Dreamcatcher Comeback Crumbs Drop As Work Continues In February

K-Pop — Dreamcatcher Recall

The wait for K-Pop’s Dreamcatcher continues in mid-February 2022, but hints of their upcoming comeback begin to be left behind for fans.

As winter continues onward in February, Dreamcatcher fans seek to find some comfort in the confirmed news that Dreamcatcher has something new coming out. With 186 days elapsed since the last goodbye stage for late summer 2021 album “Summer Holiday”, we’re now in the second-longest time period between releases, with only 2018’s delayed “You And I” being longer for the group. While fans for the most part continue to be patient, and others bide their time with idle speculation (will Dreamcatcher be on Queendom season 2, for example), some are getting just a bit antsy for what’s next from K-Pop’s resident rock/pop girl group.

Though we didn’t get much definitive news on that front from Dreamcatcher this week, what we did get were the beginnings of the hints that normally get dropped when a comeback is getting closer — those little crumbs that don’t have much definitive information but which are intended to help tide fans over before that inevitable Mystery Code drop. As such, let’s take a brief look at what Dreamcatcher had to tell fans this past week!

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SuA’s appearance on SBS Wendy’s Young Street was fun as usual, with SuA, Wendy, and Taehyun discussing favorite movie genres. SuA put forth that she likes to act out the lines being spoken on the screen during dramas as practice, though considering how well Dreamcatcher’s comedically acted “World Of The Married” parody went maybe she doesn’t need as much. But aside from this, SuA’s normal interaction with fans outside of the radio station building had a nice comeback crumb — that it’ll take a bit more time, more than usual, but that it will be here “soon”. Even though her follow-up stylish Instagram photos tried their best to be distracting to fans, some picked up on the comeback hint, trying to see if “soon” meant next month, or longer. For my part, I’ve used the “soon (tm)” trick in my games industry work before, and honestly, it’s the best way to give something out without committing to a hard date. We’ll have to see how it pans out.

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What SuA would start, however, continued into the week with other Dreamcatcher members. A voice-only vLive with Siyeon and Yoohyeon gave fans a short time during which the duo watched M! Countdown with veterans Apink and Taeyeon making comebacks this week. This, of course, sparked questions of Dreamcatcher’s own comeback plans, to which Siyeon said that they’ve been climbing the mountain and now just have to go down it, while Yoohyeon said that they did something different that was described as “cool” — a word she used repeatedly to describe what’s to come. There were plenty of other entertaining moments from this vLive, from Siyeon making fun of Yoohyeon for previous spoiler moments and which Dreamcatcher members would play which characters in drama “All Of Us Are Dead”, but the comeback crumbs continued to be left, and gave fans just a bit more hope — especially when Yoohyeon used Instagram to finally reveal her hair, a blonde/black hybrid that seemed to suit her pretty well. Once again, the hints left gave fans a bit more insight into what might be coming.

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But it wasn’t until leader JiU sat down for a voice-only vLive of her own late in the week that we saw the comeback hints really take form. While her fellow members were content to sprinkle a crumb here or there, JiU decided to throw a whole bunch out like she was feeding a bunch of pigeons in the park, saying that she couldn’t say much about the comeback but that it was going to be worth it after the long wait, that the response to it would be something like “Wow”, that the group has been busy preparing for the album release, that she makes a lot of deep “ahhhh” sounds, and that the comeback might happen over a member’s birthday, with an acknowledgment that March might be a “comeback war” (the last of which appeared to be JiU repeating what someone said rather than an acknowledgment of March’s Queendom 2 “comeback war” tagline and broadcast date).

With member birthdays that are upcoming being Dami (March 7th), Handong (March 26th), and JiU herself (May 17), assuming that JiU’s prediction about the possible comeback timing is true, it appears late March, barring a really fast pre-comeback schedule or severe delay, is the most plausible date range. This is, of course, not set in stone as schedules can change, but this, along with the other bits of info JiU and other members have dropped in the past week, is the closest we’ve heard yet about comeback timing, sparking plenty of discussion and speculation.

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And of course, Dreamcatcher had to top off the vLive content from this week with one that went up hours before this writing, their first video vLive in quite some time. JiU and Gahyeon, who hadn’t done a vLive together themselves in a bit, talked with fans about the benefits of short hair, tips about taking vitamins for meals, Siyeon showing how full she was from the last meal, at least one JiU cheesy pickup line joke, and a goodbye that featured re-bleached blonde Dami and a new two-toned red-and-pink hairstyle from Handong. After all the comeback crumbs that were dropped this past week, we didn’t see much more for this one, but after quite a few weeks without regular vLive content at all, this rush of broadcasts this past week was nice to cap off with one in which everyone could be seen, leaving fans excited about comeback prospects and the members’ new styling.

All of these comeback hints made me curious about how they’ve hinted at previous comebacks along with their timing, so I went hunting around for some things that were in the same vein to see if there was any basis for preparation for Dreamcatcher comeback plans in relation to when they started dropping hints. Here’s a small sample of what I found, thanks to a combination of Twitter fan accounts, vLive translations, Reddit, and Discord, all of which happened prior to the first Mystery Code release (typically the first sign of a Dreamcatcher comeback).

“PIRI” era (Release: February 13th, 2019)

• Dreamcatcher says they are preparing for a comeback, which is why “Over the Sky” doesn’t have choreography currently (January 20th, 2019)
• Siyeon says the comeback is “close” and to be ready (January 26th, 2019)

“Scream” era (Release: February 18th, 2020)

• JiU and Gahyeon saying the comeback is “soon” and that they’ve been recording (January 10th, 2020)
• SuA spoiling the background beat line for the song (January 13th, 2020)

“Because” era (Release: July 30th, 2021)

• Gahyeon and Handong say the concept is a “Dreamcatcher’s Summer” concept (June 2nd, 2021)
• SuA says the next comeback is a “special” summer concept (July 13th, 2021)

This of course doesn’t account for accidental spoilers such as Gahyeon letting slip that they filmed the jacket photos for “BOCA” and Yoohyeon dropping the title track’s name for “Odd Eye”, but the group has gotten quite a bit better about hiding their plans in the last year or so.

Either way, if history is to go by, the comeback hints seem to signal that Dreamcatcher’s next activity, whatever that is, is coming closer. A bit more patience, and an understanding that it’ll be here when it’s here seems to be the best way to approach things. And while it’s unknown how many more crumbs we’ll get before the inevitable mystery code or other announcements, you can bet that fans, including myself, will be reporting in on it. Until then, feel free to subscribe, clap, comment, and signal boost this if you like what you’re reading — and I’ll see you next week as usual!