WONHEE doesn’t hide her happiness. When she talks about things she likes, she beams with a smile as her words grow faster and louder. Especially when she talks about makeup, toys, snacks, sports, ILLIT, and GLLIT—the things she truly loves.
Your makeup looks amazing today. It’s like your face is sprinkled with stardust. (laughs)
WONHEE: For the last shoot I did with the magazine, I had a heart in my hair, which felt very special and unique, and this time, I had rhinestones. I think it gave me a cute little talking point with a different feel. I hope it turned out alright in the photos. Plus, since the set this time was pink, they gave me this really cute pink makeup to match. (laughs)
During the subunit shoot, you used a digital camera to take pictures of each other and selfies.
WONHEE: Digital cameras are becoming popular again, and you can create a whole different vibe taking pictures with them, so I’m really into them. And for selfies, using the flash somewhere dark always gives the best results. (laughs) The brightness of the flash really emphasizes your face.
You did the opposite with your smartphone in the “little monster” videos and shot in natural light. You even shook the camera and changed up the angle to add a lot of variety for such short clips. You talked before about how you once shot a really long vlog but lost all your footage when the camera turned off. Are you having an easier time with filming lately?
WONHEE: Since the “little monster” shorts were shot on a phone, they were a little easier to handle, but the camera I tried out for my previous vlog is more for video editing so I wasn’t as used to it. What made me sad was that I played airplane and freeze tag and so many fun things with my little cousin and then I lost all that footage! (laughs) My cousin is really attached to me, and she’s so cute that I can’t help but adore her. These days I find babies so adorable.
You’re one of the younger members of the group. I heard you’ve recently become roommates with the other younger member, Roha.
WONHEE: She’s so cute. She’s like a baby! (laughs) And it’s been a long time since I shared a room with one of them. When I was roommates with MINJU before, we had such different routines that we barely even saw each other despite sharing a room. I go to bed early, but MINJU usually stays up late.
When you said before that you wanted MOKA to be your roommate, one of the reasons was because of your similar routines.
WONHEE: MOKA is the only one I haven’t been roommates with yet, so I hope we can be roommates next time. Sharing a room with YUNAH could be surprising and hilarious at times. When she’s tired, she just lies right down on the floor. But she’s so flat when she does it that it’s honestly fascinating. (laughs)
That makes me think of something you said during your shoot for “Super ELLE”: “Each of us has a different personality and style, but when you put us all together, we’re like a palette of beautiful colors.”
WONHEE: It’s the extremity of our differences that makes us so alluring. It might have taken a little longer to get close at first because of those differences in our personalities and styles, but once we got to know each other, we actually turned out to have quite a lot in common. They’re all super sweet, for one thing. (laughs)
What do you and the rest of the group do when you’re all together?
WONHEE: Sometimes we get whoever wants to play dodgeball and play it in the dance practice studio. We don’t want anyone getting hurt or to break anything, so we use something like a bouncy ball that doesn’t hurt even if you get hit. But if you throw it too hard, it still hurts, so we have this special way to hold the ball before throwing it. If you grip it kind of like you’re pinching it, it goes really well.
I guess all that dodgeball was practice for your first pitch at the Lotte Giants game. (laughs)
WONHEE: Honestly, I was so nervous about throwing it straight into the ground that I couldn’t throw it as hard as I wanted, and that’s something I kind of regret. But even so, everyone kept saying I did a great job, which made me feel kind of embarrassed but also happy. The pitcher Jeong Cheol Won taught me how to throw it right before I did it, and I got a feel for it thanks to that. Then I was able to throw it well.
You were confident enough in your athletic ability to be sports leader for your class in your middle school. You even showed off your lightning-fast running skills when you outran the tiger in the “Even the mighty tiger threw in the towel” episode of “SUPER ILLIT.”
WONHEE: I’ve figured myself out now. I don’t like working out—I like sports. Working out feels more like going to the gym or doing cardio, but when I say “sports,” I mean things like swimming, dodgeball, running, or kickball where there’s competition involved. I don’t like to exercise. But sports are fun. (laughs) And I enjoy them because I know I’m good at them. I also like just being active.
You’re competitive, but it doesn’t seem like you’re too hung up on winning.
WONHEE: Now that you mention it, I guess you’re right? (laughs) I have so many fun memories from playing sports, so I just think sports are fun. I do try to win if I’m competing with someone, but on variety shows, I’m more focused on keeping things entertaining.
On “Slow Life Challenge (It’s Okay to be Slow),” you climbed stairs using your core strength. Have you been sticking with that “slow aging” routine?
WONHEE: Nope. I feel like I still have plenty of time at my age, so if fast aging makes me happy, I’d rather age fast and die young! (laughs)
I seriously love sweet and salty things, especially snacks like chips, sour gummies, and pastries.
I remember how you resonated with the question that distinguishes between F and T MBTIs: “I felt sad, so I bought pastry.” (laughs)
WONHEE: I totally buy pastry when I’m sad! I mean, they taste great. (laughs)
Can you recommend some good snacks? (laughs)
WONHEE: There’s this green pea snack I found in Japan, and although it does taste a bit like peas, the rich taste of the peas and the overall saltiness of it is so perfect, it’s amazing. And there’s another one that looks just like a real whole potato, and it even tastes exactly like one. It tastes fantastic.
You’re not just into snacks—you love cute little things, too, right? On Weverse LIVE, you showed off some of the toys you keep at your family’s home.
WONHEE: Since I was back home, I thought maybe I could show GLLIT a different part of me and started looking for something interesting and saw my toy collection. I already had all my old favorites in one box. I thought it’d be more fun if I talked about each one while showing them off. Some of what I showed them was from the Angel-e series, which I really loved. That line had a baby chick, a phone, and a laptop, and I wanted to collect them all. The baby chick’s gone now so I only have the pen left. (laughs)
You sure have a lot of cute things. You’ve even opened some mystery toys with GLLIT on Weverse LIVE.
