RESCENE: 'People's girl group' label is 'too much' — we just want to be music you can trust

"It's a four-character idiom I've always loved. I was already happy just knowing it would become a RESCENE song title — and now I actually get to sing it. It feels surreal, and I'm so grateful." — Minami

The song grew from a brushstroke. Minami, who studied calligraphy in Japan for eight years, wrote the four characters as a personal goal for the year, and they became a B-side on the group's new album. The idiom is "baekwayoran," meaning "all flowers blooming in full splendor at once." Minami said a company director saw the calligraphy and turned it into a beautiful, stunning song. Now, two years after "Geoje Yaho" sent an older track to the top of the charts with a single phrase, RESCENE has again turned an everyday moment — this time a scene from YouTube — into music.

RESCENE — comprising Woni, Liv, Minami, May and Zena — held a media showcase Tuesday at Blue Square Woori WON Banking Hall in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, to mark the release of their fourth mini-album, "PULSE." "A miracle isn't something that comes easily, so we're deeply grateful that people use that word for us," said Woni, adding that the group hopes to make people think of that word once more. Woni singled out "the love of the fans who stayed with us until the very end" as the force that brought them this far. It was the group's first press showcase since the reverse chart run of "LOVE ATTACK."

RESCENE debuted in March 2024 under the newly founded label The Muse Entertainment, which three people — including the CEO — built with 10 million won ($7,460) in pooled funds. The group was the company's first girl group. The years of struggling to land even a single music-show stage turned completely around this past March, when a clip of Minami shouting "Geoje Yaho" on Woni's personal YouTube channel went viral as a meme, sending "LOVE ATTACK" — released in August 2024 — surging back up the charts. The song reached No. 1 on Melon's Top 100 in July, one year and 11 months after its original release. Adding their cover of KARA's "Pretty Girl," the two songs earned the group six music-show trophies. On Oct. 24, RESCENE became the first entertainers to receive honorary citizenship from Geoje City in South Gyeongsang Province.

"PULSE" is the first album of entirely original RESCENE material to follow that run. It comes four months after the remake single "Pretty Girl" and seven months after the last original new song, the digital single "Runaway," released in April. As a physical album, it is the first since the third mini-album "lip bomb" in November last year. Woni described "PULSE" as "an album that announces RESCENE's heart has truly begun to beat with full force."

With each album, RESCENE has chosen a signature scent, and for this one they chose musk. Starting with floral on their debut single, the group has moved through ambergris evoking the sea, soap, rain-washed grass, berry, incense and grapefruit. The album title "PULSE" refers to a heartbeat, but read in the language of perfumery it also means the pulse points — the wrists and nape of the neck — where fragrance is applied. Minami described musk as "a scent that resembles the shared warmth between us and the people who watch over us," adding, "It lingers softly and seeps in slowly, and we put our sincere wish into it — that it stays with us for a long time."

The title track "With" opens with a lyrical intro that steadies the breath before bass and drums lay down a foundation, then lets emotion burst all at once in the chorus. The song tells the story of following an echo that calls your name after a long wait, until you finally come face to face with "you." Lyrics about cheers that answer the song — turning the time spent running toward that moment into a promise to move forward together — are directed at the group's fandom, "Remain," who crossed the years of obscurity alongside them. Woni personally demonstrated the point choreography: forming a shadow fox with the fingers, holding it below the lips, then drawing two waves to the left and two to the right. Zena said the routine features "a great many moves where the five of us match as one body," urging fans to watch for "the synergy that comes out when we're united."

The final performance of the showcase was "Baekwayoran (Inside Out)." Despite the brightness the title suggests, the track opens with a heavy beat and low bass, over which soft R&B harmonies spread. The five members, dressed in suits, used chair choreography to carry the weight of the song. Liv explained the English subtitle "Inside Out" as capturing "the process of a brilliance that begins inside me blooming outward and spreading brightly into the world." Among the songwriters credited is EJAE, who contributed to and performed "Golden" from the Netflix animated series "KPop Demon Hunters."

The Muse Entertainment CEO Lee Ju-heon and Director Deepoolkim designed the overall album, writing the lyrics for all five tracks and co-composing and co-arranging the title track "With." Alongside "With" and "Baekwayoran," the album includes "Finest Thing," "MEME" and "Dragon." The members' next dreams are woven into those lyrics as well. Woni said the director always writes with the group in mind, and expressed a wish to one day write lyrics for the fans and the people around them and release it as a song.

In four months, the atmosphere around RESCENE has shifted. Liv reflected that "the love and attention you showed us during our last promotions made those four months fly by." Zena said the flood of expectations felt like "a really good kind of pressure," and admitted it drove her to work even harder in practice.

Despite the miracle-like reverse run and the "people's girl group" label that came with it, RESCENE remained modest in the face of the title the public had given them. May said the "people's girl group" designation "feels like far too much for us," adding that the group always strives to live up to whatever name people call them. Woni said the word "popular" still feels "strange and embarrassing," and said the hope is for "music you can trust from RESCENE" to become the group's defining description. Liv said the label she wants to earn is the same: "RESCENE, whose music you can always trust."

The members placed longevity above the scale of their fame. May said she hopes people will "think of RESCENE and love us for a long, long time — not just as a brief flash of buzz." The album's opening track, "Finest Thing," carries the same message: a song about recognizing the value built slowly over time, without being swayed by fleeting glamour. Minami said the goal — and the process of growth — is "not just chart results, but leaving our music and our scent imprinted on people." Woni, too, kept numbers out of it. "Rather than setting a numerical target and working hard toward it, I wanted to show RESCENE's color clearly," Woni said. "I practiced thinking that if we show it clearly through our skill and our music, people will recognize it."

The members also addressed concerns about Woni's health directly. Woni briefly left the stage during a celebratory performance at the opening ceremony for the APEC summit memorial hall in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, on Saturday due to breathing difficulties, then returned. The cause was a costume that had shrunk in the wash. "I'm completely fine," Woni said with a laugh, adding, "A tough girl from Geoje isn't going to be brought down by something like a piece of clothing." Woni took the blame for not checking the outfit in advance, then signed off to fans in the Geoje dialect: "Don't worry — I'll take good care of myself."

RESCENE's fourth mini-album "PULSE" was released on major music platforms at 6 p.m. Tuesday. "For us, 'PULSE' is, in one word, 'PULSE' itself," May said. "Receiving so much love and attention, the hearts of all five members are beating more fiercely right now than at any other time. We will make the hearts of everyone watching beat right along with ours."