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killiru · 12 days ago

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Do you know if there's someone who did like an abridged version of the ateez lore or maybe a good short explanation of the lore? I'm a new atiny and i just wanna get caught up to date because I know everyone is gonna get into the lore once the new album is out

Well, since I don't really consume other people's lore content for the sake of keeping my brain in check, I can try to give you a somewhat briefer rundown:

Fever Part 1:

In this album's Diary Entries, we meet Ateez for the first time and learn a bit about their separate backstories:

Hongjoong's family left him behind and he hopes to bring them back together by becoming famous. But until he makes it that far, he views the other Ateez members as his family.

Seonghwa sees a girl dancing out in the street someday which inspires him to get into music and performing. After the girl leaves, he finds her bracelet on the ground which has the words "Be Free" engraved in it - this connects performing and freedom in his mind.

Yunho's older brother got struck by a car and died before he could fulfill his dream of becoming a musician so Yunho wants to pursue that dream for him. He firmly believes Hongjoong can help him achieve just that.

Yeosang lives in a very controlling household where his parents keep him booked and busy at all times with violin practice and such. In order to keep his sanity, he's started getting into taking apart appliances and putting them back together to learn how they work. He's last to join the other members after they ask him to operate a drone for them.

San grew up in a family that constantly moves around so he could never make any friends. He's really lonely and just longing for connection, so when he meets Ateez, he's finally really happy, but then his parents tell him they have to move again.

Mingi grew up in poverty and has severe depression to the point of being suicidal. He doesn't get along well with other students and sticks to listening to music with his headphones firmly in place to keep himself somewhat sane. That is, until he meets Wooyoung who won't stop talking to him and sticking by his side - they quickly become inseparable.

Wooyoung wants to be a performer but has severe stage fright. He meets Hongjoong, Seonghwa, and Yunho when they're already a trio with their own hideout where they listen to music and practice together. Wooyoung is then of course also the one who brings in Mingi to join them.

Jongho wanted to do nothing but play basketball throughout his entire life until he sustained an injury which doomed him to never play again. Discovering music and performing for himself then becomes his new dream.

After being together for an unknown amount of time, the eight members one day realize their dream is futile because they'll never make it in the music industry, so they all leave. All but Hongjoong.

He stays behind in the hideout and falls asleep, which lands him in a dream where he meets a man in a black fedora who hands him an hourglass and tells him there are many worlds which exists - all of which are real. And the hourglass, called the Cromer, is the key to connecting those worlds.

Upon waking up, that hourglass is sitting right there on the coffee table in front of Hongjoong and the sand inside begins to flow upward. This is when the other members return to the hideout.

The visualized version of this exists in the form of the Diary Film but Inception also touches on their backstories:

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Next comes Thanxx, which is when we meet another version of Ateez - a version of them that lives in another world where everything is similar but different - you know, your classic parallel world/alternate universe situation.

For clarity's sake, you should know everyone refers to the first universe as "A-World" and to this universe we're now talking about as "Z-World".

The man in the black fedora Hongjoong met in his dream, the one who handed him the hourglass, is from Z-World and we now get to learn a bit about who he and the alternate versions of the other Ateez members are:

The eight of them are rebels at heart. They don't like being told what to do - not by teachers, not by rules, and certainly not by an oppressive government. So as they grow up, they go from causing trouble at school to straight up rebellion.

As pure lovers of music and dance, they decide to take to the streets and perform there as an act of resistance, because - as we later learn - their government has decided to ban the arts - all arts - as means of stopping people from feeling emotion. Why that is, we'll soon uncover.

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Fever Part 2:

We're with Ateez from the Z-World again who, in their universe, call themselves "The Black Pirates". Additionally, it should also be noted that this music video takes place prior to Hongjoong receiving the Cromer in his dream, but let's continue:

In the Fireworks music video, we see the Black Pirates gathering up guns inside a hideout in the dessert. Why? Because the government is after them for continuously violating the law by performing in the streets at night and for also being in possession of the Cromer.

In order to track them down, the government sent so-called "Android Guardians" after them - tall humanoid robots dressed in white with a masked face.

