Peninsula: From Water Injection to Stardom

A corner of JYPE's training building, in the open recording practice room of the reality show "SIXTEEN".

Because the show's rules only allow practice to begin after 9 PM, the trainees of Team Minor were sitting scattered on the floor to rest after finishing another round of group training.

Not long after Park Jihyo sat down, she took out her phone and casually asked Yoo Jeongyeon next to her, "Unnie, has oppa's live stream ended?"

Yoo Jeongyeon was smoothing her slightly messy hair with her hands when she heard Park Jihyo's question. She paused, glanced at the clock on the wall, and replied, "It should be over by now. It's already 12:32."

Park Jihyo casually opened Vlive to check, then said with a hint of regret, "Aigoo, it really is over."

She had originally planned to take a look at Jiang Yan's live stream when she had some free time, but the Minor team members were all practicing very hard and she missed the live stream before she knew it.

But then she remembered that today was the day Kang Yeon's title track MV and the day the entire album would be released, so she said to Yoo Jeongyeon, "I'm going to watch oppa's MV, unnie, do you want to watch it with me?"

"Okay, but I need to call my mom first."

"Unnie, go make the call. I'll wait for you."

"Yes, I'll be back soon."

After watching Yoo Jeongyeon walk out of the practice room with her phone in hand, Park Jihyo turned around and looked around.

The other trainees in her team were either eating bread to stave off hunger or sitting on the floor looking at their phones like her.

After looking away, Park Jihyo casually opened the Qoo app to surf the web, just like usual.

But as soon as she opened the forum section, one of the hot posts caught her eye.

The post was clearly a discussion about Jiang Yangang's recently concluded live stream.

Just as she clicked in to find out the cause and effect, a few minutes later, Yoo Jeong-yeon also finished her call and returned to the practice room.

"What are you looking at? You seem quite engrossed in it."

Seeing that Park Jihyo hadn't reacted even after she walked up to her, Yoo Jeongyeon patted her on the shoulder.

Park Jihyo, after being patted like that, put her phone screen in front of Yoo Jeongyeon and said, "Unnie, those bastards messed up oppa's live stream this time."

"Closed seed?"

Yoo Jeongyeon didn't immediately realize who the "Kwan Jung" Park Jihyo was referring to, but after seeing what was displayed on her phone, her expression turned rather grim.

"Damn it, are these kimchi guys crazy? Why are they staring at oppa and biting him like that!" Yoo Jeongyeon muttered under her breath.

"Right? That's completely unreasonable, but..."

"But what?"

"But oppa has to go to the TV station to record today, won't that affect his condition?"

"No, oppa wouldn't be affected by those people."

Yu Dingyan shook her head firmly; she didn't think Jiang Yan would care about what these people were saying.

"That's good. Let's start watching the music video now."

"Wait... never mind, let's watch the music video first."

Yu Dingyan wanted to send a message to Jiang Yan now, but when she thought that it might disturb the other party's rest at this time, she suppressed the idea and decided to wait until tomorrow during the day.

……

At 6 a.m. on April 28, six hours after the live broadcast ended, Kang Yeon arrived at MBC TV station in a van.

As for why we came so early, it's because stage recordings also require queuing.

Moreover, recording a stage performance is very time-consuming because each group of artists needs to rehearse before the actual recording.

The actual recording isn't done in one take; it takes several takes.

Led by the TV station staff, Jiang Yan and his backup dancers, Cheng Xiao and the others, arrived at a dressing room backstage.

Since it was their first time there, Wu Xuanyi was pulling Meng Yuqi around the lounge, looking them over.

The only one from the Zhenghan Banner, Li Zhenshu, sat quietly in standby mode, just like Cheng Xiao, both of them entering power-saving mode.

Jiang Zhennan came in and left shortly after; he needed to coordinate with the TV station.

After Jiang Yan sat down in a corner of the lounge, she began to have her makeup touched up by the team's makeup artist.

He yawned slightly. For some reason, he had only slept for less than four hours since the end of the live broadcast, so he was still a little sleepy.

After a while, Wu Xuanyi suddenly walked up behind Jiang Yan and asked, "Brother Yan, are you going out to visit the seniors later?"

"I don't need it."

"Huh? Isn't the custom here to visit newcomers before their debut?"

"What you said is true, but have you forgotten that I'm not a newcomer?"

"Oh, right..."

Wu Xuanyi only realized after hearing this that Jiang Yan was a "recycled" artist, and might even be a senior to most of the artists backstage today.

Just then, the door to the lounge opened, and Jiang Zhennan walked in from outside.

"How is it? When is it my turn?" Jiang Yan asked directly after he returned.

"It will be another two or three hours, and there are still many people ahead of us."

Jiang Zhennan replied, then walked over to him, smiled, and continued, "Guess who I ran into outside just now."

"Who?"

"Your former teammates."

"so what?"

"Aren't you going to catch up with them?"

"There's nothing to talk about."

Jiang Yan doesn't have much contact with the BTS members in private. It's not that their relationship faded after he left the group, but rather that their relationship was just so-so to begin with.

They were just colleagues before, and their friendly interactions with teammates in front of the camera were just to create a sense of team spirit.

After the makeup artist finished retouching the look, Jiang Yan leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes to rest.

More than two hours later, TV station staff knocked on the door and told them they could go to the rehearsal.

The group then left the lounge, passed through the waiting corridor, and entered the stage for recording their performance to begin rehearsals.

Below the stage stood many spectators, all of whom were fans of the various artists who were performing today.

These people will stay with their idols until the recording is over, emphasizing full-time companionship.

Jiang Yan spotted several people in the crowd holding up signs with the word "YAN" in them; these were clearly his fans.

But now was not the time to greet the fans, so he did not go up to interact with them.

With the help of the staff, he adjusted his in-ear monitor and hand microphone, and then played the accompaniment he had submitted in advance.

The rehearsal went smoothly. After everyone was familiar with the stage, the next step was to wait for the director's confirmation before the official stage recording.

A few minutes later, the on-site director made a ready gesture, announcing to the entire crew that recording had officially begun.

Jiang Yan walked to the designated spot from the rehearsal and got into position. A few minutes later, the drumbeats of the music intro came through his in-ear monitor.

The first recording of the debut stage has officially begun.

At the same time, on Weibo in China...

A hashtag titled "[The Current Status of Chinese Green Cards Due to the Boycott of EXO]" suddenly appeared on the real-time trending topics list, attracting the attention of countless passersby.