LOONA’s Chuu Reveals How Her Iconic “Apple Heart” Was Created
K-Pop idols love making heart shapes with their hands to show love to the fans, but there’s always room for innovation. In a new “Comment Defenders” interview, LOONA‘s Chuu revealed how her iconic “apple heart” was first born.
From finger hearts to whole-hand hearts, every idol has their own favorite way of making loving signals to fans.
But, a few years ago, LOONA’s Chuu invented a new type of heart that became so popular, almost every idol seems to have tried it out: the “apple heart”. As the name suggests, the apple heart starts out as a round apple shape—then, you mime biting into it to create a heart shape.
Since Chuu first showed off the apple heart, it’s been sweeping the K-Pop nation. So many idols have tried it, from NCT‘s Jaehyun…
… to soloist Sunmi, and it’s simply adorable every time.
In a new “Comment Defenders” interview with AYO on YouTube, Chuu revealed how her craze first began.
I copied Chuu’s biting heart and I almost got punched lol. How did it start anyways? So curious.
— AYO commenter
Chuu explained that it all started back when their debut song, “Hi High”, came out in 2018 after LOONA’s extensive pre-debut project. “We had to promote ourselves since we just debuted,” Chuu said, “At a fan signing event.”
In Korean, LOONA’s group name is “Idalui Sonyeo“, which means “girl of the month”, but it can also be translated as “girl of the moon”. LOONA is also a homophone of “luna”, the Latin word for “moon”, and the group’s logo features a moon too. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Chuu’s apple heart first started out as a moon.
She revealed that first, she mimed a round moon falling in front of her. Then, to show her new fans all her love, Chuu decided to transition the moon into a heart with a cute bite.
And thus, the apple heart was born!
Back then, I was a bit possessed by something.
— Chuu
Perhaps she got the idea from her solo debut song, “Heart Attack”, where she’s seen biting into an apple. In any case, Chuu says that after fans made it into an animated gif, everyone started copying the heart—even her seniors like Suzy and TV personality Kang Ho Dong.
Of course, while the apple heart is Chuu’s most popular creation, she’s not a one-trick wonder. During the interview, Choerry divulged that Chuu has already come up with a fun new heart recently: the “double-sided heart”. She showed off the tricky move, which involves transitioning the fingers quickly while flipping them upside down.