Knowing they might not be able to keep the Cromer safe, Hongjoong uses its powers to travel to the A-World where he hopes his alternate self will use the Cromer to come find him and the others so they can work together and free Z-World from its oppressive rule.

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In the Diary Entries, A-World's Ateez now arrive in Z-World for the first time. They land in the hideout we just saw in Fireworks but their alternate selves - the Black Pirates - are already long gone, taken away by the Android Guardians. It's likely that weeks, if not months, have passed between then and now because travel between worlds comes with a side-effect of travelling through time as well.

However, more Android Guardians are already back at the hideout's doors - likely as a result of detecting the Cromer's energy signature. They break down the door and start attacking but Hongjoong manages to distract them by throwing a piece of glass.

After getting away, they get attacked again and, this time, the Android Guardians manage to steal away the Cromer, but Ateez's lives end up getting saved by a pair of siblings - one of whom had her voice stolen by the Android Guardians (this will be relevant in a bit).

The brother of the pair tells Ateez a bit about their world, such as how the government ran A.I. simulations that determined emotions are to blame for terrorism and crime and, therefore, removing this "variable" will lead to a Utopian society.

In the wake of this, all arts were banished - anything that could stimulate emotion - which then led to the rise of the Black Pirates who rebelled by performing in the streets. That is, until they were captured.

While the sister of the sibling pair (referred to as Grimes girl in the entries) is tending to Wooyoung's ankle, Wooyoung uses the opportunity to ask more questions about what happened to her voice, which is how he learns from her brother that her voice was transformed into a blue bead of energy that still exists out there and could be recovered from the Strictland dump.

"Strictland" is what the people of Z-World have named their own world, by the way.

The manager of the Strictland dump is a man called Left Eye who was driven to insanity after breathing in the toxic yellow fumes of the dump which kept showing him hallucinations of his dead daughter. However, due to his position, he also has insider information about the Android Guardians, meaning he might know where they took the Cromer.

Splitting into two teams, Ateez head to the Strictland dump where one half of the team recovers the Grimes girl's voice while the other talks to Left Eye.

Fever Part 3:

At the beginning of this album's Diary Entries, we learn that Z-World is already post 4th industrial revolution, meaning the human lifespan in this world is 200 years on average and, by extension, compulsory education lasts 40 years.

But back to the Strictland dump where Yunho now uses his personal history of losing his older brother to talk Left Eye down from his manic episode while Jongho and Yeosang recover the Grimes girl's voice from a cave.

Once reunited, the entire bunch of them head out to the Android Guardian's prison island where both the Cromer and the Black Pirates are being kept inside a former art gallery.

When they arrive, they find the Android Guardians high on the fumes created by the burning of people's dreams (yes, just like voices, dreams can also take a physical form in this world), meaning they're just lying on the ground and Ateez and the others can walk right on by.

They find the Black Pirates in a cell made of glass where Z-World's Hongjoong tells his alternate self that they all called them to Strictland for a reason: the Black Pirates want their alternate selves to continue their mission. They want them to keep performing for the people of Strictland so they can feel again and resist the government's tactics of oppression.

In an act of acceptance, A-World's Ateez then obey the request to put their hands on the glass cell wall, mirroring their alternate selves trapped within. Energy swirls between them as the black outfits are transferred from Z-World's Black Pirates to A-World's Ateez right before the Android Guardians wake up from their drunken daze and start attacking.

Ateez manage to run away and Yeosang even finds the Cromer and tosses it to the others, but gets caught by the Android Guardians in the process who offer Hongjoong a deal: a hostage exchange. The Cromer for Yeosang.

However, as Hongjoong throws them the Cromer, Yeosang snatches it from the air and shatters it on the ground which leads all of Ateez to get send back home to the A-World - all except for Yeosang himself.

The seven who escaped reappear in their hideout where they all sit with their loss and grief until a drone appears at their door. Yeosang's drone.

Parts of these entries are covered in the Deja Vu music video (but Eternal Sunshine takes place in a dream and is thus not important for the purpose of this post):

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Fever Epilogue:

We're still back in the A-World where a religious cult just tried and failed to steal a certain Mayan relic from a museum - a relic which Ateez soon discover is their world's version of the Cromer. Bingo! Their ticket back to Z-World. There's a way to save Yeosang.

