Hi everyone,
Hope you had a great weekend watching MOT7 ON:E! I don’t know about you… but I am definitely having some post-concert depression… It was such an amazing concert and I was so happy to see the boys and ARMY on the screen!
Today we are going to be discussing Fake Love from Yoongi’s perspective. If you have been following my blogs, you may have noticed that Joon and Yoongi were living parallel lives… pretending to be okay when they were secretly not. Thus, the true beauty of Joon’s lyrics is that Yoongi can relate to every single word.
To illustrate this parallel, I’ve written this analysis in the same flow and structure as my Fake Love: By Namjoon analysis. Hence, if it sounds a bit like déjà vu – sorry, but this is the point I am trying to make. Their stories are different… but yet the same, and the lyrics are written beautifully (and ambiguously enough) so it can resonate with different people and fit different contexts.
I hope you enjoy it!
To skip to my final interpretation of this song, click here.
Assumed Knowledge & Assumptions
I have written this post assuming you know:
- my theory , that all of the songs in LY albums are connected and reveal a story line when read in a specific order;
- there are three different “Hers” and that when Yoongi refers to “Her”, he is referring to the BTS Members; and
- Yoongi’s story told so far through DNA, The Last of DT Suga, Agust D and (Outro) Her: By Yoongi.
New Readers
Hello there and welcome to my blog! I’m sorry to say that if you haven’t read any of the above posts… I may lose you in the detail as my lyrical analyses are built on existing knowledge!
This is simply because all of the songs are interconnected and need to be read in a specific order for it to make sense, just like a book.
You can absolutely still continue to read and follow how I draw meaning from the lyrics, but you may not, for example, understand why I am analysing Fake Love from Yoongi’s perspective.
If you’re wondering where to start, please start here.
Please also note the assumptions I apply when I analyse songs.
Alright, let’s get it!
1. Fake Love – The antithesis of DNA
Yoongi’s story in DNA was about the real love between him and his BTS members, thus in Fake Love, Yoongi’s story is about the fake love between him and his BTS members.
I have set out in the table below the relevant lyrics clearly illustrating that DNA and Fake Love are opposing concepts:
| DNA | Fake Love |
| I want it this love I want it real love I only focus on you… …This is inevitable, I love us We are the only true lovers | I’m so sick of this fake love, fake love, fake love I’m so sorry but it’s fake love, fake love, fake love |
2. “Fake” Yoongi
As discussed in (Outro) Her: By Yoongi, Yoongi used to “dress up” and put a “mask on” every day to pretend he was fine and “become the me” that he thinks his members will love. Yoongi did this to deal with the uncertainty of his members’ love, and in the hope that his members will continue to love and accept him.
The act of putting on a “mask” to become “the me” that Yoongi thinks his members will love results in the creation of “Fake” Yoongi.
Pretending to be okay
We can see that the story in (Outro) Her: By Yoongi carries on into Fake Love.
I refer to the first and last verse of Fake Love:
For you, I could pretend like I was happy when I was sad
For you, I could pretend like I was strong when I was hurt
I wish love was perfect as love itself
I wish all my weaknesses could be hidden
I grew a flower that can’t be bloomed in a dream that can’t come true
Just like what we discussed in (Outro) Her: By Yoongi, the lyrics “for you, I could pretend like I was happy when I was sad… I could pretend like I was strong when I was hurt” convey to us that Yoongi was pretending he was happy and fine (i.e. being “fake”) because:
- firstly, his member’s laughter and happiness is the scale of his own happiness. Thus, Yoongi is motivated to do everything he can to make them laugh and be happy; and
- secondly, he is scared that if he showed his true vulnerable self, his members would not accept him.
This pretence of being happy and strong is a lie because the truth is, Yoongi is sad and hurting.
Because of his love for his members, and his desire for his relationship with them to continue, Yoongi in Fake Love anguishes and wishes that his relationship could be “as perfect as love itself” and that he could hide “all my weaknesses” from his members.
