Are You Sure ?! - #4: I Hate that YOU Love Hate You but, I Love YOU, so ...
Iβm listening to a Mellow/Angsty Love playlist - (yes) it has BTS/ solos BTS songs as well
[Music is a very big part of my life and Iβm MOSTLY INCAPABLE of writing without music, so I just thought I'd share what I am listening to while writing this]
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Hello My Sentimental Girls, Bois and Enbys,
Please be kindly warned that I am going to be overpoweringly sensitive as I write this. Not necessarily because Are You Sure?! has unfortunately come to an end, but because, as I try to write this post, as always, βthroughβ my TwinFlameβs JK emotional lens, the last two episodes really were so full of so many feelings that I am trying my best to order my thoughts and do them justice. Like, let me tell you, this boy really felt plenty, or better yet he allowed himself to truly feel a lot hence, as always, through respectful speculation and educated guessing Iβll try my best to convey my related observations.Β
Towards the end of the post Iβll also have a little confession to make about something that I have been so determinedly ignoring, because the mere thought always makes me so uncomfortable, sad, and a tiny bit scared, so thereβs also that.
All that being said, here I am, concluding this physical/sentimental journey, with my unrequested thoughts but with a hopeful sense that perhaps writing this down will somehow lessen my emotional weight, because letβs be for real, I am going to have AYS withdrawals on Thursday.Β So, is this post going to be long?Β β¦ π€‘ I mean, you should know me by now. For those who donβt know me, yes, it will be a long post ππΎ.
Truly free things are hard to come by nowadays. Undoubtedly, money has effectively found its way into our everything. Yet, there is one thing that hasnβt changed in its acquired value as in, how you get by it, and how you get it, etc. This one thing is still available free and you can find it anywhere, LITERALLY. However, whether or not youβll be able to acquire it, and eventually keep it, is, to this day, one of the most debated, discussed, joyed over, cried over, mused over, etc, topic.Β
Yes, youβve guessed; itβs Love.Β
I donβt believe I was actually ever taught about just Love in all its forms. Not at home, not at school school talked about famous people in love, sexual education, popular love β¦ basically they beat around the bushes π, or amongst friends, and if I had, I do not recall it, at all and yβall, I have one heck of a good memory, I will not be humble about that. I think that my first notions and ideas I formed about the concept of Love came through books and films, and let me tell you, there is an infinite related archive out there, which can be as exciting, as much as dangerous. Regardless, even though it was never really explained to me same for everyone most likely, as I grew up, EVERYONE loooved to talk about it, ALL THE TIME, so somehow, I made my own understanding of it.Β
One of the things I understood was that some day, when I would become a woman, I would find an adult man, have a family, children, and live happily ever after because I would fall in love and some man would fall in love with me. I understood it as a given; Everyone, of a certain gender, falls in love with someone, of the opposite gender, because there is someone out there, of a certain gender, for everyone, of the opposite gender, just waiting to find you or to be found. Basically, Everyone will eventually find, and forever keep, mutual heterosexual romantic Love.
Spoiler alert: It wasnβt not true.
In fact, the true state of things is actually the very opposite. The minority of people on this planet, heterosexual or not, will experience, and live with true mutual romantic love, and will be able to keep it for a very long time, and even fewer others will be able to take it all the way to the day they die, those are at the Legendary Level ones. And I am not saying this because I am jaded or bitter or any other hurt and/or hater-inclined-behaviour, you can really miss me with alla dat. This is just that one very helpful, and hard, to accept and you donβt have to accept it by the way! reality that should hit everyone at some point, but not always does. When it doesnβt hit, people may end up tormenting themselves sometimes to death when and/or if they canβt βfind loveβ, wondering if they are unloveable, what is wrong with them, etc etc etc.Β Β
Reason why, it is paramount to love yourself first and foremost.Β
Because it might be true that someone is βunlovableβ or that there is βsomething wrong with themβ but, if true, this is principally hindering oneβs well-being because, finding and trying to fix whatever might be amiss with one's self, may not guarantee a successful mutual romantic love, but it does guarantee a happier life in general. I mean, listen, if in the scope of things, you might end up having to spend the rest of your life without a mutual romance, meaning, you have to spend infinite time with you, yourself & YOU, how is that going to work, if you donβt love yourself β¦? And, just in case it wasnβt common knowledge, Loving Yourself is not easy, like any other relationship, it takes work. The reason why therapy ainβt cheap βπΎπ°πbut needed, honestly.
