#hotteokism

[atiny-queth]

Okay but what if I really like the look of total concentration he has whenever he takes a mirror selfie? I think many of us headcanon that he’s smirking as he hits “post” but when he’s composing the shot it’s all locked in perfectionism.

[storkmuffin]

Sorry for another yunho ask (that man is....something else)

ANYWAYS

One thing i noticed while watching mightfia (i forgot how to spell this shit) was that when yunho was caught as veing the mafia THE LOOK HE GAVE

He was pissed to lose brooooo

HES SO COMPETITIVE

Hmm.

Was Yunho always someone who never stopped smiling even when he's angry or is this a thing he's developed over time or from some precipitating event?

I've only been here a year and three months, so it's just not enough time - he debuted in 2018 and I think there is also pre-debut footage of him as well somewhere. Hotteoks who were here before me OR have better recall about media they've inhaled in an obsessed binge watched, please tell me.

This is the second right after Wooyoung calls out his name in singsong. HIS EYES. The other compulsive smiler among Ateez is Yeosang, but this face Yunho is making is categorically different. Golden retriever my ass. That's a viper.

This is the assassin pretending to be a geisha seconds after they've picked out the glass they're going to slip the poison into.

As long as you don't look at the eyes, the face is so pleasant, so sweet. Smiling, demurely, with that mouth whose corners turn up. But if you're on the receiving end of that look, you might think your heartrate is going up because a hot Idol is looking at you, but it's your lizard brain tell you to run! (I think maybe the staff are sitting on the floor as they often seem to be during the making of this kind of content),

Yunho decides, though, that it's not worth anyone dying over it, or at least, not worth getting blood under his fingernails. Either that or more likely, he shot those terrifying laser beams of resentment at the girl staffers who are all in love with him (more on this later) so he's been somewhat appeased by their terrified, hypnotized reactions (Yeah - I ship Yunho with KQ staff and now you've been tricked into reading my 1 sentence fanfiction - WELCOME TO MY MIND).

So this is where the whole like, anger and anxiety, but also the fascination and the attraction, about Yunho being so nice, such a good boy, such a kind nice likable good boy that everyone loves comes from for me. Because those guys, the Good Kind Lovable Guys? From where I am coming from, the compulsively truth telling, resting bitchface why are you so scary spectrum girl who was off-puttingly excellent at school? I know this about those guys that nobody else seems to want to admit - those boys have THIS FACE underneath that other face. The second that they are unmasked, they go directly and completely to the opposite end of the good-bad spectrum, and go, Yeah, I'm the bad guy, with lethal eyes. AND SMILE AT YOU ABOUT IT.

Gratuitous shot of Yunhwa because I LOVE seeing their faces together. They're so harmonious when placed in one shot, especially when they both have black hair. YUMMMMMMM.

But where have we seen this before, the smiling while homicidal face?

Oh, in a different wanteez episode, about which I noted the Yunho anger face. The word that staffers put under this shot of Yunho literally says: ANGER.

This is why I ship the Staffer (can be singular or multiple, doesn't matter) with Yunho. The only way you'd be able to read this face, the creamy skin, the smiling mouth, the jaunty lollipop sticking out, accurately as ANGER and then feel the need to put it in bold font on the screen is if you're a Hotteok. Because she needs to (and is actually) screaming at us - DO YOU SEE? DO YOU SEEEEEEEEEEE?

Sis. We so do.

I really want to know how hard that bonk was. Because slowed down in this gif made by an excellent tumblrina - Mingi's head actually goes boi-oi-oing on its stem, but Yunho took care to move in a way that looks slow and low impact (BUT HE'S A DANCER, AND THEY LIE ALL THE TIME WITH THEIR BODIES PROFESSIONALLY!) and Mingi swings really big in response. But the besotted Hotteok adds a completely unjustified adjective to the correct identified Revenge (복수) - timid (소심한). Ummm. We need Mingi's opinion about this word choice, I think.

...

You know what? I'm going to adapt this behavior into my real life. When I'm pissed at someone I am going to smile with my mouth. And keep smiling. I'll let you know how that goes.

[lute-illson]

Luke's Top Five Favorite Things About Yunho (in no particular order...)

Beloved mutual @sihaiya requested I also discuss my five favorite things about Yunho. I suppose I will, if I must.

First, a note (because it's me):

My feelings about Yunho exist on a different plane by comparison to my feelings about Mingi. @syster19 got me with their reference to this post here in a reblog of my post about Mingi:

I felt extremely seen in that moment. Whoopsies!

So, if Mingi is the guy I'm proud of, and in awe of, and whose art I love and admire and respect, then who is Yunho?

Sigh.

