It’s hard to believe that we have now reached this point, let alone for Cara to now be doing what he’s been meant to do.

Well, in many ways there will come a time that he will eventually have to do it. We must expect that when considering a South Korean, or anyone from a country with such law, for a nuanced concept like leadership. It just so happened that he did that right at this time, and he just managed to reach that point as a leader. After all, he was still at his peak when it happened.

I was aware of the inevitable from the very beginning, but I was not expecting that he would go on this far.. to the point of actually reaching it. Because by comparative standards, his actual run is already tantamount to post-leadership for other leaders. That’s how far his leadership can go, something still difficult to process and comprehend - considering that until Caratime happened, we’ve yet to have a leader whose run can already be counted by years.

But now the time had come for him to determine his fate.

As he promised, he left on the same day as his enlistment, and we have not heard anything from him since.

Save for a few accidental instances, since that day I no longer have access to whatever goes on with Cara right now - whether it be pre-made or real time (which, as of today, has only been attributed to his military service) - although I still engage momentarily with some pre-existing content/activities (ones that came out prior to his exit) as if this is still a continuation of Caratime.

I know right. He should be gone right now.

But I’m gonna let that one slide for the time being. It’s 2024, and we’re still not yet done with his final activities, that’s why.

Due to unforeseen circumstances that happened on his last day, I had no choice but to borrow about a month off the next leadership to dedicate on working on his culmination. I can’t let a rushed ending happen - especially considering that it has been planned for almost a year. For as long as we were able to give him an ending that would be equivalent to an impressive five-year leadership, in spite of happening in a time not planned, that’s all that matters - and we are this close to achieving it.

That being said, however, this delay left December 11 - a day that was actually well spent - to become an open-ended day…. until this moment.

When we finally close this chapter in leadership for good.

As of February 2024, we are now in Daliatime.

Dalia has been leading for over a month now, yet we still had not fully grasped the feeling of being in a new era due to some unfinished business we had with our previous leader. But what caught my attention so far, ever since his very first day as a leader, was on how he had already established his own identity as a leader, after months of underperforming. New trends emerge, and new groups debuted. New interests were cultivated. And new stories have started to be written.

From what I had observed, Dalia may be on board to become the next Chari - a leader who ran squarely a decade before him - and become a more well-rounded identity leader. He just had to be the best past leader counterpart to Dalia. After all, both marked the start of a brand new generation in leadership - with Chari spearheading the concept’s most innovative era, and Dalia likely to pioneer its revival in the mid-2020s.

But Dalia is capable of becoming so much more. Whenever I see his pictures on social media, watch him dance, or hear him sing, I trust that he can be another highly successful leader on par with the likes of Melody, Yuri, Aliza, and now Cara, if we just give him a chance.

Right now he currently presides as the MC in a music show, M Countdown. He had been one since September - he and Cara almost met in one episode - but since the first broadcast under his own leadership, he would only be joined by two more new presenters, who, like him, are also idols themselves. Meanwhile his group ZEROBASEONE has not released new music in Daliatime so far, although their first Japanese release is already underway.

Interestingly though, one thing I would like to point out was the first activity he did as the new leader. On December 14, Dalia - a two-day-old leader at the time - went on to present the 2023 Asia Artist Awards, which was held for the very first time in our home country, the Philippines. Chances are that Dalia may have started his leadership right here in our home country. The last time Cara had been to the Philippines was back in 2017, almost seven years ago. This meant that throughout the entire five years of Caratime he had never visited our home country, which is sad, but something we cannot reverse. We just hope he’ll have the time to visit us again when he comes back. Meanwhile, despite ongoing culminations for the previous era, Dalia’s leadership had already began taking off from that point.

On the other hand, since the conclusion of their contracts, the remaining members of STAY - now a semi-permanent group - went back to their original groups and had schedules of their own. The oldest remaining member, Juyeon, would go on to represent the project group in the 2023 AAAs before getting tied into a rather funny dating rumor with Jennie of Blackpink - the same way it happened to Cara when he was still a leader. Yunho will be attending Coachella this year, while Sungchan just released new music. Recently, he went on to finally have his first music show win since his re-debut with both STAY and RIIZE. Sunghoon meanwhile is currently touring, and will have a concert in a newly opened location in our home country. Despite their hiatus, there had been many instances of the four remaining members reuniting in a common event towards the end of 2023, most notably the SBS and MBC year-end shows - considered missed opportunities for an OT5 reunion had Cara not left us.

Speaking of which..

Per the data I unintentionally procured, Cara - now a former leader - had since released new music despite his inactivity, and as mentioned, appeared in IU’s new music video - both as pre-made content. Not much is said about his real-time activities though, but it is presumed that he had already completed basic training and is now preparing for his role in his chosen unit. But that would be all for now.

Once we are cleared with everything, he will be sent to a complete hiatus until due time.

That due time by the way may happen beyond his 2025 comeback, as we may have already fully adapted into another era by then, either still by Dalia or someone else. But either way, it’s safe to say that we may have already completely moved on from this now bygone era.

Nonetheless, I still have my love and support to Cara, and still remain an ARMY, Deana and Rainbow until the very end. Joining the ranks of his predecessors from the highest tier, he will never be forgotten as a truly remarkable leader from the present day. And along with the two groups that made him who he is, he would go on to become a highly important part of our now 16-year history.

