byun baekhyun: a meta post
byun baekhyun
a meta post
I don't really like to write bandfic/canonfic because… I don't know. It makes me a little uncomfortable, I think? I like to read it, but they always kind of end up the same way, right? Korea and China aren't down with the gays, you can't be a gay idol, it all has to be a giant secret, eventually everything goes to hell and it basically ends in misery and sadness. And I can only handle angst in limited quantities.
But I still have a lot of thoughts about Baekhyun that would probably affect the way I wrote him if I wrote canonfic. Let me preface this by saying I jumped on the EXO train a bit late - I downloaded their album immediately after it was released and loved it, but I wasn't really in the fandom until about September, so there's a lot I missed and had to catch up on and probably still don't know about EXO and Baekhyun, in particular. So feel free to comment and tell me things I don't know or have down incorrectly. Fandom is a learning experience. :3
pre-debut
I guess the first thing I want to address is some of the stuff I've heard about him from his school days. There's this one story in particular that warms the cockles of my heart and kind of made me fall in love with him for realsies. According to one of his middle school classmates 1, one time some of Baekhyun's classmates were taunting an overweight female classmate. (Speaking from the perspective of a Korean high school teacher, I can tell you this kind of thing happens pretty frequently, although in my school the boys and girls have separate classes, so it's mostly just the boys being crappy at each other.) Baekhyun apparently stood up to them and told them they were being jerks and they should knock it off.
Now, that's pretty uncommon. I usually have to be the one to tell my students to knock it off when they're being rude to each other. (I had to do it recently, actually. We were watching an episode of Modern Family and afterward one of the kids said, "Teacher, pink shirt, gay?" in reference to Cameron, and when I said yeah, he turns to his friend and goes, "Haha, like you." And his friend was so affronted. I told him not to be a jerk. This is my life.)
Korean kids don't really like to go against the grain - even if they disagree with something, they'll more likely keep quiet than express discord. Korean social structure is heavily influenced by Confucian principles of respect, filial piety, and collectivism, so while I don't believe Baekhyun deserves a medal for being a decent human being, I do think it's impressive that he had the balls to tell those kids they were being jerks. Especially since if that girl was the class 왕따 (wangtta, or outcast - you'll recognize the term if you've ever watched Boys Over Flowers), he could have gotten lumped in with her and excluded and bullied as well. I think the fact that he was kind of a popular kid in school probably helped, though - when the influential kids do nice things, the rest of them are likely to follow suit. I hope they stopped bullying that girl after he told them to quit. :(
Speaking of popularity, Baekhyun seems to have been really well-liked in school. He was involved in music while he was in school, and sang lead in a band called 혼수상태 (Coma) in high school. He's been described as the kind of kid who was friendly to everyone, even the "outsiders" that people avoided or ridiculed. The predebut pics of him floating around various Korean fancafes suggest that he was quite a character, and various stories about him from former classmates help to paint a picture of a witty, hyperactive, slightly weird kid who cheats at games and likes to make people laugh. (I mean… this is the kid who once walked around at school all day with a red rubber glove blown up and stuck on his head like a rooster, just for the lulz.)
But these stories also describe a boy who cares about the people (and animals, for that matter) around him, thinks the best of people, and is maybe a little naïve and inexperienced. (He is only 20, after all. That's college-aged, but still so young.) A particularly heart-warming story revolves around a message Baekhyun posted on an internet forum when he was 13. I guess he found a stray cat near his apartment building, and the poor thing was all beat up. Baekhyun wanted to know if the surgery would really cost that much because the cat was really injured and could possibly die.
I'm a big animal lover and I have a cat myself (and have had dogs in the past), so basically anything involving animals being hurt makes me cry. 2 So it kind of warms my heart that a young kid would take a stray cat (which could possibly have a disease or something) to the vet and see how much it would cost to fix her up. I wonder if he ever ended up getting the money for the cat to have surgery. Either way, what a precious kid. ;~~;
trainee days
EXO get asked a lot about how long they trained before debut - Lu Han, Jongdae, Tao, and Baekhyun trained for a much shorter period of time than the others, which I find funny, since three of them are the main vocalists; how on earth did they start putting together EXO with only Kyungsoo on vocals? M1/M2 had been in training for ages, because I remember hearing about them when I was still in college, and that was before Baekhyun started training.
If EXO debuted in April 2012, and Baekhyun trained for eleven months pre-debut, that means he was scouted and signed in May 2011. And if the entire EXO lineup was solidified by the time the first teaser came out in late December 2011, that means he was a trainee for seven months prior to being placed in a group. That's amazing. (If he trained for 11 months prior to EXO being announced as group, that puts him being signed in January 2011, which is still a ridiculously short time to train for a major-label debut.)
Either way, he would have finished high school before he started training, and this is what I find most fascinating about Baekhyun. He graduated high school in February 2011, most likely; the third graders that just graduated from the school I work at are mostly '94-line, and they'll reach the age of majority (19 international age, 20 Korean age) this year, like Baekhyun would have in May 2011.
He auditioned for a few other companies while he was in school, from what I've heard, but he was never picked up; which is a little shocking to me, because he has a really nice voice and he's really charming, but then I think he fits in really well at SM, more than he would at JYP or YG (LOL). (Although I could totally see him doing the whole indie rock thing that Woollim does with Nell and now with Sunggyu.) So, unlike a lot of his fellow EXO members, he had a pretty normal, average Korean school experience, uninterrupted by training. So I can't help but think he still kind of has to pinch himself every morning when he wakes up. To go from seeing huge superstars like TVXQ and SNSD and Super Junior and SHINee (… and f(x) okay I love them but they are so irrelevant it hurts :c ) on TV and hearing their music playing in shops and noraebangs for the last however many years, to standing onstage with them at SMTown LA and Seoul like it's no big deal? To train in a company as famous as SM? That's so fucking surreal. And then to debut 11 months after you start training? He didn't grow up training the way Junmyeon did, didn't have to see countless other trainees debut while he got left behind. (And to that end I sometimes wonder if he feels guilty; here is this hyung he respects so much who killed himself for seven years to debut, and Baekhyun waltzes in and grabs the other lead vocal part? I'd feel awful if I were in his shoes.) He didn't have to audition or prove himself like Jongin did; he was scouted while walking to school or something useless like that (she said, lovingly) and was asked to come in for an audition simply because he was cute. It was only a coincidence that he could also sing really well - he did win an award at a local rock festival when he was in high school, and he was in the school band. He worked so ridiculously hard, learning to dance, to catch up with everyone else, to have this chance that basically fell in his lap.
