Chapter 161: I've Gained Weight

to sing"He was genuinely curious about the title track for this comeback, after all, it was the hope for the group's revival."The songs I wrote, of course, are good-sounding. Teacher Lee Soo-man chose...Although the DMC Super Gala was a big production, Pool Jingyuan felt it wasn't that different from ordinary concert performances. At least, they just had to complete their stage performance and there wasn't much else involved.

For their 8-day DMC, they only had a performance on the first day of the event. After the September 5th performance, EXO flew to Yucheng, Xia Guo, on September 7th and held a concert at the Yucheng Olympic Sports Center the next day, September 8th.

Every time he comes to Xia Guo Province for activities, Chi Jingyuan feels very good and is full of motivation because the local cuisine here just happens to suit his taste. After the trip ends, he drags a group of people out to eat hot pot night snacks and drinks together. Chatting really gives you a very satisfying sense of happiness.

This time was the same. After the concert on the 8th ended, he first returned to the hotel to freshen up, then Ji Jingyuan searched for a well-reviewed hot pot restaurant online and rushed over with five or six interested teammates.

The fire roared, the pot bubbled, the soup simmered, the dishes were served, and drinks flowed. A group of people relished a hearty Sichuan hotpot, the aroma of smoke and chili lingering in the private room. Even with the air conditioning at full blast, several were sweating profusely from the heat. Some, unable to withstand the spice, kept chugging beer, their tongues lolling out as they let out satisfied sighs between sips. The atmosphere in the antique-style private room was lively and festive.

“Do you guys think that girl group is really slipping and falling a lot, or are they faking it for publicity” As he ate and chatted, Bian Berhyen took a couple sips of his drink and started talking about something that had been trending these past few days.

Although MBC has been diligently organizing the DMC Super Festival and promoting it heavily recently, the hottest news trending these days isn't about them, but a rookie girl group called Gfriend. A fan-taken video of one member tripping repeatedly on stage during their recent performance has gone viral.

They fell several times during their performance of "Starting Today" at the Inje SNBS Open Broadcast on Jeju Island on September 5th due to the slippery stage caused by rain. One member even fell five times! Despite this, they quickly got up with smiles and continued performing. The video of this hilarious incident went viral after being uploaded online, becoming a hot topic of discussion in recent days.

Many people were impressed by their professionalism, despite being knocked down. They continued to perform with control and enthusiasm, which touched many viewers. People showered them with praise and positive reviews online, declaring themselves fans of this new girl group.

But the controversy is also very large, many people feel that they are deliberately faking falls to show their faces and gain attention, and some people don't think this behavior is very professional.

Several opinions clashed heatedly, and the meal clip video gained over four million views on YouTube in just three days. It became so popular that even though EXO wasn't in the peninsula, they quickly heard about it, and almost all the members watched the video.

“What girl group are you talking about They have a name, you know. My friend, Griend, is one of the more popular new girl groups recently. Last time backstage, they even greeted us… Besides, their title track this comeback did pretty well on the music charts. I remember Jingyuan recommended it to us, right”

Hearing the name "Bby Hyun," Park Chan-ryeol wasn't sure if it was because he had a good impression of GFriend or simply recognized them. He grumbled a helpful remark and then, remembering something from before, looked at Ji Kyeong-won. After Ji Kyeong-won nodded in confirmation, he took two more bites of his food and said thoughtfully: "I think it was an accident. Apparently, Yooju seemed fine on the surface but actually fell very badly. I heard from a friend that her fingers were fractured."

"Really That bad"

"Even if it's a fracture... I still feel like it was intentional. Once or twice is fine, but who would fall down on stage five or six times in a row Even if the floor was slippery, it wouldn't be possible."

Kim Jong-in simply scoffed, clearly unconvinced: "We're all in the industry and have done rain performances before. After a fall, you definitely become more careful afterward. And falling like that is painful, even for self-preservation, many larger dance moves would be naturally toned down after a few falls. How could someone keep falling five or six times"

"That's true, falling a couple of times can be understandable, but too many times and I feel there's something wrong."