Looking back from the very beginning of this entire saga - which dates back to 2018 with his inception - I must say that we made the right choice this time, the right decision of selecting him to become the next leader in the wake of the dissolution.

Did history repeat itself again?

After all these five years.. not this time.

As I had inferred back in his inception, he’s not a perfect leader. Like any other leader, he had his weak points too - and he had proven that multiple times over the course of his run. But from the context of how he started his leadership in the first place, I’m glad he never went on to fall from grace.

He did not fail us this time.

And as for me, still a work in progress that seemed forever to take.. I was honestly surprised at what I had become by the end of Caratime.

We may still be facing the same financial difficulties as those we had a few years ago, and I may still not have achieved stability at the very least, but what has undergone a notable transformation in me is how my demeanor shifted from the start of this entire narrative to the present day. Compared to this era’s earlier years, I have become stronger, braver and wiser. Little by little, I’ve started to open myself up to the world, exploring endless opportunities while subjecting myself to adversity that awaits - something I am, somehow, not afraid of anymore.

They say that the only way to discover your true purpose is to hand over your life to any form of higher power - whether it be God, or anyone you venerate. After years of contemplating where I should be, I finally went on to take some chances.

In fact, within the last two years of Caratime alone (counterintuitively the STAY contract era), I already experienced the corporate life - having been in three companies during this time period. It’s definitely not roses that we can run for, but speaking from experience, it was not as bad as it seemed. However, none of these truly endured.

I did what was advised. If they say I have to ‘hand over my life to a higher power’, it meant that I have to base it on where I am right now. I already did - at the end of the day, I have gone back and forth between success and failure a lot of times over the course of this five-year era.

I did what you told me.

Now how come none of them really worked? Where did I go wrong? Why did I fail?

While waiting for an answer, it was where I was able to discover what I am truly capable of. And there wouldn't be a more suitable moment for me to pursue that than in Caratime. It must be the right era for me to explore my purpose, since both Cara and Dalia, as with other male idols, happened to be in a position where they may have found their purpose all this time, like, since the beginning - one where they, besides being one called to use his talents to serve the world, are also called to fulfill their duty to the nation. Their country is known to be in a vulnerable position, hence they were both called to do the inevitable. Of the two, Cara may have seem to realize his purpose since he was really serious with his duty, taking even a step further to be able to truly do what he was meant to do from the start. For this specific purpose, it remains to be seen whether the same holds true for Dalia, but right now he’s doing really well with where he is at the moment.

Now that we have successfully transitioned leaderships, I knew what I’ve become. For sure, I am certainly way too far from being successful. But I am now a different person from who I was from the beginning of this whole story. One can argue that I have become a better and more resilient individual.

I’ve already learned to take off my mask and have long accepted myself as I am. And now, five years had passed. This time, I have navigated the world with the greatest sense of who I am - the map of my soul I have now fully explored.

Today we close the final chapter of this whole narrative - an initial set that had since evolved into an autobiographic novel written in a span of five years, covering six years of an entire generation encompassing four leaderships.

It has been a six-year journey to self-discovery. Six years of finding answers to my life’s inner questions.

The questions of who I am, why it all happened, and where I am meant for in this world.

From the very start, it seemed that me and Cara had been set up to become the lead characters of this real-life novel. While I have documented my life experiences in these six years, and how much I have grown as a person.. I have also chronicled his own rise to success in all areas at the same time - most notably as an idol both going by V in his 10-year-old first group and as solo artist who debuted not too long ago, and Taehyung in his two-year-old second group; as Cara, the leader who ran for a record-breaking five years; and as a person now aged 28 - two years younger than I am - who’s just like all of us with a life beneath all the success.

In a span of five years, I have just written a story about how he became the overall achiever as we know him today.

The contrasting dynamic of our parallel stories is what makes Caratime, the monumental leadership which ran from January 1, 2019 to December 11, 2023, and the rest of Generation 4 - also known as the relatability era - the most nuanced era in leadership to date. This generation would go on to become the concept’s most documented era, with this entire narrative becoming a social experiment of post-dissolution leadership that, thankfully, went on to great success.

In spite of another remarkable leadership, however, what’s most important was that it became the era that had seen my personal growth. While I’m not yet done finding my true purpose, these last 5-6 years became an era when I can say I have developed the most as an individual. I have gained the necessary experience, skills and mindset needed for me to be able to move closer to discovering who I’m meant to be.

My journey, of course, does not end here. There is still so much more to come for me in the coming days - albeit happening in a new era this time. Even so, I promise to continue growing and take what I have learned from these last few years.

But only time will tell if we will experience a similar dynamic with our new leader, Dalia.

For now, this has been pretty much the whole story.

This extended era has gone way too long now, so I’ll might as well end this, once and for all.

I hope Cara is doing fine right now, as he now fulfills his duty to the nation as a former leader until he comes back. Please serve well, Cara. I miss you now. Thank you so much for everything. I’ll get back to you when the right time comes.

I also extend my well wishes to the new leader, Dalia. I wish him the best of luck. Please do well, Dalia. You are now in charge.

At this point I am now more than ready for a new chapter - in leadership, and in my life.

But the notes will have to end here.

Now that I have found all the answers to the questions I asked over the years.

I’m now about to start a conversation with someone only I can be truly familiar with. I have to go.

Someone’s calling me.