But he had to learn to be an idol in less than a year's time, and that careful façade is not something you can build in a short time. There are idols who trained for years or have been established for ages and still fuck up and don't know how to act. But I think his normalcy is part of his charm. He stutters and forgets words 3 and doesn't pay attention to what the host is saying sometimes. (He's really a terrible speaker sometimes, actually, lmfao. It's so endearing.) He hasn't been media trained to the detriment of his natural personality; he didn't have to self-edit from a young age the way idols who started training in elementary or middle school did. He hasn't lost himself to image and professionalism (yet, although hopefully he never will). Other EXO members say he and Jongin are the most different from their stage personas, but I think that's more of a complicated issue for Jongin (for starters, having a stage name is pretty significant and has to be weird to work around; who is Kai and who is Jongin?). For Baekhyun, it always seems to come down to eyeliner 4 and his dramatic expressions (and that's mainly because the songs are intense and his voice is kind of out of line with his cute face). He's still a huge dork, and he's not really embarrassed about it the way Jongin and Sehun and even Chanyeol are sometimes. (Seriously, watch them get coerced into doing aegyo, and then watch Baekhyun just live the most aegyo kawaii life 5 ever. He's like Sunny; I'm sure they all want to beat him to death with a shoe, lmfao.)
So, in all honesty, I don't think predebut Baekhyun is all that different from EXO-K's Baekhyun, personality-wise. And appearance-wise, too, actually. He got a decent haircut and the stylists figured out he looked good with eyeliner. There are a couple of pictures where I thought he had his nose done, but I think his nose just gets really wide when he laughs. If he ever gets eyelid surgery I will lay in bed and cry for days; his eyes are beautiful. I don't think he would, though, considering they're kind of his signature feature. (Incidentally, so is his pelvis. Idiot. 6)
There was an interesting comment in exochocolate, though, that made me think about Baekhyun's insecurities. In all honesty, he's a pretty normal-looking kid with a good haircut; above average in attractiveness, but he's not an ulzzang like Sehun or Chanyeol, or ~sexy~ like Jongin (and I have a lot of problems with Jongin being the ~sexy~ one, considering he's only just legal in Korea), or "the next Choi Siwon" like Junmyeon, or… whatever Kyungsoo is, that precious little wide-eyed bush baby. He didn't train for a gazillion years like Junmyeon, he's not a natural dancer like Jongin, and I think he's technically the second lead vocalist, after Kyungsoo. (Someone correct me on that if I'm wrong.) He was the last member added to EXO-K and one of the last EXO members cast (if not the very last?), so I wonder if he feels like he needs to pull his weight extra-hard to compensate. I don't think he's a try-hard by any means, and maybe that's because I'm biased, but I think he's just very conscious of his role in the group. He's a little self-deprecating at times (although I think they all are, because when you're in school in Korea there are all these unrealistic expectations of you, and that's why such a disproportionate number of middle and high school students commit suicide, because they just can't deal with the pressure; imagine those high expectations tied to a career when you're still a teenager). The comment I linked above mentions the sort of jokey things he says about his looks, and it just makes me sad because I can see why he'd have a complex, given that young people are bombarded with upsetting reminders of beauty standards every day, wherever they go, but he's so ridiculously beautiful in his own way that I really hope he's just being a little jokester. (He, Chanyeol, and Sehun have been called the funnier members of EXO-K, after all.)
That said, I'm really hoping EXO can get onto the variety circuit during their next comeback, because I think Baekhyun would be really great if he could just be himself and not have to parrot rehearsed answers. EXO on Strong Heart or something was my dream before it got canceled, goddamn it. (On that note, I miss Star Golden Bell, too.) Happy Together would be great, though. Or Running Man. Basically, let's get Yoo Jae Suk involved and see where it goes.
relationships
Baekhyun seems like a person who's really comfortable around other people. I mean, you kind of have to be, to be an idol and live with the people you work with and be onstage all the time. But I think he generally enjoys it. He was rather popular in school and seems to have had a lot of friends, which probably made adjusting to life as a trainee a little easier because he was probably pretty easy to get along with.
With regards to the other EXO members, though, Baekhyun's a good dongsaeng; you can tell he really respects Junmyeon. I love this Thai interview where he talks about how great Junmyeon-hyung is and Junmyeon is soooooo uncomfortable with the attention. They were really cute at the Korea Entertainment Awards, too. Baekhyun was clinging to Junmyeon after they won their award and barely holding back tears. Baekhyun is really cute around Kris, too - this airport fancam where Kris adjusts his hat is fucking adorable, and then Baekhyun calls him "Duizhang," baaaawwww. Baekhyun was practically clinging to Kris when they flew to Malaysia for the Golden Disk Awards, too. You can tell he just adores Kris; I think he's Baekhyun's favorite hyung, tbh. And there were so many great moments at the Gayo Daejuns with his SHINee sunbaes and Yunho. He looked simultaneously really comfortable with them and really mindblown, like, "Holy shit, this is my life."