So, letβs make no mistake; alas Love, in any of its forms btw, if it is harmful, it is not Love is needed. In fact, as it turns out, human beings were βprogrammedβ in such a way that having it in one's life would make their existence progress less painfully, or even painlessly. In addition, self-love is one of the purest, satisfying, and incredibly useful types of love out there.
ALL OF THAT BEING SAID, for those lucky enough to find & keep romantic love regrettably, thus far, I am not one of those, trust me when I tell you, it is not at all smooth sailing. There are just so many factors to be factored in and the bear thought of it all can honestly be enough to make anyone not want to be bothered by it.
Yet, my beloved and most precious, TwinFlame seems to have found it. Now, I canβt guarantee it to be romantic as always, despite me believing it to be so but he sure as hell is fighting his darn life to keep it. So, yes, hm, I think
JK is in Love.
If it wasnβt clear enough in episode 1 all the way to this finale, JM is a person whose presence JK particularly wants in his life, and whose absence kinda makes him feel sort of β¦ unsettled? β¦ but Iβll dive deep into this, later on in this post. For now, it is important to point out that my TwinFlame not only actively looks after JM, but he actively seeks JMβs attention, he actively wants to be sought by JM, he actively tries to make JM happy, he actively wants to level with JM, he actively wants JM to be comfortable around himself JK and for JM to be comfortable with himself JM. Basically, JK cares, in his own way, quite loudly for JM. And I say βhis own wayβ because I believe JKβs emotional intelligence (EI) to be somewhat different from the common ones. I actually received an ask about his EI, which I plan to answer very soon ππΎ, so for now, I will not dive into that in this, cos I really ainβt trying to compete with the length of dictionaries with this post π¬.Β
Japanese people, traditionally, have a fascination for sad love stories, and ever since I got into 875, Iβve been wondering if Koreans feel the same way but in their case, it is likely to be just Sadness period. You see, in the West, we βallβ love a heartbreaking and passionate love story, the reason why Romeo and Juliet will probably be eternally famous. Yet, we donβt believe that true love is love, because it is brought about by unbearable suffering, so it must be real. We are more of the true love, is love, because it leads to immeasurable happiness kinda style. Basically we Westerners love Romeo and Juliet because of what they could have been, but Japanese and maybe Koreans would love Romeo of Juliet because of what they were to each other. So when a person like me watches a movie like 5 Centimetres per Second and swears to never watch it EVER AGAIN which I havenβt and refuse to, a Japanese person might think that is probably one of those movies theyβll find themselves watching over and over againΒ and let me tell you, it was great, I just donβt think I can handle a second viewing, no thanks.
So if I am correct in thinking that Koreans feel similarly as Japanese in this matter, JK, like many other Korean folk, loves to sing sad/angsty/melancholic songs. Either by himself, or in company, like he used to with Tae probably they still do as well as watching sad movies, like JMβs favourite being The Notebook and JKβs being Titanic. Yet, here is where the glitch in the matrix happens; JK was most likely not that serious but wasnβt he? π¬ when he brought this up however, he seemed to be a little bothered by the fact that JM really liked βHate Youβ out of all the song in his album. JM sang Seven, 3D and Standing Next to You this particular one he kept bringing up like there was no tomorrow, throughout all 3 trips, yet, when he played Hate You in the car, for the second time because he had as well in episode 6 JK was like; βWhy?β.Β
Let me tell you something.You know how I usually skip Spring Day, cause I canβt really handle it? Before AYS Ep. 8 I used to skip Hate You as well for the same reasons as Spring Day; it was too sad for me to bear as it felt closely related him singing it alone makes me relate it to him in my flowed brain, even though he didnβt write it π to people I love, people being the Tannies. Lovely by Khalid and Billie Eilish in comparison is MUCH SADDER but because I am in no way emotionally connected to either Khalid or Billie I donβt mind listening to the song at all I love that song.Β
Anyways, Long story short, it looked like it bothered him a tiny bit. It felt almost as if βSure, we are Koreans and we like sad love songs, this being an excellent one, but I donβt want MY love story to be sadβ kind of bothered βalso this better have NOTHING to do with the fact that Shawn Mendes wrote this song!β - perhaps nervously thought JK π€‘π€£π. In fact, there are a few situations that came up, involving him and JM, which βbotheredβ him and he had no qualms in bringing up with JM right away, which by the way is healthy AF. JK seems to be the type of partner that wants to confront you right away and will not let it be until he hears the words that make him know that the βconflictβ is cleared to his own satisfaction, or until he senses you donβt want to talk about it any further in that particular moment.
