The Maknae Has to Be an Idol

Siren’s music video was revealed with “Blue Ocean’s’ intro. Yeon-Hoon made a clear high-pitched note, and in the background, a light and bright base sound flowed out. A synthesizing sound that highlighted Yeon-Hoon’s voice passed, and the music video’s first angle showed the Siren members getting washed up onto an isolated island’s beach.

The clothes that all the members were wearing were the school uniforms they wore in their last music video, “Blue Summer Night”. The first person to open his eyes was Yeon-Hoon. Yeon-Hoon looked around his surroundings and began to pick up each of his members’ belongings. The rest of the members also eventually opened their eyes and looked around.

They all looked like they had no clue where they were. Eventually, the screen changed and the next scenes showed the members adjusting to life on the island bit by bit. They reformed their uncomfortable uniforms, amassed tree branches to make a place to sleep, and gathered around the bonfire, creating a romantic scene on the island. They looked a bit too peaceful considering that they had been marooned on an island.

—What surrounds us is the BIG BIG BLUE OCEAN

—It emits a bluish light from all around

—As if we were marooned in an unfamiliar place

—I can’t tell no matter how much I walk

Then, something happened that broke the everyday life of the members who were well-adjusting to the island; it was the moment they spotted an unfamiliar boat in the middle of the island.

—Even at a time when we can’t make out what’s in front of us

—BIG BIG BLUE OCEAN

—We head towards the ocean waiting for us

All the members tried their best to get up on the tree and bring the boat to the ground. Rather than bringing it down with some high-level precision or technique, they ended up cutting down the tree that held up the boat. The tree tilted and collapsed, falling the boat on it in the process. They found unfamiliar clothes and food inside the boat, and the members cast off the uniforms they were wearing and exchanged their clothes with the ones they found on the boat.

—Even if we crash and break, let’s TRY AGAIN

—Our time just didn’t come yet

—Don’t hesitate and DO IT AGAIN

—I am running towards a land of mystery

Afterward, the members pulled the boat towards the beach. They put the cut-up wooden pieces on the floor, made a rail, and placed a boat on top of the rail and Do-Seung dragged the boat from the front. Other members pushed the boat from behind. Soon after they arrived at the beach, they began to fix up the boat with the equipment they had.

They sealed gaps and holes, added missing parts, strung on rations around the surface, and so on. Soon, the appearance of the boat changed into Siren’s own style, and the look was completed by stationing a flag that had the word, ‘Siren!’ etched onto it. The song ended after a couple of refrains and entered the bridge part. The bright melody instantly flipped and a minor key sound layered underneath.

—Perhaps, there will be exhausting and hard days

—Perhaps the path to the ocean will be tough

—There will be days when you will want to give up

—I won’t look for you even if you run away

Matching the darkening music, the video also showed gloomier scenes. An obstacle had appeared in front of Siren who had thought all there was left to do was push the boat into the ocean. Rain poured and the boat they had finally finished repairing filled with water. It appeared it would sink before they even tried floating it. As the boat sank into the sand, it gave off a rather ironic image.

Yet, Yeon-Hoon rushed towards the boat and started to scoop out water with his hands. All the members ran out and helped Yeon-Hoon scoop out the water. Since there was a limit to using their hand, all the members joined their strengths to flip the boat over. All the water inside the boat poured out at once.

Soon afterward, the members repaired the ruined parts and installed a ceiling so that the boat wouldn’t get ruined by the rain. Not long afterward, the day brightened again and Siren members got ready to depart. They floated the boat into the waters and got on top. The song’s highlight appeared then.

—BIG BLUE OCEAN is waiting for us

—Let our departure be filled with blessings

—Even if there are some dark days

—The BIG BLUE OCEAN will clear up again

—It will shine its light, imbued with its deep blue hue

The music video ended with the Siren members going up on top of the sailing boat and looking at the setting sunset. It was then Tae-Yoon turned around and looked at the island. The island began to burn. As if a gigantic forest fire erupted, the flames were big enough to engulf the entire island. Tae-Yoon tried to say something to his members about this but nobody turned around. As if the giant flames didn’t even exist, the video simply ended by capturing Tae-Yoon’s flustered face.

***

Siren’s new music video reveal came to an end. The general quality of the video, its connection with the previous video, and its cinematography were all impressive. It was enough to, of course, satisfy the fans but also the general public. The scene that became most deeply embedded in the fans’ minds was the one of the members scooping out water from the boat.

—Look at how refreshing they look under the rain?

—Hahaha even when lightning is striking down everywhere, if you look at their faces, it looks like they are in a high-teen drama

—It’s cheating if they smile in the rain

—I think this scene is crazy

Though the members had been saddened to see the boat fill with water, they all smiled at the end while scooping out water together. They smiled while their surroundings were contrastingly dark and tragic. The stark mismatch of the situation made the scene more memorable. The next most memorable scene was unexpectedly the last one.

—Didn’t their last music video end the same way?

—What kind of world is this?

—Seems like they are connected?