Baekhyun is also a really cute hyung, too. He always speaks so affectionately of Sehun 7 (not to mention feels comfortable feeling him up/abusing him in public on a regular basis; I think we can put Baekhyun down as an ass man, at any rate), his relationship with Tao is really cute (the whole "beef" 8 thing, I can't), and I think he's the kind of person who looks after Jongin without trying to be too much of a dad about it. Poor kid's under a lot of pressure, and Baekhyun's always touted as the mood-maker of EXO, very jokey 9 and playful, so I imagine he tries to cheer up his dongsaengs when they're feeling down. He's clearly very protective, too; when Jongin was knocked over and injured by fans at Incheon Airport on the way to Manila for the Dream K-Pop Fantasy Concert, Baekhyun helped him walk through the airport 10 and was sporting some serious stink eye.
Let's take a moment to talk about Baekhyun and Chanyeol. They room together in the EXO-K dorm, and Baekhyun has said that Chanyeol was the first person who was really friendly to him when he joined SM, and that they became close very quickly. Chanyeol was apparently really popular as a trainee and I think they're kind of similar in personality so it makes sense they latched on to one another fairly quickly. They are EXO's fanservice machines 11, and they have this way of balancing one another out that I find really interesting. When Chanyeol is being hyper and weird, Baekhyun is usually more laid-back or trying to foil his insanity. When Baekhyun decides to go nuts, Chanyeol is there to accept his beating and responds with hugs. It's hilarious, to say the least.
His relationship with Chanyeol is really cute and kind of funny because even though they're both '92-line and only six months apart, Baekhyun has this tendency to act like the hyung around Chanyeol, beating on him and being a little bossy (all in jest, of course, and Chanyeol's a good sport). He's definitely the kind of person who looks after other people, and he does that with Chanyeol, too. The biggest incident that springs to mind is Chanyeol's eye problems; his eyeballs are too big for his head or something (rofl, poor kid) so he sleeps with his eyelids partially open. If Baekhyun sees it in the middle of the night, he'll go over and close Chanyeol's eyes properly so they don't dry out. What a pal. And in return, Chanyeol indulges his perpetual coldness (Baekhyun always has the heat in their room cranked up to eleven, so Chanyeol has to go sleep on the couch because it's too damn hot, lmfao) and his weird sleep noises. 12 They like to play video games together (apparently they are big fans of Sudden Attack) and are EXO's resident netizens, which is awkward when you consider they know about the "Nightmare of the 13th." 13
In general, Baekhyun seems to be a very affectionate, caring, funny, sassy, and handsy kid. His popularity in school and his easygoing personality probably made making friends at SM and within EXO much easier than it would have been otherwise. I don't know much about his relationships with people outside of EXO, but the EXO boys seem pretty close to SHINee and Yunho seems to have taken a shine to them, too. Baekhyun is supposedly very fond of Changmin as well. As for the "Baekhyun is a rabid Soshi stan" thing, I think that is an extreme exaggeration on behalf of the fandom, but I'm inclined to go along with it because EXOShidae gives me life. (Taeyeon thanked Junmyeon and Sehun in the liner notes for I Got A Boy, so honestly I think Taeyeon and Baekhyun should just go bond over their mutual love of Sehun.)
baekhyun and fans
Baekhyun's relationship with his fans is fascinating to me. From a lot of the fan accounts that I've read, he comes across as really charming and genuinely friendly. He treats the fans like friends, teasing them and pretending to be offended by comments they make. Korean fan accounts are great, because they show just how witty and sarcastic Baekhyun is (and I love that kind of humor, so it just makes me love him all the more, as if that were possible). He also tries to help the nervous fans calm down, like this girl in Ilsan who was struck speechless at the sight of him. (Unfortunately, he just made it worse. Poor girl.)
I think one of my favorite fan accounts is from Baekhyun's birthday last year. EXO-K's manager told the fangirls to calm down before the boys came out, because although it may not have been the fans' first time at a birthday event, it was Baekhyun's first birthday with the fans, and the manager was concerned that he might be nervous. ;A;
But my most favorite thing about him (other than everything else I've described as "my favorite thing," rofl) is how he loves to troll the fans. Sometimes he'll smile directly into a fansite noona's camera, other times he'll do a double-take and creepily stare at her. Sometimes he'll do aegyo, other times he'll respond to cries of "GWIYOMI PLAYER!!!" with basic math. He'll tell fangirls to toss their gifts at him, then shake his head when he tries to catch them with one hand and misses, like it's their fault.
And the last thing I like about his attitude toward fans is that he doesn't really put up with weird stuff they ask him to do 14, and he doesn't give a shit about sasaengs. Baekhyun is a pretty cool person, but when sasaengs show up and try to do weird things to his members, he doesn't even pretend to stay cool. You saw his stink face above when those sasaengs tried to grope Kai when he was on the ground after they caused him to fall over at the airport. Everyone else looked really concerned (except Sehun, who is unflappable), but Baekhyun just looked pissed. I really hope he doesn't end up being one of those idols who strikes a sasaeng fan (it's just giving them the attention they want, jfc), but in all honesty, I wouldn't be especially shocked if it did happen. He does not have time for their shit, and it makes him angry. He's such a good, kind person; I should be ashamed to have him glare at me for something I did. I wish they had an ounce of decorum. :|
baekhyun the performer
Baekhyun is cute and funny and all that, but obviously the main reason I stan him is because he's good at what he does, which is performing. I tend to favor the vocalists in most of the groups I like (Onew, Kyuhyun, and Sunny, to name a few) and Baekhyun is no exception. He's an amazing singer with what I find to be a really attractive tone (sort of gently raspy, unf), he emotes like a fucking pro, and his lives are always really stable, although I wish he wouldn't overdo it on the high notes because neck veins, although they look kind of sexy (lbr that second one is scary tho), are a sign that a singer is straining and I don't want him to blow out a vocal cord. He's too talented to destroy his voice at such a young age, but Korean pop songwriters love those big belted notes. SMH. :||||
That aside, he is a really good singer and I think the best thing about his singing is that whenever EXO goes abroad, he prepares a bit of a song in whatever the native language of that place is. Here's a barrage of clips of things he's sung on TV and on the radio, plus a couple of pre-debut videos!
