#jojo wright

Once again, we're getting teased with a never-ending Golden Hour series. But like, imagine they legit went up to 'Golden Hour' Pt.27 - that'd be hilarious. Would have the same vibe as back in the day when Fall Out Boy kept making their song titles longer and longer (my personal favorite: 'Our Lawyer Made Us Change The Name Of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued').

Yo-ho it's been so long since I last heard someone in Ateez acknowledge that Korea actually adapted their laws to the international age system!

In case you didn't know by the way: the way it worked before was that, when you were born, you were registered as 1 year old and then at the start of each year, all Korean citizens would officially get a year older regardless of their birthdays. So for Hongjoong, he would've been 1 year old in 1998, meaning he would've turned 29 on January 1st of this year. While internationally, he won't turn 28 until November 7th.

Obviously though, if you've spent your entire life thinking and saying you're one age, it's gonna be hella weird to mentally de-age yourself by a year or two just because some law changed, so the vast majority of idols still go by their Korean ages.

The way each and every time Hongjoong gets asked a question about friends or family, he always replies with something about his members 🥹

The first time the members listened to this song, they were all, like, really happy with it. But after we had just listened to it, we were all thinking about how it has to be released in summer.

Ooh, some new behind-the-scenes lore: the 'BAD' instrumental was actually recorded in London by their usual production team (Edenary) and then the files were brought back to Korea for fine tuning and further development before the lyrics were written and vocals recorded.

And now - this is important - Hongjoong revealed his current all-time-favorite Ateez song:

You know, I really like the 'Golden Hour' series 'cause we can try out many genres of songs, but for me, these days... I think... It's very hard to pick one, but... uh... wow. It's hard, but like- I think 'Pirate King'. I can pick that song. It's a classic to me. When I listen to that song, I feel like I'm going back to our debut days.

In response, JoJo has now switched up the rules to two favorite songs and revealed his own:

My favorite one to see live is 'Guerrilla'-

Hongjoong's reaction - bro, that 'oaah' sent me:

JoJo: "The fanchants- I mean, if you've never seen an Ateez show, you have to-" HJ: "Break the wall!" JoJo: "The 'break the wall' moment is so insane. I recall us- We were watching the stream when you did Coachella a couple years ago." HJ: "Ah, yeah yeah yeah yeah!" JoJo: "And here's the crazy thing, Hongjoong: um, when you were watching a performance, you were on one channel and you could flick to another channel and you see like an empty stage getting ready for the next artist or whatever-" HJ, smiling: "Yeah yeah, I know-" JoJo: "We clicked to another channel that you weren't on and we could hear 'break the wall' ON THE OTHER STAGE!"

HJ: "Yeah, I saw that, I saw that." JoJo: "It's cr- I mean- How- What you- Eh- (brief pause to gather himself lmfao) What's your reaction to that? That's how loud your fans are!" HJ, sits up suuuper straight: "Yeah, so... Yeah, you know... The... fans, like, follow the artist. Yeah, you mean- I mean, like... Ateez, when we released 'Guerrilla', we were full of energy and now Atiny give that energy back every time we perform 'Guerrilla' on stage. So you know, I changed my mind. My favorite song is 'Guerrilla' now."

It's so cute how pretty much all the members, including Hongjoong here now, have said they love taking out their in-ears whenever the 'break the wall' part comes on because they want to hear Atiny as clearly as possible ♥

And now: JoJo reveals his second favorite Ateez song!

JoJo: "I credit you guys and this song for this show - Kpop with JoJo - going on national. And I'll give you the moment: you guys came out and did an interview with me at KCON LA outside on that outdoor stage." HJ: "Oh, yeah yeah yeah!!! I knew, I knew!"

For context, he's talking about this event (the 'Bouncy' mini-surprise-performance begins around 8:40):

JoJo: "And I told- At this moment- At that moment, this show was an LA-only show, but one of the bosses from iHeart whose name is Tom Poleman- You've met Tom." HJ, looks at the camera and smiles: "Hello." JoJo: "He came out there and I said 'Tom, when these guys walk on stage and I say "here's Ateez" the place is gonna go crazy.' And then we had DJ Triple XL play 'Bouncy' and you guys weren't performing it, but you did the choreo for the crowd. And when [... Tom] saw this, I think it was him that said 'We're taking this show and we're going national.'" HJ: "Oooh!" JoJo: "So I credit you guys and 'Bouncy' for this show going from local to national." HJ: "WOW!" JoJo: "Yo, 'Bouncy' is my goat!" HJ: "Wo-ho-ho! I didn't know that before!"

Hongjoong is so cute when he immediately says "and you had that strong opinion that Ateez comes up and it'll be-", only for JoJo to lean into the mic and go all soft-voiced "It was huge".

HJ: "Thank you so much for trusting us." JoJo: "Thank you!" HJ: "I'm so happy because you deserve it." JoJo: "That's very kind."

Aww, it's so sweet of Hongjoong to then go on by saying he loves being interviewed by JoJo because he remembers that day and he knows they got bigger and bigger because of their fans, but without people who trust them, they can't have a career like this.

HJ: "And you're one of the people who believed in us-" JoJo: "Thank you. Oh my god." HJ: "-since the start." JoJo: "Well, same back to you. And I owe you guys just a ton of gratitude on that. Oh my god."

Love how we're now jumping from this into asking Hongjoong if it's true that there's a penalty for when the members call him 'Leader' instead of 'Captain' jaölskdjflaskd

Nah, but I remember this was a thing so what do you mean nobody ever actually paid the penalty lmaooooo

Not Hongjoong admitting he sometimes struggled to introduce himself as 'Captain' to strangers so he went with 'leader' and still didn't pay the penalty, so then the members never paid it either. The only one who never slipped up was their boss because he came up with the whole thing.

JoJo immediately asking the important questions: out of all the members, who owes the most money for this?

Hongjoong's answer? "I think Jongho. Yeah, Jongho. Because he usually doesn't like using a nickname for someone. Maybe he'd end up poor if he paid all the money to me or to someone."

JoJo, instantly on board: "So if I ever say the words 'the leader of Ateez', I gotta pay." HJ, dead serious: "Yeah, you have to." JoJo: "Alright, so fair enough!"

Aww, JoJo also made sure to tell Hongjoong to greet the other members for him~

But now, last but not least: a message to Atiny with a suspicious little hint-hint-nudge-nudge regarding the next comeback?