SEOYEON used to practice into the night, trying to find her voice, her unique angle. Now, she’s chasing after what can only be found when she teams up with six other girls Like the friendship rings she made from colorful beads for her fellow TUIDE members, their individual colors come together to form one beautiful rainbow.
Skateboarding in the WE PLAY concept photos
SEOYEON: I was worried since I hadn’t longboarded, skateboarded, or snowboarded in two or three years. I kept thinking, “I used to be good at this, but what if it’s harder than I remember, or I can’t balance myself?” Luckily, my muscle memory kicked in. I felt like I even could’ve pulled off a few tricks, but I figured I shouldn’t push my luck since it could be dangerous. (laughs)
“We’re really on our way to debuting”
SEOYEON: Honestly, it’s only been about a month since the debut started to feel real to me. Even when we first got the green light and the news went out, and I was like, “This is really happening,” the reality of it still didn’t sink in. We were all sitting together in the car on the way to the airport, headed overseas for a photoshoot for our album cover, when it suddenly hit me—we’re really on our way to debuting. It was emotional, exciting, and intriguing all at once. I’m curious what people will make of us. I hope they like us. I’m also curious about what we’ll get to do from here, and the kind of images we’ll get to show off.
It takes an army to shine
SEOYEON: When I was little and saw artists performing, they were absolutely radiant. But what also really struck me was how all their fans would clap and cheer and scream for them. I thought, “Will people clap and cheer for me like that someday?” Then I auditioned and started learning more about being an idol, and I realized it’s not something I could ever truly shine at if I was alone. It takes an army. There’s people who write our music, teach us choreography, handle the marketing, manage our schedule, and I’m so grateful for all of them now. And the more grateful I felt, the more I wanted to keep doing this.
All the hobbies, from working out to reading
SEOYEON: Before I ever dreamed of becoming an idol, back when I was in school, I wanted to have a more active lifestyle, so I gravitated toward sports that got me moving, like anything with a ball or swimming. Once I started dreaming of becoming an idol, I ended up channeling most of that desire to be active into dancing, so I actually started picking up hobbies I could just do in the comfort of my home instead. I naturally picked up cooking from my parents, and my family loves to read, so they recommended books to me. I still love staying active, though, so I’ve gotten really into basketball recently. I’d love to play badminton with the rest of the group someday, too. I think it’d be fun to try a sport with them that they’ve probably all played a lot themselves.
Finding her voice, her unique angle
SEOYEON: The hardest part of being a trainee was whenever I lost confidence. Every time I tried something new, I’d start second-guessing myself, like, “Am I doing the right thing?” I felt like I needed some solid foundation to keep me from losing confidence, so whenever I wasn’t sure what I should do, I’d just try everything. Even when I worked on my facial expressions, I tried all kinds of different ones to find what would capture the vibe of the music best—looking cute, looking serious, smiling, blinking my eyes, staring straight ahead, smiling with my eyes. Even after lessons when it was time for all of us to head home, I’d stay and grind it out until after dinner or even late into the night until I felt sure of myself—until I was satisfied. Because I wanted to find my voice, my unique angle.
A girl anyone could fall for
SEOYEON: When I first started practicing, I was mostly trying to figure out where to even start and how. As time passed and the group started getting more on the same footing, I got a clearer sense of what I wanted certain parts to look like, and I started thinking more about what I could add. In the intro to “SUN KISS,” for instance, there’s a part where the beat suddenly goes hard, and we do a move that’s like throwing confetti. I tried moving my arms in hundreds of different ways to find the one that brought out the song’s edge until I found the best-looking one. I experimented with a bunch of different facial expressions for the “feels so sweet I’m humming” part in “Flip-Flop Girl.” That’s the vibe—“I love jelly beans, also vitamins, feels so sweet I’m humming.” At the same time, I didn’t want it to come across too cute. I tried to act it out with a bit more of a cool, aloof look. I hope people notice that! I think there’s something kind of cool and effortless about my dancing, my facial expressions, my whole vibe. I’d love to be the kind of person that anyone would fall for. (laughs)
The unique TUIDE twist on “Flip-Flop Girl”
SEOYEON: “Flip-Flop Girl” has a laid-back feel to it. The beat’s strong and steady, so the choreo lands right on every beat, but we need to sing it in a way that really picks up on the groove. That made it a little tricky to sing and dance at the same time at first. So I started by practicing the lyrics I wanted to stand out the most, then worked on a hand motion or a heel “click!” for those lines, trying to make each part memorable as possible visually and vocally. With the choreo, too, I didn’t want to just go through the motions. I thought a lot about what kind of look and impression we should be giving through it. Since we were practicing a song that hadn’t even been released to the public yet, I felt this need to show off TUIDE’s vibe to the fullest. So I thought hard about how to avoid looking ordinary and really bring out TUIDE’s charm, and made sure I had a good grip on the parts that don’t always come through when you’re just listening without thinking, like the rhythm, the melody, and the individual notes and length of each individual line.
