So I decided I want to try posting something to join in on the convo on here, might be fun!
A though I was having today:
I think Byun Minho might, albeit a bit hypocritically from early SB OG quotes, actually enjoy some domestic labor tasks (cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, ect.)
In parts where it shows his apartment, it’s clean and well organized, with clear thought into where everything would go and be placed.
Nothing seems out of place each time we see his own space, which means he does regular upkeep to his own space, and that makes sense when I really think about his background, this is probably the first place he’s ever had of his own (since most East Asian background children don’t love out of their parents houses until they either buy their own or get married), and he maybe finds a sense of peace in building his own life for himself, I remember him sort of lingering on the thought of his own place a few times in the Sidestory, maybe because it was the only place he really got to express his personal identity in a living space, everyone else he lives with already fills up their own spaces, leaving no self expression for him to take up any literal space, because they don’t actually want him there personally, he’s just there to fulfill a function. They don’t want him to be a human being.
Also it makes sense why in later installments, he’s unsatisfied with doing the same thing for somebody else, it’s because it doesn’t contribute to his own success in Doona’s case, instead it contributes to her success in not having to maintain her own space herself, and also she emotionally benefits from having a clean space to be productive in (which I imagine would be incredibly helpful since she wouldn’t have her mind on it at all, even if she doesn’t actively think about it, but she definitely notices it with Woo Haesol).
With Wookyung it seems to be more to keeping the other complicit, if he isn’t upset it makes the situation less dangerous for Minho, so he contributes in that way to make Wookyung feel cared for, it’s a survival tactic to ensure his own safety, also I really think with this cooking section it’s a little interesting because Minho actually might be relieved to be doing this portion of it since it’s pretty much his only realm of self expression in this hostile, unstable environment he’s in, it’s the only piece of himself he gets to have here, it’s really saddening but also enlightening, but maybe I’m just reading the vibe wrong too.
Edit: I also see a lot of vegetable dishes here too, and when I think about some of the time that it takes to cook something like that (sometimes I cook for myself), there’s a lot of those sort of individual or picky sorts of things there, chopping it up, cooking each separate vegetable in it’s own way, making sauces for some of them, ect), part of me also wonders if he was also trying to draw the time out as long as possible, it’s just a thought.
I just find this fascinating honestly, how much you can pick up from a character in just the small details about them, I’d be interested in doing some breakdowns of other things if there was traffic for it at any point, but also what do other people think? I’d be curious to know!
