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stankris · 1 year

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The Evolution and Revolution of Agust D 2016-2023

Before I get to talking about ‘Haegeum,’ we need to look at the birth of Agust D from Yoongi’s first mixtape by the same name in 2016.

When we first meet Agust D, he’s presented as a scrappy underdog bound in a moving motorhome, but he slowly breaks free over the course of the ‘Agust D’ MV.

This first version of Agust D is characterized by his anger at those who have wronged or looked down on him, his ambition, and his greed. His ambition and greed are apparent just in the title of his follow up track ‘give it to me’.

The MV for ‘give it to me’ is also a continuation of ‘Agust D’ where he’s fully succeeded in breaking free from his bonds and captivity.

Yoongi has also stated (in a live after the release of D-2) that another name for blond Agust D is anger.

But equally important to note is how this first, blond version of Agust D, who I’ll call Agust D-1 from here on, is in the process of rising up from the bottom to overcome, or overthrow, those that tried to keep him down just because he’s an idol rapper.

Using military metaphors he so fond of, he’s a “new recruit” enacting “insubordination” or a “mutiny” against the older rappers in the underground scene.

‘Daechwita’, released with Yoongi’s second mixtape D-2, follows a similar narrative. He’s still calling out his detractors in the lyrics, except now he’s risen “from origins of a slave to become a king” and no longer the underdog he was.

Even the title and sample of traditional Daechwita military music is announcing the arrival of this king with familiar blond hair and a fresh scar over his eye.

Except, despite the lyrics, the MV still tells the story of an underdog rising up to overthrow the corrupted power at the top.

The original blond Agust D-1 has become the villain, mad with his own power, demanding total submission of those under him, and rapidly collecting the heads of anyone who opposes him.

And this is when we meet Agust D-2 with black hair and a scar to match the King’s.

He becomes our new underdog and the revolutionary narrative becomes one of a struggle within Yoongi’s own self, to overcome the tyranny of ‘Anger.’ Just like Agust D-1 from the ‘Agust D’ MV, he has his own bonds to break free from.

One interesting thing I observed, before we move on from ‘Daechwita,’ is that Agust D-2 is associated with newer technology than Agust D-1. It signals that Agust D-2 is the natural successor, the next generation.

The setting of the MV and Agust D-1′s palace appears to be the Joseon dynasty, but there are a few exceptions to this brought in by Agust D-2, like the Jade key-ring and the car.

Even their weapons of choice are telling. Agust D-1′s weapon is a sword:

But as a newer iteration of himself, Agust D-2 is more technologically advanced and his weapon of choice is a gun.

Agust D-2 uses the gun to shoot the mad king and presumably succeeds in overthrowing him in this succession of power.

Phew, ok. Are you still with me? On to ‘Haegeum’.

‘Haegeum’ is even more explicitly about breaking free from what binds us. The title itself, while it can mean the traditional Korean instrument, also means the lifting of a ban or what has been forbidden. Yoongi references this in lyrics like, “liberation from all that’s forbidden” and when he explicitly states, “this song's simply about freeing what's forbidden.”

The visual and thematic parallels between ‘Daechwita’ and ‘Haegeum’ also make clear that this overthrowing of a corrupted power at the top is a repeating cycle. We even get Jungkook’s chicken in both market scenes!

Okay, the chicken probably isn’t that thematically important, but it’s fun. And Jungkook was really cute with that chicken behind the scenes.

We also see the return of Agust D-2, marked by his fading scar, but instead of the underdog revolutionary he was in ‘Daechwita,’ he has now risen to the top of the police force and been corrupted. The money our new underdog Agust D-3 steals at the beginning is clearly his with how invested Agust D-2 is in its retrieval. Several of his shots mirror those of the mad king from ‘Daechwita,’ making his corruption and this association clear.

Agust D-3 is our new protagonist and he has his own share of parallels with Agust D-2 from ‘Daechwita’ as well. He doesn’t overthrow the corrupt authority at the top alone. In both instances, he gets help from the other people under the corrupt authority: the butcher/executioner in ‘Daechwita’ and one of the gang members in ‘Haegeum.’

They both make eye contact with our revolutionary early on in the MVs and by the end are revealed to have been working with him all along when instead of following orders and killing our protagonist they sneak him the gun that kills the corrupt authority at the end.

But I have hope that Agust D-3 will be able to break free from this cycle of rising to power and then becoming corrupted. The reason for this hope is ‘Haegeum’s’ lyrics.

We’re told explicitly to “differentiate between freedom and self-indulgence” because there are limits to freedom and it becomes an issue when one person’s self-indulgence infringes on another person’s freedom. That’s the real issue with these corrupted authority figures doing whatever they want: they’re hurting the people under them and impeding their freedoms.

So what makes Agust D-3 different?

Well, at first not much. He is in fact very self-indulgent as he murders, steals, smokes, and generally does whatever he wants. This is how he comes into conflict with Agust D-2 as both of their greed starts to restrict the other, “putting shackles on each other.”

But there’s a turning point when they come face to face. Agust D-3 takes the cigarette (a symbol of self-indulgence) from Agust D-2′s lips and looks like he’s considering smoking it himself.

But instead of smoking it, he does the unexpected and throws it into the stacks of stolen money, which are symbolic of the greed and capitalism that shackled him, and burns it all, freeing himself from the hold it had on him.

