Starting from Dohee’s guerrilla busking, phrase advertisements began appearing all over Seoul.
Those advertisements received great attention on social media, and countless verification posts were being left alongside hashtags.
—Samsung Station COEX Plaza!
—There’s an ad at Hongdae Station
.
.
—Sinsa Intersection
▶[Lee Dohui Sinchon U-Plex Plaza Guerrilla Busking]
Filmed on a phone, and despite the somewhat disappointing video quality,
it was thanks to Dohee’s busking video, which had already spread through communities and SNS and become a hot topic.
Naturally, this news was of the greatest interest to Dohee’s current fansite master.
Dolahui @Dol_Ahyee
—(Photo) OMG there’s an ad at The Hyundai in Yeouido too. Topist, are you guys actually spending money this time? I guess the Pastel Love seniors earned you quite a bit.
Dolahui @Dol_Ahyee
—Ugh, crazy Piano Princess, why won’t you bestow your grace upon me? Why do you hold guerrilla performances where I am not? Is my desperation lacking? I worked hard at the company today. I even had a dream where I played The Chopsticks side by side with the Princess. Ah, is it because my prayers are lacking? I’ll start going to dawn Mass from today. I’ll do 108 bows. I’ll go on a pilgrimage. Every dawn I’ll play the top 10 most-viewed fancams from the Lee Dohui collection.
Dolahui @Dol_Ahyee
—Funniest review from someone who was there LOL
‘Dohee put her hands on the keys to start playing, but apparently they were so cold she jumped in surprise and rubbed a hand warmer on the keys for a while.’
Ugh, such damn unpredictable, foolish behavior…
You drive me crazy, you foolish princess.
The fansite master wrote all sorts of posts like that while playing the video on repeat countless times.
An excitement she could no longer contain.
Feeling as if her pounding heart would burst if she didn’t sit face-to-face with someone and talk, she went out to a nearby hof with the creed, “Tomorrow’s work is not today’s problem.”
Ten minutes after she ordered beer and fish cake soup and sat down,
before long, a woman with a flushed face entered the hof.
“Hey!”
Another of Dohee’s fansite masters, and
her closest friend.
Her friend was also flushed red, her face itching to speak.
She pushed a beer glass toward her friend first.
“It’s a beautiful day. Have a drink.”
“Have a drink.”
After the clink of glasses and an “Ahh” of satisfaction,
“This is definitely a debut.”
With her friend’s opening remark, the real topic they’d been waiting for finally began.
“Of course. Hey, hey, play the video first.”
She played the busking video she’d watched on repeat countless times once again.
It began with the cute “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”
“Anyone can tell it’s promo; this has to be a spoiler, right?”
“High probability.”
“I’ve been thinking, and no matter how I look at it, I think the title track sampled ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.’”
And the fansite master, moved to tears by the fragment of a redebut appearing after almost a year, was attempting to assign countless meanings and interpretations to even this simple promotional video.
Her friend, a die-hard fan of Lee Dohui, was doing the same.
“Totally makes sense. Sampling classics is trendy these days.”
“Right? But then what about the next song?”
She moved the progress bar and played the second song.
“Phantom of the Opera. Is this one sampled too?”
“Both songs? Now that I think of it like that, maybe it’s not sampling after all.”
At that moment, a thought flashed through her mind.
“Ah, could it be…?”
“Did you think of something?”
If it was Dohee, who was unpredictable enough to rub a hand warmer on piano keys because they were cold, it was possible.
“You know.”
“Yeah, what…?”
To her friend nodding with bated breath, the fansite master said meaningfully,
“Maybe she just played the first song to mean that she is the twinkling star? The very incarnation of insane self-love.”
“Oh… unexpectedly logical reasoning. As expected of Dohee’s fansite master with 14,000 followers. Your insight is amazing.”
“I’m not joking—I really don’t know because our kid is impossible to pin down.”
As they chatted like that, the second performance passed,
and the last song, an unknown piece whose title no one on the internet knew, began to play.
And this song was the one that could rightfully be viewed as a release track.
“Honestly, this feels like a real spoiler… Could this be the title track’s melody line?”
“This one really has potential. Even if the earlier songs were just played to grab attention, this is a completely new song.”
“But it doesn’t really feel like an idol song… Is it because it’s played on piano?”
“Could be. Even if they sample classical pieces and put them in a song, it turns out fine.”
Of course, no answer came from worrying about it.
It was something they could only know once the song was released.
Actually, what needed interpretation was the phrase on the billboard.
“Debonair, as finkle as fortune. What does this mean?”
“I heard the latter phrase is an idiom meaning fickle.”
“I searched that too. But I don’t know what the first part means.”
“Debonair? A bunch of definitions came up. Some Japanese car name came up too… But what if that’s Dohee’s group name?”
