You can probably tell from my website that I loved K-POP Demon Hunters. I gave it a glowing review that is still my top-preforming website, and I gave another song from the movie a spot in my Earworm column: “Your Idol.”

It might surprise you that I picked “Free” over something like, say, “Soda Pop” (which is pretty darn catchy in and of itself). But this song grew on me to become my top to sing a long with, and one of my favorite earworms.

Rumi and Jinu technically are an enemies-to-lovers pairing…Rumi hunts demons, and Jinu is a demon set out to round up a huge amount of humans to feed to Gwi Ma. It’s quickly established that Rumi is good and Jinu is bad.

Except…things aren’t so black and white. We learn more of Jinu’s past (one version as presented to Rumi, which is tragic, and a second version, which is the truth and darker), but we see shades of Jinu that show that he isn’t all bad. Meanwhile, Rumi is half-demon, trying to hide that part of herself. Jinu picks up on this immediately, and actually helps Rumi keep it a secret.

Most of the movie shows the two falling for each other, but they never go as far as to kiss or date or officially pair up. It’s a different, quiet kind of love.

As for “Free,” it’s a song between Rumi and Jinu about their dark pasts that haunt them, and finding away to confront the past in order to deal with it and overcome it. It’s not exactly a love song, but it’s close, because lyrics like “No one sees me the way you do” and “You give me hope” and “Why does it feel right every time I let you in” suggest that the two will be there for each other as they work through their pasts, and that they provide the relief they’ve been seeking. It’s not a love song, but is shows an element of falling in love.

Here’s the official lyric video/music video from Sony Animation:

I just love the way this song sounds, and to hear the pain in their voices when they think about the past, and the hope that they will both change if “they face it”…but face it together.

As an added bonus, the voice actors for Rumi and Jinu (the speaking roles) also did a cover of “Free” for the fans, and it’s nicely done! Chae Eun-woo was a pleasant surprise.

Anyway, when I was commuting 2 hours to work and 2 hours back, I’d put on the K-Pop Demon Hunters soundtrack and sing along to “Free” about a million times, so it’s only natural that it also gets stuck in my head at random moments.

But I don’t mind. I love this song.