Current time: 1:28 AM
There were 2 minutes left until wake-up time. I, along with Gyeon Ha-jun and Seo Ye-hyun, who had taken a short nap from 11 PM to 1 AM, were all awake.
Despite the brief sleep, Seo Ye-hyun was worried about looking puffy and was splashing cold water on his face, trying hard to set himself up to look presentable. Watching him fuss over his appearance, I buried my face back into the pillow.
“Has the youngest woken up yet…?”
“Send him a message. If he’s not sleeping, he’s probably on his phone.”
Responding in a groggy voice to Gyeon Ha-jun’s murmur, I noted that I had turned off the alarm that would have gone off by now.
The script called for the person with the camcorder to go around waking up the members and capturing their ‘just woken up’ looks.
At the knock on the door, the three of us pretended to sleep.
“Hello, this is the room used by the three older members. It’s twice the size of our room. Only those over 180 cm tall can use it.”
With that, Ryu Jae-hee burst into the room.
“They all seem to be sleeping soundly. Unlike me and Dobin, who have separate mattresses, they share a big one, forcing them to sleep together… Ah, by ‘sleep together,’ I mean sharing the same bed.”
Ryu Jae-hee, who was whispering to the camcorder, first targeted Seo Ye-hyun.
“This is Ye-hyun, the eldest visual member of Reve. Even when he sleeps, he looks handsome. Life really is unfair.”
Recalling how Seo Ye-hyun was frantically trying to avoid looking bad on camera moments ago, I couldn’t help but smirk.
Although he looks decent while sleeping, it was nothing compared to his current setup look.
“Ye-hyun, wake up.”
Following the advice of the acting genius Gyeon Ha-jun, Seo Ye-hyun raised his upper body without speaking, maintaining a dazed morning look.
“Since you’re up, how about greeting the fans with a morning greeting?”
“Good morning, Daydream.”
Starting the day with Seo Ye-hyun’s morning greeting instead of an alarm wasn’t exactly what I would call a refreshing start.
“Next, we have Reve’s leader, Eden. Doesn’t he look a bit more peaceful when he’s sleeping?”
Ryu Jae-hee, who had chosen me as the next target, pressed his fingers on my furrowed brow and shook my body.
“Eden, it’s morning.”
“…I’m awake.”
I turned over and buried my face in the pillow, responding. My concept was to appear half-asleep but insist I was awake, still trying to sleep.
“You’re not awake. Hurry up and wake up!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
I responded vaguely and pulled the hood over my head. I sensed someone next to me slowly sitting up.
“Oh, Ha-jun, did you wake up on your own without me having to wake you?”
“Did you sleep well, Jae-hee? You woke up early today.”
“What do you mean? I’m the most diligent morning person in Reve.”
Ryu Jae-hee lied shamelessly without a hint of hesitation.
Maybe the acting genius was not Gyeon Ha-jun but Ryu Jae-hee.
“You can’t be a morning person if you sleep until 10 AM unless someone wakes you. Do you even know what ‘morning person’ means, maknae?”
Grumbling, I sat up as Ryu Jae-hee held the camcorder up to me, prompting me to greet.
“Good morning.”
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t morning but closer to night. With half-closed eyes, I waved at the camcorder. After about seven years in the idol industry, I had mastered the skill of looking ‘barely awake but not unattractive’ on camera.
Typically, Seo Ye-hyun would be the first to wake up and go for a morning workout, Gyeon Ha-jun would get up next and start preparing breakfast, and I would wake up half-asleep to the sound of the second alarm, scribbling lyrics in my phone’s memo app while lying on the mattress.
And when Gyeon Ha-jun would tell me to wake the others for breakfast, I’d head to the maknae’s room, blast a loud song on full volume, and wake them up.
When Ryu Jae-hee was the first to wake up, it was clear this was going to be a staged show.
After successfully performing our wake-up routine, we followed Ryu Jae-hee to the room used by the younger members.
“Now, let’s wake up Dobin.”
“Dobin still not awake?”
“He said to wake him up last after waking up the hyungs.”
As soon as we saw Kim Dobin sprawled comfortably on his bed, we knew. He was actually sleeping.
Unlike us, who were pretending to be asleep, Kim Dobin was genuinely showing his waking-up face.
“Dobin, wake up!”
“You said to wake me up last after the hyungs…”
Mumbling in a drowsy voice, Kim Dobin slowly pulled the blanket over his head, then sluggishly sat up.
“Huh, really? Good morning, hyungs… Haaaah.”
His wide yawn, captured clearly by Ryu Jae-hee’s camcorder, made me wonder if it was okay for an idol to be shown on TV looking like that.
