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pinkscaped · 1 day ago

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PRIORITY is a six member boygroup that debuted under ANGELICO Entertainment in 2013. Originally, the lineup consisted of nine members: BYUN KIHA, KANG JUWON, TAKANA HAN, REID KIM, LEE HYOJIN, KIM DAEUL, LEE JAEWOO, AIDEN YOON, and QIAN TINGTING.

The boys would debut as Angelico's first boygroup with a daring and bold concept. The boys hit the scene with a three single run that would cement itself in Kpop history: 7th Sense, Mirotic, and Ring Ding Dong.

See, this was 2013. No one was making music like Priority was making music. These boys were clearly hungry, desperate, and talented. Some say, they were destined to be idols.

The original "Your Idol's favorite idols."

FROM LEFT 2 RIGHT: Byun Kiha, Kang Juwon, Reid Kim, Tankana Hana, Lee Hyojin, Lee Jaewoo, Kim Daeul, Aiden Yoon, and Qian TingTing.

Priority would set many standards at Angelico from creativity to success, they are who to thank for how Angelico, and susequently Mydol, would turn out to be.

However, with over ten years in the industry, the group was not without their scandals. Plagued with rumors of sleeping with fans, misogynistic behaviors, lineup changes, and entitlement, Priority has had quiet a stained reputation that seems to be ignored by fans due to their icon status.

On the fated day of Apirl 24th, 2015, a day after Tao would famously leave EXO, the boy group scene would be rocked once again by two members of Priority being removed from the lineup. Fans were shocked to see Aiden and Reid's names in the headlines as the members removed.

Both boys were popular members, especially Reid who was the third most biased member at the time of his removal. Their removal left fans shocked and confused even more so by how vague their removal notice was.

This is Angelico Entertainment. We regret to inform you that members REID KIM and AIDEN YOON have been removed from the Priority team due to personal reasons. Both Aiden and Reid's priorities do not allign with the team, resulting in the decision to remove them from Priority. We hope during this time they can self-reflect and return better than before. We are sorry for any distress this might have caused. All content will proceed as usual. Thank you.

Millions of questions were raised and none of them were answered. Aiden and Reid weren't seen by the public again until the survival show The New Wave aired in 2016 where they participated as trainees, hoping to redebut in Angelico's new boygroup DEEPDIVE.

Aiden Yoon would rank 5th in the finale while Reid Kim would rank 3rd, resulting in both of them making the final lineup of DEEPDIVE.

Aiden and Reid don't talk about Priority nor do they interact with any of the current members even during MYDOL Family events. They keep their distance.

TingTing's removal would happen a year later in 2016, soon after Reid and Aiden would compete on The New Wave. Shortly before his removal, he would be involved in a dating scandal with freshly debuted DeepDive member, Kang Woobin AKA Blue where their lovestagram would be leaked to the public.

Mydol has done a good job clearing Blue's name of this scandal as well as wiping it away completely in the past years. It was one of those things you had to be there for to believe it happened because nearly all evidence of it has been wiped. TingTing would recieve a wave of hate and threats. He says his final straw was when someone threw a waterbottle at him during a Priority concert.

"I wasn't going to force myself where I wasn't wanted," TingTing would later go on to say, "They didn't want me there so I left."

TingTing would officially exit Priority in June of 2016 and disappear from the public eye for a few years minus the occassional spotting at a Venus or DeepDive concert or a dance cover. Fans accepted that he most likely gave up on idol life.

Until 2020 came around and he was announced as the main dancer of Mydol's new boy group, ISSAYAH.

TingTing talks more about Priority than Reid and Aiden do, but it's clear he prefers being in ISSAYAH more than Priority.

All three former members look noticibly more happy since their departures.

THE VENUS PROBLEM.

Some of the most notable scandals to come out of Priority are the ones related to VENUS, who these grown men can't seem to leave alone. Fans have tried understanding their dynamics, watched every interaction under a microscope a million times, and they still can't figure out what is going on between the groups.

Venus is the group that seems to always be at the center is not adjacent when there's a Priority scandal. Many fans speculate it's due to the romantic connections between the groups as every Venus member has either dated a Priority member publicly or has been caught with them in compromising situations.

Constellations and Heirs, Priority's rabid and ageing fanbase, are often found butting heads on any given social media platforms.

And yet, despite it all, the member shuffles, the scandals, the vague removals, the ex-lovers, the industry rewrites, Priority remains untouchable.

