ㅤ ▎ ❶ ﹕ TRIGGER WARNINGS.
Someone gets injured to death in the only script excerpt...! Nothing too graphic, I would say, but you never know. Reader discretion is advised.

ㅤ ▎ ❷ ﹕ LATEST UPDATE.
MAY 12, 2025. Format overhaul and replacement pictures for the photocards.

ㅤ ▎ ❸ ﹕ ADDITIONAL NOTES.
Genre classifications may be inaccurate. I also didn't beta read. I give up. <(＿　＿)>

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Before the Starting Line

┃ ⓵ ﹒﹒ BACKGROUND.

　 After almost a year long wait, niveau seuil eventually released the continuation to their Korean release series with the group's first extended play, Before the Starting Line. Just like its predecessor, On The Borderline, the entire tracklist has been recorded in both Japanese and Korean, with only the latter being released officially.

　 This release has been in the works ever since the creation of the first album, On The Borderline, and has underwent several tracklist changes throughout the waiting period; initially planned to be another studio album, it was eventually shortened to an extended play accompanied by an additional soundtrack CD including the other OSTs used in both movies.

　 The fifth track of the album, "We Must Love", was first released as a digital single on July 31, 2024, and later promoted on music shows to create anticipation for the final release. The album was eventually released on August 7, 2024, and the members were allowed to promote it for a slightly longer period than the previous year despite their busy schedules; this, however, resulted in many members getting overworked and causing minor to major inconveniences to most of them.

　 The group was able to achieve its first-ever win thanks to "BIBORA" on Show! Music Core on August 10, 2024, despite being up against bigger names. 

┃ ⓶ ﹒﹒ ALBUM DETAILS.

TYPE ﹕ Extended play.
RELEASE ﹕ August 7, 2024.
FORMAT ﹕ CD, download, streaming.
RECORDED ﹕ 2023-2024.
GENRE(s) ﹕ K-Pop, Contemporary R&B.
LENGTH ﹕ 14:01.

┃ ⓷ ﹒﹒ STANDARD ALBUM INCLUSIONS.

CD-R.
DVD ❪ full movie ❫.
Photobook ❪ 2 versions ❫.
Lyrics book.
Diary page ❪ 1 out of 3 ❫.
Photocards ❪ 4 out of 12 ❫.

┃ ⓸ ﹒﹒ TRACKLIST.

①　 STARTING LINE ─ 4:33
②　 BIBORA ─ 3:18
③　 Take (You Down) ─ 3:18
④　 The Dreamer ─ 3:32
⑤　 We Must Love ─ 3:42

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[...]

Kuon can't let this happen again.

He runs as fast as he can, his steps getting louder, his panting increasingly desperate. Hope? Delusion? Kuon himself is unsure, but it doesn't matter: all he needs to do is stop Kanna before things take a dark turn, even if she doesn't mean anything bad. He's seen this scene before, after all.

▎ KUON ﹕ I'm still in time... I'm still in time...

And he keeps running, and running, consuming his shoes as he rushes towards the opposite side of the school, hoping to be in time. But he isn't. Kuon is always late, after all. He'll never be able to save anyone, and this time is no different — he knew that already.

▎ KUON ﹕ No... No...

Kanna refuses to look at the stage as Hajime struggles under the ruins, too shocked to process what has just happened. She was only meant to play a harmless prank on her best friend, and yet she'd dirtied her hands of his blood.

▎ STUDENT 1 ﹕ Quick, call an ambulance!

▎ KANNA ﹕ [eyes wide open] No... No...

▎ STUDENT 2 ﹕ Kanna, just help me out already!

▎ KANNA ﹕ Hajime... Hajime...

Kuon looks from afar, pure terror in his eyes: it's clear he can't avoid the fate he's already seen once, no matter how hard he tries.

Arisugawa Oto will always get in his way, whether he likes it or not.

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┃ 🎧 ﹒﹒ INTRO: STARTING LINE.

LYRICS: KYUHYUNG, HUIJUN, JUNSOO, Kebee, Tenzo.
COMPOSITION: Kebee, Tenzo.
ARRANGEMENT: Kebee, Tenzo.

