Though 17-year-old WOONHAK wishes he could stay forever on the border of childhood and adulthood—a word that itself borders on daunting and intimidating for him—he is nonetheless making his way forward.

Did you get some sleep last night?
WOONHAK: Phew—I shot a STUDIO CHOOM video for, like, six hours yesterday, and now my body’s killing me. Our new choreography’s so intense. I’m only 17 and I already feel like I have to fight with myself to find enough energy. (laughs)

Six hours sounds really exhausting, especially with those moves where you have to lie down and get back up again.
WOONHAK: Every time we do that dance, it feels like three minutes of the 100-meter dash. When I first saw the choreo, I thought, It’s all or nothing. If we nail it, we get it all, but if we fail it, we get nothing. There are moves where we dance like wooden puppets falling down and getting back up in the sped-up part, or where we act like a mic stand for TAESAN, or where we all fall down suddenly when I’m singing—things like that. It’s completely different from anything we’ve ever done before and so difficult that we just couldn’t get it at first. But we just kept at it until we got it down. We practiced it until the moves came out automatically as soon as we heard the song, making it more and more something of our own along the way. Honestly, it’s brutal choreography, but if ONEDOOR sees it and they can tell how hard we worked on it, then I think all the effort and passion we pour into it is worth it. (laughs)

I’m guessing taking care of yourself plays a big part of it, too.
WOONHAK: I know I should be working out, but … I just tell myself that dancing is its own form of exercise. (laughs) I like to get up and move around when I’m with other people, but I don’t feel like doing much when I’m alone, so I just can’t be bothered to work out. I’d rather spend my time working than working out.

Is it because of that absorption in your work that you’re listed in the credits for five of the six tracks on your latest album?
WOONHAK: The process behind every album is different. For this one, we worked on the melodies in the studio together like we were in a songwriting camp, and we wrote the lyrics separately to bring out all our different feelings. The most memorable line for me is from “So let’s go see the stars,” where I say, “Wut, my mic was on?” The character in the song’s shouting about how he misses his girlfriend and how much he wants to talk to her, then realizes his mic was on the whole time. Then there’s a key change for an added twist. But that wasn’t even something I wrote, just something I said during the songwriting camp after singing in a dynamic microphone. I was still being recorded and then it ended up in the song.

And that moment of spontaneity made it into the lyrics.
WOONHAK: There’s also a line in “l i f e i s c o o l” that goes, “Do away with champagne / It’s soda all the way.” I didn’t even know that champagne was fizzy too! (laughs) I thought champagne was just like red wine. I was just talking about swapping it out for cola or Sprite instead, but when ZICO, our producer, saw that line, he went, “Champagne’s fizzy, too. Is it weird to replace it with something else fizzy?” I was like, “Champagne’s fizzy?!” We almost ended up changing the lyrics, but my train of thought was just too funny, so we left it.

That’s the kind of line you could only write at this point in your life.
WOONHAK: That’s the most important part. Lyrics like, “Knock knock, anyone there? / Anybody come hang out with me / What is it now? (What do you want?),” are lines that only I could write—you know, the kind of childish lyrics that could only come from an inexperienced person. I think they have a completely different kind of depth to them than what you’d get from someone with adult emotions and more experience in life, so I tried to write lyrics that capture exactly how it feels to live life at my age. I’m really glad I’m 17 when it comes time to make music. That’s why I don’t want to let go of being a kid just yet. (laughs)

But why? Starting next year, you won’t have to sing, “It’s happened again / I’m home all alone”—you can hang out with all the other members of the group instead.
WOONHAK: At that point, I’ll truly be an adult, you know? But sometimes there’s something kind of daunting and intimidating about that. People tell me I’m living the best time of my life, but I feel like I haven’t enjoyed myself enough yet. I’m the youngest in the group, so it feels like I have to be exactly like the others as soon as I legally become an adult. I mean, if I don’t think too deeply about it, I just think about how I’d like to be able to drive, but I keep thinking about how I’m going to change once I become an adult, and it makes me feel a little bit of pressure to know that’s coming up so soon.

