cold soba

1 hour ago, TataBoo said:

You know, I want to say something as a Sunoo fan that I've observed. It's known that he is mistreated by belift because they don't give him as many opportunities as the other members. Since the recent comeback ended, he is the only member that hasn't had any solo activities. Then during award show performances he is the only member without a solo spotlight during the dance breaks. This all combined with the general fact that he gets the least lines in their songs as well. My point is I strongly suspect the reason behind his mistreatment is homophobia. Most people agree Sunoo seems into guys by his mannerisms and interests, so it would make sense the company has something against him because he is a little obvious. Kpop companies are heavily homophobic and its known that if you seem "gay" they will try to "fix" you with punishments. I think thats why belift does everything they can to hide Sunoo and leave him out. There is also the fact he is the most popular in Korea and rising and they probably don't like that. 

A bit OT but I partly agree with you. I'm sure Belift isn't fond of the way Sunoo carries himself cuz, for better or worse, his personality is quite striking. The thing is though, like you said, he's the most popular member in SK. He's been the most popular member since I-Land, and he's still getting traction b/c of his visuals. I suppose that he's not given solo activities/variety opportunities because realistically, he would gain a lot of attention and could potentially overshadow the group as a whole. Plus, I think Belift is pretty dead set on promoting Sunghoon for the moment because he's also a popular visual but more masculine than Sunoo ++ impressive figure skating background and agreeable personality so boom perfect k-pop star. Sunoo is a bit of a 50/50 because he is handsome and charming, but he's also been compared to Kwanghee and Jo Kwon in a negative light due to his personality so promoting him would be tricky. I also find Sunoo's lack of promotions unfair, but with how K-netizens react to effeminate men there isn't much space for marketing.

On the other hand, members like Niki and Jake also don't have much solo activity going on for them. Niki gets a lot of solos cuz he's the young dancing prodigy but he barely has lines in songs/presence in variety. Jake is popular internationally cuz he's an English speaker and does those lipbiting thingies but that's about it. Until Enhypen's 'cute but masculine 100% heterosexual boyfriend' image finishes its run, not everybody will have equal opportunities to shine because clearly, the objectively handsome, non-polarising (rip Jungwon) guys will be promoted more.

46 minutes ago, temiiro said:

You pretty much won't have to worry about getting caught or stalkers taking pictures of you and anything questionable you do on screen with said groupmate will be put under the label of "brotherly affection" by your fans who think it's crazy to assume.

emphasis mine. man, new kpop stans are very fascinating. back when i was in middle school and stanned exo, people would go wild every time chanyeol and baekhyun glanced at each other. it was insane as well, because the guys did the bare minimum when it came to interactions and fans would still manage to make 45-minute videos of their moments in order to show how real the ship is (ashamed to admit that i totally believed that shit ). these days, idols can say and do the most questionable things ever and people will dismiss it as a 'brotherly relationship'. i suppose what really caused this shift is the end of 'yaoi culture'. i mean, fetishization is still prevalent, but it's definitely died down and that's a good thing obviously. i guess one downside nowadays is that people are afraid to assume that their faves are gay but that's a discussion for another day lmao

i think especially with nugu/rookie groups, it's really easy to fly under the radar when it comes to relationships. what's really funny is that there really were a couple of instances where two members dated within the same group. there was a 1st gen group called k'pop/k'population and two members were dating, but one of them cheated on the other with a guy from another band so the cheated one went and beat up the third guy. total mess, not really sure if this even actually happened but it's a rumor that has been circulating for a couple of years now. also, there was another nugu group like 5-6 years ago where two members were openly dating and their leader was out as bisexual (i don't even remember the group's name anymore apologies). so yeah, this has actually happened before and it's not completely outside the realm of possibility. 