You can argue about their morals, their choices, or their relevance, but one thing you can’t deny is that they changed everything. They’re the blueprint, the problem, the pulse. The reason Angelico even has a name in the first place.

Some call them legends. Some call them relics. Some call them the last of their kind.

But their fans, whether they’re screaming on stan Twitter or sitting front row in fanmeet halls long past their prime, they call them Priority.

Because for better or worse, these men made themselves unforgettable.

#˙ ៹ ♡ hot topic ... priority #fictional idol community #idol oc #kpop oc #idol au #bts addition #oc kpop group #kpop addition #fictional idol group #kpop au #fake kpop oc

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pinkscaped · 2 months ago

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“Hi, I’m Baebi.”

“What’s up? I’m Noah.”

“Hello, my name is Hyun.”

“Hey, I’m Elliot.”

Baebi waves cutely, “I’m Venus’s leader and co-songwriter.”

Noah gives a small wave that matches his smile, “I’m DeepDive’s producer and main rapper.”

Hyun gives a fingerheart with a stiff laugh, “I’m Issayah’s songwriter and vocalist.”

Elliot throws up a peace sign with a raise of his brows and cocky smile, “I’m the leader and songwriter for Pushing Daisies.”

“And I’m here today with Genius to talk about some of my favorite lyrics!” Baebi beams at the camera.

“Let’s talk about some of my favorite lyrics,” Noah says casually with a nod and small laugh, looking away from the camera bashfully.

“I’m going to tell you some of my favorite lyrics!” Hyun puts a hand on his chest, adjusting himself in the folding chair.

Elliot nods at the camera, giving a thumbs-up.

“Let’s get into it.”

“Your pretty little words when you smile politely / I don't call you often (Huh, huh!) / You and me are doing well, hey (Hey, hey, hey) / Bubble, bubble pop, pop!”

The moment the last “pop” leaves Baebi’s mouth, she breaks into a huge grin.

“Ahhh, this song! ‘Bubble Pop!’ was my solo debut, and it still feels like magic every time I sing it. I think it captured exactly what I wanted to show as an artist: something fun, something cute, but also just… me. I was really nervous recording it because it had to feel effortless, but it took so much thought. Like that ‘I don’t call you often’ line? That was a little joke! Like, even if you’re seeing someone or vibing with someone, you don’t owe them constant attention. You can be cute and a little cold.” She giggles.

“I remember when the song dropped, people were like, ‘Who is this girl with her little short shorts and the bubblegun choreography?’ And now it’s like, everyone calls me Baebi Pop.”

“Making beats for a boring dumb bitch, fucking gnarly.”

Noah leans into the mic, arms folded across the studio desk, eyes half-lidded like he’s halfway between being over it and savoring the mess he’s about to stir up.

He grins, slow and a little wicked. “I like that line.” A beat. “I wrote it for TACK13, for their pre-debut single, GNARLY, which I also produced. It was meant for Finn— Shit, should I say names? You guys know, who cares,” Noah debates with himself before waving it off, “I wrote it..Not even really thinking. He just popped into my head, and my pen started moving. I look down and there’s this line.” Noah shrugs, crossing his arms over his chest.

“But what’s crazy?” He laughs. “It’s fire! The verse is catchy, mean, and kind of hilarious. I didn’t think they’d keep it in. But they did. And when it dropped, I was like, ‘Okay.Sick. Everyone is gonna know who this is about if they check the credits.’ Cool. And Navi bodied it. She performed it exactly how I wanted her to. It turned out sick.” He pauses, chuckling at himself.

“Turned out fucking gnarly, actually.”

"Toxic lover / You’re no better, quit hiding just step out / You little demon in my storyline / Don't knock on my door, I'll see you out / And don't you know how sweet it tastes?"

Hyun sings it smoothly, with that smug little grin tugging at the edge of his mouth. “This was the first track I ever produced that made it onto a major girl group album as a title track,” he says, nodding. “VENUS killed it. I mean…Honestly, I was shocked they delivered it so cleanly, like… not everyone can sell this coolness so effortlessly like them, y’know?”

He chuckles, but there’s a glint in his eye. “I wrote this when I was deep in my villain era. Like, this line ‘you little demon in my storyline’, I was channeling every annoying situationship that thought they could outplay me. You think I don’t see you trying to make yourself the victim? Nah. Not with me. I’m not stupid. Try it somewhere else.”

