#lovemonth.disc

[yukeri]

Love On The Weekend is Lovemonth's second mini album and was released on December 26th, 2022. This mini album had two title tracks: "불토 (Fire Saturday)" and "어디야? (Where are you?)", both being promoted for two weeks each.

~TRACKS~

불토 (Fire Saturday)

Coast of Azure

目がくらむ (Dazzling Lights) Hotaru Solo

LOOK

어디야? (Where are you?)

~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.

They were invited to the annual Aes!OCNet Awards. Hotaru had the privilege of presenting the award for Best Summer Concept, then the group took to the Rising Star stage and performed a medley of their debut song "UP ALL NIGHT" and their newest title track "불토 (Fire Saturday)".

[yukeri]

ESCAPE ROOM is Lovemonth's second single album and was released on June 30th, 2022. The title track was "ESCAPE ROOM" with "왔다갔다 (Come 'n' Go)" as a promoted B-side. This is Lovemonth’s first comeback where the group is not promoting with their full lineup as Rudy is on hiatus.

~TRACKS~

ESCAPE ROOM

왔다갔다 (Come ‘n’ Go)

Not Friends (Lovemonth Ver.)

Hair:

Yumin continued to rock her usual straight, platinum blonde hair, but chose to get it cut short and get bangs. Her haircut along with the stage outfits for this comeback, a lot of comparisons were made to Rosamund Pike and the “i’m bored lemme ruin some random guy’s life real quick” vibe she often gives in her movies.

Yeojeong stuck to her long, brown look…but she got bangs this time! Fans asked if she would ever go with a new, bold look for a comeback on Vlive and she was like “I mean…if a role allowed me to? idk” which launched a bunch of “secure the bag” memes.

Byeol decided to come back with a bolder look: long, center-parted, jet black hair that was dyed ombre to grey. Her biggest decision though? No bangs. ælifes were shook; Byeol had had bangs ever since her trainee days to the point where there were countless jokes and tons of theories in the fandom as to what was actually under them. Some ælifes missed the bangs, but most not only saw the lack of bangs as a chicer, more mature look for her, but it had a lot of ælifes questioning their sexuality…

Hotaru surprisingly gave her scalp a break and went with a more natural chestnut brown bob. ælifes were similarly gagged by her transformation, but there was a lot more pushback as many fans really missed her Manic Pixie Dream Girl™ looks. Hotaru apologized for her lack of colorful hair and promised fans that ✨Magical Girl Hotaru✨ would be back soon.

Chowon had long, curly, jet black hair with a comma bang. ælifes were a little confused since she seemed to steal Rudy’s previous hairstyle…? 

For those keeping track, that makes 4/5 girls with bangs. Literally all the active members got bangs except for the one that’s known for them.

Stage Outfits:

ESCAPE ROOM

As the promotions for ESCAPE ROOM would be shorter, the designer decided to go with a simple, but effective silhouette that would be memorable to audiences. What encapsulates that more than a suit? The girls wore both classic suits and newer, oversized suits with cropped tops underneath in neutral and pseudo-neutral colors like black, white, navy, burgundy, and slate grey. The girls usually wore sneakers with the oversized suits and heeled boots with the more classic suits.

왔다갔다 (Come 'n' Go)

The costuming for their B-side was a bit of a hot topic. Not for the stage version; those outfits were relatively tame. Simple white lace tops with white pants, black shoes, and an oversized black jacket for the male backup dancers to drape over them at the end of the routine. The controversy came with the dance practice video costumes: Lovemonth wasn't really known for a sexy side, but they definitely showed it in the dance practice with their collared shirts and intimate dancing with the male backup dancers.

~THE CHARTS~

"ESCAPE ROOM" peak positions:

Genie: #72 MelOn: N/A FLO: #78 VIBE: #83 Bugs!: #91

Music Show Wins: 0

~ERA HIGHLIGHTS~

Whew chile this gon’ be a doozy........Lovemonth in their flop era! 😃

The whole #WhereIsRudy debacle really took whatever anticipation there was for Lovemonth’s comeback and completely deflated it.

The music video, which was more of a performance video with better camerawork, took a whole week to hit 1 million views.

