![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Cube Entertainment. I'm sure you know the name. Heard it around.
I know everybody has their own very personal and intense gripe with Cube Entertainment and I absolutely respect it. I want to clarify that this is not a Most Suffering Cube Entertainment Fan competition- in fact I am one of the most cubefampilled companycels out there. I try to keep up with all Cube artists (and end up getting sucked up into all their silly shenanigans) and learn about them and the ways Cube can treat them better.
However this is about My gripe with Cube Entertainment: the Cube new boy group. The stuff of urban legends. Nowadays.
It's been so long that they're finally debuting. They're the reason I'm returning to write down this long long post about their lore, so that their fans will know all the fallen soldiers in the making of NOWADAYS.
It's gonna be a long ride.
Before
The First Era: 2016-2018
The Second Era: 2019-2020
The Third Era: 2020-2021
The Fourth Era: 2021-present
Notable Trainees
What happened?
Where are they now?
Nowadays
This is some basic information about Cube Entertainment and context leading up to the beginning; if you have basic knowledge of who the other Cube artists are and what they get up to (or simply don't care to know hehe) then feel free to skip ahead!
Cube Entertainment was founded on August 26, 2009 by Hong Seungsung and Shin Junghwa, originally named Playcube Inc. Hong Seungsung was the former president of JYP Entertainment- we can see the Cube-JYP connection even here.
Cube debuted 5 member girl group 4Minute in June 2009 and 6 member boy group BEAST (initially called B2ST) in October 2009. Disclaimer, I am not an expert on these two groups and if you are interested, I'm sure many introductory content exist out there for both of them, written by fans who know much more than me!
Kim Hyunah, AKA HyunA, actually first debuted with JYP Entertainment group Wonder Girls in February 2008, before leaving the group in July 2008 due to health issues. However, she later then joined Cube Entertainment and re-debuted with 4Minute. BEAST also had members who trained under different companies in preparation for other groups before ending up at Cube Entertainment- Yoon Doojoon who competed on the show Hot Blooded Men made by JYP Entertainment to produce the groups 2PM and 2AM, and Jang Hyunseung who appeared as part of Big Bang's lineup in the YG documentary Big Bang Documentary where he was later cut.
The interesting thing to note here is that Cube Entertainment's practice of recruiting trainees from the Big 3 agencies (SM, YG, JYP) is almost ingrained into its foundation. BEAST was even known as the group of "recycled idols" because two of them were from Big 3 companies (though it had a much more negative connotation compared to now).
We won't go into depth about every Cube artist and business change within Cube because I'm trying to keep this as concise as possible. But basically, Hong Seungsung became sick throughout this period and although he remained involved to some degree with Cube Entertainment, he stepped down in late 2012 and Park Chungmin took his place.
Let's skip up to 2016. In between 2009 and 2016, G.NA, (remember her??) HyunA, (as a soloist) Apink (under a Cube subsidiary) BTOB, and CLC all debuted. However, at the end of 2015, Cube Entertainment started to experience a lot of internal changes when the Cube subsidiary that Apink was under, A Cube, was acquired by LOEN entertainment. This was accompanied by a move of Cube headquarters in early 2016 and the airing of Pentagon Maker, a survival show for the upcoming Cube group, Pentagon. Then 4Minute disbands in June, Pentagon's debut is delayed to October amidst this mess, and BEAST leaves Cube Entertainment.
At the end of 2016, Shin Daenam replaces Park Chungmin as CEO of Cube Entertainment. He was a former editor of the journal Ilgan Sports and president of Yedang Media. Honestly, by the end of 2016, Cube Entertainment was a complete mess. 4Minute, BEAST, Apink were all gone, BTOB and CLC haven't had their breakthrough moment yet, Pentagon had just debuted, and they changed their CEO. Cube had to do something. Anything.
This is where the story starts.
What everyone thinks of when the words "Cube new boy group" come to mind are two names: Lai Guanlin [1] and Yoo Seonho.
Yoo Seonho joins Cube Entertainment roughly in September 2016, not knowing how it would change his life forever. In fact, I don't think he even expected to pass his audition- when he talks about it, he mentions he was scouted at a music festival and only went to the audition to see BTOB. [2] He also says he forgot all the lyrics and choreography to EXO's Growl in the second round of the auditions but somehow made it through the audition still!
In fact, many notable Cube trainees from this era join around the same time as Seonho, such as Guanlin himself. Someone who also joined Cube at the same time as Seonho was Park Serim of Cravity! I personally speculate that Yoon Min joined around the same time, or just a bit later, as well as maybe Jung Youngbin, and Oscar.
As far as I know, Lai Guanlin joined Cube Entertainment because he accompanied his friend to the Cube Star World Audition in Taiwan in 2016. I don't have an official source on this because I didn't dig particularly hard for this but I've heard bits and pieces of this over the years. Feel free to reach out if you have a source!
There are a few noted trainees who are already known as Cube Entertainment trainees by this point. In the music video for Young by Pentagon [3] (featured in Pentagon Maker and MV released on July 8th 2016) the trainees Jo Woochan, Lee Juhyeon (of Lightsum), Lee Jongwon and Suh Jimin.
For the two female trainees, Juhyeon of course goes on to debut in Lightsum! Suh Jimin leaves Cube at some point and joins Wakeone Entertainment, then appearing on Girls Planet 999 in 2021 before being eliminated from the show, current whereabouts unknown.
In 2017, a lot of things happen. Let's take a chronological look:
February:
Park Serim leaves Cube Entertainment because he gets recruited into YG through his dance academy!
March:
On March 10th 2017, Cube posts the profile pictures for Lai Guanlin and Yoo Seonho on the Cube Tree page. Quick refresher on Cube Tree: it's basically the Cube-run social media accounts dedicated to the Cube trainees they want to introduce, which Pentagon and G-Idle were prominently featured on before their respective debuts. However, Cube will do occasional cleanses which means many of these pictures have been deleted since.
Produce 101 Season 2 had already started filming at this point, but the day before (March 9) was when the contestants were all revealed through the theme song airing. The show itself airs through April to June 16th.
To summarize, sending Seonho and Guanlin to Produce 101 Season 2 was the perfect choice on Cube Entertainment's part. Both of them became immensely popular; Guanlin debuts in Wanna One as rank 7th and Seonho finishes in rank 17th. The Wanna One contract ended on December 31st 2018, but Guanlin doesn't come back into play until later. In the meantime, Seonho does a bunch of variety appearances and just has fun.
May:
Roughly every year, Cube will bring their trainees, boys and girls, out to a field trip. This year, they went to Lotte World!
These pictures are so cute. A reminder of a better time. There's a total of 5 male trainees: Oscar is wearing a grey hoodie, Guanlin is wearing a striped shirt, Seonho is wearing a pink shirt, and the two smaller kids are Lee Jongwon and Jo Woochan. Also there are most if not all of G-Idle, as well as Chowon and Juhyeon.
June:
Show Me the Money 6 airs, featuring the youngest rapper to grace the show at 13 years old (Korean age), Jo Woochan the Cube trainee. The show ends in September and with Jo Woochan making it to the semi-final, which is not an easy feat!
August:
Cube Tree updates their account with a new trainee by the name OSC on August 30th.
This is Oscar Wang! He is also occasionally seen around the Cube building with Seonho and Woochan during this time. Guanlin debuts in Wanna One in the meantime. Seonho also says at some point that while Guanlin moved out, his new roommate is also Chinese, which is probably Oscar.
September:
Cube Tree reveals a new trainee by the name of LJW on September 21st.
This is Lee Jongwon! This is a very blurry screenshot of the thumbnail of a dance cover video that was posted on the Cube Tree youtube channel. The video on the official channel no longer exists, but it's a dance practice version of the song Goodbye by Taemin, which he later performs. [4] However, I'm not sure if the video was posted at this time or after...
October:
Cube Tree is crazy active this year, huh. They reveal yet another "new" trainee by the name of JWC on October 3rd.
I'm not sure if this is the first time he appears on Cube Tree but well it's not like I can check now :') This is the only date I have for it!
Ok we are finally at the end of 2017. What a crazy year! Now for 2018... It's a pretty quiet year for the trainees as um... other things were happening at Cube Entertainment. However, I don't think that the other things happening disrupted the plans for the boy group as they weren't supposed to debut this year anyway.
First thing that happens in 2018 is that Jo Woochan participates in OGZSCHOOL, a project boy group by Cube and Starship Entertainment. One of them (Park Hyeonjin) was on Kpop Star 6 as a duo with another guy who is now in P1Harmony (Jongseob). Nothing to do with Cube really but just a little fun fact. Literally nothing else comes out of this collab but it's pretty cool.
Next, Cube Tree posts a new profile on May 8th of a trainee named JYB.
This is Jung Youngbin. In the grand scheme he's not as notable as some other trainees because he leaves soon after this gets posted, maybe before the end of the year? Which makes his reveal on Cube Tree somewhat puzzling. He goes on Produce X 101 in 2019 as an independent trainee which means he definitely left before 2019. We'll catch up with him later in the "Where are they now" section!
This is personal speculation but I think that Oh Seongmin joined Cube around this time. I'll take any opportunity to talk about Oh Seongmin so here: he's good friends with Han Chowon and somehow I managed to match these pictures together haha
In November, Lee Jongwon goes on Under Nineteen! Despite little screen time, he makes it to the final round but fails to debut in 1THE9. He basically disappears after this and is never seen again- I can only assume he left the trainee life and became a non-celebrity.
Remember the yearly Cube trainees trip? Some time in 2018, they went to a temple? Palace? It's kind of unclear where this is but there's this picture left from that time.
Have fun picking out guys you might know. I personally think Oh Seongmin is in this picture but that's purely based on vibes.
As I said, nothing much happens in 2018 compared to 2017 and 2019. Let’s set the scene. It’s early 2019. Guanlin has returned to Cube with massive unparalleled clout from being in Wanna One. Seonho has built up momentum with acting. Lee Jongwon has just come back fresh from Under Nineteen with a bit of clout. Jo Woochan still has SMTM6 clout! This is the year for the Cube new boy group to debut for sure.
There are 4 boy trainees spotted in the background of Pentagon's Pentory #80 [5] (filmed March 2019 (28th I think)) but it is way too blurry for us to see anything other than that they’re probably taller than Hui? People say one of them is Crayon AKA Chen Yugeng but I’m not sure about that! I tried to insert a screenshot but it's really bad, you can look for the video yourself! I think the one with the white hoodie might be Yoon Min???
I hope you enjoyed 2017-2018 because it's the first wave of prominent trainees that made their way through Cube Entertainment. It was a hopeful time, because they were all working towards the debut of the boy group in 2019. How nice...
Now we get to the real meat of what went down in 2019. You should buckle in, because a lot happens.
Guanlin files a lawsuit against Cube Entertainment to terminate his exclusive contract in July. Now this is an overview of the entire Cube trainee history and I’m not a lawyer but long story short, I believe the lawsuit was about Cube selling his contract rights in China to a third party without notifying him? Either way, Cube wins the suit and technically, Guanlin remains under Cube but Cube is obviously not happy with him… I believe from this point, Guanlin goes to China where Cube has no control over him, picks up a few acting gigs there, and never steps foot in Korea again except to show up in court.
Jo Woochan also leaves Cube in July, I believe to focus on his studies? (Keep in mind that as a 05, he was literally only 14 years old international age at this point…) Or was it something about creative differences? Either way, he’s out and becomes an independent artist, opens his own Instagram and releases a little song.[6]
This obviously derails the plan to debut a group this year. So Cube decides to start over entirely. They do a little thing called the September Exodus where they got rid of basically all the known trainees. We lose Lee Jongwon and Oscar via their pictures getting deleted off Cube Tree… (I believe Kwon San also leaves at this time? He’s not really part of this but I’m including him anyways to make this really thorough... You can learn about him in the "Notable Trainees" section)
Two new trainees are revealed on Cube Tree:
On August 11th, this boy is revealed with the caption "콩콩콩".
