What it Means to Be ENHYPEN

Connecting ENHYPEN’s sources of literary inspiration to their complete discography reveals their characters’ evergreen goals.

THE SIN : VANISH era is a meta one, with the album taking the form of investigative audio journalism. The podcast-like program unfolds through a mix of songs, a commercial break, witness statements, and news segments. This is the gist, as described at the start of ENHYPEN’s “Knife” music video:

“Breaking news: Seven vampires under a red notice for breaking a major taboo have been spotted moving openly through the city. Despite repeated efforts by the VPU [aka Vampire Pursuit Unit], the group continues to stay one step ahead.”

The rest of the video shows various “vampire sightings,” during which ENHYPEN taunt those who are after them:

“Chase us, we’re miles above like a satellite / You can try, but you’ll only hit air with your slice.”

“It’s obvious what cards you’re holdin’ / So much for what you scheming.”

“You’re welcome to try and provoke me, it’s cute… It’s funny how worked up you get, it’s pathetic / And your rotten smile’s so phony.”

In short, they taunt “Catch us if you can,” and the humans cannot¹! They get more and more brazen, dancing for a swarm of phone-carrying, camera-taking, social media-posting spectators.

They even stayed in character for an album press conference, saying they were comfortable disclosing their current location because of how little faith they had in the VPU catching them! They answered all of the reporter’s questions, from how they would respond in “hypothetical” close-call scenarios to what props they like to use for concealment! They even posed for pictures to verify their identities!

They gave away more of their tricks in an in-character YouTube upload, a “What’s in my bag” video released prior to the album. In that video, they not only showed the underground bunker they were presumably trying to hide out in, but they revealed how they disguised weapons, like making brass knuckles look like dumbbells! It is as if ENHYPEN are checking off every box on a list of what not to do when on the run!

A question that is just as interesting as why they are being so reckless is why they are still not caught. Their cockiness is not unearned; they are practically handing themselves over to authorities, yet they remain a step ahead of them. Theoretically, it should only be getting easier to nab them, as more and more media attention shines on them, as they get even more careless, and as surveillance and tracking abilities become more sophisticated (at least compared to any previous attempts to catch them - in ENHYPEN’s story, they travel through time, and they appear to be in the present day for this era).

The simplest explanation: ENHYPEN are really good at this! They are quick-thinking, observant, and intimately aware of human shortcomings that they can bypass, or can at least analyze and apply in helpful ways. During the press conference, when discussing the props used to blend in, one member said it actually helps to use props that stand out, because that makes passersby feel uncomfortable and avert their eyes! He mentioned carrying an umbrella on sunny days, because “if you walk around acting really strange, people actually avoid eye contact”! That is their strange logic in the “Knife” music video, when they openly run and dance for the crowds. ENHYPEN have people right where they want them, having learned that witnesses can quickly turn into spectators if they are entertained or taken aback enough. They seem to know humans better than humans know themselves, keeping themselves one step ahead in terms of psychological games, too. By learning how to rig “the dice” (as they say in “Knife”) in their favor, they indicate an underestimated intuition for how to control human behavior, and by efficiently applying that intuition, they show how vampires are not so different from humans after all. In short, they use humans’ faults against them.

As explained in a previous essay, ENHYPEN’s storyline (which spans videos, songs, a Webtoon, and more) centers vampire characters for deeper-than-assumed reasons. Vampires are the conduits through which they explore the human condition; seeing the world from a vampire’s perspective gets people to see aspects of being a human being that they usually overlook and take for granted, like a sense of belonging and visibility.

Besides all of THE SIN : VANISH’s corresponding videos, the most important video to recall is the “DESIRE” short film. JAKE appears on a late-night talk show² and is asked why he is now ready to talk about what vampires are really like. After locking eyes with a literal monster in the live studio audience (one that no one else seems to see), he says:

“Because I want to be seen. To remind you that I exist. To remind myself.”

Everything ENHYPEN do goes back to that answer. They see themselves as the monolithic monstrosity³ that humans have labeled them as (in their story, vampires are not only treated as evil but are jailed or outright banished). It is an active, constant effort to counter that narrative, to see and to show the real them. ENHYPEN’s public antics while the feds are onto them make much more sense with this desire in mind. Part of their reckless behavior might be fueled by their egos, which are bolstered every day they are still not caught, but they also love the attention. They love getting as close as they can to being a part of human society, and they love feeling the adrenaline rush. They love feeling, period, and they are energized at the thought of having a place in humans’ minds and memories. They want to prove to and remind both humans and themselves that they matter - that they have a set space and time to call their own.

Making Sense of Life’s Fine Lines

THE SIN : VANISH is just the latest instance of ENHYPEN’s songs and videos referencing the metaphorical lines people draw.

First in the saga are the “BORDER” albums, about determining what and where “the lines” are, regarding everything from societal taboos to self-imposed mental constraints. Their first-ever intro is called “Intro : Walk the Line,” and it includes this comment: “[T]he world carved us on that line.”

Second is the “DIMENSION” series, which is about testing the lines, daring to toe over them or even redraw them. The costs that come with changing predetermined lines appear, but mainly as background noise in their minds, like when they are warned about the treasures on an island in “Intro : Whiteout”: “You can take anything you want, but nothing is free.”

Third is the “MANIFESTO” era, when the costs of messing with the lines become harder to ignore. The stakes seem higher due to the lines being treated like a living force of nature, as the track “WALK THE LINE” puts it:

“I kept running and running towards an unknown destination beyond the border to cross the line, but it eventually caught up with me, bound me, knocked me down, and forced me to walk along it, like running in a wheel.”

