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fwcuthis is so absurdly long. if dw formatting fucks me RIP.
EDIT: crying and sobbing if you're a rando reading this and you can't tell I'm renjunist please just click off, you're not going to have the reading comprehension to understand it's not real and a joke and very real and not a joke at the same time.
DONGREN
warning: maximum renhyuck delusion ahead.
disclaimer: it’s jokes except it’s serious except it’s jokes. everytime I say renjun is haechan’s girlfriend I do mean renjun is haechan’s girlfriend except it means they’re closer now which means that they’re girlfriend and boyfriend which means they’re just friends. you know. typical RPS disclaimers. it’s 90% probably not real and 10% Really Truly Real.
preface
renhyuck’s always been my no.1 dreamies ships and no.1 overall. I daresay my top kpop ship of all time. it’s that bad. the appeal is that they’re IRL narrative parallels which here means < anything you can do I can do better > in every applicable aspect. that’s the gist of it.
this is going to be kind of a…? I don’t know, a mix of a reflective, a timeline, some generous tinhatting — OK a lot of generous tinhatting — and just the journey of being a renjunzen AKA what it’s truly like to be a metafan because renjun is the most successful fan ever, is he not? he is!!! please congratulate huang renjun-sshi!!!
the thing is, you can be like Mhm. Renhyuck Flavour. But can you really appreciate that flavour unless you understand renjun’s FIVE YEAR!!! journey to this point?!?! Turns out one-sided pining uselessly DOES pay off. they'll never break up because theyre marriaging. renjun has this shit on lock. ok no he doesnt BUT haechan might!! renjun is too much like 'hmm...we can never know about the future...so we shouldnt worry about things that we don't know will happen...' or something . Versus TRUE ROMANTIC SECOND LOVE CAN BE MORE POWERFUL THAN FIRST LOVE BELIEVER HAECHAN THOOOO.
also sorry. I have never been and will never be brief.
last notes:
timeline
disclaimer: my dreamzen track record is very spotty, I’ve watched a fair amount of content but for some eras like we go up and ridin’, I really can only go off of moments that are included in yt comps and/or twitter gifs/clips and whatever my friends have said. and if it’s not a 00z vlive I haven’t seen it. though there are actually like 3 00z vlives I haven’t seen but that’s jaemin’s fault. anyway, I don't watch vlives so I guess everything I'm going off is 'curated' content. still, I don't the difference is that big. anyway, if nothing else, I am someone who loves renjun.
another disclaimer for confirmation bias: I’m renjunfan first, but renhyuck is my OTP.
last one: obviously this is not really an ‘objective’ look at things, all interpretations are my own and everything I write is what I’ve made of it… so even though I speak matter of factly, this is a very personal retrospective. also the moments I pick are just the ones I think are cutest and/or pretty notable. not meant to be #PROOF_RENHYUCK_IS_REAL.
CHEWING GUM > MY FIRST AND LAST > WE YOUNG
tl;dr — renjun is always looking at haechan. haechan is never looking back.
one of the near constant appeals of renhyuck since The Beginning, is that renjun has always looked at haech. even as early as nct school dream mate? or so. anyway, ‘looking at haechan’ is the whole thing where renjun will say something, or make a joke, or some else will say something, or nothing at all in particular will be happening, and renjun is tilted towards haech, gauging his reaction. or you know, any time haechan says anything, or does anything, renjun is always the first one [if not the only one] to look his way. on renjun it’s incredibly noticeable because he’s not the greatest listener, but if it’s haechan… when it comes to haechan… the thing is about haechan though… it’s not really that hard to explain, but it was particularly deadly in the early days of dream noticing just how badly renjun wanted recognition from haech. though, a little ironically, he was better at snapping himself out of it during their earlier eras. definitely hid it better than he does later on [ahem, Ridin. Ridin. just Ridin'].
obviously in the earlier dreamies day, all of them did this quite a lot because haechan was just the best at talking and keeping things entertaining — so always, and even now, he was the member that directs things [variety wise] ... but as the rest of the dreamies start catching up on the ways of variety/step into being idols, they don't pay him as much attention ... this gets clearer post-go/wgu when jaemin is settled in for real. though also, this could just be fully blamed on jaemin being jaemin. regardless, what matters is that renjun's haechanisms remain.
don’t quote me on this, but among dreamies the only other member that does this as avidly is jeno. but that’s because it’s jeno and jeno is wildly misunderstood. you could make a case for jisung but the counterarguments are (a) jisung does it to Everybody, (b) Maknae Psychology 101.
we young, being the era with far more content than CG & MFAL, it's really easy to see how much haech poked at renjun — and that it wasn’t particularly affectionate either. obviously, it was friendly teasing — on haech's part, it's probably him trying to close the gap — but they didn’t have as strong of a base friendship to keep it away from the line. it’s a lot of renjun being kind-of embarrassed and haech being annoying.in these eras ... he’s a bad mix of not knowing how to react but wanting to react so there’s a lot of him trying to argue back, but falling back too early or his response falling too flat. again, he didn't mind — and like everyone else, bar mark — enjoyed haechan's attention, but ... the combination of trying to keep it, and being Renjun [blunt, edging onto too honest, entirely too direct] ... there's a fair amount of pretty awkward landings here and there. tangent: the best targets were mark and jeno obviously.
the thing about maehae summer fight was that it pushed haech closer to jeno than renjun. like obviously haechan was still in love with mark at this point, but the other killing factor was that jeno was clearly more his friend than renjun was. and also, though this wasn’t as noticeable because jeno is perfect angel, best member of dream, the most underrated champ of world, he was closer to haech than he was to renjun. though there's a lot of noren Hanging out in this era which I'm going to pin to them only having each other. honestly, I think renjun still constituted as ‘new’ and he hadn’t completely found his footing yettt.
they weren't exactly... friends. as groupmates — and particularly the dreamies tend to be — they were friendly even if they weren't close, and got along well enough. honestly, compared to later eras, it's so obvious that they came such a far way in terms of getting to know each other and becoming Real True Friends, as well as being better at playing along with each other. one of the biggest hindrances between these eras is just how badly renjun took haechan's teasing. everyone's really, but no one teased as much as haechan did. so it's haechan's. which isn't to say he got upset at it, he just mangled the joke most of the time.
still, we young served as a pretty good turning point where haechan seemed to realize that he and renjun could/did get along really well... v. renjun who's always wanted to be close to haechan so it was never a matter of 'recognizing' that for him. with this knowledge, please congratulate renjun!!!
as my last point, I think these were the eras where the disparity in [talent] was the most obvious and affected renjun the most, either in that he was really aware of it in these eras OR that in subsequent eras, it bothers him less. in their cb vlive? was the first time he mentions how much he practiced his vocals/etc. something along those lines — later eras, he comes back to the same 'tip' of always going into a recording with a lot of water.
there is so little content from CG and MFAL... there's obviously the gag that goes on for the next two years where renjun's voice cracks during their first win and For The Next Three Years Haechan Will Never Not Bring It Up. also I hate to be like this, but I'll be real I remember more nomark MFAL moments than I do renhyuck. very fake fan of me.
GO > WE GO UP > BOOM
tl;dr — renjun looks at haechan. haechan sometimes catches his eye.
IMO the break between we young and go was a good one for 5dream, jaemin’s return and subsequent friendship with renjun also helped group synergy a lot imo. not that it really changed anything about renhyuck, but 00z finally being a thing helped all of them be better friends and meld renjun into the fold a lot more. Personally, I think go was just a really good era for everyone involved. the existence of renmin kinda... I think it affected fan perception of dreamie dynamics more than anything [because. on a dream to dream level. renmin did not last]… anyway a couple of really good renhyuck moments because this is where they really start to play off each other rather than hyuck’s slightly futile one-sided poking … renjun now knows how to poke back, and they’re at this really comfortable spot!!! mh is ofc still kind of a thing, but haech does realize that other people exist now...also, truly leaning into dream’s moodmaker/epicentre/etc. again, the vibes were just so good in this era. renjun kind of gets on his hot girl shit. Kind Of.
I have no idea what happened in wgu. I Think it was a renmin/markren era. but that’s like. based off secondhand takes from my mutuals who are jaemren/markren fans you know. going purely off
boom... in general is probably my favourite ever era... the combination of Everything... strictly in terms of renhyuck tho.... renjun working very hard to be hyuck's manly boyfriend while haechan was in one of his more femme eras. you can see why this hit off with the fandom. there's also.... the touching shifts from being more aggressive to more casual. god there's an argument somewhere about renjun using chokeholds as a way to initiate touch without it seemingly coming out of nowhere... cuz again, while they were on their way to being friends/actually Friends now... they weren't that close, especially compared to the point they are at now. honestly. it's a little deeply stupid but it's also. there's so much renjun threatening bodily violence @ hyuck in this era that just phased out Noticeably past boom. though the more reasonable argument is renjun maturing, #RenjunCharacterArc. but. it could be Both.
anyway Boom is the most notable era out of these due to turning pointisms LOL.
they get more touchy through these eras. renjun has his jaemin and then mark phase? again word of mouth. definitely finally friends at this point. all of zeroline are basically on equal footing with each other... nomin being nomin but they're also not gay so it's fine. jaemin being obnoxious means nothing because it's jaemin. that's his defining character trait. go and wgu are pretty standard by 'rarepair' ship content. you know, like people who don't really do anything but shippers will be shipping cuz they're, they're shippers.
boom, thanks to company mandated pairing, causes them to move from people who get along/could be friends to friends. notably the era where they started to have more in-jokes. i.e the aegyo bit. which I think is so fucking funny because renjun hates doing aegyo so bad but um once again his Would Do Anything For Haechan Diseases strike. again, the 37.5% v. 0.0% viewer rating joke shows up a lottt … and it’s just sooo… haechan’s 37.5% thing started in a 127 era? I think. and I don’t know if anyone in 127 caught on and did a 0.0% rating, but going into a dream comeback and renjun listening to that and immediately starting his 0.0% viewer rating renjun cam...AND STICKING TO IT!!! Idk it’s really clear, with the absence of mark, and pairing together that they broke through the final gap and got to hang out and actually get close.
boom era is notably when a lot of people started paying attention to renhyuck more and there’s a lot more on-camera interactions to go off. and haech definitely clings to renjun more often than with previous eras. both a product of their closeness and the way dream has to pair off.
renjun catches up a lot in terms of [talent] but this is helped by the fact that jaemin sucks. dream having a clear disparity in vocal ability really helps renj and haech look similar in terms of talent levels. or like, it makes stage ability/presence look less important because it's split towards the dancers. but also he gets a chance at the high notes.
boom is by far one of my favourite eras. you can tell why.
DREAM SHOW > RIDIN' > EARLY 2021
tl;dr — renjun looks at haechan. haechan looks back. more than 50% of the time too!!
usually I wouldn't count a non comeback era (i.e dreamshow) but Not Gonna Lie I feel like a lot happened here.
renhyuck are a little obsessed with each other. they're like the kids in class that both have crushes on each other but are middle schoolers so they're dealing with it in the most middle school way possible. though like. You think the way they force everyone to bear witness to their bullshit here is bad? Two words for you: Hot Sauce. Hot Sauce. Hot Sauce.
still watching them here is like. constantly begging for renjun to shut the fuck up without him saying anything because he doesn't NEED TOO.... it's just... gestures if you watch any video from this era you just know!
they play so well with each other. that's a lot of it. it's clear that they have fun messing with each other. which is to say, haechan has a lot of fun messing with renjun because renjun responds in clever ways, and renjun just really fucking likes it when haechan pays attention to him [like any and everyone reasonable person would]. is still easily bruised when haech doesn't give him the attention he wants though. I think a fair way of describing them at this point is a lot of renj reaching for haech's attention and haech holding it over him, sometimes letting him grab at it, sometimes moving it out of reach. usually jeno is resident puppy, but sometimes renjun resembles it here.
I think the renhyuck dream v dream is a really good show of what their relationship was like. renhyuck dream v dream works really well because among the members of dream they’re the best at playing off each other, with renjun is very willing to play off hyuck/very receptive to haech in general. there’s obviously the 37.5% viewer rating cam v. 0.0% viewer rating cam [one of the most perfect bits between them], but also the amount of times they answer something, trail off, and then go ‘...Was Not What I was going to say…’ there’s a bunch of instances where they mirror each other really well — AND THE WAY THEY BOTH END UP ASKING THE SAME QUESTION — [haechan’s scrawl on a post-it note] Soulmate<3. but importantly, I think what ends up being the best testament to how well they get along is how shallow their list of recallable interactions are. like both of them struggle to think of times where they’ve actually hung out [part of why they end up with the same question] … and it’s like Damn For People Who Don’t Really Know Each Other… I think for how well they play off each other the lack of backing is crazy. but it's also proving the middle schoolers with crushes that don't know what to do about them comparison. cuz it really is. when you're in middle school and you like your crush and you're 90% sure your crush likes you back. what do you even do? nothing.
the amount the make dream play second fiddle to them here is... Guys, let me ask you. Why do you think jaemin is the way he is? in renhyuck dream v dream, they mention getting pork belly ... and then like a year later, in nahyuck dream v dream, we, the audience, find out that Jaemin was Also Present. gier;jldnfgvjln it's kind of killing me how in renhyuck's ver, they make No Mention of jaemin being there. while jaemin was there and forced to bear witness to The Whole Of It. just thinking about it is making me want to krill myself. I don't think it happened like while renhyuck were at their worst, but like. the combo of jaemrenhyuck... well... that's.... you know unless jaemin was feeling particularly socialable... and this was pre-renjun girlification, so he couldn't even be a girl about it. in saying this though ... jaemin legit my favourite third for renhyuck.
anyway this era is when renhyuck derailment becomes a Solid Thing.
this is post...boom AND 6dream have been established for a while so you know.. it's a little... there's a lot of... I feel like it's here where renjun truly becomes haech's favourite target. that makes me sound insane but it's like. um. theres... how do I explain this. I'll try my best.
there's haechan bothering everyone or like, shifting the attention to x, x, x members and renjun just being one of the members he teases.
then, there's haechan bothering every other member for the end goal of fucking with renjun.
dreamies, who are generally very nice, go along with it. but, it's also pretty obvious they know what's happening. the thing is haech teases a lot of members by purposefully skipping them, but um. holy shit. rewatching some vids of this era. it's just constantly ignore renjun hours. like I feel... 50% confident about there being a Fixation of sorts here. [*sora's impression of hc's voice* I like it when girls get mad at me.]
I’ll be honest with you. everyone in dream has grown out of their obsessed with haechan phase. some members even, like chenle, have never even had that phase. renjun, who has been certifiably, cataclysmically Down Bad since 2016 at the earliest, 2017 if we’re less generous. is kind of stupid about it still. I'm just reiterating this because 100% renjun's haechanism takes turns towards Dire levels in ridin'. like before, you could pretty much brush it off. however due to the positive feedback loop of Having Haechan's Attention... any RIPs?
I don’t know anything else about ridin. though, I think after? or during? or a little before, is when haech started to hang out a lot more with dreamies and therefore renjun, outside of cbs. which I think is a really big thing and at the point where their final gap closed and it really shows in hot sauce. 'final gap' I mean they stopped being middle schoolers. and/or haech finally got serious about him. or took him more seriously? IDK it starts being so much more mutual. as in. haech shows him as much affection as he teases him.
