Chapter 7 Things I Like Better

onal festivals on the peninsula, and even Ji Jingyuan wasn't from the peninsula but held American citizenship.They celebrate various festivals with diverse customs, but they don't really place much im...And you, did you cry

Looking at Bae Joo-hyun with a rounder head from the hat, Ji Kyeong-won laughed and shrugged his shoulders: “Well, that’s not true. While winning the rookie award was exciting, I didn't feel like crying… maybe it's because the other seniors cried so intensely that it felt a bit comical and dampened some of the emotions.”

At the end, he thought for a moment and added, "If I had to say when I almost cried, it would be when EXO debuted and got our first win. That memory is really too deep. At that time, backstage, all the other members were crying so hard, and I was just about to..."

Exo's agency, ** Entertainment, unveiled a behind-the-scenes look at their preparations for the upcoming comeback. Pool Kyung-won still remembers vividly the scene of Exo earning their first music show win with "Wolf and Beauty." After a difficult debut with a rocky start, it took them one year and two months to finally secure their first number one spot on a music show chart. The satisfaction, sense of accomplishment, and bittersweet feelings that came with this victory are all still fresh in his memory.

Looking back now, getting first place just a few days after debuting was indeed fantastic, worthy of being called a monster rookie. However, the journey wasn't easy. It took a long time and a lot of hard work and perseverance to achieve what I had always dreamed of. This experience, compared to the previous one, has an extra layer of depth and richness.

"The first one"

Hearing this achievement, which seemed so far away from Red Velvet, Seulgi looked up at the sky with some longing.

From their debut to now, after two comebacks, their best achievement is that their debut song reached number one candidate once. In other aspects, they are basically pathetic.

To be honest, given Red Velvet's current situation, including several members like Irene, they aren't really hoping for a Daesang award anymore.

"Last comeback didn't achieve the expected results, and since November, we haven't received any new schedules. During that time, everyone in the group was very down and worried, afraid that last comeback would be our final one."

Bae Suzy recalled the torment she felt during that time, her gaze somewhat scattered, as if confiding in someone, she murmured, "This year, the company suddenly notified us of a new member, Elly, and a new comeback plan. Today, I even received a rookie award. I don't know why everything just went smoothly all of a sudden. My mood has been much better every day... When we were eating just now, after winning, we all felt a sense of hope.

"Juhyeon xi, just winning a newcomer award wouldn't make you proud, right In a few days there's also the Seoul Music Awards, which is very prestigious. Be happy after winning that newcomer award."

Pool Jingyuan glanced at her, not offering comfort but instead curling his lip in a sarcastic remark. He shifted his posture, leaning back against the chair with an air of languidness and drawled, "Besides, didn't I tell you by the river before From then on, it would be less than six months until we could see the sunrise again. Calculating the time now, there are only three months left."

Ji Jingyuan's voice sounded mysterious and very sure, which made Pei Zhuxuan involuntarily recall the scene that night and the conversation between them. When she thought about "Go With The Flow" that came soon after, remembering the shock and touch of that night, she felt her body warm up all at once, a beautiful arc appeared on her lips, smiling happily, her watery eyes looked sideways at him.

Before Ji Jingyuan could turn his gaze, she withdrew hers first, tilting her head back to look at the sky. She slightly pulled down the brim of her hat on both sides, her voice light and lively: "Seoul Music Awards Hope so... Actually, I've always liked looking at the night sky. When I was little, I often sat on the swing near my house at night and particularly liked looking at the planets in the sky. Even after coming to Seoul to be a trainee, I still occasionally like to run to the rooftop to take a few glances. It's really beautiful and very relaxing..."

…"

Hearing her words, Ji Jingyuan couldn't help but look up at the night sky as well. But after just a few seconds, the corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily. The sky was rather hazy right now. Forget about stars, even the moon looked unclear, its light dim and faint. He didn't feel even a bit of what Pei Zhuxuan had said – 'very beautiful, relaxing'.