Agust D-2 is not free from this greed, however, so when he sees the money he’s trying to retrieve go up in flames, he takes out his anger on Agust D-3 (making him even more like the violent and angry Agust D-1).

But because Agust D-2 is still blinded by greed and anger, Agust D-3 is able to shoot and overthrow him in the end (in another parallel scene with ‘Daechwita’).

We see the full arc of Agust D-3′s growth when he returns to the restaurant where this chain of events all began, and he orders a single bowl of noodles.

He uses the chopsticks, which were previously his murder weapon, to eat the noodles as they were intended to be used. He’s still participating in the system in place, because we all need to eat at the end of the day, but it’s different. It’s not the exploitation of the system for self-gain that Agust D-2 was engaged in as a corrupt police official, and it’s not the unfettered destructive self-indulgence Agust D-3 displayed at the beginning of the MV either.

To be free it might be necessary to participate in the system to a certain extent, but what’s really important is to continue questioning it. That’s the challenge Agust D-3 seems to be giving the audience with his look at the end.

But with the hair falling over his eye in this shot, resembling the scar that marked the past two Agust Ds, perhaps it’s more ambiguous than that. Maybe he too will eventually fall to corruption. Maybe we all have that corruption in us and we have to continually struggle against it.

Either way, ‘Haegeum’ is a thought-provoking, cinematic masterpiece, and I hope you enjoyed this post where I tried to put all my thoughts together.

Note: I haven’t mentioned ‘Amygdala’ in this overview of the Agust D trilogy, because I think the story of that song is slightly separate (it’s much more tied to personal events in Yoongi’s life). The one thing I do think is relevant from ‘Amygdala,’ though, is that the scar is self-inflicted. From what I’ve seen Yoongi say about it, the scar seems to signify the self-inflicted wounds following trauma that lead to our corruption, but I’m not entirely sure.

(credit to https://muish.wordpress.com and https://doolsetbangtan.wordpress.com for translations as well as all official MV translations)

#agust d #haegeum #daechwita #d-day album #min yoongi

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adagioapassionato · 1 year

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Thinking about...D-Day by Agust D.

With his third album, ‘D-Day’, Agust D critiques today’s society and calls for a new age where we liberate ourselves from restrictive conventions. He reflects on the information age, the nature of love, his own pain, and ends with messages of hope for his juniors and those he loves with this final solo album before he enlists in the military. I wrote a (very long!) analysis of each track, because Yoongi’s lyrics and musical choices are insightful and convey his thoughts truly and beautifully.

1. D-Day

D-Day creates an upbeat, energetic start to the album. The song, interestingly, is one that is uplifting, motivational and somewhat comforting, but uses strong beats and sounds. It is interesting that the song is called ‘D-Day’, usually synonymous with something dangerous, ominous, or bringing doom – yet, he begins the song with “Future’s gonna be okay,” and “D-Day’s coming, it’s a fucking good day.” His optimism for the future is seen in a wordplay on the lyric, “look at the mirror and I see no pain.” The way he pronounces “mirror” resembles the Korean 미래 (mi-rae, future). Thus, he suggests that he both looks in the mirror, at himself, and feels no pain – he accepts himself; he also looks at the future and feels no pain, he accepts what comes to him on this D-Day. He sees D-Day not as a day of death or pain, but of rebirth – he says, “the stupid past is over now, let’s toast again to us who will be reborn.” He reclaims D-Day as the day we kill hatred for ourselves and learn to accept ourselves as whole. Once we learn not to “regret the past, don’t be afraid of the future”, that’s the day we kill an essentialist notion of ourselves that sees only our flaws and pain. It is with this outlook he begins the album – he looks forward to a future of love, where we bloom as “lotus flowers” even in a world full of hate

2. Haegeum

Haegeum is a multifaceted title track filled with myriad meanings. Haegeum is a Korean instrument, but is also a word that suggests lifting a ban on something that was previously forbidden. Another more literal interpretation I found as a Korean learner was 해 + 금, where 해 (hae) means ‘sun’, and 금 (geum) means ‘gold’. The title of this song thus suggests the sun rising over a new golden age, where Yoongi is “liberated from the forbidden”, in his own words. With this song, he rejects the state of the world today and the stereotypes that are forced onto him in an extremely interesting way.

Reflecting on ‘Daechwita’, the title track of his previous album ‘D-2’, I could immediately see its similarities with Haegeum. The title tracks both heavily feature themes of Korean culture. ‘Daechwita’ is a genre of Korean music, but also means “a big blow,” which fits perfectly with its theme of speaking out against the criticism and backlash Yoongi receives as an idol. The title of this song features a wordplay similar to Haegeum’s – while at first glance appearing to describe Korean music, they also suggest Yoongi’s intentions and message for the song.

Haegeum is generally very similar in sound to Daechwita, but presents almost an opposite theme. With Daechwita, Yoongi sets himself apart. He describes, through the song, his rise to success. He emphasises his effort and struggles to reach where he is, and distance himself from those who criticise and hate him without reason. He also showcases such a theme in the music video – he portrays himself as a king with a scar, typically not someone who would have been allowed to rule in Korea. Thus, he rose to success and power despite his differences and hardships.

