Even after sleeping through the night and waking up, Bae Hayoung was still dazed.
She had no idea how she had managed to watch the awards ceremony.
“...How can she get even better? What am I supposed to do?”
That was the fragmented emotion Bae Hayoung was feeling right now.
At the Watermelon Music Awards, Debonair was eventually called up for Artist of the Year, winning two grand prizes in total, following the Album of the Year award.
Of course, no one questioned it. Debonair had placed songs consecutively at numbers two, three, and four on Watermelon’s annual chart.
The fans, too, enjoyed the festive atmosphere as they finally eased the resentment of having failed to win anything at the previous MWMA.
But for Bae Hayoung, who ran Dohee’s fansite, as well as for most of the public, the focus was, naturally, elsewhere.
Rather than the fact that Dohee had won two grand prizes.
[Lee Dohee’s special stage ratings yesterday ㄷㄷㄷ]
─(Five-year ratings trend + peak ratings graph)
Considering that it had been getting around 0.6 percent lately, yesterday’s ceremony average of 0.9 percent was pretty good already. The ratings went up to 1.4 percent during Ailee and Debonair’s stages, then hit 2.1 percent during Lee Dohee’s solo stage ㄷㄷ
Apparently, it was the highest rating WMMA had recorded in five years.
It was the stage Dohee had shown at the awards ceremony.
You didn’t even need to go looking for the stage videos plastering the community to see the proof.
You could tell immediately just by watching the video of Dohee’s solo stage from yesterday, which the Watermelon editor had hurriedly edited and uploaded overnight.
[WMMA2025 Lee Dohee special stage I DO(倒喜) │ #LEEDOHEE#WMMA2025#WMA...]
Watermelon · 5.96 million views · 11 hours ago
“The response is really, seriously insane...”
Unlike most awards-show stages, whose comment sections people simply scrolled past, countless comments were constantly being posted in the current one, and several comments had received more than ten thousand recommendations in agreement.
[I’m a fan of another group, but honestly, this was the coolest stage yesterday... I think it really showed what it meant for one person to command a stage... It just made me realize that Lee Dohee really is different. She’s seriously a genius.]
[She’s 18 years old, lol. Technically 17, born in 2008. Does that even make sense? Even on a global scale, I feel like she might be the next genius after Bieber or Billie Eilish.]
[I’m genuinely certain of this: even when the generations change, there will never be another kid like Lee Dohee. Sure, there are probably plenty of people jealous of her and trying to tear her down right now, but someone like her will truly never appear again in our lifetimes.]
[The expressions of the other idols staring blankly explain everything.]
[I’m a hardcore face-fan, but I didn’t look at Lee Dohee’s face at all—I only watched her fingers and gestures... But even just watching through the screen, I felt like my heart was going to burst. An idol whose atmosphere changes just by playing a single key...]
What was more, more than half of the comments at the top were from foreigners.
Of course, people overseas always watched K-pop award ceremonies in numbers surpassing the domestic audience.
But this was enough to make one wonder whether Dohee’s stage video itself was going viral through Shorts, then social media, and everywhere else.
[What I mean is, she’s going to become famous. (P.S. She’s already incredibly famous, but I mean she’s going to become famous beyond anything you can imagine!)]
└She is already an icon of fourth-generation K-pop idols!
[Many people focus only on Dohee’s appearance. Yes, Dohee is truly beautiful and has wonderful looks, but many people do not pay attention to her talent. She has perfect pitch, is an outstanding pianist, and is also a producer. On top of that, she has a unique voice and excellent dancing skills, and she can rap well too. Please love Dohee and respect her work.]
└Yes, she is very pretty, but I wish people would talk more about her talent. I wonder if she has ever felt this way sometimes.
└It was only on this stage that I was able to notice her face afterward. Her talent is as beautiful as her visuals...
[I discovered her today and haven’t been able to pull myself away all day. I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole. Everything about her is beautiful.]
└Haha, she’s also famous for being a doll that looks like a rabbit.
└The princess Alice of the rabbit hole.
[The noteworthy thing about her arpeggios is that they are very staccato, with certain keys, notes, and chords emphasized to give the piano performance more emotion. This stage is a work of very powerful emotion. Since she was a prodigy pianist in classical music, I’m glad she created her own unique sound.]
