“I Love You”, “I Know” – Part 1

Hey everyone!

Twitter has informed me that today is Namjin Day, and since the song “I Know” has been stuck in my head all weekend I thought – why not! Let’s write this post! I hope this is a treat for both my Namjin and Non-Namjin readers because… seriously this song is just so good. This song literally lifts my spirits to the heavens and gives me that giddy rush of being in love. I rediscovered this song over the weekend and have literally been smiling like a lovesick idiot over the last few days as I listened to it on my walks… thank god for masks!

So even if you don’t believe in Namjin, I hope I have at least helped you discover this song written and produced by Joon and a song that Jin covered. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do 🙂

My theory that I will be discussing today is about why I believe the song “I Know” by Namjoon is actually related to a cover sung by Jin titled “I Love You“.

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Assumed Knowledge and Assumptions

Note, this is a stand-alone post and I have written this under the assumption that you’ve read all of my previous blog posts, and that my theory about the Love Yourself albums is more or less accurate.

Ok, let’s get it!

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1. Establishing the Timeline

The first thing I want to do is to establish some dates so we can understand how the two songs fit into my Love Yourself theory and the BTS timeline.

According to DNA, Joon and his lover were already together in 2013 when BTS debuted; and according to (Outro) Her: By Yoongi, Joon discovered his “Whole New” self sometime before 27 December 2015.

Thus, we can guesstimate that Joon and his lover broke up sometime around 2014 – 2015.

On 4 December 2015, Jin released a cover of a song titled “I Love You” (난 너를 사랑해) on SoundCloud.

After this on 1 June 2016, Joon produced and released a new song (sung with JK) titled “I Know” (알아요) on SoundCloud.

As we will see, based on their respective lyrics:

1) “I Love You“ is about a break up that occurred sometime before 4 December 2015; and

2) “I Know” is about Joon’s reassurance to his lover that he knows his lover loves him, and that he loves his lover back .

Given the timing and everything I have been discussing in my blog, I believe Jin and Joon are singing to each other through the lyrics of the two songs.

2. I Love You (난 너를 사랑해)

Let’s start with “I Love You” first.

2a. Jin’s message to ARMY

Though Jin did not write or produce this song, I believe that Jin chose to make a cover of this song because the lyrics resonated with him and reflected what he was feeling.

My belief is based on Jin’s message to ARMY on the day he released this cover:

Hello, this is Jin.

I’m posting a cover for the first time in a long time.

I had been thinking of posting a cover on a good day, and I’m really happy to be able to share my voice with everyone on my birthday.

I really wanted to share my voice on my birthday, and I’ve been preparing for a long time. It was difficult because the preparation was like for an album, but I wanted to relay how I felt with a great song on a happy day, so I worked really hard on this. 

I’d like very much if you enjoyed it.

This time, I covered a song called “I Love You,” and it’s a song I’ve liked a lot since my trainee days. It moved me a lot when I heard it for the first time, and when thinking about what song I would show you on my birthday, I thought what better song than this to tell ARMY how I feel.

I usually like saying “I like you” more, but at least for today, I want to say “I love you.”

If you felt through the song just how much I love ARMY, I’d really like that.

Thank you so much for always being there for us and liking us. I love you.

Soompi

There are three takeaways from Jin’s message:

• This song moved Jin a lot since his training days (i.e. from 2013). This indicates to us that since 2013, Jin could emotionally relate to its lyrics because he loved someone in the same way love is expressed in the song.

We can observed that this is the same timing with Joon. As discussed in Serendipity and DNA, Joon was in love with his lover since BTS debuted.

• Jin said that he usually likes saying “I like you” more. If Jin was truly talking about ARMY, this is interestingly inconsistent with the many videos of baby BTS (including Jin) clearly telling their fans that they love them.
  
• If we are to assume that “ARMY” is another way of saying “RM”, we can infer that Jin used to hold back in the relationship and preferred to say “I Like You” instead of “I Love You”. However, since the break-up, Jin realised that his feelings are much stronger than he had first thought, and that he truly loves RM.

