On May 21, ILLIT appeared as guests on the YouTube channel Gym Jong Kook, where Kim Jong-kook welcomed the young girl group with his usual mix of humor, warmth, and awkward senior energy. Before meeting the members, Kim Jong-kook joked that he had dressed especially for the occasion. “I heard cute juniors, and among idols, very young friends, were coming, so I wore the cutest outfit,” he said.

The age gap quickly became one of the funniest parts of the episode. ILLIT’s youngest member, Iroha, was born in 2008, while Kim Jong-kook was born in 1976, making the two 32 years apart in age. Kim Jong-kook laughed as he wondered whether the members would even be interested in exercise, saying, “I don’t know if these friends will have any interest in working out.”

Once the meeting began, ILLIT gifted Kim Jong-kook their new album. The singer immediately noticed how much album packaging had changed compared to the past. Looking at the album, Kim Jong-kook commented that albums now feel more like collectible items. “An album needs to have collectible value. In the past, it was for the purpose of listening,” he said.

He then looked back on his own era of music formats, adding, “For me, it was LPs, then tapes, then CDs.” That was when Yunah delivered the line that made the generation gap painfully real. She told him, “My mother bought Turbo tapes.” Kim Jong-kook immediately burst into laughter and repeated in disbelief, “Your mother?”

The comment perfectly captured the distance between Kim Jong-kook’s Turbo days and ILLIT’s current K-pop generation. While Kim Jong-kook was once a major star with Turbo, ILLIT’s members are now active in an era of collectible albums, online challenges, and viral short-form content.

The episode became even funnier when Kim Jong-kook tried on the paper glasses included in ILLIT’s album. He also joined the members in performing the challenge choreography for their new song, showing his willingness to follow the younger idols’ lead. After seeing the album’s contents and the effort put into the release, Kim Jong-kook praised the group, saying, “Fans will like this. There’s sincerity in it.”

Meanwhile, ILLIT, consisting of Yunah, Minju, Moka, Wonhee, and Iroha, is currently gaining attention with “It’s Me,” the title track from their fourth mini album MAMIHLAPINATAPAI.

Sources: Daum | 뉴스엔