At the end of January, the winter vacation of Yeona, a high school girl who was about to become a third-year student, was filled with nothing but trips to cram school.
“Ugh, I seriously don’t want to study.”
It was an undeniably boring and painful daily life.
“Hey, hey, Bae Yeona, did you see that? This is huge.”
Even so, the thing that let her endure it was, as always, the time she spent hanging out with friends her own age.
“Huh? Why, what is it?”
“Apparently Teacher Han got a wig.”
“For real?”
“Seriously, for real. You know the CSAT is exactly 300 days away today, right? The kids are calling it the ‘Miracle of 300 Days’ hair-growth show.”
After exchanging such pointless gossip for a while, their stomachs began to growl.
“Wanna go get mala tang in a bit?”
“Okay, let’s go.”
Once cram school ended, getting little snacks with pocket money like this was another small joy unique to being a student.
“Oh, this song’s pretty good. Who is it?”
At the restaurant she and her friend went to for mala tang, Yeona listened closely to the song playing around them.
─I’ll enjoy it, whatever the answer is
It was a dance track with highly addictive EDM and rap layered over it.
In other words, it had the feel of girl-gangster G-house.
“What? You don’t know this song?”
“Who are they?”
“They’re the follow-up group to Coral Blue. Jeon Harang’s in it.”
Yeona had just been forcibly switched to a 2G phone by her parents now that she was about to become a third-year student, so she had no idea what was currently popular.
“No way, Jeon Harang debuted?”
“They debuted last week. How do you not know?”
“I told you, I spent all of last week fighting with my mom over my phone all day.”
“Your mother is pretty strict, after all.”
Her friend sat down and calmly held out her phone.
[BEAT-LYN]
[Jeon Harang] [Seol] [Chloe] [Ina]
─Genres: Rap/Hip-Hop, K-POP, Dance/Pop, EDM/House
It was a wiki page.
“Oh… Beatlyn? Beatlin?”
“It’s Beatlyn, but Beatlin works too, I guess. Though Beatlyn sounds better.”
[Group Name]
[The group name was created by combining “BEAT,” emphasizing the nature of hip-hop music, which centers on rhythm and beats, with the feminine name suffix “-lyn,” which gives off a pretty yet familiar image like a girl next door. It means “girls who do hip-hop.”
In addition, “BEAT-LYN,” which is read as “Beatlin” in Korean, contains the group’s ambition to avoid the stereotypical existing styles and musical approaches that are the essence of hip-hop, and instead express music in new and creative ways.]
“Names these days really seem to put a lot of meaning into complicated portmanteaus. Seeing it like this, it’s not bad.”
“The third generation did that too, but these days they’ve gotten more complicated and sophisticated. Starting with Saven, practically every fourth-generation girl group is like that.”
As Yeona chattered with her friend, ate mala tang, and listened to the song, her mood improved considerably.
“But this song is actually pretty good. It’s not really the current style, but it really sticks in your ears.”
In fact, another thing that gave high school seniors around this time a boost of energy was music. K-pop idols in particular.
“Right?”
“Yeah, it’s my first time hearing it, but the song’s good.”
If you went into any classroom, it was an everyday sight to see boys and girls alike watching idol music videos on their tablets. Among them, there were more than a few who collected photocards or joined fan clubs.
“I think this is already number two on Watermelon after just one week. They say it’ll reach number one within the week.”
“Seriously?”
“They’re Coral Blue’s junior group, remember? With the same producer, of course it’s going to be good.”
“But Lira kept participating in Coral Blue’s songs too, so isn’t it different?”
“No, no. Lira participated in this title track too.”
“For real? Somehow, I knew it.”
“That’s why everyone’s listening to it right now. They’re definitely going to win Rookie of the Year this year, right? I heard their overseas streams surpassed Debonair and Ailee.”
“Wow… Coral Blue’s spillover effect really is no joke.”
“The song’s good too, right?”
“Well, whenever a Saven member comes out, they win Rookie of the Year.”