I have described Yunho more as a problem than anything else. I find many people who bias Yunho view him more as a haunting. I am reminded of the "#tw yunho" tag, which is a deeply funny phenomenon to me, but also deeply revealing of hotteokism as a whole. We must be warned, yet we wait in anticipation. We scream at him, but we don’t stop looking. He drags us back whether we want it or not. He has a deep grip on us with those stupid, stupid big hands.

So in trying to decipher my list of favorite things about Yunho, I had a bit more of a difficult time not just devolving into..."I don't know okay! He's just here! I just saw him when I was watching 'Ice on My Teeth' and he latched on and hasn't left."

But I've tried my best. It's not all of the reasons, because I honestly don't believe they can be articulated fully in words. A lot of is much more personal than last time, and phrased a lot more parasocially. This is all just silliness, and once again, all thoughts I keep to myself.

Except here. In this post. Once again, whoopsies!

Anyway. Here we are. My top five things:

Dancer Yunho

(I'm not including any images of him in this essay because it would send me into a tailspin).

I've mentioned previously, (and also in my post about Mingi) that I am deeply in awe of dancers due to my own lack of inner grace and my knowledge of how hard the artform of dance is from my work on dance shows. While this normally doesn't impact my bias line in many of the other groups I listen to, for some reason that I can't really explain, it works for my brain with Yunho.

I'm not normally super into dance practices, (I am selfish and I want to see pretty lights), but Yunho has me binging them like a fiend. I've started picking them apart and picturing how I would light them in my head if I had unlimited funds.

If I'm being honest, Yunho being a dancer works for me so well because Yunho also acts as dance leader. This activates my brain more than I would like to admit.

Beloved mutual @thirstkanaphan posted this video of Hongjoong explaining how Yunho's route of leading dance practice is to go the disappointed parent route......and I should not have seen this video. There's also this clip @thirstkanaphan posted, from the "Ice On My Teeth" Production Behind, which is worse for me because we get to see Yunho in action. I suppose I should attempt to explain why this works for me.

To get deeply personal for a moment, I am into leaders because I value leadership skills as an important judge of character. It's a compatibility thing for me more than anything else, mainly due to many years of being with people who were overly reliant on me for action. One of my best friends once described my type as a guy who I could effectively coparent with, and I have never heard a more accurate summation. I am a leader in many of the spaces I exist in, and so I am drawn to other leaders.

Additionally, if we're going purely off what Hongjoong said here in this video, (because of course things are more complicated but if I were to simplify), I work well with people who lead like Yunho does. I am a good foil for the disappointed parent route, and I know this. Therefore, I feel normal about Yunho being a leader like this. Very normal.

In general though, I think Yunho's dance ability is just so deeply impressive. I love the way he locks in and focuses up so smoothly. I love it when he lets loose and that giddy smile he gets. He commits to narrative moments too in a way I enjoy, (a surprise to no one I'm sure). Him pretending to be drunk in "Arriba" makes me laugh. Him in "Man on Fire" is deeply dangerous to my health. This is also why I got so pedantic about the lighting for "Slide to Me" - I have watched Yunho dance far too much to not have precise opinions about how he should be lit. I can’t even talk about his recent GDA dance solo I need to hunt down whoever lit that and ask them many questions, mainly “why did you do that to my boy?”

2. Competitive Yunho

If I like leaders because I value that ability as a good judge of character, I like competitive people because I recognize that as one of my personal flaws and I like it when I share that flaw with others. I like having someone to banter with, or, to simply, I like someone who can match my freak.

Yunho being competitive is not a secret in the slightest, and is in fact a rather prominent element of any game they play. There is an argument to be made that many/most of the members are extremely competitive, (and I'd say yes), but I would like to argue that Yunho has made it into his brand in a way others have not. I think this is because, once again, Yunho likes to have control of the situation, and situating himself as the competitive winner allows him to often be the “main character” in the variety content they do.

This is not necessarily me bad-mouthing this trait, but I do find it deeply fascinating how much he likes playing into this aspect of his personality. It does not necessarily fit into this "boyfriend-core" image that he often projects, and yet here it is.

Yunho's competitive energy has spawned some of my favorite moments from their content. The pepero game moment with Wooyoung. The infamous mafia game. Even during the drunkteez episode where he commits aggressively, like with everything he does.

Additionally, I should admit that I am unfortunately a major fan of Yunho being a gamer and highly competitive in that region too. Even though Valorant is such a cursed game, as someone who likes watching gaming streams, something about it works for me. It might have something to do with the fact that I too, am incredibly competitive when it comes to video games, mostly from getting really good at speedrunning when I was younger. This all to say, his gaming stream is a favorite of mine and you will never know how many times I've watched it.

