#image study

In a real relationship, power is ideally mutual and negotiated. In a parasocial one, power is asymmetrical, pre-structured, and fickle. The industry has to juggle both : The access must remain limited and scarce enough to feel valuable, but fans must still feel like they hold some sort of power and an illusion of control over idols.

That is not to say every individual fan feels this way but that the default settings, the default structure the industry relies on is : idols as products. K-fans feel this more strongly than international fans because they're physically present within the idols' spheres. International fans don't, because for them the idol is a distant image. But if international fans grew up within that culture, I doubt their mode of engagement would be any different.

And one of the most important forms of powers fan have is interpretive power : fans collectively deciding how to read an idol and what their behavior means.

Because idols have to maintain the authentic feeling of a fantasy relationship (you cannot connect with what you fundamentally disagree with) they are constricted and must remain silent on many things, including boundaries and the mechanics of their branding. Fans end up filling in the gaps with meaning. They interpret, they project, and in doing so, they build and shape the narratives that surround idols.

The act of projecting in itself is neutral, it's a natural human reflex, a way of making meaning from incomplete information. But projections as a whole are not neutral, because the material fans project from is already shaped: it comes from the archetypes the company provides and the cultural norms they've absorbed. Those are already loaded.

This is why its important when studying an idol or fan culture to think about context

And interpretations can and do shift. Archetypes are not set in stone. They're more like starting positions. Fans can and do alter an idol's persona.

For exemple : If an idol performs softness and fans respond enthusiastically, the company might notice. The idol might get more screen time when they cry, more edits when they're affectionate, more opportunities that emphasize their warm image. The behavior can then be reinforced. It can become a habit, and eventually, who they are on camera.

The opposite is also true. If an idol performs coldness and fans respond enthusiastically, the company might notice. The idol might get more screen time when they look angry or disinterested, more edits when they're sultry, more opportunities that emphasize their cold image. The behavior can then be reinforced. It can become a habit, and eventually, who they are on camera.

Sounds familiar?

Section 2 : 'Nice guys finish last'

The "golden retriever" persona, for all its warmth and reliability, is also youth-coded. It's puppyish. It's endearing in a way that implies someone you watch and coo over, not necessarily someone you look up to. It's a specific model of masculinity, one organized around service, harmony, emotional availability, and non-threat. (I'll get back to that one later)

The golden retriever sits on the opposite spectrum of the ice prince. Where the Ice prince is defined by a value of scarcity, the Golden's retreiver's whole shtick is in his availability. He smiles freely, gives warmth constantly, and your role is to receive, to be comforted, to exist in said warmth without having to earn it.

But the Golden retriever has one major limitation : If he is kind and loving with everyone, if the golden retriever is for the people, then how can the "you" be chosen ? If it costs nothing can it truly mean something ?

The ice prince's coldness creates the conditions for validation: He is cold to everyone, but warm to me. Therefore I am special. The golden retriever cannot offer this. He is warm to everyone, so his warmth to you proves nothing about your exceptionalism. This is not a failure of the golden retriever as a person but as a fantasy object within a system that prizes earned access over freely given care.

The "Nice guy" Is a common trope found in media, a western archetype that's not limited to the western sphere. The trope, in its classic narrative form, is so famous I'm sure anyone could recount it; the man who is nice, gentle, emotionally available, and service-oriented is not the one who gets the girl at the end of the story. Sure, he's the one she might marry after she's done with the exciting ones, the "bad boy". He's definitely husband material but he's not sexy, he's not exciting, he's not "freaky" enough. So he finishes last because he's beloved in the way you love a loyal dog, not in the way you desire a man. (again in tradional media)

"Nice guys" aren't main leads in movies, they're support characters, they're the funny best friend, the second lead everybody likes but not the one people make movies about. Because storytelling inherently requires friction, and storytelling requires an engaged audience.

K-pop, as a form of media storytelling, follows the same principle. And desire is once again a great way to engage an Audience. [Something to wait for, something to anticipate, something to resolve.]

In Korea, the golden retriever's harmony is more valued because of collectivist values. So the "nice guy" trope will not fully translate into the Korean golden retriever one, of course, but I'm sure some aspects of it definitely overlap. After all, "everyone's bias wrecker" Yunho is still not the bias.

