(Outro) Her: By Yoongi

Hey everyone,

Hope you enjoyed the Lotte concert today and you’re all keeping safe and well!

Today we are continuing Yoongi’s story from DNA by analysing the lyrics of Outro: Her, the second relevant song in Yoongi’s story.

This post was a bit tricky to write as there are some bits which I think only apply to past Yoongi, and some bits which I think are still relevant to present-day Yoongi. Hence, where I have written about things that I believe are applicable to:

• past Yoongi, I have written it in past tense; and
• present-day Yoongi, I have written it in present tense.

To skip to my final interpretation of the song, click here.

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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 and The Last of DT Suga, Agust D.

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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 believe that Yoongi is rapping about his BTS Members.

If you’re wondering where to start, please start here!

Please also note the assumptions I apply when I analyse songs, and most importantly why I am analysing this song from Yoongi’s perspective. There are three BTS accredited authors for this song, and thus three perspectives.

Alright, let’s get it!

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1. Finding Yoongi’s Perspective

In Outro: Her, Joon raps the first verse and chorus. Neatly, Yoongi raps the second verse and chorus.

Therefore, these are the lyrics we will be analysing today:

Maybe I’m your truth and your lie
Maybe I’m your love and hate
Maybe I’m your enemy and friend
Your heaven and hell, your pride and embarrassment
I can never take off the mask
Because the me behind this mask
Is not the one you know
Make up to wake up today too
And dress up to mask on
In order to become the me that you love
In order to become the one that you love
That thing I liked so much
I quit, just for you
I put on clothes I hate, excessive make up
Because your laughter and happiness is the scale of my happiness
This is how I am, do I deserve your love?
I always make an effort to be the best for you
I hope you don’t know this part of me

All of my wonder
You’re the answer
I call you her, her
‘Cause you’re my tear, tear
All of my wonder
You’re the answer
I call you her, her
‘Cause you’re my tear, tear

2. Establishing the Timeline

Similarly to DNA, we can establish the point in time certain songs are set in by analysing the song from Yoongi’s perspective. In DNA, Yoongi’s perspective helped us establish that the story of DNA is set around the time BTS first met each other, got together, and debuted.

We can do the same for Outro: Her based on the following lyrics:

I can never take off the mask
Because the me behind this mask
Is not the one you know…
… I hope you don’t know this part of me

As discussed in The Last of Dt Suga – Agust D, Yoongi from around the time he joined BTS, up to the 27th of December 2015, hid behind “a mask” as a defence mechanism to deal with the onslaught of relentless unkind criticisms and remarks.

Yoongi says in Outro: Her “because the me behind this mask is not the one you know… I hope you don’t know this part of me” , this implies that the Yoongi in Outro: Her has not taken off his mask yet.

We can infer from this information that Outro: Her is set Pre 27 December 2015.

Applying this logic and date, we can also infer that Namjoon discovered his “Whole New Myself” some time before 27 December 2015.

3. The Seesaw

Maybe I’m your truth and your lie
Maybe I’m your love and hate
Maybe I’m your enemy and friend
Your heaven and hell, your pride and embarrassment

The above lyrics foreshadow Yoongi’s solo song: Trivia 轉: Seesaw and give us an insight as to how Yoongi saw (pun not intended) the seesaw dynamics between him and the members.

The lyrics suggest that Yoongi felt like his members some times saw him as:

• their friend whom they love and are proud of. A friend that is honest and speaks the truth and who is their source of joy and happiness (i.e. heaven); and
• their enemy, a person that they hate and feel embarrassed about. A person that lies, and who is hell to be around.

Yoongi’s relationship and his dynamics with the BTS Members were both fluid and extreme pre 27 December 2015.

Maybe you love me, maybe you don’t

Interestingly, Yoongi uses the word “Maybe” in his lyrics.

We can infer from this that Yoongi pre 27 December 2015 was uncertain as to how his BTS Members really felt about him. This indicates to us that Yoongi must have felt that he was sometimes treated warmly as a friend, and other times, coolly as if he was an enemy… and he hasn’t figured out which treatment is the genuine one.

