#aesxocnet

He ventured further into the room, backing up against the bed where he dropped her off from his back. He turned around, holding her face in his palms and smiling. “Alone at last.”

She held onto his wrist, reaching up to kiss his lips. She had missed his touch for months now, hard to fathom how her manager possibly let her pull this off.

“You guys did great tonight.” She swayed her body back and forth, waving his wrists in the air as she chuckled. He intertwined their fingers together, flashing her that familiar smile that always made her feel like she was home.

He nodded, pulling her into his chest and

hugging her tight. He cradled the back of her head while kissing her temple. “Thank you for coming. You didn’t have to come all this way.”

“I wanted to. I missed you and wanted to surprise you.” Eden rubbed the small of his back. “It’s okay. We have a few more days off before we have to rehearse and everything.”

“The girls aren’t mad, are they?” He frowned, distancing their faces and looking her in the eyes.

“Of course not. You know they love you. Don’t worry.” She shook her head, bringing her hands up to push away his stray hairs. “You can have a little more time with me now.”

He pecked her forehead, letting out a sigh of relief. “I can’t wait til we’re not busy anymore. When we can go out on dates regularly, fall asleep together, hold each other like this.”

“I know. We just have to be a bit more patient.” She nodded, smiling at him with all the love in her eyes. “I’m so happy these days because of you. No amount of distance can change that.”

He squealed out of excitement, picking her up and sitting on the bed while placing her on his lap. His hands rested around her waist, pressing his head to her chest and humming.

“Minee?”

“Hmm?” He pulled away, looking up towards her with a hopeful grin.

“Your English is so cute.” She snickered, rubbing circles on his cheeks with her hand.

“Is it? I’ve tried practicing and all that.”

“So cute.” She kissed his nose, tempted to give him a bunch of raspberries. “You’re getting better everyday.”

He quickly gave her another peck on the lips. The two went back and forth, giving each other many kisses on different places of their faces. They weren’t going to leave any surface untouched.

“You haven’t eaten yet, right?” She brushed her fingers through the hair at the base of his neck. “I can order something while you take a shower.”

He pouted, snuggling in closer to her. “You don’t wanna join me?”

Eden patted the top of his head, shaking her head. “Not tonight. I’ll make sure the food is ready when you get out.” She got off his lap and onto her feet, pulling her phone out of her pocket.

Seokmin stood up, dragging his feet to the bathroom and pleading with his eyes as he stood in the doorway. She shooed him with her hand, resuming her search for a restaurant that was open at this late hour.

When the food arrived, she didn’t want to just leave it like it was. She tried to arrange everything nicely for him. Now she waited for him

to get out of the shower. She paced back and forth in the room before stopping in front of the window. She pulled the curtains to the side to reveal the dim city lights.

It was misty from all the rain and she couldn’t see well given how bright their hotel room was. She felt her cheeks getting warmer. Everything was starting to fall back into place. She felt proud of herself, proud of her group, proud of her boyfriend and his group. She was full of so much love now.

She felt herself shiver from the sudden air hitting her. She wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing up and down on her skin to warm herself up.

She didn’t hear him get out of the shower until the door opened. Eden quickly turned around to see him shirtless, his hair falling flat against his face and his shorts fitting comfortably around his waist.

“It smells good.” He smelled the aroma of their dinner. She couldn’t help but giggle, looking back out the window and taking the scent in.

Seokmin made his way behind her, trying to make himself level with her view to see what she was looking at. He took this as the opportunity to hug her from behind. She exhaled, leaning back against his chest and gripping onto his wrists.

“I never thought we’d be in the states together like this.” He nuzzled his face into the crook of her neck, rocking them back and forth before kissing her cheek.

“Is it better than Jeju? or Busan?” She looked at their reflection in the glass, rubbing her thumb over his knuckles.

“It doesn’t matter where we are. As long as I’m with you.” He smirked, shaking his head before bending his knees and picking her up by the waist. “I’m starving.”

Eden would never get used to him picking her up so effortlessly like this. She worried about putting too much strain on his muscles that he needed for his work. He set her down by the bed, taking the chair and grinning at their setup.

~STYLE~

Hair:

Yumin kept her bob from the previous comeback, but went dark for the first time. The outer layer of her hair was a dark brown, but the inner layer was still her trademark blond color. She decided to give her scalp a break for once, but she didn’t want to be completely unrecognizable.

Yeojeong continued with her dark hair. This time around, however, she went jet black. Although she was sad she had let some fans down, she tried to make it up by wearing funky-colored extensions for the stages.

