Peninsula: It’s just a dream, are you serious?

Chapter 587, "Some," was a hit even before its release.
After the SBS year-end music festival, time quickly moved into January, officially ushering in 2014.

At the beginning of January, Chen Yan and his family were still busy.

Chen Yan was busy dealing with the remaining interview requests from newspapers and media outlets, as well as continuing to visit the remaining key judges of the Golden Disc Awards committee with Park Jin-young.

Meanwhile, Kim Tae-yeon and others continued to be busy attending major events and award ceremonies on the Korean Peninsula.

November to January is a busy period when many ceremonies are held on the peninsula, making it the busiest time for popular artists.

In the past few days, online discussions about Chen Yan have never stopped.

Because JYP has been working hard to promote Chen Yan and Bae Suzy's collaboration single "some".

That night, the clip of Chen Yan interacting with Kim Heechul on the stage of the Gayo Daejeon unsurprisingly went viral.

Even before the live broadcast of the music competition had completely ended, the hashtag "[Chen Yan releases two new songs in January]" topped Naver's trending list.

Although it was later pushed to second place by the hashtag 【EXO's amazing stage performance of "Growl"】, it is enough to show how popular this event was.

The third and fourth entries were also related to this matter, namely "[Chen Yan and Kim Tae-yeon's collaboration OST]" and "[Chen Yan and Bae Suzy's collaboration single to be released on January 10th]".

Amidst this immense popularity, JYP's PR department released a 30-second sneak peek of "Some" the very next morning.

Netizens who heard the sound clicked on the audio and, unsurprisingly, became engrossed in it.

Furthermore, JYP's PR department, I don't know if they went for some training or suddenly had an epiphany, started using the kind of short, fragmented writing style that dog-like novelists use.

The preview version they released ended abruptly at the very moment "Some" began its chorus.

It happened exactly at the very moment the chorus started to rise, and then it abruptly stopped.

The smooth timing made those netizens who were already swaying to the melody pause in their movements, and then they started to feel uncomfortable.

【!! Where's the rest?! Give us a little more of that! How could you stop here?!】

[Ugh! Who understands how I feel when I'm hooked for a bit and then it all just stops? JYP, are you guys inhuman?!]

Could you please add a little more? I'm not asking for too much, just 30 seconds, just another 30 seconds would be enough to make it a minute. It's really frustrating being stuck here.

In the comments section, fans of Chen Yan and Bae Suzy, as well as some casual viewers, left their comments.

The meaning expressed is unusually consistent.

Give me a little more, bro. 30 seconds is fine, or 20 seconds if that's not enough. Actually, 10 seconds is negotiable too.

In response to the requests from netizens, an employee from JYP's publicity department did indeed reply shortly afterward.

The full audio will be officially released at midnight on January 10th. Hope you'll listen to it as soon as possible! [winking emoji]

Upon seeing this reply, netizens were momentarily stunned, but quickly realized what was happening and immediately uttered a phrase about the essence of the Korean Peninsula.

There's nothing wrong with what you said, but what's the point of adding a playful emoji at the end?

So you mean you deliberately timed this so precisely, right? To provoke us, right?

Do you think we didn't know the music would be released on the 10th? You don't need to tell us.

Holy crap! JYP Entertainment is inhuman!

Immediately, netizens were outraged and turned to the comments section to criticize JYP for being inhumane.

Moments later, the hashtag 【JYP is inhuman】 even climbed into the top ten of Naver's trending topics list.

Seeing this situation, and the ever-increasing number of comments under the promotional post, the people in JYP's publicity and public relations departments all laughed.

Well done! This is the first time they've been insulted and they're so happy about it. Keep insulting them, we don't mind.

This generates a lot of buzz. The harsher you criticize, the more it proves the success of our publicity method.

And so, the popularity and discussion surrounding Chen Yan and Bae Suzy's new song "some" continued to rise online.

Soon after, a seasoned opportunist made his grand entrance.

After "some" trended on social media for half an hour, SM Entertainment released a statement announcing that Girls' Generation will officially make their comeback on February 27th with their 4th mini-album. The album's title track was written and produced by top music producer Chen Yan.

As soon as the announcement was released, Girls' Generation's fans cheered.

First, he collaborated with Kim Tae-yeon on a drama OST, and now he's doing a group comeback title track. He's so lucky!