Haegeum, however, brings Yoongi back to his roots. He is no longer a king, and in the music video, even portrays himself as a criminal who kills a version of himself in a position of power (this time, a policeman). In the song, he says “this lively rhythm”, whose Korean tones are similar to Daechwita’s, “is a new kind of Haegeum.” He thus restyles and reforms ‘Daechwita,’ which reinforced his success and position as an idol, into a rejection of the very conventions that define and restrain him. The music video mirrors this by showing typically taboo, mature themes, resembling an action movie. A scene he pointed out was of him smoking – something typically looked down on for idols like him, but he rejects things that are supposedly ‘forbidden’ for him as he accepts a new style and era for himself.

Generally, Yoongi seems to be tired of the ‘information age’ today. He sees this as something that constrains and restricts us. It forces people into constant purposeless debate and controversy online, and this excess of information makes it difficult to make a clear judgement about what you truly believe in. He tries to determine the source of this restriction – why are we so bound to money, hatred, prejudice and validation? Is it possible that we put ourselves in this position? He recognises the dangers of this dependence and how fickle opinions and discourse are in this sea of information. He thus uses the song to advocate for a new age – one where we reject what restricts us, where we speak for what we believe in and do not pointlessly spew hatred or create baseless debates and discourse. In this way, he once again looks toward a better future, a new golden age, filled with more realism and less superficial tendencies.

3. HUH?! (ft. j-hope)

The third track, featuring BTS member j-hope, continues these themes of rejection and annoyance, this time, addressing people who constantly have something to say about things that have nothing to do with them.

This song starts out like a typical ‘diss track’ – Yoongi asserts that the people who hate him in fact desperately want to be like him. They know nothing about him and claim to hate him so much, yet they’re ‘all about him’ – after all, it takes energy to consistently seek someone out and openly dislike them. He suggests that they’re wasting time and ruining their lives focusing all their energy on spewing hate. He asserts to them, “the Internet world and reality are quite different” – a common theme in discourse online today, where often, people who spend too much time online seem to have lost the ability to detect nuance and critically think and understand the things happening around them.

j-hope’s verse on the song responds directly to these people. He repeats the word “huh?” as he asks them about the things they think, do and say towards him. He seems to question them – with a casual tone of confusion when he says “huh?” again and again, he shuts down people who critique his every move and want him to engage with them, showing that he can’t understand their obsession with him, and is too nonchalant to care.

The theme of the ‘information age’ recurs in these first three tracks. Yoongi suggests that the sea of information around us hinders us from recognizing and critiquing structures of oppression like capitalism, which he explicitly mentions in ‘Haegeum’. Through his anger, though, he still wishes such people well – “If reality is a gutter, get out of it/I pray that even you’ll do well,” and hopes that they will grow from these habits.

4. AMYGDALA

AMYGDALA is a painfully emotional and reflective track. The amygdala is the part of the brain that processes fear and anger. With this song, Yoongi reflects on particularly painful situations in his life and wonders if he made the right choice. The lyrics and sound of the song perfectly describe his turbulent mental state and mirror the all-too-familiar feeling of such a breakdown.

The song opens with Yoongi’s voice laid bare accompanied only by the guitar, as he says, “I don’t know your name/Travelling through my memories.” The hypnotic sounds he uses to produce his vocals give off the feeling of being alone and lost in his mind, sifting through his memories in a void all alone. After this, he begins rapping, describing events like his mother’s heart surgery – he truly travels through his memories, and as he does, the music speeds up as does his flow. His thoughts are racing as he sifts through his memories and re-analyses the pain he felt again and again.

The pre-chorus, with the lines “The best choice/the choices of next lanes/choice, choice, choose the lines,” are pronounced similarly in Korean (최선들의 선택/다음 차선들의 선택/차차 선들의 선택, 선택, 선택) (choiseondeur-ui seontaek/daeum chaseondeur-ui seontaek/chacha seondeur-ui seontaek, seontaek, seontaek). This shows how he is oscillating between the past and the future: he thinks about the best choice he made in the past, the choices he should make in the future, all while stuck in a thought process that seems to sound the same to an outsider – but really, he shifts back and forth between his memories and where he is today.

The chorus reaches the peak of this buildup – he almost screams the lyrics, “My amygdala/My amygdala/Come on save me/My amygdala/My amygdala/Hurry up and get me out of here.” He seems to have reached the peak of losing himself in this madness, as though his mind is about to explode with these thoughts, shown by the peaking of the mic as he screams, but the auto-tune shows that even his screams are suppressed. He begs to feel any emotion, he begs the fear and pain that these memories should induce in him to come back and shock him out of reliving these experiences. With this song, he opens up his deepest emotions and memories, perfectly capturing the pain of reliving traumatic events and wondering how you reached your current point in life, and if things would be different had you made a different choice

5 &6. SDL and People Pt. 2 (ft. IU)

I grouped these songs together in my analysis because they are auditorily and structurally very similar. Additionally, they resonate with me a lot as someone who has often experienced loneliness and as someone on the aromantic spectrum.

Both songs first tackle the difficulty of defining the world love. “This thing called love/Maybe it’s just a fleeting list of emotions” (People Pt. 2), alongside “Who else are you smiling for?/ Who do you cry for?/Could this be love?” (SDL) Yoongi examines how glorified the word ‘love’ has become in our society. It is difficult to understand what love truly is when we place so much value on romantic love and create so many expectations surrounding it. Thus, Yoongi asks in People Pt. 2, “Is love wholly perfect on its own?” Such questions are common for arospec people. Due to society’s conceptions of grandeur surrounding romantic love, the depth and strength this feeling is supposed to create, we often are confused if we experience any love at all, since we do not identify with the conventional descriptions of such love shown in media. We wonder if it’s just something fleeting that is meant to pass by us unnoticed, and we will never get to experience this grand feeling. Indeed, Yoongi recognises this too in SDL – “Thanks to the grandeur of the word love/What is easily forgotten is called love.” He suggests that by placing so much expectation and worth on grandiose depictions of love, we lose sight of the love that we can feel for simple, small things. And thus, as arospecs learn more about themselves, we recognise that there’s not just one kind of love, and love doesn’t need to be something huge and grand – we can feel it towards anyone and live a satisfying life even if we don’t experience the romantic version of it, or feel it conventionally.

