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the soonhui primer of sorts
Jun. 27th, 2022 12:00 amintroduction: the aim and purpose of doing such a thing
since getting back into seventeen last year after my carat hiatus post-henggarae (this is nctbz's fault), the array of pairings i like have grown to include almost all permutations of my 5pick- that being junhui, soonyoung, wonwoo, seokmin, and vernon (honourable mentions: jihoon and joshua) - and even more honourable, the 97z. most of these are obscure rarepairs because i’m the kind of person who grows awfully attached to people who interact maybe once a month. thank god seventeen are all up in each other’s business more than i am so the propensity for interaction is exponentially higher than most other groups.
i’m doing this deep dive for soonhui because there is just so much to unpack with these two and i spent a lot of the month of may collating everything into my notes for your convenience. i wasn’t sure whether i should have advertised this as a primer but more or less, i’ll be talking about soonhui A Lot, so take this post however you will. i hope this is an enjoyable read to someone somewhere!
all about wjh and ksy: a rudimentary natal chart reading and then some:
wen junhui was born in shenzhen, china on the 10th of june, 1996 at an unknown time, while kwon soonyoung was born a mere five days later on the 15th of june, 1996, in hanam-si, gyeonggi-do, south korea. they are gemini buddies!
i’ll be taking the foundations of my analysis from the co-star natal chart site, which i find is pretty accurate for my own chart and my friends’, but if you have any thoughts, please share them w/ me <3
jun's chart:
- perfect boy has perfect natal chart. lots of earth placements <3
- jun’s always been an observer and been very vocal about both watching and admiring his members. a specific example is him complimenting and envying their variety skills, which is not light work when it comes to korean entertainment, but apart from the way they conduct themselves on screen that he can’t exactly mimic, he admires their work ethic and the sheer dedication they have towards their craft. not to insert the child actor agenda, but there was one fansign where he spoke about being surrounded by many people who appeared happy but were probably were going through a lot that he couldn’t have understood/realised back then when he was young. his segue into the idol training world is what i believe to be another learning curve with a different kind of lights, camera, action and his tenacity through it all is just a testament to his ability to soak everything up like a sponge and take everything in stride—perseverance and positivity in their most unadulterated forms. also! my friend has a wonderful piece on jun here and i highly recommend you read it. it’s really beautiful and helped me make sense of my own interpretation :)
- the chart:
- sun: gemini, 10th house
- moon: aries, 7th house
- mercury: taurus, 9th house
- venus: gemini, 10th house
- mars: taurus, 9th house
- jupiter: capricorn, 5th house
- saturn: aries, 7th house
- uranus: aquarius, 5th house
- neptune: capricorn, 5th house
- pluto: sagittarius, 3rd house
- the moon sign is a reflection of your emotions simply put, and his being in aries, seventh house is interesting.
- co-star: “...emotional self is independent, energetic, and enthusiastic. You have a tendency to feel inadequate and overcompensate just because failure is a possibility.”
- the first part of the quote is very much aligned with the public perception of jun i.e. constantly playing on his members’ energies and taking to concepts like re-enacting iconic japanese movie lines and gose episodes like a fish to water. the second part alludes to his zeal with trying to be a more confident speaker and more entertaining than he is now, amongst other things. he’s a perfectionist, and his hit the road episode is a highly recommended watch for his own words on this. i admire his introspection here despite the reluctance to being filmed for this documentary and how much he shies away from the spotlight, but amplified (see: getting embarrassed when his members hype up his solo content or whenever seungkwan showers him with all of the love in the world in almost every situation ever). aries placements are always nice, because out of the fire signs, i personally think they’re the most driven and we can see that here with jun’s moon sign.
- his mercury in taurus; an ode to how much i adore earth signs.
- his opinion is highly valued within the sebtins for one, and two, he's constantly on the road of bettering himself, whether it’s taking on the challenge of filming a coming-of-age drama, working out, or cooking. in comparison with his aries moon and his gemini sun, let alone his taurus mars (to be extrapolated on), he is so full of multitudes. on top of that, it’s always in pursuit of showing the new and improved image of seventeen and conveying their growth, especially since their contract renewal and them coming up on seven/eight years.
