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cj-6 · 12 days

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Xdinary lore

I'm excluding performance videos here for obvious reasons, and I generalized the b-sides sometimes as they do not always add much to the plot. This does not include interpretation of the lyrics.

Happy Death Day

Happy Death day is Xdinary heroes' first interaction with ♭form. The clown-esque setting is the real world and every other set we see is in the VR world. This is also proven by their accompanying performance videos, where one is called the offline mode and the other the online mode (which this first photo here just further solidifies).

So we see them just doing their thing, until surveillance-type drones appear, which bear the message 'unusual action detected'.

We them see the boys trying to argue with one of the bots, which soon after explodes. I try not to read too much into how and why the thing explodes because I can't really explain it. But it leads to the fact that XH can now take their instruments again and keep performing after being hold up by the bots. Though the system further upholds them (or maybe it is their own fault for ignoring the warnings?), and quickly errors soon after.

Though right after this shot we also see that they have started to blow up on ♭form. Users seem to like what they're doing a lot.

Which just motivates them to reconnect once more.

Something which I also mentioned in the general theme/story part is when we see them reconnect we also get a flash of another warning. The error which we actually see on screen warns them 'please do not attempt to perform' (I actually don't have a screenshot for this because it is so hard to get in frame let alone read, so you just have to trust me on this one!), which they of course ignore. We also see them expanding their ensemble space because of the hype they received from their fans, as we now have a new location/set where they perform (with the white outfits). This location also looks quite like a withered basement, which leads me to believe that they're trying to continue as a group more quietly.

A scene that I really like from this is where we zoom out a bit to reveal all kinds of avatars from users cheering them on (which I never noticed until recently). I also love how we can even see their user names floating above their heads.

At the very end of the MV, we zoom out of a shot that looks quite similar to the picture above, and watch from a pc screen. This pc screen first displays the ♭-note (the ♭form logo) and then we see multiple other screen flashing by with the same logo. And then after we see a screen flash an error message.

So in general this is about them coming together, and already causing errors to the system, whilst also reaching a level of success.

Test Me + Strawberry Cake

Now this MV is basically summarized by the first shot.

And also a bit by the second one.

We see that within ♭form a competition is going on, a kind of battle of the bands. However, this system is rigged, because the winner has already been decided. This we see right in the frame after the one I screenshotted here, because the trophy for this match already bears a name on it (and it also says so on screen).

In the scene right after, when the music starts to play for the first time, we see that XH fails during the qualifying round by playing a 'wrong' note. And also they throw a small fit which is just funny.

So then comes the plan to rig the whole tournament. We then get to their kind of headquarters where they're planning out where the building is and how to get in and stuff. A really cool shot I found is that they even tried objecting before planning out of this stuff, as they send an objection.

And then this is part of the planning board in the next shot.

Also I'm obsessed with this frame where there plan is drawn out and it is literally what they do later in the video so I'm putting it here for appreciation and vibes.

This one as well just for pure appreciation.

So then they board the train/metro to get to the location, which is also the set they used to film strawberry cake in (and very maybe it is also the set used in Maniac by Stray Kids). This train is obviously in hands of ♭form because there are posters of the character that is destined to win (called roboctopus). Then their plan continues, as O.de distracts the guards and the rest sneak in.

The goal is to then put their name in the bracket which they fulfill by hacking into it. I kept pausing the shot where you see the hacking thing happen and I just happen to see this code. I still don't know the meaning but I thought it is nice to include anyway.

There is also another warning message before it says that their hacking was a success, but I cannot read what the text below it says for the life of me.

So then we all probably know what happens: they play against roboctopus and win the contest. Though the fact that XH rigged the contest leaves ♭form with an easy counteraction: Xdinary Heroes are now wanted criminals.

Also this is the first time we have the outro where the last text on screen is cut, which used to be a spoiler towards their next era.

Overall, Test Me is the group expanding their ensemble space, gaining more fame and at the same time gaining more hate from the authorities.

Also a small and random detail is that there is a lot of energy drinks and vending machines with Xtreme High (XH).

Hair Cut + X-MAS

Here we enter a new environment, ♭form's amusement park called dream garden, which also is affirmation that we're still in the VR world (or at least that's how I see it).