Section 3 : I do in fact yearn for better cultural scripts

It took me a few months to realize this, but the reason fan talk around Yunho bothers me at times is because it reinforces a specific type of desire in masculinity.

Long before his image actually began to shift—when speculation about "cold Yunho" was still living exclusively in birth charts and astrology corners of the inernet—I would watch videos dissecting his chart and walk away 90% of the time with a bitter taste in my mouth. I now understand that part of it is due to how enthusiastically fans (mainly women), talked about the idea of a jealous, possessive, and controlling Yunho.

There was no concern in their voices, no critique. For a majority of them, they spoke about it as if it was a sexy. Comments compared him to their husbands or their ideal man and spoke about it as a fantasy they were either convinced was true, or they wanted to be true. They desired it to be true.

The reality is that "cold" Yunho is desired in a way that "warm, golden retriever" Yunho simply is not. And a large part of that is simply because: Kindness alone, in men, is not seen as sexy.

in the currency of public desire, that is.

The golden retriever is marriage/boyfriend material, the guy you bring home to your parents, but he remain structurally seen as a "nice guy". And while we as a society have taken strides into accepting and uplifting nice, kind and emotionally available men as partners, we still talk about male sexuality through the language of dominance. As if power — the capacity to take, to choose, to grant access— is what truly makes a man desirable.

A good amount of recent viral clip of Yunho included some mention of him being "secretly freaky", looking angry, or commentary on how broad he's getting, how tall he is, and how long and massive his hands are. When his solo film Back!stage dropped, the one thing it went viral for was the smoking scene and angry Yunho. When he did a Valorant live stream last year, people were mainly anticipating angry Yunho. When fans discuss his acting opportunities, the roles they want to see him portray most are stalker or a serial killer. because it's hot.

If you follow online discourse, control, dominance, and contained danger are what Fans fantisize about. And far from me to kinkshame anyone, do what you want in the privacy of your own bedroom, but Kink has rules. Kink has boundaries. Kink has safewords and negotiation and aftercare and trust. Online discourse does not acknowledge any of those layers, it flattens complex dynamics and jumps straight into romanticising these traits. Eventually, they become how people speak about passion, devotion, masculinity and love.

My point is those aren't just personal preferences. This is about what our culture is still teaching us to want. About what the algorythms rewards, and it's about the new scripts still being written over the old ones.

When kindness in men is culturally framed as non-threatening, and non-threatening is framed as non-sexual, idols who are heavily associated with warmth may eventually feel the need, personally or strategically, to assert a sharper edge.

Section 4 : Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

"By repeatedly showcasing his agency through his words and actions, Yunho is effectively demonstrating said capacity to be a sheltering shade. Kindness, warmth, and reliability are not just pleasant traits he happens to possess, they are choices, deliberate acts of self-presentation that form the core of his public image."

One of the reasons I emphasized Yunho's agency in Part 2 is because when you demonstrate or understand that kindness is a choice, or a deliberate presentation in a person, it changes its perception.

If agency means selecting between possibilities, and Yunho's warmth isn't just who he is but what he decides to be, then he holds the potential to choose otherwise.

Choosing to be full of light. Choosing "I want to bring happiness and to be a sheltering shade for people" as a mission statement isn't naive optimism. It implies an understanding of what lies on the other side: darkness, absence, coldness. You can't truly choose light unless you know why it's needed. 

This kind of deep-seated conviction is forged in awareness. And Yunho is smart. To understand how smart he is, I invite you to watch this video. I won't go into full details here but : Lucky boy is not just lucky. He knows how to read a room. How to read people. How to look for physical clues. How to predict situations. And he knows to follow his intuition.

Here's the paradox with kindness, especially in men: if it's not read as innate, it will be met with skepticism. If the man is not "naturally good"—if he displays intelligence, discipline, or control —people will naturally start to interrogate his motives. If he can decide to be kind, what else might he decide? What is he hiding? What would happen if he stopped choosing?

Additionally, The golden retriever archetype simply is not built to contain all of those traits. if he has agency then that implies he has preferences and priorities of his ows. If he's intelligent then he can plan ahead, strategize. If he's disciplined then that implies self mastery, and therefore the ability to withhold. Which means something we don't have access to. Something to earn.