- additionally, we have to talk about his individual activities like the waves magazine shoot and interview, and solo vlives/weibo lives. in his most recent vlive, he himself stated that he’s more confident in himself and it probably explains why his mbti changed from an infp to esfp, which in turn, translates in how he conveys himself nowadays compared to say, pre-2020 jun. as per his waves interview, when he was filming 'exclusive fairytale', he was the moodmaker in lieu of someone like seungkwan or dk, and took it on himself to make everyone comfortable as is the presumed responsibility someone who was born and nurtured under the floodlights, thus lots of wisdom to impart on his fellow actors. these are some of the more profound quotes i took from @menjunfei’s translation of his interview.
- “Communication is about not being afraid. If you can’t even take the first step, how do you know what’s going to happen?”
- “With people, he is willing to be regardless of gains and losses to a certain extent, to be proactive. However, he has a more cautious “learning curve” when it comes to work. At the beginning of the shoot, we noticed that Wen Junhui, though with a lively personality, was not a “natural acquaintance”. Later, on the first day of the meeting, he said he wasn’t nervous, but wanted to get to know people in a slightly more formal way in his new work environment.”
- “What’s more, a friend saw Wen Junhui and told him he felt like Jun was a different person for a few days. “I’m usually quite active, and if I suddenly talk less or my state changes, people will think I’m emo, but I’m not really unhappy.”
- mars is the the action and execution and the fact that jun’s mars placement is a taurus ties in well with everything stated above. cool, calm, and collected in layman’s terms but honestly you see instances like the Padding Jacket Incident and while it is funny and something i appreciate bsk bringing back time and time again, his methods when it comes to conflicts and issues are inexplicably derived from the way he communicates ergo his taurus in mercury.
- as we are painfully aware, soonyoung has a gemini all-kill natal chart, with a whopping 5 placements. but the most intriguing parts to this chart is how well it meshes despite soonyoung has almost no water signs (thank god- sorry not sorry water signs) and one special cancer rising. what i got out of this chart was the overarching theme of “movement and insatiable curiosity” as per the gemini placements but also the misconstrued nature of these traits have, and just how flightiness is balanced with a need for stability and quietude.
- the chart:
- sun: gemini, 12th house
- moon: gemini, 11th house
- rising: cancer, 1st house
- mercury: gemini, 11th house
- venus: gemini, 12th house
- mars: gemini, 11th house
- jupiter: capricorn, 6th house
- saturn: aries, 10th house
- neptune: capricorn, 7th house
- pluto: sagittarius, 5th house
- his jupiter in cap, sixth house indicates that he’s a creature of habit and finds clarity through pillars like “ambition, responsibility, efficiency, seriousness, power” (co-star) to name a few, which are all things you can derive from ksy’s personality.
- whether it’s predebut clips from the melona-green room from 17tv (see: ksy and verkwan’s dance practice episode), or how his members talk about him when it comes to exacting choreography, or even his workout regimen and dedication to keeping fit. his ‘tiger eyes’ and natural stage persona are born from his performance, and alludes to how much he prioritises it, hence “finding success through routine” (co-star). this may be an elementary understanding of the elements but earth signs have always been, for lack of better word, grounded to me while containing layers of course, and it's evident here.
- conversely, his saturn is in aries, tenth house, which is a subset of aforementioned pillars e.g. “restrictions, boundaries, self-discipline, and fears." (co-star)
- saturn and jupiter are the two social planets and the fact that his saturn is a fire placement lends itself to some of the fire signs’ common traits like "aggression, impatience, and conceit" (co-star). speaking as a sag sun, and maybe i’m wrong, but i’ve always seen these traits as side effects of some our more … valued/iconic traits. that is probably the conceit speaking but i digress. point is, alongside this, the tenth house implies that ksy has trouble with "goals, success, and responsibility" (co-star). from 17 project and their first public performance with shining diamond, there was a certain desperation in his eyes backstage, from holding the group’s barely-existent reputation on his squared shoulders, and setting up the foundations for seventeen’s performance and synergy as a group to whomever was outside the curtains, whether or not it was a thousand people or an audience of an odd thirty to fifty people. as well as this, it shows even five years from that, in how adamant he was in creating a performance for fearless given henggarae’s showcase being their first since they released fear, let alone during the pandemic. these two moments as well as the way he agonised over releasing spider, are ones i can draw from the top of my head.
- his moon being in gemini is where the flightiness comes in.
