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✿ ، With the rise of long-form video essays on YouTube, user GOTHIC GWYN changed the K-Pop fandom with her seventy-five-minute analysis, PLASTIC FLOWERS: BREAKING THE INDIE SCENE. Since it was posted in 2023, the video has reached over 5 million views and GOTHIC GWYN still posts semi-regularly. The video describes the five members of Plastic Flowers, the former members, their relationships with each other, and their role in the multimedia universe created by their entertainment company. This layout was inspired by the lovely myah aka @/venusvity !

This video contains the following trigger warnings: Fighting (Salem); Resentment from her parents, Disownment, Eating Disorders (Serin). Mentions of toxic relationships, but not described as well. Please let me know if anything is missing!

( PART I: I AM FRAGILE AND UNHOLY. OPEN. RAVAGE. EAT. ... MILIN KUEAKULSRI ) ⬭　The story of Plastic Flowers naturally begins with founder and leader Salem Kueakulsri. Though born in Hat Yai, Thailand, she moved to California at a young age due to her father's job and paternal grandmother's growing health issues. Her parents used the "1-parent-1-language" system in her home and she was fluent in Thai because she learned the language at such a young age. Her nickname Salem was given to her by her father when she was born due to her birthday being on October 31. She's always preferred Salem to her birth name, Milin, since it makes her seem more unique and was given to her by her favorite person.

In late 2013, the family moved to Ulsan, South Korea after the funeral of her grandmother and both of her parents wanting to return to their original lives. Her father was given a promotion and that lead him to the South Korean branch of the company. Salem begged her parents to let her attend an Arts High School in South Korea and after passing the entrance exam, she promised to keep her grades up no matter what to remain there. Many students tended to stay away from her given her "resting bitch face" and she did not make friends until the next year when she was approached by Choi Chaesol in their science class. The pair became lab partners and soon Siyoon was invited to join her small friend group, which also included Choi Seowon and Ying Shuhang.

Not long into their friendship, they realized a mutual love for creating music and performing. Siyoon had been learning the guitar in her free time since early middle school and had recently moved on to the bass. As the only member with a background in music—as the other three were just learning to play their instruments—she was promoted to the 'leader' of the group and began songwriting with primarily Shuhang. They would continue with informal practice sessions until their first single was published on Soundcloud and reached limited success.

The band was contacted by many entertainment companies in South Korea and after a heated argument about the band's future, Salem took the name and their songs to Superbloom Media for herself. Without any band members left, she was forced to start from the bottom again in this new era of Plastic Flowers and make connections with these new trainees. She remained the leader and the head of their comebacks until recently.

✿ ، BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION.

Stage Name. Salem ( 살렘 ).

Birth Name. Milin Kueakulsri ( มิลิน เกื้อกูลศรี ).

Born. October 31, 1998 in Hat Yai, Thailand.

Position. Leader, Vocalist, Bassist.

Years Active. 2014 — present.

Label. Supberbloom Media.

Face Claim. Nicha Yontararak.

( PART II: I TALK TO GOD BUT THE SKY IS EMPTY. ... KANG JUNYEONG ) ⬭　Born in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Daegu, Kang Junyeong knew from an early age that he would do anything to get out of there. Most of his neighbors had been living in that town their entire lives and that was not something that interested in. His single father was never able to afford much beyond necessities on his small yearly salary so Junyeong was tasked with finding different ways to entertain himself after completing his school work. While watching the school's talent show, he was introduced to a local dance trope with boys from his grade and decide to reach out after seeing how much attention that they got. From there, he was accepted into the group and learned street dancing, often competing against other groups in Daegu. He loved dancing and saw an opportunity to get out his neighborhood after discovering 1Million studio's video and choreography credits. He knew that if he worked hard enough, they would accept him and he became dedicated to learning every style of dance he could without paying for lessons.

While visiting Seoul for a school field trip, Junyeong was scouted by three entertainment companies based on his good looks even at fourteen years old—YG Entertainment, Jellyfish Entertainment, and Superbloom Media. He auditioned for all three of the companies and despite his dancing abilities, he could neither sing nor rap and was rejected by both YG and Jellyfish, leaving him with only Superbloom. In 2015, the company was in a bad place as they chartered failed group after failed group and needed to take out thousands in loans. In 2017, he was reached out by another company to transfer after seeing his work and when he was considering it, he was placed in the lineup of Plastic Flowers, which he thought was a traditional idol boy group. He was sourly mistaken and forced to learn the drums even after putting up a fight about his role in the group.

