“Yaaawn…”
“I’m tired enough to die…”
One by one, the members flopped down on the sofa.
“Dohee, I’m getting sleepy too…”
Uah unnie nestled into my arms.
“Yeah, Dohee. Let’s rest for a bit. I’m just going to wash my face.”
“Mm… if Naeun unnie says so. Okay.”
“Gae Dohee, abolish this discrimination!!”
“Abolish it! Abolish it!”
I understood everyone’s exhaustion all too well.
During the day, I prepared every single year-end-stage performance we’d been assigned—each one nearly fifteen minutes long—with a distinct concept.
At night, I returned to the dorm and even wrote songs with myself at the center.
By then, the fatigue had piled up twice as high, and sometimes my mind would grow hazy and my eyes would close on their own.
But there was work to do, so I did it.
“Ah, seriously, Lee Dohee.”
“Unnie, please don’t do this.”
Kim Seoyoon had sprawled out on the sofa and was poking me with her toes.
“What do you mean, ‘please don’t do this’? Listen to that tone. That expression of being drunk on how hard you’re working even in a situation like this is so damn annoying. In the first place, everyone’s suffering because you made the schedule this ridiculous.”
“Ha-ha, please don’t do this.”
And so Chiyo unnie, the mischievous rascal who only ever learned the bad things she saw, stretched out her toes beside her too.
“…Gae Dohee! Gae Dohee!”
“Ha-ha, that hurts, Chiyo unnie.”
“I’m doing it so it’ll hurt!”
Kim Seoyoon was one thing, but I, Lee Dohee, knew exactly how to handle Chiyo unnie.
“Chiyo unnie.”
“What.”
“Good and pretty people shouldn’t do such ugly things.”
“Hmm… That’s certainly true.”
“Right?”
“But you’re ugly. Die!”
“…!”
“…I think my toes are stronger than I realized?”
Chiyo unnie wore an expression that was both startled and slightly apologetic.
“Uh, sorry. That was my mistake.”
Right. Stay calm. Stay calm.
“Being human means that even loving, cherishing, and caring for someone is never enough… I’m not doing this just so I can succeed on my own.”
“Good grief, you’re chattering like some little girl.”
Of course, I knew.
Even when Seoyoon unnie gave me a hard time like that.
Even when Chiyo unnie kicked at me.
Our affection for one another was always there at the foundation.
“Right, Uah unnie?”
“…”
“Kimchi, pinch her with your toes. Is she seriously sleeping all by herself with no conscience?”
“…Okay.”
Uah unnie woke up with a short scream.
“…W-what was that just now? It felt like a huge bug bit me.”
“Did your flesh get caught in the sofa leather?”
“Leather…? Oh, is that what it was…?”
Anyway, since everyone had been running themselves ragged day and night, even harder than during our trainee days, they all seemed to be at their breaking point.
Still, there was nothing we could do.
“I’m back.”
Naeun unnie, who had said she was only going to wash her face, had even removed her makeup and cleansed properly. Which meant it was time to continue working.
By the time midnight had long since passed, the members—who had been tormented for hours by the ruler of Song Camp, me, Lee Dohee—were all pale and haggard as they whined.
“I can’t do any more today…”
“Me neither…”
Kim Seoyoon was already using a pillow and openly pretending to sleep on the sofa.
“Zzz…”
Naeun unnie even began to change the subject.
“Dohee, come to think of it, you haven’t been working on your own stuff lately, have you?”
“My work? I’m doing it right now.”
“No, I mean your solo song. How about we stop here for today and either sleep or work on Dohee’s song? The solo song is actually the urgent one, and there’s really not much time left before the awards ceremony.”
Of course, that was out of the question.
“Don’t worry. I’ve already finished recording it~”
“…The piano! Weren’t you going to record it with the piano once it arrived…!?”
“Huh? No. That’s only for the one-time performance. If you mess with it carelessly, the keys will fall off. Besides, I met the director before even buying that thing, played him the recording, and got the company card to purchase it.”
“…”
“And you know me, right, unnie? Me, Lee Dohee? Interfering with the group album production because of my solo song? Never. I’m not that immature.”
“Ah…”
“Zzz…”
Meanwhile, Kim Seoyoon’s nasal snoring began to tremble even more finely.
Her pitch was changing, too.
“Hmm… Are you all really that tired?”
“It’s not an excuse… But as you know, Dohee, we’ve also started planning separate year-end stages…”
Naeun unnie was more long-winded than usual today.
But she really did look exhausted.
“Sigh. Then shall we call it a day?”
“Yes!!!”
“Yeah, let’s do that!”
“Please, Ms. Dohee!!!”
Seoyoon unnie, who had been pretending to sleep first, had the loudest voice of all.
“Ha-ha. Because of Seoyoon unnie, I guess we’ll work for thirty more minutes before sleeping.”
* * *
Early November, when the cold was gradually becoming a part of everyday life.
Bae Hayoung stared blankly.
“…Seriously? Our girls are appearing on MAMA?”
It was already the season leading up to the year-end stages.
She hadn’t expected our girls to be included in the MAMA lineup that MWAVE was promoting so heavily.
“Really?”
She had been furious at TopEast for postponing their comeback until next year when this was exactly the time they should have been pushing ahead, but eventually she had resigned herself to it.
And now they were going to appear at an awards ceremony hosted by Mwave, a company that didn’t even have a good relationship with TopEast?
“Could there be some kind of change within TopEast?”
