At 10 o'clock in the morning on February 15, SM officially announced that its male idol group EXO will return as a complete 9-member body. The official press release was quickly quoted by major media and websites:
"Currently, EXO is preparing for a new album with a target date of March to June. At this stage, specific matters have been confirmed. This time EXO will release a regular second album in the form of single albums released month by month. The songs included in "EXO-L" will be released in the "EXO-L" series of single albums, "E", "X", " O", "L"."
"Each single album will include a title song and a non-title song, and the MV and sound source will also be released at 0:00 a.m. on the 1st of each month. After the four single albums are released, they will be released on the fifth EXO's regular second album "EXO-L" will be released in July. In addition to the songs that have been released, the second album will also include new songs, and all the behind-the-scenes footage of this album will also be announced."
After introducing the format of their comeback, SM also announced the overall process of this comeback. Personal trailers for the members of this comeback will be released during this year’s Spring Festival, which is February 19th, and will also be released on the same day. Pre-sale of the album.
One person will be announced every day until the 28th. In the early morning of March 1st, the sound sources of the two songs "call me baby" and "butterfly" from the first single album "E" will be released. It is also confirmed that EXO will be released on March 1st. On the same day, they made their comeback on SBS's "Inkigayo".
At the same time as the return, it was also announced that EXO is preparing for its second world tour "PLANET #2 - The EXO'luXion". The second tour concert is expected to be officially held in May, and the ticket sales website and window have not yet been determined.
At the end of the announcement, in addition to expressing gratitude to fans and the public for their support, the announcement also included a comeback cover pictorial of all members.
This pictorial chose the personal previews that the nine members had already taken. It intercepted a picture of each member facing the camera. The photos of the nine people were stitched together based on black and white tones. The cold background and background added The above member's plain and somewhat indifferent expression produced a strong visual impact.
The new logo of EXO's comeback is also printed below the poster, as well as the 3.1 comeback date.
At the Seoul Music Awards, Ji Kyung Won's acceptance speech had already given a preview of his comeback. After that, many people were actually paying attention to the subsequent progress.
As soon as the official announcement came out, the news of 'EXO's return' immediately became a hot topic in the entertainment sections of several major forums and became a hot topic of discussion for everyone.
"Ahhh, XO is coming back!"
In a classroom of the second grade of Dongdeok Girls' High School in Seocho District, during the noisy break time, a scream suddenly rang out and directly covered other noisy sounds, causing the entire classroom to suddenly become silent.
"When will you return? Was it just announced?"
"Is it a mini or a regular second album? Are there any songs written by Yuan?"
Immediately, many girls reacted and shouted excitedly, and quickly came over. Soon a group of people gathered around the classmate who just shouted, listening to her read the announcement SM had just made.
"The MV and sound source will be released at 0:00 on March 1..."
Every time I read a sentence, the surrounding students would exclaim happily, making the classroom very lively for a while.
In the past, more than half of their class were fans of EXO, and most of them were fans of EXO during the "Roar" period. However, after so many things, the group has shrunk a lot after falling in love and members quitting the group one after another. There have also been incidents where fans of Luhan got into disputes with others because their idol left.
After the commotion for a long time, only these ten girls were gathered here. Except for a few who were sitting and watching the news on their mobile phones, the others seemed a little indifferent.
"Zhixi, why don't you come and take a look? XO is coming back!"
A girl saw a little friend lying on the table as if she hadn't heard, so she walked over and pushed her to remind her.
"I'm too lazy to pay attention to that traitor group." Zhixi snorted lightly, looking like he didn't care, leaning on it with his legs crossed and playing with his phone casually.
She used to be a die-hard fan of EXO, except for Baekhyun, but after several shocks, she slowly left Aili's group heartbroken.
"I didn't ask you to continue to be a fan of Baekhyun. Didn't you like Yuan very much before? It's different when you switch to another person. This time his comeback poster is super cool!"
"Tsk..." Zhixi stubbornly shook his head. His disdainful look made his friend feel helpless and annoyed, and he turned around and ignored her.
When no one was paying attention, Zhixi's phone was inadvertently swiped to SM's notification interface. Looking at the black and white comeback poster on the screen, her eyes temporarily lost focus.
After a long time, she glanced to the side, skillfully clicked to save the picture, and curled her lips in a very low voice: "Let's wait until the song comes out and let's hear how it goes..."
On the Internet, many Aili have been looking forward to this news for a long time. As soon as they saw it, they couldn't help but express their joy in forums and fan clubs.
"The Oppas are finally coming back, God knows how long I have been waiting!"
