let choi jongho be a perv. that boy imagines people naked far too often. and ADMITS IT. aloud. in front of god and my mother and the whole country on broadcast television. and i think we need to let him fly his freak flag. i, for one, think we dim his shine too much. ooooooh jongho is a prude. oooooh jongho won't show tit. ooooooh jongho doesn't like to be kissed. GROW UP!!!!!! he has SEVEN MEN whipped for him in a way that is SO HORRENDOUS it often cannot be described in human language! do you think he achieved that by being a PURITAN? a SAINT? a PURE AND CHASTE CREATURE? the man has game the likes of which we cannot even fathom because we simply do not open our MINDS to it. we are a GENERATION ASLEEP
This is what hieroglyphs and figures in ancient Egyptian temples looked like before their colors faded. They were recreated using a polychromatic light display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, following thorough research.
BAD: new producers! JORDAN, ELJAY, Joe & Jack Harvey. There are a few different Jordans who have worked in kpop (one made EXO's Growl, another worked with BTS, a third worked on IVE's Bang Bang)
ELJAY: "a London-based multi-instrumentalist producer and songwriter whose style blends heartfelt R&B and soul with experimental electronic music," and describes his style and upcoming projects as “more crazy, alternative, dark, and sick music.” Worked on Baekhyun's Pineapple Slice but also has credits with KARD, ARTMS, and TEMPEST.
Joe & Jack Harvey: formerly an indie rock duo, they now produce songs like TXT's Sunday Driver, Chungha's EENIE-MEENIE (feat.Hongjoong) and I'm Ready!!!!
Okay....I have no idea what to expect but I'm seated. Gay house dance anthem for pride?
MAMACITA Kikoi is back!! The mastermind behind these songs:
I'm obviously thinking Mamacita will be a sister to Blind and Arriba. Seated. So seated. Will this be the fan-fave bside?
TOXIN: Tankzzo returns! One of the composers for NASA, NO1, Slide to Me, Legacy, Face, and Bridge: The Edge of Reality. Not one miss.
Fallin': Edenary Team + Kikoi again, but no idea which way this could go!
Body: New names! Arthur Bean, Rushan West, and Djuwey (+ tankzzo)
"Arthur Bean is a versatile producer whose unique skills cater to a wide array of genres, including rap, pop, dance, and Brazilian funk." Rushan West doesn't have much of a presence, but I gather he's worked with 21 Savage and Kevin. I can't find anything about Djuwey...
TLDR; everything about this track list intrigues and excites me.
random PSA, I know a lot of people use duckduckgo as a Google alternative search engine, but it always kind of annoyed me when I was using it because it felt like No Name Brand Google
I have switched to using Startpage.com and vastly prefer it. for one thing, instead of displaying an "AI summary" at the top of the search results (unless you turn it off, yes I know), it displays the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article, with link, whenever it finds one that's relevant.
also a waaayyyyy better sense of design than duckduckgo
also private, European based, least annoying search I've used lately (RIP old "don't be evil" Google)
i have one of those, scraped from multiple different rec posts:
Search Engines
Infinity Search is an alternative search engine with a special focus on privacy
DuckDuckGo is a popular search engine for those who value their privacy and are put off by the thought of their every query being tracked and logged. Uses bangs, ![site] for in-page search (sells your data to microsoft and draws from fucking bing)
WolframAlpha is a privately owned search engine that allows you to “compute expert-level answers using Wolfram’s breakthrough algorithms, knowledgebase, and AI technology.” A data search engine.
Boardreader is a search engine for forums and message boards. It allows you to search forums and then filter down results by date and language.
Based in France, Qwant is a privacy-based search engine that won’t record your searches or use your personal details for advertising. Uses “&” as a bang search.
Another privacy-based search engine is Search Encrypt, which uses local encryption to ensure that users’ identifiable information cannot be tracked. Metasearch across multiple engines.
Offering unbiased results from several sources, SearX is a metasearch engine that aims to present a free, decentralized view of the internet. Can be self-hosted.
Gibiru’s tagline is “Unfiltered private search” and that’s exactly what it offers. Requires AnonymoX Firefox add-on for privacy.
Disconnect allows you to conduct anonymous searches through a search engine of your choice.
Swisscows provides fully encrypted searches to protect your privacy and security. Built-in violence/porn filter cannot be overridden.