The songs also speak similarly about the difficulty of maintaining close relationships. “Relationships are really difficult/It wasn't right from the start/The gap between the two of us/Trying to narrow it down is unreasonable” (SDL), meanwhile “I want it, a sincere connection with others/Forever’s something like a sandcastle, you know/It comes crumbling down at the calmest of waves” (People Pt. 2). In SDL, Yoongi recognises that, upon revisiting certain relationships, you realise that they were never meant to work anyway, and holding on trying to salvage them is more painful than letting go. Similarly, in People Pt. 2, he describes the hope of ‘forever’ in a relationship as a sandcastle. You can construct a sandcastle so easily on a beach with a sand bucket or even just your hands, but it falls apart due to a wave that you would never expect. Waves and tides, just like time, keep coming and washing away relationships you easily built into sandcastles of forever.

He says, loss is scary to us not because of the loss itself, but rather because being alone is scary. That’s why, to him, life is “a struggle against loneliness” (People Pt. 2). We fight to hold on to relationships we cherish, but that fall away despite our best efforts. The English verses of these songs break grammatical conventions, and seem to describe this fleeting nature of love. “Somebody does love/But I’m thinking about you” (SDL) and “So time is yet now/Right here to go/I know, you know, anything does know.” While SDL seems to compare the love Yoongi sees around him to the relationships he has had in the past, and questions what love really is, People Pt. 2 emphasises living in the now – time is fleeting and always ready to go, and the only time to cherish is now.

Thus, through both songs, Yoongi emphasises that people and relationships are indeed fleeting, so it’s best to cherish what we have in the present. He urges us not to reduce all our love to “glorified memories” (SDL). He wants us to learn that even though love is fleeting and relationships can be difficult to maintain, we are still “more than enough to be loved (People Pt. 2).” In this way, he assures me that loneliness comes with life and it doesn’t change that I deserve love. He also shows that love need not be something glorious and grand, it can be in the small things and still leave me satisfied, no matter what kind of love I feel.

7. Polar Night

Polar Night was a song that took me some time to interpret and understand. I think Yoongi uses this song to address people who see a polarized, black-and-white world – a world that features their truth as the right one, and anything else as darkness. “I’m not interested in facts, if you’re not on my side”, “If you’re not on my side, you’re my enemies”. He addresses people who advocate strongly only for their own view without seeing a complete perspective. He describes their “selective hypocrisy” and their choice of “interpretation that only suits [their] mood”. He suggests that they advocate for “a cheap justice” that doesn’t actually call for fairness, but only furthers their agendas and positions of power. They thus do not truly understand that the world around them is nuanced – they don’t allow people to speak for themselves and understand other worldviews, as they’re too busy forcing their version of truth onto others.

Indeed, he asks if we truly interpret the world correctly at all when caught up among so many conceptions of truth and lies held by different people. “Between so many truths and so many lies/Are we seeing this world right?” He suggests that there’s nothing true or false at all and no way to push for only one objective truth – we are all under an oppressive system, so none of us are truly the makers of an ultimate, right truth. We all make mistakes and are all caught under oppression, tainted by the tough world that surrounds us – “It is all dirty,” he says, and almost as a hidden, softer afterthought in the backing vocals, he adds, “Am I also clean?” “Are you clean?” Possibly, we are not, as nothing we do under an oppressive system can be truly ‘clean,’ or ‘unethical’. He suggests that we are shaped by the world we live in, which is all ‘dirty’, it’s all dark like a polar night. There is thus no way to call out for your own perspective without placing yourself in the context of the environment that shapes you. Yoongi never answers the questions “Am I also clean?” and “Are you clean?” He ends the song with these questions, leaving us to think over them and about the systems we live in today.

8. Interlude: Dawn

This song seems to pick up where the previous one left off. It is an instrumental that seems to signal the coming of the dawn and the sunrise, with a sound that is very similar to its title. It starts out soft and slow, but has a deep, dreamy aura, as though the sky is just lightening with the first strokes of dawn. As more instruments join in, the song grows louder and crescendos into a rousing theme, as though signaling a sunrise after a “Polar Night.” The image this song created in my mind resembled a timelapse of a polar night of stars over the snow slowly turning into a beautiful sunrise.

9. Snooze (ft. Ryuichi Sakamoto and WOOSUNG)

Snooze seems to lay out Yoongi’s advice as a senior idol to his juniors in the industry, who must go through rigorous training and face the very high expectations of their company and their fans. BTS frequently mentions the theme of dreams in their songs. From beginning with No More Dream and questioning, “what’s your dream?”, urging youngsters to not waste their lives without dreaming of a future, they moved to Paradise, which suggested that a dream need not be something grand – “it can even be what you see in your sleep,” and having no dreams is really okay too. With Snooze, Yoongi brings both these themes together as he addresses young idols from a position of experience. He assures them that while they should dream as they try to make it big as an idol, this is a tough path ridden with struggles. Thus, it is okay to rest, it is okay, “to not even dream” for few moments, as they take a step back from the demanding life path they have chosen.