As a result of the switch from the Z-World back to the A-World, time was also messed with again, leading the members to land further in the past - far enough back for Yunho's brother to still be alive. Because of this, Yunho decides to stay with his brother instead of participating in the other members' museum heist.

As six, Ateez arrive at the museum at the same time as the religious cult who have also come back for another try at stealing the Cromer. It comes to a scuffle and police show up to break up the cult members while Ateez escape with the help of Yunho and his biker friends.

However, the leader of the cult comes after them in a car and ends up in a crash which kills Yunho's brother at the exact same time he died before they travelled back in time.

Unfortunately though, the cult leader himself survives the crash and, just as he tries to stab Wooyoung, they turn the Cromer and return to Z-World.

Here, we switch to Yeosang's point of view. He's been trapped in a glass cell much like the Black Pirates and Grimes siblings who were also captured alongside him - only Left Eye got away, but even he lost his arm in the process.

While trapped, Yeosang is in constant agony as his life force is being drained. He also loses all sense of time and has nothing to look at but the black sheet covering the cell of the Black Pirates and Grimes siblings who are all in the same boat as him - actively dying.

The diary entries then end in the Black Pirates' new underground hideout where Left Eye - and other resistance fighters who've joined the original Black Pirates' cause - are all awaiting the return of their leaders. When we join them, they are just in the process of receiving a message delivered in Morse code - a message that reads "SAY MY NAME. ATEEZ."

Turbulence and The Real are both not part of the storyline so we can skip them.

The Treasure Series:

In Say My Name, we get to see A-World's Ateez break into the prison on Android Guardian island again in order to free both Yeosang and the Black Pirates. The Grimes siblings though, are already dead at this point.

During this storming of the prison, they also gather a ton of information about the government's plans which will later help them pull of large-scale missions that directly target the government's most influential means of control and manipulation.

Pirate King somewhat blurs in with the theme of rescuing Yeosang, so it can be skipped for the purpose of this post. Let's move on to Treasure then.

In this music video, we get to see the two alternate versions of Ateez go their separate ways again. The Black Pirates move to the underground hideout to continue forging their plans to take down the government, while A-World's Ateez focuses on using the Cromer and keeping the Android Guardians distracted.

From here on out, they'll essentially be posing as the Black Pirates and perform the role of a decoy while also continuing the original mission of performing for the people of Strictland to rattle on the cage trapping their emotions.

Hala Hala then serves as a grand scale announcement to Strictland: the Black Pirates survived, they're free, and they have absolutely no plans of stopping what they were doing. They're basically spitting in the face of the government with this performance.

Illusion and Wave both take places in a dream, so for the purpose of this post, they're also not needed, so we'll skip them and move on to Wonderland.

This is Ateez's first big performance in Z-World. It's the first time they're truly posing as the Black Pirates and putting their lives on the line as they do so. It serves as a bit of a parallel to the grand performance at the end of the Thanxx music video where the founders of the Black Pirates - their alternate selves - first performed for the people of Strictland.

In the Answer music video, the two versions of Ateez reunite again after 6 months of separation, which means the plans are now made and ready to be put into action. The Black Pirates are now sharing what they've planned with A-World's Ateez who agree to continue providing their assistance as best they can.

After their meeting has wrapped up, we also see an Android Guardian arrive, but it's too late - all sixteen of them are already gone. For the first time, they have the upper hand over the government.

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The World Ep.1

It's the start of the revolution and Ateez have basically full-on joined the Black Pirates. Both groups now work together to infiltrate government buildings by wearing masks and uniforms. This way, they manage to hijack government transmissions to the people of Strictland and spread their message of resistance.

They perform in the streets, spread flyers by dumping them out of vans and raining them down from blimps, and they also develop technology to break the chips implanted behind the ears of civilians which are used to suppress their emotions.

Upon "waking up", newly chip-less people are located by the nearest member of the Black Pirates thanks to the Black Link - a system set up by Left Eye which is alerted whenever someone's chip fails.

However, even with all that progress made, the Black Pirates have yet to locate Z - the evil dictator himself who is responsible for creating this messed up society.

