Nagyung went to some unexpected places answering some of the questions: her private efforts, the ways she’s changed, what she really wants to do. If you follow along with her thoughts and feelings, you’ll get to know the real Lee Nagyung.

You’re raising fish at home. Why fish?

Nagyung: My friend has fish so we went to the aquarium together and all the little fishies were so pretty. So first I brought a Nemo fish, a sea anemone and a starfish home and put them in a small fishbowl, but I added more and more and we moved to a new home so I moved them into a bigger tank, too. Things kept getting bigger and bigger. My goal now is to buy my babies a better, more expensive tank.(laugh). The more I raise them, the better I want to do for them and let them feel like they’re really living in the ocean. To do that, I have to take care of a lot of things, like adjusting the salinity of the water and the time the lights turn on and off and that’s how much I love it. When I’m in my room with only their light on, I feel calm and comfortable—like I’m in the ocean.

Since you take care of them so well, do they recognize their owner?

Nagyung: I mean, I really treat them well, so they’d better. (laughs) I think we have a better connection these days. I’ve had one in the damselfish family for close to a year now, and at first when I would put my finger on the glass it would get scared and swim away, but lately it follows along with my finger. It even taps my finger with its mouth when I feed it. (laughs) It made me proud for some reason.

It's quite clear that one of your hobbies is playing games. After persistent effort, you recently brought your sudoku solve time record down to under three minutes and took to Weverse to brag about it. (laughs)

Nagyung: (laughs) When I first posted about sudoku, my record was five minutes and 10 seconds. It was also the highest level of difficulty, so I figured I must’ve done well and bragged about it, but then one flover showed their record in the two-minute range. Huh? Wait, how could they get down to nearly two minutes?! I couldn’t stop thinking about it—I played again and again, and again. I never use hints, and it lets me make up to three mistakes, but even one wounds my pride, so I start over. That’s how I broke the five-minute barrier, then four, and then three.

You’re really serious about it. (laughs) It feels like you got competitive and it turned into a challenge for yourself.
Nagyung: Exactly. When I found out it’s possible to do it in under three minutes, I was determined to do it no matter what, then I would set a limit, like, Today I will for sure come in under five minutes, and do it again, and again, and again, shaving my record down one minute at a time. It feels fantastic when you get the record you aim for! (laughs) When I used to play Overwatch, I would watch and watch my highlight reel again and again, every day. I’d say, Oh, I did really well there. (laughs)

That reminds me of how in episode 14 of Channel_9, “fromis_9 Pajama Challenge,” you played tissue golf and tried 29 times until you finally got it.

Nagyung:  It took twice as long in real life than in the video. In fact, time was already up, so it didn’t mean anything, but I couldn’t give up at that point. I think I became overly determined. We’ll just see who wins. Kind of like that. (laughs)

Is there any other time this side of you where you pursue your goals to the end shows up?

Nagyung: Like if I get a part in a song and it’s in an even higher pitch than I know I can sing. In that case, I want to be able to do it, so I book a practice studio and keep practicing until late into the night, and go home. My part in “Feel Good (SECRET CODE)” was the chorus of verse 3, but I couldn’t sing that whole thing using my normal voice. I felt like it was really hard to sing it live when we performed it, but I refused to give up and kept practicing so that now it’s better than back then. There doesn’t seem to be an end point with singing or dancing like there is with games. When I listen back a while later to something I thought I did well at the time, I end up thinking it wasn’t good enough, so I just have to improve constantly.

You also tried your hand at acting in the web drama Shadow Beauty. I think people understood how talented you are because you were casted through the audition process. How did you prepare for the role?

Nagyung: I dreamed of acting ever since I was a trainee, and I took lessons continuously while also being a part of fromis_9, all the while feeling I would definitely take a role if the chance ever came. The audition was on a day we were promoting “WE GO,” so if I could only get two hours of sleep one day, for example, I’d sleep for 30 minutes instead and then practice and memorize the script. I just could not let myself sleep when I don’t know whether I’ll get the part or not. One day I was memorizing my lines with my eyes closed and fell asleep just like that. From that point on, I’d rather study my script in the bathtub if I had to, but never did I lie down on my back. After preparing like that and getting through the audition, I felt like, well, it’s fine even if this doesn’t work out. I seriously would’ve been satisfied regardless even if I hadn’t got the part because I knew I worked so, so hard for it.

It must have been very meaningful for you to be on the show after earning it through hard work.

Nagyung: I’m very thankful for this show. It's my first one, but the director instructed me well so I learned a lot and I met a lot of good people. I became confident that I can do it on my own, and although some days I had to make time to film the show and also work on our album comeback by losing sleep, I was really happy anyway. So much so that I didn’t even realize until later that I visibly lost four kilograms.

Didn’t you feel any pressure about having to play such a complex antagonist in your very first role?

Nagyung: I was actually rather attracted to the idea of being able to play a character I couldn’t normally show. All this time I came across as a sweet and lovely member of a girl group, but this show came along at a time when I was thinking, This isn’t the only side to me—how can I portray the opposite side? It was so fun discovering and feeling things while I was acting, like, I could pull off a face like this all along? And I can talk like this, too! I’m really good at swearing! (laughs) But it made me worry how flover would feel about seeing me play such an incredibly different role, but they liked it. The funniest thing was when I saw a post that said, “Nagyung, you’re so sexy when you swear.” (laughs) I guess some people saw it that way.

You had to convey explosive emotions as the series progressed. The scene where the real Seon Mijin is revealed in the auditorium was the highlight.

