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Chapter 11
“Coachella reached out to us?!”
In the living room of their dorm,
Yoon Cheong calmed down Yeon Juhong, who had practically jumped into the air.
“Yeah. For the main stage. Honestly… considering it’s our first appearance, this is an incredibly good offer. Especially since we haven’t properly entered the North American market yet.”
“Whoa!”
“…This is… seriously… unbelievable. Coachella… us…”
“Nice to meet you Coachella~!~! Make some noiiiise~!!!”
“Is that the only English you know?”
Yeon Juhong clapped enthusiastically without trying to hide her excitement. Seo Baekyoung looked like she was doing her best to stay composed, but the effort was completely wasted—her eyes were shining so brightly they looked almost crazed.
Kim Geum was apparently already standing on the Coachella stage in her mind, swinging one of the sofa cushions around while singing at the top of her lungs.
…And then there was Ryu Bora.
The only one who remained perfectly calm.
“What’s so special about Coachella? At the end of the day, it’s just the most famous music festival in the world. Honestly, it’s weirder that they only invited us now. We’re Steel Blue. They’re the ones who were late.”
“…”
“They should’ve invited us ages ago. Seriously. Unbelievable.”
…Or maybe not?
In a way, maybe she was the one losing it the most.
It was the first time anyone had ever seen Ryu Bora talk this fast.
“Anyway. They want our answer before September ends. Whether we’re accepting or not.”
“Of course we’re doing it.”
Kim Geum looked at everyone as if asking why this was even something worth discussing.
“…Are you okay?”
“Totally game. No worries. Just say go.”
“Speaking English like that isn’t what gets you to Coachella, Geum Kim…”
Kim Geum puffed out her cheeks and snorted excitedly, looking like a bull seconds away from charging.
“Come on. I’ll be completely fine by next April. Hahaha.”
“The lineup gets announced in December.”
“Well… the performance’s in April.”
“But… Geum.”
“Yes?”
“We don’t have any comeback plans right now. If we only go to Coachella… I’m a little worried about how people in Korea will react.”
Kim Geum’s last activity before developing sudden sensorineural hearing loss had already been concerts in China and Japan.
If they skipped a comeback and suddenly announced U.S. activities instead…
The domestic response…
Wouldn’t be entirely positive.
Especially their fans—they’d definitely feel disappointed.
Of course, most fans would understand.
Coachella was an enormous opportunity.
It would be something their fans could be proud of.
But…
If Kim Geum still wasn’t able to perform properly by then…
The worst-case scenario—
No comeback, yet they ended up ruining the Coachella performance?
There was no need to check social media to know what people would say.
“It’s an incredible opportunity, but that’s exactly why we need to think carefully. They only need our answer by the end of September… We can wait a little longer and see how you’re doing first, Geum.”
There was another reason Yoon Cheong was being so cautious.
Even after finishing all of her intratympanic steroid injections…
Kim Geum’s hearing still hadn’t fully recovered.
The crucial two-week treatment window for sudden hearing loss had already passed.
And yet…
Her hearing still wasn’t completely back.
“Tomorrow’s the most important appointment. Let’s hear what the doctor says first.”
“But…”
Kim Geum’s expression darkened instantly.
“I don’t want everyone else to miss Coachella because of me.”
“It’s not because of you.”
Yoon Cheong answered firmly.
“Of course it isn’t, Geum. If I got sick and we couldn’t go to Coachella, would you say it’d be my fault?”
“Are you kidding?! Of course not. Cheong Cheong is our law and—”
“That’s enough.”
Yoon Cheong let out a helpless laugh before exhaling slowly.
“For now, let’s stop thinking about it tonight. We’ll talk again after Geum’s appointment tomorrow.”
At Yoon Cheong’s words, every member nodded with complicated expressions.
“…From this point on, we’ll be moving to conservative treatment.”
The long-awaited appointment finally arrived.
And that was the doctor’s conclusion.
Her hearing test showed that there had been some recovery…
But not a complete recovery.
At her current hearing level, daily life would still be quite difficult for a while.
Though eventually, after adapting, it would become manageable.
Music, however…
Was an entirely different matter.
“Huh? Conservative treatment…?”
“In practical terms, our priority now is preserving the hearing you still have rather than restoring it.”
“So… you’re giving up on treating it?”