He explains that though they look up to him, the path of being an idol is rarely easy. He says that criticism is rife in his industry – “when the hand that greeted you turned into a pointing finger.” He provides them with advice from his years in the industry – not to laugh at others’ scandals, not to forget those who eternally support them, and the double-edged sword that success can be. He lets them know that although the road of being an idol is “painful and lonely”, being affected by it is normal, and they deserve to cry, feel the pain that comes with it, and that he will always be there to support them and pray that their dreams come true no matter what they go through. His descriptions of “falling petals” and “flower roads” allude to previous descriptions of BTS as ‘six petals’ by eldest member Jin, who asserts that he holds on to BTS like “six petals.” Yoongi seems to take on this metaphor, suggesting that he holds on to juniors as ‘petals’ – whether they fall or bloom with their dreams, he will support them and cheer them on from his position of experience and love towards what they go through.

Eventually, he assures them, again and again with the repeating words, “Everything will be okay.” The repetition of this line is powerfully comforting – it is a strong reinforcement that even through all their pain, they will survive, and it will all work out at the end. With the final verse, he leaves them with hope – “you will fully bloom after the hardships/Dream/the beginning may be weak, but the end may be great/Dream.” He urges them to keep dreaming, but also ensure that they take time to process the hardships that they will go through. He hopes that at the end of it all, they will finally bloom and reach the heights they wish to. The emotional tones of his rap, laid bare, with no edits as in the first few songs, complement WOOSUNG’s emotional belting voice to beautifully convey this message of love and hope to his juniors.

10. Life Goes On

Life Goes On puts a different spin on the original ‘Life Goes On’ by BTS. The original song was about staying together despite troubling times and difficulties like the pandemic. However, with his version of the song, Yoongi accepts the inevitability of growing apart from someone while still loving them. In a way, this song is possibly his goodbye to BTS and ARMY before he enlists in the military. “Let’s say good bye, not bye, hello/ Even if the world doesn't go my way/Let's count just a few nights as we wish/I'll never forget the day we meet again.” “Time is like a wave/It will be washed away like the ebb/But don't forget to find me.” He accepts that he drifts apart from us and must leave us behind, but he knows that eventually, we will come back together as one. He says, “I've been running like it was the last time but I'm still scared/I know, I know this place right now/A place that will soon become a memory/Don't be afraid until the end of my life/Because life will go on forever.” He thus accepts that although his first 10 years with BTS end, life will go on to bring him to new heights where he will make new memories on his return from the military. He thus ends the album with a hopeful, loving tone with this song, assuring us and his members that life goes on, healing all things at the end.

Yoongi’s albums are always insightful in how they critique today’s society. However, his music is also reassuringly human – by exposing his own vulnerable feelings and thoughts, he provides comfort and understanding of things that many people have experienced and been through. With this album, then, he seems to hope for a new age – he released this as a D-Day, the last day of an old age of being repressed and tied in. With D-Day, he is ready to move forward with hope, be liberated and accept what life brings to him, and urges us to do the same.

References:

D-Day (Album) Lyrics English Translations

#bts #yoongi #suga #agust d #music #writing #adadgio apassionato #thinking about...music #d-day album #kpop

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re-yichellart · 1 year

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Snooze Poster - Dream Version (24″ x 36″)

다 괜찮아질 거야, 다 괜찮아질 거야

#snooze #agust d #suga #ryuichi sakamoto #woosung #d-day #d-day album #bts fanart #bts edits #Typography #design #texture #dream #min yoongi

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hjh-ceilo-monster · 1 year

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BTS Song drabble : D - day (MYG)

Summary : In this chasing game, one was at the top, another was at the bottom. To break the hierarchy, there should only be one winner.

The law’s hand

The outlaw

Who would win?

Photos : All copyright reserved to the owners.

Gif. : Special thanks to @sugajimin for further inspo. There’re tiny subtitle that I put to create further engagement and imagination.(I hope so🤞🏽)

Plot : Special thanks to Psych-Hunter(iQIYI) and (Su)R-chwita ep.9😹

Ambience : 1930's Ambient City Soundscape, Vintage City Sounds

Trigger warning : (quite) detailed violent scene, self-harm, death of characters

This fanfiction is for entertaining purposes. The story has entirely written up from the writer’s imagination from different inspiration. None of this should be taken seriously.

Switch over, time tickin' and over.

Author POV.

Tick...Tick...Tick...

The water drips periodically, acting as an ambience inside the dusty room.

The owner has been laying on his favourite couch for hours, diving deep into his thought.

“Hyung!”

His door suddenly bangs open by someone. One of his crewmates runs inside with something in his hand.

“We...found him...here.” The new comer hands a file, trying his best to get the message through while panting hard.

The owner flutters his eyes open. A stir comes out of his mouth before he finally becomes awake and accepts the paper.

The dark orbs skim through the file, catching the main idea out of the long paragraphs in the contract. At last, his eyes land on the bottom. Seeing familiar names with the signatures under neath them make him annoy.

“Huh? Seems like we need to give him a visit again.”

Clack...Clack..Clack..Clack..

He found out.

The end of a letter makes the man stops his footsteps. The feeling of frustration rises up, however, he can’t act out of his character here. Getting out of the building, he got into his car.

