"Fss... hoo..."
Before he knew it, seven years had passed since he quit smoking.
Back when he had still been a road manager, the first group he had ever been in charge of was an unknown girl group.
He had quit smoking for those girls, who would complain that the car smelled like cigarettes whenever they got in, and he had kept it up ever since.
"Hoo... Even Masse is being forgotten..."
He thought of the convenience store part-timer just now.
The one who hadn’t understood the cigarette called Masse.
It was understandable, since more than ten years had already passed since the brand name changed.
There were probably still part-timers who would understand if he said Masse.
But even the famous Mild Seven, once the top-selling cigarette in the world, had eventually become a name that was being forgotten one by one.
Celebrities and idols were the same.
No matter how famous they had been, as time passed, they would be forgotten one by one.
Of course, nameless idols wouldn’t even have a name to be forgotten.
Still, as their manager, he remembered.
The first girl group he had been in charge of.
They had all scattered and were probably living their own lives now.
But he, who had spent every day of the year with them as much as the members themselves had, still remembered.
And the smell of cigarettes was still a kind of nostalgia to him.
"Looks like I’ll have another bunch of kids to remember every time I smoke now... Fss... hoo..."
After smoking the entire cigarette, he hesitated for a moment before taking out his phone.
Then, just as he was about to call Saven’s dedicated road manager, Ju Dahong, he instead called Saven’s leader, Hana.
"Yeah, Hana. You’re practicing right now, aren’t you? Yeah, okay. Did you eat? Ah, Dahong ordered something for you. Good. Yeah, I have something to say. In ten minutes, bring the girls and... no, actually, just you come up to the third-floor conference room for a bit."
Facing all the members at once felt too heavy.
* * *
From the moment he called and said he had something to say, it was something I had already expected.
"Yes, it’s okay."
The smell of cigarettes coming from Manager O Hyeonsu for the first time was nothing more than something that gave me certainty.
"I’m... sorry to you girls."
And in truth, it was something I had expected even before that.
It had been destined to happen.
"...It’s all right, Team Leader. It’s company business."
Perhaps because he was an adult, because he was in a position to support the members, the manager was trying to hide his emotions, but his expression revealed every bit of how troubled he felt.
"I’ll talk to them well."
"Yeah, I’m sorry... Since it’s the last time, let’s all keep our spirits up and work hard until the very end."
Looking at him, Kwon Hana smiled for the time being.
"Don’t worry too much. The girls probably all knew, too."
* * *
An evening, one day.
We were originally supposed to practice at the company until late at night, but for some reason, Hana unnie wrapped up evening practice and brought us back to the dorm today.
The members quickly changed out of their sweat-soaked practice clothes and were resting.
Everyone was laughing, lively from the rare break, but their smiles were somehow uneasy.
Hana unnie gathered the members.
We sat in our respective spots in the living room.
As if hiding her bloodshot eyes, Hana unnie smiled brightly with her eyes and opened her mouth in a cheerful voice.
"Girls, since this is our last concert, let’s prepare hard until the very end."
And one by one, even the uneasy smiles on the members’ faces slowly disappeared.
"Hic..."
Pure emotion flowed from Yeeun unnie’s young eyes.
And once the wave began, the ripple quickly swelled and spread.
Some cried quietly and wistfully.
Some cried as if a dam had burst, soaking the neckline of their T-shirts.
I went into the bathroom and washed my face again and again.
For some reason, that early spring day felt terribly hot.
It was five days before the concert, and less than two weeks before the end of our contracts, when the company informed us, the members, that there would be no extension.
Even though we had expected that we would part ways, there was far too little time to prepare our hearts.
* * *
The next evening, after finishing practice, we headed to the dorm.
But Yeeun unnie stubbornly insisted on staying behind in the vocal room, as if for some strange reason.
"You go ahead. I’ll bring her back in a little while."
I decided to wait for unnie.
At my serious expression, the members said all right.
"I’ll... wait too..."
"It’s okay. Unnie, go back to the dorm and rest, okay?"
"Hing..."
About an hour later, I knocked on Yeeun unnie’s vocal room.
—Knock, knock.
"I’m coming in."
When I opened the door, I saw her utterly absorbed, as if studying the song, with the lyric sheet covered in markings.
After confirming it was me, Yeeun unnie lowered her head again, as if avoiding eye contact.
"Unnie, shall we rest now? You’ll hurt your throat for no reason. The rehearsal is the day after tomorrow, so you need to be careful."
"Mm..."
Her tone wasn’t very serious.
Because Yeeun unnie was staring at the lyric sheet to an almost strange degree.
I sat down in the chair beside her.
Then I held out my hand.
"Hand."
Her eyes were still on the lyric sheet, but Yeeun unnie obediently gave me her hand.
"Yeeun unnie."
And when I called her name, unnie, whose round eyes had swollen small and puffy, finally looked at me.
A day had passed, but it seemed she had cried again in the meantime.