The “GRLS” dance duet with ELENA
SEOYEON: ELENA and I both laugh a lot. Even when we’re deep into practice, once the song ends, we’ll go, “That part synced up well”—or if the timing was even slightly off, “Wasn’t that a little off?” “Yeah, I thought so too. Let’s do it again.” Again and again. And once we’re done practicing, we give each other feedback about what we noticed while dancing together. But it’s never like, “You went like this.” It’s more like, “I think we were a little off here, can we try that part again?” And then we try again, and think about all the parts we’ve managed to perfect so far. We keep at it like that until we’re all synced up. By the time there’s nothing left to improve on, we’re just standing there laughing, and it hits me—“The two of us are really in sync. I’m really dancing with ELENA.”
The ketchup egg rice master
SEOYEON: Sometimes I take quail eggs from the fridge and make jangjorim to share, and I’ve also made healthy power bars by sprinkling a little allulose and lemon juice over nuts. I’ve also rolled up rice paper, cut it like tteok, and made dakjjim with a soy sauce base, chicken breast, and broccoli. But my best dish by far is ketchup egg rice! First, I scramble the eggs and season them with a little salt and pepper. Then I put cheese on top of the rice, put the eggs on top of that, cover it with a plate to keep the heat in and microwave it for around three minutes until the cheese melts, and finish it off with a drizzle of ketchup. That’s all there is to it, but I make it really good. SEOHEE and YI HANI tried it and couldn’t stop raving about it. (laughs)
Cooking together as a group
SEOYEON: On New Year’s, we eat tteokguk together, and on birthdays, it’s miyeokguk. It gets really loud and chaotic, but everyone still has their own role to play. SAKI and JIA set the table and portion out the side dishes, and YI HANI’s in charge of dessert. While SEOHEE and I are at the stove cooking, ELENA and SEAH prep the ingredients, help with the mixing, and jump in with an extra hand when we ask them to help out with something. The more we do it, the more we’re like a well-oiled machine!
Beaded friendship rings
SEOYEON: Whenever I make beaded rings and give them out as gifts, people seem to love them, which makes me happy, so I keep on making them. At first, I just bought some pretty beads, but then the algorithm started showing me basic bare keychains and earrings, so I picked up a few of those too, and now my drawer’s starting to overflow with beads and string. (laughs) I started out just wanting to make things for myself, but now I’m making rings for the rest of the group, too. I already made ones for SEOHEE, SEAH, and JIA, so now I’m working on rings for the other three, and I’ll give them to them all at the same time. I think about everything from the color of the beads that would suit each of them best to which finger they’ll wear them on. For SEOHEE, pink spring flowers felt like her, so I made pink and white beads into a flower shape, made for her ring finger. Colorful things suit SEAH, so I did a mix of mint, yellow, sky blue, and white beads, which I grabbed at random so the pattern wouldn’t be too even, and that’s for her index finger. JIA’s is also for her index finger. She loves mint colored things, so I mixed mint and sky blue in a straight line. ELENA likes pink, so I’m still figuring out how to make her a pink ring that’s unique from SEOHEE’s. YI HANI’s is going to use yellow and orange to channel sunflower vibes, and SAKI’s will use a more muted, burgundy-like color for a slightly more sophisticated feel.
Blooming into a cheer
SEOYEON: We have our own cheer for whenever the seven of us all need to be on the same page about something. We say “tune the tide!” and do a wave motion with our hands, then shout “TUIDE!” and put our hands in the air. Starting with that gives us extra energy when we already have it and gives us the energy we need when we don’t.
TUIDE’s rainbow future
SEOYEON: When we first formed the group, I think it was kind of like when you first get put in a class together and start to get close. We grew closer from living together, but it still felt like our relationship had more room to grow. Now we know everything about each other’s likes and dislikes, and we laugh so much whenever we talk that I felt like we were already totally connected. But even after it felt like there was nothing left to learn about each other that we didn’t already know, the more time we spend together, the more we keep finding out. Each of us brings something completely different to the table, and it’s been fun watching all those differences blend together. It’s like we’re blending a new color together. We still talk about the past sometimes, even now. Like, “I really thought we were close back then, but looking at things now, we’ve truly become one,” or “We’re just like family.” And I bet we’ll probably be saying the same thing again a month or two from now. Like, “I remember talking in that ‘Weverse Magazine’ interview about how the group really came together, but it feels like we’re even more unified now than back then, even.” I’m excited to see how much variety and how distinct the TUIDE color will become as time goes by.