The bride already has eight rings on her finger. That is how the first teaser for ATEEZ's "BAD" begins: a wedding, one ring for each of the group's eight members, and a groom who tries to add his own just as a member bursts in to stop the ceremony. The bride is Chase Infiniti, the young American actor who played Leonardo DiCaprio's daughter in One Battle After Another, the film that won Best Picture at the Oscars in March 2026.
She was not a random casting choice. Infiniti is an open ATINY, the name ATEEZ fans go by, and she has named her favorite member: San (산), born Choi San (최산), one of the group's vocalists and one of its most intense performers. In Korean fan language, San is her 최애 (choeae), her bias.
From K-pop cover videos to a Best Picture winner
Before Hollywood, Infiniti danced. She co-founded Duple Dance Crew, a K-pop cover group that posts its own versions of idol choreography on YouTube, and told Dazed that a close friend got her into K-pop and that the crew has entered competitions.
That hobby opened the door. Casting director Cassandra Kulukundis told Backstage that a manager she knew sent her a video of Infiniti's K-pop dance group. Infiniti was still in school and had barely any credits, but Kulukundis saw grace and strength in her movement and felt the martial arts the role demanded could be taught. Infiniti went on to play Willa, the 16-year-old at the center of the story, in her first feature film.
On March 15, 2026, Paul Thomas Anderson's film won six Oscars, including Best Picture. One of them was the first Academy Award ever given for casting, and it went to Kulukundis, the person who first spotted Infiniti in a K-pop dance cover.
Through all of it, Infiniti kept talking about ATEEZ. She told Dazed that ATEEZ is her favorite K-pop group, and, as Complex reported in April 2026, pulled photocards of San out of her bag during a video interview, saying she usually carries one.
Who is San?
San is one of eight members of ATEEZ (에이티즈), a boy group formed by KQ Entertainment. The group debuted on October 24, 2018, with the EP TREASURE EP.1 : All To Zero, and in April 2024 became the first K-pop boy group to perform at Coachella. San's role is vocalist and performer, and in Korea he is known above all for the second half of that job: the way he acts out a song with his face and body.
Profiling the members in May 2026, the Korean entertainment outlet Tenasia called him a performer who overwhelms the stage, pointing to his powerful movements, his facial acting, and a gaze and gestures that deliver ATEEZ's energy straight to the crowd.
Korean fans have even given him a title. During the group's "Ice On My Teeth" era, the cold, heavy mood of his stages earned him the nickname 북부대공 (bukbu daegong), "the Grand Duke of the North." To Korean ears, this is pure web-novel language: the brooding duke who rules a frozen northern land is one of the stock heroes of Korean romance-fantasy fiction. With "BAD," a hotter and fiercer song, fans promptly renamed him 남부대공 (nambu daegong), "the Grand Duke of the South," Tenasia reported.
In the "BAD" chorus, San bounces his chest to the beat with fierce facial acting, and that moment took over short-form video. Forbes reported in July that the music video had passed 22 million views and that San's chorus was its most replayed part, adding that fans abroad call him a viral gateway into ATEEZ and K-pop. Koreans have a word for walking through that gate: 입덕 (ipdeok), literally "entering fandom."
The "BAD" era, by the numbers
"BAD" is the title track of GOLDEN HOUR : Part.5, ATEEZ's 14th mini album, released on June 26, 2026. Korean news agency Newsis described it as a groovy dance track built on Brazilian funk. In a July interview with the UK's Hits Radio, the members praised Infiniti's dancing and said they had been fans of hers too.
The album brought the group's biggest numbers yet. According to Korea JoongAng Daily, it debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 with 228,000 equivalent album units, ATEEZ's third No. 1 after THE WORLD EP.FIN : WILL (2023) and GOLDEN HOUR : Part.2 (2024), and sold more than 1.88 million copies in its first week in Korea, according to the Hanteo chart. The Korea Herald reported that "BAD" won seven first-place trophies on Korean TV music shows and climbed to No. 8 on the Top 100 of Melon, Korea's largest music streaming service. Tenasia called it a new golden age for ATEEZ in its ninth year, and credited San with lighting the spark.
The story is still moving. On October 8, KQ Entertainment teased GOLDEN HOUR : Part.6, due on November 13, and on October 10 it announced a 2027 world tour called ZERO TO ALL: the debut EP's title, flipped around.
Choeae, deokjil, seongdeok: the words behind the story
Infiniti's story is a crash course in Korean fan vocabulary.
- 최애 (choeae): built from the characters for "most" (最) and "love" (愛), it means your favorite member, what English-speaking fans call a bias. The runner-up is your 차애 (chaae).
- 덕질 (deokjil): everything a fan does out of love, from streaming to learning choreography to collecting. It comes from 덕후 (deokhu), Korea's version of the Japanese word otaku, a label that, as The Korea Times has noted, no longer sounds as negative as it once did.
- 포카 (poka): short for photocard. K-pop albums usually come with a random member's card, and fans trade until they find their bias. An actor carrying San's cards in her bag is, to Korean eyes, deokjil in its purest form.
- 성덕 (seongdeok): short for 성공한 덕후 (seonggonghan deokhu), a "successful fan": someone whose fandom ends with meeting, working with or being recognized by their idol. The Korea Herald used exactly this word for Infiniti.
Fans of male idols often add one more word, with rules of its own: what oppa really means.
Why Korea takes cover dance seriously
Abroad, cover dance can look like a weekend hobby. In Korea, the government even hosts a festival for it. The K-POP World Festival, held since 2011 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs together with the public broadcaster KBS, runs preliminary rounds through Korean embassies and consulates and brings the best teams to Korea for a televised final. According to Yonhap, about 1,700 teams from 54 countries entered this year's preliminaries, and the final is in Changwon on October 18.
So Infiniti's path struck a chord in Korea. She started where countless fans start, copying K-pop dances with friends, and ended up dancing in an ATEEZ music video, in the same frame as her bias.
If you go to a K-pop concert
- Mark the dates. ATEEZ's ZERO TO ALL tour opens in Incheon on January 22–24, 2027, then heads to Japan in February, Europe in April, North America in July and August, and South America in September, according to KQ Entertainment. Check the official channels for venues and tickets.
- Learn the fan chant. Many K-pop songs have an 응원법 (eungwonbeop), an official cheering guide with set moments to shout the members' names.
- Bring your voice. The warmest welcome is 떼창 (ttechang), the whole crowd singing along. See how Brazil did it on K-pop's first night at Rock in Rio.
- Know the words. ATEEZ fans are ATINY, and "Who's your choeae?" is the classic way to start a conversation in the queue.
Korean insider tip: Koreans call the scramble for hot concert seats 피켓팅 (piketting), "blood ticketing." NOL World's guide to ATEEZ's Incheon shows lists the membership presale on December 7 and the general sale on December 8, both at 8 p.m. Korea time. Log in early and do what Korean fans do: keep a server-clock site such as Navyism open, so you click on the ticket site's exact second, not your phone's.
Quick answers
Who is Chase Infiniti's K-pop bias?
San (Choi San) of ATEEZ. She calls ATEEZ her favorite K-pop group and has named San as her favorite member.
Is Chase Infiniti in an ATEEZ music video?
Yes. She stars in the video for "BAD," the title track of GOLDEN HOUR : Part.5, released on June 26, 2026.
What does choeae mean in K-pop?
최애 (choeae) is Korean for your favorite member, the one you love most. English-speaking fans call it a bias.