I don't want to be like this is the era haech truly zones in one rj and 1picks him as his favourite bullying target but like I mean. I mean. the shift from mark as the favourite target to renjun is truly so palpable and contains so much feeling.
dare I say... ridin' is the era where haechan truly catches onto How much renjun wants/likes his attention and then realizes how much he Likes it. WHAT BEING FREE FROM THE SHACKLES OF MARK CAN DO TO SOMEONE. AND SOCIETY.
HOT SAUCE
tl;dr — haechan gfzones renjun
Thiis is the whole reason I even started writing this post. can you believe we are in 7dream era and haechan actually pays more attention to renjun than mark? That’s crazy. That’s insane. There’s no way this can be real. BUT IT IS!!! he's his girlfriend.
um. there’s just no words. whateverrrrr... okay.
I also think. usually, if I call renjun stupid ... which I just wouldn't. because he's a little cheesey and a little cringe but he's not stupid — which I'd pin down to him being pretty self-aware. however. in this era. he is so stupid. he is the stupidest little boy who is a girl you will ever see. you will ever witness. you will ever be Beholden to. he is just that incredibly stupid. there's No Words.
my summary is that renjun is haechan's girlfriend. period. beat drop. music cue. what else is there to say about it!!!
what else... renjun being more obsessed than ever.... yk, like sometimes he’s a little more subtle about it. currently. No He’s Not. like... um you thought ridin was bad. turns out ridin was not actually bad. well that's wrong. it's that. somehow it's possible for this to be Even More painful. I don't even know what else to say. I'm sure that like anyone reading this has seen any hot sauce era video and is aware of how renjun laughs at every single thing haechan does now. like he's funny but he's not that funny. please. PLEASE. please be normal.
I'm crazy insane stupid RPS fan I'm delusional I'm a freak I'm a degenerate that'll never amount of anything. I'm the scum of society. etc. etc. now listen. I feel as though the first explanation for what's up with renhyuck is that they're Dating For Real. and the second is that they're better friends than ever.
IIIIIII... have nothing else to say for myself. I've really gotten better over the years about not seeing some random inconsequential moment and being like OH MY GOD THEYRE FUCKING THEYRE DATING THEYRE IN LOVE. or I thought I did. it's just ... they're girlfriend and boyfriend you know, and just because of how society is heteronormative or whatever, it's easier to tell when a boy and a girl are dating than when a boy and a boy are dating.
fuck this summarizes and explains absolutely nothing forgive me.
I have to also note, that I wrote this over a span of a few days... and within those few days... Renjun did get a haircut. so he is no longer a girl. but because I can't bear to let go of him yet....I'm just going to continue on as though he still is a girl. you know sometimes being a girl is not about being a girl it's about being socially designated as a girl. and also outside of his hair, there are other things that make him a woman. like his purse. his delicate sensibilities. his numerous female traits. the fact that he's haechan's girlfriend.
overview of everything I'm getting from this era IG.
I kinda wanna make a point that like... renjun's always been very lukewarm about fanservice. it's the same with his 'pure boy renjun' introduction ... where there's a very deliberate point to acknowledge it as something He's Told To Do, rather than something he wants. it's not that he doesn't do fanservice it, but there's definitely a difference in fanservice that has genuine affection behind it — like the way he takes care of jisung, or compliments to jaemin during go era and so — there's a point to some of the action being said/done for the sake of the camera, but also it's things he'd mean regardless.
this is not to say that renhyuck is real and none of it is fanservice. just that it's hard to near impossible to make renjun do something he doesn't want to do [similar to jaemin, but jaemin is so much more obnoxious about it and much less agreeable] so even when it's for fun and jokes, it's a joke that renjun's willing to go along with, and it's something that he has fun doing. but also literally hilarious that two of renjun's most legit[?] ships is with the top2 fanservice aficionados of the group. I swear to god there's like 2 or 3 jaemren fics that touch upon this theme of renjun's earnestness v what's for the camera and what's for Realz.
yoon got this cc asking about renhyuck love languages — and before I read it, I was like ‘what would be renjun’s love language?’ and I figured, uhh doesn’t he like it when people pay attention to him? [sorry, had to flex my renjun knowledge] … which is whyyyyy I feel like he’s genuinely gotten something out of all years of this endeavour...haechan pays attention to him now!!! haechan looks at him!! looks back when renjun looks at him!!! asks for his attention!!! that’s so crazy. everyone please congratulate renjun.
I think it was a half-baked joke but in the recent huya? live haechan goes ‘it’s so hard to get a compliment from renjun’ and it’s true… renjun is genuinely quite stingy when it comes to praise and anything that’s not like a good job as obligatory response to winning a game or finishing a recording. but, it’s the same when it comes to receiving praise or realizing that someone knows things about him he didn’t expect, it’s a pretty lukewarm reaction as he just doesn’t know what to do with it. which is why a lot of renhyuckism comes off as haechan saying things like soulmate/renjun is so cute/etc… but renjun’s just weirdly reserved about everything [GUY WHO WON’T EVEN TELL PEOPLE HIS MBTI...ok Loser]. historically, he’s always been more into haechan. so don't let the recent series of events fool u!!!
[warning: Renhyuck Delusion.] I guess what I'm trying to say is that... renjun shows his affection in a way very different from haech [most notably, Paying Attention] so like... diehard renjunist or otherwise, him being so openly affectionate truly feels like a completely undiscovered side of him... something like... it's obviously something we've gotten peeks at before through moments where he'd take care of other members or so [notably jisung, sometimes mark, jaemin at one very specific point] ... but, now it's like something that's just Constantly there and so clearly directed to haechan. like OK I'll Die?
also man. dreamies are so nice. they're such nice kids. they're so nice. I can't imagine having to go to work with the knowledge that the worst couple in the world will be there doing all their bullshit once again.
also of note. mark who really badly wants members to kiss is not saying anything about renhyuck kissing. why not mark? why not!! [answer: it's because renjun is a girl so it's not gay].
the last last thing, which is increasingly clear in 7illin ... is um ... I tried to explain this to sora but I sounded crazed and insane, which to be fair, that's what 7illin can do to a person. but like mahae healing<3 because haechan has a girlfriend now so mark no longer has to feel weird about how haechan used to like him. ibygrpJNSK;DVLX see just like how markhyuck fight lead to eventual #HaechanXRenjun4Ever, renhyuck lead to #MarkAndHyuckBestFriendsForever. Balance. Karma. Peace. Love. Etc. Sexy.
other considerations
I, Renjunzen
I genuinely think it’s hilarious because many past iterations of renjun would’ve never wanted to be girlfriendzoned… but the renjun who stands before you today. Is a Woman. And more notably, Haechan’s Girlfriend.
listen of anyone in nct to get a girl arc NO ONE COULDVE PREPARED ME FOR RENJUN. There’s no words. I’m just over the moon. Genuinely was worried he was going to go for the gym arc but instead he just embraced the girl thing. impeccable character development imo. I’ve never been more happy in my life that someone hates the gym.
honestly, him going from being too sensitive about being called sensitive to like fully leaning into his whole thing. I THINK RENJUN IS SO PERFECT AND FUN AS A PERSON!!! also he has a girl's room. imo. it's one of his many female traits. having a tea corner? caring that much about lighting? being really into candles? idk the mix of 'soft' with how sharp-witted he can be, plus the overall honesty and directness..... There Is A Reason Jisung Has A Crush On Him OK!!! other than haech who's ... haechan... thus I hesitate to say he gets it — Jisung actually gets it!! [Renjun's Charm Points]
I feel like someone might read this and be like… ummm stop heterofying two dudes … how is it my fault they're straight? How. they’re not boyfriend and boyfriend but boyfriend and girlfriend. That’s their fault. this also if youre going to get mad idk effeminate men aren’t women or whatever renjun’s not effeminate he’s a Girl. also he's never actually been effeminate that was haechan but for some reason haechan got over that. I feel like that was when mark stopped top-posturing but I can't say. ANYWAY. renjun girl. I also never expected this I also thought he’d be sensitive and a little too male about it forever. but nooooo. both a mix of renjun internal and external [now externality is gone until his hair grows out again] development.
why are they girlfriend and boyfriend and not boyfriend and boyfriend? or even, girlfriend and girlfriend?
Have you seen the way haechan dresses. NEXT QUESTION.
dream dichotomy
the reason why renhyuck is *special* is a combination of minirookies, chenji, and 7dream, and of course, zeroline. I think I have to explain how each group iteration is divided and then explain why it has to be Renhyuck.
not sure how to go about this so I'll just list off the iterations.
this only counts for debut since jaemin has to take a break and doesn't return until a year later, but it's pretty easy to trace everything back to these pairs
7dream starts off as: markhyuck — nomin — chenji ... and renjun
there's an argument that it's minirookies and chinaline but since renjun is 00z, the much more natural distinction is to split chenle into maknaeline instead, and have the rest be hyungline. and more importantly... chenji fated pair isms. the problem with hyungline is because mahae already debuted, and are bffs, and are Markhyuck, is that it's impossible to leave mark out. again nomin was preset, so renjun's just having to vibe on his own. this matters but not in the way it could have. zeroline should've been a thing but MaHae.
because jaemin's gone, instead of having to awkwardly fit renjun in somewhere, he kind of gets shuffled around to whoever the group dynamic calls for. for some reason, both in we young and MFAL instead of splitting into two groups [giving us ZEROLINE] [which I guess they didn't do because establishing zeroline without jaemin is an asshole move], they split off into three. for MFAL it worked, because jeno was missing a partner and renjun could neatly take up jaemin's spot ... except in we young. mahae have a fight... haechan goes for jeno. renjun just shuffles between mark/jeno/haech depending on the day. worth mentioning that chenji are never switched around both from a company level and their personal loyalties to each other level. this and that you could say.
JAEMIN COMES BACK. which is good and it's like Maybe He's the Odd One Out Now since he's been gone for so long, but his insta-fave status [jaemin's popularity is so fucking insane] and also NEWLY MINTED RENJUN FRIENDSHIP changes the expected meta [noren v nomin] into [jaemren v nomin] ... which just throws noren to the dogs, yk. though people also settled for norenmin regardless of the lack of actual trio interactions. the reason why no/ren/min never really settled well [imo] was:
the problem with mark leaving is that ... haechan is left partnerless. Unless. IS HE? the difference between renjun being slotted in as haech's partner here versus in previous cbs is that they actually stuck with it. and also, just genuinely that they had a lot of good chemistry. I feel like with markhyuck gone, there might be a feeling of cuz markhyuck are very compelling and very entertaining, but renhyuck had enough ability to rival that... in a way that with renmin v nomin, renmin falls a little short, and noren v anything, noren will always fall short — renhyuck doesn't really fall short. anyone and everyone will be like damn these two are entertaining AF regardless of who they actually ship. suuuper digestible combo.
also another reason why renhyuck persisted, I'd argue, is not because other zeroline pairs weren't viable but that jaemin is literally not interested in anyone outside of jisung and jeno. like nahyuck are hilarious together but it'll never happen. honestly, there are so many things you can blame on jaemin and Should blame on jaemin.
mahae fight did so much for 7dream I won't even lie. would we ever be at this point if markhyuck did not learn to appreciate their bonds with other people? haechan would be pathetically single forever — not because renjun would not date him, but because he would've never realized renjun was an option for him to date. anyway. I digress.
anyway. at this point, dream is so well-established that there's no need to rely on specific groupings both on a company level and in a more personal, group dynamic level. they can all play very well with each other so there's not much to say here. everyone is friends with everyone. I'll withhold comments about jaemin.
um...on a different note, mark being the odd one out [not that he really is] isn't the same as renjun being the odd one out because... it's Mark. even if we ignore the fact that all the dreamies adore him beyond reasonable means, just on the technical level he's by far the most successful member of NCT as a whole. renjun really only has dream, and even in dream his position isn't unique. etc etc. you can fill out the rest of these blanks. also... even if zeroline was strictly a thing, chenle likes mark so much that it doesn't matter and jisung likes chenle so much that he'd go along with mark integration into their whole thing.
also my personal ranking is like: 7dream [2021], 6dream [boom>ridin], 7dream[go>dreamshow], 6dream, 5dream[Bad. no haechan when haechan should be there]
ORDERED LIST OF SEXIEST THINGS ABOUT RENHYUCK
finally. last section. at this point I'm running on fumes. BUT I MUST CONTINUE ON. because this is a labour of love. I actually don't think anyone, even lin, sorry if you're actually reading this lin, will read this far in. ANYWAY.
(3) Narrative Parallage. Foilage.
obviously, being Narrative Parallels is the Most Romantic Thing On Earth. and while I understand on a technical level parallels and foils aren't the same, the thing is, they're the same to me. because either way it's a comparison of how you live up to the other person or have fallen short of them. where one succeeded and the other did not. that ish.
everything I say from this point on is really truly me being objective. I'm renjunfan. I, RENJUNZEN. the amount of shit I've referenced and said in this post and shit I haven't said...all of it points to me being downbad, crazy RENJUNIST. im RENJUNFAN!!! in saying all this,
haechan is the better version of renjun.
— which is WHY renhyuck is so sexy and so good and will never ever ever cease to slap. okay I had to say it. you could literally refer to renjun as 'lesser haechan' and you wouldn't be incorrect. dare I say, people would know which dreamie you meant. atp, it's just Known that they're really similar and that's what the base of their epic chemistry is. it's obvious that haech and renj are the ones that share the most roles and function the same within dream. though I guess, Disclaimer for Present versus Past Lenses, this statement is truer for the first few cbs, where dreamies are now - renj's definitely grown into his own role and haech is no longer as prominent of a comparison point as he was. growth or whatever LOOOL.
anyway. back to the point. remember like, 8000 words ago [motherfuckerrrrr] ... I was like... Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better? anything Renjun can do Haechan can do better. I know this is when I input examples and explain it all very clearly. BUT IF YOU JUST HAVE EYES AND LET YOURSELF BE A LITTLE MEAN TO RENJUN. anyway I guess I can list a couple things:
this is a little more general, but renjun watching minirookies and then later DEBUTING with them...haechan main character for sure, but renjun also has his moments no?
as no.1 haech_LEFT main. and also person who thinks haechan should be the hot and sexy half of every ship. it truly is something when haechan is the bigger one. IMO. yeah shut the fuck up about how every other dreamie and nct member outsizes haech in this it's not about them. it's about HAECHAN. and how renjun fits into his arms. OK it's not that. I literally um don't give a shit about renjun being the smaller prettier one. I like that he's narrow and that's about it. I promise. I genuinely cannot bring myself to have perverted fantasies about renjun I'm kind of past that stage in my stannism.
also this picture is just so fucking hilarious WHY IS RENJUN SO SMALL. DOESN'T HE FEEL EMBARRASSED? you're twenty years old and you're getting outsized by fellow shrimpy member haechan? not to undo all of renjun's personal development in growing out of his size complex [haha] ... which I actually think the shoulder gangster bit really helped with. see? real couples, fated pairs, soulmates, toxic tiktok heterosexuals, etc help each other grow and improve.
sorry I have this written on a shirt. A PUBG SHIRT. you know who plays pubg? Haechan. do you know what this means? haechan literally renjun's sloppy gamer boyfriend. no matter how you look at it, it's a loss for renjun.