“Head back to the mansion.” He tells the driver.

“And about the case?”

“I need to get another ‘case’.”

Understanding what to do, he asks nothing more and leave immediately.

“ 1 beef rice noodle pottage soup, beef pork.”

Finishing his order, he take a seat near the glass window of the cooking station. Not so long after, his order serves.

“A tough day again, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, ma’am.”

“Quit calling me ma’am, boy. Your my vip customer here. You have been here since 10th grade.”

“Or you want me to call you ajuma?” He asks jokingly.

“Aish, call me what ever you want.” The old lady move back to her station.

Minutes later, his crewmates enter the shop, filling the entire floor. Seeing their boss enjoy his meal, no one dares to utter anything that is work-related.

“ell e beore I et pis... Ou ares ar oo obious.” *Tell me before I get piss. Your stares are too obvious.* The boss speaks while munching his favourite noodle.

“They’re round the corner, hyung.” Someone finally speaks.

The man taps his finger as if he applaud himself. Coming here today makes his plans flow.

“Ma’am, I will come back later.” The man slips his money under the bowl.

Everyone starts the operation. His crewmates head out of the place and prepare the vehicle for their boss. Some of them go ahead to clear their destination.

“And...I need your chopstick with me. I’ll buy a new pack in return.” He smiles at the owner who say nothing, but sighs and wave a hand as a sign to not do what he purposes.

Phone calls have been hitting on the office’s phone none stop. The police try their best to accept every call and write down the reports, running back and forth.

“People were complaining the same case...I don’t think it’s a usual case anymore.”

“We need them to handle it.” The cheif tell his subordinates.

Speaks of the devil, the figure appears in the office as if he knows someone call him. The guy in his black suit enters the room. His height is average. However, his aura and the M brooch on his right chest can make everyone who stand in front of him always feels as if they are getting towered by him.

He is the supreme in this place, if not the supreme in the town.

A walking law.

“Seems like you guys get in some trouble, eh?” The room falls into a silence, having only phone calls as a background ambience.

“Sir, we got a...” The cheif gathers his courage to explain the situation, but get interrupt by the walkie talkie.

“We found him, sir. Need more people.”

Paying no attention to the cheif, the leader of special crime force says nothing. His natural poker face let no one be able to read the situation.

“Loud and clear, right? Get your ass up and do your job.” He then heads out.

Flick...Shhh

A smoke comes out from an end of ivory-white cigarettes. He inhales the thin grey fog into his lungs, hoping it will calms his racing mind down a bit.

*Get everything ready.* He orders his right hand man back with his walkie talkie.

Huh...

A grey breath leaves his mouth along with his sighs.

“Seems like the almighty D is also a human.” A bicker from nowhere brakes his thoughts. D lifts his head up to finds the sound source.

“Shut it, Kim. Don’t piss me off even more.”

“Your brother, isn’t it?” Knowing no limit, Kim asks for more information. The man still stays silence.

“Alright, suite yourself.”

D is by himself again in the silence. His minds is cumalating with plans.

Shhsshhh...shhhshhh.... “Sir.”

Half and hour ago : @ WNK building

“Where is it?”

The loud crash echos inside the building. His subordinates are busy taking down their enemy with some help from his buddy.

“Mr.Min...”

“Speak wisely.” Min grits his teeth as a warning.

Despite the size different, Min manages to pin down his huge enemy and threat his like a little prey.

Weehhh...Woohhh...

The police siren comes from afar. His enemy smirks in victory.

“Who knows the genius Min will fall into my trap like a little rat too. Game over, Min.” Now the guy has a guts to speak casually.

“Now your brother will find out. Your big brother will find you.” The guy continues mocking Min, pushing him around emotionally.

“You will...ack.” Giving no chance to speak further, Min uses his chopsticks and stucks it onto the side of his neck.

He pushes it deep as the red liquid gushing out like juice. IThe harder he push, the more it errupts out like a fountain. His other hand squeeze the neck tightly as if he is quenching an orange.

Bloody orange.

Min keeps tighten his grip onto the guy’s neck. The fountain is slowing down. Slowly and slowly, it turns into a stream of liquid.

His shirt now paints with red splashes and spots. The paint leave its marks everywhere even on his face, creating some red blossom tattoos on his skin.

“Oh, you're so artsy.”

“No time for it, Jack.”

“I know, buddy. I get what you want. Let’s head out, yeah?”

The two finally arrive the rooftop. Looking down the building, the see bunch of police enter in with commotion.

“Look how desperate they want to catch us.”

Min sweep his eyes from the top view. His gaze then land on a familiar black grand mercedes among the cop cars. His mouth lifts into a smirk at the sight, knowing exactly whose it belongs.

“Not really. Someone is more desperate.”

Min replies and climbe down the stairs at the side.

“Eh, eh, wanna get caught? Eh, man.” Jack yells from a far, but Min has already gone half way through.

Plop.

“Let’s tease you a bit.”

D POV.

“No one inside.”

I stares at my subordinate. The young man stands there like statue, uttering nothing more.

“Where is the case?” I ask.

I don’t care much about the destruction of the building or the death of people inside. Fuck it, that isn’t my problem.

What I wants is the bag and a thing inside it.

I was planning to not invovle police. Moving around from the inside without making their suspicion was quite hard. It took me a few years I was to hold the power.

A rat out of nowhere managed to get the case was out of my plan.

And now my brother get it.

“Retreat.”

