"FavOriTe", "Hi High", and the Complete Predebut Story of LOONA

I’ve been thinking a lot about “Hi High” and its place in LOONA’s lore. As this is LOONA’s debut as a full twelve-member group, I wanted to make sure that I put proper time and care into this theory so that it’s as cohesive as possible. I would have liked to get this done sooner, but honestly, it’s been difficult. I now work a full-time job, so making time to write out these theories has become harder. I am, however, committed to this, so better late than never.

In regard to “FavOriTe”, I don’t think there’s much there in the way of lore or story. If I had to put it in the timeline, it would be the very last video story-wise. We see all the twelve girls together, and therefore we can assume that this video marks the end of their journey to find one another.

If you have not yet watched either “FavOriTe” or “Hi High”, here are the link to watch them, which I highly recommend:

Back to “Hi High”, I’m going to do things a little bit differently this time around. I’m going to go member by member and describe what their role in the full story is, and then put it together to explain where in the story “Hi High” is at.

For reference, I have proposed in my earlier theories that there are four worlds: the Real World, the Odd Eye Circle world, Eden, and Hell. The Paradox refers to the events of “Eclipse”, where Kim Lip calls Jinsoul and Choerry to OEC. The original timeline is here, but it has changed. “One&Only” now takes place at the same time as “ViViD” and “Kiss Later”. “Egoist” takes place after those three, but before “Girl Front” and “Loonatic”. “love4eva” is a pre-timeline event, as it actually spans the entire timeline.

Let’s begin.

Heejin

Heejin starts off the LOONA story in the Real World, after the Paradox, and does not meet anyone until she encounters Hyunjin during the events of “Around You (Special Version)” (or sometime before “I’ll Be There”/” My Sunday”, based on your opinions on the canonicity of the special version”). She meets Haseul before the events of “The Carol”, and meets ViVi before the events of “Love&Live”/ “You and Me Together”. After the events of “Love&Live”, she is transported to Eden, where “ViViD” takes place. She escapes Eden thanks to Olivia Hye at the end of “Egoist”. She would have first become aware of Olivia during “ViViD”, where Olivia lurks as a shadow.

I had originally theorized that Olivia and Heejin meet on the roof of a building in the Real World, but “Hi High” makes it clear that they are in OEC, which is what the OEC girls are planning since the events of “Girl Front”. She and Olivia have split up at some point before “Hi High”. Heejin eventually meets up with Kim Lip, as well as views the passageway between Eden and OEC, which is present in “new”.

Hyunjin

Like Heejin, Hyunjin is from the real world. She begins her journey with “Around You”, which occurs after the Paradox. She meets Heejin during “Around You (Special Version)”, and Haseul before “The Carol”. She meets ViVi before the events of “Love&Live”. In the aftermath of “Love&Live”, she ends up in the OEC world, where she appears in “Girl Front”.

She finally meets up with Choerry during the events of “Hi High”, marking her first connection with any girl beyond the 1/3 girls. As Hyunjin and Choerry are both dimensional travellers, they already know one another and are happy to see each other. They would have first become aware of one another during the events of “One&Only”, where both of them appear to watch Go Won. The power of their meeting attracts the attention of Yves, Chuu, and Go Won, who also have a goal to unite LOONA.

Haseul

Haseul first appears in the Real World before the events of “Eclipse”, and already knows Yeojin from before the start of the timeline. She meets Choerry before the events of “Love Cherry Motion”. She is separated from Yeojin and Choerry during the events of “Love Cherry Motion”. Her goal then becomes to unite LOONA, which she starts after the events of “Sonatine”. She meets Heejin and Hyunjin during “The Carol”, and encounters Chuu after the events of that video. She loses track of Chuu, but encounters ViVI before the events of “Love&Live”. She loses all her friends again after the events of “Love&Live”. During “Let Me In”, she encounters a darker version of herself, which is her future should she not unite LOONA. She kills this unwanted future, and receives a map from Choerry, who has thrown in from OEC during the events of “Girl Front”.