MetaGer offers “Privacy Protected Search & Find” through its anonymised search. A plugin will allow it to be made a default.
Gigablast is a private search engine that indexes millions of websites and servers real-time information without tracking your data, keeping you hidden from marketers and spammers. Variety of filtration and refinement options for searching.
Oscobo is a search engine that protects your privacy while you search the web. By not using any third-party tools or scripts, your data is protected from hacking and misuse. Has a Chrome extension to allow use in toolbar.
https://search.marginalia.nu/ an independent DIY search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and attempts to show you sites you perhaps weren't aware of in favor of the sort of sites you probably already knew existed. Use old-school searching rather than query-based for the best results.
https://www.mojeek.com/
https://wiby.me/ - It’s goal is to index as many personalized websites as possible, and NOT commercial sites.
https://4get.ca/ it works a lot like SearX, but honestly better. It doesn’t have its own index, but pulls from many others. I think it’s the best for research, since it allows you to search for answers from different indexes, is easy to configure, add free, and avoids censorship as much as it can.
https://www.searchenginemap.com/ for more on how search engines relate to each other.
https://yep.com/ is a crawler
https://www.etools.ch/ retrieves from Google, Mojeek, Bing, and Yandex, like Searx
https://www.dogpile.com/
https://searxng.org/ (next gen Searx)
https://luxxle.com/ - possibly conservative?
https://presearch.com/ - good for academic?
https://kagi.com/smallweb - free/randomised Kagi.
Other Searchers
www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.
www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.
https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.
www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.
http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.
www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.
www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free.https://cosine.club/ is an electronic music similarity search engine
For much of his career, Benedict Cumberbatch built a reputation as one of the hardest-working actors in the industry. From global blockbuster franchises to acclaimed stage productions and prestige dramas, his schedule often seemed relentless. But according to his wife, director and theater artist Sophie Hunter, a deeply personal realization about time and family fundamentally changed the way he views his future.
The shift came during a quiet evening at home when Cumberbatch began calculating the years ahead. As he looked at the ages of their three sons—Christopher, Hal, and Finn—he suddenly realized he would be in his sixties by the time their youngest child reached adulthood.
“It was one of those moments that stops you in your tracks,” Hunter explains. “Benedict was calculating the years one evening, realizing that he will be in his 60s when our youngest, Finn, turns twenty-one.”
The realization was not driven by fear, but by perspective. For years, Cumberbatch had balanced an extraordinary workload, moving between demanding film shoots, international press tours, and challenging theater performances. While he had always valued family life, becoming a father transformed the way he measured success.
“The minute you have children, the concept of time sinks in with such a heavy, unstoppable weight,” Hunter says. What once felt like an endless stretch of years suddenly became more precious and finite. Instead of viewing opportunities solely through the lens of artistic ambition, he began evaluating them against something far more important: time spent with his family.
According to Hunter, the impact was immediate. Cumberbatch started becoming significantly more selective about the projects he accepted. Rather than saying yes to every exciting role, he focused on work that genuinely mattered to him creatively and personally. Long filming commitments, extended periods away from home, and projects that offered little fulfillment were no longer automatic choices.
The actor reportedly began asking a simple question before committing to new work: Is this worth the time I will lose with my children?
That change did not diminish his passion for acting. If anything, it sharpened it. By narrowing his focus to projects he truly believed in, Cumberbatch found a renewed sense of purpose in his career. The decision allowed him to maintain the creative challenges he loves while ensuring that family remains at the center of his life.
Hunter notes that parenthood has given her husband a different understanding of achievement. Awards, acclaim, and box-office success still matter, but they no longer define his priorities. Watching his sons grow, attending important family moments, and simply being present have become equally significant measures of fulfillment.
As one of Britain’s most celebrated actors, Benedict Cumberbatch continues to take on ambitious roles. Yet the realization that time moves faster than anyone expects has left a lasting mark on him. For a man who spent years racing from one project to the next, the most important role now is not found on a film set or a stage. It is being a father and making sure he is there for the moments that can never be repeated. https://enews.topnewsource.com/?p=66331&fbclid=IwY2xjawSMtDxleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFKR2pkR2FCWEltNDRuZjB1c3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHlJNJKcXE8TESdZp5jvItPmt6bjvcg9xikb0PsTeV5TppzpG6AM1bVzRjfxd_aem_IP-xW8kUVn6MhwBYnsJaZw
Oh boy, that is sure to throw the sQeptics into a frenzy.
