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CLOSE YOUR EYES leader · BAE173’s J-Min · actor · lyricist

Jeon Minwook

Status: Active CLOSE YOUR EYES memberYears active: 2025-present
StatusCurrent member
Years2025–present

The veteran in a group built on second chances. Minwook arrived at PROJECT 7 with four years of idol work, a survival-show scar collection, acting credits, songs he helped write, and enough company drama to make a legal pad ask for overtime.

Jeon Minwook of CLOSE YOUR EYES
Jeon Minwook. Local CVM Sekai media copy used for stable display.

Before the cameras knew his name

Minwook was born in Suwon in 1999. His career did not begin with the tidy trainee-to-debut route people like to compress into two sentences. He trained under more than one company, including RBW and Good Luck Entertainment, and spent years building the mixed skill set that later made him useful as both a rapper and a group stabilizer.

He appeared on Show Me the Money 8 before his idol debut. That matters because it places his rap background outside the usual idol-position label. He was not introduced to rhythm only after a company decided the tallest trainee should stand near the back and receive four bars. Rap was already part of the work.

RaeRae take: Minwook’s résumé reads like somebody kept handing him a new door after the previous one jammed. He did not become experienced because the path was smooth. He became experienced because the path refused to behave.

J-Min and the BAE173 years

He debuted as J-Min in PocketDol Studio’s nine-member boy group BAE173 on November 19, 2020. The name BAE173 combines “Before Anyone Else” with the supposedly lucky numbers 1 and 73. Their debut mini album, Intersection: Spark, introduced a group with polished performance skills but a career repeatedly interrupted by long gaps, shifting promotion, and the familiar mid-tier-company problem of good material arriving without enough infrastructure behind it.

Within BAE173, J-Min was generally presented as main rapper, lead dancer, sub-vocalist, and visual. The position list is accurate but incomplete. He helped give the group’s brighter songs a lower rhythmic center, then could turn sharper for tracks such as “JAWS” and “Fifty-Fifty.” His stage work relies less on oversized facial acting than on clean angles, steady eye contact, and knowing exactly when to lean into the camera.

BAE173 competed on JTBC’s Peak Time in 2023 as Team 13:00. The show gave underexposed and inactive groups another public audition, which meant Minwook entered PROJECT 7 the following year already knowing what it feels like to perform while a television edit quietly measures the future of your group.

A SIX was not a typo

In 2024 he also joined the PocketDol project unit A SIX with BAE173 and FANTASY BOYS members. It was another short chapter, but it belongs in the file because Minwook’s career is not one clean discography. It is several overlapping teams, stages, and contracts held together by the same person.

PROJECT 7: the experienced contestant became the contestant to beat

Minwook entered JTBC’s PROJECT 7 in 2024 under his birth name instead of J-Min. He had a built-in advantage in stage experience, but survival shows do not hand veterans a debut out of courtesy. Existing idols also arrive with old fandom expectations, public career baggage, and the uncomfortable question of what a second debut says about the first group.

He stayed near the top of the ranking and finished third in the live finale on December 27, 2024. That placed him in the seven-member project group CLOSE YOUR EYES alongside Ma Jingxiang, Kenshin, Seo Kyoungbae, Song Seungho, Jang Yeojun, and Kim Sungmin.

His value on the show was not just technical consistency. He could make a mixed-experience team look less mixed. That skill became more important after the finale because some CYE members had little or no previous idol experience, while Minwook had already spent years learning recording rooms, music shows, interviews, fan calls, and the strange art of fixing a formation without looking like you are fixing it.

CLOSE YOUR EYES, leadership, and a very public contract mess

CLOSE YOUR EYES debuted on April 2, 2025 with ETERNALT and “All My Poetry.” The debut album passed 310,000 first-week sales, and the group won a music show only six days after debut. Minwook became the leader and eldest member, but the age gap inside the team is substantial. His job was not merely to call greetings. It was to turn seven contestants from different companies, countries, and experience levels into something that looked like one group.

In a Korean interview around Snowy Summer, he admitted that the rushed debut preparation worried him, especially because some members had never been trainees. He also said they performed much better than he feared. That is a far more useful leadership detail than the usual “he takes care of the members” sentence. He was watching rehearsals with the eyes of someone who remembered how unprepared he felt at his own first debut.

