The wolf boys have hunted the early summer music world. EXO’s, whom have gotten together as a whole after one year since debut, force was truly tremendous.
In two weeks after comeback with ‘Wolfe and Beauty(Wolf),’ they swept the first place on the major broadcast music programs. At the same time, their name was placed on American Billboard World Album Chart and overseas reaction s are even hotter.
Kai, Luhan, Tao, Chen, Sehun, Lay, Xiumin, Baekhyun, D.O, Suho, Kris, and Chanyeol, whom have over time emitted a pose that makes them hard to approach, have let down their wolf’s costume for a bit and knocked on the door of Maeil Kyungjae (t/n: It’s the company name and translates to Everyday Economy) Star Today.
Starting from their entrance, (the atmosphere) is moving up and down. (t/n: basically means it’s a fluttering moment) I think the members who brightened the office since early morning, and standing in one line upon entrance is work. Not knowing that the once door opened was closed, the members spilled in. While greeting one another, I counted and thought one was missing when Xiumin arrived last. Because there are many members, wherever they go, counting heads is a situation that is repeated.
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The space where the interview was being held was also under the same circumstance. Although we led them to the biggest room, because there was a shortage of chairs, a situation where two members had to sit in the back occurred. A sorry feeling is starting to creep up on me because of their still continuously smiling faces even in that situation.
The reason for that brightness is because the 12 members have finally gained the modifier title of ‘first place singer.’ I wonder how deeply they were moved. At their first winning of first place on ‘Music Bank,’ leader Suho’s memorable scene was also displayed. While searching for ‘Lee Sooman teacher’ twice, his sorrowfully crying figure was spread and it is true that I secretly anticipated a side of him like that on that day as well. But he calmly continued his words.
Suho explained “As a leader, I had words I had to say but my tears kept coming out…” and it seems while looking at the members’ eyes that were wet with emotion during the time, it was not only tears that he saw. Asking him to tell us the members that cried the most once returning to the waiting room, he picked Chanyeol, Kai, and Lay.
Chanyeol raised his shoulders while saying “It is true that we all were about to cry because we were touched, but because we had another schedule and I thought my eyes would swell, I kept my tears in.” For some reason he had proud smile.
Although they are children that show somewhat adult-like(!) and say idol model student-like remarks, they started to yell out sporadic answers at interesting topics. The topic that made them most excited was as predicted, ‘get-together.’ (t/n: talking about meals that they had to celebrate)
“There is nothing that we don’t like.” (Baekhyun) “We like get-togethers.” (Chanyeol) the two people that were forced to be in the back seats throughout the interview, Xiumin as well straightened his back and yelled out “Hanwoo” as Kai excitedly stated “We ate it the day before yesterday and yesterday, and today we’re having a get-together as well. Chicken galbi.”
It turns out, the day of the interview, they were scheduled to have a fan signing at Chuncheon. Was the happiness that chicken galbi gave this big. Saying from seeing a smile spreading over Kai, who seems to have a cool guy pose surrounding him.
Chen who was silently smiling, rearranged the hall that seemed to have lost its reason by stating “Rather than saying it’s a get-together, because if you say Chuncheon, it’s chicken galbi… Because our ages are periods where we eat a lot, our food bill comes out high.”
Because there are a lot of members, meals always become get-togethers, and the dorm becomes a school trip area. Baekhyun proudly stated “Because our twelve members are a lot, wherever I go I feel reassured and my shoulders go slightly up,” and chose the fact that they can play whole exercise games such as basketball and soccer, whenever they wanted as a strong point.
Because of that, the car that transports them has also become their playground. Baekhyun, who is the team’s atmosphere maker, revealed he doesn’t even need to go to the karaoke rooms because he turns on the song in the car and sings along. “He plays well by himself” (Xiumin) “He endlessly plays” (Chen) The members laid their testimonies and confirmed aspect of his nickname of being a ‘beagle.’
Chanyeol who stands against him revealed that he recently ranked first in their ‘dance contest’ with a slight gap. To make the ranking fair, the main dancers were excluded and the members were the only judges.
“I received a round of applause after dancing for the first time. I gave them a honorary smile and felt the after effects right away. It’s been about four days and it’s still painful when I walk.” (Chanyeol) “He threw away his shoes, hat etc when dancing so it was like he lost it.” (Kai) “I feel like after this interview gets released, the writer nunas will tell Chanyeol to show them his dancing skills.” (Baekhyun)
Since the dance topic was mentioned, Kai’s voice cracked again. “It’d probably be a mess if the video got released” he said, amused. While Chanyeol added “It’s a good video to watch when you’re depressed”, creating interest for this unreleased video. Even if I asked them to show it to me there, I unfortunately couldn’t confirm this.
At this time, Chen said : “Running Man is fine but I watch lots of variety programs. If I were to be called on any of them I’d work hard” I was about to take care of the growing commotion but they were one around the topic of ‘variety’, each member shouting their wish.
Especially, Baekhyun who has been picked as the best wolf boy by his team said “I want to appear on ‘Real Men’”, strongly hinting at his real man aspect. To this, the members all replied “We have to make sure to send him (Baekhyun) there”. When asked if it’d be fine to receive guerilla training to dissuade him, he only replied with one thing. “I absolutely want to appear there”.
After this, just like they couldn’t lose D.O said “Law of the Jungle”, while Luhan shouted “1 Night 2 Days”. Since they mostly picked reality shows, when Sehun said “I want to film for ‘We Got Married’, he surprised everyone. While bouncing, the members “asked for his (Sehun) request to be fulfilled since it’s his personal suggestion”. In case it’d be misinterpreted, Chen nicely explained each of the members’ choices.
It was fun to have them for an interview like this but I got lucky(!) to meet them by chance in a café next to the office. I found out they went there to eat just after the interview. They were as enthusiastic to have lunch as they were to hold the interview in the afternoon.
The enclosed area was filled with people of an older age group, so it felt as if nobody cared for them much. Thrilled by this, the members enjoyed their freedom by photosythesizing under the sun or resting against a sofa. Out of the blue I felt sympathy for their peaceful expressions. The reason that this is their only ”departure (T/N: time of rest)” is because of their career. The more they gain populairty, it would get progressively more difficult to bask in a leisure and freedom like this.
Despite this being the case, these boys are happy to be concetrating on what they do best. They are able to withstand the burden that follows their hard-earned careers because they know what a big deal it is, and how difficult it is to debut at a first barrier called SM Entertainment. For this reason, EXO’s “We are happy now” and “We’re grateful to our fans” reach out to us in sincerity.
Trans by: nahbit, saphira & juliana @ exok-trans