<Part 2> Title: Rewrite our life
This time, Abyss’s full album title track was decided to be <Nightmare>.
When you just hear the title, it seems like quite a dark song, but when you actually listen to it, it has a very bouncy melody and the properties of tropical house EDM targeting summer. I, Ma Doun, and another producer participated in writing the lyrics and composing this song.
“The choreography is impossible.”
Seon Hobeom, who had been practicing choreography on one side, said with disgust. Looking around, the members were already drenched in sweat and mechanically moving only their arms and legs.
“Ka Jerim fell again? No, why did they arrange the movement lines like that?”
Seon Hobeom clicked his tongue seeing me getting up with support after falling. I thought the choreography for a light song would be loosely arranged, but for some reason, the steps were extremely difficult and complicated.
“Jerim-ah, are you okay?”
Among them, my movement line with my small build was especially more difficult than the other members’, having to weave in and out of the spaces between members and backup dancers. However, I kept tripping over the backup dancers’ feet and falling, having fallen several times just today.
“I’m sorry. You’re not hurt, are you?”
Even though my first stage after returning was right around the corner, I made frequent mistakes. When I bowed my head and apologized to the backup dancer who almost fell with me because of me, he wiped the flowing sweat and waved his hand as if it was okay.
“It’s okay. Honestly, it would be stranger not to fall there.”
Park Eden, who had been resting in the corner, approached at the commotion. He saw my knees covered with splotchy bruises from falling many times and let out a hollow laugh as if absurd, then immediately looked at the choreography teacher with an angry face.
“At this point, shouldn’t we be revising the movement lines? Jerim-ah, be careful when you move so you don’t fall. Forget about getting the choreography wrong, your knees are too injured.”
“I’m okay!”
I said I was okay, but Park Eden’s worried gaze wouldn’t let up. Ma Doun, who had been wiping sweat in the corner of the practice room perhaps because his sweaty body felt uncomfortable, also came next to us at some point and grumbled.
“The song is cute but the dance isn’t cute at all. By the way, we won’t flop, right?”
“Doun-ah, watch your mouth.”
Hearing Ma Doun’s anxious voice, Onseol, who had approached stealthily, tapped Doun’s head.
“If we just don’t make mistakes, won’t we at least be moderately successful?”
“Right?”
Even if the Abyss members say things like that, they must be anxious inside.
Abyss doesn’t have a proper fandom yet, so survival on their own is difficult, and the members also had difficulty having confidence in the stage because this album’s choreography and vocal difficulty was too high.
“I don’t know. It’ll work out somehow.”
“Let’s take a break!”
“Yes!”
Finally, break time came. I was drinking water and turned on my phone that I had neglected all day, and there was a contact from Juno hyung.
<Juno Sunbae-nim>
I saved him as sunbae-nim to avoid making a mistake like last time, but Juno hyung who saw this was disgusted and disliked it, asking what sunbae-nim, feeling hurt. However, I hid everything that might reveal the fact that I was Cha Hohyeon so that a situation like last time wouldn’t happen.
[What are you doing?] >
< [Choreography practice. It’s hot…]
Then an answer came right away as if he had been waiting.
[‘Juno Sunbae-nim’ sent a gifticon! Send a thank you message. (Optional)] >
[BB Ice Cream Cake] >
[Right, it’s fucking hot. Be careful. When’s your comeback?] >
< [Mine is next week!]
< [Ah, and hyung. Please stop sending cakes ㅠㅠㅠ I already have too many.]
I let out a sigh at another gifticon hyung sent and when I entered the gift box, cake gifticons were piling up beyond accumulation because of Juno hyung.
“I can’t eat them anyway.”
Moreover, no matter how thin I was, I had to enter body management to increase muscle mass so cakes were a luxury, and even if I could eat them, I didn’t have time to go buy them with the overwhelming amount of practice.
[If it’s hot, it’s ice cream cake] >
< […ㅜㅜ Not even a small cone. That won’t fit in the refrigerator, right?]
[‘Juno Sunbae-nim’ sent a gifticon! Send a thank you message. (Optional)] >
[BB Ice Cream Quarter Size] >
< [No, hyung;;;]
[This is a small one] >
[You said you don’t like big ones] >
Juno hyung always sent all sorts of gifticons for absurd reasons.
< [Then I won’t eat the cake]
< [Or get a refund]
[No. Eat it and send me a proof shot too.] >
[You need to eat a lot.] >
< [What are you doing wasting money??ㅜㅜ]
< [I told you I can’t eat it anyway?]