A synthwave track meant to introduce both the album and the movie, exclusively performed by the male members of the group. The lyrics heavily reference the theme of crossing unspoken boundaries, both physical ❪ as Kuon travels back in time to the happiest days of his life ❫ and metaphorical ❪ as the relationship between Kuon and Shun further evolves into something more, all at the expenses of everyone else ❫.

https://youtu.be/8jCmyICI8aI

▎ STAGES: 2.
━ 　 M Countdown ❪ August 8, STARTING LINE + BIBORA ❫
━ 　 Music Bank ❪ August 9, STARTING LINE + BIBORA ❫

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┃ 🎧 ﹒﹒ TITLE TRACK: BIBORA.

LYRICS: Sooyoon, KYUHYUNG, HUIJUN, HANNAH.
COMPOSITION: Park Soosuk, Seo Jieun, Bong Wonseok.
ARRANGEMENT: Park Soosuk, Seo Jieun, Bong Wonseok.

A future house track with a touch of funktronica. "BIBORA", literally translated as "purple rain", is meant to describe Kuon's contrasting feelings regarding Oto: on one side, he wants to forget everything they had, but on the other he wants to return to what they once shared, even if he knows it was nothing but a lie all along.

https://youtu.be/rl832alFO0g

▎ STAGES: 8.
━ 　 Show Champion ❪ August 7, BIBORA ❫
━ 　 M Countdown ❪ August 8, STARTING LINE + BIBORA ❫
━ 　 Music Bank ❪ August 9, STARTING LINE + BIBORA ❫
━ 　 Show! Music Core ❪ August 10, BIBORA ❫ 🏆
━ 　 Show Champion ❪ August 14, BIBORA ❫
━ 　 M Countdown ❪ August 15, BIBORA ❫
━ 　 Music Bank ❪ August 16, BIBORA ❫
━ 　 Inkigayo ❪ August 18, BIBORA ❫

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┃ 🎧 ﹒﹒ TRACK THREE: Take (You Down).

LYRICS: YEEUN, HANNAH.
COMPOSITION: YEEUN, HANNAH, Yoon Yeongjun, Kwon Sukhong.
ARRANGEMENT: Yoon Yeongjun, Kwon Sukhong.

An alternative electropop track with R&B and dark cabaret influences, exclusively performed by the female members of the group. This song's importance to the storyline can be attributed to various characters, all equal in the destructiveness of their interpersonal relationships: Oto, who has betrayed Kuon's trust long ago, still can't let go of him completely and promises to take the other down with him; Kanna, driven by envy, pushes the one whom she considered her best friend to the bottom; even Shun, who's never had any bad intention in his entire life, unknowingly leads the people he loves to their demise.

https://youtu.be/-zR2kativcM

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┃ 🎧 ﹒﹒ TRACK FOUR: The Dreamer.

LYRICS: KYUHYUNG, HUIJUN, YEEUN, GDLO, Hwanghyun.
COMPOSITION: GDLO, Hwanghyun.
ARRANGEMENT: GDLO, Hwanghyun.

An alternative pop track with R&B influences. Mirroring "The Realist" from the previous album, On The Borderline, "The Dreamer" shows Kuon reminiscing the earlier stages of his relationship with Shun, reminding himself of the sweet moments they shared when life was easier. Despite having to navigate in difficult times together in the present, holding onto his dreams and the fond memories he has of his sweet half is enough for Kuon not to lose his rationality.

https://youtu.be/VizN3_uQhnI

▎ STAGES: 0.

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┃ 🎧 ﹒﹒ TRACK FIVE: We Must Love.

LYRICS: Hwanghyun (MonoTree).
COMPOSITION: Hwanghyun (MonoTree).
ARRANGEMENT: Hwanghyun (MonoTree).

