Chapter 97
For the first time in a while, the music video had a fresh, rookie feel to it, and the fans’ reactions were positive.
You should enjoy this while you’re a rookie. When else would you get to experience it?
★
Smiling and happy, living the Blue Duck fandom life
♡(ﾐ ᵕ̣̣̣̣̣̣ ﻌ ᵕ̣̣̣̣̣̣ ﾐ)ﾉ I just watched it while crying
The kids’ vocals felt much stronger, it was greatㅠㅠㅠㅠ
The light of a miserable life..
Yoon Cheong’s half-up hair, are you kidding me? Not a baby beast, suddenly turned into a herbivore.
Ryu Pep…….. tassel cut bob……………… crazy…….. from baby deer to baby cat
Golden Kim’s composition and Ryu Pep’s lyrics are a surefire win… I loved Golden Bo-ra…
└For real, the kids’ visuals are stunning, but the song is just so good…
└└Even my non-fan friends admit the song is good.
Seo Baek-young, did you think I’d like it if you showed up with that layered cut? If so, you were absolutely right.
I knew Cheong could sing, but… she’s new every day.
Who told Juhong to go black? I will bow to them every day.
But is it okay to reveal all the hair changes already?
└Yeah, I didn’t expect they’d reveal everything for the pre-release song.
└└They might not even perform with this hair.
But the song is too good.
Isn’t the song being released today? Ah, I can’t wait, please release it soon.
I sighed with relief as I watched the reactions coming in real-time.
So far, the feedback wasn’t bad.
More than anything, the responses to the members’ small changes were amusing.
‘…I didn’t expect the half-up hair to get such a positive reaction.’
The changes in the members’ hairstyles were all due to Yeon Juhong’s strong insistence.
‘It’s just a pre-release song. Is it necessary to make such drastic changes? Moreover, this song emphasizes freshness… I think simple hairstyles would be good.’
That was my initial opinion.
‘Right. We’re going to change a lot for the title track anyway… Do we need to do this for the pre-release song?’
The other members thought similarly.
‘Absolutely not.’
But
Yeon Juhong was different.
‘We need to provide as many fun elements as possible for the fans. We need to completely change our hairstyles. The fans are probably bored since we’ve had the same hair throughout the entire mini-album. And we didn’t change our hair for the title track concept in Color Film! How boring! No way!’
…So, we ended up making small changes.
Honestly, I didn’t expect such a strong reaction.
Of course, Ryu Bo-ra had a significant change, so I thought there might be some reaction.
She had kept her brown wavy long hair throughout the mini-album.
With her tassel cut now well above her shoulders, it must have felt fresh to the fans.
The tassel cut was also Yeon Juhong’s idea.
‘You need to shed the actress image.’
‘…Will changing my hair make the actress image disappear?’
‘It can disappear.’
It was the first time I saw Yeon Juhong speak so firmly.
‘Let’s go with the tassel cut. You have a small face, so it should look pretty.’
‘What kind of hairstyle is that, anyway?’
‘Just try it.’
And the result was a huge success.
‘Ryu Bo-ra Tassel Cut’ even became a trending search term on SNS.
Even I thought she looked pretty.
I see her face every day, yet it suddenly struck me how beautiful she really was. The fans must have felt it even more.
Anyway, I had confirmed the fans’ reactions now….
“We made it to the real-time popular video rankings!”
Now, only the public’s reaction remained.
Of course, since it was a pre-release song, I knew it might be hard to attract the general public’s attention.
But this song… it was really well-made, both sophisticated and easy to listen to.
Kim Geum had put her heart and soul into making it.
And it was also Ryu Bo-ra’s debut as a lyricist.
We hadn’t chosen Ryu Bo-ra’s lyrics just because she was a member.
We didn’t even know which lyrics were hers.
We first made the song, then requested lyrics from various lyricists, and chose through a blind competition.
We had sent it to the A&R team, Lee Sol, and other senior artists on hiatus to ensure objectivity.
Out of 50 people, her lyrics received 29 votes.
They weren’t flashy, but they felt genuine and matched our album concept well.
Naturally, I couldn’t help but hope for a good reaction.
Because it was a song we had created ourselves.
“Everyone, don’t get your hopes up.”
But I was worried about the overly excited members.
If they had high expectations and got disappointed, how heartbroken would they be?
There was no need to get so worked up over a pre-release song.
Since it was a song dedicated to the fans, we had to be less greedy.
“I, I absolutely have no expectations?! I’m just incredibly satisfied that my sisters made such an amazing song?!”
Turn off the YouTube live stream and say that….
“I, I, I, I, I, I’m absolutely not n-n-n-nervous about the v-v-v-views…”
Let’s not talk.