And we're back to square one. Because that's the ice prince territory. Not golden retriever.

This is what fans are sensing. They don't have language for it, but they feel it. And this is where "The nice guy who's secretly a freak" trope actually comes from. It's a solution to the golden retriever limitation. It serves to make sense of the contradiction above, by splitting the person into a surface and hidden self.

"He's not actually a bad boy. He's just secretly intense with me."

It's corrupted kindness, he's still warm but it's not his whole self anymore, if you dig deep enough you'll find his real "hungry" self. It ultimately allows women/people to have both the safety and comfort of the nice guy and the thrill and excitement of the bad guy.

Worth noting as well that the "nice guy who's secretly freaky" maps directly onto the Catholic/religious trope of repression as proof of hidden intensity.

The logic goes, if someone is devout, adheres to strict moral codes and is visibily restrained, or let's say principled then he must be repressing something. The restraint is not read as genuine self-control, but as containment. And containment, in this logic, is always temporary. Always promising a release that, when it comes, will be more intense because it was repressed for so long.

Religious tropes carry their own weight. Sin, confession, temptation, transgressions, with Fantasies that are centuries old. To borrow words from one of my favorite TV Shows Do you really want to fuck the priest or do you want to fuck God ?

Is it Jeong Stefano Yunho you really want or is it—

When you look at it through all these tropes and archetypes logic, Cold Yunhos feels almost inevitable.

Section 5: So where does Cold Yunho truly come from ?

source

Before Ice On My Teeth gave us the vocabulary for a "cold Yunho" script, airport Yunho with a neutral expression inspired less thirst tweets and more caution. Fans called him scary, intimidating, hard to approach. The want was still there buried underneath the discomfort, but without a framework to name it, it defaulted to apprehension.

When the stylist isn't dressing him, Yunho tends to wear jackets, sweaters, caps, or face masks. On anyone else, this would read as a normal, comfortable outfit. But because Yunho is tall, carries a certain presence, and people weren't used to his unsmiling face, airport "scary" Yunho eventually gave birth to the fantasy of stalker or serial killer Yunho.

(but also apparently that's how stalkers dress like in asian media ?)

Something that was only reinforced by his first acting role in Imitation. He was supposed to play the best friend in love with the female lead. But between the script writing and the way it was filmed, he ended up looking less like a lovesick boy and more like... well. A stalker.

When the "cold Yunho" concept started taking shape, the "fear" dissolved with it, leaving mainly desire. If Yunho isn't smiling in a photo now, the response isn't suspicion or caution. It's intrigue and want. "Scary" no longer means "I'd be nervous to approach him." It means "he looks like he could ruin my life and I'd say thank you."

Eventually, fans started asking for "cold Yunho" more boldly on lives. They began to push his buttons, hoping he'd get jealous, slip and show more of that "cold" side.

🗨️Show us something 🐶No, can't do that. It was already toned down quite a bit. Honestly, if we'd wanted, we could've gone even further, but it was softened. 🗨️Can't you be Giseok for a moment? 🐶 Why do you all keep liking Giseok so much? Is it because he curses? Because he smokes? Why is that? Because I did do that? Or what? 🗨️Cold Yunho 🐶 Cold Yunho? *gives cold/expressionless Yunho for a moment* 🗨️Please smile/laugh 🐶 Okay (laughs) Nemon-dong, what's that? 🗨️Yes, the difference is huge/as wide as the Han River (Yunho and Giseok) 🐶 Okay/got it source

This line: "Why do you all keep liking Giseok so much? Is it because he curses? Because he smokes? Why is that?" It's interesting because it shows an awareness of what his fans like. At the same time, it works as a playful call out. Yunho is explicitly naming what his fans won't say out loud.

There's a recurring, playful segment in Yunho's lives where he gets "jealous" of his own characters. What ATINY don't realize is that this isn't just Yunho feeling upset because they're naming other men, or at being sidelined by his own roles. Yunho uses Jealousy as a tool to articulate and reinforce the nature of his relationship with Atiny. It's very subtle boundary setting.

