Girlhood has always been a kind of magic, a space where imagination runs faster than logic and every new version of yourself feels possible. A bedroom becomes a runway. A mirror becomes a portal. A camera flash turns an ordinary moment into something cinematic. The internet has a word for that feeling: delulu.
K-pop girl group KiiiKiii is more than happy to embrace it. With their latest Delulu Pack EP, the five members—Jiyu, Leesol, Sui, Haum, and Kya—lean into a world of playful fantasy and Y2K sparkle, where believing in yourself feels necessary, not naïve. Even their name hints at that spirit: KiiiKiii is inspired by "ㅋㅋ," (pronounced keke), the Korean text shorthand for laughter, essentially the equivalent of LOL. You can hear that energy in person when the members gather at Starship Entertainment's (IVE, Monsta X) Seoul headquarters to speak with Teen Vogue, their laughter arriving before their faces pop up on the screen.
Their dynamic becomes clear quickly. The members, all between the ages of 15 and 20, have that easy familiarity of girls who spend most of their time together. They’re chatty but poised, quick to laugh while still carefully considering each question. Kya, the youngest at just 15, takes the lead in conversation, speaking with confidence that feels instinctive rather than learned. Beside her, leader Jiyu, sporting a blonde bob and pink puffer jacket, gently steers the discussion when it drifts, punctuating answers with enthusiastic nods and bright smiles. Sui listens attentively, her hair falling loose around her shoulders, while Leesol, the eldest, sits calmly beside her, occasionally tucking strands behind her ears as she follows along. Haum's long blonde hair cascades over one shoulder as she watches the others, holding the same cool composure that makes her stand out in KiiiKiii's music videos. In person, though, the image softens; she's warmer than the camera might suggest.
In their latest single, "404 (New Era)," the group's first entry on the Billboard Global 200, KiiiKiii reframes the familiar digital error message as something liberating rather than frustrating. Being "not found in the system," they suggest, isn't a mistake or a glitch. It's freedom.
For KiiiKiii, that idea connects directly to how they define the word delulu. Online, "delulu" is another way to say you're being delusional, believing in something others might dismiss as unrealistic, like a fantasy or just plain wishful thinking. But the group sees it differently. "It's not about escaping reality," says Kya. "For us, it's more like a positive and optimistic driving force." What might sound like delusion becomes, in KiiiKiii's world, something closer to curiosity—an openness to experimentation and imagination.
Jiyu describes the Delulu Pack era in similarly expansive terms. The group, she explains, approached the project as an opportunity to refresh their sound and explore new rhythms and ideas. Across the EP, KiiiKiii move fluidly between sounds, from the bouncy house pulse of "Delulu" to the UK garage–tinged single "404 (New Era)," the edgier electronic textures of "Underdogs," and the smoother R&B mood of "Dizzy." The result is a record that feels curious and open-ended, less concerned with fitting a single mold than with seeing where their imagination might lead.
That feeling of possibility also shapes the message behind their music. In the song "Delulu," the group leans into carefree defiance, brushing off norms with a wink and an invitation to simply dance. They sing about ignoring the rules ("rules for dressing, rules for walking / Ignore, ignore, ignore, ignore")—a lyric that, for the members, reflects a deeper philosophy about identity and expectation. "Everyone has their own set of rules, or society gives us a certain frame," Leesol says. "But sometimes those rules can repress us. We want to be honest with ourselves instead."
Kya adds that those expectations can quietly shape how people see themselves if they aren't careful. "People might say, 'You’re this kind of person' or 'You're that kind of person,'" she explains. "And if you hear that enough, you start acting like that image. But we don’t want to follow those standards. We just want to express our true selves."
It's a recurring motif in their songs: existing beyond the structures people try to impose. Take the aptly titled "Debut Song," a pre-release off their debut EP Uncut Gem, which riffs on the familiar melody of "Happy Birthday" as a cheeky nod to the group's own arrival. The tongue-in-cheek track leans fully into internet-era absurdity, pairing meme-like humor with a deliberately chaotic energy that feels unmistakably KiiiKiii. It's the kind of song that instantly announces the group's sense of humor and their refusal to take the rules of pop music too seriously.
"We don’t want to stay inside the frame or refine it," Sui says. "We want to exist outside of it."
Asked whether their songs offer listeners a kind of escape, Jiyu doesn't hesitate. "Definitely, yes," she says. "Whenever fans listen to our music, we hope they can feel freedom and enjoyment, even if it's just for a moment." That idea of stepping outside everyday expectations that runs through the group's lyrics also extends to the visual world they’ve built around their music.
From the beginning, their creative team imagined KiiiKiii as a group driven more by curiosity than polish. "We wanted to create a team that values curious questions over perfect answers," explains creative director byheyone. "Instead of building a polished image, we focused on the energy that comes from the gaps—those unexpected, slightly irregular moments."
Those imperfections, she says, became central to the group's identity, giving KiiiKiii’s universe its dreamy, slightly surreal edge.
In the music video for "404 (New Era)," that idea takes on a more literal form. A simple question appears on screen: What are you wishing for? It flashes over footage of the members as children, dancing, performing, and chasing early dreams. As the video unfolds, each member steps into a different vision of a diva. Haum channels a distinctly early-2000s pop star, in a look that feels instantly recognizable to anyone who came of age in that era: straight blonde hair, hoop earrings, and low-rise hot pink pants. While the girls are reluctant to share the specific pop stars they studied ("We can't really name one because there are so many great artists,” Jiyu says diplomatically), it's hard not to see traces of a young BoA in Haum's look.
