A New Direction

Shortly after their promotional broadcast appearance.

"But you know," Choi Iseor said.

A steaming cup of sweet coffee. A padded coat that looked incredibly warm. Bundled up tight with only her face and fingers exposed, enjoying a brief moment of peace, Ha Suyun had been leisurely staring at her laptop screen, configuring her pedalboard.

"Huh?"

Suyun turned to look at Iseor, who had suddenly slid over to sit beside her. She wondered what Iseor was going to say this time.

"That thing we shot recently."

"Yeah."

"Don't you think it's a bit of a waste to only use it for that? Since we practiced so hard for it."

Hearing Iseor say this, Suyun's eyes widened. Had she misheard? Was this really coming from Iseor? They say people turn over a new leaf when they're about to die... Was Iseor destined to die young?

But she's not quite beautiful enough to be a tragic, short-lived beauty...

"Are you thinking something weird about me right now?"

"No, not at all."

"I'm pretty sure you are."

Somehow, Iseor seemed to read her mind. Suyun quickly played dumb and said the first thing that came to mind.

"What do you mean? If anyone's getting beaten, it's me getting beaten by you every day, you gorilla."

At that, Iseor yelled, "Ooh ooh ah ah!" as if to prove she really was a gorilla, and began play-punching Suyun with both hands.

Even though Suyun was wearing a very thick padded coat, the heavy impact of the punches still came through. As Suyun tried to escape, Yoo Seoha, who had just come out of the bathroom, muttered, "Look at you two. Real primates."

"Primate Punch!"

Unfortunately, Seoha wasn't wearing a padded coat to cushion the blow. While Seoha groaned and took an aerial combo, Suyun felt a wave of relief at escaping the line of fire... and pondered what Iseor had just said.

"It really is a bit of a waste to only use it for that. We did practice for quite a long time."

"Right?"

At Suyun's agreement, Iseor tossed aside whatever Seoha had turned into and clung to her side. After slapping away Iseor's hand, which was slyly creeping closer again, Suyun spoke.

"Since the song itself turned out great, I think we could definitely use it elsewhere."

"Well, yeah, we can. But the problem is, where is 'elsewhere'?"

"Ah."

Suyun twirled a strand of her hair. There were a few options. For example, doing an acoustic live performance, or releasing another acoustic album. Since they had done those before, they were proven methods. Now that they had released their first Japanese studio album, they had plenty of repertoire, and several songs from that album would fit an acoustic style perfectly. There was certainly demand for it, too.

But doing the exact same thing again feels a bit like milking it.

What is the one thing an artist must always guard against? It is stale self-replication.

Self-replication in itself isn't bad. Whether it's white rice, barley rice, or plain bread, no one really gets tired of the basics. It's a lesser-known fact, but there are far more people in the world who prefer a "familiar taste" over a "new taste."

However, an unplugged version of an electric album is more of a special treat than a daily staple. It's like a cream rose pasta tteokbokki kimchi pizza sweet and sour pork fusion dish. You wouldn't want to eat it every day, and even once a quarter might feel a bit much.

"If we're going to use it, we should pivot in a direction we haven't tried before."

"Pivot?"

"Like arranging it into a completely different genre, or scaling up the production. There are a few ways..."

Suyun twirled her hair again. There were many methods, but they would have to wait and see which one would be the most fun.

"Well, we can't do it right now anyway. We'll have to do it when we get back to Korea."

That was Suyun's conclusion. Even if they wanted to release an album or try something else, it required preparation. With their stay in Japan coming to an end, it wasn't the right time to start something new here.

"I guess so..."

"And we should talk about this with the whole band. I don't want us making decisions on our own."

"You've done just fine doing that until now. You almost transferred to another band!"

At Iseor's pouting accusation, Suyun cleared her throat loudly.

"How was that transferring to another band?"

"Oh, 'I was so busy working with another band I couldn't even come back to the dorms~'"

"I was busy."

"Omg, did you and Araki-san do this and that..."

"You crazy girl!"

Faced with such absurd slander, Suyun jumped up to grab Iseor by the hair, but Iseor burst out laughing and quickly ran away. Suyun stood in front of Iseor's door, knocking on it until her own hand hurt. Checking the clock, she went into the bedroom to wake Jung Hyun-ah.

"Hey, wake up. The sun is high in the sky, and you're still sleeping."

"It's... nine AM..."

"Nine is broad daylight. Don't you know 'The good children of the new nation wake up early'? You're all grown up."

"What... song is that...?"

Seeing Hyun-ah's bewildered expression, Suyun realized her slip-up. Ah, did I mess up the timeline again?

Maintaining a straight face, Suyun got Hyun-ah out of bed. It was time for their meeting at the office.