I jumps into driver seat and drift his car out of the parking slot. Frustration fills me up, urging to explode. I roar the engine, filling its sound in the empty street.

“Brother, you won’t be free much longer.”

Min POV.

Thud!

“That bastard. He really bet his life on this plan.” I drop the bag onto the coffee table.

“Chill. At least, you get it.” Jack speaks nonchantly and lit his cigarrete. He sways his head from side to side while humming.

Cling...cling...cling...

“Uh, I hate it. Why do you still wear that silly hat? Those bells irritates me.”

I point at the tips of his knitting hat with two spike at each end. The man sways his head even faster.

“This. You know it’s my lucky charm. So what’s next?”

Jack changes his position. Sitting with his feets cross on my coffee table, he cocks his head to the side. I stare back at him, replying nothing. I let the silence grows and engulps our conversation.

“Hyung. We...sorry, sir.” My right hand, who bangs the door open as his habit, enters the room with another file.

“I think I might need to speed things up. Now I get the case. He will soon make his move.”

“You mean...kill you?” Jack smiles.

“Not yet. He still needs it.” I pat the stuff on a wooden table.

As my eyes meets him Jack’s smile gets wider.

“Then I shall act my part.”

Author POV.

Uhhh....hmmmm.....uhhhh...hhhhmmmm......

Min sleeps soundly in his favourite place. The tiring day drains him a lot of energy, leaving the man a few muscles sourness.

Ahhhh!

Bang! Bang!

The guy wide awakes from the sound. The screams and shouts are getting louder. He is about to stand up, however the ropes around his hands prevent him to do so.

Click.

A revolver taps behind his neck. He can feel the cold metal rubs gently against his skin before it forecfully press back onto the spot.

“Have a sweat dream?” A chill voice comes from behind.

“Should I be glad that we finally meet again?” Min answers back with a little cockiness.

“You sure want your head to be blown off.”

“And you are talkative, not like a usual you.” Min turns himself and grab a gun near him, but he meets with empty pocket.

“Oh, I borrow your rovolver by the way. I know if you die, at least you will love to die with this cutie.”

D walks around the tub for a moment, searching his eyes through the room.

“So this is where you live. So shabby and poor...like you.”

D grabs a plastic chair from the corner of the room and take a seat. He stares down his brother with the eyes of disgusted.

“Rustic and cozy, isn’t it?”

Crossing his leg, D takes out his cigarrete and lit it. He wraps his lips and inhales a bitter scent from it a few times before he continues.

“Now, let’s make a deal. Those stacks of money are all yours. Just give me the case and leave this place. I’ll handle everything. You can live you life far away from here and me in...”

Min lift his hands, interrupting his brother’s talk. Despite the bond around his wrists, he reaches out and grab onto the white stick. He watches the little flame in silence, the sentences after turns muted as he pays no attention to them.

Puff....

He throws the stick toward the shelf. The flame lits in a blink of an eye. Min give no care at those ‘valuable’ papers in front of him. Now they are burning bright red and blue.

He thinks this is more beautiful.

“You...bastard....” D grits his teeth in anger. Now he grabs onto Min’s neck firmly.

“Tell me where’s the case.” He demand. Min keeps his poker face and answers nothing, pissing his brother further more.

“What you gonna do? Kill me?” Min smiles delightfully.

Running out of patient, D uses the revolver and knockes him off.

??? POV.

“Hyung, wake up. Hyungie...don’t be like this.”

The voice comes from somewhere far away. However, the tone sounds familiar to me.

Beepp...Beeppp...Beeeeeppppp....

The loud noise that rings in my ears is so annoying.

What is going on here?

I try to open my eyes, but something stop me. I don’t know whether it is me or literally someone who stop me to do so. My body gets heavier and heavier.

I am drowning or so I thought.

My body sink down into the ocean, deeper and deeper. I feel a force strangle me around my neck, suffocating me alive.

No...am I even alive?

D POV.

I have been waiting for my brother’s news for a day.

That little rascal was strong enough to go through ‘drowning’, but he hasn’t woke up yet since yesterday.

“Ah...I want to kill you so bad.” I mumble.

The dagger in my hand trails up and down in motion. I make it nice and clean this time, no defect mark on its pure silver skin.

“Master, He’s awake.”

Puck.

“Nice. It’s getting boring here.” I pluck my beauty onto the table.

Sadly, I can’t use her. Like I said before, to send him back home, the least I can do is to use his pretty revolver.

I am trying to be considerated, am I not?

Min POV.

Hahhh...Huhhhh...

The fire lits around the corner. In front of me is a barrel full of water, reflecting my face. There are a few scratch with the blood seeping through.

I squint my eyes to focus the scenarios around me. The place look oddly like somewhere in my memory, but in a dusty and old version. My brain storms some idea to form an answer.

Soon, I get the answer, but from him.

“Look like my little boy didn’t remember this place.” I look up and meet his brown orbs, the scar on his right eyes fades a bit, but still visible.

“You give me the scar and try to kill me once here, remember?”

A flashback runs inside my head like a reel. The man with exact looks except his hair that was longer and blond-color. The scene is overlaping each other.

There’s me.

There’s is him.

In a different timeline...

The palace that used to be vibrant with colors now became dull, towering my body with it shadow.

His men pin me down to the cold muddy floor, letting him look at me with those arrogant gaze.

Smile in victory, the man finally got up from his seat and approached the balcony.