In the DARK BLOOD and ORANGE BLOOD eras, the overarching message is a willingness to take the plunge, deciding it is worth any cost to erase and redraw lines boldly. The key words are “costs” and “sacrifice” in a DARK BLOOD teaser image’s text:

“Crystal clear, the meaning of sacrifice now near… I will be your shield, forevermore, even if it costs all that I knew.”

It is worth repeating this line from “Intro : Whiteout”: “You can take anything you want, but nothing is free.” At this point, ENHYPEN became aware that staying on the lines comes with costs of its own, so they might as well change the lines and take their chances at higher rewards for their higher risks. They further this mindset in THE SIN : VANISH, with songs about metaphorical money, including “Lost Island” (“All the quarters, nickels and dimes / Keep them gathered so they don’t scatter / There’s nothing more precious than time”) and “Stealer” (“Betting everything, we’re the dealer”).

THE SIN : VANISH further emphasizes ENHYPEN’s fixation on lines: how they are drawn, maintained, broken, bent, twisted… The speaker in “‘THE SIN : VANISH’ Interlude 1” video narrates:

“Love and desire on the finest line. You linger for a moment…”

Several lines that are flattened into one is what JAKE alludes to during his interview, saying:

“You desire to destroy the things you love.”

“The lines” are a proxy. At a deeper level, ENHYPEN’s real fixation is on how society reaches consensus regarding norms, taboos, and statuses. They want this intel for practical reasons - to know who they are up against as they stay runaway fugitives - but also for the sense of control and overall understanding of how they might be able to fit themselves into the picture.

After JAKE’s interview is interrupted by a power outage, other vampires arrive and feast on the TV show host, which shows how quickly one thing can become its opposite. The good kind of affection became the ruinous kind, an impulse to care becomes an impulse to stamp out that initial feeling, and an attempt at showing a human side to vampires turns into a stereotype reinforcement. Definitions are less ironclad than people think, the world as people see it can change much faster and more fully than people expect, and life is actually drawn on the finest of lines. “Love became greed and erased itself,” a line from the DARK BLOOD intro “Fate,” sums it up.

Turning Tables on a Dime

Knives have been an apt symbol of ENHYPEN’s universe long before the “Knife” era made it obvious. ENHYPEN have always loved living on the edge, balancing on lines in ways that make it seem equally likely that their fate will be tipped in one direction or the other (like escaping or getting caught). Knives represent themes in this story besides just a rebellious streak and making dividing lines. They also represent danger, power, engraving a lasting impression, and reflecting lights and images. What ENHYPEN consider more worth investigating than the details of this symbolism are where their value as symbols originates from in the first place, even if - and sometimes because - the origins are misguided.

The “tricks of the light” theme is a primary one in THE SIN : VANISH’s corresponding videos, which feature one optical illusion after another. Images are manipulated in real time, as a voiceover questions what the viewers see. Plumes of smoke form shapes. Some images interact with the viewers by appearing to yank them closer or push them away. Scenes bleed into each other. A classic hypnosis graphic appears for a while. Heavy shadows fall on what might be a shrunken-down place but could also just be a diorama. Things seem to grow in size or change in number just because of placement changes on the screen. Presumed black-and-white flashbacks interrupt the scenes that are in color. Some animations become live-action scenes and vice versa. Context appears montage-style, photos of era-spanning symbols scattered on a string-lined bulletin board. Media reports appear as a blitz before the point-of-view becomes simply staring out a car window.

What is important to remember is not what all of the above means and how “right” one’s interpretations are. What is important is simply the fact that one thing becomes another in a nanosecond; the line-redrawing throughout ENHYPEN’s story becomes literal. “The string known as reason snaps in a flick,” in the words of DESIRE : UNLEASH’s intro, “Flashover.”

The ease with which reality is warped is paired with a statement about the ease with which passive consumption of that warping is quietly intruded upon. One series of images is interrupted by a billboard with roving eyes on it, a mid-activity advertisement. There is a “Seeing Eyes” billboard in The Great Gatsby, too, and it is just as meaningless as the one in THE SIN : VANISH videos⁴ (more on The Great Gatsby’s parallels in a later section)! Its presence implies the advertisement of something, but no one knows what. It represents how nothing means anything without human effort to make it mean something, and it also shows a human instinct to partake in empty gestures that only feel like one is doing something worthwhile. The practice of meaning-making - the process of line-creating - is somehow as arbitrary as it is essential.

Sights Seen and Unseen

ENHYPEN’s songs often frame light as a source of confusion instead of clarity. “I thought I [would] understand if I ran, but in the end, I didn’t learn a thing,” they sigh in “Intro : Whiteout;” a “whiteout” blinds them, rather than exposing some new truth. They also reference in that intro “The piercing light so bright” and say, “My eyes are closed. No, they are open, but I can’t see…” And the sun in “Intro : The Invitation” is described as “A dizzying flicker, a light that blinds and deceives.”

When sunlight doesn’t trigger more confusion than clarity, its glare brings uncomfortable truths into view, like their monstrous identities in “Chaccone”:

“Brighter than the sun / That’s just me / Dancing the Dance of Death / Drunk with arrogance.”

And “‘THE SIN : VANISH’ Interlude 2” is about “The orb that holds the light [that] shines so brightly it blinds their eyes.”

A confirmed Shakespeare reference in ENHYPEN’s work (the “Given-Taken” debut era) is to “Sonnet 148,” which references how tricks of the light can actually be preferable to seeing what is really there:

“The sun itself sees not, till heaven clears / O cunning Love! with tears thou keep’st me blind / Lest eyes well-seeing thy foul faults should find.”

