Everything JAEHYUN said sounded like it came right out of the mouth of Prince Charming himself: I told them I’ll look out for the group no matter what happens. When you love somebody, you want to be a perfect fit for them. I’m usually really stubborn and terrible at saying sorry, but I apologize all the time to the other members and to ONEDOOR. And the object of his love is the other members of the group and ONEDOOR.
Your photoshoot today turned out great. (laughs)
JAEHYUN: I was looking at the photos and thinking I’m going to have to use them for my Weverse profile pic once they’re out. I’m very pleased with them. (laughs) Anytime there’s going to be a photoshoot, I always look into the concept behind it in advance and think about the kind of expressions I can pull out to fit the character before coming in. I don’t have much of a hobby, and there isn’t anything I like so much that I get totally engrossed in it, but I make an exception when it’s work-related, and I tried to work that in. It gives me something to do, and it makes me quite happy when I manage to come up with good ideas.
What else makes you feel happy?
JAEHYUN: Being on stage. There’s a flood of stress before going on stage and after getting off, but it’s all worth it for those three or so minutes.
Prior to the release of the album, you performed “OUR” and a cover of “DOPE” at KCON HONG KONG 2024. It must have taken a lot to get ready for that, but you must’ve felt quite happy, too.
JAEHYUN: We got to practice “DOPE” onstage only twice. I always try to do my best within the given timeframe, but for that one it was clear to me that there’s a lot of places where I need to improve.
Like what?
JAEHYUN: I admire BTS so much, and we were covering one of their songs, and their performances are always so cool and breathtaking, which is maybe why, once we learned all the choreography, all it felt like we were doing was trying to copy them. So, we took the things that people love about BTS’s performances, then tried to make it our own by taking what people like about our own performances to put a BOYNEXTDOOR-ish spin on it. For example, for the part where we’re all dancing together, RIWOO said, “Let’s just have fun with it!” And so I tried to make it a little more fun, coming in kicking and shouting, and changed it up so we could interact with the audience.
Not only was your performance at KCON great, but you also proved to be an excellent host, just like on M COUNTDOWN.
JAEHYUN: The things I said in English weren’t in the script. I was supposed to explain the song we were going to perform but I forgot to, and then the other members said I should talk about it a little, so before speaking, I wrote something down and improvised the part you saw off that. The producer of M COUNTDOWN show called me afterwards to tell me I got a lot better at hosting. (laughs)
I’m sure that kind of improvement comes from feedback and plenty of dedication. Seeing as WOONHAK’s done some hosting himself, did he give you any advice?
JAEHYUN: Whenever I asked him about it, he always said, “You’re already doing a great job hosting. Don’t try too hard to be amazing—just be yourself.” WOONHAK said he would always ask the label what he should do and how he could do an even better job, but then he told me, “I think the best approach was just to do it the way I wanted.” So, in the beginning, I was trying my best to impress everybody and actively get the show moving, but now I’m just trying my hardest to be myself.
Something about how mature his advice sounds makes me think of the lyrics you wrote about him for your cover of “Endless Rain” at the 2023 MAMA Awards: “Somehow you have to be a grown-up to be a kid, so I’ll stay with you till the rain stops.”
JAEHYUN: At one point when we were promoting in another country, WOONHAK found out his grandfather passed away. Even though he was emotionally struggling a lot, he still got up on stage. He said, “It’s okay. I can do this.” What I told him was not to force a smile. At that moment, I wished he could stay a kid longer and that he didn’t have to grow up. To hear him keep saying, “I’m going to do what I have to do”—made me feel awful. So when I heard that I was going to do a special performance of “Endless Rain” at MAMA and that they wanted me to write a rap for it, I asked WOONHAK, “Is it alright if I write it about you?” He said his grandfather would’ve loved that, so I wrote all the things I wanted to say to him. It’s something I wanted to say to all the members of the group, really. Ever since we debuted and had to grow up, I think about how I wish they could be kids forever.
On the song “l i f e i s c o o l” off your new album, HOW?, there’s a line that goes, “Babies should go home except Woonbaby.” That sounds like a wish for all of the group members to hold onto their childhoods, actually.