—Please somebody who is good at stuff like this, upload your interpretation

—Room escape addicts, please come out

Reply: What does this have to do with room escape? Hahaha

All the fans knew that the Siren group had their own universe. But neither the company nor the marketing content ever officially explained the story. Thus, there was too little information for them to deeply dive into Siren’s universe except to gather tiny puzzle pieces that were gradually getting revealed in Siren music videos and make their own guesses. Yet, a couple of creative minds did come up with their own plausible interpretations.

—Seeing that Tae-Yoon is the only one who keeps noticing things, their universe doesn’t seem normal

—In a previous teaser, wasn’t there something about Tae-Yoon being a S-Rank superhuman by himself?

—In their debut teaser, everyone was getting chased by monsters, but Tae-Yoon alone captured them. Seems like there really is something special about Tae-Yoon

Everyone unanimously agreed that Tae-Yoon was a very important character in this universe.

—I think Yeon-Hoon was also not chased by monsters

Reply: That’s true

Reply: Is there something between Yeon-Hoon and Tae-Yoon

Reply: What if Tae-Yoon is the hero while Yeon-Hoon is the monster? He’s the monster Tae-Yoon has to catch

Reply: Omg, it could be

Using the debut teaser as the center, people began to connect the dots. Of course, this was the fans’ response, and the rest of the public who didn’t care too much about Siren’s universe storyline, easter eggs, and whatnot; and they placed more attention on the song and the music video.

—The song is seriously good haha

Reply: It’s a song that already existed

Reply: Seriously? Why didn’t I know about it

Reply: The song is in the top 50, how could you not know?

Since it was a great song to listen to for the summer, people began to include “Blue Ocean” in their playlists. Eventually, the song that hadn’t risen in music charts due to a lack of recognition yet began to rise in an instant. Since it was a song that already possessed all the prerequisites to rise in music charts, the speed at which it rose in ranks was record-breaking.

The music video was released at 6pm and the music charts were updated an hour afterwards. And in that period, Siren’s “Blue Ocean” reached first place in the trending charts and today’s top hit song list in an instant. Reaching first place for trending songs was a natural result since it only considered short-term data but placing first on today’s top hit song list was shocking. This meant that the song got more streaming count in that one hour than other first and second place songs in the last twenty hours.

This was the power of the music video and the pop-up zone. A huge factor to this success was based on the fact that this first place wasn’t just achieved by the Siren fans. Under the comment section of the song, there were as many comments from the public as the fans.

—Wow, this is the first time I found how good Siren’s songs were

—Kang Do-Seung wrote all this?

—Tae-Yoon also writes lyrics too? That’s crazy

—What’s up with these guys?

—Why don’t guys like them do well?

Reply: They sold 500,000 albums on their debut…?

Reply: ???

Even people who didn’t know idols well could clearly see that Siren was gaining recognition from the public. The next day after the music video was released, people began to write their song reviews on social media.

—I keep replaying the song after seeing the music video yesterday

—The song is crazy

—The song I’m into these days -> Siren’s Blue Ocean

Twenty-four hours after its upload, people continued to make posts that they were listening to Siren’s music. The frequency in which “Blue Ocean” was used in TikTakTok videos exploded in a frenzy. Famous TikTakTok creators competed with one another to cover the song and “Blue Ocean” firmly established its spot as first place in the charts.

Thus, when Siren achieved first place in the following Tuesday music show, it only appeared to be a matter of course that they won first place. After all, their social media score, live message votes, and above all, their music charts placements were heads over everyone else. Though the album sales score was comparatively lower because the album had already been sold before, the other scores were more than enough to make up for it.

And the following shows on next Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday—the group obtained the trophies from all music shows in their first week of resuming activities. Though they would’ve achieved Triple Crown All-Kill by just achieving first place in three over-the-air television channels, Siren was also taking first place in cable networks.

They didn’t manage to get first place in all music shows on their second week but because they received trophies in three over-the-air television channels, they were still able to make claims that they achieved Triple Crown All-Kill.

Now, “Blue Ocean” rang out everywhere in the streets and seemed to have set its place as a trend of sorts. Various content also appeared on short-form content using “Blue Ocean” as well. There were many videos of people jumping into the ocean matching the “Blue Ocean’s” refrain or shots of people going on a summer night drive with the “Blue Ocean” playing in the background.

Moreover, there was a constant influx of challenge videos, following the chorus choreography. By this point, “Blue Ocean” was firmly set as the sole victor in the summer song market. Then, in the coming third week of activities, Siren members gathered in one spot. It was Monday when there was no music show.

Up to this point, their songs had spread all throughout South Korea to the point that they could hear their names wherever they went. It was evident that after their activities, it was time for them to receive their pay, and Tae-Yoon and Do-Seung would receive a huge sum for copyrights. Thus, they needed to make something clear from now on.

“Okay everyone, let’s take some time to very candidly talk to one another.” With Yeon-Hoon’s lead, all the members gathered closer.

“Let’s each write an occasion when one of us seemed to be acting full of ourselves and the like and place it inside a box. Since we need to hear honest opinions, let’s each write our notes in our individual rooms.”

Because fame was a drug more addictive than anything else, they were taking the time this early to weed out anyone who could be drunk from all the popularity and attention they were getting.