This behaviour can be seen to be consistent with what I discussed in 보조개 (​Dimple), where I discussed how the lyrics indicate that Joon’s lover had a lot of self-control.

2b. Analysing the Lyrics

“We are too different”

We’re too different
You know that well
We aren’t able to embrace
Each other’s realities

If you have been following my blogs, you probably know where I am about to go with this.

I said in (Outro) Tear: By Namjoon:

It has also been incredibly fascinating to analyse Namjoon’s lyrics and realise how much of a rigid dichotomy he has built into his lyrics and into the structure of the Love Yourself albums, contrasting how he and Jin are complete opposites: Angel vs Devil, Heaven vs Hell, Beautiful vs Ugly, With self-control vs Utterly zero self-control, Honest vs Sinful, Real vs Fake, Truth vs Lies (i.e. lying that he is “fine”), Flower vs Monster, and Kind vs Unkind. Have I missed any?

Anyway, it is really mind-boggling when you let all that sink in… Opposites do attract indeed… Could you have ever imagined that the Love Yourself albums contained this wonderful forbidden secret love story between an Angel and Devil, symbolised by a Rose for passion and secrecy? It is just poetic on every single level.

(Outro) Tear: By Namjoon

The lyrics of “I Love You” tell us that Jin’s lover is “too different” from him, and that his lover “know(s) that well” .

As per my previous blog posts, Joon has highlighted over and over again how he and his lover are opposites. This is conveyed through his lyrics and the structure of the Love Yourself albums.

“What are you thinking?”

I love you, I love you
(What are you thinking? What are you saying?)
I love you, I love you
(Show me your feelings, I have no way of knowing)

As per my theory, Joon broke up with his lover because he was suppressing his true feelings and his lover was not able to accept Joon’s fakeness.

We can see that the above lyrics reveal that Jin was having issues with his lover not expressing his/her true feelings: “What are you thinking? What are you saying… Show me your feelings, I have no way of knowing.”

Based on these lyrics, we can infer that Jin’s lover was not very forthcoming at expressing his/her true feelings and thoughts.

As per my previous blog posts, Namjoon was having difficulty expressing and sharing his true feelings with his lover.

The lyrics also reveal that Jin and his lover broke up because they were not “able to embrace each other’s realities.” If you have been following my blog, you should be able to truly appreciate and understand the meaning of this line as Joon and his lover are very different people… and thus live in very different realities.

In addition, given “I Love You” was released on 4 December 2015, we can infer that Jin broke up with his lover before 4 December 2015.

This is the same time frame as our guesstimate that Joon and his lover broke up around 2014 – 2015.

“No matter how hard I try to push you out… I can’t do it”

I love you, I love you
(No matter how hard I try to push you out, even if I burn all my feelings)
(I can’t do it. I must be in love with you)
I love you, I love you

As per Jin’s message to the ARMY, Jin covered this song because he “wanted to relay how I felt” (past tense). This means that on 4 December 2015, Jin no longer felt like he had to try and “push you out” or “burn all my feelings.”

Jin also said in his message to ARMY that he prepared and “worked really hard on this“. This indicates that before 4 December 2015, Jin selected this song and worked on it for a period of time to sound perfect. He had realised some time before 4 December 2015 that he loved his lover.

The significance of this is that we can infer that Jin had reconciled* with his lover around 4 December 2015.

*Reconcile does not necessarily mean I think they got back and started dating immediately. I believe there is a possibility that they still took some time to figure themselves out, work through their issues etc, before properly getting back together.

3. “I Know” (알아요)

Now let’s analyse the next song, “I Know” (알아요). Before we jump in-depth, I just want to clarify the way I have interpreted the main lyrics of this song:

Know you love me girl
So that I love you

The way I have interpreted this is:

[I] know you love me girl
So [please know] that I love you

“For these 3 Years”

Know you love me girl
So that I love you
Know you love me boy
So that I love you
Thank you so much
For being
At my side
For these three years

The above lyrics tells us that the “girl” Namjoon is singing about has been at his side for three years.