└Thank you. I agree. Her other piano pieces were staccato as well. Listen to “As Fickle as Fortune”; it reminded me of Prokofiev. She may be one of the few people who can approach the queen. Dohee is still young, and I can’t even imagine what she’ll produce!
└She won gold countless times at Korean piano competitions since she was young, and she even won competitions while promoting as an idol.
And so Bae Hayoung read those comments one by one, reminiscing about yesterday and drawing dopamine and satisfaction from it.
“Ah, I’m addicted to Dohee-pamine...”
Once again, yesterday’s Dohee came to mind.
Her loosened tie and classic suit jacket.
The image unique to Dohee that she had shown in black short pants.
Her appearance, more mature than usual.
And her acceptance speech, which revealed the depths of her usual self.
There was no need for Hayoung’s personal afterthoughts.
Dohee’s acceptance speech had already become just as much of a topic of conversation as her solo stage—or even more so.
Not only in the news.
Countless posts had also appeared on social media and in online communities.
[She was just fucking beautiful from start to finish. I was honestly jealous of Air... ]
└Join us.
[Lee Dohee’s stage left an aftertaste, but... listening to her speech, I really felt that she was extraordinary. She doesn’t seem eighteen at all.]
└For someone who’s “just eighteen,” she spent her trainee years competing on a survival show and winning first place, regularly won grand prizes at piano competitions while working as an idol, and ranked first in her entire school from first grade through her first year of high school;
└I’ve never been interested in idols, not even while I was in the army, but Lee Dohee is the first one I’ve ever found myself this interested in.
[Looking at that, she’s really thoughtful and well-spoken, so why is she such a total weirdo normally?]
└???: What’s the busiest job in the world? “In a hurry” LOL
└Ah.
└You scoundrels!!! Lee Dohee’s reverse viral campaign has already begun!
Bae Hayoung thought it was probably because most people had empathized with Dohee’s speech.
Dohee’s speech had not simply been an expression of gratitude.
Nor had it been merely a rambling monologue containing her personal philosophy.
It had been a story told with affection for something.
“Ah, I can’t help it. I have to post about her speech on social media...”
Dol Ahyee @Dol_Ahyee
─I think the reason I like Dohee more and more is that even though she has mature thoughts, she speaks playfully and lightly so the people around her won’t feel intimidated by her and can treat her more comfortably and casually...
Seoyunhae @Jonna_Seoyun
└That might be part of it, but isn’t that just her personality?
Dol Ahyee @Dol_Ahyee
─Shut it.
And as if to prove the explosive attention and popularity directed toward Dohee, before a week had passed and before the heat of the stage had even cooled,
a certain illness began showing signs of appearing in South Korea.
Its initial symptoms were first observed in a single lament posted on an online community.
[Guys, I run a piano academy... There are seriously so many people enrolling these days, from little kids all the way to the adult classes, that I’m unbelievably busy.]
└Isn’t that a good thing?
└No, I can’t handle it. Increasing the number of instructors is difficult because I feel like a lot of them might only attend for a month and then quit...
└It’s definitely because of Lee Dohee, lol.
└Right... There were already so many little kids enrolling because they wanted to become like Lee Dohee, but these days there are seriously three or four times as many... It’s the same with the adult classes, so there’s no hope.
└It’s really that bad...? ㄷㄷ
└You have no idea...
It was the happy yet agonized lament of a piano instructor.
[LOL, little kids are seriously adorable. I’d probably do the same if I were them.]
Perhaps because they were stories about children that softened the heart, the Airs began laughing and sharing them with one another, calling them cute. Before long, the trend spread to other communities.
Then someone suddenly raised a question.
─But doesn’t it seem like there are a lot more girls dressing like Lee Dohee on the streets these days?
At some point, people had begun noticing that Lee Dohee’s achromatic style had become unusually common on the streets and on girls’ Instagram accounts.
─Is that so?
The style itself was certainly something Koreans commonly wore, which was why no one had noticed until then.
But it was a little strange for girls to be wearing nothing but achromatic clothes. The straight-hair style associated with Debonair was also appearing frequently alongside it.
Still, it seemed to fizzle out because it was the members’ looks that were special, not straight hair itself.
[Chaeyoung, what are you doing?]
