Close-Up with TNX
Close-Up is Stardust’s short-form digital cover series spotlighting talent through what feels most revealing: current obsessions, routines, creative process, and the details that bring their personality into focus.
K-pop group TNX entered its career with change built into the premise, first emerging through the 2021 survival series LOUD. There, TAE HUN, HYUN SOO, JUN HYEOK, HWI, and SUNG JUN faced challenges spanning performance, vocals, rap, songwriting, and composition, revealing strengths that extended well beyond the stage. When they debuted as P NATION’s first boy group in May 2022, those abilities offered plenty of possibilities for what TNX could eventually become.
Their early releases began exploring that range without settling into a fixed formula. WAY UP introduced them through the forceful production and controlled performance of “MOVE,” while HWI’s work on “WE ON” and “Your Favorite Melody” established a creative presence behind the scenes from the start. The atmospheric uncertainty of Love Never Dies, brighter nostalgia of BOYHOOD, and harder edge of “FUEGO” subsequently placed TNX in distinctly different musical environments, giving the members room to discover what suited them and what they could make their own.
That question became especially relevant during Road to Kingdom: Ace of Ace, where familiar material had to be reworked through new arrangements, concepts, staging, and visual ideas. The experience also placed greater emphasis on interpretation—how TNX could bring their own perspective to something even as its presentation changed around them. By For Real? in March 2025, that creative role had moved further into the recording process.
As their first self-produced album, For Real? marked a significant increase in authorship. HWI contributed lyrics across all five tracks, SUNG JUN participated in writing and composing “Perfect Danger” and “What If,” and all five members wrote the closing fan song “By My Side.” Its movement through infatuation, confusion, regret, and reassurance also felt conversational and personal, bringing the people behind TNX closer to the material itself.
That connection has remained present in their 2026 work while the production around it has grown increasingly band-driven. On CALL ME BACK, HWI’s writing and composition helped pair romantic urgency with bright guitar and rock instrumentation, while “Love Letter” approached similar emotions with more hesitation. Those elements take on greater weight in “Die Another Day,” TNX’s third digital single, released August 27.
The alternative-pop track arrives gradually, allowing its instrumental tension to creep in before drums, bass, and electric guitar give the song more force. A prominent guitar passage provides one of its strongest bursts of energy, while the members continually adjust the vocal texture around it, moving through smooth falsetto, fuller melodic sections, rap, and increasingly rich, rough-edged delivery. On the creative side, HWI serves as the sole lyricist and a co-composer, grounding the song in experiences of pressure, setbacks, and the determination to continue through them.
This increased creative involvement is part of a broader maturity TNX have developed over the past several years. The varied skills first displayed on LOUD are now less about proving how many things the members can do and more about knowing when each one can serve a song. “Die Another Day” makes especially good use of that instinct, balancing vocal contrast, rap, heavier instrumentation, and a growing creative presence from within the group without losing the personalities at its center.
Now, for this edition of Close-Up, those personalities come into sharper focus. Through their routines, creative habits, interests, and outlooks, TAE HUN, HYUN SOO, JUN HYEOK, HWI, and SUNG JUN offer a closer look at the people informing TNX—and the individual perspectives continuing to influence what they create.
Stardust: What is one current obsession—whether a song, food, game, hobby, or completely random interest—that each member could enthusiastically discuss for far too long?
TAE HUN: I’ve been really into fine dining lately. I don’t get to go very often, but whenever there’s a place I really want to try, I’ll make a point of going.
HYUN SOO: I’ve always loved anime, and recently I started rewatching one of my all-time favorites. It has a lot of episodes, so I still have a long way to go, but I’m working my way through it again.
JUN HYEOK: I’ve been really into rock lately. I love listening to rock music and singing it myself, and I’m always watching live performances by rock artists. I also like looking into their history, their lives, and even their fashion. I’ve also been really into working out, making music in the studio, shopping for clothes, checking out good restaurants, and playing games when I have time.