The author is describing his judgement being clouded by love. He has a hard time seeing things for what they really are, like the sun has a hard time seeing the Earth when “Heaven” hasn’t “cleared” yet - when clouds are in the way! But this stops him from seeing the flaws in a lover.

Seeing someone’s or something’s “shadow side” is often avoided, as it is in Jay Gatsby’s story. (While The Great Gatsby has not been explicitly cited as an influence on ENHYPEN’s work, there are many parallels to the novel’s themes that make it worth including in this analysis anyway.) Jay lives in the past, keeping up an elite appearance to woo a former love, Daisy. The novel speaks to the allure of ignoring uncomfortable present-day truths, as well as the impulse to put on airs to come across as important. Gatsby can only see clearly if he opens his eyes to current-day truths, and he hates what he sees:

“[He] paid a high price for living too long with a single dream. He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass. A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted...”

When seeing a bleak future because he has spent too long caught up in the past, Gatsby sees the “foul faults” Shakespeare warns about being exposed to upon having “eyes well-seeing”! Gatsby is faced with both a rose’s petals and its thorns, adding significance to ENHYPEN’s own “grotesque” rose and thorn symbolism: roses aflame in “Debut Trailer 1 : Choose-Chosen,” roses that are a go-to prop in lore-heavy live performances… Plus, a rose with many large thorns rotates inside a glowing, orange circle on a black surface in “‘THE SIN : VANISH’ Interlude 2.” While seeing a rose’s beauty and “grotesque” parts, viewers see light and darkness.

While light is often depicted as disorienting in ENHYPEN’s story, it is portrayed less negatively when mentioned along with shadows. THE SIN : VANISH includes a song called “Lost Island,” about wanting to take a feeling and “hide it in a time capsule… The sunlight casting its shade on us.” In “Sacrifice (Eat Me Up),” they view themselves as more suitably described as shadows and praise someone else for being the light instead:

“My arrogant oblivion and illusion… Full of darkness… But here you are… shining light.”

Text on a DARK BLOOD teaser poster is also still relevant:

“Intoxicated by my own might, I’ve strayed from your light.”

Lastly, there is the song “Orange Flower (You Complete Me),” in which they sing about how “the curse disappears” when “you complete [them]” and “shine on [them],” meaning they can stay and the curse can disappear, rather than vice versa, if “you” bring the light that makes their “shadow” selves possible.

Like light and shadows, mirrors also symbolize both reveals and distortions, from the literal mirrors in “Debut Trailer 2 : Dusk-Dawn” and in music videos to the implied mirroring of images in “Brought The Heat Back” and “‘THE SIN : VANISH’ Chapter 2. ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry.’” In the latter, the camera spins 180 degrees to reveal a very different scenario on “the flip side.”

What is an “original” versus a “mirrored” version remains unsettled, but that inconclusiveness can be seen as a good thing. Another one of Shakespeare’s works that is confirmed to be a source of ENHYPEN’s inspiration is Hamlet, which features this quote in Act III about the power of performances:

“The purpose of playing… is to hold as ’twere the mirror up to Nature.”

This is so actors can “catch the conscience of the King,” or whomever their audience is. Acting holds a mirror up to society in a way that can “catch” the public’s attention, interest, and ability to learn and grow. ENHYPEN want to “mirror” humans to “catch” and, ideally, hold onto information about what makes them human. They try to reflect what they see in human society to better understand it and be seen as a part of it. That reflective behavior doesn’t fully accomplish their goals, because reflections are not quite wholly identical to originals, and because everything has a “flip side” that is often hidden. As put in “Outro : The Wormhole”:

“The perfectly square mirror reveals a twisted scene.”

Seeing becomes believing, but that doesn’t mean it should.

Wanting Individuality and to Be Idolized

“Intro : Walk the Line” is about what THE SIN : VANISH era makes explicit, about how knives can simultaneously represent carving a line and reflecting light⁵:

“[W]e greet the sun. It shines in our eyes… [T]he world carved us on that line… to the unknown we run, carving sunrise, burning bright.”

It has been confirmed that this phrase is inspired by this one from Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 11”⁶: “She carv’d thee for her seal.” The sonnet is about a fear of leaving no legacy; being swept into the dustbin of history is considered a fate worse than death. To ensure one makes a mark, one ought to keep the family tree growing:

“Thou shouldst print more, not let that copy die.”

While ENHYPEN’s take on the “Life is short and fast, so make it count while you still can” message is not specifically about having kids, it is about “making copies,” about multiplying their impacts for a more solid guarantee that they can be felt in perpetuity. As put in the introductory monologue for THE SIN : VANISH:

“Overwhelmed by their love for each other, consumed by the desire to become completely identical, they dared to dream a forbidden dream.”

To make “completely identical” copies of themselves could allow them to feel like they exist in different realms at once, rather than having to pass through one lifetime after another, feeling doomed to always wander through time, never belonging anywhere. This is one of the motivations behind ENHYPEN treating different things as not different, like when someone says in the “Bad Desire (With or Without You)” video:

“Did you really think I could just stand by and watch you disappear? I told myself it was for you… It was your own desire…” (emphasis added)

This is also a source of motivation for making “copies” of their voices and turning them into collectables.⁷ Plus, it is another explanation for why vampires bite and convert mortals into “one of them.”

Defining one’s image is both essential and endless, something represented well through trick mirrors and other “more than meets the eye” scenarios.

