#taetate

Jimin

Anyone who knows Jimin also knows that he pours love into others like he harvests it inside himself. He would pay extra attention to every tiny detail, every lift of lips, every gaze, every inaudible sigh; and make sure that he breaks apart another tiny piece of his soul and and give it away just to fix the other person.

You had been around him for a year now and you could not help but feel like the universe owed him for it, like the balance of the earth was tattered because Park Jimin gave way more than he was prepared to receive.

So, despite being difficult with touch, you would often initiate it with him. You would make sure he was looked after on days he wanted and had space when he would seek his own company. Your actions were often silent but Jimin noticed.

He noticed when after a night of relentless practice, he crashed on the couch; legs unable to carry him to the bedroom that had seemed too far away then- and heard you enter the house.

He noticed when your cold palm laid softly against his forehead, checking if he was alright; your scent enveloping him like a warm hug. And when you pulled back and suddenly he felt your hands move to his feet, taking off his shoes and socks. Then, how you traced the calluses on his feet, from all the dancing and how you hitched your breath noticing the fresh new blisters. He also felt when you left him there as you adjusted the temperature of the room and covered his body with a blanket and returned with your hands now oiling his feet- fingers running along each contour, putting pressure at all the right places, pausing on the fresh marks.

And maybe it was the tiredness of the day or the fact that this simple action was so intimate that he felt tears fall down his cheeks as he finally opened his eyes and looked at you still focused on massaging his feet and in that moment he just knew- all the love he had given had come back to him.

Taehyung

After a day of touring around the city of Stockholm, visiting all the museums, galleries and castles you and Taehyung had marked, you both were now drunk off the beauty you had witnessed. It was rare for the two of you to be able to do something like that in public- just be a couple.

If somebody asked him, Taehyung would stop time right then and there, knowing completely well that you both will be travelling back to Korea the next day and everything will once again fall into the routine of stealing glances and begging for more time. He liked this moment right now, he thought as he looked at you as you held onto his arm pointing to something in the distance.

Taehyung often wondered why you were putting up with his baggage. You were smart, beautiful, kind and successful- you could have a normal relationship with anyone you wanted, someone who would not be busy for 350 days out of 365, someone who could give you more of such days as that.

His thoughts were still all over the place when a camera flash broke them and he saw you lowering the polaroid, smiling fondly at the result, and he smiled. He would not let his mind ruin this for now. So he looped his hand into yours and dragged you towards a group of musicians playing on the streets.

You immediately recognized the song and your eyes locked with your boyfriend's and he knew what you were thinking. "Not here, Y/N", he said unconvincingly and it did not even reach you because you were already deep into the song.

"You're just too good to be true

Can't take my eyes off of you..."

You continued singing loudly alongside the musicians, your hands acting like a mic. The singer in the relationship was standing right there, showing off his beautiful boxy smile watching you.

As the song picked up its tempo, he joined you, pulling you close- you both over exaggerating every line, every move, every hand gesture as you sang

"I love you, baby

And if it's quite alright

I need you, baby..."

As the song finished, everyone around cheered loudly, making you blush. Taehyung noticed it and pulled you flush against his body, gesturing towards the audience with his hand as if saying thank you. Your gazes locked and he dipped down to your ears, whispering like a lover from the 80s, "I am in love with you, baby" and you swore to yourself that you could wait 364 days more just to hear him say those words again on the 365th.

Jungkook

For Jungkook, love was grand. Love was picking up your lover and kissing them in the rain, it was understanding each other without words, it was flowers, stars and red lipstick. It was moments that poets talked about for years, and what all love songs described it as.

The first time he met you, he didn't feel anything. You did not make his heart race or any gravity that pulled him towards you, neither did he hear any stupid bell. But after being engulfed by your presence for 7 months and finding you gone one day, he had an intense hunger for your eyes on him. He turned the world upside down to find you and had never let go since.

Like all his preconceptions about love, Jungkook had thought that the moment he realized that he was in love with you, it would be surreal and almost movie like. But there he was in the elevator, his hands scrolling through his conversation with you trying to find a specific song he remembered you had sent him. As he read through the messages, noticing the gentle and slow growth of the relationship you both now had, his mind played all the moments like a flashback of his life. How you would tiptoe in his room at night and spoon his big body with your smaller one, gently grazing his arms as if soothing a child. Or how you had travelled miles to hold his hand as he finally released his first mixtape. And when you had planned a birthday surprise for him but had fallen asleep waiting for his shoot to be over yet never complained or how you kissed his forehead telling him that everything will be okay.

And Jeon Jungkook knew, he loved you- he had loved you since the moment he could not even talk to you but had to ask you the name of your perfume because it felt like home to him.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, Jungkook ran through the parking, his large bag on his back. He looked at his driver waiting for him with Jimin already in the back of the car but he grabbed the keys for another car knowing well he had to look into your eyes and tell you what he had just realized.

"Where are you going, Jungkook-ah?", Jimin called out to him.

The title of the song is ‘Singularity’ which can mean ‘being one or alone’. There is a mathematical interpretation as well which simply identifies it as a point where a function ceases to exist or takes an undefined value.

(Please note: I’ll make references to V’s solo song released before this which was Stigma. I’ll soon write its interpretation as well but for the sake of referencing I’ll mention that V talks about being punished for something recurrently in it.)

This song in essence introduces two sides of a person. One is hidden, as if behind glass or a mask, and another is the one that everyone sees. These two sides are described here as two different humans. One is what V knows and what we see of him. Another is hidden and even V forgets his existence. I believe that the hidden V is whom we heard Stigma from; dark, scared and regretful. I’ll refer to him as Taehyung for the sake of differentiation (please remember to separate that art from the artist; these are just two characters used to describe the idea that the song presents).

