peninsula asteroid.

Chapter 1308 You win

Chapter 1308 You win

mid-October.

SM practice room.

"I really like the style of this title track."

"It feels a bit scary."

"I saw that Jingyuan oppa was involved in the arrangement on the credits? When was that done...?"

At this moment, several members of Red Velvet were resting in the practice room, discussing their new album which they were currently preparing.

After the huge success of their summer mini-album "The Red Summer" and its title track "Red Flavor," Red Velvet's popularity has greatly increased. SM Entertainment didn't waste any time but instead struck while the iron was hot, starting preparations for their new album immediately after a short break. This is their third album this year.

They've been busy preparing for their new album lately, and just got back from the recording studio after a long afternoon recording the title track, "Peek-A-Boo".

"Oh right, Joo-hyun unnie."

While chatting casually, Son Seungwan suddenly remembered something and looked at Bae Joo-hyun, who was sitting next to her swinging her legs and drinking water, and asked, "Isn't the song 'Kingdom Come,' which you wrote the lyrics for, also included in our album? I remember we were going to have Kyungwon be the producer of this song, is that okay now?"

Her question drew the attention of several people nearby. Bae Joo-hyun's song "Kingdom Come" was incredibly famous within the group; she and Ji Kyung-won, one writing the lyrics and the other composing the music, were practically a husband-and-wife team showing off their affection.

But the fact that these two were ex-boyfriend and girlfriend made the other members feel a bit strange.

Moreover, they had all heard the song and thought it was very nice. They had also read the lyrics, but how to put it... it just didn't feel like Bae Joo-hyun's level. It had this "I love you until heaven comes" stuff and a bit of a religious, divine sexiness.

Some people suspected her of cheating, but they kept it to themselves.

That's what was said before.

Her legs, which had been swinging leisurely, stopped. Upon hearing this, Bae Joo-hyun pursed her lips, which were still slightly damp from drinking water, and said, "But he's off working in America, and I don't know when he'll be back..."

She shrugged, but didn't seem too disappointed: "I guess I definitely won't make it."

"Oh, I see. Sigh, it's been so long since I've worked with Jingyuan. I was just thinking..."

Upon hearing that he wouldn't make it, Son Seungwan expressed some regret, smacking his lips as if some small idea had fallen through.

"Unnie, I heard that XO's trip to the US didn't go very smoothly. How are things going with Kyungwon oppa and the others?"

At this point, Son Seung-wan asked curiously, "Have you been in contact with him recently?"

"Contact what?"

But Bae Joo-hyun, upon hearing this, kept a straight face and gave her a disapproving glare.

Although she and Chi Jingyuan have reconnected, and most of the other members of the group know this... to be honest, they are not in a romantic relationship or lovers now.

From Bae Joo-hyun's own perspective, to put it in a slightly arrogant way...

They are now in a master-tool relationship.

Of course, she knew it was just her own proud and arrogant thought, and that she only thought that way out of pride, but she definitely didn't really think that way in her heart... But she wouldn't act like a lover, like when they were dating, contacting each other every day, making phone calls and sending text messages, and being all lovey-dovey.

"I heard it's not very good."

Hearing the discussion, Park Soo-young interjected, "I heard from the company staff a couple of days ago that XO's album might be a failure this time, as the data and results are not as good as the company expected."

This topic is quite interesting. As the most popular group in the company, the most popular group in the peninsula, and even the most popular group in Asia, they are attracting a lot of attention, not to mention their friends and juniors who already know EXO.

Of course, the unfavorable events from the previous activities could not be kept secret; they had already spread within SM Entertainment.

Bae Joo-hyun looked up at Park Soo-young, then took another sip of water without saying anything.

"Indeed, I've heard about it too."

Kim Ye-rin also came over, looking somewhat concerned, but mostly with amusement: "I heard that XO's album is doing very poorly in the US, not even ranking high on the Billboard charts. It seems like nobody in the US is listening to it."

"Moreover, because this album was targeted at the American market and was not promoted in Asia, many local fans did not buy it, and the sales of XO this time were not as high as before."