“Not at all. We’ll still try some additional medications. However… I wouldn’t place too much hope on your hearing returning to what it was before. From here on, the treatments we can offer are—”
After that…
Kim Geum couldn’t hear a single word.
No matter how carefully the doctor explained every possible option…
Nothing entered her ears.
Instead, only one sentence echoed over and over inside her head.
Recovery was no longer expected.
‘…It won’t recover.’
Then…
Would she have to live like this forever?
In an instant, all the anxiety she’d been desperately holding back behind the dam called “her members” burst free.
The truth was…
There hadn’t been a single day she hadn’t been afraid.
Even yesterday, when everyone had been screaming with joy over the Coachella news…
She had been terrified.
The more frightened she became…
The brighter she smiled instead.
Because she didn’t want the others to worry.
Kim Geum was the strong one.
Bright.
Cheerful.
The member who never broke.
She always had been.
But…
Right now…
Kim Geum couldn’t be strong.
She had to live like this forever?
Every time she stood on stage, she’d have to endure the same fear she’d felt that day?
What about composing?
Could she still compose?
Could she still make songs the way she used to with hearing this damaged?
She probably could.
But what if the quality dropped?
Even more unfamiliar than those thoughts…
Was catching herself wondering whether the silence filling her ears wasn’t just despair…
But because her ears were genuinely broken.
Kim Geum had always believed her greatest strength was exactly that—
Strength.
Not just mental toughness.
But the ability to overcome anything.
The confidence that whatever happened, she’d somehow make it work.
Yet at this moment…
That strength felt completely fake.
No…
Maybe she’d been mistaken from the beginning.
Maybe she’d only been pretending to be strong.
Maybe she’d never truly been strong even once.
‘Thank goodness.’
Kim Geum was grateful that only her family was in the examination room.
At least…
The members wouldn’t have to see her falling apart like this.
“Kim Geum… went back to her parents’ house?”
After a long silence,
Ryu Bora was the first to speak.
“Yeah. She said she wanted to rest there for a while.”
“But why…”
Why…
Without even saying goodbye…
No one needed to hear the rest of Ryu Bora’s sentence.
Everyone already knew.
“She looked fine yesterday…”
“Did… did the doctor tell her something bad today?”
Yeon Juhong asked immediately.
Baek Juha wore an extremely dark expression.
She couldn’t speak for a long while before finally giving a slow nod.
“…You’ll have to hear the details from Geum herself… but yes. The doctor said they don’t expect any further recovery.”
“…!”
“So from now on, the focus will be preserving the hearing she still has.”
At Baek Juha’s words,
Everyone stopped breathing.
The outcome they had feared the most…
Had become reality.
No one could bring themselves to speak.
Each of them struggled to process the devastating news in their own way.
Then—
“Excuse me.”
Yoon Cheong quietly stood.
“…I’m going to my room for a bit. I need to organize my thoughts.”
“Cheong.”
“Unni…”
“I’ll only be a minute.”
Baek Juha and the others watched her worriedly.
But Yoon Cheong didn’t look back.
She walked straight into her room and locked the door.
Then—
“Come out.”
She spoke to the empty air.
“Long time no see, Yoon Cheong.”
At that moment,
A fluffy cotton-like creature slowly appeared from the empty space.
Still wearing the same unsettling grin.
“…You knew this was going to happen, didn’t you?”
“Of course I knew everything.”
The cotton creature cackled with its enormous mouth.
“You kept treating me so coldly and insisting you didn’t need my help. But now it looks like you do.”
“That’s because you kept demanding completely unreasonable conditions.”
Every three months, release a comeback.
Every song had to enter the Billboard Hot 100.
Those were the kinds of conditions it kept demanding.
Naturally, Yoon Cheong had rejected every one of them.
She refused to overwork the members.
Besides…
She no longer had any reason to accept the creature’s deals.
But…
This time was different.
“What do I have to do for you to restore Kim Geum’s hearing?”
“Who knows?”
The cotton creature flew around gleefully, clearly enjoying every second of this.
“Stop fooling around and tell me. This is urgent.”
“The one who’s desperate is you, not me. You should pay for ignoring me all this time!”
“If you hadn’t kept demanding things that would’ve worked the members to death, I would’ve listened. Just tell me.”
“I only want one thing, Yoon Cheong.”
The cotton creature opened its mouth impossibly wide.
“Make Kim Geum leave the group.”
“!”
“I’ll restore Kim Geum’s hearing if you do.”