Fellow Flesh-and-Blood Beings

This story is about what makes vampires and mortals different in a more technical, physical sense, too. Blood represents injuries for humans but nutrition for vampires, and ENHYPEN are curious about this perceived dichotomy, because whether feasting on someone as a vampire or just living as a human, blood is essential, and it is not desirable to be leaving the body for either group! Blood sustains all of them, just in different forms!

ENHYPEN wonder where the line is between an understandable and an out-of-bounds craving, as well as how blurry that line can look. After all, as they say in “Outro : Cross the Line”:

“Life is mixed with death and what we must survive.”

Just like how deciphering the optical illusions in THE SIN : VANISH era does not really matter, the particular connotations the characters place on blood do not matter at the end of the day. What matters is that blood is present; being around and near blood is when ENHYPEN feel the most alive. The scenes stained with blood in ENHYPEN’s videos all have something in common. The bloody handprint that is left on a window by someone locked out of a building (in both “Debut Trailer 1 : Choose-Chosen” and “Let Me In (20 CUBE)”), the blood spelling out “FATE” on a wall (in “Given-Taken,” which starts with a nosebleed close-up), the blood overflowing in a fountain and pouring down like rain (in “Drunk-Dazed”), a sketch that pops up during “‘THE SIN : VANISH’ Interlude 2” of someone in a silent scream who has a bloody mouth and hand… In all of these cases, blood is a “We were here” reminder. It is a sign that they existed. This is how blood’s presence is emotionally filling to the vampires, a physical indicator of a life being lived.

Vampires and humans have wants and needs that mirror each other’s more than they think.

The Priceless Precariousness of a Presence

ENHYPEN’s DIMENSION : DILEMMA era is inspired by The Odyssey, a mythological epic poem about a ten-year journey home by sea. Odysseus embraces the difficulty of the journey, believing it will make his homecoming celebration more deserved; he is happy for fate to “bring the trial on!” The “trial” involves a whirlpool named Charybdis and a six-headed monster named Scylla⁸, and they are within an arrow’s distance of each other. A ship’s passage between them, then, is inherently dangerous regardless of which character’s side the ship tilts towards. Odysseus takes his chances with Scylla, who promptly eats his crew members “raw,” as they are “screaming out… lost in that mortal struggle.”

The DIMENSION : DILEMMA album has three variations: the “ODYSSEUS Version,” the “CHARYBDIS Version,” and the “SCYLLA Version.” That era nods to The Odyssey in less direct ways, too, with references to riptides and the sea in the intro, interlude, and outro. Most notably, “Intro : Whiteout” mentions the “sea that gives it all away,” reminiscent of the waves taking away some of Odysseus’s riches. Since Odysseus catches the King’s attention and admiration, the King gives him treasures that make up the value of what he has lost at sea. The King lauds the “performance” by a “man of twists and turns”:

“What grace you give your words... You have told your story with all a singer’s skill.”

ENHYPEN seek their own kind of performance compensation. Their ultimate reward is humans’ emotional investment in the stories they tell “with all a singer’s skill.” This comes with risks, as any example of putting oneself out there does - remember, “You can take anything you want, but nothing is free” - but they are willing to take those risks, motivated by the fear of how quickly one’s presence can become one’s absence. This is reiterated through the frequent presence of dark smoke in their videos. It often seems to be chasing them - sometimes, it even forms the shape of a hand reaching towards them (like in “‘THE SIN : VANISH’ Chapter 1. ‘No Way Back’”). The physical threat is suffocation or being pulled backwards, but there is a deeper psychological threat: the smoke’s ability to make them disappear. The smoke is daunting because of its power to erase their presence in a flash. It is capable of whisking them away at any second, leaving behind no trace they were ever there. The line between dissolution and a physical presence proves to be narrow, just like the seconds of time between being able to say one is “here” or “not here,” and like the status of the crew members being perfectly fine and being eaten raw!

After being captured on an island⁹ by the one-eyed giant Polyphemus, Odysseus pretends his name is “Nobody.” After Polyphemus falls into a drunken stupor, Odysseus shoves a stake into his eye, blinding him. When the giant cries out for help, it does not come, because no one finds cries along the lines of “Nobody is hurting me” to be worth a response! What hurts more than being the target of wrath is being the target of nobody’s wrath, being considered not worth paying any mind. Odysseus eventually does reveal his true identity; he cannot help but take credit for the successful trickery!

Out of the handful of Shakespeare quotes incorporated into ENHYPEN’s discography, the most critical to remember is “To be or not to be,” a question posed in Hamlet. Hamlet’s mental state stays concerning and calamitous, and his mother describes him as being as:

“Mad… as the sea and wind, when both contend / Which is the mightier.”

This brings to mind “Intro : Whiteout”:

“In order to get the treasure, we’ve either got to get through a brooding monster or a swirling tornado. Whatever we choose, we’ve got to run.”

The literal currents in The Odyssey and the metaphorical currents in ENHYPEN’s journey both have parallels to Hamlet’s psyche. Feelings that are forces to be reckoned with crash into each other and vie for dominance, yet at the end of the day, who one truly is is revealed no matter what. The particulars do not matter; stopping a sense of self from being in doubt does. As ENHYPEN paraphrase in “Outro : Cross the Line” and Polonius¹⁰ advises his son in Hamlet Act I:

“This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

(Please skip this paragraph if sensitive to mentions of suicide.) Hamlet asks “To be or not to be” when he is contemplating taking his own life; he really is asking himself if he should be someone or not. ENHYPEN’s characters are not in the same headspace, but they are asking the same philosophical question about what it means to be. Not knowing drives them crazy, especially because it feels like an answer is close at hand. “I hate ‘To be or not,’” they complain in “Tamed-Dashed;” “To be or not to be, it’s all the same in the end,” they grumble in “No Way Back.” Hamlet seems to think it would be so easy to off himself; ENHYPEN feel like it is just as strikingly easy to disappear in their own ways. “Just like that, I’m gone,” they remark in “No Way Back.” Their greatest fear is becoming Nobody, feeling not even “real” and “true” to themselves.