I'm kind of realizing that this is pretty much the same point as 3 but more expanded on but whatever. what matters is that renjun always loses when it comes to renjhaech. haechrenj. whatever you prefer. I don't know how it's not clear to u after him being the one who has pathetically pined for the past 5 years. or something.
hang on I have to pause while writing this. it keeps occuring to me that renjun is haechan's girlfriend now. guys they're dating. Bro, they're actually dating now. that's fucking CRAZY. THAT'S CRAZY AS SHIT. my dumb idiot dreamzen brain that's stuck in go era can't comprehend it. WE'VE COME SO FAR? seeing them grow closer through out the eras. Everyone, Please please congratulate Renjun. tho. chokes sobs and dies. imagine telling renjun he never even got boyfriendzoned, he's fucking girlfriendzoned. some past version of renjun is rolling in his grave rn. again. no matter what he loses.
sora pointed out that out of all the eras for them to get together in, it's when haechan is going through his Just A Dude, Sucks At A Video Game He Plays For 8 Hours A Day Masc Gamer Phase ... and it really is funny because Renjun has been done up so beautifully and neatly and has been so attentive in carefully tucking his hair back behind his ear, etc etc... like CLASSIC DOUBLE STANDARDS AT PLAY HERE!!! renjun has to look like the most beautiful alt goth loner girl at school while haech gets to be um, the guy who's not the popular guy but kind of a loser but will get the girl anyway because it's a #LoveStory. or something
anyway. haech has always had the upperhand against renjun and it's proven by Point (3) but we can also look at how, in the actual practice, renjun loses nearly ever game ever while haech wins nearly every game ever. rock paper scissors which is an exercise in luck doesn't really count. there's also line distribution and popularity. LOL.
if it were any other group but dreamies, I'd make an arguement about in-group popularity but the dreamies are all FRIENDS. also, neither of them are actually high rankers within the dreamies... which is another thing we can blame on NA JAEMIN. *not saying jaemin is the high ranker. nahyuckren are pretty much the bottom 3. ANYWAY, what actually matters is that renhyuck are kinda each other's 1picks now. tho also if you also look at nct as a whole every member that likes renjun, likes haechan better ... minus like some of chinaline? which isn't even a good example because there are so little on-camera interactions.
not really an objective point but. renjun at his worst looks worse than haechan at his worst.
last. a really noticeable thing about renjun is that unless it's something he wants, he'll stick to the script. which is also why renhyuck is good. if haechan is involved, renjun wants it. I'm like typing all this shit out and realizing It Really Is Like That as I'm writing. catwhoatethepillthattastesoflemon.jpg. Free Me. #FREENIZ. in terms that relate to this point: renjun doesn't care about being a loser unless haechan is involved.
endnotes
if you read all the way here. really. thank you. um again. everything with a massive grain of salt and the knowledge that for everything I said there's a counterexample and an explanation that shows it really is just [Massive Renhyuck Delusion]. but also, for the last time, Please congratulate Huang Renjun! either way, it's an incredible thing when the person you've looked towards for so long looks right back, all with the same intensity.
I keep saying this but watching renhyuck's friendship blossom throughout the years has truly been so fucking crazy. IMAGINE TELLING ME THIS IN 2017? IMAGINE TELLING ANYONE THIS IN 2017? anything is possible in kpop and love guys.
lmk if there's any formatting/etc issues.
EDIT: crying and sobbing if you're a rando reading this and you can't tell I'm renjunist please just click off, you're not going to have the reading comprehension to understand it's not real and a joke and very real and not a joke at the same time.
DONGREN
warning: maximum renhyuck delusion ahead.
disclaimer: it’s jokes except it’s serious except it’s jokes. everytime I say renjun is haechan’s girlfriend I do mean renjun is haechan’s girlfriend except it means they’re closer now which means that they’re girlfriend and boyfriend which means they’re just friends. you know. typical RPS disclaimers. it’s 90% probably not real and 10% Really Truly Real.
preface
renhyuck’s always been my no.1 dreamies ships and no.1 overall. I daresay my top kpop ship of all time. it’s that bad. the appeal is that they’re IRL narrative parallels which here means < anything you can do I can do better >
this is going to be kind of a…? I don’t know, a mix of a reflective, a timeline, some generous tinhatting — OK a lot of generous tinhatting — and just the journey of being a renjunzen AKA what it’s truly like to be a metafan because renjun is the most successful fan ever, is he not? he is!!! please congratulate huang renjun-sshi!!!
the thing is, you can be like Mhm. Renhyuck Flavour. But can you really appreciate that flavour unless you understand renjun’s FIVE YEAR!!! journey to this point?!?! Turns out one-sided pining uselessly DOES pay off. they'll never break up because theyre marriaging. renjun has this shit on lock. ok no he doesnt BUT haechan might!! renjun is too much like 'hmm...we can never know about the future...so we shouldnt worry about things that we don't know will happen...' or something . Versus TRUE ROMANTIC SECOND LOVE CAN BE MORE POWERFUL THAN FIRST LOVE BELIEVER HAECHAN THOOOO.
also sorry. I have never been and will never be brief.
some notes re: fandom history
- pre-dream: mahae 2pick; down bad markhyuckist like every other fan
- chewing gum: 3pick.. still pretty into markhyuck,,. markhyuck were the most anticipated dreamies and they don't wane in popularity until like much, much later. especially with dreamzens...?
- mfal: renjunhaechan 1pick 2pickism was blurring. teasers helped to neatly slot all of 6dream in fandom digestible ships. thus, Noren. markhyuck are Markhyuck. one of their peaks iirc
- we young: renjun 1pickism Real. markhyuck was waning a little, noren was persisting but nohyuck was on the rise, and obviously, I was like… Renhyuck? Renhyuck. I'd say the first time people caught attention of renhyuck's bickering>
- go: I, renjunzen [my twitter dn at the time]. renmin/norenmin was the thing. mahae made an astounding recovery somehow. renhyuck were friendzoned by fandom at large though people did take note of bickerage.
- we go up: wasn’t around for this. arguably, the best renjun teaser ever released. I think markren and renmin were winning this era.
- we boom: RENJUN FAN!!! renhyuck!!! on the rise for real!!! mostly because of 6dream pair up haptics! but STILL!!! note, renhyuck hit harder with haechan fans this era because renjun was trying very hard to be haechan's manly [read: manlet] boyfriend. NGL I think renjun looked shorter than usual this era. renjunfans were mostly trying to remain staunch renminists.
- ridin: renj as always. bruv I have no idea what happened here. renhyuck pretty much solidified this era, no? esp after all the dream show fanservice and shenanigans.
- hot sauce: um…. Renjun Girlification era. And. Renjun Girlfriendification by Haechan era. also renhyuck Popular now?! crazy.
last notes:
- renhyuck can always be argued for as 2pickshipping, but the origin was never me mashing my 2pick together. the origin was me going: ...damn, haechan kinda better at everything than renjun… and instead of being like >renjun my poor meow meow…< I was like… Hmmm...now wouldn’t it be funny if they were a thing. canonically, renhyuck have never really had any inferiority/superiority complexes about each other, but the fun of RPF was that I’d get to write it in because the irl basis is there.
- also haech isn't really my 2pick, that's dependent on something we can blame on jaemin. but it's just easier for everyone involved if I say he is.
- to be strictly accurate, it’s dongren. renjun, while historically has not been haechan’s girlfriend, is now haechan’s girlfriend. otherwise, it’s really just that I’m a fan of #Haechan_LEFT.
timeline
disclaimer: my dreamzen track record is very spotty, I’ve watched a fair amount of content but for some eras like we go up and ridin’, I really can only go off of moments that are included in yt comps and/or twitter gifs/clips and whatever my friends have said. and if it’s not a 00z vlive I haven’t seen it. though there are actually like 3 00z vlives I haven’t seen but that’s jaemin’s fault. anyway, I don't watch vlives so I guess everything I'm going off is 'curated' content. still, I don't the difference is that big. anyway, if nothing else, I am someone who loves renjun.
another disclaimer for confirmation bias: I’m renjunfan first, but renhyuck is my OTP.
last one: obviously this is not really an ‘objective’ look at things, all interpretations are my own and everything I write is what I’ve made of it… so even though I speak matter of factly, this is a very personal retrospective. also the moments I pick are just the ones I think are cutest and/or pretty notable. not meant to be #PROOF_RENHYUCK_IS_REAL.
CHEWING GUM > MY FIRST AND LAST > WE YOUNG
tl;dr — renjun is always looking at haechan. haechan is never looking back.
the long and short of it...
one of the near constant appeals of renhyuck since The Beginning, is that renjun has always looked at haech. even as early as nct school dream mate? or so. anyway, ‘looking at haechan’ is the whole thing where renjun will say something, or make a joke, or some else will say something, or nothing at all in particular will be happening, and renjun is tilted towards haech, gauging his reaction. or you know, any time haechan says anything, or does anything, renjun is always the first one [if not the only one] to look his way. on renjun it’s incredibly noticeable because he’s not the greatest listener, but if it’s haechan… when it comes to haechan… the thing is about haechan though… it’s not really that hard to explain, but it was particularly deadly in the early days of dream noticing just how badly renjun wanted recognition from haech. though, a little ironically, he was better at snapping himself out of it during their earlier eras. definitely hid it better than he does later on [ahem, Ridin. Ridin. just Ridin'].
obviously in the earlier dreamies day, all of them did this quite a lot because haechan was just the best at talking and keeping things entertaining — so always, and even now, he was the member that directs things [variety wise] ... but as the rest of the dreamies start catching up on the ways of variety/step into being idols, they don't pay him as much attention ... this gets clearer post-go/wgu when jaemin is settled in for real. though also, this could just be fully blamed on jaemin being jaemin. regardless, what matters is that renjun's haechanisms remain.
don’t quote me on this, but among dreamies the only other member that does this as avidly is jeno. but that’s because it’s jeno and jeno is wildly misunderstood. you could make a case for jisung but the counterarguments are (a) jisung does it to Everybody, (b) Maknae Psychology 101.
we young, being the era with far more content than CG & MFAL, it's really easy to see how much haech poked at renjun — and that it wasn’t particularly affectionate either. obviously, it was friendly teasing — on haech's part, it's probably him trying to close the gap — but they didn’t have as strong of a base friendship to keep it away from the line. it’s a lot of renjun being kind-of embarrassed and haech being annoying.in these eras ... he’s a bad mix of not knowing how to react but wanting to react so there’s a lot of him trying to argue back, but falling back too early or his response falling too flat. again, he didn't mind — and like everyone else, bar mark — enjoyed haechan's attention, but ... the combination of trying to keep it, and being Renjun [blunt, edging onto too honest, entirely too direct] ... there's a fair amount of pretty awkward landings here and there. tangent: the best targets were mark and jeno obviously.
the thing about maehae summer fight was that it pushed haech closer to jeno than renjun. like obviously haechan was still in love with mark at this point, but the other killing factor was that jeno was clearly more his friend than renjun was. and also, though this wasn’t as noticeable because jeno is perfect angel, best member of dream, the most underrated champ of world, he was closer to haech than he was to renjun. though there's a lot of noren Hanging out in this era which I'm going to pin to them only having each other. honestly, I think renjun still constituted as ‘new’ and he hadn’t completely found his footing yettt.
relationship status
they weren't exactly... friends. as groupmates — and particularly the dreamies tend to be — they were friendly even if they weren't close, and got along well enough. honestly, compared to later eras, it's so obvious that they came such a far way in terms of getting to know each other and becoming Real True Friends, as well as being better at playing along with each other. one of the biggest hindrances between these eras is just how badly renjun took haechan's teasing. everyone's really, but no one teased as much as haechan did. so it's haechan's. which isn't to say he got upset at it, he just mangled the joke most of the time.
still, we young served as a pretty good turning point where haechan seemed to realize that he and renjun could/did get along really well... v. renjun who's always wanted to be close to haechan so it was never a matter of 'recognizing' that for him. with this knowledge, please congratulate renjun!!!
as my last point, I think these were the eras where the disparity in [talent] was the most obvious and affected renjun the most, either in that he was really aware of it in these eras OR that in subsequent eras, it bothers him less. in their cb vlive? was the first time he mentions how much he practiced his vocals/etc. something along those lines — later eras, he comes back to the same 'tip' of always going into a recording with a lot of water.
moments
there is so little content from CG and MFAL... there's obviously the gag that goes on for the next two years where renjun's voice cracks during their first win and For The Next Three Years Haechan Will Never Not Bring It Up. also I hate to be like this, but I'll be real I remember more nomark MFAL moments than I do renhyuck. very fake fan of me.
- in this series of lives, if not this live in particular, there was one where they split into two groups of three [first instance of big head line iirc] that are particularly funny and a little pathetic because it’s nohyuckren, and renjun is in the middle and the whole time he’s pivoted towards haech rather than jeno, which of course jeno takes like a champ but the painful part is that haech does not care. in fact haech probably overcompensates for it by focusing on jeno. though the funniest part of it all is when they group back together as six and haechan is sooooo over mark… awh.
- there's also these which are very cute: haechan manual / renjun manual — great example of renj's sincerity versus haech's mischeviousness.
- https://fullsunhaechan.tumblr.com/post/164486825391/00-line-disturbing-each-other... this ancient ass example ... but also a very cute one... among one of the first times it started to be established that the True Dreamie dynamic was throwing hands. v. classic renjun imitating while jeno just follows along for the sake of it.
- there’s not a whole lot to go off of in terms of on-camera interax, but one of the most notable haechan lines are a fanacc post-it where he lists dreamies? as what they are to him and jeno is best friend while renjun gets ‘soulmate’.
- there's also classic ... JOY era shenanigans. I think it's a really good example of how renjun was bad at responding to haechan ... where in his video cut, haechan messes with him in a fun and annoying way but in the vlive renjun like, overcompensates for it A Little Too Much and is more aggressive than he needs to be... renjun's always been pretty easy to read, so you could interpret it as #Real_Tension since there was a little too much feeling... but, I'd just argue that renjun really isn't like that. though maybe it's something he grew out of.
GO > WE GO UP > BOOM
tl;dr — renjun looks at haechan. haechan sometimes catches his eye.
the long and short of it
IMO the break between we young and go was a good one for 5dream, jaemin’s return and subsequent friendship with renjun also helped group synergy a lot imo. not that it really changed anything about renhyuck, but 00z finally being a thing helped all of them be better friends and meld renjun into the fold a lot more. Personally, I think go was just a really good era for everyone involved. the existence of renmin kinda... I think it affected fan perception of dreamie dynamics more than anything [because. on a dream to dream level. renmin did not last]… anyway a couple of really good renhyuck moments because this is where they really start to play off each other rather than hyuck’s slightly futile one-sided poking … renjun now knows how to poke back, and they’re at this really comfortable spot!!! mh is ofc still kind of a thing, but haech does realize that other people exist now...also, truly leaning into dream’s moodmaker/epicentre/etc. again, the vibes were just so good in this era. renjun kind of gets on his hot girl shit. Kind Of.
