STAGE NAME — Nova (from supernova, brightness from self destruction)

COLOUR — Yellow (a color that is bright but also a warning)
ANIMAL — Fox
NAME OF DEBUT SONG — Cactus

THE MUSIC VIDEO — 
 

I can spend a long time in the winter alone
By looking at the flower bloom on the longest spine

Nova wakes up in a luxurious and beautiful bedroom. He's dressed lavishly too (think: blood sweat and tears style) and he walks over to a balcony and throws the doors open revealing the pink and orange skies of Aether's eternal twilight. He basks in it. The next shot sees him walk around the empty mansion looking at statues and paintings. One painting that he walks past is the famous painting by Carlo Seracini of the Fall of Icarus but Nova takes no notice of it as he all but frolicks in the wealth of the place. There is a brief flash of a fox at the end of the hallway but Nova doesn't see, he's too busy twirling around the place in wonder. There's another shot of him outside in a field of sunflowers. Nova looks happy and in awe as he he lays down in the middle of the field surrounded by the bright yellow flowers and painted by the eternal twilight.

Interspersed are scenes of him dancing with backup dancers in an equally lavish outfit. The dance is very conceptual and almost sensual, leaning much on poses and vogue elements to make the most of Nova's confidence and natural charisma to mask his lack of real dance skill.

~

Will thorns pierce me when I meet you?
No matter how much you push me away
I’m not afraid because I have had enough

He waks up again in the exact same room, different but similar outfit. He opens the doors again and goes back out. This time he tries one door and it's locked, but the next door he can open. He goes into a room filled with cactuses of any kind. Huge ones in pots that almost reach the ceiling, smaller ones on the floor and on tables. He waters them diligently. Then he accidentally pricks himself on a cactus but instead of hurting him the needle just turns into a yellow flower. He's perplexed but happy, it seems like absolutely nothing can go wrong in this place! He becomes more bold and runs around throwing things over and dancing in the hallways, sliding from a staircase, rolling through the sunflower field. Everything is with abandon because he is untouchable. 

~

I have been afraid to get hurt for a long time
In case the real me looks worse
No matter what I do, I can’t; what should I do?

He wakes up again but it's different this time. He gets up slower. He opens the balcony almost bored. Then he goes out and finds more and more of the doors locked. He's back in a room filled with cactuses He tries to prick himself again but instead another flower blooms. He tries and tries and tries until the cactuses are covered in flowers. He throws the them around in frustration. He sees the fox this time and follows it back to his bedroom but it disappears off the balcony before he can catch it. He's seen sitting in the sunflower field methodically pulling petal after petal from a sunflower in his lap, looking frustrated when the sunflower somehow remains whole. He runs towards the gate of the garden and it's closed, he can't leave the safety of the castle and the sunflower field. He can't go anywhere the castle doesn't want him to go.

~

I can’t end this so I swallow myself
I can’t say goodbye to you

He wakes up for the fourth time and his frustration is all over his face. He doesn't even open the balcony doors, he goes straight through the hallway where he throws over sculptures and vases but they always remain intact. He goes back to the cactus room and throws them all over but with every touch more flowers bloom until the whole room is filled with flying petals. And then it happens: he pricks himself. He stares at his finger with wonder and a grin spreads on his face.

He runs out excitedly and his eyes actually find the painting of Icarus and for the first time the camera really focuses on it. He slowly approaches it, looking in awe at the painting. Then he turns around and he runs back to his room where he sees the fox sitting beside the balcony doors. He throws open the doors and leans over the railing of the balcony and looks down. There, at the bottom, is what looks like a dark bottomless chasm. Nova grins at the sight of it. He tries it out first. Sits on the edge of the balcony, takes off his fancy embroidered jacket, and lets it fall down into the chasm. Then he stands onto the railing and spreads out his arms and finally lets himself fall down from the balcony into the chasm, a smile on his face as he does it.

Around him the landscape changes as he falls from the peach of Aether to the blue sky to darkness. He lands on the ground on his back and rolls from the impact but he's still grinning. He comes to a stop on his back, lets his hands fall to the side, and just laughs happily. A fox comes from the darkness and his hand. 

SYMBOLISM — 
— Overarching theme: San has this big fancy castle, he's debuted and he's got the world at his fingertips. At first he's happy exploring the rooms and basking in that sense of success and fame. I put him in Aether to underline that fact that this should be all that, this should be all that he should want. Aether is the realm of the gods right? It's heaven. It's perfection. But it's all empty and San feels so so alone and the solo nature of the Nox releases only adds to that feeling of isolation. Yes there are many other boys in the group, but how long does it take for any of them to actually do something real together? Until then San is on his own, or so it feels. Until the he can only rely on himself and he's so lonely but he also learns to function like that.

So he's alone in this big fancy mansion and everything is perfect and nothing can hurt him and San is going insane. Every day is the same thing, it's all controlled by others and similar and no matter how great something is if you get the same thing over and over and over it's going to get boring. It's like they clipped his wings with promises of success and put him in this cage to dance like a puppet for the audience and he does it over and over again and he's going insane. He needs to feel something real, something of his own accord, but every time he tries to prick himself nothing happens. He becomes obsessed with feeling something of his own accord, doing something of his own accord, and it's represented by this fissure into the world. An imperfection that lures San to it. He doesn't know what it is, he doesn't know what it will bring, but he knows that whatever it gives it'll be his own choice and it'll be change. And so San takes the leap into the unknown.

— Cactuses: The cactuses can symbolize either the fans/netizens or the company. Either way despite the fact that he accidentally went to prick himself, the spike just turned into a flower and he was unharmed. He can't do anything wrong even when he messes up, it's almost like nothing is able to harm him. It's all a symbol for how his youth and his fans and the company protect him. "Oppa didn't mean it" might be true, for the most part, but that does't mean it's not a tightly woven safety net and San being the overconfident teenager he is it goes to his head a bit. No matter how many times he tries to prick himself, all that comes out of it is a soft flower... until it doesn't. 

— Icarus: Both obvious and slightly subverted. Yes San is the one who flies too close to the sun in his hubris and falls, but he also takes the concious decision to fall himself as the one thing he has cotrol over.

— Sunflowers: At face value the sunflowers a reference to him: they're bright suns, just like Nova is. They also symbolize adoration and longevity and he rolls around in it, rolls around in the attention and fans. Much like the cactuses, even when he tries to pluck the petals of the sunflowers nothing ever happens. He plucks and plucks and plucks but the sunflowers keep their yellow halo. Nothing he can do can stop the idol train he's on, he can't get rid of the attention and the adoration he loved so much before. 

— Fox: The fox as an animal is often seen a trickster, a mischievous and rebellious thing that doesn't conform to norms. It's also something people want as pets but that is extremely unsuitable as one. Foxes to terribly in captivity, they're destructive and noisy and don't listen. Those are all things they definitely have in common with San.