JAEHYUN: There are occasions whenI feel that they’ve grown so mature, like on those super hectic days when they tell me “You look tired. I’ll just take care of it. I can manage”, or give me a pep talk and encourage me to “just get this one thing out of the day” when they see me struggling. That’s when I really hope they’ll hold onto their childhood. I interpreted “l i f e i s c o o l” as me being too embarrassed to tell the others how much I care about them, so it’s like, Since we’re all here together, just let me say everything I want to say.
Is it based on something that actually happened?
JAEHYUN: When I wrote those lyrics, I was picturing what we’d be like if we were all drinking together and what I’d say in that moment. For example, RIWOO doesn’t drink a drop of alcohol, so we decided to make his character the sober one, and I pictured my character as the one who says all the things he usually can’t out of drunkenness. That’s actually exactly how I am when I’m drinking. And I get super clingy. (laughs) There’s a line in “Earth, Wind & Fire” that goes, “The sky wasn’t high enough, now look at me.” For that, I thought about what it’d be like if I looked like LEEHAN and how, if I were him, I’d probably never have to work hard to get anyone to fall in love with me and would be super stuck up. Something I always think about, before and now, is what makes a guy cool. I was living in the studio for something like two or three weeks, hardly ever sleeping, and always eating my food there, but I couldn’t come up with any lyrics. Then, I was lying there in the studio, watching Kingsman, when the inspiration hit me, and I added the line “manners maketh man” to the song.
Are you always so engrossed in your work that you end up living in the studio?
JAEHYUN: It’s typical for me now to sleep for an hour or two in the studio and then get back to work. The others are probably the same way. I think things like, “I bet someone’s working hard while I’m just lying here,” or, “If I spent another hour in the studio rather than just lying here,” I bet the music would turn out better. So I end up sleeping in the studio. But sometimes I end up worrying about pointless things when I’m there alone, and when that happens, I just go home, talk with the others, and get some sleep.
Who are you sharing a room with right now?
JAEHYUN: One person gets a room to themselves, then once a year they give it up and the others do a draw to decide who gets it next. Right now three of us are living together: It's me and SUNGHO sharing a room, and LEEHAN’s got the other room to himself. RIWOO has his own room, too, and TAESAN and WOONHAK share one. But SUNGHO, LEEHAN, and I are the worst when it comes to waking up in the morning, so the other three members or a staff from the Artist Management team have to give us a wake-up call. Then whomever of the three getting the call has to wake up the other two. (laughs)
SUNGHO takes charge where cleaning is concerned, while you once woke up with a sponge in your bed. It’s so funny that you two ended up as roommates. (laughs)
JAEHYUN: What happened was, I was working late, came in, did the dishes that were sitting around, and then I have no memory of anything after that. I just woke up the next morning with a sponge in my hand. (laughs) I know it’s bad, but I tend to leave things everywhere, whereas SUNGHO’s serious about keeping things tidy, so I figured we’d have a hard time living together. So, when we changed rooms, I said, “I’ll do whatever you tell me to. Whip me into shape.” So I did as he told me and luckily I formed some good habits out of that.
For example?
JAEHYUN: I’ve picked up all kinds of good, little habits from living with SUNGHO—things like hanging up my clothes as soon as I get home, or unpacking my things the same day I get back from being out of the country. I’m actually obsessively detail-oriented over everything when it comes to being a singer, but in everyday life, I sleep in too much, lose stuff all the time, accidentally break things, never clean my room, and just be klutzy in general. But allowing myself to have flaws like that actually lets me breathe. And the other members help make up for those things I’m lacking at.
I see. The singer side of you comes across as cool and poised, while your everyday side is interesting for exactly the opposite reasons.
JAEHYUN: In BOYNEXTDOOR, we know that trying to look cool often has the opposite effect. (laughs) When it’s just us, it’s like recess at school. It’s just like being kids all over again. We play one bounce with a tennis ball in the practice studio, lock each other in the bathroom… If one of us is sleeping, the rest of us get fully dressed, wake them up saying we’re late and have to go now, then watch them say, “We’re late?” And they jump out of bed and start washing their face. We still play completely ridiculous pranks like that on each other all the time. What the fans see is a filtered, refined version of us. (laughs)
You really are like children. (laughs) Who’s the biggest prankster in the group?
