The road to the festival venue.
The atmosphere inside the car was downright steamy.
“Turn on the air conditioning!”
This is the privilege of the front seat.
You can adjust the air conditioning however you like.
“Dad says opening the window is enough.”
“The back seat doesn’t even have windows, you Dorahee brat.”
Oh right.
There’s no window in the van.
A hum escapes as I realize this new fact.
“California dreaming~”
If only I could play the guitar too, it would have been so nice.
Imagine jamming on a ukulele right here.
Ah, romance.
“This refreshing California air.”
“Ugh… so hot…”
“Do-hee, if you leave kimchi out, it spoils.”
“What? Do I smell like spoiled kimchi?”
Oh man, why are you so dramatic?
It’s still much cooler than Korea.
“Well, I guess I’ll let it slide since Young-ho might be hot despite what the unnis think.”
“Thanks… as expected, Do-hee takes care of the manager…”
“Oh, of course. You and me.”
“What do you mean by that? Please don’t leave the manager out of this.”
I was just joking around with Manager Young-ho.
But there was actually a thoughtful reason behind it.
“Alright, moving on, let’s take our next song requests.”
The unnis, already a bit on edge thinking about this American music festival.
“Let’s play our song, we need to warm up our voices.”
In fact, I even impulsively scheduled today’s performance on a whim, so it wasn’t strange for the veteran Seo-yoon unni to be nervous.
“Hey, we’re sticking to our setlist, right?”
Of course, Kim Seo-yoon is generally a nervous person, so it could just be her.
“But what about Na-eun unni?”
“Uh? Oh, no. Just thinking.”
Even Na-eun unni, who doesn’t usually get too anxious, seemed lost in thoughts about the stage.
Clearly, everyone was worrying more than necessary.
There was really no reason to be nervous.
“Wow, but California’s weather is really nice. Look at those clouds. The sky is literally sky blue.”
In Korea, there are dozens of famous music festivals each year.
Let alone here in America, a cultural powerhouse with a massive land.
Naturally, the number and scale of music festivals here are beyond comparison.
You can’t even count them.
“So let’s just relax. Out of the thousands of music festivals in America, we can think of this one like a big local night market. How many people are really going to show up?”
“Today, they say it’s going to be over ten thousand.”
“…Really? I hadn’t heard that…”
Wait, my heart is pounding.
“S-Soo-yoon, do you have any Cheongshimwan left?”
Guess I can’t mess around now.
She shot me a serious glare when I asked for it.
“Anyway, we’re used to performing in front of thousands, this isn’t our first rodeo.”
While Chiyo unni, who was bustling around sniffing to check if I really smelled like spoiled kimchi, awkwardly smiled at Woo-ah unni.
“It’s still different, right? Today’s audience won’t know us at all.”
That’s what matters.
The fact that they don’t know us.
“What do you think the record label had in mind to suddenly schedule this for us today? They obviously want to see something like that.”
Whether we can resonate with complete strangers.
“I have a feeling that if we do well, they might invest more in us.”
“That might be true.”
Thinking it over, I realized there was no need to joke around to relax.
“Let’s just put some pressure on ourselves today.”
You might wonder what I’m talking about, but honestly, I felt that being nervous today might actually be better on stage.
“Let’s just do what we’ve practiced in the studio. Don’t overdo it just because it’s the stage.”
Even if we’re nervous, what we’ve repeated in the practice room tends to come out instinctively.
“Got it, buddy.”
“Understood, buddy.”
“Let’s do that.”
That’s just the right amount.
“If you can’t handle even that, you might as well quit being an idol.”
“If you mess up, I’m really gonna hit you, you know?”
“Oh, and absolutely no weird interjections allowed.”
The same goes for audience responses.
There was no need to throw those out there just because it was the stage.
“You know what I’m talking about, right?”
Every time stage talk came up among the members, it felt like we were arguing endlessly.
“Don’t say things like, ‘What’s up, woo, yeah, make some noise, are you ready?'”
A classy stage.
“I’m not gonna, I said I’m not. I absolutely won’t, so please stop saying it.”
Seo-yoon Unni especially reacted strongly since she’d heard it a lot.
There was no helping it.
My stance was that responses should come from the music.
If the performance is good and the song is good, then the audience will respond on their own.
“Honestly, those clichés are boring, uncreative, dull, don’t match the tone of voice, and most importantly, feel artificial. In simpler terms, it’s just disappointing.”
“Honestly, I’m saying this after watching Lira Unni’s concert.”
“No, well…”
“I’m gonna send this to Lira Unni.”
“Lira Unni has a great tone, it’s just wonderful~ and the music is amazing too! Right!”
Anyway, that wasn’t to say I wouldn’t say anything today.
In fact, since most people wouldn’t know us, I’d have to work even harder to get the audience involved.
“Anyway, since I volunteered to handle the English part today, I’ll come up with some smooth, improvised lines on my own. Got it?”
Just being myself.
“Yeah, yeah, be a genius.”
Right, be a genius.
Oh, I just remembered, I was supposed to act like a genius while mixing the mic at the venue.
Ha, is Grant leaning in on me and begging for more investment?
That would be troublesome…
.
.
.
“Uh, well… The mic is all set up nicely. The sound is just right. Seems like the genius of mixing passed through here, ahem…”
*
─Thank You!
The first stage was coming to a close amidst cheers.
“Do you know who the next singer is?”
“Who cares!”
Chloe was shaking her head with a friend, spilling beer everywhere while chatting away excitedly.
“Who knows anyone besides the sub-headliner and the headliner anyway!”
In any case, the climax of the music festival is marked by the sub-headliner and headliner.
“Until then, we might as well just enjoy ourselves!”
“That’s true!”
The sub-headliner coming up today is a rather famous rapper.
