CHAEYOUNG is the fourth member of the record-breaking K-pop group TWICE to step into the spotlight alone, following NAYEON, JIHYO and TZUYU. Her approach, though, is different.

LIL FANTASY vol.1 is built on intimacy—a small, self-made world drawn from her taste, instincts and day-to-day thoughts. The ten tracks wander between moods that don’t always sit neatly together: lightness edged with sadness, playfulness shadowed by frustration. She’s open about the process, too, candidly revealing to us the ways in which recording tracks like “SHOOT (Firecracker)” was often long and difficult. That mix of honesty and imagination makes the album less a detour from TWICE, and more a map into her own interior world.

Adding to the beautiful fragility of the record is the way it holds its contradictions. The coy sweetness of “BAND-AID,” the sharp energy of “RIBBON,” and the poignantly raw confessions of “BF” all pull in different directions, but together they sketch out the depths of an artist who refuses to be pinned down. Rather than smoothing those differences away, CHAEYOUNG leans into them with force, finding depth in the tension between them.

For all its dreamlike framing, the record is grounded by the reality of its making. She talks about hours in the studio that stretched to exhaustion, but also the chance moments that turned into inspiration. Just as notable is her hand in production itself: experimenting with DAWs like Ableton, sketching songs from scratch, and shaping the record not only as a performer but as a maker. Imperfection isn’t hidden here—it’s built into the fabric of the album. That gives LIL FANTASY vol.1 its weight: a debut that feels less like fantasy escapism and more like the candid, sometimes fragile, self-portrait of an artist in motion.

But, this song is very different in style and in its mood. It's different from what people are used to seeing me do as an artist. However, I didn't want to shock the listeners too much. We chose “AVOCADO” as a pre-release song, because we wanted to show the mood of this album and that this is going to be different from what you're used to. But at the same time, we wanted to choose ‘Shoot (Firecracker)’ as the title track because it fits the image people are used to seeing from me. It’s a danceable song, making it a natural choice both as a title track and as the TWICE member fans are familiar with. At the same time, it’s not exactly like any other K-pop song—it has a unique quality, and I wanted to capture both sides with this track.

4. GIRL

This is a song for the girls that have a similar taste and style as me. It's very calm and soothing, and the song is very guitar-driven. When I chose the theme of the song as girls, it was just quite natural that it would really go well with these guitar chords. Overall, this song and the lyrics just came out really naturally.

5. RIBBON (feat. SUMIN, Jibin of Y2K92)

I wanted to include a song that was made completely by female artists, and I started to think about who could be the best candidates. Jibin of Y2K92 is a very special, unique character in the Korean music scene, and SUMIN is probably the best R&B solo artist right now. These two just came to my mind very naturally, and I wanted to work with them. We met up, and we decided to write a song together, but we decided to write a melody and lyrics on our own—all three of us.

When we met up the next time, it was really surprising that all of us wrote about something that we overcame—specifically, a hardship that we overcame as female artists. It was very surprising to me that we wrote about the same thing, even when we wrote separately. The rest of the process just came out very naturally, and it all went very smoothly.

This song is the result of three artists who all work in different musical fields. I think it's a very interesting combination, and it's very rare to see the three of us together. I hope people like the harmony that we created, and the work that we collaborated on. I personally think this is the most aggressive song in the album, and I thought that it was a great choice to put it as the fifth track, because it kind of refreshes you as you’re listening to the whole album.

6. DOWNPOUR (feat. Gliiico)

When I was working on this song with Gliiico, it was during a downpour season in Japan; the downpour was really heavy during that season, and so we wanted to write something about it. Because of that, the song came out really quickly, and we made it really fast because we were writing it during that season. I thought that the instrumental was very addictive to listen to because it's a loop; it's very repetitive. This is one of the songs that I repeatedly listened to while making this album.

7. BF

“BF” is a very personal song to me, because it really reflects who I am in my life. I'm basically a very big homebody—I don't really go out that much, and I'm home a lot, and I don't really go out to meet friends either. I love dolls and stuffed animals, and over time I noticed they were piling up at home while I was seeing my friends less and less. That made me start asking myself: what’s really important? What matters more? Am I making the right choices? Those thoughts just came naturally, and the lyrics flowed from that.

I don’t necessarily have a favorite lyric, but the part about my stuffed toys just piling up and how I had more and more of them really reflects who I was at that time. That makes it very personal to me.

8. 그림자 놀이 (SHADOW PUPPET)

This song is also very personal to me. The lyrics are about how I, as a public figure, often have to conceal myself a lot when I go out. Whenever I do that, I kind of feel like I am a shadow. So that's what the lyrics are about. I worked with the legendary producer PEEJAY for this song, and on the first day working together, the intro part just came out. When we heard that intro part, we felt like the song was already complete; that's how powerful the intro part was. This is one of the songs that I'm most attached to. I just love this song so much.

9. 내 기타 (MY GUITAR)

We originally wanted to include this song in CDs only, but then we rearranged the song and it came out so great. It came out very acoustic and I just love the end result. We thought that it would be a waste to not put it on the album and put it on CDs only, so that's why we included it as the last track. This is my first solo song which I showcased during the READY TO BE TOUR. Ever since I sang the song during the tour, fans have been asking me when I was going to release this song. So in a sense, this song is the beginning of my solo album. Working on my solo album, this song kind of signaled the beginning. So that's why this song was very suitable to have as a last track, and to have it as a grand finale.

10. Lonely doll waltz (CD Only)

The last track doesn't have any vocals and it doesn't have any lyrics, but we wanted to include it in the CD-only version because this is one of the first songs that I made with Ableton. I was kind of just playing with it and it was kind of like sketching my idea with the instrument, and playing piano with Ableton. I played it while I was talking to my friends and the producers that I was working with, and they loved it. They suggested including it as the last track in CDs because it really sums up the mood of LIL FANTASY vol.1. It's cute, and yet at the same time, it's strange, and it's kind of awkward, and all of those things are kind of in this song. So it's basically like a small mini present to my fans who buy the CDs.