He taps his temple. “That ‘sweet taste’ line? Yeah, that’s the hook. It’s about how people who mess you up always come with sugar first. That’s the poison.”

Then he shrugs. “Truly, VENUS doing this song made it way better. It’s kinda wild hearing these girls perform something you wrote for rage in heels and rhinestones, but it just… works. They work. And they keep asking me to write for them, so like, I guess I’m doing something right.”

“Old suitcase, clean getaway / I'm the one who takes the blame again / new day but the same lines / I feel like a victim of the dollar sign.”

Elliot sings it slowly at first, almost like he’s unsure whether to laugh or roll his eyes.

"That was the first song I wrote for PUSHING DAISIES' debut. And yeah, I really was living out of an old-ass suitcase. I think I had one pair of pants that fit right. I was couch-hopping between trainees, trying not to spend money I didn’t have, eating two-dollar gimbap rolls and calling it dinner. Everyone romanticizes that grind phase but honestly, it sucked. So ‘clean getaway’ that’s sarcasm. It was never clean. I just knew that if this debut didn’t happen, I didn’t have a Plan B. ‘Blame again’ came from all the stuff I swallowed for the group; if something went wrong, I’d take the fall. I didn’t mind, but it made me resent things. I’m still learning how not to."

He sighs a little before moving on. The memory sits heavy.

“Fancy, this so glitzy / It's glowing and it's flashy (Yeah) /Keep it just right, I know it, keep it classy / Cats gon' copy one idea, two, then the whole look (Yeah) /Then deny it, yeah.”

Baebi gives the camera a look that’s equal parts playful and fed up, doing parts of the choreography as she sings.

“This one’s from Whiplash, Venus’ latest comeback, and I wrote that verse while watching someone I won’t name post something very familiar online. And by familiar, I mean my entire look." She lets out a dramatic gasp, one hand pressed to her heart.

"I’m not mad, I just think it’s funny. In fashion and K-pop, stuff gets recycled all the time. But what’s important is the attitude you bring to it. I wanted that part to feel bratty, glittery, and confident. Like, yeah, people will copy, but you can’t copy me. Not the essence, baby!”

“Nothing ever lasts forever / In the end, you changed / There is no reason, no sincerity / Take away such a thing as love / Tonight I’ll be crooked / Leave me alone / I was alone anyway / I have no one, everything is meaningless / Take away the sugar-coated comfort / Tonight I’ll be crooked.”

The tone shifts. Noah sings it quietly, his voice soft, like he’s trying not to let it crack.

“This one’s Crooked. I was eighteen. Still figuring out who I was and what I even wanted from music. I think this song saved me a little. There was a time I didn’t feel like I had anyone. Debut era was brutal, I was writing all night and sleeping in fifteen-minute increments, and my friends from back home didn’t recognize me anymore.”

“I didn’t want to dress the sadness up. So I didn’t. I just called it what it was. Lonely, bitter, dramatic. I mean, ‘everything is meaningless,’ I was in it. But that’s what makes the song stick. It’s ugly and honest and real.”

"Tick-tack, ti-tack, tick, tack-ta-tick, tack / Tick-tack, ti-tack, tick, tack-ta-tick, tack / Mm, the more I get to know you / The more I like you / Meet a new day / Oh, you'll be surprised / Mm, you can look forward to it / It's just the beginning / Please meet the new 'me' / Oh, nice to see ya"

Hyun sings the full chorus in falsetto, with an almost strained smile, practiced, precise. When he finishes, he exhales. “Yeah, this one’s for ISSAYAH. TICKTACK. Real bouncy. Real cute.”

Hyun leans back and crosses his arms. “I wrote this after we heard the beat. Real sugary, almost sickly sweet. I remember thinking, ‘Okay. Let’s play the game, then.’ So I leaned into it, made it sound like an AI boyfriend trying to win you over in a dating sim.”

He grins, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “That whole ‘meet the new me’ thing? Yeah. That was me trying to flip the script. Like…fine. You want a sparkly, dreamy boy? I’ll give you a version of that. But I’m still in there somewhere, under all the glitter.”

He shrugs. “People love this song. Fans go nuts for it. And I get it! It’s catchy, it’s bright. But if I had it my way…” He trails off, lips pressing into a faint smirk.

“I’d be writing darker stuff. Something with bite. But hey, checks clear either way.”