I have no idea what happened in wgu. I Think it was a renmin/markren era. but that’s like. based off secondhand takes from my mutuals who are jaemren/markren fans you know. going purely off
boom... in general is probably my favourite ever era... the combination of Everything... strictly in terms of renhyuck tho.... renjun working very hard to be hyuck's manly boyfriend while haechan was in one of his more femme eras. you can see why this hit off with the fandom. there's also.... the touching shifts from being more aggressive to more casual. god there's an argument somewhere about renjun using chokeholds as a way to initiate touch without it seemingly coming out of nowhere... cuz again, while they were on their way to being friends/actually Friends now... they weren't that close, especially compared to the point they are at now. honestly. it's a little deeply stupid but it's also. there's so much renjun threatening bodily violence @ hyuck in this era that just phased out Noticeably past boom. though the more reasonable argument is renjun maturing, #RenjunCharacterArc. but. it could be Both.
anyway Boom is the most notable era out of these due to turning pointisms LOL.
relationship status
they get more touchy through these eras. renjun has his jaemin and then mark phase? again word of mouth. definitely finally friends at this point. all of zeroline are basically on equal footing with each other... nomin being nomin but they're also not gay so it's fine. jaemin being obnoxious means nothing because it's jaemin. that's his defining character trait. go and wgu are pretty standard by 'rarepair' ship content. you know, like people who don't really do anything but shippers will be shipping cuz they're, they're shippers.
boom, thanks to company mandated pairing, causes them to move from people who get along/could be friends to friends. notably the era where they started to have more in-jokes. i.e the aegyo bit. which I think is so fucking funny because renjun hates doing aegyo so bad but um once again his Would Do Anything For Haechan Diseases strike. again, the 37.5% v. 0.0% viewer rating joke shows up a lottt … and it’s just sooo… haechan’s 37.5% thing started in a 127 era? I think. and I don’t know if anyone in 127 caught on and did a 0.0% rating, but going into a dream comeback and renjun listening to that and immediately starting his 0.0% viewer rating renjun cam...AND STICKING TO IT!!! Idk it’s really clear, with the absence of mark, and pairing together that they broke through the final gap and got to hang out and actually get close.
boom era is notably when a lot of people started paying attention to renhyuck more and there’s a lot more on-camera interactions to go off. and haech definitely clings to renjun more often than with previous eras. both a product of their closeness and the way dream has to pair off.
renjun catches up a lot in terms of [talent] but this is helped by the fact that jaemin sucks. dream having a clear disparity in vocal ability really helps renj and haech look similar in terms of talent levels. or like, it makes stage ability/presence look less important because it's split towards the dancers. but also he gets a chance at the high notes.
moments
boom is by far one of my favourite eras. you can tell why.
- haechan birthday vlive!!! which had one of the best comedic genius renjun moments in the world and it payed off even more because it was just such a good play on how haech would've done the same thing in his place. but also renjun who's bad at being corny unless he thinks the mood is right.
- wgu: 'he kisses my neck too much' / 'renjun fits right into my arms' moment.
- go/wgu being the era is when haech started patting renj's head when doing we young hehe
- I know that they were like 8 fanaccs out everyday about the latest renhyuck shenanigan during x boom fansign or whatever. I just can't remember any off the top of my head ._. BUT I KNOW THEY EXIST!!!
- there was this popular compilation tweet that was like 4 pics of haech looking like he wanted to kiss renjun and 4/4 were from boom/fireflies. this was the era that ummm you know... Well you get it. if you were there.
- if you weren't: renjun constantly pulling haechan out of frame to beat him up. renjun lifting his chair at haechan during mafia. renjun having renjun-like reactions to any and all teasing which just encourages haech more to continue on because he has the best reactions by far compared to other members, because everyone else is just used to it now and doesn't rise to the bait
- renhyuck derailment begins ... and truly begins to establish itself as A Common Occurrence with boom ... this was kind of? previously mahae derailment... but umm. well you know #6dream. but also. because haech mark and renj are the most 'active' [reactive?] members of dream, when mahae did it, renj would cut in like >the rest of us are still here< because renjun actually cared. because. you know. renjun's dream picks are mahae. but now that it's just renhyuck, everyone else just falls into a lull waiting for them to finish. godddddddddd
DREAM SHOW > RIDIN' > EARLY 2021
tl;dr — renjun looks at haechan. haechan looks back. more than 50% of the time too!!
usually I wouldn't count a non comeback era (i.e dreamshow) but Not Gonna Lie I feel like a lot happened here.
the long and short of it
renhyuck are a little obsessed with each other. they're like the kids in class that both have crushes on each other but are middle schoolers so they're dealing with it in the most middle school way possible. though like. You think the way they force everyone to bear witness to their bullshit here is bad? Two words for you: Hot Sauce. Hot Sauce. Hot Sauce.
still watching them here is like. constantly begging for renjun to shut the fuck up without him saying anything because he doesn't NEED TOO.... it's just... gestures if you watch any video from this era you just know!
they play so well with each other. that's a lot of it. it's clear that they have fun messing with each other. which is to say, haechan has a lot of fun messing with renjun because renjun responds in clever ways, and renjun just really fucking likes it when haechan pays attention to him [like any and everyone reasonable person would]. is still easily bruised when haech doesn't give him the attention he wants though. I think a fair way of describing them at this point is a lot of renj reaching for haech's attention and haech holding it over him, sometimes letting him grab at it, sometimes moving it out of reach. usually jeno is resident puppy, but sometimes renjun resembles it here.
I think the renhyuck dream v dream is a really good show of what their relationship was like. renhyuck dream v dream works really well because among the members of dream they’re the best at playing off each other, with renjun is very willing to play off hyuck/very receptive to haech in general. there’s obviously the 37.5% viewer rating cam v. 0.0% viewer rating cam [one of the most perfect bits between them], but also the amount of times they answer something, trail off, and then go ‘...Was Not What I was going to say…’ there’s a bunch of instances where they mirror each other really well — AND THE WAY THEY BOTH END UP ASKING THE SAME QUESTION — [haechan’s scrawl on a post-it note] Soulmate<3. but importantly, I think what ends up being the best testament to how well they get along is how shallow their list of recallable interactions are. like both of them struggle to think of times where they’ve actually hung out [part of why they end up with the same question] … and it’s like Damn For People Who Don’t Really Know Each Other… I think for how well they play off each other the lack of backing is crazy. but it's also proving the middle schoolers with crushes that don't know what to do about them comparison. cuz it really is. when you're in middle school and you like your crush and you're 90% sure your crush likes you back. what do you even do? nothing.
the amount the make dream play second fiddle to them here is... Guys, let me ask you. Why do you think jaemin is the way he is? in renhyuck dream v dream, they mention getting pork belly ... and then like a year later, in nahyuck dream v dream, we, the audience, find out that Jaemin was Also Present. gier;jldnfgvjln it's kind of killing me how in renhyuck's ver, they make No Mention of jaemin being there. while jaemin was there and forced to bear witness to The Whole Of It. just thinking about it is making me want to krill myself. I don't think it happened like while renhyuck were at their worst, but like. the combo of jaemrenhyuck... well... that's.... you know unless jaemin was feeling particularly socialable... and this was pre-renjun girlification, so he couldn't even be a girl about it. in saying this though ... jaemin legit my favourite third for renhyuck.
anyway this era is when renhyuck derailment becomes a Solid Thing.
relationship status
this is post...boom AND 6dream have been established for a while so you know.. it's a little... there's a lot of... I feel like it's here where renjun truly becomes haech's favourite target. that makes me sound insane but it's like. um. theres... how do I explain this. I'll try my best.
there's haechan bothering everyone or like, shifting the attention to x, x, x members and renjun just being one of the members he teases.
then, there's haechan bothering every other member for the end goal of fucking with renjun.
dreamies, who are generally very nice, go along with it. but, it's also pretty obvious they know what's happening. the thing is haech teases a lot of members by purposefully skipping them, but um. holy shit. rewatching some vids of this era. it's just constantly ignore renjun hours. like I feel... 50% confident about there being a Fixation of sorts here. [*sora's impression of hc's voice* I like it when girls get mad at me.]
I’ll be honest with you. everyone in dream has grown out of their obsessed with haechan phase. some members even, like chenle, have never even had that phase. renjun, who has been certifiably, cataclysmically Down Bad since 2016 at the earliest, 2017 if we’re less generous. is kind of stupid about it still. I'm just reiterating this because 100% renjun's haechanism takes turns towards Dire levels in ridin'. like before, you could pretty much brush it off. however due to the positive feedback loop of Having Haechan's Attention... any RIPs?
I don’t know anything else about ridin. though, I think after? or during? or a little before, is when haech started to hang out a lot more with dreamies and therefore renjun, outside of cbs. which I think is a really big thing and at the point where their final gap closed and it really shows in hot sauce. 'final gap' I mean they stopped being middle schoolers. and/or haech finally got serious about him. or took him more seriously? IDK it starts being so much more mutual. as in. haech shows him as much affection as he teases him.
I don't want to be like this is the era haech truly zones in one rj and 1picks him as his favourite bullying target but like I mean. I mean. the shift from mark as the favourite target to renjun is truly so palpable and contains so much feeling.
dare I say... ridin' is the era where haechan truly catches onto How much renjun wants/likes his attention and then realizes how much he Likes it. WHAT BEING FREE FROM THE SHACKLES OF MARK CAN DO TO SOMEONE. AND SOCIETY.
moments
- this moment where there is something obviously deeply wrong with renjun, and chenle, as he does with everything, just doesn't give a shit and says what he feels about it. which, unless it's about jisung, is usually 10000% on the mark.
- midsummer day's dream... is generally pretty painful to watch. both parts. especially the bit where haech tells one of the worst spooky stories ever. like five minutes of switching from haechan's narration to renjun's fully captivated stare. like even jisung wasn't paying that much attention and he was the only other member listening. the argument here is that renjun likes supernatural stories but that's just a super bad one because he likes the Real Ones and everyone in this room knows haechan's story is full of shit. also haech telling it to renjun. even though, jisung was on the other side and was the only other member listening. 100% this is renjun riding off the high of haechan's attention from the previous games they played. though, I have to defend renjun here because his haechanism is chronic and terminal. on the other hand, haech had No Excuse to be such an enabler. this was 100% on him.
- renjun knowing that haechan's favourite movie is monster's inc. is it??? bonus points for haech not knowing renjun's favourite movie. also doyoung thinking of renjun as haechan's friend rather than jeno's. for I guess a collection of reasons but 'As expected... Haechan's friends are different.' pretty much says the brunt of it. tangent: renjun's obsession with avatar infecting the rest of dream later on.
- weekly idol — picking e/o for: who you want more love from / who you think has been doing so well ... the >who do you want more love from< in particular.... [you: he picked jisung also! ... but did you consider that jisung is maknae!!!] I don't know it was so... telling from renjun's part, in particular because I'm unsure if any other dreamies would've picked haechan [for non-obvious reasons] ... also this following markly asking them on vlive who they thought did best and renjun honestly picking haech v. haech saying he was joking. to be honest, I don't think haech joking matters here, since the point is less about haechan not loving renjun well or enough, but that renjun genuinely admires him and it's an obvious thing to want someone you admire to look back at you.
- 30:38 ...prime example of haechan purposefully ignoring renj and renj being so into it. these freaks are disgusting [im both of them at once]. there's no fixing whatever the fuck renjun is doing.
- obsessed with this [7:12] classic renhyuck sidebar. sora keeps mentioning how they were both dealing with their relationship by fucking jeno during ridin which I will not comment on. but like when I say renhyuck were unbearable during ridin this is what I mean. this is supposed to be a nohyuck moment?! I will also absolutely blame this on jeno. HELLO? JUST SAY WHETHER YOU LIKE JJANGMYEON OR JJAMGPONG? ... in general this whole video is really something else. for the nth time, how can one subject their groupmates to this shit. even markhyuck at it's worse was never this bad.
- 5:42 — [with Feeling] 'I'll never let Renjunnie guess a single one!' - thematically bangs. metaphorically bangs.
HOT SAUCE
tl;dr — haechan gfzones renjun
Thiis is the whole reason I even started writing this post. can you believe we are in 7dream era and haechan actually pays more attention to renjun than mark? That’s crazy. That’s insane. There’s no way this can be real. BUT IT IS!!! he's his girlfriend.
um. there’s just no words. whateverrrrr... okay.
I also think. usually, if I call renjun stupid ... which I just wouldn't. because he's a little cheesey and a little cringe but he's not stupid — which I'd pin down to him being pretty self-aware. however. in this era. he is so stupid. he is the stupidest little boy who is a girl you will ever see. you will ever witness. you will ever be Beholden to. he is just that incredibly stupid. there's No Words.
the long and short of it
my summary is that renjun is haechan's girlfriend. period. beat drop. music cue. what else is there to say about it!!!
what else... renjun being more obsessed than ever.... yk, like sometimes he’s a little more subtle about it. currently. No He’s Not. like... um you thought ridin was bad. turns out ridin was not actually bad. well that's wrong. it's that. somehow it's possible for this to be Even More painful. I don't even know what else to say. I'm sure that like anyone reading this has seen any hot sauce era video and is aware of how renjun laughs at every single thing haechan does now. like he's funny but he's not that funny. please. PLEASE. please be normal.
I'm crazy insane stupid RPS fan I'm delusional I'm a freak I'm a degenerate that'll never amount of anything. I'm the scum of society. etc. etc. now listen. I feel as though the first explanation for what's up with renhyuck is that they're Dating For Real. and the second is that they're better friends than ever.
IIIIIII... have nothing else to say for myself. I've really gotten better over the years about not seeing some random inconsequential moment and being like OH MY GOD THEYRE FUCKING THEYRE DATING THEYRE IN LOVE. or I thought I did. it's just ... they're girlfriend and boyfriend you know, and just because of how society is heteronormative or whatever, it's easier to tell when a boy and a girl are dating than when a boy and a boy are dating.
fuck this summarizes and explains absolutely nothing forgive me.
I have to also note, that I wrote this over a span of a few days... and within those few days... Renjun did get a haircut. so he is no longer a girl. but because I can't bear to let go of him yet....I'm just going to continue on as though he still is a girl. you know sometimes being a girl is not about being a girl it's about being socially designated as a girl. and also outside of his hair, there are other things that make him a woman. like his purse. his delicate sensibilities. his numerous female traits. the fact that he's haechan's girlfriend.
relationship status
overview of everything I'm getting from this era IG.
I kinda wanna make a point that like... renjun's always been very lukewarm about fanservice. it's the same with his 'pure boy renjun' introduction ... where there's a very deliberate point to acknowledge it as something He's Told To Do, rather than something he wants. it's not that he doesn't do fanservice it, but there's definitely a difference in fanservice that has genuine affection behind it — like the way he takes care of jisung, or compliments to jaemin during go era and so — there's a point to some of the action being said/done for the sake of the camera, but also it's things he'd mean regardless.
this is not to say that renhyuck is real and none of it is fanservice. just that it's hard to near impossible to make renjun do something he doesn't want to do [similar to jaemin, but jaemin is so much more obnoxious about it and much less agreeable] so even when it's for fun and jokes, it's a joke that renjun's willing to go along with, and it's something that he has fun doing. but also literally hilarious that two of renjun's most legit[?] ships is with the top2 fanservice aficionados of the group. I swear to god there's like 2 or 3 jaemren fics that touch upon this theme of renjun's earnestness v what's for the camera and what's for Realz.
yoon got this cc asking about renhyuck love languages — and before I read it, I was like ‘what would be renjun’s love language?’ and I figured, uhh doesn’t he like it when people pay attention to him? [sorry, had to flex my renjun knowledge] … which is whyyyyy I feel like he’s genuinely gotten something out of all years of this endeavour...haechan pays attention to him now!!! haechan looks at him!! looks back when renjun looks at him!!! asks for his attention!!! that’s so crazy. everyone please congratulate renjun.