무언가 깨지는 소리 A sound of something breaking

난 문득 잠에서 깨 I suddenly wake up from sleep

낯설음 가득한 소리 A sound full of unfamiliarity

귀를 막아보지만 I cover my ears

잠에 들지 못해 but I can’t fall asleep

V feels like this is not his first life or his complete self. Like dreams or memories, he hears ‘something breaking’ which worries him because he does not relate it to anything. This gives the idea of him forgetting the existence of Taehyung. 

목이 자꾸 아파와 My throat gets sorer

감싸보려 하지만 I try to wrap it

나에겐 목소리가 없어 but I don’t have a voice

오늘도 그 소리를 들어 I hear that sound today, yet again

His throat hurts and his voice is gone like when you have been screaming a lot or stressing your voice. But he does not remember doing it. However, someone else is screaming and he hears it, not recognizing it.

또 울리고 있어 그 소리가 It’s ringing again, that sound

이 얼어붙은 호수에 또 금이 가 A crack on this frozen lake, yet again

그 호수에 내가 날 버렸잖아 You know I threw myself in that lake

내 목소릴 널 위해 묻었잖아 You know I buried my voice for you

I consider this as what he heard the voice say, as aforementioned. The voice, which belongs to Taehyung, talks about falling into a frozen lake and hiding because of ‘you’. As V is the one who is hearing this voice, I consider ‘you’ to be referring to him. For the sake of a public persona or a persona he wants to represent, Taehyung has tried to kill himself - the killing part comes from being in a frozen lake. As frozen is supposed to signify being paused or cold or even alone.

날 버린 겨울 호수 위로 On the winter lake I threw myself in

두꺼운 얼음이 얼었네 a thick ice has formed

잠시 들어간 꿈 속에도 Even in the dream I briefly went into

나를 괴롭히는 환상통은 여전해 the phantom pain that tortures me remains still

Back to V, he repeats what he just heard like we do normally when realizing something or while interpreting something until it has meaning. He would want to consider the conversation he had as just a dream but now he can feel the pain of being in the frozen lake because even though he tried to forget Taehyung, they are still the same person.

나는 날 잃은 걸까 Have I lost myself

아니 널 얻은 걸까 or have I gained you

나 문득 호수로 달려가 I suddenly run to the lake

오 그 속에 내 얼굴 있어 Oh, in the lake there is my face

He wonders what it all even means and whether this realization is even worth something. To check if whatever he feels is real, he goes to the lake that Taehyung mentioned and sees himself in it. This, in true RM fashion, references Narcissus, a Greek mythology character that falls in love with his own reflection in the water and dies of thirst rather than drinking the water because he was afraid that touching it would make his newfound lover disappear. Narcissus is often seen as a character that was vain and self absorbed. But here I consider it as someone who admires the mask he is wearing. V likes who he is as V (also symbolized using the ‘LOVED’ earring he is seen wearing in the video), not Taehyung or he thinks Taehyung is not someone that should be seen in his authenticity.

부탁해 아무 말도 하지마 I beg you, please, don’t say any word

입을 막으려 손을 뻗어보지만 I reach my hand to cover the mouth,

결국엔 언젠가 봄이 와 but, eventually, someday, spring will come,

얼음들은 녹아내려 흘러 가 and the ice will melt and flow away

The first line is said by V and the rest are from Taehyung’s perspective. V knows Taehyung, remembers him but also knows why he was hidden in the first place. The Taehyung of Stigma who wanted to reveal whatever he had done and wanted to be punished for it should stay quiet or else V’s cover will be blown which he is scared of. But Taehyung knows that this won’t last long. How long can he be hidden? Circumstances will reveal him and his truth in due time and that will be spring for him; a day of freedom.

Tell me 내 목소리가 가짜라면 Tell me, if my voice is fake,

날 버리지 말았어야 했는지 should I have not thrown myself away

Tell me 고통조차 가짜라면 Tell me, if even the pain is fake,

그 때 내가 무얼 해야 했는지 what should I have done then

V knows now and wonders if he can fool himself now or even fool others now that he knows what is hidden about him. But he remembers the reasons which made him hide and they are as real as ever. He still does not think that Taehyung is lovable or even acceptable to people.

To summarize, I would not say that this is about BTS themselves. They have shared multiple times that their personas that we see are who they are in reality but of course there are narratives that are not public and thoughts that are too dark to be shared as idols or celebrities. So taking a more general approach to understand the concept of this song, which also relates to BTS and to everyone of us in one way or another, is how we hide ourselves. Whether it be to please a lover or to fit in somewhere, we tend to hide certain parts of ourselves but when we are alone, we cannot help but acknowledge who we really are and that thought and idea haunts us.

Now, remember how V has at different times used Singularity to describe himself? How I mentioned that it is his song through and through? I have a theory and it goes something like this: we all know that Stigma has a meaning that has not been revealed. RM in his live said that it is V’s story and he will share it if he wants. Now, I really believe that V struggles with that - that he is torn about his past. That there are thoughts that he has that he has only kept to himself and does not want to bring forth. He considers himself as alone in that regard but mostly he considers himself ‘undefined’, someone he does not even know himself, yet.

Please remember, these are just my thoughts and my interpretation. I can be way off the mark. So, kindly, treat it as such. And keep showing love to the masterpiece that Intro: Singularity is.