Or, to those less fluent in Korean, Hello!

Welcome to the second January edition of the Atlantis Entertainment newsletter where you'll find a mixture of K-Pop and books. I am your MC, Ji Soo, and I will be guiding you through this month's fun.

Wedding Bells?
Ji Soo's Group of the Month
Release Schedule

Some of you read my books as K-pop fans, but I know to some of you readers, it has been a new ride for you.

This week, something happened in the K-pop world which might help you understand this world a little more. 

Chen is a member of EXO. EXO has more members than this, but two are enlisted and the third missing is... actually, I don't know. Somewhere in China? (He's the group's only Chinese member.) He has been doing solo activities out there, but the last I checked, he was still a member of EXO.

In my books, it’s always a big thing about the idols dating (never mind dating more than one at once), and I know if you’re new to K-pop, this can seem really extreme. But the thing is, K-fans are bat-sh*t crazy. (Seriously, international fans are much more chilled).

OK, OK... Not all K-fans are crazy - I'm sorry, this kind of thing just angers me.

Some of you will be familiar with a group called EXO. They are huge in Korea. They have a fan base called EXO-L (once upon a time, there were twelve members of EXO. In their early days, they would split the group into two to create EXO-K (K for Korean), and EXO-M (M for Mandarin, aka Chinese), and L falls between K and M, so EXO-L's are always in the center of EXO.

They appeared on a show called JYP Party People (yes, the JYP from the last newsletter!) and they discussed dating. Now, when I was remembering this, I genuinely thought this interview took place early in their career. It happened in 2017...

2017 - not that long ago, really. They were very much established at this point... Which kinda makes this whole nonsense worse (in my opinion, of course).

Anyway, I found a clip of the interview.  

To paraphrase this interview, JYP asks EXO what they would sing to their girlfriends in the future. The audience boos. It transpires they're not happy with EXO dating until they're in their retirement homes.

Flash forward to last week. One of the members, Chen (Kim Yongdae), announced marriage and a pregnant fiancée. EXO are not a new group. They debuted in 2012, and half of the members have enlisted or are about to. Chen is 27 - a grown-ass man.

This photograph is of a “fan” site which collected signatures to get the police to approve an official petition outside of EXO’s entertainment company to have Chen removed from the group. Because they don’t like the fact he got married.

Fans... "Fans" protesting a wedding. Protesting so hard that they are demanding Chen be thrown out of EXO and SM Entertainment.

If you trawl through twitter, it's because they're upset their oppa (오빠) is getting married to someone that isn't them.

Now, I’ll be honest, it kinda screams shotgun wedding, and fans in general are slightly more approving if idols get married after enlistment, but this is insane.

I love K-pop, and the music has done so much to help me through some tough time. But the whole culture... it makes me so glad I didn't grow up in that country.

While I'm not a big enough EXO fan to class myself an EXO-L, I do like EXO, and I do like their music. And yeah, Baekhyun has the voice of an angel, but I'm happy if they are happy, and that includes them finding their true love. Hell, I write romance - I want that happily ever after for everyone!

When Monsta X get married, are you going to see me protesting their wedding? HELL NO! I mean, I won't deny I'll be a tiny bit jealous of the girl (or guy - you know what, I'm not going to make assumptions on any idol!), but I'm going to be so happy that they found the person they want to spend the rest of their lives with.

BUT NOW FOR SOME GOOD NEWS TO THIS STORY...

This was their 200 strong protest...

Honestly, I have no idea what's going to happen to Chen next. I don't know if SM will cave like they did with Sungmin and Super Junior. Sungmin got married and has yet to return to SuJu's line up despite their comebacks and not officially being removed from the group.

Oh yes, this has happened before...

Welcome to K-pop.

I wasn't going to do a group of the month in this newsletter, and technically, I'm not.

Want to show a little support for Chen?

This is a duet he did with Punch for the Descendants of the Sun soundtrack (which, if you haven't seen, needs to go on your to watch list!).

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February 16, 2020

Stolen Luck

The Goddess of Fate & Destiny, book 2

NA Reverse Harem