From love like a sudden shower to soap bubbles in '반-짝': four songs YeoReum sang at a Han River playground

YeoReum (신여름), NONOL's 36th musician, took the playground at a Han River park in summer 2023. With a keyboard set up under a big arch topped with rabbit ears, the singer-songwriter sang four songs between the slides and the swings. YeoReum was the last musician NONOL met at the Han River park, and the very next act was Tasty Shop, the band from our October 3 playground. Summer is a favorite season, YeoReum says, because its changeable, two-sided nature resembles the color of YeoReum's own music.

0:00 '흐린 날' ('Hazy day')

An original song that likens love to a sudden shower arriving without warning. It was still unreleased when this was filmed, and YeoReum said it "would later come out as an album with NONOL." True to that word, it was released in February 2024 as 'NONOL VOL 32'. In the video description, YeoReum writes about walking down a street the rain had just swept through, looking up at a moon hidden in the fog, and writing the song out of missing, and resenting a little, the person who soaked the heart like a passing shower.

Listen closely at 1:32. On the first line of the second verse, 'the rain falls again, just like back then', the low end nearly drops out and the volume falls by close to 8 decibels. A decibel (dB) is a unit of loudness; a drop of about 10 dB sounds roughly half as loud. After about 11 seconds of that open space, everything fills back in at 1:44 on 'will you see me, colored by you'. In between, the camera settles briefly on a white butterfly in the grass, then returns to YeoReum under the arch. Apple Music

4:00 'As It Was' (original by Harry Styles)

A song by Harry Styles, one of YeoReum's favorite artists. Calling it "a song about solitude and loneliness," YeoReum rearranged it in a personal style. The video description says the lyrics, steeped in the original singer's loneliness, struck a chord.

The lyrics follow the original in order, but the pace is a little slower. From 'Holding me back' to the end of the bridge, 'who's doing it first', takes about 1:59 in the original music video and about 2:13 here: the same lyrics, sung roughly 12% slower. The original goes on to repeat 'As it was' a few more times before it ends, but here the song stops on the last line of the bridge and moves straight on to the story of the next song.

7:12 '미몽(迷夢)' ('an illusion')

YeoReum's second single, released in November 2022. It was written after a nap. The dream was so sweet and happy that realizing it was only a dream felt empty, and yet that made the dream seem even more beautiful. The song holds that strange mix of feelings, YeoReum says: maybe love, people and relationships are just as fleeting.

For 10 seconds from 7:44, from 'the neon lights of the dull city sink away' to 'I breathe out in my tired routine', more than half of the low end drops away. The volume stays about the same, but the floor feels shallower. The bass comes back at 7:55 on 'show me love', and when the same lines return at 8:48 the arrangement clears out in exactly the same way. Because it happens in the same place both times, it sounds like a deliberate choice. Apple Music

10:52 '반-짝' ('Ban-jjak')

The closer is YeoReum's first single, released in September 2022. Saying "I wanted to bring a slightly brighter mood, so I stood up for a moment," YeoReum leaves the keyboard behind, stands in the middle of the arch and takes the mic in hand. The song compares the flutter of new love to summer, and YeoReum recommended it for a drive in weather like that day's. Around 12:00, when 'one, two, three, a little more / turn the volume up' comes around for the first time, soap bubbles drift past YeoReum's face.

At 13:24 the lyric calls out 'raise the tempo', but the beat stays at 116 per minute for the whole song. The speed holds steady; only the mood goes up. Apple Music

Since the playground, YeoReum has released '7월8일' ('July8th', March 2024), '불면의 밤' (August 2024) and '안식처' (March 2025). As of October 1, the video had been played about 22,000 times. If the long weekend puts you in a car, start with '반-짝'.