The Debonair trailer, released just a day ago, had already climbed to #1 on YouTube’s trending videos.
─TopEast is seriously coming out swinging this time... From the members to the quality, I was immersed the moment the piano keys started playing...
─There must be only geniuses on their brand marketing team. How did they even come up with this?
─I thought the trailer song would obviously be EDM, so I was thrown off when it was a piano piece, but it fits so well. It gets all grand and makes me feel like my blood is turning red. Makes me crave a proletarian revolution.
─Oh my, maybe it’s because Miss Dohee played it herself... This song is amazing too...!!! I wonder if we can find out which composer wrote it...
The video did not simply receive countless attention and end with praise.
Because that brief video contained countless stories.
The most representative were the group name and concept.
─Honestly, I tilted my head because the group name was unique, but the meaning is so good. It’s not some forced anagram, and both meanings are there, so I like it way more now.
─Debonair means they were born ideal types... For real, so cool.
─I’m so hyped on Debonair right now that if preorders started this second, I’d buy immediately.
Of course, not everyone had good things to say.
Naturally, there were people who mocked it as an abstruse, excessive concept.
─Is Debonair doing girl-crush again? Ever since Coral Blue did well, everyone’s doing girl-crush, sigh... They should do something refreshing like Ailee. I’m sick of this.
─I get it. TopEast is a small company too, so they’ve got to benchmark Coral Blue at least, yeah.
─If TopEast was going to do this, why didn’t they just leave them as Seven?
─They’re attaching way too much meaning to it. Do they not know why boy groups became their own little world? Girl groups need mass appeal, so if they come out with something hard to understand, well, lol...
But opinions like that were not gaining sympathy or attention.
Because the majority of people acknowledged it.
That the video and group quality planned by TopEast lacked nothing even when compared to major companies.
Everyone knew that being hard to understand and being intricately structured were two different things.
Of course, their future moves remained unknown.
Whether TopEast had only done well with planning compared to its management ability.
Or whether the operation they would show later would be as good as their planning.
Still, what they had shown so far was enough to set the hearts of many K-pop fans aflutter.
And that attention was being proven by the countless interpretations of the trailer video.
─Debonair Trailer Video “What is Debonair” Interpretation
─A successor to Ailee, TopEast’s polished fourth-generation girl group Debonair. Let’s look at the members and concept... (more)
Among them, the interpretation considered the most complete was an article.
It was written by a reporter who had received information directly from TopEast.
[TopEast Ent. Confirms Girl Group Name “Debonair,” Releases Debut Concept Trailer]
TopEast, which is introducing a girl group for the first time in a while since Pastel Love, is expected to unveil its new girl group under the name “Debonair.”
On the 19th, TopEast released the debut trailer for the first single, “ID (I DEBONAIR),” on its official website. And it overwhelmed viewers with dazzling visuals.
The released coming-soon trailer shows the members answering the question, “WHAT IS DEBONAIR?” through various charming appearances.
First, as the sound of a piano plays, member Naeun, dressed in an elegant gown in a ballroom filled with splendid lights, presents the first answer. “Sophisticated charm, good breeding”—the first inherent meaning of the English word “debonair.”
Next, Kim Seoyun shows a warm, everyday side of herself as she greets people along a park path and fawns over a dog. Then she presents the second answer to the question. “Courteous, friendly.” This, too, is another meaning of the English word “debonair.”
Ua performs dynamically in a dark parking lot. The third meaning appears. “Striking in appearance, confident in atmosphere.”
Chiyo lies in a boat in a pitch-black sewer where only one beam of light enters, looking at the camera with emotionless eyes. The fourth meaning: “Urban, indifferent.”
Afterward, the video returns to the ballroom through a rewind technique. Then Lee Dohee is shown playing the piano keys as if dancing. At last, after finishing her performance, Lee Dohee answers the question. “Whatever.” It means that anything is fine, and that there is no single correct answer.
The pre-promotion phrase that had appeared before the trailer’s release, “Debonair, as fickle as fortune,” was precisely this theme.
This is also revealed as the video moves from a dazzling ballroom to increasingly darker places, finally arriving in a pitch-black sewer. In addition, paradoxically, by showing a dark corner of the shining ballroom through the rewind technique, it once again hints at the members showing themselves as they are anywhere. It is their will to show themselves regardless of the world’s gaze.
At the end of the video, through an anagram in which the phrase is recombined, TopEast presents yet another answer to the question “DEBONAIR IS?” “BORN IDEALS.” It means that the members of Debonair are ideal types by nature, no matter what they do.
In addition, the members’ final captivating recitation, “WE DEBONAIR,” suggests that all of the meanings mentioned above are none other than themselves. It can be defined as an ambition befitting the word idol, or object of worship.