Strangely, she glanced at him. This sister didn't know how she saw the beautiful night sky through the haze. She felt that after winning a newcomer award tonight, she suddenly became sentimental.

But this kind of melancholy doesn't quite match her current outfit with the little bear smiley face pattern, and her round and cute appearance with a hoodie hat.

After several attempts, he still couldn't immerse himself in Bae Joo-hyun's state of mind. Ji-seong tilted his head and looked at the night sky for a while, then let out a soft sigh: "Actually, I used to like looking at the night sky too, but I don't feel like it tonight."

"Why" Pei Zhuxuan turned her head curiously to look at him.

"He shifted his gaze away from the night view, a hint of boredom in his eyes. Pool Kyung-won shrugged at Bae Joo-hyuk, stating matter-of-factly: “Because now there's something more interesting to look at.”

After a slight pause, Bae Joo-hyun felt a warm current surge through her chest. Her lips slightly parted as if she wanted to smile, but she quickly held it back. She wasn't embarrassed though, she tucked the strands of hair that had escaped from under her hat brim and looked into Ji Seong-won's eyes with shining gaze. Her feet, which were originally planted on the ground, involuntarily lifted up, tapping lightly with a pair of small slippers. There was a clear hint of excitement and affection in her heart.

"Mmm..." After two seconds of eye contact, Chi Jingyuan stretched lazily and stood up, waving at her. "Let's go, it's getting late. If we don't go back soon, your manager might come looking for us."

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“...”

The heat and impulse in her heart were abruptly interrupted. Bae Ju-hyeon couldn't help but purse her lips and glance at Ji Kyeong-won. She also stood up, her voice carrying a hint of suppressed displeasure: "You promised to cover for me after the match."

"You two live together" Chi Jingyuan led the way back, curious, as he asked.

"Yeah, she's great in every way, she just gets a little bit mischievous sometimes." After regaining her composure, it seemed like she remembered Sun Seungwan's private personality, and Bae Joohyun let out a soft chuckle.

"Tch, maybe they think you're boring..." Ji Jingyuan, however, spoke up in defense of his same-aged relative. He actually quite liked Sun Shengwan's personality.

The two walked back inside and sat together on the ladder.

With the gate shutting, both people inside seemed somewhat silent, as if bringing back the quiet from the park.

With a click, the elevator doors opened again. This was EXO's floor, Red Velvet's rooms were still a few floors up.

Pei Zhuxuan pursed her lips. Just as she was about to speak and say goodbye, Ji Jingyuan had already walked out, standing outside the elevator and nodding at her, waving goodbye: "I'm going, good night."

"Hmm..." Seeing the other person so carefree and nonchalant, the words she had prepared were choked back. Pei Zhuxuan also lightly nodded, smiling as she watched the other person through the slowly closing elevator doors. She remained in the same posture even after the two sides of the door closed together, separating the sound, until the next time the elevator opened again did she come to her senses and quickly walked down.

…………

The next morning, all the attendees of the Golden Disc Awards, including other artists from S company, flew back to Seoul one after another. Only EXO was woken up early by their manager, had breakfast, and then took a bus to the Water Cube.

Tonight, the Youku - All Video Night will be held there.

2014 was a year of explosive growth in video data. The catchy song "Little Apple" swept across mainland China, the global Ice Bucket Challenge provided a powerful example for charitable fundraising, and a series of popular Korean dramas aired consecutively, attracting widespread attention. Click-through rates soared to astonishing levels, and reality shows on television and video websites entered a golden age.

To review last year's videos, images and related figures, marking the first time in the video industry to conduct a comprehensive cross-platform inventory. As China's largest video website, Youku hosted this event. It started releasing information and conducting voting as early as last November, continuously promoting it, and even chose the iconic Water Cube as its venue. Every aspect was carefully planned on a large scale.

EXO is considered a fairly popular performing guest, very prestigious. Still, it was only a three-song stage performance time. The Chinese versions of the three title tracks, "Wolf and Beauty," "Roar," and "Addiction," sung consecutively caused quite a stir.

