Chapter Thirty-Four: Confrontation

beside her.Pei Zhuhyun looked over with red-rimmed eyes.It turned out to be that person whose name I had been hearing frequently lately, but someone I greatly disliked.Chi Jingyuan.First published on...After bidding farewell, Chi Jingyuan left the styling room under Jin Shanmei's watchful gaze. It wasn't until he pushed open the door and walked out that he felt the scrutiny on him disappear.

"Well, Jingyuan is still as fast as ever. Why don't you sit there and rest for a while I reckon you'll have to wait a while."

Yi Chan-hwang, who had been waiting the whole time, saw Ji Kyeong-won come out and immediately greeted him, casually throwing a denim jacket over his shoulders. Although it was already May, the temperature early in the morning was still a bit low.

"Thank you," said Ji Jingyuan after bowing. He then sat down next to a few members of Team K, while the others were leaning back in their chairs and napping. Wu Shixun, who was next to get his hair styled, was called by Li Chenghuan. He sleepily followed him inside.

After the styling was done, she couldn't move too much lest she messed up her hair and makeup. Ji Jingyuan just sat straight in her chair, closing her eyes for a nap.

Since Ji Jingyuan came out and sat down, the eyes of some female idols who hadn't fallen asleep in the beauty salon lounge kept glancing over to him.

After looking for a while, their gaze would shift to other places, just glancing around for a few seconds before coming back. Sometimes, if they were teammates, there would even be some eye contact.

The atmosphere seems to have changed from just a moment ago.

Chi Jingyuan felt a little strange, but he didn't care much. When he had time to rest, he hurried to make the most of it.

Most of the artists here are not very well-known, and many of them I don't even recognize or have ever heard of.

After waiting for a while, when four members of Team K had finished their styling and it was the turn of the last two, a person who looked like an agent walked in with seven girls and sat quietly beside them.

Ji Jingyuan glanced at them, he recognized this combination, Apk.

Apk is a girl group that has been quite popular recently. In January of this year, they achieved the number one spot on a music show, an honor that EXO hasn't even come close to yet.

The past two days have been officially back, and now it is the event period. Chi Jingyuan has occasionally run into them backstage and exchanged greetings.

There were a lot of people around at the time, and nobody said much.

Several girls are currently bare-faced. Their skin looks pretty good, but their sleepy eyes don't really stand out.

After a quick glance, Chi Jingyuan retracted his gaze and did not meet the eyes that were cast upon him.

After waiting for a while, everyone's makeup was finally done. Relieved, the group followed Lee Seong-hwan out the door and into the van, heading towards M.

After EXO-K left, several hushed whispers could be heard in the beauty parlor's rest area:

"Yuan probably hasn't seen me without makeup..."

"You definitely saw it, don't even think about it, give up, he doesn't look down on you."

"Oh, you're going to die..."

………………

At this M!Countdown, they still sang "MAMA," to be honest, Ji-sung has almost sung that song until he's sick of it.

From their debut to now, whenever they go on TV programs, it's either "History" or "MAMA," with "MAMA" taking up the majority.

And judging by the company's plans for him, he's estimated to be singing "MAMA" for at least another half a year, possibly even ringing in the new year with "MAMA"...

It's pretty disheartening when you think about it.

And this singing program airs only a few times a week, but it doesn't have any effect. Although it maintains a certain level of heat and exposure, it hasn't attracted more fans, and online ridicule continues. Even Chi Jingyuan's own fan growth has slowed down considerably.

His singing performance was also mediocre. He couldn't even make it to the runner-up list, let alone be ranked first.

The sound source performance is also not good. Originally, aside from Big Bang, the peninsula boy group was not particularly strong in terms of sound source charts, and this time "MAMA" is even more so. After its release on April 8th, it was about to drop out of the top 100 on Melon in less than a week.

After that, Chi Jingyuan didn't pay attention anymore and didn't know if he had dropped out of the rankings now.

The only good news is that the sales are actually pretty decent. Now that they've debuted for a month, they've already sold close to 160,000 albums. That puts them pretty high among all the boy groups on the peninsula. I wonder how much effort the company put into this.

Among them, about half bought the album because of Ji Jingyuan.

Good sales prove that their popularity isn't high on a large scale right now, but there are still plenty of die-hard fans willing to spend money on their exclusives.

Especially Chi Jingyuan's meals, most of them are die-hard fans.

However, according to the sales trend, it is now relatively stable. If nothing unexpected happens, the sales growth in the future will be very slow.

Once EXO-M officially debuts and the two teams perform together, sales should increase further. It's been the only consolation for EXO these past few days.

By the time they finished recording and returned to the company, it was already afternoon. A few members of Team K quietly went back to the practice room, where Team M, who had already finished their autograph event, were waiting inside.

In order to prepare for the joint stage in a few days, they need to make time to rehearse together these days.

But after a few people from Team K went inside, the atmosphere in the practice room became somewhat heavy.

The two teams occupied opposite sides of the practice room, an unspoken tension hanging in the air. It was impossible to tell that these two groups were actually part of a single unit.

M team achieved great success in their debut in Xia Kingdom. Their popularity was soaring, with fans who were both loyal and crazy. They all got a taste of what it's like to be a Top Star.

And whether it's TV programs or interview magazines, they are also very popular with them. After more than a month, although the members of M team were a little tired, their overall spirit had changed drastically. Their every move and gesture already showed a bit of star quality, vastly different from their appearance as trainees before their debut.

Some of them are actually quite unhappy about the company's decision to recall their debut plan in Korea. They were doing so well in Xia Kingdom, with such high popularity, why did they have to debut on the peninsula at this time

Especially after a few extremely awkward signing events before their debut, several members of M felt the contrast acutely.

In Xia Guo, it's very popular, but at the signing event in the Peninsula, there were only two or three cats. It's really hard to accept.

Their mindset can change easily, some members might feel that the K team are really holding them back, making EXO's popularity on the peninsula so low, and they even need to come back from China 'to save the day'.

A sense of looking down on everything unknowingly formed.

And K team members were equally unhappy. Their moods weren't good to begin with because of the team's recent poor performance. Both the practice room and the dormitory have been unusually quiet and oppressive lately.

And they also heard about M team's success and popularity in Xia Kingdom, and their mentality became imbalanced as a result.

Although the company divided into teams M and K seemingly evenly, in reality, they placed all their top players and those considered stronger on team K.

After all, the peninsula is the company's foundation, and the team members are actually aware of this.

However, reality was the opposite. K-team's debut was a complete failure, while M-team achieved great success. This contrast makes it even more painful.

For a time, the two sub-units of EXO, M and K, formed a division within the practice room.

Ji Jingyuan kept a calm demeanor. He was very popular, and K-team's disappointment didn't affect him too much. He hadn't been in the group for long and hadn't participated in any of the previous members' schemes.

But after joining the group, he continued to spend time with only the K team, making it easy for him to take sides.

Even some members of Team M, he hadn't even spoken to before, not even a greeting.

Chi Jingyuan didn't say anything, he quietly found a corner, stood against the wall, and observed everyone's expressions.

The tense atmosphere lasted for almost a full minute. It was only when Kim Jun-myeon, out of his responsibility as the team leader, finally spoke up that it broke.

First published on the Chinese Traditional Novel Networknd didn't try to hide it."He himself doesn't think there's anything shameful or bad about it, he just usually doesn't like to flaunt things around."It doesn't make sense, and it also lowers one's stan...