TWS’ debut album Sparkling Blue features a very special somebody: writer Chon Kye-young who made her mark in the 1990s manhwa scene. Chon’s Unplugged Boy illustration on the cover of the Weverse album further underscores the pure and beautiful emotions of boyhood captured in TWS’ music. We asked An Inyong, head of the Storytelling Department at HYBE, and Lee Hyun Ju, creative director of the Visual Creative Team at Pledis Entertainment, who participated in the planning and production of the album, about the story behind it.

What inspired you to organize a collaboration with Chon Kye-young?

An Inyong: While preparing for the debut and deliberating on the group’s identity, our team interviewed the members. They seemed to be introverted but had a lot of stories to tell, and while they had an innocent side they still wanted to look cool. In one of my notes about the interview, I wrote, “These guys seem very honest and transparent,” and then, “They look like they jumped out of Chon Kye-young’s manhwa.” (laughs) That’s probably where it started. Later on, one of the team members said that they had the Unplugged Boy vibes after watching the interview and that stuck with me. “Unplugged boy” means “sweet and innocent boy.” That’s how I wanted them to be perceived and that’s how the idea of collaborating with writer Chon Kye-young came up.

The second track “unplugged boy” has the same title as Chon Kye-young’s manhwa. What is the connection across the manhwa Unplugged Boy, the song “unplugged boy,” and the Weverse album?

An Inyong: Hyun-kyum in the manhwa is innocent and whimsical, and he reminds me of the members of TWS. He’s wearing headphones, but they are not plugged into anything. They are literally “unplugged.” (laughs) So, his headphones aren’t just a way to listen to music, but a way to express himself and to show that he is building his own world and life while being “unplugged.” I thought it would be nice to connect TWS’ identity with the manhwa Unplugged Boy because while the TWS members can be shy and fall into their own world while being “unplugged” sometimes, they are always ready to be “plugged in” again and communicate with their fans.

Did you have anything in particular in mind while creating the Weverse album?

Lee Hyun Ju: While in the meeting with writer Chon Kye-young, we thought one of the albums should have a manhwa book feel to it. We wanted to show TWS’ harmless and relaxed “guy friend” image with the Weverse album. We wanted them to look like six manhwa characters who just jumped out of the page. (laughs) Writer Chon told us to pick the scenes we wanted to use from the book, so we reviewed the entire original artwork for Unplugged Boy. On the back book cover, you can see the female lead “Jee-yool” and the male lead Hyun-kyum singing together. We saw it fit because TWS is a music artist and it also suggests TWS singing with fans. On the front cover of the photobook inside the book cover, we put an image of Hyun-kyum, who most commonly comes to mind when thinking of Unplugged Boy. To match the cover, we maintained the concept of a manhwa book with the photobook’s design, postcards, and photo cards by including manhwa elements like speech bubbles. For the concept photos, we deliberately kept it friendly and simple. We went for more comfortable and casual styling with hoodies and shirts to make the members seem like they are friends from the manhwa world.

Do you have any memorable stories from your collaboration with writer Chon Kye-young?

Lee Hyun Ju: If you look at the illustration on the back book cover, “24/7” is written on the hoodie that Hyun-kyum is wearing. (laughs) Something else was written in the original artwork, but writer Chon specially changed it for TWS. Also, she helped us with the trailer films. In his trailer, KYUNGMIN hits the railing of a bridge with a branch and that scene is actually from writer Chon’s manhwa Audition. There was a part where hitting on a railing went perfectly with the music, so we said we wanted to use the scene for the trailer. She also helped us with the voice-over script for HANJIN’s trailer. Of course, we had some ideas, too, but we thought it would be nice if she wrote it because both Audition and Unplugged Boy talk about music, and writer Chon has great writing skills as well as a deep understanding of the character in her works.