per
son

scroll down.

ryu damin was born on october 3rd, 2004 in incheon, south korea to professor ryu jeongmin and a nurse lim bada. the small yet prominent family of three lived in the wealthy part of town in songdo, but her parents chose not to flaunt their wealth, but their knowledge.
her father's side comes from a long line of yonsei university alumni and professors, with her grandfather, ryu byungho, being the university's president for several years before damin was born. damin's mother was also an alumni, and one of the only college graduates in her family. so for the most part, damin grew up with the expectation of following in the family footsteps of pursuing an education.
as a result, damin's parents were somewhat the stereotypical workaholics, so damin was usually left alone with nannies and babysitters. as a result, damin was left with finding hobbies and interests on her own, because her parents didn't pay much attention to her anyway. the only thing that they wanted her to do was to get good grades and get into a good university, eventually becoming a workaholic as well, but damin did not want to do that.
damin eventually decided to pursue an idol career just to piss off her parents because they were so obsessed about her academics. she was interested in music anyways, and always looked up to people in the industry, and thought the overall experience was a once in a lifetime opportunity. when she told them, she made a compromise that she will still do well in school and if her idol career fails, damin will pursue an education.
her parents hesitantly agreed, enrolling her in vocal and dance classes, and damin started training at the first company that would take her, brave entertainment in early 2017.

✧ likes
⟶ cats, it's one of her favorite animals and would love to have a couple of them in the dorm if the company allows it.
⟶ the beach, would love to live by the beach when she's older.
⟶ sweet treats, she is one of those people who needs at least one treat a day to keep her happy.
⟶ krnb, she listens to that more than she does k-pop. dpr ian, dean, seori, and heize. she also likes conan gray, reneé rapp, mitski, and boygenius. but k-pop wise, she likes seventeen, snsd, shinee, twice, red velvet, new jeans, and loona (pre-boycott, listens to their new groups and solos).
⟶ the y2k aesthetic, that includes the fashion, music, shows, and movies. her favorite movies are mean girls and clueless.
⟶ surprisingly, camping, but more so glamping. she likes the nature aesthetic and getting a chance to eat s'mores.

✧ dislikes
⟶ messy people, both in a physical sense and in a metaphorical sense.
⟶ waking up in the morning, she is not a morning person at all and will be grumpy until she gets some food and drinks in her system.
⟶ school. surprising, right? damin just found school to be very boring and repetitive. just don't tell her family that she doesn't like school or there will be repercussions.
⟶ speaking of her family, damin doesn't like talking about her family that much. sure she's grateful for them, but she doesn't want anyone to think she's a nepo baby, even though she slightly is.
⟶ wearing glasses. she has prescription glasses and does wear contacts, but it's overall a hassle for her to wear both glasses and contacts. she will probably get lasik surgery in the future.
⟶ kind of a given, but not feeling like she's appreciated enough. even though everyone around damin tells her that they do appreciate all the work that she does, damin just doesn't want to believe them for some reason.

✧ hobbies
⟶ watching reality shows. damin is fully aware that the situations are staged, but she can't help it but watch. it's a guilty pleasure. she refuses to watch survival shows, though.
⟶ nail art! usually does the uv nail polish because it takes faster to dry. damin would love it if she could do the girls' nails for promotions. in the dorms, damin has a huge collection of nail polish and the accessories.
⟶ knitting, similar to nail art, damin has a huge collection of yarn skeins and needles. again, she would love to knit something for cherubliss.
⟶ taking pictures on her camera, preferring the film camera over the digital because she likes the film aesthetic more.
⟶ it goes hand in hand with producing, but damin enjoys taking time out of her day to write about her day in a journal. it's sort of like a mini therapy session for her.

✧ habits
⟶ one way you can make damin cave in is bribing her with the promise of cats and sweet treats.
⟶ she has really vivid dreams, leading her to waking up in the morning in a daze.
⟶ unfortunately she has a habit of vaping. she discovered this habit in the two years she wasn't training. she tries to keep it on the down low but word eventually got out when her vape scandal came to light.

✧ special talents
⟶ performing cpr. is it a talent? technically not, but most people don't know how to do it properly. she was taught by her mother how to perform cpr and is certified.
⟶ whistling with her fingers, or just whistling in general. this comes in handy when she wants cherubliss' attention.

✧ social media
⟶ @diapae_ryu on instagram.
⟶ diamind on soundcloud, has become inactive since training at be:lift lab.

✧ trivias
⟶ damin considers herself to be an ambivert, as all the mbti tests she's taken over the years show her to be both istj and estj.
⟶ the members say that if damin were an animal, she'd be a lion.
⟶ she's apart of k-pop's mensan line, with her iq being around 146.
⟶ many people compare damin's personality and leadership skills to red velvet's irene and twice's jihyo.
⟶ damin would like to accomplish a lot with cherubliss. this includes having their first win, a world tour, winning rookie of the year, and performing at coachella and lollapalooza.
⟶ she likes to wear expensive clothing and show it off on social media. she also hopes to have many endorsements, as a solo member and as a whole group.
⟶ when damin graduated from high school in 2022, she got a full ride scholarship from yonsei university but turned it down to train at be:lift lab. her parents were pretty disappointed in her decision, but she honestly knows that she can get into yonsei anytime she wants due to her connections. she's just putting off her education for now.
⟶ she can't eat spicy foods well. the only exception is tteokbokki, it's ironically one of her favorite dishes.
⟶ damin says that she's a catholic since her family practices the religion, but behind the scenes she is not religious at all.
⟶ number one mnet hater because how they screwed her over in idol school. if cherubliss ever works with mnet, of course she will be cooperative but she will internally scream.
⟶ if damin wasn't an idol, she would be a geneticist because she's interested in dna and ancestry.

