sun seyoon

 

 

Seyoon has all the hallmarks of a well-oiled machine-churned idol trainee, years and years of training that has been more ingrained to him than anything his actual drill sergeant could ever accomplish. Be polite, don't talk back to his superiors, always put your best (and most obedient) foot forward, etc. etc. Idol training was a harsh and stressful affair but he learned to internalize his stress for fear of ruining an evaluation or making a bad impression. This has resulted in a guy who is very private and always keeps his feelings close to his own chest (and preferably out of sight out of mind, but more on that later). He's dependable, he's steadfast, he knows hard work and putting his own needs aside for the whole, but he lost something of himself in the process. From the point of view of the management he's probably an ideal idol, just don't look too hard at the cracks.

 

The desperation to be that perfect trainee in the small hopes of getting into a group this time has turned Seyoon into someone who's always trying put his best image forward to the detriment of who he actually is. He's friendly, both because he's naturally something of a Good Egg, but also because he's learned that that's what people expect from him and he's constantly trying to show only the good parts of himself. He stows away the bad emotions, the frustration at constantly feeling left behind, the annoyance he might feel towards some of the more pestering trainees, disapprove or judgment he most definitely feels towards others, all because you're not supposed to show these things, not even behind the scenes. You're a trainee, you're an idol, you're not supposed to have human emotion. Always save face, always present your best image. Just let that bucket fill with all of those unwanted and ignored emotions, it's not like buckets ever overflow, right?

 

And then there's the unfortunate fact that he's a lot older than even the next oldest in the group, that takes its toll too. With age come responsibilities, especially in a culture with such a strict age hierarchy, and he knows very well that people expect him to be something of a pillar, something of a leader, and boy does that stress him out. Seyoon doesn't do responsibility well at all, one of his greatest nightmares is being responsible for other people, he doesn't even feel like he can steer his own life let alone those of others. But Seyoon has always responded to doing what people around him expect of him, so he tries to be mature and tries to be the stable hyung who listens to the company and makes sure everyone behaves and is a stick in the mud and- wait.... who even is he anymore? Is this really all he's turned into now?

 

It's just so frustrating, you know? He's here with all these young kids, and everyone is expecting him to be this mature pillar. Meanwhile the young kids are at a whole different frequency as him and he looks at them and can't help but feel like he wasted so much of his life getting to this point. Here are kids who are 17, 18, 19, 20 and they're debuting, and here he is at 26 and his life is only now starting. So many years of his life are just... behind him. Years of his life where he wasn't really living. He envies them, envies that their lives got to start so much earlier. There are so many things he would have done differently if he could.

 

All of this together means that Seyoon loses more and more and more of who he really is, which is actually a pretty chill and fun guy! Underneath all of these shoulds is a guy who doesn't feel as old as he acts. He's capable of goofing off as much as the next person, he loves fun songs where they get to just be silly, he's totally capable of being cute and fun at a fansign. He's more childish and fun than he thinks he is if only he'd just allow himself to be.  Just because he's 26 doesn't mean he has to have one foot in the grave, and he has to learn that sometimes management be damned! It's okay to be selfish, it's okay to shake off some of the shackles of that stiff idol training and goof off with the kiddos. Sure, he's not 16, but that also doesn't mean that this schism isn't mostly of his own making. Seyoon has to find the joy and fun in his life and, you know, maybe a group full of younger guys is just the environment to help him with that.

 

Seyoon is a dreamer deep down, he's always been this guy with big dreams of who he wants to be. He's thoughtful, as in he likes to think about things and make interesting observations and contemplate things. He's also braver than he thinks he is, Seyoon is constantly selling himself short in almost everything he does, so much so that he does not realize the real bravery that lies within, a bravery that has matured like a fine wine. When push comes to shove, with some good oldfashioned character development, Seyoon will be brave enough to stand up for himself -and others- and face his problems, and even more, he'd be brave enough to look for the person he really is underneath all of the layers of should.