15 hours ago, abnewstay said:

Any engenes here that have any thoughts about Enhypen? Besides Sunoo lol. I remember there being a meme at some point that Enhypen was the most het/straight group. I was wondering if ya'll agree or disagree

*cracks knuckles* it is my time to shine

no but seriously, i think by now, a year after debut, enhypen have grown closer. the 'heterosexual' meme thingy with enha became popular because they would not engage in skinship. like at all. i don't think the whole i-land really helped them form any substantial bond pre-debut (one of the many reasons why i-land was a giant waste of money but i digress), i think in fact i-land sort of separated the boys into cliques? lmao. they have definitely grown closer the past 1+ year, and i think belift is finally letting them off their iron grip because they have been joking more openly and even doing more skinship! not necessarily gossip fodder but it's very sweet to see.

besides the boys being awkward, there are other factors as to why they are considered the token 'hetero' kpop group. i think it's a combination of how they are marketed as your teenage crushes and also the fact that their fandom is probably the only one that is convinced that all the members are straight and not gay lmao. every other day on twitter you will see discourse about how all the members are like a gajillion percent straight and have the hots for aespa and itzy members. this sort of fans' reputation carries onto the group automatically, i would say.

ANYWAY as another user has mentioned, enhypen has been discussed here before and i have definitely shared my opinions on them before so i'm just gonna end this post on a note that made me laugh:

in this one, the members have to do charades and make the others guess the given emoji. not sure if jake did that on purpose or not but man the way heeseung and sunoo reacted when nobody else batted an eyelash lmao

any opinions on treasure? i watched a couple of treasure maps in the summer and the only one who pinged me was doyoung. the thing with treasure is that they're all very affectionate so there isn't much to go off from the skinship side, but there was a point in a treasure map where doyoung kissed another member square on the lips:

you can't see it on the video i have attached, but the other members were all trying to patch up the situation, they were like "well they didn't kiss on the lips" "it was just a joke", things like that. i find it interesting how they just kissed with no instigation, and i personally can't recall boy group members kissing on the mouth this casually? i mean, it could always be fanservice but there was no initiative so idk, maybe treasure are just that close (treasure fans pls enlighten me)

on the other hand, what really made me question doyoung was this tmap, where they have to do an audition for a kdrama. they had to write a self-profile, and it struck me how doyoung described himself as 'fruity' and 'like a rainbow'.

i mean i suppose these words don't directly allude to being gay in korean, but come on man what are the chances that this was a coincidence lmao. in any case, if anyone has insight on other members or questionable moments please share with the class!

4 hours ago, jellybeen223 said:

I'm curious what do you mean by fake ships? 

Hmmm I suppose the way I phrased it is a bit odd. By 'fake' I mean the ships that are pushed by the company. The curious thing with Enhypen is that as far as I can tell, they don't do much skinship at all. At the same time, there are ships that are pushed anyway, whether it be by small interactions or by having them do photoshoots together. I think this was really evident with the whole Jake/Sunghoon ship, which came off super strong during the early Enha days but now the two barely interact. Currently, the Jay/Jungwon ship is really popular but I think it might be also fizzling out? I'm not much of a fan of BTS but surely they also have their agenda of promoted ships, if we are to judge by the slew of fanwars the fandom has over Taekook/Jikook each week. I think HYBE is pulling the same tactic with Enha, just on a more lowkey scale cuz Enhypen are styled in the 'boys you crushed on in high school' type of vibe. 

Speaking of HYBE and how they promote Enha, this new webtoon thing looks SO stupid. I have no idea about the BTS/TXT cartoons, but the Enha one is just Twilight with seven Edwards instead of one. Not to mention the self-insert girl protagonist who will probably get involved in a love triangle with Heeseung and Sunghoon until she tragically has to sacrifice herself for the sake of the boys. It's super cringeworthy and heteronormative, and I also find it so fundamentally weird that a corporation is writing fanfiction about their artists. The thing with fanfiction is that it's supposed to be written by fans for fans, so with the corporation suddenly playing the 'how do you do fellow kids' card, it shows that the moral limitations are kinda loose at HYBE Co.? You can't just market your idols this unashamedly, but I suppose kpop and human rights don't go hand in hand anyway.