I think it was a half-baked joke but in the recent huya? live haechan goes ‘it’s so hard to get a compliment from renjun’ and it’s true… renjun is genuinely quite stingy when it comes to praise and anything that’s not like a good job as obligatory response to winning a game or finishing a recording. but, it’s the same when it comes to receiving praise or realizing that someone knows things about him he didn’t expect, it’s a pretty lukewarm reaction as he just doesn’t know what to do with it. which is why a lot of renhyuckism comes off as haechan saying things like soulmate/renjun is so cute/etc… but renjun’s just weirdly reserved about everything [GUY WHO WON’T EVEN TELL PEOPLE HIS MBTI...ok Loser]. historically, he’s always been more into haechan. so don't let the recent series of events fool u!!!
[warning: Renhyuck Delusion.] I guess what I'm trying to say is that... renjun shows his affection in a way very different from haech [most notably, Paying Attention] so like... diehard renjunist or otherwise, him being so openly affectionate truly feels like a completely undiscovered side of him... something like... it's obviously something we've gotten peeks at before through moments where he'd take care of other members or so [notably jisung, sometimes mark, jaemin at one very specific point] ... but, now it's like something that's just Constantly there and so clearly directed to haechan. like OK I'll Die?
also man. dreamies are so nice. they're such nice kids. they're so nice. I can't imagine having to go to work with the knowledge that the worst couple in the world will be there doing all their bullshit once again.
also of note. mark who really badly wants members to kiss is not saying anything about renhyuck kissing. why not mark? why not!! [answer: it's because renjun is a girl so it's not gay].
the last last thing, which is increasingly clear in 7illin ... is um ... I tried to explain this to sora but I sounded crazed and insane, which to be fair, that's what 7illin can do to a person. but like mahae healing<3 because haechan has a girlfriend now so mark no longer has to feel weird about how haechan used to like him. ibygrpJNSK;DVLX see just like how markhyuck fight lead to eventual #HaechanXRenjun4Ever, renhyuck lead to #MarkAndHyuckBestFriendsForever. Balance. Karma. Peace. Love. Etc. Sexy.
moments
- 7illin which I will never recover from. there's no words.
- every hug from this era... there are so many hugs!!! favourite being haechan radio hug [27:39] ... they do a really similar hug during the ridin' haech radio... [30:38 for the Whole Experience] ... which makes me want to say the squeezing is a thing between them. but like um. the 7DREAM RETURN ep one is seriously an Experience. like that's his girlfriend bro. maybe IM the terminally diseased one. also renj smiling with teeth... AAAAAAGGGGH.
- haech radio pulling down his whole mac screen so renjun could see him. UM. DIE. WHY ARE YOU GAY? WHY?
- this [9:16] is just the funniest thing ever to me. Jisung will never be renjun's boyfriend. renjun is literally standing RIGHT BESIDE JISUNG. JISUNG WON THE GAME FOR THEM. 480369t842-0wtu ... listen It's clear and Obvious and Painfully so that jisung's crush would never work out. but god. be nicer to him!!! girls who have boyfriends.... ugh.
- the elbow kiss. what even was that? what. renjun is so so so stupid. he's so stupid. when I say he's a stupid girl stupidly in love I seriously mean it. the stupidification of renjun via Being Haechan's Girlfriend. also on this note... sometimes renjun is so earnest that he does things that are a little stupid. I think this falls under that category. sorry I had to say it.
- https://twitter.com/renjunache/status/1391781847130992647/photo/2 ... 'your natural enemy' YOU LOOOOVEEEE TO SEE IT!!!!!
- haechan midzy confirmed vlive [13:59] - (doyoung) It's been a really long time since I saw Jaemin, Jeno, Jisung and Chenle. I saw Renjun from time to time. Why did I see him so many times? ...rbghidf;kxgc lvhkdfbjxn gcvubprjkesdfl this one is just so funny. tell any nct fan ever that the dreamie the 127s see most often is RENJUN.
other considerations
I, Renjunzen
renjun girl arc #thoughts.
I genuinely think it’s hilarious because many past iterations of renjun would’ve never wanted to be girlfriendzoned… but the renjun who stands before you today. Is a Woman. And more notably, Haechan’s Girlfriend.
listen of anyone in nct to get a girl arc NO ONE COULDVE PREPARED ME FOR RENJUN. There’s no words. I’m just over the moon. Genuinely was worried he was going to go for the gym arc but instead he just embraced the girl thing. impeccable character development imo. I’ve never been more happy in my life that someone hates the gym.
honestly, him going from being too sensitive about being called sensitive to like fully leaning into his whole thing. I THINK RENJUN IS SO PERFECT AND FUN AS A PERSON!!! also he has a girl's room. imo. it's one of his many female traits. having a tea corner? caring that much about lighting? being really into candles? idk the mix of 'soft' with how sharp-witted he can be, plus the overall honesty and directness..... There Is A Reason Jisung Has A Crush On Him OK!!! other than haech who's ... haechan... thus I hesitate to say he gets it — Jisung actually gets it!! [Renjun's Charm Points]
I feel like someone might read this and be like… ummm stop heterofying two dudes … how is it my fault they're straight? How. they’re not boyfriend and boyfriend but boyfriend and girlfriend. That’s their fault. this also if youre going to get mad idk effeminate men aren’t women or whatever renjun’s not effeminate he’s a Girl. also he's never actually been effeminate that was haechan but for some reason haechan got over that. I feel like that was when mark stopped top-posturing but I can't say. ANYWAY. renjun girl. I also never expected this I also thought he’d be sensitive and a little too male about it forever. but nooooo. both a mix of renjun internal and external [now externality is gone until his hair grows out again] development.
why are they girlfriend and boyfriend and not boyfriend and boyfriend? or even, girlfriend and girlfriend?
Have you seen the way haechan dresses. NEXT QUESTION.
dream dichotomy
the reason why renhyuck is *special* is a combination of minirookies, chenji, and 7dream, and of course, zeroline. I think I have to explain how each group iteration is divided and then explain why it has to be Renhyuck.
not sure how to go about this so I'll just list off the iterations.
7Dream [in Theory]
this only counts for debut since jaemin has to take a break and doesn't return until a year later, but it's pretty easy to trace everything back to these pairs
7dream starts off as: markhyuck — nomin — chenji ... and renjun
there's an argument that it's minirookies and chinaline but since renjun is 00z, the much more natural distinction is to split chenle into maknaeline instead, and have the rest be hyungline. and more importantly... chenji fated pair isms. the problem with hyungline is because mahae already debuted, and are bffs, and are Markhyuck, is that it's impossible to leave mark out. again nomin was preset, so renjun's just having to vibe on his own. this matters but not in the way it could have. zeroline should've been a thing but MaHae.
6Dream
because jaemin's gone, instead of having to awkwardly fit renjun in somewhere, he kind of gets shuffled around to whoever the group dynamic calls for. for some reason, both in we young and MFAL instead of splitting into two groups [giving us ZEROLINE] [which I guess they didn't do because establishing zeroline without jaemin is an asshole move], they split off into three. for MFAL it worked, because jeno was missing a partner and renjun could neatly take up jaemin's spot ... except in we young. mahae have a fight... haechan goes for jeno. renjun just shuffles between mark/jeno/haech depending on the day. worth mentioning that chenji are never switched around both from a company level and their personal loyalties to each other level. this and that you could say.
7Dream
JAEMIN COMES BACK. which is good and it's like Maybe He's the Odd One Out Now since he's been gone for so long, but his insta-fave status [jaemin's popularity is so fucking insane] and also NEWLY MINTED RENJUN FRIENDSHIP changes the expected meta [noren v nomin] into [jaemren v nomin] ... which just throws noren to the dogs, yk. though people also settled for norenmin regardless of the lack of actual trio interactions. the reason why no/ren/min never really settled well [imo] was:
- renjun actually got paired with MARKHYUCK for go teasers. which was .... $)&590q3853q why did they do that to him and also to markhyuck fans.
- renmin was way too shortlived. what the fuck was that!! once again, I blame jaemin.
- markren?? markren??? I know there was some really random markren pandering in wgu that added to the layers of confusion and nonsense
- norenmin was zeroline without hyuck. thus couldn't be allowed for the same reason why nohyuckren wasn't allowed. just a fucking Asshole Move.
6Dream [markless]
the problem with mark leaving is that ... haechan is left partnerless. Unless. IS HE? the difference between renjun being slotted in as haech's partner here versus in previous cbs is that they actually stuck with it. and also, just genuinely that they had a lot of good chemistry. I feel like with markhyuck gone, there might be a feeling of
also another reason why renhyuck persisted, I'd argue, is not because other zeroline pairs weren't viable but that jaemin is literally not interested in anyone outside of jisung and jeno. like nahyuck are hilarious together but it'll never happen. honestly, there are so many things you can blame on jaemin and Should blame on jaemin.
7Dream [presently]
mahae fight did so much for 7dream I won't even lie. would we ever be at this point if markhyuck did not learn to appreciate their bonds with other people? haechan would be pathetically single forever — not because renjun would not date him, but because he would've never realized renjun was an option for him to date. anyway. I digress.
anyway. at this point, dream is so well-established that there's no need to rely on specific groupings both on a company level and in a more personal, group dynamic level. they can all play very well with each other so there's not much to say here. everyone is friends with everyone. I'll withhold comments about jaemin.
um...on a different note, mark being the odd one out [not that he really is] isn't the same as renjun being the odd one out because... it's Mark. even if we ignore the fact that all the dreamies adore him beyond reasonable means, just on the technical level he's by far the most successful member of NCT as a whole. renjun really only has dream, and even in dream his position isn't unique. etc etc. you can fill out the rest of these blanks. also... even if zeroline was strictly a thing, chenle likes mark so much that it doesn't matter and jisung likes chenle so much that he'd go along with mark integration into their whole thing.
also my personal ranking is like: 7dream [2021], 6dream [boom>ridin], 7dream[go>dreamshow], 6dream, 5dream[Bad. no haechan when haechan should be there]
ORDERED LIST OF SEXIEST THINGS ABOUT RENHYUCK
finally. last section. at this point I'm running on fumes. BUT I MUST CONTINUE ON. because this is a labour of love. I actually don't think anyone, even lin, sorry if you're actually reading this lin, will read this far in. ANYWAY.
(3) Narrative Parallage. Foilage.
obviously, being Narrative Parallels is the Most Romantic Thing On Earth. and while I understand on a technical level parallels and foils aren't the same, the thing is, they're the same to me. because either way it's a comparison of how you live up to the other person or have fallen short of them. where one succeeded and the other did not. that ish. everything I say from this point on is really truly me being objective. I'm renjunfan. I, RENJUNZEN. the amount of shit I've referenced and said in this post and shit I haven't said...all of it points to me being downbad, crazy RENJUNIST. im RENJUNFAN!!! in saying all this,
haechan is the better version of renjun.
— which is WHY renhyuck is so sexy and so good and will never ever ever cease to slap. okay I had to say it. you could literally refer to renjun as 'lesser haechan' and you wouldn't be incorrect. dare I say, people would know which dreamie you meant. atp, it's just Known that they're really similar and that's what the base of their epic chemistry is. it's obvious that haech and renj are the ones that share the most roles and function the same within dream. though I guess, Disclaimer for Present versus Past Lenses, this statement is truer for the first few cbs, where dreamies are now - renj's definitely grown into his own role and haech is no longer as prominent of a comparison point as he was. growth or whatever LOOOL.
anyway. back to the point. remember like, 8000 words ago [motherfuckerrrrr] ... I was like... Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better? anything Renjun can do Haechan can do better. I know this is when I input examples and explain it all very clearly. BUT IF YOU JUST HAVE EYES AND LET YOURSELF BE A LITTLE MEAN TO RENJUN. anyway I guess I can list a couple things:
- haechan is undoubtedly the more charming performer — this is a bit of a toss up of the last 30% effort that renjun either doesn't dedicate himself to onstage, or lacks the ability to put in. he always drops the — performance face? — a little too early, like before the camera is fully off him and he tends to just focus on dancing when it's not his line. not bad things, but stacking against him in this metaphorical competition I'm making up solely for shipping purposes.
- renjun isn't a bad speaker by any means, again it's this lack of effort/care where haechan wants to be entertaining and he wants to make it fun and good and renjun just would prefer to stick to the script and get on with it. renjun has the ability to be as clever and witty and quick as haechan, it's either just not always or he prefers not to.
- lin mentioned that she thought without haechan around, renjun was by far the most entertaining dreamie. I disagree. renjun is second to haechan when it comes to interacting with hosts on variety shows or otherwise. it's because he's snappy and blunt. like the number of times he's fucked with doni and coni on his own... LMFAO. rather, I'd argue that renjun and his best shine the most when haechan is around. no offense but something about haechan seriously deeply sets renjun off. he's the most reactive around haechan and it's like. Okay. Okay baby. everyday comeback I'm on this mortal coil to suffer
- do we even have to talk about line distribution. well it's here as a bullet point for prosperity. related, but remember when 5dream performed go and renjun covered haech's high note. renjun bending all the way back and front to hit the same note haechan did standing up straight. WHICH IS NOT THE MOST POLITE WAY TO SAY THIS but like Lmfao it did happen like that.
- haechan is just almost more graceful than renjun in every single aspect. renjun wins at being an epic bilingual kingshit tho. SORRY FOR NOT SPECIFYING ANYTHING IT'S JUST. LITERALLY JUST THERE. JUST PAY ATTENTION AND YOU'LL GET IT. in landing jokes, in receiving jokes, in catching attention, in maintaining attention, in keeping sparking a converstaion, in keeping it moving. I suppose you could argue that the rest of the dreamies don't really compare to haech in these ways either [even though some do], but it's also that out of the rest of the dreamies, renjun is the one who operates most similar to how haechan does. the biggest gap is just where renjun likes to be sensitive and artsy, haechan is like Let Me Play Overwatch For 5 Hours. Every Straight Tiktok Couple Ever.
- this is more to the narrative Foilage aspect but: insert obligatory point about contrasting visuals. which isn't really a great point but as noses are my favourite feature: haech's perfect button nose v. the perfect straight slope of renj's nose... and also renjun's microbladed brows in 7illin v haech's half-bald ones. do I even have to talk about their clothes in 7illin. If You Have Eyes.
this is a little more general, but renjun watching minirookies and then later DEBUTING with them...haechan main character for sure, but renjun also has his moments no?
(2) This Pic
as no.1 haech_LEFT main. and also person who thinks haechan should be the hot and sexy half of every ship. it truly is something when haechan is the bigger one. IMO. yeah shut the fuck up about how every other dreamie and nct member outsizes haech in this it's not about them. it's about HAECHAN. and how renjun fits into his arms. OK it's not that. I literally um don't give a shit about renjun being the smaller prettier one. I like that he's narrow and that's about it. I promise. I genuinely cannot bring myself to have perverted fantasies about renjun I'm kind of past that stage in my stannism.
also this picture is just so fucking hilarious WHY IS RENJUN SO SMALL. DOESN'T HE FEEL EMBARRASSED? you're twenty years old and you're getting outsized by fellow shrimpy member haechan? not to undo all of renjun's personal development in growing out of his size complex [haha] ... which I actually think the shoulder gangster bit really helped with. see? real couples, fated pairs, soulmates, toxic tiktok heterosexuals, etc help each other grow and improve.