Consistent with what we saw in (Outro) Her: By Yoongi, Yoongi was pretending to be happy, and doing things to make his members happy, in hope that he is deserving of their love.
The Flower that can’t be bloomed
As discussed in Fake Love: By Namjoon, the last line: “I grew a flower that can’t be bloomed in a dream that can’t come true” is a reference to the Smeraldo.
The Smeraldo Flower is the “flower that can’t be bloomed” because it is fictional and therefore, cannot be grown.
Just like what we did for Namjoon, let’s break up the components from Yoongi’s perspective:
- “Flower that can’t be bloomed” = Smearldo
- Smeraldo =
- A fictional flower in the BTS Universe used to express your true feelings and love.
- Dream = Yoongi’s hope that his BTS members actually do love him.
In other words, when Yoongi says: “I grew a flower that can’t be bloomed in a dream that can’t come true” , Yoongi is saying to his BTS Members:
I tried to show you my love and sincerity in hope that you would love me, but alas, my sincerity “could not be delivered” (i.e. it could not be felt) by you, and thus my dream of being truly loved by you cannot come true.
3. Love can drive people mad
I refer to the following verse:
I wanna be a good man, just for you
I gave the world, just for you
I changed everything, just for you
But I don’t know me, Who are you?
The forest just for us, you weren’t there
The route I took, I forgot
I even became quite unsure of who I was
Try babbling into the mirror, who the hell are you?
We can infer from the first three lines and the repetition of “just for you”, that Yoongi loves his members very much and is willing to do anything for them.
This is consistent with what we saw in DNA, The Last of Agust D and (Outro) Her: By Yoongi.
However, though Yoongi tried to change “everything” and give the whole world to his members, unfortunately this process of “changing everything” causes Yoongi to lose touch with his real self (“but I don’t know me” ), prompting him to ask himself “who are you?”
We learnt in The Last of DT Suga, Agust D that on the 27th of December 2015, Yoongi was in a toilet in Kobe having a panic attack, and that that day was the first time since 2013 Yoongi removed his mask and took a good honest look at his true self.
We can infer from this that Fake Love is set around about the 27th of December 2015. For Yoongi, his story for Fake Love is set on the 27th of December 2015.
“The forest just for us” is a metaphorical private location and spot for Yoongi and his BTS members. Like many references I’ve discussed in my previous posts, I believe this may be inspired by 1Q84 where the forest is a recurring metaphysical space and image.
In other words, the lyrics “the forest just for us, you weren’t there, the [forest] route I took, I forgot, I even became quite unsure of who I was” mean that Yoongi is feeling lost because he has lost his ability to connect at the same spiritual and emotional level with his members as he used to be able to.
The loss of his identity and ability to connect deeply with his members causes Yoongi to babble into the mirror “who the hell are you?”, and take off the mask to confront his true self – his true self that is not okay , that is affected with social anxiety and a cocktail of other mental illnesses.
The specific use of the term “babbling” draws negative connotations to a mad person, and conjures an image of Yoongi talking in a rapidly foolish and incomprehensible way in front of a mirror.
This imagery conveys to us that the suppression of Yoongi’s real self over time drove Yoongi mad.
4. The “Lyrical Ambigram“
In Fake Love: By Namjoon, I discussed the lyrical ambigram of the following lyrics in bold:
Love you so bad, love you so bad
Mold a pretty lie for you
Love it’s so mad, love it’s so mad
Try to erase myself and make me your doll
Love you so bad, love you so bad
Mold a pretty lie for you
Love it’s so mad, love it’s so mad
Try to erase myself and make me your doll
I’m so sick of this fake love, fake love, fake love
I’m so sorry but it’s fake love, fake love, fake love
Essentially, I believe it is possible to interpret:
- “Love you so bad” as either “Now you’re so bad” or “Why you’re so bad” ; and
- “Love it’s so mad” as “Now you’re so mad” or “Why you’re so mad” .
Please refer to my previous blog post for my full reasoning as I am going straight to discuss the various possible meanings and interpretations.