3. Angry Yunho

Because this point flows rather well from the last one, I feel like I don't need to explain a lot here. I know I am not the only one who likes it when Yunho shows the cracks in his idol persona and then meticulously pieces himself back together in real time. Many of you know what I mean, there has been much more written about it in much prettier ways. I talked about it during my "Slide to Me" breakdown, but it is one of my favorite aspects of Yunho. His ability to that mystifies me, especially as someone who has no such ability in the slightest. I'm pretty famously an open book. When I'm angry, I am not quiet about it in the slightest.

So when I watch Yunho, and I try to piece together the cascade of emotions that move across his face, (or don't), at any given time, I am kind of in awe. It makes total sense why he does this, his image in ATEEZ feels like it requires him to do this, but it still feels practiced every time. Unlike Mingi, whose performance style and offstage identity feels like peeling away a mask built from coping mechanisms, Yunho's coping mechanism is never telling you how many masks there are.

I am in awe of Yunho's anger and his immediate ability to suppress it, and that translates into something else in my brain that we don't have time to get into today. I mean, we do have time, but I bet you can put the pieces together.

4. Yunho's Voice

We've established already that I like a challenge, so I think it only felt inevitable that as soon as hotteokism overtook my brain, I immediately began learning how to catch Yunho's voice in all of ATEEZ's catalogue.

I think I just really like a guy with a versatile voice who they often slip between the layers of the songs. This has tracked with other biases of mine, but Yunho's probably the one who lives in this trait the most. I've gotten pretty good at catching him now, mainly because I have, (like a crazy person), gone through and meticulously memorized most of the sections of their catalogue. I love "Utopia" Yunho. I love "Wave" Yunho. I love "Cyberpunk" Yunho. "Guerrilla" Yunho makes me levitate. "Now this house ain't a home" Yunho is also one of my favorites.

I like the challenge of tracking his voice throughout their discography, and I like that I get to be a little annoying and smug, even if it's truly just to myself, that I can pick him out. I don't know who I'm competing against for this role, or why I'm even competing in my brain. But here I am. Something something your bias reflects an aspect of yourself whoopsies.

5. He's so -

He's just really handsome people, okay? I don't know what you want from me. He likes Spider-Man, okay? (I have had a crush on Peter Parker since I started reading comics in middle school). I was gone after that fact alone.

Because ultimately, I can't really pretend that I know how to explain all of my hotteok feelings. I just know he's there, and even as other members intrigue me, or I contemplate writing about other groups, he's still living in my head rent-free. I hope he's proud of himself, that smug demon.

[dutchmancallypso]

Officially the cutest photodump ever 🥹💜

[raviolisforjaguars]

YUNHO AND THAT STUPID SUCKER

[consciousferality]

A hotteok's 1st time watching Wanteez - ep2 (reaction/liveblog)

the highlight of this episode was, for me, without a doubt, Yunho bouncing on his feet saying 'Noona~'

he did the adorable bounce and the sweet cajoling tone, and everyone around him just survived it, apparently?!

cue me screaming 윤호야!! 누나가 왔다!!! while standing before him with my arms wide open because of that one toktoq live in which he said he wants us to welcome him into our dreams with an embrace. cue him running into my arms saying 'Noona~' in that same tone. cue me being lifted up in our hug and kicking one leg up because not only am I fortunate enough to be older than him, I am also luckily much shorter than him. cue me that's it, roll the credits because at that point I have died happy.

i don't know how plain bread could elicit such an enthusiastic reaction from him but more importantly THE CRUMBS ON HIS TOP LIP

cue me wiping them off gently with my finger and devouring them because 누나가 찰해줄게

they're so real for putting cherry blossoms around Yunho's grand entrance and sparkles around Yunho himself because this is absolutely fodder for my sunjeong manhwa daydreams. Flower boy transfer student in the spring term who falls for me, the girl with glasses, opinions, a dysfunctional home life and no friends.

not only does he fall for me, he braves the indignity of pretending he needs to poop just to leave class so we can skip together. that's what holding his stomach means in this context. he thought that if he pretended he needed to pee, the teacher might take his urgency less seriously. yes, I have thought this through with utmost seriousness. I have also already had the foresight to claim I need to go to the nurse, so that I can skip class with him.

and when the teacher doesn't let him escape, he leaps through the window to be with me!

so like, factually, he's acting all cool (putting a straw in his mouth and crossing one leg over) just to impress me. you're right, he falls asleep on the school terrace with the straw still in his mouth and an open book covering his face from the sun. how do I know this? oh, I go up there to eat my lunch.

it's a good thing I'm learning Korean because it would not have clicked for me that this abbreviation is him saying 만나서 방가워, 잘 부탁해 (and the subs don't attempt to translate this. I didn't realise NTMY means nice to meet you until I understood the Korean abbreviation)

I'm reminded of @thirstkanaphan saying that they sleep better at night knowing Yunho can't draw because he needed at least one flaw XD

EMBARRASSED YUNHO WITH THE FACE OF REGRET AND THE BLUSHY EARS! guise, factually he embarrassed himself in front of his crush (me) at this factually co-ed school that factually exists within a sunjeong manhwa. and that is how the heroine of the manhwa discovers she has a reverse humiliation kink.