"Do you guys know how painful it is to fall on a rainy day This isn't some major performance, and the agency seems like a small company too. They don't have the clout to make such a big deal out of this. Besides, she didn't know the video would go viral, so why did she intentionally fall so many times"

"That's how it is when a new idol isn't very popular, you have to grab every opportunity. Wasn't that how it was when we first debuted...”

"Oh, I've told you so many times! I didn't mean to do it back then!"

“...”

The hot topic naturally piqued EXO's interest in discussion. Over their hot pot dinner, the few gathered there chattered and voiced their opinions. Even with just five or six of them, they, like online, inevitably split into two camps.

"Not bad, I saw in the video... that member, is his name Yu-Zhou"

Ji Jingyuan opened his mouth and let out a breath, dispelling some of the addictive spiciness before opening his mouth to express his opinion. However, among the Gfriend girl group, besides the tallest captain and the one who looked cuter, named Galaxy, he couldn't quite tell the others apart.

Halfway through his sentence, he looked at Park Chan-wook and asked. After getting a nod of confirmation from the other party, he continued:

"I watched the video, and after Yu Zhou fell, she didn't seem to learn from it. Her movements were still very forceful, and only at the end, maybe because she was in too much pain or injured, did she start to restrain herself... So falling a few more times is actually quite normal. And as Kyung-Soo oppa just said, she probably didn't know this video would go viral. I think it wasn't intentional."

“We’ve tried that before, you know. The stage surface they used for those paint composite panels was like an ice rink when it rained. If your shoes were even a little flat, you’d slip and fall easily. I heard that on that day, not just Gfriend, but all the artists performing on stage fell at least once… They just weren't popular.”

After voicing his opinion, he remembered a video he saw yesterday and couldn't help but chuckle before adding, "Actually, compared to Yu Zhe's fall, I found their captain in that video really interesting..."

When he watched the video, besides Gfriend members falling consecutively, Ji-yeong found it most interesting that their captain, the member named Kim Sa-young.

She seemed particularly afraid of insects because there were a lot of large moths on the stage at the time, some as big as birds. So, during her performance, Kim Sa-kyung was not in good shape throughout the whole process, made several mistakes in her movements, and didn't look at the camera much either. Her attention was entirely focused on the moths flying around her. She would glance at them every now and then, and whenever she moved, she was on edge.

Chi Jingyuan felt that if a moth suddenly flew onto her face at this moment, she probably could just jump off the stage directly.

However, he understood the girl quite well because he himself particularly disliked insects. It was indeed unbearable to have a swarm of moths flying around during a stage performance.

"Oh well, it's tough being new to anything. Doesn't matter if she meant to or not."

Kim Jun-myeon concluded by saying, somewhat wistfully, "I wonder if it's because I'm thinking back to our debut days. There's so much malice online now, people constantly attack others’ personalities and appearances with harsh words. It makes me angry just seeing it. And there are even people using what happened with Jingyuan in the past to attack Gfriend. Honestly, I don't know what to say."

"I saw it too."

Because many people praised Gfriend for their professionalism after they continued to perform energetically even after falling, those who disliked them naturally began to strongly refute this. Some of them used EXO's performance in the rain when Chanyeol injured his knee and insisted on continuing to perform as a way to mock and question Gfriend:

Isn't it normal for stage performers to fall and get up Even EXO does that, let alone a rookie girl group. What's there to praise If a girl group doesn't have the looks, they can only rely on hype, right

"This is hilarious! What level is Yuan at What level is this Gfriend, which I've never even heard of Yuan fell down but still insisted on performing. This rookie girl group is actually getting praised for this Isn't this what idols should be doing This group is really good at marketing, turning passersby into haters!"

Anyway, it's just using that pool of Jingyuan as an example and evidence, standing on a high point to condescendingly attack and smear the other party from above.

Chi Jingyuan didn't know if the person speaking was Ai Li, but he felt speechless when he heard it.

It feels like this kind of talk is just asking for trouble.

