There’s never a dull moment in the world of K-pop and this week was no exception. The final week of October was a momentous one with new releases from Twice, CL, TXT and Winner’s Mino, plus the announcement of SM Entertainment’s new girl group Aespa. It also saw some groups, including WayV, having Halloween fun, and the BTS members connecting with their Army fans via virtual postcards. Here’s a round-up of this week’s big K-pop news. CL is back The Baddest Female made her return with two singles, 5 Star and HWA. It’s her first new music since last year’s In The Name of Love EP, which featured tracks made over the years but not released while she was with her former management company, YG Entertainment. After the release of the singles and a performance on the American television programme The Late Late Show with James Corden , CL also announced her first album “Alpha”, set to arrive on November 30. Twice revive the ’80s With Tron -like motorcycles in the music video and sleek synths permeating the track, Twice’s latest single I Can’t Stop Me is all about those ’80s vibes. It’s a nod both to their company JYP Entertainment’s dedication to creating pop songs full of retro atmosphere and to the popular “newtro” trend taking over South Korea, where modern twists of retro artistic elements are having a major moment. I Can’t Stop Me fronts Twice’s new album, “Eyes Wide Open”, which features 13 songs and contributions from international stars such as Dua Lipa and Heize. Winwin’s princess birthday Dong Sicheng, better known by his stage name Winwin, celebrated his 23rd birthday on October 28 with his WayV band mates and, ahead of Halloween, in costume. The birthday boy donned a Cinderella outfit, with other members of the group also dressing up: Ten as Alice, Xiaojun as Jasmine, Lucas as Elsa, Yangyang as Ariel, Kun as Snow White, and Hendery as Rapunzel. Together they filmed a performance of their song Bad Alive while channelling their animated counterparts. TXT enter their Blue Hour On October 26, Tomorrow X Together revealed their new album “Minisode1: Blue Hour”, which deals with the struggles of living during the coronavirus pandemic. Relaying the experience with a youthful, teenage perspective, the EP features a bright and effusive mix of pop-rock, electronic and R&B elements, and is fronted by the single Blue Hour . It also features We Lost The Summer , which was co-written by Charli XCX. Aespa members unveiled SM Entertainment, home to the likes of Exo, NCT and Red Velvet, began unveiling the members of its upcoming girl group, Aespa . The act’s promotion has just begun, but stirred controversy after SM founder Lee Soo-man revealed on Wednesday that the act would be made up of both human and virtual members, with Lee promising fans they would be able to interact with the virtual performers. The reveal prompted K-pop fans across the world to express concerns about privacy and the dehumanisation of the act’s real members. BTS ‘send’ postcards to Army With people across the world being kept apart this year, BTS have found new ways to connect with fans across the globe. This week, the members shared a series of handwritten postcards to their fans. In each, the seven K-pop superstars shared their thoughts and asked questions to their fans, known collectively as Army, prompting them to share their thoughts in return. Mino offers his Take Winner rapper Mino dropped his second studio album, “Take”, on Friday, his follow up to 2018’s “XX”. The artist took the lead as a songwriter and producer on the album, which is fronted by the single Run Away . Along with his solo songs, the 12-track album features contributions from Zion.T, DPR Live, Bewhy, Meenoi and Bobby of iKon. Kingdom announced South Korean television channel Mnet announced this week it would be airing the first season of competition show Kingdom in the first half of 2021. It is expected to follow a similar format to the 2019 show Queendom , which featured popular female K-pop groups competing against one another. While the line-up of Kingdom has yet to be announced, The Boyz are set to appear after they defeated their competitors this year in a precursor, Road to Kingdom , which gave less prominent boy bands a chance to win a spot in the upcoming show. Return of K/DA The virtual League of Legends K-pop girl group released a music video for their new song More this week. Featuring the vocals of (G)I-dle’s Soyeon and Miyeon with Lexie Liu, Madison Beer and Jaira Burns, More introduced K/DA’s new member, Seraphine. The release precedes November’s All Out EP from the virtual act, which will expand its discography with features from Twice, Kim Petras, and many other top-tier vocalists and songwriters.