[Did the members steal and eat it?] >
[Then should I send more?] >
< [No]
< [No]
[You like it that much?] >
< [No, hyung wait]
[‘Juno Sunbae-nim’ sent a gifticon! Send a thank you message. (Optional)] >
[BB Ice Cream Family Size] >
< [Listen to me]
[‘Juno Sunbae-nim’ sent a gifticon! Send a thank you message. (Optional)] >
[BB Ice Cream Variety Pack] >
< [I’m telling you to refund everything really you damn well don’t listen]
I kept arguing to get a refund, but Juno hyung kept pretending not to understand. As I was sending irritated texts to such a Juno hyung, I suddenly remembered our conversation from a few days ago and looked up at the chat window.
-2 days ago-
< [Our music video teaser came out!]
[‘Juno Sunbae-nim’ sent a gifticon!] >
[TT Chocolate Cake (L)] >
< […????]
< [Juno hyung, why this…]
[Because when I saw the teaser] >
[You weren’t eating the chocolate cake] >
[But just staring at it.] >
< [Hyung, that’s not an eating scene, it’s a staring scene]
[You looked like you wanted to eat it though?] >
< [ㅜㅜ That’s my acting.]
< [It was a scene of looking longingly…]
< [Maybe it’s because my acting is bad.]
Looking at the conversation from two days ago, it was absurd even seeing it again.
As I was quietly looking at the conversation with Juno hyung, I laughed for no reason, unconsciously smiling, then slowly erased my smile at the reality that came to mind.
‘I don’t know.’
There were still stories we needed to resolve, but right after being discharged, Abyss’s comeback schedule was tight, so we didn’t have time to properly talk after that day.
However, Juno hyung wanted to express his feelings to me somehow, so he kept sending gifticons like this. Knowing that hyung had many regrets about my death, I couldn’t firmly stop hyung’s behavior either.
‘By the way, Yoon hyung still hasn’t contacted me.’
That day, we hugged each other and repeated the same stories several times. As if trying to confirm each other, we kept talking until those stories became worn and tattered, and I think Juno hyung and I cried endlessly.
Beside us, with the momentum as if to pour out all the tears we’d shed in a lifetime right there, Yoon hyung just brought tissues or maintained silence and stayed in place. After that, there was no more contact from Yoon hyung and only contact came from Juno hyung.
Sometimes I thought about contacting Yoon hyung first, but perhaps because the memory of being caught by Juno hyung last time was so intense, I couldn’t readily contact him.
“Let’s try one more time!”
“Yes!”
I quickly cleared away distracting thoughts and stood next to Seon Hobeom.
“Please play the song.”
Like that, another long practice began and ended only when it became dark night. Then I returned to the dorm and as soon as I washed up, I buried myself in bed and fell asleep.
In the past, no matter how long I slept, I was tired, but these days, though I was tired, it didn’t seem like I was sleeping lightly like before. So I couldn’t immediately answer the contact that came from Yoon hyung that day.
<Yoon Sunbae-nim> – [I couldn’t contact you until now because I was afraid it would interfere with your comeback.] >
[You’re doing well, right? I wish your activities would end quickly.] >
[Because I miss you.] >
I could only do so the next day.
< [Me too.]
< [I miss you.]
* * *
We were very nervous every time we stood on stage, afraid we might make mistakes. Fortunately, there were no big mistakes and we created a stage with high completion as much as we practiced, but the music chart results weren’t as good as expected.
“Wow, it’s there if you scroll all the way down.”
“Well, at least it’s there.”
At first, even the title track didn’t properly enter the charts, but on the second day of activities, it barely entered the lower ranks. The album tracks completely disappeared from the rankings.
The agency thought the previous activity period had drawn considerable popularity, so even if not the upper ranks of the charts, they expected to safely enter the middle ranks, but they were flustered by the lower-than-expected results.
“It’s been a week and the ranking is actually dropping.”
At Onseol’s words, the dorm fell into silence.
Personally, I thought this was a natural result. In the last activity, we could briefly enter the charts with various events and luck, but this album’s songs were good but lacked topicality.
“Seol hyung……”
So when this situation occurred, I was personally most worried about Seon Hobeom’s reaction. But surprisingly, the one most shaken was Onseol.
“Seol-ah, are you okay?”
Onseol was having difficulty accepting these results.
In the previous audition program, all the songs Onseol covered entered the rankings, and the last activity also performed well, rising in search rankings, so his expectations were secretly high.
“It’s okay. We just have to do well in the next activity.”
What was more surprising than Onseol was that Ma Doun, who has a glass mentality, wasn’t the first to break down but was rather comforting the members.
‘He must be feeling terrible inside.’
Ma Doun tried not to show it with his characteristic expressionless face, patting Onseol’s back and comforting the members one by one, then soon entered his room. I watched his back and let out a long sigh.
