A New Career Singer Who Can Read The Future [EN]: Chapter 72

Dohyun spent his time busily with concept photo and music video shoots, and the final recording of his songs.

In the meantime, pre-orders for the album began.

Dohyun was resting in room 303 after recording when Doha entered, opening the password.

“Hyung [older brother or male friend], this is amazing!”

“Huh? What is?”

“Hyung’s album, the pre-order quantity exceeded 500,000 copies in just one day!”

Dohyun chuckled at the mention of 500,000 pre-orders.

“Come on, stop lying. How could it exceed 500,000 copies… Even most male idols only reach that level when they’re rising or are top groups.”

“I’m telling you, it’s true! A little while ago, album pre-sales started, and all the platforms where you could buy the album and get pre-order benefits had over 100,000 people waiting! I confirmed it with my own eyes.”

Doha emphasized each word.

Dohyun couldn’t believe the story, so he accessed the platform. Whether the server wasn’t working, he still couldn’t properly connect to the platform.

“…What. Is it real?”

Dohyun was bewildered. He was the winner of ‘Your First Concert,’ the best audition program, but he was still taken aback by whether it was right to gain this much popularity.

Moreover, he had never achieved this kind of popularity and success during his previous debuts. Suddenly, he felt overwhelmed. This had never happened before, and he wondered if he deserved to receive so much love from fans. He held back the tears welling up.

“Hyung, your eyes look a little red, but it’s just my imagination, right?”

“After living as an unknown until now, I can’t believe this is happening.”

“Since pre-orders alone reached 500,000, the actual first-week sales will be different. I think it could be even higher, Hyung.”

If pre-orders are the process of Huent placing orders with the album factory after predicting how much will be sold from album distributors, then first-week sales refer to the sales trend in the week after the album’s release.

Dohyun’s numbers weren’t good until his third debut. He had even barely managed to sell albums through fan signing events.

“…How will the album promotions go this time?”

Dohyun asked Doha, still in a daze.

“First of all, since it’s a full album, we’re expecting three weeks of activity. Fan signing events are scheduled for Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays after music shows, so about nine times.”

“Of course, there will be a repackage album, and follow-up song activities as well.”

“That’s right. We’re aiming to release a repackage album in about a month or two. Huent’s debut group will finally debut around the time Hyung’s three weeks of activity end.”

Hyunho came to mind again. He thought the guy must be happy right now. Dohyun thought he should see him once before his comeback schedule and buy him a meal.

“Do you know someone named Hyunho among the debut group members?”

“Ah, that handsome and sociable friend?”

“Yeah. He and I know each other, and I thought I should buy him a meal. My debut schedule was delayed because of me.”

“It’s good to get along. I predict they’ll be nominated for the Rookie of the Year award this year.”

“Well, it’s not for that reason. He’s sociable and has a good attitude. Yoon Hyunseung, whom I knew before, his personality was… messed up from the start.”

“Ah, him. I heard he’s serving a prison sentence now.”

Dohyun thought it was karma as soon as he brought it up. His first meeting with the guy who had no manners and his actions after appearing on ‘Your First Concert’ came to mind. He also thought it was poetic justice.

“He deserved it. Someone could have died.”

“That’s right. I’m so glad our Hyung wasn’t seriously injured back then.”
Doha nodded endlessly at Dohyun’s words.

“Oh? Hyung, the manager is calling me. I’ll go now. I’ll come back later. Send me a message when you’re done working!”

“Okay. Let me know right away if the schedule is updated.”

“Yes!”

After Doha left, the studio was filled with silence.

Dohyun, who had finished writing the lyrics for the title track ‘Serendipity,’ the fan song, and the CD-only track, had nothing else to do but practice singing.

Especially since he knew that a tour was scheduled after the album repackage activities, it was important to have the stamina to sing alone for a long time.

‘Hmm, should I go work out?’

It was at that moment.

Tears welled up in Dohyun’s eyes. He thought he had been holding back his tears stoically, but suddenly, tears started to fall.

“…Haa.”

He couldn’t control his emotions well. It was as if the tension in his tear glands had been released when Doha left, and he couldn’t stop the tears at all.

Beastly idol, flower boy idol, audition idol, solo singer from an audition. All the hardships he had gone through to get through all these processes flashed through his mind.

“Really, really… let’s do well. Dohyun, you just need to do well. 500,000 is a great record, you can achieve more than that if you just do well.”

It started with just a few tears, but soon the emotions surged even more, eventually leading to a sobbing mess.

He only thought he had gotten an opportunity, but he never thought he would rise to such a high position.

He was also afraid of rising to a high position. The fear of when and how he might fall. The worry of whether this popularity could continue. Everything was mixed in with the tears.

“…Let’s do well, Na Dohyun.”

* * *

Finally, the day of the album release. The album was scheduled to be released on various platforms at 6 PM.

Prior to this, a press showcase was prepared for about an hour from 11 AM. Dohyun was reading the summary that the staff had given him, which contained the sharp questions the reporters would ask, and memorizing how to answer them.