"..."

Bae Joo-hyun looked up again, but this time she wasn't as gentle as before. Her face hardened, her brows furrowed, and her small body instantly exuded an aura of authority: "Who told you that?"

"NCT's Mark and Doyoung oppa..."

Kim Ye-rin felt a little intimidated by that look, and her expression of watching the drama lessened, but she still stubbornly argued, "Many people are saying it."

“NCT…”

Hearing this, Bae Joo-hyun couldn't help but purse her lips: "They don't dare to breathe when they see him, but they talk so much behind his back..."

Originally, Bae Joo-hyun had a good relationship with some of the NCT members, after all, they were her juniors and she often worked with them on filming projects... But ever since the recording incident, she felt that Ji Kyung-won didn't seem to like NCT, and then for some reason, her feelings towards him gradually became somewhat averse to them.

"That's all old news."

Bae Joo-hyun glanced at Kim Ye-rin: "After all, it was our first album in the US, so things might not have gone very smoothly... But things are completely different now. Haven't you seen the news over there lately? A lot of people are mentioning XO."

"Qingjia?" Kim Ye-rin didn't pay attention to her sister's attitude. Instead, her eyes widened in surprise. She hadn't really been paying attention to it in the past few days.

"Yes, EXO is very popular in the US recently."

Kang Seulgi nodded in agreement: "They're super popular online right now, the fans are going crazy. I heard the company they're working with in the US is really generous with their resources. XO has been on a lot of shows lately... Haven't you seen the Billboard charts this week? ON has already made it into the top 30, which means they've really made it big."

“I heard from Jingyuan that they’ve been incredibly busy lately, with so many activities.”

"Is it gaining momentum? Is it for real?"

Upon hearing this, Kim Ye-rin quickly took out her phone and tapped the screen rapidly in surprise: "So XO is considered a success? Aigoo, this is their first group, right?"

"Unnie, how do you know all this so well? Have you been following this closely?"

While scrolling through her phone, Kim Ye-rin's expression turned from surprise to something strange. She glanced at Bae Joo-hyun, then looked at Kang Seul-gi and asked, "Have you contacted Kyung-won oppa?"

“Yes, I chatted with him on KakaoTalk for a while yesterday. He told me himself.” Kang Seulgi nodded.

"That……"

Kim Ye-rin nodded, then looked at Bae Joo-hyun:

"Unnie, you know so much about this..."

…………

"Oh, EXO again? Where did they come from? Are they really that popular?"

Catherine sat in front of her computer surfing the internet and couldn't help but complain after seeing a familiar term on Twitter.

As a white high school girl born in Carson City, Nevada, she has her own interests in the entertainment industry and popular music. Although she doesn't follow it closely, she often keeps up with its trends.

"Shti, we've run into them again! They're like a nuisance."

She scrolled down the webpage and saw the #ONBeatChallenge hashtag that had become extremely familiar in the past two days. Even one of her friends had shared it, so she couldn't help but shout it out again.

A dance challenge featuring EXO was recently launched on Twitter.

Using the hashtag #ONBeatChallenge, the goal is to select the most memorable drum beat from their latest song "ON" and design a simple, cool, and easy-to-imitate finger dance or body movement.

Those who dance even better simply cover the original dance.

It's unclear who started this activity or who took over it; initially, no one paid any attention to it.

However, the group of fans who called themselves 'EXO-L' were like they were under a spell, frantically and enthusiastically spamming the term online and participating in the event with great passion, making it seem as if someone was paying them to do so.

...But in the eyes of many, their enthusiasm seems to have exceeded the driving force that 'receiving money' can bring.

They appeared in various places, tirelessly boosting all the hashtags containing 'EXO'. Every time a new person posted a video and participated, they would leave extremely friendly and enthusiastic comments below. With countless people flocking to them, it was easy to make it popular, which in turn attracted even more people to participate.

A few days later, without many people paying much attention, the event spread like wildfire, and looking back, "EXO" and "dance challenge" suddenly became popular.

While it's not to say that everyone knows it, you're bound to come across it if you keep looking at it for a while.