He's very commonly mistaken for Jo Sebin, a female Cube trainee who was on the show Capteen (2020), for some reason. But his name is Ahn Yekun... We'll catch up with him later in the "Where are they now" section ^^
On September 13th, this boy is revealed with the caption "Chuseok Gift".
People think this is Jung Yeonwoo. Could it be? The comments on the original post say so!
There is also this image of the lockers in 2019, although I'm not sure when it was posted? The earliest date I could find of this image being posted is September 2019.
Don't worry if you can't read hangul, I've compiled all the names and who they are:
Male trainees:
Jung Yeonwoo (Chuseok Gift...)
Yoon Min
Ahn Yekun (콩콩콩 boy)
Lee Junghoon (see: Where are they now)
Female trainees:
Lee Juhyeon (Lightsum)
Jo Sebin (Capteen)
Choi Jimin (female trainee?)
Yoo Gaeul (She’s was under Starting House Entertainment for some time but did not debut with their girl group ADYA... however a different ex-cube trainee did, Ryu Yeonsu! Not sure where Yoo Gaeul's current whereabouts are.)
Kae Seorin (female trainee)
In October, Jang Yunseo AKA Vongole pasta one dish guy from YG Treasure Box is spotted with Seonho, which is a pretty clear indication of him being a Cube trainee unless he was just hanging out with Seonho in the Cube Cafe for no reason! His instagram was previously deleted in March 2019, which suggests he could've been in Cube for some time before October.
Here is a blurry screenshot of the now-privated video of them in the Cube cafe (was it still 20space at this time?)
For Halloween, Cube takes their trainees on their annual field trip! This year's destination is Everland and they have so many trainees that they split them up into two pictures!
Cute! Unfortunately, there's no time to get into the girl trainees, but you can see Han Chowon pretty clearly lol
I don't even know what to say. There's 17 boys in this photo... I can't even name over 10 male trainees that I'm 100% positive were in Cube when this was taken. I counted very hard and came up with a list of about 13 trainees... and that's including Kwon San, which I don't do.
if you want some SPECULATION: I think the guy in the bucket hat on the left side is Yoon Min, the second guy in the back row (on “Yoon Min’s” right) with most of his face visible might be Ahn Yekun? The center boy might be Jung Yeonwoo? Who knows! Jang Yunseo should be there though. Maybe Tajima Shogo and Lee Junghoon too? Feel free to play along at home haha
I think that there was a set lineup for a 2019 debut before Guanlin just Had to go and sue Cube (this is a joke I actually think he was fully justified in suing Cube and Cube is horrible for not terminating his contract) and they had to make a different lineup after Guanlin blew the whole thing up... which led to a bunch of trainees leaving because they didn't make the cut.
However the lineup changes again...
In February-March of 2020, Cube had a change in shareholders and elected a new CEO, who had different plans for the cube new boy group and changed the lineup AGAIN! He launched the 2020 Exodus, which got rid of all the trainees that he thought were "too old,” and the line that was drawn there was... 00 liners. Thus began the 2020 Exodus of trainees who left...
Casualties of the 2020 Exodus include:
Yoon Min :( poor Yoonmin… He’s been here for three years, which puts him as a trainee since the FIRST ERA. Jang Yunseo also showed support for him when he went on LOUD in 2021!
There’s also this pic of him with his crumpled up cube locker name tag that's very cathartic to look at
SPECULATION: I think Tajima Shogo, a Japanese ‘98 liner, was also a casualty. He's good friends with Pentagon Yuto and later got on Produce Japan Season 2 and made it into the final group INI :)
SPECULATION: Park Hyun is a trainee suspected to be a part of the lineup around this time who made an instagram account at the same time as Jang Yunseo and Yoon Min. We'll follow up with him later.
Near the end of 2020, Jung Yeonwoo/Chuseok Gift's picture gets deleted off Cube Tree, making everyone think he left Cube. But things are not what it seems...
Usually after an Exodus, Cube does a new round of auditions and picks up new trainees. This is when I think a few of the Boys Planet era boys came in and also left. I think Park Hanbin and Park Minseok left around this time and Seok Matthew joined after they left, and Sung Hanbin had joined in 2019 but managed to survive the 2020 Exodus.
After clearing out their trainees, Cube Tree did a little project where they got their trainees to curate playlists and posted them "anonymously" or with nicknames. Some of them were linked to Lightsum members but some of them... we might never know. We do know one of them was Jang Yunseo but that's it...
Now we're really down to the core people left. Let's see what happens in 2021.
Unfortunately, Jang Yunseo the pasta boy appears to have left cube early 2021 because he opened an instagram account in March 2021! He posted an old pic in April (dated February 2021) of him and Seonho being very good friends... It seems like he has aspirations for becoming an actor? He and Seonho follow each other publicly and often like and comment on each other’s posts!
The Cube audition account posted this video on April 16th [7] of a masked boy playing the piano and nobody has figured out who it is but now that I'm looking at it again could it be Jinhyuk?
I genuinely want to show this to Jinhyuk and ask if it's him
As of June 2021, Guanlin has been legally freed from the clutches of Cube Entertainment. He’s now free to go direct movies or act or whatever it is he does now and never step foot in Korea again as he desires!
Another thing that happened in June 2021: Yeeun posted a picture in front of the cube lockers... You can see one that says “Kim Geonwoo,” which is a name we’ve never heard of... All other tags were taken down.
Remember how Jung Yeonwoo’s picture was deleted off the Cube page sometime in late 2020? Well he makes his acting debut in Cheeze’s MV[8] for the song I’ve never liked this way before in July and is credited as under Cube!
Jung Yeonwoo is credited, alongside members of Cube staff, which confirms Yeonwoo was at Cube for this.
Yunseo also posts about it on instagram to cheer on Yeonwoo!
Another music video also comes out in July 2021- Beam Beam by Soyeon. Featured in the background of her video are two female trainees and two male trainees, which we now know are Yeonwoo and Jinhyuk. We'll circle back to this.
I think around this time, mid 2021, a lot of trainees leave again. I'm debating if I want to add a third 2021 Exodus to the list because I'm fairly certain that Ahn Yekun, maybe Park Hyun, Seok Matthew, and Sung Hanbin all leave around this time.
There was a funny rumor that Ahn Yekun enlisted in 2020 or 2021 and was supposed to come back in time to debut in the new boy group... His picture was up on Cube Tree until very late in 2021, but he opened his instagram around September 2021 so everyone knew by then that 1. He wasn’t in the military and 2. He left Cube lol. If I remember correctly, he was following Lee Junghoon and maybe Yunseo? Unfortunately both of those two deactivated their accounts so I can’t check! Interestingly, he did post a reel of himself to the song I’ve never liked this way before by Cheeze :’)
Weirdly, Cube Tree posted this random dancing video[9] in August. No follow up information or anything, just this video?? Then it was completely silent on Cube Tree again (They did post for Lee Yunji when she went on Girls Planet 999 then deleted them a while after she finished Girls Planet 999 and left Cube, she’s now in ILY:1)
The last wave of notable trainees leaving in the middle of 2021 kind of closes out this era of lots of messy changes. Oh, also I think Kim Hyeonbin joins Cube around this time, since his photos on Ggumnamu, WM's version of Cube Tree, gets deleted and all the trainees leave after the merger with RBW.
After 2021, things seem to shape up at Cube Entertainment. 2022 begins the era of ACTUAL Cube new boy group content- they seemed to have (mostly) finalized the lineup at the end of 2021.
We got our first taste of the actual REAL POSSIBLE Cube new boy group lineup during BTOB’s episode of The Manager (End of February)[10] with 6 masked boy trainees who covered Crown during the episode. They also hugged Eunkwang, which was really cute!!
Everyone had their own pieces of speculation about who the boys are but well... I don't want to spoil it... So let's just keep going! The only thing to note is that there are 6 masked boy trainees in this episode and that shortly after, Cube put out news about possibly debuting their boy group early 2023.
There's finally movement on the Cube Tree page! They post parts of their "persona" sheets and participate in the Tomboy challenge.[11] They also attend the Pentagon fanmeeting on April 2nd. [12]
I hate to spoil it but this is in fact Jinhyuk!!
They also finally post pictures from Soyeon's Beam Beam Music Video, confirming two of the guys are trainees.
Again I hate to spoil it but it's Yeonwoo and Jinhyuk!!
Then Cube Tree is dead silent, even as 2023 approaches. It's completely silent. I do have a theory why this is, but we'll get to it.
Then on October 4th, 2023, all hell breaks loose. The group of five Cube trainees are spotted in both Naples, Italy, and London, United Kingdom, in the span of a few days. There are so many pictures out there of them on the streets, in filming locations, at the airport...
But Cube doesn't say anything. The lineup and imminent debut of the boy group is essentially confirmed and yet they never said anything.
Only until now, in February 2024, do we get these posters with mysterious QR codes that lead us back to these boys and the name Nowadays. Cube began launching information, profiles and debut trailers for the five member lineup of Nowadays in March and the rest is history.
This section is for guys who still ended up officially debuting, either in a group/band or as a soloist. For other guys, see the "Where are they now" section.
Ok let’s get this cleared up: Kwon San AKA Kenji San was most likely going to be an actor (he was an actor trainee) and was in Cube since 2015! He was revealed in March 2019 but got deleted (most likely during the September exodus?) and then signed with Woollim right before/after Drippin's debut and now I believe he’s also left Woollim? But I see him included as one of the idol trainees all the time and that's just not true, he's only an actor trainee.
Now let's get really chronological and tackle EVERY 4th/5th gen male idol who has ever trained at Cube Entertainment!
Kim Seunghun of YG Treasure Box and CIX fame was at Cube very early on, around 2010-2011 (where he was doted on by BTOB) and left before Pentagon’s formation i think (he was part of YG silver boys & the Stray Kids survival show so he was definitely in YG by 2016/2017)
Yonghoon from ONEWE was a CUBE trainee for around 2-3 months in 2013! This[14] is his casting story and apparently he used to try and rap? (video from his guest appearance on penbamra) Here’s[15] a story about him and BTOB… :’) And here’s him with Shinwon:
Yeonjun from TXT trained around the same time as most of Pentagon so around 2014 i believe! He didn't stay for that long i think because he apparently joined bighit in 2014 so… But Shinwon was quite fond of him it seems?
Something I’m also curious about is the Cube ace team. Soyeon mentioned this ace team from her nation-wide audition round, consisting of her, Lightsum’s Juhyeon, Pentagon’s Wooseok and “someone who ended up debuting in another company” (which people assumed to be Yeonjun because they both joined Cube in 2014 and this was during TXT’s debut era), and like one other mystery person who is not mentioned. First of all I wonder who the other mystery person is... But also I wonder if “someone who ended up debuting in another company” is actually Yeonjun? Though I can’t think of who else it could be, everyone else on this list joined after 2014.
Subin from Victon also trained at Cube between leaving JYP and joining Plan A (2015ish to 2016ish) around the same time as Pentagon! As a 99 liner everyone saw him as a baby... But he was close to Kino too I think? They worked together for the Storage M Five Senses stage!
Park Serim from Cravity joined the first batch with Seonho in September 2016 and left soon after because he entered YG in February 2017 (and left YG by mid 2018 when he joined Starship, where he is!) Seonho[16] mentions being close to him because they trained together even if not for long :) Shinwon also seems to have known him from trainee days!
Credit to yoyo for the translation!