I give this daydream a 100/10, I entertained myself immensely. @storkmuffin thank you for asking me to tag you, because hotteokism is amplified by resonance and I had double the fun fangirling knowing I'm not fangirling alone.

[i-wont-kiss-n-tell]

For the love of You Know Who

I’m dedicating this to all the lovely people on [tumblr] who suffer because of Yunho.

I can't speak for all of his fans, of course. I probably can't speak for most – but maybe some people find a bit of themselves in here. This spent a long time in my drafts and I’m releasing it into the wilds while it’s still a work in progress.

Slide to Him

People more eloquent than me have written a lot about Yunho and Biases and Hotteokism. Yet, I feel the need to write my thoughts down, too and through this try to get a handle on two things that fascinate me most: Why are Hotteoks different from other fans? How does Yunho manage to lure us?

There are several ways to get there, whether he caught your attention from day one or grew on you like moss; he might have only grabbed your attention after seeing him live or he might have sprung on you like some kind of sexy, demonic jack-in-a-box after seeing a v-log or behind-the-scenes video.

It doesn’t matter. You’re there.

He knows what we like

He grabbed my attention from the first moment I saw him, the day “In your Fantasy” dropped. His first lines switched off my higher reasoning and the rest of the video just cemented my downfall. ATEEZ filled a void inside me, there is no other way to put it. I immediately adored every one of them and just loved the music. It was a delight to discover the treasure trove of content (I still find new things almost every day).

ATINY on [tumblr] are awfully welcoming and creative, and I discovered the – to me – new genre of Kpop meta. Writing what is basically fanfiction about the performers, building theories and exchanging ideas by watching them play their roles on stage, in interviews and variety content. I have my own personal theory, that everybody has three layers to their personality, the curated one for work/the world, the interpersonal one and the private one. These can bleed into each other, of course, but the further you move away from an intimate relationship, the less you can tell. For some people, the core layer might never be shared with anyone.

Yunho carefully curates what he tells us. There are few things we know about his private life, but at the same time, he creates such intimate setting.

It’s great for being an idol, somebody who sells the fantasy of being your boyfriend. You can project all your fantasies and desires on the canvas he offers.

Yunho the unknowable

He’s easily pivoting between jealous boyfriend and cute baby girl, but always keeps himself back. We never get to see Jeong Yun Ho, just Yunho of ATEEZ. What I imagine to glimpse is somebody with a solid base. A loving, stable family, supportive and the ideal start for him to follow his dreams. He’s driven and a bit of a perfectionist, with no patience for sloppiness. That doesn’t mean he’s not fun, quite the opposite. He’s secure enough to be silly and has a mischievous (sometimes mean) streak. At the point where I joined the show, he had already leaned more into “Mean Oppa Yunho” and at first I was confused why people said he was a golden retriever puppy, but I get it now.

He’s keen on feedback from his fanbase and likes to tease, never quite giving us all we want. I guess he used to positive feedback and needs to have it keep coming in.

His ATINY

This leads neatly to the reason for this post: the Relationship.

There are so many things you can write about it, but what I especially love is just how Hotteoks (at least those I see on [tumblr]) choose to voice their adoration.

We chose violence.

While most members get tags like these:

Yunho evokes these reactions:

(yes, he gets #boyfriend and #so cute and all that, too, but I never saw this level of aggression in the others’ tags).

But why is that?

The interaction between idol and fandom is transactional, we give our money and attention for their service of dancing and entertaining us.

He’s handsome, he’s a good dancer, he’s pretending to be our boyfriend. Just as the other members. But with him, it feels like an attack. While San looks for feedback to become a better idol, Yunho seems to use it to bait us, draw us further in, keeps us unsatisfied so we’ll keep coming back. San is about quality and being the best version for his fans. It’s another style of fanservice. A lot of the members are caring and loving, saying we should eat and look after ourselves, dress appropriately for the weather, things like that. They ask for feedback and if we liked their latest endeavors.

With Yunho it feels more like a power play.

His style of interaction feeds into a certain style of parasocial delusion: he’s into us, he’s possessive. We are his ATINY. There is a certain darkness, an obsession that probably speaks to the more unhinged of us.

To be continued …

[elvenpathed]

I opened threads accidentally for the first time in like, a months? 2 months?

Why is the first thing that I see someone ZOOMING FOR THEIR LIFE on the saddest little piece of stubble left on Yunho's chin.

Why did I immediately recognise it was him PLEASE ELVIE TOUCH GRASS

On days where I feel I'm a bit too much, I remember people zoom on far weirder than his hands.

Never change Hotteoks. Never change.