[ Rank 55 ???????????? ‘ZER01 - BLUE WAVE’ ❤️9,235 ]
…We made it.
Thank God. A debut rank of 55. The response was really good even though it was a new challenge. This is better than last time, right? No matter how I look at it, it feels way better. Didn’t we not even crack 60 last time? “A new challenge” seems to have gotten a pretty positive reaction.
When I checked the other streaming sites too, the rankings stabilized—counting even the B-sides.
Why does it feel so crazy to see a song on the digital chart. Maybe it’s because it’s been so long since I’ve seen a song with Zero One’s name attached sitting in the ranks. So this is what it was like back then.
There were a lot of things to fix right away, but still—new song, fresh start.
I must’ve been standing there too long, caught up in the feeling. Someone lightly shoved my back from behind.
“What are you doing just standing there? You’re in the way when people walk by.”
It was Cheon Sayun. Come to think of it, the others probably hadn’t checked yet either.
“Did you see what rank we got?”
I showed him the screen with the chart ranking on it. Cheon Sayun’s face, smiling mildly, didn’t twitch at all.
“Not bad.”
That’s it, fuck? I figured it would be something like that, but still—nothing else? I didn’t think I was expecting him to be excited, but it was kind of a letdown.
“You don’t have anything else you want to say…?”
“What more do you want. I’m not your fan, hyung.”
So because he’s not a fan, he doesn’t need to react like he likes it. Is that what this is.
The other members didn’t seem to care much either. The one exception was Pyo Jaeho, who had his phone in a death grip—looked like he was checking the rankings. At this point the numbers weren’t bad, so wouldn’t it be fine to say something?
“Our song debuted at 55.”
“Ohhh—seriously?”
Kyeon Inwoo let out a light whistle, impressed.
“The track is good, so of course.”
Not even a hint of emotion, Pyo Jaeho said it like it was nothing. So in the end, this bastard is basically saying it did well because he did well. It’s not wrong, but still—annoying as hell.
Seeing them react at least like this, I figured they weren’t in a totally bad mood. With these guys, I should be grateful for even this much of a reaction.
And Im Sebin…
With that same sunken expression, he stayed quiet like he barely existed.
[ Condition 2│A kind idol leader talks with members often, even if it’s brief. ]
Lately, it was the Status Window line I’d been seeing the most.
I’m not ready to talk, so what the hell am I supposed to talk about. I glanced at the clock. Soon we wouldn’t even have time to talk. If he keeps that up and can’t control his expression onstage, what are we supposed to do?
‘Haa…’
I got up from the chair I’d been sitting in and took the seat next to Im Sebin. He flicked his eyes at me, then scooted a little farther away, like I was a walking germ.
Jesus, that’s childish.
First, I glanced around.
Pyo Jaeho sitting alone in a single-seater sofa in the corner, checking something. Kyeon Inwoo getting his makeup touched up, and the manager—when did he even get over there—stuck to Kyeon Inwoo. Cheon Sayun talking to some younger staffer. And all the busy staff members doing their own thing.
Nobody seemed interested in us. Still, just in case, I lowered my voice as much as possible.
“Sebin hyung.”
“……”
“First of all, this is a place where we’re meeting fans face-to-face, and it’s our first time showing the comeback song, so let’s do our best together.”
“……”
“So could you set your personal feelings aside for a bit.”
“Not my problem.”
He didn’t even look at me, just sat there, so I thought he wasn’t listening—but I guess he was. At least he isn’t refusing to answer at all. If he really hated it, I feel like he wouldn’t respond, or he’d curse me out.
“…I don’t have anything against you, hyung. We’re on the same team.”
What a life—nothing but lies. Is it really okay to live like this.
Well, yeah, he’s annoying, but that doesn’t mean I hate him.
Hating someone is… I don’t know. Either way, I didn’t even have the energy to spend on that kind of thing. I’m already drowning as it is.
If anything, the one with actual hostility isn’t me—it’s Im Sebin. At least tell me why.
But Im Sebin’s expression only got darker. It didn’t look like anger. More like… gloomy. This guy—why does his face never match what’s going on inside… Actually, none of the members here are any different.