Jerome from TO1 aka Oh Sungmin from Boys Planet aka Oh Seongmin from ONEPACT also trained at Cube for an indeterminate amount of time! I’m not sure when he joined (I guess some time in 2017?) and left around mid 2018. According to him, he was transferred from Cube to n.CH through the staff? I’m not sure what happened and I’ve never heard of this happening with the other trainees but he became a n.CH trainee in December 2018. His playlists from 2017 suggests he was at Cube since around 365 Fresh (May 2017) maybe? At the very least since September 2017! He also talks about a really sweet interaction with Eunkwang from his Cube days[17] (which means he met Eunkwang before his enlistment in August 2018??) He still listens to Cube artists and supports Han Chowon… Cute…
Lien from Mirae also trained at Cube for some time, though I haven’t been able to nail down the timeline! From what I have gathered so far, he came to Korea from Japan during about 2017? Or I think he mentions it as around Pentagon’s debut era? Jinho is a vocal trainer for the Cube trainees and taught Lien a lot, even giving him an iPod[18] so he can practice better. I’m not sure when he left Cube (he didn’t seem to stay very long) but he did also train at Starship for a little bit after? Then he finally ended up at DSP Media! As a fellow Japanese ‘98 liner, he was pretty close to Yuto as well :)
Do you remember the Jung Youngbin mentioned earlier? He was revealed on Cube Tree in 2018 and left promptly after? Well I believe he left really early in 2019 or very late in 2018 because he joined Produce X 101 as an individual trainee rather than on Cube’s behalf. According to his Produce X profile, he trained for 2 years and 6 months, which actually… puts him entering Cube around the same time as Seonho and Serim’s time… He was followed by Kwon San around Produce X 101 era as well, which lines everything up timeline wise. He then debuted as part of Luminous in 2021! It seems like he was/is friends with Kino and Shinwon because they did the All Eyes Down tiktok Challenge together in February 2022 :)[19]
Park Hyun is an interesting case: He created an instagram around the same time as Yoon Min and Jang Yunseo and is still following/followed by Jang Yunseo in addition to the picture he posted from the nbg dorms. But we don’t know much about his time at Cube or how long he trained there? It seems like he was pretty close to Jang Yunseo, which means he could’ve joined around 2019 before leaving in 2020. He went on a survival show called Stars Awakening and ended up in the final group called nSSign!
Oscar… I feel so bad for Oscar because he worked so hard. I believe he said he trained for 3 years in Korea/Cube (2016-2019) but eventually left because of all the delays to the new boy group. (I mean, he's right. He would've had to wait until 2024 if he stayed, if he didn't get kicked for being too old along the way...) He joined two survival shows in China, the second being Produce Camp 2021, where he places #13, just short of top 11 :( But he’s been able to curate a good fan base and work on solo music! Good for him, he’s really talented! It also seems like he keeps in touch/is still close with some of G-Idle… Here’s him hanging out with Yuqi at Universal Studios Beijing:
Chael from LUN8… He’s rumored to be a Cube trainee, along with Takuma from LUN8. Takuma was also close to Seonho! At the 2024 AAA awards, Seonho mentions that Takuma is his friend, and Takuma votes Seonho for best actor! [22]
Minho from 8TURN also appeared to have trained at Cube based on his relationship with Hui?? They did a tiktok together at Cube… However he doesn’t seem to know Chael at all so my guess is that he was at Cube much earlier than Chael and they never overlapped.
Chen Yugeng and Lin Shiyuan both trained at Cube for a short period of time before leaving and eventually ending up on Boys Planet. In Chen Yugeng's case, he was on Youth with You 3 in 2021 but failed to make it into IXFORM, which idk maybe worked out in his favor. As far as I know, I don't think either of them are planning on returning to Korea/Kpop.
Dang Hong Hai also trained at Cube in 2019! I'm not sure the exact duration of time he was there but there was a popular rumor around the time about there being a Vietnamese trainee at Cube, which sounds like it's Dang Hong Hai given that there are no other Vietnamese Cube trainees that I know of! But he presumably left some time later and ended up in Fantagio Entertainment, when he joined Boys Planet in 2023. He was eliminated but still did not end up debuting in Lun8. Which is kind of bizarre, I still think he should've been added to Lun8 so that Lun8 can have yet another ex-Cube member (jk). Anyway, as of 2024, he's signed under Dongyo Entertainment, possibly to debut as an actor?
Park Minseok also trained at Cube for a period of time between 2019-2020 before leaving to Wakeone Entertainment. I gave him that time frame because he seems to have met both Park Hanbin and Sung Hanbin while at Cube and just based on his lack of closeness with trainees that came after him like Matthew and closeness to the other Wakeone trainees. He was on Boys Planet in 2023 but was eliminated, then left Wakeone Entertainment and joined Beat Interactive. He is part of Beat Interactive's predebut group, New Beat, and made appearances in other Beat Interactive artists' music videos and activities. Hopefully he's able to debut with New Beat!
This 4cut of Minseok and Park Hanbin is dated March 14th 2021!
This 4cut of Minseok and Sung Hanbin has no date but I think it is roughly the same time that Minseok took the other one with Park Hanbin.
Park Hanbin... Park Hanbin! From the best I can estimate, he also joined in 2019-2020, maybe around the same time as Minseok or a bit earlier? I'll get into it more when we discuss the Shogo picture but he knew many of the trainees from that time, including Park Minseok and Sung Hanbin and most importantly, Yoon Min. He left Cube and went on the survival show LOUD alongside Yoon Min but was eliminated. Then he went to Wakeone and entered Boys Planet, making it to the finals. Now he's part of the Jellyfish Entertainment boy group Evnne!
He and Yoon Min were really really close. This 4cut is also interestingly dated one day after Hanbin took his 4cut with Minseok. They also used to take dance classes together at Just Jerk in 2021![20]
They're so cute together!
Now Sung Hanbin... Where do we begin with Sung Hanbin? I think he entered Cube late 2019 but he stayed longer than Park Minseok or Park Hanbin did. I don't think he left until late 2021? Honestly a lot of it is kind of fuzzy but he seems to know Minseok, Hanbin and Matthew, so he spent the most time at Cube I think. But most interestingly, he said lately that his nickname Hamjji originated from someone in Nowadays and seemed pretty excited that Nowadays is going to debut.[21] I wonder who he knows? My bet is on Yeonwoo but that's not really based on anything other than vibes. After leaving Cube, he signed to Studio Gl1de and went on Boys Planet, successfully debuting as part of Zerobaseone.
Seok Matthew entered the latest out of the Boys Planet group of Cube trainees. Again, really fuzzy on the details but in my personal opinon, he went to Hybe early 2020 (or possibly even late late 2019) for a while before leaving mid 2020 and joining Cube after Minseok and Park Hanbin had left. Then he was there until late 2021 when he left presumably at the same time Sung Hanbin did. Again this is all my personal opinion, I haven't dug super hard into Matthew's Cube timeline recently, so there might be new information I'm not aware of? He then signed to MNH and went on Boys Planet, also successfully debuting as part of Zerobaseone.
Phew, I think that's everyone?
Ok, well now let's talk about the Shogo picture. If we don't do it here, we'll never do it.
During Shogo’s run on Produce 101 Japan season 2, he somehow was able to show this picture of him and 4 other Cube trainees???
Scholars still passionately debate about this topic to this day. It’s difficult to narrow down when this picture was taken because I'm also not certain how long Shogo was at Cube or when he entered. But if it helps, apparently Shogo’s friend/family member sent in videos for his audition and he went to Korea on vacation to audition and got in? I originally thought he left during the 2020 Exodus in early 2020 though, so this picture would have to be taken in 2019 because he and Yoon Min are still here. But other possibilities can exist: maybe black hat isn't Yoon Min? Maybe Shogo didn't leave until mid-late 2020?
A common interpretation that I still currently stand by is that from left to right:
Tajima Shogo, Jang Yunseo in blue, Seonho in the black, Yoon Min in the black hat, and Ahn Yekun in the striped shirt.
It at least matches up with pictures we currently have of these exposed trainees, and the timing would've been accurate for 2019.
On the topic of this image, we have to address something. We know that this lineup definitely were living in a dorm together based on some pictures they've posted since from that era. Here is a compiled version from a user I've lost since- if you're this person, let me know so I can credit!
You can see lots of similarities between the couches they post on, as well as the couch and living room? Well there's at least two other people who lived in this dorm at some point in time, maybe overlapping, maybe not.
I present the updated couch collage. I've added a screenshot from one of Park Hanbin's old archived instagram stories that I was casually looking at when the spirit that occasionally possesses me to become crazy about Cube trainees shook me awake and pointed out he's in the cube nbg dorm here. You can literally match the clothes on the rack to the rack in Jang Yunseo's photo, I'm not crazy!! The other image is of Park Hyun from his old instagram, taken when he was leaving Cube. I can't confirm any of the other trainees with visual evidence of having lived there, but I don't think it's a stretch to consider that other trainees around that time (2019) could've lived in the dorms together with this lineup.
You come to me and you ask me, what happened? What went wrong for Cube? Why did Nowadays only debut in 2024?
Well there's a lot of ways to answer that question.
Cube’s stakeholder changes is a commonly attributed cause of all the new boy group delays and the two Exoduses.
“On January 23 [2019], D’Live Co. sought to sell its stakes in entertainment units iHQ Inc. and Cube Entertainment Inc. Currently, D’Live owns a 45 percent stake in iHQ and a 30 percent stake in Cube Entertainment.”
This might have happened due to Cube losing Hyuna and Dawn the previous year? I think a major stakeholder pulling out might have freaked Cube out and rather than debut the boy group, they decided to capitalize more on Han Chowon’s popularity post-Produce 48 and signed her and Juhyeon on as artists to prepare for Lightsum. That officially put the boy group on hold, which led to the September Exodus (most of them did leave voluntarily, as Oscar has stated before)
“On February 21 [2020], VT GMP reportedly has acquired 30.61% stake in Cube Entertainment, changing Cube's largest shareholder from iHQ to VT GMP, and plans on playing an active role in strengthening the business and pushing the Hallyu Wave through it subsidiary KVLY. On March 26, Shin Dae-nam has resigned as CEO of Cube Entertainment. Ahn Woo-hyung and Lee Dong-kwan was appointed as the new CEO of Cube Entertainment. Ahn Woo-hyung is the CEO of KVLY and Lee Dong-kwan is the VT GMP vice president.”
This was a MAJOR change for Cube. VT GMP is a cosmetics and media commerce company, I’m actually not sure why they suddenly decided to invest in Cube? Either way, once the CEO changed, they made a lot of changes to the plans for the new boy group and new girl group (Lightsum). I’m not sure about predebut Lightsum or the history of the female trainees but the new CEOs created the 2020 Exodus to get rid of the older trainees, which means they were narrowing down on debuting the new boy group, which lines up with Eunkwang saying in April that Seonho and his ~friends~ are preparing to debut. However, I think maybe they got rid of too many people because they spent 2020-2021 auditioning like crazy to find good enough talent to replace the people they got rid of in the 2020 Exodus (YOON MIN) and then focused back on the girl group instead (Nayoung, Jian, Huiyeon were recruited quite late)
I think following the 2020 CEO change and subsequent 2020 Exodus, they opened auditions to try and find people to replace the really talented trainees they had (YOON MIN). I am not sure about the trainees we’ve never got to see in survival shows, but many of them were strong well rounders (YOON MIN). I think Cube struggled to find a main vocalist in their team as well, seeing as some of their casting calls were looking for vocalists specifically.