This is consistent with what we discussed in The Last of Dt Suga – Agust D where I said:

Yoongi says that he is “scared of myself too” , revealing to us that the people who are aware of Yoongi’s mental illnesses were/are also scared of Yoongi.

What is more heartbreaking about this line is that this means Yoongi knows that people are scared of him.

We can infer that Yoongi knows this because people have said things to him, or have started acting differently around him as if he is something “scary”.

This is consistent with his lyrics from 140503:

Drifting away
Friends, family or anyone around me
They can’t remain beside me so they brush past me

Whether the fear is from the lack of understanding and knowledge on how to deal with Yoongi’s depressive self, or because Yoongi’s “dangerous” actions are intimidating to his friends and family, this remains unclear.

However, what is clear and painful is the absolute and all encompassing meaning of “Friends, family or anyone…”.

It seems that no one, including the people “around” and closest to Yoongi, knew how to “remain beside” him and interact with him.
Without further clarification from the lyrics, this appears to include the BTS Members.

The Last of Dt Suga – Agust D

In other words, pre 27 December 2015…

Based on his interactions with the members, Yoongi could not feel confident that his members truly love him.

4. Dealing with the uncertainty of love

I can never take off the mask
Because the me behind this mask
Is not the one you know
Make up to wake up today too
And dress up to mask on
In order to become the me that you love
In order to become the one that you love
That thing I liked so much
I quit, just for you
I put on clothes I hate, excessive make up

In DNA, we observed that Yoongi’s love for his members is true and real, and he quietly hopes that:

• the love he feels between the members is indeed real;
• the members love him back; and
• his decision to stay and be part of BTS was the right one.

In the context of:

• Yoongi’s true love for the members;
• the hot and cold treatment he seems to have received from the BTS Members (which I am sure added to his feelings of uncertainty and anxiousness);
• the horrible mental pain and struggle he was going through that was depreciating his self-worth; and
• the understanding that South Korea has an “ideal” image that rejects mental illness;

we can empathise why pre 27 December 2015 Yoongi felt that he could “never take off the mask” and show his “true” vulnerable self “behind this mask” as he was fearful that the people that he loves will reject him if they saw his “true” self.

To deal with the uncertainty of his members’ love, and in the hope that his members will love and accept him, Yoongi used to wake up every day to “dress up” to “mask on” , to pretend he was fine and “become the me” that he thinks his members will love.

5. Self-sacrificing and selfless

As we may have all realised, Yoongi shows his love, not through hugs and kisses, but by his actions, such as foregoing food so his members can have more to eat, accompanying Jin fishing not because he loves fishing, but because Jin wants to go fishing, or wordlessly passing his water to his thirsty members while looking the other way.

This is consistent with what we saw in DNA where I discussed Yoongi’s self-sacrificing love for his members.

In my original draft of The Last of DT Suga – Agust D, I also discussed Yoongi’s self-sacrificing love but deleted it last minute because I didn’t want to sound like a broken tape recorder. On hindsight, I wished I didn’t remove it so I can better illustrate the consistency of Yoongi’s character and story.

In The Last of DT Suga – Agust D, I said:

His true acceptance of his “less than “ideal”” image, Idol title, and greedy side, enables Yoongi to move forward and become a stronger person, to the point that he is brave and fearless enough to “get on the guillotine” and withstand the hate that is thrown at him:

If my misfortune is your happiness
I’ll happily stay unfortunate

If I’m the figure of hate
I’ll get on the guillotine

The Last of Dt Suga – Agust D

As above, we can see that after Yoongi has accepted his true self, his self-sacrificing nature and ability grows to the point that he is willing to “get on the guillotine” and (metaphorically) die and withstand the hate if his haters demand it of him. The analogy used is similar to the bible story of Jesus Christ going up on the cross.

