When your latest project—in this case, your 11th EP, Between 1&2—sells more than 1 million units in preorders before it’s even released, you might not blame anyone for assuming you’re riding high. Especially because, not just in South Korea or the States but in the world over, success and happiness are branded as basically inextricable. If you have the former, you have the latter, right?
But for Jihyo, Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung, and Tzuyu—the nine 23- to 27-year-old stars of TWICE—there’s no reason to maintain that charade, despite K-pop’s reputation for near-inescapable control of its messaging and its reluctance in the past to acknowledge or accommodate the challenges of global fame.
All that shifted in 2019 when TWICE’s management company, JYP Entertainment (JYPE), announced that Mina would…