Even if it had been five years since then, Junyeong is still bitter about what happened to him. Rather than ever showing off his dance skills and improved vocal abilities, he was stuck behind a drum kit and expected to act like it was all fun. Even worse, many critiqued him playing from the beginning and said Junyeong was only going to keep Plastic Flowers in nuguhell due to his poor abilities. This forced him to work harder to perfect his craft and he's become pretty good at his new position. He refuses to work with the rest of the members on songwriting and producing, instead forcing them to figure out the perfect drum line for each of their songs in protest. Only Salem can tolerate Junyeong, often leaving him separated from the rest of the group despite everything they've gone through.

✿ ، BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION.

Stage Name. Junyeong ( 준영 ).

Birth Name. Kang Junyeong ( 강준영 ).

Born. June 11, 1999 in Daegu, South Korea.

Position. Drummer, Vocalist, Visual.

Years Active. 2017 — present.

Label. Supberbloom Media.

Face Claim. Choi Yeonjun.

tw // childhood trauma relating to jiyeon being treated worse than her older sisters, disownment, eating disorders.

( PART III: I WAS THE GIRL WHO NEVER UNDERSTOOD WHO SHE WAS TO PEOPLE ... LEE JIYEON ) ⬭ Lee Jiyeon grew up in a house based around perfection. Both of her parents were traditional doctors and they meticulously planned their live together, well everything expect the birth of Jiyeon in early summer of 2000. She has two older sisters, Jisu and Jihye, both born in the early 1990s and were apart of their parents plan. Because of this, Jiyeon was label as the black sheep of her family and was often treated worse than her older sisters with harsh exceptions about school work and health. Her mother enrolled all three of her daughters into ballet at an early age and given the horror stories about ballet teachers giving their student's body issues, Kim Jinsook was heavily involved in what her children consumed as her health specialty.

Similar to future band mate Junyeong, Jiyeon knew that she was not going to remain in Jecheon for very long. Her older sisters had already moved out by the time she reached high school and there was nothing holding her to the city. While talking with her dance friends, Jiyeon was persuaded to audition for various entertainment companies behind her parents backs. They were expecting her to either follow in their footsteps or go into a similar field. Jiyeon, however, had other plans. She was desperate to get into an entertainment company and move to Seoul, so she began looking up videos to teacher herself to sing before her parents came home and auditioned under the ruse of visiting Seoul with her friends.

In 2015, she was accepted into Superbloom Media and they were the first to give her a decision. Desperate to get out, she took it and was disowned when they heard Jiyeon's plan to become an idol. She stayed in the dorms year-round and was Superbloom transferred her to a local public school. She was known as one of the best female dancers in the company, easily transitioning between styles. However, she was not upset at the chance of being in Plastic Flowers since she had debt to the company and needed to pay it back as quickly as she could. With the help of Salem and Gwyn, Jiyeon learned how to play the guitar and is the third most important vocalist behind the two leads.

✿ ، BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION.

Stage Name. Serin ( 세린 ).

Birth Name. Lee Jiyeon ( 이지연 ).

Born. June 12, 2000 in Jecheon, North Chungcheong, South Korea.

Position. Guitarist, Vocalist.

Years Active. 2017 — present.

Label. Supberbloom Media.

Face Claim. Park Chaewon.

( PART IV: FLOWERS GROW BACK, EVEN AFTER THEY ARE STEPPED ON, SO WILL I. ... OH DEURIM ) ⬭ Oh Deurim was born in the suburbs of Seoul and had grown up attending busking events with her friends after school. As the youngest child of three, she was given the freedom to realistically do anything under her parents supervision. She was gifted in the humanities subjects, particularly finding literature and poetry her favorite pieces to study. Throughout her teen years, she read poetry in any language she could get her hands on and spend hours trying to translate it. She began writing her own poetry at thirteen and that would become the base for her songwriting abilities later into her training career.

In 2015, Deurim was accepted into Superbloom Media as one of the first generation of trainees under Shin Yeonghui's reign. She was slated to debut with Celatum in 2017, at just sixteen years old, however, she was pulled from the lineup right before debut and replaced by Jeong Soomin. There are still pre-debut photos and videos featuring Deurim, making many wonder what happened behind the scenes. The next time fans saw her, she was competing on Superbloom's only survival show, Timefighter, which formed the group of the same name. She began the competition with good spirits and fans easily falling for her visuals and talent. However, after being promoted to leader and showing her colors as a harsh one, her rank dropped significantly and she was never able to recover. As the weeks went on, her rank began to fluctuate between eleventh and fourteenth, however, she just made the adjusted lineup by two places that same year.