We can very obviously see how they've grown quite a group of fans for themselves in this world.

Fun thing that I just noticed: not only do they sell happiness at the stands in this park, some also sell mufflers, which are used to drown out sounds made by certain instruments (a way for the authorities to stop fans from listening to XH). You can see it in the background of this shot.

There's a lot to this MV that does not necessarily mean anything to the main plot I'm describing here, but I will mention it a bit as well.

So O.de, Gaon and Jungsu get pulled into the mirror maze type of set, where they are welcomed by the darker sides om themselves. The more simplistic sets are basically the representations of negativity, which they need to cut out of their live. A fun fact to add to this is during the showcase they said that the gardening and barber concepts come from the fact that they need to sort and cut away the bad parts of themselves.

Now that the world they're in is questioning whether they are villains or heroes, they themselves are as well. They are literally held up a mirror to reflect on their deeds and intentions.

By breaking out of these thoughts (again literally because O.de breaks the glass), they again are met with errors and warnings.

And then is to us revealed that this place was danger after all, as the sign from the beginning changes.

You can actually see what they mean by this danger if you focus on the background of some of the shots that follow; the rides are broken off and electric sparks are flying around. Some of the carts even fall down. So maybe the group was invited here as the special guest (explained below) because it was an attempt to rid of them?

Then we see XH start to smash a bunch of things, including their own instruments and a sign that encourages people to join ♭form. This can be see as an act of rebellion against the whole system. I was actually able to find that on some of the posters it speaks of the grand opening of ♭form garden, so XH just kind of ruined that by setting the place on fire.

Random thing I have to mention: the 'hello, world' sign in the back is one of the cooler easter eggs I've found.

Also here is a screenshot where you can see the posters the best. There is one that speaks of the grand opening with Xdinary Heroes as their special guest. It also says: 'What can be next? Guess what! The light is coming in. Its blinding'. The other poster has details on the opening, the location is called DreamLand.

Then we get onto the last and most important scenes of this whole MV.

We see a phone, which I'm assuming is from one of the members. And then we get the next shot.

It is a message from ♭form, telling them that their police report has been submitted for review. Aka a big spoiler to the next MV.

And yet another warning/error message to top the whole thing off:

The TLDR for this one is that Hair cut is the point where everyone (including XH themselves) are questioning the goodness of them, so much so that it is 'overloading them'. Their popularity is used against them, as ♭form tries to rid of them by inviting them to this opening, which turns out to be danger. Though XH fights equally hard to rid of ♭form by smashing all of DreamLand.

Album titles << Music videos #1 >> Music videos #2

#xdinary lore #xdinary heroes #goo gunil #kim jungsu #kwak jiseok #oh seungmin #han hyeongjun #lee jooyeon #happy death day #test me #hair cut #overload #strawberry cake

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cj-6 · 12 days

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Xdinary lore

The members of Xdinary Heroes are all ordinary people that have come together in a VR world called ♭form (pronounced as flatform). In ♭form they play in ensemble mode, where they perform together which upgrades their ensemble environment. Or differently said, their world expands by having great performances. When the audience enters their ensemble space, they can interact with XH which boosts their expanding abilities even more.

So again, Xdinary heroes are ordinary people that have been randomly put together as a group in a VR world, where they perform and speak their minds of certain, sometimes upfront, topics.

About the random part I'm still unsure, because they do seem to know each other at the start of Happy Death Day.

They thus start of very small (and I believe their environment initially is that rooftop on which Happy death day and Test me are filmed), and keep advancing onwards. Though because of the rebellious topics they tackle, authorities quickly start to question their intents. Within Happy Death Day we can already see that their system starts contains errors (remember this when reading Album titles!). One of the errors which we actually see on screen warns them not to perform (I had to pause and replay that part of the MV so much to be able to read that). Whilst their audience loves them, the authorities is already keeping a close eye on them. Regardless, Xdinary Heroes keeps reconnecting to ♭form, reminding us that ♭form is a place that no one visits only once (signaling its addictive nature).

So much of this can be seen in Happy Death Day so if you're interested about this I'd recommend to advance to the part where I discuss all the MVs more.

