For a while, nobody knew his face – on purpose. From 2024, enigmatic videos began appearing across social media platforms of a masked figure performing dance covers and vocal cuts. The identity stayed hidden. Behind it was a performer who clearly knew what he was doing. The audience grew in spite of the anonymity. What they didn't know – what almost nobody knew – was that the person behind it had already lived one version of this life. He'd debuted in a group. He'd stood on stages. He understood what it meant to be seen in this industry, and at some point he'd decided to try something different, without a name attached, and find out if the work alone was enough.

In November 2025, he started preparing to answer that question properly. Six months later, on 2 May 2026, NEUK JUN – born Choi Jiann, member of Newkidd since 2018, and until very recently a masked figure on your For You page – released THE ARRIVAL.

Choi Jiann joined Newkidd in July 2018, months before the group's official debut the following April. For the next several years he was one of eight – a member of a J-Flo Entertainment boy group navigating the particular pressures of the mid-tier K-pop landscape. Visible enough to have a fanbase, unknown enough to feel the gap between where he was and where he wanted to be.

At some point the mask appeared. He is brief when I ask him whether that persona felt separate from the person wearing it. "It's something else," he says. I ask whether hiding felt freeing or frustrating after a while, and he's equally direct. "I wasn't free," he says. "But I think this character has the power to make me known to people." When we talk about whether the mask gave him space to figure out who he actually is as an artist, his response is simple: "Not yet," he says with a laugh. "I want it to be revealed later." What's clear is that the anonymous years were preparation for something he hadn't quite named yet. 

In November 2025, he started building his debut release under NEUK JUN with a circle of collaborators he trusted. He wrote the storyboard himself, shot the MV on an iPhone 16 Pro Max, and held meetings with his small team to shape what the visuals would become. He's clear about what drove it. "If I have passion and courage even in an environment that I lack," he says, "I can do it enough."

He's careful not to let the solo narrative run away with itself. "To be honest, I didn't achieve it alone," he says. "My friends and my staff helped me. It's an album that was made because of the fans who cheered for us." He sought honest opinions from that circle throughout – but the final calls were always his. "I captured what I like and what I wanted to do," he says. It's a story about doing things on your own terms, with people you chose yourself.

What those six months looked like in practice, he describes simply. "It was full of dreams. There are a lot of things I want to do."

THE ARRIVAL is a double single, and the two tracks aren't siblings so much as arguments. The title track carries almost no outside fingerprints – written, produced, composed, mixed and mastered by NEUK JUN alone. "Just love me" is a different proposition – on screen at least: a small crew, choreography, a proper MV production.

Every production credit on both tracks carries his name. He produced, vocal directed, sang the background vocals, and handled the digital editing himself. On the title track he mixed and mastered it alone. "This album," he says, "is my wish to return to the entertainment industry and for a new beginning." It's a precise thing to say – both a wish, and a starting point. The distinction matters to him.

The two tracks make an unlikely pair, but tell a wider story. The title track “I don't like it – love…but I wanna” opens on acoustic guitar before settling into a muted pop beat, with soft, confessional lyrics delivered entirely in English. It's about watching other people fall in love from the outside, wanting something he hasn't felt yet. "I don't like it – love," he sings, "but I wanna like it." The emotional register feels vulnerable and unguarded. "Just love me" arrives from a completely different angle – electro synths, a brooding beat, and lyrics about someone who keeps the world at arm's length precisely because they don't want to be seen. "Say I'm cold, say I'm mean," he sings. "Truth is, I don't like being seen." Two contrasting emotional positions, but the same person underneath both of them, still working out who that is.

The title carries the same weight. When asked what THE ARRIVAL actually means – what he personally thinks has ‘arrived’ via this debut – he doesn't reach for industry language. "Getting out of all the anxiety, negativity and bad things that tied me up," he says, "and reaching a new starting point." 

On 4 May, two days after the digital release, THE ARRIVAL became something physical. The KiTalbum – a hybrid format that pairs a collectible physical release with lossless digital audio and exclusive content – went on sale via KiTbetter. For an artist who built this on his own terms, with people he chose himself, the idea of fans holding a physical object clearly means something. "I'm excited that I can finally let people hear the album that I made with my own power," he says. "It's a pleasure to make an album that contains what I like."

The same instinct runs through every visual decision on THE ARRIVAL, too. Look across the visuals for THE ARRIVAL and the range is striking – dark and rock-edged in the “Just love me” MV, cross pendants and velvet against near-black sets; then sharp all-black tailoring in a clean studio shot; then soft and almost painterly, lying beneath cherry blossom with glitter at his cheekbones and a delicate chain on his neck for “I don't like it – love…but I wanna”. They read more like different characters sharing the same face – so when asked what he wanted people to see when they look at him, his answer makes immediate sense: "An aura like a game character." For someone who spent years performing behind an avatar, building a visual world that feels like a character select screen isn't a metaphor. It's just how he works. 

"The image that people used to see of me," he says, "I think would be a person who only dances on YouTube Shorts." He wanted to disrupt that assumption. "If I release a song that only sings, I thought people would be curious. I wanted to show myself as a performing singer." The two-track structure makes a statement about the gap between how he's been perceived and what he's actually capable of.

Which brings you back to the mask. "I'm not wearing a mask now," he says. But he makes a crucial distinction. "I didn't throw away the mask. This will also be my character." The face is visible, but whoever NEUK JUN is, it’s something – someone – being built on top of everything that came before. And he isn't ready to name it yet. 

He already knows what comes next. Better songs, better music videos, better performances. A fashion brand collaboration. And beyond that, something more specific. "My dream is to go to Coachella," he says. "I want to grow up and make a lot of money to show you all. I want to give courage and energy to people by watching my music and performances." It's an unusually direct thing to say – a list of things he wants, stated plainly. After years behind a mask, after six months of preparation in relative silence, after an album built almost entirely on his own terms, that directness feels earned.

The character remains, he says – the face is just visible now. On the strength of THE ARRIVAL, whatever comes next is worth watching for.

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This feature is taken from our fifth printed issue, available for purchase here.