 

He just has to get there, just has to smooth over past hurts, let scars be scars, and finally embrace the future for all the wonderful possibility it holds with his one true face in the sun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BIOGRAPHY — Seyoon was born in a fairly regular lower middle class household. His dad was an office working plodder and his mum a stay homer. He grew up in Daegu, in an apartment just like almost everyone else he knew, living the way most others he knew were living, and dreaming bigger. Pop music was his love and he used to watch the music shows on the weekends with friends and beg his parents for music lessons so he could follow his idols. He knew what he wanted to do, he wanted to be just like his idols and go to Seoul, the dream city, to pursue that. 

 

His parents endulged him and took him to the big city for auditions when he was 11 years old and, surprisingly to them, after a lengthy audition proceidure he was accepted into SM Entertainment where a smooth-talking rep quickly alleviated their worries and pushed a packet of papers their way, pointing at the dotted line at the bottom. His story is a dime in a dozen, or so Seyoon would soon come to understand when he unpacked his things in the tightly packed trainee dorm. Ordinary child with dreams and potential (preferably pretty) signing up to make his dreams come true.

 

So Seyoon trained, and boy was it tough, but he endured it all. He endured the demanding lessons, the harsh instructors ripping into his confidence with every word of criticism, the constant diets and checking of weight, the sleeping in class because of late night practices, the stressful evaluations where he felt his heart in his throat every time, the constant competition between the other trainees that made friendships difficult every time project groups started cropping up.

 

Training at SM was hell, but it was a hell Seyoon endured for his dreams. The first 6 years went by without any indication of how he was doing or if it was enough. Project groups were gathered and split apart. Shinee passed him by without a glance and he wasn't even surprised, not if the comments of the evaluators were anything to go by, but he kept working hard. Training contract were re-newed and hopes flared and crushed at regular interviews. Such was trainee life. He made it into a few project groups here and there, he even trained with the EXO boys for a few months before being replaced by Jongdae. They were both good vocalists, you see, and Jongdae wasn't quite so short.

 

He kept training for a little while longer. With every passing day the hope shrivelled, especially when EXO blew up and he kept thinking if only I'd worked a little bit harder I could have been there on that stage with them. He kept trying, hoping that maybe SM would debut a boygroup in maybe three years, four tops? That would be alright, wouldn't it? He'd be a little old, sure, but he'd been training too long to give up now, he'd even quit high school to have more hours to train. He didn't know what else he could do with his life if he couldn't become a singer. So he kept going, renewed his contract for another 5 years and worked even harder than he had before. Then the preparations of NCT started and he was so hopeful but week after week went by without him being called. One day the trainee manager called him to the office and he was so hopeful, but the manager just laid it out for him. They wanted NCT to have a somewhat youthful image, and Seyoon was simply too old to fit that image (and he was still short). SM wouldn't be extending his training contract once it ran out.

 

So there he was out on the street with nothing to do with his life, and without an education or student status to protect him, his conscription was knocking on the door as well. He decided to just go with it, get his military service over with, maybe once it was done he'd have an idea of what he wanted to do. He served with the marines for two years and it was absolutely terrible. From power tripping drill sergeants to cruel locker room dynamics  to just the boredom of it all. Seyoon hated every single second of his enlistment and couldn't wait to get out and get his life back, but once the end was nearing he found it was far too soon.

 

He was totally lost when he was free. He didn't want to go back to his home town, not after he'd tasted the filthy paradise that was Seoul, so he got himself a job as a waitor and moved into a dingy apartment shared with 4 other guys and just tried to make ends meet, constantly telling himself he'd figure out his next course of action soon. After this shift, in that weekend, after he took care of this thing. Before he knew it nearly 6 months of boring shift work had gone by and he was no nearer to figuring his life out than he was before. Then one of the people whose table he was waiting stopped him in his tracks while he was trying to clear the plates. The woman looked him over and asked him if he'd ever considered being an idol. He was a little old, sure, but he had that je ne sais quoi. Seyoon felt like laughing then but he just told her he'd been a trainee for 12 years before he'd ended up here. She slid him her card and told him that he should consider trying again and, really, she had to say no more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

— Speaking of: the way things are right now he definitely feels most comfortable talking to people around the same age as him. He loosens up quite a bit when that age hierarchy thing isn't on his shoulders.