(1) WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER
sorry I have this written on a shirt. A PUBG SHIRT. you know who plays pubg? Haechan. do you know what this means? haechan literally renjun's sloppy gamer boyfriend. no matter how you look at it, it's a loss for renjun.
I'm kind of realizing that this is pretty much the same point as 3 but more expanded on but whatever. what matters is that renjun always loses when it comes to renjhaech. haechrenj. whatever you prefer. I don't know how it's not clear to u after him being the one who has pathetically pined for the past 5 years. or something.
hang on I have to pause while writing this. it keeps occuring to me that renjun is haechan's girlfriend now. guys they're dating. Bro, they're actually dating now. that's fucking CRAZY. THAT'S CRAZY AS SHIT. my dumb idiot dreamzen brain that's stuck in go era can't comprehend it. WE'VE COME SO FAR? seeing them grow closer through out the eras. Everyone, Please please congratulate Renjun. tho. chokes sobs and dies. imagine telling renjun he never even got boyfriendzoned, he's fucking girlfriendzoned. some past version of renjun is rolling in his grave rn. again. no matter what he loses.
sora pointed out that out of all the eras for them to get together in, it's when haechan is going through his Just A Dude, Sucks At A Video Game He Plays For 8 Hours A Day Masc Gamer Phase ... and it really is funny because Renjun has been done up so beautifully and neatly and has been so attentive in carefully tucking his hair back behind his ear, etc etc... like CLASSIC DOUBLE STANDARDS AT PLAY HERE!!! renjun has to look like the most beautiful alt goth loner girl at school while haech gets to be um, the guy who's not the popular guy but kind of a loser but will get the girl anyway because it's a #LoveStory. or something
anyway. haech has always had the upperhand against renjun and it's proven by Point (3) but we can also look at how, in the actual practice, renjun loses nearly ever game ever while haech wins nearly every game ever. rock paper scissors which is an exercise in luck doesn't really count. there's also line distribution and popularity. LOL.
if it were any other group but dreamies, I'd make an arguement about in-group popularity but the dreamies are all FRIENDS. also, neither of them are actually high rankers within the dreamies... which is another thing we can blame on NA JAEMIN. *not saying jaemin is the high ranker. nahyuckren are pretty much the bottom 3. ANYWAY, what actually matters is that renhyuck are kinda each other's 1picks now. tho also if you also look at nct as a whole every member that likes renjun, likes haechan better ... minus like some of chinaline? which isn't even a good example because there are so little on-camera interactions.
not really an objective point but. renjun at his worst looks worse than haechan at his worst.
last. a really noticeable thing about renjun is that unless it's something he wants, he'll stick to the script. which is also why renhyuck is good. if haechan is involved, renjun wants it. I'm like typing all this shit out and realizing It Really Is Like That as I'm writing. catwhoatethepillthattastesoflemon.jpg. Free Me. #FREENIZ. in terms that relate to this point: renjun doesn't care about being a loser unless haechan is involved.
endnotes
if you read all the way here. really. thank you. um again. everything with a massive grain of salt and the knowledge that for everything I said there's a counterexample and an explanation that shows it really is just [Massive Renhyuck Delusion]. but also, for the last time, Please congratulate Huang Renjun! either way, it's an incredible thing when the person you've looked towards for so long looks right back, all with the same intensity.
I keep saying this but watching renhyuck's friendship blossom throughout the years has truly been so fucking crazy. IMAGINE TELLING ME THIS IN 2017? IMAGINE TELLING ANYONE THIS IN 2017? anything is possible in kpop and love guys.
lmk if there's any formatting/etc issues.
no subject
Date: 2021-06-02 02:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-03 02:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-06 03:46 pm (UTC)JAEMIN.
Date: 2021-06-06 06:14 pm (UTC)the places where I take stabs at jaemin [and I'm assuming are the things you're asking about] are here:
"it's hard to near impossible to make renjun do something he doesn't want to do [similar to jaemin, but jaemin is so much more obnoxious about it and much less agreeable]"
>here it's just that when jaemin doesn't want to do something [i.e play mafia game with dreamies] it's so obvious, and he is so so obnoxious about not wanting to do it [doing Nothing the whole time] versus if renjun doesn't want to do something, he sulks a little but he sucks it up because he's a trooper! and the second point, which is more important, is that it's not hard to convince renjun into doing something he doesn't want to or care to do - he's much more agreeable! on the other hand, if jaemin doesn't want to do it from minute one, then he's never going to do it. also, there's just a huge difference in the quantity of things renjun's willing to do, versus jaemin who is ok with doing like 4 things max. so huge gap in agreeableness LOL.
and here
"also another reason why renhyuck persisted, I'd argue, is not because other zeroline pairs weren't viable but that jaemin is literally not interested in anyone outside of jisung and jeno. like nahyuck are hilarious together but it'll never happen. honestly, there are so many things you can blame on jaemin and Should blame on jaemin."
>the reason nahyuck don't get along isn't because haechan dislikes jaemin and refuses to be friends with him. it's because jaemin doesn't like haechan and refuses to get along with him. zeroline as a line could be even more promoted and plastered and in-group-y.... it's just jaemin who doesn't get along with everyone which makes zeroline a little more difficult for everyone to navigate in.
"everyone is friends with everyone. I'll withhold comments about jaemin."
>I had to mention that I was specifically ignoring the exception of jaemin because 'everyone is friends with everyone' is literally not true, and it's only true if you're excluding jaemin. because jaemin is only friends with 3 members. though the sentiment of 'everyone is friends with everyone' remains imo because jaemin is very civil.
uhhh.... I hope that covers it LOL if there's anything else lmk!!! also TYYYYY soo much for reading!!!
hiiii im a friend of a friend~
Date: 2021-06-09 12:08 am (UTC)p.s. i haven't read through this fully but i'm really big on renhyuck truthisms/delusions/tinhattery so i'm really happy to see someone else making deranged dw posts abt them too hehe....and with such depth and perspective!! i love it soooo much <3
Re: hiiii im a friend of a friend~
Date: 2021-06-09 12:21 am (UTC)putting my knight hat on
Date: 2021-06-09 03:14 am (UTC)<3 <3 <3
no subject
Date: 2021-06-09 04:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-09 04:11 am (UTC)"... art should never try to be popular. the public should try to make itself artistic."
Date: 2021-06-09 04:28 am (UTC)to all the HATERS viewing this ... listen I know also what it's like to be 14 and/or mentally ill but I need u to know that jumping a random person over a kpop boy who doesn't know you exist is unhinged ... this may break your heart but this dreamwidth (dead site) post on a small account with like five followers is not hurting ur kpop boys ... it's not doing any harm to them. in fact the only harm it is doing is to you ... BECAUSE YOU ARE LETTING IT!!!!!!! YOU are the ONLY PERSON being hurt by this, and it's because you are ALLOWING IT TO AFFECT U! and it's not even about you! do you realize how insane that is!!!!!
this person u r attacking or flaming or posting tweets about how u couldn't even handle Reading it and etc. you have more in common with than any nct member. and to be frank if this Sweet Lil Poast is so "Deranged", perhaps ... don't spread/platform it? and certainly don't POST about ... I don't know how to break this to some of u but getting this mad at a hilarious and genius post designed for like 4 people including op that literally causes no harm to anyone except urself (B/C YOU'RE LETTING URSELF TAKE IT SERIOUSLY!) to see for fun is loser behavior! it's not hot! it's not cool! it's ridiculous, and it's even lamer than the thing that's inflaming you!
listen to me, baby reading this ... I know your heart is filled with rage, with sorrow, with anxiety ... but I need u to step back and look in the mirror ... you're letting a dreamwidth post about renhyuck on a small account live rent free in ur head in 2021. u're letting it make u qrt on twitter and ragepost and maybe even crytype (god help us). if ur kpop boys are as kind or good as u think they are, they would rather have u like, go spend time with your mom, or maybe check out a recipe, or literally go outside and touch some grass ... ask yourself this: will you remember this in a year? no, of course not. well, will you remember this in a month? if you won't, it doesn't matter, clearly, so let it go; and if you will, that's just pathetic in this scenario so you're best off spending the rest of your time tonight trying to remember who you really are (which isn't this, I promise u!).
social media likes when you're mad, it knows you like being mad, it knows your brain gets high off the rush of rage & anger that fills u seeing a (perceived?) slight against ur comfort character I mean kpop bias. it feeds you content to make you mad (would you have seen this if not for the ragebait qrt or tweet about it?) so you can spend more time on their toxic site. but u have to fight against that ... in times like this anger is a sweet poison. it feels good to indulge in that sort of self-righteous fury, but for a cause so stupid, it's worse than useless, it's degrading, it corrodes ur soul and wastes ur energy ... it's like eating nothing but ice cream for a meal - it may feel good in the moment, but it's bad for you, and you know this! you're better than this, you deserve better than this ... the kpop industry is designed to make you prioritize their idols over yourself, over other people that are more like you, but you can't succumb to that. you are NOT your favorite kpop boy, you are NOT your a stan of your favorite kpop boy, you are YOU first and foremost! remember your humanity; remember the humanity of this sexy, unhinged, genius dw user, the legendary fwcu ...
anyways if you found yourself seriously upset by this post, and this time I am being very genuine, it's a sign 2 log off. unplug! you have become what you despise - YOU have become the deranged, unhinged freak who is weird about insane and/or meaningless stuff on the internet. breathe! meditate! remember that death comes for us all, that we will all lose our dignity with it, and in that, we must use our lives for dignity while we still can ... dignity here being NOT capping for men who don't know u exist & who don't care abt what u're mad about in public. godspeed. also fwcu is cool and smart and sxc and cute and nice and always has been and always will be so SUCK ON THAT!!!!!!
no subject
Date: 2021-06-09 04:54 am (UTC)imagine misgendering and calling your "bias" a lesser version of someone yet still had the audacity to call yourself a stan. and to all the comments here hope you guys go outside and touch some grass.
Re: "... art should never try to be popular. the public should try to make itself artistic."
Date: 2021-06-09 04:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-09 05:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-09 05:08 am (UTC)Re: "... art should never try to be popular. the public should try to make itself artistic."
Date: 2021-06-09 05:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-09 06:00 am (UTC)I appreciate this post
Date: 2021-06-09 07:33 am (UTC)Surprisingly I really liked the bluntness of it all, I think that if people learned to keep aside their weird prejudice and open their minds they would too find the beauty of a well written analysis about the relationship of two of the most interesting persons I've known. I've personally always wanted to tell my thoughts about dream dynamics but it's just too hard to do so without having someone policing you (what an irony that I came from a tweet from one of those). I don't want to make this very lengthy since this is my first ever comment in this app and I don't even know if I'm doing this right so... Just wanted to say I've read all of this attentively, the storyline is very complete, as a baby nctzen I've found out about some moments just now, which I appreciate since as I've said I'm very keen on trying to understand the group dynamics; together with the tidy format this has been very insightful and entertaining, I'll probably try to learn more about this website and keep up with your posts, thank you!!
Re: "... art should never try to be popular. the public should try to make itself artistic."
Date: 2021-06-09 09:19 am (UTC)masterpiece....chef's kiss......everyone say THANK YOU NIZ
Date: 2021-06-09 10:44 am (UTC)re: cg / mfal / wy
i think the main difference in our dr perspectives is i dont necessarily think that rj idolizes hc to the extent that you do or maybe just like...idk i dont think its exactly the same but i feel like i do see what your getting at ig? idt that makes sense but whatever...anyway i havent seen that much stuff from these early eras so theres i high chance i cld be wrong, but my perspective is that rj doesnt /like/ hc as much as he super clearly blatantly really does in later eras, like he thinks hes kind of annoying sometimes and i was wondering if by rj not taking hc's teasing well you mean rj is like embarrassed by it/takes it too seriously (or if u just meant he doesnt have entertaining enough responses or whatever?) anyway thats why i always think rj doesnt like him as much here like the tonkatsu thing he always brings up it seems like its funny Now but he was probs pressed about it att to keep talking abt it lmfao (but also rj is super like...idk open and accepting of people? imo. like hes simultaneously too sensitive but also takes teasing pretty well and if he didnt have that aspect i think hed clash w hc much more. so even tho hc probably did legit get on his nerves at this time he still /likes/ him and thinks hes like talented + entertaining) ++ i get the impression that like...renjuns self image is that he thinks HES a very fun/funny/entertaining/etc person as well like i feel like he was seeing the current renhyuck chemistry vision in his mind in the early days but he was just not getting it across whether thats a combination of culture-language gap/lvl of comfort on camera/entertaining friends vs creating entertaining content, etc that sort of thing...so like hc didnt see rj the way rj saw hc imo...but he will tho
re: go/wgu/boom
i was thinking its so funny you say boom is your favorite because i feel like i remember absolutely nothing about boom (specifically re:dr) so idk what ur talking abt when u say rj was trying to be in his manlet bf era. ok actually but now that im thinking of it i guess the one thing i do rmb was the like multiple #weirdly_loving_gazes that happened...stuff that had me like umm...ok...but its weird that it happened like 4 times. but anyway the thing i actually wanted to comment about was the violence as affection thing/an excuse to touch CUZ NOW THAT IM REMEMBERING....UR SOOO RIGHT....like rj has always done the fake fighting thing kind of the most but i do rmb feeling like he was doing it A LOT during boom, and not only that but it being like ummmm....much more huggy? than it was before. and also the fighting was like combined with the fake crying/consoling? eo schtick that they had going which was definitely about hugging lol. and when i compare it to now i feel like....he actually...hasnt done it at all lately? or at least i cant think of any notable moments and instead what he HAS done is be hugging everyone all the time constantly in every single video. and by everyone i mean 80% always haechan and the occasional jisung/mark (more so jisung for actual hugs and not just like Being under his arm)...mind blewed lmfao.