If I have to estimate, I think sometime around mid-2021 was when Seonho decided not to be in the new boy group. This also left yet another hole in the debut team (remember that Cube wanted to debut both the nbg and ngg/Lightsum in the same year) that they had to fill, the role of someone with predebut fame that could draw more attention to the team, meaning they had to go search for new talent (I personally think this is how/why/when they recruited Kim Hyeonbin, which lines up with the RBW-WM merger taking place mid-2021 and them letting all their trainees go)
As for why Seonho decided not be in the new boy group... I think the worst thing Cube Entertainment did was everything they did to Yoo Seonho. He was full of hopes of being an idol and they strung him along for 4 years, when he watched all his friends either debut or leave or leave and debut somewhere else… And now he changed his career into becoming an actor… He has said before that he feels content with that decision and I’ll support him (Hell, I watched World of my 17 season 2 for him) but I can only wonder what could have been!
As for why there was such a big gap between 2022 and the debut now in 2024... Do you remember how there were 6 masked boy trainees in the episode of The Manager? And Cube Tree social media entirely shut down mid 2022... and now the lineup for Nowadays is 5 people? Yep. I'm pretty sure that one boy either left or was somehow kicked out (?!) mid 2022, derailing the debut plans again. I think Cube was actually going to debut the boys in 2023 but was forced to start everything over because that guy left.
I guess alternatively Cube decided to delay plans some more and that boy decided to leave... but it seemed like at that point in 2022 they already fixed the lineup and were ready to start teasing more predebut content on Cube Tree when it all stopped. So... I wonder what will come of it.... I wonder who that boy is...
This is for our fallen soldiers. I know this is kind of a strange territory because these guys are not idols and not really trainees, not quite public figures yet almost are. So I will err on the side of caution and only talk about the guys based on information they have made public.
Jo Woochan originally left Cube in 2019 to pursue his studies. Personal speculation, I think he did want to be an idol at the time and wanted to debut with the other trainees, but maybe his family or he himself changed his mind to focus on school because he really was so young. After leaving Cube, he occasionally uploaded songs/youtube videos but faded away... Until people started speculating he was a hidden member of the Hybe Predebut group Trainee A in 2021. He was then revealed as a member of Trainee A in late 2021 and continued to produce content and train with them until their unfortunate disbandment at the end of 2022. Now he is just a guy on Instagram basically, though I think he might continue to still occasionally drop a Soundcloud track. You can follow him here.[23]
Lee Jongwon basically disappeared forever. I have no idea where he went or what he's doing now but I'm assuming he's probably a non-celebrity now because he doesn't even have an Instagram I can find. I mean, it's possible he could still resurface and that he's been a trainee locked in a dungeon this whole time, but I haven't heard anything about him! I did find this one thing, which is the most recent "update" I could find on Lee Jongwon:
Cute... He has since deleted this instagram account and disappeared...
Yoon Min... I get a little annoyed thinking about the trajectory of his career. First he was a Cube trainee and he's been here for a really long time. He was part of the OG group, like Seonho and Oscar both follow him on Instagram. But he was also really friendly with the later people too, like Jang Yunseo who cheered him on during LOUD and his 4cut with Park Hanbin. Then he was kicked out of Cube for no reason other than being "old" and joins LOUD. He WINS LOUD but then his predebut group basically was put on hiatus from Halloween 2021 to... present day (March 2024). It's not clear why this happens but Yoon Min leaves the lineup in April 2023. I'm not totally familiar with Jloud or whatever is happening at JYPE but it seems like Yoon Min left because of all the delays to the debut, which was the right move because they're still on hiatus. After leaving JYPE, Yoon Min has since been on this Mnet singing program, VS, in late 2023. I am also not sure how this show works but I think he was eliminated at some point... However he seems to intend to still be a singer or artist in some way! You can follow his instagram here [24] (He's already following Nowadays... he must be close to some of them...)
Another person that Yoon Min was close to is Lee Junghoon. His name appears on the 2019 lockers pic. Yoon Min has posted photos of them together before on his instagram but since Junghoon himself had deleted his instagram, I won't share the photos. There was talk that he enlisted after leaving Cube, but there's no way to confirm. Also he doesn't seem to want to be a public figure anymore, or at least right now, so this is all the information I have on him.
Jang Yunseo... Vongole Pasta One Dish Guy... Since he left Cube, he keeps a relatively low profile online. He had a few minor acting roles since Cube but nothing major yet. But he does like to shout out other Cube trainees he knows, like Yoon Min or Yeonwoo. I was going to link his instagram because he's a semi-public figure (being an actor) but he deactivated his account again.
I think Ahn Yekun would've been my bias if the 2019 lineup actually debuted. The rumor was that he was casted at his school festival performance in 2018 and that the performance was of Never, the song from Produce 101 season 2. That would've been crazy if he did end up debuting with Seonho and Guanlin in some other universe. He was even revealed on Cube Tree in 2019 but because of all the delays, it seems like he might have left or even kicked out for being too old. Either way, he leaves in 2021 and for now it seems like he just wants to be a non-celebrity or only a semi-public figure at the moment so I'll leave it at that. He does seem to have a soft spot for Yeonwoo though because the only trace of Cube that has ever been on his account is a reel he posted of himself with the song "I've never loved before" by Cheeze, the MV of which Yeonwoo stars in.
I think I started my original documentation of Cube nbg lore in 2021. After so much time... We're finally here. Nowadays. Let's talk about the boys.
Firstly I'd like to thank Yoon for telling us the order in which they all entered the company in the Now Questions video. The order goes Yeonwoo, Siyun, Jinhyuk, Yoon, and then finally Hyeonbin. I'll talk timelines a little later.
Jung Yeonwoo has been on everyone's radar since 2019. He was first posted as Chuseok Gift on Cube Tree, briefly making everyone think he left Cube when his picture got deleted, then making his music video debut in July 2021 with Cheeze's I've never liked this way before and Soyeon's Beam Beam. But since then he has been kept under wraps and we only got to see him again in The Manager episode in 2022 and then finally for Nowadays. If I remember correctly, there's also a rumor he went to Hanlim academy. Can I be honest guys? He might be my bias.
Kim Siyun really surprised me because no one even knew about him!!! But it seems like he entered not long after Yeonwoo. We'll have to wait and see but if he's been around since around 2020 or even earlier then I'm seriously shocked that we've never heard about him at all. Cube did not let him out! He was only unofficially revealed in The Manager in 2022.
We've known about Jang Jinhyuk since his debut in Soyeon's Beam Beam video, but he also features on Cube Tree in 2022. His photo gets posted there, along with his diary entry about seeing Pentagon's fanmeeting. But other than that, there's very little information about him we knew before his official reveal.
Lee Yoon is also another surprise! We had no idea about him but it seems like he has also been around for a while. Like Siyun, he was only unofficially revealed in The Manager in 2022.
Kim Hyeonbin is probably the trainee we have the most information on. He was on Produce X 101 in 2019 under Source Music, but then left in January 2020, possibly for reasons due to the HYBE acquisition of Source Music. Either way, he does nothing for a bit then joins WM Entertainment mid-2020 and is featured as a part of their predebut trainees social media, WM Ggumnamu. However, WM gets acquired by RBW in April 2021 and all trainees under WM leave by November 2021, including Hyeonbin. Presumably soon after, he joins Cube and has been training there since because he also appears in The Manager episode, which aired February 2022.
In terms of the timeline, I only have a rough estimate. Yeonwoo is rumored to have joined in 2018, and Hyeonbin joins late 2021, so everyone else fits somewhere in between. I personally think Siyun and Jinhyuk joined not long after Yeonwoo, while there's more of a gap before Yoon joins closer to Hyeonbin joining, but this is based on vibes and also Cube's patterns. I hope we do get more answers when Nowadays finally debuts because I need closure!
So... some concluding remarks...
I hope this has been educational and interesting to read! This is the cumulation of the work I've been archiving and thinking about and checking for the past 3 years so I'm quite happy that I'm able to spread the information to people who might be curious. One thing about Cube trainees that I've learned over the years is that often so many of them are extremely talented. Say what you want but Cube has a fantastic eye for talent and they're good at cultivating that talent, but their weakness comes down to actually taking the step towards debut and committing to it. That's why so many of these ex-Cube trainees go back out into the idol world and dominate survival shows and become main vocalists and dancers of other groups. But it’s also a little bittersweet, to think about what could’ve been. Infamous best friends Sung Hanbin and Seok Matthew could’ve debuted together under Cube. Ahn Yekun could’ve debuted in Nowadays instead of being a bakery worker. When you scroll through the immense list of guys who didn’t make it, you can’t help but think: all this bloodshed… All the fallen… and for what?
Well! I'm beyond overjoyed that Nowadays is finally debuting. It feels like the light at the end of a very long tunnel. I have been following their developments for so long that I’ve become attached to them. If the guys who were cut or left prove to all be so talented and amazing, the quality of the guys who actually made it must be insane. I’m so scared but excited to see what happens!! Please check out Nowadays!
[1] Don't come for me for using the pinyin spelling okay [return]
[2] https://twitter.com/0128YSH/status/1606229998423011328?s=20 [return]
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ1by4jEy44&ab_channel=1theK%28%EC%9B%90%EB%8D%94%EC%BC%80%EC%9D%B4%29[return]
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQAVE3YxjD4&ab_channel=CubeBoys2019[return]
[5] https://youtu.be/Ce0IwwPpBlg?si=VuyvPNV8ghCdX-5O (timestamp: 4:33, you can see them enter from the right and greet Shinwon)[return]
[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAp2IKQ6nD8&ab_channel=%EC%A1%B0%EC%9A%B0%EC%B0%ACJowoochan[return]
[7] https://www.instagram.com/p/CNuRfWeH6pi/ [return]
[8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfezuI-l7hc&ab_channel=%EC%B9%98%EC%A6%88%2FCHEEZE [return]
[9] https://twitter.com/Sunghoonly1/status/1422524875504111616?s=20&t=65lnp447Q0piojLb-Hkz6w [return]
[10] https://twitter.com/yfieee_/status/1497598878148743170 [return]
[11] https://x.com/cubetree_/status/1507361928380747785?s=20 [return]
[12] the original instagram post had more pictures, i think, but they took down all the instagram posts and i'm going to be pissed if they delete everything off the twitter too... https://x.com/cubetree_/status/1510977454361382916?s=20 [return]
[13] they even did the outsider tiktok challenge together! https://twitter.com/OFFICIALBTOB/status/1435167865687076865 [return]
[14] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwfAfG1oVfg&ab_channel=wuju_oneweve [return]
[15] https://twitter.com/BTOBalenciaga/status/1290610820800319489?s=20&t=mEtuYGhSj-Jly1kZXmJn4Q [return]
[16] https://x.com/uItserim/status/1265564450846838789?s=20 [return]
[17] https://x.com/efaivous/status/1423869838242369536?s=20 [return]
[18] https://twitter.com/daisymystar/status/1445589843837263878 [return]
[19] https://twitter.com/shinwonthinkers/status/1491425117855162371?s=20&t=_4yCxPGzWhBgmaW4FzpAkw [return]
[20] https://twitter.com/DONGHYEONKR/status/1442333950727184386 [return]
[21] This is a clip of him on live teasing the origin of his nickname and saying his dongsaengs will debut in Nowadays... https://twitter.com/blushiebin/status/1767462221918126087 There's also this fansign story some time before this live where he alludes to his nickname coming from a dongsaeng who "hasn't been revealed to the world yet". https://x.com/jinhyuk_kr/status/1767470370398113868?s=20 [return]
[22] This is a screenshot of the interview with Seonho where he talks about Takuma. https://x.com/dalkuma0805/status/1754902915670757548?s=20 Here is the eng subtitled AAA behind video where you can see Takuma vote for Seonho, timestamped 16:45. https://youtu.be/18-Zsvdw7j0?t=1005[return]
[23] https://www.instagram.com/jowoochan_santa/ [return]
[24] https://www.instagram.com/m1nt1me/ [return]
I know everybody has their own very personal and intense gripe with Cube Entertainment and I absolutely respect it. I want to clarify that this is not a Most Suffering Cube Entertainment Fan competition- in fact I am one of the most cubefampilled companycels out there. I try to keep up with all Cube artists (and end up getting sucked up into all their silly shenanigans) and learn about them and the ways Cube can treat them better.
