my take on seoul-- a thread

Seoul is a song about RM’s love-hate relationship with the city Seoul. To sum it up, it's his extensive use of wordplay and metaphors to describe the nature of said relationship.

“If love and hate are the same words, I love you Seoul. If love and hate are the same words, I hate you Seoul.”

He doesn’t seem to like this place very much, and describes it as ashy and cold. But then later on he says that he loves the stinky fumes and nastiness, the fishy smells, even the sigh of some taxi driver.

This says a lot, considering he wasn’t even born in Seoul, there aren't any memories or ties, nothing to reminisce about. So what is it that holds him back?

At the beginning of the song, he asks “Why do you [Seoul] sound like ‘soul’? What kind of soul is it that you have?”. These two words have very different meanings despite the similar pronunciation.

Soul is something human, mysterious and beautiful and meaningful. On the other hand, Seoul is just a city, and according to his own words, a city with an ashy face that he is sick of.

And yet he asks the city, what kind of soul is it that you have? He is curious about the kind of human in this cold and ashy city.

So if Seoul=soul, then love could very much be the same as hate. As much as (the characteristics of) the city makes him want to leave, he has grown to love it. The scent of life, the cold parks pretending to be warm and the Han rivers that bear to much Han*.

*Han is a concept/form of resentment and hatred that comes straight from the heart. The word comes from the Chinese character 恨.

As scared as he is of that, and also himself, he has already become a part of Seoul, and it's his home now. (btw i love that he said he became a part of Seoul, and not vice versa)

He nods when his friends tell him that they’ll leave one day, but can’t bring himself to smile. This line appears before the bridge of the song, where verses of “I'm leaving you” and “I'm living you” alternate and repeat.

These two words differ in meaning too. He says he doesn't like the place (which leads to him wanting to leave), but as much as he hates to admit it, he already grew attached. To the fumes and nastiness and all that. He loves it all.

-end of thread-
This is very impulsive so i apologise if there are any mistakes and typos haha. Also I used google translate because there were some phrases I didn't know in English (it's not my native language) so I apologise too if anything sounds off.

I just want to say I love the way Joonie’s wordplay in both Korean and English. It's so so impressive.