STEP 2: The Secret To Making Your Dreams Come True

DO NOT SKIP STEP ONE! The entire process is vital.

Now you’re ready to continue making your Dreams Come True. Step 2 is Understanding Secret, WJSN’s second MV from their second mini The Secret. 

It all begins with Yoo Yeonjung and the legendary Produce 101. At the ripe old age of 16 she appeared on the show and did extremely well, eventually debuting in beloved IOI, because she’s well, fucking incredible. 

But still, somehow, she was hated. It stemmed from something that happened on the show, something I can’t for the life of me remember and refuse to look up because who fucking cares, but it continued for basically no reason. People didn’t like her face, thought she had a bad attitude and aura, just thought she was plain ugly, that she wasn't “that good,” and other lies. It wasn’t just in South Korean fandom, all over twitter people said really nasty things about this girl. A popular blog dedicated to translating certain comments on certain Korean entertainment articles so English readers can have a source to adopt hateful opinions from always kept ifandom updated on Produce 101. It was even to the point that IOI’s first video Crush was edited to exclude a lot of the playing around scenes and Yeonjung in general because “fans” thought she was being too “greedy.” 

IOI had an expiration date and we all wondered (some of us frantically) where the girls would end up, where and when we would be able to see them again. Yeonjung was with Starship and Starship had just debuted WJSN around the same time of Produce 101’s airing. So.. what the fuck? WJSN has a zodiac concept, each member representing one of the 12 signs so … what the fuck. They clearly weren’t going to add her and it was such weird timing, there was no way that was the plan. She could’ve been a soloist, the next IU, but also the next countless idol hopeful ballad singer that disappears from the limelight. What the fuuUuuUUck. 

But magically, thankfully, wonderfully, she did in fact join WJSN as Ophiuchus, the super secret 13th sign that is more of a stars thing than a horoscope thing. But it exists, as does she. 

Now let's get into it. Yeonjung’s debut with her group set in stars, where she’s supposed to be. This video really put them on the map for a lot of us, the story, themes, production and just aesthetic are so gorgeous and appealing, it's honestly a masterpiece. It doesn't get old. 

Our familiar hazy, otherworldly sky heavy with clouds and lightning, our girls, and a meteor shower. It establishes the world setting and then the different scenes with the girls. 

Yeoreum the elf (or something similar) feels unrest in the air.

Soobin braids Dayoung’s hair and Dawon sleeps, the three gloomy and waiting. 

Eunseo and Cheng Xiao watching and wiating.

Bona sits with her statue.

Xuan Yi, Luda, and Mei Qi circle a mysterious cube on the beach, clearly in some kind of ceremony. 

And the group’s parents, leader Exy and cool dad Seola, patrol the atmosphere in their space car like Sailor Uranus and Neptune. 

And a glimpse of the 13th. 

As this mysterious glittery asteroid falls to the earth, the 12 girls’ world gets shaken up a bit. They sense something is happening and are preparing for it, all of them focusing entirely on this event. Something awakens in the girls as it gets closer, some summoning magic or their irises changing color; this is a huge all encompassing deal.The weather changes and they use magic and their safety in each other to ready themselves for the beautiful sparkly mass to hit their planet’s surface. Of course, the mass is Yeonjung joining their planet and in real life, their girl group. 

Yeoreum stands among 3 shiny black stone pillars under the starry night sky. She has an animal companion, a white dog (maybe wolf?), both dressed in very Forever21ian native accessories and is the only visibly non-human member as her ears are pointed. Her wolf seems to be particularly affected and her concern for it alerts her to the Event. Her eyes change for just a frame, I wouldn't have noticed it at all if not for deciding to write this.

Soobin and Dayoung are dressed as twins with matching outfits and hairstyles and Dawon, standing on her own, is their leader. They sit in a normal, modern room full of books and simple furnishings. As the weather worsens, sitting by the window Dawon reads “A History of the Heavens” by Sir Robert Ball, a book on astronomy that you can find in pdf form all over the internet. Dayoung and Soobin sit facing each other, milkshakes or hot cocoa on the table, focusing on a watery orb with small shapes circling them.

This orb is in fact a glass ball Dayoung is seen holding for just a moment in her first appearance in the video. On the coffee table with their drinks, there's a bunch of decorative fruit and when the ball distorts as it floats between her and Soobin, you can see what seems to be a stem, making it look a whole lot like an apple. This could mean so many things if you like to look into it, which we do.

