SEOUL, Sept 23 — SM Entertainment’s girl group Aespa dropped a video teaser for its upcoming fifth mini-album coming out on October 21.

While there has been fairly positive buzz from their fans interestingly HYBE has announced its girl group ILLIT will also release their second EP on the second date.

Aespa’s fifth mini-album and its title track Whiplash, continues in the vein of their futuristic stylings and the girls have described the song as a "cooler version” of their latest megahit Supernova.

ILLIT’s EP titled I’ll Like You is a follow-up to their first EP Super Real Me that come out in March this year.

ILLIT and HYBE have been plagued with accusations of payola while HYBE’s founder Bang Si-hyuk is alleged to have asked sublabel ADOR’s CEO Min Hee-jin if her new group could "step on” Aespa.

The situation has created animosity and tension between K-pop fans but with HYBE going head-to-head with SM next month, we’ll see if the buzz translates into sales and chart rankings.