[My routine these days is to start with stretching after I wake up in the morning!]
[My beloved strawberry latte hehe]
[What sound does a physicist make when they laugh? Physic—snicker—hahahaha]
However, when everyone saw the behavior and speech patterns of the girls who dressed that way suddenly change, they were finally forced to recognize it.
The so-called “Lee Dohee Syndrome” had broken out.
[Ah, fuck, I think the girl I have a crush on has caught Lee Dohee Syndrome.]
─There’s this girl at school I liked. She used to love really pink accessories, and she was quiet and shy, which made her cute. I already knew she was a huge Lee Dohee fan, right?
So we were getting close, talking about how we could go see Debonair together if they held a concert and stuff.
But after she watched Lee Dohee’s stage, her clothes suddenly changed...
She took off all her pink accessories, started using an achromatic bag, loosened her school-uniform tie, and opened her jacket, just like during that piano stage...
But up to that point, it was fine, you know? I thought it looked cute and liked it.
Then she suddenly started making weird old-man jokes all the time. (What happens when a king throws a ball? “I humbly apologize, Your Majesty~” She actually said that shit... But I had rose-colored glasses on, so it was kind of cute.)
And then the kid started laughing in this hearty, carefree way... She speaks to her friends politely, saying things like, “What are you doing, Ms. So-and-so?” Then every now and then she looks around and gives a little snicker, and somehow that makes my heart flutter too. I’m going insane...
└When’s the election?
└I feel worse after reading this post.
└Yeah, she likes Lee Dohee. She doesn’t like you.
And the range of “Lee Dohee Syndrome” cases was extraordinarily broad.
[My crazy older sister has caught Lee Dohee Syndrome. I want to beat her to death.]
─My name is Hyeon-u, right? She keeps coming near me. Then she lifts her head like she’s trying to look fucking pretty and looks around in a circle?
She looks like a lump of fermented soybean paste.
And the things she says are unbelievable. Out of nowhere, she says, “If you add the person radical to Hyeon, meaning wise...” and then it becomes “Hyeon who wants to beat you up.” She just spouts complete nonsense.
So I ignore her and go into my room, but then she follows me in, too. In a voice filled with melancholy, she says,
“It must surely be... a universal truth that when a person sees Hyeon-u, they want to beat the hell out of him...” Then she interprets it however she wants and starts hitting me. She keeps smacking me on the head. Crazy bitch, I want her dead.
└Your sister-in-law’s sister is hilarious, hehe.
└She called you a lump of fermented soybean paste, though?
Somehow, everyone had become obsessed with copying Dohee’s behavior, convinced that everything she did looked good, and imitating her however they pleased.
Eventually, at some point, “Lee Dohee Syndrome” had erupted across South Korea.
Its typical behaviors could be summarized as follows.
[Lee Dohee Syndrome]
─Occasionally look around and grin or snicker.
─When calling someone close to you, address them politely as “Mr./Ms. So-and-so” as part of a situational role-play.
─Always order a strawberry latte when going to a café.
─Sit with your back straight when sitting in a chair. (Most people fail.)
─Rather than ironing your clothes, leave them wrinkled—or even leave them hanging open.
─When laughing, laugh heartily backward until you run out of breath.
─Enjoy old-man jokes, and make one yourself every now and then.
─Create your own routine and follow it all the way through; always start the morning with stretching. (Most people fail.)
─Even while speaking lightly, occasionally say something serious.
─Be curious about the meaning of every single Chinese character in every word.
─Read lots of books. (Most people fail.)
Of course, it was a syndrome full of contradictions.
└How does everyone fail at all the important parts? LOL
└It reminds me of my little sister. She tried following the routine, then gave up after one day, LOL.
Anyone could easily imitate the outward appearance and behavior, but imitating what lay within was difficult.
For the record, there were also people who were skeptically questioning the syndrome itself.
“Hey, Doa. Go bring the melon Mom cut.”
“Mooom, my sister’s bullying me again!”
“Oh? Your sister took time out of her busy schedule to come visit after so long, and this is how you act now that your head’s gotten so big? You are hereby sentenced to kisses.”
“Ah, nooo! Don’t! I said don’t!”
It was one thing for Dohee to be strict with herself.
But why those behaviors? Why? How?