I stared at Yeeun unnie’s face, where traces of moisture clung here and there, then opened my mouth.
"The song is sad, isn’t it?"
"M-mhm..."
Yeeun unnie answered in a cracked voice, her throat hoarse.
"See? You’ll really ruin your condition before the concert at this rate."
As if to hide her voice, Yeeun unnie only nodded this time.
Though I wondered what use that was when I had already heard her cracked voice.
Still, it was rather cute.
"The weather’s nice, so let’s walk a little before going home."
Yeeun unnie shook her head.
She pointed at the lyric sheet with her finger.
I took that hand of hers and pulled her to her feet.
"Playing around during exam season is more fun."
And so, we left the vocal room and went out onto the street.
Perhaps because the sun had set and it was already dark, there were fewer people passing by.
Even late in the evening, Yeeun unnie wore sunglasses and a mask, looking like a kid completely afflicted with celebrity disease.
Though she was probably only trying to hide her embarrassingly swollen eyes.
We walked quietly down the street.
It was a street with many memories from the past year and a half.
Over there was the quiet café Chaerin unnie often went to.
Over there was the malatang place we ended up eating at often because I had pretended to like it.
Over there was the convenience store where I procured my energy drinks.
And here was the street where Hana unnie had filmed the first teaser for her YouTube channel, “What’s Hana Doing Today?”
And also just the route we always took to work and back home.
It was still early March.
The night, with winter’s chill not yet gone, was quite cold, but the sky was clear.
It was a good day to see the stars even in the city.
I liked days like this quite a lot.
"Unnie, take off your sunglasses and look over there."
Yeeun unnie hesitated for a moment, then took off her sunglasses.
Even so, her eyes had calmed down more than before.
"See that triangle of stars? That’s called the Winter Triangle. The brightest one is Sirius, up to its right is Betelgeuse, and up to the left is Procyon."
I told her about the constellations, visible here and there between the buildings.
Gemini, Taurus, Auriga, Orion.
In truth, the reason I liked stars was simple.
I could give a light reason, like because I was a star myself.
"You know, stars are indicators that people in the West, people in the East, people of the past, and people of the future can always recognize, anytime and anywhere. Something everyone shares. That’s why I really like stars."
Depending on how you looked at it, it was an embarrassingly sentimental thing to say, but the stars in the clear sky were so bright that it didn’t feel strange at all.
Then Yeeun unnie quietly opened her mouth.
"What do you think... of our team?"
I smiled awkwardly.
"Who knows."
After glancing at my expression, Yeeun unnie answered her own question in her still-cracked voice.
"I... I like it so much..."
"Really? The unnies would be happy to hear that."
"What about... you?"
"Me too."
My answer contained two meanings.
That I was happy unnie liked it.
And that I liked our team just as much.
At the atmosphere growing somewhat sentimental, I took my eyes off the stars and started walking.
Yeeun unnie, following behind me, asked again.
"Why, why... do you like it?"
"I don’t know. Is there a reason for liking something?"
But perhaps Yeeun unnie had something she had been thinking about.
"I... have one."
She answered softly, one word at a time.
"When someone isn’t good at something, they guide them because they’re lacking... When someone becomes good, they celebrate happily... And they work hard first just as much... More than anything, our members are orderly, but let you do whatever you want..."
And that whisper-like voice.
"I really like that so much."
That quiet voice.
"...I see."
"Yeah."
It flowed out gently into the chilly night air and sounded exceptionally clear.
"But teams that do well are probably all like that, you know? They don’t have discord to begin with. You’re just lucky, unnie."
So, as always, I wanted to avoid things getting too sentimental.
Yeeun unnie pouted and put her sunglasses back on.
We walked quietly all the way back to the dorm.
Still, I said one thing for her.
"It’s my own way of showing affection. Playing pranks, I mean."
That was why Mom, Dad, and Doa always got pranked too.
"...Yeah."
And then I found myself wondering.
The fact that she could state so clearly why she liked this team.
What did that mean to Yeeun unnie?
How deep must those feelings have been?
* * *
After arriving at the dorm, I quickly washed up and finished getting ready for bed.
With the concert not far away, managing our condition was important, and going to sleep early was important.
And when I went to the bedroom, this time Sera unnie was pouting.
"...Hug me too."
"All right, unnie, come here too."
Sera unnie had been just as overwhelmed with emotion as Yeeun unnie and had cried all day yesterday.
Feeling sorry for her, I gave her a corner of my bed and hugged her.
"Should we sleep together tonight?"
"Yeah!"
And amid all that, Chaerin unnie looked lonely as she read a book with her headset on.
"I want to hug Chaerin unnie too~"
I said it casually, in a voice that wasn’t even that loud.
"...Should we?"
After pretending to hesitate for a moment, Chaerin unnie came over to this bed.
If she had been listening to music with her headset on like usual, she wouldn’t even have heard me, and that cute sight made me let out a small laugh.
For all that, though I called them unnies because of their physical age, they were still girls who felt like younger sisters.