“Go Youngin.”
“Yes.”
Im Sebin, who hadn’t even given me a glance, looked straight at me for the first time. I still couldn’t read his expression.
“Don’t say things you can’t take responsibility for.”
“……”
Do I look that irresponsible? Or was “same team” really that hard of a phrase for him to accept?
“I won’t expect it twice.”
Before I could even answer that baffling line, Im Sebin stood up and walked out first.
“……”
Even as I walked down the hallway, I kept chewing on the conversation. He won’t expect it twice? What was he even expecting from this team in the first place?
Go Youngin, you fucking psycho. What the hell were you running your mouth about back then to end up with this mess?
Something felt off. Not just with Im Sebin—with every member. Every conversation was like that. I couldn’t get a handle on it, and I couldn’t tell what they were even trying to say. I couldn’t even clearly remember what kind of person I’d been, or what I’d done.
[ Condition 2│A kind idol leader talks with members often, even if it’s brief. ]
‘I did talk. I know.’
Not only me—every member probably knew we didn’t talk enough. If they didn’t, that would be weird. But there are things you know and still can’t slam into head-on. That dumbass, inanimate Status Window would never understand for the rest of its life.
***
The fan showcase was streamed live both online and offline.
It had been so long since I’d faced fans like this in person. It felt really strange.
Maybe it was because I didn’t feel clean about myself. If they knew what kind of guy I was, wouldn’t they be disappointed? I don’t know what else to do except give it everything I can.
Just like the press showcase, we did our best on this stage too, without mistakes. We performed a B-side first, then did a short “how we’ve been” talk and brief impressions.
>> [ON AIR] the fucking kids look insane today, hair makeup styling is god tier
>> [ON AIR] i missed you T_T T_T isn’t it like 9 months since the comeback?? i thought my neck was gonna snap waiting
>> [ON AIR] who saw the 기사? the youngest made the title track T_T T_T he’s such a beast
>> [ON AIR] ions it’s been forever so he’s singing one line each from all the previous title tracks in order T_T
>> [ON AIR] im sebin why do you look like a baby deer and then rap like that and wreck my heart, explain immediately plz
>> [ON AIR] please i need sayun to narrate a documentary or do asmr with that voice just once, i’d ascend
>> [ON AIR] ????: (rapping cool as hell, forgets the lyrics, accidentally shoots out a hard enunciation) wa-ssi... wat-ss!
>> [ON AIR] lmfaooooo inwoo’s pronunciation is already strong when he talks normally too lmfaooooo
>> [ON AIR] it’s okay inwoo, it’s your debut single, makes sense you’re fuzzy on it lmfaooooo
>> [ON AIR] i can see go youngin aging 10 years next to kyeon inwoo rn so i’m trying not to laugh, fuck, T_T
>> [ON AIR] sayun said he missed the ions sooo much and he’s sorry he made us wait so long, i’m crying T_T T_T T_T
>> [ON AIR] fuck what are you sorry for!!!!!!!!!!! you’re a public service just by breathing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>> [ON AIR] sayun talks so pretty... how can both his words and actions be like that...
>> [ON AIR] ngl when i see cheon sayun you can tell he was raised right, yeah, it’s like everything he does and says
>> [ON AIR] wait is my screen glitching or is it just me?
>> [ON AIR] infinite loading; the screen froze
>> [ON AIR] is the server for realㅡㅡ it cut off, fuck, our boys were finally gonna talk and you assholes
>> [ON AIR] you guys are streaming while watching, right? let’s do “streaming while watching”?????????
>> [ON AIR] MC: wasn’t anything hard while filming? / Jaeho: ? why would it have to be hard. no...(forced shutdown)
>> [ON AIR] lmfaooooooooooooooooooooo
>> [ON AIR] that’s not what they meant, fuck, jaeho lmfaoooooooo
>> [ON AIR] go youngin snatched the mic so fast lmfaooooo
>> [ON AIR] (breaking) kyeon inwoo’s surfing scene in the mv wasn’t a double, he did it himself!