“I'd live for you, and that's hard to do, even harder to say when you know it's not true, even harder to write when you know that tonight, there were people back home who tried talking to you, but then you ignore them still, all these questions, they're for real, like, ‘Who would you live for?’ ‘Who would you die for?’ and ‘Would you ever kill?’”

This one Elliot raps, quick and low. When he's done, he runs a hand through his hair like he's buying time.

"This is probably the most brutal thing I’ve written. It’s from the LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL I GUESS album, which is a joke title, by the way. At the time, I felt like I was being swallowed alive by all the pressure to be this… emotional saint. People wanted pretty songs about devotion and heartbreak, and I was like, ‘Cool, but what about when you're numb?’ I was ghosting people left and right. My mom, my best friend, this girl I wasn’t sure I liked or needed attention from. Writing this felt like putting a mirror in front of myself and not liking what I saw. That line, ‘Would you ever kill?’ is not literal. It’s about how far you’d go to protect your own peace, even if it makes you a bad person."

Elliot shakes his head, then laughs under his breath.

“Crazy shit. ‘Neverrr thought I’d be explaining this stuff outloud with a bright ass yellow background behind me.”

“Yeah, sick, sick, sick / What's your size? / S, M, L, it gives me a headache / No, no, no / Well, aren't you so damn annoying? / Either way, you can't even touch me / Look, look at this, it's cute, isn't it? / Too skinny, too fat / Too big, too short / Dying, dying, dying, women are dying.”

Baebi exhales after her rap verse, a little slower now.

“This one means a lot to me. Venus got to write our own verses for this song, DIV4S, and we wanted to say something. My part is about how tiring it is to exist in a body that people constantly judge. Especially as an idol, there’s always someone with something to say. ‘You look tired,’ ‘You gained weight,’ ‘You’re too skinny,’ like…I’m a person. And the ‘dying, dying, dying’ part? I didn’t want to sugarcoat it. This pressure isn’t cute. It’s real. So when I performed this on stage, I was thinking about all the girls who don’t get to speak up. I wanted them to hear that and feel seen.”

“If love and hate are the same words / I love you, Seoul.”

Noah breathes this one out, almost like it’s a confession. “I was twenty when I wrote this. And I’d just started seeing how the industry eats people. Especially the young ones. Especially if you’re soft. Or weird. Or a little too creative.”

“Seoul is a city I love, but it’s also a machine. One that turns people into a product. I was watching it happen to people around me, and it started happening to me. And I couldn’t even tell if I was mad or in awe. Like, I hated what it did to me, but I needed it. So I gave it this line. A weird little toxic love letter. A ‘you ruined me but I can’t quit you’ kind of thing.” Noah pauses, looking off before giving a small nod.

"And it's poetic as fuck. Another one of those, I just looked down at it was on the paper moments. 'Love when my brain does that. I think it's a writer thing

"I do me, I do me right / Just I do me, I do my way / Other pictures are upside down / In the end, it's the path I take / Other people’s eyes, why do you care? I'm just going to run my own way / Still, pinky, with sunset wings"

Hyun sings it slower this time, more sincerely, and when he finishes, there's a brief silence before he speaks.

“This one’s from our first full album. I wrote it for my little sister.” He pauses, eyes softer. “She was getting bullied pretty bad, and she didn’t wanna tell anyone. I remember sitting with her one night…She was all curled up in this pink blanket with her headphones in and I asked her what she was listening to. She said, ‘Nothing. Just trying to feel better.’ That stuck.”

He clears his throat. “So I wrote this. ‘Still, pinky, with sunset wings.’ That’s her. She loves pink, sunsets, and anime girls with big dreams. She needed to hear that she didn’t have to twist herself into something else just to be left alone.”

He looks away, then back. “This is probably the one lyric I wouldn’t change. Even when I get tired of everything else, this one still feels true.”

“I love you so much that I hate you / Right now, it's so hard to blame you / 'Cause you're so damn beautiful / So damn beautiful.”

Elliot doesn’t even bother looking up. Just sings it quietly, eyes on the floor.

"This one’s called ‘BLAMELESS’, Favorite track I’ve ever written. I think I finally understood what people meant when they said love and hate aren’t opposites. They're roommates. I was in something, not quite a relationship, not quite a situationship, with someone I knew I’d never be able to fully have. But they were so… just magnetic. And I hated how much I needed them. I hated how good they were at slipping away right before things got too real. But I couldn't even be mad at them, because everything they did, I would've done too. So I wrote this instead of texting them."

