Who in Ateez do you find to be the most private or hardest to get a read on?
Kpop Idol has a really specific set of rules, and I think the people who are most able and willing to embody the ideal are the ones who have the most privacy about their 'real' or 'private' selves.
So, from the hardest to get a read on to the easiest:
Yeosang is the best at performing the Ideal Idol, because he does it seamlessly. The 'real' Yeosang is almost completely invisible, because he's able to use the Perfect Idol performance as a cover. All I know about Yeosang are the driest of biographical facts, and his ideas about what a good Idol actually is.
Wooyoung will not do anything that an Idol is supposed to do except for the barest minimum, probably enshrined in his contract or from the examples of his sunbae who got killed (metaphorically) by breaking the wrong rules at the wrong time. But being at the polar opposite end of Yeosang means his 'real' self is just as hidden. I can see what persona he's trying to embody and invent, but that makes the 'real' person just as invisible.
Seonghwa plays around with the Ideal Idol as a concept, with deliberation and intent. He is also extremely subtle, so you can only tell what he was aiming at when he already has it in his hand.
Jongho has really strict boundaries. He's gutsy and not afraid of anything, and is the most self sufficient, emotionally, of everyone in Ateez. So he lets you know well in advance and very clearly what he DOESN'T do as an Idol, take it or leave it. He's a little bit knowable.
Mingi, depending on the day, thinks that the whole concept of Idols is either really cute or really annoying, but fundamentally, he finds it stupid. He puts up with it because at this time in his industry, this is one of the better options to gain a large audience. I also find the way he thinks bewildering, so he's kind of in the middle here for that reason as well.
San is the most invested in doing it correctly, and he does it really well, but he is working on it, and he makes that plain. He reminds himself and others that they are Idols, and he expects everyone to know what that means. From what he aspires to, I at least get glimpses of who San thinks he himself really is.
Hongjoong has a big sense of responsibility for and about everything. He wants to make the concerts a good experience for Atiny, and he wants being in Ateez a good experience for the members. But he is one of these people who can't keep a lid on his truth. HE HAS TO TELL YOU. So he eventually spits out the truth, sooner or later.
Yunho shoves himself into Perfect Idol Performance, like putting on a straitjacket, voluntarily, every now and then. He's learned a lot from Yeosang how to do it with grace, but he's just too wacky and fundamentally emotional a person to stick with it for prolonged periods. Yunho is also an actor, and actors want to reveal themselves, to get at something real and true, which is at odds with being an Idol, which is to present an embodiment of an impossible fantasy, so the actual person can't help but consistently make an appearance.
Is it a coincidence that I bias the one that I think I can 'read' the best? No, of course not.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental. Some of it is based on actual events, but certain characters and incidents have been changed, by me, for my self-serving purposes, so I can have fun.