But it's something we all knew anyway. It's always been clear that he put his family first.
The few fanatic Septics left will howl about every word of this article.
Aeltri, Murphysmom67, 221_B Benlock and Mstoxictea will get their panties in a twist and spew out all sorts of lies and unfounded accusations but REAL fans already knew this all along.
It's lovely to hear Sophie articulate it, in such detail and so eloquently, but BC himself has said the same thing a number of times, so there's nothing surprising here.
Okay, hello! I'm suffering from some real BAD Wooyoung brainrot rn and instead of going outside and touching grass as I probably should I'm instead collating a lil timeline of Leftyoung moments because I absolutely adore how this man, in an industry wherein idols are expected to remain politically neutral, pushes the boundaries and posts/says things that have very obvious implications much more than any other idol I can think of in recent memory. Today is also the one year anniversary of the start of the 2024 Korean martial law crisis, coincidentally, making this post even more apt.
This is really just me making a reference for myself but I am posting it anyway in case any newer atiny somehow haven't seen this stuff yet, or you, dear reader, also fancy joining me in Wooyoung brainrot. For funsies. It's basically just the story of stuff that went down between December 2024 and June this year. This post is also ridiculously long and comprehensive, fair warning, so I've bolded and coloured some subheadings and made some sections small to hopefully make it a little more readable!
Disclaimer!! I consider myself a pretty decent Korean speaker; I started learning it over 10 years ago now and can understand it well enough that I generally don't need subs on content unless there's a pop culture reference I'm not getting. That said, I am not a native speaker. Hopefully my translations are all fine though; as a language and linguistics student I favoured nuance and getting the right message across as opposed to exact 1:1 translation so. If anyone has any corrections I am happy to hear them. A lot of the content in here comes from K-Atiny online, original posts have been linked! Also sorry if the formatting fucks up, tumblr really hates doing small text lol
Before we start rhapsodising over our outspoken king:
Some background/key dates:
3rd December 2024: Then president Yoon Seok Yeol, leader of the People's Power Party (PPP/국민의힘, Korea's main right wing/conservative party) declares martial law, accusing the Democratic Party (DPK/더불어민주당, the main liberal party) of undermining the country by collaborating with North Korean communists. This was a very blatant attempt at a self-coup to establish himself as an authoritarian leader, which in a country that has suffered greatly at the hands of multiple military dictatorships, was a supremely stupid idea. Both parties, his own and the opposition, strongly opposed the declaration.
South Korea as it currently stands is a pretty young country, and has been governed democratically only since 1987! People who protested against Chun Doo Hwan in the 80s are very much still around and remember what living under a military dictatorship felt like, and their parent's generation were protesting Syngman Rhee in the 50s/1960. To imagine the student movement wouldn't get out there again, or that the last generation of student protestors would even consider risking their children suffering the way they did (if you're not familiar with the Gwangju Uprising, do read about it, but be warned it's an extremely tough read), is ignorant at best. It didn't take long for protests to erupt country wide, with attendance estimates ranging wildly from 300,000+ to over a million at the largest ones. There's a lot more to the 2024 martial law crisis than this brief summary but I don't want it to dominate the post :') TLDR Yoon was unsuccessful; only hours later, on December 4th, the National Assembly overrode the martial law declaration in an emergency session.
Protests against Yoon took place throughout December (with further rallies taking place throughout early 2025 as things progressed), demanding his impeachment, then removal, then arrest. All of these were successful, thankfully. Now, quickly, a few more important dates:
14th December 2024: Yoon Seok Yeol is impeached!
4th April 2025: The impeachment is upheld, and Yoon Seok Yeol is removed from office!
29th-30th May 2025: Early voting opens for the South Korean Presidential Election!
3rd June 2025: Lee Jae Myung of the DPK declares victory in the election after narrowly losing to Yoon in 2022! He is the current president of SK!