 

— He's always been better making friends with girls than boys. He's not sure why. It might just be because he's generally friendly and soft and feels more comfortable around them. Definitely one of those people who ends up with a lot of female acquantainces and other guys are like ??? how? Give him a year and he'd probably have the number of half the female idols in the industry (with no ulterior motives, he's a good boy, his mum raised him right). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STAGE NAME — Remus

COLOUR — Lavender
ANIMAL — Magpie
NAME OF DEBUT SONG — Stay As You Are

THE MUSIC VIDEO — 
— Remus starts off in a room that looks exactly like you'd think Aether would look. The same opulence, the same almost garish furnishings that come straight out of a historical painting, but something's rotten in the state of Denmark. Instead of the neoclassical style interior we've seen before, this room has more in common with the baroque and its rococo extension and light filters in from the windows through curtains that obscure the view. 

He goes about his day interacting with various objects around the room but it's obvious he's restless. There are strings attached wrapped tight around his arms like a marionette, cutting into his arms, and he walks and acts stiff. He lounges on the sofa but that doens't feel right. He leafs through a book by a big antique book case but the pages are blank. He arranges a bowl of fruit just so even though they're obviously plastic. He fixes himself up in a mirror that has been completely painted over in lilac, righting his shirt just so, fixing his hat just so, but it's obvious that it doesn't quite fit. His clothes are too dark and don't fit right, they stand out against the rest of the room. He stands out against the rest of the room.

Then changes start to appear. One of the windows blows open and a magpie lands on the sill, which he quickly shoos away and desperately shuts the window back up. There's cuts of him nailing the window shut with pastel planks. Cracks start to form on the walls but Remus grabs a paint bucket and desperately paints over them as they appear.

Then the door opens, letting light spill onto the scene. 5 magpies can be seen outside, staring intently at him. Remus approaches, cautious and a little scared, but he finds his strings don't let him venture far enough to actually step outside of the room. All he can do is look at the outside, and a distinct blue sky can be seen outside of his little prison. He looks back at his room and then turns his gaze to the strings. Carefully he pulls and breaks one, leaving angry red marks where they used to be. He waits for the sky to fall on him but nothing happens. He breaks the others, looking almost mesmerized by the possibility. 

After breaking his strings he very cautiously steps outside. There are still angry red lines where the strings used to be, and he rubs them as he lookes around. He's in an empty street, the same kind of street Vana was running through, he sky above him is a bright blue and he squints against the sun. 7 magpies fly overhead, coming from the south, and Remus tries to follow, but his own cautious and doubts make him too slow and he loses sight of the birds.

While lost, Remus finds an empty rundown crumbling doorway. Above it is a rough engraving that resembles two heads attached to each other, each facing the other way. He enters cautiously into a room that looks as shabby inside as the building did outside. There is a single mirror in the center of the room. On the wall behind it is a closed door with ignis aurum probat carved roughly above it. There's nothing elegant about the room, a stark contrast to the room he was in before.

He approaches the mirror, and for the first time he really sees himself, standing in dark dirty clothes that don't fit him well, with angry red lines still prominant on his arms. The mirror image shows someone entirely different: he has soft pink hair instead of the dark brown, his clothes are light and pastel with the sleeves pushed up to his elbow, and the red lines are soft and almost entirely faded. The dark Remus touches his mirror image with shock and wonder. He glances at the lines on his arms and, after a moment's hesitation, rubs at them and they fade. They don't disappear, but they fade. The camera circles around the mirror and when it comes back the two are reversed. Then the door opens.

Remus passes through, and on the other side there is a huge lighthouse standing on a cliff. 8 magpies land on the railing at the very top. He enters the lighthouse and climbs all the way up the circular stairs to the top. He is noticeably freeer in his movements and expressions. There's nothing of that cautious mouse left as he climbs the stairs without abandon, sometimes skipping multiple steps to get to the top. The camera focuses on the top door from the outside as Remus throws it open and steps onto the platform, the red lines on his arms completely gone now. There's a huge smile filled with wonder on his face as he looks at the horizon, though we can't see it as the camera focuses solely on his face. He leans on the railing smiles, content at what he is seeing and basked in warm lighting, as the last words of the song play.

