SAKURA of LE SSERAFIM spent half her life being an idol. She debuted when she was four years younger than the youngest member HONG EUNCHAE who is 17 years old which means that she became aware of the truth mentioned in the trailer of “Good Bones” from the album EASY at an early age. Too early, in fact. Half of our life will be in pain, and the other half depends on what we do. Unless you pour all your efforts into achieving something, you’ll only remember pain throughout your life. SAKURA first appears in the trailer buried in a mound of discarded flowers with her eyes closed. She is gently awoken by KAZUHA who only has one wing on her back. The flowers are thrown out and her wing is broken. But there’s no time to wallow in pain while she’s awake. SAKURA and the rest of the members keep walking, never stopping throughout the trailer. When SAKURA’s path is blocked by a wall, beams of light emit from her eyes, breaking down the wall, the wall behind the wall, and more walls behind that. The trailer was shot around the Nakwon Instrument Arcade in Seoul as hinted by the “Nakwon Market” sign on the street where HONG EUNCHAE walks. The empty streets of Seoul turn into the stage where superheroes do their deeds. This might be the kind of life that all idols and celebrities in the entertainment industry lead. People don’t know where all the beautiful flowers that once lined the shops disappeared to. They don’t know what happens to the idols who performed on stage like superheroes. SAKURA who just used her superpower, lightly smiles and says “EASY.” She makes mind-blowing feats look easy. This is what she has been doing for half of her life. But suddenly, she starts bleeding from her nose. The other half of her life: pain. 

In the trailer of the album UNFORGIVEN entitled “Burn the Bridge,” SAKURA looks at herself against a white circular backdrop. Here, the narration goes like this: “The path I meant to follow is back there.” In “Good Bones” the wall that SAKURA broke down might have been another form of the door that stood in the way of the path that she wanted to take. While her tears permeated through the membrane between herself and another her in “Burn the Bridge,” the destructive light bores through the layers of walls in “Good Bones.” What blocks “the chosen road ahead” is that large and robust in reality. But LE SSERAFIM and many girl groups overcome this barricade no matter what, just like SAKURA’s light pierced through the barriers and crossed the sea. At the end of that beam of light, KIM CHAEWON hangs from the basketball hoop as if she just dunked a ball. The way they create these amazing moments that could have crossed continents and fallen from the sky looks easy, even breezy. LE SSERAFIM’s “Perfect Night” is an English song that topped the monthly chart on Melon which holds the highest market share among Korean music services. They are only the second K-pop group to hold this record after BTS. The journey leading up to these remarkable accomplishments is in fact more painful than a simple nosebleed. “You think it’s okay to degrade someone just because they’re true to themselves?” HUH YUNJIN’s lines in “Good Bones” embody only a fraction of the pain that the job entails. Because the girls are candid, or in the words of KIM CHAEWON: because “only I get lucky all the time” many female idols including LE SSERAFIM are subject to plenty of comments. Rumors created out of malice circulate, and all the efforts that they put in are degraded as if they’re nothing at all. Hence, EASY. The word is what a woman who has achieved something would use to paint a picture of composure and swag, making all her efforts look effortless. But the word also nullifies those same efforts when used by someone else. “It looks easy.” “It was handed to them.” LE SSERAFIM layers both meanings of the word “EASY” that are often applied to female idols in “Good Bones.” They rise from a mound of discarded flowers, bleed from their nose, break down walls, and yet make all of it look easy. Their job is underestimated as if it was really easy. 

In “Good Bones,” HONG EUNCHAE misplaces her foot and rolls down the stairs. SAKURA also falls somewhere in “The World Is My Oyster,” the trailer to FEARLESS. While “The World Is My Oyster” portrays SAKURA’s fall in a supernatural way, HONG EUNCHAE's descent, crashing into the metal stairs, and her body crumpling, are captured in a long shot. She really needs “Good Bones.” In reality, a single misstep can have you fall to your doom where pain spreads deep into your bones. KAZUHA is left with only one wing in “Good Bones” after they were set on fire in “Burn the Bridge.” She is no longer indoors where it’s tidy and lavishly decorated, either. This is the real road that others may describe to be “easy.” Since “Good Bones” is set at night, and therefore the overall tone of the film is muted, depriving the members of the splendid light that they basked in on stage and in their music videos. KIM CHAEWON walks around with a plastic bag that might be filled with garbage in her hand. HUH YUNJIN picks up a beverage off the ground and drinks it. But whatever situation they’re in, they can’t hide the overwhelming ambiance that HUH YUNJIN’s walk forward brings to the scene. SAKURA who rises from the heap of flowers does a splendid pirouette wearing a pink faux fur coat. Just like the arrangement of objects made of different textures, like the puffer jacket, faux fur, feathers on wings, and flowers imbues the scene with vivid dimensions, each member showcases her presence in her own way. 

Reality takes their light and color away, and at times builds the walls that look impossible to cross. But even so, they march forward energetically, drawing all eyes on them. In the LE SSERAFIM 2022 FEARLESS SHOW the runway was the stage that the many staff members created for the members. In “The Hydra,” the trailer for ANTIFRAGILE, the members arrive at an outdoor location in a vehicle and walk down the runway. But in “Good Bones” there is no artificial stage, nor something fast that will take them elsewhere. Instead, they turn the streets into their personal runway. 

As shown in the documentary The World is My Oyster, the team, which faced numerous challenges even before their debut, found themselves in the midst of a cyclone of attention and noise every time they dropped a new album. Not only LE SSERAFIM, but many girl groups experience this. But they march on, nonetheless. And when they look back, they see that they achieved many things. Things as unbelievable as dunking a basketball from across the sea. They finally arrive at “Good Bones” to finally announce that, “My ambition and aspirations are unstoppable.” While in FEARLESS, ANTIFRAGILE, and UNFORGIVEN the suffix “-LESS” and prefixes “ANTI-”, and “UN-” are used to invert the meaning of negative words, whereas nothing is added to the word “EASY.” Instead, they show that the word is the result of their unstoppable desires and ambitions. The girls who were once fearless, antifragile, and unforgiven have changed. Now they’re on the offense.