Peninsula Cicada Song Diary

The wind swept across the lawn in the courtyard, leaving soft indentations on the lush green grass.

"Nuna, look this way."

"Um?"

"Click".

The crisp click of the shutter captured Bae Joo-hyun's bewildered expression as she turned around in the kitchen, her hair in a bun and wearing a strawberry bear apron.

"Perfect." Looking at the freshly taken photos, Pei Xiyan nodded in satisfaction. "Nuna looks good no matter how she's photographed."

"What?" Bae Joo-hyun frowned.

"Why are you taking pictures with a camera?" That's what puzzled her.

Pei Xiyan usually takes photos, but when she thinks they look good, she mostly uses her phone. It seems a bit strange that she's using a proper camera today.

"Because I'm going out this afternoon." Pei Xiyan looked down and changed the filter for the photo.

"Going out again?" Bae Joo-hyun felt that Bae Hsi-yen's frequency of going out recently was a bit unusual.

"I made plans with someone else," Pei Xiyan said.

"Go take photos for others?" Bae Joo-hyun held the spatula, waiting for his answer.

"Yes." Pei Xiyan nodded.

"Hey! So am I some kind of guinea pig for you?" Bae Joo-hyun threw down the spatula, turned around angrily, and put her hands on her hips.

"Because there's no model prettier than Nuna." Pei Xiyan raised her camera again. "Nuna, give us a smile."

Bae Joo-hyun subconsciously flashed the formulaic smile she uses in front of reporters.

"Nuna, I'm not a reporter," Pei Xiyan reminded her.

"Oh." The formal smile was replaced by a casual smile.

"Click." Pei Xiyan pressed the shutter in time, and a casual photo of Irene that would never be seen in the media was saved in the camera.

Satisfied, he put down the camera, sniffed the air, and asked, puzzled, "Nuna, can you smell anything?"

"?" Bae Joo-hyun's lips tightened, and she sniffed the air, noticing a faint burnt smell.

She suddenly remembered that she seemed to be making breakfast, so she quickly turned around and found that half of the fried egg in the frying pan was burnt.

"Ouch, Nuna Mia!" Over her head, Pei Xiyan saw the horribly wrecked fried egg. Knowing he was in the wrong, he apologized instantly and stood obediently by the door, like a student who was late and waiting for the teacher's punishment.

Bae Joo-hyun calmly turned off the stove, smoothed her hair, and posed against the stove. "Let's take one more."

"Make sure the photos look good."

"It must be harder to make Nuna look bad than to unify North and South," Pei Xiyan said with a smile, raising her camera.

"Click."

With a press of the shutter, Park Ji-ah captured the sunset between two distant buildings in her lens. She continued walking, camera in hand, eventually stopping in front of the KBS Arena theater.

There was a long, orderly queue at the theater entrance, with men making up about 80% of the crowd. The screen at the entrance was displaying "Twice 'yes or yes' comeback showcase".

Today marks the third official return of TWICE to the peninsula this year.

Park Ji-ah adjusted the straps of her backpack and stood at the back of the line.

At 6 p.m. sharp, the entrance channel opened.

She moved further in with the flow of people, causing the penguin pendant hanging from the side of her backpack to sway continuously.

Ticket check, entry... The theater has a large capacity, divided into the stands and the front area. It can seat at least two or three thousand people, which is an exaggerated number, after all, this is not a concert.

Many people were looking for their seats while staring at their tickets, but Park Ji-ah didn't need to go through all that trouble. Ignoring the envious glances of some people, she went straight through the aisle to the first row in front.

What could be more enviable than seeing your idol up close? Especially for shows featuring a super popular girl group like Twice, a front-row ticket can fetch millions of Korean won online.

Her seat was in the middle right of the first row of the stage. After Park Ji-ah sat down, she took off the backpack behind her, unzipped it, and took out a candy light stick with her signature and a light fan with Mina's picture on it.

Mina is currently the member of Twice with the most female fans, and Park Ji-ah is one of them. She is also a fan site administrator.

There were also many people around her holding cameras, adjusting their camera settings. Most of them, like Park Ji-ah, were fans of her.

For ordinary fans, one mobile phone is more than enough. Only the fansite owners need to consider the impact of equipment on unedited photos. Although most of the photos on the fan site need to be post-processed before being released, it does not mean that unedited photos can be taken with just any mobile phone. There are significant differences in image quality, color resolution, photo resolution, photo size, depth of field, angle, etc. between the two.

Park Ji-ah recognized some familiar faces among them. Fan sites often communicate with each other because you never know if someone else's camera might accidentally capture a potential masterpiece of your idol. Also, if you can't attend an event due to personal matters, you can ask a fan site you know to take a picture for you.

After exchanging greetings with familiar faces, Park Ji-ah took advantage of the remaining time and aimed her camera at the stage, adjusting the settings.

"Done."

A few minutes later, Park Ji-ah placed the adjusted camera on her lap, waved her fan, and waited for the showcase to begin.

As time ticked by, Park Ji-ah watched as the empty seats in the theater gradually filled up, except for the seat to her right, which remained vacant.

"How can anyone be so unhurried?" she muttered to herself, staring at the empty seat.

Those who can afford to spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to sit in the first row are practically die-hard fans of the group. Arriving early to prepare is what qualifies as a die-hard fan.

Could something have happened on the way? Park Ji-ah waved her fan slower and slower, and began to worry about the person sitting next to her.

Just like the close-knit relationship among the TWICE members, ONCE is also very united. TWICE is a group where group fans far outnumber individual fans. Park Ji-ah is a half-group fan, but her favorite is Mina.

Just as she was getting worried, the theater lights were turned off by the stage manager.

The darkness lasted for a minute or two, then a large door on the stage slowly opened, letting in light. Park Ji-ah knew that the protagonist of this showcase was behind the door. At that moment, she felt a faint light source approaching from her right, and someone sat down in an empty seat.

They've finally arrived. She breathed a sigh of relief for the person beside her.

Behind her came a powerful shout, and Park Ji-ah joined in, waving a candy cane, her voice becoming a small ripple in the towering waves.

But she never heard the shout from her right. This person, whose appearance and gender she did not know, was as calm as a fish leisurely eating seaweed under the waves.

Is he really a die-hard fan? Park Ji-ah really wanted to ask, why is there no reaction at all?

As the door opened fully, nine figures whose features were obscured walked out. Taking advantage of the intense light from the stage, Park Ji-ah slightly turned her head, wanting to see what the "fish" beside her looked like.

Her skin was as white as snow, and her soft black hair fell across her forehead. The curves from her brow bone to her nose and then to her chin were so perfect that they looked like they were drawn by a cartoonist.

Park Ji-ah swore she had never seen such a perfect profile, so much so that she was stunned for a moment.