“Exactly. I heard Gong Chaerin is finally making her solo debut. Aren’t they just going to split the awards again this year?”
Her friend, who had been picking up pieces of dried tofu, suddenly asked,
“But Yeona. Lee Dohee is nineteen now too. Do you think she’ll take the CSAT?”
Speaking of Lee Dohee.
They had just said that Jeon Harang’s group, BEAT-LYN, had surpassed Debonair’s overseas streaming numbers. But it was still an undeniable fact that Lee Dohee was the most popular idol among current high school students.
“Come on, what idol would take the CSAT?”
“Is that so? But Lee Dohee’s good at studying.”
You could find at least one or two people in any class who had caught Lee Dohee fever.
“I don’t know. Maybe she was only good at it back then.”
For the record, the friend in front of her was slightly infected too.
Whenever Lee Dohee wore her hair parted away from her forehead, her friend did the same. Whenever Dohee wore full bangs, her friend got full bangs too. She subtly copied her all the time.
“But if Dohee had only studied, she definitely would’ve gone to Hanguk University, right? She was always first in the entire school.”
“Well, that could be true.”
Still, she was glad the girl wasn’t that bad. She was merely following the trend.
There was no comparison with the girl in the class next door, who was famous as a terminal patient of Lee Dohee fever.
She edited her profile picture as much as possible to look like Lee Dohee, then went around spouting nonsense everywhere:
‘This senior I know keeps saying I look like Lee Dohee. It’s seriously so fucking annoying…’
‘Yeona, do I look like Lee Dohee to you too? Sigh…’
“Ugh, gross.”
Yeona shuddered and rubbed her arms, which had broken out in goosebumps.
Meanwhile, her friend, who had been giggling while looking at her phone, made another fuss.
“Hey, hey, Yeona. This is huge, huge. Look at this.”
“What?”
“Apparently Lee Dohee and Jeon Harang appeared on a variety show together?”
“…Seriously?”
Yeona quickly leaned her head over.
“No way.”
In truth, Yeona herself was also one of the girls who purely admired Lee Dohee, just like her peers—she simply didn’t show it outwardly.
It wasn’t something that had started only a day or two ago. Maybe it had begun back when Saven were still middle-schoolers.
[#Mission Super Planet / Phone Missions with the Hottest Girl-Group Members!! Byunghun hyung: Jeon Harang, you and Ms. Dohee planned this, didn’t you?]
It was only a phone mission, but the Ailee members had never even overlapped with her on a variety show before. The fact that she had suddenly appeared alongside Jeon Harang made Yeona’s heart pound.
And the reactions were as follows.
[LOL, seriously, Harang’s getting played by Dohee all day long (11,000 likes)]
└The second Harang started acting cute as soon as she picked up the phone, Dohee sighed and said, “Unnie, you’re on air…” No, wait, LOL
└Honestly, you can totally predict how Harang usually calls the other members LOL
└Chaerin: “Why didn’t Harang unnie pick up the phone?” That unnie doesn’t call with any particular purpose. She just calls whenever she’s bored and sings.
└Did she really say that?
└Harang posted on Instagram telling her to pick up, so Chaerin said that on a livestream LOL
[Wow, Lee Dohee got every quiz question right immediately after waking up… Is this scripted? (9,600 likes)]
└He’s PD Choi Byunghun, what script? LOL
└Even if you know the answer, it’s hard to respond right away. That’s impressive.
└LOL, she’s really putting on a show. This is just viral marketing for Lee Dohee’s image.
└Reading books isn’t anything amazing, and they’re calling everything a concept. What the hell?
[Honestly, isn’t it a little difficult to call this a general-knowledge quiz? (4,100 likes)]
└They definitely seemed like questions designed to make her get them wrong LOL How did she know the Persian run? Seriously LOL
└Even when she guessed, she guessed logically, which was kind of surprising.
└Honestly, I only knew the first question.
└Beautiful and smart♡
[According to the stories the members tell, Lee Dohee apparently reads a lot of books (9,200 likes)]
└I hope she introduces some of the books she’s read someday.
