Lying in bed, I closed my eyes, but I did not fall asleep.
Embarrassingly, my body was very tired from spending the whole day sobbing.
Because I was seriously thinking about my unnie’s request that, if possible, we should send it to number one on Billboard.
What kind of concept a song would need to have to reach number one on Billboard.
What kind of feeling American K-pop listeners fell for.
And more than anything, the limitations and obstacles we had.
‘No matter how I look at it, the biggest obstacle is that we’re on bad terms with LE Entertainment.’
This was on a completely different level from simply being on bad terms with a public broadcasting station.
At least for idols.
When it came to K-pop content, LE was the conglomerate with the greatest influence both domestically and abroad.
Even NND had LE to thank for the chance to gain attention overseas.
Because the overseas joint concerts regularly hosted by LE had created that opportunity.
And yet we had not been invited to the largest-scale event being held in North America this year.
It was an obvious power struggle. Not inviting us, when we could confidently call ourselves the hottest group.
But in the end, that fact was a fairly major weakness in this field, where virality was important.
It meant other groups would inevitably steal the spotlight from us.
‘If we leave it alone, even the title of “hottest” will be eaten away bit by bit.’
In the end, the best thing would be for us to lower our heads and go along with them.
Literally, for me or the members to regularly show our faces at events or programs LE hosted and act friendly.
But...
‘I should just try doing what I wrote in my notebook.’
I’d already told my unnie I would do things my way.
Making LE extend the hand of reconciliation first as a short-term goal seemed like it would be pretty motivating too.
* * *
The next day, Jeong Sohyeon was waiting for Dohee with her usual expressionless face.
But all sorts of thoughts were twisting and tangling together, making a mess of her mind.
Starting with her worry over having sent Dohee back to the dorm alone after the issue broke the day before.
‘She’s a mature kid, so she probably sorted herself out well enough...’
If they gave her a break, would they have to postpone the comeback?
For one thing, if they failed to make their single comeback in October as planned, things would definitely get badly tangled.
November was when the awards ceremony schedules began to overlap in earnest.
And December was the busy year-end season for stages.
‘Then the comeback would be pushed back until at least January... and the fandom would get tired.’
Most of all, if they said they were postponing the comeback.
The executives’ pushback was only to be expected.
Not only for Debonair’s growth.
But also because of TopEast’s biggest issues: listing and funding.
‘Of course... both the first and second albums sold a lot, and the girls have been doing events constantly, so our financial situation has gotten much better. But Debonair is still a rookie group, and they still need investment...’
On top of that, TopEast was, even being generous, a mid-to-large agency.
They still lacked concrete routes and infrastructure, so most of the process was new and inevitably cost money.
Above all, the most urgent task was to settle the impure atmosphere spreading within the fandom.
The fights between malicious solo stans.
So that they would not become the mainstream mood inside the fandom.
Content that could quickly stabilize everyone.
The kind where the members looked close.
Like the self-produced content from when they went to Gangneung last time.
‘Though that’s only possible once the girls have gotten rid of the knots in their hearts.’
Even the newly emerged obstacle, just as their response in the global market was rising sharply, was a headache.
‘...DestroySix. Their global chart index has definitely... dropped sharply now.’
In any case, the more she thought about it, the more all of Debonair’s schedules had, unlike when they first began, somehow slipped quite far out of the hands of Jeong Sohyeon, their producer.
It was only natural.
In general, as most groups accumulated years of experience, more and more was transferred to the members’ own capabilities.
But in Debonair’s case.
That transfer had happened far too extremely quickly.
They had not even debuted a full year ago yet.
Rookies among rookies.
She knew the reason.
Because Dohee was very different from ordinary.
Even compared to celebrities said to be extraordinary, she was on another level.
Moreover, the image that Dohee wrote songs herself was also a big factor.
That was also why Debonair was valued somewhat more aggressively.
That was why, for the next comeback title as well, the atmosphere was such that Dohee had to participate, whether a little or a lot.
Not that she could tell a child who was not in her right mind to go write a song.
‘Should I ask Writer Jeon Yosep instead? Ask him for one song we can at least put her name on as a co-writer...’
Dohee’s pride would be hurt.
But if it was urgent...
And as expected.
Just as Jeong Sohyeon had anticipated.
“You’re here?”
Dohee, who came in an hour later, entered with an expression that looked as if nothing had happened, just like yesterday when she had obsessively torn at the sheets, and asked carefully.
“Right, writing songs right now would be hard.”
In the end, she asked whether they could postpone the comeback.
“The schedule must have been hard too, and I think it’d be better for you to rest for a while. You thought well.”
However, the reason was very different from what Jeong Sohyeon had imagined.
“Yes. I have a comeback date in February that I’ve been thinking of.”
At Dohee’s words, Jeong Sohyeon unwittingly failed to control her expression and stared blankly.
“Dohee, February is.”
Even January was late.
February was.
“I know it’s unreasonable even as I say it. But there’s a clear reason. Somehow, I feel like this will work in America. Of course, we’ll have to package it well.”
Dohee began lightly laying out the ideas she had written in her notebook.