HWI: I’ve been really into travel videos on YouTube. I only get a two- or three-day break about once a year, so I’ve always had this fantasy of taking a long trip. Watching travel videos is kind of how I live vicariously through other people’s trips.
SUNG JUN: I really love watching football. I could honestly talk about it for 24 hours and still have more to say.
Stardust: With so much structure surrounding a comeback, what small part of your routine do you try to preserve?
TAE HUN: No matter how busy I get, I always try to make time to work out. Exercise is one part of my routine that I really try to keep.
HYUN SOO: For me, it’s definitely working out. I’ll exercise after our schedule, or if I have time, I’ll do it before we start. I actually feel a little uneasy when I don’t work out, so I always try to fit it in somehow.
JUN HYEOK: Even when things get really busy during comeback preparations, I still try to make time to work out and keep up with the dramas I like.
HWI: I always make sure to take my supplements. After I get to work and eat, I take omega-3, arginine, a multivitamin, and probiotics. I feel like I can actually tell the difference in my condition when I skip them, so I try to stay consistent.
SUNG JUN: Whenever I have an important performance or shoot, I always trim my nails the night before. It makes me feel cleaner and somehow even a little lighter.
Stardust: Which personal habit would the other members immediately recognize as uniquely yours, even if you had never noticed it yourself?
TAE HUN: Probably stretching. At this point, I do it so naturally that it’s become almost automatic.
HYUN SOO: The members always tell me I’m really bad at hearing things. They even say they’ve never met anyone who misses things as often as I do, so I guess that’s become one of my defining traits.
JUN HYEOK: I found out from watching videos with the members that I tend to purse my lips whenever I’m really focused. I had no idea I did that until they pointed it out!
HWI: Whenever we travel overseas for schedules, I always wake up early to work out or take a half-body bath. And I never skip breakfast.
SUNG JUN: HWI especially likes to imitate this, but apparently I look in the mirror, sweep my hair back, and try to look cool a lot. I still don’t really notice myself doing it, but the members are always copying me.
Stardust: Outside of performing, what activity brings out your most competitive side?
TAE HUN: Football! I’m not as competitive as I was when I was younger, but every now and then, that side of me definitely comes back out.
HYUN SOO: Whenever we work out or play games together, everyone gets pretty competitive. TAE HUN especially gets really competitive when it comes to sports or games.
JUN HYEOK: I get incredibly competitive when I play basketball or go running.
HWI: I get really fired up whenever a Korean solo artist releases a great album. Even when I’m exhausted from rehearsals and schedules, hearing a really good new album immediately makes me think, “I need to make an album that good too.”
SUNG JUN: I play football games as a hobby to clear my head, but I’m so competitive that I always have to end on a win.
Stardust: What is the first thing each of you wants to do after an especially busy period ends?
TAE HUN: I normally have my own routine, but when things get really busy, my whole schedule gets thrown off. So I’d like to get back into my usual routine first, and more than anything, I’d love to travel.
HYUN SOO: I’d like to go back to my hometown. I don’t get to visit very often, even normally, so once the busy period is over, I definitely want to go back.
JUN HYEOK: I want to hole up in the studio and work on music at my own pace. I’d also really like to travel.
HWI: Like I mentioned earlier, I’d love to take a trip for about a week. I want to step away from everyday life, experience something new, and properly recharge.
SUNG JUN: I want to go home and eat a meal cooked by my parents.
Stardust: What do you understand now about supporting each other that you did not during your rookie years?
TAE HUN: We supported each other from the beginning, but as more time passes, I feel like I understand the sincerity behind both the small and big things the members do much better now.
HYUN SOO: We understand each other’s personalities and the way each person thinks a lot better now. Because of that, I think we’ve learned how to support and rely on each member in a way that suits them.
