Part 8: My Sunday + My Melody

Yeojin's solo album would be the first (and only) to feature not one but two b-sides: My Sunday and My Melody. Alongside her solo teasers, these b-sides would also be teased with images of Yeojin alongside the other members.

The first came on January 6th, 2017, and continued up to the release of Kiss Later. Just like Yeojin's solo teaser images, all were taken in Taiwan.

The first teaser image is of Yeojin and Haseul. Yeojin stands on the left, wearing a white blouse and bright pink skirt. Haseul stands behind her on the right, wearing a blush pink dress over a white blouse. They both stare at he viewer with ambiguous expressions. There's also some kind of yellow vehicle in the background.

Their names are written together in Yeojin's representative color, orange.

The second teaser image features Heejin, Hyunjin, and Yeojin. Yeojin wears the outfit from her first solo teaser image, with the other two wearing outfits with the same color scheme of white, black, navy, and red. The girls sit together on the ground and stare at the viewer, again with ambiguous expressions.

Their names are written as "LOONA & Yeojin," similar to Haseul's teasers with Heejin and Hyunjin. Like them, it likely singles Yeojin out since she hasn't "officially" become part of the group yet. It is written in orange.

The third teaser image once again features Yeojin and Haseul. Yeojin wears the outfit seen in her third solo teaser image, with Haseul in a very similar black and white outfit. Like the first teaser image, Yeojin stands on the left with Haseul behind her on the right. Both gaze at the viewer with the same ambiguous expressions. They are surrounded by green foliage.

Their names are written in orange.

The fourth and final teaser image features Heejin, Hyunjin, and Yeojin. The girls all wear long sleeve white tops with multicolored plaid skirts. Heejin's is blue, Yeojin's is yellow/green, and Hyunjin's purple.

They sit together on steps leading up to a door. Heejin and Yeojin sit on once step together, holding hands, while Hyunjin sits on the step above them. Yeojin is framed in between them.

Their names are once again written as "LOONA & Yeojin" in orange.

Like usual, we can't glean much information from these images alone. However, they do tell us that Yeojin does in fact know the other girls! Or at the very least, she will soon.

On January 12th, 2017, the teaser for My Melody would be released, with the one for My Sunday coming the next day.

Again, as typical for this era of teasers, there's nothing really here that we don't see in the music videos themselves, so we'll save discussion of their content for afterward.

There's a reason I've paired these songs together. As the description explains, they are "comprised of the same arrangement, but progress in two different melodies in the chorus" and contain "charms that seem similar but different." Basically, they're two versions of the same song.

The music video for My Sunday was released on January 16th, 2017, with My Melody following the next day.

We'll go over My Sunday first, as it was released first. Despite being from Yeojin's solo album, both the song and MV only feature Heejin and Hyunjin. Let's get into it!

We first get a title card with various shots of Taiwan, where both this MV and My Melody's MV were filmed.

We see Heejin singing, then a shot of her opening her eyes as she sings the first line: "Oh, when I opened my eyes after closing it for a while."

We see Heejin and Hyunjin run together while holding hands, similar to how they did back in I'll Be There. Heejin wears a white top with a black ribbon around the collar and a pink overall-style dress. Hyunjin wears an identical top, with black shorts and a pink jacket over it.

The jacket has various images on it: a sun, a moon, an eye, a heart, a yin and yang symbol, an alien with a cowboy hat, lightning, a peace sign, etc.

We see them singing together in the city as well. They're wearing the outfits we saw in the second teaser image.

Right afterward, we see Hyunjin sitting by herself. She wears a white top with a black ribbon and black overall dress, with black shoes and socks.

We then see Hyunjin singing to the camera, while Heejin moves around all blurry in the background. She seems to just be standing and swaying, like she's waiting for her turn.

In the next shot, we get a better look at these outfits. They both wear white turtlenecks with a large "V"-shaped ruffle on the front. Hyunjin's is pink, and Heejin's is blue (though she described it as purple in an episode of LOONA TV.) Both wear them tucked into black skirts.

The two sit outside together, seemingly in a park of some kind.

They both glance downward at their hands and then link them together.

Next, we see them in the city again, sitting together with their heads leaning against one another. Hyunjin wears a white top and a gray houndstooth skirt, while Heejin wears a gray houndstooth top and a black skirt. Both wear black shoes with white socks.

In the following close-up shot, the two have their eyes closed as if they're sleeping.

A little later, we see them poking each other's faces. Cute.

They jump in the air and look at themselves in the reflection of the street mirror, smiling.

As the chorus starts, we see them walking together before Hyunjin motions for Heejin to pose for a photo. She snaps a couple as Heejin poses in different ways.

They then sit to take a selfie together. We can see Hyunjin is wearing the same outfit from that solo shot of her earlier, and Heejin is wearing a striped black dress with a brown belt, with matching black shoes and socks.

Various photos then appear on screen, presumably the ones we just saw them take.