As recently mentioned by themselves: Xdinary heroes meets on a platform in a virtual reality. And because of the error that broke out in the platform, they can't meet each other. They are now trying to resolve this problem. Xdinary heroes has only found confidence in ♭form, whilst feeling intimidated by the real world, living nerdishly. XH is on their way to find confidence in the real world as well. I think this is the best current summary we could have.

To round of this part, it's a good idea to think back to their name. Xdinary Heroes are ordinary, but become a little more than that when they perform, whilst also creating the question of who the heroes and the villains are in this story by singing about subversive themes.

Navigation << General theme/story >> Album titles

#xdinary lore #xdinary heroes #goo gunil #kim jungsu #kwak jiseok #oh seungmin #han hyeongjun #lee jooyeon #happy death day

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cj-6 · 12 days

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Xdinary lore

Meaning of all the album titles in order, excluding 'Happy death day' (as it is a single release and it is not relevant for the upcoming interpretation). Also includes the title of the new comeback (!), which I knew of because I had been theorizing about it (the theory is in Music videos #2).

''Hello, world!''

If you have done any programming class or basics before, you will know as much as I do that this sentence is the first thing that you learn about. When you have worked with Python like I have, this is done by using a 'print()' statement, which I added a picture of below for anyone curious.

In terms of meaning we can say that this album is their first greeting to the world, and I believe especially to the VR world which we know as ♭form.

Overload

Overload can refer to multiple things, though I believe it was meant for us to consider all titles in relation to computer programming and anything IT related, so I will keep up this spirit throughout the rest of this explanation.

Overload refers to a situation where a system is subjected to more demand or load than it can handle effectively. Overload can lead to performance degradation, slowdowns, or even system crashes if the resources are not properly managed or scaled.

So what we can take away from this is that overload is when a computer system can't handle the amount of info it is given.

Deadlock

As said in the overload information it is quite crucial to keep on the programmer glasses from here. I did not consider this before until I started diving in to all the lore, but trust me it makes far more sense to do so. For the reason that deadlock can refer to the following:

An occurrence when two or more processes are unable to proceed because each is waiting for the other to release a resource. This results in a situation where none of the processes can continue, effectively halting the entire system. Deadlocks are often a result of poor resource management or synchronization in concurrent systems.

Aka a computer system that comes to a halt because two processes are not properly coordinated.

Livelock

Livelock is a situation where multiple processes continuously change their states in response to each other's actions, but none make progress. This can be thought of as a more active form of deadlock, where processes are not stuck waiting for resources but are instead caught in a loop (remember this!) of resource contention. Livelocks can occur when systems use overly aggressive algorithms for resource management or when there's excessive contention for shared resources.

Simply put a version of deadlock that has not quite stopped but stuck in a loop instead.

Troubleshooting

I actually started writing this part before it was officially announced on the 12th, so yeah that's cool.

Troubleshooting involves identifying, diagnosing, and resolving problems or issues within a computer system. It's a systematic approach used to isolate the root cause of a malfunction or unexpected behavior and then implement a solution to resolve it. Troubleshooting can involve various techniques such as analyzing logs, debugging code, monitoring system performance, and testing different configurations.

Or basically trying to find mistakes (such as the causes of overload, deadlock, and livelock) within our computer system.

In summary, these terms are all related to different types of issues or challenges that can occur in computer systems, and troubleshooting is the process used to address and resolve them. Sounds coherent right?

General theme/story << Album titles >> Music videos #1

#xdinary lore #xdinary heroes #goo gunil #kim jungsu #kwak jiseok #oh seungmin #han hyeongjun #lee jooyeon #happy death day #hello world #deadlock #livelock #troubleshooting

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cj-6 · 12 days

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Xdinary lore

All banners were made with Canva

Please lmk if there's any links you want me to add or if there are any not working!

Links to all MVs (on YouTube):

Happy Death Day

Test Me

Strawberry Cake

Hair Cut

Freakin' Bad

Good enough

Dear H.

Break the Brake

PLUTO

Links to some of the M/V making films:

Good enough + Dear H.

