Little Pink Starfish

By the time Pinpoint was performed, quite a crowd had gathered on the Gunam University festival live stream.

News had spread in real time that Sedalbaekil was performing their entire album mixed live.

At first, people thought Sedalbaekil would mix in non-promoted tracks between their promoted ones.

But in reality, it was the complete opposite.

Aside from State of Mind, the promoted songs were drastically shortened, while more focus was placed on the non-promoted tracks.

Normally this would be a puzzling choice, but this time it worked.

Because the songs were good.

-You’ve been keeping these songs to yourselves? So selfish.

-;; You could’ve bought the album yourself.

-ㅎㅎㅎ Just ordered it now.

-What were the songs between Resume and State of Mind??? I want them on my playlist.

–Survival Tactics and We made it!

-Oh, it was two songs?

-Yeah yeah, they merged the two into one.

-Am I the only one rewinding Track 1 on loop? Goo Taehwan is amazingㅠㅠㅠ

We live in an era where listening to full albums has become rare.

So artists have been minimizing the number of tracks on full albums.

But Sedalbaekil didn’t hide their love for their own album.

If it’s relatable, it becomes a wonderful pride. If not, it’s just useless self-love.

-It’s nice seeing them proud of their album.

-Yeah, the songs are good. Should’ve tried it when it first released.

Around then, Pinpoint began.

Starting the title track from almost the end of the song was wild, but Han Sion’s mashup skills were astonishing.

The way the latter part of Pinpoint seamlessly connected with the end of State of Mind was stunning.

If you didn’t know better, you’d think it was originally composed that way.

The song moved forward, beginning from the interlude that Mary Jones had praised so highly.

It reached the chorus, followed by the group choreography.

And then the outro.

When the album first dropped, sharp-eared fans left comments like:

-Replaying the transition from Pinpoint to Holiday on loop.

-Iion, what did you do?!

It showed Han Sion had put care into the connection between Pinpoint and Holiday.

But Han Sion’s intent had failed.

No — Iion had failed.

To be exact, there hadn’t been enough time to fully execute the original intent.

So Han Sion simplified the originally intended transition and included it on the album.

Han Sion considered it a modest success.

His initial goal had been extremely difficult anyway.

Iion blamed himself for failing.

He already had limited parts on the album, and now he had even failed to fulfill his one major role.

But failure doesn’t have to remain failure forever.

Throughout the album promotions, Iion had been practicing Pinpoint‘s outro.

Not the album version, but the original version.

Now was the time to reveal it to the world.

♬♪♪♪♪

As Pinpoint reached the final choreographed move, the beat thinned dramatically.

Saying the beat “thinned” is awkward, but there’s no better way to describe it.

The layered effects disappeared, leaving only the core melody.

And that wasn’t all.

Mary Jones’s core melody slowly began to deconstruct.

The main loop broke down, transitions vanished.

Synthesized sounds fragmented into single notes, parts of the chord progression peeled away.

Like playing a shattered LP record.

In that moment, Iion’s voice emerged.

EHm— EHmm

His voice seeped into the dissolving soundscape.

Some parts hummed.

Our—

Some parts included lyrical words.

Ehhmmm Tonight—

Others blended words and humming.

As the melody scattered and softened, Iion breathed life into it.

On the album version, this reconstructed Pinpoint by inserting his voice into the dissolving melody.

It would then fade out and connect into Holiday, which started with a similar chord progression.

Even that was already a very respectable trackjection.

Maybe Han Sion and Iion were too harsh on themselves.

But what was happening now went beyond that.

Iion wasn’t recreating Pinpoint‘s melody.

He was inserting new notes, making new sounds.

“…!”

“It’s Holiday!”

Fans on-site screamed.

The intro to Holiday had begun.

It was like magic unfolding before their eyes.

Iion’s voice blending into Pinpoint’s dissolving sounds seamlessly became Holiday‘s intro.

Even though the two songs share similar chords, how was this even possible?

With zero dissonance.

A laid-back yet firm drum beat entered.

As Iion’s voice continued, the beat burst in fully.

A perfect trackjection.

-Wooooaaaah!

-Waaaaah!

With Holiday’s cheerful beat and audience cheers in the background, Goo Taehwan’s opening began.

Today’s a good day

Good day,
Start the car

Dancing lightly with choreography created by Choi Jaesung, the song continued.

The sky’s so blue
The clouds so white
Our moods, you and me

Iion, smiling broadly, stepped back after singing.

Holiday, Summer Cream, and Apiary.

The easy listening trio in the album’s latter half, loved most by the general public.

As Onsaemiro moved forward and Iion stepped back, Han Sion and Iion exchanged glances.

They smiled at each other.