"Forget about them."

After taking a few bites, Kim Jun Myeon proactively changed the subject: “Red Velvet’s first regular album is about to be released, right I heard it’s going public at 00:00 on the 9th…” He glanced at his watch: “There’s more than an hour left, let’s see their all-kill results then.”

"Brother, we are now in Yucheng and have a one-hour time difference with Seoul."

Speaking of this, Ji Jingyuan reminded him, and at the same time, he took out his phone to have a look. He found that Pei Zhuxuan had sent him a text message twenty minutes ago when they were having dinner, which he hadn't seen.

But he was too lazy to reply now. After checking the time, he put his phone back down.

There are still half an hour.

…………

At 0:00 AM on September 9th, ** released Red Velvet's first full-length album "The Red" on major music websites both domestically and internationally.

...What everyone didn't expect was that the album's performance far exceeded expectations. All ten songs on the album immediately topped the Melon Chart upon release, and the main song "dudu" landed at number one on multiple music charts, including Melon, demonstrating a phenomenal level of attention and popularity.

The overwhelming popularity of even surpassed the recent hit songs on music charts, including those from the popular song festival "No Pick Song Festival". Even , a song from , surpassed , which had been at number one for three consecutive weeks.

Although it was only for a period of time, it has proven to be very popular.

And the song "dudu" is also the first song to be released with zero sound source among the new girl groups of the fourth generation who debuted in the last two years.

Besides, the physical sales exceeded 30,000 units. All in all, this achievement is truly commendable.

However, controversies soon arose. During Red Velvet's comeback showcase, some of the outfits worn by the members were discovered by netizens to be very similar to those of a certain French brand. Furthermore, these outfits also appeared in their music video. With this evidence, they were immediately accused of plagiarism.

Plagiarism is still very harshly penalized on the peninsula, which damages one's reputation among the public.

But luckily, ** company has apparently been keeping an eye on online public opinion and reactions. After the plagiarism controversy arose, they immediately issued a statement clarifying that these clothes were bought from this brand's clothing line, and they had made some modifications to the members' image to refute the plagiarism allegations.

The controversy came and went quickly, but it did generate a lot of buzz.

Although there are increasingly many people online expressing dissatisfaction with this album, leaving comments like "What is this, the concept is incomprehensible," "The styling is so strange," and "A song repeatedly plays 'dudu' dozens of times, it's annoying," it still cannot stop the rise in popularity and heat of Ladybaby's return.

Although there is still a considerable gap compared to top-tier girl groups, in terms of comparing all the new generation girl groups horizontally, Red Velvet has gradually become the leading group among the fourth-generation girl groups during this period.

Seeing Red Velvet's successful comeback and the emerging trend of girl groups, Ji-yeong was genuinely happy for Bae Joo-hyun and the others. He even sent congratulatory text messages to her, as well as Kang Seul-gi, Son Seungwan, and Kim Yerin.

However, after entering the comeback period, Red Velvet's Irene became busy. After EXO's concert ended and she returned to Seoul from China, for several days, Ji-hyeong didn't see Pei Zhuxuan who was running around non-stop, waiting until the "Music Bank" on the 11th.

……

"Well, look who it is! The Goddess of Peace has arrived"

Ji-yeong, who was sitting on the couch in the MC waiting room looking at his phone news, heard a knock on the door and as soon as he looked up, he saw Bae Joo-hyeon pushing the door open. Dressed in a gray cashmere sweater paired with black shorts, her brown hair cascading over her shoulders, she casually took in the sight of the woman before him, then smiled and greeted him first.

"You, hahaha…"

When Pyo Ji-hyun was just about to greet him, she heard Choi Kyung-won's words and her pretty face immediately bloomed like a flower. Then she quickly covered her mouth, revealing her white teeth, and walked closer, bending her eyes and looking at him: “You watched it too”

Because of the collaboration between ** and VAPP, and also to promote this comeback, Red Velvet, following EXO, also launched their own live broadcast project called "Five Satisfactions" on September 7th. They will be holding five live broadcasts in the near future to cooperate with the APP and their album promotion.