The transition was messy before the group released a note. In January 2025, CYE management company UNCORE and PocketDol Studio publicly disagreed about whether Minwook and Kenshin could maintain activities outside the project group. PocketDol said the original PROJECT 7 agreement allowed previously disclosed dual activities. UNCORE disputed that reading. Lawyers, rebuttals, alleged blocked communication, and even a reported missing-person complaint entered what should have been a debut rollout.

In February 2025, Minwook halted BAE173 activities to focus on CYE. By July 2026, the other remaining BAE173 members had left PocketDol, making Minwook the only member still signed there. That does not erase his BAE173 history, and it should not be reduced to fandom villain casting. The clean fact is that two agencies built incompatible plans around one artist, and the artist had to keep performing while the adults published statements.

The important distinction: he is not a rookie pretending four years disappeared. CLOSE YOUR EYES is a re-debut, and his first career is part of why the second group could move so quickly.

The music file

Minwook’s primary musical identity is rap, but his useful range is broader than a single position. He can sit low in a verse, carry transitional vocal lines, and switch from restrained delivery to a harder attack without making the song sound spliced together. BAE173 used that versatility across brighter pop, heavier electronic tracks, and performance-first singles.

He has also written lyrics. In CLOSE YOUR EYES, he participated in the lyrics for “X,” an R&B dance track about breaking fear and moving forward. Korean coverage specifically noted that his writing strengthened the group’s own message. That is worth watching because a project group’s early catalog can feel company-built by design. Member credits are one way the members begin putting fingerprints on it.

Chapter Start here What to listen for
BAE173 “Loved You,” “JAWS,” “DaSH,” “Fifty-Fifty” The contrast between his low rap color and the group’s higher vocal line.
PROJECT 7 Mission stages and individual cams How he organizes his energy around less experienced teammates.
CLOSE YOUR EYES “All My Poetry,” “Snowy Summer,” “X” A veteran adjusting to a softer, youth-centered group sound without disappearing inside it.
Writing “X” Lyrics about fear, limits, and forward motion from somebody who has already had to restart publicly.

Acting and MC work

Minwook made his acting debut in the 2023 Korean BL drama Love Class 2. He played Lee Hyun, a student whose story begins with an immediate attraction to his tutor Kim An. He also contributed “Light” to the drama’s soundtrack. The role gave him a separate audience from BAE173 and proved he could carry quiet camera work without hiding behind choreography.

In 2025, he and fellow CYE member Jang Yeojun joined 82MAJOR’s Nam Seongmo as Show Champion MCs. Weekly live hosting is not glamorous résumé padding. It tests timing, diction, recovery, and whether an idol can keep a broadcast moving when the cue card and the human mouth stop cooperating.

What he actually does onstage

Rap

His tone is low, dry, and easy to separate from a crowded mix. He favors controlled phrasing over frantic speed displays. The best moments come when the production leaves enough space for consonants to land instead of burying him under twelve sound effects and a siren.

Dance

Minwook is a strong line dancer. His height makes sloppy timing obvious, so his control matters. He finishes shapes cleanly, uses his shoulders well, and rarely lets transitions look like dead travel time.

Camera

He understands close-ups without mugging at them. The expression can stay small because his posture is already doing part of the storytelling. In CYE, that restraint helps balance members whose charm is more openly youthful.

Leadership

His 2026 Korean interview was refreshingly unheroic. He said the team’s comfortable atmosphere mattered more than him leading brilliantly, and that he works to reduce the distance created by the age gap. That sounds practical because it is. Nobody needs a marble statue in the dorm. They need somebody who notices when the youngest member is too nervous to ask a question.

Fandom file

  • Two names, one person: BAE173 fans knew him as J-Min. CYE promotions use Jeon Minwook.
  • Football: He is publicly known as a Manchester United supporter.
  • Actor file: Love Class 2 brought in viewers who did not meet him through an idol stage.
  • Veteran rookie: He had already debuted, competed on Peak Time, acted, and released multiple albums before CYE’s rookie year.
  • Creative work: Do not stop the résumé at “main rapper.” Track his lyric credits, including “X.”
  • Current status: His active group work is with CLOSE YOUR EYES. His BAE173 history remains part of the same canonical profile.

