Maze in the Mirror
Updated: 2 days ago
⋆ Genre: Brit Pop
⋆ Producing Credits: Slow Rabbit, Beomgyu
⋆ Writing/Composing Credits: Slow Rabbit, Yeonjun, Beomgyu, ADORA, Hueningkai, Soobin, Taehyun
ABOUT/MEANING: “Maze in the Mirror” explores the loss of self that can occur while pursuing something intensely, drawing directly from TXT’s experiences before debut. Beomgyu first began writing the song during his trainee years, when the person looking back at him in the mirror started to feel strangely unfamiliar. As he later explained,
“[As a trainee] I started to see somebody else from my own reflection in the mirror. It didn't seem like the ‘me’ I used to know. I felt like I was trapped in a maze. That's how ‘Maze in the Mirror’ came to be.”
The song transforms that experience into its central metaphor. A reflection should be the most familiar image possible, yet here it becomes a source of confusion: somewhere between who he once was and the person he was becoming in pursuit of his dream, Beomgyu struggled to recognise himself. The “maze” therefore represents not simply uncertainty about the future, but the disorienting experience of losing sight of your own identity while working relentlessly towards it.
The other members contributed lyrics inspired by their own trainee experiences, expanding Beomgyu’s personal starting point into something they had experienced collectively. Rather than resolving that uncertainty with easy optimism, the song remains vulnerable and searching. They long to find a way out of the maze and recognise themselves again, capturing the difficult reality that pursuing a dream can open extraordinary possibilities while also requiring changes and sacrifices that can be difficult to understand while you are experiencing them.
Within The Dream Chapter: ETERNITY, this autobiographical experience resonates with an album in which things once believed to be secure are becoming increasingly uncertain. After earlier songs explore feeling unseen or disconnected from others, “Maze in the Mirror” turns that uncertainty inward: even your own reflection can become someone you no longer recognise.
LYRICS - ENGLISH TRANSLATION
I try to run, wondering where the end is
But in the mirror, it's a maze
Protection confines me like a control
Even though it hurts, I shouldn't complain
This world, the world that keeps me hidden
Please don’t give up on me
We’ll be going up, don’t fall
Inside the mirror above me,
Trying to fit myself in this large frame
But still, I feel so very small
Please, please find me
In front of the mirror, I surrender again
It’s so dark here
My fragile shoulders
They can’t hide or stand tall
At the end of the maze, at the end of the maze
Beyond the mirror on the other side
Please, please find me
Please don’t give up on me
No oh oh oh oh oh oh
No oh oh oh oh oh oh
So my fragile shoulders
They can lean on and rest
So they can rest
No oh oh oh oh oh oh
No oh oh oh oh oh oh
Please, please find me
I reach my hand following the light
In the mirror I push myself
In that broken and fragmented form
I can’t even find the real me
Please, please find me
I surrender in front of the mirror again
It’s too dark here
My fragile shoulders
They can’t hide or stand tall
At the end of the maze, at the end of the maze
Beyond the mirror on the other side
Please, please find me
Please don’t give up on me
I want to fly now
Like Peter Pan flying for eternity (fly fly fly)
CONTEXT/CONNECTION: Peter Pan is the eternally youthful boy from J. M. Barrie's story who can fly and lives in the fantastical world of Neverland. Here, his flight offers an image of freedom from the maze in which the boys feel trapped, while his eternal youth also resonates with the anxieties surrounding growth and change explored throughout TXT's music. Peter Pan and Neverland later become much more prominent in The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION (2023), where Neverland represents the temptation to remain within the freedom and fantasy of youth rather than continue growing up.
I want to become a star
CONNECTION/ADDITIONAL INTERPRETATION: The desire to “become a star” carries particular significance in an autobiographical song about TXT's trainee years. Stars have represented dreams and aspirations throughout The Dream Chapter, but here the image can also be understood literally: the boys were trainees working towards their dream of becoming performers or “stars.” Placed alongside the “pure sweat” they shed while pursuing that goal, the lyric connects TXT's recurring star imagery directly with the real experiences behind their debut.
Like that pure sweat, I shed for the first time
CONNECTION: “Sweat” is another song written by the members about their trainee years and was released as a secret track alongside The Dream Chapter: ETERNITY. While “Maze in the Mirror” focuses on the confusion and loss of self they experienced while pursuing their dream, “Sweat” looks back on the effort they endured together and the bond formed through those years. The reference to the “pure sweat” they shed therefore takes on additional resonance alongside the two songs' shared autobiographical context.
I surrender in front of the mirror again
It’s too dark here
My fragile shoulders
They can’t hide or stand tall
At the end of the maze, at the end of the maze
Beyond the mirror on the other side
Please, please find me
Please don’t give up on me
No oh oh oh oh oh oh
No oh oh oh oh oh oh
So my fragile shoulders
They can lean on and rest
So they can rest
No oh oh oh oh oh oh
No oh oh oh oh oh oh
Please, please find me
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