Kim Dong-Ryul, "오랜된 노래"
Hwanhee, "가슴 아파도"
High School - Jamiroquai, "Love Foolosophy"
Middle School - I'm not sure what song this is
CNBlue, "Love Light"
The Rays, "Farewell Review"
Wang Lee Hom, "Kiss Goodbye" (46:33)
Thai song, "Bao Bao"
Film OST, "Saranghae, I Love You"
And a couple of EXO live performances from the showcase:
너의 세상으로 (Into Your World/Angel)
Baby Don't Cry
As for his dancing, Baekhyun is pretty decent. His moves are really sharp but not stiff (except lol forever at his body rolls, especially in "Into Your World"; he looks so preciously awkward), and he knows how to move his hips and his arms and hands, which is important in a dance like MAMA, for instance. He's very precise with his hand and arm movements specifically. Obviously he's never going to be Jongin or Sehun or Yixing (or Tao, actually… Tao is kind of an amazing dancer, damn; kid's got flair) but I'd say he's definitely in the middle of the pack. I will say he's gotten lazy lately, watching him at some recent performances, but I imagine it's because he's probably bored these days, having been performing the same songs for almost eleven months oh my god SM why are you like this.
At first I was worried that I can't teach him well, he just joins for eleven months yet I have to teach him the same thing with the other members. He got two hours extra practicing (*seven hours/day for other members) everyday. He is not the powerful one, but he is the art. When talk about dance, I will go to Kai, with his perfection. But when you talk about "art," definitely Baekhyun. His moves are delicate and smooth. He knows how to work on his expressions and gestures. Along with Kai, he is the one who can improvise their dance. When Kai is the strong-beast-sexy one, Baekhyun is the beautiful-chic one. He also gives an idea for Angel's choreography. Even only for a small part, can you guess which part?
Shim Jae Won, SM Entertainment's Performance Director
I can't even express how badly I want to know which part of the "Into Your World" choreo he made up. (If it was the part where they push their right hand down their stomachs and lean back I'm going to die.) If I ever get to a fansigning, I'm going to ask him. I won't lie, this is my partial motivation for studying Korean so hard these days. BURNING QUESTIONS FOR K-POP IDOLS I WILL PROBABLY NEVER MEET. :|
Anyway, here are some Baekhyun-focused fancams so you can see this dancing machine in his element 15, rofl:
Official "MAMA" Practice Video (in case you can't read Hangeul, Baekhyun is the one wearing the 백현 sign. Check out how high he jumps at 2:43, it looks like he lost control of his legs, lmfao. I love how he's able to smoothly merge back into the pack for the dance during the chorus, after his big high notes; he's really graceful.)
120708 MTV The Show, "MAMA"
Official "History" Practice Video (Baekhyun is in the grey sweatshirt)
120713 Yeosu Expo, "History" (I love this performance because his monitors keep falling out of his ears and he just laughs and keeps going anyway)
120823 Chungju Rice Farmer Festival 16, "너의 세상으로"
121012 Cheolwon Taebong Festival, "너의 세상으로" (LOOK HOW HE HOLDS HIMSELF AT 2:06 AND AT THE END JFC)
2012 MAMA Awards (starts during his part in "MAMA"; watch for him in "Descendants of Warriors," bottom left, "Mirotic," back right, and "Lucifer," mid-left)
2013 Golden Disk Awards, covering H.O.T.'s "We Are the Future" (and wearing Lu Han's neck cage from the "History" video, good god)
in summation
He's perfect. I've never stanned anyone this hard in my life and I look forward to seeing more of him as EXO produces more music and becomes more successful. ♥
notes
1 This account is from the same girl who released Baekhyun's middle school and high school yearbook photos and blogged about him just after debut. And it doesn't sound out of line with his personality. I'm thinking it's legit. Here are some more hilarious perfect excellent fan/school accounts that show off his great personality. [ ⤴]
2 No, seriously, I cried while watching Air Bud because the clown was mean to the dog. I cried when my mom merely told me the plot to Marley and Me. One time I saw a cat that had been hit by a car and I immediately started crying but my mom wouldn't pull over. (I was 23 at the time.) I cry more about pets dying than I do people. So this story pretty much sealed the deal for me as a Baekhyun stan. As Andrew Lloyd Webber put it, we've passed the point of no return. Good luck regaining your sanity now!!! [ ⤴]
3 This one is a little funnier/more interesting if you understand Korean, but he's talking about Leeteuk here. Leeteuk is the subject of the sentence, so Baekhyun says "Leeteuk sunbaenim-i… (etc.)" -이 (-i) indicates the subject of the sentence if the noun ends in a consonant (-가 [-ga] for nouns ending in vowels). But then he realizes, "Oh crap, 'sunbaenim,' I should use formal speech" and backtracks to add the formal subject particle -께서 (-kkeseo). And then proceeds to trip over it twice while Tao tries very hard not to burst out laughing. It's so precious. [ ⤴]
4 SMH every time he refers to himself as "EXO-K's eyeliner Baekhyun," btw. You are so much more than that, Baekhyun. :( [ ⤴]
5 This is my video, and for that I apologize. This was the first (and so far, only) time I'd seen EXO (or any Korean idol), and I might have lost my shit during this event… just a little. e___e My Korean isn't that great, but as soon as I heard the word "aegyo" come out of the MC's mouth, I was gone. This is a pretty good barometer for most of my reactions to anything Baekhyun does, though. Just imagine me making that sobbing noise at basically every fancam ever, especially when he's doing something cute, like beating up Sehun or Chanyeol. My love is twisted. [ ⤴]
6 He really is so dumb and weird sometimes, I don't even know what to do with him. Like the first time he visited the SM building and had to ask the fans how to open the door. [ ⤴]
7 "[FAN] Baekhyun-ah does Sehunnie talk to you informally
I will scold him for you so come here ㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎ come running!!!!!