After the activities on the 16th ended, EXO had to rush back to the peninsula. However, they didn't even stay in Seoul for half a day before holding a morning production meeting at the company. After that, half of the members flew to Europe with ** Entertainment's filming team.

They are officially starting to shoot the music video teaser for the title song "callbaby" from their upcoming single album 《e》.

This teaser video is one of the main highlights of EXO's upcoming comeback. Nine members will each travel to nine different regions and cities around the world to film individual teaser videos. Then, all nine members will come together for a final shoot in Yunnan province.

Ten regions and cities in order are: colorado united states, arizona united states, london united kingdom, lyon france, marseille france, edinburgh united kingdom, berlin germany, almaty kazakhstan, barcelona spain, yunnan china.

It's a coincidence that the first letters of these ten regions and cities, when put together, spell out the name of 's hit song "callbaby".

And these ten locations are all historically recorded places where residents and tourists have witnessed UFOs and other strange space phenomena. This perfectly corresponds to EXO's concept this time around, which will be elaborated on in the teaser: extraterrestrials with superpowers, eclipses, and intricate connections between the EXO members.

And even more cleverly, these ten locations, when connected by lines on a world map, form the official logo of EXO's second studio album, which has already been designed.

All these coincidences connected together inevitably make one think deeply and feel terrified. While being shocked, one can't help but admire the ingenuity of the person who designed this project. They managed to connect all these seemingly unrelated cities together and they perfectly correspond with EXO's comeback theme concept this time. It's really impressive.

It can be said that this time EXO's comeback teaser, from the planning to the texture, concept, aura, plot and metaphors, all make people can't help but marvel. It immediately draws a clear line between them and ordinary male idol groups.

Even if one isn't an EXO fan, just an ordinary passerby, or even a hater, they can't help but be surprised and moved when seeing this teaser video that is so different from other groups. Subjectively, one will naturally differentiate EXO from other boy groups, placing them in a distinctly higher tier.

At the time, when Ji Jingyuan received the materials from Lee Soo-man, he saw this unused project proposal and thought it was really great. It looked very impressive, so he later proactively mentioned this teaser design, hoping to use it for EXO's comeback this time.

And in order to shoot this trailer, the company also invested a lot of resources because they had to go to many different regions and cities all over the globe. So the company designed a shooting plan in batches. This time, the first batch is focusing on filming the European members.

And at the same time, because they need to return to Seoul on the 21st to participate in the Seoul Music Awards, this trip's schedule is very tight. If the progress isn't good, it's estimated that they may not be able to finish filming, and they may have to continue flying over later to continue shooting.

After a twelve-hour flight with a layover, Ji Jingyuan finally arrived in Berlin. When he stepped off the plane, his legs were weak and he felt dizzy and had no energy at all.

This project is really great, but the filming time has extended a bit because of the flying. Just thinking about having to fly for so long again when he goes back in two days makes his scalp tingle.

They arrived in Berlin in the early morning hours. The preview video here was Jin Goo-seok's part and it was about to be filmed that night. After the group briefly freshened up at the hotel reserved by company staff, they immediately started working.

Because it was a trailer, the length was no more than a minute and a half, and there were ten or so seconds of EXO and ** Company's logos at the end. The time was short and the shooting wasn't too difficult, so the progress was quite fast. After working all night to finish Kim Gwang-sik's trailer, everyone took a break and then went straight to the next city.

"Gotcha." Standing in front of the Saint Nyze Church, Chi Jingyuan took his phone and snapped two selfies facing the church's ornate exterior doors. Under the rather dim lighting, with the solemn and somewhat mysterious atmosphere of the church as a backdrop, the photos looked very atmospheric.

After flying for so long, it's finally time to take some pictures to commemorate this trip.

"Jingyuan, come here."

The staff were setting up the filming equipment, and pd waved over there.

