The Idol Who Returned from Hell Chapter 148

“What on earth is happening?”

The homma dropped the snack bag she had been leisurely consuming onto the floor.

And she stared at the notification that had popped up at the top of her phone screen as if she would be sucked into it.

A comeback trailer suddenly dropping like this?

First of all, the word choice was unusual.

During their debut album promotion, there was no concept of a trailer. They had followed the standard process with profile photos, concept photos, teasers, and highlight medleys.

For some unknown reason, this comeback’s beginning started with a trailer.

The homma clicked on the NeoTube video with a final runtime of 2 minutes and 11 seconds while mentally preparing herself.

What decorated the thumbnail was none other than Chae Ha-ru wearing a white face veil.

Even though the veil was set to show only his eyes, an extraordinary aura emanated from him.

‘……Pure white outfit. I’m really going to lose it.’

A topic that appeared whenever fans were bored was ‘which outfit suited CENTIX the best.’

Among them, what always ended in a 50-50 split without resolution was the competition between the white and black uniforms they wore during 〈Royal Road〉.

The homma personally thought white suited Ryu Si-hwan’s pale skin like a glove rather than black.

So starting from the thumbnail featuring her favorite look made her heart pound fiercely.

‘Let’s record the video later.’

Taking NeoTube footage could be postponed.

She needed to immerse herself and watch this sublime spectacle in front of her without any interference.

CENTIX’s comeback trailer started in a forest thick with fog.

The combination of trees dense with blue-green leaves and mysterious fog created a strange atmosphere.

[……]

Soon the camera perspective switched to two feet slowly trampling fresh grass as they moved.

The moment she found the filming technique of following from the lowest possible angle like a movie scene quite fascinating.

The screen changed again to a full-body shot of Yu Ha-woon wearing a white shirt that was completely unbuttoned at the front.

[Whoooosh—.]

Wind sounds came from somewhere.

Yu Ha-woon, who noticed that flow, looked straight ahead while his brown hair, dyed much brighter than before, fluttered in the wind.

An empty hourglass lying alone in the middle of the forest path appeared in his sight.

When the dusty interior of the hourglass came into view, the wind sounds subsided and a familiar melody played.

[♬♪♪♪♬♩……]

A melody MILLENNIUM would have heard thousands of times on repeat.

The deep house beat from the final chorus verse of 〈Chronic〉 resonated quietly.

Following that sound, Yu Ha-woon stepped toward the hourglass as if bewitched by something.

Just as his gracefully extended fingers were about to touch the hourglass, the screen suddenly cut out as if buffering.

[Find Me.]

A low English narration.

The blue forest disappeared and this time a cave filled with shattered glass fragments appeared.

And similar to the scene where Yu Ha-woon first appeared, this time Seong-hwi’s sharp silhouette appeared, blankly staring at the ceiling.

The wind sounds followed by 〈Chronic〉’s verse could be heard even inside the cave, and Seong-hwi turned his coldly cooled eyes to the side.

Where his gaze stopped was an hourglass carelessly placed among the glass fragments.

The screen that buffered again showed Chae Ha-ru lying by a lakeside.

Kang Seon-woo standing on black rocks.

Ma Si-hyeok running through city streets where time seemed to have stopped.

And finally Ryu Si-hwan slowly stepping outside an abandoned factory.

Because the background was so dark, it was hard to properly identify what changes there were in Ryu Si-hwan’s visuals, but the homma, who had looked at Ryu Si-hwan photos all day, noticed something strange.

His hair looked brighter than usual.

But before she could think more about that fact, the trailer’s atmosphere completely reversed.

When the six members each grabbed the hourglass that had fallen in their respective locations, 〈Chronic〉’s gentle melody exploded instantly.

In its place entered a dreamy yet considerably fast-tempo guitar riff.

When these two sounds that could feel disparate met, it brought a refreshing clarity like bright light descending and somehow nostalgic longing.

