#hongho

Two short kings, but the difference in their body strength is sending me 😂

(cracking knuckles and lighting the ceremonial candles) it begins. it is no secret to you, probably, that yunho is A Mystery to me. there's something about him i cannot put my finger on and i truly cannot decide if i want to. i think that's because he doesn't necessarily want me to, either-- or anyone else, for that matter. see, i think part of yunho's charm is that he has mastered this subtle line of demarcation between your best friend slash boyfriend who just so happens to be an internationally famous/incredibly successful idol and a complete stranger who you will never know. he is familiar, kind, and warm-- and he is also always going to be just out of reach, a few steps ahead. beckoning you forward to follow him, of course, but knowing that you will never really catch up to him. that sounds mean, but i don't mean it to be. i think yunho genuinely cares about his fans, of course, but i think there's something very carefully calculated about him for his own sake and for his own health, which i highly respect. i also think he protects himself in this way, keeps parts of him that are precious close to him and to those close to him. it's both a protective measure and, in a charming way, a prize to be won. you get to see the real yunho now! even if it's a glimpse! how does someone manage to get to this place, though? it makes sense for yunho-- he's an idol, he's always performing some aspect of himself. but sometimes it seems that it never really... turns off. we've had moments with san, right, where the other members openly and unabashedly laugh about how he's Grand Duke one moment in public and then cutesy stupid doofy san the next in private. we get this in joke with mingi where his interview and variety show bits are openly acknowledged As Bits and not genuine, but in the most loving way. even in drunkteez, though, yunho maintains... yunho. and so there's this mysterious element to him, right, of is this really just him? are we actually seeing all of it? or have we, in fact, seen none of it? there are two people who i think have the best ability to answer that question. one, of course, is mingi-- the childhood best friend, the person that holds yunho's youth. the other is hongjoong. when i've waxed poetic about hongjoong before (why am i becoming known for this), i've talked about The Responsibility hongjoong has had as their leader and first member of ushering the other members into Becoming Idols. sure, in no way do i think this was a like, grassroots mom's garage "we're doing this 100% alone" sort of operation-- they had a company behind them. but their staff at some point was also like, 7 people. the people who were doing makeup were also doing accounting. i can imagine hongjoong, a literal teenager still going through puberty, was probably juggling a ton of shit he was unqualified for. and part of that was figuring out how they were going to present themselves as idols.

HongHo/YunHong lockscreens!

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