The Playlist You Left Behind

Your Melon's still public I found it by accident or maybe not accident maybe I typed your name into the search bar the way you check a bruise to know it's still there Your top 100, frozen the chart as you were in October Hyukoh at number three something I don't recognize at seven a ballad I would have laughed at and you would have defended with that particular certainty you had about sentimental things You always listened to music like you were trying to prove a point like every song was evidence of something the world hadn't noticed yet I pressed play on track one the city kept its pace Gangnam to Itaewon, I walked with your ears on I wore your October like someone else's coat Your Melon's still public, top 100 frozen every song sounds like the last thing you chose I'm playing your taste like a séance I'm dancing to you like you're watching you're watching every skip is a small betrayal every repeat is— your Melon's still public your Melon's still public and I'm still here listening to what you meant Track thirty-four: a song about autumn in a city you never visited you played it forty-seven times in September according to the listening data that outlived you I played it once and understood everything about September that I should have understood when you were still making it Track sixty-one: something with synths from a producer I don't know it sounds like how it feels to stand in the GS25 at midnight and suddenly have no reason to buy anything and every reason to stay in the fluorescent light a few minutes longer I pressed play on track one I played the whole list twice I'm wearing your taste like evidence like something that might explain Your Melon's still public, top 100 frozen every song sounds like the last thing you chose I'm playing your taste like a séance I'm dancing to you like you're watching you're watching every skip is a small betrayal every repeat is— your Melon's still public your Melon's still public and I'm still here listening to what you meant I didn't know you were making a will out of a playlist I didn't know October was the last time the algorithm would study you and report back to anyone who looked The recommended section beneath your chart has already started adjusting already offering me music for people who listen to your music as if the algorithm can grieve adjacent as if it's trying to hold your shape in the space you left in its data Your Melon's still public, top 100 frozen every song sounds like the last thing you chose I'm playing your taste like a séance I'm dancing to you like you're watching you're watching every skip is a small betrayal every repeat is just love every repeat is just love that doesn't know what else to do with its hands your Melon's still public your Melon's still public your Melon's still— Number one: the song you always played when you were pretending to be fine I know because you told me or maybe I knew and didn't say number one number one I'm learning you in reverse I'm learning the archive version I'm learning the October you on a night in January that you never made it to still public still public still