Five members. One unbreakable name. ZEROBASEONE steps into their most cinematic era yet — and they’re not looking back.

There’s a moment — right before the music drops — when every atom in an arena holds its breath. For ZEROBASEONE, that moment has always felt electric, a little dangerous, and impossible to look away from. But this June, standing inside the pages of Harper’s BAZAAR Korea, the five remaining members of ZB1 aren’t waiting for the beat. They’ve already moved.

Sung Han-bin, Kim Ji-woong, Seok Matthew, Kim Tae-rae, and Park Gun-wook arrived on set in a configuration the world hadn’t quite seen before: leaner, sharper, and radiating the specific energy of people who chose each other. Because that is the story no viral MV teaser can fully tell — they chose to stay. When their original nine-member project period drew to a close in March 2026, these five made a decision rooted in something rarer than talent. They made it rooted in trust.

And Harper’s BAZAAR Korea, the magazine that has always understood K-pop not merely as entertainment but as high-concept culture, gave them a cover worthy of that decision.

From Boys Planet to the World Stage

To understand where ZB1 stand today, you have to remember where they began: under the fluorescent lights of Mnet’s Boys Planet, a survival program that aired in early 2023 and became a cultural phenomenon in real time.

Ninety-eight trainees from across the globe competed before a global fandom vote. When the dust settled on April 20, 2023, nine names were called.

The group that emerged — multinational, meticulously trained, brimming with individual charisma — debuted three months later with Youth in the Shade and immediately rewrote the rules for 5th-generation K-pop debuts.

“In Bloom,” the EP’s lead single, landed on Billboard’s Global 200. The album itself moved over 1.24 million copies in its first week — a debut record. Six consecutive million-selling albums followed.

By any metric, ZB1 was one of the most commercially and creatively potent acts of their generation, a group whose fanbase, ZEROSE, built one of the most devoted and globally distributed communities in modern K-pop.

They chose each other not because a contract demanded it, but because something real had been built between them — and that’s the kind of foundation you can actually build something extraordinary on.” — Kpoppie Magazine Editorial, June 2026

The Decision That Defined Everything

February 12, 2026. WakeOne Entertainment released a statement that sent shockwaves through every K-pop fan account, Weverse community, and group chat from Seoul to São Paulo. Four members — Zhang Hao, Ricky, Kim Gyu-vin, and Han Yu-jin — were parting ways with ZEROBASEONE following their contract expiration, returning to YH Entertainment and their own futures. Five members would carry the name forward.

The internet, predictably, fractured. Fan forums lit up with grief, speculation, and the particular K-pop heartbreak that comes from watching a beloved formation dissolve. But the fandom’s resilience was equally fast. ZEROSE — a name that has always carried a kind of quiet ferocity — processed, mourned, and then rallied.

By the time the nine original members took their final bow together at the KSPO Dome encore concert in March, the tears in the arena were the tears of people who had loved something fully, not of people who felt betrayed. The five who remained made their position clear through WakeOne’s statement: they were beginning “a new season together as ZEROBASEONE,” united by “deep trust.”

Seok Matthew and Park Gun-wook signed exclusive contracts with WakeOne. Sung Han-bin and Kim Ji-woong remained with their respective agencies but committed fully to the group. The foundation was new. The ambition was unmistakable.

Ascend–: The Album That Reintroduces ZB1

Released May 18, 2026, Ascend– is not a comeback. It is, in the most precise sense of the word, a re-introduction. The title track “TOP 5” arrives with the swaggering clarity of a group that has nothing left to prove — and therefore is free to do exactly what they want. Musically, it threads early 2000s dance-pop DNA through a contemporary groove framework: hip-hop rhythms, layered synths, and lyrics that position five as not a diminishment, but a declaration.

The “TOP 5” MV surged past the two-million-view mark within hours of release, its monochrome palette and sharp, geometric choreography establishing the visual grammar of this era. The video’s aesthetic — all slick angles, confident stillness, and restrained color — reads as a direct statement: we have edited down to our essence, and our essence is this.

The standout B-side, “Customize,” carries its own landmark status. It marks Park Gun-wook’s first composition credit since the group’s debut, a moment that signals ZB1’s evolution from polished project group to genuinely self-authoring artists. Collaborators on the album include songwriter-producer JUNNY and lyricist Jvde (formerly of BIGSTAR), confirming that WakeOne has assembled a roster worthy of this group’s creative ambitions.

“ZEROSE is not a passive audience — they are co-authors of this story. They streamed through the heartbreak, voted through the uncertainty, and held the name ZEROBASEONE like something sacred when the world wasn’t sure it would survive” — Kpoppie Magazine, Harper’s BAZAAR Korea Feature, June 2026

Fashion as a Second Language

Fashion has always been core to ZB1’s identity — not as costume, but as communication. The group has cycled through visual worlds that would feel jarring in less skilled hands: the sun-drenched youth poetry of Youth in the Shade, the molten intensity of Melting Point, the oceanic depth of Blue Paradise. Each era carried its own sartorial signature. Each wardrobe choice telegraphed something about where they were emotionally and creatively.