JYP employees watched helplessly as the traffic they were driving was taken away by SM Entertainment. Just like those netizens who had just criticized them for being inhuman, they were so angry that they blurted out a phrase that was considered a national treasure of the Korean Peninsula.

"Damn! This SM guy is really good at taking advantage of people."

Ultimately, both companies' promotional efforts are partly focused on Chen Yan, so they're not really competing head-to-head; in fact, their traffic is even converging.

At this moment, seeing the buzz and discussion surrounding the two companies online, the most distressed are actually the small and medium-sized entertainment companies.

These high-ranking officials, seeing the online uproar, almost burst into a tirade of profanities.

No, it's Chen Yan again? Why has he released a new song again?

"Some," a collaboration with Bae Suzy; an OST by Kim Tae-yeon; and the title track from Girls' Generation's 4th mini-album, which was just officially announced.

This is three songs now, and they've been released since January.

From January to March, Chen Yan's works are visibly going to dominate the market again.

At this moment, they couldn't help but want to rush up to Chen Yan, grab his collar, and question him.

How can you write so much? You've managed to come up with three more songs.

Since you're such a good writer, why don't you write one or two poems for us too?
Please, I'm begging you, if you're not going to cooperate with us, at least give us a break. Let us have some meat occasionally; we can't just keep drinking soup all the time.

They did consider using dirty tricks, but they simply couldn't.

EXO's "Growl" album recently surpassed one million in sales, and the impact of this historic event is undeniable. Chen Yan now truly represents a major trend.

Faced with the prevailing trend, they dared not act rashly.

Moreover, he is a director of JYP Entertainment and has a very close working relationship with SM Entertainment.

JYP itself is no longer mentioned.

Since he started writing songs, Chen Yan has written more songs for SM Entertainment than for JYP Entertainment.

From Girls' Generation's "I Got a Boy" at the beginning of last year, to EXO's album track "Baby Don't Cay" and title track "Growl", as well as f(x)'s "First Wisdom Tooth".

Moreover, he recently collaborated with IU on three songs, and boosted by the EXO "Growl" incident, the album "Modern Times" has almost surpassed 100,000 copies in sales.

As a result of this incident, Lee Ji-eun's popularity has subtly increased. Given her teacher-student relationship with Chen Yan, Lee Ji-eun and Chen Yan are, to some extent, intertwined. JYP, SM, LOEN—none of them are easy to mess with.

Not to mention Girls' Day and Apink, two representative girl groups from small and medium-sized entertainment companies that were made famous by Chen Yan.

This also means that Chen Yan isn't against cooperating with small and medium-sized entertainment companies; it's just a matter of whether you can afford to hire him and whether he agrees to cooperate with you.

Under such circumstances, they really couldn't resort to any underhanded methods, and could only hope that they would have the opportunity to cooperate with Chen Yan in the future.

In the end, seeing the online frenzy once again stirred up by Chen Yan, these people could only sigh helplessly once more.

Meanwhile, what was Chen Yan doing that left the executives of these entertainment companies feeling so helpless?

He and Park Jin-young arrived at the entrance of a small villa in Samseong-dong, Seoul.

The two men are here today to visit a judge from the Gold Record Awards committee who lives here.

Actually, this judge and Chen Yan are quite familiar with each other.

He is Kim Young-dae, who used to post comments and analyses of Chen Yan's works online from time to time, and is the cousin of Kim Sung-hoon, Chen Yan's university teacher.

This veteran music critic has been a judge on the Gold Disc Awards for almost ten years.

"Let's go in."

"it is good."

Together with Park Jin-young, they climbed three steps to the door, where Chen Yan raised his hand and pressed the doorbell.

The door opened quickly, but upon seeing who opened it, he instinctively paused, exclaiming, "Teacher!"

Kim Sung-hoon opened the door, looked at his student and Park Jin-young, and smiled: "Come in."

After the two came in, he explained, "I heard that you two were coming today, so I came too. It's been a long time since Zhenying and I have seen each other."

As he spoke, he raised his hand and patted Chen Yan on the shoulder, his face showing undisguised admiration.

“You’ve done a great job. Now, when I go to class, I can almost always hear your juniors talking about you. When our music academy recruits students next time, we’ll have to use you as our advertising campaign.”