The world KiiiKiii is constructing feels both nostalgic and strangely new. Flip phones flash in moodboards. Digital cameras glitter in selfies. Wired headphones tangle like jewelry. The references point back to the early internet, the MySpace years when personalization meant rewriting your profile in HTML and every page felt a little messy, a little handmade. The members themselves came of age in the 2010s, long after that era had passed. But nostalgia, like imagination, rarely follows the rules of time. For KiiiKiii, the early 2000s feel less like history and more like atmosphere, something soft, sparkly, and endlessly remixable.
Sui says that tension between familiarity and novelty is part of the appeal. "When you look at it from a modern perspective, especially now, it actually feels very new," she explains. "Something can feel familiar but unfamiliar at the same time, and I think that really matches KiiiKiii's identity. Instead of just bringing back the early 2000s exactly as they were, we wanted to reinterpret them in our own way."
According to byheyone, the team didn't begin by defining a specific era for the group's visuals. Instead, they were drawn to a feeling. "Something unfinished, a little rough, a little awkward, but still joyful," she says. "That kind of imperfect energy naturally connects with early internet culture and the Y2K period." The grainy textures, retro tech, and playful digital references that appear across KiiiKiii’s visuals reflect that sensibility. They aren't simply nostalgic references but expressions of the group's core energy.
Authenticity is a loaded concept in today’s pop landscape. In recent years, "being real" has often been framed in narrow terms: writing your own songs, baring your soul, stripping away spectacle in favor of seriousness and messy vulnerability. The implication, sometimes, is that playfulness or fantasy somehow makes a performance less genuine. KiiiKiii sees it differently. For them, authenticity doesn’t live outside creativity or imagination—it exists inside it.
"Authenticity doesn’t have to be heavy," Leesol says thoughtfully. "You can be carefree. You can make mistakes. It’s really about being yourself." Haum agrees, explaining that the group’s music embraces uncertainty rather than perfection. "Even the mistakes are mine," she says. "I just trust that my thoughts can exist without needing anyone else’s proof." In KiiiKiii’s world, being real isn't about proving something to others. It’s about trusting your instincts enough to follow wherever they lead.
Over the past year, the members have been learning what that looks like together. Since their debut last March with the polished pop song "I Do Me," the members say the biggest change isn't just individual improvement but the strength of their bond as a team. "We've definitely grown a lot," Haum says. "But what I feel most is how much stronger we've become together."
That collective identity is something the group describes in their own language. It unfolds the way girlhood does, shifting and expanding with every new version of themselves. Sui calls it "KiiiKiiiness," a signature energy that runs through everything they do. Even as the group experiments with different sounds, visuals, and concepts, that essence remains constant. "We've never shown just one image or one concept," Sui explains. "We try to explore different stories. With this comeback, we can show a new vibe, but also our authentic KiiiKiiiness.” Kya echoes the idea, describing each release as an opportunity to reveal "new colors, new faces, new images," while still holding onto the playful identity that defines them. "Inside all that newness," she says, "we try to keep the essence of KiiiKiiiness."
The members are also acutely aware of how young they still are. KiiiKiii debuted as teenagers; Kya joined the debut lineup just two weeks after arriving at Starship, though she had previously trained at another company. She says the other members helped her quickly find her place within the group. Right now, Jiyu says part of their goal is simply to stay present in the moment. "I actually feel like this job is best when you’re doing it at this age," she explains. "So we want to enjoy every moment with our members, every second, and just try whatever we want to do."
Sui agrees, saying she hopes to hold onto the feeling of those early experiences for as long as possible. "There are some emotions that only exist in your first year, your first try," she says. She still remembers the almost surreal feeling of performing on stage together for the first time. "I felt like I was in a dream," she recalls. "All the light sticks looked like real stars. In that moment, I realized, 'Oh, this is what I’ve been practicing for.'"
They've performed on dozens of stages since, each one sharpening their sense of who they are as a team. For Sui, that growth has been rooted less in individual confidence than in the trust they've built together. "We've gone through so many stages and experiences," she says. "Not just myself, but all of us. The trust we've built as a team helped us improve our teamwork, and that's really our source of confidence." Sui recalls that during concept shoots, the members often grab cameras themselves and photograph one another between takes. "We talk with each other so much and share so many ideas," she says. "Sometimes we end up taking the photos ourselves, and those moments become part of the concept.
But that closeness hasn't erased their differences. If anything, it's made space for them. "KiiiKiii is a group where each member brings a different energy. Some are playful, some are calm, and sometimes there's an unexpected, slightly quirky side," byheyone says. "Rather than trying to unify those differences, we let them exist and interact." Uncut Gem leaned into that idea, presenting the members in a raw, unpolished state, while Delulu Pack expands the world outward into something freer and more imaginative. Even now, their creative direction continues to evolve through ongoing conversations with the members, allowing each of them to interpret ideas in their own way.
Looking ahead, byheyone doesn't imagine KiiiKiii following a single fixed trajectory. Instead, she returns to the metaphor embedded in their music. "Like the lyrics of '404 (New Era),'" she says, "I see KiiiKiii as a group that keeps drifting outside fixed coordinates." Their future, in other words, may not follow a straight line. That uncertainty is part of the excitement.
If there's a thread connecting all of those ideas, it may be optimism. Kya approaches even serious situations with a bright perspective. "In every situation, I try to think positively," she says. "Even when things feel serious, we want to find our fun and our laughter inside it." Jiyu nods along, smiling. "Let’s just enjoy the moment," she says. "When you really dive into those moments, good things come after." At one point during the video call, she lifts her hands and, jokingly, sends a burst of positivity—or maybe KiiiKiiiness—through the screen, as if it might float just beyond the edge of the frame. A reminder that in KiiiKiii's world, the best things happen just outside it.
