while the oldest in shinee in terms of age, their maturity levels are often questionable. when left together, they often just smile at each other and giggle like school children.
nothing that comes out of their mouths is worth repeating when they’re in such a mood, and the younger members tend to ignore them (for good reason). yet the easy understanding in just a simple look between them shows how attuned they are to each other.
we know that onew had membership in the ‘milk club’: aka the group of people in sm who drowned in sorrows together, not being able to say anything to anyone else due to the burdens they carried. with age comes responsibility, especially in the social structure dictated in korea, and jonghyun is the best able to understand onew’s harships.
in return, jonghyun with his naturally boisterous personality takes charge in interviews and takes it as his responsibility to lighten the mood and is onew’s backup whenever he’s inflicted by self doubt and worry because he thinks he’s not good enough.
onew: “the kindest member is jonghyun. jonghyun is always thinking for others silently and secretly, in a way that is not done openly … so I have been receiving his care for a long period of time now.”
jonghyun: “onew is very compatible with his image, a very pure person. he has a very fragile heart so he doesn’t know how to express himself well. he probably has a lot of things bottled up that he doesn’t tell others.”
it’s been stated that when shinee have formal discussions, or the younger members have done something wrong, onew takes the role of the good cop (because really …) and jonghyun takes the role of the bad cop. for example, jonghyun berates key for something wrong he did and onew will later reassure him.
these two, more than any of the other members, grew up and had a love of music. onew is famous for his knowledge and talent in trot songs, after all. he of his own accord decided to take up lessons at SM Academy when his teacher suggested he could become a singer, doing many odd jobs to pay for the fees. jonghyun was scouted when he played the bass guitar in a band, scrounging up his allowances to buy his instrument secretly without his parents knowing because he thought they wouldn’t approve.
as such, they have the most respect for each other, with such a background, as well as being the lead singers. Jonghyun has said multiple times his favourite person to sing with is onew, and they’ve done various (amazing wonderful gorgeous) covers such as ‘tragedy’ and ‘like a man’ as well as their duet ‘please don’t go’.
all these examples show how comfortable they are with each other, how fluid their relationship is, and how much trust they have between them.
this is part ii in my overview of shinee’s shippings. remember that these are just what i’ve extrapolated from their relationships on screen, and everybody has a different idea.
onkey: stanningotps.tumblr.com/post/4060040274/ii-onkey
onho: http://stanningotps.tumblr.com/post/4173839463/iii-onho
ontae: stanningotps.tumblr.com/post/5147466519/iv-ontae
