IROHA’s always played a protagonist in the stories ILLIT unfolds, whether opening up about magnetic feelings of unrequited love she can’t hold back, or making it clear she’s taking control of her image. Now she’s focused on her own feelings too, putting names to them one by one. She’s been keeping track of things she likes, writing them down by hand as she slowly fleshes out a clearer picture of exactly who she is.

You went from competing on “R U Next?” to debuting, and now you’re over two years in, even recently watching contestants take the stage on “WORLD SCOUT: THE FINAL PIECE,” all in the blink of an eye.
IROHA: Watching other people go through evaluations took me right back. They probably didn’t have much time to prepare, so I knew how nervous they must’ve been, how bad it feels when a performance doesn’t go well, and how great it feels when it does, and I felt happy and sad right along with them.

You also reunited with Waackxxxy, who was your teacher when you were a trainee. I imagine it must have felt pretty special in a lot of ways.
IROHA: Just the fact that Waackxxxy remembered me made me so happy. There were so many trainees at the time and it’s not like we got to see each other often, so I was surprised she remembered me. I was happy we could meet again now that I’ve debuted, too. I freestyled for her, and I was a little embarrassed because I don’t think I’m good at it, but getting a lesson from her again after so long meant a lot to me.

“ICONIC BY MISTAKE” was amazing, too. It’s different from the usual ILLIT concept and performing it with LE SSERAFIM and KATSEYE must have made it feel extra special.
IROHA: I had fun right from when we started rehearsing it. I loved the choreography and I had a good time figuring things out, like, “I’ll add some emphasis here, just have fun with it here, and make this face here.” I tried to make my movements big in particular. I was all the way over on the right for the last chorus, and in that case some people might think there’s no need to go so hard, but I felt like that’s how much I had to give for people to see me and for me to have stage presence, so even when I jutted my hips out, I was seriously pushing myself to the breaking point. Practicing together let me feel the LE SSERAFIM members’ vibes better, and the KATSEYE members were really laid-back and really cool, too. I was like, “Wow, I wanna be like that.” (laughs)

As with performing, there’s always more to learn in life, it seems. You’ve gotten so used to life in Korea that you even made a wish in Korean while in Fukuoka. Are you nonetheless still picking up new things?
IROHA: So many things. Even reading the “Super in Love” lyrics for the first time was really interesting. I already knew the word “geumsappa” [“love at first sight”] from “Pop,” but not “yangchigi” [“cried wolf”], so I looked it up, still didn’t get it, and ended up asking the producer while we were recording vocals. Nursery rhymes everyone in Korea knows, like “Blue Sky, Milky Way,” and games kids play growing up, are things I never really experienced firsthand, so sometimes when the others sing one, I’m like, “Oh, they’re singing that one again.” I’m picking up stuff I never knew, little by little. (laughs) I usually watch foreign movies with Korean subtitles, too, and if I don’t know what something means, I ask the girls.

I heard you recently watched “The Odyssey” with Korean subtitles, too.
IROHA: First I heard it was a three-hour movie, then I was shocked at how fast the time flew by. It was a little hard to follow, though. (laughs) Honestly, I understood almost all of it, but sadly there was a part where I was like, “Who was that guy over there?” I want to watch it again sometime in Japanese.

Even with such a busy schedule, you still seem to make time for the things you love. Do you still go vintage shopping on your days off?
IROHA: Yes. Just yesterday I was browsing vintage shops by myself and bought some clothes. (laughs) I used to have no idea what to look for when buying clothes, but I wanted to make my fashion style clear, so I made a folder where I save all the looks I like, and now I find similar clothes or patterns I’m into, try them on, check the fit, and then buy. I’ve always liked looking mature for my age, even way back when. I liked colors like black, burgundy, and purple, and vibey music. It’s pretty much the same these days. I guess I keep thinking about it because I don’t want to lose my personal taste.

What made you place so much importance on holding onto your personal taste?
IROHA: I figured I needed to get to know myself better. I’m not usually very picky about things. I don’t really know my favorite food, I like every color, I don’t mind if it rains, and I like all kinds of music. There was never anything I would call my absolute favorite. But even with nothing to be my number one, I still thought I should know what I like, so I started keeping a list of things I love and really hunting around for more.

Your taste in food seems to be getting clearer, too, like when you said you like mala but not wasabi. Your new lead single “You’re Under Arrest” has the line “The iced tea that day was my favorite,” so I’m curious what your favorite kind of iced tea is. (laughs)
IROHA: My iced tea bias? (laughs) I’ll usually go for a peach iced tea. I don’t really like peach Earl Grey tea, though. I like just straight Earl Grey. (laughs)

You’re discovering your personal tastes, and meanwhile, the expression of ILLIT’s music has been becoming clearer and clearer. Did conveying so many different emotions through performances also feed into that thought of wanting to know yourself better?
IROHA: I think it did, in some ways. Depending on the concept, we go from pining for a crush, to saying “my feelings are more important,” to turning into a cat, to saying we’re not cute anymore, right? (laughs) I guess I ended up searching harder for what I like after engrossing myself in all of that, just like the main character in the group’s music. Just like I think about what to convey onstage and how to express it through facial expressions, I started thinking about who I really am before I express anything.

In the single “You’re Under Arrest,” you give this piercing annoyed look, and in the “BURNING” concept film you swing a sledgehammer and smash through a wall, both different from your usual image. YUNAH was talking about you on Weverse LIVE before and said, “That expression skill can only come from N-type.” Do you tend to use your imagination when you’re conveying something?
IROHA: I don’t really flesh out a backstory in detail. I tend to mirror the lyrics for my parts instead and tell myself I’ve really become that girl and I’m really in that situation. I honestly don’t get mad that often, so the new concept was kind of hard. Not much annoys me either, so I wondered if I should put in the work to make up a backstory and then imagine this or that happened. So to get that annoyance across, I looked up situations and things people say that I couldn’t really empathize with before. Seeing those didn’t actually make me mad, but I think it helped when it came time to express it.

