Aili, who had been monopolizing the music charts for two months straight.
Following them, Seven’s second spin-off group.
Above all, Debonair, who had drawn attention amid the anticipation of being Dohee and Seoyun’s group.
The beginning of Debonair’s debut stage was—
[I can see you calling devil more]
Dohee’s expressionless face, and her languid, relaxed voice.
As if enchanted by that voice, the camera slowly pulled farther away.
[loving even more (Ay)]
A moment later, the distant shot captured four figures behind her, standing in a symmetrical triangular formation.
At that instant, a faint vitality entered Dohee’s languid face, and with a shushing gesture, she moved toward the center.
[Fall in debonair]
And the two closest to the center, Chiyo and Naeun, snapped open their suit jackets like blackout curtains.
[It feels like everything has changed]
The center was concealed.
Then, in an instant, the formation spread out.
The curtains of their arms were drawn away.
The show began.
What burst forth at center stage, newly and brilliantly revealed as the curtain lifted, was—
Ua.
When Ua flicked her hand as if conducting, signaling the start,
the bass grew heavier, and the group choreography unfolded.
[Why does all of it make sense
Logic can’t solve this (Woah-ooh)]
The signature dance of grabbing the crotch that brought the King of Pop to mind.
Adapted from that, the choreography had them grab near the thigh and stretch one arm out.
It looked as if they were playing a bass or a guitar.
And though a strong thrust of the hips could easily become vulgar,
with Ua at the center, giving off the feel of restrained street dance, the choreography was neither too heavy nor too light.
—Whoa, insane
—It’s a MJ homage
—The suits fit them way too well fr
And as if shedding that homage image in an instant,
the members flowed into a smooth wave.
The camera’s focus moved toward the outer right.
[What kind of magic have I fallen under]
This time, slightly pulling back her blazer,
revealing the alluring line of her shoulders as they were,
was Naeun.
Unlike her appearance, which had the look of a graceful, innocent actress,
what she gave off was a mature atmosphere.
—Fr like I’m under a spell
—Whoa, she’s insanely pretty
—Innocent actress-type sexy, damn
—Kim Naeun, 5th place in the Jeodol 3 contestant visuals vote!!
Then Naeun put her suit jacket back on with a refreshing smile and sent out an intense gesture.
[What kind of curse have I fallen under
It feels like a vivid dream (Woah-ooh)]
The stage floor, the electronic screen behind them.
Waves blew across them.
Blue waves crashed with destructive force.
At that moment, the members, who had been nodding toward Naeun, stretched their arms toward one another and crossed paths.
—Wow
—Please give us a full cam
Amid the intensity of a stage so pleasing to the eye that one wanted to capture every formation at a glance,
[Only one thing is certain]
the next formation was a pentagram spreading out in five directions.
And near the center of that stage,
showing dance and performance as if sweeping up all those powerful waves,
stood one member.
Seoyun, dressed in a crimson suit.
As Seoyun took her place,
the pentagram the members had drawn rapidly contracted again.
Into a column. A vertical straight-line formation.
[That different feeling
That very unfamiliar emotion]
But Seoyun released it again.
As if enjoying the free rhythm,
Seoyun took back steps toward the left.
Then Seoyun freely stretched out her arm
and, one by one, pointed down at the floor.
With each beat,
the straight-line formation unfolded like dominoes.
Facing the camera head-on, from behind Seoyun where they had been hidden,
the members appeared one by one with each of Seoyun’s back steps.
And from then on, the chat window was too busy watching the stage.
Most of it was filled with the simple exclamation, “Wow.”
[Only one thing is certain]
Meanwhile, the freed members seemed ready to draw a new formation.
Skimming across the floor, they slid out to all four sides of the stage.
At the center, one member still stood composed.
Chiyo.
[That emotion I’ve reached]
And softly supporting Chiyo’s ringing voice
was the doubling of all the members.
The atmosphere intensified.
The pre-chorus.
The lowest range, lowered heavily with electronic sound, laid the foundation.
[what will you do, the next]
Chiyo drew her hand down from the sky to the center,
then tilted it sideways with her head in a small gesture.
And she said quietly.
[is]
This part, the chorus, was where the center mattered even more.
The one who took Chiyo’s gesture and sprang into the center was—
[I can see you calling devil more]
Dohee, placing her hand in a slanted salute as if searching for something, just like the lyrics, and stretching her arm out sharply.
[loving even more
fall in debonair]
—Her looks are violent...
—Ack
—The owner of the sabi, the refrain, the chorus. The center begins. Lee Dohee begins. Begins insanely big. Starts with fanfare.
The repetition of an addictive hook that seemed to have a firm grip on mass appeal.
As if matching it, the choreography seemed simple in difficulty.
A disco-style dance of reaching out with the hand.
