Including Seven, this was already my seventh time preparing for promotions.
The preparation process right before a comeback differed every time depending on the album’s concept and format.
But in truth, I’d grown as used to it as I could get, so the way of living and the texture of it always followed a similar flow.
Even if, this time, I had a little more to give opinions on as the composer of the title track, for the most part, instead of making independent choices and agonizing over them, all I had to do was follow the schedule the staff set, fit myself into it, and do my best.
Thanks to that, the mental fatigue was on the lower side.
To begin with, I didn’t even have the idle time to feel tired.
—Hup!
—Chiyo, please stop doing weird things...
With the current members, who were always noisy.
Like this.
“When our promotions end... Dohee will be promoting again, huh...?”
“Probably? Our debut dates were two months apart.”
“Then we’ll always keep missing each other like this... even if we say let’s hang out, we won’t be able to meet... won’t be able to see each other...”
“Right?”
And because I’d often run into the former members clinging to me, the Seven unnies, too.
“But were you trying to hang out during your debut year?”
“Hiiing...”
Where’s the time to hang out in your debut year?
This unnie’s gotten a little soft, too.
“Then next year...?”
“Your second year?”
“Yeah, yeah! Since it’ll be our second year...!”
Your second year is...
“You’ll have to prepare for promotions and fan concerts, right? You’ll be insanely busy.”
It’s the period where you start earning real profit and laying the foundation for it.
“Do, Dohee, you don’t understand how I feel!”
Sera unnie turned around and ran out.
“What.”
Anyway, Sera unnie’s group Aili had begun their comeback promotions.
Before that, I thought I might quit being a music show MC.
But the production team wanted me to continue, and the company also said it would be good to keep going, so it seemed like I’d continue at least through these promotions, until before summer ended.
“More importantly, Yeeun unnie hasn’t shown even the tip of her nose.”
Of course Hana unnie came.
And even Aili’s other members, Miho and Bom, came and greeted me, but somehow I still hadn’t greeted Yeeun unnie.
Don’t tell me she thinks I’ll torment her again...
“It’s because you torment her.”
Ju Seungbin interrupted my light contemplation.
That indifferent tone, with his eyes still on his book, somehow pissed me off.
It felt like he was copying me.
Ju Seungbin glanced over here as if gauging my reaction.
“...That mirror therapy. I watched your in-house content.”
The kid’s been strange lately.
Whenever it’s just the two of us, he keeps playing pointless little pranks.
“...? Whatever, hand over the drink. I’m thirsty and hot.”
Still, Ju Seungbin rolled over a bottle of strawberry latte from the Trending Songs snack bar.
The fact that he prepares things well really is commendable.
“Good, nice, thanks~”
Anyway, what I meant was that my attachment doll Yeeun unnie’s pranks had been a kind of event, so now that she’d quieted down, I felt oddly disappointed.
[Yeeun: To. Dohee, I do rather miss you, but regrettably, this time I want to focus on the stage, so I think I’ll only be able to see you during the broadcast interview. Believing that you, an idol genius, will understand my passion... I hope we may exchange greetings then. From. Yeeun]
She just sent me a weird KakaoTalk message.
Since Aili’s comeback was successful again, if she’d burned with some incomprehensible sense of rivalry and strutted around... it would’ve been cute.
Was it that much of a shock that she came all the way to the company last time?
As expected, maybe I should go find her now and praise her or something...
Meanwhile, Sera unnie stopped by the waiting room again.
“Dohee...! I think unnie was thinking about it wrong after all...! Dohee, you’re just... working hard! Unnie will match your schedule and definitely make time!”
“Sure, sure.”
* * *
Mid-April, Aili’s comeback was revealed.
[The signal flare for the 2025 girl group golden age, Aili’s “Keep going!” and the i-like charm it will draw in]
[Aili, new song “Keep going!” hits No. 1 on Watermelon TOP 100]
[Aili achieves the highest number of users in 2025 for music streaming]
As much as the attention and anticipation they’d received, Aili released a refreshing and sophisticated song. This time as well, they presented the standard image of a cute and pretty girl group and continued their mega-hit streak.