The Worst Part of Immortality

When questioning why ENHYPEN care so much about changing the lines and their relationships to them, it is always key to keep in mind their immortality. Once they understand the lines and therefore understand what it means to live a human life, they can emulate that more, and whether that fills their existences with more positive than negative emotions or vice versa, either result is preferable to feeling nothing at all. The bane of a vampire’s existence is its endlessness and related aimlessness.

This is how the ultimate curse is described via text on a DARK BLOOD-era poster:

“I became a cursed being who couldn’t even die, but merely wander. You erased me. I struggled in the deep, terrifying darkness that was worse than Hell.”

On that album, they sing about the river of Lethe (in “Sacrifice (Eat Me Up)”), a river whose water causes those who drink it to forget their past lives and to wander for eternity if unable to pay the fee to be ferried into the Underworld. ENHYPEN do not mind acting like people who will end up in Hell; that is preferable to Purgatory!

The “WANTED” posters in the “Knife” music video label all seven ENHYPEN members as “HIGH-VALUE TARGETS,” but the fliers also say “REWARD VARIES PER SUSPECT.” Which members are deemed more valuable than others remains unclear, but the point is that each has a value attached to their presence. ENHYPEN partly love having bounties on their heads, regardless of the amount, because it is proof each of them are somebody. They know that making a scene makes them valuable in society’s eyes, so they eagerly keep making more of those scenes. They will pay whatever fee they have to in order to enter Hell, if that means escaping the Purgatory of nothingness.

Inherent Reset-Versus-Redo Tension

The biggest downside of a preoccupation with changing lines is the inability to ever be finished. The whole purpose of messing with the lines is to escape the slog of eternity, but that proves to be a fool’s errand for vampires. This is why their narrative remains tinged with a not-fully-unwarranted air of fatalism; they feel doomed to not live, but to merely exist, for eternity.

The theme of endless questions has been as frequent in ENHYPEN’s work as “the lines” have been¹¹. They mention having to “drive through the question[s] for life” in the debut song “Given-Taken.” They reckon with “papers with unanswered questions… Endlessly written” in “Interlude : Question,” in which they also say:

“So, what is it I want?... What should I do? What choice do I make? Who am I? And what do I mean when I say ‘me’?”

And their task of understanding human society is never done, in part due to seeing cognitive dissonance at work. They think they understand what humans and life are all about, but then they see contradictions that put everything back in doubt. As put in “Interlude : Question”:

“I thought I’d understand if I ran, but in the end, I didn’t learn a thing.”

No matter how much information they gather in a day, the next day is like a complete reset. MANIFESTO-era concept photos allude to this, emphasizing phrases including “Reset Us” and “Show You Who I Am.” That era is all about flipping illogic and logic, turning questions into answers and vice versa. In THE SIN : VANISH era, there is a similar interchangeability to beginnings and endings. For example, “No Way Back” has a different meaning depending on which phrase is focused on first: “There’s only one answer” or “What if I’m dead wrong?” “Big Girls Don’t Cry” indicates control over their emotional states (“It only hurts if you let it”), but it also indicates a lack of certainty (“don’t ask where we are”). And in “Stealer,” they “fear nothing” because of using a whole new playbook, a “brand-new formula of love,” with that formula’s effectiveness left up to interpretation.

There is both agony and ecstasy in the thought of getting endless do-overs. ENHYPEN are always on the move but can never get off the wheel of time.¹² This is part of the reason why they enjoy being on “WANTED” posters. Being “WANTED” men gives them a set time and place in which to cement an impression. They want to stop moving from lifetime to lifetime without being memorialized in any of them. When they become famous, they become a part of history. To paraphrase, these vampires think, “These humans don’t know how lucky they are, to be somebody instead of everybody and therefore also somehow nobody.” They covet distinctions that seem like privileges instead of rights; they feel destined to stay in the monolithic “monsters” category no matter how many lives they live. No matter what, their journey always ends up the same, which is nowhere in particular.

This is one of the most famous lines from The Great Gatsby:

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

“Current” in this quote refers to both bodies of water and the present day. Life is compared to a boat ride in which the natural flow of the currents is backwards; to paddle upstream, there must be struggle and endurance. Jay Gatsby would be so much happier if he could feel free from the headspace of his past, if he could just accept that his former lover is a former one and then strive for likelier dreams. But he will never fully be able to unlock and drop these thought confines, so they continue to generate resistance as he rows through life, like the shadows that follow ENHYPEN no matter where they go. From “Foreshadow”:

“Days being chased… one day, a long shadow fell before my eyes. A shadow in front of me no matter where the sun was. I realized that moment, that that infinitely deep, deep well of a shadow was the foreshadowing of the things to come… I chase after the shadow…”

It is not mutually exclusive to say that ENHYPEN feel like shadows and are afraid of shadows. They are in an endless race against themselves, fearing what they can embody but also embodying what they fear. They run from themselves but can never outrun themselves, in part because immortality means they cannot run back or towards anything.

Yet they keep on running. The narrator for the introductory track on THE SIN : VANISH comments on the never-ending ordeal:

“[E]ven as the cold gazes they have never before known pierce them like blades, and sudden waves of anxiety shake their bodies like a bitter wind, they press on, continuing their journey toward the world’s edge, without so much as a safety net.”

