December had arrived, and there wasn’t much time left before the showcase.
With that in mind, even after setting aside our various schedules, we filled every waking hour with practice so we could be fully prepared.
Of course, that didn’t mean we had no time to rest at all.
After reporting to work at nine in the morning, working until ten at night, and returning to the dorm, we had at least a little free time.
And we had developed a routine of sorts.
Our bodies, exhausted from practice.
After easing the fatigue a little with a warm shower.
Changing into pajamas and bringing out the blankets.
Then lying together on the sofa, leaning against one another.
Watching TV while peeling and eating tangerines was deeply healing, with the scent of winter in December filling the air.
Today was no different.
When I changed into my pajamas and came out to the living room, three of them were lying side by side on the long sofa, excluding U-a unnie.
I wondered where I should lie down.
“Maknae~ Come over to unnie~”
Chiyo unnie’s eyes sparkled as she patted her arm against her body.
She meant for me to come and lean on her.
“Unnie will dote on you lots and lots~ Hehehe.”
Of course, that Japanese girl was eliminated from consideration.
She kept trying to fondle my breasts.
Seoyun unnie was also gazing at me with a subtly coy look in her eyes.
‘She’s been saying my cushioning is nice since last time...’
Of course, she was eliminated from consideration too.
The moment I sat beside her, she would start spouting childish nonsense like, “There, there~ Our maknae~ Does unnie feel so good?” and put her hand under my chin as if I were a puppy.
There was no need to think about it.
I indifferently peeled a tangerine and lay down on top of Naeun unnie, who was watching TV.
Then Naeun unnie let out a heavy groan from deep in her abdomen.
I turned my head and glared at her.
“I-I’m fine... Dohee’s light...”
She was teasing me for weighing the most among the members.
“Exactly. It’s not like I have any weight to lose.”
Even now, I was severely underweight by BMI standards.
As if to show that she had only been joking, Naeun unnie pulled my head against her chest.
But, in accordance with the mood, I primly turned my head away and looked at the TV.
‘I worked so hard on my diet...’
A variety show was playing on TV.
Naturally, it wasn’t interesting.
I found myself missing the variety programs of the past.
‘These days, everything’s observational reality TV. Variety shows should make people suffer a little, too.’
Meanwhile, the sound of the hair dryer stopped, and U-a unnie came out of the room.
At that moment, Chiyo unnie began soliciting customers once again.
She seemed to think this was some kind of popularity contest.
“Pretty unnie over there!”
“Why~?”
“What are you looking for? Come over here!”
Chiyo unnie repeatedly patted her thigh.
“I’ll have a look around here and there first~”
U-a unnie played along with the skit as if she were used to it.
“I’ll treat you really well...! If you come now, uh... all the tangerines here are free, free!”
Chiyo unnie shook the basket of tangerines energetically.
Perhaps touched by her effort, U-a unnie let out a little laugh.
Chiyo unnie shook the tangerines even harder.
Of course, her efforts were not rewarded.
Contestant number five, U-a unnie, had chosen me.
“But you smiled at me...! You looked at me...!”
Chiyo unnie vented her outrage by hurling the tangerines onto the floor, but...
“Chiyo, you need to pick those up.”
“Understood...”
Naeun unnie’s stern voice rang out, and Chiyo unnie obediently picked up the split tangerines one by one.
“You eat the ones that burst.”
“Understood...”
Meanwhile, U-a unnie sat beside me and lay down with her head resting on my chest.
“Seriously... how can this happen? Wow, it’s so soft... The best.”
Good grief.
“What’s so special about those breasts...!”
Chiyo unnie dropped the tangerine she was picking up onto the floor again.
Her eyes were wounded.
Of course.
“Hey.”
Naeun unnie would scold her if she treated food so carelessly.
“I’ll pick them up... Chiyo will eat them all...”
Meanwhile, U-a unnie was talking to my breasts.