>> [ON AIR] kyeon inwoo seriously, fuck, be human and date me just once, fuck
>> [ON AIR] the filming stories are cute, they’ll drop the behind-the-scenes, right? T_T double d, hurry up and post it T_T T_T T_T T_T T_T
>> [ON AIR] ????: youngin hyung kept looking for a floatie the whole shoot^^ ????: m-m!...water’s scary, what do you want me to do, i know it’s embarrassing
>> [ON AIR] fuck why is he stuttering T_T T_T so cute i’m losing it T_T T_T T_T T_T T_T
>> [ON AIR] they said the boys came up with the refreshing concept idea themselves, holy shit
>> [ON AIR] yeah i knew it, no way kwon daedo would do something that wholesome, so that’s what it was
>> [ON AIR] are they seeing the mv for the first time today?! they came straight here after the press showcase, right?
>> [ON AIR] me too i’m gonna watch like it’s my first time, respectfully, let’s go (ง˙∇˙)ง bring it!
Usually, they filmed a separate MV reaction and uploaded it, but this time we decided to watch the MV together with fans during the showcase.
But seriously—no matter how I thought about it, if the members hadn’t watched the MV beforehand and we did our first viewing with the fans, it felt like we’d get ruined mid-way thanks to someone who couldn’t keep their mouth from running wild.
So before we went in, I hurriedly soothed and coaxed them however I could, and we all pre-watched the MV together.
And that made me realize, once again, that it was a very smart choice.
Even now, I could still hear Pyo Jaeho’s voice in my ears, nitpicking every cut while finding every tiny flaw in the MV, and Cheon Sayun’s voice “saying it nicely” while basically beating people to death with words about everything that had annoyed him during the shoot.
Fuck.
[ ZER01 – ‘BLUE WAVE’ Official M/V ]
The MV opened similarly to the teaser.
Sunlight scattered into tiny fragments over the ocean’s surface. The sound of waves rolling in, the sound of wind. The clear, blue seafloor visible between the soft ripples of the water.
The camera plunged—splash—into the ocean’s embrace.
A muffled sound, like being underwater. Slowly sinking, and then, to the chime of a school bell that seemed to ring closer and closer from far away, the intro began.
During the intro, the members appeared one by one, each doing something different.
Starting with Kyeon Inwoo, ash-gray hair, dragging a skateboard along with one foot. Cheon Sayun driving a classic-style convertible to school. Pyo Jaeho running toward a door at the far end of a long hallway. Im Sebin holding the rooftop railing, facing the wind.
And finally, Go Youngin standing in front of the lockers.
For each member, the scenes felt similar but slightly different—different places, different spaces—so the color grading and props changed to match.
As the camera passed over each member one by one, the sound swelled, and the wave-and-wind sounds sharpened again.
The song began.
—Incoming waves
Over the sea that shatters into white foam
A rushing blue trace
In time with the lyrics, the members—somehow already changed into different hair and outfits—appeared one by one against the ocean backdrop, and at the very end, Go Youngin appeared. Like a teaser cut, I yanked open the locker-room door.
The dull screen brightened in an instant, and the background and the music shifted.
Blue light poured down.
—Swaying along the wind
The wide-open cry of the waves
Pouring out, surfing more
The camera quickly showed the members who’d been alone joining up, one after another.
Kyeon Inwoo and Cheon Sayun meeting first on the beach, then running into Pyo Jaeho as he drove and jumped into the water, then meeting Go Youngin standing in the middle of the sand and Im Sebin up on the coastal cliff.
And with a smile, Go Youngin grabbed Im Sebin’s arm—who hesitated until the end, unable to approach—and pulled him in, and the group choreography part began.
—Rather than avoiding it
Just keep waving
The rhythm sped up even more. We saw the members being peaceful as hell—splashing each other, laughing, talking, having a happy time.
In the middle, Im Sebin looked down at the waves breaking below the cliff, drew a small smile at the corner of his mouth, and continued rapping the hopeful lyrics.
That scene where we actually went into the water and splashed around—because we looked so stiff in the first take, I don’t even know how many times we reshot it. Honestly, I barely remembered what headspace I filmed it in.