The headliner is a band that has charted multiple times in the Billboard top ranks.
Given that, there were really only those two teams that the audience would likely be familiar with from the lineup.
The only artists that anyone would know from the scene were those two teams.
“Who are they?”
“I don’t know, just give me more beer!”
The attendees at this festival didn’t come with huge expectations for the stage.
Always sunny California weather.
A festival atmosphere that fits right in.
Decent music being showcased on stage.
The audience responding with enthusiasm.
“They’re actually pretty good!”
“You came alone!?”
It’s a relatively small music festival, after all.
Still, since the singers called to perform at a music festival had decent stage presence, the songs may not have been to everyone’s taste, but they were definitely fun.
Countless performances pouring in from the afternoon.
“Let’s move forward!”
“More, more, more!”
Excited Chloe and her friend wanted to dive into the crowd of pumped-up audience members.
The main event was drawing near.
Headliner and sub-headliner.
“It’s much better from here! Should’ve come here sooner!”
“But then you can’t refill your beer!”
The main stage was quite massive up close.
With excitement and grand anticipation building.
It was around this time that curses started flying out.
“What the hell!?”
“F* this.”
It came right before the announcement of the sub-headliner rapper’s absence.
“What? This jerk ended up in the hospital from doing drugs before he even showed up?”
“Just die already!”
The news was that the rapper collapsed from partying with drugs alone.
People couldn’t help but be rough around the edges.
No matter how little they expected from this music festival, the sub-headliner and headliner were still important.
“What are we gonna do, Chloe? Should we leave!?”
But it didn’t look like many people were leaving.
“We’re already here, let’s just stick around until after Pethlas performs!”
Because of the headliner band.
“Wait, let me check who the substitute is!”
Instead, Chloe quickly hopped on the festival website.
She had heard that a substitute singer would be invited to proceed as planned.
“Of course, the substitute singer can’t be that amazing…”
And sure enough, Chloe, upon seeing the screen, was disappointed.
“K-Pop.”
“K-Pop?! NND is coming, right?”
Her friend was asking if it was NND, knowing how she sounded.
“No, she says it’s a different group.”
“Oh~ Coral Blue?”
Naturally, that made sense.
Those two were the typical K-Pop groups the general public would know.
“They say it’s a band called Debonaire?”
“Debonaire? Is it a boy band?”
Of course, she was the same way.
If there hadn’t been a photo attached, she would’ve thought it was a boy band.
“They’re supposed to be a girl band, like Coral Blue.”
“With a name like Debonaire, they’re a girl band?”
Chloe shrugged her shoulders and showed the screen.
“They really look super cute!”
“It’s K-Pop, after all.”
That was the extent of her impression. The members were all gorgeous, fitting the standard K-Pop aesthetic.
“But they’re currently ranked 98 on Billboard?”
“Are you talking about the album chart?”
“No, the Hot 100.”
“Hot 100!?”
It was just a bit surprising that a group whose name she hadn’t even heard before was on the Billboard chart.
“Really? I don’t know, but is it called Hot Bag?”
From the start, Chloe and her friend weren’t interested in KPOP, plus they had a personality that rejected Chinese TikTok, so it was inevitable that the algorithm would expose them to consistent content.
“Still, if it’s a group that made it to the Billboard charts, it might just be worth replacing Subrhythm!”
“Yeah, anyway, we’ll just watch it while waiting for Pet Blast.”
With that, they cracked open another can of beer and moved on, mixed with a slight curiosity and buzz.
And not long after…
—Wow!
The singer who had received quite a good response stepped down.
Against a white background, a black phrase appeared on the screen.
“I guess it’s the K-pop girl band’s turn!”
A phrase floating there without any music.
[DEBONAIR IS?]
With a good amount of buzz, Chloe was secretly wondering what might follow that question.
“What could it be?”
Then the music began to play.
The sound was grand, a large organ.
“I think it started!”
Mixed with static, it sounded almost as if rain was pouring somewhere.
Chloe quietly watched the screen, contrasting the bright California weather with the background music.
With a thunderous explosion sound,
The phrase on the screen was hit by lightning.
And the phrasing and background began to be flipped around.
The once-white background charred black with lightning flames.
The dark phrase now shone brightly like a light bulb.
“Oh!”
“Wow!”
As the audience marveled at the visuals they had never seen during the festival, the phrases, swept by waves of lightning, swayed and danced around.
EB O IS N AI RD
One by one, the letters’ order swapped places.
Reassembling into a single phrase.
And the new wording at the end.
Of course, it was this.
[BORN IDEALS]
“…Isn’t that cool?!”
Chloe reflexively wanted to poke her friend at the unexpected anagram.
But then, a thunderous sound, as loud as tearing eardrums, erupted again.
—!!!
The endlessly flashing screen.
Chloe quickly closed her eyes from the overpowering glare.
And in a very brief moment, as the blinding light settled, Chloe opened her eyes again.
“Wow…”
The screen already showed the silhouettes of five members.
Below them stood the girl band members in a large stage formation.
Dressed in near everyday black-toned outfits.
But the enlarged view on the screen revealed beauties beyond what she had seen earlier.
SDVIMVFoanVzY1YwSVhjamMzUkt1UW1NbklWZUd2R0x0QktvT1hLL3UzWTAwemlXam9reUtTcTRHSUs5cXJtZA
The screen zoomed in on the center member standing alone.
Tomboy styling with jeans and a black leather jacket.
“Whoa…”
But it was an overwhelming beauty that transcended both Eastern and Western standards.
Even if no audience member had any expectations, the atmosphere was such that it captured their attention with just a gesture.
And as that girl brushed her hair back with her hand not holding the microphone…
[I can see you]
The stage naturally began.
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