"The poster attached to the announcement is so handsome. Yuan, Chanyeol, Sehun, and Baekhyun are all so handsome. Ahhh, I'm so excited."
"The plan for this comeback is really grand. A single album will be released every month. In the end, the four-in-one album will become a regular second album with a total of four title songs? SM has become a real person this time. I hope XO We must make a big move and let the nine of us return to the top!"
"Released month by month? Doesn't it mean that they will come back every month starting from March? Wow, I feel so happy just thinking about seeing them every day."
""EXO-L", the name of this regular second album really makes me cry to death..."
Ariels are just as eager to beat the gongs and drums on the Internet as if they were celebrating the holidays, and spread the news of EXO's upcoming comeback everywhere. However, in addition to expectations and praise, there is actually quite a lot of pessimism and ridicule:
"It can be seen that SM had so many things happen last year and the stock price dropped really badly. In order to restore the stock price, EXO came up with such a great-looking plan. It's a pity that such a grand plan was given to the wrong person. It is impossible for a combination with a broken soul to have any prospects."
"When I saw the phrase '9 people are perfect', I almost laughed to death. I was drinking water and spilled it on the keyboard. Assi, SM will pay for my keyboard!"
"The memories of Luhan and Tao have been deleted? Do Yuan and the others know that they are now 'complete bodies'? By the way, isn't Lay not quitting the group on the surface?"
"lay: So I was kicked out of the group?"
"I don't know why EXO is planning such a fancy plan in such a situation. Everyone knows they are going to die, so why can't they die a little more happily?"
"SM is still great. The sales of four singles + one regular album and five albums will probably break the record, right? Then use SM's special statistical method to calculate all the sales into one album and then win the best-selling album. , and then the fans can brag about millions of sales. I can already think of it now."
"It's ridiculous, you just talk about the decline of the earth's market, and those idiot fans will throw out "million sales". Who doesn't know that EXO's sales are the sum of several versions of the album? Now they are just This is the only fig leaf left."
"Five albums? You really don't treat your fans as human beings. Even if the single album price is not high, you can't do it like this. I predict that EXO's sales will plummet this time."
To a certain extent, Kuroko and other fans are paying as much attention to EXO's return as Ariel. They even feel that XO's return has taken too long, and they can't wait to see EXO's return the next day and then their performance plummets. The crowd laughed.
…………
"Oh Mo, Jingyuan and the others XO are coming back! I said I haven't seen them recently."
In the practice room of red velvet, Jiang Seulqi took out her phone in the lounge and took a look at it, and immediately shouted out in surprise.
"Jinjia? When will you return? Make an announcement at this time... We won't run into them, right?" Park Xiurong, who was sitting there feeling bored, reacted and immediately took out his phone with some worry.
They had held a meeting a few days ago to confirm, and the time for Red Velvet's comeback has also been confirmed in mid-March. If this extremely important comeback for them happens to hit EXO head-on, then...
Neither Park Sooyoung nor Kang Seulgi dared to think about it.
Even if he is not at his peak, if Ledbebe bumps into EXO now, he will still be absolutely hit by the dimensionality reduction, and he will probably be knocked away without any splash.
"Fortunately, they are coming back on March 1st, which is more than ten or almost twenty days behind us." Jiang Seulqi patted her chest after reading the announcement, but she was still a little worried: "But XO will be back on April 1st. Sing."
"It's good that there was no head-on collision." Sun Shengwan was quite open-minded. After she finished speaking, she looked at Bae Zhuhyun next to her with some curiosity: "Unnie, do you know about this?"
"Nai, I heard... Jingyuan say it before." Pei Zhuxuan nodded, but he was thinking about the scene at that time.
Not only had she said that she had seen the photo that Chi Jingyuan sent a few days ago countless times. The close-up selfie with ash-grey hair and a sullen face really made her feel a little empty at the time.
Bae Zhuhyun still couldn't forget the selfie she sent to him specifically. They were back with their new looks this time. She had been waiting for a long time to get two compliments, but in the end, she was full of expectations and a little shy and waited until she said:
"I feel like it's not very suitable for you to have thick bangs when you dye your hair blonde..."
Assi!
Thinking of this, Pei Zhuxuan was a little annoyed and couldn't help gritting his teeth and wanting to kick him.
Picking up the phone and taking a picture of her newly dyed blond hair with the black screen, and gently shaking the bangs on her forehead, Pei Zhuhyun felt a little angry.
Isn't this pretty? What's your vision?
"Have you known Unnie before..." Jiang Seulqi glanced at Bae Zhuhyun, swallowed back the question "Why didn't you tell us?", then looked down at her phone a few times: "XO's music source and MV were released on March 1st It will be announced at zero o'clock, we should be in the dormitory at that time."
