Editor’s Note: The first girl group to come out of SM Entertainment in five years. They don’t participate in a lot of variety shows. There’s not much known about them and if it wasn’t for their diverse hair colors, it wouldn’t have been easy to tell them apart. Although they have showed two contrasting images with their debut song ‘Happiness’ and a remake of S.E.S’s 'Be Natural’, Red Velvet continues to be a team that stimulates curiosity. However, these four girls, Irene, Seulgi, Wendy, and Joy had more to them as they started talking about themselves.

Q: Are you guys still dieting?

Irene: Yes, we continue to. We usually eat apples and sweet potatoes, but… ( she reaches out to the bread on the table ) I think we’ll have to eat.

Q: Joy likes chicken, but Irene can’t eat chicken.

Joy: So whenever we order something, we order individually. We try to understand each other. If I want to eat chicken, Irene will tell me, “Go ahead, you can order chicken, and I can just eat something else.” All the other members like chicken as well.

Irene: I just eat something else beside them. There’s potato fries and salads.

Q: Are you allergic to chicken?

Irene: If I have some my head extremely hurts, and my face turns pale. I just think my body doesn’t accept it.

Joy: I can’t understand it. This tasty thing… ( laughs )

Irene: There was a time when I was young when my mom ordered chicken for me all week. It was soy sauce marinated chicken so at first it was really good, but I grew sick of it after a week that I threw up. After that, I can’t eat chicken at all. However, my mom seemed to not remember this at all.

Joy: Oh, if it’s a reason like this I can understand. When I was in elementary school, I made curry ddukbokki for my siblings, but they left so many over that I forced myself to finish everything, and I ended up with an upset stomach. After that I don’t eat curry. I don’t even like the smell of it.

Q: I heard the first time you guys sang together was recording 'Happiness’.

Irene: It was really fun. Especially the part where we yell together. The four of us went in and screamed, “Happiness!”, “I want it!”, “Let’s dream!” and recorded it.

Seulgi: We weren’t trying to be cute necessarily ( she says with a husky voice ). When we all sang “Happiness!” I realized, oh, we match really well with each other.

Wendy: The beat of 'Happiness’ itself is boom boom clap boom clap so it’s a lot of fun. We’re all very outgoing, but I think we all became happier and brighter after performing with 'Happiness’. Although it was hard how we had to scream and jump a lot.

Q: What did you trainer say every time you guys got so tired after practicing to the point of fainting?

Seulgi: We encouraged each other and stood up.

Wendy: We kept repeating this is the last time, this is the last time and just kept going. It wasn’t just one person continuously encouraging the others to get up; it changed every time. If one person was overflowing with energy, it made you follow along.

Seulgi: Everyone’s condition is different depending on the day.

Irene: Although I don’t remember it a hundred percent, our trainer spoke to us after our debut stage and said, “you guys were pretty. Congratulations. The day has finally come.” Even before this they would always say, “We met in order to be separated. We have to let you guys go.” But that day actually came.

Q: What did you guys think when you first heard the four of you would be in a team together?

Joy: The four of us had always practiced together. I always thought that it would be nice to be with the other members. However, there were always different friends that would come in and work with us. We would practice with them and try it out. Whenever that happened, I couldn’t help but be jealous. I was scared that I would be stolen of the unnies’ loves. I said that to the other members before that I was jealous and that I wish they would love the other people less than they love me. I spoke like that, and I was really happy when we al ended up being in a team together. Ah, I’m really lucky. I wouldn’t have been able to dream of debuting without the other members.

Q: You guys were always close. Do you guys still hold each other’s hands when you go somewhere?

Wendy: It’s become a habit of our’s without us even noticing.

Seulgi: I was originally a person who didn’t link arms with other people, but Irene unnie really loves skinship. I ended up linking arms while going around with Irene during our trainee days. Nowadays it’s cold so we hold onto each other more tightly.

Irene: When I first linked arms with her, she wasn’t sure what to do with that arm so Seulgi was rigid like a robot.