“This is the concept I want to try.”
She spoke of the idea lightly.
But it was not an ordinary idea.
“...All the release dates would be different?”
“Yes, that’s the key point. I’ve set each date too. The dates are...”
Each and every one was just as unconventional.
“Because of that, I’d like you to arrange a special stage where I stand alone at an awards ceremony. If possible, the Watermelon Music Awards rather than WMA, which LE hosts.”
“Got it. I’ll talk to the PD over there.”
“Yes. Still, I think we should release one B-side in November so the fandom gets less tired.”
She really was not an ordinary child.
“Yes, if we count the number of songs that way, the album size would be... about a mini album.”
Dohee hesitated a little, but nodded.
“For now, I’ll work on all of them, all of them together with the unnies.”
“Do you think you can do that?”
“Yes. For now, when I roughly pictured it in my head, I think the only song that’ll take a lot of work will be the first title track. Conceptually.”
Then she met Jeong Sohyeon’s eyes.
“I heard from Uah unnie yesterday too. She said the unnies have studied a bit of composition, hehe.”
Uah had said that on the condition that it absolutely be kept secret.
At the smile that showed they had had quite an honest conversation, Jeong Sohyeon smiled along.
“Besides, the rest... I think they’ll be easy to flesh out once the melodies are set. After going to the song camp, I’ve gotten a rough feel for it. If it doesn’t work... I’ll just have to trust you, Director. For filling in the songs, heh.”
Jeong Sohyeon sighed inwardly.
If Dohee said so, then they would have to try it that way.
Though she had no idea how she would persuade the executives, who would surely make noise again over the funding issue.
“Ah, and Director.”
“Yeah.”
Dohee stopped just as she was about to rise from her seat and furtively watched her reaction.
“I, um, would like to try using some of my own money, hehe...”
“What do you mean?”
“This might sound really presumptuous... but would stock options be possible?”
“Stock options?”
“I mean... through issuing new shares. As a sort of motivation boost, I’d like to buy some company stock.”
Simply put, she was saying she wanted to invest her own money in the next album.
“...I’ll discuss it privately with the CEO.”
At just the right timing, no less.
“Oh... Ah, and I also roughly thought about what we could do for self-produced content. I mentioned it to Seoyun unnie yesterday, and she said it sounded good.”
However, Jeong Sohyeon naturally did not think this timing had come about from mere coincidence.
She had already recognized that behind her mischievous side, Dohee was a child with clear opinions of her own.
“What kind?”
“How about this? I’ve thought about it before, and other groups do this sort of thing once in a while too. The response is good.”
She simply did not show it much because she was worried others would feel burdened.
In terms of insight, Jeong Sohyeon thought she was a child who recognized every problem in the current situation.
“Fine. Let’s do that. Did you talk to the members?”
“I’m going to casually bring it up tonight.”
To put it simply, she was far too quick on the uptake.
* * *
Just as Jeong Sohyeon had worried, or as Dohee had perceived.
The fans were going through unprecedented stress.
Bae Hayoung was no exception.
“Ha, damn it. Why do these bastards keep tagging that shitty tag and raising hell?”
The overseas DestroySix fandom had been tirelessly terrorizing them for weeks, telling people not to stream Debonair’s songs.
[She is a polite Korean, but she does not actually know courtesy]
#DoheeApologize
#AntiDebonair
#Trashbonair
And the domestic DestroySix fandom, claiming that Lee Dohee must have behaved badly for the issue to have come up, chimed in while pushing a both-sides argument.
[Why would she post an apology when she did nothing wrong?]
[Seriously, she didn’t mention who it was, but they got guilty for no reason, fr]
As a well-known named fansite master with nearly ninety thousand followers, Bae Hayoung worked hard in her own way to calm the atmosphere.
Dol_Ahyee @Dol_Ahyee
[A Collection of What Staff Said About Lee Dohee’s Personality]
[Dohee as Talked About by the Members of Seven]
Of course, on the inside, fights between malicious solo stans were also frequent.
─TopEast is openly playing favorites, honestly I’m losing all affection
Still, if there was anything fortunate, it was fortunate.
Because most people were busy fighting the DestroySix fandom, they had no spare attention to give to the fights between solo stans.
However, it was clear that in order to extinguish this huge fire, some kind of new content had to come from the agency.
And TopEast had always been quick to respond to this sort of thing.
“Oh...?”
As expected, a teaser for self-produced content soon went up.
But that in-house content was, once again, strange.
[No. 1 (Lee Dohee): I was a little worried.]
[Q: Because you wondered if you’d be able to find a match?]
[No. 1 (Lee Dohee): What? No, because I thought everyone might choose me.]
It did not have today’s polished feel.
Wearing grayish-brown clothes resembling monk’s robes, it had the feel of an old documentary.
[No. 5 (Kim Naeun): One first impression...?]
[No. 2 (Chiyo): Hoooh...!?]
[No. 5 (Kim Naeun): Ha, everyone looks like they wouldn’t listen... Still, maybe, maybe No. 3?]
It was a matching program where they seduced one another.