The Ascend– era, as captured in this BAZAAR pictorial, favors restraint with impact. Think tailored silhouettes that command space without demanding attention, monochrome palettes broken by a single, deliberate color note. It is the visual language of five people who have stripped away the excess and kept only what burns brightest.

Sung Han-bin, whose expressive control in front of a camera matches his stage presence, anchors the spread with the kind of editorial stillness that takes years to develop. Seok Matthew brings an ease that reads as effortless cool — the Canadian-Korean kid who grew up between two visual cultures and now moves through them both with sovereign grace. Park Gun-wook, meanwhile, turns every lens toward him with an almost gravitational force, his aesthetic sensibility deepening visibly with every new project.

“The Ascend– era ZB1 has decided that five isn’t a smaller number. It’s a sharper one — and in fashion, as in music, precision cuts deeper than volume.” — Kpoppie Magazine, Harper’s BAZAAR Korea Feature, June 2026

The Fandom That Moves Mountains

No profile of ZEROBASEONE is complete without acknowledging the force that has propelled them from survival show competitors to cover-ready cultural icons: ZEROSE. The fandom — whose name encodes ZB1’s own symbolism, the journey from zero to one — has consistently demonstrated a level of coordinated, emotionally intelligent support that separates them from a fanbase and elevates them to a community.

Through the group’s reorganization, through the heartbreak of saying goodbye to four beloved members, through the breathless anticipation of a comeback, ZEROSE held. Fan-organized streaming parties reached hundreds of thousands of concurrent participants.

Voting campaigns for music show wins mobilized across time zones. And when “TOP 5” dropped, hashtags relating to the group and its new era trended globally within minutes — a feat that still astonishes industry observers.

The group’s upcoming appearance at KCON LA 2026 this summer marks ZB1’s first major international stage as a five-member unit — and for ZEROSE in North America, Latin America, and beyond, it will be a moment of collective catharsis. The ticket demand alone tells the story of a fandom that hasn’t scattered; it has focused.

What It Means to Ascend

The name Ascend– is both musical direction and life philosophy. The dash at the end of the album title — that small, deliberate punctuation — implies continuation, a sentence left open. It is not a conclusion. It is a beginning mid-stride.

In their BAZAAR pictorial, the members don’t perform joy or confidence for the camera. They embody it — the specific, quiet confidence of people who have navigated something genuinely difficult and emerged with their identity intact. There’s a maturity to this era of ZB1 that their debut year couldn’t have predicted, not because they weren’t talented then, but because talent alone doesn’t produce this kind of gravitational stillness. Experience does. Choice does.

They are five young men who built something nine people strong, watched it reshape around them, and chose — in the full knowledge of what that choice cost and what it could create — to keep building. That is the story Harper’s BAZAAR Korea is telling this June. It’s also the story K-pop, at its best, has always known how to tell: that the most enduring art is made not from perfection, but from the determination to continue.

ZEROBASEONE’s sixth mini album Ascend– is out now via WakeOne. The Harper’s BAZAAR Korea June 2026 issue is available in print and digital. ZEROSE: D1, Be the ONE.

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Credits & Rights

Published In Harper’s BAZAAR Korea June 2026 Issue 하퍼스 바자 코리아 — 2026년 6월호

Original Feature By Kpoppie Magazine Editorial Department kpoppie.com

Media Partner: Velocity Entertainment Inc. Japan / New Zealand

Artist Management: WakeOne Entertainment, Seoul, South Korea @wakeone_offcl

Artist: ZEROBASEONE (ZB1), Sung Han-bin · Kim Ji-woong · Seok Matthew · Kim Tae-rae · Park Gun-wook

Photography Credit: Harper’s BAZAAR Korea © Harper’s BAZAAR Korea 2026 All pictorial rights reserved.

Styling: WakeOne Creative Team ASCEND– Era Visual Direction

Digital Distribution: Kpoppie Magazine in partnership with Velocity Entertainment Inc.Japan / New Zealand

© 2026 Harper’s BAZAAR Korea. All pictorial photographs and editorial content produced in association with the June 2026 issue are the exclusive intellectual property of Harper’s BAZAAR Korea and may not be reproduced without written consent.

Feature article text © 2026 Kpoppie Magazine / Velocity Entertainment Inc. Japan / New Zealand. All rights reserved. ZEROBASEONE artist name, likeness, and associated marks are trademarks of WakeOne Entertainment and respective member management agencies. This editorial was produced for journalistic and fan-cultural purposes in accordance with fair use provisions. Velocity Entertainment Inc. is a registered entity operating in Japan and New Zealand.

For licensing, syndication, or reprint enquiries: editorial@kpoppie.com | Velocity Entertainment Inc. — Auckland, New Zealand & Tokyo, Japan

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