‘Good, right?’

‘Perfect.’

The emotion was exchanged.

During Coming Up Next filming, Han Sion had once recorded the members singing a C chord.

When played back, only Iion’s voice stood out harshly.

It was to prove that his timbre was too sharp and didn’t blend.

Kind of cruel in a way.

But Han Sion, ever serious about music, had to be honest with his members.

Yet back then, Han Sion hadn’t told them everything.

Yes, Iion’s tone stood out.

It didn’t blend.

But once he reached a certain skill level, Iion’s voice could do this.

‘A unique timbre.’

Han Sion hadn’t believed Iion could reach that level.

Even Han Sion himself had taken years to hit exact pitches with his voice.

And Iion, who hadn’t regressed like him, surely couldn’t reach it so soon.

But Han Sion was wrong.

Iion still didn’t have many parts on the album or full verses of his own.

His voice still required EQ adjustments and careful placement.

In the past, this was done to cover his weaknesses.

Now, it was a device to highlight his strengths.

With the right setup, Iion’s voice could become a unique sonic identity.

Maybe not for the 2nd album yet, but for the 3rd…

‘Iion hyung’s voice might define the album’s color.’

Han Sion thought to himself.

Now Sedalbaekil possessed two essential elements of a masterpiece.

Goo Taehwan, who created perfect intros.

Iion, who created perfect trackjections.

And on top of that—

A vocalist who, through countless regressions, had reached the highest level.

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[Gunam University Festival Sedalbaekil Fancam]
[The idol who performed their entire album today]
[The group that turned a festival gig into a full album concert]

Sedalbaekil’s 37-minute, 13-song performance became a huge topic.

The much-anticipated live video of Summer Cream racked up views rapidly.

But that wasn’t all.

[Can you even do this? Iion building melody with his voice]

Visually, Iion had always stood out alongside Han Sion.

But musically, he hadn’t been in the spotlight.

While Onsaemiro shined through Masked Singer, Choi Jaesung through Stage Number Zero, and Goo Taehwan as the “intro master,” Iion remained unnoticed musically.

So this fancam had more impact than expected.

It spread quietly but fiercely through idol communities.

But since it was a fancam, some were skeptical.

-I’m not saying he did badly, but wasn’t there quite a bit of AR layered in?

-Yeahㅎ Claiming it was 100% live is just fan bias.

At the actual venue, you could tell clearly, but in fancams, distinguishing live vocals from AR wasn’t easy.

But the next day after Gunam University—

Sedalbaekil held a live stream on their homepage for the first time in a while.

This time, they performed the entire set more elaborately than at the festival.

They even changed outfits—it was very deliberate.

And unlike at Gunam where they rushed with minimal talking, this time they shared lots of behind-the-scenes stories.

[Yesterday we didn’t have much time. We even went overtime, so we couldn’t chat much.]

Han Sion especially explained Iion’s trackjection in detail.

[Actually, dominant chords or diminished chords are used for intensity, and tritones create tension, right? Iion hyung’s timbre works particularly well with…]

-What is he saying?

-Just pretend you understand. He’s so passionate.

-Wow amazing!

-Tritone!

-Diminished!

Most didn’t understand a word.

The live stream was later edited and uploaded to Sedalbaekil’s official channel.

Thus, The First Day‘s promotion period was gradually wrapping up.

Some said it was ending too soon.

Domestic sales had slowed, but overseas weekly sales were actually increasing.

This meant latecomers were still discovering the album — it still had plenty of life left.

Even the so-called “slowed” domestic sales still crushed most other artists’ numbers (excluding first week).

But Sedalbaekil had made their decision, and fans were soon given exciting news.

The fan sign event schedule would be announced this week, and a concert would follow right after Choi Jaesung’s Stage Number Zero ends.

---

Stage Number Zero sounded grand at the start, but the format was actually simple.

After regional qualifiers, it became Stage Number 100.

Not literally 100 people—it was about 130 grouped into similar categories.

From there, down to Stage 50, missions were done in group performances.

From 50 to 25, they moved on to duets.

Though called duets, it was basically head-to-head matchups.

Now at Stage Number 25.

From here, everyone had to prove their solo abilities.

This was also when agencies started scouting.

Naturally, Choi Jaesung had safely reached Stage 25.

The broadcast made it look like he was giving his all, but honestly—it was too easy.

Receiving Han Sion’s direction daily, matching Goo Taehwan’s intros, Onsaemiro’s high notes, and Iion’s precision tuning—

Compared to recording an album guide track, most missions were easier.

And around this point, Choi Jaesung finally understood what Han Sion had once told him.

“If our members competed fairly on Stage Number Zero, you’d probably go the highest.”

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