Usually there were campaigns to get the Lovemonth music videos views, but the ælife community was in shambles. Half the community was on strike due to the mistreatment of Rudy that resulted in her seemingly leaving the group.

There were still ælifes that tried to remind everyone that regardless of Rudy’s status and treatment, there were still five other girls in the group working hard to deliver a comeback, but it sort of fell on deaf ears.

The charts weren’t any kinder: ESCAPE ROOM was their lowest-charting release, ranking lower than their debut. The Rudy scandal really took all of their momentum.

The worst part was that you could see it on the members’ faces. Any time they were on a variety show, when they were backstage at music shows, even on their social media. You could see how much this was affecting them.

Despite all the doom and gloom, the silver lining came towards the end of their comeback era: My Girlfriend’s a K-Pop Idol!

The web series had casted Byeol and Hotaru as a duo and gave them two of the most slayful songs to ever exist.

Both tracks were for the gays and the gays went UP accordingly.

The web series became very popular and First Memory (the duo from the series’ name) actually trended on NAVER. It boosted the popularity of Byeol and Hotaru, and of course Lovemonth by extension. Not enough to hint at a possible chart reversal, but enough to keep the threat of disbandment at bay.

Byeol and Hotaru started appearing on radio shows and variety shows as if they were an actual duo, which perturbed a few ælifes, but most saw it as a blessing in this dark time for the group.

The popularity of the duo gave the company some ideas…but anyway, at least the ESCAPE ROOM era ended on a high note!

~SCANDALS & CONTROVERSIES~

#WhereIsRudy pt. 1: During the months of Lovemonth’s hiatus, all but one of the members seemed to be keeping busy. Yeojeong was doing well as a model/actress, Chowon had been hosting After School Club consistently since their last comeback, and the other members had other activities that they were working on. Except Rudy. Her absence was constantly being brought up by ælifes to which members usually answered that she was resting. Then suddenly they stopped addressing it altogether. Anytime someone would ask they just…wouldn’t answer. Rumors started going around that she had left the group since she was the only one who was not active at all. The most suspicious moment came during one of Byeol’s Twitch streams: someone asked her about Rudy’s absence and she replied, “Ah…Rudy-unnie has returned to Thailand…she thought about her family quite often during our MOON promotions and wanted to see them.” Her reply was strange as she was very hesitant; as if she 1) realized she probably shouldn’t have been relaying this information to hundreds of people, or 2) she wasn’t telling the truth. Even stranger, she abruptly ended the stream, citing an “emergency”, and the stream (at that point, around 2 hours and 37 minutes in length) would not be available for replay. All of this happened before ESCAPE ROOM was even announced.

#WhereIsRudy pt. 2:  An anonymous Reddit user found the social media pages of Rudy’s friends and family and discovered she was none of their recent updates. As a result, Byeol got a bit of hate for allegedly being complicit in Rudy’s disappearance. All of the suspicion came to a head when all of Rudy’s social media went dark; ælifes panicked and started demanding YURI&Co. for answers.The #RudyDeservesBetter hashtag that was swirling around ælife Twitter during the tail-end of their last promotions morphed into the much more prevalent PR nightmare #WhereIsRudy hashtag. It was not just a hot topic across K-pop Twitter itself, trending in several different countries and becoming cannon fodder for every K-pop tea and news channel on YouTube. After being flamed across social media for several days, YURI&Co. finally had to release a statement. They apologized for the lack of communication on their part, explained that Rudy had been showing symptoms of depression and anxiety, and that she was spending her time resting in addition to seeing a licensed professional. Many ælifes were satisfied with this information and sent well wishes to Rudy, but some felt there was something the company wasn’t telling them…

Everybody loves…Yumin?!: On a lighter note, the members appeared on Jackie & Jill, a popular YouTube channel that is known for chaotic, unfiltered interviews with rookie groups and soloists. Jill, one of the hosts, is known for being an out lesbian and playfully flirting with female idols. Well, Yumin’s generally masculine-leaning clothing choices and all-around charismatic energy have garnered a lot of female fans over the years, but combined with her new I Care a Lot hair? The girls who love girls were frothing at the mouth, including Jill…and it was a glory to behold. From Jill whispering “I know what you are” to a completely taken-aback Yumin when she casually stated she's never had a boyfriend, to their impromptu “teen drama confession” scene where Yumin dips and almost kisses Jill, it was all very fruity. Yumin’s tags across social media were in shambles for weeks. Hell, they’re probably still a wreck.