In that live, he's making sure fans distinguish between himself and his characters. Giseok is not Yunho. Minhyuk is not Yunho. Here, on his lives, you're to love Yunho — not a fictional character with a different personality or quirks. He can offer glimpses of these characters. He can show you those sides of him. But they remain performances.

This boundary serves to remind fans that when the cameras are off and the characters fade, the person they're meant love is still him.

🐶 He's Grand Duke of The North Right, Grand Duke of The North, that's true. Grand Duke of The North-. That's exactly it. But that's what makes him charming - ATINY knows this. That charm only ATINY recognize in our Sanie - outside strong, inside soft. Sanie is like that. Me? I'm the opposite: outside soft, inside strong. Sanie and I really feel like opposites. source

When Yunho says "I'm the opposite of San" he's doing the same thing he does with Giseok: defining himself in relation to something else, drawing a line around who he is and who he isn't.

"Outside soft, inside strong" 외강내유/외유내강 is how Yunho first chose to define himself publicly. And that simple statement does many things at once :

First, It frames his warmth as part of the larger picture that is Yunho, introducing a resilient core. "Inside strong" referrring to endurance, discipline and principles. It dismantles the whole “nice = weak” ideology. The soft exterior is not a shell protecting a fragile interior. Since the inside is made of steel, It reaffirms his warmth as deliberate, as something he actively inhabits.

Second, It's a reclamation of Masculinity. There's a reason he chose San to contrast himself with. San has arguably the most traditionally masculine archetype in the group, and therefore the most clear, accepted and legible. It's a contrast everyone can understand. By positioning himself as San's opposite, he's legitimizing his own masculine structure : If what San has, he has too, just in reverse, then he's the same but different. And different is not less.

It builds on the "how to perceive Yunho" manual. He's letting us know the rules we—and therefore he—are playing with. He's making himself clear to fans, because the more we understand him, the easier it becomes. Easier to perform, yes, but also to connect and to maintain.

And finally, it effectively neutralizes "Cold Yunho". By making scary, expressionless Yunho recognizable, by shaping a framework around it and acknowledging its existence. It takes away any potential power over him. It's taking ownership of the narrative that is Yunho.

So when he officially emerges again a few months later with an official cold/warm Yunho concept and starts introducing it publicly on variety shows, he is both expanding his image and reinforcing it. It reinforces warm Yunho as the foundation of his public image — the baseline, the constant — and expands it into cold Yunho: something he can tap into, showcase, play with and perform. Which, in turn, gives him the freedom to explore range and expression.

By naming the cold, he gave fans a way to understand everything about him that isn't warm. Now, when he shows any of those sides, it's not read as a threat, wrong or scary, it's just "cold Yunho." And because that's understood, he's free to be all of himself, less constricted into one box or another.

Section 6 : "I know what you're into, baby got a type yeah i could be gentle but that ain't what you like."

The opening of 'In Your Fantasy' is an interesting line, isn't it? Of course, Yunho didn't write it—it was chosen by producers and distributed by the company. At first, I thought they gave it to him just because he happened to be the best at singing it. Normal line distribution. But if you think about it a little longer, you realize: this line would never have worked for anyone else.

"I could be gentle but that ain't what you like" works only if Yunho is the one singing it. In his hands, the one person known for being a golden retriever, a sweet, kind man, the line becomes clinical in its precision.

"I could be gentle but that ain't what you like" tells you the person has a choice. That they're capable of softness, tenderness, traditional romance but they're not going to employ those because you, the listener, desire something more. The speaker is explicitly stating that your preference is for something more intense, dominant, or rough. It's a direct acknowledgment from KQ and from Ateez of what fans have been building up around Yunho ever since the Ice On My Teeth era.

"I see past your exterior. I know what you truly want. And I am fully capable and willing to give it to you, even if (or especially because) it's not the conventional, gentle approach. I'm doing it for you because I know you prefer me that way."

And Ice On My Teeth styling kickstarted the change in Yunho's image because it finally gave fans the visual vocabulary for a "dark/cold Yunho" concept.

The styling was sophisticated, elegant, and to borrow internet slang, "Cold Mafia CEO Boss" coded. Yunho had dark blue hair, and for the first time, the point of his styling was his exposed forehead and slicked-back look, which gave him an even more mature presence. The title track and its MV also opened with deep-voiced Yunho, and the album showcased a more sultry version of him we'd only glimpsed before.

