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     the night ━

the very first release she puts out as a soloist, under her new stage name, and it’s an upbeat song conveying saccharine sweet sentiments of romance. if yeorin’s being honest, the lyrics are a tad too tacky for her liking, but the song holds a special place in her heart regardless, since it is the first step she takes in the direction of standing steady in the industry on her own, albeit marred by a vague sense of regret.

     gashina ━

yeorin releases gashina in the second half of the year, following soon after her debut song. it steers her in an abrupt change of direction, but she couldn’t be happier for it, especially since more thought goes into its conceptualization with the usage of a double entendre, the title alluding to both thorns on a flower and a farewell statement. sultry and unconventional all at once, the song perfectly embodies what yeorin had envisioned for herself as a soloist. she found much more comfort and delight in the promotions for gashina, and even wished it could have been her debut song. ( even today, gashina remains her favourite release. )

     all night ━

with influences from latin music, all night is sensual yet playful, and at this point it’s starting to become clear that yeorin is leaning towards concepts like these. though it didn’t achieve the same amount of popularity that its predecessor ‘gashina’ did, yeorin thoroughly enjoyed performing this song as well, particularly the solo dance break in which she gets the opportunity to show off a ballroom dance performance. getting more opportunities to try new things has always been the strongest driving force behind her decision to leave yuseong and ladybug, after all.

      gotta go ━

following the trend of her past releases, gotta go is a tropical pop summer track with a sense of confidence and attitude that has become yeorin’s signature by now. there’s instant appeal in the catchy tunes of the song, but yeorin has to admit that after having listened to it more times than she can count in practices, she’s grown sick of the repetitive hooks in the lyrics. ( sure, ‘gotta, gotta, gotta go gotta, gotta, gotta go’ and ‘oops, oh nana’ are catchy at first, but you can have too much of a good thing. )

     siren ━

        yet, four years since debut and eight comebacks later ( now stepping into their ninth ), seoyul finds that there’s something missing in her perfect world of make believe. well━it’s that, or maybe her greed has just grown, and it’s even harder to satiate now. though performing on stage and hearing people scream for her never gets any less delightful, the work behind the scenes have started to get much more tedious. schedules that lack variation, like music video shootings, have started to lose the spark for her. it’s all just starting to get a little lackluster, and having to drag herself out of bed for these things have just become harder than ever.

        everyone knows that every fable with princesses and glittery happy endings and the like is bound to also have dream-like, earth-shattering romances that make up the crux of the fairytale. it’s a tale as old as time, the princess and her prince charming. that’s what idols don’t have, and that’s what she misses from junior and high school━knowing that she has the adulation of people, real people, instead of just usernames flying across the interface of the v-live application and high-pitched screams from a blurry sea of people. ( at some point the whirlwind of activity just gets too much to process, much less for her to really bask in that attention. )

        she’s bored of the endless routines, slipping into the doldrums, so what does seoyul do? of course, she takes a page out of the good old high-school-tricks book she thought she’d retired, and resorts to what anyone else with great intellect would━send herself a bouquet on set. honestly, it’s genius, if she were to say so herself. nothing remarkable like this ever happens on set, everyone’s just bustling about, immersed in doing their own jobs. besides, people really don’t expect a huge romantic gesture for idols on the set of a music video shooting. all things considered, an event like this is only made all the more noticeable in such a setting.

        her delivery for herself arrives when she’s filming her solo scene, and just like she had imagined, within a few seconds almost everyone on set had crowded around the bouquet of ninety-nine roses. ( hey, if you’re going to do something like this, then you should go all the way out, right? ) by the time she’s finished with her part, the crowd has already parted, but their curious minds haven’t stopped churning. as she heads towards the table that the banquet has been set down on, the people she passes send her all too familiar looks of excitement and envy. it’s the exact same kind she remembers getting from other students as she strut down the hallways, the last time she pulled this trick back in high school.

        the card that comes along with the bouquet has in it a heartfelt, handwritten shy confession of love. it’s the icing on the cake, finishing touch to her elaborate act. and all day long seoyul never stops hearing speculations about the identity of her secret admirer in the various hushed voices surrounding her, never stops feeling people’s gazes following her all around, that pleasing tinge of envy always present. everything worked out perfectly, just the way she wanted it to. she’s not only gotten everyone’s attention, she’s also the object of envy for the day. ( maybe even the week. hopefully the week. )