One more thing for context: the colour red and number 2 are associated with the PPP, while the colour blue and number 1 are associated with the DPK. So, in this post, if you see "party no. 2", that's the PPP/Yoon (right), while "party no. 1" is the DPK/Lee (liberal; not saying left because they're more 'centre' lol). Okay, all that contextual rambling aside:
Jung Leftyoung: an idol who cares not for letting people misunderstand him (December 7th-December 14th)
Jung Leftyoung is by far my favourite nickname K-atiny have given him. A quick linguistic breakdown: 우 ((w)oo) means 'right', whereas 좌 (jwa) means 'left'; hence 정좌영 (jung jwayoung, jung leftyoung) instead of 정우영 (jung wooyoung). The way Koreans do wordplay will forever inspire both rapt awe and intense envy in me, honestly.
The earliest use of the nickname I can find is from December 2024 in a few tweets we will come to later! It seems Twitter was the breeding ground for the first posts about this on December 9th, but as far as I can tell this whole saga blew up big due to a post on a Daum cafe (a type of forum) for women in their 20s made the same day titled "2찍 오해 받은게 너무 억울한 나머지 소신발언 한 남자아이돌", or, "A male idol speaks his mind because he's so upset [to have been] unfairly misunderstood as a party no. 2 [supporter]". rough translation; 소신발언 means to speak one's mind/state your opinions that you very strongly believe in even if it goes against the majority, to state your convictions.
This misunderstanding is pretty common knowledge in the fandom by this point, I think. On December 7th 2024, Wooyoung uploaded a photo of himself in a fox onesie holding San by the hood of his wolf onesie with the caption "I caught a wolf"
It's cute, a little bit of humour in a rough time after days of protests and unrest, perhaps. However, because his onesie is red, and San's grey onesie looks kinda blue, this caused a lot of uproar after a Twitter user notorious for starting hate trains posted it with the implication he's a PPP supporter. December 7th was the first impeachment hearing. The motion failed as PPP members boycotted the vote; for a motion to pass in the National Assembly, a two-thirds majority is required. Put very simply, 200 votes in the 300-seat parliament needed to be in favour of impeachment, but there weren't even enough legislators present without PPP members there to vote; the DPK had 192 seats. So the timing was not ideal, and people were upset at the implication that Wooyoung might be a PPP/Yoon supporter. It was a very charged time.
But the very next day, December 8th, Wooyoung came out SWINGING. There was absolutely no way he was letting himself be seen as a PPP supporter, I genuinely believe from his reaction that he'd rather lose biting Yeosang or boykissing privileges for life. Starting with his Fromm message in the morning:
[I'd potentially translate the last message in the right pic more as "don't get hurt physically or emotionally"]
Protests outside the National Assembly were once again taking place, and Wooyoung addresses them here, although somewhat covertly. There's still that plausible deniability there to fall back on if he needs to. Then, later that day, Ateez had a Fromm fansign, at which an Atiny who was going to the protests afterwards had a touching interaction that they then tweeted about:
Wooyoungie...
When I told him I was going to the National Assembly after this, he held my hands tightly...
(Quoting him) Did you see what I sent on Fromm this morning? Dress warmly and don't catch a cold. Aaah
This is much more blatant support, and these two things very quickly gained traction in both Korean and international Atiny spaces. People were praising him for being so openly supportive of the protesters, and just as quickly as the 'damage' to his reputation had occurred, he'd started building a new one for himself. It was genuinely impressive how fast he started changing the tides. Being bold yet again on the 8th, he posted these Instagram stories:
Blue clothing... and SNSD's Into The New World. ITNW became a protest song in 2016 after Ewha Womans University students sang it during a peaceful protest against changes being made without consulting them before they were forcibly and excessively suppressed by 1600 police officers. Later that year and into early 2017 protests against then president Park Geun Hye saw it sang in the streets, its lyrics about perseverance in the face of hardship and togetherness through the dark resonating with those who were then, too, fighting for impeachment.
Young women, most of whom were students, led both the protests and the domination of this song as a protest anthem. Since then, it has been sung at a rally celebrating the decriminalisation of abortion in Korea, and at pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and Thailand. And, most recently, at the protests against Yoon Seok Yeol (also led mainly by young women; over 60% of the votes that got Yoon elected in the first place were cast by men in their 20s, and the pro-Yoon counterprotests were predominantly men in their 20s and 30s). Beyond attempted self-coup/corruption vs being against all that shit, there was also a stark gender slant to it, with a lot of angry incels being willing to overlook blatant corruption if it meant getting back at feminists (sounds familiar, huh?)