Though instead of continuing to focus solely on that, they decide to help a young boy who came to them with a plea: him and his brother's chips were both broken, but his brother freaked out as a result and the boy is now scared his brother will be taken by the Android Guardians' for being "defective" like so many before him who dared to show emotion.

The next plan now stands: infiltrate Prestige Academy - the elite school both the boy and his brother are currently attending.

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The World Ep.2

The rebellion continues and, as planned, A-World's Ateez are now infiltrating Prestige Academy while Z-World's Ateez are infiltrating other parts of the city to rack up cash and gather information so they can get their hands on a highly specific bullet which Hongjoong later fires toward the end of the Bouncy music video.

In the Diary Entries, we learn more about the education system in Strictland, as well as how exactly Ateez infiltrate the academy, but most importantly, we also meet another group of people: THUNDER.

They're a student organization meant to enforce the law on the students and rat out anyone who dares to show emotion. And the leader of the group? Z-World's version of the girl Seonghwa witnessed dancing in the streets back in A-World. It's the girl with the "Be Free" bracelet.

Now even more emotionally invested, Seonghwa vows to free all the students before both versions of Ateez and additional members of the Black Pirates gather in the Prestige Academy courtyard and begin to perform for the students while passing out breakers to free the kids from their implanted chips' influence.

However, amidst the celebration, the Android Guardians show up and threaten to "dispose" of all the kids with a broken chip unless the Black Pirates surrender both themselves and the Cromer.

Right then, the pre-planted smoke bombs go off, giving everyone a chance to escape. Though while everyone else ushers the students out to safety, Seonghwa lets himself get taken away by the leader of THUNDER while the boy who'd originally pleaded them for help gets taken by the Android Guardians.

Meanwhile, back at Z's headquarters, the principle of Prestige Academy is executed for what happened at his academy.

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The World Ep.Fin

We're still mid-revolution and the people who've escaped the shackles of their government implanted chips are now classified as "Sense Offenders" and publicly hung in the courtyards of Strictland to serve as a warning to the rest of the population.

However, all these gruesome displays lead to is to reinforce the resistance. More and more people wake up and realize it can't go on like this - all this death and suffering has to stop, the so-called Sense Offenders can't have died in vain.

Back in the Black Pirates' hideout, Seonghwa rejoins the others with new information: THUNDER is actually a student resistance group and they have a map of the Disposal Site - the place where the tracker they planted on the boy from Prestige Academy is currently located.

This is when the Black Pirates and THUNDER join hands and decide to work together.

As part of their plan, half of A-World's Ateez - plus the boy's brother - infiltrate the Disposal Site where they'll also try to free all other prisoners, while the other half stays back at the hideout to provide assistance from a distance and also protect the equipment and gathered intel. Z-World's Ateez in the meantime, are off on their own mission.

Just as the infiltration of the Disposal Site truly begins, Android Guardians storm both locations at once and start taking people down left, right, and center.

During the scuffle, the four at the Disposal Site discover the boy - the one who'd begged them to help safe his brother - had ratted out the hideout's location to the Android Guardians in an attempt to ensure his and his brother's safety - he did so before he ever first made it to the Black Pirates' hideout and after he'd temporarily been forced to hide out at the Disposal Site.

As the fights continue, members of the Black Pirates are dying on both fronts while, at the Disposal Site, both the boy and his brother end up falling into the incinerator despite Hongjoong and Mingi's best efforts to safe them. It's ultimately THUNDER who prevents even more casualties when members of theirs appear at both locations and join the fight, finally allowing them to overpower the Android Guardians.

In the aftermath of all this, the Black Pirates join THUNDER at their hideout - a little village tucked away inside a forest, hidden away from government surveillance. Here, the "Be Free" girl - the leader of THUNDER - reveals she was motivated to join the resistance after she met the Grimes girl.

They hold a funeral for all the ones lost in the battles as fireflies dance above their heads and vow to not let their deaths be in vain.

With all three resistance groups now working together, a new plan is hatched and the leader of THUNDER is the figure at the center of it all. With the help of Left Eye's technology, she returns to school where she excels in her studies and passes all scans and checks despite her broken chip, and eventually works her way up to Z's personal protocol manager - a position which will take her right to Z's headquarters at the city center.