Seulgi: I think I was like uhm… hmm… and confused.

Q: How were your first impressions of one another?

Seulgi: Irene unnie was really pretty. She was from Daegu so her dialect was so strong that she didn’t say anything. She would just say “Hello” and then walk pass me. Now she’s fixed a lot of her dialect. She doesn’t use it unless she’s talking to her mother or overly excited. What’s weird is that she’s using Jeonlla district dialect these days. ( laughs )

Wendy: I thought it was hard to approach her because she was so pretty. Could I approach her? Is that possible? But I think I ended up approaching her anyway.

Seulgi: Wendy’s really social. Irene is a very acceptable person as well so they got close very fast.

Q: In Irene’s position, didn’t you wonder why nobody approached you?

Irene: I’ve heard so many times that my first impression is scary. When I first came in as a trainee, I’ve never dyed my hair so it was pitch black. It was probably so much scarier. Afterwards, I dyed it brown one. Didn’t my impression get better then?

Joy: It’s true. Not only is she shy, but she can appear cold to other people. After practicing with her, she took care of me like a real sister. She would come help me with dancing if I was struggling on my own because I couldn’t memorize it. I was so touched that my thoughts about her changed that day. She was a scary person that once you get to know is kind.

Q: Does she buy you delicious things?

Joy: Not too long ago, she bought me fried octopus ddukbokki. It was really good. What really touched me was when the members made seaweed soup and a lot of other food for my birthday. I had to get up early that day because of school.

Wendy: We just took out side dishes we had. And cooked some seaweed soup. (laughs )

Joy: Did I juts get touched on my own?

Wendy: What really surprised me that day was that I woke up early in the morning in the kitchen, but ten minutes later, Irene woke up and came up to me to ask, “What are you doing?” and I said, “I was going to cook seaweed soup,” and she said, “You too?”

Q: Joy’s getting better at dancing.

Joy: When I first entered the company, I was scared of this thing called dancing. All I’ve done in the past was get together with my friends and match things up. I didn’t exercise so my stamina was weak, and I couldn’t stretch well so dancing was hard. However, after debuting I practice daily songs that are so contrasting like 'Happiness’ and 'Be Natural’ that I think my body just grew used to it.

Irene: Joy has her own feel. ( laughs )

Q: I heard you have a lot of 'anger'

Seulgi: It’s true. She’s the youngest out of us, but she has the most anger in her dancing.

Joy: I guess it’s because I live as the youngest.

Irene: What?

Wendy: (to Seulgi) We have to do the best. We’re in the middle of the oldest and the youngest. We’re the last in ranking. Let’s do well.

Seulgi: 94-line ended up like this…

Joy: I saw a ranking list made by a fan. On there Irene was wall over wall while Wendy and Seulgi were last.

Q: What’s it like getting three older sisters at once?

Joy: I have younger sisters so I was always the older one. I struggled with depending on others and asking for help. At the beginning of my trainee period, do they call it my way? I tried to do everything on my own. The other members were probably frustrated with me. I didn’t talk, and I tried to figure everything out on my own. While I was doing so, the other unnies came by and helped me out one by one, and so I thought this is why they say having an older sister is good. The members all have their own style as well. Wendy unnie is lively, and she takes care of everything individually. Seulgi unnie understands me like a friend. Irene unnie is quiet, but she takes care of everything in the back. Now when there’s something difficult, I ask them for help. I feel like we’ve become a real family.

Q: Do you know what the position of the youngest is?

Joy: Sometimes I forget that and mess with the members.

Q: That’s the youngest’s job. How does she mess around?

Joy: These days when I’m in a good mood I go, “Wendy-yah~” (t/n: informal speech.)

Wendy: And we’re short so Joy always goes, “Hey, our Seulgi~ So cute”

Joy: This morning, Wendy and Irene were fooling around and running in front of me, and I thought it was so cute. They’re both so tiny.

Wendy: Irene was complaining about being cold so I gave her my coat, but she kept joking around. I told you to just take it.

Joy: They’re like children.