The shapes are lines connecting dots and I thought they could be the girls’ constellations (Taurus and Virgo) but it doesn’t look like it. When I was thinking of this, I hadn't noticed the glass apple being an apple or being something Dayoung already had so though I'm still lost, there's a lot more to consider. Any ideas? Please let us know in the comments! I really wanna know!

Dawon reads from her book and the pair now sit back to back on the couch holding hands. Then the three are finally situated on the couch together, in full ritual mode. Dawon swings her pendulum over it, drawing their magic circle. It appears under them and the papers in the room swirl about with the power of their magic. 

Eunseo and Cheng Xiao stand among rocks. Pink red feathers fall. Their wings appear from fire and solidify into a hard red metallic substance, Cheng Xiao looking like a warrior. Their wings hidden, more feathers fall and an outwardly anxious Eunseo holds Xiao as she looks towards the huge red moon. Finally the time has come, and their wings appear again. 

Bona, under the same sky as EunXiao, sits alone with a gold bust of a man upon a marble stage and pedestal. Like in I Wish of Step One fame, this imagery reminds me of another lesbian manga. She reaches for someone but cannot take her hand and cries some starry tears. Aside from the 13th, she’s the only one alone as Yeoreum has her dog, and she has an especially wise and solitary demeanor.

This sky features a huge reddish moon, as does the whole video. (Refer to Step 1 for a refresher on WJSN's other skies.) It could be signifying a lunar eclipse, or more dramatically, and if we're looking for a specific meaning of the glass apple, a blood moon. Basically the blood moon prophecy was a tetrad (4 lunar eclipses within 2 years) that's an alert of the second coming and end times supposed to happen a couple years ago. Looks like the next tetrad starts April 2032 so mark your calendars! It also looks like a selenelion eclipse, which is... difficult for me to sumamrize as I am a college dropout and not astronomer.

Bona is the first to summon their magic circle, the zodiac symbols surrounding many other shapes and hebrew words and in the very center lies our protagonist, the symbol for Ophiuchus.

The cubic frame sits at an angle on the shore in the dead of night, one side a bright LED light source. The girls are wearing flowy dresses, flower crowns, and veils and look serene and overall less angsty than the others. The girls pray and then Mei Qi summons her own orb. All three with orbs, these ones definitely not apples, they bring the circle hovering over the cube. 

Pendulum in the car as an ornament, DBZ headpieces on, our space patrol parents drive on. Exy raps and Seola looks hot and they find the location of the wonderous asteroid girl. Seola shifts that shit into hyperdrive. 

The pendulums used in the video seem like summoning tools and when I looked into if that's actually a thing, it does not seem to be outside of the Yu-Gi-Oh! universe. A lot of anime referenced here. Pendulums however have been used for eighty bazillion years to measure things like gravity, time, etc, and for dowsing and divining. For general divination it's mostly just like a yes or no question or ouija-like planchette and dowsing, the specific art? whatever? of finding water sources with a stick or rod or something. Like with other dowsing tools, the pendulum will just swing towards it and you follow. So while pendulums are a big theme I don't think the actual usage has much to do with the story. But who knows!!!!!! I didn't direct it!!

As the 13th falls, she’s watched by a mysterious figure on a pillar. 

She crashes and a circle forms under her. The others can feel it, finally the time has come. They go to meet her, the visible anxiety gone from the faces of Dawon, Soobin, and Dayoung.

They now have Yeonjung, their new member, their baby, and Bona finally can take her hand.

The video ends with the full group standing together in the storm, a scene repeated from the very beginning of the video then Yeonjung and the mysterious figure's faces, a good idea for a novel cover. But who is that man, the man that watched her fall? Is he the astronaut from their debut MV? Is he all the men that decided she wasn’t good enough, too greedy, too ugly in real life? It doesn’t matter who he is though, this is the story of 13 girls becoming complete, of Yeonjung getting 12 more sisters to love her and keep her safe. 

Okay. You get it now. Before our final and most important step, do your stretching and your refueling and maybe take a day or two off work or studies. If you have a sensory deprivation tank this might be a good time to pull it out of the closet and dust it off. Don’t worry, you’re so close to your dreams coming true.