Chapter 224: Every summer (2)
If it's about loving fans, then it's definitely our kids.
Dusty Yoojin had a sense of pride.
They were members who showed up without fail every single day.
Whether it was through private messages, Stargram lives, or the fan community, the form varied.
Ding—
No sooner had that thought crossed her mind than a private message notification rang.
It was from Seo Haim, who had been oddly high-energy since 9 a.m.
Choco: Did you see the teaser for the new single?
Choco: I seriously x10000 worked so hard on it
Choco: Seongbin-hyung poured his soul into it!!
Genius composer Cha Seongbin had poured his soul into it.
She hadn’t even seen anything but the concept trailer yet, but was already excited at how god-tier the song would be.
Even Doubles seemed to have poured their souls into it.
Only the individual concept trailers had been released so far, but the quality had shocked the community.
The visuals were perfect, and the kids’ hair, makeup, and styling looked like they had gone all-in.
The moment she saw Seo Haim’s pink hair that reminded her of their debut days, her heart thumped—and when she saw Do Seohan’s blue hair, it exploded.
‘He’s so goddamn handsome….’
At times like this, pride in being part of a big-name agency swelled and made her hold her head high.
For a single, the album was heavily backed.
Once word spread that an English-only version was also included, not all the attention was positive.
As always, when the kids did well, there were fans from other groups who couldn’t stand it.
Muji @WIM99n2
Why is Doubles suddenly targeting the US market?
Wouldn’t Japan work way better? Why are they forcing it over there
Their recent moves make it obvious
└Leave them, maybe they’re dreaming of Billboard or whatever
└Ah ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└So damn extra ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
As expected, a string of mocking replies followed underneath.
Dusty Yoojin frowned and let out a small grumble.
“Do they have nothing better to do?”
Those same people’s own faves wouldn’t even be able to break into the domestic real-time charts, let alone Billboard.
Maybe they didn’t want to admit that, because the next tweet was even more ridiculous.
Muji @WIM99n2
But refreshing concepts from boy groups seriously don’t work overseas
I don’t get why they went with a refreshing song while aiming for the international market
And seriously f**k, Cha Seongbin’s not even that skilled, how long is he going to keep leeching off composing credits ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└Undisputed king of freeloading in this industry ㅎㅋㅋㅋ
└Isn’t it shameful to be called a composer idol when you can’t even write songs?
└Wait, isn’t Cha Seongbin the one writing the songs???
└Probably just media play ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
“There are still people like this?”
This time, a sigh escaped her lips.
Even after they had shown the songwriting process live, there were still people insisting that Cha Seongbin’s composing skills were all media play.
Before she realized it, Dusty Yoojin was already typing a reply.
└Sorry, is your handle ‘Muji’ short for ‘brainless’?
…she typed that far, then deleted it.
She remembered that the profile picture was a full-on close-up of Seo Haim’s face.
She couldn’t disgrace the kids.
“Hold it in….”
Fanbase activity had already gotten fiery lately with more newcomers joining, constantly clashing with other fandoms. There was no need to pour more fuel on that fire.
And—
In the end, Yoojin’s anger would be soothed in a completely different way.
At exactly 9 a.m. on July 2nd.
The moment the music video teaser dropped on YouTube and she heard that first line, all the criticism vanished from her mind.
It doesn’t work internationally?
The song would be bad?
She could still see the trolls’ comments in her head.
But by now, those pathetic comments probably wouldn’t be scratching up any Dusty hearts.
After all, they had ears too.
“Wow.”
Dusty Yoojin let out a soft exclamation and smiled.
“This song is freaking amazing….”
She could say with certainty—it was legendary.
[What is this—what did I just hear?]
Cha Seongbin has finally gone insane ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Seriously dropped a god-tier song, wow
Listening to the full thing made my heart feel like it was going to burst
Look at that money-scented beat ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
–It’s not your typical refreshing song;; why does it stick in my ear so well?
└I feel like this could actually work overseas? When I listened to the English version, it didn’t sound like a forced translation, it really had that pop vibe
└Yeah, for real. I played it for a friend who lives abroad, and they said it was freaking good
└No, this has nothing to do with nationality—it’s 100% a mass appeal pick
└Legit, this has mass appeal. This one needs to blow up….
–I’m literally crying ㅠㅠㅠ so this is what you guys were preparing?! Universe Dust is so lovely I’m going crazy
└It really didn’t seem like you had much time after the concert, and yet you still managed to come back with a god-tier song
└Right? Do you guys have like three bodies each???
└Honestly, calling it a hiatus feels weird given everything you did in that time; posted self-content, did live streams, appeared on variety shows ㅋㅋㅋㅋ even if they had three bodies, the schedule would make sense
–But seriously, with this level of quality, they could’ve used it as a full album title track. Personally, I like this one better ㅎㅎㅎ
└Their full album title track was great for performance, but yeah
└Honestly, this doesn’t feel like a regular B-side; maybe they were saving it all along
└Too good to be a B-side
└It seriously became my new favorite song, ha, it’s so damn good
…The reaction was amazing.
Not just the fan response—objectively, the numbers were great too.
[Every summer #3!!!! Congrats]
Congrats to Universe Dust for hitting #3 in this brutal digital music market for boy groups ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
Dustys, let’s keep streaming and aim for #1!!!!
–Let’s go Dustys, we can do this!!!!
└For real, I need to see the boys crying while holding that trophy
└Yeah, you know Haim’s goal this year is to hit #1 on the Melon Chart, right?