Meanwhile, Debonair is a girl group launched by TopEast and is scheduled to debut this coming January with a lineup including Lee Dohee and Kim Seoyun.
* * *
“Naeun unnie, you came out so pretty in this, right?”
“Did I? I think our Ua is prettier, though.”
“Oh, come on~ You’re embarrassing me...”
Whenever the unnies had even a little break time, they were all searching Debonair on the internet.
And as I watched them, I clicked my tongue.
“Ha... Is this your first time getting attention? Tsk, tsk.”
It wasn’t like I was sulking because the unnies hadn’t said I was pretty.
It was simply that the showcase was now less than a month away.
This was the time when we ought to be practicing even one more dance move... Tsk, tsk.
Of course, as if the unnies had no intention of responding to me, they glanced at me once, then went back to fiddling with their phones and searching their own names online.
But there was one person who felt stung.
Kim Seoyun, needlessly arguing back.
“You’re one to talk. You’re the biggest attention seeker here.”
There was another one.
An attention seeker who tried to monopolize not only outside attention, but even internal attention.
“What is an attention seeker?”
That was why, even though I clearly knew the word, I asked Seoyun unnie.
To begin with, there was no way someone with Level 4 on the Korean Proficiency Test wouldn’t know.
“Something like you. You.”
“Eh? Then it is good words, after all...?”
“As if.”
“Then bad words...? Ehyohyohyo... I knew it. Seoyun unnie, you always say bad words to cute Dohee and pretty me... Bad person... Ugly... Mean-hearted... Smelly...”
“Your face.”
“Oho... Still, Seoyun unnie is kind inside after all. Since you complimented me like this, Chiyo will accept unnie’s repentance... Huhu.”
“You talk exactly like Lee Dohee.”
“Please take that back.”
Watching those childish antics, I let out another sigh.
Except for Naeun unnie, they were all immature kids.
When would they all become adults?
‘Phew... A cup of coffee... No. Coffee is bitter, so I want to have a cup of chocolate latte and contemplate life.’
Just as I was sinking into that solemn inner voice.
A startled shout made me flinch as well.
It was Ua unnie’s voice.
“Hey, Lee Dohee!”
After calling me, Ua unnie was showing her phone screen to Naeun unnie, sharing something with her.
Naeun unnie let out a breath, then rose from her seat and calmly walked over.
And in a stern tone, she spoke clearly.
“Dohee, what did you post on Bubble today?”
“Hehe...”
Good thing I got permission from the director beforehand.
Still, I ended up avoiding her eyes for no reason.
* * *
After the Debonair trailer was released, entertainment communities had been living off one piece of Debonair bait after another.
There were the members’ appearances.
─The Debonair girls are all seriously tall. Their average height is 169, and the shortest, Seoyun, is 165.
─Their face chemistry already seems insane... Though honestly, when pretty girls gather together, I wonder if it’s even possible for them not to match.
The group name.
─When I first heard the group name, it didn’t really roll off the tongue and felt unusual, but the more I think about the meaning, the better it gets.
Information about the new members.
─Ua and Chiyo went to Hanseong Arts High with Dohee, and apparently both of them were bright, kind, and pretty, so they were popular. From what I heard, Ua is gently funny, and Chiyo is seriously from another dimension, lol.
─Apparently, when Naeun was a trainee at TopEast, they asked if she wanted to switch to acting, but she stayed because she wanted to be an idol until the end.
And concept photos that TopEast uploaded about once a week.
─Debonair Concept Photo Vol.1
However, those only became topics of conversation within entertainment communities. For the general public to take interest, it usually had to be something like the debut, the showcase, or a YouTube trending video.
But a post uploaded today was becoming a hot topic even though it was none of those things.
Before the tracklist had been revealed.
At a time when neither what songs were included nor which composers participated had been made public.
A major spoiler had slipped through.
It was the first track of Debonair’s debut album.
The title and composer of the piano piece used in the trailer had both been revealed at once.
And the culprit was Dohee, who wanted attention.
[Whoa, I think Dohee composed that Debonair trailer piano song]
─(Lee Dohee Bubble.JPG)
[Dohee: (Selfie of her drawing on a musical staff)]
She suddenly posted a photo on Bubble and ran away;;
The song title is written as As Fickle As Fortune!!
She only posted the photo without saying anything, pretending to be cool.
But she was not particularly cool.
* * *
“Ah, that attention seeker, seriously.”
I spread both arms toward Kim Seoyun.
“Be as jealous and envious as you want.”
It was a spoiler I had permission from the director to give anyway.
I had no sin.
But the one who actually poked me in the side was Ua unnie.
“I’m not jealous, but can I curse?”
“Our kind unnie doesn’t curse.”
“That is not true. She talks behind your back with me like crazy when you are not there.”
“......Really?”
“Who knows~?”