Nagyung: Up until that point, none of the acting I did had an effect on my emotions, but in that auditorium scene I had to hurt someone else, and there were a lot of people involved in that scene, so I felt immense pressure to do a good job so that I wouldn’t step on anyone’s toes. As soon as they yelled “cut,” I felt choked up, like I was about to cry. I started breathing like ha … ha … At the time I was thinking, Wow … I really packed a lot of emotion into that. That was tough, but I did a good job. But I was so immersed in it that my mind went completely blank. I couldn’t even hear the director giving feedback when we were shooting the next scene. I still remember how at the end I brought myself back into it by thinking, Nagyung, get yourself together—you can’t let yourself be shaken now.

Acting has really allowed you to show off an entirely different side of yourself as you see fit.

Nagyung: Even when I used to always practice alone I would practice making expressions to look bad in the mirror rather than to look pretty. I guess I was itching to show a new side of myself. This is just an idea I have, but I want to try something dark and immersive musically, too, so I think I’ll continue writing songs once we’re done promoting—exactly the way I want it.

Do you usually make music? 

Nagyung: I’ve never told this to flover, so I feel a little shy about it for some reason (laughs) but I actually wrote a song while we were making our latest album, except the song didn’t fit in with the concept so it wasn’t included in the final album. But I had so much fun working on it, and next time I want to try making a song with lyrics and a melody that I really like and to choose the musical track all by myself. It might only sound good to me since I’m not fully professional, but it always feels great to see one of my creations come to life.

You said the lead single off your new album Midnight Guest, called “DM,” is now your favorite. What do you like about it?

Nagyung: There’s been two songs that made me say “wow” when I heard their demos: “Feel Good (SECRET CODE)” made me say, “Wow, nice!” on first listen, but “DM” was, “Wow … I think I’m going to cry.” It’s such a fantastic feeling that it’s hard to put into words. The moment I heard it, I was thinking about how I wanted to make sure I did the song justice. I paid extra attention to my vocals for this one so I could captivate people with my voice more than anything else. So that people would hear my voice and immediately say, Huh? Who is this?

It feels like your voice became a lot more relaxed. Was that your intention?

Nagyung: If I listen to all our songs in order, it seems like my true voice slowly begins to emerge. My voice is somewhat low when I talk, but I think that’s reflected in our music now, too. I tried to sound sort of lovely when I sang in the past, but this time I didn’t have to do that. I focused on the emotion of the song and the tone of my own voice so I could say the line, “Hey you what you doin’,” like I was really speaking to someone to make them come out.

When did you start to notice that change in your voice?

Nagyung: I think I could feel it for sure by “Feel Good (SECRET CODE).” Some of that was because I sang the lower parts, but I also just sang it like I was talking, which flover really seemed to like. I think seeing that reaction to the part where I used my real voice convinced me to keep doing it rather than to try to sound cute.

You say you stay behind in the practice studio to practice. It seems like you’re really ambitious about your vocals.

Nagyung: Very, very ambitious. Seeing our group’s main vocalists sing so well really makes me want to be good too, so when they’re going to practice, I join in thinking I need to practice as well, and on days where they don’t, I still tell myself ‘I still need to practice before I go home. That’s how I persistently practiced. I like showing off the end result, but not so much all the process  involved. That’s why I almost always practice like my life depends on it and then show it off once I feel it’s good enough.

What are you usually looking out for when you perform?

Nagyung: If I perform the same movement more than once, the difference between when I’ve done it correctly and when I haven’t is obvious to me, so I try to do the dance moves as accurately as possible. And I usually try to move in a way that looks elegant. When I bring my legs together, I don’t just bluntly put them together—I twist them slightly as I do or something like that. The other members have told me numerous times that I dance gracefully. There’s also a part in “FUN!” where I suddenly jump up and down, and I saw people saying, “How can she jump so softly like that?” After seeing that, I thought it could be my trademark.

Your talent for expressing yourself gracefully with your body and through your facial expressions is evident when you’re on stage. It gives the impression that you’re a sort of a “Idol performance textbook”. I’m curious how you view yourself, however.

Nagyung: I’ve been thinking a lot these days about how my real personality and the way I have to present myself when I work are different. I’m not naturally talkative when I’m around people I don’t know and I’m not a wit the way Jiwon or Chaeyoung are. I think that’s just my personality. Lately, even when I’m giving a simple self-introduction, sometimes my heart’s pounding while I wait for my turn. (laughs) I noticed that sometime after I figured out my real personality and took another look at myself.

At the same time you’ve been learning more about yourself, fromis_9 has entered its fifth year. I imagine you’re looking forward to your future activities now that the group’s seeing tangible results.

Nagyung: I try to do everything we do as though it’s the last and have no regrets about it. I saw a picture recently from when we were promoting “Feel Good (SECRET CODE).” I’m sure there were hard moments at the time, but all I could think about was how pretty and happy we look. I only remember the good parts. That’s why, even now, I feel all I have to do is try my best and enjoy myself. Winning first place on that music show last year was just like a gift, too. I got emotional thinking about how we looked after one another and pushed ourselves to climb our way up to the top. When I look at how we came from the very bottom like that, growing step by step, I’m filled with pride.

Like you said, you want to be someone flover can be proud of. You’re always working hard.

Nagyung: Exactly. I want to keep showing them everything I’ve got inside of me, no matter what I’m doing. I want them to feel good that they like someone like me, and I want to make sure they feel that they haven’t been wasting their time. And I want them to be able to put their faith in me. So they can think, She’ll do well—she’s the kind of person who can fall and get right back up again.

And you look like you have faith in yourself, too.

Nagyung: Of course. I don’t want to lose that faith.