June passed very peacefully this year. The five only shot one commercial—a nationally popular athletic wear endorsement.
Besides that, their manager temporarily didn’t book new events for them. Everyone went to school as usual during the day and returned to the company for evening lessons.
Tang Che had suspended his studies and was reviewing this semester’s missed content in the dorm, planning to directly take exams when the time came.
Time flew to July. The fiercely competitive summer season for TV drama platforms and movie theaters was approaching.
That evening, they suddenly received a call from Xu Baichuan telling everyone to prepare—they’d learn a new song tomorrow morning.
The next day at the recording studio, looking at the sheet music Teacher Qiao gave them, Fang Yinnian couldn’t help but pause.
—Wasn’t this the OST his senior brother had originally written?
Xu Baichuan explained: “This song is the OST ‘Taste of First Love’ for the summer TV drama ‘Confession Letters.’ I negotiated with the production team—you’ll be singing it.”
Besides Fang Yinnian, the other four were all surprised.
Fu Fei couldn’t believe it: “Having a boy group sing TV drama OST?”
Tan Junwen scratched his head: “Seems like there’s no precedent for this.”
Xu Baichuan said: “This drama’s OST producer is named Xu Feng, Yinnian’s senior brother—there’s that connection. Campus dramas have poor production teams, and those popular A-list OST singers charge too much, so the production team wanted to try with you guys.”
The teammates suddenly understood—this was a resource recommended from Teacher Yu’s side.
Being able to sing OST was naturally good news. TV dramas had quite broad audience reach, especially during summer season when hit dramas easily emerged.
In recent years, several blockbuster drama OSTs had surpassed 10 million saves on music platforms with very high recognition.
Regardless of whether this drama they were singing for would become popular, for FTM it was still an opportunity to show their faces and let more drama-watching people know of their boy group’s existence.
Xu Baichuan said: “You have three days to master the song, then I’ll bring photographers to shoot some behind-the-scenes footage and film an MV segment.”
He paused: “The MV will edit some TV drama footage with shots of you five, then be posted on the drama’s official Weibo for promotion. Everyone please cooperate, understood?”
All five nodded in unison: “Understood!”
Next, they began seriously practicing the song.
This song Xu Feng wrote had a very fresh style, depicting both the sourness and sweetness of teenage first love.
The lyrics Teacher Qiao arranged had many harmonies, including several lines of dual harmonies between Fang Yinnian and Mo Xun.
For example: “Words I dare not easily speak, struggling repeatedly in my heart”
Mo Xun: “…”
And: “Seeing you laugh and chat with others makes me inexplicably troubled” “Every time I see your smiling eyes, it brings me a whole day’s good mood”
Mo Xun: “…”
These lyrics were practically written about him, right?
The TV drama was campus-themed, with OST lyrics containing many such innocent, sweet descriptions of first love.
Yet they coincidentally captured Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian’s mindset.
In front of their teacher and teammates, they had to act like nothing was wrong, continuing to sing calmly while not daring to make eye contact throughout.
Each sang their own parts, treating it as work to complete.
This song had a light, simple melody that was easy to learn, and the harmony version sounded very good too.
They spent three days mastering the song. Xu Baichuan punctually brought photographers and a director to shoot recording studio behind-the-scenes footage.
When reaching the dual harmony parts, the director said: “Why are you only singing your own parts? Interact with your teammates.”
“Tang Che and Xiao Fei, look at each other during harmonies—don’t act like strangers!”
“And Mo Xun and Yinnian, can you two also make eye contact during your harmonies?”
“First love—thinking of someone you like should make your heart race and lips curve upward. Do you understand what first love means?”
Mo Xun: “…”
Fang Yinnian: “…”
Precisely because they both understood, they didn’t dare make eye contact.
On the third retake, when reaching the harmony parts, under the director’s demands, Fang Yinnian had to steel himself and interact with Mo Xun.
“So first love feels this subtle”
“Sweet and sour tastes completely surround me”
“Want to become your most loyal support”
“But how should these feelings be declared”
Both: “…”
The moment he met Mo Xun’s eyes, Fang Yinnian’s heart rate suddenly spiked, that heart in his chest once again beyond control.
He smiled on the surface while panicking inside, forcibly maintaining pitch to finish this section before quickly looking away.