Unlike most of the girls, she is not actually present in OEC during the events of “Hi High”. Rather, she exists in the music video only as Yeojin’s hallucination. She is the only girl remaining in the Real Word, as she is the only one who is not a dimensional traveller. As she is the only girl not running in the music video, she is the only one who is unable to sense the presence of LOONA during this time.

Yeojin

Yeojin knows Haseul from before the beginning of the timeline, and is present in the real world. She meets Choerry at some point before “Love Cherry Motion”. During the events of “Love Cherry Motion”, she eats a piece of cake that transports her to Eden, as a direct response to Kim Lip’s Paradox. She is in Eden during the events of “Kiss Later”.

Yeojin remains on the verge of entering OEC during the events of “Hi High”. She hallucinates Haseul, her first friend, and finally musters the strength to start running out of Eden.

ViVi

ViVi begins her life in OEC as a normal girl. She encounters Yves during the events of “new”, and the experience is forever marked on her. After the Paradox, she trades places with Jinsoul during “Everyday I Need You”, and has the false memory of “Everyday I Love You” transplanted into her. This memory is eventually replaced with “Rain 51db”, due to Yeojin no longer being in the Real World. Sometime between “Sonatine” and “Love&Live” she is turned into an android. She meets Heejin, Hyunjin, and Haseul between becoming an android and “Love&Live”. After the events of “Love&Live”, her timer runs out she is sent to Hell, as is visible in the “Cinema Theory” teaser.

In “Hi High”, ViVi can be seen still wearing her clothes from “Love&Live”, and she can be seen running alongside a train track. This means that ViVi is forcibly escaping Hell and running towards the LOONA members. She is the only one who does not interact with another member, showing that she is very much alone wherever she is. Her brown hair could now symbolize the fact that she has been restored to her human state.

Kim Lip

Kim Lip begins her journey in the OEC world. After Jinsoul and Choerry awaken their odd eyes during “Sweet Crazy Love”, Kim Lip sets upon bringing them to the OEC world in “Eclipse”, causing the Paradox in the process. She directly calls Choerry after her dimensional switch in “Love Cherry Motion”, buy attracting Choerry’s attention with light reflecting off a mirror. She was shown to be spying on Hyunjin during “Around You (Special Version)”, bringing forth the idea to bring her and the other LOONA members to OEC. She successfully calls Hyunjin to OEC during the events of “Girl Front”. She becomes aware of Olivia Hye during “Girl Front”.

Kim Lip strives to unite the members during the events of “Hi High”, and successfully meets up with Heejin. She interacts with Olivia during a dream sequence, which helps bring Olivia closer to their exact location.

Jinsoul

Jinsoul is originally from the Real World. During the events of “Sweet Crazy Love”, she accidently awakens her odd eye, causing Kim Lip to take notice of her. The Paradox causes her to swap places with ViVi during the events of “Everyday I Need You”. “Singing in the Rain” depicts her between worlds, and shows her growing anger due to the move, proving that she may be one of the antagonistic forces in LOONA. She arrives in OEC before Choerry, and ends up leaving the cake on Choerry’s bed in “Love Cherry Motion”, which brings Choerry to her but sends Yeojin to Eden. She becomes aware of Olivia Hye during “Egoist”, when Olivia falls from Eden to OEC. Jinsoul helps guide Olivia up from Hell into OEC., and stops all distractions by pulling the earbud out of Olivia’s ear. She helps Kim Lip bring forth Hyunjin to OEC during the events of “Girl Front”.

“Hi High” shows that, in the dark, Jinsoul is still the same volatile creature that Kim Lip created during the Paradox. She remains apart from the others for the majority of the video, but joins Kim Lip and Choerry in confronting Olivia, being the one to actually stare her in the eyes.  She does end up running towards her members at the end, showing where her loyalties lie.

