Live Tour: Chilling and Bleak
A single note from the piano emerged from the black mist, only to drop back into silence. The slow, resounding melody halted at some point. The other instruments fell quiet. The stage lights dimmed. It was as if the world had frozen in that instant of emptiness. From out of the darkness, Suyeon's voice echoed forth.
If you could see that the dreams that were taking shape, the years you'd clung to, were all just lingering regrets—they'd be thickly embedded in that voice. The flowing emotion, though it sank into the essence of submersion, was overwhelmingly intense.
The melody flowed back out once more, into a vast, desolate sea like something from long ago that had never happened, starting anew. It came from the guitar. A simple, unadorned line, thin and threading through the air. Beneath the single spotlight, Suyeon stood holding her black guitar, head slightly bowed, gazing only at the microphone.
The stars up there, the horizon you'd seen every day—they wept sadly in her voice, and it surely wasn't hers alone to feel. The accompanying guitar didn't so much ring out as walk, the word that fit best. Like climbing stairs, one grueling step at a time. One note, then another.
Just fleeting shouts echoing in forgotten time—that's all it was. The guitar, whispering so thinly, suddenly leaped up after the vocals ended, jolting the audience awake. The lights faded in dimly, and a second spotlight poured down, illuminating Iseo.
Against the backdrop of the guitar's strokes, it started simple at first. The low rumble grew into a rhythmic beat, bouncing with energy. On the beat, then off-beat, back to on-beat. The bass wove through in complex intersections. And the third spotlight fell on Seoha and the drums.
Four full downbeats crashed from her wildly swinging drumsticks. Then a barrage of sixteenth notes. With the final strike, the entire venue blazed to life. Had the staff hurriedly decorated during the dark moments? The empty stage now brimmed with vibrant flowers and lush greenery.
The melody that had echoed so mournfully moments before returned, similar yet utterly transformed—bursting with incredible cheer from Hyeona's fingertips. The piano melody danced over the other three instruments, like watching a single dancer in a dance hall, lost in ecstasy, moving freely yet with every step and line so beautiful it drew applause.
The dreams that were taking shape, the years you'd clung to... Suyeon's voice rang out utterly different from before, as if it'd washed away the sticky black emotions clinging to it.
Flowing into a vast sea like long ago, as if it never happened... The lyrics and rhythm were the same, but the soaring high notes and the crisp refreshment they carried created a completely different atmosphere.
The story starts again—a new page in the book, the changed lyrics hinted directly at one thing, unlike the vaguely meaningful words Group Sound had crafted before. No one else knew for sure, but Hyeonji thought so.
Group Sound's lyrics were famously all penned by Iseo... but these had to be Suyeon's.
It has to be...
It might seem brazen. Maybe even a bid for sympathy. No one knew what had happened. All that came through was raw, honest emotion.
As the vocals wrapped up, the song seemed poised to end. But the instruments didn't stop. The atmosphere bubbled like air rising from underwater, gradually heating until it burst forth in steam.
The three instruments, circling steady paths, suddenly derailed. Like kids let loose in a play cafe, they scattered wildly in all directions. Astonishingly, though, not a single off-key note disrupted the mood—not once.
The melody, motif, harmony shifted bit by bit. Yet like a mighty river accepting tributaries without changing its flow, the song's grand theme held firm. At its center was the guitar.
Supporting the three while acting like a guardian keeping the kids from running wild—like a protector. Through gestures, notes, signals. Conducting them like a maestro. When the guitar stepped forward from its role, the crowd erupted in applause.
The tempo quickened gradually. Suyeon strode to the front of the stage. Then down off it.
"Woooaaah!!"
The staff's futile attempts to stop her went ignored as Suyeon walked calmly through the crowd, as if she knew they'd part. Her eyes, not their usual blank stare but alive, as if truly feeling the space around her, swept over them.
She released the pick, playing with her left hand alone... waving to the audience, then extending it to one person right in front of her, like offering a handshake.
"Damn, so jealous!"
Her friend's lament rang true for Hyeonji too. Even from a crappy seat, if she'd been there! But maybe Suyeon would shake hands with everyone? No—after one handshake, she climbed back onstage with a relieved expression, like she'd shaken off a weight.
The main melody rang out again. The tempo now twice as fast. As the audience cheered, sensing the long jam's end, the guitar played the main riff... then everything halted abruptly, the silence filled by thunderous applause.
At the airport on the day of their return flight, she pulled her cap low over her face, AirPods in, staring at a YouTube screen. Though it had only happened yesterday, fan cams from the show were already up. The quality was shockingly good—video and audio crisp—drawing tons of comments.
Over-the-top fangirl comments. At first, they'd given her chills—modern slang for "goosebumps" from obsession—but she'd gotten used to them now. She could just laugh it off, thinking, They must really like us that much. Sometimes she even wondered, What fresh hilarious take will they have today?
"Suyeon."
Iseo's hand tapped her shoulder, snapping her out of her thoughts. The three had bounced off excitedly to browse duty-free earlier, but now Iseo was back alone. Suyeon pulled out her AirPods.
"Yeah?"
"Got something to ask you."
"What?"
Iseo hemmed and hawed, as if it was hard to spit out after saying there was something. Seeing Suyeon's eyebrow arch, she finally spoke.
"Those lyrics... um, were they... about you?"
"Why?"
"No, I mean... just curious. You never write lyrics. Up until rehearsal yesterday, it was just humming. Then suddenly you had words, so... yeah, curious."
Her face screamed anything but casual curiosity. Suyeon tilted her head slightly, shrugged, and replied.
"Eh... it's all in how you take it, right? Hard to pin down. You don't go telling people exactly what your lyrics mean either."
"W-Well... yeah, true."
Iseo shot her a knowing look, then bolted with, "Gonna hit the bathroom real quick!"
She didn't look like she needed the bathroom at all. But Suyeon just chuckled. It didn't matter what Iseo thought. It was time to let it go anyway—she'd seized the chance and written it. No big weight to it, no deep meaning in her life. Just a song passing through.
Group Sound's nationwide tour. Official name: Group Sound Nationwide Live Tour.
Plenty of bands had done national tours—success stories abounded, nothing special. This year, last year, the year before... most decent bands toured every year, or every two or three.
But for indie bands, nationwide tours weren't common. You needed TV appearances, chart runs. Even then, they stuck to major cities at best.
So what Group Sound pulled off was unprecedented.
Venues as small as fifty seats, sometimes not even proper stages. Zero profit in sight. Yet Group Sound dove in without hesitation.
Every other day was standard; sometimes back-to-back in different cities. Sheer madness, bleeding money. Anyone in the scene would call it a fast track to bankruptcy.
But the results? Explosive.
Word-of-mouth is the strongest marketing—telling a friend. That simple act beats any ad for reeling in new fans, thanks to trust.
Now imagine the band showing up in person to play for you. Bands you'd ignore, flip past on TV, or dismiss after seconds as "noisy crap." But when the creators bring it right to you? No escaping it, no desire to.
Non-target consumers—folks outside Group Sound's usual crowd, other age groups—came, watched, spread the word. Just as planned, building popularity from the ground up...
Group Sound was heading to Seoul. To cap off the tour.