Freakin' bad

Break the Brake

Origin of Xdinary heroes (very interesting and quick to watch!) can be found in this YouTube playlist

Some explanation of ♭form voiced over by Gunil <3

JYP ent official Xdinary heroes page

Stuff regarding closed beta project:

The dates for the concerts can be found on the official XH page from JYP ent (mentioned above as well), under schedule

Twitter announcement from XH_official, and also this notice

This and this article which I found most useful on trying to figure out what is going on

I also read somewhere that people were comparing it to the every day6 project so if I can find a source of that you can find it here

Xperiment project << Additional sourcing

#xdinary lore #xdinary heroes #goo gunil #kim jungsu #kwak jiseok #oh seungmin #han hyeongjun #lee jooyeon #happy death day #hello world #overload #deadlock #livelock #troubleshooting #villain

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cj-6 · 12 days

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Xdinary lore

This is my interpretation / findings as a villain from all things Xdinary Heroes. I can't obviously guarantee that this is the actual lore that the marketing team intended, but this is so far what I've been able to get out of the content that has been brought out.

I also started this before the announcement we had on the 12th, but I updated it appropriately. I can at least say my theory was correct B).

Another thing to add to that is that I don't speak nor understand Korean, so all my knowledge is based on content with subtitles, which could lead to me potentially missing things.

Also everything is sorted under different banners, which allows you to read whatever you're interested in. Another thing is that along the way I will try to keep updating this (and I'll most likely rb the posts once I do).

And lastly, I will try to give sources as much as possible but if anything is missing lmk and I'll do my best to keep that up to date as well.

Last update: 26/04/2024

Links to all posts below! + You can find all posts under #xdinary lore

Assumptions:

The highlight movie samplers and live instrumental movie samplers do not anything to the lore.

I am currently assuming no info is leaked during vlogs (Xtra files). But this assumption is more in place because I still need to watch most of those.

Navigation in intended order (if you want to read everything):

Navigation >> General theme/story

Navigation for any order:

General theme/story

Album titles

Music videos #1 (HDD, Test Me, Hair cut)

Music videos #2 (FB, Good enough + Dear H., BTB)

Xperiment project

Additional sourcing / for baby villains

#xdinary lore #xdinary heroes #goo gunil #kim jungsu #kwak jiseok #oh seungmin #han hyeongjun #lee jooyeon

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cj-6 · 12 days

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Xdinary lore

What is coming very soon - closed beta project. This will need most updating along the next couple of months and is currently the most incomplete.

Ok so around the 2nd of April Xdinary heroes changed their banner and profile picture on YouTube. It spelled out Xperiment project, which at the time didn't know anything about, but here is what I've been able to find.

On Twitter (or X whatever you want to call it) they made an official announcement that are doing a series of solo concerts. If you go on to the JYP official site you can find all the specific dates, but it ranges from April to September.

Now for literal meaning of the title, closed beta refers to a software release where versions are released to a restricted group of individuals for a user test by invitation. So it could be that they tease or play unreleased songs there.

Here are the pictures from this announcement.

The bottom image has a lot of things left to reveal, the only thing we currently see are the months in which they will perform concerts, and then an increment in the version for each set of concerts (version 6.0 is in April, version 6.1 is in June,...). The poster shows a flowchart, which is a diagram that is also commonly used for computer systems to display the processes / the steps it goes through.

So overall still a lot left to be unveiled. Luckily we already know more, as closed beta v6.0 has officially happened now. And I was correct about the idea that they were going to play songs of their (as of now) unreleased album. Here's the songs they played:

No matter

Little things (also goes around as ''Young, shy and foolish'')

Money on my mind

Dreaming girl (which also got a lyric video)

until the end of time

Night of the fireworks

Music videos #2 << Xperiment project >> Additional sourcing

#xdinary lore #xdinary heroes #goo gunil #kim jungsu #kwak jiseok #oh seungmin #han hyeongjun #lee jooyeon #xperiment project #closed beta

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cj-6 · 12 days

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Xdinary lore

I'm excluding performance videos here for obvious reasons, and I generalized the b-sides sometimes as they do not always add much to the plot. This does not include interpretation of the lyrics.