—Aili’s debut was winter refreshment and this time it’s high-teen refreshing cutie, insane. JS really still has the touch
—I was sick of how many girl groups these days were going on about hyperpop and identity or whatever, but this is seriously so good
However, Debonair and Dohee’s fansite master Bae Hayoung was biting her nails.
“No, of course it’d be nice if everyone did well together... It would be nice, but.”
[Lee Dohee: I got scolded]
While the neighbors were doing well.
“When the tide comes in, you’re supposed to row...”
Their own main group hadn’t given any notice related to their comeback for weeks, aside from Dohee saying she’d gotten scolded after cutely spoiling a nickname.
Wasn’t this the time for TopEast to step up and gradually release information about the comeback, in order to continue the buzz they’d gained through variety shows?
The fickle public’s attention was rapidly shifting to Aili, and there wasn’t even any comeback information that could receive a trickle-down effect from Aili.
Wasn’t it only natural to feel anxious?
Naturally, the well-informed named fans were expressing their confusion in their own chatroom.
[No, no matter how much attention you get, if you don’t promote it, people won’t know you made a comeback?]
[Fr lol, judging by the interval, it’s about time for a comeback, but there aren’t even concept photos]
[Do they not know that in the K-pop scene, sure, the song matters, but promotion power matters too?]
[Is this your first time stanning a small-agency idol? Kek]
[Fuck]
[The way I see it, they’re broke again because they’re trying to make another double title track, yep]
Meanwhile, the majority of light fans were drunk on the high from the variety show, their expectations rising endlessly.
—Our company president is in his fifties, and even he knows Dohee lol
—Aili swept the trending videos and hit No. 1 just one week after their comeback, but considering the attention Debonair has, wouldn’t it be even easier for them? Wow, I’m already excited
—What if both double title tracks set records?
Worry, and more worry.
“If there’s no promotion, of course the results will be low... People’s threshold has gotten way too high.”
The higher you fly, the more it hurts when you fall.
Of course, Dohee had never disappointed them so far.
But things in life didn’t always go as you wanted.
And since the company had changed, who knew how the song would turn out?
“So please, at least start promoting now...”
To begin with, one of the things that made K-pop itself stand out from other music markets was its very definite promotion.
While overseas artists hardly had anything you could even call teasers.
This K-pop scene revolved around otaku-type fans, so the methods of promotion were all kinds of varied.
First, there were the teasers, concept photos, and promotional articles everyone did.
Then there were music video filming sites, choreography, and melodies that caused a commotion every time, supposedly leaked from somewhere.
Or revealing teasers as early as a full month in advance to draw aggro.
Or high-quality promotional videos containing identity and worldview, produced with thousands, even hundreds of millions, as much as a music video.
In any case, companies competed to constantly create and upload something that could go viral and shape public opinion in communities.
“So why isn’t our Widong even trying? Should I make them all go bald, seriously.”
They should at least do the basics, shouldn’t they? The basics.
She wanted to write a public-facing post on her feed urging TopEast to hurry up right away.
—Ding!
“Oh, a text from Dohee came...”
[Lee Dohee: Something happened...]
“Something happened...!? I knew this would happen. Those TopEast bastards! What, what the hell happened...!”
[Lee Dohee: No, I mean I just woke up]
[Lee Dohee: I seriously overslept for the first time in a year, gasp...]
“Ah.”
Seeing Dohee pull another Rahi made it seem like there was no need to worry at all, and her anxiety dropped sharply.
“Yeah... Let’s trust her and wait.”
Based on pure fan devotion, she gathered her feelings and decided to wait.
And exactly two days later.
Around the time when still not a single piece of information had been revealed.
A video was uploaded to Debonair’s official channel.
“They’re suddenly uploading a teaser?”
[DEBONAIR “Sweet Demon” Official M/V Teaser]
For the first information they’d revealed, it was an extremely short video, not even twenty seconds long.
Even the melody was hard to make out because two lines were layered together.
Not only did noise interfere with it, but the violin sound was far too loud.
And even the members’ appearances were blurred into silhouettes by the light scattering off sparks flying everywhere.