So Wooyoung was not being subtle in the slightest, and though Atiny and basically all Kpop fandoms are female dominated, it was also pretty fucking cool of him to be so blatantly anti-Yoon when a lot of men his age were too busy being anti-woman instead. In saying that, the bar is in hell, but it's always nice to know your fave (probably) isn't a total incel and misogynistic loser, I guess. But I digress. Man had a name to clear and I don't think I've ever known anyone to clear theirs faster. Ending the day, he reacted with a heart to a candle emoji, symbolising peaceful protest
...and then reacted to so many comments saying things in the vein of "we love and support you, Wooyoung, let's be happy" that people's phones were blowing up, lmao
I know that you're Jung Left-young so please stop now, fuck
Above is one of the earlier instances of the nickname I've seen. He replied to another Atiny who said they went to the protests:
and ended the day with a heartfelt message that definitely would have won everyone over if they weren't already so utterly and thoroughly endeared by the display he'd made that day.
I'll get going now, everyone
People who went out [to protest] today, don't forget to take cold medicine
Warm up and go to sleep
Thank you for your hard work
I am okay 🙃
Sometimes when things are unfair [/I'm unfairly misunderstood] I can't say that "it's unfair" or that "it's not like that". It's hard, but I think time resolves it, so I just go on living.
My personality... is that I have my convictions/beliefs, and not only do I not tip toe around them, but I can't act differently for the sake of putting on an appearance.
I just wanted to let my people [fans] know that one thing.
Have good dreams and let's all be happy together 🙃
But people had gotten the message that he refused to be unfairly misunderstood, they were already on his side from the support for protestors and the stories, and they were extremely endeared by the fact that he wouldn't let it go the entire day because he felt so wronged by the misunderstanding and the fact that anyone would think he's a right winger/PPP supporter that he did everything bar saying the words explicitly to prove that he isn't.
This particularly passionate Atiny and the quote retweet, both of which brought me to tears, were viewed over 10,000 times even before the Daum post:
Original tweet (bottom): @/(account that posted the accusation) You crazy bitch, because of you Wooyoung has gone fucking frenetic*, he's suddenly posting a photo of a blue shirt he wore 4 months ago with Into The New World as background music, and his nickname became Jung Leftyoung. Fucking bastard, delete your post, [our] Wooyoung is a pure blue blood who follows Lee Jae Myung on his private Insta account.
Fuck, is the last line true? That's not just a no. 1 party supporter, that's a crazy left winger. Shit.
Quote RT (top): ah fuck hahahahaha a male idol on a private account
It's not for jotmok** or a secret relationship with a female idol it's "following Lee Jae Myung", ridiculous. [He's] just a fucking walking human smurf. There's nothing that's not funny about the nickname Jung Leftyoung.
*급발진 refers to sudden forward motion like a kickstart? so to describe emotions it means like a sudden strong reaction like a burst of anger. I had no clue how to put that into one word so frenetic is what I chose but basically he reacted very strongly lmao
**I have no idea how to explain 좆목 because online slang is truly my downfall with Korean. it's a combination of 좆 (penis, used to call something bad) and 친목 (friendship). as far as I understand it's like a circlejerk? or a clique? like, making a smaller community within a bigger online community which means newer members can't participate? it's so hard to put into words but it's a bad thing and it's heavily discouraged in Korean online communities, that's all the context you really need to understand the post I think :') These translations in particular were so difficult actually lmao someone please tell me if I'm wrong at all
Another tweet from the Daum post with over 10k views:
Jung Wooyoung is a fan of Korean history and talked about the movie May 18* in 2020 as a recommendation, does it makes sense that he'd be a no. 2 party supporter?
*May 18 is a film about the Gwangju Uprising, the Korean title literally means "Splendid Holiday"
Okay Wooyoung we get it, you're a party no. 1 supporter, we all know
And thus, the nickname was born. The Daum thread ended with two screenshots that I do not know the original dates of posting of, but solidified my love for this man more than anything else had thus far, including his IOMT hair, bite-to-show-love tendencies, and Woosan, which are all tough to beat:
Top: Sit down / You know, hyung has blue blood flowing through his body
Bottom: There is no future for a nation that has forgotten [its] history!
The ending comment to the thread documenting all this made me giggle, too: "I'm not a fan, I don't know their faces, I don't even know how many members Ateez has. Stop censorship. Don't take the red one away, what has Santa Claus done wrong?"