✧ stage name dia, 디아 ︲ a shorter version of her nickname, diamond.
✧ idol persona tough cookie ︲ this is what the members call her, since she is a tough leader but at the end of the day, damin has a sweet side for her girls.

✧ vocal twin everglow's 이유 ︲ kep1er's 다연.
✧ rap twin  everglow's 이유 ︲ kep1er's 다연.
✧ dance twin lightsum's 초원 ︲ everglow's 온다.

✧ plotline the sun : leader, main rapper, vocalist, producer ︲ the stars : triple threat, center, face of the group.
✧ training period 8 months at brave entertainment, 2 years at starship entertainment, 2½ years at be:lift lab.
✧ training background damin's training at brave entertainment is nothing new to note. she was one of the youngest female trainees in the company as well as an average trainee in terms of skills, so they weren't too worried about debuting her anytime soon, which hurt damin, even though she only trained for eight months. damin ultimately left the company and went on to join idol school.
after idol school, there were a few companies that were interested in having damin as a trainee, and she chose starship entertainment because she liked the artists. a couple months after training, damin was offered to join produce 48 but she rejected the offer because she didn't want to get rigged out of the final lineup again. two years later, damin left the company in similar vein as she did with brave.
damin took a break from companies and training for a while, and instead focused on her education for a bit. eventually she did fall back into music, even releasing some songs on soundcloud in 2020. after releasing a couple of songs, be:lift lab scouted her via email to join their company, and damin accepted and officially became a trainee in 2022.
however, the way the email was worded saying that they really liked her songs and wanted her to join the company, damin was under the pretense that she would debut as a soloist. but she was being put into trainee groups, which she was annoyed with, but at least be:lift lab was doing something that made her feel valued as a trainee.
damin mostly kept to herself as she convinced herself that she would debut as a soloist. so, she wasn't that happy with being put in cherubliss. but at least she going to debut, so that’s all that matters.

✧ predebut activities
⟶ idol school ︲ 2017 : damin's time in idol school was a hassle for her. she had just made the cut for the age range, making her the youngest contestant in the show along with baek jiheon, so she got doted on a lot. the poor working conditions were true, so it was hard for damin to be able to perform under the circumstances. she was still a young girl and barely started puberty, and complained to the older trainees and even the staff a lot, in which she got ridiculed for.
damin was promised a spot in the final group but ended up being at rank #13. of course, she was pissed off at this (you can even see her facial expressions in the finale) but it was told to her that the producers decided on a different lineup without her. after the show ended, damin quickly signed onto starship entertainment. she replaced natty.
⟶ soundcloud ︲ 2020-2022 : after leaving starship, damin wanted to learn more about producing music. so, she bought some basic equipment and started to fool around with it. and eventually, damin started to actually produce music of her own, releasing two songs on soundcloud.
she was making little to no money doing this, as she did get some traction on her songs from being somewhat of a public figure since idol school, so it was definitely not a stable career for her. but nonetheless, damin's music got the attention of be:lift lab, who were fascinated by her producing music at such a young age, eventually letting her producing music for cherubliss. ✧ ✧

✧ scandals
⟶ ex-idol school contestant ryu damin is said to be one of the contestants to be rigged out of the show︲ 2019 : in full transparency, byungho was paying the idol school producers to let damin into the final lineup, and in return he would invest in the group for music videos, promotions, etc… and for a while, the producers agreed to this, all without damin's knowledge, but soon enough her parents found out about the deal.
her parents were furious that byungho was doing this, and asked him to stop which he did. but when he did, the producers were not happy with the decision, and in retaliation gave damin the final rank that she ended up with.
in damin's mind, she believes the producers for rigging her out of the final ranking as she still to this day doesn't know anything about the situation with her parents and grandfather. this goes the same way with the public, as the media also believes that damin was unfairly treated by the producers of idol school.
⟶ cherubliss' dia caught vaping indoors ︲ 202x : in one of the members solo vlogs, damin was vaping in the background in one of the shots. be:lift lab realized her mistake and immediately edited it out on the website. but it was too late as the viewers already saw the pen and the action of her vaping and shared the photo on social media.
since vaping in public is illegal in south korea, damin had to issue a statement to the public and apologize for her bad habits. she also had to pay a fine to a local public health department.

q: hello dia, can you please introduce yourself?
⟶ sitting up straight damin patiently waited for the staff to finish the question hello! dia started off i'm ryu damin, but you can also call me dia. i'm the leader, producer, and main rapper of cherubliss.

q: how do you feel about being in the debut line-up?
⟶ i feel fantastic. she said, wanting to curse out of excitement for her debut i personally have been waiting for this moment since i was barely a teen, but i'm so grateful that i can share this debut with my fellow members.

q: do you have any specific concept or genre that you would like to try out?
⟶ is it bad if i said all of them? dia asks the staff, in which they nodded their heads no but honestly, i would like to try a rnb concept, as well as a retro concept, i think cherubliss would fit the retro vibes well.

q: can you tell the viewers a little bit about yourself?
⟶ dia nodded, building herself up to talk about her past experiences uh, yeah. i was a contestant in idol school, but unfortunately didn't make it into the lineup. she bitterly said i previously made some solo songs before, which caused the company to recruit me so… here i am.

q: lastly, please have give a few words to the viewers!
⟶ of course! dia says, smiling thanks for supporting us in any which way. we will be sure to show you all of our sides and make sure we will be the best girl group. cherubliss, fighting!