JUN HYEOK: Preparing for this comeback reminded me how important it is for us to share our concerns and keep talking things through together.
HWI: I think we’ve learned to trust the kind of artist each member wants to be on stage. We all have different styles and different ideas of what looks cool, and respecting and trusting those differences actually helps the team grow.
SUNG JUN: Even when I’m having a really hard time, it gives me strength to know that all of us are working toward the same goal, going through the difficult moments together, and sharing the good moments together too.
Stardust: TNX has explored powerful hip-hop, nostalgic pop, rock influences, and brighter performance styles. When you encounter a new song, what makes it feel perfectly suited to the group?
TAE HUN: I don’t think it usually starts with, “This is definitely our song.” It starts more with, “This is such a good song.” Then once we’ve recorded it, prepared it, and heard the finished version, that’s when I finally feel, “Now this really is our song.”
HYUN SOO: I think any song can become a TNX song as long as we can put our own story into it. That’s probably why we’ve been able to take on so many different genres.
JUN HYEOK: I think “CALL ME BACK” feels the most like TNX. That youthful, fun, free-spirited energy is something we express really well, and I think it suits us naturally.
HWI: Looking back, I don’t think there have been many demos that immediately made me think, “This is a TNX song.” That feeling usually comes later, once we start recording and the members’ voices are added. That’s when the song gradually starts to feel like ours.
SUNG JUN: It’s when I can immediately picture the performance and imagine all five of us, each with such a distinct personality, coming together as one within the song.
Stardust: What was the first creative choice that gave this new comeback its direction?
TAE HUN: It started with one thought: “Let’s be honest and tell our real story.”
HYUN SOO: When we thought about where our team is right now and what kind of story we could tell, we felt that we should approach it from a more honest place.
JUN HYEOK: I think the starting point was a real sense of urgency and determination. We had to face where we are right now and figure out how we were going to move forward from here. That became the beginning of this comeback.
HWI: I think the key word was “the end.” The song itself is about choosing to keep fighting even if today were your last day, so that naturally led us to the idea of, “If this really were the end, let’s do everything we can so we don’t leave any regrets.”
SUNG JUN: We wanted to take all the sincerity and determination we’ve felt over more than four years together, put it into the song, and show people who we really are without hiding anything.
Stardust: Which part of the comeback became more important than you initially expected?
TAE HUN: The live performance. The more we prepared, the more we felt that it could become one of TNX’s biggest strengths, so we ended up putting even more work into it.
HYUN SOO: I see this comeback as the opening of a new page for us. We decided to approach it as if it could be our last, and somehow that made it feel even more like a new beginning. It made me want to put even more of myself into preparing for it.
JUN HYEOK: We put a huge amount of focus on our live vocals. We practiced day and night together because we wanted to show a stronger, more solid live performance than before.
HWI: I realized that delivering the live performance perfectly on stage was even more important than I had expected. Our goal was to keep the vocals stable while doing really demanding choreography, so we put a lot more focus into live vocal practice.
SUNG JUN: I realized how much of the song’s message could be communicated through our facial expressions on stage. Because of that, I ended up spending much more time practicing my expressions than I originally expected.
Stardust: At what stage of preparing this release did the members have the greatest creative influence?
TAE HUN: We were involved in pretty much every part of the process, so it’s actually hard to choose just one [laughs].
HYUN SOO: I think our ideas were reflected gradually as the song came together. The more complete it became, the more of our own opinions naturally found their way into it.
JUN HYEOK: We had a lot of discussions among ourselves and with the company about the marketing and content. We also talked a lot about what kind of identity TNX should have and what direction we want to take moving forward. I think that was where our ideas and opinions came through the most.
HWI: Since I was involved throughout the song-making process, I probably thought the most deeply about the lyrics. I wanted each member to genuinely feel like he was telling his own story when he sang his part, so I wrote each section with that member’s experiences and the emotions he might have felt in mind.
