GUIDE TO PREDEBUT TRIPTYCH: GEN 2
Technically each generation has its own ‘pre-debut era’, given that most, if not every, HBH group are formed first from project groups. However, this project group had no idea that their product was going to end up being a second generation of Triptych. And neither did the fans. Let’s break down Gen 2′s predebut story.
YAY SIBLING GROUPS! ERA
The project group’s main goal was advertised as finding a lineup to form sibling groups. However, there was more competition involved than the fans or trainees knew about.
The first project group was called ECHO. ECHO was comprised of eight female trainees: Soojin, Haeyoon, Love, Rushi, Haeun, Sunhee, Chaewon, and Kotori.
The second project group was called ANSWER, which was comprised of eight male trainees: Jaehwa, Songgye, Saito, Yeetai, Heejun, Soonyoung, Hyunki, and Myungdae.
During the first stages of this era, everything was going really well. ECHO and ANSWER had their own webshow much like the previous HBH Trainee groups before them, except it was professionally filmed and produced by staff. They also were very interactive with their audience. They did a ton of things together as 16, including dance covers, vocal covers, vlogs, vLives, busking, and even running their own cafe.
CAFE E&A ERA
During the spring of 2016, the trainees opened up their own pop-up cafe, much like how The Boyz did before they debuted. The trainees worked together and made up the staff of their own little cafe. It was really popular and gathered a ton of fans.
This was seen as the Golden Age for their pre debut era, as it was the calm before the storm. This era was filled with funny inside jokes, the chemistry between the members growing into something stronger, and overall harmony within the group. Any onlooker could tell that all 16 of them had a great relationship and they really did feel like a sibling group.
Once the shop closed up at the end of the month, things started getting heated.
THIS BACKFIRED ON HBH BIG TIME ERA
During a web show episode, all the trainees were called into a practice room for a meeting. The staff member announced that the company thinks that 8 members per group is too many and that they need to narrow it down. The company knows that if they remove the members they don’t see as fit, the fans will be upset. Therefore, the decision on who stays in the group is solely dependent on how many votes you got on the HBH Trainees website. They would be narrowing down each team to 5 members each.
This set very high tension between all the trainees, especially because they just started getting close to each other. One night all the trainees sat down together to discuss what they have been asked to do. None of them liked the idea for fighting for debut, especially against one another.
During the talk, trainee Jaehwa suggested that he drop out. Everyone was against this idea, especially because he’s getting older and may not make debut again, but he insisted. In his path followed Yeetai and Songgye. They stated that if they weren’t going to debut with Jaehwa, someone who has lead them for years, they didn’t want to debut at all.
Rushi and Haeun followed their lead, as they also were partially lead by Jaehwa at one point. Kotori, the youngest, suggested that she too drop out, as she was probably too young to debut anyway.
FUCK THE CEO ERA
They left the project, but it caused some issues with the company. Due to this being the second project group that Jaehwa, Songgye, Yeetai, Rushi, and Haeun have dropped out of, the company (mainly the ex-CEO, Lee Hyungmin), suggested that they leave the company for good and attempted to terminate their contracts. However, Hak Bonghwa overruled this decision and stated that the trainees will be staying under HBH, as he had plans for them in the future.
Fans found out about what was going on at the company and were very upset. They blamed the CEO for all of this, stating that none of this would have happened if he didn’t make this era a survival era. The fans and the remaining 10 members were in great distress at this time, however, things were going to look up once summer rolled around.
BIG BAD BABY THE BUS ERA
At one point in the ANSWER/ECHO era, HBH was making them do a ton of busking events and mini-concerts at different cities all over Korea. It became so frequent that at one point they had their own tour bus which they lived in for at least two weeks. Thanks to their web show, fans knew that they called their tour bus “Big Bad Baby”, which became a fandom joke instantly. This era was reminiscent of E&A Cafe days due to the lighthearted and entertaining videos that were released during that time.
A lot of inside jokes were born this era as well as a more personal look into the member’s lives. They would upload personal videos throughout the day on social media and were responsive to fans online in a casual way. What set apart Generation 2 from Generation 1 was that Gen 2 gave off a ‘kids-next-door’ vibe. Gen 1 always felt like an idol group just waiting to debut. That’s probably what caused Gen 2 to be just the slightest bit more successful than their seniors.
Their predebut era wrapped up when they finished their marathon of busking. After that, they went silent for a month or so before announcing that they were not going to be a sibling group after all. They officially were announced as Triptych members fall of 2017 before officially kicking off the second generation in February 2018.