EP

Contrary to what people think about idols dominating the entire scene, bands surprisingly do exist in Korea’s major music market. The problem is… most of those bands are used and consumed just like idol groups.

Project groups produced by major agencies, lip-syncing at live shows, battles over music charts, releases centered on singles and EPs, and so on. Whatever the members and fans may think, ordinary people see them as nothing more than another kind of idol group.

The musician known by the stage name ‘Ryu Jin,’ whose real name is Seo Jinwoo, belongs to one of those groups.

His life journey resembled the way people perceived him. He was scouted by an agency one day, moved to Seoul, trained, debuted in a boy band, and achieved success. He might have felt that he was ‘special,’ but to others, his journey was the kind they would describe as ‘typical.’

And what came next? Like everyone else, he was a member of the boy band ‘Projeckt 6,’ living a life of doing as he was told while wondering, ‘What am I even doing?’

“Hello. Are you composing again today? Yes, I am. What kind of song should we make today? You want me to make a good song? I’m only just starting to study composition, haha.”

One day a week was when he turned on Instagram Live. Thanks to his years at a major agency, Jinwoo instinctively filtered out subtly provocative comments like [has-been] without even letting them enter his field of vision, then began chatting with his fans.

“You’re asking what’s in my hand? It’s a beverage that clears my head~ Ahahaha.”

Sipping beer, Jinwoo worked with the program again today. He spent more time talking with his fans than composing, but perhaps his efforts over the past few months were finally paying off… The song was beginning to take shape.

“Everyone, I think we’ll end today’s stream here… Hmm. You want me to keep going? What was that KakaoTalk notification just now? Right? What was it? Why is Jaehyeon hyung messaging me at this hour? What song did he send? You want me to play it? …”...