Chaeyoung’s New Path: Independent, Yet Still in TWICE
Chaeyoung’s launch of her independent label LIL FANTASY while remaining an active member of TWICE is a new kind of K-pop career model, where an idol builds a self-directed solo career alongside ongoing group activities instead of choosing one path over the other.
Chaeyoung has ended her exclusive contract with JYP Entertainment and started a new solo chapter under her own K-pop independent label, LIL FANTASY, but she has been explicit that TWICE remains part of her future. In a handwritten letter to fans posted on August 13, she explained that she wanted ONCE to hear about her plans for solo work under LIL FANTASY directly from her. That framing matters: she is not staging an escape; she is drawing a line around her own creative world. The agencies’ joint statement, which confirmed the label’s establishment, even asked the public to support “a fresh start” for Chaeyoung through this move. This is a deliberate choice to seek creative control without walking away from the group that made her a star.
What LIL FANTASY Says About Creative Control in K-pop
LIL FANTASY is not a vague branding exercise; it is the name of a concrete artistic universe Chaeyoung has been building for years. She first attached it to her debut solo album, “LIL FANTASY vol.1,” released in September 2025, and described it as the creative world built around her music. That album was shaped by her own thoughts, notes and experiences, and she took part in both the music and visual planning. The results were not niche: the record ranked No. 86 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Best Albums of 2025 and No. 7 on year-end K-pop album lists from Billboard and Forbes, according to KoreaHerald. The clear message is that when idols are trusted with creative control in K-pop, the work can stand confidently on global critical stages.
Chaeyoung’s decision to formalize LIL FANTASY as an independent label is an extension of that success, not a reaction to failure. It says: if an idol’s vision can produce a top-100 album, why should that vision remain secondary to a company’s priorities? K-pop has long been built on centralized planning, but Chaeyoung’s trajectory argues that idols who have proven they can carry their own concepts deserve structures that center their ideas. Instead of treating creative control as a privilege granted late in a career, her independent label frames it as the starting point for everything she releases as a soloist.
Solo Career While Group Member: Redefining Loyalty
The most radical part of the TWICE Chaeyoung solo story is that she refuses the old either/or choice between group loyalty and individual freedom. In her letter, she stressed that “nothing changes with TWICE” and called the group her roots, adding that everything she has received comes from her time as a TWICE member. At the same time, she asked fans to keep connecting with both “Chaeyoung of TWICE” and “Chaeyoung in LIL FANTASY,” explicitly defining two coexisting identities that reinforce each other. This is not a quiet side project hidden between group schedules; it is a parallel track with its own label name, aesthetics and goals. By positioning TWICE as home rather than as a constraint, she reframes a solo career while group member as an act of commitment, not betrayal.
That framing is important in a fandom culture that often treats solo ambitions with suspicion. Chaeyoung answers that suspicion in advance: she thanks JYP and “Team TWICE” for 14 years of belief and support, including her trainee days, before announcing her independent future. Quoting her own logic, everything she gains through LIL FANTASY is built on the foundation TWICE gave her, not in opposition to it. The solo path is framed as a way to give more back to fans, through music that sounds unmistakably like her. In this model, artist independence trend is less about walking away from groups and more about finding structures that protect both the group’s legacy and the individual’s creative growth.
From Contract to Collaboration: What Comes Next for Chaeyoung
Leaving a major agency after 14 years is a personal turning point as much as a business move. Chaeyoung describes her independent solo path as a fresh challenge and promises to keep developing as both an artist and a person. She plans to make “meaningful music through both sides of her career,” asking fans to follow her evolution in TWICE and in LIL FANTASY. Her agencies’ joint statement also stressed that they would protect her from false or malicious content, including recent breakup rumors they called “completely groundless,” and it asked for continued support for the active musical work of both Chaeyoung and Zion.T. That protective tone underlines how visible her next moves will be: a high-profile K-pop independent label run by a still-active girl group member will be watched and judged in real time.
The open question is not whether Chaeyoung can handle the artistic weight of independence—LIL FANTASY vol.1 already answered that—but how far she will push her control over sound, visuals and release plans as her catalog grows. Her success or failure will send a signal to other idols thinking about similar paths. If this model works, companies and artists may have to rethink the default of exclusive, all-encompassing contracts and move toward arrangements that look more like collaborations between group entities and personally owned labels. Chaeyoung is betting that the future of creative control K-pop is not separation but partnership—and she is willing to test that theory in public.
