Someday reunite after 17 years: BLACKEYED PILSEUNG's Rado breaks down recalling extreme poverty

17 years, one stage, one meal split four ways

Someday — Rado, Wontaek, and Jung Se-young — took a terrestrial broadcast stage together for the first time in 17 years on September 4's episode of KBS2's Happy Together: Good Not to Be Alone. They performed "Confession" (고백) by Foreman (포맨).

Rado, now half of BLACKEYED PILSEUNG—the producing duo behind STAYC—laid bare what killed the group. "We did not live like human beings," he said. "4 people shared 1 person's food over 3 days, and we took turns wearing the same upper clothing. We had to choose to disband in order to survive."

Someday had debuted with the Boys Over Flowers (꽃보다 남자) drama OST and hit No. 1 on the Cyworld minihompy music chart. What came next was harder to survive than the climb.

"I can't believe I'm singing on stage again"

After 17 years away, Rado couldn't hold it together. "When I was desperate before, no one knew," he said. "Even if I gritted my teeth and was prepared to die, there were things that couldn't be done. I can't believe I'm singing on stage again."

Jung Se-young had walked away from music entirely when the group disbanded. She took a corporate job instead. "For a while I could not watch performances," she said. "It was difficult to endure the longing for singing."

The rest of the episode's lineup

The same episode featured Maegam Fairy (마감요정)—Park Da-hyun and Gu Eun-seo, whose cover of "Golden" filmed at an ice cream shop where they worked part-time hit 7.19 million views.

It also featured Lee Chil-sung, a classical vocalist with an Italian concours win who faced financial hardship. Kim Young-hwan appeared too—a teacher who turned down an exclusive agency contract because she was head of household.

(The show's whole premise is finding people who gave up on dreams and giving them a stage. It lands differently when one of them went on to produce some of K-pop's biggest recent hits.)