Chen Yan quickly smiled modestly.

Park Jin-young, who was standing next to him, suddenly spoke up: "What about me? Aren't I the brand?"

Kim Sung-hoon glanced at him: "What does a geology major like you have to do with our music academy? We can just use Xiao Yan as our brand."

"Wow~ You actually said something like that."

After the joke, Kim Sung-hoon led the two into the house.

"Please have a seat. There was a phone call just now, and Brother Ying went to his study to answer it. He'll be out in a bit."

The three of them sat on the sofa in the living room and chatted for less than three minutes before Kim Young-dae came out of the study.

Chen Yan and Park Jin-young quickly stood up and greeted each other.

"President Park and PD Chen are here."

Kim Young-dae and Kim Sung-hoon look somewhat alike, and he smiled amiably at the two of them.

After exchanging greetings, he looked Chen Yan up and down once more.

“PD Chen is even more handsome in person than in photos. Since you are Sung Hoon’s student, I’ll call you Xiao Yan too, just like him. You don’t mind, do you?”

Chen Yan replied with a smile, "Of course I don't mind."

The four of them then sat on the sofa and started chatting, but the topic was their views on K-pop now and their future development direction. They didn't talk about the Golden Disc Awards at all.

With Kim Sung-hoon's connection, Chen Yan and Park Jin-young's visit today was more like visiting a friend, which was different from their previous visits to other judges at the Golden Disc Awards.

After the topic ended, Kim Young-dae paused for a few seconds before looking at Chen Yan and smiling:

"Xiao Yan, your achievements this year are outstanding. I talked with several friends who are also judges of the Golden Disc Awards before, and we all think that among the producers of Peninsula, your achievements and influence this year are the highest."

Chen Yan quickly said modestly, but inwardly he was delighted, knowing that he should be able to win the Gold Record Award for Best Music Producer without any surprises.

After chatting for a while, Chen Yan and Park Jin-young got up to say goodbye.

Kim Young-dae and Kim Sung-hoon got up to see them off. As they were seeing them to the door, Kim Sung-hoon suddenly spoke:

"Xiao Yan, if you have time during the school's admissions period in March, you can come to the school to give a lecture and help with recruitment. You're a well-known alumnus now."

Chen Yan was slightly taken aback, then replied, "Okay, teacher, I understand."

In the following days, Chen Yan resumed his previous lifestyle, basically going back and forth between home and the company every day.

The main focus is on reviewing collaboration invitations from other entertainment companies, with the intention of selecting a few new companies to partner with.

Besides that, I followed Park Jin-young to learn how to incubate and manage girl groups, and we would hold meetings from time to time.

We've already visited all the people we needed to visit at the Golden Disc Awards, and the promotional campaign for the awards ceremony has already started these past few days. All that's left is to wait for the results.

Also, just a couple of days ago, he went to SM Entertainment to record the title track "Mr. Mr" for Girls' Generation's 4th mini-album, which will be released at the end of next month.

This was also the first time Chen Yan had seen Kim Tae-yeon and Im Yoon-ah since the SBS Gayo Daejeon.

Not only them, but he hasn't seen any of the other family members in the past few days either.

There's no way around it; they're all top-tier celebrities, and they're all busy at the end of the year and the beginning of the new year.

Time passed day by day, and soon it was past 1 p.m. on January 9th.

The internet is buzzing right now because Chen Yan and Bae Suzy's collaboration single, "Some," will be officially released at midnight tonight.

These past few days, fans and netizens have been kept on tenterhooks by JYP's PR department.

The song's preview version on the first day was abruptly cut off just as it was about to reach its climax, which upset them so much that they started cursing and even made JYP trend on social media.

In the following days, JYP's PR department released new materials every day to maintain the buzz and keep the public in suspense.

For example, there was footage of Chen Yan and Bae Suzy recording a song, which included a few snippets of the climax that netizens hadn't heard before.

There are also some interesting interactions and behind-the-scenes moments between the two during the filming of the music video.

With JYP's behind-the-scenes push, the hashtag "【Chen Yan and Bae Suzy collaboration single】" had already climbed to third place on Naver's trending list.

Finally, at midnight, Chen Yan and Bae Suzy's "Some" was released on all major music streaming platforms on Peninsula.

(End of this chapter)