While Jiyeong said that during their third live stream yesterday on the van, Bae Joohyun, in her self-introduction, both pretentiously and jokingly said, "Hello everyone, I'm the peace goddess Irene."

In Greek mythology, the name of the goddess of peace is Irene. It's said that she was also very beautiful, so some of her fans like to call her that.

And when Bae Joo-hyeon heard him say that, she knew that Ji Kyeong-won had watched their livestream yesterday. She felt a little shy, but at the same time, her whole person immediately became happy.

I just watched the beginning and happened to see Peace Goddess appear.

Before we officially started working, Ji Jingyuan said as he gestured for her to sit on the sofa: "But I didn't continue watching after that… However, I watched 'Red Bean Ice Cream' a couple of days ago. I didn't even know you still liked eating this"

The little sister chose "red bean ice cream" when she and the members went to a convenience store to buy snacks for her first live stream two days ago. This is a type of ice cream that older generations on the peninsula, especially uncles and aunts, love. She then happily ate it with a smile, which caused her to be teased by the members and viewers for a long time. Jiang Seqi directly gave her the nickname "ancient person".

"Hee hee..."

But just watching their live stream made Pei Zhuhyun feel happy, even though she mentioned embarrassing stories, she didn't seem bothered at all. The young lady sat on the sofa with her legs crossed, giving Chi Jingyuan a flirtatious glance: "I liked eating it when I was little, so I bought some without thinking too much after seeing it... Have you tried it"

"I've tried it once, and I thought it tasted okay."

Ji-yeong followed behind Soo-hyun and greeted the staff who came with her. She put her phone in her bag and casually asked, "Did you just finish your commute Se-qi and the others went to the resting room first"

"Hmm."

Speaking of this, Bae Joo-hyun nodded her head, her eyes sparkling with surprise and delight. "We had so many fans today! All the way here, people were cheering us on, and yesterday too, even during the live stream, fans were cheering on the roadside. You saw it, right They're so enthusiastic."

Of course, you guys are now the popular girl group Red Velvet.

"Hahaha…"

Ji Jingyuan blinked, a look of admiration on his face as he acted like a young fan. This made Pei Zhuxuan lightly tap him and laugh softly.

Mingming woke up very early, but her spirits weren't great. However, the moment she stepped into the waiting room, her smile never stopped. Her whole demeanor brightened up.

Staff hadn't notified them to go for the meeting yet, so the two of them chatted about Red Velvet's comeback this time. According to her, this time's achievements left all five members surprised and excited at the same time. The fans who like them have obviously increased a lot, and they've been particularly energetic running their schedules these days.

How come I feel...

Just as he was speaking, Ji Jingyuan casually glanced at Pei Zhuxuan's profile and noticed the flesh on her cheek. He tilted his head, stared for two seconds, and tentatively asked, "Have you gained weight"

"No way!"

The little sister immediately denied, without even looking, as if it were a conditioned reflex. Then, seeming somewhat worried, she quickly opened her bag and took out a small mirror. She carefully examined her face in the mirror, then let out a sigh of relief, but also lightly furrowed her brows.

"Not fat! Just a little puffy face... I've had so much to do since returning that I haven't gotten much rest. These days have been very tiring, and I slept very late yesterday. This morning I woke up early again for hair and makeup... Is it still obvious after applying makeup Does it look bad"

She stood close to the mirror, looking left and right, finally asking Pool Jingyuan with some worry.

"It wasn't obvious at all. You had to be very close to even see a hint of it."

Seeing her frown and looking so anxious, Chi Jingyuan found it rather amusing. He leaned back with a sigh, his expression languid yet truthful: "As for whether it's difficult to look at... wait until your face swells up tenfold, then it might be barely comparable to that word."

(The End)e a decision."Chi Jingyuan nodded slightly, his voice a bit hoarse as if he hadn't rested well.“Oh, it’s *Springtime* again… ”Park Chan-wook couldn't help but murmur a complaint under his breath.It's...