However this is about My gripe with Cube Entertainment: the Cube new boy group. The stuff of urban legends. Nowadays.
It's been so long that they're finally debuting. They're the reason I'm returning to write down this long long post about their lore, so that their fans will know all the fallen soldiers in the making of NOWADAYS.
It's gonna be a long ride.
Table of Contents
Before
The First Era: 2016-2018
The Second Era: 2019-2020
The Third Era: 2020-2021
The Fourth Era: 2021-present
Notable Trainees
What happened?
Where are they now?
Nowadays
Before
This is some basic information about Cube Entertainment and context leading up to the beginning; if you have basic knowledge of who the other Cube artists are and what they get up to (or simply don't care to know hehe) then feel free to skip ahead!
Cube Entertainment was founded on August 26, 2009 by Hong Seungsung and Shin Junghwa, originally named Playcube Inc. Hong Seungsung was the former president of JYP Entertainment- we can see the Cube-JYP connection even here.
Cube debuted 5 member girl group 4Minute in June 2009 and 6 member boy group BEAST (initially called B2ST) in October 2009. Disclaimer, I am not an expert on these two groups and if you are interested, I'm sure many introductory content exist out there for both of them, written by fans who know much more than me!
Kim Hyunah, AKA HyunA, actually first debuted with JYP Entertainment group Wonder Girls in February 2008, before leaving the group in July 2008 due to health issues. However, she later then joined Cube Entertainment and re-debuted with 4Minute. BEAST also had members who trained under different companies in preparation for other groups before ending up at Cube Entertainment- Yoon Doojoon who competed on the show Hot Blooded Men made by JYP Entertainment to produce the groups 2PM and 2AM, and Jang Hyunseung who appeared as part of Big Bang's lineup in the YG documentary Big Bang Documentary where he was later cut.
The interesting thing to note here is that Cube Entertainment's practice of recruiting trainees from the Big 3 agencies (SM, YG, JYP) is almost ingrained into its foundation. BEAST was even known as the group of "recycled idols" because two of them were from Big 3 companies (though it had a much more negative connotation compared to now).
We won't go into depth about every Cube artist and business change within Cube because I'm trying to keep this as concise as possible. But basically, Hong Seungsung became sick throughout this period and although he remained involved to some degree with Cube Entertainment, he stepped down in late 2012 and Park Chungmin took his place.
Let's skip up to 2016. In between 2009 and 2016, G.NA, (remember her??) HyunA, (as a soloist) Apink (under a Cube subsidiary) BTOB, and CLC all debuted. However, at the end of 2015, Cube Entertainment started to experience a lot of internal changes when the Cube subsidiary that Apink was under, A Cube, was acquired by LOEN entertainment. This was accompanied by a move of Cube headquarters in early 2016 and the airing of Pentagon Maker, a survival show for the upcoming Cube group, Pentagon. Then 4Minute disbands in June, Pentagon's debut is delayed to October amidst this mess, and BEAST leaves Cube Entertainment.
At the end of 2016, Shin Daenam replaces Park Chungmin as CEO of Cube Entertainment. He was a former editor of the journal Ilgan Sports and president of Yedang Media. Honestly, by the end of 2016, Cube Entertainment was a complete mess. 4Minute, BEAST, Apink were all gone, BTOB and CLC haven't had their breakthrough moment yet, Pentagon had just debuted, and they changed their CEO. Cube had to do something. Anything.
This is where the story starts.
The First Era
What everyone thinks of when the words "Cube new boy group" come to mind are two names: Lai Guanlin [1] and Yoo Seonho.
Yoo Seonho joins Cube Entertainment roughly in September 2016, not knowing how it would change his life forever. In fact, I don't think he even expected to pass his audition- when he talks about it, he mentions he was scouted at a music festival and only went to the audition to see BTOB. [2] He also says he forgot all the lyrics and choreography to EXO's Growl in the second round of the auditions but somehow made it through the audition still!
In fact, many notable Cube trainees from this era join around the same time as Seonho, such as Guanlin himself. Someone who also joined Cube at the same time as Seonho was Park Serim of Cravity! I personally speculate that Yoon Min joined around the same time, or just a bit later, as well as maybe Jung Youngbin, and Oscar.
As far as I know, Lai Guanlin joined Cube Entertainment because he accompanied his friend to the Cube Star World Audition in Taiwan in 2016. I don't have an official source on this because I didn't dig particularly hard for this but I've heard bits and pieces of this over the years. Feel free to reach out if you have a source!
There are a few noted trainees who are already known as Cube Entertainment trainees by this point. In the music video for Young by Pentagon [3] (featured in Pentagon Maker and MV released on July 8th 2016) the trainees Jo Woochan, Lee Juhyeon (of Lightsum), Lee Jongwon and Suh Jimin.
For the two female trainees, Juhyeon of course goes on to debut in Lightsum! Suh Jimin leaves Cube at some point and joins Wakeone Entertainment, then appearing on Girls Planet 999 in 2021 before being eliminated from the show, current whereabouts unknown.
In 2017, a lot of things happen. Let's take a chronological look:
February:
Park Serim leaves Cube Entertainment because he gets recruited into YG through his dance academy!
March:
On March 10th 2017, Cube posts the profile pictures for Lai Guanlin and Yoo Seonho on the Cube Tree page. Quick refresher on Cube Tree: it's basically the Cube-run social media accounts dedicated to the Cube trainees they want to introduce, which Pentagon and G-Idle were prominently featured on before their respective debuts. However, Cube will do occasional cleanses which means many of these pictures have been deleted since.
Produce 101 Season 2 had already started filming at this point, but the day before (March 9) was when the contestants were all revealed through the theme song airing. The show itself airs through April to June 16th.
To summarize, sending Seonho and Guanlin to Produce 101 Season 2 was the perfect choice on Cube Entertainment's part. Both of them became immensely popular; Guanlin debuts in Wanna One as rank 7th and Seonho finishes in rank 17th. The Wanna One contract ended on December 31st 2018, but Guanlin doesn't come back into play until later. In the meantime, Seonho does a bunch of variety appearances and just has fun.
May:
Roughly every year, Cube will bring their trainees, boys and girls, out to a field trip. This year, they went to Lotte World!
These pictures are so cute. A reminder of a better time. There's a total of 5 male trainees: Oscar is wearing a grey hoodie, Guanlin is wearing a striped shirt, Seonho is wearing a pink shirt, and the two smaller kids are Lee Jongwon and Jo Woochan. Also there are most if not all of G-Idle, as well as Chowon and Juhyeon.
June:
Show Me the Money 6 airs, featuring the youngest rapper to grace the show at 13 years old (Korean age), Jo Woochan the Cube trainee. The show ends in September and with Jo Woochan making it to the semi-final, which is not an easy feat!
August:
Cube Tree updates their account with a new trainee by the name OSC on August 30th.
This is Oscar Wang! He is also occasionally seen around the Cube building with Seonho and Woochan during this time. Guanlin debuts in Wanna One in the meantime. Seonho also says at some point that while Guanlin moved out, his new roommate is also Chinese, which is probably Oscar.
September:
Cube Tree reveals a new trainee by the name of LJW on September 21st.
This is Lee Jongwon! This is a very blurry screenshot of the thumbnail of a dance cover video that was posted on the Cube Tree youtube channel. The video on the official channel no longer exists, but it's a dance practice version of the song Goodbye by Taemin, which he later performs. [4] However, I'm not sure if the video was posted at this time or after...
October:
Cube Tree is crazy active this year, huh. They reveal yet another "new" trainee by the name of JWC on October 3rd.
I'm not sure if this is the first time he appears on Cube Tree but well it's not like I can check now :') This is the only date I have for it!
Ok we are finally at the end of 2017. What a crazy year! Now for 2018... It's a pretty quiet year for the trainees as um... other things were happening at Cube Entertainment. However, I don't think that the other things happening disrupted the plans for the boy group as they weren't supposed to debut this year anyway.
First thing that happens in 2018 is that Jo Woochan participates in OGZSCHOOL, a project boy group by Cube and Starship Entertainment. One of them (Park Hyeonjin) was on Kpop Star 6 as a duo with another guy who is now in P1Harmony (Jongseob). Nothing to do with Cube really but just a little fun fact. Literally nothing else comes out of this collab but it's pretty cool.
Next, Cube Tree posts a new profile on May 8th of a trainee named JYB.
This is Jung Youngbin. In the grand scheme he's not as notable as some other trainees because he leaves soon after this gets posted, maybe before the end of the year? Which makes his reveal on Cube Tree somewhat puzzling. He goes on Produce X 101 in 2019 as an independent trainee which means he definitely left before 2019. We'll catch up with him later in the "Where are they now" section!
This is personal speculation but I think that Oh Seongmin joined Cube around this time. I'll take any opportunity to talk about Oh Seongmin so here: he's good friends with Han Chowon and somehow I managed to match these pictures together haha
In November, Lee Jongwon goes on Under Nineteen! Despite little screen time, he makes it to the final round but fails to debut in 1THE9. He basically disappears after this and is never seen again- I can only assume he left the trainee life and became a non-celebrity.
Remember the yearly Cube trainees trip? Some time in 2018, they went to a temple? Palace? It's kind of unclear where this is but there's this picture left from that time.
Have fun picking out guys you might know. I personally think Oh Seongmin is in this picture but that's purely based on vibes.
As I said, nothing much happens in 2018 compared to 2017 and 2019. Let’s set the scene. It’s early 2019. Guanlin has returned to Cube with massive unparalleled clout from being in Wanna One. Seonho has built up momentum with acting. Lee Jongwon has just come back fresh from Under Nineteen with a bit of clout. Jo Woochan still has SMTM6 clout! This is the year for the Cube new boy group to debut for sure.
There are 4 boy trainees spotted in the background of Pentagon's Pentory #80 [5] (filmed March 2019 (28th I think)) but it is way too blurry for us to see anything other than that they’re probably taller than Hui? People say one of them is Crayon AKA Chen Yugeng but I’m not sure about that! I tried to insert a screenshot but it's really bad, you can look for the video yourself! I think the one with the white hoodie might be Yoon Min???
I hope you enjoyed 2017-2018 because it's the first wave of prominent trainees that made their way through Cube Entertainment. It was a hopeful time, because they were all working towards the debut of the boy group in 2019. How nice...
The Second Era
Now we get to the real meat of what went down in 2019. You should buckle in, because a lot happens.
Guanlin files a lawsuit against Cube Entertainment to terminate his exclusive contract in July. Now this is an overview of the entire Cube trainee history and I’m not a lawyer but long story short, I believe the lawsuit was about Cube selling his contract rights in China to a third party without notifying him? Either way, Cube wins the suit and technically, Guanlin remains under Cube but Cube is obviously not happy with him… I believe from this point, Guanlin goes to China where Cube has no control over him, picks up a few acting gigs there, and never steps foot in Korea again except to show up in court.
Jo Woochan also leaves Cube in July, I believe to focus on his studies? (Keep in mind that as a 05, he was literally only 14 years old international age at this point…) Or was it something about creative differences? Either way, he’s out and becomes an independent artist, opens his own Instagram and releases a little song.[6]
This obviously derails the plan to debut a group this year. So Cube decides to start over entirely. They do a little thing called the September Exodus where they got rid of basically all the known trainees. We lose Lee Jongwon and Oscar via their pictures getting deleted off Cube Tree… (I believe Kwon San also leaves at this time? He’s not really part of this but I’m including him anyways to make this really thorough... You can learn about him in the "Notable Trainees" section)
Two new trainees are revealed on Cube Tree:
On August 11th, this boy is revealed with the caption "콩콩콩".