[BAEKHYUN] Such a cute and nice kid ㅎㅎ Thinking that he spoke to me informally !! ㅎㅎ" - meaning it's funny the fan suggested such a thing, because Sehun is a nice, obedient little dongsaeng (which we clearly all know to be a lie, but Baek is sweet to stick up for him) [cr: 121224 Baekhyun & Sehun Fanboard Replies] [ ⤴]
8 At Tao's birthday party, he referred to Baekhyun as "beef" because they are both Tauruses, born in May. He didn't know how to say Taurus in Korean, and since the symbol for Taurus is a bull, he figured "beef" was the best he could do. Bless his heart. [ ⤴]
9 Baekhyun and Chanyeol talk about rooming together, etc, until 28:36. [ ⤴]
10 Some fan accounts from the airport on 130118 state that some of Jongin's fans (probably sasaengs, not the good fansite noonas) who were taking pictures after Jongin got hurt (and was very obviously in pain) got pissy at Baekhyun for getting in the way of their shots, to the point that they were supposedly swearing at him and yelling at him to get out of the way. I was livid, to say the least. [ ⤴]
11 One thing that annoys me is this tendency for people to call Baekhyun "greasy" and "fake" when it comes to fanservice. I mean, I get the "haha greasy bacon" joke but it's still frustrating, because his fanservice is more of the cute variety and not the "fans are all my girlfriends~" variety that Infinite's Woohyun, for example, likes to employ. I don't think he's been in the industry long enough to develop a fanservice "personality," per se. He's just Baekhyun. He's always been playful and jokey and that's how he acts with the fans. He's not very self-conscious about his actions or his dignity (lmfao) which is why I think he's EXO-K's real aegyo/variety superstar, lmao. He wants to make people laugh and be happy. They call him the mood-maker for a reason! But yeah, tl;dr, he's not greasy, he's sincere and perfect and people who call him fake can get out of my life and shut up, tbh. [ ⤴]
12 Baekhyun has a tendency to make little puppy noises in his sleep, which causes me to make ugly pterodactyl shrieking noises at my computer. No one should be allowed to be this cute! No one!!! [ ⤴]
13 "Nightmare of the 13th" is the Korean fans' term for the disastrous April 13th Music Bank performance wherein EXO had to perform live and it was not good. I can't even watch it all the way through. I felt so bad for them. :( Baekhyun sounded the most stable, though, so… small victories. The fact that he knows it by that name makes me a little sad though, lol. [ ⤴]
14 I get the feeling that it makes him uncomfortable when they're all "Oppa, say 'I love you' with my name! Please!!!" like this girl asked in Gwangju. I personally think it's weird to ask those kinds of things, and I think it weirds him out, because he lived outside the idol machine for so long. And people still insist on saying he's fake… lord. [ ⤴]
15 He's in his element. Get it? Because his power is light and the light are flickering on and off… hahahahahahaha… shut up I'm hilarious BYE [ ⤴]
16 Yep. That is a festival that exists. Korea has all kinds of festivals. [ ⤴]
please don't repost in full. i would prefer a link or you can reblog the tumblr entry. it took me forever to compile and format this, so i would appreciate links rather than reposts. you can credit hopeandmemory on lj/twitter.
last updated: 2013.02.24
a meta post
I don't really like to write bandfic/canonfic because… I don't know. It makes me a little uncomfortable, I think? I like to read it, but they always kind of end up the same way, right? Korea and China aren't down with the gays, you can't be a gay idol, it all has to be a giant secret, eventually everything goes to hell and it basically ends in misery and sadness. And I can only handle angst in limited quantities.
But I still have a lot of thoughts about Baekhyun that would probably affect the way I wrote him if I wrote canonfic. Let me preface this by saying I jumped on the EXO train a bit late - I downloaded their album immediately after it was released and loved it, but I wasn't really in the fandom until about September, so there's a lot I missed and had to catch up on and probably still don't know about EXO and Baekhyun, in particular. So feel free to comment and tell me things I don't know or have down incorrectly. Fandom is a learning experience. :3
pre-debut
I guess the first thing I want to address is some of the stuff I've heard about him from his school days. There's this one story in particular that warms the cockles of my heart and kind of made me fall in love with him for realsies. According to one of his middle school classmates 1, one time some of Baekhyun's classmates were taunting an overweight female classmate. (Speaking from the perspective of a Korean high school teacher, I can tell you this kind of thing happens pretty frequently, although in my school the boys and girls have separate classes, so it's mostly just the boys being crappy at each other.) Baekhyun apparently stood up to them and told them they were being jerks and they should knock it off.
Now, that's pretty uncommon. I usually have to be the one to tell my students to knock it off when they're being rude to each other. (I had to do it recently, actually. We were watching an episode of Modern Family and afterward one of the kids said, "Teacher, pink shirt, gay?" in reference to Cameron, and when I said yeah, he turns to his friend and goes, "Haha, like you." And his friend was so affronted. I told him not to be a jerk. This is my life.)
Korean kids don't really like to go against the grain - even if they disagree with something, they'll more likely keep quiet than express discord. Korean social structure is heavily influenced by Confucian principles of respect, filial piety, and collectivism, so while I don't believe Baekhyun deserves a medal for being a decent human being, I do think it's impressive that he had the balls to tell those kids they were being jerks. Especially since if that girl was the class 왕따 (wangtta, or outcast - you'll recognize the term if you've ever watched Boys Over Flowers), he could have gotten lumped in with her and excluded and bullied as well. I think the fact that he was kind of a popular kid in school probably helped, though - when the influential kids do nice things, the rest of them are likely to follow suit. I hope they stopped bullying that girl after he told them to quit. :(
Speaking of popularity, Baekhyun seems to have been really well-liked in school. He was involved in music while he was in school, and sang lead in a band called 혼수상태 (Coma) in high school. He's been described as the kind of kid who was friendly to everyone, even the "outsiders" that people avoided or ridiculed. The predebut pics of him floating around various Korean fancafes suggest that he was quite a character, and various stories about him from former classmates help to paint a picture of a witty, hyperactive, slightly weird kid who cheats at games and likes to make people laugh. (I mean… this is the kid who once walked around at school all day with a red rubber glove blown up and stuck on his head like a rooster, just for the lulz.)
