Once just a girl dreaming of the spotlight, MOKA is now living out that dream in real time. Transformed into a magical girl, she soars freely through the skies—charting the small cosmos within her, where “little flower” MOKA blooms as part of ILLIT.
Your outfit for this photoshoot feels close to your usual style.
MOKA: I went with a cute pink and black outfit for the shoot, and it felt very natural. I had a phone for a prop, too. I was going for something cute and pretty but sort of chic and aloof at the same time. I like pretty much everything, so I typically try on anything that catches my eye. I like clothes that have cutesy characters on them. I like colorful things, too, although I don’t dress that way that often. I pretty much always put my hair up when I’m practicing, and I’ve been loving wearing scrunchies on one side.
You had a great vibe in the video you were in recently for the YouTube channel Misstada.
MOKA: I’ve loved Misstada for a really, really long time, and I’m super happy I got to work with them. I get to try out a lot of different things with ILLIT, but since we’re a group, a lot of the time we all have to match. For Misstada, though, I had fun getting to show what I personally like—showcasing my “aesthetic,” so to say. (laughs)
Conversely, you seem to prefer somewhat darker TV shows and movies.
MOKA: I don’t know why, but I love dark stories. The whole group watched a movie called “The Mist” recently, and the ending—ha … It seriously felt like my heart was going to shatter. But for me, I’m the kind of person who gets really into a movie while they’re watching it, then forgets about it completely as soon as it’s over. (laughs) I think I like TV or movies that aren’t 100% rooted in reality. It makes me feel like I’m in their world, deeply immersed in the story. There’s this one drama I love called “SPEC” with these other-worldly scenes that I found really entertaining. I’m also into anime where they go to isekai [another world]. Even if it’s not super famous, if it has “isekai” in it, I’ll watch it. It makes me think, “I’d do the same thing if it were me,” or, “What would I do in this situation?”
Speaking of which, the new ILLIT album feels fantastical, too, with the magical girl angle.
MOKA: When I heard the explanation of the album’s story, it reminded me of the series “Pretty Cure,” which I loved as a kid. I was more into the calm, more mature side characters than the main characters, though. Sort of like, if they had a color, they’d be yellow. (laughs) I was way bubblier back then than I am now, so I wanted to be like those coolheaded characters. I think I’ve mellowed out a bit since then, but I still lose stuff or put off things I need to do, so I wouldn’t really say I feel like a full adult yet. (laughs) And the new album felt like what I dreamed of as a kid, so I loved it. In the music video for the lead single, “Billyeoon Goyangi (Do the Dance),” the story is that we transform into magical girls and talk to our crushes. It was super fun. It felt like we were in an anime.
“Billyeoon Goyangi (Do the Dance)” has those quirky lyrics and unique, dreamy vibes that are very ILLIT. What were your first impressions of the song?
MOKA: Honestly, when I heard “wiggle meow” in that song for the first time, I was shocked.
(tilts head) “Wiggle meow” …? I never heard that before coming to Korea. (laughs) And during recording, they told me to meow like a real cat, so (imitates the hand gestures) I was doing this with my hands in the recording studio. When I listened to the final version, that part really stood out. I’m curious to see how fans will react.
The choreography is catlike, too, capturing what makes them cute and elegant at the same time.
MOKA: Our choreo up until the last album had a lot of cute moves, but with “Billyeoon Goyangi (Do the Dance),” there’s a more graceful vibe, like with the hand motions. We really focused on bringing out those flowy movements. There’s a lot of moves where you have to keep your balance, like turns, and learning heel choreos recently helped me a lot. And there’s a different style mixed into what we’ve done before, which I think shows how the group has grown. We’ve been working super hard, so I hope people notice those details in our performance. I think we’ve cut down how much time we used to spend practicing as a group. “Magnetic” was our first time doing everything, so it felt like it took a while, but we can do things much more quickly at this point. We had Weverse Con Festival and our fan meeting event, “2025 ILLIT GLITTER DAY IN SEOUL,” to prepare before all that, too. I think my energy levels improved along the way too, so I think it was time well spent when I consider what the future may hold.
Given the subtle vocal changes you capture line by line in the lead single and the album as a whole, recording must’ve been pretty challenging.
