xuanmiin: Kwon's point of view. 

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For the week, this cycle repeats itself, only that it gets more bearable. We still get a waiting room to ourselves, which objectively is a good thing, and starts to become one, as the uninvited crashers have started to diminish in numbers. The same juniors and busybodies have already done their so-called investigative work previously, so we get fewer people popping their heads around the door. Camera rehearsals, live performances—everything becomes increasingly natural, as both of us grow accustomed to, once again, sharing a stage. And singing a new song, for the first time in over nine years.

Reception is unexpectedly positive. It’s not easy to have commercial and critical success at the same time. Honestly, Ga In and I were not particularly gunning for either, we just wanted to make something for ourselves. And if I had to hazard a guess, it would be halfway towards critical success. Yet that same halfway would make commercial success improbable. Especially, in other’s words, a newly established interlabel subgroup between members of presently existing groups.

But the all-kill, actually lasted for some time by any measure. Unbelievable, but the physical copies are actually selling, as are the digital versions. Needless to say, we keep our top spot on many of the real time Korean search engines. Adorable fans manage to trend us on twitter. We’re actually in the running for a win on one of the music shows, which we only found out belatedly as we had left the broadcasting station once we could. Some juniors who have never cast us a second glance beforehand are actually expressing their liking for our album—at first, I dismissed them as merely being polite towards their seniors. Until they could name specific tracks off the album which they liked, and could even justify why they liked it. Apparently many liked the refreshing honesty displayed in the album. Supposedly, what both of us cough up things that are without pretense and stripped down to the essence? I’m not even sure that I fully comprehend what they’re trying to say. Allegedly, it’s so clear who I’m referring to, that I might as well outrightly state Ga In—distinct from the typical extremely generic lover in a song, where nothing is known about this hypothetical imaginary soul.

When I changed my mind and thought we were halfway down commercial success, things started getting even more puzzling. Even more unfathomable, we actually get praised by the rest of our members, who decide that it was the wait, even though it’s at times a departure from our normal styles. They commented that it was astonishingly real, and they could identify which year those songs were inspired by. Jinyoung hyung came to tell us that he felt it was worth the money he blew on us, and he was personally very pleased with his wedding gift with ulterior motives. He claimed his ulterior motive was met, and not only that, judging from the present album sales, he would more than earn back his investment. Agency composers, producers and lyricists start approaching us to praise us on a job well done. They even claim that it’s solid all-round, but what really stands out to them is the lyrics. The fact that our voices are quite unique but meld very beautifully helps too. Unbelievable.

So I can’t figure out where we are. Halfway down commercial success or halfway down critical success. I stop unnecessarily killing my brain cells.

Instead, we wind up accepting individual variety appearances from the same programmes that ask if one of us could appear, even after we closed the door on appearing together. Ga In needed the best openings she could get to promote for BEG before they concluded promotions. I can’t exac