"Whoz That Girl" by EXID, Monday, September 20, 2021

Like with the American pop charts, numerous acts don’t chart well on the Korean pop charts. Maybe the group stays together to produce a few low-ranking groups, break up, and fade to obscurity. Groups like this might be remembered when a radio DJ decides to play it on a whim or maybe a situation or meeting an old friend makes the song come to mind. Other groups may have a low charting single, but by luck garner some attention for some reason. Maybe it’s a slow but steady influx of new fans. Perhaps it’s the work of a new promotional team. But in the case of the Korean group Exceed in Dreaming, better known as EXID, a viral, fan-made performance video of the group’s follow-up song “Up & Down,” helped the song become one of the biggest hits of the year and cemented the groups as a top girl group in South Korea.

DON'T EASILY SPEAK OF ME TO OTHERS. DON'T EVEN SAY HOW I WAS. Like “good 4 u,” “Whoz That Girl” is a break-up song dripping in sarcasm. Even if the listener doesn’t speak Korean, they can hear the anger and pretty much guess the meaning of the song. It's a song about erasing someone from your life. The video shows the girl group intimidating the actor playing the role of the boyfriend in the style of girl group badass-ery. While the lyrics of the song imply everything's fine, the delivery and the music video show that subtext is everything. The 2012 hit picked up more streaming and radio play in Korea after their song "Up & Down" became a hit in 2014. So in 2014, "Whoz That Girl" could be heard along side other K-pop songs, like at grocery stores, gyms, or even some cafes. When the song came on at the bakery Allan and Philip were getting breakfast at on their healing trip, Philip had had just enough caffeine to make him start dancing to the track and mouthing the words. Allan jolted out of his melancholy morning stupor he had previously excused as a lack of caffeine and crack a smile and shook his friend at his friend. "Don't spill your macchiato," Allan snorted. "Dude, I'm just trying to cheer you up," Philip said losing breath. "Everything is really serious, but not that bad. We're on vacation, not in Seoul or Chungju. Live a little." He broke into song, "Who's that girl? Tell me who's that girl?"--he stopped-- "No, serious A.J., you've gotta tell me about that psycho student of yours. How did it happen?"

SO SHOW HER TO ME. SURPRISE ME. "Well, you met her at the gala on Saturday night. She was the student MC,  been involved with everything at the institute these days. Sandra started taking my class, maybe in April. Come to find out, she's the daughter of one of the ajummas from my morning class. She's pretty good at English, but I noticed she kept popping up in my class even when I changed my schedule giving the morning class to Lily. She even dropped down a level and took my class in the evening." "Dang, so, when did she start acting funny?" "Everything was fine until September. There were always enough other students in the class. I tried to engage all my students equally. But in September, I took the morning class again, and it was a small class. A lot of the advanced students took a term off or switched to evening classes. Toward the end of September she started messaging me, asking if I wanted to hang out during my break time or on the weekend. I said I was pretty busy, but maybe some of my students would like to go out as a group. But then in October, she happened to be the only student in class one morning. The topic in the textbook was about dating and relationships. Well, it wasn't the first time the book had delved into the topic. And, you should also know that I like to teach my classes a little provocatively. I have probably come across as flirty or cutesy, but only when it was a group of college students." Philip chuckled. "But in a one-on-one setting, my goal is to be completely unattainable. You know we shouldn't date our students. It's completely unethical. I casually brought it up during that class when she started asking me about past relationships." "Seriously? How did that come up?" "Well, she was asking me about if I ever dated a Korean girl. If there was ever a student in my class I had a crush on." Wow, how did she respond?" "Well, she looked sad. Her perfect 7-am make up, dressed like a woman 15 years her senior kind of showed the face of a little girl. Dismayed she said, 'You must get lonely.' 'I get by just fine. I have my friends. I know that this situation isn't permanent.'" "So, then, why is she still messaging you?"

https://colorcodedlyrics.com/2012/02/exid_egsideu_-_whoz_that_girl_cc_lyrics