He pauses.

“It’s the song that gets me the most DMs. And the one I can’t listen to all the way through anymore.”

“That's my life is a beautiful galaxy / Be a writer, the genre is fantasy / A big, big stage will open for me tomorrow / So that is who I am / Even if I get lost on a dark night / Just fly high, then wherever you go will be the way.”

Baebi nods, clearly a little emotional.

“This was from I AM, our 2021 album. We were in such a weird place as a group then. We were really tired and overworked, but we believed in each other so much. I wrote this thinking about how big our dreams were. It’s cheesy, but I still cry when I hear this song. We were all crying the first time we performed it live. But we kept going. This was my love letter to us.”

“Don’t do this, don’t shake me up / It’s not what it used to be, you know it too / Every time you do this, I fall apart again / Now don’t look for me ever again, no, no.”

Noah sings it a little sharper, like the words still sting in his mouth.

“This one’s Back 2 U. DeepDive’s third album. Probably one of the most emotional songs I’ve ever had to perform. People always assume it’s about a breakup, and it is. But not the kind you think. It’s about someone I trusted who betrayed that. Someone I saw every day, worked with, shared wins with.”

“I think people forget how devastating it is to lose a friend. Especially in a world this small. You don’t just lose the person. You lose the version of yourself you were with them. I wrote this when I realized there was no fixing it. That they’d never be who I thought they were. So it’s bitter, yeah. It’s a goodbye I didn’t want to give. But I needed to.”

"Whenever I go, I drive straight / And wherever I go, it's there the losers of hip-hop / They're at a different proportion of levels to be cussing at me / Busy by my talking has come, all unnies call me, beep beep (Here, here, here for you) / Someone's cussing at me / Tell them to look at their own situation and then come to me / I don't have anything to be jealous of about others"

Hyun doesn’t even warm up just launches into the rap with a grin. It’s sharp, fast, cocky. When he’s done, he claps once, like that’s how it’s done.

“I did this on Show Me The Money. Not a lot of people remember that. I didn’t win or anything, but that verse? I wrote that. Every bar.”

He laughs. “I miss rapping sometimes. Not the scene, but the music, more so. Like, you don’t have to fake anything. You just flex. You spit. It’s honest. It's real.”

He lifts an eyebrow. “That ‘losers of hip-hop’ line? Yeah, it was personal. There were some dudes on set who kept whispering about me, like I didn’t belong because I’m ‘idol rap.’ But the truth is, I ate. And they knew it.”

Then he shrugs. “But it doesn’t fit ISSAYAH’s image. We’re supposed to be clean, floaty, aspirational. Rapping like that doesn’t look good on a postcard. So… I dialed it back. Doesn’t mean I won’t pick up the mic again.”

“Got me feelin' alright when the feeling's long gone / Got me feelin' uptight every moment you're gone / Got a piece of your mind and I'm gonna hold on / It's a hell of a ride (Lovin' you)”

Elliot smile softens here, and for a second, the edge drops off his voice.

“‘That Feeling’ was written as a follow-up to ‘BLAMELESS,’ but it came from a much warmer place. Like, okay, maybe this hurts, but maybe it’s worth it. That line, ‘Got a piece of your mind and I’m gonna hold on,’ it’s about taking the small things and building a world out of them. I don’t always write love songs, but when I do, it’s usually about the in-between stuff. The highs that feel like they’re gonna break you, and the silences that say more than arguments ever could. I wanted it to feel like late-night driving. Like almost saying something but deciding to keep the peace instead."

He tilts his head. “It’s the song I wish someone would write for me.”

“When I smile once and everything falls / I’ve been hiding my powers all along / Just like once I met you, I found my instincts / Better now, super now, hyper now, whoa, uh-oh / Oh, oh, oh / Oh, oh, oh / I’ll be there for you when your wings break / Letting go of you, that’s a heartbreak.”

This time, Noah lights up. Just a little.

“This was for LUNARIX. That line ‘letting go of you, that’s a heartbreak’ I think that hit people more than I expected. I was in a really optimistic place when I wrote this. I wanted to write something about self-discovery, about finding your inner power. That whole ‘super now, hyper now’ stuff, it’s cheesy, but it’s real. I wrote it about my members, believe it or not,” Noah chuckles, nodding slowly as he puts his hands in his pockets. “When you’ve been with people for as long as I’ve been with DeepDive…You just have a special and unbreakable bond.”