~ACTIVITIES~

Probably the biggest and most memorable activity (outside of Yeojeong’s neverending list of acting credits) was Byeol and Hotaru landing supporting roles in the web series My Girlfriend’s a K-Pop Idol!, a show about a Canadian ESL teacher’s assistant who falls in love with his seemingly ordinary supervising teacher only to find out she is secretly a K-pop idol. Byeol and Hotaru played conniving Chung Dayeon and dim-witted Kondō Miori respectively, two fame-hungry idols that would do anything to get to the top. The show featured two performances from them as the up-and-coming duo, First Memory: “Better 나 (Better Me)” and “NAUGHTY”.

Byeol and Hotaru: a medley dance cover: “Be Natural” by Red Velvet and “NAUGHTY” by First Memory…a.k.a. them.

Yumin, Yeojeong, and Chowon of Lovemonth teamed up with Hady and Serim of 7LITE and Yunny for a special stage cover of “Hush” by Miss A.

And because a Lovemonth era wouldn’t be complete without a cover of a Girls Generation song, the girls did a special stage cover of “Lion Heart” by Girls Generation for MCountdown’s special Sunny Summer episode. Yumin, in a shocking turn of events, did not look viscerally uncomfortable the entire time.

[yukeri]

MOON is Lovemonth's first single album and was released on October 15th, 2021. The title track was "달의 뒤쪽 (MOON)" and there were no promoted B-sides. This is the group's first comeback.

~TRACKS~

달의 뒤쪽 (MOON)

ZOMBIE

thank u so much Yumin Solo

~STYLE~

Hair:

Yumin stuck with long and blonde, but went with a more dirty blond color than her usual platinum.

Rudy still had long, jet black hair, but with a comma bang this time around.

Yeojeong continued to rock her long, dark brown hair for this era.

Byeol kept her usual bangs, but opted for a more natural brown color for her hair.

Hotaru’s hair was dyed lavender and cut into a short bob. She liked how cute her hair looked when she tied back the longer part for their Love In The Night promotions, so she decided to commit to the bob.

Chowon had the most interesting makeover this era: she got see-through bangs and her hair was dyed ombre jet black to ash grey.

Stage Outfits:

달의 뒤쪽 (MOON)

Reflecting the music video, there were two different outfits for "달의 뒤쪽 (MOON)": the innocent schoolgirl uniform "before" outfits and the lacey, tainted "after" outfits. aelifes liked the looks they served throughout the MOON era, but noticed they weren't as finished as their debut looks. Some had visible rough edges and threads hanging... The former were usually deconstructed uniforms with exaggerated sleeves, leather belts with steel accents, cropped jackets, and punky skorts although there was a stage towards the end of promotions where they just wore school uniforms with personalized nametags. The latter outfits were most simple; mostly flowy lace or chiffon tops with black slacks or shorts. The girls still looked good, but aelifes noticed the inconsistent quality compared to the more intricate "school uniforms". The biggest difference between the two themes were that the "school uniforms" were in a variety of colors (usually bold color combinations like red and black, green and navy, or purple and grey) while the lacey outfits were only in all white, all black, or in a mixture of black and white.

thank u so much

There was only one "thank u so much" stage, but it was a moment. From the second Yumin stepped onto the stage in her black and white crop top with red accents, her white leather pants with blue patches, and ivory stiletto boots, she was iconic. She revealed on After School Club that she actually styled the look herself. It was even her idea to wear a sleek, navy wig because she thought "darker hair fit the vibe of the song more".

~THE CHARTS~

"달의 뒤쪽 (MOON)" peak positions:

Bugs!: #49 MelOn: #51 FLO: #54 Genie: #58 VIBE: #59

Music Show Wins: 0

"ZOMBIE" peak positions:

FLO: #89 VIBE: #94

~ERA HIGHLIGHTS~

Lovemonth promoted "달의 뒤쪽 (MOON)" for three weeks, a fortnight less than their debut promotions. They were supposed to start promotions on October 4th, but their comeback was pushed to October 15th. This caused quite a stir among aelifes.