On Weverse Live, you said you feel like you looked so youthful when you watch “One and Only” and talked about how people grow up quickly in their teens. Seeing how different you are now from back then, it seems like you’ll be that much more different once you become an adult, don’t you think?
WOONHAK: The staff said I don’t just give off kid vibes anymore, but that there’s something more mature about me now, too. I’m happy to hear things like that, but it can also be a little sad. I agree I was quite cute back then, but at the same time, I feel like I wouldn’t want to go back to being cute if I could do it all over again. They also ask me every day if I’ve gotten taller. But I haven’t! I’m always hunched over while writing songs! (laughs)

You said on The Return of Superman that you were more serious than cute and playful since you’re the oldest in your family, but while that might be true at home, you’re a complete cutie at the label! (laughs)
WOONHAK: Serious—that’s just how I would label myself. (laughs) I was always like friends with my mom and dad, and I talked with my grandparents a lot, too. My mom worries because I don’t contact her that much. I guess it’s typical of sons to not think of their moms even when they’re at home and just focus on sleep. (laughs) She texts me every day since I don’t call much, but nowadays I always text her back. We all get along really well in my family, and my sister and I had a great relationship growing up. Everybody’s amazed by that. But my sister’s going into middle school next year, and she’s a moody teen now, so we’re in crisis mode. (laughs) But she’s six years younger than me and just adorable. When we fight, I can’t help but let her win. We were at KCON HONG KONG 2024 on her birthday a little while ago, and I told her, “If there’s something you want, just let me know.” She just wished me luck on the performance and asked me to get home safely. She’s so mature. So after the performance, I sent her a message saying, “Gift given, right?” But I did actually buy her something she’s been dying to get for a long time.

Speaking of your sister being mature, JAEHYUN says you’re mature as well, though he hopes you don’t grow up too quickly. As he wrote about you in his lyrics for his special performance of “Endless Rain” at the 2023 MAMA Awards, “Somehow you have to be a grown-up to be a kid.”
WOONHAK: Before he wrote those lyrics, he said to me, “I have that special performance at MAMA, and I know you’ve been going through a hard time. I’m thinking about writing lyrics about what you’re going through and dedicating them to you. Would that be okay?” I was so grateful. My grandpa had just passed away. He took care of me from the time I was a baby while my parents were busy with work. It was the first time someone I knew passed away, and I couldn’t attend his funeral because I was out of the country. It felt a little wrong to put on a smile like nothing had happened when we went on stage, even though I had just lost my grandfather. I saw the photo they used at the funeral once the show was over and I burst into tears. JAEHYUN said, “You don’t have to smile. It’s okay to cry. Why are you trying to be an adult about this? You don’t have to act all grown-up. You’re still a kid. It’s okay if you can’t go out on stage. You’re okay just to stay here.” I remember I was crying so much when he said it, but what he said made me feel a lot better. I hope you can keep this part about my grandpa in the interview, if possible.

Are you sure that’s okay?
WOONHAK: I believe my grandpa’s up there, still cheering me on. And I want to make the reason I was having a hard time and feeling depressed clear—and that I was able to get back on my feet thanks to JAEHYUN and the other members making me feel so much better. They even came with me to the columbarium as soon as we got back to Korea. It was one of the hardest things I ever experienced, but I was able to get through it thanks to them being there for me.

I can tell how much they mean to you.
WOONHAK: They’ve always been there for me, whether I was in need of a breakthrough or about to take on a new challenge. TAESAN was there when I started making music, SUNGHO was there as I gained confidence in my vocals, RIWOO was there as I started to feel confident about dancing. It was LEEHAN whose kindness made me feel confident in myself, and JAEHYUN who gave me the confidence to rap. I remember JAEHYUN always used to say, “You make amazing music. Why don’t you ever let us hear it? I really like it.” That gave me the confidence to let them hear it. But it’s not like they were going out of their way to give me confidence. Just living and practicing with them made me feel that way. I felt like, this way, I can make it. I can do it.

So the others were there for you from the very beginning.
WOONHAK: We’ve since become members of one group sharing the same stage, but when I first came here as a trainee, they were people I learned things from. Everything was new to me, and after seeing I wasn’t good enough, I realized I had to work really hard so it wouldn’t make life hard for them, and felt like I needed to be as good as they were. I asked them so many questions that I was probably annoying them.