But just. Wow. The curse-loving Atiny was right about him having a strong reaction. Wooyoung is always ready to fight for what he believes in and he was more than willing to prove it. And by this point everyone was on his side,. While the comments were mostly laughing about how funny the nickname and the idea of him having a secret account to follow Lee Jae Myung are, a lot of people were also agreeing it was unfair he was misunderstood in the first place, and that they wouldn't be able to stand it either. Many comments disagreed with the idea of policing the clothes celebrities wear in the first place. Some even commiserated that they had red items of clothing they wanted to be able to wear again without being seen as a supporter of Yoon's bullshit. The Daum post got over 70,000 views and almost 500 comments, and if Wooyoung's original intention with the fox onesie was to bring people laughter during a tense time, he definitely succeeded, just in a very roundabout way. Jung Leftyoung was a hit and his supposed private LJM following account became a thing of legend.
But he didn't stop there. He'd opened the floodgates; even after clearing his name he'd gotten a good response and he'd seen that he can push the boundary, he can be a little more explicit than one might expect of their idols, and he can keep being Jung Leftyoung because it's something he genuinely cares about.
On December 14th Yoon Seok Yeol is impeached; the second attempt succeeded. Wooyoung, coincidentally, did a POP Live that day, after Music Bank Japan. And for a fair few of the 17 minutes he was live, he reads out comments saying things like "are you in a good mood? you must be in a good mood" to which he eventually, quickly, replies "if you already know, then why are you asking?" The live was also full of some very... interesting smiles in the beginning, although he said he was happy because he did good on stage and because the comments were all so cute. The fact that many of the comments were basically asking if he's glad the bastard was impeached was probably nothing at all to do with that. At one point he also read out a comment calling him "so transparent", lmao?? One of the clips from this live got over 600k views on twt:
"Stop asking me if I feel good. You already know [so why keep asking?]"
I saw this clip because of a quote RT that said "i'll never call you Wooyoung again, i'll call you Leftyoung by all means" with like 1.1k likes. All the other quotes were also calling him Leftyoung. And everyone was losing their shit over how funny they found it lmao
An enduring reputation known by even non-Atiny (April 4th and May-June 2025)
Fast forward to April 4th: The impeachment is upheld and finalised, and it's time for Yoon to get the fuck out. Most Jung Leftyoung content between December and this point were memes, most notably a couple in February with the absolutely hilarious blue monitor trend video wherein he specifically said "please don't make this a meme". Blueyoung with all his blue blood was just too funny to resist, I guess.
But the April removal of Yoon brought Leftyoung back to his Insta story, which was about as subtle as a punch in the nose:
The emoji. The blue shirt. The background being Roy Kim's Bom Bom Bom (with the opening lyrics "spring spring spring has come"). And the cheeky lil smile!! Just under 500k views on Twitter and around 3k quote tweets praising the lord and saviour who isn't afraid to advocate for democracy however he can, Jung Leftyoung. But he wasn't done; he followed this up with a video of him, Jongho, and Yeosang performing... you guessed it! Into The New World (link is to tiktok!). Such a random fancam to be uploading in April 2025, to say the fanmeet at which they performed the cover was in July 2024. What a coincidence!
I'm sure you can guess what the quote RTs looked like now without me explaining it. Again, these stories blew up both on the Korean side of the net and the Western side, and a word that kept coming up on the Korean side was transparency, or 투명. He was praised for this above all else, with a lot of comments about how refreshing it was to see from an idol. Another word I saw getting thrown around a lot was 호감, meaning either a crush, or someone you have a generally favourable impression of/who is generally likeable. Which, wholly agree! It warms my heart to see so many people saying it about him :')
All of this culminated in late May - SK held an early election (the next wasn't scheduled until 2027...) following the impeachment, and we all know what election season looks like for idols. No blue or red, no 1 or 2 gestures, fuck it don't even talk about numbers. Or colours. Get that kindergarten shit OUT OF HERE.