Consistently, Yoongi says in Outro: Her that he:

Make up to wake up today too
And dress up to mask on
In order to become the me that you love
In order to become the one that you love
That thing I liked so much
I quit, just for you
I put on clothes I hate, excessive make up
Because your laughter and happiness is the scale of my happiness
This is how I am, do I deserve your love?
I always make an effort to be the best for you
I hope you don’t know this part of me

The above lyrics reveal to us that Yoongi is willing to:

• put himself through things that he hates;
• wear a mask and pretend to be the “best” person that he thinks his members will love; and
• give up the things that he loves…

“just for” his members.

An ongoing theme of Yoongi (that I don’t think he intended to establish) is his altruism, selflessness, and tendency to be self-sacrificing for the people he loves (and now, even for his haters).

Desire to be loved

On the flip side, the same lyrics reveal Yoongi’s desire to be loved and accepted by his members.

Yoongi was willing to give up on things that he loves, participate in things that he hates, and be a fake version of himself if that meant that his members would love him.

Similarly to how Namjoon was willing to be his “fake self” so that his lover will continue to love him, Yoongi was willing to be his “fake self” so that his members will continue loving him.

Yoongi was willing to do this because he wants to see his members happy, “because your laughter and happiness is the scale of my happiness.”

We can infer from this that Yoongi’s happiness is heavily dependent on the happiness of his members.

Recalling that I mentioned in The Last of DT Suga – Agust D how jarring it was studying Yoongi’s lyrics after I’ve been studying Joon’s, and that Yoongi’s lyrics are filled with loneliness, despair, hate and anger…

… The fact that Yoongi’s happiness is so clearly linked and dependent on the happiness of the members makes Yoongi’s relationship with each of the six members all the more precious.

6. You’re my tear

All of my wonder
You’re the answer
I call you her, her
‘Cause you’re my tear, tear
All of my wonder
You’re the answer
I call you her, her
‘Cause you’re my tear, tear

Yoongi’s finishes his story in Outro: Her with the above chorus.

In Yoongi’s chorus, “tear” is pronounced as (crying) tears. However, if you listen carefully, the sounds have been intentionally layered so you can hear a background echo of a heavy “d” sound so that it suspiciously sounds like “dear”.

This conveys to us that not only are the members his “wonder” and “answer(s)” …

…To Yoongi, the members are:
1) the cause of his (happy and sad) tears; and
2) incredibly dear and important to him.

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Author’s Summary

Analysing Outro: Her from Yoongi’s perspective gives us insight into the time Outro: Her is set in, and Yoongi’s relationship with the BTS members.

Outro: Her is set pre 27 December 2015, before Yoongi has revealed his “true” self to the members. Before 27 December 2015, Yoongi woke up every day and gave his best efforts to act like someone he thought his members could love and adore.

Yoongi did this because he was uncertain whether the members actually like him, and because he loves them and wanted the love to be reciprocated back.

Yoongi also tolerates things that he hates and gives up things that he loves if he thinks it will make his members happy. This is because Yoongi’s happiness is heavily dependent on the happiness of his BTS members.

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Author’s Thoughts

Thank you everyone for reading my blog and stay tune for the next post!

Honestly, the more I study Yoongi, the more I fall in love with him. He is just such a wonderful human being… and I hope you guys feel the same way too!

In addition, based on his recent interactions with the members, I truly believe in my heart that present-day Yoongi feels a lot more secure about his members’ love for him – that his members completely accept his “true” self and absolutely love him for it.

Yoongi still does many self-sacrificing things for his members, but it is now completely and sincerely done out of love, without that interior motive and hope that it will make his members love him.

Anyway, I’m going to end this blog post with my favourite Yoongi moment from the Soop below 🙂

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Stay gold everyone! x G

💜

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Lyric sources: Genius lyrics,
Please note that I did change some of the lyrics. Changes were made where I thought it could be expressed better. I did not make any major changes that would materially impact the meaning of the 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 Outro: Her is based on my interpretations of its lyrics. Please enjoy.