“Just walk up this long staircase slowly in a bit. We’ll circle around you from behind, shooting from a long shot to a close-up. Remember not to look at the camera.” pd started guiding him and waiting for a while to explain the filming process. In fact, Chi Jingyuan had already read through the script's shots before this, so this was just a final emphasis.

"Got it." Pool Jingyuan made a hand gesture indicating it was a small case.

This trailer video was really no problem for him, a young actor representing this peninsula.

This time, the concept for EXO's second regular album, planned by company s, had many ideas. However, the main concept is to carry on from the second mini album "Addicted".

The general concept of "Obsession" is that EXO's twelve members, having lost their once-relied-upon superpowers, become ordinary people and are trapped in a labyrinth with no apparent exit.

And this time, in the regular second season of "exo-l", the remaining nine members of exo escaped from the maze and gradually regained their superpowers. At the same time, the superpowers of the three members who left the group were transferred to other members, and they also had subtle collisions and connections with UFO aliens and strange phenomena such as solar eclipses.

It sounds a bit mystical, but that's one of the core selling points that attracts EXO fans. From their debut song "MAMA" to now, with albums like "Wolf," "Growl," and "Overdose," each album actually tells a concept and story, and they are all interconnected and echo throughout the discography.

s is also the entertainment company that most enjoys playing this game. Most of their groups have their own 'concept' when they debut and return.

These things would generate a lot of discussion interest among fans, to some extent greatly increasing their appeal, coolness factor, and fan stickiness.

The shooting went smoothly. After the church scene was completed, everyone quickly transitioned to a nearby alleyway to set up again.

"Jingyuan, are you cold" Assistant Nana Lee Yoo-jin saw Ji Kyung-won sitting on a folding chair, rubbing his hands constantly, and asked with concern.

"It's so cold, Nunna..." Chi Jingyuan nodded forcefully.

For the shoot, he was wearing a thin black coat, a round-necked shirt, and jeans. Even though he had a down jacket over it, the temperature in the middle of the night still made him shiver a little.

Li Youzhen ran a few steps and took over a hair dryer. She plugged it in and stood behind Chi Jingyuan, starting to blow air on his neck. The warm wind passed through the seams of his clothes, warming him up considerably. He let out a contented sigh, a white cloud of mist dispersing from his mouth.

Hair dryers are a must-have for artists to warm up during filming breaks in winter. Being blasted with hot air on a freezing day is incredibly comfortable.

While enjoying the service of his assistant Nana, Ji Jingyuan listened to PD's explanation. To be heard over the hairdryer, the latter even raised his voice.

Chi Jingyuan's personal preview plot is roughly that he appeared at the entrance of Liyang Church, walked into the church and went all the way to the nearby alley. Suddenly, the streetlights around him began to flicker, and then kept going out. He was panicked and ran in the alley, and wherever he passed, all the lights connected were extinguished. The light of the whole city began to disappear and turned pitch black.

The plot comes from the superpower 'Light' given to Ji-yeong in EXO. He just regained his superpower but fell out of control for some reason.

In the end, Ji Jingyuan burst into a room. The darkness around him suddenly sparked with starlight, illuminating the nearby area. The tables and chairs in the room floated in the air thanks to special effects. Ji Jingyuan stood quietly in the dimly lit room, breathing softly with an emotionless expression.

This is a hint that Han, who has already left the team, had his superpower "Telekinesis" partially transferred to Chi Jingyuan. This also continues the concept and setting of former team members.

Including taoy who is also leaving, their abilities will also be transferred to other members in the video.

I imagine XO fans probably feel a mix of emotions seeing these scenes and the superpowers of those former members. They might be overwhelmed with feelings, then end up smiling softly.

Peninsula Asteroid

This novel is first published on the website of Traditional Chinese Novels.d at the time and replied lazily."That's great!"She was so surprised that she exclaimed in delight. There seemed to be other voices around her as well, and they sounded a bit like Sun Shengwan's.We're...