*i also want to disclaim tho that i feel like people often blow renjun not being that touchy/touch averse out of proportion i feel like hes always been open to it its just that hc tends to be super annoying about it a lot of the time lol like touchiness/fanservice is absolutely a hc prank zone
WAIT OMG I TOTALLY FORGOT THAT 37.5 / 0.0 VIEWERS THING STARTED DURING THIS ERA LMFAOO......ok maybe boom is when i feel like renjuns terminal haechan pickme disease started getting like embarrassingly blatant tho i feel like that was less boom and more like...post boom/dream show ish era idk i dont rmb the timeline that well. i just rmb a ton of videos around this time renjun is just like...either taking it too far or just completely unaware of how he comes off but its soooo clear that haechan is like sickeningly playing with and bullying him just to see it get WORSE / hes def alr become hcs absolute favoritest pigtail pulling target atp. (edit: i have an oomf who keeps describing this phenomenon as renjun being the bullied wife of dream-ism and really...thats exactly what it is. unable to tell if renjun knows hes being targeted sooo much bc he is SO reactive constantly and is in encouraging it but like........you know.)
but in general i super agree that boom was the biggest turning point for them and a lot of it is kind of related? sorta to mark not being there + them finally getting a company approved cp moment. i think the one thing i disagree w is that i feel like they were alr much better friends in wgu! i think i noticed them having better chemistry/being able to play off of eo pretty well around that time/candlelight as well. so id argue boom was alr pretty much mutual obsession disease setting in, i guess "friends" is super nebulous in this case either way tho lol
sorry i keep writing my resposnes before reading the moments section where you immediately talk about everything i was thinking abt. umm yes, all that stuff. also the only fanacc thing in question that i rmb is this one https://twitter.com/softinjeolmie/status/1156999683576745984 icb he said that ejkewjkew why is Do you have a best friend? kind of a gay asf line
re:ridin once again i feel like so much of what i just talked abt u immediately described in this section god its so true that theyre annoying as fuck middle schoolers with disgustingly blatant crushes on eo and 90% of their playing is hc emotionally edging+i like it when girls get mad at me-ing rj constantly ITS TRUEEEE
+ WAITTTT IS THE DR PORK BELLY THING ACTUALLY THE SAME INSTANCE AS THE ONE W/ JAEMIN? CUZ IF SO IM REALLY ABOUT TO GO APESHIT JHWKJHEKSDHJLKSDHJDDSJKSJKS I Canttttt OMG thats disgusting.
ummm generally ia with ridin' being like final gap close / shift to hc not only locking onto rj as def his number one bullying target but also kind of umm reciprocating the obsession and generally just being wayyy sweeter/more affectionate towards him instead of Just the fun bickering stage dynamic...especially standout to me is the RenjunThatWasCute hashtag thing he started bc of his voice crack in from home LIKEEEE wow reality bending to so helpfully provide an exact parallel situation of From Then (mfal) to Now.....doyoung being the one to emphasize how much it was Alllll hc's idea, he immediately said it after the stage, etc etc etc is soooooo like genuinely sweet and touching to meeee lmao i think the interview where hc also randomly brings rj up in some 127 interview was also after ridin (i guess kick it...? idk) so i def feel like it was very much mutual atp. and then like u mentioned hc's directing on awsaz....the grandmothers house thing.....just absolutely sickening displays of lmfao.
++the thing about rj knowing hc's fave movie but hc not knowing his (i feel like he was just blanking cuz everyone on the goddamn planet knows rj is freakishly obsessed w avatar and they even talked extensively abt it during ridin club lmaooo) to hc going all in on doing avatar roleplay w/ rj during that one hot sauce show is so ummm.....sweet.....and so so disgusting....but sweet. but sickening also.
re:hot sus yes yes blatant dr levels off the fucking charts etc etc but re: love languages interesting, interesting...i havent thought about this much bc i dont really gaf about love languages generally (tho i do agree w the cc post that hc's is blatantly touch(+words of affirmation? attention? idk) and rj's is quality time+attention cuz he loves gay stuff like that (which he makes soooo clear in dream vs dream lmaoo he ALWAYS makes his questions related to memories/stuff he did w/ the other person, the thing he talked abt in the renjun vs jisung one where he was like i was SOOOO touched by jisung noticing [smtg abt him idr]) but now that i think abt it he really does seem to not know how to respond to like...stuff hc says abt him i rmb thinking when hc chose him in that who do u think is doing well thing his expression was sooo interesting lol like ofc he didnt know what it was for but he was also kind of awk about it in the vlive where fans told him too.....at the same time i personally do think he really likes praise + likes to be reassured that hes doing well etc etc and i think mark or somebody else said that about him too recently so maybe hes just bad at reacting to it lol
+++re:giving praise i feel like hes not necessarily stingy so much as he just doesnt do it often but when he Does at the same time i always feel like him saying it means he REALLY means it lol
for the moments i just want to say the 7dream return hug is sooooooo T_T in particular to me they just look soooo so happy in general this era but i feel like its all encapsulated in this hug....RENJUN YOUR FACE!!!!
my god this post is too fucking long so itll be in two parts
Re: masterpiece....chef's kiss......everyone say THANK YOU NIZ
Date: 2021-06-09 10:45 am (UTC)re:renjun girl arc
"listen of anyone in nct to get a girl arc NO ONE COULDVE PREPARED ME FOR RENJUN. Thereās no words. Iām just over the moon. Genuinely was worried he was going to go for the gym arc but instead he just embraced the girl thing. impeccable character development imo. Iāve never been more happy in my life that someone hates the gym." >> MEEEE ME ME ME EXACTLY MY THOUGHTS THANK YOU THANK YOU RENJUN PERFECT EVER..........literally makes the difference between me falling off completely vs me redreamifying and getting renjunpilled harder than ever before ive said it like 67 times in this comment but HE IS JUST SOOOO PERFECTTTT in every possible way. and many of those ways are his hashtag female traits. its so hard not to quote back this entire section just going EXACTLY but its literally like that i was just talking abt how no one here understands renjuns specific charms and wiles but ur right JISUNG DOES. AND YOU DO!!!! everything ur saying is just so completely spot on...it really is like that especially the thing abt renjun not being an effeminate boy but specifically a girl like even before this era We been saying. or at least I been saying he has such pinterest girl traits but now its just fully out there its just factual...
i dont have much to say about the group dynamics bit but i love to see it lmao....sometimes it does feel like dream are a bit #cursed w/ how often theyre missing a member in their crucial 7 but maybe its all been for the sake of dongrens prospering....
++ i do feel like norenmin/jaemren esp WAS (IS STILL) fandom accepted tbh regardless of the actual reality of the situation....like i think norenmin does count as renjuns assigned juggernaut to some extent, but ur def right in that Its Not The Same as all the other fandom assigned juggernauts
Re:Narrative parallels
tbh ive never gotten super far in thinking of them this way, tho i have definitely entertained the thought (mostly in au scenarios, especially survival show au scenarios bc being of the same position naturally putting u in competition w/ eo is just so good tho). i think its mostly bc even tho they like....technically do have all the same skillsets(?)/traits on a base level, i feel like the delivery is just soooo different between the two of them....which ig? makes them more foils than parallels but whatever its impossible for me to not think about this in like shonen terms where foils = protag and villain = endgame (in some way; romantic or otherwise but still romance) the point being that i def see the argument but its interesting to me that i just dont like...categorize them that way in my mind - to me the similarities are more of like a jumping off point where theyre obviously connected bc theyre the same in all these ways, but then from there what stands out more in my mind is all their differences in ... idk reception? (ex: like how u mentioned its hilarious that renjs arguably realest cps are all with fanservice monsters lol...i think the sincerity/guardedness is absolutely as much of a thing in dr as it is in jmrn, if in a slightly different form bc where jaemins is like You are not coming in, hc's is moreso about his Ultra Performer center of attention Nature of Haechan Gemini Stellium Ass lolol) mini tangent side note that i also think renjun leaning harder into his womanity feminine touch angle has made his presence much more unique in dream so like.....its all comin up renjun
(but again i absolutely get what u mean lmao and it also kind of comes back to how i was saying i think that early on renjun was recognizing that he and haechan are absolutely similar[the same], recognition of self through the other blah blah probably not the correct usage of that, and also is that not what a SOULMATE is!!! [cr: Haechan])
also a bit of a tangent: i so agree that the number one area renjun drops the performance ball in is FACE...which i think is not even his fault necessarily ā its so hard to work sexy if you dont alr have the vibe!!! dreams recent concepts are working against his STRENGTHS!!! (i think he excelled in their cuter concept stages esp WE YOUNG stages he super shines in those...emotional tracks are also good for him bc of his permanently melancholy default expression...theres a reason like half of dream said renjun looks the best in the dear dream video, hes like embodied) >>>> which is WHY....if he just learns to work the womanity angle a litttlleee bit more and practice some good gg expressions, i truly believe he will prosper.
i dont have comments for every section of this but i feel like in general renjuns like...absolute tendency towards honesty/bluntness/sincerity/showing his true self at all times or whatever you want to call it nerf his performance giving abilities, whereas haechans personality is just SO naturally suited for it...its like renjun really values gay shit like the power of performance to make you feel genuine emotion and stuff and tends to go through the motions for like the mechanical parts of his job but thats the shit haechan lives for and just Knows how to work. at the same time this aspect of renjun is such a strength for making him a Unique Idol Character so i wouldnt even say its a bad thing lolol i think hes just like....slowwwly learning how to make it work for him (ex. like you were saying about renjun shining more around haechan i think renjun IS naturally funny and entertaining but he cant really fake it that well/create it from nothing, he has to work off the existing good chemistry w/ members to make it fun, it has to be real for him. and obv i think you also said that earlier in this post cuz this really goes back to renjun will not do anything he doesnt already want to do lmao)
re:general talents, i have never been a hc main/rj got me into becoming an insane dreamfan after yearssss of just like casually listening to nct music so even tho i objectively do think haechan is amazing i just dont care about him w the intensity i do renjun (+personal preference wise i just love the way renjuns voice sounds regardless of technical skill, i am ALWAYS listening with my heart and not my ears so it hardly even matters) so maybe its that im like not cognitively thinking of the competition that way as much. ++i have to give renjun credit for being like a total rando fucking nobody who somehow made it into disney channel child stars musical family golden boy jampacked baby group central LOL idr if he was a vocal? officially upon debut but i feel like his singing was pretty mediocre then and you could just tellllll his skills were all based in his personal hyperfocus hobby interest and not any actual training or even like official athletics or anything predebut....like babyshinki+famous as fuck child singer full albums alr recorded cl+some guy???? i srsly feel like renjun has such an epic underdog narrative main characterism meta for his dream debut. being the odd one out for so long is also literally main character teas.....hc is = his villain/antihero rival who outshines him in every way but eventually they grow to compliment eo perfectly while also maintaining foilage.........THATS romance. and mark is the red herring main character (not really, but kind of actually for real.)
ummm what else do i have to say.....well its true that renjun always loses and thats the burder he has to bear by being the emotionally open heart on sleeve pickme on main half of this pairing. and also the main one like that in general. but thats also my number one favorite trait ever SOME OF US CANT HELP BEING AVERAGE SINCERITY ENJOYER and thats why i feel like actually, hes winning. how? by being perfect and lovable ever in the world. its like my very first renjun tweet went...everyone loves winwin but winwin loves RENJUN, so who's actually winning? like haechan was born a winner shining star and he will always be that way even tho hes also just some guy but hes not actually Just some guy like its his lot in life to be better than the rest. but RENJUN is winning bc hes actually getting everything hes wanted each and every time!!! no matter how long it takes!!!! everything and everyone is eventually won over by renjun because hes perfect, even when hes not, He Is.
šāØšš„³šCONGRATULATIONS RENJUNšš„³šāØš
LISTEN BOY (GIRL @RENJUN) MY FIRST LOVE STORY
Date: 2021-06-09 10:48 am (UTC)Re: masterpiece....chef's kiss......everyone say THANK YOU NIZ
Date: 2021-06-09 11:20 am (UTC)this "theres a reason like half of dream said renjun looks the best in the dear dream video, hes like embodied)" is supposed to say [girls who look beautiful crying] embodied
this "(ex. like you were saying about renjun shining more around haechan i think renjun IS naturally funny and entertaining but he cant really fake it that well/create it from nothing, he has to work off the existing good chemistry w/ members to make it fun, it has to be real for him. " is supposed to say "like you were saying about renjun shining more around haechan [gay stuff redacted]"
no subject
Date: 2021-06-09 01:54 pm (UTC)Re: JAEMIN.
Date: 2021-06-09 03:51 pm (UTC)Re: JAEMIN.
Date: 2021-06-09 08:47 pm (UTC)Re: LISTEN BOY (GIRL @RENJUN) MY FIRST LOVE STORY
Date: 2021-06-09 08:58 pm (UTC)re: "it's also so fucking funny that you predicted every single talking point of the drama on twitter" HONESTLY the only reason I had half the disclaimers I did was in case someone randomly stumbled upon this... which did happen. but I also didn't take them seriously because like, there's no way some rando would read this (...) ANYWAY. thank youu for all the compliments you are so sweet!!!
no subject
Date: 2021-06-09 09:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-10 06:24 am (UTC)thank you for your service
Re: LISTEN BOY (GIRL @RENJUN) MY FIRST LOVE STORY
Date: 2021-06-10 09:39 am (UTC)HONESTLY though if they cared enough to read the entire thing... they probably did want to believe </3 just wouldn't admit it </3 rip i'm not sweet you just triggered an ancient instinct within me
Re: LISTEN BOY (GIRL @RENJUN) MY FIRST LOVE STORY
Date: 2021-06-10 07:19 pm (UTC)Re: LISTEN BOY (GIRL @RENJUN) MY FIRST LOVE STORY
Date: 2021-06-11 09:36 pm (UTC)CIEL PERFECT UNDERSTANDER OF EVERYTHING IN WORLD!!!!
Date: 2021-06-13 03:21 am (UTC)me and u are seriously both on the same renj wavelength like absolutely. HE IS SO CUTE AND PERFECTā¦. Thereās no other words or feelings.
srry for this absolutely lq ass formatting btw. I LOVE UUUUUU THNAK UU SO MUCHHHHH I want to link this as required reading please please plesae let me
rere/mfalcwwy
okay forgive me if any of this reply sounds like Iām trying to counterarguement you, I think like my existence is kind of stupidly wired to respond to everything as a counterarguement.
I WILL SAY!!! my recollection of these early ass eras are also hazy AF and honestly, I was a fucking markhyuckist so I wasnāt even paying attention to renhyuck ā¦ half of this is just retroactivelyā¦though I still stand by renj looking up haech, whether or not itās as intense as I wrote it out to be ā but the thing is, at that time every dreamie looked up to haech because he did debut before with 127, and he was and is so natural born entertainer, smoothtalker, etc that was obviously a thing that was really valued at the time because none of them were as good with the camera yettt. so, even if I mangled my conveyance of that, thatās just what I meant by it. I think I say later on that every dreamie grew out of their haechan phase EXCEPT renj, and thatās what ārj doesnt /like/ hc as much as he super clearly blatantly really does in later erasā pretty much boils down to. TO ME. like, everyone else finds their footing and haechan is funny and annoying but heās no longer most coveted most amazing or whatever, but NOT TO RENJUN. to whom he gets more and more obsessed as time goes onā¦
Re: āi was wondering if by rj not taking hc's teasing well you mean rj is like embarrassed by it/takes it too seriously (or if u just meant he doesnt have entertaining enough responses or whatever?)ā omg I thought I explained this pretty well but maybe I didnātā¦ BUT LIKE ITāS BOTH LOL. early on renj is sooo notoriously bad at taking teasing because he gives up wayyyy too fast. doyoung(?) literally mentioned this about him, but itās how he drops jokes so quickly if they donāt work instantlyā¦ also like, the physical violence gag was wayyy more awkward earlier on than it is later. like during boom, renj threatening haechan with a chair is hilarious but like in mfal? he chokeholds chenle and everyone just stares awkwardly waiting for it to pass.