[Find the reason, find the meaning

I won’t stop

The light pouring down

There must be something at the end of it]

CENTIX’s group dance unfolded over the house-style beat.

A mysterious place filled with pure white light clusters, different from the existing spaces.

The harmony of white shirts perfectly matching the background and black straps mixed in between was already driving the homma’s immersion to the extreme.

Finally free from the dark lighting, she could clearly confirm Ryu Si-hwan’s face.

“Ryu Si-hwan…… Wait. He dyed his hair. It’s real. I saw it right!”

The homma unconsciously spoke aloud the thoughts in her mind.

This was an inevitable providence that even gods couldn’t help.

Because Ryu Si-hwan, who had insisted on black hair from his first appearance on 〈Idol Stove League Season 2〉 through CENTIX’s first activities.

Had even bleached to ash brown that matched his desert fox image so perfectly!

[Gray starlight in the ashen sky

My reflection in the mirror

Call your name until my throat burns

cause I know you’ll find me]

The dreamy atmosphere was accompanied by liveliness following the occasionally heard pluck sounds.

The harmony of house genre’s electronic bass and pluck that unmistakably gave off overseas pop genre vibes formed an extremely trendy melody.

CENTIX moving with white brilliance on their backs was literally dazzling.

[Memories……

Loss……

And fate.]

The trailer returning to individual shots showed a room with only a full-body mirror standing alone.

Ma Si-hyeok, wearing a black coat over a white shirt with gold trim, trudged toward the mirror.

The moment he touched the cold glass surface, it rippled like a stone thrown into a calm lake.

[Remember the warmth

that breathed life into me

Spread your wings

I know you’ll find me]

At the timing when Ma Si-hyeok touched the mirror, all lights disappeared without a trace.

An atmosphere like a starless night sky had devoured the entire universe.

In the space where you couldn’t see an inch ahead, small wingbeats wrapped in light were captured.

A butterfly flying beautifully with spread blue wings.

Like scattering glitter, where the butterfly flew left mysterious star clouds.

The pair of wings that had been alone illuminating the darkness settled on Ryu Si-hwan, who had stretched his finger forward.

Bright blue light illuminated Ryu Si-hwan’s face.

The homma instinctively forgot how to breathe when his radiant visuals were suddenly captured in a full shot.

But at that moment, she could only gape watching the effect of the pitch-black background being dyed with brilliant rainbow lights.

[Find the reason, find the meaning

I won’t stop

The light pouring down

There must be something at the end of it]

A spectacular view as if all the nebulae in the universe had gathered, along with light more brilliant than aurora.

CENTIX’s members each stood blankly in their places, silently watching the feast of light spreading in the sky.

She could only continuously gasp in admiration at the cinematography that captured even the movement of celestial bodies reflected in their pupils in detail.

The house sound that had been rushing toward the climax hit the ceiling and slowly descended.

With only the light bouncing of pluck beats remaining. The flashy cinematography that had been burning brilliantly also gradually faded according to the song’s atmosphere.

[Hmm, hmm……]

Someone’s quiet humming was heard.

Ryu Si-hwan was still looking at the butterfly perched on his finger.

Gazing at the small creature with unknowable eyes, he slowly brought his hand to his lips.

[Spread your wings.]

With a small whisper telling it to spread its wings, he blew softly with his mouth.

The butterfly spread its rippling wings wide and flew again into that infinite sky.

Before long, the camera was capturing Ryu Si-hwan’s back view.

He, who had been looking up at the sky where stars were gradually disappearing, glanced back.

Then the camera’s gaze dropped slightly.

The hourglass standing on grass full of vitality appeared again.

The hourglass that had initially been just empty glass now contained beautiful light mixed with countless colors.

The interior of the hourglass that had been burning softly like a beacon went out with a pop as the music cut off.

Only the subtitle [Centix Comeback: 「Find Me」] remained on the screen that had been crackling like buffering.

The video ended.