But these stories also describe a boy who cares about the people (and animals, for that matter) around him, thinks the best of people, and is maybe a little naïve and inexperienced. (He is only 20, after all. That's college-aged, but still so young.) A particularly heart-warming story revolves around a message Baekhyun posted on an internet forum when he was 13. I guess he found a stray cat near his apartment building, and the poor thing was all beat up. Baekhyun wanted to know if the surgery would really cost that much because the cat was really injured and could possibly die.
I'm a big animal lover and I have a cat myself (and have had dogs in the past), so basically anything involving animals being hurt makes me cry. 2 So it kind of warms my heart that a young kid would take a stray cat (which could possibly have a disease or something) to the vet and see how much it would cost to fix her up. I wonder if he ever ended up getting the money for the cat to have surgery. Either way, what a precious kid. ;~~;
trainee days
EXO get asked a lot about how long they trained before debut - Lu Han, Jongdae, Tao, and Baekhyun trained for a much shorter period of time than the others, which I find funny, since three of them are the main vocalists; how on earth did they start putting together EXO with only Kyungsoo on vocals? M1/M2 had been in training for ages, because I remember hearing about them when I was still in college, and that was before Baekhyun started training.
If EXO debuted in April 2012, and Baekhyun trained for eleven months pre-debut, that means he was scouted and signed in May 2011. And if the entire EXO lineup was solidified by the time the first teaser came out in late December 2011, that means he was a trainee for seven months prior to being placed in a group. That's amazing. (If he trained for 11 months prior to EXO being announced as group, that puts him being signed in January 2011, which is still a ridiculously short time to train for a major-label debut.)
Either way, he would have finished high school before he started training, and this is what I find most fascinating about Baekhyun. He graduated high school in February 2011, most likely; the third graders that just graduated from the school I work at are mostly '94-line, and they'll reach the age of majority (19 international age, 20 Korean age) this year, like Baekhyun would have in May 2011.
He auditioned for a few other companies while he was in school, from what I've heard, but he was never picked up; which is a little shocking to me, because he has a really nice voice and he's really charming, but then I think he fits in really well at SM, more than he would at JYP or YG (LOL). (Although I could totally see him doing the whole indie rock thing that Woollim does with Nell and now with Sunggyu.) So, unlike a lot of his fellow EXO members, he had a pretty normal, average Korean school experience, uninterrupted by training. So I can't help but think he still kind of has to pinch himself every morning when he wakes up. To go from seeing huge superstars like TVXQ and SNSD and Super Junior and SHINee (… and f(x) okay I love them but they are so irrelevant it hurts :c ) on TV and hearing their music playing in shops and noraebangs for the last however many years, to standing onstage with them at SMTown LA and Seoul like it's no big deal? To train in a company as famous as SM? That's so fucking surreal. And then to debut 11 months after you start training? He didn't grow up training the way Junmyeon did, didn't have to see countless other trainees debut while he got left behind. (And to that end I sometimes wonder if he feels guilty; here is this hyung he respects so much who killed himself for seven years to debut, and Baekhyun waltzes in and grabs the other lead vocal part? I'd feel awful if I were in his shoes.) He didn't have to audition or prove himself like Jongin did; he was scouted while walking to school or something useless like that (she said, lovingly) and was asked to come in for an audition simply because he was cute. It was only a coincidence that he could also sing really well - he did win an award at a local rock festival when he was in high school, and he was in the school band. He worked so ridiculously hard, learning to dance, to catch up with everyone else, to have this chance that basically fell in his lap.
But he had to learn to be an idol in less than a year's time, and that careful façade is not something you can build in a short time. There are idols who trained for years or have been established for ages and still fuck up and don't know how to act. But I think his normalcy is part of his charm. He stutters and forgets words 3 and doesn't pay attention to what the host is saying sometimes. (He's really a terrible speaker sometimes, actually, lmfao. It's so endearing.) He hasn't been media trained to the detriment of his natural personality; he didn't have to self-edit from a young age the way idols who started training in elementary or middle school did. He hasn't lost himself to image and professionalism (yet, although hopefully he never will). Other EXO members say he and Jongin are the most different from their stage personas, but I think that's more of a complicated issue for Jongin (for starters, having a stage name is pretty significant and has to be weird to work around; who is Kai and who is Jongin?). For Baekhyun, it always seems to come down to eyeliner 4 and his dramatic expressions (and that's mainly because the songs are intense and his voice is kind of out of line with his cute face). He's still a huge dork, and he's not really embarrassed about it the way Jongin and Sehun and even Chanyeol are sometimes. (Seriously, watch them get coerced into doing aegyo, and then watch Baekhyun just live the most aegyo kawaii life 5 ever. He's like Sunny; I'm sure they all want to beat him to death with a shoe, lmfao.)
So, in all honesty, I don't think predebut Baekhyun is all that different from EXO-K's Baekhyun, personality-wise. And appearance-wise, too, actually. He got a decent haircut and the stylists figured out he looked good with eyeliner. There are a couple of pictures where I thought he had his nose done, but I think his nose just gets really wide when he laughs. If he ever gets eyelid surgery I will lay in bed and cry for days; his eyes are beautiful. I don't think he would, though, considering they're kind of his signature feature. (Incidentally, so is his pelvis. Idiot. 6)
There was an interesting comment in exochocolate, though, that made me think about Baekhyun's insecurities. In all honesty, he's a pretty normal-looking kid with a good haircut; above average in attractiveness, but he's not an ulzzang like Sehun or Chanyeol, or ~sexy~ like Jongin (and I have a lot of problems with Jongin being the ~sexy~ one, considering he's only just legal in Korea), or "the next Choi Siwon" like Junmyeon, or… whatever Kyungsoo is, that precious little wide-eyed bush baby. He didn't train for a gazillion years like Junmyeon, he's not a natural dancer like Jongin, and I think he's technically the second lead vocalist, after Kyungsoo. (Someone correct me on that if I'm wrong.) He was the last member added to EXO-K and one of the last EXO members cast (if not the very last?), so I wonder if he feels like he needs to pull his weight extra-hard to compensate. I don't think he's a try-hard by any means, and maybe that's because I'm biased, but I think he's just very conscious of his role in the group. He's a little self-deprecating at times (although I think they all are, because when you're in school in Korea there are all these unrealistic expectations of you, and that's why such a disproportionate number of middle and high school students commit suicide, because they just can't deal with the pressure; imagine those high expectations tied to a career when you're still a teenager). The comment I linked above mentions the sort of jokey things he says about his looks, and it just makes me sad because I can see why he'd have a complex, given that young people are bombarded with upsetting reminders of beauty standards every day, wherever they go, but he's so ridiculously beautiful in his own way that I really hope he's just being a little jokester. (He, Chanyeol, and Sehun have been called the funnier members of EXO-K, after all.)