I ALSO think like esp earlier on, renj was sooo much more sensitive about his height and all [So. Much. Chiller. Now. #Girlification] and thatās why the teasing was Bad because he did take it a little too personally. [i.e chokeholds had a little too much Real Violence to them] ā¦ but even thenā¦ oh my god I think I mention this in a diff post but like, even when Renj is very very annoyed with haech and his teasing ā¦ renjun like seriously deeply likes him sooo much. Hang onā¦ I need to c+p bc idk how to explain it again:
āhaechan who terrorizes renjun is separate from haechan who renjun adores. like the teasing does not sully the Idol Haechan image that renjun admires.
it's like...even when mark is being a stupid idiot baby, renjun will be like Fondly exasperated still. but when haechan is being needlessly tortorous to him, renjun will not be Fondly suffering, he'll just want to kill haechan. regardless of that, the version of haechan that does not exist when directed to him is still his favourite.ā
I think like āver. Of haech that does not exist when directed to himā is kind of a key thing, because haechan is just soooo grating to renjun. honestly, I think itās like pretty noticeable that renjun will be ready to kill him one moment, and then the next haechan will make a funny joke to the variety guy or whatever and renj will be like thinking āoh haechan is so funny and charmingā
āi get the impression that like...renjuns self image is that he thinks HES a very fun/funny/entertaining/etc person as well like i feel like he was seeing the current renhyuck chemistry vision in his mind in the early days but he was just not getting it across whether thats a combination of culture-language gap/lvl of comfort on camera/entertaining friends vs creating entertaining content, etc that sort of thing...so like hc didnt see rj the way rj saw hc imo...but he will thoā THIS THIS ITāS LITERALLY THISSSSSSā¦ I seriously love that we both independently reach the same conclusionā¦. IT WAS LITERALLY THIS. and now they are here. Actually honestly. I feel like they were there at boom >> ridin. and now theyāre at this super disgusting honeymoon pda couple spot thing that I would Like To Be Free From [Kind of] [Not Really] [But Actually Really]. I just feel like no one needs to see them do. That. on vlive all the time.
RERE: VIOLENCE AS EXCUSE FOR TOUCH.
literally everytime I watch a dream video Iām likeā¦.Ok But When Is Renjun Going To Mime Violent Acts To Someone? And he literally doesnāt. I miss it NGL but I think itās arguable promoāing in nct 2020 couldāve curbed it since he was with older members far more often and couldnāt do that To Them. but who knows. Also he did grow out of all his size/strength/etc complexes so it could be about no longer being toxically masculine and needing to be aggressive as a sign of your Alpha Maleness. whatever. Iām literally assigning complexes just to see what strikes at the heart most.
rere: renj touch aversion ā okay ngl I remember thinking this. In go. Because of jaemren. because likeā¦ I think itās pretty clear he only doesnāt like Very For The Sake of Fanservice Touching (hcās Entire Brand) but he doesnāt mind it when itās more natural or whatever. though I swear he did use to have something against shoulder slinging.
rere: bullied wifeism
Ok first of all I need to know what is meant by bullied wifeism tho I feel like I kind of get it But also i kind of don't T-T
also like LITERALLYā¦ I think I watched a nct2020 vid or something where he points out to the older members that dreamies never react to his jokes and then the dreamies literally donāt react to the next thing he says and everyone just laughs at his reactionā¦. I think he knows heās the 1pick for targeting but also canāt help himself #aries. [op doesn't know how astrology works]
rere wgu friendship
ALSO YEAH OMGGGā¦ I think I discounted wgu so much for the sake of my timeliningā¦ and also the fact that I watched nothing. And also because they did hang out but it was briefly. And also mark was around. And also jaemren were still a thing. I think while they were still really good friends, just from a company perspective or whatever, they deffo had like other people they paid attention to more ? so the #renhyuckism for the sake of #renhyuck wasnāt as prominent as it was in boom.
Iām trying to argue for this point and I thinkā¦ in the dream tmi vido series they did around the timeā¦ itās pretty clear that they mess around with each other, but haech is still on the mark train or whatever and jaemren is still happeningā¦. But I could seriously be wrong.
Rere: fanacc
STOPPP. Oh my god. You legit saved my life with this. I remember reading this fanacc and blacking out and feeling like my world had ended and feeling like My Time Had Come. holllyyyy shit pre-this exact fanacc I remember watching shit and knowing they had epic asf chemistry and were gonna be epic friends but I was like Do You Two Know That You Could Be Epic Friends? [and obviously the fandom did not know atp] but then this fanacc happened and i was like FUCK YEAH ā¦ rejoicing in how correct I was and how it finally happened and that they finally saw it.
But seriously most renj answer ever: āDo you have a best friend?ā but also LOL LMFAOOOO LMFAOOOOOOOO @ op being like [op was an outsider but nodded anyway] thatās so fucking funny. way to oppress losers who donāt have friends renjun. extremely exclusionary of him IMO.
rere: porkbelly
YOOO in nahyuck dream v dream haech mentions it as a one of his questions to jaemin and jaemin like does not recall and it literally kills me. SO YOU WENT OUT TO EAT PORK BELLY WITH YOUR BRO WHOāS KINDA YOUR ENEMY AND HIS GIRL WHILE YOU AND HIS GIRL WERE FLIRTING. itās just unreal. Why did that happen. I blame jaemin being the way he is now because of this.
Rere: RenjunThatWasCute
Okay my mind is so blown and the whole fucking MFAL PARALLELā¦. This is making me cry and sob and cry and screamā¦ THERES NOOOOO WORDS.. NOOOOO WAYYYYYYY. When u put it like that this is seriously a fucking love story to the tā¦. Like ā¦.. LIKE??!?!??!! you're such a fucking genius for putting this together btw you're so smart and intelligent and brilliant and showstopping... CIELLLLLLLLLLL the SCHOLAR OF OUR GENERATION. THE BRIGHTEST MIND. LITERALLY NOMINATING U FOR A NOBEL PRIZE
also this was the kick it int. https://youtu.be/TkgRZDYmvNc?t=496 ā¦ crying at the way everyone is immediately like āSuddenly bringing up Renjun? What? Why?ā ā¦ REMEMBERING THE PSYCHOTIC GIRL WAY RENJUN EATS HIS RICEBALLSā¦.. When youāre in middle school love For Real [for context: they were talking about inkigayo cafeteria snacks, and taeyongās like āthe rice balls are the bestā and haechan lifts his hand and heās like āRenjunnie only eats the toppings from thoseā OK...commiting facts like this to memory for when you girlfriendzone himā¦ I see right through U I understand it all]...
rere movie
ALSO NOOO. thatās why I thought haech blanking on rjās fave movie was so fucking funny because Renjun literally made it everyone elseās problem. Like thereās this streak of ridin videos where no one will fail to bring up avatar randomly. In like a non dream thing jeno makes such a stupid reference at some point and I was like āand this is the fault of RENJUNā ā¦ but like Iāve legit never heard haech ever mention monsterās inc. so him knowing it is sooooā¦ Okay. Okay. maybe he fucking lied tho weāll never know.
Rere: praise
No itās trueeeee renj is so bad at handling compliments...I think itās funny and v endearing and re/him being stingy!!! I said it earlier but itās literally >>>Renjun who canāt be cheesy unless he thinks the moment is right< versus other dreamies tend to insert in really meaningful compliments randomly when they think of them. Tho the whole reason I was even thinking of this is bc likeā¦ haech has many iconic renj lines but all of renjās āiconicā haech lines tend to be about his position w/in the group [hc to dreamies v. hc to renj] ā¦ though I think in like... direct mentionsā¦? Ie hot sauce digital booklet, dream show albumā¦ renj continuously? emphasizes that haech is a polarizing presence to himā¦ which haech also acknowledges. Like the thing about constantly āfightingā but still getting along so well.
rere/7dream hug
SERIOUSLY. SERIOUSLY. Also sidenote renj smiles with teeth soooo much more this eraā¦ IM LIKE JUST SO HAPPYā¦...ITS JUST SO CUTEā¦.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU X10000000 CIEL MY BELOVED OF WORLD>>>>
Date: 2021-06-13 03:27 am (UTC)Okay hang on Iām going to reply to this in a different order because I just need like
++i have to give renjun credit for being like a total rando fucking nobody who somehow made it into disney channel child stars musical family golden boy jampacked baby group central LOL idr if he was a vocal? officially upon debut but i feel like his singing was pretty mediocre then and you could just tellllll his skills were all based in his personal hyperfocus hobby interest and not any actual training or even like official athletics or anything predebut....like babyshinki+famous as fuck child singer full albums alr recorded cl+some guy???? i srsly feel like renjun has such an epic underdog narrative main characterism meta for his dream debut. being the odd one out for so long is also literally main character teas.....hc is = his villain/antihero rival who outshines him in every way but eventually they grow to compliment eo perfectly while also maintaining foilage.........THATS romance. and mark is the red herring main character (not really, but kind of actually for real.)
like haechan was born a winner shining star and he will always be that way even tho hes also just some guy but hes not actually Just some guy like its his lot in life to be better than the rest. but RENJUN is winning bc hes actually getting everything hes wanted each and every time!!! no matter how long it takes!!!! everything and everyone is eventually won over by renjun because hes perfect, even when hes not, He Is.
šāØšš„³šCONGRATULATIONS RENJUNšš„³šāØš
OKAY YOU SERIOUSLY GET THIS SOOOO MUCH. thatās the WHOLE APPEAL. I didnāt manage to word any of this correctly AT ALL [as seen by popular consensus of this post] BUT ITS LITERALLY THISā¦. The whole thing being they have similar skillsets and roles BUT what makes it so truly gritty underdog epic love story with wins and losses is THISSS.. hc was seriously always meant to be a shining star and in a few waysā¦ itās easy for him to step into that. But renj is seriously so much more contentious about idolhood and stardom or whatever because his journey feels so much more steeped in hardwork [haechan had no one to live up to, versus renj having to live up to + match haech] and being recognized for being able to hold his own ON TOP OF!!! being very unwilling to let go of some of his personal morals and refuse to be untrue to aspects of himself even if it could make him more easily palatableā¦ versus haechās everything having always been palatable and suited to stardom anyway. SORRY. I HOPE THIS WAS UNDERSTANDABLE. I HOPE YOU GET IT!!!
BUT SERIOSULY> THIS> THIS . ALL OF EVERYTHING YOU JUST SAID. SO FUCKING TRUE. *RANDOMLY BECOMES BRIDDISHIFIED* SO FUCKING CHREWWWWWWW
Also I think mark is main character but in a completely different wayā¦ like when he outgrows the main plot of the story but some of us are still more invested in this story than markās overarching one...and both are still continuing but with different focuses nowā¦
Re: renjungirlism
'mini tangent side note that i also think renjun leaning harder into his womanity feminine touch angle has made his presence much more unique in dream so like.....its all comin up renjun
OK THISSSā¦ sorry while writing I was like ānone of this is really that applicable Anymoreā and i wrote it anyway without somehow mentioning that it was outdated. But seriously I feel like renj leaning into the whole emotionality thing ā¦ not that thatās ONLY what it is...but it is like a fair amount of it. IDK i feel like not only did he seriously grow into himself? but that like also reallyyyyy solidified how dreamies see/regard him and how he is genuinely such a reliable figure to all of them [most of them]... icb I forgot to mention this in his list of female traits but the way he orders things for them and talks to cashiers and waitresses and hosts and allā¦ LITERALLY TAKING RESPONSIBILITY AND SPEAKING FOR THE GROUP ā¦ girl traitā¦ I feel like I explained nothing but Iām hoping our renjun to renjun bond will make up for that. Like youll just understand right.
to me the similarities are more of like a jumping off point where theyre obviously connected bc theyre the same in all these ways, but then from there what stands out more in my mind is all their differences in ... idk reception? (ex: like how u mentioned its hilarious that renjs arguably realest cps are all with fanservice monsters lol...i think the sincerity/guardedness is absolutely as much of a thing in dr as it is in jmrn, if in a slightly different form bc where jaemins is like You are not coming in, hc's is moreso about his Ultra Performer center of attention Nature of Haechan Gemini Stellium Ass lolol) (but again i absolutely get what u mean lmao and it also kind of comes back to how i was saying i think that early on renjun was recognizing that he and haechan are absolutely similar[the same], recognition of self through the other blah blah probably not the correct usage of that, and also is that not what a SOULMATE is!!! [cr: Haechan])
YES to all of this. Okay again I seriously um fucked up in my entire presentation of my argument but this is literally what the epicness of their metaphorical compatibility boils down toā¦. Like āthe similarities are more of like a jumping off point where theyre obviously connectedā um literally. Itās about how theyāre THE SAME in DIFFERENT WAYS [#narrativefoilism]... I think when I failed to mention thatās arguably the most important thing [to me] about this angle is that the end point is THEM seeing thatā¦ and then seeing each other as beyond that? Idk we reached that point with weekly idol [who do you want more love from/who do you think is doing well] and now weāre beyond it. So I seriously have no idea what to doooo.
But like seriously I probably rephrased everything u said ā¦!!! Again dr has always been. TO ME. about them recognizing and realizing theyāre like, Twin Flames or some shit. Like theyāre I hate to be like. Perfect for each other. BUT THEY AREEEE. And all of this is just u know the foundation For That. IDK. im sooo sorry for being so stupid and deranged and nonsensical ciel you are most perfect and epic of world to meeee.
Rere renjun perf
UMM THISSSā¦ I also think he slayed a lotttt in go because he was leaning so much more into how girls are sexyā¦ u know graceful catlike seductive-y sexiness rather than their later concepts where he tries to make the dark concept vaguely artisticā¦ idkkkk
haechan lives for and just Knows how to work. at the same time this aspect of renjun is such a strength for making him a Unique Idol Character so i wouldnt even say its a bad thing lolol i think hes just like....slowwwly learning how to make it work for him
FUUCUKK i think i just said everything u said but for a different part of my reply but like literally. Renjun mechanically going through things he doesnāt have PASSION for versus haech just being suited to everythingā¦ and it IS what makes him soo perfect renjunnnn.
ex. like you were saying about renjun shining more around haechan i think renjun IS naturally funny and entertaining but he cant really fake it that well/create it from nothing, he has to work off the existing good chemistry w/ members to make it fun, it has to be real for him.
also omg okay I NEVER MEANT TO SAY RENJUN WAS NOT FUNNY!!! Obviously a lot what I said and what I meant to say is v confused in this post but AAGGH. No Itās literally everything uāre saying is also what I THINK!!! ā¦like all of this is TRUE but it is also the reason he shines most around hc because hc is the one who plays along best and draws it out of him best!!!
Rere: general talents
Okay also. Renjun is my favourite nct voice. And my favourite dreamie voice. And my favourite member to look at and watch and the person I enjoy most. I HOPE THIS WAS CLEAR? He is my favourite. My 1pick. Like he is your 1pick. And itās bc of all of this. Like even if hc was my original favourite in nct and dreamies rj was still always my 1pick who was not haechan. And thatās different from him just being my 2pick tho I guess I never said this LOL. but itās different because haech was like my fav From Before so I got to have a new fave without dropping my old fave. IDK. itās so stupid.
Like Iāve never been one to stan the most talented member. but at the same time, Iām freakishly critical of my faves anyway which is why the past disparities between them felt so noticeable to me...but like!! Itās just based on line distribution and fan perception anyway LOL.
RIP if you actually read all this but SERIOUSLYYY THANK U SO MUCH... you're the greatest not only for reading but also um Seriously Just Understanding So Much you're sooooooo. legend. epic. thank u I'm literally so lucky to have you read it and say all the hilarious epically insightful additions that you have CIELLLLL
no subject
Date: 2021-06-13 03:45 am (UTC)Re: LISTEN BOY (GIRL @RENJUN) MY FIRST LOVE STORY
Date: 2021-06-13 03:42 pm (UTC)Re: LISTEN BOY (GIRL @RENJUN) MY FIRST LOVE STORY
Date: 2021-06-15 11:30 pm (UTC)Re: LISTEN BOY (GIRL @RENJUN) MY FIRST LOVE STORY
Date: 2021-06-15 11:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-02 06:21 am (UTC)I wish you expanded on this too. I'm curious to know what you mean that jeno is wildy misunderstood.