Tomorrow X Together (TXT) leader Soobin has opened up about his feelings over the group’s global popularity.

In a recent interview with Marie Claire Korea, the K-pop idol spoke about the boyband’s rise in popularity since their debut in 2019. Soobin revealed that he had initially found it unbelievable that TXT’s international fame had grown so much.

In 2021, TXT was notably the only Korean artist to make it onto both Rolling Stone’s and NME’s respective best albums of 2021 lists. The group had also appeared on Billboard’s year-end list of Best K-pop songs with ‘0X1=LOVESONG (I Know I Love You)’.

“At first, it didn’t feel real, and I couldn’t believe it,” he shared, as translated by Soompi. “Since we haven’t been able to go on tour, there was no way for me to feel our growth [in terms of our fandom]. But due to these kinds of results, I became confident that the path we’re taking is the right one.”

“It made me feel proud and happy,” added the TXT leader. Soobin had also shared his hopes of being able to tell stories of comfort through the boyband’s next music releases, adding that he was looking forward to their future as well.

In other news, HYBE label mates fromis_9 have recently made a comeback with their fourth mini-album ‘Midnight Guest’ and its lead single ‘DM’. At a press conference for the release, the girl group shared that they felt pressure as the only all-female act under the major label.

“Of course, we feel a sense of pressure at having such a huge agency’s name attached to us”, shared leader Saerom, as translated by Soompi. “But we tried to think of the pressure as a driving force to make fromis_9’s color stronger.”