Early voting was held on May 29th and May 30th. The original post from the Daum cafe was posted to theqoo on May 28th and with 65k views on the thread he went viral AGAIN. The day before early voting opened. Such a fucking icon. When I said the word 호감 came up a lot, I was not kidding:
The second one down, 303, says "wow, I didn't know but he's totally 호감". One commenter said they don't know idols but that he seems like "a proper young man" (I can't include screenshots of all of them because of the image limit but if you can read Korean the thread is here, and the one I am about to discuss is here)
Only 2 days later, on May 30th, Leftyoung goes viral on theqoo YET AGAIN in a thread that got over 71k views in the end. The reason? Well, Ateez were headed to Kuala Lumpur for K-pop Masterz on May 31st, and as per usual when kpop idols travel, airport photos of them came out and people noticed something a bit... interesting... about Wooyoung and Yunho's:
They make me giggle every single time I see them. Wooyoung goes to make the peace sign out of habit, only for Yunho to stop him just a liiiittle too late. The post is titled "Leftyoung apologising for making V sign at the airport", and apologise he did:
ha
I'm a real idiot
Doing the V sign, really
How many years has it been [/I have years of experience]
Are you kidding me?
I can't get my act together
I'm sorry...ha
I love you, Yunho
Thank you
He sounds genuinely so upset and angry with himself. Which people noticed and commented on; a lot of the comments were along the lines of "poor Leftyoung, he sounds distraught". But a huge number of comments, which made me giggle, said things like (these are all actual comment translations, not paraphrasing):
"I don't think you need to clarify..."
"It's so fucking funny that it's true-blue Jung Leftyoung, who follows Lee Jae Myung on his private account. Whatever you do with your fingers, I understand hahahaha" (this was almost 6 whole months after that original joke, which apparently became a well known meme)
"Leftyoung, you're alright. No one suspects you."
"Even if Leftyoung went to the polling booth in red clothes, there's no doubt."
"It's okay... we... all know..."
"Jung Leftyoung, you're Leftyoung, so it's okay."
"But even if this friend [Wooyoung] doesn't explain it, we're already familiar. Lol, he already lost his name, he's Leftyoung."
"Leftyoung is okay because he has trust."
"Leftyoung, no one will say anything even if you paint [yourself] red from head to toe."
And so on; there are 558 comments and of the ones that aren't deleted, most of them look like this, or are praising Yunho for his sense and quick thinking (and, in some cases, asking who he is lmao. Felt that).
Which leads me to my all time personal favourite comment in all of this, which really emphasises how far from them/him this got and is thus getting a screenshot because a lot of comments on theqoo end up deleted and I need this archived forever:
I don't really know ATEEZ, but I know Leftyoung. I [don't misunderstand hahahaha
Later, this photo with Gallant from June 1st had a similarly disappointed reaction from himself to earlier:
The last photo - it's a habit :(
To which everyone was just as understanding (I saw this in one tweet that got almost 2.7k likes and 23,000 views, lol). June 3rd was voting day, and in Korea when you vote you get a lil red stamp, kinda like an "I voted!" sticker in the US. If you're like me and interested in little things like this, here is a concise explanation behind these stamps, which I found fascinating! Anyway, Ateez released these cute lil helm print outs that you could stamp to show you voted the Atiny way, and Wooyoung posted a photo of his to show he voted and encourage others to do the same! (As did San (with his wedding ring on, left ring finger...) and my parents Joong and Hwa, shoutout to them :') Woosan's are so nicely centred, it's very satisfying).
And, finally, LJM wins and Wooyoung's Insta story on June 4th looks very...
Blue 💙 and the digivice 25th colour evolution belt and digimon adventure korean theme playing were sick as hell, he never stops being the coolest mf in the world
I've spent hours making this extremely long and rambly post that no one will probably read but I'm glad I did cuz if I wasn't down bad enough for Wooyoung— sorry, Leftyoung before, I truly am now. The way he says how he feels as much as he can within the restraints of his job, refused to let a misunderstanding sit because FUCK if anyone is allowed to believe he's a gross, mouldy, brain broken YSY supporter, and remained so consistent with it that even people who aren't Atiny and don't know Ateez were like "ah yes, our Leftyoung"? Someone tried to accuse him of being right wing and he went "let me quickly become both the comic relief we need right now and face of idols who are willing to be political for a moment", there is absolutely no one more iconic than him I fear.
If anyone DID read this immense yap fest then thank you and also I'm sorry? The brain worms are brain worming? If anyone thinks I forgot anything or thinks my Korean needs correcting please let me know, otherwise it's time to go back to posting regular photo dumps because they don't take 8 hours to collate and type up and edit.... I need to go to bed, whoops.
Behind the Seafront @richaldis - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