What motivated you to do all that? It must’ve taken a lot of courage to ask them for help like that—not to mention the whole process of taking areas you were lacking in and learning how to excel in them.
WOONHAK: I’m just really ambitious. I want to be good at everything and keep getting better at it. So I just throw myself into things and go with my instincts. Even if things don’t turn out great, it’s still a learning experience. It’s something you have to go through so you can take the failure you experience and turn it into success. If I’m afraid of something as basic as that, how can I move onto bigger, better things? It's my dream to sing at major events like the Grammys or Billboard in front of 50,000 ONEDOOR. It’s no good if I’m too scared to try a new song or dance in the practice studio, or if I’m afraid of letting others hear the songs I write. That’s why I keep pushing myself. Even when I’m singing or practicing for a live show, I always push myself by thinking, if I can’t sing this in front of ONEDOOR, what chance do I stand of putting on a performance that would make them proud of me when I’m on an even bigger stage?

I know you’ve had times where you’re practicing and get completely fed up with the dance but you keep going anyway. Did you ever feel like giving up when faced with repeated failure and fears?
WOONHAK: Quitting was never an option. It was just out of the question. I thought, Why quit on what I already started? I’m already past the point of no return. What else am I gonna do if I give up on the things I’m good at? I’ll never catch up with other people if I choose a different path now, so why give up what I’ve got now for that? That’s how I felt, so even when things got really rough in the middle, I never once felt like leaving the label or quitting. My only dream, right from the start, was to debut. I really hated dancing, but I think I could keep at it because quitting isn’t in my vocabulary. I kept trying to do everything I could so that I could debut with the others. And I made it through in the end because the others were always there for me.

You must be so grateful for your groupmates. You said before, “I’ll be honest and also never forget the gratitude I feel.” Have you told them how you feel?
WOONHAK: I haven’t been able to because they’re too busy playing pranks on me. (laughs) They’re so weird. They tell me not to use honorifics, then when I don’t, they tell me to use it again. So what am I supposed to do? I’m out of options. So I’ll say stuff like, “I don’t wanna!” but then end it with an honorific “-yo,” making it like, 20% honorific but still casual. They’re honestly just like kids—squirting water at each other, or turning off the lights when someone’s in the shower and then playing horror movie ghost sounds and flicking the lights on and off. They’ll also wake me up abruptly and say it’s time for school. Then I get up, and it’s like, two in the morning. So juvenile! (laughs) What’s unfair is that, if they are the ones starting it, I retaliate, but I’m no good at it. You need a knack for pranks, which I don’t have. Oh, but I hope people know they’re really sweet. They’re the best big brothers a kid could ask for. (laughs)

How so? (laughs)
WOONHAK: I realized that, having lived together all this time, now I’m happy when they’re happy, I’m sad when they’re sad, and I’m struggling when they are struggling. So while I’m truly grateful for everything they do for me, someday I want to go beyond and always be there to help them and be there for them to lean on and rely on.

Why someday? Why not now?
WOONHAK: Because I’m technically not an adult yet. I’m just going to have fun for now and worry about it once I actually become an adult. (laughs)

So are you having a lot of fun right now? (laughs)
WOONHAK: All I want is to spend my days full of laughter and go to bed at night without having too much to worry about. There’s enough to worry about in the daytime without having to worry about it once I’m in bed, which would be unhealthy. I want to get enough sleep, have enough to eat, have fun with the people in my life, have a fun time onstage with ONEDOOR, and live a fun, happy life with the other members, smiling and cheering each other on. That’s what I picture when I imagine a happy life.

Do you feel happy and unburdened by worries these days?
WOONHAK: Actually, I’ve been thinking about lots of things lately. Ever since my debut, I haven’t gone a single day without thinking, “How can I do an even better job? How can I improve myself? How can I write better lyrics and perform better onstage? What about myself should I emphasize to come across as more attractive?” But whatever I come up with by nighttime, it’s already different by the next day. Every day is a new, different day, and the answers to my questions seem to change by the day, too.

Have you come to any conclusions after all that?
WOONHAK: There are so many things I want to become. I may come across as the playful, youthful one in the group since I’m the youngest, but when I’m alone, my head’s swimming with thoughts and I can get pretty serious. It’s this brief period of life where people make a big deal out of everything, right? Sometimes I want to be a mischievous, hip-hop-loving, bad-boy idol; at other times, I want to be like the kid you go to university with. Maybe ONEDOOR thinks of me like a snowman or a teddy bear and I’m here all alone, saying, “That’s not me! I’m totally hip hop!” (laughs) So, the conclusion I’ve come to is that it’s okay for me to keep changing. After all, I can just become whoever I want to be in a given moment.