After stopping by Topist Entertainment and finishing the arrangement work with the help of Team Leader So-hyun and Composer Jeon Yo-seob, I returned to the Shock Entertainment studio in the early hours for a final check.
This was because there might be a need for additional mixing or rearrangement.
“Ha-ah… Working at this hour…”
But with her dark circles under her eyes, Unni Chae-rin didn’t seem happy about it.
“I need to prepare for the year-end stage as well…”
While setting up the song, I kept hearing her grumbling and whining from behind.
“We have the Singapore tour this weekend… We need to leave the day after tomorrow. Ha-ah…”
I decided to try comforting her once.
“Unni, preparing an album titled ‘Dawn’ in the early hours is so emotional and kinda romantic, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, it’s crazy…”
“Right?”
“I’m the crazy one…”
It didn’t seem to be working well.
“Ha… I shouldn’t have tried to help.”
At times like this, I had no choice but to empathize blindly.
“True. Why did you do that back then?”
“……”
Unni Chae-rin, with her displeased expression, flopped down on the sofa.
And in a gloomy tone, she said,
“You really need to be nice to Seo-yoon. She was probably really nice at first.”
“…? This unni must be really crazy. That’s definitely not true.”
“Ha-ah…”
Honestly, I initially planned to ensure Unni Chae-rin’s right to sleep for her mental health.
However, looking at the schedule, this time there was no choice. Time was extremely tight.
Our goal was the grand prizes at the three major awards known as WMA, WMMA, and the Golden Disk.
Specifically, the Song of the Year award.
The most important thing to win the Song of the Year is a visible indicator like the annual chart ranking.
The Watermelon annual chart I checked before coming showed ‘Unsatisfied,’ released at the beginning of the year, ranked 2nd.
And on the Box, Gown, and Jenny charts, it was in 1st place.
At this point, we could say we were almost qualified for the grand prize.
“If there’s an additional catalyst on the Watermelon chart, it could reclaim 1st place by December.”
But just having the 1st place on the annual chart doesn’t guarantee winning the Song of the Year that year.
In reality, it had consistently happened that an artist ranked 1st didn’t receive the prize.
This was because the evaluation criteria for the grand prize included public voting, along with the group’s influence and popularity that year.
Therefore, the significance of this comeback was just one thing.
To maintain the waning popularity and influence during the overseas tour as a final catalyst.
It meant that we had to make a comeback at least one week, if not two, before our first year-end awards show, the WMMA Watermelon Music Awards, starting on November 28th.
“But when are we preparing our year-end stage? We need to practice the choreography.”
“You said you can do it…”
“I meant I could cut down on sleep. Well, if we only perform on the first week of music shows, we should have time to practice, right?”
“Ha-ah… why did I agree to such nonsense…”
“It’s okay. Everyone but Kim Seo-yoon agreed by vote.”
While Gong Chae-rin Unni was mumbling again, the MIDI equipment finished booting up.
Now it was time to play the completed track for Chae-rin Unni.
“Unni, are we playing it now?”
Without answering, Chae-rin Unni waved her hand, signaling a positive response.
And with a click, the demo version started playing.
It was just a version with meaningless lyrics that barely matched the rhythm, recorded in roughly 30 minutes after the arrangement was finished.
But my satisfaction was through the roof.
And it looked like Chae-rin Unni felt the same way, despite the dark circles under her eyes making her look a bit crazy.
“Ha-ah… there’s nothing to fix, and I came for no reason. I should’ve just listened to it on my laptop.”
“Right? Mixing probably isn’t even needed.”
“Yeah. We really made a great piece. It’s exhausting, but the song is so good that the tiredness fades away.”
“Then should we try writing lyrics now?”
Chae-rin Unni frowned again at my joke.
An irritable response followed.
“Please, let the lyricists handle that. We don’t have time.”
“Then what about the dance?”
“Ha-ah… are you doing this on purpose? Since when did we ever create a dance?”
“What? Unni, you’re a dance genius. Oh right, we need to decide on outfits and concepts too, right?”
Now Chae-rin Unni was leaving the studio without a reply.
“Unni, let’s go together~”
There’s a surprising thrill in teasing Chae-rin Unni.
*
After the announcement of Seven’s comeback, posts mocking fans who went on overseas trips frequently popped up in the Seven fan community.
[Is there any fool who spent big money to see concerts abroad when there’s a comeback in November?]
[Ha~ November comeback and December year-end stage? I’m already excited, haha.]
[I’ve seen both domestic concerts and I’m lounging in bed watching the overseas concert on VCR, and here I am, confidently claiming a victory today.]
Of course, these posts subtly hinted at envy toward the fans who went to see the concerts abroad, creating a cheerful atmosphere.
However, it wasn’t like the overseas concert-goers didn’t feel a sting at all.