Freakin' Bad

Remember Hair cut? In one of the last scenes we saw that ♭form submitted XH's files to be up for review. Where does Freakin' bad start? At the police department.

They do have been caught for another reason, but this is just a cover up; XH has been framed so that ♭form can catch them without raising suspicion. We see in the following frame that there is evidence on a police table, stating the following: 'The group XH did something dangerous at the mall [busking]. These items are dangerous evidence obtained by the police from the shopping mall.'

However, these are not really big crimes at all. Where Hair Cut is the attempt of ♭form to destroy XH, Freakin' bad is the attempt to catch them.

As much as I'm trying to explain the plot I need to place a recommendation that watching this MV frame by frame is so cool. There are so many transitions and drawn layers that are super easy to miss when you're not focusing properly.

Anyways there are a couple of scenes, mixed with some performance scenes, that show that the group has been vandalizing some things at the mall, and them being put up for question for it. After the first chorus we see XH getting arrested.

Then the story continues with the boys getting transferred (I think from police station to jail) in the back of a big truck.

Then they just go ham with their instruments in the back of the truck lol. Then the truck drives over a police stinger and everyone just floats in the air in slomo (you can definitely tell they were just doing things for fun in this MV). So after their escape we instantly see breaking news from a small TV being played. It's live news announcing that XH is missing. This scene is also quite hilarious because once it zooms out we see that the members are watching this news at a record shop while like giggling and kicking their feet.

This music shop they also leave behind wrecked. This next shot is another one of those where they sneak in their name into the frame. But we see them all walking through this gate thing whilst the alarm is blaring.

This MV definitely has less small details to look into, and gives the story quite plain to us. To wrap up talking about it, Freakin' bad is the point in the storyline where ♭form is trying to contain XH. After being framed they also get caught, but ultimately escape and are then considered as wanted criminals on the loose. Freakin' bad is also a very natural progression from Hair cut, as they questioned themselves there they now are apologetically and confidently themselves.

Good enough + Dear H.

First of all the reason why I think they have MVs in the first place is not because it relates much to the plot, but just to promote the songs more, as they were popular b-sides (and my faves as well) and that's just smart from a marketing standpoint. However I will try to read into it a little bit to see if I can make it coherent with the rest.

As you may know, both of these MVs match each other in storyline (as they are both heartbreak-like songs) and are very differently filmed to all the title tracks. The focus of both videos is to portray emotion much more than anything else. It is all very natural, no flashy editing, and a lot of the scenes are filmed in nature. This leads me to believe all of this is happening outside of ♭form, aka in the real world. Though I do still want to mention that even in the real world the members are playing characters. They might bear their name but it still is a personality with traits that are created by directors and such. This idea I really felt like mentioning as it is also quite prevalent in the making films for these MVs.

Also small mention Jun Han fell ill during the shooting of these MVs so it could be that they had to change directory a bit because of that. I'm still very happy he's in Dear H. at least.

But let's analyze some of the scenes.

Throughout Good enough, we see a clear theme related to waves. Which is because Gun il wrote a poem when he was in college at some body of water, and used this feeling to write this song (together with Young K from Day6). This water theme is carried through each of the individual scenes from the members, with most being filmed at sea.

There are two locations for each member. In Good enough we mostly see them individually and in Dear H. we mostly see the other location, which is this classroom. The members all bring something from their individual shots to the classroom. For example, Gaon brings in the plant that was in the room we saw him in before.

This might have some deeper meaning in relation to the lyrics, though that's not something I want to dig into right now, maybe later on.

Dear H. is a song of appreciation Jun Han wrote to the other members. Throughout both MVs we see that he is the person recording the others. For the MVs they used the idea of recording the members as a way to translate the feeling of admiration.

Some of the shots of both MVs have a filter to look like vintage film. This is the embodiment of that idea.

Especially once the song has ended, we get in Dear H. shots of Jun Han which really emphasize that we are looking through his gaze.

I of course adore these videos so much. Though they do not add onto the lore specifically. I think one of the reasons behind this is that they are also b-sides. If I try to see it from a lore perspective they are a breath of relief from all the chaos of ♭form, which is also what I suspect from the concept of Troubleshooting.