A future bass song originally released as a pre-release track in July 2024. Featuring the entire group, the recording process was noted to be particularly difficult due to the members' conflicting individual schedules; Juno and Yuting in particular were consistently promoting in Japan. As for its importance in the movie, "We Must Love" symbolizes a love so strong that it transcends the limits of the body and of the mind, a connection that binds Kuon and Shun together regardless of the endless alternative timelines they find themselves in.

https://youtu.be/JpKQpcoKkOg

▎ STAGES: 2.
━ 　 Show Champion ❪ July 31, We Must Love ❫
━ 　 Music Bank ❪ August 2, We Must Love ❫

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┃ ⓹ ﹒﹒ ON RATEYOURMUSIC.

▎ ARTIST ﹕ niveau seuil
▎ TYPE ﹕ EP
▎ RELEASED ﹕ 7 August 2024
▎ RYM RATING ﹕ 2.90 / 5.0 from 389 ratings
▎ GENRES ﹕ K-Pop; Electropop, Dance-pop
▎ DESCRIPTORS ﹕ female vocalist, male vocalist, LGBT, passionate, love, energetic, breakup, dark, sampling
▎ LANGUAGES ﹕ Korean

▎ RATING DISTRIBUTION.

━ 　 5.0 ﹕ 08 ❪ 02.2% ❫
━ 　 4.5 ﹕ 08 ❪ 02.2% ❫
━ 　 4.0 ﹕ 26 ❪ 07.1% ❫
━ 　 3.5 ﹕ 62 ❪ 16.9% ❫
━ 　 3.0 ﹕ 129 ❪ 35.1% ❫
━ 　 2.5 ﹕ 95 ❪ 25.9% ❫
━ 　 2.0 ﹕ 54 ❪ 14.7% ❫
━ 　 1.5 ﹕ 07 ❪ 01.9% ❫
━ 　 1.0 ﹕ 06 ❪ 01.6% ❫
━ 　 0.5 ﹕ 02 ❪ 00.5% ❫

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┃ ⓺ ﹒﹒ ALBUM INCLUSIONS.

━ 　 KUON'S DIARY PAGE ❪ screenshot once ❫.

What page did you get?

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━ 　 PHOTOCARDS ❪ screenshot four times ❫.

Which photocards did you get?

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┃ ⓻ ﹒﹒ DID YOU KNOW?

━ 　 Fellow Seiyuu Academy 1 contestants Amajiki Ruruka, Choi Eunwoo and Yueliang appear as extras in the movie respectively as Student 1, Student 2 and Hajime.

━ 　 Kyuhyung has revealed that most of the scrapped tracks have been saved for the group's future releases. ❛ It's not that we removed these tracks because they were bad per se; if anything, they were too good to be used for what is nothing but a rushed conclusion to our first release. We'll do them justice in the near future. ❜

━ 　 #syatwt hated this era, mostly because of the insanely unfair line distributions, and so did most of the members. While they are ultimately proud of the final songs, the process behind the album's conceptualization was very tiring, and promotions were horrible as well.

━ 　 ORIGINAL SONGS ﹕ 𝐈. 닻 (Dot), GHOST9; 𝐈𝐈. BIBORA, SF9; 𝐈𝐈𝐈. T4ke, Purple Kiss; 𝐈𝐕. The Dreamer, ONF; 𝐕. We Must Love, ONF.

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𓍢ִ໋🫀⃝FEVEN's Notes ◌ ◌ ◌ The more I think about the storyline shared between On The Borderline and Before the Starting Line the more I hate it but it gave me Kyuhyung and Huijun being... whatever they are, so it's OK! At least there's that. Yup.

This is also why the script excerpt is only one and noticeably shorter than what I've shown in METAFICTION. The story does exist, although not fully written out, but I'm at crunch time and I need this chapter out for the Seiyuu Academy 2 contestants to make the Wiki pages in the next few days. Unpaid labor! Yay! Amazing!

The two other previous releases will come at their own pace... I promise... Sorry for letting you down here, too... One day I will redeem myself and rewrite the development of this specific storyline much better 😔 This being said, don't be a silent reader or I'll Explode...

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┃ ⓼ ﹒﹒ Credits.

━ 　 LINE DISTRIBUTION VIDEOS: RUNE.

₊˚ ‿︵‿︵‿︵୨୧ · · ♡ · · ୨୧‿︵‿︵‿︵ ˚₊

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