Ice Cream
Updated: 2 days ago
⋆ Korean Title: Small Evil Deeds
⋆ Genre: Minimal Dance Pop
⋆ Producing Credits: Jacob Attwooll
⋆ Writing/Composing Credits: Jacob Attwooll, Tristan Landymore, Frederick Cox, Conrad Sewell, danke, hitman bang, Lee Seu Ran, Stella Jang, Soobin, Jo Yoon Kyung
ABOUT/MEANING: “Ice Cream” contrasts its bright, playful sound with a surprisingly cynical view of happiness. Like ice cream melting almost as soon as you begin enjoying it, happiness feels fleeting - something briefly sweet that inevitably disappears. Rather than accepting that disappointment gracefully, the boy responds with a mischievously bitter thought: if his own happiness cannot last, perhaps everyone else's should disappear too.
That selfish impulse is reflected in the Korean title, “소악행,” meaning “a small evil deed.” The boy knows that wishing for other people's unhappiness is petty, but there is a strange satisfaction in imagining that he might not be alone in his misery. Yet when he imagines his wish actually coming true and everyone becoming isolated within their own rooms, he immediately wants to take it back: universal unhappiness has not made him feel any better, but has instead left him even more alone. By the end, bitterness gives way to a small but meaningful change in perspective - rather than hoping everyone else becomes miserable too, he hopes that life might eventually become “sweeter and sweeter.”
Within The Chaos Chapter: FREEZE, “Ice Cream” reveals another consequence of the boys' growing disillusionment. The Dream Chapter was built around shared dreams and the belief that being together could make an uncertain world brighter; here, disappointment has begun curdling into resentment. The song treats that bitterness playfully, but ultimately exposes the emptiness of that response: other people's unhappiness cannot compensate for your own, leaving the boy still searching for the possibility that life might become sweeter again.
TRANSLATION NOTE: The Korean title 소악행 (soakhaeng) can be understood as “a small evil deed” or “a minor act of wickedness.” It describes the boy's deliberately petty wish that everyone else should become unhappy too: he recognises that the thought is mean-spirited, but treats it mischievously as his own small act of rebellion against a world in which happiness seems unfairly fleeting.
LYRICS - ENGLISH TRANSLATION (translations by @translatingTXT)
Ow it’s like ice cream
Everybody wants happiness
I dreamt of it too
Cool happiness for everyone
This sympathetic cliché
Yeah I was a fool
It’s making me crazy crazy
It’s all just an illusion
Every day, it goes tick, tick, tick, tick
Rather than fool, fool, fooling around
Alone, the wish I pray for every day, day, day
Let’s all be doomed
Let’s all be doomed together
I scream, you scream
We all scream for ice cream yeah
WORDPLAY: “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream” is a familiar English rhyme built around the similar sounds of “ice cream” and “I scream.” The song gives the playful phrase a darker double meaning: while everyone may ordinarily “scream for ice cream,” the boy is imagining a world where everyone is literally unhappy enough to scream alongside him.
Ee-yeah, ee-yeah
Ee-yeah, ee-yeah
It melts and disappears
Like a dream
Unhappy like ice cream yeah
Ee-yeah, ee-yeah
Ee-yeah, ee-yeah
Oh, this really can’t be
The sight of me being the only misfortunate one
It’s unfair
Everything should be doomed
It’s a bit evil, my bad wish
I'll try praying for a small evil deed
In my heart secretly, secretly
I wish for misfortune yeah
Every day, it goes tick, tick, tick, tick
Rather than fool, fool, fooling around
Alone, the wish I pray for every day, day, day
Let’s all be doomed
Let’s all be doomed together
I scream, you scream
We all scream for ice cream yeah
Ee-yeah, ee-yeah
Ee-yeah, ee-yeah
It melts and disappears
Like a dream
Unhappy like ice cream yeah
Ee-yeah, ee-yeah
Ee-yeah, ee-yeah
(I scream, you scream
I scream, you scream
You scream, I scream
You scream, I scream)
(I scream, you scream
I scream, you scream
You scream, I scream
You scream, I scream)
Something feels weird (weird)
Maybe my wish came true (came true)
Everyone is stuck inside their own rooms
ADDITIONAL INTERPRETATION: The image of everyone suddenly being “stuck inside their own rooms” also carries an unmistakable resonance with the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, which TXT had explored directly in “We Lost the Summer.” Here, however, the image serves the song's fictional wish as well: when the boy imagines everyone becoming miserable as he wanted, the result is not comforting solidarity but a world in which everyone is isolated - leaving him feeling even more alone.
I’ve become alone on this night (midnight)
No, it can’t be, please (please)
Can I take back my wish (take it back?)
In the end, I think I’ve become the most unfortunate again
You know what I’m saying, yeah
I scream, you scream
We all scream for ice cream yeah
Ee-yeah, ee-yeah
Ee-yeah, ee-yeah
It's bitter and bitter
But I hope life becomes sweeter and sweeter
Like ice cream yeah
(I scream, you scream
I scream, you scream
You scream, I scream
You scream, I scream)
Comments