Sun Shengwan clapped his hands, looking forward to it: "We just want to watch it together. Jingyuan and his friends have such a grand comeback plan this time, they must be very powerful."
He snorted softly in his heart, but it didn't show on his face at all. Pei Zhuxuan paused for a few seconds and then echoed:
"Then just watch."
Seeing EXO's comeback model in the news announced by SM, YG, as one of the three major European entertainment companies, was a little surprised at this time.
"Is it a coincidence? Or has our internal plan for Big Bang been leaked?"
In the office where a special impromptu meeting was held because of the news, President Yang Xianshuo frowned, knocked on the table and asked in confusion. He was wearing a baseball cap, and his voice was a bit high-pitched and sounded very distinctive.
The atmosphere in the office was not very good at this time.
Because Big Bang, a boy group under YG Corporation, has confirmed that the group will return to the music industry as a whole with a regular third album this year.
YG's plan for the regular third album of Big Bang's comeback is basically the same as EXO's this time. All single albums will be released month by month in four months, and finally four-in-one will become a regular album.
It's just that their estimated time is four months, May, June, July, and August, which is two months later than EXO.
This time Big Bang is their important comeback after three years since the release of the highly successful fifth mini-album "ALIVE" in 2012. It is very important for both the group itself and YG, especially in the company. After another popular group 2NE1 suffered a major decline due to the crisis, Big Bang became the most important pillar of YG.
A few days ago, in mid-January, Big Bang was holding the 'Five Dome Tour Concert' in Neon. Not long after returning to Seoul, the news came out, and several people were quickly invited by the company to have a meeting together.
After all, the return model of the two is really too imaginative, making it difficult for Yang Hyun Suk not to think more about it.
At this time, in Yang Hyun Suk's office, in addition to him and the members of Big Bang, there were also the heads of the promotion and marketing departments, all here for the news of EXO's comeback announced by SM today.
"It must be a coincidence." The staff from the record department stood up and replied tentatively: "An album plan of this level will take at least several months of preparation. Even a meeting to discuss and confirm will take a long time. SM also It would have been impossible to predict in advance that we would take this approach.”
"And the return model is just a gimmick. The final result still depends on the quality of the songs, the stage, as well as the investment in supporting publicity and company resources."
"..." Yang Xianshuo played with a stainless steel lighter in his hand and nodded gently while listening to his subordinate's analysis.
"President Nim, we were originally scheduled to announce the news of Big Bang's comeback on April 1st. Do we need to advance it now?" A room manager stood up and asked.
"It's not necessary. We are also returning to this model. After preparing for so long, of course we know how high the quality requirements of this model are for the songs. I don't know about SM's song selection, but I am not sure about the quality of the songs included in Big Bang this time. Very confident." Yang Xianshuo thought for a while, laughed and shook his head.
Several members of Big Bang were sitting there not knowing what to think. GD and Taeyang kept their heads down the whole time and had no objections. Li Shengli was very interested and listened carefully. TOP also laughed after hearing the conversation of several people: "I just said After looking at it, a group that has not had much success in recent times has returned. With the size of EXO’s fans, as long as the songs are not bad, there will definitely be a lot of response.”
"We will announce their return after they have improved somewhat. The exact same return model will definitely attract a lot of eyeballs and trigger discussion among fans. We will use their popularity to carry out the first wave of publicity and make them popular in the past two months before we return. Just step on their heads.”
TOP Choi Seunghyun took the information in his hand and read it for a while, then took the initiative to speak with a smile. The crooked corners of his mouth showed that he actually didn't take EXO seriously. And although he left first in the club last time, after hearing what happened next, he was still a little dissatisfied with Chi Jingyuan. He felt that this junior was really rude and did not understand some of the unspoken rules.
Although Li Shengli told him some inside stories and told him not to actively provoke others, he didn't take it to heart.
GD and the others next to him also remained silent. They seemed to have no opinions, but everyone's demeanor was quite relaxed. Faced with EXO's comeback in the same way, there didn't seem to be any pressure.
After all, BigBang is the TOP men's group that reached the top in the past few years. Even though XO has been very popular in the past two years, in many people's hearts they are just newcomers and juniors. In fact, many of them also have a vague idea that it is thanks to this Bigbang has not returned in two years, otherwise XO wouldn't have taken all the limelight.
"Just talk about this in private, Seunghyun, please remember better." Yang Xianshuo stretched out his hand and nodded at him twice, but his expression was not very angry. After thinking about it again, he finally made a conclusion:
"Then let's decide like this first. There is no need to change the previous plan. We will see how XO returns this time."