This is where we move from the diary entries to Crazy Form.

In the music video, we see what Z-World's Ateez were up to while A-World's Ateez infiltrated the Disposal Site: they were developing hologram technology and entering the dreams of the people of Strictland in order to unite them in their longing for freedom and the end of Z's rule.

On top of that, however, they were also infiltrating more places in Strictland, causing more chaos, spreading the message of the revolution, and in general, just being menaces to society as they planted technological devices throughout the city for their master plan.

As the music video comes to an end, we see the success of the revolution in the form of a hologram pirate ship above the city and a bluebird carrying Sopro over the skyscrapers of Strictland. But more on Sopro in a second.

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Golden Hour Pt.1

Z-World is now free and under new "leadership". Thunder and the Black Pirates are now in charge and have decided to leave people free to choose whether to life with emotions or remain free of them.

How did they achieve all this? With the help of Sopro: a red spirit stone created from the breath of all in Halazia - a place that once existed before Z destroyed it. A priest guardian created Sopro and gave it the ability to unite people's emotions before he sent it to the future in the beak of a bluebird alongside a group of witnesses from the future.

That priest guardian was Seonghwa. Him and the other members came to Z-World from yet another parallel world that was already destroyed by Z. By coming to Z-World at the start of Z's reign, they hoped to safe the people there from the same fate as the people back in their world, but all their efforts led to was Z going crazy and taking away gravity as means of suppressing the revolution.

Ultimately, they managed to stop the anti-gravity technology before everyone died, but they couldn't stop Z. However, the people who came from the future took Sopro with them and one of them left behind the "Be Free" bracelet which Seonghwa finds. This is what then motivates him to take his seven members and escape Z-World to go on a healing journey which we get to see in the sub-unit music videos of The World Ep.Fin.

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We now return to A-World's Ateez in the Diary Entries. The eight of them returned back home to their world, leaving Z-World in the hands of the Black Pirates and Thunder.

After once again trying to build up a music career for three full years, Ateez eventually give up just like last time and part ways:

Hongjoong becomes a bestselling author with his published work being an account of everything that happened to them in Z-World, but he still messes the members every day, even as his biological family finally comes back to him.

Seonghwa becomes a firefighter because he wants to keep saving lives but he too feels something is missing. Hongjoong's book still rests on his desk at work, unopened for the longest time.

Yunho becomes an archaeologist, but he also hasn't moved on fully - a large part of him still hopes he'll come across an artifact which can take him and the members on another adventure.

Yeosang becomes a pro at stock-investment and uses his money to fund Hongjoong's novel and invest in the arts, but his original intend has always been to simply make their dreams come true.

San buys a food truck and often chats with his customers about their dreams and finds out the majority of them have given up on theirs because reality barred them from fulfilling them.

Mingi becomes a professional model with a huge social media presence, but whenever he sees buskers on the street, he still thinks back to what he truly wants and longs for: to make music with the members again.

Wooyoung becomes a flight attendant but even there, he finds a way to perform for people because he simply cannot live without it anymore. While on a flight, he meets Yunho and Mingi again who just so happened to be on the same plane.

Jongho becomes a composer, vocal coach, and producer for an idol group. But after two of those members had a fight, he locks himself inside his studio and listens to the recording of an old Ateez song and, upon hearing all their voices, his heart still hurts.

The Work MV isn't part of the storyline so it's not relevant here.

Golden Hour Pt.2:

In the Diary Entries, we now learn how Ateez returned to the A-World: Z smashed the Cromer in front of them which sent them right back home.

Back in the present of A-World, we now learn it's not just Mingi, Yunho, and Wooyoung who found each other, but also Seonghwa and Jongho who were brought together by a fire which broke out at Jongho's work place.

The next day, all eight of them meet up at Yeosang's antique villa to celebrate the release of Hongjoong's second book - a sequel to his debut novel. They eat together, laugh, and chat (and flirt a bit) before their conversation turns back to their time spent in the Z-World.

