March, spring.
The season when young sprouts begin to stretch themselves awake.
Even the adorable sprout in our house.
Our baby, Doa,
was about to become a middle schooler.
“I’m really just going to practice for a reasonable amount of time today and leave right away.”
It was six in the morning, earlier than our usual practice time.
The members had gathered in the practice room and were slowly warming up.
“Stop whining. Who tried to stop you? We’re helping you right now.”
“I’m definitely… definitely going, I mean it.”
“Should I go too? I kind of want to see Doa for the first time in ages.”
“Seoyun, could you stop pretending to be close to our Doa?”
“Ugh, you’re such a pain to accommodate. I’m taking a nap after this.”
The older girls were waking up early and practicing together from dawn, cutting into their sleep, all for my sake. I felt a little sorry.
I couldn’t bring myself to say that I loved them or that I was grateful—it was too embarrassing.
I should buy something delicious on the way there.
“But the more I dance this, the more I like it.”
“Really? I came up with this part.”
“Unnie, you’ve said that more than ten times. I know.”
“Why~ I’m allowed to brag a little. Hurry up and praise me. Dohee, please praise your unnie~”
In the end, U-a had participated in creating part of the choreography draft for this title track.
“Wow… U-a unnie made—U-a unnie made the chorus!?”
“Come on… That’s so fake. Chiyo, show her.”
“M-Mi, crazy… U-U-a did it. C-Crazy, amazing!!!”
“This is just painfully on the beat.”
“Yeah. It’s bland.”
“…I’m dejected.”
Even though choreography drafts had been received from and combined between more than four famous dance teams, U-a had managed to push her own choreography into the middle of it, especially the chorus. That was no ordinary feat.
It meant that she not only danced attractively, but also had a real sense for choreography.
That didn’t mean it was difficult for me, though.
“Even I, Lee Dohee, can do it suffi—”
“We’ll get started with practice.”
Naeun spoke in a sharper tone than usual.
Was she tired…?
“Yes, ma’am!”
But if it meant meeting Doa…
* * *
“Are you all dressed?”
“Yeah.”
Doa was checking her outfit in front of the full-length mirror.
‘Being a middle schooler means I’m a little more grown-up, right?’
Unlike her elementary school days, when she wore ordinary clothes, the prescribed outfit brought to mind working adults in suits, like her father heading to work early in the morning.
She rustled the unfamiliar fabric of her neat school uniform and gave herself a sly smile in the mirror.
“She takes after her sister in the way she acts.”
Her mother was secretly watching her.
Doa subtly turned her head and wiped the expression from her face.
“Why~ I’m saying you look pretty. You look so pretty, Princess~”
Her mother said Doa took after her sister whenever she did anything, but as far as Doa was concerned, the person who resembled her sister most was their mother.
Her sister.
Doa had been thinking about her sister, who hadn’t come to her graduation ceremony, since early that morning.
“…Is she coming today?”
It wasn’t as though she particularly wanted to see her.
Still, family events were important.
Her sister had used her schedule and the need to work on a song as excuses for not attending the graduation ceremony.
“Who knows?”
─Beep beep beep
No sooner had she finished speaking than the sound of someone entering the front door’s passcode rang out.
“Sounds like your sister’s here.”
Her mother chuckled at the sight of Doa’s mouth twitching involuntarily.
And as soon as the front door opened, the sound of a bag being dropped carelessly onto the floor was followed by her sister rushing into her room.
“C-Crazy. That face is violent. Middle-schooler Lee Doa in a uniform.”
Her sister immediately wrapped her arms around Doa.
“Do, Doa is… hic, hic… Our Doa is old enough to wear a school uniform now.”
Her trembling voice made it unclear whether she was genuinely crying.
“Yeah.”
It wasn’t entirely unpleasant, so Doa quietly placed a hand on her sister’s back.
They hadn’t been apart for all that long, but for some reason, Doa still wanted to act spoiled around her sister.
“Doa’s a middle schooler now…?”
“Yeah.”
It was just that she felt a little self-conscious and embarrassed, so all she could do was ask for pocket money.
As she always thought, her sister was someone Doa could be very proud of—
“You’re old…”
“You’re older.”
“What did you say, you little punk? You have no respect for your sister, whom you haven’t seen in ages.”
“You started it!”
“What do you want me to do? Are you my sister?”
“What does that have to do with anything?!”
“Then you be the older sister. Why didn’t you just get born first?”
Watching her sister throw another tantrum, Doa had no choice but to call loudly for their mother, who had gone into the master bedroom to put on her makeup.
“Mooom! My sister is—!”
“I changed your diapers too. What about the day you first walked? I held you and bounced you around like—Ow! Why’d you hit me?! You’ll make me stupid!”
“You’re so smart that you can afford to get a little stupider.”
“Is that something a mother with children should say?!”
Doa decided she would let her sister watch the entrance ceremony and then send her home as quickly as possible.
* * *
It was March, spring, for Dohee as well.
It was a day overflowing with dopamine as she took as many pictures as she pleased of Doa in her school uniform.
But for the fansite master who was Dohee’s fan, it marked the end of those dopamine-filled, happy days. For the first time since debut, it was the beginning of a full-fledged inactive period.
“Damn it, Topdong, keep feeding us content about our unnie without stopping!”
