XngHan on U.S. Fansign Tour & Exclusive Photos

While the singer is now a soloist, he performs collectively as part of XngHan and Xoul with dancers Jang Yul and Gu Kyohong. They may not have accompanied him to the U.S., but the trio had a chance to travel together to SM Town Live in Tokyo earlier this year. His favorite part of hitting the road with them? “They eat really well,” he laughs. In the pair’s absence, XngHan has been doing the same, sampling the usual suspects in each city: In-N-Out, southern barbecue, pizza (pictured above). When in a new location, “I usually like challenging myself to eat the foods that are there,” he says, though he regrets not making it to BCD, a Korean tofu house in L.A. that serves spicy soup.

Travelling with a small crew this go-around, XngHan got to be more spontaneous. In New York, he went with the flow, sipping whisky in a West Village jazz bar and snapping photos of pop art at the Whitney. “But I have to say that it was the time I spent in L.A. that really left an impact on me,” he says. “Not only getting to see how people style themselves, but also getting a glimpse of life through their eyes. That free-spirited attitude.” These vibes weren’t only limited to the people he met. “There was a bunny in Dallas, just doing its own thing,” he recalls. “The tiniest, cutest bunny, but it looked so free, you know? Just munching on grass and hopping around.”

XngHan isn’t really one for crying; while he’s watched The Notebook at least 12 times, he claims to end each viewing with dry eyes. “I’m more so the one who consoles others,” he explains, a disposition that came in handy at the fan signs. “There was someone who told me that I had brought her a lot of comfort when she was going through a tough time in her life,” the singer says. “It really stuck with me because it was the first time [a fan had cried] in-person.” Because his signature mirrors a four-leaf clover, he feels like he’s sending off each person with a good luck charm of their own: “In a way, it’s me saying, ‘Have a great day that makes you smile!’”

When XngHan became a trainee at SM in seventh grade, “I thought I was going to learn all the K-pop dances,” he says. “But instead they taught me hip-hop choreography.” The dance novice started doing his own “research” on YouTube, which brought him to G-Dragon, the Super Bowl 50 halftime show with Beyoncé and Bruno Mars, and dance videos from Ian Eastwood, who XngHan linked up with while in Los Angeles. Later that same day, when he watched the class of dancers take on his single’s choreography, “It gave me a sense of euphoria,” he says. “I wanted to capture it all in that moment, leave a record of it somewhere to treasure and look back on.”