Those are all examples, during AYS, where JK was satisfied with the answer that JM gave him to the legit concerns/silly questions he brought up. JKβs reaction right after all of those answers was him being content/happy, by laughing, singing along, or something else, hence moving on. Below is an example where he wasnβt satisfied with the answer:
Did he just drop it? Did they talk it out? As always, we will never know, as this part cuts into another scene. Only JK, JM and the editors will know and this is a fact we should never forget. Never forget about editing limitations, and this is a very good moment to add that even though whoever translated this show did a shitty ass job, the crew that went with them, to film in Sapporo specifically, seemed to be quite familiar with them, their dynamics almost like friends, which I think contributed with JK and JM feeling as comfy as they did in Japan.
Japan.
By the looks of it, this is the country that holds special meaning to both myself and my TwinFlame and, NGL, this kinda makes me happy and feel special LOL π. BUT, I DIGRESS! Didnβt JK seem a bit more β¦ relaxed? Besides the very romantic fact that he wanted to go back to Tokyo because it was their first trip, didnβt JK seem a tad flirtier, a tad cuter, a tad more annoying, a tad comfier and just so fucking happy? He, and Iβd dare say JM as well, truly let their guards down, even if just a tad. The fact that JK & JM wondered how the crew would have edited the content tells me that they were fully aware about the fact that they were being filmed, but didnβt want to think too much about it, because they wanted to also have a sense of freedom. Because of that, perhaps, they tried to give us as much realness as they could, restraining themselves in some instances, while also saying Fuck it! in few other cases during which they perhaps forgot about the fact that they were being filmed, confidently relying on their trusted crew to properly edit the footage in the best way possible. But back to the main point,
JK is in Love.
JK is probably the type of person who wishes he could have an answer, and/or remedy, to any problem his significant other may have. Yeah, he is probably the type of man that wishes he could take away all their pain, or feel it for them instead, and it is exactly because he seems to be willing to do anything for his loved oneβs well-being that I think that sometimes he does struggle with some of their societal boundaries, such as; age hierarchy. Without getting too much into his EI, the part in episode 7 where he brings up how things would have been if he and JM would have been born the same year really stood out and stayed with me.
In this particular instance, for the first time I finally got to see him kinda mind about their age difference, almost troubled and not because he might think it to be a lot which it isn't at all, but because according to their societal practices, he theoretically should constantly be mindful about it, limiting greatly the actions he can do, not that heβs ever heed to them, but the fact is that he should, and in certain situations, he must. If we think about it properly, right from their debut years, JK has struggled a lot with referring, and treating, JM as a hyung, which is actually quite weird considering that the person he treated more like a βchinguβ friend of the same age in this context was is Tae, even though, to my knowledge, heβs never dropped honorifics with him and had no desire in doing so, as explained during the first In The Soop which in hindsight, Iβm sure must have confused Tae a lot who has been trying to be his cool hyung for as long as I can rememberΒ (the following pictures are not from In The Soop, but Festa 2021).Β
Like, it is honestly so peculiar how, back in the day, JK had never really treated JM as your typical βchinguβ, nor a hyung, yet found himself sticking by JMβs side a lot, off cameras, filming him a lot, acting stand-offish just to apologise right after, staring at him a lot, learning all his likes and dislikes, studying his body and habits, doing questionable things such as focusing rather often on his lips and butt through a camera lens, which eventually evolved into JM being the first member heβs ever bought a gift for, as well as being the first member heβs ever travelled alone withβ¦ basically, as Iβve stated, JK has really never seen JM as his hyung or friend though he does try to remind himself of it.Β
So if JM is not a hyung, or a βchinguβ; then what is he? πβ¦Β
Wanna know whatβs even funnier? JM clearly cares about JK enormously and though he likes most of all of his sides cos JK can be annoying when he wants to π€‘βπΎ the side he likes the most is his cute side; but here comes the catch. It would seem that from their debut days, JM truly became fond of that cutesy, happily skipping, side that JK shows with his hyungs in particular and the fact that they are ALL his hyung, including JM, just made writing this sentence so weird NGL β¦, that cuddly, super-maknae aura he has many a time, with literally everyone but the 95s, because Tae, as speculated, he seems to see as a chingu and JM as a β¦ charming person?? Whatever that means.