Break the Brake + PLUTO

If you have read my album titles analyzation, you will know that Livelock refers to a version of deadlock, where processes are stuck because of conflict between components with shared resources. What's different about it though, is that instead of halting the system, Livelock causes it to be stuck in a loop.

And what is the plot of Break the Brake? The members are caught by some police and are transported by train, but this train and everyone on it is stuck in a time loop, which they can only escape by getting to the front of the train and breaking the brake. This will result in the train driving through the eye of the storm, which are both ways to represent overcoming challenges.

I believe the plot is very intentionally related to Freakin' bad (by this I mean the cops catching XH), as that is the title track of Deadlock and they want to create a version of this in Livelock as well, but then it is stuck in a time loop.

We have indication of this time loop in a couple ways, but mostly by the scenes being repetitive (and starting with a close up shot of Gaon) and the clock on the wall, which reads 04:04.

Interestingly enough, I don't have much screenshots or storyline to share about this one. The only thing I understand from it I kind of already explained. There are some things that I'm still unsure of in terms of meaning, so I will discuss those instead.

Couple current questions:

Why is technology so behind all of a sudden? I understand that all of ♭form is different, and that we could blame it on a different ensemble space, much like how videos games have different environments, but it is a little unsatisfactory as an answer. I think it also had to do with matching the vibe of the MV to the concept of the album, but then anything related to racing could have worked. The main thing I suspect is that they pulled their inspiration from is the lyrics, that mention tracks and such quite a bit.

Why do we see and engine breaking during some of the last scene in BTB? It could just be a filler shot yet it feels to specific to add. This is one that I can't really explain yet.

We also see a cop car chasing the train we're on. And from the MV reaction video for BTB we kind of have affirmed this is the car that is also seen at the very end of Freakin' bad (I did not mention it in that part so I'll compensate for that here). The problem is that for one of the MVs we see it from the front and for the other from the back, which makes it a bit difficult to see.

From the one on the top we can read on the license plate 'XH HERO', which makes a lot of bells ring in my head with the intention here. From the one on the bottom we can read on the side that it's a traffic enforcement unit, which are units placed preemptively on the road to reduce accidents. So it could also have been a stylistic choice to let it return. It also very well a possibility that this cop car is stolen by someone, and is on XH's side, trying to get them off that train and acting as a getaway driver. But this I can't say for sure.

Another thing I was questioning myself is why XH performs at the indoor train stop, but I think it is very simply because they want to have multiple performance shots, and the outfit change is also a visual kind of relief (or interest, not sure of my wording here but hopefully you get what I'm saying).

This is a nice segway into the next part I did want to talk about. And it is the spoiler, which is kind of the total start of my interest for their story line and a cool spoiler for Troubleshooting, which I was able to catch before the announcement of that new album.

When you watch the MV making film for Break the Brake, multiple members will hint at you to look on the train information board on the left wall (in the picture above). The only time you will have the most text in clear view is actually right at the beginning of that video. I will give the shot here and explain the spoiler on it.

What we're focusing on is the schema on the right here. I have another picture where you can read it just a little better.

So on the top we see 04:26 (April 26th is the release date of Deadlock), and then the album title and title track name for those. And believe me on this one but there is also a column on the right with the number 23, which indicates the year of release. Then we have the exact same for Livelock. And then below we have 04:04, with the possible album title Trouble Shooting and title track Location Not Found, with in the right column the number 24.

If we fill this up with our current knowledge we know that Troubleshooting will be released on April 30th, and we don't know anything of the title track (though location not found could also just indicate that they didn't know at the time).

To summarize all of this MV again, XH gets caught after being on the loose and are transferred by train, though it is stuck in a time loop. The members break this loop. From what I have currently seen from the mood film for Troubleshooting, I assume that XH has completely destroyed the ♭form system, which ultimately mean they have no place to interact and loose that connection between the members.

Music videos #1 << Music videos #2 >> Xperiment project

#xdinary lore #xdinary heroes #goo gunil #kim jungsu #kwak jiseok #oh seungmin #han hyeongjun #lee jooyeon #freakin bad #good enough #dear h #break the brake #deadlock #livelock

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