Putting Themselves Up for Grabs

THE SIN : VANISH is all about ENHYPEN’s quest to prove, to themselves and the mortal world, that they exist - that they know what it means “to be.” Their preferred way “to be” is by hiding in plain sight, and they have mastered the ability to do so. This raises another possible answer as to why they have not been caught by the VPU yet: willful negligence.

Media and authority figures alike benefit from the ongoing status of the “vampires on the run” story. As the images on the screen throughout the “Narration Preview” video for THE SIN : VANISH show, the hot topic is keeping VAMPIRE NOW’s website traffic through the roof. Comments praise the outlet as “the only source we can trust” and overtly express “full support for VAMPIRE NOW’s reporting.” VAMPIRE NOW indicates awareness of this story’s high engagement, underhandedly rewarding cyber vigilantes by crediting “tip-off footage” from them as helping further some leads (in the subheading of a “RED-NOTICE” article). The most telling testimony is in the album track called “Witnesses”: “You know, they say the Vampire Pursuit Unit even found their hideout?” Perhaps VAMPIRE NOW reporters have lots of useful tips that they purposefully withhold from authorities, because the successful capture of the fugitive vampires, and thus the end to the story, would be a blow to the site’s popularity.

Letting ENHYPEN’s on-the-run status continue is not just good for click-related ad revenue, but for merchandise sales. ENHYPEN have their voices monetized, and voice boxes come in plush keychains that are sold during the album’s “commercial break.” They were also advertised during the press conference and are even available as official merchandise! ENHYPEN tilt the public perception of themselves towards “benefit” more than “burden” by catering to materialistic desires, and other vampires have done the same, monetizing their minds (“The secret to earning an A in ‘Living Like a Human!’” is advertised on a webpage) and even their nutrients (blood types are listed on the broadcast’s lower-screen ticker where public stock market information typically goes, both in “Knife” and the “Narration Preview” videos)!

Here is part of the sales pitch for the “Vampire Voice Key Rings”:

“The voice we’ve been looking for might already be inside us. Coming from the place closest to you, the answer you’ve been waiting for! Don’t miss it!”

This pitch uses the language of inner healing to appeal to those just like ENHYPEN, those seeking answers as to who they are and how different they are from others. Language of caring is turned into a commercial as quickly as vampire condemnation has turned into commodification.

Besides the “copies” they make of their images, the vampires give their story legs with their public appearances. Each one fuels more interest and questions, and they know just how to exploit the questions their appearances raise. Each public sighting is another reminder of the VPU’s presumed incompetence and another blow to the credibility of media reports that have given high credence to tips that have not panned out.¹³

The unresolved story shows how thin the line can be between perceived authoritative sources and perceived rumor-mongers and clout-chasers, as well as the line between more information being valuable and being unhelpful. More information and access do not always mean better information and access, which is clear from the website articles that appear during THE SIN : VANISH’s videos. Minute-by-minute updates come from real reporters and anonymous commenters alike. Credentialed reporters and “armchair experts” share screen time, and the more people who can post updates on breaking news, the harder it can be to siphon the useful and verifiable from the speculative or even mal-informative.

As much as the media seek an air of narrative mystery, they ideally also seek transparency, clarity, and a firm grasp on the truth. Similarly, ENHYPEN want to be the legendary caricatures the media frame them as, yet they also seek to be accurately understood. The documentary premise of THE SIN : VANISH album shows how the conflicting desires of the documentary-makers and the subjects are not so different after all. All involved are walking parallel tightropes.

By emulating the values they observe in human society, ENHYPEN can cosplay as fellow humans. They make note of what makes an audience an audience in the first place, and they capitalize on those traits, resulting in audience capture before the audience can capture them. They excel at hiding in plain sight, while offering the right amount of media fodder and merchandise to keep the public watching, but not interfering.

Whether ENHYPEN have not been caught yet because people are turning a blind eye, because they are just really good at staying evasive, or because of a (likely) combination of the two, the fact they have not been caught speaks volumes.

The reporter who hosted the in-character press conference made this comment:

“Whether to view [what they’ve done] as an escape for true love or a sinful breach of taboo is something [that] I think deserves some serious thought.”

This reveals more than what was presumably intended; if even the reporter with the most direct access to answers does not have all of them, who can really claim to be an authority on this topic?! Everything people thought they knew about vampires might need a reassessment. Whether taking the “ENHYPEN are breaking the law and deserve to be punished” position or the “ENHYPEN are breaking rules that should have been broken a long time ago” one, a relevant question is, “Who is really acting more human? The ones making these cold, calculated conclusions, or the ones who are running for their lives in the name of love?” By holding a mirror up to society, these vampires shine light on its flaws and prompt a reconsideration of what it means to be human.

There are dual benefits to ENHYPEN as long as this story goes on (despite the aforementioned pain that also comes with being on an endless chase): pride in outsmarting those who deemed them inferior and a reminder that people are following their journey. Above all, they are seen.

Another Likely Literary Influence

(The following theory as to a novel that has inspired ENHYPEN’s story is speculation, but the plentiful parallels make it worth unpacking anyway.)

This is a story about distinctions and the actual lack thereof between things like greed and earnings, immorality and morality, light and dark forces, things that reveal and things that conceal, and settings that come with inherent contradictions in their symbolism (for example, an evil carnival, and a home that is a trap). The story shows the tension between the past and present, the fact that life is like an endless race with shadows that can never be fully outrun, the need to be relentless in the pursuit of joy and truth, the need for constant reminders of the human connections that make it all worthwhile, and the hard truth that each supposed alternative to the endless road comes with prices of its own. This is not just a summary of ENHYPEN’s music video world; it’s a summary of the novel Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury! The present-tense title says it all: ENHYPEN’s and Bradbury’s stories are about an eternally-approaching source of evil and temptation.