7 hours ago, Kpop_fan178 said:

Y'all I am kinda starting to get into Enhypen. Can someone tell me some tea or an opinion on the members? Also does any member have homophobic tendencies?

If i were to chose a bias it would definitely be Sunoo who I think is gay. I also talked with someone convinced that Heesung is not straight so I'm curious what do y'all think. Also there is one who was a figure skater for 11 eyears but he was probably pushed by parents to do it so idk.

Jay gives HUGE straight vibes.

WARNING: TL;DR

Honestly, even though I've personally consumed loads of Enha content, I still can't formulate a solid opinion. I think when it comes to Enhypen as a case study, the way the fandom reacts to even the mere mention of the word gay is something that can be analysed for days. The boys themselves are more confusing lol

Starting off,  Sunoo seems totally gay to me. I remember watching the first episode of I-Land when it came out (I had 0 knowledge about him then) and being like, "Wow this guy is kinda gay even for kpop standards". I'd say Sunoo does the least fanservice out of everyone in the group, so what's really left to analyse is his mannerisms. We all know that femininity =/= gay, but Sunoo does check a lot of the boxes. He's more delicate overall, plus there's the really obvious stuff like saying yass on habitual basis for fuck's sake  

Not to mention, Sunoo has the most 'realistic' girlfriend rumours out of all of Enha. He's always described as popular with girls and everything, and I think at one point during I-Land it came out that he had a girlfriend in middle school? Lmao my two cents is that these rumours are just fans trying to stop the gay rumours, which have been around ever since I-Land. Even if the girlfriend rumour is true though, I know gay guys who have dated girls in middle/high school and SPOILER they were still gay even while they dated these girls.

Another thing is that fans absolutely HATE to see Sunoo being called gay lol. I understand that their fanbase has a pretty young demographic, but the fans are always posting how they're 'so happy that Sunoo is becoming a man' or whatever. I get the sentiment but omfg it sounds so homophobic. At the same time, Sunoo himself doesn't really gaf about becoming 'manly' which is reassuring.

As for members with homophobic tendencies... whew. I don't wanna make ANY assumptions here, cuz we can't possibly know how each member treats each other in real life, but a suspicion Does arise after a while. As far as things go, I'd say Niki and Sunghoon are not homophobic. They both have been doing 'feminine' sports since a young age (Niki as a dancer, Sunghoon as a skater) so I feel like they would be more open-minded.

I'm not sure if there are other members who ping as much. I would say Sunghoon strikes me as bicurious but otherwise straight, and also Heeseung is kinda sus but he's oddly one of the quieter members so I can't make a certain judgment. The others seem pretty straight, and each ship that is pushed seems faker than the previous one lol. 

On the topic of hook-ups: I don't think they're that uncommon, even/especially between members of the same group. I mean, I have heard from both gay and straight men that it's not that rare that a group of guys masturbate together. Obviously, there is a big cultural gap between my country and SK, but let's face it: sex is an instinctual need. If we consider that kpop boys are practically segregated from girl groups, plus the fact that they are almost exclusively surrounded by other kpop boys, I don't think it's that much of a reach to assume that they could hook up to satisfy any x or y need. We always have to keep in mind that sexuality is a spectrum, and that five minutes are enough to do your job and go back to how things normally are. Romantic bonds are something much more complex, on the other hand, and they would need another discussion by themselves.

any opinions on stray kids? personally, i'm pretty sure minho is mlm and changbin as well. he's not one of the members that does a lot of fanservice, but when he does gay stuff it's really unbelievable lol. like the moment in an interview from a few years ago when he straight up said that he would climb into hyunjin's bed to, and i quote, "touch his lips". everyone around him was visibly awkward after that and he even clarified that he JUST touched them and nothing more. it's an old moment but it's always stuck with me just because he casually admitted to something that seems pretty intimate??? i'm leaning towards questioning/bi for him.

as for other members, i am going to say that hyunjin seems bi or even straight-leaning (!!) and that i've always thought jisung isn't completely straight but it's just a feeling. the rest seem straight to me.