‘Still, the result came out fine, so whatever.’
—Don’t hesitate
Let’s ride the wind together
Do a wave
The members, back in fresh outfits, gathered again and executed the choreography in formation. The background and the music kept that blue, sparkling mood the whole time.
—Don’t be afraid
Let’s ride the flow together
Do a wave
Just like the concept group photo, the MV ended with everyone gathered and taking photos—and then the music stopped, and it showed Go Youngin standing in front of the lockers again. Water droplets pattered down to the floor, and the ticking second hand made a strange harmony.
“Ah, we did a lot of reshoots there, didn’t we. The part where we all smile.”
Cheon Sayun spoke up, lightly clapping as if the MV brought the memory back to him.
“Matching the timing of the smiles was kind of hard. Right?”
There was a hidden meaning in that. When we pre-watched the MV in the waiting room, at that scene, that bastard definitely said—
“I’m curious how you think you can be idols when you can’t even smile properly. You must’ve had some kind of personal tragedy. Otherwise why would it have taken so long? Or are you just slow?”
That’s the kind of shit he’d said. Of course, it was a wide-area provocation. Because aside from Cheon Sayun and Kyeon Inwoo, the other three were people who practically had no memory of smiling brightly at all. It wasn’t entirely wrong, either.
[ Condition 2│A kind idol leader talks with members often, even if it’s brief. ]
“Yeah. We struggled a bit because we wanted to show only our best side to the Ions.”
Since Cheon Sayun had ended in a question, I had to answer in some acceptable way. The fans were watching.
After that, once we started bringing up MV behind-the-scenes, it basically turned into a mini talk show. Pyo Jaeho couldn’t stand it and said, “Watch it all first, then talk. Don’t break the flow,” and somehow we got past it.
This bastard’s attitude is just… The more I thought about it, the more it felt like something that could cause at least a small controversy, so I promised myself I’d check later.
Like a mirage, everything returned to its place.
But even now, far away, I could still faintly hear waves crashing. I stared straight into this blue silence.
Before I knew it, the MV was nearing the end.
Back in front of the lockers, Go Youngin—suddenly drenched—realized, through the Polaroid photo in his hand, that what he’d experienced wasn’t a dream but reality.
I stuck the photo onto the back side of the locker-room door and shut it. The sound of someone running somewhere faded farther and farther away.
—If you can’t stop it
If you can’t become the sea
Then become a wave
—No two ways
Not too wave
The camera didn’t follow Go Youngin. It zoomed in on the group photo stuck to the door.
The MV—which looked like it would end there—ended for real only after it showed the number of members left in the photo decreasing, and some of the remaining members’ appearances changing.
It was a pretty meaningful ending.
In the end, it was the CEO who couldn’t let go of the lore, adding that short bit at the end. And he did it without talking to the members, too. No wonder he only showed us the FinalCut.MP4 and kept refusing to show us the Final_Final_Final_Edit_Real_Final.MP4.
It only showed up briefly at the end, and since it was the kind of content that left room for interpretation, I figured, fine, whatever.
“Let’s each give our thoughts once.”
To pad the runtime, I asked, trying to squeeze a reaction out of these guys somehow. As long as the red light on the camera was on, they couldn’t completely ignore it.
“It reminded me of when we filmed it. The weather was good.”
“It was fun, maybe because it’s something we’ve never tried before. I hope the Ions feel the same.”
“Well—looks like the video came out nice.”
“I think it fits the song, more or less.”
Everyone’s answers were fine, and Pyo Jaeho’s mouth was still putting in serious work.
Back in the waiting room, he kept saying things so unrelatable it was like he had zero empathy—so I was glad I’d practically begged him to at least talk about the music. If he’d said what he said in the waiting room right now… fuck, I’d get chills.
[ Condition 28│A kind idol leader speaks and acts warmly toward members. ]
Warm words—what. Don’t tell me it wants me to compliment him about the music.
“And this time, Jaeho participated in the title track. He worked really hard because he wanted to let our Ions hear a song he made himself, so please enjoy the stage we’ll show you soon, too.”
Yeah, fine. I’ll give the bastard one more rice cake.