Byeol dyed her long hair red to match her representative heart and kept the no bangs look. They also especially liked her look during the Fire Saturday promotions because the fire red hair made the loud seventies styling even campier.

Hotaru dyed her hair a honey blond that faded to a dirty blond throughout the era. ælifes were a little disappointed because they were expecting her to have Byeol’s hair transformation, but eventually grew to like this more elegant, mature version of Hotaru especially during the "어디야? (Where are you?)" promotions.

Chowon 86’d the bangs and dyed her hair ombre jet black-to-blond. Unlike the last comeback, she wore her hair almost exclusively straight. She also almost exclusively wore something on her head during the Fire Saturday promotions whether it was a hat, a bandanna, or a headband. Rumors started spreading that Lovemonth was working with a new stylist and an accident led to her getting a bald patch at the top of her head, but it was quickly dispelled during "Where Are You?" promotions when she wore nothing on her head

Since Saetbyul was the newest member, she didn’t get a huge makeover. Her hair was kept dark, but dyed a chocolate brown rather than being her usual jet black. As the "불토 (Fire Saturday)" promotions progressed, however, her hairstyles got more adventurous going from simple straight with a headband to Farrah-esque waves and tinsel extensions.

Stage Outfits:

불토 (Fire Saturday)

As the first title track that they would perform, the stylist wanted the girls to really catch people's attention. The loud 70s aesthetic was eventually decided upon. Color-blocked tops; loud, flair-legged pants; boot-cut denim jeans; ostrich feather tops; white go-go boots; and lots of headbands and bandannas. It's hard to tell, but it seemed that the goodbye stage outfits were the most well-received. The white collared tops paired with the embroidered royal blue pants was giving the 70s aesthetic with a modern twist.

어디야? (Where are you?)

The second title track was much more toned down, so the stylist went with a much simpler look: a high-low dress with ruffled sleeves and a bow. The girls were this outfit in a variety of pastel colors: baby blue and white, white and pale pink, pink and white, lavender and white, mint and white, etc. Interestingly enough, they never wore the pink and red outfits from the music video...

目がくらむ (Dazzling Lights)

Hotaru, as the only Loveomonth girlie that the fandom wasn't looking at sideways, got her own stage for her solo track as well as a performance MV! She personally decided on the city pop aesthetic for both of her outfits, choosing dresses with both elegant and cute features just like her. And of course she had to pair them with city pop's trademark accessories: lace gloves, a fascinator, and the plainest pair of shoes she could find.

~THE CHARTS~

"불토 (Fire Saturday)" peak positions:

Genie: --- MelOn: --- FLO: --- VIBE: --- Bugs!: ---

"어디야? (Where are you?)" peak positions:

Genie: --- MelOn: --- FLO: --- VIBE: --- Bugs!: ---

Music Show Wins: bffr 0

~ERA HIGHLIGHTS~

Lovemonth flop era pt. 2 Electric Boogaloo

 A mess from start to finish.......let's start with the music videos!

The "불토 (Fire Saturday)" music video was actually kinda fun. A huge party with Lovemonth welcoming in their temporary member, Saetbyul. She was definitely the focus of the video, having almost the same amount of screen time and center time as Yeojeong. Was there a huge, overarching narrative to the video? No. Did it need one? Not really. It was just a cute, campy, feel good music video that almost gave ælifes the feels. Unfortunately, the last couple of minutes made things weird: all the girls left "the club" arm-in-arm as Yumin followed closely behind, but turned back to the open doors of the club with a troubled look as if she'd forgotten something, alluding to the theme of the second music video...

The "어디야? (Where are you?)" music video was bad. It managed to be high experiment, arthaus shlock and pathetically transparent at the same time, but it was clearly meant to serve as an open apology of sorts to Rudy. There were several allusions to her absence: the girls sitting in six chairs with one empty one next to them, a scene with six full glasses of water and one empty glass, even the final shot with the girls posing 3:3 with a gaping hole in the middle of their formation. Pandering at its finest.

Although some ælifes gave the company credit for at least showing that Rudy is an integral part of the group and her absence is clear, most were not fooled and continued to follow through with the boycott.

Allegedly, Rudy tweeted "not that cringey ass mv lol" and then deleted it at some point 🥴

Needless to say, both music videos were incredibly slow to garner views due to the boycott. "불토 (Fire Saturday)" did manage to rack up about 1 million views after a month and a few weeks, but "어디야? (Where are you?)" barely made half that.

The sales for Love On The Weekend were similarly awful with freshly-debuted nugu groups outselling them. They didn't even chart.

