1VERSE
Hyuk, Seok, Nathan, Kenny and Aito arrived from North Korea, Japan, China, Laos, Thailand and the United States by routes too strange for one tidy trainee montage. The headlines noticed the defectors first. The actual group asks you to keep looking long enough to meet all five.
Meet all five members
Hyuk
Rapper · lyricist · temporary hiatus
The first trainee, an Ordinary Person with an extraordinary route and no interest in becoming a human headline forever.
Seok
Vocalist · temporary hiatus
The former footballer who treats formations like field geometry and keeps personal history on his own terms.
Nathan
Vocalist
The Lao-Thai American dance-cover kid from Arkansas who auditioned for years and brought the Southern accent with him.
Kenny
Vocalist · lyricist
The multilingual former SM trainee, survival-show veteran, lineup connector and kitchen-content infrastructure.
Aito
Dancer · choreographer · maknae
The Japanese-Korean former trainee who left the idol path, taught dance, then returned with choreography of his own.1VERSE at a glance
“Universe.” Each member brings one verse into the whole.
July 18, 2025 with single album The 1st Verse.
Hyuk, Seok, Nathan, Kenny and Aito.
Singing Beetle, a small Seoul label founded by Michelle Cho.
5TARZ: five members and the fans shining with them.
Active · 2025–present; Hyuk and Seok are on temporary hiatuses announced in September 2025 and May 2026.
“Shattered,” released in Korean and English versions.
Pantone 3262 C, a bright turquoise built to be seen from the cheap seats.
THE ORIGIN FILE
SB BOYZ became 1VERSE one route at a time
Hyuk joined first after the Singing Beetle founder met him while he was working in a factory during the pandemic and kept inviting him to weekend rap lessons. Kenny followed with SM training and Asia Super Young experience. Seok moved from football and physical education into vocals. Aito, another former SM trainee, had stepped away and was teaching dance in Japan until Kenny encouraged him to try again. Nathan arrived last in December 2024 after years of online dance covers and auditions.
The pre-debut name SB BOYZ eventually became 1VERSE, Kenny’s suggestion: five people supplying different verses to one universe. “MULTIVERSE” arrived July 4, 2025. Two weeks later, The 1st Verse made the debut official.
THE HEADLINE PROBLEM
Two histories opened the door; five people walked through it
Hyuk and Seok are North Korean defectors, and their presence made international news before the group had a catalog. That history matters. Hyuk left North Korea as a child and later began writing rap. Seok had played football from age eight and has deliberately withheld details that could endanger people. Neither owes strangers a more cinematic escape story.
The AP correctly noted another piece: 1VERSE was not the first K-pop act ever to include a defector, despite many simplified headlines. What is unusual is one multinational five-member lineup containing two. Hyuk has also asked interviewers to stop allowing that fact to erase Nathan, Kenny and Aito. A rare request for journalism to remember the group standing directly in front of it.
The catalog has moved past chapter one
“MULTIVERSE”: the pre-debut introduction, built around different histories meeting inside one group.
“Shattered”: the debut title and the emotional center. Hyuk and Kenny contributed lyrics; Aito contributed choreography. The Korean and English versions are not identical emotional photocopies.
“WABIF (Wide Awake before I Fall)”: the January 2026 digital single pushed 1VERSE toward an English-language alt-pop edge. Nathan helped create the album artwork, and the official visualizer, color-coded lyric file, dance practice and later street performance gave 5TARZ more than one door into the song.
Ordinary Person: Hyuk’s 2024 pre-debut mixtape, essential if you want the writer before the press narrative.
The next test: the music is growing while the active formation has temporarily narrowed. The useful question is whether Singing Beetle can protect two recovering members and still give Nathan, Kenny and Aito enough material to develop without pretending five and three are the same workload.
CURRENT STATUS
Singing Beetle announced Hyuk’s temporary hiatus in September 2025 for personal and health reasons, then announced Seok’s temporary hiatus in May 2026 so he could focus on recovery. Nathan, Kenny and Aito continued group schedules. Both men remain listed members. A hiatus is information, not a scavenger hunt inviting fans to diagnose strangers through cropped livestream clips.
FANDOM FILE
What 5TARZ should know
5TARZ: official fandom name connecting five members with stars.
SB BOYZ: the pre-debut name you will find on early videos.
“Ordinary Person”: Hyuk’s phrase and mixtape title; a reminder that biography does not cancel personhood.
Cooking Kenny: exactly what it sounds like, which is why it works.
Multinational: not a vague marketing adjective here. The members carry North Korean, South Korean, Japanese, Chinese American, Lao-Thai American and Southern U.S. experiences.
THE PANDA SIDE QUEST
Start before debut
Watch the early SB BOYZ videos in order. Small-company pre-debut footage shows work that polished debut profiles erase: Hyuk helping around the office, members learning how to live together, Kenny cooking, Nathan entering a lineup with its own rhythm and Aito switching from teacher back to trainee.
Then compare interviews. The AP debut feature makes space for all five backgrounds. Other coverage turns the members into an inspirational headline and leaves the music in the hallway. That difference is worth noticing.
RAERAE TAKE
The unusual biographies are not a problem. Treating biography as the entire product is. I came for the “two North Korean defectors in a K-pop group” sentence too; pretending otherwise would be silly. I stayed because “Shattered” lets the members write into the debut and because five people from wildly different rooms look like they are trying to build one home without sanding off the accents.
OFFICIAL HANDLES
Follow 1VERSE without meeting an impersonator
INSIDE THE PANDA PILE
CVM Sekai files
Receipts and deeper reading
- Singing Beetle official 1VERSE profile
- Associated Press: debut interview with all five members
- KBS World: multinational lineup and July debut
- Official fan community and notices
Official music video library
Verified 1VERSE uploads only, organized by year. The CVM Sekai tracker supplies real total views and daily gains after collection. Thumbnails live in the Media Library, so the shelf does not disappear when another site changes a link.