At the conference table in the office.

Suyun and Seoha sat on one side, while Iseor and Hyun-ah huddled by the heater, acting distracted.

"...Right. First of all, the video we shot before! It'll probably be released this week."

"That's fast."

"I asked them to release it quickly! If it gets pushed back, it might air when it's no longer relevant."

Deputy Section Chief Jeong explained as he organized the updates, adding that their other broadcast schedules were also wrapping up.

"So is that the end of the promotions? Including my other gig?"

"Ah, about that... I talked to the other agencies, but we need to discuss your solo project a bit more. We'll have to see how things go."

"Must be nice, making money all by yourself."

"Yeah, someone abandoned the band members and ran off... while we shivered in the cold dorm..."

"I should just die, honestly," Suyun muttered, brushing off the familiar teasing.

Meanwhile, Deputy Section Chief Jeong continued.

"And there's one more thing... well, I don't know if it's just one thing, but..."

"What is it?"

In response, Jeong handed over a stack of documents. Suyun took them and flipped through. Since they were written in Japanese, they weren't made internally.

"I contacted an agency regarding promotions, and they gave us this proposal. It's not official yet, but they want us to make a counter-proposal..."

"What kind of proposal?"

"It might not be directly related to music... but would you guys be interested in modeling for a clothing brand?"

Unrelated to the storm that had briefly swept through Label Echo Sound's office.

That Friday, 9:50 PM.

Time's almost up.

The previous day, Thursday at 9:00 PM, Ayun had mindlessly opened Twitter and saw the announcement that Group Sound would be appearing on The First Shot this week.

Since then, it had been an agonizing wait.

Now, it was Friday night, 10:00 PM.

Ayun clenched and unclenched her hands, unable to hide her racing heart as she stared at the screen.

And for good reason...

Our girls are appearing on The First Shot...

It was a channel reserved only for the absolute best of the best. No Korean artist, aside from idols (whom people didn't really count in the same category), had ever appeared on it.

It seemed she wasn't the only one thinking this; the Korean internet was ablaze with talk of Group Sound for the first time in a while. Perhaps a highly visible YouTube video felt much more tangible to the general public than mobilizing tens of thousands of fans for a live tour or performing at a festival.

It's almost time.

The clock, which had seemed frozen, began counting down by the second.

10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.

The premiere countdown hit 0.

The screen changed to "THE FIRST SHOT".

A white wall and a single microphone.

Four cameras. Two microphones. An upright piano and drums were already set up.

The members entered one by one: Seoha, Hyun-ah, Iseor, and finally Suyun, putting on their headphones. They all looked calm.

["Should we say a word?"]

["Like what?"]

["Hmm... how we feel, or why we made an acoustic version."]

As was typical for The First Shot, the atmosphere was slightly relaxed. Then, Suyun's face filled the screen.

["Why we made it... there isn't really a grand reason. Just thought it'd be fun to hear it this way. Well, um... just enjoy it."]

Suyun stretched her neck from side to side. It looked like the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠movement of a young deer, and Ayun couldn't help but smile.

["Let's go."]

With that signal, the drums counted in. One, two, three, four. A guitar finger snap echoed simultaneously.

The performance began.

The song that began to play was completely different from the original.

The original opening of Kingdom started with a powerful bass slap.

But what echoed now was not a destructive slap or a low-boiling finger picking.

Like a heavy violin... Ayun thought.

It sounded like a bass, but with a slightly different texture. The teaser had hinted at this, but she had wondered why they chose such a sound.

The guitar entered, resolving her doubts. It maintained the original melody but with a completely different timbre.

Wow, this is...

The guitar tone was sticky, warm, and groovy, weaving a completely different musical landscape. Latin? Jazz? Bossa nova? Whatever it was, it evoked a specific image in Ayun's mind.

An early evening, or a dim night. Sipping a drink, dancing with a new lover, while a seasoned band played on a small stage in a bar. Like four experienced musicians showing off their class to entertain the crowd.

The vocals were dry and clean. The raw emotion of the original was gone, stripped away entirely.

The missing emotion seemed to have flowed entirely into the instruments. Instead of explosive rage, there was only a tipsy, swaying, dancing groove.

The atmosphere continued to build, even without a single harsh or explosive sound. The sticky, lazy, mesmerizing groove gradually silenced the chat.

Iseor's voice whispered softly, completely different from the original.

High tones and low tones. Dual vocals.

Rhythmical drums, backing piano, deep bass holding the floor, and the acoustic guitar singing on top.

An acoustic guitar solo followed, and the chat exploded as if everyone had been holding their breath.

Ayun read the comments, her own hands and feet tapping the rhythm on their own. She smiled, knowing she was definitely not the only one.