“Dohy’s breasts~ Have you gotten bigger?”
“Ah, stop it. Don’t do that.”
“Sorry... I don’t think I’ll be able to talk to you anymore, Dohy... I failed as your owner...”
“Ah, I said stop ittt.”
It felt weird.
I pushed U-a unnie away, jumped to my feet, covered my whole body with a blanket, and moved to another spot.
And from my new seat came the sound of Seoyun unnie consoling her own breasts as she patted them.
“Seoseum, you did nothing wrong. She’s the weird one. You’re doing just fine.”
Seoseum was apparently what she was calling them.
Regardless, the TV variety show was incredibly boring.
Honestly, listening to the unnies around me chatter was far more entertaining.
Remembering the Netflix drama we had stopped watching yesterday, I spoke to Seoyun unnie, who was holding the remote.
“Unnie, this is boring. Let’s watch something else.”
“What, what do you want to watch?”
“Yesterday’s show? We didn’t finish it.”
“We did. Everyone watched it after you fell asleep.”
True to her B-cup nature, Seoyun unnie was curt.
“...You don’t sleep and then wonder why you don’t grow taller... No wonder you haven’t grown.”
At the same time, a tangerine flew at me from the side.
Small breasts and such a narrow mind. Hmph.
In any case, I had no intention of watching TV.
I took out my phone.
First, I entered a news portal.
Economics and current affairs.
Even if I didn’t know them in detail, it was my own small effort to learn at least the basics.
Of course, less than five minutes later, I was on YouTube.
‘The news is boring.’
Based on my algorithm, countless videos popped up.
[BAADA—Seungbin, Dohee (Seungbin, Dohee) Popular Songs...]
[Lee Dohee Updates Her Look Once Again...]
[The Reaction of a Puppy That Ate Mint Chocolate...]
[Idols Who Are Prettier Without Makeup...]
[Western History to Listen to While Sleeping]
[Compilation of Lee Dohee’s Dark Past 1 (Lee Dohee, Do Not Watch)]
[Piano Song Mix—Yiruma, Jacob’s Piano, Chad Lawson, etc.]
[Composition, Producing, Too?? What Can’t She Do~ The World...]
Naturally, there were classical music channels as well.
[The First Piano Piece Composed by Debonair’s Lee Dohee, As Fickle As Fortune│Ultra-Detailed Song Analysis]
—50,000 views · 2 hours ago
—Ha Hyeonjun’s Classical Notes
Like this one.
It was the channel of a pianist whose views had exploded after he meticulously analyzed why I had won first place in the competition.
It had been an extremely objective and reasonable analysis.
So I subscribed to him, too.
Using my alternate account, of course.
I opened the video first.
[Hello, subscribers. This is Ha Hyeonjun.]
A composed-looking pianist who appeared to be in his early forties appeared on the screen.
[Have you happened to see this video? It’s the hot topic that rose to number one on YouTube’s Trending list. There’s a girl group called Debonair, right? But some of you may be wondering about this. Why on earth is a pianist mentioning them?]
My previous video appeared on the screen.
—[Saven’s Lee Dohee, Why She Was Able to Win First Place in the Competition│Ultra-Detailed Performance Analysis]
[This is Miss Lee Dohee, whom I analyzed previously, isn’t it? The views... Oh, they’ve done really well. Haha.]
[Anyway! The group that Miss Lee Dohee is debuting in is apparently called Debonair. And I have some truly amazing news. If you watch the video released this time, you’ll find that it includes a piano piece. I hear this song is the first track on their upcoming album.]
[I was honestly a little surprised. A girl group writing a purely instrumental piano piece. Of course, there are singers in America who have reached number one on the Billboard charts with nothing but piano music, but this is a piano piece without even any lyrics, isn’t it? And what’s more, it’s being done by idols... It’s truly intriguing, isn’t it?]