The man was in a traditional robes. His light blond hair sparked under the moonlight. The fire around him and me make him more visible to my eyes.

“I am the owner of this place, engrave it into your skull, peasant.”

His hand waved down, motioning his assassin to do the job.

Author POV.

“I cut heads of people for a reason, you know. That’s how I can make sure they died...painlessly.”

D steps onto the circle. Grabbing tight onto Min’s hair, he force the man to sink down into a barrel again.

Ackk...ack....

“Wah...that sounds so satisfying.” He forcefully raises the head up from the water.

“How was it?”

The man who calm and collect is nowhere to be found. The true color finally comes out,. D laugh out in madness, satisfying with the scene in front of him.

“When I offered you, I’ve already got what I want. You were a fool to not accept my offer, brother.”

D stepps back and walks up to another circle, preparing to watch Min’s final moment. Waving his hand down, the assassin get ready to do his job.

“Now, execution.”

The man forces Min’s head back into dirty liquid again, wanting to drown him to death. Min’s body stuggle as his hands try to get out of the knot.

“Sink deep and fake your death. The revolver is at the bottom.”

“a..ack?” *Jack?*

“I can only help you this much, buddy. I even take off my lucky charm for you.”

Min does according to Jack’s plan. Sinking himself deep into the cylinder and stopped moving, he successfully fakes his death.

“Oh, faster than I expect.”

With the revolver in his hand, D steps down from his circle to come and onspect Min’s body. Seeing the guy freezes in his place, D laughs again with contentment.

He takes out a ruby human-heart.

Bang! Cling!

The glass shatters.

D crashes down the fire barrels, letting the oil slatter all over the place while the fire chase down the thick black liquid. He throws his lighter, adding more fire.

“Switch over, time tickin'...”

“but not over.”

Just then Min raises his head up with the revolver in his hand. Aiming at the head of his brother, D does nothing, but smirk.

“Agust, you shouldn’t underestimate me.”

“If you kill me without the hear, it will be the same result like last time.”

“Let’s bet then.” Min pulls the trigger.

The ruckus at the back of them appears, however Jack’s men are faster. Doing everything according to their bosses’ plan, his men has already mixed in the group from the beginning. Agust’s people soon end up laying lifeless on the floor.

Agust dashes to Min in anger, but someone lock him from behind. His own right hand man lock tight onto the master before revealing himself.

“Ack...Kim.”

“I told you, didn’t I...suite yourself.”

Jack takes out the real heart and shatters it with his dagger.

Cling!

Click.

Bang!

Agust doesn’t last long.

“Switch over, time tickin' and over.”

“Dr.Kim, when will he wake up?” Hoseok asks the doctor. It has been a year since Yoongi fell into a coma.

“His personality disorder is critical, now they are inflicting themselves.”

He have hidden his mental condition so well that not even Hoseok, his best friend, knew about it. When he knew everything, it was nearly too late.

The man nearly cut himself...in his own eyes.

Hoseok took him to hospital. Thankfully, Kim Namjoon, the doctor of his case, was still working. If not because of him, Yoongi would be gone by now.

Hmmm....

A little stir makes both of them look at the body. It is the first time that the lifeless figure makes a move or a noise.

Hoseok’s eyes brims with tears of hope, looking back and forth between Yoongi and Namjoon.

“Hyung...” Hoseok calls softly.

Namjoon walks to the monitor and checks the screen.

Like a miracle, everything comes back to the normal rate. Namjoon notes down everything onto his metal clipboard before he calls nurses inside.

“Doctor...he...”

Surfacing from the bottom of the darkness, Yoongi finally gains his conscious.

A/n note : And that’s it everyone. I hope you enjoy the story. I finally have a little vacation so here is the tribute for you guys.

This is the first time I write my story with y/n. Hope you guys not disappointed.

Before ending this, I want to give a few explanation to the story.

After listening to the interview, what I comprehended from the music videos was that Yoongi were fighting with his own personas. Like Namjoon said, he was the only one so far with 3 names. And, the fact that Yoongi devided his personalities accordingly to them made it sometimes difficult for himself to make music. “If I make it, will this represent suga bts, agust d or me as Yoongi?”

Sum up events : Yoongi faced personality disorder to the point he went into the coma due to self-infliction. His personas, D (The dark past with anger and agressiveness) and Min (The real yoongi), fought over to control the body during Yoongi unconscious inside his mind. The ruby human-heart like that made out of glass was the core, the conscious. Destroying it mean you kill the consious of that persona. Different timelines, I came up with this idea from daechwita, thinking what if he failed to mute (killed) the tyrant king back then. Looking it in that aspect, personally, I think it somehow fit the explanation of Yoongi’s triology. Letting the strong and fury persona control you to handle hate and prejudice, but at the same time, you were the one who deepen your own scars. What if it is getting out of control?

I wrote this story with a retro vibe because of the Haegeum’s settings. From the research I’ve read, the location was age around 1930 - 1960. Starting in 30s, the market hit its peaks around 40s - 50s before the fire incident in 60s. If I was wrong, I sincerely apologized for the mistakes.

Jack and Kim in the story, I used the image of Hoseok from Jack in the box album and Namjoon from Sexy Numkin. I saw a twitter about what if the three cross path. I didn’t capture the account nor remembered the name. If the idea owner come and see this, I apologize for not crediting you on the top of my ff🙇🏽‍♀️

I think that’s all. Thank you for your attentive reading, see you next session.

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