Peninsula: From Water Injection to Stardom

Du Hua only stayed with Jiang Yan for less than twenty minutes before leaving.

However, although the person left, their words reminded Jiang Yan that he should indeed put the release plan for the Chinese single on the agenda.

However, there are some nuances to releasing Chinese songs, and the approach definitely needs to be changed.

Du Hua believes that releasing Chinese songs is to solidify her fanbase, but Jiang Yan has more to consider.

If releasing a Korean album was to attract fans from the K-pop community, then releasing a Chinese single has an even more important purpose: to expand his brand awareness in lower-tier markets in China and attract the attention of casual listeners outside the K-pop scene.

He wants to have both die-hard fans and casual fans.

When it comes to selecting songs for Chinese singles, it's naturally best to focus on popular songs, without a doubt, because that's the mainstream of the Chinese music market.

Jiang Yan plans to copy the popular Chinese songs of artists like Li Ronghao, Xue Zhiqian, or Eric Chou to expand his fan base.

For the next few days, Jiang Yan went back and forth between her apartment and the company every day.

During this time, he also took the opportunity to check on his former teammates.

BTS was originally expected to get 5 number one hits this comeback, but because of him, they only got 1 number one hit after a month of promotions.

Actually, Jiang Yan was a little surprised after learning about it, because logically speaking, he only won three first places, so BTS should have been able to win two more if they worked hard, and one of them was on a major platform like Music Bank.

But the reality is that the other side has only taken one small table spot, and the large table spot they remembered is no longer available.

For some reason, BTS's sales and audience vote scores on Music Bank that week were lower than I remembered, resulting in them being 10 points behind another candidate in total score.

Jiang Yan even went back to look at the discussion thread from that day and finally figured out the problem: it seemed that ARMYs were not very united for some reason.

And the source of this seems to be him.

To put it simply, because after Jiang Yan stepped on the leader in the first week and won three consecutive number one spots, some ARMYs left the fanbase.

The chain reaction after these ARMY fans left naturally resulted in a decrease in sales volume and audience voting scores.

As for where the part of ARMY that ran away went?

Looking at the nearly 150,000 members on his official fan cafe, Jiang Yan said he didn't know either; it was too hard to guess.

……

Saturday arrived, and this afternoon Jiang Yan did not go to CUBE, but rested in her apartment.

The television in the living room is currently on, playing a music show from MBC's Music Core.

Jiang Yan was sitting on the sofa passing the time, casually watching TV until the MC announced a winner on screen before turning it off.

But after another ten minutes or so, his phone suddenly rang with a Kakao notification sound.

It was a message from Kim Seolhyun: 【Oppa, I'll be on my way in half an hour~】

Jiang Yan showed no surprise upon seeing the message, as he had already arranged to meet Jin Xuexuan today.

We waited until around 5:30 before the apartment doorbell rang.

Jiang Yan got up and walked to the door. Through the peephole, he saw Jin Xuexuan standing there prettily.

He opened the door to let him in, and as soon as Kim Seolhyun entered, she lightly pounced on him and kissed him on the cheek.

After the kiss, she wrapped her arms around Jiang Yan's neck, tilted her head back, and said sweetly, "Oppa~ Did you miss me?"

After enduring the weight of the other person pressing down on him, Jiang Yan casually closed the door and laughed, "Of course I want to."

"Is that all?" Upon hearing this, Kim Seolhyun expressed dissatisfaction with the answer.

"So what do you want?" Jiang Yan asked back.

"Oppa didn't kiss me first, and he doesn't seem to miss me that much," Kim Seolhyun said, revealing a sly smile.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Yan immediately understood and leaned down to kiss Jin Xuexuan on the cheek.

"Now that you've kissed, are you satisfied?"

Hehe~

After lingering in the entryway for a short while, Jiang Yan led Jin Xuexuan into the living room after she changed into slippers.

Upon entering, Kim Seol-hyun curiously looked around at her surroundings. This was her first time here since Kang Yeon got his own apartment.

The living room was clean and tidy, and all the items were arranged neatly, but there were very few things and no decorative ornaments.

After the two sat down on the sofa in the living room, Kim Seolhyun naturally leaned her body close to Kang Yeon.

Jiang Yan leaned closer, inhaling the faint, sweet fragrance emanating from the other's neck, and asked, "Did you take a shower before coming?"

"Yes, I showered in my dorm before coming here," Kim Seolhyun replied in a soft, sweet voice.

"That's good."

Upon receiving this answer, Jiang Yan picked the other person up in his arms without saying a word and headed straight for the bedroom.

"Oppa?!"

"It's still early before dinner, let's do something meaningful first."

"No, um—"

Kim Seolhyun, who had been placed on the bed, wanted to say something more, but the rest of her words were completely silenced by a passionate kiss, and her body went limp with the kiss.

It was quite some time later, more than an hour after the two of them came out of the apartment to have dinner.

Dinner was at a Western restaurant, and perhaps because she had used up a lot of energy, Kim Seolhyun had a strong appetite.

However, I still restrained myself from eating too much, since I'll be back next week and I definitely need to strictly control my weight.

After they finished eating, Jiang Yan originally planned to watch a movie together, but Jin Xuexuan said she wanted to go to the karaoke room because she wanted to hear Jiang Yan sing.

The so-called karaoke room is a relatively private KTV, usually a private room for two or three people.

Jiang Yan naturally complied with Jin Xuexuan's request and was pulled by the hand into a KTV with a karaoke room.

Once inside, Kim Seolhyun couldn't wait to turn on the device and start selecting songs.

"Wow, oppa, your song is on the popular playlist!" Kim Seolhyun pointed to a row of song titles displayed on the screen with a bit of surprise.

"It's normal to have that." Jiang Yan didn't find it strange at all, because his hit song had already made it into the top ten of Melon's annual chart.

What should we sing?

"Whatever, you can sing whatever you want."

"Then, let's play 'Some' first."

"Can."

After Kim Seolhyun swiped her finger to select a song, she pressed the button to play the accompaniment.

As the intro began, the two shared a microphone and prepared to start singing.

This was the first time the two had sung "Some" together, but it wasn't difficult to sing.

After finishing her song, Kim Seolhyun turned her head and asked with a hint of anticipation, "Oppa, did I sing alright?"

Jiang Yan said tactfully, "Very good, you still have a lot of room for improvement."

Upon hearing this, Kim Seolhyun immediately puffed out her cheeks.

Even if she were incredibly dense, she could tell that Jiang Yan wasn't praising her, but she couldn't refute it.

Afterwards, Jiang Yan and Jin Xuexuan spent nearly an hour together in the cramped karaoke room.

Besides "Some", Kim Seolhyun also requested songs from her own group and two songs from Kang Yeon.

After getting into the groove, Jiang Yan even requested a song called "Incantation" for himself, easily replicating a three-part melody that most idols can't sing.

Kim Seolhyun listened attentively, like a fan sitting in a VIP seat, her hands supporting her chin, occasionally clapping in support.

After finishing his song and leaving the karaoke room, Jiang Yan checked the time; it was already past nine o'clock at night.

After walking hand-in-hand with Kim Seolhyun for a while along the street, he asked, "Shall I take you back to your dorm now?"

After thinking for a moment, Kim Seolhyun shook her head and said, "It's okay to go back later. We don't need to go to the company tomorrow morning."

"So where do you want to go now?"

"How about we go back to oppa's apartment?"

When Kim Seolhyun said those words, her gaze was fixed on Jiang Yan, her eyes as gentle as water.

"Okay, let's go back then."

Jiang Yan understood the meaning conveyed in the other person's eyes.

……