LE SSERAFIM is always walking somewhere. Sometimes the path they must follow is clear, sometimes unclear, but regardless, they press on. In all their trailers to date, LE SSERAFIM has been moving purposefully toward something—on runways, on stairs, through corridors, in streets. Contrary to what might be expected, though—that always moving forward should lead to better things—these things don’t always stay. The runways built specially for them, the sturdy surfaces like stages that hold them high, the safety behind the curtain they can always retreat to to regroup—all of which appeared in songs like “The World Is My Oyster” and “The Hydra”—all disappears at a moment’s notice. The group falls through the ground in “Good Bones,” forced to break their way through obstacles. They climb endless stairs in a way that others would consider crazy in “Chasing Lightning” and plummet from rooftops, only able to keep moving on by soaring into the sky. In the “Born Fire” trailer for “HOT”, their latest album, they can no longer press forward at all. Whether it was visible or not, the once clear-cut path KIM CHAEWON had been following has come to an abrupt end, leaving her stuck in inescapable darkness—like she’s trapped on a hamster wheel, running forever in circles that lead to nowhere.

It’s here that LE SSERAFIM veers off their predetermined course and forges a new path for themselves. In “Born Fire,” SAKURA steps off the white line she had been following and takes matters into her own hands. HUH YUNJIN, meanwhile, turns on a tap and sets fire to her surroundings, rising anew from the ashes once it’s all been burned to the ground. In this way, she embodies the very spirit of the seraphim in the name LE SSERAFIM—angelic beings burning brightly forever—as well as a phoenix, dealing with the toughest circumstances by incinerating everything, only to be born again from the ashes. Tying these two symbols together, the trailer concludes with a single word on screen: “immortality.” This sense of eternity, obtained only after burning away everything belonging to them, including themselves, becomes possible because they are willing to put themselves in a position where they lose everything in order to rise again, taking it upon themselves to “pour oil all over me and light the flame” (“Ash”). Echoing what they sing in “HOT”—“If I can live life my own way / Turning to ashes ain’t no problem”—the girls set fires in “Born Fire”: KAZUHA to the path she walks, HONG EUNCHAE to herself. In an attempt to live life on their own terms, the members of LE SSERAFIM are willing to burn it all, becoming “a phoenix soaring across eternal skies” and “sprouting wings,” growing more and more flame-like, to become that much more glorious—and menacing—angels than before.

This trilogy made up of “EASY,” “CRAZY,” and “HOT” offers a panoramic view of LE SSERAFIM’s journey as they work to be themselves despite their rather cruel reality. Without all the falling, smashing, climbing, crashing, soaring, and stopping seen in their “Good Bones” and “Chasing Lightning” trailers, they might not have dared to carve out a new way forward for themselves or attempted the miracle of being reborn as who they truly wish to be. The title of each album and their title tracks mirrors the goal that eludes the group in its respective trailer, as if bringing each process to an absolute close and leaving it up to the next album to fully realize it. For example, in “EASY,” LE SSERAFIM sings determinedly, “If it’s hard then I make it easy.” At the same time, they admit they’re only “halfway seraphim”—they “could get hurt but keep on walking … even when my legs give out.” The lyrics and choreography reflect this life that’s been anything but “EASY,” including through a series of seemingly simple movements continuously sped up and slowed. In “CRAZY,” as they sing “da da da” and lift their knees, they swat away their issues with casual flicks of the wrist as if they’ve now become easier to handle—but really, they say, “I put myself on trial, every day,” and, “back in the days,” they “fell short of crazy,” and still long to be. From hands slipped into pockets and messing up their hair to show they’re “not running from it” on the title track to their latest album, “HOT”, to their moves in “Come Over” where they throw their heads back dramatically and swing their arms wide—plus the way they choose their best moves for the impromptu part and exaggerate every gesture—shows how the group seemingly throws everything to the wind and pours themselves completely into the moment and into being themselves. However, considering their goal of being truly “HOT,” they’re conveying it through a song that, while musically a blend of rock and disco, actually has a very emotionally touching melody. On top of that, although they confidently sing, “If I can live life my own way / Turning to ashes ain’t no problem,” they paradoxically find themselves unable to fully “live life my own way” or to burn everything until it turns “to ashes.” Just like how, in the trailer, one small spark is all it takes to fully ignite the space all around, they’re still just warming up, with fire barely licking their fingertips and wings.
But just as they’ve done with all their album titles, “HOT” yells out in all caps. Just as they overcame the painful reality of not having it easy and not being allowed to go crazy, now they’re proudly “not running from it / Flames rising high,” even if they can’t be completely “HOT” just yet. And, looking at the full line, they’re going to love everything down to the process itself: “Not running from it / Flames rising high, I love it.” Even if it seems like LE SSERAFIM has set impossible goals for themselves, you can be sure they’ll achieve what they’ve set out to. Just like the “Born Fire” trailer opens with people melting away, the group will melt the hearts of everyone who watches them—until they, too, can say, “I love it.”