Trivia 承: Love: A special Valentine’s song analysis post 💘

Warning: Long post ahead and Loving Chrissi (we hate her!)

 

Happy Valentine’s Day! If you’re expecting a bitter-ass post from me, that’s very rude of you. Just because I’m single doesn’t mean I’m gonna be bitter! 

Okay, you caught me. I am a little bit bitter—just this much👌🏾 but can you blame me? I'm a hopeless romantic who has never experienced actual love.

I love love. Yes, I’m a lover girl. Yes, I'm one of those girls who eats up all those romantic troupes. Best friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, pretending to be married, sharing a bed, YOU NAME IT. 

Since it’s the day of Love, I felt like it made sense for me to write one of my favorite love songs which happens to be by the leader of BTS, Kim Namjoon AKA RM AKA my future husband and father of my kids. Here he is:

AIGHT YOU LOOKING A LITTLE SO MUCH! REEL IT THE FUCK BACK! CUZ ILL GO TO WAR FOR IT.

Fun fact: this song was written for me 😌

IT WAS. Don’t look at me like I’m delusional. He made it for me! Who else would it be for?…..EXACTLY.

So this is mostly in Korean, but you guys can easily get the English translation. 

He does start the song in English with:

“Is this love, is this love, sometimes I know, sometimes I don’t”

I think we all know this feeling when you’re not sure how you feel for a motherfucker. Sometimes we’re positive, sometimes we’re not sure. Sometimes we’re in denial like Ice Spice believing she can make good music. Like yeah, it works so far, but ultimately, you’re fucking yourself over. 

It doesn’t even have to be about romantic love! There are different types of love for a reason. According to Greek philosophy, We have:

~ Agape, which is considered the highest form of love. This is mostly thought of as the type of love someone would have for God or another deity. Or no deity. Idk ion know everyone’s religion!

~ Eros, which is the name of the Greek God is the god of love, lust, desire, and sex. He’s the son of Aphrodite so that’s expected. His more popular name is Cupid 💘. Anyway, this love is pretty self-explanatory. It’s the love one has for their romantic partner. The words erotic and erotica came from him! Aphrodisiac, yep, that came from his mama! 

~ Philia, which is known as “brotherly love” or just pure platonic love. The strong love you feel for your friend isn’t gay! So stop panicking in your nonexistent closet! This is the type of love that you essentially have for family and friends. 

~ Storge, is the loveeee and affectionnnnnnn between parents and their children. Please tell me you read that in Future’s voice. Tell me right now! Whether it was your caretaker or someone who was a huge part of shaping you into the personyou are today. You love them and can’t help it!

Last, but definitely not least, we got:

~ Philautia, or we all know it, self-love! The love you have for yourself! Yes, you are included in the loving! Seeing yourself for everything you are and loving what you see.

You’re probably thinking I got off track and that including all these types of love was not necessary, BUT IT WAS. 

Sorry, I got loud, but sometimes, niggas be having me fucked up sometimes. Moving on, you’ll see why this was necessary.

You see, the song is featured on BTS’s album “Love Yourself: Answer”, which is very much on purpose. 

You’ll see how this song can apply to like 3 of the types of love I described.

Too many words circle around me

But none of them feel how I feel

I just feel it

Like the moon rises after the sun rises

Like how fingernails grow

Like trees that shed their bark once a year

That you are the one who will give meaning to my memories

Namjoon once said in his concert to his fanbase, The Army, “I wish there was a better word than love, but just know I truly love you.” Mind you, this wasn't in a romantic way. Armies, don't jump me! I'm just being for real.

Those lyrics and him saying that shows that to him, sometimes, the love you feel for someone is so strong that just saying you love them is not enough. I wish there were better words to convey how I feel because love isn't cutting it. 

#Felt because I'm an Aries and when we love, we love HARD. It’s actually fucking annoying, really so this isn't a brag. 😑

Who will make a ‘person’ into ‘love’

Before I knew you

My heart was filled with straight lines

I’m just a human, human, human

You erode all my corners

And make me into love, love, love

We’re humans, humans, humans

In that myriad of straight lines

My love, love, love

When you sit on top of it and you become my heart

Let’s get into my man’s wordplay now!

Person or human in Korean is 사람 (saram), while love in Korean is 사랑 (sarang). The two words look similar when written in the Korean language and also kind of sound the same. If you notice the difference between the characters, Sarang is more rounded while Saram is kinda square or rectangular. 