[I think the reason this was possible may be that Miss Lee Dohee composed the piano piece herself. It’s fascinating—a classical piece composed by an idol. So, without further ado, I’m going to analyze the piece myself.]
[※Since the sheet music has not been released, the score I created for this analysis was transcribed by listening to the piece directly. Some scales or markings may be incorrect. Furthermore, this is all my subjective analysis.]
After the disclaimer, he was about to begin the main analysis.
But for some reason, I didn’t want to watch the analysis alone.
I naturally connected it to the smart TV.
Naturally, the unnies were startled by the sudden appearance of a middle-aged man.
“Ah, what’s this?”
“What is this?”
“Seoyun, did you press the wrong button on the remote?”
“Unnie, I told you not to sit on and crush the remote. Give it here.”
And then the pianist cried out.
[We’ll now begin the analysis of Dohee’s piece!]
The unnies’ gazes instantly turned toward me.
“Hehe.”
I deliberately scratched my cheek.
So that I would look like an immature maknae.
* * *
[To begin with, I felt that this piece was a kind of group portrait. In other words, a ‘portrait’—a vivid self-portrait. Of course, that’s only natural. It’s the trailer for an idol group, after all. But strangely enough, this song fundamentally reveals generalized characteristics of ‘masculinity.’]
[Those characteristics emerge from the toccata-like rhythm of the low register, as well as the leap-rhythm motifs combined with heavy pedal work. That’s why it also reminded me a little of the Russian composer Prokofiev. I have a piece by Prokofiev that I performed on my channel, so I recommend giving it a listen.]
[In any case, this formative expression creates an image of masculinity combined with a certain grandeur, along with a gentlemanly image. If this had been an orchestral piece, the addition of bass would have made the familiar intensity even more pronounced. That’s why a toccata-like performance was used—to provide that intensity.]
[The piece itself is also modern. Its characteristics are revealed by the use of chromaticism and harmonic progression in the middle, which break away from the familiar classical tradition, as well as the use of dissonance and sudden leap motifs.]
[Of course, I don’t mean that it’s modern simply because it was composed in modern times. There are still many contemporary composers who express themselves in a classical manner. For example, maintaining tonality and a triadic system... I have another video on that as well, so you might enjoy watching it!]
[Ah, and I came up with an interesting idea. I wonder if these leap-rhythm motifs might be a kind of Easter egg. I called them motifs, but in the form they take in classical music, they also function as musical punctuation—punctuation that brings phrases and periods to an end.]
[So perhaps, together with the various sounds of footsteps and the melody and bass in the lower register, the piece expresses clicking dress shoes through this wordplay involving musical punctuation.]
[In fact, I’m fairly certain this was intentional, because I hear that the group name Debonair, the group Miss Lee Dohee is debuting in, also uses wordplay. They say once is coincidence, but twice is fate, don’t they? Once again, I feel that this is a piece infused with Lee Dohee’s creativity and youthful energy.]
.
.
.
[Lastly, I’d really like to get my hands on the sheet music. Would you perhaps consider selling it...? Haha. I’m embarrassed that I seem to have become the pianist uncle who keeps making requests to the agency. Still, if you happen to be watching this, perhaps you could consider selling copies of the sheet music as well...]
* * *
The unnies were impressed.
“Wow... Dohee, you worked so hard on it—did you really consider all of that when you wrote it?”
“...She really is a genius.”
“I admit it, that’s freaking awesome.”
“Everyone, give Dohee a round of applause~”
But the problem was that it was all a misunderstanding.
Of course, some of the elements really had been intentional.
But others hadn’t.
Especially the leap sections.
I had only used leaps to express the sound of shoes, which contained both masculinity and femininity.
I had never learned whether that form was some kind of classical punctuation.
I had simply thought that, once I had made it, the form sounded familiar.
Still, seeing the comments from countless fans and the unnies’ reactions...
“Of course. Do you know how long it took me to think all of that through? I even skipped meals for it...”
I decided I should just agree.