Catherine only discovered it the day before yesterday. By the time she saw it, the challenge was already incredibly popular, appearing repeatedly in front of her whenever she went on Twitter.

In her opinion, this challenge, even if it's not as popular as the Ice Bucket Challenge a few years ago, is still popular enough.

However, she knew nothing about K-pop, had no desire to learn about it, and had never followed any boy bands, paying no attention to them at all... in fact, she didn't really want to.

As a native-born white woman, she still harbored an innate arrogance towards this foreign music.

So even though she had seen a lot of information since the day before yesterday, she only looked into it briefly and then refused to click on it. Moreover, this is a very busy time for the American music scene, with both superstar comebacks and phenomenal hits continuing to dominate the charts.

Although her recent Billboard number-one singles, such as "rockstar" and "Bodak Yellow," are very much to her liking.

But she particularly loves Camila Cabello's single "Havana," which she released last month, and has been listening to it a lot lately.

She had no interest in boy bands and didn't want to see any news about them; she just wanted to browse the internet.

But reality didn't go her way at all. No matter how much she didn't want to see it, she was still forced to see EXO over and over again...

On Twitter, you can see dance challenges; on Instagram, you can see all sorts of recommendations; and on online forums, it's even more so—almost everywhere you can see someone posting praise, and within five minutes someone will be cursing in the comments, and then the two sides will quickly start arguing, and the argument gets hotter and hotter.

It felt like she could see information about EXO everywhere she went; they kept appearing in front of her, as if she was being forced to pay attention.

"Damn, these fans are insane. Have they all been brainwashed by some ancient ritual from Asia?"

After the hashtag #EXO appeared on the screen one, two, three, four, five times, Catherine finally snapped. Just as she was about to leave a comment under a video questioning whether these people were crazy, she suddenly raised an eyebrow: "Huh?"

Suddenly, a notification popped up next to her: Baby Ariel, an internet celebrity she had been following and liked, had updated her Twitter account.

She temporarily put down her hand, which was about to unleash a torrent of abuse, and curiously clicked on it... Baby Ariel is a cover song blogger who often uploads videos of herself singing, which suits her taste perfectly.

Catherine fell silent after clicking on her newly updated content and seeing the blue, shimmering entry at the top.

#EXOONChallenge

"...Hi everyone, family members, today I'm going to take on a challenge. This is a new song from a very charming boy band..."

The video that she clicked on started playing automatically after a short buffering period, and Baby Ariel's familiar voice came through, sounding very enthusiastic.

But after seeing the video and hearing the voice, Catherine, who was just annoyed and unhappy with the fans spreading the virus online, felt a faint sense of mockery. However, her previous anger disappeared for some reason.

"Ok."

She gave a self-deprecating sigh, and as if obeying a mission, continued reading:

"You win."

"Eh-oh... come on bring the pain oh yeah~"

"..."

Baby Ariel was clearly just doing it for money. Although she seemed very enthusiastic, the video was very short. It was supposed to be a dance challenge, but it only covered less than ten seconds of the chorus dance before it ended.

only……

The melody of this BMG track is quite different from the music she usually hears; it's very unique. And although her dancing is just average, the few short dance moves are quite interesting.

This short video, however, caught Catherine's attention.

After watching it, she naturally logged into YouTube and searched for EXO's name.

She had seen the boy band a few days ago, but because she wasn't interested and didn't seem to be interested, she never bothered to learn about them. Later, she became increasingly annoyed because the name kept appearing in front of her.

But now, after seeing that even her favorite internet celebrity had been bribed, she suddenly felt relieved. The resentment she felt from being 'forced to follow' had dissipated considerably. Now, she really just wanted to see why this boy band from the peninsula was so attractive and could attract such a large number of crazy fans.

From never having heard of them or being unwilling to pay attention, to actively clicking to search for and watch EXO's music video for the first time, it's a breakthrough from 0 to 1.

After being bombarded with the name EXO for three days, Catherine finally clicked on the "ON" music video for the first time, and with scrutiny and curiosity, murmured:

"Let me see what kind of magic you possess..."