"knew."
…………
The news of EXO's return has not only caused fans and passersby, but also had a big impact on the industry. Many companies have appropriately adjusted the return dates and preparations for their artists.
In the past few days, when the outside world has been a bit chaotic, the members of XO are taking advantage of the hard-earned time to pack their things in the dormitory and prepare to move.
The agent has warned me in advance, and I have been packing my belongings during this period. Starting today, I will load the belongings into the car and move them to the new dormitory.
Chi Jingyuan and the others visited the new dormitory yesterday. It is indeed better than the old dormitory. The area alone has nearly doubled, and other decorations, appliances, and even ventilation and lighting are much better.
Moving from JB area to Cheongdam-dong in Gangnam is really a big progress and leap, just like the span of EXO from the "MAMA" period to "Roar" and "Addicted".
"Moving things, what are you looking at?" Chi Jingyuan had just moved a packed box outside the door to his assistant and the employees of the moving company to transport it downstairs. When he returned to the dormitory and was feeling a little tired and out of breath, he looked at When Wu Shixun leaned against the bed, holding a cell phone and looking at something, he shouted dissatisfiedly.
"He has been slacking there since just now. He said he was reading the comments about our return on the Internet." At this time, Do Kyung-soo carried a box and huffed and squeezed past. At the same time, he glanced at Wu Se-hun and complained. Just walked out.
"No..." Wu Shixun put away his phone and looked unhappy: "I feel that after the news of our return was made public, the response online was a bit average. Many people were not very optimistic about it, and the words they said became more unpleasant than the last. .”
"Nonsense, Luhan and the others are gone, Team M is gone, 12 people have become 9, and passers-by are still optimistic about us, but they are haunted."
Chi Jingyuan waved his hand impatiently: "When did those anti-fans become more optimistic about us? You have heard several of the hit songs yourself and are you still so unsure? We will know when the music MV is released... hurry up and move things !”
"..."
Pouting his lips slightly and not bothering to read any more comments, Wu Shixun put away his phone, picked up a packed box and walked out.
The agent has already contacted the moving company. They only need to move the things to the door and someone will take over to move them and load the car. However, after all, I have lived here for too long, and the courtesy of 9 people is really too much, even if it is just moved to the door. I went back and forth several times and was exhausted and out of breath.
After a while, the move was almost completed, and several people were sitting on the sofa. Li Chenghuan came in from the outside. Looking at the exhausted people, he laughed, clapped his hands and said one final confirmation: "We will officially move here after the Spring Festival. The dormitory allocation is as mentioned before, do you have any objections?"
"No..." Several feeble voices replied.
The new dormitory in Cheongdamdong is much larger than here. There are five bedrooms in total. Except for one room where the manager lives, the other four rooms are divided up by nine people. The other rooms are shared by two people. The largest master bedroom was still shared by three people. After discussion, it was finally assigned to Chi Kyung-won, Oh Se-hun and Do Kyung-soo.
Even if the dormitory line changed dormitories, they would still be together.
Although there are still three people in the same room, the bedroom area this time is much larger than before. There is no need to sleep on the combined apartment bed, which can fully accommodate three single beds. There is also a lot of ample space and lighting. It also comes with its own A balcony is definitely not what it used to be in terms of condition.
Chi Kyung-won also had no objections and was quite satisfied. The three of them had been living together and getting used to each other for so long. They were the most familiar and close friends in the group, and Do Kyung-soo and Oh Se-hun happened to be among the few members. The members who are relatively tidy and like to clean up don’t have so many troubles when living together.
"Then it's confirmed..." Li Chenghuan nodded and started to tell us about the Spring Festival: "We have a day off for the Spring Festival on the 19th. We will gather in the practice room on the morning of the 20th. Be sure not to be late. Originally, the company was not prepared to give us anything when we were about to return. It’s a holiday, but in the end I decided to let you guys take a break because I was too busy preparing the album during this period.”
"I know, brother."
When they heard about the holiday, the members got a little more energetic, especially those Park Chanyeol who had been filming "My Neighbor Is EXO" until midnight until midnight. They were really refreshed.
"The Spring Festival is coming soon. The trailer for your comeback will be released on the Spring Festival. After you come back, you will make the final preparations for your comeback. Children, please cheer up."
"Inside!"
Seeing that these people were still looking lazy even though they said good things, Li Chenghuan was not angry. He shook his head and glanced at everyone before laughing: "Okay, I wish you a happy Spring Festival. Have a good time." rest!."
"Brother, too, Kang Sangmita."
(End of chapter)