After more singing, we see them in the city in the houndstooth outfits, making a heart together with their hands.

We get this shot of what are known as wishing bamboo sticks. In Taiwan, it's believed that writing your wishes on bamboo and hanging them up will make them come true. (from what I found online)

I tried to use some image-to-text translators to figure out what these ones in the middle say, but I didn't have any luck. If anyone knows what I'm assuming is Chinese and can tell what these say, please let me know!

We also get a shot of a cat, which is Hyunjin's representative animal. It's even orange like the cat head she wore back in Around You.

The two walk by the wishing bamboo, wearing matching outfits. They both wear white long-sleeve shirts with white socks and shoes. Hyunjin wears a blue skirt, while Heejin wears blue shorts with a blue jacket tied around her waist. Hyunjin has her arm wrapped around Heejin's.

A little later, we see Heejin in her striped black dress leaning against a brick wall. She appears to just be resting, not actually asleep, but it's hard to tell.

Back in the city, we get this shot of Hyunjin standing with her eyes closed. It's as the lyric "Unfamiliar recollections adding up" (via official captions) / "Strange memories build up one by one" (via ColorCodedLyrics) is sung, so perhaps this is Hyunjin remembering something.

In the city, the girls hold hands and start running together, once again very reminiscent of what we saw them doing in I'll Be There.

We then see the two take pictures by the water. Both wear dresses over white tops. Heejin's is blue with a blue ribbon, and Hyunjin's is black with a plaid pattern and a small heart design in the middle that reads "Heart club."

In some shots such as this one, we see them sitting back-to-back.

We get this shot of someone reaching their hand towards the sky, but we don't get to see who it is.

Also during the bridge, we get this close-up of Heejin's eyes.

Another interesting shot is this one of the two sitting on the ground holding hands. We don't see their faces so it's impossible to tell who's who, but one sits more in the grass while the other sits more in the dirt. There's also a purple flower in the corner of the shot.

Near the end, we see them playing a game in an arcade.

It doesn't seem to be the exact game we saw behind Yeojin in one of her solo teaser images, but it's likely within the same arcade.

The final shot is Heejin and Hyunjin making a hand heart together, just like they did earlier in the MV.

There isn't much to talk about with this one. Similar to I'll Be There, it's mostly just Heejin and Hyunjin either singing or hanging out together, without anything particularly of note lore-wise. However, it does again emphasize that the two are close friends, which is good to keep in mind.

The lyrics, however, are a bit more interesting. The first verse describes opening your eyes and feeling like you're in a new world, and heading towards a mysterious melody that pulls you in. The second verse then describes strange memories coming back as time stops, and feeling like you're being born again. Finally in the bridge, they sing about how even when they ran until they were out of breath, they still couldn't see the end of the day.

It's all very metaphorical, but it feels pretty relevant to the Loonaverse. I mentioned all the way back in Part 2 about how the beginning of ViViD mimics the viewer opening their eyes and how it could symbolize us entering this new world - the Loonaverse.

And while we haven't gotten there yet, mysterious callings, strange memories, and running are all very prevalent concepts within the Loonaverse. So while I won't fully analyze these lyrics now, definitely keep them in mind. I might return to them in a future part.

As you'll see in a moment, My Melody is much of the same only with Haseul and Yeojin instead. This is another reason why I decided to pair these two songs together - neither of them contain much lore.

(A big part of this is that unlike other MVs, these ones take place exclusively out in public spaces, which means that the things we see are much less curated. With sets or specific filming locations, the imagery is a lot tighter and thus more likely to have intentional meaning.)

Still, there's always something to talk about, so let's jump into My Melody!

We get a title card with footage of Taiwan in the beginning, just like My Sunday. One shot is of little cat figures, which is Hyunjin's representative animal.

We see Haseul and Yeojin together, wearing the same "V" tops and black skirts that we saw Heejin and Hyunjin in. Haseul's is red, and Yeojin's is orange. They walk together holding hands, with Haseul in front.

Right afterwards, we see Yeojin in that black blazer with all the hippie quotes on it that I talked about back in Part 7. Haseul wears basically the same outfit, just without the blazer.

As the chorus starts, we see Haseul filming herself and Yeojin with a camcorder. They're both wearing the same outfits as the previous shot I discussed, except now Haseul is wearing a different top with a lacy white front. Or maybe it's some kind of jacket/sweater she's put on over the other top? I can't really tell.

Throughout the MV, we see shots in a 1:1 aspect ratio, which is the footage they've filmed on the camcorder. It parallels the camera Heejin and Hyunjin had and the way we saw the photos they took flash on screen in My Sunday.

As they cross a street, Haseul offers her to hand to Yeojin, who's now recording with the camcorder. Yeojin takes it.

We see them inside what looks to be a hotel room, laying on the bed together. Haseul wears a white long-sleeve shirt, while Yeojin wears an orange one. (Or it might be pink? It's hard to tell because of the lighting.)