He's very commonly mistaken for Jo Sebin, a female Cube trainee who was on the show Capteen (2020), for some reason. But his name is Ahn Yekun... We'll catch up with him later in the "Where are they now" section ^^
On September 13th, this boy is revealed with the caption "Chuseok Gift".
People think this is Jung Yeonwoo. Could it be? The comments on the original post say so!
There is also this image of the lockers in 2019, although I'm not sure when it was posted? The earliest date I could find of this image being posted is September 2019.
Don't worry if you can't read hangul, I've compiled all the names and who they are:
Male trainees:
Jung Yeonwoo (Chuseok Gift...)
Yoon Min
Ahn Yekun (콩콩콩 boy)
Lee Junghoon (see: Where are they now)
Female trainees:
Lee Juhyeon (Lightsum)
Jo Sebin (Capteen)
Choi Jimin (female trainee?)
Yoo Gaeul (She’s was under Starting House Entertainment for some time but did not debut with their girl group ADYA... however a different ex-cube trainee did, Ryu Yeonsu! Not sure where Yoo Gaeul's current whereabouts are.)
Kae Seorin (female trainee)
In October, Jang Yunseo AKA Vongole pasta one dish guy from YG Treasure Box is spotted with Seonho, which is a pretty clear indication of him being a Cube trainee unless he was just hanging out with Seonho in the Cube Cafe for no reason! His instagram was previously deleted in March 2019, which suggests he could've been in Cube for some time before October.
Here is a blurry screenshot of the now-privated video of them in the Cube cafe (was it still 20space at this time?)
For Halloween, Cube takes their trainees on their annual field trip! This year's destination is Everland and they have so many trainees that they split them up into two pictures!
Cute! Unfortunately, there's no time to get into the girl trainees, but you can see Han Chowon pretty clearly lol
I don't even know what to say. There's 17 boys in this photo... I can't even name over 10 male trainees that I'm 100% positive were in Cube when this was taken. I counted very hard and came up with a list of about 13 trainees... and that's including Kwon San, which I don't do.
if you want some SPECULATION: I think the guy in the bucket hat on the left side is Yoon Min, the second guy in the back row (on “Yoon Min’s” right) with most of his face visible might be Ahn Yekun? The center boy might be Jung Yeonwoo? Who knows! Jang Yunseo should be there though. Maybe Tajima Shogo and Lee Junghoon too? Feel free to play along at home haha
I think that there was a set lineup for a 2019 debut before Guanlin just Had to go and sue Cube (this is a joke I actually think he was fully justified in suing Cube and Cube is horrible for not terminating his contract) and they had to make a different lineup after Guanlin blew the whole thing up... which led to a bunch of trainees leaving because they didn't make the cut.
The Third Era
However the lineup changes again...
In February-March of 2020, Cube had a change in shareholders and elected a new CEO, who had different plans for the cube new boy group and changed the lineup AGAIN! He launched the 2020 Exodus, which got rid of all the trainees that he thought were "too old,” and the line that was drawn there was... 00 liners. Thus began the 2020 Exodus of trainees who left...
Casualties of the 2020 Exodus include:
Yoon Min :( poor Yoonmin… He’s been here for three years, which puts him as a trainee since the FIRST ERA. Jang Yunseo also showed support for him when he went on LOUD in 2021!
There’s also this pic of him with his crumpled up cube locker name tag that's very cathartic to look at
SPECULATION: I think Tajima Shogo, a Japanese ‘98 liner, was also a casualty. He's good friends with Pentagon Yuto and later got on Produce Japan Season 2 and made it into the final group INI :)
SPECULATION: Park Hyun is a trainee suspected to be a part of the lineup around this time who made an instagram account at the same time as Jang Yunseo and Yoon Min. We'll follow up with him later.
Near the end of 2020, Jung Yeonwoo/Chuseok Gift's picture gets deleted off Cube Tree, making everyone think he left Cube. But things are not what it seems...
Usually after an Exodus, Cube does a new round of auditions and picks up new trainees. This is when I think a few of the Boys Planet era boys came in and also left. I think Park Hanbin and Park Minseok left around this time and Seok Matthew joined after they left, and Sung Hanbin had joined in 2019 but managed to survive the 2020 Exodus.
After clearing out their trainees, Cube Tree did a little project where they got their trainees to curate playlists and posted them "anonymously" or with nicknames. Some of them were linked to Lightsum members but some of them... we might never know. We do know one of them was Jang Yunseo but that's it...
Now we're really down to the core people left. Let's see what happens in 2021.
Unfortunately, Jang Yunseo the pasta boy appears to have left cube early 2021 because he opened an instagram account in March 2021! He posted an old pic in April (dated February 2021) of him and Seonho being very good friends... It seems like he has aspirations for becoming an actor? He and Seonho follow each other publicly and often like and comment on each other’s posts!
The Cube audition account posted this video on April 16th [7] of a masked boy playing the piano and nobody has figured out who it is but now that I'm looking at it again could it be Jinhyuk?
I genuinely want to show this to Jinhyuk and ask if it's him
As of June 2021, Guanlin has been legally freed from the clutches of Cube Entertainment. He’s now free to go direct movies or act or whatever it is he does now and never step foot in Korea again as he desires!
Another thing that happened in June 2021: Yeeun posted a picture in front of the cube lockers... You can see one that says “Kim Geonwoo,” which is a name we’ve never heard of... All other tags were taken down.
Remember how Jung Yeonwoo’s picture was deleted off the Cube page sometime in late 2020? Well he makes his acting debut in Cheeze’s MV[8] for the song I’ve never liked this way before in July and is credited as under Cube!
Jung Yeonwoo is credited, alongside members of Cube staff, which confirms Yeonwoo was at Cube for this.
Yunseo also posts about it on instagram to cheer on Yeonwoo!
Another music video also comes out in July 2021- Beam Beam by Soyeon. Featured in the background of her video are two female trainees and two male trainees, which we now know are Yeonwoo and Jinhyuk. We'll circle back to this.
I think around this time, mid 2021, a lot of trainees leave again. I'm debating if I want to add a third 2021 Exodus to the list because I'm fairly certain that Ahn Yekun, maybe Park Hyun, Seok Matthew, and Sung Hanbin all leave around this time.
There was a funny rumor that Ahn Yekun enlisted in 2020 or 2021 and was supposed to come back in time to debut in the new boy group... His picture was up on Cube Tree until very late in 2021, but he opened his instagram around September 2021 so everyone knew by then that 1. He wasn’t in the military and 2. He left Cube lol. If I remember correctly, he was following Lee Junghoon and maybe Yunseo? Unfortunately both of those two deactivated their accounts so I can’t check! Interestingly, he did post a reel of himself to the song I’ve never liked this way before by Cheeze :’)
Weirdly, Cube Tree posted this random dancing video[9] in August. No follow up information or anything, just this video?? Then it was completely silent on Cube Tree again (They did post for Lee Yunji when she went on Girls Planet 999 then deleted them a while after she finished Girls Planet 999 and left Cube, she’s now in ILY:1)
The last wave of notable trainees leaving in the middle of 2021 kind of closes out this era of lots of messy changes. Oh, also I think Kim Hyeonbin joins Cube around this time, since his photos on Ggumnamu, WM's version of Cube Tree, gets deleted and all the trainees leave after the merger with RBW.
The Fourth and Final Era
After 2021, things seem to shape up at Cube Entertainment. 2022 begins the era of ACTUAL Cube new boy group content- they seemed to have (mostly) finalized the lineup at the end of 2021.
We got our first taste of the actual REAL POSSIBLE Cube new boy group lineup during BTOB’s episode of The Manager (End of February)[10] with 6 masked boy trainees who covered Crown during the episode. They also hugged Eunkwang, which was really cute!!
Everyone had their own pieces of speculation about who the boys are but well... I don't want to spoil it... So let's just keep going! The only thing to note is that there are 6 masked boy trainees in this episode and that shortly after, Cube put out news about possibly debuting their boy group early 2023.
There's finally movement on the Cube Tree page! They post parts of their "persona" sheets and participate in the Tomboy challenge.[11] They also attend the Pentagon fanmeeting on April 2nd. [12]
I hate to spoil it but this is in fact Jinhyuk!!
They also finally post pictures from Soyeon's Beam Beam Music Video, confirming two of the guys are trainees.
Again I hate to spoil it but it's Yeonwoo and Jinhyuk!!
Then Cube Tree is dead silent, even as 2023 approaches. It's completely silent. I do have a theory why this is, but we'll get to it.
Then on October 4th, 2023, all hell breaks loose. The group of five Cube trainees are spotted in both Naples, Italy, and London, United Kingdom, in the span of a few days. There are so many pictures out there of them on the streets, in filming locations, at the airport...
But Cube doesn't say anything. The lineup and imminent debut of the boy group is essentially confirmed and yet they never said anything.
Only until now, in February 2024, do we get these posters with mysterious QR codes that lead us back to these boys and the name Nowadays. Cube began launching information, profiles and debut trailers for the five member lineup of Nowadays in March and the rest is history.
Notable Trainees
This section is for guys who still ended up officially debuting, either in a group/band or as a soloist. For other guys, see the "Where are they now" section.
Ok let’s get this cleared up: Kwon San AKA Kenji San was most likely going to be an actor (he was an actor trainee) and was in Cube since 2015! He was revealed in March 2019 but got deleted (most likely during the September exodus?) and then signed with Woollim right before/after Drippin's debut and now I believe he’s also left Woollim? But I see him included as one of the idol trainees all the time and that's just not true, he's only an actor trainee.
Now let's get really chronological and tackle EVERY 4th/5th gen male idol who has ever trained at Cube Entertainment!
Kim Seunghun of YG Treasure Box and CIX fame was at Cube very early on, around 2010-2011 (where he was doted on by BTOB) and left before Pentagon’s formation i think (he was part of YG silver boys & the Stray Kids survival show so he was definitely in YG by 2016/2017)
Yonghoon from ONEWE was a CUBE trainee for around 2-3 months in 2013! This[14] is his casting story and apparently he used to try and rap? (video from his guest appearance on penbamra) Here’s[15] a story about him and BTOB… :’) And here’s him with Shinwon:
Yeonjun from TXT trained around the same time as most of Pentagon so around 2014 i believe! He didn't stay for that long i think because he apparently joined bighit in 2014 so… But Shinwon was quite fond of him it seems?
Something I’m also curious about is the Cube ace team. Soyeon mentioned this ace team from her nation-wide audition round, consisting of her, Lightsum’s Juhyeon, Pentagon’s Wooseok and “someone who ended up debuting in another company” (which people assumed to be Yeonjun because they both joined Cube in 2014 and this was during TXT’s debut era), and like one other mystery person who is not mentioned. First of all I wonder who the other mystery person is... But also I wonder if “someone who ended up debuting in another company” is actually Yeonjun? Though I can’t think of who else it could be, everyone else on this list joined after 2014.
Subin from Victon also trained at Cube between leaving JYP and joining Plan A (2015ish to 2016ish) around the same time as Pentagon! As a 99 liner everyone saw him as a baby... But he was close to Kino too I think? They worked together for the Storage M Five Senses stage!
Park Serim from Cravity joined the first batch with Seonho in September 2016 and left soon after because he entered YG in February 2017 (and left YG by mid 2018 when he joined Starship, where he is!) Seonho[16] mentions being close to him because they trained together even if not for long :) Shinwon also seems to have known him from trainee days!
Credit to yoyo for the translation!
