Former K-pop idol goes viral after group disbands, juggles 4 part-time jobs while starting over at 22

Former ARrC member Park Hyun-bin is drawing widespread attention online after documenting his life following the K-pop group's disbandment, including a 155-kilometer walk across Korea and a new routine juggling four part-time jobs, from warehouse shifts to construction work.

Park, 22, launched his YouTube channel "Gwangjin City Boy" in July. Despite having uploaded just three videos, his candid account of losing the dream he had pursued since adolescence has struck a chord with viewers.

The three-part series, titled "22 years old, quit being an idol and walking 155 km from Seoul to Jecheon," follows Park as he makes the journey on foot from the capital to Jecheon, a city in North Chungcheong Province.

Park first became known to K-pop audiences through Mnet's idol audition program "Boys Planet" in 2023. He debuted as a member of boy group ARrC in August the following year, but the group disbanded in June, less than two years after its debut.

"The group disbanded. I started training to become an idol when I was 14," Park said in the first video. "I entered this industry with the dream of becoming an idol when I was in my first year of middle school. After that, I went through several agencies and experienced countless setbacks and failures."

During the trek, Park struck up conversations with strangers, tried climbing installations he encountered along the way and gradually appeared to embrace the freedom of traveling alone. Some of the people he met also shared deeply personal stories with him.

At one restaurant, the owner told Park that her husband had died after undergoing cancer treatment and that she herself had survived stage 4 cancer.

"Don't spend your life struggling too much," she said. "That's just how life is. Everyone looks happy on the outside, but everyone has their own hardships. We just live pretending otherwise."

Park said those encounters changed the way he viewed his own circumstances.

"This trip made me realize again that the world is still a place worth living in," he said. "I think I found the courage to keep going. I used to resent the world and wonder why these things only happened to me, but now I think I see things differently."

The destination of his 155-kilometer journey was a filming location for the acclaimed 1999 Korean film "Peppermint Candy." After finally reaching it, Park reflected on the end of the career he had spent much of his youth pursuing.

"At first, I just wanted to run away," he said. "It was too painful and unbearable to accept that the dream that had been everything to me for eight years was over. I wanted to disappear somewhere no one knew me."

"But strangely, with every step I took, my thoughts began to settle," he said, recalling "the warm words from strangers I met along the road, the people who quietly cheered me on and, more than anyone, the fans I am grateful for."

His story quickly spread online. As of Thursday afternoon, the first video had surpassed 700,000 views and attracted more than 2,860 comments.

Park also revealed in a Sept. 9 interview with Yonhap News TV that he is now supporting himself by working four part-time jobs.

"I have two regular part-time jobs, and I also work at a Coupang logistics center and take day-labor jobs at construction sites," he said.

Despite the physically demanding work, Park said he feels unexpectedly content with his life after leaving the idol industry.

"Surprisingly, I don't think I've ever felt this peaceful and happy in my life," he said.

Viewers have flooded his videos with messages of encouragement, with many focusing on his willingness to rebuild his life after the abrupt end of his K-pop career.

"You seem like someone who could do anything well," one commenter said.

"It doesn't matter if you're not good at something, and it doesn't matter if you don't succeed. If you're happy, that's enough," another said.

A third said, "I applaud you for reflecting on yourself. You have such a healthy mindset. I feel like you'll succeed at whatever you do."

This article from Xportsnews was adapted by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.