To sum up a very dense story as briefly as possible: Something Wicked This Way Comes is about two young boys named Will and Jim¹⁴ who go to a carnival that comes to town during “the soul’s midnight,” 3 AM, the time of the deepest, most inescapable level of despair (bringing to mind the wandering souls ENHYPEN compare themselves to in DARK BLOOD). It emerges out of clouds of smoke and has its evil magic activated at nighttime. The main attraction is the carousel, which does not just age riders backwards or forwards but erases their memories of their pre-ride lives.

When finding parallels to ENHYPEN’s narrative, there are plenty to choose from: the “evil carnival” theme (like the BORDER : CARNIVAL era), running and hiding from darkness (a character named Mr. Dark chases Will and Jim), hiding underground (Will and Jim in a storm drain, the ENHYPEN members in an underground bunker), a message about how metaphorical bills always come due (in the novel, a lightning rod salesman offers them a rod that is free in only the technical sense; he pitches it as really an investment in the town, avoiding storm-damage-related fees), key scenes involving a bow and arrow (in the novel, the Dust Witch gets stuck in a house¹⁵ after Will pierces her travel balloon with an arrow; an arrow flips and molds itself anew countless times in “‘THE SIN : VANISH’ Interlude 2”), trick mirrors, and life’s many thin lines.

At the carnival, Will and Jim run into their teacher, Miss Foley, who seems very out-of-sorts after going through the mirror maze. Later on, they run into a crying little girl and realize that is also Miss Foley, after riding the carousel. Will requires his dad Charles’s help getting out of that mirror maze later. Just as quickly as the roles flip between who is the “parent” and who is the child - the boys becoming the former when their teacher becomes the latter - the roles flip back, Will returning to the role of a child in need of a parent’s help.

Besides the line between doing the saving and being in need of rescue, Something Wicked addresses the thin line between good and evil. Will and Jim balance each other out, helping them both avoid trouble (Jim is eager to ride the carousel, and the wary Will takes drastic actions to prevent that), and hold the good-evil line in place, at least somewhat. Charles and the character known as “Mr. Dark” offer their own kind of good-evil line-maintaining.

(Spoiler alert!) Several main characters almost die but are fully revived by pure goodness. Charles saves himself by laughing, and laughter proves to be the Dust Witch’s kryptonite. Jim almost dies but is saved once Charles and Will start laughing, singing, and dancing. This is after the carnival falls apart; they are dancing on the remains of what has turned out to be the source of people’s demise, not delight. They dance on the shards¹⁶ of that deception, which is even more meaningful because of the youthful carefreeness of it. Acting young again restores their sense of feeling truly alive, but only when they act young in a simple, straightforward way. It does not work to feel revived and like they have a new lease on life when seeking it through dark magic, with carousel rides and trips through mirror mazes (besides, one cannot feel young again when their memories of being young are erased). Their truly fulfilling “reset” comes from bringing out an inner child, the one that it feels like the cold, cruel world purposefully works to stifle.

It is scoffed at to stay childlike for too long, but THE SIN : VANISH monologue titled “The Fugitives” describes going from internalizing that ridicule to deliberately leaning into the source of that ridicule:

“The protective world that once surrounded them slowly twists into a snare meant to capture them… This cruel certainty, spoken in one voice, poisoned the sacred well of their love. But then, a sighting was reported that stunned them all: The fleeing couple, it was said, were laughing, as if they were reveling in the chase. Their expressions were carefree - at times, even alight with a thrilling ecstasy. Having shattered the rules, and calling to each other across the wreckage of their past, they seemed to overflow with confidence they could build a Heaven with their own two hands. As if this chase were some exhilarating game.”

Some telling testimony from the album track “Witnesses”:

“Well, maybe they’d find some temporary bliss. But how long could it last? They’re going to be caught anyway. It’s not like they’re kids.”

Actually, inside, they are.

People take for granted what they grow accustomed to, and since ENHYPEN live one life after another, they never fully normalize and take for granted what they experience. They are endlessly put back into a naive child’s point-of-view¹⁷, having to learn all over again what human society entails. This keeps them acutely observant and able to literally and metaphorically see much more than others.

Never getting used to anything comes with both major highs and lows. ENHYPEN stay fully present in moments of awestruck beauty and bliss, but they also feel every aspect of the most excruciatingly painful circumstances. The sensations that come with being alive never cease to astound them, so they stay as enamored with both light and dark influences as a newborn might stay fixated on a specific toy for no more reason than the ways the light hits it. Ironically, their existence is one defined by extremes and simplicity, because regardless of how messy and intense their experiences throughout a day are, the chance to reset and be someone else is what the end of the day brings. Constantly becoming someone else involves another line they must walk, between knowing and not knowing who they are.

How it “Ends”

The final monologue in THE SIN : VANISH is titled “The Beyond” and is fittingly ambiguous:

“The couple vanished completely… Updates from the Vampire Pursuit Unit ceased, and the whispers surrounding the taboo-breaking lovers slowly faded into silence. And so, the couple seemed to pass into legend, forgotten. However, the incident, once thought to be over, bring[s] us once more before a profound question… Their story, once thought to have vanished into darkness, returns to the center of the world… The story begins to unfold in an entirely new direction.”