59 minutes ago, oh my dora said:

names? i know of the group, but never looked into them that much. now i'm curious.

i'm also curious if anyone has any takes on disbanded/nugu (or both) groups

if you look up the names kyungil and yijeong along with the thread name on the OH search engine i believe proof will turn up. i haven't scrolled too far back in this thread but i'm sure there must be discussion from five years ago on here. i used to be a fan of history back in 2016, so i can recount some proof but i'd prolly need some time to dig up the solid stuff. the two were basically infamous cuz their fanservice went way beyond what would be considered 'normal' in kpop (crazy right), but nobody cared cuz history were at large very unpopular. two specific examples i remember that were OUTRAGEOUS were:

1. yijeong posting pictures of himself naked in bed and you could clearly see some silver hair sticking out in the corner (spoilers: kyungil's hair had been dyed silver that era). i'll let you do the guessing yourself.

2. in a fanmeet, a fan asked yijeong what he wanted to eat. he replied, and i quote, "the leader's lips," completely confident as well.

there's loads more proof but the ship essentially died in 2017 when the group disbanded. yijeong is now a pretty prolific producer in bighit (goes by el capitan i believe?), not too sure about kyungil but he was good friends with top and donghae back in the day, take that as you will.

as for nugu groups, i can recall some names back from 2017 when reality shows were all the craze:

don't have any intel on any new nugus cuz i've mostly limited my stanning to only a few groups the past 2 years or so. anyway sorry for the massive throwback lol

37 minutes ago, AstroBaby said:

ig Soobin x Q is officially over....if it even was real in the first place

well it was fun while it lasted. though i think their 'breakup' was foreshadowed long ago, didn't soobin share some breakup angst songs on spotify like last christmas? lolol they were definitely sus, but i guess all things come to an end.

side note, but q's (alleged) girlfriend must be real stupid if fans caught her posting all that stuff. the boyz have been going on survival shows the last two years so she could have done the bare minimum by being more subtle. 

1 hour ago, AWA said:

San & Wooyoung are an interesting case study. Wooyoung gives me gay vibes much more than San does, but the way San deals with and treats Wooyoung is very... sensual, I think is the word I'd use. He's very different with WY than he is with anyone else.

i think woosan is a very peculiar case, cuz even though neither of them ping me (i'm not an atiny though so i wouldn't know), their fanservice is off the charts. i don't remember another ship being so hands-on besides the two guys from history who were CLEARLY together. the one thing that makes me the most curious about them is that san gets so visibly jealous when wooyoung is doing skinship with other members, which is kinda strange when you think about it. in any case, i don't know enough about the group so i won't go making assumptions just yet.

1 hour ago, lgbtxt said:

“not to stereotype, but, *stereotypes*” cmon now LMAO u know that’s silly

lolol i'm just playing, just cuz he liked some lessons and does A Sport doesn't mean anything about his sexuality. i have not met a single gay/bi guy who ticks all three of the boxes though js /j

also, regarding the fuckboy thing: i doubt jake is one, at least he isn't one yet. in order to be a fuckboy, you have to Interact with people. due to covid restrictions, i'm not too sure how many people jake would have had the chance to get with.

2 hours ago, joonsoulie said:

Sunghoon? I've wondered because he seems to have a particular shyness about how popular he is with girls. Like contrasting with Jake since he's a topic of conversation (I wouldn't say he's a fuckboy but I imagine he probably got the attention of a lot of girls in school) who knows he's cute and knows how to use it, Sunghoon seems kind of uncomfortable or embarassed about how big of a female fanbase he has? Idk I could be wrong but he doesn't seem to appreciate it like a straight guy would, I think it makes him feel a bit awkward.