- the ability to adapt is there and similarly (but not really), i feel like this showed in most of the members but for soonyoung as well, when they expressed their feelings on the harsh stop the pandemic put on their activities and tour. not only did it force them to take a break, but they all didn’t know how to/felt like they needed to make good, productive use of their time to make sure that when all of it was over, they could make sure they proved they still had it. from co-star, “You are easily bored and need to feel like you are free to be creative and create meaning, which can make you feel like you're in a constant identity crisis.” now i'm not saying spider was the aftermath of his identity crisis but him being creative and restless with creative energy was very evident, from his budding tiktok career to the way he’s always working on himself - a cover song today and a dance clip on instagram tomorrow. a whole choreo made by a dedicated choreographer based on his own inspirations and attachment to the tiger and what it represents (an oversimplication on his obsession with tigers). the moon rules your mental and emotional state, and the eleventh house conveys security and safety through interpersonal relationships. the members know how much ksy appreciates their opinions and value their validation on his effort and work despite his confidence and cock-sure nature. hence why all of them came to the spider set and sent coffee trucks and bought food, and entertain his horanghaes more often than not. the flightiness is there but ksy has tethers back to earth - his members.
- the ascendant cancer is what i took from his 7am birth time and what my dear friend shah affirmed, from the intrinsic craving for movement in all meanings of the word and an insatiable curiosity, to the fact that ksy is anything but a leo rising. it’s the first impression, what you are perceived as by others, and as stated by co-star, his cancer rising means that he comes across as “gentle, intuitive, and warm, though some may regard this as overly emotional or sensitive to criticism.” if you watch his solo interviews, this is pretty obvious (see: esquire, allure) as well as his vlives, both post-concert when he is arguably his most reserved or quiet, and in his own solo vlives. he constantly talks about being an introvert and while seungkwan has a bone to pick with him, this is true. i know all we can draw is from his performances in going seventeen or any other variety content/on stage, but it’s more than possible to see the other side; the one that spends time catching bugs with jeonghan, goes to farms to see the origins of their every day foods and drinks, who goes home to get a home-cooked meal from his mother and makes innocuous jokes for the camera but quickly prefaces to his mother all in the same breath, that it’s just for show. the idea that he could be a leo rising is rooted in this outward perception and compared to a textbook leo (like seungcheol), he is far from it.
some of my favourite soonhui moments in chronological order:
- predebut:
- junhui gets his bracelet stuck on the zipper of his pant pocket, soonyoung helps him get it out, and junhui subsequently tackles him in a hug in gratitude
- junhui is very explicit in his gratitude towards everything and everyone, including his members. it's such a sweet moment, tucked away into the melona practice room archives but makes me happy just thinking about it. it's the small things they do for each other in general, stemming from trainee days that make up the foundations of the soonhui dynamic.
- junhui drags soonyoung into a hug
- case in point, he loves a bit of physical affection and what is soonyoung but not a compelling reason to be physically affectionate?
- soonyoung helping junhui with pronunciation
- in the words of a friend, translation too, is an act of love and this is just a prime example of that.
- junhui gets his bracelet stuck on the zipper of his pant pocket, soonyoung helps him get it out, and junhui subsequently tackles him in a hug in gratitude
- 2015:
- a staple within the soonhui-verse: what is friendship?
- "it's the feeling that we feel right now."
- every time this comes back to the timeline or i remember it suddenly, it makes my knees weak. translation is an act of love (2). here is a link to the article if you want to read it yourself ^__^
- a staple within the soonhui-verse: what is friendship?
- 2016:
- 2017:
- highlight is good because you start it (29:10)
- junhui's confidence has incrementally increased since debut but soonyoung has always been vocal about trusting junhui and it includes instances like these
- hoshi's dance is so good
- junhui, in the same vein, is always complimenting soonyoung and while soonyoung preens and relishes in it, it shows how much he admires him and that has stayed constant to this very day
- jun: mine
- the fact that he describes jww as his younger brother and jihoon his cute baby and jun as 'mine'... please.
- teen;age photoshoot
- i've been conditioned to remember that one tweet by literarykpop about friendship with these photos attached and it makes me so happy to see them mucking around with each other at the tender age of twenty-one
- junhui babying soonyoung at a fansign
- maybe it's just for show and fan service but i'm still eating it up! junhui tickling the underside of his chin like a baby or a cat is truly life-changing.