At her friend’s words, she thought, “No way,” yet repeated “Debonair” over and over.
“Debonair, Debonair…”
“I wish our kid had a name like Ailee.”
“Right? They really make good names.”
Just then, a vibration rang from her phone.
With 14,000 followers, she had turned off notifications for almost everything, so this alarm was a high-priority vibration.
Usually, it would be Dohee’s Bubble message,
an Instagram notification for Dohee, that sort of thing.
And this alarm, too, was from Dohee’s agency.
It was a notification from Topist’s official YouTube channel.
▶[DEBONAIR, Formal greetings ‘Naeun’]
Setting aside the fact that she frantically tapped the video,
“Debonair suddenly sounds like a good name. It has a nice ring to it? I like it. Yeah.”
It seemed confirmed that Debonair was the group name.
* * *
When searching Debonair on the community sites,
there were mainly two types of reaction posts.
First, evaluations of the group name that divided opinions.
[Debo-what? What even is that]
Coral Blue is a given, but even compared to names like Ailee and Seven, let alone Sunsu Sonyeo 3M, it feels lacking LOL
[No worries about searching for Debonair since the name is unique]
Probably comes up even if you just search Debo
[At first Debonair looked weird to me]
Maybe I’ve been brainwashed, but it looks okay again… Probably won’t use a shortened name though
Debo, Dene, DB—something about the shortened versions feels awkward
[I looked up Debonair in the English dictionary]
It means handsome, dignified, suave, polite, pleasant, cheerful—so many meanings. But it’s an old-fashioned English word that isn’t used much
It doesn’t feel like a girl group name and it doesn’t roll off the tongue, but it has a unique and luxurious feel, so I think I could get used to it
And the other type was the Debonair members being revealed daily, starting with Naeun.
[Info/News) Debonair’s first member, Naeun, revealed]
—(Video) (Photo)…(Photo)
‘Sister girl group of Pastel Love,’ Debonair revealed its first member. The protagonist is leader Naeun. In the video, which rose to #2 on the trending videos chart, Naeun shows off her lively charm freely utilizing props like balloons, dolls, and swings despite being the leader. With her diverse expressions and pure, clear visuals added, the later revealed…
.
.
—Wow, she’s pretty, really first-love vibes
—Is this the Kim Naeun I know?
└Yeah, the one who fell to 8th place in the Jeodol finale
—My last vote was for Naeun too ㅠㅠ Still pretty
—Topist said she was also working as an actress, so I wondered if she’d become an actress, but she’s debuting as an idol after all. Congrats ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
└Right, I thought she’d given up on being an idol because she’s a bit older
└If 22 is old, then I’m a grandma
└Auntie
└You crazy bitch
[Info/News) Debonair’s second member, Ua, revealed]
—(Video) (Photo)…(Photo)
Debonair’s second member has been revealed. Ua, 19. Contrary to her elegant name, the video captures a bold and carefree feeling through provocative gestures and a confident walk showing off her 172cm height…
.
.
—So young, 19
—OMG this friend’s visuals are totally my type
—Does she have sanpaku eyes? Totally chic, seems like a total female fan magnet
—She has a totally different vibe from Naeun, like an actress
—Wow, 172… I guess the trend these days is tall idols
└These days idols are all basically models…
—She’s 1cm taller than Dohee
—Just from the video, she has a fierce look
└Agreed, more like a lynx than a big-eyed cat
[Info/News) Debonair’s third member, Chiyo, revealed]
Debonair’s third member has been revealed. Kinoshita Chiyo, 19, a Japanese national. In the video, Chiyo revealed an expressionless charisma matching her black mood outfit, showing an honest chic. As Debonair’s only foreign member, Chiyo brings anticipation for the performance she will show on stage with her candid, bold, yet playful appearance…
.
.
—She’s a female fan magnet.
—Crazy, she’s pretty too?
└And Seoyun and Dohee haven’t even been revealed yet
└No but seriously Topist is insane, where do they even get these kids
—Ailee is like that too, and there’s no visual hole here either…
—She really looks Japanese (no offense, I mean she’s pretty in a Japanese way, I totally love faces like this)
└LOL the explanation is longer
└If you don’t clarify these days you get hate…
And following the three unrevealed members, the fourth, Dohee.
[Info/News) Debonair’s fourth member, Dohee]
With the fifth, Seoyun, revealed.
[Info/News) Debonair’s final member, Seoyun]
Articles came out that all members had been revealed, and people learned that Debonair was a five-member group.
And now, with each video dominating the trending charts and gathering attention.
▶[TRAILER: WHAT IS DEBONAIR?]
—Premiering in 23 hours and 59 minutes
Topist uploaded one more video set to premiere.
It was one month until debut.