u/yebinkek

During fromis_9's mandatory yearly university festival tour, they've been performing their usual hits in Korea (DM, Supersonic, We Go, Like You Better). Except this time, they've replaced their third summer song (Stay This Way) with their Christmas remake of a 1st gen song (White Memories) that was actually very big in Korea. It went to the top ten of every charts.

It's funny to see them performing a song about being lonely in the winter season during the month where literally everyone is burning hot from the summer heat. Granted, they're probably obligated to perform it as it's now their second biggest song in Korea. I don't think even they expected White Memories to be that much of a hit since they were mostly known for their summer songs.

But you know what, get that bag, fromis. They allegedly earned 18k$ per university appearance according to a rumor early 2024. It's probably a lot higher by now.

Welcome to the arguably second most shocking fromis_9-related news this week. One Hundred's CEO (Cha Gawon) has been sued for lying to Fromm, a messaging app company, that fromis_9 was joining the agency and joining Fromm as artists. Fromm offered One Hundred an advance of close to 800k-900k dollars and was scammed out of it basically.

Ironically, fromis_9 would join Fromm but as artists in ASND. But, the details of this lawsuit gets even weirder. Apparently, One Hundred told Fromm that fromis_9 was joining them in October 2024, a month before the contract news were publicly released. There's a chance that fromis_9 could've gotten the news from HYBE even earlier that they weren't gonna renew the contract, and started searching for agencies, but still.

It's important to note that on January 17, 2025, there was an article about how fromis_9 OT5 was going to join Big Planet Made (a subsidiary of One Hundred). At the time, everyone dismissed it as misinformation or misreporting but there's a chance that fromis_9 could've considered joining the agency a while ago before deciding not to join for whatever reason.

This is such strange news to read a few days after their second full album was announced. But it checks out. Cha Gawon is a major A+ scammer who got away with this scheme for two years.

Let’s have this hypothetical scenario.

There is no legal issues between two parties and they continued promoting Cupid like usual. The members here are healthy and happy to continue pushing the song.

I was pondering about this and Barbie Dreams doesn’t feel like a proper followup to Cupid. It’s not as catchy as Cupid to me. The other featured artist on Barbie Dreams said it was supposed to have a MV so I assume it was going to be pushed as a single. That’s going to push their exposure in the American market.

That said, small agencies aren’t equipped for this type of mega hit success, so I’m wondering if Attrakt had help during Cupid’s viral era? I feel like the agency would’ve been too under equipped to really push Fifty Fifty the same way ADOR pushed NewJeans after Get Up’s success in the US.

What does r/kpopthoughts think? Would OT4 been able to become a decently popular act in both KPOP/Pop or would Cupid become a fluke?