MOKA: I rerecorded the line “Here at the carnival / Pink thrill all around” in the first verse so many times. At first, I tried sort of whispering it, then went for a cuter or brighter feel, and even tried introducing some dynamic variation into it. It was important to properly convey each and every word. “oops!” was tricky too—the rhythm was hard, and the part that actually goes “oooops!” was tougher than I imagined. “little monster” has this low-key chic vibe musically but it’s also kind of melancholy. I thought the lyrics were cute, though. To focus on expressing it properly, I recorded while curled up on a tall chair. It helped me channel the feeling of worrying, and it really did change my mood, which was very new for me.
You recently posted a cover of “Bansanka” by tuki. It felt like you put a lot of effort into your vocals.
MOKA: I didn’t have much time to prepare, but I got a little ambitious while choosing the song. I always take vocal lessons whenever I have the chance and have songs I practice, but “Bansanka” wasn’t one of them. Even though I was familiar with the song, it’s a tough one to sing, and I never really tried singing it until after I decided to cover it, so it was a real challenge for me. I’m just glad GLLIT liked it. (laughs) When I sing in Korean and don’t understand something, I look it up, but it can still be hard to convey the feeling behind difficult words. But when it’s in Japanese, well, since I know the language (laughs) it feels a bit easier to express myself naturally.
In the “ILLIT should’ve been my daughters!” episode of your series “SUPER ILLIT,” there was a part where your mom wrote about how you struggled to show emotion when you were young. She said she’s so happy to see you emoting so well while you dance now. Has it gotten easier to express your emotions through song, too?
MOKA: I still have some trouble properly conveying the lyrics when I’m singing. Even tiny breaths or changes of expression can completely change the feel. My mom told me there aren’t even any photos of me smiling from when I was around kindergarten age. It wasn’t that I was in a bad mood or anything, though. (laughs) I don’t really remember, but my mom says my younger sister would go “buy me that!” but that I never did. She was worried about me, but after starting school and making friends, I slowly started coming out of my shell and showing more emotion. I think I really unlocked my expressive ability once I started dancing and listening to lots of music. I feel like I’m better at expressing myself while dancing than in my regular day-to-day life.
You said that, when you first came to Korea, it was hard for you to even start conversations with people because of the language barrier, but things are a lot different now.
MOKA: When I first came to Korea, I had to take dancing and singing lessons, but since I couldn’t really understand the language, the lessons didn’t go smoothly. So I thought, “I need to tackle Korean first,” and studied really hard. Now I feel like I’m improving bit by bit while working—like when I read scripts or look up words I don’t know. And since I’ve been living here for a while, I’ve adopted Korean mannerisms too. A Japanese member on staff even came up to me recently and said, “You’re basically like a Korean now!” Not because of how I talk, but because my personality is starting to feel more Korean. (laughs) Apparently they thought that because I can be a little impatient sometimes.
Do you mash the close button on elevators now too? (laughs)
MOKA: Oh, totally! (laughs) I press it as soon as the other person gets out.
It sounds like you’ve really gotten used to the life you’re living with the group here in Korea.
MOKA: I love Korean food so much that I crave it even when I’m in Japan. I actually got into Korean food thanks to YUNAH. Even when we were trainees, we’d go to Korean restaurants together and she’d teach me the right way to eat everything. For example, eating at Korean barbecue places is pretty different from yakiniku restaurants in Japan, so I was intimidated at first. (laughs) But YUNAH helped me with everything, and it made me feel so much more comfortable. I used to just stick with the same group of friends and didn’t talk much, but these days, I feel like my outlook on things has expanded and that I’m more outgoing. I’m progressively embodying the ILLIT energy. Our group has this quirky, cozy vibe. We know each other really well now, so we’re really close too. It’s slowly converging with my old personality.
For example?
MOKA: Sometimes I’ll say something and then go, “Huh? I sounded just like YUNAH.” But on the flip side, the other members pick things up from me too. Like, you know when you’re struggling or tired, in Korean you go, “aigo, aigo”? In Japanese, you say, “yoisho, yoisho.” One day, I heard them all going, “yoisho, yoisho.” (laughs) These days they all say I’m more of a T. We love talking about stuff like dreams, scary stories, or sleep paralysis. Then someone goes, “Did you just hear something?” and I’m just like, “That’s probably just the water cooler.” WONHEE’s also super logical, just like me. (laughs) I don’t know if it’s because we’re all so close, but even though I’m an F, I’ve been leaning more toward T, so now it doesn’t feel like MINJU’s the only T in the group anymore.