Many of Lovemonth's gigs were cancelled because it was clear they were not welcome anywhere; shows that announced they would be appearing found their broadcasting companies flooded with emails urging them to cancel.

Even performing at Aes!OCNet Awards, what should've been the highlight of their year, became a disaster and a controversy.

The worst part was Saetbyul, who had absolutely no idea what she was getting herself into and was innocent in all the controversy, breaking down at a festival performance after someone threw a bottle on stage and cursed at them.

Yeah......this era sucked.

~SCANDALS & CONTROVERSIES~

#BoycottYURINCO: This hashtag spread like wildfire after Rudy’s livestream. Many ælifes vowed to boycott the comeback and any future comebacks until a public apology was made to Rudy. Because of this, the mini album pre-sales were abysmal and neither title track charted. Even when they performed live stages the crowds were quiet and didn’t do their fanchants. The “불어” era, as it’s been unofficially named, was basically one large scandal from Rudy’s livestream controversy, to the very obvious messaging in the music videos, to the Aes!OCNet Awards debacle…speaking of which…

Aes!OCNet Awards performance debacle: Lovemonth was invited to the Aes!OCNet Awards for the second time, but things have changed quite a bit over the past year. As soon as this was announced, petitions to have their invitation rescinded started circulating as Rudy-biased ælifes were demanding justice for their fave. The petition was ultimately not taken seriously and ended up being forgotten. Eventually, the initial backlash of the invitation started to die down and soon enough it was time for the event. It’s not really certain who was responsible for it or it was pulled off, but when Lovemonth took the stage a large portion of the audience’s lightsticks went out. It was more of a black pond than a black ocean, but it was just as mortifying and brought the relatively nugu group into the public eye for all the wrong reasons.

She said what?!: A profanity-laden audio clip allegedly of Byeol surfaced where she was talking about people not supporting their comeback because of Rudy. The clip is of pretty shitty quality, but Byeol’s voice is pretty distinct. This caused a bit of commotion on K-pop Twitter for about 48 hours before dying down, but some ælifes still think there’s some truth to it and it’s caused the fandom to side-eye Byeol a little.

~ACTIVITIES~

Not a lot of activities this era because of all the controversy, but they did get to do a few things!

The girls appeared on the talk show Idol2Idol (a show where idols interview other idols they’re promoting with) alongside peekAboo. Hotaru talked about her background in waacking and voguing in Japan, revealing she co-choreographed "Naughty", one of the songs from her and Byeol's web series. She then did a little demonstration for the girls and did what needed to be done.

For this era’s Girls Generation cover, Lovemonth teamed up with 7LITE for a Music Bank Christmas episode performance of "Mr.Mr." OURLITEs lost their minds since 7LITE hadn’t had any activities for most of the year, and ælifes were definitely cheering as their favorite group continued this cute tradition, but still flooded videos’ of the performance on YouTube and elsewhere with comment section detailing what the group was going through and encouraging viewers not to support them.

HELL.      an “estate” belonging to mother. originally a place of love and beauty, it was cursed by delusion.

MOTHER.      a creature. no one knows its origin, but it claims to be godsent. it birthed the whispering children from the shadows. it killed them and nurtured them after their deaths. it's the keeper of hell, but it didn't always have that title.  MOTHER IS PORTRAYED IRIE

GHOST.      ghost was the original keeper of hell before they died at mother's hand. they're neither good nor evil, instead they roam the estate as a protector against delusion.  GHOST IS PORTRAYED BY PARIS.

THE WHISPERING CHILDREN.      the whispering children are the mother's creations, likened to its son and daughter. created from the shadows of hell, they sit and watch and wait in the shadows.

BELIEVER.      believer is the youngest whispering child. he believes in mother's stories and delusions fully.   BELIEVER IS PORTRAYED BY SORA.

REBEL.      rebel is the eldest whispering child. she refuses to believe in mother's stories and delusions, and conspired to her hearts content.   REBEL IS PORTRAYED BY EULA.

PASSER BY.      much like mother, no one knows passer by's origin. it is rumoured throughout hell that ghost summoned passer by. ghost neither confirms or denies this. the whispering children believe passer by will free them from hell. PASSER BY IS PORTRAYED BY MALAYA

THE PRIEST.      the priest is not a priest. he is one of mother's delusions, a human-like creature of deceit, tricks and lies. the whispering children refer to him as the spider, as he often spies in the children by using spiders.

THE MESSIAH.      yet another one of mother's delusions. mother claims one day the messiah will come and beauty and love in hell will be restored. believer believes passer by is the messiah.