└Let’s go, Dustys!
└Let’s hit #1 on Melon!
–It’s not even a full album, just a single, but the firepower is insane;;;
└Seriously, it’s crazy.
└From the start, it’s such a god-tier song. I’m telling you, it’s a guaranteed mass appeal pick.
└The way the rankings keep climbing proves it’s definitely a god-tier track.
└It’s 9 a.m. and it’s still in the top 5 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
It had soared into the Top 10 the moment it was released, and now, ahead of the music broadcast, it was proudly sitting in the Top 3.
Thanks to the Starf influence, their album rankings had always been decent since debut, but at this rate, it felt like even a real-time #1 during the early morning hours was within reach.
The song was better than expected.
While many assumed it had been kept in storage for a while, Cha Seongbin really had produced the new track in that short span.
He was such a genius that it wasn’t even surprising anymore.
Especially after he met the solid support of Elson Telmore—ever since then, the song’s quality was basically guaranteed.
And then—
I stepped onto the stage for the pre-recording.
Maybe because the single was performing well, the fans’ faces were glowing even in the early morning.
“Hello!”
As I smiled brightly and waved, a scream erupted from the front row.
“Waaaaaaaah!”
“Seohan! We’re at #3 right now! Did you see?!”
Today, I was dressed in a crisp white jacket and a beige beret perched gently on my head.
I adjusted the beret slightly and nodded.
“I checked the rankings before coming up.”
I added, giving a thumbs-up.
“Haim-hyung probably fainted after seeing them in the waiting room.”
“Me?”
“Gasp. How did you even manage to walk here?”
No joke, he collapsed forward like a sack—I really thought he had fainted.
Even now, look at him.
He wasn’t hiding the way the corners of his mouth kept lifting at all.
“Dustys, you guys are the best!”
Seo Haim bounced on the spot with a wide grin. It seemed he couldn’t contain his excitement.
I felt the same.
We had to aim not just for the domestic charts, but the Billboard charts too—so it wasn’t exactly satisfying yet.
But I decided to set aside the complicated thoughts for now.
It wouldn’t be polite to the people who made the time to come all the way here.
With only a short window left to interact, I turned to the fans.
“How’s the hair?”
“Aaaaaaaah! We love it!”
Since we were going for a refreshing concept, I decided to give it a try.
Now that I thought about it, I had tried a lot of different styles, but this was my first time going blue. I was just grateful they liked it.
I asked the person sitting in the front row.
“What color should I do next?”
“Rainbow!”
“…That’s a bit much.”
Cha Seongbin burst out laughing and patted my shoulder.
“How about Do Seohan with pink hair?”
“Something like that… suits Haim-hyung better.”
“Blue hair is good too!”
“No wait, let’s actually go rainbow!”
These guys, seriously.
I clicked my tongue and shook my head.
“I’ll consider rainbow hair when I retire.”
“At that age? It might be even more… yeah.”
“Pfft.”
As much as I wanted to keep chatting, the stage was right in front of us.
I nodded at the camera director’s signal.
The staff’s booming voice echoed.
“Stardust, pre-recording will begin now!”
“Yes!”
Let’s go, single promotions.
“Good job!”
“Stardust monitoring is complete!”
Music broadcast studios were always chaotic, no matter how many times you came.
After some ups and downs, we finally wrapped up the pre-recording.
It hadn’t even been that long, but I already missed the fans’ cheers, so this rare visit to a music show felt fun.
Not that it made all the fatigue from the past few days disappear….
Still, I could handle it for now.
Cha Seongbin asked with a slightly tired look on his face.
“Do we have a radio schedule after this?”
“Yeah.”
“Ack… What do we do? I’m already exhausted and it’s only the first week.”
Cha Seongbin groaned and grabbed his head.
He could talk like that, but I knew full well he had been obsessively checking the music rankings all through the night.
“Told you—you should’ve just slept….”
“Couldn’t resist checking the rankings…”
Guaranteed, he was the type to clutch his chest every time the rank ticked up or down by the hour.
Since he was involved in the composition, it made sense that he felt a lot of pressure.
I decided to let him obsess over the numbers and get on with my own task.
“Oh, sunbae!”
As soon as I stepped into the hallway, a familiar face was waiting for me.
I ran over with a bright smile.
“Did you finish your pre-recording?”
“You did too, right?”
“Yeah. I wrapped up early, so….”
Tiple’s Sung Jihoo sunbae. Coincidentally, his solo comeback overlapped with ours this time.
He usually stood alongside the other Tiple members, so seeing him standing alone like this felt strange.
He seemed to feel the same, scratching his cheek with an awkward smile.
“Standing here by myself kinda makes me feel self-conscious.”
“But aren’t they all your juniors?”
“That’s exactly why I feel self-conscious.”
Sung Jihoo gave a dry cough and smiled wryly.
“You’ll understand eventually. The more years you stack, the more awkward it gets with juniors. You can tell they’re uncomfortable around you.”
“Oh….”
“You don’t seem like that, though, Seohan. So thanks.”
Sung Jihoo paused, then added,
“Anyway, the reason you came looking for me…?”
“Oh.”
The reason I came to find Sung Jihoo despite the hectic schedule…
Well, there was one tradition we couldn’t skip with a direct sunbae.
“Wanna film a challenge?”
“Let’s do it.”
Sung Jihoo smiled and gave a small nod.