VVS is growing its fanbase in a refreshingly organic way with the help of its indie label: meeting fans face to face, one tour stop at a time. “I think at some point we’ll shine enough for someone to recognize us,” LAYON says.

This summer, VVS, a five-member boy group that debuted in 2023, will tour North America, bringing K-pop to fans in cities that rarely get to meet idols. VVS will tour with B-OURS, a girl group under the same company, WANNABE Entertainment, visiting Katy, a suburb of Houston, Detroit, South America, and other cities to be announced soon. The tour is a concerted effort by WANNABE to focus on North American territories and to break VVS into markets without taking the traditional route, such as comeback performances on Korean variety shows.

For each of the members– HYOSUNG, ALLAN, TAESEOK, SHINHWA, and LAYON– it’s an opportunity to perform for new fans and break into the music industry on their own terms. The fact that VVS is still building the group’s popularity from the ground up is of no concern for the members. They are determined to live up to the group’s conceptual identity of being “perfect like diamonds.”

VVS is led by HYOSUNG, an idol with years of experience in K-pop. In conversation, he’s matter-of-fact and straightforward, which is likely why he was chosen for the position. “I think my role is to hold the team together at the center and help raise the musical quality of what we do, “ he explained. “I think I’m someone who supports the members so each of them can shine in their own way, while also helping complete the team as one. Watching the members has also made me realize that it’s not just skill that matters, but also your charm and character as a person.”

The members of VVS bring different levels of experience to the group, from seniors like HYOSUNG, SHINHWA, and ALLAN, who have performed professionally, to members like LAYON, who worked for years as a dancer and never believed he could become an idol.

ALLAN emphasized that VVS has given him a team to help him achieve his dreams. When I asked what motivated him to become an idol, he replied, “The world feels lonelier and harder when you’re alone. That’s why I wanted to keep going with my team and with a good company, to show everyone that I’m a good artist. My biggest source of strength has been wanting to meet every fan with those beautiful eyes as soon as possible.”

The members are ambitious and open to learning as much as they can together. TAESEOK explained that when he first joined the team, he had never danced before. “The older members taught me a lot,” he said, emphasizing that they influenced him to be more “generous” to other people – but socially and in his performances.

The tenacity seen from the members is not a bluff; it’s firmly tied to high aspirations. “I want to become as famous as BTS,” TAESEOK added with a laugh.

VVS’s leader grew up in Seoul. “Seoul is always a fast-moving, busy city, and I think growing up in that environment naturally pushed me to keep working toward my dreams,” HYOSUNG remembered.

Originally, HYOSUNG wasn’t interested in becoming an idol, but he loved listening to music and singing along to his favorite songs as he grew up. “I think I just had a strong, vague idea of becoming a singer,” he explained. As he worked on his craft, the clearest path forward was to become an idol. It was not so much a conscious decision as a calculated one. On late-night rides home after training all day, HYOSUNG would stare out the window and watch as Seoul passed him by. The energy of the city, he said, motivated him.

HYOSUNG first debuted in 2014 as a member of ZPZG, right at the start of K-pop’s third generation. His time in ZPZG taught him a lot about teamwork and communication. He learned that people will have different opinions and ideas; that they might not always see eye to eye. But HYOSUNG’s role as leader is to bridge those differences. “I learned that teamwork is not something that gets built overnight,” he surmised. “It’s something you strengthen little by little through constant conversation and adjustment.”

Like HYOSUNG, many of the team’s members have families with musical backgrounds. But each of them had small aspirations of music even in childhood. TAESEOK, who lived in Incheon until he was an adult, was motivated by the idea that being a musician could lead to so many different opportunities. “The idea that I could earn a living doing something I love and keep challenging myself was what moved me forward,” he said.

ALLAN, too, has no immediate family members who were musicians. Growing up on Jeju Island, ALLAN remembered a childhood spent exploring the island’s mountains and sea. Originally, ALLAN wanted to be a ballad singer. But after learning to dance, he began to see that he might be better suited to be an idol. He joined MAXXAM, a dance crew, and began to hone his skills. Through his work with MAXXAM, Alan said, “I learned how to give people joy and emotion onstage without showing how nervous I was, even when I was standing in front of a lot of people.”

SHINHWA had a more direct connection with music. “I loved singing and dancing from a young age. I didn’t really realize it then, but looking back, I think my whole family likes music,” he told me. SHINHWA’s two uncles both had dreams of becoming musicians: One was a saxophone instructor, and another longed to become a professional singer – a dream that never came into realization. “He’s still one of the uncles who cheers me on the most,” SHINHWA said.

SHINHWA spent an idyllic childhood in Tongyeong, a beautiful tourist city he called the Naples of the East. His home sat between the mountains and the ocean. He remembered, "From the right window, I could see the sea. From the left, I saw the mountains. I spent my childhood listening to the cool ocean breeze and the sound of insects in the grass from the mountains."