To make matters worse, even casual K-pop fans could tell the era clearly did not have as much money behind it as their debut...😬

The music video was cool though. The premise was that the girls were students in detention when all of a sudden the school went into lockdown for an unspecified reason. They eventually were able to leave the school only to find out they were in the middle of a werewolf turf war, the girls themselves becoming divided amongst the six packs. A war began among the packs as they fought for control of the land, but in the end the girls came out on top. They became their respective packs' leaders and decided to split the land equally amongst the packs. It doesn't sound super interesting when you explain it, but it was good.

Despite the CGI being lackluster and the costumes looking kinda cheap, the music video was action-packed and very entertaining to watch for new and veteran aelifes alike.

The video hit 1 million views within 48 hours, and hit 5 million in a little less than two weeks, which prompted a "달의 뒤쪽 (MOON)" dance practice video and performance video. It also prompted some other perks, but more on that later.

The B-sides got quite a bit of attention in their own ways. "thank u so much", thanks to the iconic special stage, became pretty popular among the LGBT community in South Korea. One could hear it being blasted in illegally-operating underground gay clubs all over Itaewon.

"ZOMBIE", was a different story: the B-side unexpectedly appeared on the charts. It became popular most likely due to the drama Oh My Zombie, a Korean version of the American series iZombie in which Yeojeong was cast.

She played Seong Min-ah, a test subject zombie that just wanted to be a good person. The public really related to her character and were devastated when she eventually died (spoiler alert).

After the conclusion of her character’s storyline , more people started checking out Lovemonth, and lo and behold their most recent release has a song called "ZOMBIE". It became the unofficial theme song of the series, which was hilarious because rookie group PURPLE KISS had previously recorded an OST that was meant to be the series' theme. Sorry, Plorys!

They didn’t promote the song (opting instead to promote Yumin's solo track) to the disappointment of many aelifes, but they did perform it at festivals and even put out a special Halloween-themed dance practice for the song complete with costumes (Yumin - Lara Croft, Rudy - Sae-byeok, Yeojeong - Miss Scarlet, Byeol - T-Rex, Hotaru - Sailor Chibiusa, Chowon - Evil Queen).

Even though Yumin got the solo song, this era turned out to be Rudy’s in a funny way? For good and not-so-good reasons.

One major activity she was privileged enough to participate in during this era: Showtime! Making The Idol.

S!MTI is a drama about the trials and tribulations of the Korean music industry. She plays Chantara Boripat, also known by her stage name Chantel, who is the leader of the fictional quartet, BLACKMAMBA.

The show was well-received by the public and critics lauded her performance, one critic saying she was born to play this role.

Rudy, along with her castmates (Linney of 7LITE, soloist Genie, and Yoo Ki Jeong) performed a special stage for “BLACK MAMBA” on The Show as BLACKMAMBA. The song became extremely popular in no small part due to Rudy’s incomparable vocal talents.

It received so much love from the public, the group came together again the following week and performed. This time the vocals were very clearly live, and when Rudy hit her high note everyone screamed. K-pop Twitter blew up wondering why no one told them that Lovemonth had three main vocals in their group, meanwhile aelifes were sitting back like "I TOLD YO ASS"

This leads to the meh part…

"BLACK MAMBA" was a lot of people’s discovery of Rudy’s spectacular vocals which left a lot of people wondering why they didn’t know about this sooner?

Some people tried to rationalize things, saying that she was filming while recording the single’s songs, so that’s probably why her voice isn’t on MOON as much as it’s on Love In The Night.

That seemed to quell the speculation...until the vocal part switch video.

Lovemonth promised that if the "달의 뒤쪽 (MOON)" music video hit 2 million views, they’d do a VLive where they switch lines.

Over 5 million views later, the girls found themselves doing a vocal part switch VLive. After they drew envelopes with each other's names inside, the lineup looked like this: Yumin > Hotaru, Rudy > Chowon, Yeojeong > Yumin, Byeol > Rudy, Hotaru > Yeojeong, and Chowon > Byeol.