“I Know” (알아요) was released on 1 June 2016, meaning that the “girl” Namjoon is singing about has been at his side since 2013.

We can observe that this aligns with:
1) What I said in Serendipity and DNA – that Namjoon has been in love with his lover since 2013;
2) My observation that Namjoon assigns the pronoun “Her” to his lover; and
3) Jin’s message to the ARMY revealing that Jin has been in love with his lover since 2013.

“Don’t worry ’bout a thing, my Love”

Know you love me girl
So that I love you
Know you love me boy
So that I love you
I’ll be
By your side
Always
Don’t worry ’bout a thing
My love

The above lyrics convey Namjoon’s reassurance to his lover that he “know(s) you love me” , and that because “I love you” he will always be “by your side.”

As we discussed earlier on, Jin felt that at a point in time, he could not understand what his lover was thinking, saying and feeling (“I have no way of knowing” ).

If we read the lyrics of the two songs side by side and assume that Jin sung his song for Joon, we can clearly see how it is possible that Joon is responding back to Jin’s uncertainty through the lyrics of “I Know” (알아요):

Jin’s feelings spoken through “I Love You” (난 너를 사랑해)	Joon’s response spoken through “I Know” (알아요)
“I Love You”	“I Know”
“What are you thinking? What are you saying? … Show me your feelings, I have no way of knowing“	“[I] Know you love me girl So [please know] that I love you [I] Know you love me boy So [please know] that I love you”
“Please hold me Please catch me”	“I’ll be By your side Always Don’t worry ’bout a thing My love”
“I love you, I love you”	“The only thing that I can do is… …(tell you) That I love you too“

Red Carpets and Your Gaze

I know
The red carpet that spreads out ahead of me
It’s red because of
The tears of blood of the people who love me
I know
Your gaze that remained on me that day
Is something shared between you and me
That can never be replaced

We can infer from the above lyrics that Joon’s lover was at the red carpet with Joon “that day” (presumably at some award event). This is because, if Joon’s lover was not at the red carpet, it would have not been possible for the moment described in Joon’s lyrics to have happened.

Joon knew that his lover was gazing at him, and that his lover’s gaze “remained on me that day.“

Joon can only know this if Joon can see his lover gazing at him.

Joon said that on that day that there was “something shared between you and me.”

Joon can only know that a moment was shared with his lover if his lover was there with him.

“The only thing I can do is sing for you”

(say to me)
If you love me
(tell me)
If you’re same with me
To the people I’m thankful for
The only thing that I can do is
(sing for you)
Say I love you
(tell you)
That I love you too
I’ll sing with all my heart
If you say you can hear my voice

In the above lyrics, Namjoon expresses that the only thing he can do to express their love is to “sing for you, say I love you, tell you, that I love you too.”

We can observe that after releasing this song on 1 June 2016, the Love Yourself trilogy albums including “Trivia 承: Love” were created and released.

Given what we have discovered in my blog so far…
Namjoon kept his word.

This is consistent with the hidden meaning behind the following lyrics:

“저 무수히 많은 직선들 속, 내 사랑, 사랑, 사랑”
(In those countless straight lines; My love, love, love)

If you have read my previous posts, you know what I mean 😊.

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Author’s Thoughts

Gosh I love the song “I Know”. Have I mentioned that?

Anyway, I wrote this post in a moment of inspiration and it is late and my brain is a bit fried. However, I also really wanted to post this today. So, if you see any spelling errors, or grammar issues, etc. Oops, sorry! Please let me know!

Anyway, I’m off to get ready for bed! I hope you guys enjoyed this analysis and are having a lovely day/evening!

Borahae 💜

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Lyric sources: I Love You lyrics and I Know lyrics

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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 I Love You and I Know is based on my interpretations of its lyrics. Please enjoy.