Choerry

Choerry begins the timeline in the real world, having met Haseul and Yeojin before the events of “Sweet Crazy Love”. She first gets the idea to forsake God and Eden during “new”, where Yves drops an apple to her. During “Sweet Crazy Love”, she accidently awakens her odd eye, causing Kim Lip to notice her. During the events of “Love Cherry Motion”, she eats the cherry on top of the cake that Jinsoul leaves for her, causing her to disobey God and sends her to OEC. During “Love Cherry Motion”, she takes on the role as the one who helps others forsake Eden, and gains the ability to look through dimensions through mirrors. She first does this during “One&Only”, where she spies on Go Won. Her place at the table shows that her presence helps Go Won deny Eden. During “Girl Front”, she sends her friend Haseul a map to help Haseul unite LOONA. She assists Kim Lip in calling Hyunjin forth, and is harassed by Olivia Hye in the same video.

During “Hi High”, she and Kim Lip split up to find Hyunjin and Heejin respectively. Choerry successfully meets up with Hyunjin, who’s presence she would have first noticed during “One&Only”. The power of their meeting attracts the attention of Yves, Chuu, and Go Won. She joins Kim Lip and Jinsoul in confronting Olivia.

Yves

Yves is one of the girls originally from Eden, and she first gets the idea to disobey God and disown Eden during “love4eva”. During “new” she has successfully left Eden and has entered OEC, where she interacts with ViVi. She also makes contact with Choerry, who is in the Real World at this point, creating a connection between her and all three worlds. She would later dream about ViVI and Choerry during “The Carol 2.0”. She bothers Jinsoul during “Sweet Crazy Love”. Her influence throughout the worlds grows heavily throughout the timeline, with her school uniform being word by Heejin and Hyunjin in “I’ll Be There”, and feathers popping out of the present in “The Carol”. During “Heart Attack”, Yves successfully gets Chuu (her friend from Eden) to disobey God and reject Eden, but pulls her down to the real world instead of OEC. She successful guides Go Won out of Eden alongside Chuu in “One&Only”, but the three of them leave Olivia Hye behind in the process. She can be seen trying to find Olivia during the events of “Egoist”, having successfully guided Chuu and Go Won to OEC at last. 

During “Hi High”, she is seen with Chuu and Go Won after Hyunjin and Choerry’s meeting garners her attention. She would have known the presence of both of them since “One&Only”. She splits ways with Chuu and Go Won to find Olivia, which she succeeds at. Yves and the rest of yyxy are reunited at the end of the video, and go forward to find the rest of LOONA. She is also seen running alongside a train track, possibly towards her first real connection outside of Eden, Vivi.

Chuu

Chuu is originally from Eden, and is a classmate of Yves, Go Won, and Olivia during “love4eva”. Due to Yves’ influence over her, she successfully rejects Eden and falls to the Real World during “Heart Attack”. There, she is woken up by Haseul, though the two don’t linger long with one another. She helps Yves in rescuing Go Won and guiding her out of Eden during “One&Only”. She can also be seen in OEC during “Egoist”, helping Yves and Go Won locate their missing classmate, Olivia Hye.

In “High Hi”, she enters OEC with Yves and Go Won. She becomes aware of Hyunjin and Choerry when they meet, and would have recognized their presence from “One&Only”. She and Go Won split up from Yves, but instead of helping locate girls, they have fun in a playground, likely a retaliation from their strict upbringing in Eden. They eventually reunite with Yves and Olivia, and run to try to find the other members of LOONA.

Go Won

Go Won is originally from Eden, where she was a classmate of Yves, Chuu, and Olivia. During “One&Only”, Yves and Chuu help guide her from Eden. Choerry brings the forbidden fruit to her, which helps her take the final step in rejecting God. She assists Yves in Chuu in trying to find Olivia during “Egosit”, bringing her to OEC.