“Then Lunarix disbanded. The company’s still in court. And this song? It never even got a full stage. I think they promoted it, like, twice before promotions were cut short. That broke my heart. Because this is one of the best things I’ve written. And now it’s buried. I still hum it sometimes. Just to remind myself it existed.”

“You look so perfect standing there / In my American Apparel underwear / And I know now that I'm so down / I made a mixtape straight out of '94 / I've got your ripped skinny jeans lying on the floor / And I know now that I'm so down (Hey!)”

Elliot practically shouts the chorus, bouncing in his seat with this infectious energy like it’s still stuck in his head from rehearsal. By the time he gets to the “Hey!” at the end, he’s grinning and finger-gunning at the imaginary crowd.

“Okay, first off: I loved working on this one. It’s for DEEPDIVE’s English single, ALL AMERICAN, and when I tell you this song is just pure serotonin? Like, it’s 2014 mall-core boyband realness, 5SOS, One Direction, Hollister cologne, Warped Tour girlfriends, all of it.We wanted it to feel like blasting music from your older cousin’s car in the summer. Messy, hormonal, cinematic.”

He leans forward, elbow on the table, eyes bright.

“I used to be in a group, right? So getting to work with idols again, especially DEEPDIVE, it’s like, full circle. They’re hilarious. They were joking the whole time but it made the whole vibe so fun. I think that’s what makes the song work. It’s not trying to be too deep. It's just feel good. The kind of song where you scream the lyrics even though they’re a little cringey, but that’s what makes it so good.”

He laughs. “And honestly? I’d take ‘ripped skinny jeans on the floor’ over another breakup ballad any day.”

“+82, some miracle / Only listen to my general, oh-oh / He says my attitude out of control / Tell me what to do, Mr. General, oh-oh.”

Baebi’s expression is unreadable for a moment. Then she smiles, a little too widely.

“This one’s from my next solo album, DIAL 888. You’ll hear it soon. It’s about someone… special.” A pause. “He’s very commanding. Kind of intense. Has a lot of opinions about what I should wear, how I should sing, how I should breathe.” Another smile. “This lyric is me reclaiming that voice. Like—oh, I’m ‘out of control’? Okay. Then watch me. I’m not asking anymore.”

She glances down, almost bashful, then back up. “Writing has always been my way of saying things I’m not brave enough to say out loud. But I’m getting braver.”

"Pop, pop, it might pop like a bubble / Keeps getting bigger and bigger / Don't try to deny that you are into me / Babe, eyes on me now, I am gonna pop you / Five, now it is time / Four, hold your breath / Three, I'm aiming at you / Two, one, here we go / Before the fluttering stops (Before the fluttering stops) / I wanna make it / Pop, pop, pop, you want it (Pop, pop) / Pop, pop, pop, I want it to pop (I want it to pop)"

Hyun sings it high and dramatic, arms doing half the choreography. He’s grinning by the end. “This one’s so fun. I wrote it for Chloe.”

He claps once. “She devoured this track. Like, you have to understand, Chloe has this kind of cute energy that makes anything sound dangerous. I wrote it with her in mind completely.”

Hyun leans in. “There’s something satisfying about writing for girls. You can be big and sparkly and still kind of threatening. I get to play a different kind of power.”

He grins. “People ask me why I don’t keep these songs for ISSAYAH. And I’m like…Are you gonna make six boys sing about aiming and popping? We already get called pretty too much. Let the girls be cute. Let us do the serious stuff.”

He chuckles. “That’s the balance. They pop, we float. And sometimes I wish I could swap for a day. Just to see how it’d feel to own the stage in heels and red lipstick. But for now, I’ll write the bangers.”

“I never stopped (To find my way) / I always thought (It was a race) / To win it all, and that you were the prize / The closer I got, the more I lost / My soul, it was slowly fading / I'm like the autumn leaves, don't know which way I'm blowing / But it don't matter if it's raining or it's snowing / All of my problems growing smaller when I'm way up here / Any illusions I had left about you disappeared / (Oh) This is the end of the road / (Oh) Oh, I'm holding out for a new hope / (Oh) 'Cause it's the darkest of all before the dawn”

Elliot delivers it with mock dramatics with his hand over his heart, eyes to the ceiling like he’s doing spoken word in a dim jazz club. Then, as soon as the last "before the dawn" leaves his mouth, he cracks up.

