Peninsula: From Water Injection to Stardom

Aside from inflating the audio source, Jiang Yan did not manipulate the YouTube MV view count this time.

There's no other reason, it's simply that we don't have enough money.

The money for this water injection was paid from a settlement payment he had previously received; Yuehua Entertainment is currently unaware of his actions.

The part about acting first and reporting later.

Then, on April 10th, as planned, CUBE officially announced through its official SNS that Jiang Yan would officially debut as a solo artist on April 28th.

On the same day, the album concept poster and the album title "BACK" were also released.

After receiving the news, Jiang Yan's fans in China were very excited and celebrated within their fandom, but apart from that, not many people paid attention, and the overall response was lukewarm.

Of course, this is also partly due to the fact that Yuehua Entertainment didn't buy him trending searches.

Du Hua was referring to his debut, not before that she would give him a trending topic.

As for the Korean online community, it only made a small splash.

Although he doesn't rely on his looks for a living, Jiang Yan's face has still attracted quite a few fans.

The most direct data reflects this: after CUBE released the link to its official fan club on the same day, more than 3,000 members joined on the first day.

Becoming a member of the official fan cafe requires payment; the annual membership fee is 30,000 Korean won per person.

In other words, setting aside the countless Chinese fans in China, just in South Korea alone, more than 3,000 Korean fans have already spent real money on Kang Yeon, and the number of these members is still increasing in the background.

Before this, other senior executives at Yuehua Entertainment had some reservations about Du Hua signing Jiang Yan, but after seeing this data, those voices quieted down.

After all, judging from this situation, whether he becomes famous in the future is secondary, but at least he won't be a money-losing proposition.

They seem to have a brighter future than UNIQ.

In the following days, CUBE continued to release teaser materials in a steady manner to maintain exposure, including the PV teaser for the title track, which was released on schedule.

Actually, quite a few groups announced comebacks this month, but since this is the norm in K-pop, unless it's a super popular group, it won't generate much discussion. Otherwise, like Kang Yeon, it'll just fade away after a couple of days and no one will continue to talk about it.

However, on the 17th, Jiang Yan suddenly became a trending topic on NAVER.

This wasn't due to Yuehua Entertainment or CUBE Entertainment putting on a marketing campaign; rather, it was because at midnight today, Big Hit Entertainment announced via their official account that their boy group BTS would be making a comeback.

In fact, normally, a boy group from a small company announcing their comeback wouldn't trend on social media.

The truth is, many people discovered that BTS's announced comeback date was only one day apart from Kang Eon's solo debut date.

In other words, their promotional schedules conflicted.

So, as the story spread, more and more people learned about it.

Finally, an hour later, the hashtag #YANvsBTS# climbed into the top ten trending topics on the NAVER portal, and its popularity continued to rise.

"This guy is a former BTS member? I never knew that."

"Things are getting interesting. Is this a revenge plot against his former employer? KKKKKK"

"A former member leaving the group is going head-to-head with a solo album, it's like a scene from a manga protagonist's story!!"

"I really want to know how ARMYs feel about this clash between former and current members."

"I don't think I've ever seen a former member and a group they used to be in promote their music at the same time before! This seems to be the first time in K-pop."

"Could Big Hit have done this on purpose? The timing of their comeback announcement is really subtle..."

"..."

Passersby shared their opinions, and Jiang Yan was also looking at the comments on the trending topics on her phone.

But he wasn't actually too surprised that he suddenly became a trending topic.

This was within his expectations, or rather, it was something he did intentionally.

As mentioned earlier, Jiang Yanben knew that choosing this debut time would clash with BIGBANG, but there was actually another factor behind it.

That means he wants to make a comeback at the same time as BTS in order to generate buzz and attract public attention.

If Jiang Yan had chosen to avoid the timing, such a trending topic would not have appeared.

Making good use of all available resources to generate buzz and conduct marketing is a basic quality of an artist.

However, while some passersby and fans of other groups are just watching the drama unfold, on the other hand, Jiang Yan's "birth" fans and ARMYs have already begun to show signs of fighting on various platforms.

That's right. Although according to the official fan cafe data, Jiang Yan only has a few thousand fans in South Korea, the two sides miraculously won and lost after they started arguing.

This is partly due to a lack of unity among ARMYs, because within the South Korean ARMY structure, besides fans who only support the seven members, there's also a significant number of long-time fans who miss the eight-member era. (ARMYs are familiar with this.)

These long-time group fans neither speak up for the fans who only support the seven members nor take sides with Jiang Yan; they aim to treat everyone equally.

As for the reason for the fight between Jiang Yan's fans and the fans who only support the seven main female characters, it is naturally because their schedules are only one day apart.

Kang Yeon's fans claim that BigHit deliberately chose a date close to the group's release date, and that even though she had already left the group, they were still being exploited. However, the seven ARMYs (fans of the group) naturally couldn't admit this and instead accused Kang Yeon of trying to gain attention by association.

"Someone knows their solo career will flop, so their desire to ride on the coattails of a group's popularity is too obvious!"

"We announced the date first, and BigHit insisted on joining in. Now they're blaming the person who set the date first? Who is really using former members to create hype for their comeback?"

"Damn it, do we need to piggyback on someone who's already left the group? BTS's last comeback sold over 100,000 copies even without him!"

"ARMY hereby solemnly declares: All of BTS's achievements are the result of the hard work of all seven members, and have nothing to do with the members who left the group. Please, fans of that certain person, do not involve our group in your statements."

"As a fan of the group, it really hurts to see these words. We've been through thick and thin together, and now we're arguing like this. Why can't we support each other?"

"Stop arguing! I just listened to Jiang Yan's solo teaser, and honestly, her voice is absolutely amazing. If she were still with BTS..."

"Shut up! There are no 'what ifs'! BTS is BTS with seven members!"

"I hate peacemakers like you the most! If you don't want to help, just shut up!"

"..."

The fans on both sides argued more and more fiercely, but whenever a fan who only had eight members tried to step forward as a peacemaker, they were instead attacked by both sides.

However, these things seem quite funny to the average person.

Both sides are clearly incompetent, yet they're arguing like this. Anyone who didn't know better would think it was two popular groups fighting over who would win the year-end awards.

Fortunately, this isn't the future, otherwise someone might see this scene and say with a sigh, "Jiang Yan and BTS are truly a pair of star-crossed lovers."