Dated timeline

  • October 16, 1999: Born in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea.
  • 2019: Appeared on Show Me the Money 8 before his idol debut.
  • November 19, 2020: Debuted as J-Min in BAE173 with Intersection: Spark.
  • 2023: Competed with BAE173 on JTBC’s Peak Time as Team 13:00 and made his acting debut in Love Class 2.
  • 2024: Joined the project unit A SIX and entered JTBC’s PROJECT 7 under his birth name.
  • December 27, 2024: Finished PROJECT 7 in third place and earned a seat in CLOSE YOUR EYES.
  • January to February 2025: PocketDol Studio and UNCORE publicly disputed dual-activity terms; Minwook then paused BAE173 activities to focus on CYE.
  • April 2, 2025: Re-debuted as the leader and eldest member of CLOSE YOUR EYES.
  • 2025: Began weekly live-broadcast work as a Show Champion MC and received a lyric credit on CYE’s “X.”
  • July 2026: BAE173’s remaining members left PocketDol Studio, leaving Minwook’s original group status tied to a company history that still needs careful, dated reporting.

Zodiac side quest, for fandom entertainment only

Western sign: Libra

October 16 makes Minwook a Libra. Pop astrology assigns Libra the exhausting job of balancing people, smoothing a room, and noticing where a partnership has tilted. That is a funny match for a leader who has worked inside BAE173, A SIX, PROJECT 7, and CLOSE YOUR EYES while agencies argued above his head. The paperwork created the imbalance. His documented role has often been helping the people onstage look like one team anyway.

Chinese zodiac: Earth Rabbit

The 1999 Lunar New Year began on February 16, so his October birthday falls inside the Earth Rabbit year. Traditional zodiac writing describes the Rabbit as observant, diplomatic, cautious, and better at reading tension than charging straight into it. The Earth element adds steadiness and practicality. In fandom language, this is less “soft bunny” and more the person quietly checking whether the youngest member understood the cue while everybody else is posing for the ending fairy.

When Libra and Earth Rabbit share one idol

The RaeRae reading says this combination would become the human shock absorber in a seven-member project group, then insist the team chemistry mattered more than making the leader look heroic. That is entertainment, not personality evidence. The actual receipts are his interviews, live MC work, lyric credit, repeated re-debuts, and the way less-experienced members talk about the group atmosphere.

OVEREXPOSED and the 2026 CLOSE YOUR EYES chapter

CLOSE YOUR EYES returned on April 21, 2026 with the digital single “OVEREXPOSED.” Minwook brought the perspective of an already-debuted rapper and performer into a group formed through Project 7, but the release belongs to the seven-member team rather than to BAE173 or a one-off collaboration.

His current directory identity is therefore attached to CLOSE YOUR EYES. The group debuted on April 2, 2025, making the visible tenure Current member · 2025–present. His BAE173 years remain essential history and should stay searchable under J-Min, but an older group tag must not override the act he is actively promoting with in 2026.

BAE173 hiatus and contract context

Minwook announced an indefinite pause from BAE173 activities in February 2025 so that he could focus on CLOSE YOUR EYES. PocketDol later confirmed the June 30, 2026 contract expirations of five other BAE173 members while contemporary reporting continued to describe Minwook separately as on hiatus and promoting with CLOSE YOUR EYES.

Because the public notices do not support inventing a clean departure date for him, this profile avoids an unsupported “former member” claim. It records the documented hiatus, the collapse of BAE173’s active lineup, and his unambiguous current work with CLOSE YOUR EYES. If PocketDol or Minwook publishes a final status notice, the BAE173 field should be updated from that dated primary evidence.

August 2026 status checkpoint

As of August 12, 2026, Jeon Minwook is a current member of CLOSE YOUR EYES under UNCORE. His active group record includes the 2025 debut and 2026 “OVEREXPOSED” promotion. He is also credited by his earlier stage name J-Min in BAE173 material.

This is a dual-history file, not a duplicate person. Searches for Jeon Minwook, Jeon Min-wook, J-Min, BAE173 Minwook, Project 7, and CLOSE YOUR EYES should all reach the same profile.

YouTube tracking history

CVM Sekai tracks CLOSE YOUR EYES, UNCORE, and relevant official BAE173 archives for music videos, dance practices, performance clips, behind-the-scenes footage, acting-related official material, and clearly credited Minwook content. His dual group history remains on this one canonical person profile. Writing credits and individual appearances do not create Artist-directory placement without a formal solo music release.

Sources

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