Kang Ha-kyung on *Migak Boys* Fame: "Something Has Gone Wrong"

Actor Kang Ha-kyung sat down with OSEN at their Mapo-gu office for a wrap interview on tvN/TVING drama *Cook Up a Storm*, and spent a good portion of it processing the unexpected fan response to *Migak Boys* — the fictional idol unit his character anchors.

Migak Boys debuted in episode six as a fantasy sequence inside soldier Hwang Seok-ho's (Lee Sang-i) head after he tastes Kang Seong-jae's (Park Ji-hoon) arancini rice ball. The five-member group, each named after a basic taste — Bitter Taste Gwancheol (Kang Ha-kyung), Salty Taste Jiyong (Kim Mun-gi), Sweet Taste Munik (Im Ji-ho), Sour Taste Sangwook (Kang Jun-gyu), and Spicy Taste Seungwoo (Lee Sang-jun) — performed an original track, "My Flavor," in full music-show staging.

The sequence was not in the original script. "During group readings they told us, 'think of ideas for what kind of talent show you'd want to do,'" Kang recalled. "Then at the next reading they said, 'you're going to be an idol' — and that was that." The cast received their choreography roughly a month to a month and a half before filming, then drilled it independently, later using rehearsal space provided by Kang Jun-gyu's agency, YY Entertainment.

Kang Ha-kyung occupies the center position — the spotlight slot in K-pop group formation — a weight he says he did not fully grasp until he looked it up. "I searched what center means and saw how beautiful actual idol centers are, and immediately thought: this is wrong. How am I supposed to do this?" The choreography, created by Lady Bounce, turned out more demanding than he expected. "It's very fresh and energetic — lots of sharp pops. The part where we spin around back-to-back nearly killed us. We were gasping."

Filming wrapped in roughly one to two days, with the backgrounds rendered entirely in video. Kang noted there was one additional shoot of the group dancing in military uniform during a location shoot, and said he hopes that footage gets released. His standout memory from the entire drama? "The day we filmed Migak Boys. It felt like we were all running toward something together. Every time we finished a run and were barely breathing, someone would ask 'can you go again?' and everyone just jumped back up. I felt real camaraderie there."

The four older members — three born in 1993, Kang on the early end of 1994 — have since become genuine friends. "We rented a pension, went swimming, ate together. On the last location shoot we bunked up to save on expenses and still spent three or four hours gathered in the same room every night. Someone said it felt like a school retreat."

Migak Boys are now scheduled to perform "My Flavor" live on Mnet's *M Countdown*. Over 400 people applied for audience spots at the pre-recording — enough, by Kang's own admission, to fill a standalone showcase. "Something has gone wrong," he said, laughing. "I'm the one living it, so I genuinely can't tell — are people really that curious about what Migak Boys actually look like?"

Kang said he is still working out his ending pose for the broadcast. "I asked idol friends and dancers what they'd do, and one person made eight hearts in a very short time. I asked, 'does that mean I need to make sixteen?' I don't know. Given that my character is Bitter Taste, I feel like I need to stay in concept. I'll probably go out as the character."

Kang Jun-gyu — the only member with actual idol experience, as a former member of MYNAME — has been the group's unofficial coach. "He told me: 'Here's how the cameras will move, here's when one will cut to you, and when it does, you have to be at your best.' He trained us specifically on how to work music-show cameras. Without him, I don't think Migak Boys would have gotten this far. I'd say at least eighty percent of this is thanks to him."

On whether the group could continue beyond the drama as a proper project act, Kang was open to it. "We'd need an agency. But if someone set it up like a project group, I'd absolutely be willing." He also floated updating his Naver profile to list Migak Boys as an official affiliated group.

The "ending fairy" (엔딩요정) is the idol who gets the final camera shot on Korean music shows like *M Countdown* — a coveted moment of individual close-up that fan communities clip and circulate obsessively.

the idol who holds the final pose when a music show cuts to its last close-up shot