- highlight is good because you start it (29:10)
- 2018:
- soonyoung looking after junhui (5:03)
- sometimes it can be something as small as asking someone if they're okay, that makes all the difference T___T
- oh my hearts
- this is just one example out of many where junhui and soonyoung play along with each other's antics, whether they're imitating each other or pushing each other around behind the curtains, but it doesn't stop being cute seeing them do things like this OTL
- junhui and carat hoshi
- case in point (2), junhui playing along with soonyoung and man, they really do hug and pretend to kiss each other all the time. i'll link a video at the bottom of this post where you can watch them act out dramas, one with wonwoo singing the bgm, and the other where soonyoung is confessing that junhui is his first love... like they always seem to be each other's love interests, it's insane.
- junhui babying soonyoung pt 2
- no clue why he's rubbing his tummy like this but soonyoung is cheesing so hard, i couldn't not include this.
- hug me~
- i am not a tilde-user but the way junhui uses this voice to ask for a hug... like the fact that it's junhui initiating and not soonyoung is so !!&*@&*@! i need a minute.
- soonyoung looking after junhui (5:03)
- 2019:
- happy new year
- all roads lead to soonyoung and that includes junhui's start to 2019 <3
- caratland memory book: "a being who can't be exchanged with anyone else."
- this entire translation makes me want to tear my hair out. "i love you. i want both of us to eat well," is ever-present here- the soonyoung who wants to be cooked for and fed by junhui but also writes that for junhui's user manual, he needs to be fed well too... the LAYERS of it all...
- ode to you: oh my!
- this schtick during their oty tour always makes me smile like a fool... two guys performing for their fans and sending hearts to each other, and i'm on my knees, crying my eyes out... i need to get a grip!
- one more for good measure.
- and another one because i didn't know which one to include so i kept all three.
- moon jujujujun and soonyoung being impossibly endeared
- everybody loves junhui, that's a fact, but soonyoung enveloping him in a big hug at the end... maybe that was my last straw T___T
- soonyoung translating for junhui reprised: oty in seattle
- junhui is so cute and soonyoung smiling + jeonghan appearance makes this a top-tier moment.
- happy new year
- 2020:
- soonyoung and the 96z red bracelet
- for context: junhui's mum gave the 96z a red bracelet because it was the year of the rat, which is their chinese zodiac. soonyoung wore it from i want to say late 2019/early 2020 to mid-2021. he wore it everywhere/in the shower to the point where he had to take it off and dry it because it started smelling T___T
- soonyoung and junhui admiring each other (yes, this deserves its own section)
- junhui learning from hoshi
- just one of the many examples where junhui explains how and what he learnt from soonyoung not only his fellow member but as the leader of the performance unit. his zeal to learn and grow is fuelled by how proud he is of his members and how much he wants to emulate them in his own way.
- "when i think of jun, i think of a tree."
- it's clear that junhui is the pillar for performance unit or even seventeen on a whole, and he has sway within the group, more than i think he knows himself :')) in an interview for carat magazine in 2020, soonyoung said that junhui balances the team and they often take whichever course of action junhui thinks is right, which just confirms the fact that junhui is a seventeen insa #slayed
- jun complimenting soonyoung's dancing pt 2
- even though soonyoung wasn't satisfied with his performance, junhui wasn't shy with the compliments and empathises with him being disappointed in the execution, but reaffirms that he did amazing anyway ... my soonhui... individuals recognising themselves in each other
- junhui learning from hoshi
- soonhui confessing over weverse
- i need these men to respectfully get a room. but also let me have a peek into your lives and let me know when you guys hang out and spend time with each other <33
- soonyoung staring at junhui
- something something soonyoung looking at junhui like he hung up the moon and stars- i'm sick!!
- junhui copying soonyoung
- two sides of the same coin, these two are <3
- unstoppable force meets immovable object
- from user @/allyyx_ on twitter: “hoshi kept wanting to practice the tongue twister about tigers, so Jun had to tell him “wait little tiger, we still have the next segment, put it in your pocket and bring it home, read it before you sleep and when you shower.'"
- i'm DEVASTATED! the caption is fitting but their brand of gemini is so nuanced... you just wouldn't get it
- soonyoung fiddling with junhui's mullet
- the huya live is a treasure trove in itself but man... sometimes touching your friend's mullet can be so tender...