Seeing his face scrunched up with sleepy eyes, I felt a bit sorry for him and kindly covered him with a blanket.
Thanks to this morning show, the tension over our comeback performance had long since dissipated.
We washed up, left the dorm, got our makeup and hair done at the shop, and arrived at the broadcast station by 4 AM for the pre-recording of the music show.
“KICKS is in the running for first place this week, but we didn’t make the first-place candidate list?”
“You can’t be a candidate for first place in the first week of a comeback. There are no points to tally.”
Even if we were somehow in the running for first place, the likelihood of us actually winning was about the same as winning the lottery, given our low album sales and streaming rankings.
Still, I couldn’t help but feel frustrated thinking about today’s top contenders.
‘It’s a relief that the reality camera isn’t following us to the waiting room today.’
As soon as I opened the door to the shared waiting room and saw familiar faces, this thought crossed my mind.
These were the guys we’d be competing with seriously next week. It didn’t matter to me if they won first place this week, but I didn’t want to see them celebrating, so I hoped another contender would win.
I wasn’t too worried about the streaming chart rankings because I believed that KICKS would drop and we would rise.
“Oh, I heard you were sick, but you still managed not to postpone your comeback?”
At the familiar sneer, I put on a pleasant smile.
“I couldn’t postpone it; I didn’t want anyone to think we were scared of competing with you guys.”
KICKS members looked at each other, seemingly taken aback, then realized I was mocking them and scowled.
“But do you remember what I said before? What did I tell you to do when I spoke to you?”
Looking at them with a serious expression, the leader of KICKS waved his hand dismissively.
“Hey, just don’t talk to them. Ignore them.”
“How typical of a group known for backstabbing. You start something and then tell us to ignore it?”
Before I could respond, Seo Ye-hyun stepped in.
I covered my mouth in amazement at his rare display of sarcasm towards someone other than me. He was finally proving his worth.
“Leave it. Maybe they’re just scared.”
I stretched casually, making sure they could hear my scoff. It was disappointing that I couldn’t resort to physical confrontation as I had before, given the certain loss of credibility it would entail.
‘No need to get worked up over this.’
KICKS’ promotion period ended at the same time as ours.
This meant we’d have to keep seeing their faces until the end of our promotions.
It was annoying, but there was nothing to be done since it was us who had to shorten our activities for the year-end awards ceremonies, not them extending theirs.
When it was our turn, we followed the staff’s guidance to the stage.
Our fans cheered as we stepped onto the stage for the pre-recording. It seemed like there were more of them than before.
Perhaps it was because the empty stage during “<Come Into My Universe>” had left such a strong impression that even now, as a seven-year veteran, I couldn’t get used to seeing the more familiar sight of a full crowd.
Nervously, I fiddled with the collar of my stage outfit, which was similar to what I wore in the music video.
My outfit was an oversized leather jacket.
“How have you been, Daydreams?”
Ryu Jae-hee’s greeting was met with loud cheers.
“It’s been a while, Daydream. I’m sorry for worrying you.”
When I and Gyeon Ha-jun, the two main subjects of the emergency room rumors, bowed in apology, the fans shouted back.
“Don’t worry!”
“It’s okay! It’s okay!”
“Let’s see each other for a long, long time!”
Their outpouring of concern and encouragement made my stomach churn, and I turned away with an awkward smile. I quickly turned back at the calls not to cry.
“I’m not crying.”
At that moment, we received the signal to start the pre-recording. We stopped interacting with the fans and took our positions on stage.
A lively melody began to play. As I listened to Gyeon Ha-jun’s strong and refreshing opening verse, I thought to myself how glad I was that I didn’t take that so-called cure-all medicine but gave it to him instead. If I hadn’t, today’s powerful performance wouldn’t have been possible.
It was the first song I wrote, thinking Reve members would sing it.
Before, I had handed it over to another group, and I could only watch with lingering regret as the performance deviated from my vision.
The song that earned me considerable royalties, established me as a producer, and helped a newly debuted junior group rise to fame, was the song I had the most regrets about.
Now, Reve, our group, was performing it on stage. With the voices I imagined, in the performance I envisioned.
“Let’s party all night long to this music, until this night ends, let’s party time!”
“let’s party time!”
I smiled faintly at the booming chants of the fans below.
For the first time, I felt like this return wasn’t just a penance but an opportunity granted to me. It felt like a dream, and I hoped it wouldn’t end until the performance was over.
I would never forget the moment I ticked off an item on my mental bucket list that I had thought would never be realized.
***
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Awww Eden you’re so sweet😭😭😭