Before RESCENE: Zena Was the Face Behind a Virtual Idol

On 26 March 2024, at Yes24 Live Hall in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, a new group called RESCENE held the media showcase for its debut single album ‘Re:Scene’ — the standard Korean industry launch event, where a group performs for reporters and answers questions before release day. One member, Zena, used her turn to mention a job she had done years earlier: she had been the visual model for a character in a virtual idol group. eDaily published her remarks that same day. Two years later, in June 2026, the same fact travelled again — this time across the country.

What she said in March 2024, on the day she debuted

RESCENE’s debut showcase for ‘Re:Scene’ was held at Yes24 Live Hall in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, and eDaily reported Zena’s comments from it on 26 March 2024, the day the group debuted.

Her account was straightforward. The job had come to her while she was making the rounds of auditions: ‘비주얼 모델은 여러 기획사 오디션을 보러 다니다가 한 기획사 관계자 분의 소개로 맡게 되었던 것’ — she took on the visual-model role through an introduction from an agency staff member she met while auditioning at various agencies. She placed it precisely in time: ‘중학교 2학년 때의 일’, her second year of middle school.

And she drew the contrast that made the story stick: ‘그땐 촬영에만 참여하고 직접 말은 못해서 (활동을 한다는 걸) 실감하지 못했다. 이렇게 직접 저의 모습으로 무대에 나오니 더 떨린다’ — back then she only took part in the filming and could not speak for herself, so it never felt real; standing on stage as herself made her more nervous.

Hanteo News later quoted a closely matching version of the same remarks, adding the detail that she had been introduced to the work by an agency official while auditioning.

What MAVE: is, and what a visual model actually does

MAVE: is a virtual idol group — an act whose members are computer-generated characters rather than performers who appear as themselves. Hanteo News’s English edition reports that MAVE: was created through a collaboration between Kakao Entertainment and Netmarble, that it debuted in January 2023, and that it is known for graphics realistic enough to be hard to distinguish from real people.

A virtual group still needs human input, and that is where a visual model comes in. Zena’s own description of the work is the clearest guide to what her part involved: she participated in the filming, and she did not speak. The character carried the voice, the name and the promotional schedule; the human contribution stayed behind the finished image, uncredited on stage.

The song at the centre of the story is MAVE:’s ‘PANDORA’. MAVE:’s own YouTube channel published the extended official music video on 2 February 2023; read through the YouTube Data API on 27 August 2026, that upload had 4,696,100 views.

Why a stage name taken from a character is an unusual line

Most K-pop stage names are chosen at the agency stage: a shortened given name, a syllable that reads well in several languages, a word picked for a concept. They point forward, to the artist a company is about to introduce.

Zena’s runs the other way. Hanteo News reports that the MAVE: character she modelled for is named ZENA, that her current stage name comes from that role and that she took the job in her second year of middle school.

The sequence is what makes it rare. A teenager stands in for a character; the character debuts, performs and releases music under a name; years later the same person debuts as a member of a human group and carries that name onto the stage herself. Hanteo News framed it as an unusual career detail, drawing attention for exactly that reason.

June 2026: the same fact, a national audience

Hanteo News published its report on 10 June 2026, with an English-edition version following on 11 June. According to Hanteo News, the story reached a wide audience that month after a post on X placed MAVE:’s ‘PANDORA’ stage video beside her.

By then Zena was already recognisable to a broader public for a different reason. Hanteo News reports she had earned the nickname ‘신라공주’ — Silla princess — after it became known that she is from Gyeongju, the former capital of the Silla kingdom in southeastern Korea.

Hanteo News also reported the group’s chart standing at the time: as of 9 June 2026, RESCENE’s ‘LOVE ATTACK’ was at number eight on Hanteo’s digital chart and number seven on Melon, Korea’s leading music streaming service.

Gyeongju makes it official

On 29 June 2026, Gyeongju appointed RESCENE as the city’s tourism ambassadors. SBS reported that the city cited Zena’s roots in Gyeongju, the former capital of the Silla kingdom, and her ‘신라공주’ nickname.

It is a neat closing bracket on a run of weeks in which two separate parts of her background — a childhood job on a virtual idol project, and a hometown — arrived in public view at roughly the same time. The first was something she had already said out loud in 2024, on the day she debuted. The second brought a city hall ceremony.

Key takeaways

• Hanteo News reported on 10 June 2026 that Zena of RESCENE had served as the visual model for a character in the virtual idol group MAVE:, and that her stage name comes from that character, named ZENA.
• Zena first described the job publicly at RESCENE’s debut media showcase for ‘Re:Scene’ at Yes24 Live Hall in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul; eDaily published her remarks on 26 March 2024, the day the group debuted.
• She said the role came through an introduction from an agency staff member while she was auditioning, and that it happened in her second year of middle school.
• Hanteo News’s English edition reports MAVE: is a virtual idol group created through a collaboration between Kakao Entertainment and Netmarble, which debuted in January 2023 and is known for graphics realistic enough to be hard to distinguish from real people.
• Hanteo News reported the story spread widely in June 2026 after a post on X placed MAVE:’s ‘PANDORA’ stage video beside her.
• As of 9 June 2026, Hanteo News reported RESCENE’s ‘LOVE ATTACK’ at number eight on Hanteo’s digital chart and number seven on Melon.
• Gyeongju appointed RESCENE as tourism ambassadors on 29 June 2026, with SBS reporting the city cited Zena’s Gyeongju roots and her ‘신라공주’ nickname.