- 2 tigers
- for context: 两只老虎 (liǎng zhī lǎohu) is a mandarin nursery rhyme (there is also a cantonese version i used to sing as a kid but instead it was pigeons lol) that uses the frère jacques melody - you can find the translation here
- even though soonyoung kind of fumbles at the end, it's still cute as hell T___T
- for context: 两只老虎 (liǎng zhī lǎohu) is a mandarin nursery rhyme (there is also a cantonese version i used to sing as a kid but instead it was pigeons lol) that uses the frère jacques melody - you can find the translation here
- soonyoung and the 96z red bracelet
- 2021:
- junhui head pat
- soonyoung waking him up with a head pat ... i need several minutes
- soonhui's moonwalker moment
- the fact that there is a 2022 version now in Those Outfits is blasphemous but i remember this video so clearly because of the choreography and how well they compliment each other as dancers >.>
- junhui playing along with soonyoung part ?/????
- couldn't pin when this was (when did junhui have pink streaks?!) but look at these fools (affectionate)
- another soonhui staple: shabu shabu
- sometimes a home is just one guy begging his friend to cook him food and their other friends cursing the first guy for asking
- junhui's kissing scene
- junhui chucking a tantrum has been reimagined various times (see: the padding jacket incident) but this is pure junhui tantrum at its finest
- soonyoung is possibly too eager but i categorise this as a hoshi little gf symptom so he gets a pass #happypride
- the fact that he wrote it on junhui's wreath for his drama takes me out but is also so on-brand... see when a dude wants to play guinevere opposite his member playing king arthur, chances are he'll be heavily invested in the romantic plot of your drama, kiss scenes and all.
- junhui head pat
- 2022:
- junhui clinging to soonyoung
- just junhui and his emotional support soonyoung - it's cute to see him depending on soonyoung after coming back from china T___T
- soonhui douyin reprised
- they are so cute... the fact that they did this at the awards show makes me wonder if soonyoung asked junhui to do it with him or junhui asked or maybe their staff forced them into it, but i won anyway!
- soonhui playfighting
- numero ?? of ??? of them mucking around with each other and i wonder if minghao and chan are just standing there like npc's while they're doing this shit during practice
- soonhui dance tiktok
- something shifted in the universe. one, the dance is cool. two, junhui never does these type of dance tiktoks/douyins apart from seventeen's and it made me SOOO happy to see him do it and ace it. three, they ate and i only hope they post more tiktoks together - ksy please invite him onto seventeen17_official please
- junhui's first time meeting soonyoung
- soonyoung speaking a mix of english and korean to junhui still cracks me up but i'm not making fun - i'm just thinking about how it was for junhui being the one of the first (afaik) foreign trainees at pledis and having an eccentric, passionate teenager come bounding up to you and that teenager being your future bandmate of eight years
- the kim heechul icebreaker is so ?^#*&@!
- junhui being taught by soonyoung and liking dancing as soon as he saw ksy dancing is so... to see someone else practising their art and fall in love with the act yourself is so... they would be drift-compatible is what i'm trying to get at.
- junhui clinging to soonyoung
conclusion: jun-ah, i love you~
i wanted to put a poem here, that in another world, i could imagine these two living out -
The Bridge by C. Dale Young
I love. Wouldn't we all like to start
a poem with "I love . . ."? I would.
I mean, I love the fact there are parallel lines
in the word "parallel," love how
words sometimes mirror what they mean.
I love mirrors and that stupid tale
about Narcissus. I suppose
there is some Narcissism in that.
You know, Narcissism, what you
remind me to avoid almost all the time.
Yeah, I love Narcissism. I do.
But what I really love is ice cream.
Remember how I told you
no amount of ice cream can survive
a week in my freezer. You didn't believe me,
did you? No, you didn't. But you know now
how true that is. I love
that you know my Achilles heel
is none other than ice cream—
so chilly, so common.
And I love fountain pens. I mean
I just love them. Cleaning them,
filling them with ink, fills me
with a kind of joy, even if joy
is so 1950. I know, no one talks about
joy anymore. It is even more taboo
than love. And so, of course, I love joy.
I love the way joy sounds as it exits
your mouth. You know, the word joy.
How joyous is that. It makes me think
of bubbles, chandeliers, dandelions.
I love the way the mind runs
that pathway from bubbles to dandelions.
Yes, I love a lot. And right here,
walking down this street,
I love the way we make
a bridge, a suspension bridge
—almost as beautiful as the
Golden Gate Bridge—swaying
as we walk hand in hand.
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