Peninsula: From Water Injection to Stardom

This week's winner is—BIGBANG's "LOSER"! Congratulations!

On May 10, during a live broadcast of SBS's "Inkigayo," MC Kim Yoo-jung announced the winner of first place to the camera.

No one present showed any surprise at the result.

As soon as the closing music started, Jiang Yan headed straight for the backstage area.

Today is his last appearance on a music show this week. After returning home, he has no scheduled activities before the 13th and will have a short break.

This week, in addition to winning first place on The Show, he also won first place on The Show of Champions and M! Countdown.

The title track performed so well on the digital music charts that it completely overshadowed the other candidates on the platform, winning by a landslide.

Although none of the candidates from the three major broadcasting stations, Jiang Yan, made it into the list, it's not a pity.

For a solo artist to win awards on three smaller TV channels in a single week is already a great success.

This is the life of many obscure duos.

Similarly, because of him, BTS received zero first place this week.

However, Jiang Yan felt no sense of accomplishment in defeating BTS during this period.

What's so great about beating a nobody?

However, after winning first place for three consecutive days, ARMY has temporarily disappeared from various Korean online forums.

He has no choice but to disappear. If he shows his face even once, Jiang Yan's fans will be on high alert, like a dragon charging at his face.

But ARMY brought this upon themselves, since they had previously deliberately put down Jiang Yan, which naturally earned them a bad reputation among his fans.

As for not winning against BIGBANG this time, there's nothing shameful about it.

Joining a summit team isn't easy, but at least Jiang Yan didn't follow the example of a certain basketball vice-g0at and travel during off-peak hours.

Back in the backstage dressing room after he returned from the stage, Cheng Xiao and the other backup dancers had already packed up and were waiting for him to come back so they could leave together.

The four girls' two-week stint as backup dancers has come to an end. Starting tomorrow, they will return to Starship to continue their training until their debut.

"You've all worked so hard these past few days. How about I treat you to dinner tonight?" Jiang Yan offered to pay for the meal.

"Okay, okay!" Wu Xuanyi was the first to respond enthusiastically.

Cheng Xiao and Meng Yuqi exchanged a glance and then nodded.

That's how tacitly old-timers are; if someone offers to treat them, they'll never hesitate to eat first and talk about other things later.

The remaining Li Zhenshu from Zhenghan Banner also followed the crowd, knowing that her opinion was unimportant.

After changing out of her stage outfits into casual clothes, Jiang Yan and the others left the TV station and got into a van to go out for a meal.

The meal lasted for about an hour, and after it was finished, everyone dispersed.

The next day, Jiang Yan slept until ten o'clock, which was rare for him.

He has no scheduled activities today, so no one will disturb his rest.

Okay, actually there are some.

Jiang Yan hadn't even gotten out of bed when he received a call from Jin Xuexuan.

The two arranged to meet in the afternoon over the phone. After hanging up, Jiang Yan got up, quickly washed up, and then made herself a bowl of instant noodles for brunch in her dorm room.

After finishing his meal, he left the dormitory and took a taxi to Cube.

Although it was a rare holiday, there was still a long time before my date, and since I had nothing else to do, I thought I might as well go to the studio and write a new demo to further enrich my music library.

However, Jiang Yan had just entered Cube when he ran into Tian Xiaojuan, whom he hadn't seen in a long time, at the elevator entrance on the first floor.

Jiang Yan was quite curious about why Tian Xiaojuan wasn't in the practice room at this time, so he took the initiative to ask, "Don't you have practice today?"

Upon seeing him, Tian Xiaojuan quickly bowed respectfully and said, "Senior, I took leave to go home yesterday and am now going upstairs to see the director to cancel my leave."

"I see. But you don't need to keep using honorifics when you talk to me. I'm a foreigner, so I don't need to be so particular."

"Yes, I'll be more careful from now on."

"..."

Although Tian Xiaojuan said that, she was actually still very reserved.

Jiang Yan knew that things couldn't change immediately, so he didn't say anything more.

……

Jiang Yan spent three or four hours in the studio in the blink of an eye. After quickly finishing a demo, he checked the time and realized it was just the right time to leave.

The two agreed to meet at their usual spot today, which is Rodeo Street in Apgujeong-dong.

After meeting, Kim Seolhyun, as usual, immediately clung to him.

"Oppa, have you missed me?"

"Yes, I miss you. Have you missed me?"

"Of course, I think about it every day~"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Yan actually wanted to say that there was no need to think about it every day.

But he only thought about it; he wasn't so emotionally inept as to say it out loud.

His gaze involuntarily drifted to the other person's neck, and he noticed that Kim Seolhyun was wearing the same couple's ring today.

"Didn't we say we wouldn't wear it for now?" Jiang Yan reached out and touched it.

"That's been a long time already, almost three months," Kim Seolhyun said softly.

"Okay, then you can wear it." Jiang Yan saw that she was already wearing it, so he let her be happy.

There's nothing he can do; that's just how love-struck people are, and sometimes he's quite helpless.

But it's not a big problem. He only wears that one occasionally in private anyway, so it's not that easy to spot.

Jiang Yan never uploads photos she takes privately to share on Instagram and Twitter; she only uploads promotional photos taken by the company.

This was something his past life experience taught him: never underestimate a fan's ability to scrutinize details.

"What were you doing before you came here today, oppa?"

"I went to Cube this morning and wrote a demo in my spare time."

"Are you preparing a new song for your next comeback?"

"No, that's not it. The demo I wrote today will probably be made into a JPOP later."

"You can even write J-Pop?!"

Kim Seolhyun looked at Kang Yeon with surprise; it was the first time she had ever known that her boyfriend could write Japanese songs.

"It's alright, I only know a little bit." Jiang Yan pinched her round cheek and smiled.

"So it's the company's arrangement? They're planning to have you debut at Liben?" Kim Seolhyun guessed.

Almost every slightly popular K-pop group tries to break into the Japanese market, so Kim Seolhyun subconsciously assumed that Kang Yeon wrote J-POP in preparation for entering the Japanese market.

"No, that's not true. I just happened to have an inspiration and that's why I wrote this demo." Jiang Yan shook his head and denied it.

Invading Japan? There's no need for that now.

I will definitely write a few pure J-POP songs in the future, but that's definitely not my career plan in the near future.

His current plan is to first capitalize on the K-pop boom.