In “Hi High” she is in OEC with Yves and Chuu, and becomes alerted to Hyunjin and Choerry after their meeting. She would have already known about them during “One&Only”, as Choerry gives her the pineapple to help her reject God, and Hyunjin is her opposite on the Mobius strip. She eventually splits up from Yves with Chuu, where they have fun in a playground. She and Chuu eventually meet up with Yves and Olivia and run off to find the rest of the girls.

Olivia Hye

Like Yves, Chuu, and Go Won, Olivia Hye is originally from Eden, as can be seen in “love4eva”. She is apart from the other girls for her time in Eden, which causes Olivia to become bitter and angry. She eventually follows the girls out of Eden, but ends up falling to Hell, due to her possibly having an odd eye. With help from Jinsoul, she eventually climbs up to OEC during the events of “Egoist”, where she eventually meets up with Heejin. She would have first become aware of Heejin at the end of “ViViD”. She is also shown to blame Yves for her fall from Eden in “Egoist”. She harasses Kim Lip, Jinsoul, and Choerry during “Girl Front” and “Loonatic”.

She has split up with Heejin at some point before the events of “Hi High”. During a dream sequence, Kim Lip, Jinsoul, and Choerry confront her, showing Olivia that they are looking for her and are aware of her presence. At some point, her feeling towards Yves have softened, which causes her to willingly jump towards Yves to join her. She eventually meets up with her other two classmates, Chuu and Go Won, as well, and runs towards the other girls.

With that all out of the way, I’m going to write out the story of “Hi High” (and LOONA, in a sense) as a whole:

Kim Lip has successfully brought Jinsoul and Choerry to OEC, and has a dream of uniting all of the LOONA together, twelve girls who have extraordinary powers and abilities and are connected by the Mobius strip. The three girls split up across the OEC world to try to find the other girls who have come to their universe. Kim Lip successfully meets Heejin at the passageway between Eden and OEC. Choerry meets up with Hyunjin on an overpass. Hyunjin had been brought to OEC after Kim Lip had observed her through the Mobius strip. Hyunjin and Choerry already share a connection as dimension travellers, and had once before in Eden.

Jinsoul does not find any of the other girls, but instead remains separate. Jinsoul is the most volatile person with an odd eye, and her separation from the others shows her still lingering anger from her being pulled out of her old life. She eventually runs off to join and find her members, proving that, in the end, her loyalties lie with the LOONA.

Kim Lip, Jinsoul, and Choerry do meet up at one point to confront Olivia Hye. Olivia had previously harassed and bothered the three girls, and the OEC girls gathered to show her that they knew of her presence. Olivia, however, may not be so different from the other girls. Jinsoul had previously help guide Olivia to the OEC world. As well, Olivia may have an unopened odd eye. Kim Lip, Jinsoul, and Choerry may also be assuring Olivia that there are others in the world like her.

Meanwhile, Yves, Chuu, and Go Won have made it to a certain area of the OEC world in their search for their former classmate, Olivia Hye. They become aware that others are in this world with them, when the power from Hyunjin and Choerry’s meeting is strong enough to grab their attention. The three girls eventually decide to split up, with Yves going off by herself, and Chuu and Go Won staying together.

Yves eventually does find Olivia Hye, who willingly jumps towards the older girl. Olivia had previously had negative feelings towards Yves, and blames Yves for her being forgotten in Eden and falling into Hell. Having climbed up into OEC and meeting Heejin, Olivia seems to have changed her mind towards Yves, as well as her other two former classmates.

Chuu and Go Won, instead of searching for the others, go off to play instead. Their upbringing in Eden was shown to be very harsh, so the girls seem to relish in their time playing. They do spring into action when need be. Chuu flings herself off the swing and chooses to run towards the other members when called. The four girls of Eden eventually reunite and run off to find the other members of the LOONA.

