South Korean boy group A.C.E. opens up 2021 with a cryptic announcement, sending their fans around the world into anticipation and uproar.

On January 2, 2021, a nine-image collage of a mysterious poster, featuring a flower in the middle, was uploaded on the group's Instagram page. Tagged as #ACE_PROJECT, the images only contained the release schedule of the mysterious project: January 8, 2021, 2 PM KST.

The upcoming announcement, a collaboration project, marks the first release after officially announcing that A.C.E. has signed with Asian Agent for its management in the US as well as its global strategy in the future. First reported by Billboard last December 17, A.C.E. follows the footsteps of global K-Pop groups and Asian Agent clients BLACKPINK and (G)I-DLE. With this deal signed by the respective parties, fans can expect "star-powered music collaborations" and even a fashion endorsement deal early this year.

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This mysterious announcement follows A.C.E's commercially successful and critically acclaimed fourth album, "HJZM: The Butterfly Phantasy," released in September 2020. It grew to be the group's highest-charting and best-selling album in South Korea to date.

Its lead single, "Favorite Boys," also became a global phenomenon, earning praises from local and international media entities. In DAZED's year-ender article, "The 40 Best K-Pop Songs of 2020," the British publication first commended A.C.E for excelling with their "Under Cover" release, before describing "Goblin (Favorite Boys)" as pulling "double-duty as a self-hype anthem and a Korean myth-inspired, world-building tool, adopts similar stadium-friendly guitars and full throttle percussion to set up what great K-pop is renowned for: a turbo-charged thrill ride."

It also secured the number 1 spot for Rolling Stone India's "20 Best K-pop Music Videos of 2020," with writer Riddhi Chakraborty praising the music video for "Favorite Boys" as delivering "outstanding displays of fashion, makeup and choreography, presenting androgynous, modern yet mystical interpretations of various characters from Asian history or mythology." He further commented on the impressive visuals of the five members - Jun, Donghun, Wow, Kim Byeongkwan, and Chan - saying that they "defy gender stereotypes" and complementing their "vibrant costumes."