RESCENE Hit No. 1 on Melon — and Say Their First Settlement Hasn't Arrived

A chart number arrives instantly. A pay cheque does not.

On 12 July 2026, at 6:05 p.m., MBC broadcast the eighth episode of the variety show ‘최우수산’, hosted by the comedian Heo Kyung-hwan. Its guests were Liv, May and Zena of RESCENE — the first guests the show had ever booked, as MBC’s entertainment desk iMBC put it, calling them ‘최우수산의 첫 손님’.

The episode did two things. One was musical: the three sang ‘Deja Vu’ live, which iMBC described as the first time the song’s three-part harmony had been performed live on an entertainment programme. The other was arithmetic. Asked what they would do with their first settlement payment, the members said, according to Xports News, that it had not arrived yet — they were still counted as newcomers. That was after ‘LOVE ATTACK’ had climbed to number one on Melon’s TOP 100, roughly two years after the mini album it came from was released in August 2024.

The show’s first guests

‘최우수산’ was new enough in July 2026 that RESCENE walked into a studio with no guest history at all. iMBC’s report on the broadcast identifies Liv, May and Zena as the programme’s first guests, on episode eight, aired at 6:05 p.m. on 12 July 2026 with Heo Kyung-hwan hosting.

The format was food and conversation. The members tasted a course menu prepared by Yoo Se-yoon, Jang Dong-min, Heo Kyung-hwan, Boom and Yang Se-hyung, then picked the dishes they preferred. Along the way, iMBC reported, each member showed an individual talent that surprised the host.

MBC’s official entertainment channel cut the taping into short uploads on the day of broadcast: one clip of the arrival, running 3 minutes 52 seconds, and one of the settlement segment, running 3 minutes 59 seconds.

What 정산 means, briefly

정산 (jeongsan, ‘settlement’) is the moment a K-pop career turns into income. In the standard arrangement, an agency funds training, recording, styling, music videos, choreography and promotion up front. Revenue that comes in is first applied against those costs; the artist’s share is paid out once the agency has recouped them, under the split written into the contract.

The practical consequence is that visibility and payment run on different clocks. A song can be streamed, charted, performed and broadcast for months while the ledger behind it is still catching up. That is the gap the ‘최우수산’ segment happened to sit in: on the programme, Xports News reported, the members said a first settlement had not yet reached them, being still treated as newcomers.

Nothing in the reporting speaks to the agency’s side of that ledger, and nothing here should be read as doing so. The only account on the record is the members’ own, given on air.

The three answers

Xports News reported what each of them said they would do when the money does come.

• Liv said she would like to give part of it away: ‘나는 정산금을 받으면 기부를 하고 싶다’ — when I get my settlement, I want to donate — and put a figure on it, ‘정산 금액의 20~30%를 기부하고 싶다’, 20 to 30 per cent of the amount.
• May said she would like to buy decorating stickers for her diary without having to look at the price.
• Zena said: ‘미래를 생각해서 저축을 하고 싶다. 대부분의 정산금을 저축하고 싶다’ — thinking about the future, she wants to save, and to save most of the settlement.

Three answers, three scales and no need to weigh them against each other. All three were given at a point where the work had landed and the payment had not.

Everywhere and unpaid at the same time

Xports News noted that RESCENE’s ‘LOVE ATTACK’ reached number one on Melon’s TOP 100 about two years after the mini album it came from was released in August 2024 — a delayed climb of the kind Korean media calls 역주행, a ‘reverse run’, when an older release begins rising again instead of fading.

The song was already high before the broadcast. Hanteo News reported that as of 9 June 2026, a month before the episode, ‘LOVE ATTACK’ sat at 8th on Hanteo’s digital chart and 7th on Melon.

So the two facts sit side by side without contradiction: a number one on Korea’s largest streaming platform, and members who told a national broadcaster that their first settlement had not yet come. Chart success is a measurement, not a payment.

The other thing the episode did: ‘Deja Vu’ live

iMBC’s headline on the broadcast led with the performance: ‘최우수산’ 리센느 리브-메이-제나, 예능 최초 ‘Deja Vu’ 라이브 공개. According to that report, the three sang ‘Deja Vu’ on the programme in what iMBC called ‘예능 최초로 세 명의 화음이 돋보이는 라이브’ — the first live rendition on a variety show to foreground the three-part harmony.

In the same hour, the group answered a question about money it had not received and demonstrated the work that will eventually generate it.

How the clip travelled

MBC’s own entertainment channel published both uploads on 12 July 2026, the day of broadcast. As read through the YouTube Data API on 27 August 2026, the settlement clip had 274,519 views and the arrival clip 53,392.

That is a roughly five-to-one gap between two clips from the same taping, released the same day by the same channel — a rough measure of which three minutes of the episode audiences kept passing along. The segment that travelled was not the food, and not the introductions. It was the one where three performers were asked about a payment that had not yet arrived, and answered plainly.

Key takeaways

• Liv, May and Zena appeared on episode 8 of MBC’s ‘최우수산’ on 12 July 2026 at 6:05 p.m., hosted by Heo Kyung-hwan; iMBC called them the programme’s first guests.
• Asked about their first settlement payment, the members said on the show that it had not yet arrived, as they were still counted as newcomers, Xports News reported.
• Liv said she wants to donate 20 to 30 per cent of the amount; May said she would buy diary decorating stickers without checking the price; Zena said she would save most of it.
• 정산 (settlement) is paid to an artist after the agency recoups its up-front investment, which is why chart success and income arrive on different timelines.
• Xports News noted ‘LOVE ATTACK’ reached number one on Melon’s TOP 100 about two years after its August 2024 mini album; Hanteo News had it at 7th on Melon and 8th on Hanteo’s digital chart as of 9 June 2026.
• The episode also featured ‘Deja Vu’ performed live — described by iMBC as the first entertainment-show performance to showcase the three-part harmony.
• MBC’s entertainment channel posted the settlement clip (3:59) and the arrival clip (3:52) on 12 July 2026; on 27 August 2026 they stood at 274,519 and 53,392 views.