Yumin sang Hotaru’s parts pretty well, Yeojeong proved that she’s not a rapper, Hotaru impressed aelifes with how well she was able to cover Yeojeong’s parts...and then there was Rudy.

She didn’t do a good job; she did an incredible job. She not only sang Chowon’s parts flawlessly, she nailed every note and even added some riffs and ad-libs. She earned her main vocal title.

The video was flooded with comments; about a quarter of them regarding Hotaru as an all-rounder while half of them were praising Rudy’s vocal ability. It was clear to so many that she has so much talent and doesn't get the recognition (or lines) she deserves.

This led to the beginning of aelifes' #RudyDeservesBetter campaign...

~SCANDALS & CONTROVERSIES~

Yeojeong vs. Rudy: Yeojeong couldn’t be present for the group's performance of "보름달 (Full Moon)" due to scheduling conflicts, which sorta led to Rudy inadvertently shading her on IG Live? A user commented on how well Rudy sang and how they had only wished OT6 did the cover to which she responded, "Yes, well...Yeojeongie has a very busy schedule since she’s a working actress." Many viewers commented that she is also a working actress to which she replied, "Yes! I always do my best to make it to every Lovemonth activity...I make time for the things I care about." She then realized what she had implied almost immediately and tried to clarify, but it was too late. Yeojeong-biased aelifes were attacking Rudy-biased aelifes for weeks, some making extremely xenophobic statements about the Rudy's Thai heritage. The Rudy-biased aelifes fought back by pointing out the xenophobia, but also attacking Yeojeong for being a "talentless bimbo" who is "just using the group to become famous". YURI&Co. made no official statement and neither did Yeojeong nor Rudy. The cyber rivalry died down eventually.

~ACTIVITIES~

Chowon continues to host After School Club as a guest MC in Jamie Park's absence. She even got to interview her fellow members during their promotions ☺

Yeojeong played supporting character Seong Min-ah on Oh My Zombie.

"Not Friends (Prod. by VRCHXR)" by FUNFACTORY x Lovemonth. This was released prior to MOON, but it still counts as being in the MOON era? Right? Yes.

Rudy is playing main character Chantara Boripat, aka Chantel on Showtime! Making The Idol.

The Random Dance Play from their Fact iN Star interview.

"어쩌나 (Oh My!)" by Lovemonth (Seventeen). Byeol talked about how much of a Seventeen fan she was on Fact iN Star; she even lamented over the fact that they didn’t have any Seventeen songs to dance to, so Yves then challenged them to cover a Seventeen song. They delivered.

Their cover of "보름달 (Full Moon)" by Sunmi for M Countdown’s Halloween episode. Many aelifes realized this was a full circle moment for Yumin. She had started out as a JYP trainee and actually penned as well as performed the rap for the Sunmi track. She even featured in the live stages as promotion for the group she was supposed to debut in, MISS6. Unfortunately, the group was disbanded before debut and she left the company. Fans of her were bummed that she was done so dirty, but then realized if it hadn’t happened, she wouldn’t have joined THE FUN FACTORY and she wouldn’t have debuted in Lovemonth.

"Kissing You" by Girls Generation. Because the powers that be refuse to let Yumin live, the girls performed a cover of “Kissing You” at KBS Song Festival 2021. If you look real close at Yumin’s face, you can see her regretting every life choice leading up to this moment.

Due to the B-side's popularity, Lovemonth was asked to do a special Suit Dance version of "Zombie"!

[yukeri]

Love In The Night is Lovemonth's debut mini album and was released on August 14th, 2021. The title track was "UP NO MORE" while "The Sequence" and "봄바람처럼 (Like the spring breeze)" were the promoted B-sides.

~TRACKS~

UP ALL NIGHT

Ride

The Sequence

爱月 (Lovemonth) Yeojeong Solo

[CD ONLY] 봄바람처럼 (Like the spring breeze)

~STYLE~

Hair:

Yumin sported her usual platinum blonde, stick-straight hair. Why mess with your trademark look?

