QWER asks, “are you doing okay?”

May 24, 2026

I admit I didn’t pay attention to this song’s story until now. Turns out I really needed to hear it, so maybe someone here does too.

The Korean title is actually “Holding Back Tears”. The first 2 choruses start with:

I don’t know how to stop the tears

and end with:

tell me, please, how to hold back tears

Then, Bad Day Siyeon encounters Future Siyeon, who looks unshakable and ethereal. And I hope you have a pillow nearby, because she says this [emphasis mine]:

I don’t know how to stop the tears, but even if I hate myself like this I pause a moment swallow those tears, and

in my diary, where it says “are you doing okay?”, above those words, I write down “now, I shall be okay” I shall be okay

Yup, you don’t stop the tears. You swallow them.

And I hope I’m interpreting this right: the grammar of “잘 지낼게요” expresses intent. A fine translation would be “I will be okay”, but it’s not “relax and everything will go okay on its own”. It’s “I, of my own volition, choose to be okay”. It hits different, I imagine.

And because that wasn’t enough, Future Siyeon whispers into her ear, and we see real-life footage of how the crowds look from the stage. Because wouldn’t we all want our future self to come tell us that everything will turn out fantastic.

I’m bawling. All I did was show up and listen, but they’re thanking us because they get as much from us as we do from them.

Okay. I too shall be okay.