Now JK does give JM βcuteβ, sometimes, but it is not the little brother kind of cute. Itβs that βdonβt go without meβ¦β kind of cute, βletβs buy the same oneβ kinda cute, βyou didnβt show me first, so I am hurtβ kinda cute, βhow do I look?β kind of cute βI can film you, but donβt film meβ kind cute, β... spend time with ME!β kinda cute β¦ you get the jist, donβt you? Cause, repeat after me; He a simp, he a simp, he a simp! And there is nothing wrong with being a simp tbh, as long as you own up to it, and JK does own up to it marvellously π.
And remember when I mentioned about him feeling sort of unsettled when JM isnβt around? Iβve been thinking about this for a couple of days but doesnβt it almost feel like a sort of β¦ separation anxiety? Through the whole episodes it sometimes felt like he tried to do as much as possible, of anything, with JM as if he would just take off and leave at some point. This could also explain him always popping up on WEVERSE whenever JM took a flight, or trying his darn best to get him to come around even though they had just spent so much time together in the US. But who knows right? Perhaps he just really loves to spend every hour, every minute, every second with JM because, like crazy,Β Β
JK is in Love.
So in love that he thought it important for himself to drive them to the airport, hence he didnβt drink that last beer I know he was dying inside, as well as taking a flight to Korea with JM, when he really could have just flown to the US from Japan. So in love that out of all the trips he's been to in his life, Are You Sure?! is the best trip heβs ever been on and he wishes to reboot when they come out of the military, where, by the way, they presently are together π€‘ . So in love that he wasnβt going to have JM get sad and lost in his own thoughts while in his presence, no, reason why, like a knight in shining armour, he βwent and savedβ him from his slump and not because JM was a princess in distress, but because prince charming also needs saving every once in a while If you ask me, the main βprincessβ in this relationship is my TwinFlame, no doubt, cause I also fo happen to think that they do take turns, for sure. Hence, the main βprince charmingβ is most definitely JM, and btw, frequency of a certain behaviour is not a factor that determines who is βmainβ π.Β
Marengo Confession-Time!Β π¬- here it goes: I love watching people react to ANY 875 content, but I havenβt been able to watch anybody react to Are You Sure?! Because to put it plainly I am scared. Iβm scared that people will question their relationship, or have homophobic reactions, or feel uncomfortable watching them when they do what they do. I just donβt want them to be hated for something they canβt help and are comfortable with. For the most part I am sure they would maybe nt comment, or chalk it up as βbrotherly behavior", but what if they donβt? In fact, I am also so apprehensive of the reaction the world would have if they are a couple if they ever came out, it genuinely terrifies me.
I donβt want them to be looked at like freaks, or worse, so I am not able to bring myself to watch people react to them, in the same way I turn off when people have unwarranted shit to say when reacting to 875βs music. If they are a couple, I truly want them to be happy, safe, and become part of the Legendary Level ones. So, even though the world may not be fully ready to want their chapter in their history books, I hope it will someday,Β because theirs would be such a motivating and enthralling chapter at that.Β
I donβt know what will await them when they come out of ME. It is interesting though that JK made all these memories during the trip to take with himself and think about while serving. The snow he watched with JM, the restaurants they ate at, the time they tried skiing for the first time, the antics in the sauna and the βscuzziβ, the tuna-mayo gimbap he knew JM would love, the good afternoon and good night whiskey, and more. Now that I think about it, in some way, JK has a similar Love background to mine, he most likely wasnβt taught that romantic Love can come from someone of the same gender and he wasnβt exactly taught that not having children or a traditional family can be okay.Β
Yet, I have a feeling that just like me, through movies perhaps, songs, or other means heβs figured out a thing or two. I have a feeling that he will decide for himself what Love is to himself, all the forms of Love he will need, who embodies Love for him, and what role Love will take in his life, and whether or not JM turns out to be that person MAKE NO MISTAKE: JM is an incredibly important person in his life. So, it is a strong feeling I have, but then again when has JK ever not taken control of his own life? When has he ever not followed his instincts and/or succumbed to what people want him to do? Same for JM really.Β
These are two boys who found themselves in Seoul even though they were born in Busan, like, the universe wanted them to meet. They are two boys, who, along with the other five, made the phrase impossible Is Nothing feel real. After all, these are indeed two boys who really canβt be told to do anything. There is a very famous quote, which kinda makes me think of them:
I am the Master of my Fate, I am the Captain of my Soul.
So yeah, the future is uncertain but one thing is for sure, no relationship that took so long, so much care, and so many trails to build, can be so easily destroyed. So, fighting TwinFlame, whatever it is you want, you got this! ππΎ.
Always respectfully yours π«°πΎπ,
Marengo.
PS - Dammit! I miss them so much πππππππ

