“Okay, yeah, so… that was the last Stray Kids track before I pulled my little Houdini act.” He raises his brows, clearly amused. “I wrote that verse with Yeojun. We didn’t tell anyone we were leaving yet, which, in hindsight, yeah, maybe a little shitty of us, but it’s kind of hilarious when you realize we dropped this emotional elegy and then ghosted right after.”

He shrugs, still smiling. “The whole song is about exhaustion, burnout, not recognizing yourself in the machine anymore. It was coming from a real place, you know? Like, I meant all of that when I wrote it, the disorientation, the feeling like you’re chasing this prize but losing your grip on who you are. ‘My soul, it was slowly fading’ wasn’t just for the lyric sheet. That was me on a Tuesday afternoon with twelve hours of dance practice and half a protein bar in my stomach.”

He pauses, twirling a ring around his finger.

“But the funny part? As real as it was, it was also already goodbye. Like, I knew. Yeojun knew. We were writing this whole farewell letter in song form, but none of the other guys knew it was the last time we’d be doing this together. I haven’t talked to them since. Not out of spite or anything, I just… left. I don't really believe in dragging things out.”

He sighs, a little more genuine now, and tilts his head.

“If anything, I hope they hear it now and think, ‘Oh. That’s what he meant.’ I mean, we gave them a heads up. Just… musically.”

Then he smirks. “And hey, I think that verse still hits.”

Baebi leans back in her seat, swinging her legs slightly as she grins into the camera. “Aww, are we done already? That went by so fast. I feel like I just trauma-dumped and then giggled through it like, ‘Hehe, anyway!’” She laughs at herself, unapologetically. “But honestly, I’m really proud of all these songs.”

She makes a heart with her finger. “Thanks for letting me talk your ear off. I’ll see you on stage, or maybe in the comments of a TikTok thirst trap. You never know with me.”

She winks, flashing her signature double peace signs.

“This has been Baebi on Genius. Stream Whiplash!”

Noah slouches a little in the chair, ruffling his hair and exhaling like he’s just finished a workout. “Okay, that was... weirdly cathartic. Like therapy but with a backing track.” He flashes a grin, something mischievous sparking in his eyes. “I said some stuff I probably shouldn’t have, but, you know, art is honesty. Or revenge. Or both.”

He leans closer to the mic. “I’m really proud of what I’ve made, even the messy parts…Especially the messy parts. The feelings, the pettiness, the breakdowns, the drama, it’s all real. Did you even mean them if you're not a little embarrassed by your old lyrics?”

He smirks before waving to the camera.

“Thanks for hanging out with me. I’m Noah, this is Genius, and if you play Crooked while spiraling at 3 AM... I love that for you.”

Hyun adjusts his mic and offers the camera a dazzling smile, polished, practiced, just shy of too perfect.

“Wow. I feel like I’ve just read pages from my diary out loud, and nobody has stopped me. Hope that was fun for you.”

He laughs, then shrugs.

“I think lyrics are like... footprints. You look back and realize where you were, how far you’ve come, and sometimes, what you stepped in.” He pauses dramatically. “But if you don’t write honestly, what’s the point? Even if I’m in a shiny, sparkly, eight-count-dance kind of group, that doesn’t mean I’m not thinking about deeper stuff.”

Then he raises an eyebrow, tone turning playful as he points to the camera.

“But don’t get it twisted. I still love a good hook, especially if a pretty girl’s singing it.” He flashes a little smirk. “This has been Hyun on Genius. Stream ISSAYAH’s newest album, Clockwork. Stream Tick-Tack! Or don’t. I’m not your mom.”

He pauses.

“...But I will know if you don’t.”

Elliot stretches his arms out like he’s just wrapped a final bow on a Broadway show. “And scene.” He smiles lazily. “Thanks for listening to me rant about my emotional baggage and industry betrayals. Hope it was as fun for you as it was for me.”

He glances at the lyric sheets sprawled in front of him. “Looking at all this, I realize I’ve said ‘I hate you,’ ‘I love you,’ and ‘I left you’ about fifty times. Which feels pretty on brand.” He tilts his head. “But that’s what I do. I put all the messy stuff into songs so it doesn’t rot inside me.”

Then he grins, sudden and sincere.

“Thanks for sticking around. I’m Elliot. This is Genius. And if any of this made you feel even a little seen, then... sick. That’s all I ever wanted.”

He stands up, making a peace sign as he walks away.

“Go make some noise. Or cry about your ex. Or both. Byeee!”

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