The various variety shows filmed before their debut, Debonair’s debut documentary, and the self-produced content featuring the little games they had played together had already run dry long ago.
A few behind-the-scenes clips from the January music shows had been uploaded as additional self-produced content, but that naturally had its limits.
So now, the only content left for Dohee’s fans to enjoy was her weekly music-show hosting.
Their eyes kept drifting toward Seoyun’s variety-show appearances.
“Let our Rahi do variety shows like Seoyun too. Being an MC just means reading a script! Let her show off her Rahi power!”
Of course, being an MC had its own unique appeal.
Dohee appeared in a different outfit every day, reading occasionally cringeworthy scripts and blushing shyly, yet never losing her energy as she delivered her lines brightly.
Moreover, considering the newly gained fans of U-a, Chiyo, and Naeun, it was wrong to keep whining like this.
They didn’t have a single piece of individual content. How much harder must it be for them—
“That’s not my problem. Hurry up and tell me there’s some variety show for our Rahi besides her public-broadcast MC gig!”
While throwing a fit and scrolling through social media, the fansite master quickly spotted a new post.
It was fresh content: someone had belatedly screenshotted and uploaded a post about an encounter reported on Instagram.
[Damn, I think I met Lee Dohee. Anyone could tell from the proportions that it was Lee Dohee. This is insane.]
[Can I talk to her? She was humming while eating a hotteok, and she was so freaking cute and pretty. I’m shaking.]
[Wow, crazy, we took a picture together. She even gave me a hotteok lol]
[(Photo) It’s real. I told her I liked her a lot, and she said she likes people who recognize her first too. She thanked me, said it must be fate, and suggested we take a picture together… I was so touched. She gave me a hotteok too. It was delicious.]
The moment she read the post, the fansite master shoved a fist to her mouth with a sob.
“She’s so cute. Why can’t I ever win the fan lottery? Hic. Why is she handing out hotteok? Heehee, sob.”
Judging by the outfit, it seemed to have been from a week ago.
It was probably the day Dohee had stopped by the JS building to film a Debonair challenge with Sera and Hana.
“I loved that day so much…”
At this rate, the fansite master was fully prepared to spend at least four hours obsessing over Dohee with her fellow internet friends.
─Looks like she walked directly from the dorm to the JS building that day lol
└(Photo) Dohee has liked going on walks since her trainee days
└Her walking buddies back then were Seoyun and U-a, apparently
─(Photo) Confirmed Rahi power at one hundred percent here
└For real, who randomly hands out hotteok lol
└(Drawing of a rabbit character handing over a hotteok) Just drew this
└And the way she said she likes people who recognize her first, called it fate, and suggested taking a picture together… She’s seriously so sweet
.
.
.
Before she knew it, four hours had passed.
When she checked the clock, it was almost ten at night.
For the sake of healthy fangirling, it was time to wash up and get ready for bed.
The fansite master stood up from her seat, unable to hide her disappointment.
─Ding!
She flinched.
[DEB: ON AIR 2 | EP.1]
At exactly ten o’clock, Season 2 of On Air had gone up without any warning, accompanied by an alert sound.
But the fansite master intended not to watch it tonight.
She would sleep and watch it after waking up tomorrow. There was always tomorrow’s dopamine to look forward to.
“I should save it for later and watch it…”
But the thumbnail looked ominous.
“What is this? Did something happen to our girls…?”
Against a black background, Chiyo was kneeling and weeping as though making a tearful confession of her sins, while the members stood in a line beside her, bowing at ninety degrees.
In large white letters, the words ‘We’re Sorry’ were emblazoned across it.
“What is this, seriously?”
For a moment, the fansite master wondered.
Had someone done something wrong?
No matter how hard she thought, she couldn’t come up with anything.
Apart from the ridiculous attempts to drag them, that was.
There had to be some controversy involving the girls.
“The most likely controversy is that Dohee is too pretty…”
Anyway, wasn’t this the sort of thumbnail used to bait people on YouTube?
‘We’re sorry for our mistake, customers. We apologize for deceiving you. As compensation, here are two hundred free pulls, blah blah blah…’
“Ah, I can’t hold back.”
Forgetting that she had meant to save it for tomorrow, the fansite master hastily posted ‘The babies’ Season 2 is up!’ on social media, then immediately clicked the video.
And there it was: the familiar intro from Season 1.
The fansite master had been expecting an opening showing the dictionary definition of DEB, but instead, the image from the thumbnail appeared out of nowhere.
Only this time, the background was a blue seashore instead of black.
Chiyo was sprawled flat on the white sand, while the members, including Dohee, stood with their heads bowed in silent tribute.
For a brief moment, there was only silence, containing nothing but the cries of seabirds and the sound of waves.
When Chiyo slowly lifted her face, a great deal of sand clung to her long hair.
[Chiyo: …Are we done?]
[Dohee: That thing.]
[U-a: You do it, unnie.]
[Naeun: Huh? Oh, okay.]
Whether her cheeks were flushed from the cold or not, Naeun shouted at the top of her lungs, her face red.
[Naeun: W-We’re sorry in advance for making you laugh so, so hard!]
[Debonair: We’re sorry!]
The staff, presumably, burst into raucous applause.
It was an exceedingly strange opening for a girl group’s self-produced content.