└It’s amazing that she still does that despite having a packed schedule.
└She’s just… superhuman. No one knows what she’s really thinking, but she always seems perfect.
└LOL, it’s just funny watching her fans go overboard promoting her. Male-idol fans have nothing on them LOL
└Leave them alone. They’ll get exposed someday.
[She’s got a sexy brain too, seriously (4,200 likes)]
└Lee Dohee would probably be really good at nonfiction passages too.
└Even just looking at her recent stages, she’s different somehow.
└But her figure is seriously the real deal. She’s genuinely glamorous; she just hides it completely. When it occasionally shows, her chest moves… ah, seriously, search “Lee Dohee heavy” LOL
└She really grew up well… and has a big heart.
└Ah, seriously, just once.
└These comments… I’m genuinely curious what their faces look like LOL
└You want to do that to a minor born in 2008?
[Mbappé LOL It’s understandable to confuse it with the Mpemba effect (8,200 likes)]
└I didn’t know the name of that effect was “Mpemba.”
└Even if Dohee isn’t a huge soccer fan, she seems to like it in her own way LOL Remember when she went to Manchester City and saw Haaland LOL
└Mbappé must be jealous, getting a shout-out from Dohee.
└The Mbappé-Haaland war caused by Lee Dohee LOL
[Harang opposed promoting Dohee because they’re rivals, but the moment she heard they wouldn’t overlap, she immediately gave permission. So cute.]
└Does this mean Debonair is making a comeback in mid-February?
└There hasn’t even been an article or a timetable yet, so nobody knows ㅠㅠ I’m just hoping it’s February.
└Ugh, Top East seriously doesn’t do any work. How do they put a rookie group in storage for over half a year?
└What, you don’t know about their luxury strategy? LOL
* * *
The timing really was perfect for a comeback.
According to the promotions team, the traffic volume—which had shown an endless upward curve after the year-end performances—had gradually declined with time, only to rise again starting with BEAT-LYN’s debut.
“We’re helping each other out.”
Since Saven member Harang unnie had debuted and was doing well, they seemed to be benefiting from being associated with each other.
“With this level of mentions, I think we could definitely go without teasers… My instincts are telling me it’ll work.”
“Huh? Even if they weren’t, wouldn’t we have gone that way anyway? Were there actually criteria?”
“Ah, why are you nitpicking everything?”
I was just talking to myself while trying to organize my thoughts.
“…Dohee? It’s me, Naeun unnie…”
“Huh?”
“Unnie…”
“What? It was Naeun unnie? For a second I thought it was Seoyoon unnie.”
The people who usually nitpicked me were either Chiyo unnie or Seoyoon unnie, so I had mistaken her without thinking… Haha.
“I’m still working on the music video images, so my brain’s overloaded and I’m a little out of it, heehee.”
“Right…”
Was this unnie really sulking?
“But you know I love Naeun unnie so, so much, right? Kiss~ Mwah~”
“W-Why are you acting like this? That’s gross…”
Thankfully, Naeun unnie fled in horror.
Anyway, with the fourth and final music video shoot coming up, all we had to do was wrap things up quickly and make our comeback.
The comeback date was February 13.
About three weeks from now.
“Oh, wait, Seoyoon.”
“Yeah, what?”
Seoyoon unnie, who had been standing behind us, finally looked over at me blankly.
“Come to think of it, didn’t Harang unnie’s group say they were doing follow-up promotions too? With the coupling track this time?”
“You didn’t know? I think so. Yesterday, Harang unnie posted in the group chat, bragging about their results and saying she was going to line up first and second place too.”
“Ah…”
This was an emergency. I could already foresee twenty missed calls from Harang unnie.
“I told Harang unnie we wouldn’t overlap, and I promoted it on her show.”
But honestly, this was her group’s fault.
Who suddenly told them to do follow-up promotions too?
They should promote only the title track, fair and square.
Or do what we did and use four self-written title tracks…