“Wow, Hyung. You look really good in a suit with a pink ribbon tie. You look like a man who jumped out of a comic book. A *man-jjit-nam* [term for someone who looks like they came straight out of a comic book]. Ah, do people not use that expression these days? Anyway, you look like a god descending.”

Doha clapped as he looked at Dohyun, who had finished getting ready.

Dohyun liked himself in the mirror. Reducing the muscles that had been too bulky and dieting had been successful. The suit fit was a little bumpy before because it was fitted to the muscles, but now, with only lean muscles remaining, the suit fit was very nice.

“Doha, do I really look okay? The press photos need to come out nicely.”

“Of course, Hyung. You really look great. Sometimes I think you don’t believe in yourself.”

“Sometimes it’s like this, what can I do. Huff….”

Dohyun took a deep breath.

There were 15 minutes left until the press showcase.

He was scheduled to sing about two songs, and after the photo time and Q&A session, there would be a fan showcase in the evening.

“Hyung, do you know what?”

“What?”

“The competition rate for Hyung’s fan showcase was 100 to 1.”

“Huh? No one told me that.”

“It was really crazy. Some people who won even posted that they would transfer their tickets, so the company was having a hard time dealing with those fans.”

“Since transferring also involves selling at a premium price, I guess that’s what happened? The showcase itself is free. I know they’re giving out free cheering sticks as it’s the first time meeting fans after the fourth debut.”

“That’s why they said they need to thoroughly check IDs. The fan marketing and management side were complaining about how hard they worked to handle those things this time.”

“I need to thank them later. When we start doing public broadcast schedules, the fan managers will have to come out a few hours in advance and work hard. I need to appease them well.”

“Wow, Hyung. You know one thing and figure out two [Korean idiom meaning you’re very perceptive].”

While Doha was busy praising Dohyun, Dohyun checked his in-ears and other things.

He had already rehearsed several times in the morning, but it was right to check again in case he made a mistake during the showcase.

Not long after Dohyun finished checking, he heard the staff’s voice.

“Dohyun-nim! We’ll get ready!”

Dohyun prepared to go up from under the stage.

The first song was the title track ‘Serendipity.’

While waiting under the stage, he saw the music video for ‘Serendipity’ being played.

The music video was in an omnibus format, depicting each person’s life. The lyrics contained the message that the past was difficult, but now his very life feels like a fate that came by chance.

Dohyun didn’t appear in it himself, but the quality of the music video was quite good. It was made so meticulously well that tears welled up when he saw the finished version.

“We’ll do the final in-ear check.”

A staff member approached and went through the verification process.

“Okay, let’s go up.”

Dohyun appeared on stage. He was nervous because he was performing the title track before the photo time. Fortunately, the dim lighting made it hard to see that Dohyun’s hand holding the microphone was trembling.

The reporters looking at him, the strobe lights flashing from the cameras of the photojournalists sitting in the front row, and the first audience filling the not-so-small venue.

Dohyun, whose soulful voice was his charm, attempted a slightly different singing style in ‘Serendipity.’ The goal was to hit hard and stimulate people’s eardrums.

After the song ended, Dohyun proceeded with the photo time.

“Please look here to the left, Dohyun-ssi [term of respect]!”

Dohyun showed finger hearts and hearts above his head to the left, then took poses to the center and right.

“Reporters, do you need any more poses?”

Dohyun asked politely. Then the reporters asked him to take poses while looking in each direction one more time.

After the photo time passed, Dohyun announced that he would sing one more song and sang. The song he decided to sing was the CD-only track.

A sweet melody flowed, and the sound of the guitar became the main focus, supporting Dohyun’s voice.

General reporters stopped typing and stared at Dohyun in a daze.

Dohyun tried to get good scores by making eye contact with each of those reporters.

‘Reporters are also ultimately the audience. Maybe there are even my fans.’

With that thought, Dohyun finished singing the CD-only track ‘Only One.’

Soon, Hayeonho appeared as the MC [Master of Ceremonies]. He was difficult to cast due to his ‘Your First Concert’ ties.

“Hello, this is Hayeonho.”

Strobe lights poured out towards Hayeonho.

“Haha, thank you, reporters. I’m hosting this showcase today because of my ‘Your First Concert’ ties. The song is really good, isn’t it? Dohyun also participated in writing the lyrics, and he participated in composing the second song he sang. He’s an amazing person.”
Hayeonho began to unravel the words smoothly. The sound of reporters typing could be heard up to the stage.

“My appearance means that the order that the reporters have been waiting for has come. Now, if you have anything you want to ask about the singer Na Dohyun, please feel free to ask!”

Then several reporters raised their hands.

Hayeonho pointed to the reporter who raised his hand first.

“Staff, please bring the microphone to that reporter. Reporter, what were you curious about as the first question?”

Then the reporter asked with a solemn expression.

“Hello, this is Kim Yena from Daily Sports. I know you’ve experienced many incidents from ‘Your First Concert’ until just before the release of this album. Thanks to overcoming the trials, I know that the response to this album is very good. I would like to ask what your current feelings are, and what parts of the album do you think fans are reacting so explosively to?”

The staff’s expected question came out first!

Dohyun’s eyes were slightly sharp yet sparkling.