Having expressed Plastic Flowers being one of her favorite bands and Salem her greatest inspirations, she was invited by Yeonghui to join the band after they suspended Minghui's contract at the end of July. She was introduced as a new member of the band in May 2022 and was surprisingly accepted by fans quickly.

✿ ، BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION.

Stage Name. Deurim ( 드림 ).

Birth Name. Oh Deurim ( 오드림 ).

Born. July 7, 2001 in Seoul, South Korea.

Position. Pianist, Vocalist.

Years Active. 2021 — present.

Label. Superbloom Media.

Face Claim. Kim Suhyeon.

( PART V: ALL TIME EVER DOES IS PASS AND ALL I EVER DO IS REMEMBER. ... OLIVER SONG ) ⬭　Born in 2001 and the youngest member of Plastic Flowers, Oliver Song is a musical prodigy. His musical talents were discovered at an early age through piano lessons and he quickly moved through the different difficulties of music. Not long after that, he chose to learn the violin alongside the piano while in elementary school and showed the same advanced performance. He continued down this road and learned to sing while he was an active member of the church choir near his childhood home. In 2013, he was even accepted into the Boston Arts Academy and trained for two years before he was accepted into Superbloom Media. His mentors wanted him to attend lower-level auditions to gain more confidence and Superbloom was holding something online, so they filmed and sent in a video thinking nothing of it.

In the fall of 2015, he was accepted into the trainee program at Superbloom and offered a spot in Seoul, South Korea. Oliver, not wanting to miss such an opportunity, looked deeper into K-pop and had a few discussions with the scouting manager for North America about what his future would look like. After this and convincing his parents, Oliver Song moved to Seoul alone right before the new year to begin his training journey. There, he became close with his future bandmate Lin Minghui as two of the only foreign trainees. Oliver struggled the most with dancing and looking confident while performing, which caused him to be placed in more lessons throughout the day and switch to an online high school. Surprisingly, in late 2016, he was added to the new lineup of Plastic Flowers and given the stage name Gwyn right before their debut. While not the original lead vocalist, fans seemed to enjoy his voice more and the switch was made after their 16 month hiatus.

In 2019, Oliver was cast as one of 60 contestants on the talent show Superband and was the youngest at just seventeen years old during filming. Though he had been learning Korean for almost three years at that point, he still struggled with speaking and having the confidence to articulate his own thoughts. Despite that, fans rallied behind Oliver as one of the show's main narrators and his talents. For his introduction stage, he performed a cover of Fleetwood Mac's Big Love which earned him the role of Front Man, meaning he could choose his own bandmates for the next round. His group, which performed Heart-Shaped Box, lost 4:1 and while it was sad at the moment, he was chosen to be part of Park Hyeongjin's winning teams for the next two rounds. He proved himself a top-tier vocalist alongside Isaac Hong in Royals and The Time of My Life, which made him deeply sought by the other contestants when forming their own Superbands. In the end, he ended with original partner Sawyer Lee, Ko Seungmin, and Yoon Taeyun as Death Valley, which earned 45,000 votes and Second Place with their final song Take My Hand.

With the show's conclusion in July 2019, Plastic Flowers released their mini-album Wind and Rain in late August to keep up with his growing momentum. However, given the small fan base of any group from Superband, the Plastics still heavily struggled as fans demanded a return of Death Valley as well. For the next three years, they would continue to miss the mark until Teeth was released in 2020. For three months, you could not go anywhere without hearing Teeth domestically and internationally, even going viral in Tiktok. With that album, Oliver was given the role of producer by the Superbloom representatives and has been working hard to emulate the success of his earlier work. In March of 2023, he also be the first member to make their solo debut.

✿ ، BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION.

Stage Name. Oliver ( 올리버; 2017 — present ) / Gwyn ( 그윈; 2016 ).

Birth Name. Oliver Finn Song.

Other Names. Song Yuhyeon ( 송유현 ).

Born. December 12, 2001 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.

Position. Vocalist, Rhythmic Guitar, and Violinist.

Years Active. 2016 — present.

Label. Superbloom Media.

Face Claim. Matthew Seok.