So when he said “You erode my corners and make me into love,” it goes deeper than you think. Being human comes with pain and with pain, comes trauma, and trauma causes our walls to be up. Speaking from my own experience, we toughen ourselves up to avoid hurt and ridicule.

However, when you find that person that makes those walls come down, they erode your tough edges and allow you to love safely. Hell, they turn you into love. Proof of this is with the actual characters. 

사람 ➡️사랑. Look closely!

Switching his wordplay to English, KNJ goes on to say, “You make I to an O, I to an O” which still applies to the Korean words when you look back, but before this, he repeats “I live so I love.”

Just like with 사람 and 사랑, live and love look and sound similar too! What do humans do? We live, depending on who you ask, but we do live. We have to live, but we also have to love. We can’t live without love. Love is such a natural thing, which is why my man mentioned fingernails growing and sunrise. Those are natural things in our life. He has told the subject in two different languages using lovely wordplay that “I was just a human living, now because I met you, I’m the embodiment of love. I know why those words were so similar now.”

I’m not making that up because my boo says right after:

“I know why human and love sound similar”

Just right after this, I’m already getting annoyed because what do I have to do to have someone feel that way about me?! UGH, I’m about to have a whole attitude now.

Now we get to my favorite part of this damn song:

It’s a long way from I to U

Fuck, JKLMN-O-PQRST

I crossed all the letters and I reached you

Fuck, I almost just cried. Give me a fucking second. Don’t perceive me right now. *walks off stage and shouts from far away* “I FUCKING HATE IT HERE” *walks back calmly* 

I’m good now.

So everyone knows the alphabet. If you don’t, how the fuck are you reading this? 

Now, the letter I is quite the distance from U. I and U. Me and You, in case some of you didn’t catch that.

Please tell me you did and I typed that for no reason.

J through T are the letters between us. He says “fuck it. I’m gonna cross all these letters to get to you.”

And I’m supposed to settle??? Niggas out here, defying alphabet laws for their love and I’m supposed to settle?!? Please!

It’s not just that! KNJ purposely rapped the PQRST part separately because PQRST is a pattern of waves that comes from the activity of the heart. 

Heart. Love. Come onnnnn, his pen game goes crazy!

Look, mine and yours also sound the same

Though that doesn’t make me you

I want to be part of your bookcase

I'd like to be involved in your novel

As your lover

Once again, another wordplay with the Korean words for mine and yours. 내/nae for mine, 네/ne for yours. The words sound and look alike as well. It reminds me of how when a couple gets married, they technically become one, but they’re not the same person. Namjoon acknowledges that even though we have our similarities, we’re still different people and I still love the fuck out of you. 

He tells the subject that he wants to be in their novel as a lover. When people talk about their life, they either say it’s a movie or a book. For those who say book, we’re the main character and we have other characters serving a purpose to the story. He wants his purpose to be the lover.

Notice how “novel” and “lover” has damn near all the same letters? Yeahhhhhh 😌

KNJ’s wordplay comes again in the bridge when he sings:

What if I go?

If I go, would you be sad? (No)

If I wasn't me, what would I be?

Do you think you'll leave me after all?

Wind, wind, wind blowing by

(I just hope not)

And how you may ask? Wind in Korean is 바람, but that could also mean desire. I love how after rapping all his feelings, he gets the moment that everyone experiences in love.

What if this doesn’t last?

What if you leave? 

What if I leave? 

The bridge serves as the annoying devil’s advocate part of your brain, presenting counterarguments. Counterarguments that come from fear. Like how the wind passes by, he’s hoping the desire they have for one another isn’t like the wind and just passes by. He desperately hopes that all this loving isn’t in vain and that’s 100% valid.

Showing the fear and the negativity didn’t win, KNJ chants:

You’re my person, my person, my person

You’re my desire, my desire, my desire

You’re my pride, my pride, my pride

You’re my love (my love)

One and only love (only love)

And what’s going on there, besides him trying to get me to put that on his sideburns, is another case of wordplay that, to be honest, I’m getting tired and ready to wrap this up so I will not get into it. 

I’m sorry! I yapped enough!

The outro is just the sweetest ending to a great song. He ends all of this with:

You know, we were always meant to be, destiny

I hope you feel the same with me, love

Sighhhhhhhhh. I need a man to say this to me!!!! I deserve it!!!

I’m not too sure how to end this post and I’m trying to wrap this up because I have kind of a date of some sort to go to. My friend Lu is the one who introduced me to this song, so Lu, if you’re reading this, shout out to you and thank you for ruining my life with this ❤️

Aight, Happy V-Day, everybody! 💖