Anti-Romantic
Updated: 2 days ago
⋆ Genre: Electronic pop
⋆ Producing Credits: Alex Hope, Slow Rabbit
⋆ Writing/Composing Credits: Alex Hope, Salem Ilese, Slow Rabbit, hitman bang, danke, Song Jae Kyung
ABOUT/MEANING: “Anti-Romantic” captures the conflict of wanting love while being afraid of the pain that can come with opening yourself to it. The boy calls himself an “anti-romantic,” insisting that he wants to stay away from love because he believes its happiness will eventually disappear, leaving behind heartbreak that outweighs the sweetness that came before it. If loving someone means becoming vulnerable to losing them, avoiding love altogether seems safer.
Yet his resistance reveals how deeply he is already affected. Despite wanting to run from romance, he finds himself increasingly drawn towards “you,” creating a contradiction between what he thinks will protect him and what he actually feels. His cynicism is therefore less a rejection of love itself than an attempt to protect himself from its uncertainty: he is afraid precisely because the possibility of caring for someone matters.
As the opening track of The Chaos Chapter: FREEZE, “Anti-Romantic” immediately establishes a more disillusioned perspective than TXT’s earlier explorations of affection. The excitement of discovering new feelings has been complicated by an awareness that relationships can change, promises can break and closeness can create the possibility of loss. Growing up has not made love less desirable; it has made the boys increasingly conscious of what loving someone might cost.
LYRICS - ENGLISH TRANSLATION (translations by @translatingTXT)
I don’t know who loves me
And I don’t care, it’s a waste anyway
This romantic feeling
Scares me a little
Sweet and bitter chocolate
The aftertaste is always the same
Like the saddest movies
In my eyes, there are only tears
I know
That sweet love song
The vows that were made
But in the end,
That someone turns into a stranger
Sorry I’m an anti-romantic
I want to run far away
My heart, already chasing you
Burns up in a small flame
Sorry I’m an anti-romantic
I no longer believe in it, romantic
I'm afraid my heart will all burn away
And only black ashes will remain
La-la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la
Ah-ah-ah , ah-ah-ah
I know that you love me
You make me deeply drunk again
You're like champagne
It can't be like this
I can see it all, the end
It’s worse than a hangover
It will be difficult
So let’s end it here and now
So stupid
This sweet love song
A wasteful rom-com
As happy as it was
There's a red line on the final bill
CONTEXT/EXPLANATION: Being “in the red” is commonly associated with financial loss or a deficit. Here, the song imagines love almost like a transaction whose true cost only becomes apparent on the “final bill”: however much happiness the relationship provided, the pain left behind when it ends makes the boy believe he will ultimately come away at an emotional loss. The metaphor reinforces his “anti-romantic” reasoning that love is not worth its eventual cost.
Sorry I’m an anti-romantic
I want to run far away
My heart, already chasing you
Burns up in a small flame
Sorry I’m an anti-romantic
I no longer believe in it, romantic
I’m afraid my heart will all burn away
And only black ashes will remain
La-la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la
Ah-ah-ah , ah-ah-ah
Sorry I’m an anti-romantic
I want to run far away
My heart, already chasing you
Burns up in a small flame
Sorry I’m an anti-romantic
I no longer believe in it, romantic
I’m afraid my heart will all burn away
And only black ashes will remain
CONNECTION: The fear that love will burn away and leave only “black ashes” recalls the destructive fire imagery of “Can't You See Me?,” where memories and promises similarly burn as an important relationship begins to fracture. In “Anti-Romantic,” that experience has become anticipatory: even as a new flame begins to grow, the boy is already imagining the ashes it might eventually leave behind. The possibility of connection is therefore inseparable from what he has learned about the possibility of losing it.
La-la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la
Ah-ah-ah , ah-ah-ah
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