They talk about the pieces of the Cromer Yeosang still kept in a glass case beside the one housing Sopro before some of them start talking about getting back together to make music again, but none of them really mean it. Wooyoung knows that. And yet he still can't stop himself from indirectly accusing the others of accepting defeat by moving on the way they did.

A real fight breaks out with Yeosang telling Wooyoung he's childish for clutching onto their former dream like that and Wooyoung calling Yeosang a coward for standing in the way of that same dream.

Ultimately though, no one takes Wooyoung's side. They all just sit by silently. So Wooyoung apologizes for ruining the mood and, despite everyone rushing to him to provide comfort, he leaves, only to come back later when everyone is already asleep.

It's then that he grabs Sopro from its case and utters his wish: "It's as though they've all forgotten what it was like to be happy. Reignite our passion like it was back then, and let us be happy together again. Please."

The Ice On My Teeth MV is also not part of the storyline so it's not relevant here.

Golden Hour Pt.3:

The Diary Entries here are all about Sopro and, throughout them, we learn it has a will of its own. It can communicate with the world and enter humans' bodies which introduces it to emotions - something it quickly grows addicted to.

Unfortunately, as it does so, it also grows more powerful in a very damaging way, but let's start from the beginning:

At first, it's in Wooyoung's body which allows it to feel for the first time. Here, it just sits by and observes as Wooyoung grows happy while the members all text him to say they really do want to get back together this time and give it their best shot again.

However, after switching to San's body by entering through his mouth, the first signs of Sopro's seemingly uncontrollable power begin to show. While at Hongjoong's book signing, everyone around them starts to laugh and go absolutely insane - they throw stuff at each other, eat paper, and lose all reason.

Frustrated and confused, Wooyoung - the only one not laughing, grabs Hongjoong and San and drags them along as he tracks down Seonghwa who is currently at the site of a factory fire that was just put out.

But even once there, it's not until Wooyoung reads an excerpt from Hongjoong's novel out loud that at least Hongjoong, Seonghwa, and San stop laughing as they remember their time in the Z-World. It's those memories which free them from Sopro's influence - memories which cannot be triggered in anyone but them so the rest of the city is still cackling uncontrollably.

It's then that Sopro uncovers new emotions within San and grows even more curious. In order to explore more of the world, it leaves San's body and moves on the owner of the factory where it quickly discovers the depths of despair and, instead of laughter, a wave of anguish now spreads across the city as everyone begins to cry. All but Hongjoong, Seonghwa, San, and Wooyoung who don't yet understand what just happened.

The four of them take a brief moment to discuss what the heck is going on which is when Wooyoung spills the beans about what he did. But instead of getting angry as expected, they all merely show understanding. As it turns out, they'd also considered using Sopro before to get back what they lost. They'd all just been missing each other without ever truly acknowledging it out loud.

After exchanging some affection, the four of them realize the factory owner has disappeared and that's when it clicks for them: everyone was sobbing because of Sopro's new host - a man whose life's work has just gone up in flames.

While chasing after the factory owner, they stumble across a crying Yeosang and Wooyoung swiftly grabs him by the hand to bring him along after apologizing to him for misunderstanding his intentions during their fight the day prior. He now understands Yeosang has been their biggest supporter all along and he feels guilty for ever doubting the one person who'd gotten tortured by the Android Guardians for a chance at saving the rest of them.

With Yeosang in tow, the four of them now run on to Jongho's studio where they find Jongho unaffected by Sopro since he'd been listening to Ateez's songs while Sopro's power spread across the city - that alone was enough to submerge him in his memories of Z-World.

It's here that they all realize what's been going on: with each new host, Sopro grows stronger, more powerful. It has a will and its will is to feel alive and experience everything the world has to offer and it can only do that with a body. And since it wasn't created with one, it'll have to possess others to fulfill its dream.

Just as they'd come to that understanding, Jongho discovers Mingi's social media page with ten million followers is suddenly free of posts. And a second later, it's fully deleted.

And this is where the story currently ends, with this final line: "San: "We need to find Mingi and Yunho!""

The Lemon Drop MV takes place in a dream again and covers Wooyoung's grieving process as he missed the members while being alone, so it's not relevant for the purpose of this post.

I hope this helps!

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