Meanwhile, on a train track in the forest, Vivi is running. She had been wrongfully sent to Hell and been separated from her friends. She is now aware, however, of where she must go. So she runs and heads off towards her home world of OEC.

Yeojin is another girl who is finally aware of where she must go and where she is. Due to Kim Lip’s and Jinsoul’s meddling, Yeojin is accidently sent to Eden. During her stay in Eden, she becomes increasingly unaware of who she was, though sometimes she would remember that she doesn’t want to be there. She hallucinates her oldest friend, Haseul, and remembers who she is. She runs off, finally mustering the power to escape Eden.

Haseul is unaware of the goings ons in OEC. Having had all of her friends ripped from her one by one, Haseul created an image of herself in a world without the LOONA united. She made the decision to kill that future after received a map from Choerry. Haseul, however, does not know how to run towards the other girls when they are not in the Real World. She has to sit and wait, until her dream of a world where the LOONA are united is realized.

Next, I want to discuss the movements of the girls throughout the story. These girls are, at this point, seasoned dimensional travellers, and their movements can be a bit tricky to follow:

Heejin

Only seen in the real world until she is transported to Eden after the events of “Love&Live”. Goes to OEC after the events of “Egoist”. 

Hyunjin

Only seen in the real world until she is transported to OEC after the events of “Love&Live”

Haseul

Only present in the real world

Yeojin

Present in the real world until she is transported to Eden after the events of Eclipse”/ “Love Cherry Motion”. Is on the outskirts of OEC during “Hi High”. 

ViVi

Originally from OEC until the events of “Eclipse” sends her to the real world. Sent to Hell after the events of “Love&Live”. On the outskirts of OEC during “Hi High”. 

Kim Lip

Only present in OEC. Can look through the Mobius strip to the real world.

JinSoul

Originally from the real world but transported to OEC after the events of “Eclipse”/ “Everyday I Need You”

Choerry

Originally from the real world, but transported to OEC after the events of “Eclipse”/ “Love Cherry Motion”. Is able to travel to Eden after the events of “Love Cherry Motion”. 

Yves

Originally from Eden, but is able to travel to both the real world and OEC after the events of “New”. Is currently in OEC after the events of “Egoist”. 

Chuu

Originally from Eden, but is able to travel worlds after the events of “Heart Attack”. Currently in OEC as of the events of ‘Egoist’. 

Go Won

Originally from Eden. Currently in OEC as of the events of ‘Egoist’

Olivia Hye

Originally from Eden. Falls to Hell prior to the events of ‘Egoist’. Is in OEC as of ‘Egoist’. 

As you can see, only Haseul and Kim Lip have not done any dimensional travelling, though Kim Lip is able to look into other worlds due to the power of her odd eye.

There are other loose ends in “Hi High” lore wise that I wish to address. This does not include the flashing words that appear twice during the music video, as I feel other theorists have done a good enough job explaining those.

Firstly, there is a close up of an eye at the beginning of the music video. This could belong to one of four girls: Heejin, Haseul, Kim Lip, or Yves. It could be Heejin because she is the most prominent girl in the video, and seems to be watching over everything; she’s always at the highest points in the world. It could be Haseul based on her desire to know what’s going and wish to see a world with all the members united. Kim Lip is the most likely, as she is the one who watches LOONA through the Mobius strip, and always seems to know where all the members are. She’s also consistently seen at high points in the video, especially at the beginning of the video. Finally, it could be Yves, as she wants to find all the members in order to save them from Eden.

Secondly, is the moon that can be seen in the video. Until Olivia joins Yves, the moon is shown as a crescent moon, in the phase before a new moon. However, when the moon finally becomes full, you can see that it is moving backwards in the cycle. It’s not moving forward towards the new moon, but is moving in the opposite direction towards the last full moon. This is a direct correlation towards the tape during “Girl Front” and “Loonatic”, which is rewound. This shows that either the girls have been with one another before, or they have always known that they twelve were supposed to be together, and they are rewinding that feeling.

