aespa have shared a new teaser for the second episode of their ongoing SM Culture Universe series on YouTube.

READ MORE: NCT Dream on ‘Beatbox’: “We have this music that’s uniquely our own”

In the new trailer for the second SM Culture Universe episode, titled Next Level, the members of aespa have left the fictional universe of Kwangya in order to help nævis solve the ‘SYNK OUT’ phenomenon, in which the connection to the avatar æ had been severed.

The full Next Level episode is scheduled for release on the official aespa YouTube channel next week on June 20, at 6pm KST.

The series first launched with the release of its first episode, Black Mambalast year, with the aim to establish and expand the background of SM Entertainment’s company-wide lore, centred in and around Kwangya.

Meanwhile, aespa are also gearing up to return with their forthcoming sophomore mini-album ‘Girls’, for which they recently dropped the pre-release track ‘Illusion’. Due out on July 8, the new record is also set to feature the title track ‘Girls’, along with new songs ‘Lingo’ and ‘ICU’.

Additionally, ’Girls’ will include the English-language track ‘Life’s Too Short’, which the group originally debuted during their appearance at this year’s Coachella, as well as a Korean version of that song.

‘Girls’ will be aespa’s first release of 2022, and is the much-anticipated follow-up to the girl group’s popular debut mini-album ‘Savage’. Last week, SM Entertainment revealed that they had surpassed a million preorders for ‘Girls’, making them the second K-pop girl group in history to sell a million copies of an album in pre-sales, following BLACKPINK with their 2020 record ‘The Album’.

The quartet also announced the addition of a new show to their forthcoming ‘Showcase SYNK’ concert in Los Angeles later this month, set to take place at the YouTube Theatre in Los Angeles, California on June 27, after the original June 26 date sold out.

The post aespa drop teaser for second episode of ‘SM Culture Universe’ appeared first on NME.