In the first place, most of the concert-goers anticipated that there would be no schedules for the Seven members, except for the year-end stage, so this was an instinctive decision made after careful consideration.
—(Picture of bank balance) Is there another domestic new song stage…? There’s gonna be a comeback…?
└”Student, go over there and cry, it’s so frustrating.”
—I’m a office worker, and I’ve used up all my leave for this overseas concert… I can’t even dream of going to a music show…
└”Then just go on the weekend!”
└”Are you T? Just asking for some empathy!”
└”For real, I’m sad I can’t go to music shows on weekdays, right?”
But there were indeed fans who didn’t care about any of this.
Manila? Manila.
Bangkok? Bangkok.
Singapore? Singapore.
Most of the fans who followed the tour schedule. They were precisely Seven’s Home Mamas.
And as one of Do-hee’s Home Mamas, she didn’t care about all this. She just couldn’t play it cool when it came to teasing.
—Tap, tap, tap.
“Yeah… the concert costs less because of the yen, and the travel is super sweet.”
—Tap, tap, tap.
“Did you know there’s a Seven goods shop opened in Akihabara, Japan? It was so cheap, I bought everything.”
—Tap, tap, tap.
“Wow, the Tokyo concert was so much fun… The new stages and the kids are more familiar with the concert now, they did even better…”
—Tap, tap, tap.
“Wow, Do-hee’s twin ponytails at the Tokyo concert were totally sparkly… Her Japanese was so good, you have to hear it live. But if I couldn’t, isn’t that a shame?”
After finishing up her comment work on her secondary account, the Home Mama felt relieved and finally dove into her SNS to begin her fan activities.
Of course, when it comes to fan activities, it wasn’t anything special.
It was just browsing through her timeline filled with Seven posts.
And today, there was one unusually hot topic.
[Is this a spoiler?]
A post with just one video boldly dropped alongside the title. From the outfit, it appeared to be from day two of the Tokyo concert.
As she clicked on the video, it played a clip of Do-hee communicating with Japanese fans during the concert’s talk show, speaking in Japanese.
“Ah, this…”
She too had watched the concert live, but couldn’t understand the conversations in Japanese.
The translated subtitles read:
[This production is being handled by someone with incredible abilities, so you can really look forward to it! The members liked it a lot too!]
The members, unable to understand Japanese again, were nodding their heads, but from the viewer’s perspective, they certainly seemed to be agreeing.
“What’s up, if the members all like it, is it someone extremely famous?”
The Home Mama entered the comments section to see the list of PDs and composers the fans were speculating about.
They were top-tier composers that every K-pop fan had probably heard of at least once.
It was a gathering.
“Oh, this person is really good. But didn’t they start their own company? Well, they do collaborate sometimes. Oh, Black Pill would be great for this!”
Honestly, Home Mama was quite worried after seeing the comeback article.
With less than three weeks left until the announced comeback date following the tour, even if songs were prepared in advance, it was an impossible schedule.
However, Home Mama gained confidence that famous producers would be able to take care of the members.
“Yeah, no matter how foolish Shock Entertainment is, would they rush into something like this?”
Although originally aware, Seven’s albums and comebacks were all conducted strategically.
Just looking at the album titles made that clear.
The first single, ‘Aurora.’
A rebellious and hip-hop concept by the members starting with their debut, refusing to be confined to existing molds.
The second single, ‘Daydream.’
A classic yet refreshing and pure concept that everyone loves.
The third single, ‘Dusk.’
A leading, sophisticated, and urban concept.
The album titles were focused on the flow of time.
Since Seven’s motto symbolized supreme happiness with ‘Seventh heaven,’ it implied that like the changing colors of the sky throughout time, each album would showcase different aspects of the members.
“Speaking of which, I wonder what the next album title will be…”
And the answer to that mystery would soon be revealed.
One week later, it was disclosed through an article.
[Seven to make a comeback on November 13… releasing the fourth single album ‘Wee Hours.’]
The word meaning the middle of the night, ‘Wee hours.’
Literally translated, it means small hours.
It was a dual-meaning album title that encapsulated Seven’s short-lived time, which was nearing its end.
But what was getting more attention was undoubtedly this article.
[Seven reveals ‘Wee Hours’ tracklist. Main producers ‘Gong Chae-rin · Do-hee Lee.’]
“Seven confirms its own ‘Seven-ness’ charm with the inclusion of the track ‘Stars of Stars’ and the title ‘Fantasia,’ produced mainly by Gong Chae-rin and Do-hee Lee.”
Meanwhile, Seven’s fourth single album ‘Wee Hours’ will be released on the 13th at 6 PM through domestic and international music sites.
And it was no surprise that fans were buzzing upon encountering the article.
[Amazing ability of producers = Do-hee, Chae-rin hahahaha, Ra-hee haha.]