Finally, I want to discuss the inclusion of trains and train tracks in this video. As previously mentioned, ViVi and Yves can both be seen running alongside train tracks. Trains are actually a recurring theme in LOONA music videos, as they have also been associated with Heejin, Hyunjin, ViVi, and the OEC girls. All of these girls have swapped dimensions, except Kim Lip. Now, obviously these aren’t the only girls who have swapped dimensions (every girl except for Haseul and Kim Lip has), but now Yves has joined this list. It is clear that the trains represent the links between worlds.

With Vivi and Yves running along the tracks, it can only be because they are heading towards another dimension. My working theory is that Vivi is running towards OEC, and Yves is running to pick her up and guide her to the others.

Next, let’s talk about their powers, Currently, what we know about the members abilities looks like this:

Heejin

No known powers. 

Hyunjin

Is interdimensional after the events of ‘Around You’. She does not jump dimensions like some of the other girls, but is able to be physically present for past, present, and future events in the timeline. 

Haseul

No known powers, but seems to be aware that the Loona girls are different.  

Yeojin

No known powers. 

ViVi

Has an odd eye circle, which presumably allows her to do something (as with Kim Lip’s, see below).  

Becomes an android at some point after the events of ‘new’.

Kim Lip

Has an odd eye circle. This allows her to view past the Mobius strip into the real world. 

JinSoul

Has an odd eye circle. No specific powers can be seen to come of this as of yet. 

Choerry

Has an odd eye circle. 

Is able to jump dimensions. It is unclear if this is the doing of the odd eye circle or the consumption of the cherry in ‘Love Cherry Motion’. 

Yves

Is able to jump dimensions and influence events.

Chuu

No known powers.

Go Won

No known powers.

Olivia Hye

No known powers, but may have an odd eye circle.

If you look at the numbers, currently the split between the girls who have known powers and the girls who don’t is 50/50.

Finally, I just want to take a look at what the timeline currently looks like. Previously, I’ve had it split into four distinct parts, but now it’s five. This is the current timeline as of “FaVoriTe” and “Hi High”

Pre-Timeline

Everyday I Love You (False Memory)

Rain 51db (False Memory)

love4eva

Pre-Kim Lip Paradox

My Melody

New

(The Carol 2.0) (A Dream Sequence by Yves)

Sweet Crazy Love

Eclipse

Post-Paradox

Everyday I Need You = Singing in the Rain

Love Cherry Motion

ViVid (Acoustic Mix) = Around You

Sonatine

Around You (Special Version)

I’ll Be There =My Sunday

The Carol

Heart Attack

Love and Live = You and Me Together

Escape From Eden

Kiss Later = ViVid = One&Only

Egoist

Girl Front = Loonatic

Let Me In

Hi High

Finally Together

FavOriTe

I have added in the “Finally Together” sequence to show that the girls are not fully together during “Hi High”, and are not a complete unit until “FaVoriTe”. I do acknowledge, however, that “FaVoriTe” could occur at the very beginning of the timeline, if the girls were indeed all together at one point. I think that it’s more likely, however, that the girls were separated by worlds but connected through fate more than anything.

In the end, the start to the LOONA OT12 era leaves a lot of longstanding questions unanswered. What is Yeojin’s relation to the group at large? How did Vivi become an android? Why does Olivia Hye suddenly forgive Yves? When will Haseul actually get to keep her friends? What does being a member of ‘the LOONA’ actually mean?

I think that these questions, alongside others, will be answered in upcoming videos. We still have the yyxy repackage to look forward to, as well as LOONA the Ballad. Additionally, I think we may be in for another Yeojin solo, not to mention the next at least seven years of LOONA OT12 and new subunits.

I’ve tried to put together as much as I can, but I’d also like to hear your thoughts on this theory. I’ve done my best to make everything cohesive, but if there’s anything you’re confused on please let me know.

Until next time,

Nine