While waiting for that great news, I went on to pursue other things for the time being. Since STAY had their second comeback, I decided to take some rest, and.. maybe watch some Netflix?

It didn’t take long though, until STAY went on to have their first-ever headlining event, made just for them: S23. Short for ‘STAY in 2023’, it was essentially a compilation of the previous shows from debut up to STAYTEEN. It also launched their cute characters in collaboration with Line Friends, ‘Supercute Stars’.

But just in time for its launch came the news of the millennium.

On August 8, we received the news we’ve all been waiting for more than a year.

The news of his solo debut.

Cara must be very busy during these last few months, preparing for what now became his solo debut. Excited is an understatement. I was appalled by what we got - something I thought that he would never do from the moment the BTS solo era started.

Set for release on September 8, the new album - titled Layover - was accompanied by a series of activities to promote his solo debut. He went on to release five music videos - the first one, ”Love Me Again”, already became one of the best solo releases by a BTS member, and as the first-ever solo release by a member of STAY, it also added a new dynamic to its discography by becoming already remarkable to the project group.

Of course, it was promoted through another event - the first promotional event in more than a year - me.here.now, the first metaverse event and also the first with a Y2K concept. As the first solo headliner of any event, the first BTS member to headline an event as a solo artist and the first STAY member to debut as a solo artist (that’s a lot), I spent the rest of the month working on that event, and I made sure to give everything to make this event the best.

But no matter how hard I worked for it, the need for validation suddenly turned into an era of attestation. As he experienced an unforeseen rise in productivity, it had reached the point when, even when I close my eyes, I still knew and feel that he was up to something.

Before we knew, we have entered a new golden era in Caratime. He can be argued to have reached his peak, though I still believed that he can go higher than this.

He’s the overall achiever, Cara, after all.