 

SYMBOLISM — 
— Remus is so desperate to think that he's made it. That this is everything he wanted no matter what. He's painted his world as he thinks the Aether looks, but it's a poor approximation. Just because he's debuting doesn't mean all his problems are gone and he suddenly has everything he wanted in life. It's not so easy to get rid of his problems, to get rid of the cracks that form, and reality is always trying to find a way in. He doesn't see that all he's done is built a pretty prison for himself.

— The theme of breaking free is presented throughout the MV, both in textual and subtextual ways. The breaking of the strings is the obvious one, in order to progress Remus has to tear off the strings that hold him in place. Throughout he struggles with inner freedom too, going from cautious to taking that leap of faith. Throughout the MV you see him shedding layers that are holding him back until he is finally free to scale the lighthouse. 

The scars remain there, though, as a reminder that just because someone braves the first steps doesn't mean the scars in their life disappear instantly. They continue to be there, reminders of things that deeply hurt him. Throughout the MV it's the healing and letting go of those scars that grants him freedom much more than the severance of the strings. Internal freedom more than external freedom. Stellae have speculated that the strings might be his trainee period, or they might be his own strings entirely as he keeps himself safe and contained.

— In Eastern symbolism, Magpies are bringers of prosperity and personal development. They're positive state changers that guide their chargers to a better place. In both the East and the West there have been mentions of Magpies predicting fortunes or taking their charges from the Earthly to the Heavenly plane (see: The Cowherd and the Weaver Girls and the original magpie rhyme and the accompanying hopscotch). This would suggest that him following the magpies is them taking him to Aether but it's never really confirmed or denied what happens to him and the change of states could very well simply be deeply personal only.

The number of Magpies corresponds to an old version of the rhyme as well. The first, one for sorrow, it he most obvious one. while Remus is stuck in that room he is miserable. Then the five magpies corresponds with riches, which could be seen as material wealth or personal wealth. The message is clear, follow the magpies and go from sorrow to the path of prosperity. Seven magpies stand for the path to heaven, and the eight magpies could indicate the final amount to reach heaven. 

— The etched faces above the door are surely a representation of Janus, the Roman god of doorways and new beginnings in their purest form. Remus enters the realm of Janus, another symbol for a change of state. An end and a beginning. It is in this little self-contained realm that he finds the mirror and the version of himself that he is inside. It is there that he finds the self-awareness he previously lacked.

Letting himself become that better version of himself also means letting go of his old scars, of old hurts, and letting himself become that new person. 

— There is a contrast throughout the video of fake beauty and real ugliness. When he was contained his in how delusion everything was beautiful and colourful. As soon as he stepped outside he was surrounded by ugly rundown buildings, but they were real. Then, at the end, the video showed a simplistic beauty in the lighthouse. Real, simple, but still very much with its own charm. It's a contrast between the beautiful lies we tell ourself, and the simplicity of reality that could be ugly or beautiful, but never in that fake austentacious way we tell ourselves.

— Ignis aurum probat  is an old Roman proverb that means "[as] fire tempers gold". It means that adversity creates strength. The fans have taken it to mean that Remus' long drawn out training have made him stronger, and that despite the fact that he's only now debuting at 26, the trials have tested him and made him into a better idol and person.

— Lighthouses are there as a guide, they exists to guide sailors through rough waters. Stellae have speculated that the 8 magpies on top of the guiding lighthouse might represent the other members, but other stellae argued that it could simply be the final amount of magpies to reach heaven, according to the hopscotch formula.

— Is he in Mundus? Is he in Aether? Does it really matter in his journey of self-actualization? Nobody is really sure where to connect him at the end, it might even be one of the earlier MVs released before the Aether became a thing, and only looking back do fans start to question if he's still in Mundus at the end or if that warm lighting was the peach of Aether.

 

^The kind of guy Seyoon is underneath all of that Seyooning going on.

 

 

 

Also I wanted to say if there's anything at all you want to change about his mv or anything else to benefit the story you're totally free to do so, no hard feelings at all.