There were only two things that were clear.
The music video release date, typed out as the screen faded to black, was three days later.
[DEMON]
And Dohee’s voice, echoing.
“No, what kind of comeback suddenly happens three days later after they haven’t said a single word?”
It was a video so incomprehensible that you had to wonder whether they had any intention of promoting it or not.
No matter how you looked at it, the quality made you wonder if they’d made it to lower fans’ morale and expectations.
Still... Bae Hayoung hid her disappointment and decided to check her feed, as well as the promotional articles that would have been released with it.
Usually, they’d send out the interpretation through articles.
“Here it is.”
[Debonair, comeback title track “Sweet Demon” to be pre-released on the 12th...]
“So it’s a pre-release.”
Unlike last time, when they’d released both title tracks at once, it seemed they were going to release them with a gap this time.
/Debonair, who swept the charts with double title tracks from debut, will lead the mood of their first comeback with “Sweet Demon.”
TopEast Entertainment revealed the teaser for “Sweet Demon,” the first title track of the first mini album “DBNR (Dictated But Not Read),” through official SNS on the night of the 9th, announcing that it is scheduled for pre-release on May 12./
“It’s legendary that we’re only finding out the album name now...”
/The album name “DBNR” is an abbreviation that generally means “Dictated But Not Read.”
Additionally, “DBNR” is also an abbreviation of the group name “Debonair.”
Dictated But Not Read is an idiom meaning that something was dictated but not read. It means there were no corrections whatsoever to the expression that was written down.
In other words, Debonair (DBNR) signifies that in the process of transferring their own image into an album, they included their honest and varied selves without any corrections./
“Still, this kind of thing is... seriously to my taste.”
Honestly, she had only been dissatisfied that there had been no promotion so far. Since last time, the person planning the group and albums had somehow, somehow been different.
[The person who made the group name Debonair is seriously a genius...]
I liked that the first album title was too
and the second album is
There’s seriously so much room for interpretation in the group name, fr
This side had always gotten heated reactions on feeds and communities.
“Ha, seriously, is the person who made the group name a genius...? They know way too well what makes an otaku like me go crazy...”
Meanwhile, in the roughly ten-second video, various melodies were mixed together, creating disorder.
Sweet Demon. A sweet demon—the confusion the listener experiences at these two paradoxical words is faintly reflected.
This, along with the charm of the song itself, arouses curiosity about Debonair’s signature conceptual appeal in the comeback to be released in May.
“Looking at it this way, the teaser does have some meaning too...”
But separately from that, the teaser didn’t seem to be doing its job.
“But what kind of promotional effect are they expecting from a teaser they suddenly drop three days before, when it doesn’t make me excited at all... No matter how good the hidden meaning is.”
It was nothing more than “we’re making a comeback.”
Apparently, TopEast’s promotions team seemed to think going on music shows counted as promotion.
“Sigh...”
It was then.
SNS feed posts began to flood in urgently.
“What is it?”
—Huh, this pre-release title track is Dohee’s self-composed song?
—(https...link) Article’s out, it says it’s a self-composed song
“R-Really?”
Bae Hayoung hurriedly clicked the link.
[Debonair comeback pre-release title = “Sweet Demon”... Lee Dohee composition and arrangement...]
“It wasn’t a B-side, but a title track?”
The promotion that had been absent to a baffling degree.
Only now did she feel like she understood the promotional strategy.
“A pre-release title track released without warning. And even so, viral buzz that naturally generates from Dohee’s star power alone. Then it hits all the way to No. 1.”
It was a well-made storyline that would solidify, in a single stroke, her top-tier idol image, which could have become slightly ambiguous right after Seven’s disbandment and her debut.
“And... since this is a pre-release, the second title track will start when the promotion is perfect.”
So, if only this title track was good!
—Ding!
At the same time, she heard the notification sound that meant a message had arrived from the baby.
[Lee Dohee: (waving rabbit emoticon)]
Certainly... Dohee couldn’t exactly be called a decent person.
But that cute playfulness of hers, which always put her fans at ease.
It gave her the certainty that the song would be good.