But the poses changed constantly, giving it charm,
and the flashy back steps changed the formation, raising the difficulty.
[I can see you calling devil more]
loving even more
fall in debonair]
In the repeated refrain, Seoyun led the atmosphere.
—Seriously, it fits them perfectly
—For a name like Doseoz that just takes the first syllables, our Beagles are loud as hell lololol
—I miss when Harang, Dohee, and Seoyun would get together and Chaerin’s ears would start bleeding... Even loud Hana felt bad for Chaerin and went quiet in that combo...
—How long has it been since we saw those two on stage togetherㅠㅠ
—Whoa, I watched the entire first verse in a daze
—Their control of intensity is so good
It seemed as though they were pushing the pleasure of watching to its peak.
But K-pop songs always have a point.
That point differs depending on what form the song takes.
What Debonair chose was not the latest trend of boldly shortening the parts and reducing the runtime.
It was a traditional style.
In other words, the standard formula of K-pop.
The so-called intro—verse 1—pre-chorus—chorus—verse 2—pre-chorus—chorus—bridge—chorus—outro.
A structure with a clear beginning, development, turn, and conclusion.
A form where the point lay in the third section, beginning with the bridge.
That was the greatest difference from Seven, where Dohee and Seoyun had been.
After all, Seven had tried to give off sophistication, as if leading the trend.
In fact, in the case of “Rhapsody,” which Dohee had arranged, it had a short runtime with the third section removed.
That was why traditional K-pop was a form that could easily feel old-fashioned.
On top of that, it was disco.
But the members standing onstage seemed not to be conscious of any of that as they carried out their performance perfectly.
And at last, the second chorus ended.
[Fall in debonair]
With the bass that had formed the foundation gone, the bridge arrived without hesitation.
The sign of that transition was a single phrase of violin sound.
A bright bam-bam disco synth, as if announcing a dazzling entrance.
The blue lighting grew even brighter as spotlights gathered.
Standing at the center of that atmosphere was Naeun.
Naeun belted out a high ad-lib.
[Ahhaa-]
And with a gesture, she surged forward.
When she finally stood at the center of the triangular formation,
she gave her suit blazer a single flick,
then stepped forward and let out a short, high cry filled with exhilaration.
[Au!]
And in an instant, the formation changed.
The one who burst out from its end was Dohee.
The bridge that began next was—
[Ta]
a dance break made up of nothing but ad-libs.
First, they moved in a zigzag up and down.
Then came arm movements that seemed to snatch with accelerating force.
Flashy footwork whose steps seemed as if they would land perfectly in time.
[Woah!]
Then the first point erupted.
As the members slightly bent their knees and lowered their bodies,
Dohee, who stood at the center, leapt high into the air with her whole body.
Then, lowering her head, she kicked forward!
[Ta-da-da-da]
Dohee naturally swept her long hair, which had fallen forward, back behind her with practiced ease and swiftly headed to the far left.
—Dohee is seriously a pro, she’s flying around lolol
—For real, Dohee is a born-to-be idol
—The way she flips her hair, seriously, wow...
—What is this, is it okay for a baby to be this cool?
—I think I’m falling for her, haㅠㅠ
[Fall in debonair!]
There was no time to breathe.
The second point came.
The members formed a horizontal straight line and turned their backs.
All of them simultaneously flicked back their outerwear, their blazers, with the recoil of their shoulders,
letting them hang from both arms.
Because of their sleeveless tank tops, the lines of the members’ shoulders were revealed.
They stretched their hands wide to both sides and took rhythmic side steps.
The ending, too, was completed by perfectly putting the suits back on using only the recoil of their shoulders.
—Insane insane, what the hell is this
—Whoa lololol
—The performance is crazy
—Their charm is seriously insane
Then, with another turn, it continued into a restrained disco point dance.
[I can see you
I can see you]
Before long, the final chorus began.
[I can see you calling Devil more]
Naturally, since this was their debut,
the members put their full strength into every movement.
They did not let a single beat or motion slip by.
And when the song finally ended,
just like the start of the stage,
brilliant lights burst out like lightning.
On the screen behind them,
five enormous shadows were created from the members’ silhouettes.
Waaaaah!
And like the cheers of the fans filling Square Hall,
the live-streaming chat window flew by.
—Wow
—Lolololol
—Whoa, the stage is really fun
—They’re going to do this intense choreography every day on music shows? Lolol
—It’s seriously just fun to watch lolol
—Wwwwwww
Excited, people poured out words, onomatopoeia, and emojis like mad as their impressions.
Calling it an old-fashioned traditional K-pop style,
or saying it had that Old School mood unique to the disco genre,
or claiming it lacked the fresh image desired from rookies—
there were all sorts of reasons they could have used to be disappointed.
But the quality was far too high.