In high school, SHINWA would enter dance competitions run by companies for fun and eventually realized he had a real knack for performing. A few years later, SHINHWA met ALLAN after they joined MAXXAM and began busking around Seoul together. “Busking has this special charm because you’re right in front of the audience and you can communicate with them directly,” he explained. “I think I learned a lot about how to handle unexpected situations during a performance and how to speak and guide the audience while performing.

LAYON, who is the newest member of VVS, never thought he could be a singer, much less an idol. “My family wasn’t really in a position to support artistic activities, and I didn’t think I’d be good at singing either, so I think I poured myself entirely into dance,” he said. Since no one in his family was involved in the arts, it wasn’t easy for him to see himself becoming an artist.

LAYON grew up in Namyangju, a city near Seoul. In middle school, LAYON attended a musical and was inspired by the choreography he saw on stage. “That's when I really started seriously thinking about dance and singing,” he said.

Still, LAYON never thought about a career in music. “I don’t think I ever specifically wanted to become an idol,” he said. “I never expected that K-pop would be loved so much, or that the dancing I had worked on consistently would receive attention from the world.”

Before joining VVS, LAYON stepped back from performing and instead focused on teaching younger students. He viewed becoming an artist or performer as a possible last opportunity. He did not consider it a special risk, but approached the new challenge with the feelings that come with any new endeavor.

Talking about it today, LAYON is still somewhat circumspect about what his career could become. “I used to have a lot of dreams, like wanting to become a dancer recognized around the world, wanting to win dance battles, or wanting to stand on huge stages. These days, more than some huge success, I think I want to live a life where I can feel satisfied with what I do and simply focus on the work I’m doing,” he said, and thought about what it would mean to be happy. “Sometimes an ordinary life is actually the hardest thing to achieve.”

VVS debuted in 2023 with “Bang Bang”, an energetic pop song that highlighted how experienced the members are at choreography. The members described a range of emotions to me when I asked what their debut day felt like. (LAYON did not participate because he had not joined the team yet.) For TAESEOK, VVS’s debut was a huge source of pride. “I was so happy that I bragged about it at home and even displayed the album at home,” he said. SHINHWA couldn’t perform because of an injury. “I remember being really upset about it,” he told me.

HYOSUNG felt that the biggest shift was in what felt possible now that he had a team. “More than feeling like everything had changed, it felt more like I was finally standing at the starting line.”

VVS will embark on its longest North American tour this summer, but this will not be its first time in the States. Last year, the group toured South America and held a concert in Orlando, Florida. The members were nervous about performing in the States, and some wondered whether they would be able to communicate with their fans. But they found those fears to be unnecessary. “What really stood out to me was how music can make us feel united even when we speak different languages,” HYOSUNG said.

TAESEOK also recalled how exciting it was to meet fans whom he knew from Pocket Dolls, the messaging app the idols use to communicate with their fans. “I remember how exciting it was to actually see fans in person at the venue who I had first gotten to know there,” he said.

ALLAN is most moved by the memory of making eye contact with each fan and seeing excitement light up in their eyes, an experience that made his heart race.

SHINHWA was moved by the response he felt from the international fans. It was more intense than anything he’d felt before. “I’d even say the energy I receive from performing is what gives me the energy to keep living,” he said. “It gives me that much strength.”

Like anyone else, the members deal with self-doubt. It’s never easy to be an idol, and it’s especially hard to break into an industry full of conglomerates and multi-million dollar groups. But I find this part of VVS’s story – their grit and their perseverance – inspiring. ALLAN admitted that when he doesn’t know what to do, he feels lucky that he can go to the company’s CEO or HYOSUNG. “Through them, I’ve gained a lot of courage and trust, and that’s helped me stand back up and keep going,” he said.

When I asked HYOSUNG how he deals with self-doubt, he spoke from what I imagined was nearly a decade of experience that inspires the members to keep pushing forward. “This is the path I chose for myself,” he said in a statement that could be on behalf of each team member. “I don’t regret it.”

The group is excited to visit Texas, a place they admit they know little about. “It's mentioned so often in American shows and movies that it feels familiar to me. It makes me think of cowboys, so I’m curious whether that kind of atmosphere and scenery will really be spread out in front of me. That makes me excited,” LAYON said with a laugh.

The members are eager to try authentic Texan food and to experience a culture so different from their own. But by going on tour and blazing a new path together, VVS is attempting to start something new. It is, in many ways, a new debut for them, one that opens them up to more possibilities beyond just Korea.

When I asked LAYON how he would describe the team, he compared the group to a diamond in the rough. The goal is for fans to discover them and treasure them.

“A diamond is usually just there in its place. If someone recognizes it, it becomes a jewel, but if no one notices it, it just stays a stone,” he said. “The work we’re doing right now would also just remain there if no one noticed us. But we always do our best in the place we’re in. And if we keep doing that, I think at some point we’ll shine enough for someone to recognize us.”

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