Rudy had jet black hair which was normally pressed straight, though there were a few stages where her hair was curled. There was one stage where her hair was styled in a wavy high-low Ariana Grande-esque style with the "high" part tied in a silver sequined scrunchie. After that staged aired, suddenly all the Rudy-bias aelifes had new profile photos.

Yeojeong stands out pretty well on her own, so she just had dark brown hair which was either wavy or straight. Simple, but she still pulled focus.

Byeol had bright magenta hair, which was usually in a slicked-back high ponytail, with her signature bangs. aelifes have started to speculate what's actually behind them as virtually no bang-less photos of Byeol exist online.

Hotaru easily had the best makeover: her hair was dyed blond, then colored bubblegum pink and finally cut in a hime style. Her hair was either straight with longer part tied back to give the illusion of a bob, or wavy with a cat-ear headband.

Chowon had auburn hair. It was usually either straight and styled with tinsel, or in densely curled asymmetrical pigtails.

Stage Outfits:

UP ALL NIGHT

Their outfits for "UP ALL NIGHT" were a journey. Lovemonth's wardrobe designer wanted their costumes to reflect how the music video goes from black-and-white to color. Though they went for the bright, sequined outfits for the music (and performance) video and flashy, Versace-inspired for the debut showcase, Lovemonth's first live stage had them dressed completely in black. As they performed more stages their costumes went from black, to black and white, to black and neutral colors, and eventually to the brightly-colored sequin or satin outfits like the ones they wore in their goodbye stage.

봄바람처럼 (Like the spring breeze)

There were only two stages for "봄바람처럼 (Like the spring breeze)", so their costumes were kept cute and simple. Still, the roller-skate boots they wore became a hot topic among aelifes with quite a few trying to find out how they could get a pair of their own.

The Sequence

Their outfits for "The Sequence" didn't have the same amount of meaning behind them as the title track's, but they still looked great. Their wardrobe designer went with two different themes for these stages: the streetwear-inspired, "dance practice but make it fashion" theme, and the more chic, retro-inspired outfits that leaned into the nu-disco vibe of the song. Many aelifes would agree that the Burberry stage outfits were hands down the highlight of this era, which was slightly disappointing since Yeojeong couldn't be there due to scheduling conflicts.

~THE CHARTS~

"UP ALL NIGHT" peak positions: Genie: #67 MelOn: #67 FLO: #68 VIBE: #72 Bugs!: #85

Music Show Wins: 0

~ERA HIGHLIGHTS~

Lovemonth promoted "UP ALL NIGHT" from August 15th, 2021 to September 5th, 2021. Some aelifes were disappointed that their promotions were seemingly so short until it was announced they'd also be promoting "The Sequence" for two weeks after they wrapped up "UP ALL NIGHT" promotions. That made for around 5 weeks of promotion for Love In The Night in total.

The music video for "UP ALL NIGHT" was released on August 14th and gained over 500,000 views in just 24 hours. By the following Saturday, the music video had over 3.5 million views.

They released a dance practice version and a performance version for "UP ALL NIGHT" as well as a special zoo-themed dance practice version where the girls dressed in different animal kigurumi (Yumin - lion, Rudy - pig, Yeojeong - white rabbit, Byeol - red panda, Hotaru - rainbow unicorn, Chowon - black cat with white tummy) and did the dance.

When the video reached 5 million views, dance practice versions of "봄바람처럼 (Like the spring breeze)" and "The Sequence" were released.

luckykitty, the infamous producer behind the puzzling and slightly disturbing music video for "Reboot (ROSY)", was also tapped to produce the music video for "UP ALL NIGHT", a moved that baffled aelifes.

They were terrified the video would go viral for all the wrong reasons and they'd once again become the laughingstock of K-pop Twitter, but the video was more cinematic with "retro future" aesthetics serving as the main influence. Much less..."art-housey".

There were still some scenes that were pretty cerebral, and it was enough for the big brain aelifes that were convinced the "Loveverse" was still a thing YURI&Co. was concerned about to continue cranking out 20-minute theory videos on YouTube.

The showcase came out the same day the video was released! It was real cute. They performed all the songs on Love in The Night, as well as a medley of their a love story. title tracks. They also answered questions about their album and played a game of Truth or Dare with some big spender aelifes.