Jerome from TO1 aka Oh Sungmin from Boys Planet aka Oh Seongmin from ONEPACT also trained at Cube for an indeterminate amount of time! I’m not sure when he joined (I guess some time in 2017?) and left around mid 2018. According to him, he was transferred from Cube to n.CH through the staff? I’m not sure what happened and I’ve never heard of this happening with the other trainees but he became a n.CH trainee in December 2018. His playlists from 2017 suggests he was at Cube since around 365 Fresh (May 2017) maybe? At the very least since September 2017! He also talks about a really sweet interaction with Eunkwang from his Cube days[17] (which means he met Eunkwang before his enlistment in August 2018??) He still listens to Cube artists and supports Han Chowon… Cute…
Lien from Mirae also trained at Cube for some time, though I haven’t been able to nail down the timeline! From what I have gathered so far, he came to Korea from Japan during about 2017? Or I think he mentions it as around Pentagon’s debut era? Jinho is a vocal trainer for the Cube trainees and taught Lien a lot, even giving him an iPod[18] so he can practice better. I’m not sure when he left Cube (he didn’t seem to stay very long) but he did also train at Starship for a little bit after? Then he finally ended up at DSP Media! As a fellow Japanese ‘98 liner, he was pretty close to Yuto as well :)
Do you remember the Jung Youngbin mentioned earlier? He was revealed on Cube Tree in 2018 and left promptly after? Well I believe he left really early in 2019 or very late in 2018 because he joined Produce X 101 as an individual trainee rather than on Cube’s behalf. According to his Produce X profile, he trained for 2 years and 6 months, which actually… puts him entering Cube around the same time as Seonho and Serim’s time… He was followed by Kwon San around Produce X 101 era as well, which lines everything up timeline wise. He then debuted as part of Luminous in 2021! It seems like he was/is friends with Kino and Shinwon because they did the All Eyes Down tiktok Challenge together in February 2022 :)[19]
Park Hyun is an interesting case: He created an instagram around the same time as Yoon Min and Jang Yunseo and is still following/followed by Jang Yunseo in addition to the picture he posted from the nbg dorms. But we don’t know much about his time at Cube or how long he trained there? It seems like he was pretty close to Jang Yunseo, which means he could’ve joined around 2019 before leaving in 2020. He went on a survival show called Stars Awakening and ended up in the final group called nSSign!
Oscar… I feel so bad for Oscar because he worked so hard. I believe he said he trained for 3 years in Korea/Cube (2016-2019) but eventually left because of all the delays to the new boy group. (I mean, he's right. He would've had to wait until 2024 if he stayed, if he didn't get kicked for being too old along the way...) He joined two survival shows in China, the second being Produce Camp 2021, where he places #13, just short of top 11 :( But he’s been able to curate a good fan base and work on solo music! Good for him, he’s really talented! It also seems like he keeps in touch/is still close with some of G-Idle… Here’s him hanging out with Yuqi at Universal Studios Beijing:
Chael from LUN8… He’s rumored to be a Cube trainee, along with Takuma from LUN8. Takuma was also close to Seonho! At the 2024 AAA awards, Seonho mentions that Takuma is his friend, and Takuma votes Seonho for best actor! [22]
Minho from 8TURN also appeared to have trained at Cube based on his relationship with Hui?? They did a tiktok together at Cube… However he doesn’t seem to know Chael at all so my guess is that he was at Cube much earlier than Chael and they never overlapped.
Chen Yugeng and Lin Shiyuan both trained at Cube for a short period of time before leaving and eventually ending up on Boys Planet. In Chen Yugeng's case, he was on Youth with You 3 in 2021 but failed to make it into IXFORM, which idk maybe worked out in his favor. As far as I know, I don't think either of them are planning on returning to Korea/Kpop.
Dang Hong Hai also trained at Cube in 2019! I'm not sure the exact duration of time he was there but there was a popular rumor around the time about there being a Vietnamese trainee at Cube, which sounds like it's Dang Hong Hai given that there are no other Vietnamese Cube trainees that I know of! But he presumably left some time later and ended up in Fantagio Entertainment, when he joined Boys Planet in 2023. He was eliminated but still did not end up debuting in Lun8. Which is kind of bizarre, I still think he should've been added to Lun8 so that Lun8 can have yet another ex-Cube member (jk). Anyway, as of 2024, he's signed under Dongyo Entertainment, possibly to debut as an actor?
Park Minseok also trained at Cube for a period of time between 2019-2020 before leaving to Wakeone Entertainment. I gave him that time frame because he seems to have met both Park Hanbin and Sung Hanbin while at Cube and just based on his lack of closeness with trainees that came after him like Matthew and closeness to the other Wakeone trainees. He was on Boys Planet in 2023 but was eliminated, then left Wakeone Entertainment and joined Beat Interactive. He is part of Beat Interactive's predebut group, New Beat, and made appearances in other Beat Interactive artists' music videos and activities. Hopefully he's able to debut with New Beat!
This 4cut of Minseok and Park Hanbin is dated March 14th 2021!
This 4cut of Minseok and Sung Hanbin has no date but I think it is roughly the same time that Minseok took the other one with Park Hanbin.
Park Hanbin... Park Hanbin! From the best I can estimate, he also joined in 2019-2020, maybe around the same time as Minseok or a bit earlier? I'll get into it more when we discuss the Shogo picture but he knew many of the trainees from that time, including Park Minseok and Sung Hanbin and most importantly, Yoon Min. He left Cube and went on the survival show LOUD alongside Yoon Min but was eliminated. Then he went to Wakeone and entered Boys Planet, making it to the finals. Now he's part of the Jellyfish Entertainment boy group Evnne!
He and Yoon Min were really really close. This 4cut is also interestingly dated one day after Hanbin took his 4cut with Minseok. They also used to take dance classes together at Just Jerk in 2021![20]
They're so cute together!
Now Sung Hanbin... Where do we begin with Sung Hanbin? I think he entered Cube late 2019 but he stayed longer than Park Minseok or Park Hanbin did. I don't think he left until late 2021? Honestly a lot of it is kind of fuzzy but he seems to know Minseok, Hanbin and Matthew, so he spent the most time at Cube I think. But most interestingly, he said lately that his nickname Hamjji originated from someone in Nowadays and seemed pretty excited that Nowadays is going to debut.[21] I wonder who he knows? My bet is on Yeonwoo but that's not really based on anything other than vibes. After leaving Cube, he signed to Studio Gl1de and went on Boys Planet, successfully debuting as part of Zerobaseone.
Seok Matthew entered the latest out of the Boys Planet group of Cube trainees. Again, really fuzzy on the details but in my personal opinon, he went to Hybe early 2020 (or possibly even late late 2019) for a while before leaving mid 2020 and joining Cube after Minseok and Park Hanbin had left. Then he was there until late 2021 when he left presumably at the same time Sung Hanbin did. Again this is all my personal opinion, I haven't dug super hard into Matthew's Cube timeline recently, so there might be new information I'm not aware of? He then signed to MNH and went on Boys Planet, also successfully debuting as part of Zerobaseone.
Phew, I think that's everyone?
Ok, well now let's talk about the Shogo picture. If we don't do it here, we'll never do it.
During Shogo’s run on Produce 101 Japan season 2, he somehow was able to show this picture of him and 4 other Cube trainees???
Scholars still passionately debate about this topic to this day. It’s difficult to narrow down when this picture was taken because I'm also not certain how long Shogo was at Cube or when he entered. But if it helps, apparently Shogo’s friend/family member sent in videos for his audition and he went to Korea on vacation to audition and got in? I originally thought he left during the 2020 Exodus in early 2020 though, so this picture would have to be taken in 2019 because he and Yoon Min are still here. But other possibilities can exist: maybe black hat isn't Yoon Min? Maybe Shogo didn't leave until mid-late 2020?
A common interpretation that I still currently stand by is that from left to right:
Tajima Shogo, Jang Yunseo in blue, Seonho in the black, Yoon Min in the black hat, and Ahn Yekun in the striped shirt.
It at least matches up with pictures we currently have of these exposed trainees, and the timing would've been accurate for 2019.
On the topic of this image, we have to address something. We know that this lineup definitely were living in a dorm together based on some pictures they've posted since from that era. Here is a compiled version from a user I've lost since- if you're this person, let me know so I can credit!
You can see lots of similarities between the couches they post on, as well as the couch and living room? Well there's at least two other people who lived in this dorm at some point in time, maybe overlapping, maybe not.
I present the updated couch collage. I've added a screenshot from one of Park Hanbin's old archived instagram stories that I was casually looking at when the spirit that occasionally possesses me to become crazy about Cube trainees shook me awake and pointed out he's in the cube nbg dorm here. You can literally match the clothes on the rack to the rack in Jang Yunseo's photo, I'm not crazy!! The other image is of Park Hyun from his old instagram, taken when he was leaving Cube. I can't confirm any of the other trainees with visual evidence of having lived there, but I don't think it's a stretch to consider that other trainees around that time (2019) could've lived in the dorms together with this lineup.
What happened?
You come to me and you ask me, what happened? What went wrong for Cube? Why did Nowadays only debut in 2024?
Well there's a lot of ways to answer that question.
Cube’s stakeholder changes is a commonly attributed cause of all the new boy group delays and the two Exoduses.
“On January 23 [2019], D’Live Co. sought to sell its stakes in entertainment units iHQ Inc. and Cube Entertainment Inc. Currently, D’Live owns a 45 percent stake in iHQ and a 30 percent stake in Cube Entertainment.”
This might have happened due to Cube losing Hyuna and Dawn the previous year? I think a major stakeholder pulling out might have freaked Cube out and rather than debut the boy group, they decided to capitalize more on Han Chowon’s popularity post-Produce 48 and signed her and Juhyeon on as artists to prepare for Lightsum. That officially put the boy group on hold, which led to the September Exodus (most of them did leave voluntarily, as Oscar has stated before)
“On February 21 [2020], VT GMP reportedly has acquired 30.61% stake in Cube Entertainment, changing Cube's largest shareholder from iHQ to VT GMP, and plans on playing an active role in strengthening the business and pushing the Hallyu Wave through it subsidiary KVLY. On March 26, Shin Dae-nam has resigned as CEO of Cube Entertainment. Ahn Woo-hyung and Lee Dong-kwan was appointed as the new CEO of Cube Entertainment. Ahn Woo-hyung is the CEO of KVLY and Lee Dong-kwan is the VT GMP vice president.”
This was a MAJOR change for Cube. VT GMP is a cosmetics and media commerce company, I’m actually not sure why they suddenly decided to invest in Cube? Either way, once the CEO changed, they made a lot of changes to the plans for the new boy group and new girl group (Lightsum). I’m not sure about predebut Lightsum or the history of the female trainees but the new CEOs created the 2020 Exodus to get rid of the older trainees, which means they were narrowing down on debuting the new boy group, which lines up with Eunkwang saying in April that Seonho and his ~friends~ are preparing to debut. However, I think maybe they got rid of too many people because they spent 2020-2021 auditioning like crazy to find good enough talent to replace the people they got rid of in the 2020 Exodus (YOON MIN) and then focused back on the girl group instead (Nayoung, Jian, Huiyeon were recruited quite late)
I think following the 2020 CEO change and subsequent 2020 Exodus, they opened auditions to try and find people to replace the really talented trainees they had (YOON MIN). I am not sure about the trainees we’ve never got to see in survival shows, but many of them were strong well rounders (YOON MIN). I think Cube struggled to find a main vocalist in their team as well, seeing as some of their casting calls were looking for vocalists specifically.