i tend to agree with what Mist said about sunghoon. he seemed a bit uncomfortable with the attention on him at first, but as time goes on i think he's becoming a bit more popular/flirty (?????) with the fans. one example that comes to mind is a recent vlive from enha where everyone was in sweatpants/casual clothes and sunghoon was wearing a silk dress shirt (don't you hate it when you have to do a live at 8 and go clubbing at 9)  not sure if they had been styled or chose the fits themselves that day though. the reason i think he was not as comfortable in the beginning is cuz he's pretty introverted. plus, if i remember correctly, there was this predebut interview where he said that what he disliked the most about skating was that he would only practice with girls lol i imagine it must have been awkward going from 'none of the girls here don't wanna hang with me cuz im a boy' to 'wow all these girls want me'. who knows really

3 hours ago, Your local dumbass said:

Is there an idol that is generally tought to be lgbt by fans that you personally think is NOT lgbt? Kinda like an an unpopular opinion thing. 

4 hours ago, lgbtxt said:

well, i think jake could be bi but that may be controversial as it's entirely based on interactions w members. he just moves like he likes boys 

JAKE BI??? To me he's one of the straightest ones in the group. He looks like the type to experiment just for the sake of it but that's as far as I would go. Not to stereotype but if he likes football, maths and physics, chances are he ain't gay.

But I doubt Sunoo is the only mlm in that group man, my gaydar may be in shambles but I think there's at least one more member that might be LGBT. No proof, just a feeling.

You know, I'm glad that Sunoo has been standing up for himself more and more the past few months. Back in the early stages of Enha, he seemed very, not reserved but like he didn't know how to communicate with the others. I've been watching some more recent content and I'm glad he's becoming more comfortable with everyone (especially in comparison to I-Land, which I recently watched for the first time: it's a horrendous show, stupidly boring and Sunoo was treated like crap by the I-Landers but I digress).

As for Heeseung... where to begin with. I've been thinking about it, and it seems to me like he's conflicted about his image. He's not someone who can pull a 'macho'- for lack of better wording- concept like Jay or Jake, because he's naturally a bit on the skinnier, daintier side. The way he is presented in official content vs how he dresses and acts in lives etc. is like night and day to me. It might seem small, but I keep on noticing how he wears those pretty dangly earrings; they suit him really well, but they also give off this more feminine look. It's like a really tiny thing, but it adds a dimension to him that you don't see in MVs/live stages. This comeback around they're going a bit wilder with clothes and accessories on him (to which I say: FINALLY) so we'll see how that plays out.

Also, another thing. I started stanning Enhypen only recently, so I'm not too briefed on things, but apparently there was a period earlier this year when Sunoo and Heeseung were really distant? I won't put on my tinfoil hat or anything since they seem closer nowadays, but I can only guess why they drifted apart.

Ok so this isn't inherently related to this thread but I wanted to share my thoughts on this: I saw a post today which was captioned "Sunoo (Enhypen) is finally becoming more masculine" with a couple of heart emojis. It really made me go ?????, especially because its like count was in the 50 thousands. And it's not the only post I've seen on this topic. There's always Enha fans cheering on Sunoo "finally becoming a man" or "more masculine" and back in I-Land as well, this dance director guy praised Sunoo for "finally showing his masculine side". I know that Enha are supposed to be this 'hypermasculine boyfriend tiktok material' but it's sad how femininity in k-pop is becoming more and more censored. Even in a genre such as k-pop, where the men are dressed in crop-tops, wear red eyeshadow and dye their hair all colours of the rainbow, there's still this pressure to look and act 'masculine'. It comes off to me as very hypocritical and like there is a complete lack of self-awareness. I, for one, hope that Sunoo continues to present himself the way he wants to. What does everyone else think?

Does anyone have tea on ATEEZ? Some Woosan moments compilations showed up on my YT feed recently and it really put me into thought. Obviously this ship is pushed by the company to no end, but Woosan themselves seem completely unbothered and also promote it unprovoked. Hell, they even got matching tattoos from what I know. I don't doubt that they're just best buddies, but sometimes I just get some question marks lol.

As for other members, Seonghwa seems pretty gay lol. There is this one moment of his (that I unfortunately cannot source back, but I'm sure some people on here are aware of it) where he says that he wrote his first love song about a senior he had a crush on. Someone else asks him, "Didn't you go to a boys' school?" and he just replies "yeah". LMAO if I'm simply imagining this moment, someone please tell me.