How’s your day-to-day life with your new roommate MINJU and the other group members?
MOKA: Well, one nice thing is that MINJU and I both set a billion alarms, but neither of us hears them when they go off. Even if we do hear them, we just turn them off right away. We’re that kind of people. (laughs) But if someone comes in like, “MOKA! MINJU!” to wake us up, we’ll get up right away. We’re a perfect fit that way. When there’s a holiday in Korea, the rest of the group usually go back to see their families, so Roha and I often end up going shopping, getting a bite to eat, and hanging out, just the two of us. My style of shopping is to see something and go, “This is the one!” and just buy it right away. But Roha’s more like, “What should I get?” and spends forever thinking about it. So I just hang out and wait for her. (laughs)
As the only one in the group with a younger sister, have you ever felt there’s anything similar between that and how you interact with the other ILLIT members?
MOKA: Unlike me, my sister’s personality is quite nonchalant and she has a ton of friends. She’ll come home from the library having made a new friend there. I think she’s started paying more attention to me since I debuted, but before that, I barely knew what she was up to. (laughs) My mom and I were into K-pop, but my sister was all about Japanese bands and rock music. And apparently, when she’s with her friends, she acts like she doesn’t know anything about it, so none of them even knows that I’m in ILLIT. (laughs) On the other hand, my grandma tells everyone. She has a ton of friends, so whenever I visit her, she always has guests there and they all support and encourage me.
It must be really encouraging to have your family supporting you in their own ways.
MOKA: When I first came to Korea and when I was on “R U Next?,” I used to go to my mom with all my worries. Back then, I was anxious because I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to debut. But every time I told her what was bothering me, she’d always say “you don’t need to worry about that” in such a calm, reassuring way.It made me feel like everything will really be okay. She told me to just focus on the present, and that helped me stay grounded. Nowadays, I don’t talk to her about my worries as much since I don’t want her to be concerned. But sometimes, she’ll say it straight, like, “It's as simple as that! No need to get ahead of yourself,” and it gets me out of my head. I’ll realize, “Yeah, she’s right. Why was I overthinking so much?” and it makes me feel so much better.
How do you deal with problems on your own? For example, in the lyrics of “little monster,” stress gets eaten up in one big gulp.
MOKA: That’s exactly how I am. I’m the kind of person who always wants to straighten things out right away, so even if I’m stressed, I won’t dwell on it for too long. Of course, if it’s an issue with a friend that’s causing the stress, I’ll talk it out with them, but if it’s something else where that isn’t possible, I just kind of eat it up and let it go. Also, I’m more confident ever since I debuted. I used to feel really insecure, worried, and scared about so many things, but after having gone through so many different experiences, a lot of times I can see that I don’t have to overthink things and they’ll just turn out okay. It’s like I’m stronger now—like I’ve really grown as a person.
I’m sure that kind of personal growth was thanks to all the hard work you’ve put in.
MOKA: One of the reasons I work so hard is because of GLLIT. Their love for us is absolutely pure. Whenever I do something, I think about what our fans will think of it, so when we’re doing a shoot or I post a photo, I think, “I bet they’ll like this.” It makes the whole thing so fun and enjoyable, so I’m thankful for that. It makes me want to post more and just give them more. Whenever we see them, we always talk about how adorable they are. GLLIT’s so precious and adorable to me, and I’m so grateful for them.
As someone who’s loved K-pop since you were young, performing onstage must feel extra special to you.
MOKA: Watching concerts as a kid, I always thought the people onstage were so cool and beautiful, and that made me dream of becoming just like them. The way they shined onstage felt unreal, and it brought me so much happiness. I always thought the connection between the people onstage and the audience was so wonderful, and now, thanks to GLLIT, I’m experiencing that exact same connection, and that’s so surreal and moving. I’m so curious and excited to see how ILLIT will grow and change from here. Like, how can we amaze GLLIT even more? How can we make them like us even more? (laughs)