falling in love!

~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.