JAEHYUN: TAESAN plays pranks even when we’re onstage. In “Earth, Wind & Fire,” we start in a straight line, with TAESAN right behind me, and he likes to keep hitting my butt or tickling me right before we start—but I can’t let it show. (laughs) We always say it’s hard having TAESAN standing behind you. SUNGHO had TAESAN stand behind him for “One and Only” and he always messed around then, too. But then, I always try to make RIWOO laugh during performances by making funny faces, and we all try to make the others laugh when we step out of the frame of the camera. (laughs)
You mentioned you’re always thinking about “what makes a guy cool,” but when the members of BOYNEXTDOOR try to act cool, the opposite happens. How very ironic. (laughs)
JAEHYUN: In a way, being an idol requires you to make an effort to be likable and present yourself as this cool person. Before I debuted, my dream was to be the coolest man alive, but after I met the other members, my dream has changed into becoming the leader of the coolest group in the world.
BOYNEXTDOOR must mean a lot to you for your dream to have changed like that.
JAEHYUN: BOYNEXTDOOR means so much to me that it’s hard to even explain it. Maybe it sounds ridiculous, but when I’m hosting M COUNTDOWN, I’m always thinking about the other members, and sometimes when I’m eating something, I’ll think, RIWOO would like this—maybe I should give him a call. Or I’ll be watching something and think, I should tell WOONHAK to watch this later. Everything about my life’s interconnected with these guys now.
What is it exactly that made that happen?
JAEHYUN: Because the members have faith in each other. LEEHAN and WOONHAK have both said, “I want to be with BOYNEXTDOOR for 30 or 40 years,” and I told them I’ll look out for the group no matter what happens. And because they have so much faith in me, I feel it’s naturally a part of my duties as the leader to make an effort to think about them a lot. Being successful and winning awards are important, too, obviously, but making sure our group’s around for a long time and doing things with ONEDOOR is also important to me.
All of your responses seem to come back to the other members and to ONEDOOR.
JAEHYUN: When I don’t meet my own expectations, if I just think about myself, I usually end up feeling defeated, but if I think about the other members or ONEDOOR, I feel like I can and should overcome everything for their sake. It’s been holding me back ever since my trainee days that I can never be fully satisfied and always find something to criticize in myself, even when I push myself to the point of exhaustion. But ever since I debuted, everything I work towards has become something I do for the sake of all these people who love me. I’m not working harder because I’m fed up with my mistakes—I try to stay positive and work harder so those people don’t see me messing up and to give back to them for showing me so much love.
That must be why you always try to adjust the volume for ONEDOOR on Weverse Live and do some singing whenever you’re on there, even if your voice isn’t in the best shape.
JAEHYUN: When you love somebody dearly, you want to accommodate them to the best of your ability. (laughs) I want to show up for them, even if I’m tired, and sing a bit for them when they want to hear me sing even if my voice is a little rough. But I say sorry when I can’t sing very well because I feel bad. I’m usually quite stubborn and terrible at saying sorry, but I apologize all the time to the other members and to ONEDOOR. I have no idea why that is—I can just let my guard down with them. Before I say sorry to the group, I always say, “I’m really going to swallow my pride here and work on that. We can do this.” I think it’d be natural for anyone to swallow their pride when they love somebody, which is why I was able to write the line “think I love you more” in “Earth, Wind & Fire.” (laughs)
It’s like one of the lines in “400 Years,” the song dedicated to your fans: “I … have changed since I met you.” (laughs)
JAEHYUN: When I wrote that song, I wanted to put in lyrics that only ONEDOOR would understand, so I put a lot of thought into every single line, like referencing the lyrics to “But Sometimes,” and things only they would know, like the fact that I wear my jeans inside out. I wanted it to be things only ONEDOOR knows about so it would feel like our little secret. They’re the reason I make music and the reason I’m a singer. Without them, all of this would be meaningless.
What do you think it would be like actually spending the next 400 years together with ONEDOOR?
JAEHYUN: I won’t say it’s only going to be filled with happy times. (laughs) But I want to tell them that we will always be here, regardless of whether they might forget about us momentarily—that they can always come back to BOYNEXTDOOR when the going gets tough.