The styling borrowed from a visual language we already understand: the man who has everything under control, including himself. Combined with the sultry voice and the gestures included in the performance (the tie pulling, the showcasing of his hands) only served to emphasize that image further.

I've always found it interesting how quickly Yunho's image changed. Barely a year into the introduction of "cold Yunho," and it's already a widely accepted notion.

The 'Get Ready With Me' reel did a lot of heavy lifting as well. For the first time, Yunho appeared and posted himself exposed, half-naked from his upper chest. It wasn't a full reveal, but with the choice of platform and format, it gave enough for fans to take it as permission: permission to start fantasizing, to want him physically and not just conceptually, and to expect (sometimes even demand) more.

Now, if there's ever an unknown member in an MV who's half-naked, considering Yunho as an option isn't far-fetched anymore. (debatable)

When BBTripping posted their demo of the 'Slide to Me' performance, it was filled with hip thrusting, hip undulating, and one abs reveal. It was sexy, but let's be honest here, not the kind of sexy Yunho ever really did.

The official 'Slide to Me' performance ended up being different: a mix of the BBTripping demo and another choreographer's work (kaname_takahashi). It combined smooth, bouncy steps with clean lines and controlled movement. Some hip thrusting remained, but the sexiness was no longer overt.

Yunho's sexiness on stage has always lived in precision and subtlety. And it's reflected in the gestures he kept performing after IOMT: a well-placed wink, a tongue in cheek move, fixing a tie or glasses, beckoning with his fingers. The gestures™. And yet, the BBTripping performance had a few comments expressing disappointment that Yunho didn't give more, hoping he would eventually "loosen up" or stick to the BBTripping choreo.

The "Slide to Me" music video (you can read my interpetation here) followed the same principle, one stated by Yunho himself: "Restraint as sexy."

section 7 : Be careful what you guillotine for (Puppy got claws and it bites)

The lyrics are too suggestive? Really? The lyrics are that provocative? The performance too? But I didn’t even go anywhere or do anything on stage (provocative). You’re saying that makes it sexier - that unlike the other members, not moving (or doing something) made it hotter? That I myself am suggestive? So… is that it? My very existence is suggestive? Oh, really? Is that so? Am I sexy? Is that so? Is that a good thing? Right…

By the time Yunho said these words on that live, 'Slide to Me' was already filmed and edited, just sitting in KQ's kitchen waiting to be served. We can confidently surmise that, at the very least, these questions were rhetorical. Yunho wasn't looking for answers so much as he was gauging his fans' reactions for when the MV finally dropped. He was inviting them to see it the way he does, offering the lens before the picture. Letting them know, without saying it directly, that 'Slide to Me' wasn't about what he does, but about what he holds back.

So, to answer the "was he experimenting?" question :

It's unclear to me whether the Ice On My Teeth styling was meant to be a deliberate switch of Yunho's image from their team, or if it just happened as a result of killer styling and vocals and fan projection. But everything after? That is definitely a collaboration. One between Yunho, his team, and his own fans.

Fans project and react; he observes, learns what works, chooses what to keep, discards what he doesn't want, adds his own ideas and it keeps going, and going, and going. And what, for me, truly makes Yunho so interesting, and the reason I am dedicating this study to him, is how visible and transparent this process is. (for those willing to see it of course)

Yunho observes and studies his fans. That is not to say that he watches and is aware of every single thing or that every aspect of his performance and public image is conscious or calculated; I am sure a lot of it is intuitive and simply a result of his personality. but Yunho doesn't hide the fact that he's listening.

"Tofu tiramisu? That's what they say. So I should maybe… no, but… do I really need to act differently even to people I don't know? Or not? Will people end up being too scared of me? As long as I treat our ATINYs well, that's enough, right?

In a way Yunho is constatly breaking the metaphorical fourth wall, by asking for input directly or indirectly, by naming certain dynamics, or by subtly calling out certain behaviors. Instead of pretending the idol image is completely natural, he sometimes lets fans see that he’s responding to them, which ironically make the relationship and performance feel more sincere and authentic.