Bae Hayoung’s suspicions were fairly reasonable.
The relationship between TopEast and Mwave was a notorious feud that everyone knew about—not just the fans, but anyone who used K-pop communities.
Unfortunately, it often became a source of ridicule for other fans.
[LOL, the second MAMA called them, they went running]
[I never understood what kind of nerve a company that isn’t even one of the Big Four—and doesn’t have the standing to match—had]
But there was no reason to get offended by any of that.
It was proof of just how well Debonair was doing.
[It really is the golden age of girl groups. What an insane lineup…]
[Isn’t it just that Seiven was in their golden age?]
Among the countless groups being announced, only Ailly and Debonair were girl groups that could contend for the grand prize.
[So Debonair wants the grand prize after all? LOL]
And above all, while the two groups would be appearing together,
two familiar names were listed in the solo artist lineup as well.
They belonged to former members of the disbanded Seiven.
—Jeon Harang
—Gong Chaerin
[Holy crap, are we seeing the complete Seiven for the first time in two years?]
That was the hottest issue on the communities at present.
* * *
“I knew this would happen.”
Seiven had been created through an Mwave program.
And since its spin-off groups were doing so well,
I had predicted long ago that LE, obsessed with ratings, would force through a special stage featuring the Seiven members, regardless of their agencies’ wishes.
Of course, I had no intention of avoiding it.
So we all met up and decided to lightly prepare one of our old stages by reviewing our past performances.
“My little bunny! My baby maknae Dohee, how long has it been? Come here, come here! Let’s have a nice, tight hug with your unnie!”
Accepting Harang unnie was another matter, though.
Because she was insanely annoying.
I should shove Kim Seoyoon at her instead.
“Seoyoon first? Yeah, our Seoyoonnieeee!”
“Unnieeee!”
Seoyoon unnie and Harang unnie got along exceptionally well, to the point that they regularly played online games together. As expected, they immediately threw their arms around each other and caused a scene.
Thanks to that, I was able to stand a step away and look around Day Entertainment’s practice room.
‘It’s pretty spacious, but… It’s similar to ours.’
I wonder if Lira practiced here too.
“More importantly, isn’t someone else still missing?”
“Ah, Chaerin? She got here ages ago, said she was going to the bathroom, and hasn’t come back.”
“Oh, Chaerin unnie.”
It was obvious even without seeing it. She had escaped somewhere to avoid Harang unnie and was taking a break.
“Hehehe, then shall I hug our maknae now too?!”
Harang unnie was being noisy while wiggling her fingers in an extremely suspicious manner.
“Ah, stop touching me. That’s sexual harassment, sexual harassment!”
“Aww~ You’re my little sister, though. What’s the harm~”
Harang unnie made me think once again that she was an incredibly uninhibited person.
“Whoa, her breasts are convex mirrors. They’re closer than they look. They’re genuinely bigger than they look. No, how is this possible?”
She had absolutely no refinement in the way she spoke.
Was this hip-hop?
“Dohee, what size did you say you were?”
“I don’t know, so take your fingers off me.”
“Seoyoon, what size is she?”
“I don’t know. I’m annoyed, so don’t talk to me.”
“Why are you getting angry…”
Even at Harang unnie’s tiny little voice,
Kim Seoyoon snapped back fiercely.
“Ah, whatever. We wear the same underwear all the time, so she’s probably an E cup too. No, why are you asking me that?”
She had to go and announce my measurements to the whole room…
“What? E? A, B, C, D, E? She’s this skinny, but only there is an E? I can feel her ribs and abs underneath, but only there is an E!? Really!? Seriously!?”
Haah. It was a good thing the practice room was empty except for us.
Harang unnie’s mouth truly never changed.
“Unnie, doesn’t your company ever make you shut that mouth of yours? There’s such a thing as taking ‘freedom’ too far.”
“What, our company is a den of criminals, so having a slightly free mouth isn’t a problem at all~?”
“What a thing to be proud of.”
When I clicked my tongue, Harang unnie’s expression stiffened slightly.
Well, of course it must have bothered her.
Maintaining that innocence while belonging to such an agency had probably taken effort on her part.
I seemed to have been wrong to make fun of her.
I should apologize quickly—
“Dohee… Dohee, could you make an exception for your unnie? I’m so jealous of your future husband and everything…”
“Shut up.”
“Whoa, it’s been so long since I last heard Dohee swear!”
I was kicking Harang unnie away as she repeatedly crossed the line when, at last, the unnies began arriving one by one.
The members of Ailly.
“Oh! You’re all here already!?”
“I need to use the bathroom.”
“Harang, too! How long has it been?!”
“Wait, unnie, wait!”
First came Hana unnie, the only member who had ever been able to physically control that noisy Harang unnie.
“What’s wrong with you, unnie?”
Sera unnie silently threw her arms around me, then stared mournfully into my face.
“What’s wrong with you, seriously?”
“No, it’s just… You went to Paris and then didn’t see me for months… I was so sadddd…”
“I was seriously busy this time. I told you I was working on songs.”
Even Yaeun unnie avoided my gaze, her eyes darting in every direction the moment she saw me.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
“I-I’m not doing anything! I’m just standing here! What! What!”
And only then did Chaerin unnie appear as well.
“Wow, it feels even more awkward gathering like this after so long. I don’t want to practice.”
Hmm… Certainly.
Just as Chaerin unnie said, with all seven of us gathering again after such a long time, things did seem especially chaotic today.