SUNG JUN: Since different members take on the same parts in the chorus, we talked a lot about how each person could bring out his own individual charm. We gave each other feedback on things like facial expressions and gestures so that everyone’s personality could come through more clearly.
Stardust: Did preparing this era change how you viewed any member’s strengths?
TAE HUN: I felt that all of the members had grown a lot, both in terms of our skills and how we present ourselves visually.
HYUN SOO: I saw just how hungry and determined every member was while preparing for this comeback. I think seeing that side of everyone was a new kind of charm in itself.
JUN HYEOK: We spent a lot of time talking about how each member could find and develop his own individual color and strengths. Everyone also spent a lot of time thinking, practicing, and experimenting on their own. We decided that this is something we want to keep working on and building over time.
HWI: This comeback reminded me how strong SUNG JUN is when it comes to singing live. He has such a good ear that even when his breathing gets unstable during a performance, his pitch stays really accurate. I think that’s an incredible strength.
SUNG JUN: HYUN SOO worked on a stronger vocal projection and diction that suited the mood of this song, which was a little different from the way he usually sings. Seeing him bring that into the actual live performance so steadily made me realize how much he had grown.
Stardust: Which part of the comeback prompted the most discussion among the members?
TAE HUN: We talked a lot about everything from how we practiced and the attitude we should have, to where we want to go as a team and what our purpose should be.
HYUN SOO: We felt that every member should be able to stand on his own and still be a compelling artist. So we spent a lot of time thinking about how each of us could develop our individual strengths and appeal.
JUN HYEOK: We talked about the future of the team more than anything. We discussed what kind of mindset we should bring to each album, where TNX should go from here, and what each of us needs to do for the team moving forward.
HWI: We talked a lot about how each member could develop his own charm and style. We’re not a group with a huge number of members, so I think each person needs to bring a high level of individual ability for the group to have strong energy on stage. It’s something we still take very seriously and continue to work on.
SUNG JUN: We talked a lot about our direction going forward. That included everything from how we structure our training to what kind of message we want to bring to the stage in future comebacks, and what we really need to communicate to the public through this comeback.
Stardust: What part of yourselves do you feel most ready to share through this era?
TAE HUN: Our passion and sincerity.
HYUN SOO: I want people to see how much this means to us. I hope they see a more genuine side of TNX and become more interested in us.
JUN HYEOK: I want to show how hungry and determined TNX is, along with our strong live vocals and musicianship.
HWI: I want to show that we’re a genuinely cool group. I think “being cool” is one of the most important things, but also one of the hardest things to pull off. Great music and great performances matter, of course, but I also want each member to come across as cool simply by being himself.
SUNG JUN: I want people to see how much sincerity TNX brings to every single stage, and to finally show all of the determination we’ve been carrying with us.
Stardust: Which moment from preparing this release do you think you will still remember years from now?
TAE HUN: I think I’ll remember all of us staying late to practice until dawn, then leaving together laughing even though we were exhausted.
HYUN SOO: We had a lot more honest conversations with each other this time. I think those moments will probably stay with me the longest.
JUN HYEOK: I think I’ll remember how all of us really came together, talked through so many things, and stayed up practicing and sweating together until early in the morning.
HWI: I think I’ll remember filming the final group choreography scene on the first day of the music video shoot. We had been dancing for hours, and by that point, we were completely exhausted and had nothing left physically. But even then, I never thought, “This is probably good enough.” The mindset we had from the beginning—that if this really were our last chance, we didn’t want to leave any regrets—stayed with me even in that moment.
SUNG JUN: I think I’ll remember practicing late into the night and sweating alongside the older members. It was really difficult at the time, but I also grew a lot through that experience.
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Photography and Creative Direction: Ju Hyunwoo
Set Design: Ko Jion
Videography: Kim Minsuk
Cover Designs: Laramie Cheyenne
Words/Editor-in-Chief: Aedan Juvet
