Chapter 20: Debut Announcement

ival.Following that, on the 18th's Music Bank, EXO once again faced off against fellow contenders FX and returning contender 2NE1. After the revamped format of Music Bank, EXO achieved a stunning scor...February 20, Sunny.

Park Soo-na waited for a while after handing a customer her iced Americano, but no one else came. She glanced out the window at the empty street and figured there wouldn't be any customers for a while. Bored, she stepped out from behind the counter and went to the nearby break room, where she turned on her computer.

After graduating from high school, she didn't get into college. After working for a few years and gaining some work experience, she opened a small bubble tea shop with the help of her parents. Although she didn't make a lot of money, it was enough to cover her expenses. In her spare time, Park Soo-na enjoys watching boy band performances and following her favorite idols.

Prior to this, Park Soo-na had already noticed the EXO group. As **'s long-awaited large male group project after years, it naturally held a strong appeal for them. Recently, Park Soo-na has also been active in several fan clubs of this group, often surfing the fan forum.

However, after watching a lot of debut trailers from different groups, she felt this one was just average. Although there were a few members who were pretty good-looking, the overall style wasn't really her taste, and she couldn't find anything that appealed to her. She was planning to watch some more before shifting her focus because there were still plenty of other male groups debuting around the same time. She definitely wanted to stan a group that caught her eye and made her completely obsessed.

As for this group called EXO, that's about it. It's just so-so, I don't think they'll become popular.

A series of public videos prior to this really disappointed Park Soo-na. She wasn't paying much attention to EXO anymore, but a few days ago, while browsing a forum, she noticed it was incredibly heated. After flipping through several pages, she understood the reason.

It turned out that a member who was originally scheduled to debut with EXO was kicked out because of an unqualified insider. Then, this member posted a lot of negative comments about the group and the person who replaced him on the forum. Several of his hardcore fans also chimed in, insulting and denigrating the insider while calling on everyone to boycott him and urging everyone to oppose the insider's debut preview video

Since the release date of this new member's debut teaser video was announced, they have been trending.

only Park Soo-na felt that while these fans were organizing negative reviews, they also did a lot of promotion for this new member, which was really funny.

She has always been very interested in this kind of thing. Park Soo-na knew today was the day that the member's debut teaser video was released. Coincidentally, there were no customers at the milk tea shop right now, so she decided to come and watch it, taking a look at how the fans were commenting.

Open the website, click to play the video.

After a moment of buffering, the video begins to play.

The screen was first a cold, dark void. Then, a soft melody began to play. As the music's soothing rhythm pulsed, the screen gradually brightened.

Several lush trees appear in the shot, followed by a slow parallel pan that glides past a sea of flowers and trees. They are interlaced with each other, creating a verdant tapestry. The sunlight dappling through their leaves casts intricate shadows, bringing a wave of fresh natural air.

It was clearly in a mountain. After turning half a circle, the lens stopped as if stuck, pointing towards the direction of the road. Two seconds later, the face of a boy suddenly squeezed into the frame. He wore a faint smile, his eyes were delicate and bright. He looked curiously at the lens, making eye contact with the audience in front of the computer for a second, instantly grabbing their attention.

"Oh!" Park Soo-na covered her mouth with her hand, which had opened involuntarily. The moment the boy appeared on screen, she felt her heart being squeezed tightly.

The boy made eye contact with the camera for a second, but didn't linger. He continued walking along the road towards the mountain. At this point, the camera started to move again, following the boy’s figure and panning in a 360-degree sweep. Accompanied by soothing music like clear water, every frame felt like watching a slice-of-life manga.

Soon, the boy walked to a hilltop where a white grand piano had been set up in advance. He walked to the side of the piano but didn't sit down to play. Instead, he stood beside it and randomly played the keys with his hands, almost like a child's prank. Just then, a ray of sunlight suddenly appeared, shining directly on his face, illuminating his entire countenance with a radiant glow. The camera began to zoom in on his face and upper body.

Even the boy who was being bathed in sunlight couldn't help but squint his eyes. His eyes, which had just been close-up stars in the previous moment, were now crescent moons. He also extended his right hand to shield his forehead from the sun. But two seconds later, he seemed to realize that he was doing something useless and suddenly grinned, showing his teeth, and shook his head slightly.

Just then, the camera moves to his back and gradually zooms out. On the right side of the screen, white art-style font 'Yuan' appears. The font stays for a few seconds then the screen goes black, EXO's logo and various URLs appear on the right, ending the video.

“…”

Park Soo-na kept the same posture of covering her mouth, as if she hadn't moved at all. After watching this short one-minute video, she felt like she had known the boy in the video for a very long time.

After having a moment of frenzy, she immediately rewound the video and kept switching back and forth between the shots of Chi Jingyuan just making eye contact with the camera and the shot of him squinting and smiling as he was hit by the sunlight at the end. She watched it several times.

Every time I watch it, my hand is on the space bar, constantly pausing and playing, pausing and playing.

"Ah, jjia!" After looking at it for ten or so times, Park Soo-na finally hummed contentedly. She pursed her lips and stared at the screen, her gaze somewhat unfocused, as if she was daydreaming about something.

After fantasizing for a moment, she suddenly seemed to remember something. Park Soo-na, who had just been smiling kindly, instantly turned black and quickly dragged the mouse to scroll the webpage down to the comment section. Her hawk-like eyes began to fiercely scan those comments that had already been published.

She doesn't allow anyone to slander her lover.

"Oh! Is it really a real person I'm seeing After such a long period of emptiness, I've finally found my soulmate again!"

"This is a manga, isn't it This must be a manga!"

"Why do I feel like my heart is being squeezed when I see him smile, and I laugh along with him"

"Great! This band is saved!"

"Why is this person's preview video style completely different from the other members Did he bribe the PD"

"Trash **, all they know how to do is exploit the value of the brothers, and now they're letting this terrible group debut to steal resources from the brothers. Boycott EXO!"

First published on the Chinese Novel Network every strike and head nod was perfectly timed, exactly on the beat, making it very pleasing to watch. For a moment, screams filled the space below.If you were to ask Chi Jingyuan for his opinion, in...