ENHYPEN are never caught by the VPU, and the case eventually fades from the headlines, but just like what seems like a dead end can actually become a fresh investigative lead, just like how what and who are forgotten can be suddenly remembered in vivid detail, and just like how resolutions always come with new questions, no one has more authority than anyone else to credibly state that “It’s over.”

Conclusion

ENHYPEN’s story is about what matters. How can they ensure they matter? How can they know for sure who and what matters to them? What matters to society? How much do they need to tailor what matters to them to match what matters to society, and how much can they step over the line and control what society thinks matters? Their story shares the same questions as those of the poetry and literature that have inspired them: What does it mean to be? The essence of being - and how quickly and often that essence can shift - is what keeps the main characters in the ENHYPEN Universe and fiction classics alike asking “the question[s] for life,” in the words of ENHYPEN’s debut song.

These vampires are at times vulnerable, at times vindictive, and always perplexed by how people reach their conclusions. Why are vampires called monsters? What makes them so different from humans? Why is coexistence deemed scandalous? And is there a way to turn what harms them into what helps them? Can they take all of the traits humans put on them and flip their definitions, proving that humans’ original characterizations were wrong?

ENHYPEN’s story has always been about walking on lines, on the edge of something. It has been about risks and danger, but also about seeking sustenance in every meaning of the word. It has also been about reflective surfaces and the ways light can play tricks on people as much as it shines on and exposes truths. Most of all, it has been about living as human of a life as they can, with its many contradictions and visceral sensations, each one being embraced so they can “be” as much as possible.

1. Sampling a meme at the start of the song reinforces how ENHYPEN think the VPU is a joke!

2. Technically, JAKE and JAY keep instantaneously changing places, but JAKE will be the only one referenced when describing the talk-show segment to avoid confusion. The point is that a vampire is serving as a spokesperson for them.

3. Many ENHYPEN songs show that they see themselves as monsters. From “Chaconne”: “Brighter than the sun / That’s just me / Monster.” They mention having to pass a “brooding monster” in “Intro : Whiteout,” and it is safe to assume that the monster they must face is themselves. And in “Fate,” they say, “I lost everything / [Became] an undead monster.”

4. Close-ups of eyes have always been symbolic in ENHYPEN’s story, and THE SIN : VANISH era is no different. Images in the corresponding videos include the following: sketches of darting pairs of eyes, headshots with tape covering the eyes, a giant hand with an eye in its palm that eventually closes, cloth covering HEESEUNG’s eyes, and JAY covering a little kid’s eyes (notably, while reading a book called We Who Walk on Blade, a possible nod to the thin line between protecting and overprotecting young witnesses).

5. Not to mention representing cutting to the core of an issue, which makes knife symbolism apt for “DESIRE;” the talk show host says it is time to start “cutting out the fiction” about vampires!

6. Another parallel between this sonnet and ENHYPEN’s work is the use of the word “wane.” It is used in both the context of the passage of time and of the moon. The voice of “Sonnet 11” seeks to replicate and spread his image at the speed of the moon’s waxing and waning phases, and ENHYPEN use the moon as a timeframe marker, too (the moon being symbolic in the Webtoon, the “DESIRE” short film, “Brought The Heat Back,” “XO (Only If You Say Yes),” and more). Most recently, they imply the “waning” of the moon in both contexts in “No Way Back”: “When the last sun sets / When the red moon rises in silence… I sense a tragedy pass by in an instant / I turn away from reality…”

7. One of the reasons why their meaning-making endeavors can never be over is because they often prove to have been of no real substance. After watching tabloids and corporations at work, they think they understand how humans make meaning out of their existences, but profiting off of their likenesses does not match the actual definition of “profit,” metaphorically. The “chase” for a strong and lasting sense of value continues. There is a longer explanation of the collectibles’ significance later in this essay.

8. Having six heads is worth remembering, since the number six is significant throughout ENHYPEN’s videos. For example, there are six blood popsicles in the fridge in “‘THE SIN : VANISH’ Chapter 2. ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry.’” There are also frequent nods to a missing member of the seven-person group, like an empty chair in “XO (Only If You Say Yes).”

9. This island is home to magical fruits that cause Odysseus’s crew to forget where they were going. ENHYPEN have their memories taken from them in a similar way: “Given-Taken” includes a scene in which one of them eats a berry and is then yanked by an unknown force out of a house, forced to be trapped outside while the others stay inside.

10. A likely but interesting coincidence: In Hamlet, Polonius references Julius Caesar, a character who is famously killed with a sword; ENHYPEN’s knife symbolism comes to mind!

11. A life of unanswered questions is also a main theme in ENHYPEN’s Webtoon, in which vampires learn about their past lives in a piecemeal way and fail to ever know some basic information for sure, like their birthdays.

12. The inability to outrun shadows is mentioned in the “DESIRE” short film: “I thought it would fade with time. But darkness always lurks in the same place.”

13. To be clear, ENHYPEN’s story does not pass sweeping judgement on the media. It is more nuanced than that, taking issue with the unverified, clickbait-driven side of the industry. It is not a critique of journalism, but a critique of the tactics and instincts that can taint the image of the important profession.

14. Notably, Jim’s last name is Nightshade!

15. Being trapped in an old house is a major part of the ORANGE BLOOD short film, too.

16. This brings to mind the imagery prompted by ENHYPEN’s “No Way Back” lyrics: “Erase the shadows of the past / No way back now / Burn the ship I came on to ashes / Load it up with the fears I brought / And step across the shards / No way back now.”

17. This adds to the significance of a child being a key character in the DARK BLOOD short film and again in “Knife.”