Mo Xun’s ears couldn’t help burning either. This song seemed tailor-made for him, completely expressing his conflicted feelings.
The behind-the-scenes filming finally ended.
Fang Yinnian’s palms were covered in cold sweat.
The director praised: “Not bad—we’ll edit some shots from this. Tomorrow during MV filming, everyone perform well too.”
The next day, everyone was taken to a suburban Jiangzhou school for outdoor shots, with all five changing into blue and white athletic school uniforms.
The idol boy group instantly transformed into high school students.
This MV director was demanding and very focused on micro-expressions, interrupting them after a few takes.
“While doing scripted actions, pay attention to your eye expressions too! Close-ups will capture your gazes—imagine facing someone you like, wanting to confess but not daring to speak.”
Everyone tried hard to imagine before resuming filming.
The script designed for Fang Yinnian had him in a hallway, secretly watching his crush through a window.
A scene seemed to appear in Fang Yinnian’s mind—he and Mo Xun attending school together, with Mo Xun as the school’s prominent figure, a senior one grade above who always looked out for him.
He secretly liked Mo Xun in his heart. During every break, he’d deliberately take detours, pretending to pass by Mo Xun’s classroom, then secretly glance through the window at the person he liked.
High school didn’t allow early romance, let alone liking boys? A teenager’s feelings couldn’t be easily spoken aloud, only secretly hidden in his heart while quietly paying attention to the other person.
As he thought, Fang Yinnian’s gaze became increasingly gentle, tinged with anxiety and nervousness as he looked through the window.
Director: “Excellent! That’s a wrap!”
Fang Yinnian’s ears turned red as he quickly turned to bow to the director: “Thank you Director Zhang, you’ve worked hard.”
Next came Mo Xun’s turn. Mo Xun naturally thought of Fang Yinnian too, performing very naturally.
The director was pleasantly surprised: “Perfect! Mo Xun’s eye acting was excellent—I almost suspected there was actually someone you had a crush on sitting in that classroom.”
Mo Xun quickly clarified: “Director Zhang is joking—there’s no one else in the classroom. I just improvised some imagination.”
He looked out the window and happened to meet Fang Yinnian’s eyes.
Both froze simultaneously. Fang Yinnian quickly lowered his head to avoid his gaze while Mo Xun also guiltily looked away.
They spent an entire day filming, finally completing all the shots.
The OST audio source was also already recorded.
Next came post-production and the drama’s official broadcast.
July was busy for two full weeks with OST-related work. Xu Baichuan also booked them as flying guests for a music variety show to sing one song—a light task they completed smoothly.
Time flew to August as all students began summer vacation.
Penguin TV, Taohe TV, and Cool Cat TV—the three major video streaming platforms began fierce summer season competition.
This year’s summer lineup had many major dramas: two lavishly cast fantasy idol dramas and one star-studded historical costume drama.
Surrounded by so many major costume productions, Cool Cat TV’s youth campus drama “Confession Letters” naturally became cannon fodder. The production team was poor with minimal initial marketing budget.
This drama’s male and female leads were fourth-tier actors. The production team only bought trending topics on premiere day, which created no splash.
Other fantasy epics aired with great fanfare while “Confession Letters” premiered quietly.
After the TV drama went online, FTM’s official studio suddenly released behind-the-scenes footage and MV for ending theme “Taste of First Love.”
Fans were shocked: “Holy crap?”
The music group actually sang TV drama OST?
Everyone excitedly clicked on the MV.
This MV was filmed excellently, with all five FTM members in blue and white athletic uniforms, instantly becoming campus gods.
The director had good aesthetics with natural lighting.
Fang Yinnian walked alone down a sunlit hallway holding textbooks, deliberately passing his crush’s classroom and secretly looking inside… this long-shot scene was filmed gently and romantically.
Close-up shots also featured Fang Yinnian’s face shots and eye acting. Fang Yinnian seemed to see someone he liked, lips curving into a smile, expressing first love’s innocence and sweetness.
Fans exclaimed: “Wow, Yinnian’s acting is really good!”
Fang Yinnian: “…”
When filming, he hadn’t seen the camera angles, but now watching the edited footage and seeing himself smiling shyly on screen, Fang Yinnian felt incredibly conflicted.