Amongst the camcorder footage, there's one shot of Yeojin holding a teddy bear. It's got the same "Teddy Bear Museum" bow as the one in her "Who's Next Girl?" teaser, but it's much bigger and fluffier.

As I discussed back in Part 7, Yeojin apparently "pretended" to be a teddy bear, but is actually a frog (her representative animal.) There's multiple ways to interpret that, but the general idea I presented is that the teddy bear is a "normal" girl who acts how she's expected to, while the frog is Yeojin's more authentic and eccentric self.

With that interpretation in mind, it's interesting that we see her with the teddy bear here. Does this imply that this is before Kiss Later, where Yeojin seemingly accepts her true "frog" self? Is she still presenting herself as a teddy bear to the world, even to her friends? Or is this more of a tongue-in-cheek reference, like her making fun of what she used to act like? It's unclear, but I do find it interesting.

As the second verse starts, we're shown a school crossing sign, which depicts an older and younger child crossing the street. It then cuts to this shot of Haseul and Yeojin walking together holding hands, with Haseul leading in the front. These shots are very obviously supposed to parallel each other, emphasizing the age difference between the two.

Haseul wears a navy blue dress over a white top, while Yeojin wears a bright blue denim jacket over a white top with a white skirt. Both wear white shoes with white socks. Haseul's hair is straight, while Yeojin's is in braided pigtails.

Later, we see them in the same spot posing for the camera. Haseul holds it while Yeojin hugs her from behind.

The teddy bear appears again in another camcorder shot. This time, Yeojin's in her outfit from the fourth group teaser image, with the same space bun hairstyle.

Later, Haseul pets a cat sleeping on the ground. Not only is it Hyunjin's representative animal, but it's by train tracks, which were featured in both Hyunjin's solo teaser images and in the Around You MV.

We know from The Carol that Haseul and Hyunjin are friends, so it makes sense that this could be a reference to her. It also parallels the cat briefly seen in My Sunday.

A little later we see Yeojin by the same train tracks. She's wearing her outfit from the first teaser image with Haseul, and now we can see that she wears black shoes with light blue socks. A train passes by on her left.

In one of the camcorder shots, Yeojin and Haseul stand together as some bubbles float by them.

There's multiple shots of the two of them standing by this large tree. Direct attention isn't called to it, but it still feels like it could be symbolism to me. I'll get into it later.

The next time we see the hotel scene, we're able to see the front of Haseul's shirt. It has an illustration of a red owl on it. Which is interesting because that's not only future member Kim Lip's representative animal, but her representative color as well.

We don't get a clear shot of Yeojin's shirt, but it seems like it has a similar illustration of it. (I unfortunately couldn't find a view of the full shirt anywhere, even in behind the scenes content.)

The last shot shows Haseul leaning in and hugging Yeojin as they both smile.

Just like My Sunday, there isn't too much here - it's mostly just singing and walking. The lyrics don't really have anything to offer either as the only part that's different in this version is the chorus, which doesn't have any particularly noteworthy lines.

However unlike Heejin and Hyunjin, we haven't seen Haseul and Yeojin interact before; in fact, we haven't seen Yeojin interact with any of the other members before. So this song is important for establishing that fact. Just like how I'll Be There established Heejin and Hyunjin's friendship, My Melody establishes these two's friendship.

The dynamic is a bit different though. There's a significant age difference between Haseul and Yeojin - the oldest and youngest members respectively at the time. You can tell in the way they interact that Haseul takes on more of an older sister/mother role, leading Yeojin around by the hand and generally looking after her.

These shots of them paralleling the school crossing sign with the older and younger child makes this dynamic pretty clear. Heejin, Hyunjin, and Haseul are all peers who are around the same age, but their friendship with Yeojin takes on more of a big sister-little sister vibe.

(And we do know that Yeojin is friends with the other two as well, since they appear in the teaser images together. Plus they're Haseul's friends, so it'd make since that they'd all know each other.)

As for this tree that I pointed out, there's no one clear meaning. Trees can have a lot of different symbolic meaning, often relating to life and growth.

However, considering Haseul's motherly attitude towards Yeojin, I think it could have to do with trees as symbols of family lineage, protection, and nurturing. Haseul isn't related to Yeojin by blood, but she looks out for her as if she's her child or little sister, so I think this interpretation would fit.

Other than that though, there's really not much else to say about these MVs. I almost never see them brought up in lore discussions, and honestly for good reason. They might be some of the least lore-relevant videos in the whole filmography, but again as I've stated they're not completely irrelevant either.

My Sunday reestablishes Heejin and Hyunjin's friendship, My Melody establishes Haseul and Yeojin's and their mother-daughter dynamic, and together the lyrics of both songs have some neat foreshadowing for larger concepts in the Loonaverse.

In contrast, the next song we'll be talking about is a very important one, and there will be a lot to talk about. I'll see you for that in Part 9!