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Unlike Jungkook, Iris had not always had a natural aptitude for music.
Iris had moved around all her life for her mother's job. She lived in London for most of her life, before bouncing around countries in nearly every continent. Iris had always loved listening to music, but not making it. She always thought her singing voice was bad, and had never thought about producing the music until moving to New York when she was eighteen for university. She went to university for two years as a biomedical major, absolutely hating every second of it. The one thing she adored about being in the city is the culture it had—the birthplace of hip hop.
Hip hop had always been a big part of understanding where she came from. Iris was adopted by a Korean couple when she was very young. They both learned how to take care of her hair, taught her black history, and they never treated her any different than their biological son. They were fantastic, but they could never fully understand what it was like to be black. She couldn't expect them to—if someone isn't black, they could never truly know exactly how it feels. Listening to artists like Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole, N.W.A and Ms. Lauryn Hill, who helped create a musical safe haven where they could speak freely about the plights and racial injustice black people face, but also all of the amazing parts of being black, made Iris feel heard and more connected to the beautiful culture behind her skin color. Iris loved New York for that—it helped her come to terms with who she is. She never felt like she truly fit into her Korean family because of her skin tone, and never felt like she truly fit into her black heritage because of her Korean upbringing.
New York made her realize that the boxes and stereotypes she was trying to jam herself into to feel apart of her Korean family or her black culture were all figments of her imagination. Seeing not just black people, but people of every skin color and ethnicity, come together and appreciate diversity, made her more confident in her own differences. It helped her understand herself and where she came from, but not be ashamed of how she was raised. And music was how she expressed the unity of these differences. She educated herself on many genres and their traditional aspects and originations, began making songs with a fusion of genres and cultural elements as a creative outlet. She got the hang of it after a while, and before she knew it, she was collaborating with artists. They started on free platforms like SoundCloud, but gradually escalated to the artists that were topping the charts. Iris became a prominent writer in the industry, and she dropped out of school in her junior year to pursue writing full time.
When she had gotten the sudden offer from Ddaeng Entertainment to come write for Jungkook, she was skeptical. She could speak Korean perfectly thanks to her parents, so that wasn't the problem. He just wasn't her style—apart from his early music, his trademark was upbeat EDM and mainstream pop. However, when she told her mother about the offer, she couldn't possibly turn it down. Her mom loves Jungkook's music, even owns an album. It had been hard for her parents to see her give up biomedical school, but they let her live her life regardless. So, Iris took the offer on behalf of her mom.
