Kep1er member Kim Chae-hyun has revealed that aespa reached out to celebrate her debut with the rookie girl group.

During a recent online showcase and press conference for Kep1er’s debut, Kim shared that the four-member girl group had sent her a message to congratulate her on her debut. Notably, Kim had trained under aespa’s current agency, SM Entertainment, for about six years before leaving for WAKEONE sometime last year.

“The aespa sunbaenims (Korean for ‘seniors’) sent me a message congratulating me and saying, ‘Soon we’ll be able to see each other in the waiting rooms at the broadcasters’,” Kim shared, as translated by Soompi.

Kim also explained that although she hasn’t seen her former labelmates recently, due to their busy schedules, she is looking forward to seeing them when their respective groups appear on TV shows in the future.

This isn’t the first time Kep1er’s debut was celebrated by seniors in the K-pop industry. Durign the press conference, member Huening Bahiyyih shared that her older brother, Tomorrow X Together’s Hueningkai, has been very supportive of her debut: “He congratulated not only me but also my teammates, too. So I’m very grateful.”

The girl group made their debut yesterday (January 3) with the track ‘Wa Da Da’, which was accompanied by a vibrant music video. It’s the lead single of their first mini-album ‘First Impact’, which also features the group’s versions of Girls Planet 999 tracks ‘Shine’, ‘Another Dream’ and ‘O.O.O’.

Prior to their debut, however, the girl group had suspended all activities after a staff member who worked with them tested positive for COVID-19. WAKEONE and Swing Entertainment soon announced that Kep1er’s debut, which was originally slated for December 14, would be postponed to 2022.

A week later, the agencies announced that members Xiao Ting and Mashiro had been diagnosed with COVID-19. They shared that the two cases were detected by a “regular PCR testing”, which had been implemented following the aforementioned staff member’s positive diagnosis. The remaining members of Kep1er had tested negative.