WONHEE: I still have some unopened ones that I’m saving to open with GLLIT during my next LIVE. (laughs) The one I opened during that LIVE was from “Anpanman” and I got Akachanman, which I now have hanging on my bag. I really want to collect all the “Anpanman” figures, including the secret ones. I love Sylvanian Families, too, but since space is limited where the group lives, I can’t buy the houses. I’m just slowly collecting the dolls. Another one I absolutely love is Polly Pocket! But they’re so expensive and rare, so I can’t buy them very often. I have five so far—three are in good condition, one is a bit skewed, and one’s a little dirty. Sylvanian Families and Polly Pocket are toys I’ve really wanted for the longest time, so I’m slowly building my collection in one cabinet that’s reserved just for them.
Speaking of Polly Pocket, it’s even on the poster for ILLIT’s first fan concert, “2025 ILLIT GLITTER DAY.”
WONHEE: I was first! I liked Polly Pocket before the label did that! (laughs)
You must have, given you already have five of them. (laughs) And really, you’ve had so much to prepare for lately—the upcoming fan concert, your comeback, and last weekend’s Weverse Con Festival. [Note: This interview took place on June 5.]
WONHEE: Especially for the choreo to the BoA song “ID; Peace B”—it’s a mix of core old-school hip hop and big movements, so it was super tough. It was challenging because it was so new to me, but at the same time, that made it really fun. (laughs)
Fun because it’s challenging—that’s definitely something only someone like you, who always tries new things and takes on new challenges with a no-regrets attitude, would say. (laughs)
WONHEE: How do you keep moving forward without any regrets? That’s something I feel like I still need to learn a bit of myself. Actually, I know what the answer is, but my personality just doesn’t let me do it that way.
What do you think the answer is?
WONHEE: Since you can’t change the past, it’s finding what you can do to grow and then actually doing it. But I struggle to put that into practice most times.
But knowing the answer might still help you move forward, don’t you think?
WONHEE: Up until recently, I was still getting a feel for being an idol and focusing more on all the other things that come along with it. For our new album, though, I thought about what’s most important and decided to try and commit myself to that fully.
How did you go about doing that?
WONHEE: The beat to “Billyeoon Goyangi (Do the Dance)” comes in strong at first, but then it has this kind of whispery vibe. To express that contrast, I tried to take all the feedback I got from recording vocals and apply that. And then there’s this part that goes, “J’aime danser avec toi,” which is French. It was my first time speaking the language, so I even took lessons from a French teacher to make my pronunciation sound more natural. I worked really hard to do it exactly the way my teacher taught me.
It seems like all that effort paid off since most of the feedback you received was along the lines of “you’ve gotten so much better” and “you’re improving so quickly.”
WONHEE: I don’t really notice myself growing until someone else points it out to me, and then I know I’m improving, and that feels really rewarding. I’ve heard people say that I’ve gotten faster at getting the details down and that my dancing’s more accurate now, and I do feel like certain things are becoming more natural to me through practice.
It sounds like the effort you’ve been putting in is paying off in ways you can actually see.
WONHEE: But to be honest, “Billyeoon Goyangi (Do the Dance)” was just as much harder as how much I improved by. (laughs) Every time I heard the song, read the lyrics, or danced to it, it felt like something new. There’s a lot of tricky moves where the timing’s hard to nail down, and the angles and motions are ones I don’t usually do, so it was really challenging.
How did you overcome that challenge?
WONHEE: For our previous songs, the hand and arm movements felt closer to the body, but this time, the moves felt a bit bigger. To really nail the details, the group all agreed on specific things like, “Let’s make sure to do this move with this timing,” or “Let’s do it this way here.” For example, there’s a certain move where we decided not to lift our elbows. I try to keep reminding myself how we made all these decisions together, and if anyone forgets, we all remind each other and help each other put in the effort.
What reason do you have for putting in all that effort?
WONHEE: I think the biggest thing about being an entertainer is being able to give loads of energy constantly, but I’m not sure yet if I’m capable of giving that much energy to GLLIT. My hope is to make myself confident enough to be able to do that and put on amazing performances.
Your love for GLLIT is enormous. (laughs) And you’ve been explicit about it before, saying things like, “It’s such a blessing to have GLLIT as fans and that I get to share this journey with them,” or, “I really, really, really love GLLIT,” and, “You know just how much I love you, right?”
WONHEE: I said those things because I was trying to think how I could express my gratitude towards them. I wanted to show how I truly feel.
When you post on Weverse, it feels like you’re having a conversation with the fans. You even post photos they ask to see.
WONHEE: That’s another thing I did because I thought it’d be more fun for everyone if we interacted more. I hope they like it. (laughs) Also, I used to get really nervous just going on Weverse LIVE, but now I’m less nervous about it. But ending them is still a bit hard for me. Since I stream right before practice a lot of the time, I can only do about 30 minutes usually. I have to turn it off because I really have to go practice … (laughs) but when it’s time to say goodbye, the fans feel sad, and that makes me sad too.
I’m reminded of what you wrote in a segment for “Close Friends Broadcasting Club”: “I’ll make sure you feel that liking me is worthwhile. I’ll always do my best not to forget how precious you are, even once we’ve known each other a long time.”
WONHEE: When you grow accustomed to something, it’s easy to overlook how important it is to you, and when it gets hard to show someone how important they are to you, it can end up hurting them. When I thought about what’s most important in a relationship, I realized that after you’ve grown close and comfortable with someone, it’s important to actively work on not forgetting how special they are. And it feels even more important now that GLLIT is becoming closer to us.