First, let’s interpret the chorus based on the official lyrics:
Love you so bad, love you so bad
Mold a pretty lie for you
Love it’s so mad, love it’s so mad
Try to erase myself and make me your doll
Love you so bad, love you so bad
Mold a pretty lie for you
Love it’s so mad, love it’s so mad
Try to erase myself and make me your doll
I’m so sick of this fake love, fake love, fake love
I’m so sorry but it’s fake love, fake love, fake love
In this interpretation, Yoongi is saying to his members:
I love you so badly that I pretended to be happy (i.e. lie) for you. Love is so mad it has driven me mad enough to be willing to “put on clothes I hate, excessive make up” and become a perfect fake plastic doll (i.e. “the me that you love” ) for you.
However, this has made our love and relationship fake, and I’m sick of it. I’m sorry but it is true, the love between us is just fake.
Now, let’s try one of the possible interpretations:
Love you so bad, love you so bad
Mold a pretty lie for you
Why you’re so mad, why you’re so mad
Try to erase myself and make me your doll
Love you so bad, love you so bad
Mold a pretty lie for you
Now you’re so mad, now you’re so mad
Try to erase myself and make me your doll
I’m so sick of this fake love, fake love, fake love
I’m so sorry but it’s fake love, fake love, fake love
In the above interpretation, Yoongi sounds like he is saying to his members: I love you so much that I’m doing all I can to pretend to be happy and strong for you, so why are you so mad at me? I have already given up so much for you. I put on excessive make up and clothes that I hate so I can be your perfect doll… and now you’re mad at me for that?
I’m so sick of this fake love and relationship. I’m sorry, but this love between us is completely fake.
As you can see, there is a distinct difference in both interpretations, particularly in the tone of voice. In the latter interpretation, the members sound like they are accusing Yoongi and that they are quarrelling.
Similarly to Fake Love: By Namjoon, I’m not going to go into the many possible variations of the lyrics, I hope you get the drift! The point is, I believe that the lyrics are brilliantly ambiguous so that it can be interpreted in many different ways.
However, despite the chorus being opened for interpretation, one thing is still certain.
Yoongi’s fakeness is causing the love between him and his members to feel fake, and this is making him (and probably his members) “so sick of this fake love” and “sorry” that he can no longer make the love between them feel real.
5. Say ‘I love you’… please?
I refer to the following verse:
Why you sad? I don’t know. I don’t know
Smile, say ‘I love you’
Look at me, even I gave up on myself
Even you can’t understand me
You say I’m unfamiliar, changed into the one you used to like
You say I’m not myself which you knew well
No? What do you mean no? I’m blind
Love? What the heck is love? It’s all fake love
The above verse gives us insight as to how the members were acting towards Yoongi. Yoongi asks his members: “why you sad?” “smile, say ‘I love you'”.
Personally, I feel it is a little uncharacteristic of Pre 27 December 2015 Yoongi to actually say to his members: “Smile, say ‘I love you‘” . These lyrics sound like Namjoon’s words to me. However, I don’t think it is too far fetched to consider the possibility that Yoongi would have said those words in his head.
Assuming these lyrics are still applicable to Yoongi, we can infer from this that the BTS members appear to be sad and are no longer saying “I love you” to Yoongi without prompting.
This is consistent with what we saw in (Outro) Her: By Yoongi and The Last of DT Suga – Agust D where I discussed how Yoongi’s lyrics indicate that the members sometimes acted coolly to him, leading him to feel uncertain about his members loving him.
The members may have acted that way towards Yoongi because they:
- were scared of him (as discussed The Last of DT Suga – Agust D); and/or
- could no longer understand the person Yoongi had become, “You say I’m unfamiliar, [but I] changed into the one you used to like” .
We can infer from Yoongi’s reaction “No? What do you mean no?” that the members could no longer say “I love you” to Yoongi as they were unable to love the “fake” person Yoongi had become.