It's also why 'Slide to Me' really amazed me as a music video, because it directly introduces the fourth wall break as an aspect of the concept. From what I've seen tho, I'm not sure how much of that was Yunho's own idea versus his team's. The one thing we're sure of is that again he wanted to portray "Restraint as sexy".

And Restraint as sexy does not exist in the action itself. The sexiness lives in the gap, in what is not done, what is not said, what is not given. It is in the space between what is offered and what is perceived.

The audience leans into that gap/space, fills it with their own desires, their own fantasies, their own imagination and their own scripts.

Section 8 : It is all about perception.

Yunho is disciplined, strategic, competitive, controlled, observant, loyal, and protective

Yunho is withholding, manipulative, obsessive, controlling, calculating, jealous and possessive.

Because this is a public figure and none of us know him personally, the dividing line between these two sets of traits is largely perception. The observable behaviors could be the exact same; what shifts is the narrative we attach to them.

The "hidden darkness" that fans have been latching onto is not a separate self. It is not a mask underneath, or a "true" Yunho finally emerging. It's what his "warmth" reads as when viewed through a different lens. His warmth, in turn, is what his "cold" reads as when viewed through another. Both are real and neither is the full story.

Tofu Tiramisu was the seed planted by fans. "Outside soft, inside strong" is the trunk of the tree. And warm/cold Yunho is the fruits that tree eventually bore. Warm/cold Yunho are visible versions of the same person, but our interpretations depend on cultural context and conditioning, projected desires and current trends.

If people think he'd look good as a stalekr, serial killer or in a psyhopath role it says as much about them than it says about Yunho. But the fact that he encourages, bringing it up publically in variety shows it is just as telling. "I want to play a psychopath or villain because i know fans like it"

Yunho understands that fan fantasies generate revenue. That the stalker fantasies, the "cold Yunho" discourse, the "secretly freaky" comments, all of it translates into engagement: streams, sales, views, virality. It gets him acting opportunities and books him a Diesel show overseas.

There's a reason Yunho played two roles in 2025 with opposing personalities: intern Minhyuk and Giseok. the silly, cute goofy intern and the angry, gloomy rockstar. Two characters showcasing Yunho's range, his warm and cold duality. This is what he wants to emphasize. This is where he's taking his image. He's expanding it to contain more of himself.

"A shelter that is easily blown over by the wind is a shelter you cannot trust."

Cold Yunho is not a contradiction to Yunho's image because it has always been implicitly part of its structure. It is the inside that the outside was always built on. Yunho himself hasn't really changed. Or rather, he has, but that's not the point. The point is that how we see him has changed. And because how we see him has changed, what he can show has changed. And because what he can show has changed, who he is publicly has changed.

The industry runs on fan economy. And Yunho is obviously willing to play —still within his own boundaries and rules, of course. Because it's easier to flow down the river than to fight the torrent. Because when you give fans what they want, on your terms, you have at least a hand on the wheel.

Yunho can't control what fans desire. He can't rewrite the industry structures that reward certain versions of masculinity or desire. The golden retriever was always going to run into a ceiling. Those standards exist regardless of him. What he can do, tho, is shape what "cold Yunho" and "warm Yunho" mean, what version of it fits him. And this is true for any idol. Some naturally fit into existing archetypes; others have to find their way in, or create new ones.

At the end of the day, idols are still people. They have their own doubts, insecurities, dreams, and a self that isn't fixed. People don't change overnight, but they are also under no obligation to remain static. What you want, or how you desire to be seen at 20, will not be what you want and how you desire to be seen at 27. Your image is meant to grow with you. It is the natural course of being a person.

"From here on, I'll keep taking on new challenges with even more support from our ATINY than I have now. And I'll continue to grow even more than I have up to this point. So when that time comes, I just hope you won't feel like I've changed or become someone different - I hope I'll still feel like the same Yunho to you. " source

To be continued...

And CUT.

This one took a while to write. Thank you for reading <33

There will be a Part 4, centering around the sustainability and limits of this image, but I'm debating whether to write something else in between. So that might take some time as I haven't even structured things in my head yet. I also want to focus more on other members, so you'll be hopefully seeing more of me, hehe.