KiiiKiii is a five-member K-pop girl group known for their bold sound, vibrant visuals and unique individuality. Having debuted in February 2025 with the pre-release single, "I Do Me," the group quickly made waves by clinching their first music show win within weeks. With a unique blend of self-empowerment and Gen Z flair, KiiiKiii continues to push boundaries and redefine what it means to stand out in today’s K-pop scene. “To Me From Me” will be the official soundtrack for the upcoming fantasy web novel Dear X: 내일의 내가 오늘의 나에게 (English title <Dear.X> ) by Kim Bbang, the original novelist behind Lovely Runner (massively popular Kdrama). The story follows five characters inspired by the KiiiKiii members themselves. With Tablo and Epik High’s legacy as trailblazers in Korean music for over two decades, KiiiKiii’s rising momentum as one of the year’s most exciting new groups, and the web novel tie-in, I caught up with the group to talk about it all. NOTE: This interview has been edited for clarity. While the interview was conducted in English and interpreted into Korean, the members mostly answered in English. Credit for all photos of KiiKii goes to STARSHIP ENTERTAINMENT. Please introduce yourself. Leesol : Hi, I’m KiiiKiii’s Leesol and I’m 21 years old. I’m the unni, the eldest one in our group. Haum : Hi, I’m Haum. Nice to meet you! Jiyu : I’m Jiyu and I’m the leader of KiiiKiii. Sui : Hi, I’m Sui. I’m 20 years old. Nice to meet you! Kya : Hi, my name is Kya and I’m the youngest of this team. Congratulations on the release of “To Me From Me!” It’s a beautiful song and I’m so excited that it’s out for everyone. Members : Thank you so much. RELATED: K-Pop Sensation xikers Discuss World Tour and Which Anime Universe They’d Love to Travel To I’d like to talk about the song itself. You know, the vibe is very soft… the lyrics are heartfelt and beautiful… Do you relate to the lyrics? Are they very important to you? What were your feelings on the song itself? Leesol : When we first looked at the lyrics of “To Me From Me,” we all together talked about, wow, we are so touched by these lyrics because [the song] was very warm and a little bit sad, but happy, and lots of those kinds of emotions are included in the lyrics. So I hope that all of the TiiiKiii’s might feel the same with us, like sad, but happy and excited, like these kinds of emotions. I expect to send that kind of emotion to them. And also, this collaboration with Tablo- sunbaenim (senior) was our first work with KiiiKiii and Tablo. It is such a meaningful experience because he is a sunbaenim whom I really respected, and also our team really respects him. It was a very meaningful experience for us. Yay! I thought it was so cool when I saw that, a collaboration with Tablo working on the song. I’m sure that was a very cool experience to work with somebody who’s so legendary. Jiyu : Yeah, yeah! So the song is going to be used for a web novel that is… already out. I looked at what the web novel was about, and it follows five characters who are inspired by you! What do you like about the characters? Do you find that they are truly like you or a little different? Jiyu : Actually, we had an interview with the writer face-to-face long ago, and I think they really created the characters exactly [like] our real person, because, like the character points… in my case, the Jiyu character has a very cautious point, cautious personality, and is like, responsible. And that kind of point resembles me. So I think they made the character very well. So [in the web novel] essentially, the characters [separately] all hear a song and they’re trying to find the song. Is that a theme you hope will continue on to the new year, with this web novel and the theme of finding yourself? Kya : ( in Korean ) So, as a group, I think KiiiKiii always wants to show a new side of us. We always want to show our viewers and listeners new charms and strong points of ourselves. We think that the characters in this animation are very similar to us. The five characters all have very difficult quests that they need to solve alone, but it’s hard when they’re alone. But they end up coming together and they’re able to really solve these quests as they come together. We think this kind of represents the love and strength that is found in your teens and we think it also relates to our members, because as we promote and go through our careers, we’ll all eventually have a difficult or hard time individually, but we think that when the five of us are together we’ll be able to really help each other. It won’t end up being a hard time, but it’ll just be a time where we can grow and learn from. RELATED: 10 Animated Webcomic Adaptations to Add to Your Watchlist That’s amazing. It’s good that, you know, you have each other to go through anything. And I think that shows really well. So speaking of web novels, webtoons, have you read or watched any other webtoons? Do you have any favorites? Leesol : Actually, me and Haum love to read webtoons, like NAVER webtoons or Kakao webtoons and also web novels, so we talk a lot to each other like “Oh, what is your favorite webtoon? And like blah, blah, blah, oh how is that kind of main story, details.” My favorite webtoon is 여신강림 , do you know this Webtoon? It’s also a K-drama. Interpreter : True Beauty ? Leesol : True Beauty ! Oh yes! Leesol : [laughing] Yes! Also, I like romance, comedy, action, cool things. [To Haum] What is your favorite Webtoon? [laughing again] Haum : My favorite webtoon is Tower of God . Very interesting. Jiyu : Actually, we are really not watching the webtoons very often, but after this time we interviewed and our story came out from the web novel, so after this time, I think we’re going to get interested in web novels. That’s OK! They’re good. I do like True Beauty , it’s a favorite. We actually have the True Beauty anime on our platform, and that’s a perfect tie-in to the next question. So Crunchyroll is an anime streaming platform. Did you grow up watching any sort of animation or anime? Leesol : There’s many legendary animations, like Frozen , and in Korea, animations like Pororo , Power Rangers , those kinds of animations, we’ve watched them. Haum : Sailor Moon ! Leesol : And Sailor Moon , yes. OK so I have two questions that are kind of anime related! The first question is: In anime, anime characters (especially magical girls) have a magical animal partner like a cat or a bird. What would each of your animal partners be and why? Jiyu : If I had a magical animal partner, I think it would be a little bird. Kya : I think my magical animal partner is a really small dog. Leesol : I would like to pick my magical animal [to be a] cute cat, because cats are cute [laughs]. I agree! Sui : I think dog and rabbit? Haum : I think a unicorn? Leesol : A unicorn?! Good choice! What magical power would you want to have if you were put into a new world with magical powers? Leesol : I want to have teleportation or time traveling, because often I think when I wake up, I would like to go to the place where I would like to go to. Like by subway or taxi or walking, but it’s so hard to go. So I’d like to have a magical power like going to the place whenever or wherever I would like to go. Kya : I want time traveling. Time traveling is more special because we can go to the future. Jiyu : In my case, I choose teleportation Because, like, the other magical powers, many things like time travel, I’m satisfied with now. So I would like to choose teleportation; that would be the most effort power, I think. Sui : I choose flying and reading minds. Haum : I think teleportation, too. Nice! My final question: If you can share, what is next for KiiiKiii? What can we fans look forward to in the future? Jiyu : Actually, we received so much love from so many people, so we’re working hard to show our fans and masses more sides of KiiiKiii. We’re very excited and looking forward to showing more diverse aspects. We hope you look forward to our future. Thank you guys so much! A huge thank you to Starship Entertainment and The Oriel for making this interview happen.
