Chapter 423: Campus Darling
On May 30th, LESSERAFIM made their first comeback since their debut.
At 9 AM, when the album release event began, it was not the public's familiar DM Entertainment Chairman Jiang Shu who appeared alongside the LESSERAFIM members, but President Li Duohui.
This situation caused quite a stir online.
Jiang Shu had always been the representative of DM Entertainment, and this sudden change of person caused the public to speculate.
However, DM Entertainment once again demonstrated its highly efficient response to public opinion, providing a timely response before public attention reached its peak.
【Due to Chairman Jiang Shu's work commitments, the album release event was personally designated by Chairman Jiang Shu to be handled by President Li Duohui. Thank you for the public's concern, please continue to follow the activities of DM Entertainment artists.】
There were no conspiracy theories, nor any other complicated reasons; it was simply a work handover.
This made some fans a bit unhappy, but overall, they didn't care too much. While some came for Jiang Shu, the vast majority came for LESSERAFIM, so not seeing Jiang Shu wasn't entirely unacceptable.
Li Duohui, who hosted an album release event for the first time, immediately found Jiang Shu after it ended.
"Chairman, I can't do this job."
Jiang Shu, who was engrossed in writing something at his desk, looked at Li Duohui in surprise upon hearing her words.
"This is the first time you've told me you can't do a certain job."
"I feel uncomfortable doing jobs that involve appearing in public, and I also have to appear harmonious with those fans. I can't do this kind of thing," Li Duohui said, shaking her head.
She wasn't as amiable as Jiang Shu; smiling for photos and signing autographs with fans was fine for one or two, but a hundred of them was truly unbearable for her.
"If you don't do it, who will?" Jiang Shu said with a smile.
"Let Bae Joo-hyun do it. In terms of position, she's perfectly qualified."
"Wait a bit longer," Jiang Shu shook his head slightly. "It's not time for her to be public yet. You'll have to bear with it for a while longer."
"Given the frequency of our company's group comebacks, this isn't just a matter of bearing with it for a while," Li Duohui commented, a rare complaint from her.
"Just bear with it a bit more," Jiang Shu smiled. "Next year, I'll let Bae Joo-hyun take over for you next year."
"You said that, I'm holding you to it."
"Of course," Jiang Shu nodded with a smile. "I've never gone back on my word."
"Alright," Li Duohui sighed. "Then I'll just bear with it for another half a year."
Even with full calculations, she wouldn't have to host more than ten such events. She could endure it!
Li Duohui glanced at the letter paper in front of Jiang Shu, which was covered in dense writing, but it was too far away to see clearly what was written.
"Are you writing lyrics?"
"Not really," Jiang Shu shook his head slightly, clipping the letter paper he was holding into a folder.
Li Duohui noticed that there were several other letter papers, similarly covered in writing, in the folder.
It was a bit strange, but she didn't think much of it.
"You don't need me to act in your channel's vlogs, do you?"
"No, I'll still film LESSERAFIM's first music show performance."
"That's good," Li Duohui nodded reassuringly. "I'll head back now."
"Mmm."
After seeing Li Duohui leave the office, Jiang Shu took out the unfinished letter paper from the folder and continued writing something.
...
On May 30th, LESSERAFIM made their first comeback since their debut. Their mini-album title track, “ANTIFRAGILE,” immediately topped the Melon real-time hot chart upon release, and among all groups that made a comeback during the same period, they achieved the highest search volume, the most music video clicks, and the highest level of attention.
In June, LESSERAFIM began their regular music show activities, entering their promotional period.
Then, on July 9th, just three months later, DM Entertainment's super-large limited group, Girls' Generation, made a comeback with their mini-album “Oh!”
This large girl group, composed of members from several groups and solo artist Kim Tae-yeon, immediately topped major music charts upon their comeback, breaking their debut popularity and reaching a new peak.
But that wasn't the most interesting part; what was interesting was that IVE made a comeback three days later, on July 12th, with their mini-album “Kitsch,” and Zhang Yuanying was a member of both Girls' Generation and IVE.
With both groups making comebacks concurrently, which group's song should she promote?
Some people believed Zhang Yuanying would promote IVE's song, arguing that Girls' Generation was just a limited group, and IVE was her fundamental base.
Others believed Zhang Yuanying would promote Girls' Generation's song because Girls' Generation had their comeback first, so if she were to promote, she would definitely promote Girls' Generation's first.
There was also a group of people who believed Zhang Yuanying could promote both songs, as performing two stages was not difficult for an artist, especially for a senior artist like Zhang Yuanying, who had even held concert tours.
There were various opinions regarding the promotion issue, with all three factions having their own reasons, and each faction's reasons were very reasonable.
As for the final outcome...
On July 20th, Zhang Yuanying provided the answer.
As the last note of the “Oh!” stage fell, accompanied by the fans' cheers, the members of Girls' Generation retreated backstage.
The staff for the next “Kitsch” stage quickly went on stage to set up, and Inkigayo's backstage camera also knew exactly what the audience wanted to see.
At this moment, the camera immediately switched to the backstage view.
In the shot, after returning backstage, all the Girls' Generation members went back to their waiting rooms, except for Zhang Yuanying.
The camera followed Zhang Yuanying to IVE's waiting room, and the other members of IVE then appeared in the shot.
"Yuan Ying, hurry and change, we'll wait for you out front," Ahn Yujin said immediately upon seeing Zhang Yuanying.
Zhang Yuanying, still wearing the baseball darling performance outfit from “Oh!”, nodded quickly at her words.
"I'll be quick, you guys go ahead."
"Mmm."
The five members of IVE and Zhang Yuanying greeted each other before heading towards the stage entrance. The camera, however, didn't go in further; they were changing clothes inside, and live streaming Zhang Yuanying changing would be too outrageous.
A regular TV station suddenly turning into an adult channel?
Tsk tsk tsk.
At this point, the director cut the screen back to the commercial break; the boss's advertisements still needed to be shown properly.
Although the footage wasn't very long, it at least decided the winner among the three factions who had been arguing for a long time.
Both!
How to put it, is the truth in the hands of the minority?
Among the three factions, those who supported promoting both songs were the fewest in number, yet this was the final outcome.
Approximately five minutes later.
Zhang Yuanying, dressed in her stage outfit, and the IVE members re-entered the stage.
If “Oh!” was a baseball darling, then “Kitsch” was a rugby darling.
Both were subcategories of the youthful campus style, but both were more appealing than campus JK stage outfits.
The moment the whistle blew, Zhang Yuanying suddenly turned around.
"It's our time~"