That said, I'm really hoping EXO can get onto the variety circuit during their next comeback, because I think Baekhyun would be really great if he could just be himself and not have to parrot rehearsed answers. EXO on Strong Heart or something was my dream before it got canceled, goddamn it. (On that note, I miss Star Golden Bell, too.) Happy Together would be great, though. Or Running Man. Basically, let's get Yoo Jae Suk involved and see where it goes.
relationships
Baekhyun seems like a person who's really comfortable around other people. I mean, you kind of have to be, to be an idol and live with the people you work with and be onstage all the time. But I think he generally enjoys it. He was rather popular in school and seems to have had a lot of friends, which probably made adjusting to life as a trainee a little easier because he was probably pretty easy to get along with.
With regards to the other EXO members, though, Baekhyun's a good dongsaeng; you can tell he really respects Junmyeon. I love this Thai interview where he talks about how great Junmyeon-hyung is and Junmyeon is soooooo uncomfortable with the attention. They were really cute at the Korea Entertainment Awards, too. Baekhyun was clinging to Junmyeon after they won their award and barely holding back tears. Baekhyun is really cute around Kris, too - this airport fancam where Kris adjusts his hat is fucking adorable, and then Baekhyun calls him "Duizhang," baaaawwww. Baekhyun was practically clinging to Kris when they flew to Malaysia for the Golden Disk Awards, too. You can tell he just adores Kris; I think he's Baekhyun's favorite hyung, tbh. And there were so many great moments at the Gayo Daejuns with his SHINee sunbaes and Yunho. He looked simultaneously really comfortable with them and really mindblown, like, "Holy shit, this is my life."
Baekhyun is also a really cute hyung, too. He always speaks so affectionately of Sehun 7 (not to mention feels comfortable feeling him up/abusing him in public on a regular basis; I think we can put Baekhyun down as an ass man, at any rate), his relationship with Tao is really cute (the whole "beef" 8 thing, I can't), and I think he's the kind of person who looks after Jongin without trying to be too much of a dad about it. Poor kid's under a lot of pressure, and Baekhyun's always touted as the mood-maker of EXO, very jokey 9 and playful, so I imagine he tries to cheer up his dongsaengs when they're feeling down. He's clearly very protective, too; when Jongin was knocked over and injured by fans at Incheon Airport on the way to Manila for the Dream K-Pop Fantasy Concert, Baekhyun helped him walk through the airport 10 and was sporting some serious stink eye.
Let's take a moment to talk about Baekhyun and Chanyeol. They room together in the EXO-K dorm, and Baekhyun has said that Chanyeol was the first person who was really friendly to him when he joined SM, and that they became close very quickly. Chanyeol was apparently really popular as a trainee and I think they're kind of similar in personality so it makes sense they latched on to one another fairly quickly. They are EXO's fanservice machines 11, and they have this way of balancing one another out that I find really interesting. When Chanyeol is being hyper and weird, Baekhyun is usually more laid-back or trying to foil his insanity. When Baekhyun decides to go nuts, Chanyeol is there to accept his beating and responds with hugs. It's hilarious, to say the least.
His relationship with Chanyeol is really cute and kind of funny because even though they're both '92-line and only six months apart, Baekhyun has this tendency to act like the hyung around Chanyeol, beating on him and being a little bossy (all in jest, of course, and Chanyeol's a good sport). He's definitely the kind of person who looks after other people, and he does that with Chanyeol, too. The biggest incident that springs to mind is Chanyeol's eye problems; his eyeballs are too big for his head or something (rofl, poor kid) so he sleeps with his eyelids partially open. If Baekhyun sees it in the middle of the night, he'll go over and close Chanyeol's eyes properly so they don't dry out. What a pal. And in return, Chanyeol indulges his perpetual coldness (Baekhyun always has the heat in their room cranked up to eleven, so Chanyeol has to go sleep on the couch because it's too damn hot, lmfao) and his weird sleep noises. 12 They like to play video games together (apparently they are big fans of Sudden Attack) and are EXO's resident netizens, which is awkward when you consider they know about the "Nightmare of the 13th." 13
In general, Baekhyun seems to be a very affectionate, caring, funny, sassy, and handsy kid. His popularity in school and his easygoing personality probably made making friends at SM and within EXO much easier than it would have been otherwise. I don't know much about his relationships with people outside of EXO, but the EXO boys seem pretty close to SHINee and Yunho seems to have taken a shine to them, too. Baekhyun is supposedly very fond of Changmin as well. As for the "Baekhyun is a rabid Soshi stan" thing, I think that is an extreme exaggeration on behalf of the fandom, but I'm inclined to go along with it because EXOShidae gives me life. (Taeyeon thanked Junmyeon and Sehun in the liner notes for I Got A Boy, so honestly I think Taeyeon and Baekhyun should just go bond over their mutual love of Sehun.)
baekhyun and fans
Baekhyun's relationship with his fans is fascinating to me. From a lot of the fan accounts that I've read, he comes across as really charming and genuinely friendly. He treats the fans like friends, teasing them and pretending to be offended by comments they make. Korean fan accounts are great, because they show just how witty and sarcastic Baekhyun is (and I love that kind of humor, so it just makes me love him all the more, as if that were possible). He also tries to help the nervous fans calm down, like this girl in Ilsan who was struck speechless at the sight of him. (Unfortunately, he just made it worse. Poor girl.)