Kim Geum may seem brave, but she’s just a scaredy-cat.
Fans should know this too….
“……………….”
Seo Baek-young just had bloodshot eyes and said nothing.
I’m going to lose it.
“Everyone, turn off your phones.”
“B-but there are comments coming in real-time…”
“Turn them off.”
“Whimper.”
I took everyone’s phones and put them in my bag.
“If it does well, that’s great. If not, we can focus more on the title track. Let’s be more composed.”
I spoke calmly.
Geez, it’s not like I was releasing a music video for the first time.
I’ve been doing this for 10 years.
This much is a piece of cake…
“Why can’t you let go of your phone, then!”
“….”
It’s a piece of cake.
“Enough. Let’s practice. Is everyone ready?! Can we debut tomorrow?!”
“…That’s unfair….”
“Gangster….”
“Bad person.”
“……….”
Seo Baek-young saying nothing is even scarier.
Like a true maniac.
Anyway, everyone finally put down their phones and started practicing.
“Ugh.”
After a few hours had passed.
When I felt everyone had reached their physical limits.
“Let’s take a break.”
I said, looking at the clock on the wall, noticing that two hours had already passed.
No wonder it was tiring.
“Unnie, can we please check our phones just once?!”
“No.”
“Please. Just once.”
“No.”
“Then you check your phone, unnie, in case the manager tried to contact us.”
That was a reasonable argument.
Giving in to Ryu Bo-ra’s suggestion, I took out my phone only.
“Why is everyone so obsessed with the view count… Oh.”
“?!”
Oh.
“Why are there so many missed calls?”
There were no less than 30 missed calls.
Ten from the manager unnie, sixteen from Lee Sol, and four from Lee Juseon, Lee Kyunga, Jo Hee-on, and CEO Hong.
Could something have gone wrong?
“Oh… did something bad happen?”
“Gasp.”
Everyone pushed me aside and grabbed their phones.
But at that moment.
“Guys!”
The practice room door burst open.
“Senior?”
It was Lee Sol.
“Why weren’t you answering your phones!”
Lee Sol was panting, her face bright red.
She must have come in a hurry.
I felt really sorry about this.
“I’m sorry. We thought it wasn’t a good idea to keep checking the reactions… so we turned off our phones for a bit.”
“Why didn’t you check!”
?
Lee Sol knew how I felt….
Maybe she didn’t understand because she debuted with a big hit?
“Uh… in case the reaction was bad….”
“You’ve hit 1 million views!”
What.
“The fastest ever for a rookie!”
What the heck.
***
“Someone please slap me.”
“Isn’t it supposed to be a pinch?”
“Do whatever… I can’t believe it….”
Kim Geum dutifully pinched Yeon Juhong’s cheek.
“Ow!”
“Does it hurt?”
“This isn’t… a dream….”
“It’s real.”
Let’s leave those two dumb and dumber alone.
I focused on grilling the pork belly.
Thanks to the card Lee Sol handed us with tears of joy, we were eating pork belly.
Why didn’t we buy beef with a senior’s card?
Everyone decided it was better to buy 20 servings of pork belly.
We felt too guilty to eat that much beef.
“Everyone, please admit it now.”
Bang.
Seo Baek-young slammed her chopsticks down forcefully.
Her expression was so fierce that we all got scared.
“Admit what?”
“That we…”
Seo Baek-young swallowed a mouthful of grilled kimchi.
“…can aim for first place this time.”
“….”
There was a brief silence.
“…That’s a bit…”
“Judging first place based on YouTube views for a pre-release song…”
“This is just the beginning, right? The album hasn’t even been released yet, don’t count your chickens before they hatch…”
Everyone spoke harshly, but smiles were spreading across their faces.
They understood how Seo Baek-young felt.
Even I could barely hold back tears.
Even though we hadn’t achieved any proper results yet, just because the pre-release song’s views were good.
It reminded me of when I won first place for the first time.
I think I cried a lot back then.
But now that I had more experience, I could hold back my tears.
“I understand that everyone is happy.”
I calmly placed a piece of meat in front of each person.
“But let’s not be complacent. We haven’t even released the title track. The title track is the real deal. And even if we win first place with the title track, we must never.”
I took a deep breath.
“Be complacent or arrogant. We succeeded because of our fans, not because of our own efforts. Never forget that.”
I learned this lesson the hard way during my fifth year.
Back then, I thought I was the greatest.
“And there’s a rule in the entertainment industry.”
“What is it?”
I hesitated for a moment.
Would saying this make me seem like an old-timer?
But I thought it was better to say it.
“Just when you think you’re doing the best….”
Then,
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
Notifications flooded the members’ phones.
“Something goes wrong.”
Just like this.