The choreography for “You’re Under Arrest” must have presented a new challenge for you in terms of expression, too. It looks simple, but all of you have to hit your marks in perfect unison.
IROHA: I thought I’d pick that choreography up really fast, but there were so many little details that had to match up that it turned out to be harder than expected. The moves aren’t physically exhausting or anything, so that part’s fine, but between getting every angle just right and holding our hands back instead of reaching forward in some spots, I actually got sore from it. Still, when I do the dance duet with MINJU, it feels like we’re fighting together, like we’re in “Pretty Cure” or “Sailor Moon.” That’s the mindset I always have when we dance onstage.

While you were waiting to perform “It’s Me,” you touched your hair doing the “just, like, this” pose and then set the pose back up from the top. It seemed like you care a lot about even the tiniest differences that only you would notice.
IROHA: I get called a perfectionist a lot, but I still feel like there’s things I can improve on. Before I dance or go onstage, my mind has to be in exactly the right place to perform. Even when I’m in a position I really like and the pose is right, if I think, “Wait, something’s off,” or my sleeve’s bothering me, I have to fix it, no matter what. I tell myself, “I really have to make this look good,” and I can only relax if I’m in the right headspace before I start dancing. Just blasting music out loud takes the edge off for me. I love dancing to music and getting into the rhythm so much that I never get tired of practicing. I could stay in the practice studio forever. These days I still practice ILLIT songs late at night, but I also learn other choreography and film myself doing it. When I review the footage and see something I’m not happy with, I have to keep going until I’m satisfied even if it means leaving late, or else it’ll bother me.

That reminds me of the time you spent four hours singing in the practice studio because you couldn’t get the take you wanted.
IROHA: If I don’t practice, I actually feel more anxious. In that case, I kept going because I didn’t want to regret it later and think I should’ve practiced more. But the more I practice, the higher my expectations for myself get, so when things didn’t go as well as I’d imagined in the recording booth, the disappointment hit hard. These days I prepare as much as I can, and I go into the booth ready to learn. I think I started having more fun with it once I loosened up.

It sounds like you’re more relaxed than before. It seems like you still keep a close eye on everything happening around you, though. You’re always checking things out in your videos, whether it’s picking up trash or quickly moving things from blocking the camera.
IROHA: I guess I’m just observant. There’s a difference between ignoring what you see and acting on it. In my case, I just try to do something about it. I’d actually feel bad if I missed something, so I figure it’s better to be looking. If someone else threw out my trash for me, I think I’d feel really sorry, like, “I should’ve cleaned up my own mess, and now I made them step in.” That said, in situations where it seems like they’ve got it handled, I just leave it be. (laughs)

You’ve gotten more flexible with yourself than you used to be, and I wonder if spending time with the rest of ILLIT has played a part. You seem so much more comfortable now that you even pull some sly moves on “SUPER ILLIT” these days.
IROHA: I’m more comfortable now, yes. Thanks to the other girls, I think I’ve realized lately that it’s okay to open up a little more about myself, in every way. I used to think I had to put on a show and be good at things, even just playing a little game, but they helped me out so much each time that filming got a lot easier. I laugh harder at funny things now, and I’ve learned it’s okay to just show exactly how I’m feeling.

It sounds like the bond that brought ILLIT so close together comes from how much the group talks together.
IROHA: Sometimes when we’re all together, a conversation just sparks up out of nowhere. We went to see MOKA a little while ago, and once we were all there, we ended up talking about our music and where we’ll go from here. We get serious about things, like, “Let’s try this going forward,” and how we feel about being idols. I was so used to thinking things through on my own and solving them that way that I hardly ever asked questions. I’m also not the type of person who can open up right away to people I’ve just met. But seeing the others be so good at it, I started opening up to people little by little. That naturally had an influence on me. Nobody will ever know how you feel if you never say anything, right? When you put it into words, even a little, like, “This scares me, that makes me laugh, this other thing makes me kind of sad,” you end up communicating with real feeling, and I think that helped us understand each other better.

You’ve described yourself as someone who keeps taking on new challenges even when scared, and you keep taking new approaches to moving forward.
IROHA: I used to be scared of everything, and I think I still am to some degree, but it’s faded some. Even on the “Mezamashi TV” shoot, I was a bit nervous, but I felt a real sense of responsibility there. Since they were calling me up as IROHA, it felt like I was there representing ILLIT. I was so grateful for the opportunity and wanted to do a good job and be entertaining. These days I live my life like I’m a video game character. (laughs) In a game, if you’re curious about something, you just choose “ask” and out pops the question. I try to keep things simple like that, like a game character. I try to worry less about “Is it weird if I do this? What’ll they think if I’m suddenly like …?” And instead, I just ask things when I’m curious, and do what feels right to me that day.

And I’d guess what keeps you moving forward more than anything is GLLIT.
IROHA: I’m so grateful for them. Some of them have been cheering us on since we debuted, some come to see us in concert overseas, and some show up at the crack of dawn for prerecordings. I’m still amazed when I read their messages and letters and it makes me feel so happy. No matter what kind of music I do, if I show myself getting into it, they get into it too, and when they see me smile they smile right along with me, which isn’t an easy to do, so every time I see that, I feel how loved I am and it makes me happy. And when GLLIT sees me happy, they’re happy too. I really love this relationship where we cherish each other.