Fans praised his acting? What acting skills could he have! He wasn’t a professional actor—he’d just genuinely immersed himself in the role.
Of course, he didn’t want this secret feeling to be known.
Let fans think he had good acting skills.
Mo Xun’s performance in the MV was also excellent. He sat in the classroom pretending to work on test papers, his eyes constantly stealing glances toward the front, as if someone he liked was sitting there.
The uniformed boy alternated between daydreaming and silly smiling, vividly portraying a lovesick youth experiencing his first crush.
The other three teammates’ performances were equally commendable. Director Zhang was quite skilled at directing actors, filming them very attractively.
Since this song was a TV drama OST, the final MV version included not only FTM’s five members but also interspersed footage of the drama’s male and female leads.
The 5-minute MV seemed to take viewers on a time travel journey back to those innocent, naive high school days.
It ended with a freeze-frame of the male and female leads holding hands on graduation day.
The couple walked away hand-in-hand while FTM’s five members watched them gradually disappear. Amid wind chime sounds, this gentle memory quietly concluded.
“Wow! Such a sweet ending~”
“Great atmosphere—reminds me of my high school days!”
“FTM sang well and acted well too”
“All handsome guys—very friendly to my eyes and ears”
“This is definitely the best MV I’ve seen recently”
After the MV’s release, it attracted considerable attention from netizens.
Unexpectedly, the ending theme’s MV actually went viral on platforms with many casual viewers like Bilibili and TikTok!
The MV broke into the top ten trending videos, drawing massive netizen attention. Only then did people realize there was a campus sweet drama airing during summer season.
So recommendation posts appeared across various platforms.
“Recommending sweet drama ‘Confession Letters’—very heartwarming show, anyone want to binge-watch together?”
“Filmed quite cutely with good OST too”
“Opening theme is sung by Xie Shiqi, ending theme surprisingly by an idol boy group—very novel!”
“Though the male and female leads aren’t hugely popular traffic stars, their acting is solid, not cringey, and the whole drama feels fresh and natural”
“This drama’s OST is indeed summer season’s best.”
“Strongly recommend—everyone come watch together!”
More and more organic promotion appeared.
This drama actually had its OST explode across the internet first, then feedback into the drama’s popularity, allowing a low-investment, small-budget campus drama to break through fierce summer competition and become the strongest dark horse!
The production team’s producers and directors were grinning from ear to ear—who knew that good OST could actually boost the drama!
The drama itself was high quality, plus the other fantasy epics started their cycles of “you misunderstand me, I don’t trust you, you stab me, I slash you…” Audiences got fed up.
So the campus drama where “both leads can communicate” became viewers’ refuge after being splattered by melodrama. More and more audiences binged it, and when reaching the key plot of episode 12, popularity successfully broke 10,000!
The main creative team was excited, hurriedly posting on Weibo to thank netizens for their support while specially @mentioning the OST singers in gratitude.
Fang Yinnian had never followed dramas before but recently checked this show daily. He unchecked the “skip opening/ending” option, listening completely to FTM’s ending theme after each episode.
There were quite a few viewers like him—the ending theme’s bullet comment section was densely packed.
“Don’t want to skip the ending for this drama—song’s too good~”
“Everyone don’t skip opening/ending—complete playback helps increase the drama’s popularity!”
“Those who listen to the complete ending theme each episode, give me a like~” [100k+ likes]
“Already downloaded as phone ringtone!”
The TV drama’s popularity grew daily.
In mid-August, when several platforms’ costume dramas were trending for being overly melodramatic, this warm, sweet campus drama became summer season’s breath of fresh air.
“Taste of First Love” performed by FTM surpassed 5 million saves on music platforms, becoming summer season’s most-saved OST.
Meanwhile, a certain film company’s multi-hundred-million investment costume epic collapsed logically and flopped badly, becoming the industry’s mocked synonym for “bloody failure.”
The industry was collectively speechless.
What was up with FTM? Appearing on “Sounds of Nature” broke viewership records for several seasons; even singing OST could go viral?
Perhaps this was entertainment industry mysticism—destined for fame.
However, entertainment circles updated rapidly. Other companies reportedly began imitating FTM by forming harmony groups.
Time would tell how long FTM could stay popular.
**
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
