GUIDE TO PREDEBUT TRIPTYCH: GEN 1
Ever wondered what Triptych’s predebut era was like? Here’s a quick guide to understanding the ups and downs of the mess that resulted in Triptych Gen 1.
HBHNG/HBHNB ERA
Before even the idea of Triptych was formed, the company split up their top 9 female and 9 male trainees into two predebut project groups (HBH Next Girls, HBH Next Boys). They had a mini webseries on YouTube called GO GETTERS, each episode was about 5-7 minutes long and would follow the trainees through out their day. They also used to upload dance, rap, and vocal covers to YouTube every week and would attend busking events once a month. They also had the opportunity to interact with their fans through vLives and social media. Because they had such a candid glimpse into their project, HBHNG/HBHNB got a lot of fans.
The reason why HBHNG and HBHNB promoted together was because the company originally had the idea of debut a girl group and a boy group who were supposed to be ‘sibling groups’ that would alternate promotions and follow a storyline. The trainees in HBHNG were Yerin (Nia), Eunha (Zim), Micha (Yen), Chiayu (Ura), Soyeon (Promise’s Soyeon), Nari (Promise’s Nana), Haneul (Promise’s Rina), Haeun (HBH Trainee), and Rushi (HBH Trainee). The trainees that were in HBHNB were Daehyun (Eli), Injung (Teo), Asahiko (Asa), Chunghee (Cal), Changmin (Van), Jaehwa (HBH Trainee), Saito (HBH Trainee), Songgye (HBH Trainee), and Yeetai (HBH Trainee). Obviously, only a couple of these people became Triptych members. We’ll get into that in a moment.
B.A.D AND W.I.N ERA
During the HBH Trainees showcase in Seoul, four female trainees formed a subunit for a special stage. They went by the name B.A.D and they consisted of members Yerin, Eunha, Micha, and Soyeon. They weren’t meant to promote at anything else other than showcases, but in September of 2014 they released their first and only single “Power” and they got to promote it for a month.
Like their female counterpart, W.I.N was consisted of Daehyun, Injung, Jaehwa, and Yeetai. They did several busking events over the course of Summer 2014, which was then followed up by their own single release (“Like Fire”) which was released and promoted the same time as B.A.D’s single.
Everyone was sure that this would be a sign of HBHNG/HBHNB finally debuting and were looking forward to the other members promoting in subunits, but it never happened.
This was probably the height of the predebut era… after this it all went down hill.
DROPPING LIKE FLIES ERA
In October of 2014, Rushi and Haeun dropped out from the project. In their goodbye message on YouTube, they explained that they wouldn’t be returning to HBHNG, but they would still be training under the company. Likewise, male trainees Songgye and Saito leave HBHNB that month without disclosing why, but they did clarify that they are under HBH still.
In November of 2014, members Nari and Haneul also pulled out of the project due to personal reasons that were never disclosed. People believe that they were pulled in order to be apart of A-Girls/Promise instead. Male trainee Jaehwa takes a hiatus from the company as well for personal reasons.
Because of the drastic drop in trainees, HBH announced in December 2014 that HBH Trainees will now become a co-ed project group under the name “HBHNT” (HBH Next Thing). Even after promoting as HBHNT for two months, members Soyeon and Yeetai left the project. Later in 2015 it was noted that Yeetai also was taking a hiatus from the company to focus on his academic career.
WHAT THE HELL DO WE DO NOW ERA
With only a handful of members left, HBH had to think quickly. Hak Bonghwa, head producer and founder of the company, along with a trusted group of staff had a 24 hour creative lock down in the company trying to figure out what to do with the remaining trainees and how to keep fans loyal.
The fans themselves were in shambles. Many fan favorites had left the project which broke many fans hearts. The fanbase was weakened tremendously. It didn’t help that for a couple months, Chiayu had to take a hiatus from promotions due to an injury.
HBHNT had a few other shows in Seoul, but of course the support wasn’t as great as it used to be. After a couple of months, HBHNT promotions were suspended. There weren’t any SNS updates from HBH or the official HBH Trainees YouTube.
Then in March of 2015, the official trailers and concept explanation for Triptych’s concept dropped. After that, the remaining members debuted one by one, making up the first generation of Triptych.