I also question Hongjoong a bit but it's simply his more androgynous style. Then again, I don't follow ATEEZ that closely so I wouldn't really know.

I don't know enough about the other members, so if someone would like to elaborate on them it would be great!

4 hours ago, TataBoo said:

I'm interested in what you have to say about Sunoo and Sunghoon's bond because while they are a popular ship, many don't actually bother looking closer into their bond. And you don't have to worry about crossing into the shipping territory because there are barely discussions about Enhypen here and most users don't care for their ships. I do think that 4/7 in Enhypen are possibly part of the lgbtq+ community or questioning at least. 

4/7? I'd love it if you could go into more detail about your thoughts because superficially, Enhypen has this dynamic where everyone else overcompensates w/ masculinity to balance out Sunoo's personality lol.

As for the Sunghoon/Sunoo thing, I have to say that Sunoo seems particularly friendly lmaooo. He's always trying to get closer to Sunghoon and talk to him and it's really sweet to witness. From his part, Sunghoon doesn't seem like he dislikes the attention Sunoo gives him? He could very well reject Sunoo's affection, but I also think he enjoys it to a certain extent. I believe that Sunghoon willingly tries to be accomodating to Sunoo, but it doesn't necessarily have to mean that he's into him. Sunoo on the other hand... lol. He's down bad.

18 minutes ago, JiminsOppa said:

I think Sunghoon seems like a nice person and considering he's been interested in a traditionally woman's domain/very feminine domain (ice skating), he's probably quite sensitive even at a young age to more feminine men like Sunoo maybe feeling left out. I think Sunghoon is inclusive and kind to him.

That's very true! With this context it makes more sense. Sunghoon seems to understand Sunoo better than the other members and I think it's primarily his experience with skating. He also seems more in touch with his emotions, compared to other members.

8 hours ago, joonsoulie said:

Re Niki I used to think he was likely gay too, due to some of his mannerisms and interest in dance (being unafraid to commit to gg dances and such) but I rethought when I learned that his family owns a dance studio and are all interested in dance, and he's the baby with several older sisters. That isn't to say he couldn't still be gay, but some of the things about him that stood out to me may have been the influence of his upbringing/being socialized with girls as a kid. Idk just food for thought.

I never knew that his family owns a dance studio! That certainly puts things into perspective. I used to be really confused b/c Niki was so flamboyant but now he's just your average teen boy lol. I lean more towards him being straight than mlm, but who knows?

hello everyone! i'm a bit of a lurker here but i saw some discussion about enhypen a few pages back and i couldn't help but indulge. i've been watching their content for a couple of months now and they're a curious bunch. barring sunoo (if he isn't mlm i will eat my foot), there are other members who ping me. there is predebut content of niki floating around on youtube which made my raise my brows. he was dancing to city girls and ariana in a dance studio where he was the only boy. that is not to say that i think he's decisively mlm but i'm surprised his predebut content isn't discussed more (perhaps bc he's young?). he also really looks/looked up to shinee's key, afaik. then again, when jungwon told him that a male friend gave him chocolates on valentine's niki looked really confused lol but i doubt a 16 year old doesn't know what being gay is.

on the other hand, we have sunghoon. it's not like he's ever done anything to indicate he's queer, but there's something about him that makes me go ??? it's just a hunch though. i doubt that he's gay, but maybe bisexual/bicurious? idk there's something about his relationship with sunoo that seems a little uhh i'm not sure how to describe it. i won't go into detail though, cuz i don't wanna march straight into shipping territory.

jungwon, jay and jake seem pretty straight, while i've never really thought about heeseung.

on another note, kudos to the person who mentioned rikimaru! i haven't watched chuang but i've been watching his choreographies lately and i have to say he really has a roundabout way of incorporating femininity in his dance lol. he kinda pings me but i can't say for certain since i don't know anything about the guy.