The homma, who had been immersed beyond imagination from around the middle of the trailer, could finally take the deep breath she had been holding.

And in her mind, a really simple review immediately came to mind.

‘Another jackpot. Definitely. It’s absolutely going to be chaos.’

If this quality was just the trailer, how properly would the actual music video show us?

During the first viewing, she hadn’t had time to savor the hidden points in the trailer because of Ryu Si-hwan’s ash brown bleaching.

The homma finished her thorough preparation by watching the trailer three more times before accessing her SNS.

As expected, her timeline and the communities where CENTIX superfans gathered were in a state of volcanic eruption.

Visual bombardment beyond words, and the continuation of easter eggs taken from the 〈Chronic〉 music video were perfect material to chew, tear, and savor.

[〈HOT!!〉 〈Chronic〉 easter eggs that appeared in this 〈Find Me〉 trailer +455]

The backgrounds where members each first appear (ex. Ha-woon’s forest, Hwi’s cave, Si-hwan’s abandoned factory) match the backgrounds from when they broke the chains in the Chronic MV! So the timeline of this trailer seems to fit perfectly if we see it as right after Chronic.

And the hourglass that appeared countless times this time, everyone knows without explanation, right?? The hourglass used as an object to express the lyrics about being trapped in time threw indirect messages to the members while showing them new spaces this time too. Some Conan wrote a long interpretation post before, roughly the hourglass=us(MILLENNIUM) can be considered valid.

……

Lastly is the butterfly easter egg that Leader Ryu blew away, whether this hints at ‘spread your wings’ in the lyrics or is an easter egg connecting to another future album remains to be seen? Anyway, only about the first verse of the song came out briefly but it was seriously good. Not to mention the kids’ visuals

―Definitely these days this kind of vague worldview is the best, not too excessive and perfectly appropriate, melting it into lyrics and MVs makes fangirling so convenient lol

└Agree agree, they don’t forcibly shove it in our faces going ‘our worldview is this so memorize it!!’ LOL. Our kids don’t get consumed by the worldview and forced into activities, so it’s even nicer to watch and more comfortable

└CENTIX just chose a good way to unfold the story, establishing the relationship between fans and themselves through lyrics from the first song so immersion works well too

―But what does this title mean? Find Me

└Hide and seek?

└Ah lol kids, if this sister sets her mind to finding you, can you handle it?

└Hiik it’s a stalker

└Maybe it’s this kind of context, when anyone gets freed after being trapped, there can be a state where your mind is dazed and you don’t know what to do, so find who I am, recover me, this content I think

└Oh that makes sense

└Don’t write stuff like this in comments, please post it as an article, sir, here’s your featured post ticket

└Haha I just wrote some brain speculation in my head so I’m embarrassed,,, I’ll try writing when more certain points come out

Besides easter egg interpretation posts, attention was also intensively focused on each member’s individual visual changes.

―The kids made major style changes this time

1. Si-hwan ash brown

2. Si-hyeok dark gray

3. Ha-woon brighter brown than before

4. Seon-woo white/black secret two-tone

5. Ha-ru covered his bangs

6. Hwi let out his perm and transformed to straight hair

└The outfits too, somehow more boyish charm and added a spoonful more of wistfulness than before

└The changes fit well with the white concept overall T_T So good seriosly

└I thought I was team Ryu black hair till death but after seeing today’s trailer captures my heart swayed like a reed… When he dyed brown tones he really became that desert fox

└Right lol the other kids’ beauty potential exploded too but honestly when Hwan-father’s butterfly individual shot face was captured in intense close-up I screamed without realizing

The moment when Rave Entertainment’s capital power, which had always been emphasized, properly showed its strength.

Through the trailer that anyone could see had an enormous production budget, MILLENNIUM’s expectations rose with momentum to pierce the sky.

And as if they had noticed their swelling hearts, another hidden card was steadily being completed in CENTIX’s practice room.