In addition, the rapid fire of comments directed at his members, “look at me… you say I’m unfamiliar… you say I’m not myself... No? What do you mean no? Love? What the heck is love?” , mirror Yoongi’s earlier “blabbering” thoughts and convey Yoongi’s deep sense of despair as he is at a complete lost of what to do.
Yoongi is desperate and lost because his happiness is heavily dependent on his members’ happiness. He is scared that if he shows his members his “real” self, his true self with the cocktail of mental illnesses (which is far from the “ideal” image in South Korean society), his members will become even more scared of him, or reject him.
Considering that Yoongi mentioned in Break the Silence that he feels like he doesn’t have many friends, I can only imagine that the thought of losing just one member from his life would have been unbearably painful, scary and unthinkable for him.
6. Because it is Fake Love
Woo, I dunno, I dunno, I dunno why
Woo, even I, even I don’t know myself
Woo, I just know, I just know, I just know why
Cuz it’s all fake love, fake love, fake love.
In the end, Yoongi realises and understands that his relationship with his members cannot work because he has lost his own identity (“even I don’t know myself” ), and is thus unable to make the love between him and his members “real.”
In other words, Yoongi realises that it is not possible for the love between two people to be real, if he is not really himself.
Yoongi ends Fake Love with the line: “I grew a flower that can’t be bloomed in a dream that can’t come true.”
As we have seen above and in the previous posts, Yoongi has been suppressing his true feelings of anxiety, sadness and depression.
The Smeraldo, as previously discussed, symbolically represents true feelings.
Mirroring the story of Testesso and the grotesque man from the Smeraldo legend, and considering the possibility that Yoongi’s story is set on the 27th of December 2015 in that bathroom in Kobe…
As Yoongi stares into the bathroom mirror, Yoongi acknowledges that the reason he has not shown his true feelings of pain and sadness to his members… the real him behind that mask, is because for many many years, Yoongi did not have the courage to do so.
Author’s Summary
In Fake Love, Yoongi shares his story about how his relationship with the BTS members deteriorated because of his inability to show his real self to them.
As his “fake” self, Yoongi realises that he and his members can no longer connect at the same level as they used to and he has forgotten his own identity. The members also find “fake” Yoongi unfamiliar and can no longer truly say that they love him.
In the end, Yoongi realises that their relationship cannot work out because the love between them is no longer real, it is fake.
Yoongi also finally acknowledges to himself that he has been hiding behind his mask for years because he did not have the courage to reveal his true self to his members. This is because Yoongi is scared that his members will no longer accept him and love him, or will become even more scared of him.
The possibility of losing his members is particularly scary and painful for Yoongi as Yoongi feels like he has few friends. Thus, the loss of even just one member’s love will be a huge blow to his heart.
Author’s Thoughts
Oh Yoongi, my sincere wish for Yoongi is that he has now made some genuine friends (outside BTS) who randomly call him out to watch a movie or do something random.
As for the relationship between him and the BTS members… given Yoongi said that his self-esteem is at an all-time high, I feel confident that this “Fake Love” between him and the members is all in the past. Yoongi is looking lovely and happy these days <3
Anyway, thank you everyone for reading my blog! I hope you’re enjoying it! Stay tune for the next post!
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Stay gold everyone! 💜 G
Lyric sources: Genius lyrics
Disclaimer:
As per my first author’s note, please, no hate!
I do not have a shipping or individual bias, I love all seven members equally and I do not write my blogs because of a particular personal desire for one of them. I reached my conclusion on Joon and Jin being together based on the lyrics, logic and patterns as I have discussed in all my posts (i.e. I did not ship Namjin first, and then started trying to find things to prove my point). I genuinely enjoy all ships because I enjoy watching the different chemistries between the boys.
It does not matter one bit to me if they are straight, gay, intersex, a skrull, a mutant or if they could lay eggs. I love them wholeheartedly (as a sister who would love her younger brothers) for their individual selves.
This theory of Fake Love is based on my interpretations of its lyrics. Please enjoy.