During the album Q&A, the girls were asked what their favorite song was and they almost unanimously decided they couldn't choose one. Yumin said, "Honestly, we really love the album. There's not a single bad song, and you know if I thought there was I would openly admit that."

Chowon also bitterly revealed that she wrote Yeojeong's solo song, "爱月 (Lovemonth)", which eagle-eyed aelifes would've already known as her name was credited in the highlight medley.

Things got a little emotional when one of the truths was about how proud they were to see them finally debut and asked how difficult it was to get to where they finally are now.

Rudy gave a really poignant answer to the question: "To be honest, it was almost impossible. Being rejected so many times and having plans fall through over and over is so devastating it makes it hard to even get up in the morning. We're not young anymore...THE FUN FACTORY was five years ago already. We have the rest of our lives to think about and we didn't want to become burdens to our families by chasing dreams that could quite possibly never happen. For all of us, YURI&Co. was our last chance...but we're all eternally grateful it worked out. We started with nine; now we're six, and I'm sad for the teammates I lost on this journey, but I couldn't be happier to debut with these girls."

By the end of Rudy's speech, everyone was in tears. Hotaru was bawling, Byeol was hiding her tear-streaked face, the viewers on the screen behind them were all misty-eyed. Shoot, even Yumin shed a tear or two and she got an icebox where her heart should be.

On a lighter note, a dare that more than one aelife submitted was for Yumin to do aegyo because at this point it wasn't a secret how much she hates being forced to act cute and we all love to watch her suffer. Her hilariously cringe-inducing rendition of "gwiyomi" was only complemented by her feigned dry-heaving afterwards.

Lovemonth appeared on Idol Radio where they once again talked about finally debuting after all these years. The other members politely answered the questions, but Hotaru blurted out, "isn't there anything else anyone wants to know about us?"

The hosts were visibly shocked; she apologized for her unvarnished response and continued, "It's just...we know. We've been in the public eye for a while and it's taken us a very long time to debut. Constantly being reminded of that is a little disrespectful, isn't it?"

All the girls' slack-jawed gaze next to Hotaru's confident smirk was a moment. A rookie talking back like that to veteran idols could've tanked their career before it started, but miraculously aelifes and non-aelifes alike stood up for her and commended her for calling out the nonsense.

Lovemonth was asked to perform a special stage for Music Core. No one knows why, but the group decided to cover "Gee" by Girls Generation.

There were two iconic moments from this special stage: the first was the camera's close-up on Yumin's shit-eating grin as she draws the "g" in the air as if she was being forced at gunpoint, and the second came from the fancam version of the stage which showed Yumin going from 😃 to 😒 as soon as filming wrapped. The latter moment quickly became a commonly-used reaction clip even among non-aelifes.

Yeojeong made her acting debut this era! She'd always expressed an interest in acting, so most aelifes were happy she finally got an acting gig. However, some were worried she'd eventually become yet another victim of the "face of the group to ex-idol actress" pipeline.

Overall, a solid debut! Congrats, girls 🥳

~SCANDALS & CONTROVERSIES~

None! There was some side-eye at YURI&Co. for "forcing Rudy to wear a pig onesie", but Rudy addressed it on IG Live saying that she was the one who picked it...because she thinks pigs are cute. That seemed to clear everything up.

~ACTIVITIES~

Cover of "Gee" by Girls Generation for a special Summer episode of Music Core.

Covers of "MORE & MORE" by Twice and "영웅(英雄; Kick It)" by NCT 127 for their appearance on Idol Radio.

Yeojeong was busy with many different activities: photoshoots, CF sponsorships, etc. However, her biggest and most notable activity was a recurring guest spot on a web series I Built A Time Machine as Geum-ae, a Joseon Era courtesan who falls in love with the time-travelling main character.

Chowon made several appearances on After School Club as a guest MC after Jamie was forced to go on hiatus when a video of her saying antiblack slurs surfaced.

Byeol had previously showed interest in video games, so she started streaming on Twitch. Her Twitch handle is byeolhee00 and she mainly streams Dead By Daylight and Fortnite.