If I have to estimate, I think sometime around mid-2021 was when Seonho decided not to be in the new boy group. This also left yet another hole in the debut team (remember that Cube wanted to debut both the nbg and ngg/Lightsum in the same year) that they had to fill, the role of someone with predebut fame that could draw more attention to the team, meaning they had to go search for new talent (I personally think this is how/why/when they recruited Kim Hyeonbin, which lines up with the RBW-WM merger taking place mid-2021 and them letting all their trainees go)
As for why Seonho decided not be in the new boy group... I think the worst thing Cube Entertainment did was everything they did to Yoo Seonho. He was full of hopes of being an idol and they strung him along for 4 years, when he watched all his friends either debut or leave or leave and debut somewhere else… And now he changed his career into becoming an actor… He has said before that he feels content with that decision and I’ll support him (Hell, I watched World of my 17 season 2 for him) but I can only wonder what could have been!
As for why there was such a big gap between 2022 and the debut now in 2024... Do you remember how there were 6 masked boy trainees in the episode of The Manager? And Cube Tree social media entirely shut down mid 2022... and now the lineup for Nowadays is 5 people? Yep. I'm pretty sure that one boy either left or was somehow kicked out (?!) mid 2022, derailing the debut plans again. I think Cube was actually going to debut the boys in 2023 but was forced to start everything over because that guy left.
I guess alternatively Cube decided to delay plans some more and that boy decided to leave... but it seemed like at that point in 2022 they already fixed the lineup and were ready to start teasing more predebut content on Cube Tree when it all stopped. So... I wonder what will come of it.... I wonder who that boy is...
Where are they now?
This is for our fallen soldiers. I know this is kind of a strange territory because these guys are not idols and not really trainees, not quite public figures yet almost are. So I will err on the side of caution and only talk about the guys based on information they have made public.
Jo Woochan originally left Cube in 2019 to pursue his studies. Personal speculation, I think he did want to be an idol at the time and wanted to debut with the other trainees, but maybe his family or he himself changed his mind to focus on school because he really was so young. After leaving Cube, he occasionally uploaded songs/youtube videos but faded away... Until people started speculating he was a hidden member of the Hybe Predebut group Trainee A in 2021. He was then revealed as a member of Trainee A in late 2021 and continued to produce content and train with them until their unfortunate disbandment at the end of 2022. Now he is just a guy on Instagram basically, though I think he might continue to still occasionally drop a Soundcloud track. You can follow him here.[23]
Lee Jongwon basically disappeared forever. I have no idea where he went or what he's doing now but I'm assuming he's probably a non-celebrity now because he doesn't even have an Instagram I can find. I mean, it's possible he could still resurface and that he's been a trainee locked in a dungeon this whole time, but I haven't heard anything about him! I did find this one thing, which is the most recent "update" I could find on Lee Jongwon:
Cute... He has since deleted this instagram account and disappeared...
Yoon Min... I get a little annoyed thinking about the trajectory of his career. First he was a Cube trainee and he's been here for a really long time. He was part of the OG group, like Seonho and Oscar both follow him on Instagram. But he was also really friendly with the later people too, like Jang Yunseo who cheered him on during LOUD and his 4cut with Park Hanbin. Then he was kicked out of Cube for no reason other than being "old" and joins LOUD. He WINS LOUD but then his predebut group basically was put on hiatus from Halloween 2021 to... present day (March 2024). It's not clear why this happens but Yoon Min leaves the lineup in April 2023. I'm not totally familiar with Jloud or whatever is happening at JYPE but it seems like Yoon Min left because of all the delays to the debut, which was the right move because they're still on hiatus. After leaving JYPE, Yoon Min has since been on this Mnet singing program, VS, in late 2023. I am also not sure how this show works but I think he was eliminated at some point... However he seems to intend to still be a singer or artist in some way! You can follow his instagram here [24] (He's already following Nowadays... he must be close to some of them...)
Another person that Yoon Min was close to is Lee Junghoon. His name appears on the 2019 lockers pic. Yoon Min has posted photos of them together before on his instagram but since Junghoon himself had deleted his instagram, I won't share the photos. There was talk that he enlisted after leaving Cube, but there's no way to confirm. Also he doesn't seem to want to be a public figure anymore, or at least right now, so this is all the information I have on him.
Jang Yunseo... Vongole Pasta One Dish Guy... Since he left Cube, he keeps a relatively low profile online. He had a few minor acting roles since Cube but nothing major yet. But he does like to shout out other Cube trainees he knows, like Yoon Min or Yeonwoo. I was going to link his instagram because he's a semi-public figure (being an actor) but he deactivated his account again.
I think Ahn Yekun would've been my bias if the 2019 lineup actually debuted. The rumor was that he was casted at his school festival performance in 2018 and that the performance was of Never, the song from Produce 101 season 2. That would've been crazy if he did end up debuting with Seonho and Guanlin in some other universe. He was even revealed on Cube Tree in 2019 but because of all the delays, it seems like he might have left or even kicked out for being too old. Either way, he leaves in 2021 and for now it seems like he just wants to be a non-celebrity or only a semi-public figure at the moment so I'll leave it at that. He does seem to have a soft spot for Yeonwoo though because the only trace of Cube that has ever been on his account is a reel he posted of himself with the song "I've never loved before" by Cheeze, the MV of which Yeonwoo stars in.
Nowadays
I think I started my original documentation of Cube nbg lore in 2021. After so much time... We're finally here. Nowadays. Let's talk about the boys.
Firstly I'd like to thank Yoon for telling us the order in which they all entered the company in the Now Questions video. The order goes Yeonwoo, Siyun, Jinhyuk, Yoon, and then finally Hyeonbin. I'll talk timelines a little later.
Jung Yeonwoo has been on everyone's radar since 2019. He was first posted as Chuseok Gift on Cube Tree, briefly making everyone think he left Cube when his picture got deleted, then making his music video debut in July 2021 with Cheeze's I've never liked this way before and Soyeon's Beam Beam. But since then he has been kept under wraps and we only got to see him again in The Manager episode in 2022 and then finally for Nowadays. If I remember correctly, there's also a rumor he went to Hanlim academy. Can I be honest guys? He might be my bias.
Kim Siyun really surprised me because no one even knew about him!!! But it seems like he entered not long after Yeonwoo. We'll have to wait and see but if he's been around since around 2020 or even earlier then I'm seriously shocked that we've never heard about him at all. Cube did not let him out! He was only unofficially revealed in The Manager in 2022.
We've known about Jang Jinhyuk since his debut in Soyeon's Beam Beam video, but he also features on Cube Tree in 2022. His photo gets posted there, along with his diary entry about seeing Pentagon's fanmeeting. But other than that, there's very little information about him we knew before his official reveal.
Lee Yoon is also another surprise! We had no idea about him but it seems like he has also been around for a while. Like Siyun, he was only unofficially revealed in The Manager in 2022.
Kim Hyeonbin is probably the trainee we have the most information on. He was on Produce X 101 in 2019 under Source Music, but then left in January 2020, possibly for reasons due to the HYBE acquisition of Source Music. Either way, he does nothing for a bit then joins WM Entertainment mid-2020 and is featured as a part of their predebut trainees social media, WM Ggumnamu. However, WM gets acquired by RBW in April 2021 and all trainees under WM leave by November 2021, including Hyeonbin. Presumably soon after, he joins Cube and has been training there since because he also appears in The Manager episode, which aired February 2022.
In terms of the timeline, I only have a rough estimate. Yeonwoo is rumored to have joined in 2018, and Hyeonbin joins late 2021, so everyone else fits somewhere in between. I personally think Siyun and Jinhyuk joined not long after Yeonwoo, while there's more of a gap before Yoon joins closer to Hyeonbin joining, but this is based on vibes and also Cube's patterns. I hope we do get more answers when Nowadays finally debuts because I need closure!
So... some concluding remarks...
I hope this has been educational and interesting to read! This is the cumulation of the work I've been archiving and thinking about and checking for the past 3 years so I'm quite happy that I'm able to spread the information to people who might be curious. One thing about Cube trainees that I've learned over the years is that often so many of them are extremely talented. Say what you want but Cube has a fantastic eye for talent and they're good at cultivating that talent, but their weakness comes down to actually taking the step towards debut and committing to it. That's why so many of these ex-Cube trainees go back out into the idol world and dominate survival shows and become main vocalists and dancers of other groups. But it’s also a little bittersweet, to think about what could’ve been. Infamous best friends Sung Hanbin and Seok Matthew could’ve debuted together under Cube. Ahn Yekun could’ve debuted in Nowadays instead of being a bakery worker. When you scroll through the immense list of guys who didn’t make it, you can’t help but think: all this bloodshed… All the fallen… and for what?
Well! I'm beyond overjoyed that Nowadays is finally debuting. It feels like the light at the end of a very long tunnel. I have been following their developments for so long that I’ve become attached to them. If the guys who were cut or left prove to all be so talented and amazing, the quality of the guys who actually made it must be insane. I’m so scared but excited to see what happens!! Please check out Nowadays!
[1] Don't come for me for using the pinyin spelling okay [return]
[2] https://twitter.com/0128YSH/status/1606229998423011328?s=20 [return]
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ1by4jEy44&ab_channel=1theK%28%EC%9B%90%EB%8D%94%EC%BC%80%EC%9D%B4%29[return]
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQAVE3YxjD4&ab_channel=CubeBoys2019[return]
[5] https://youtu.be/Ce0IwwPpBlg?si=VuyvPNV8ghCdX-5O (timestamp: 4:33, you can see them enter from the right and greet Shinwon)[return]
[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAp2IKQ6nD8&ab_channel=%EC%A1%B0%EC%9A%B0%EC%B0%ACJowoochan[return]
[7] https://www.instagram.com/p/CNuRfWeH6pi/ [return]
[8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfezuI-l7hc&ab_channel=%EC%B9%98%EC%A6%88%2FCHEEZE [return]
[9] https://twitter.com/Sunghoonly1/status/1422524875504111616?s=20&t=65lnp447Q0piojLb-Hkz6w [return]
[10] https://twitter.com/yfieee_/status/1497598878148743170 [return]
[11] https://x.com/cubetree_/status/1507361928380747785?s=20 [return]
[12] the original instagram post had more pictures, i think, but they took down all the instagram posts and i'm going to be pissed if they delete everything off the twitter too... https://x.com/cubetree_/status/1510977454361382916?s=20 [return]
[13] they even did the outsider tiktok challenge together! https://twitter.com/OFFICIALBTOB/status/1435167865687076865 [return]
[14] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwfAfG1oVfg&ab_channel=wuju_oneweve [return]
[15] https://twitter.com/BTOBalenciaga/status/1290610820800319489?s=20&t=mEtuYGhSj-Jly1kZXmJn4Q [return]
[16] https://x.com/uItserim/status/1265564450846838789?s=20 [return]
[17] https://x.com/efaivous/status/1423869838242369536?s=20 [return]
[18] https://twitter.com/daisymystar/status/1445589843837263878 [return]
[19] https://twitter.com/shinwonthinkers/status/1491425117855162371?s=20&t=_4yCxPGzWhBgmaW4FzpAkw [return]
[20] https://twitter.com/DONGHYEONKR/status/1442333950727184386 [return]
[21] This is a clip of him on live teasing the origin of his nickname and saying his dongsaengs will debut in Nowadays... https://twitter.com/blushiebin/status/1767462221918126087 There's also this fansign story some time before this live where he alludes to his nickname coming from a dongsaeng who "hasn't been revealed to the world yet". https://x.com/jinhyuk_kr/status/1767470370398113868?s=20 [return]
[22] This is a screenshot of the interview with Seonho where he talks about Takuma. https://x.com/dalkuma0805/status/1754902915670757548?s=20 Here is the eng subtitled AAA behind video where you can see Takuma vote for Seonho, timestamped 16:45. https://youtu.be/18-Zsvdw7j0?t=1005[return]
[23] https://www.instagram.com/jowoochan_santa/ [return]
[24] https://www.instagram.com/m1nt1me/ [return]