I think one of my favorite fan accounts is from Baekhyun's birthday last year. EXO-K's manager told the fangirls to calm down before the boys came out, because although it may not have been the fans' first time at a birthday event, it was Baekhyun's first birthday with the fans, and the manager was concerned that he might be nervous. ;A;
But my most favorite thing about him (other than everything else I've described as "my favorite thing," rofl) is how he loves to troll the fans. Sometimes he'll smile directly into a fansite noona's camera, other times he'll do a double-take and creepily stare at her. Sometimes he'll do aegyo, other times he'll respond to cries of "GWIYOMI PLAYER!!!" with basic math. He'll tell fangirls to toss their gifts at him, then shake his head when he tries to catch them with one hand and misses, like it's their fault.
And the last thing I like about his attitude toward fans is that he doesn't really put up with weird stuff they ask him to do 14, and he doesn't give a shit about sasaengs. Baekhyun is a pretty cool person, but when sasaengs show up and try to do weird things to his members, he doesn't even pretend to stay cool. You saw his stink face above when those sasaengs tried to grope Kai when he was on the ground after they caused him to fall over at the airport. Everyone else looked really concerned (except Sehun, who is unflappable), but Baekhyun just looked pissed. I really hope he doesn't end up being one of those idols who strikes a sasaeng fan (it's just giving them the attention they want, jfc), but in all honesty, I wouldn't be especially shocked if it did happen. He does not have time for their shit, and it makes him angry. He's such a good, kind person; I should be ashamed to have him glare at me for something I did. I wish they had an ounce of decorum. :|
baekhyun the performer
Baekhyun is cute and funny and all that, but obviously the main reason I stan him is because he's good at what he does, which is performing. I tend to favor the vocalists in most of the groups I like (Onew, Kyuhyun, and Sunny, to name a few) and Baekhyun is no exception. He's an amazing singer with what I find to be a really attractive tone (sort of gently raspy, unf), he emotes like a fucking pro, and his lives are always really stable, although I wish he wouldn't overdo it on the high notes because neck veins, although they look kind of sexy (lbr that second one is scary tho), are a sign that a singer is straining and I don't want him to blow out a vocal cord. He's too talented to destroy his voice at such a young age, but Korean pop songwriters love those big belted notes. SMH. :||||
That aside, he is a really good singer and I think the best thing about his singing is that whenever EXO goes abroad, he prepares a bit of a song in whatever the native language of that place is. Here's a barrage of clips of things he's sung on TV and on the radio, plus a couple of pre-debut videos!
Click to view
Kim Dong-Ryul, "오랜된 노래"
Hwanhee, "가슴 아파도"
High School - Jamiroquai, "Love Foolosophy"
Middle School - I'm not sure what song this is
CNBlue, "Love Light"
The Rays, "Farewell Review"
Wang Lee Hom, "Kiss Goodbye" (46:33)
Thai song, "Bao Bao"
Film OST, "Saranghae, I Love You"
And a couple of EXO live performances from the showcase:
너의 세상으로 (Into Your World/Angel)
Baby Don't Cry
As for his dancing, Baekhyun is pretty decent. His moves are really sharp but not stiff (except lol forever at his body rolls, especially in "Into Your World"; he looks so preciously awkward), and he knows how to move his hips and his arms and hands, which is important in a dance like MAMA, for instance. He's very precise with his hand and arm movements specifically. Obviously he's never going to be Jongin or Sehun or Yixing (or Tao, actually… Tao is kind of an amazing dancer, damn; kid's got flair) but I'd say he's definitely in the middle of the pack. I will say he's gotten lazy lately, watching him at some recent performances, but I imagine it's because he's probably bored these days, having been performing the same songs for almost eleven months oh my god SM why are you like this.
At first I was worried that I can't teach him well, he just joins for eleven months yet I have to teach him the same thing with the other members. He got two hours extra practicing (*seven hours/day for other members) everyday. He is not the powerful one, but he is the art. When talk about dance, I will go to Kai, with his perfection. But when you talk about "art," definitely Baekhyun. His moves are delicate and smooth. He knows how to work on his expressions and gestures. Along with Kai, he is the one who can improvise their dance. When Kai is the strong-beast-sexy one, Baekhyun is the beautiful-chic one. He also gives an idea for Angel's choreography. Even only for a small part, can you guess which part?
Shim Jae Won, SM Entertainment's Performance Director
I can't even express how badly I want to know which part of the "Into Your World" choreo he made up. (If it was the part where they push their right hand down their stomachs and lean back I'm going to die.) If I ever get to a fansigning, I'm going to ask him. I won't lie, this is my partial motivation for studying Korean so hard these days. BURNING QUESTIONS FOR K-POP IDOLS I WILL PROBABLY NEVER MEET. :|
Anyway, here are some Baekhyun-focused fancams so you can see this dancing machine in his element 15, rofl:
Official "MAMA" Practice Video (in case you can't read Hangeul, Baekhyun is the one wearing the 백현 sign. Check out how high he jumps at 2:43, it looks like he lost control of his legs, lmfao. I love how he's able to smoothly merge back into the pack for the dance during the chorus, after his big high notes; he's really graceful.)
120708 MTV The Show, "MAMA"
Official "History" Practice Video (Baekhyun is in the grey sweatshirt)
120713 Yeosu Expo, "History" (I love this performance because his monitors keep falling out of his ears and he just laughs and keeps going anyway)
120823 Chungju Rice Farmer Festival 16, "너의 세상으로"
121012 Cheolwon Taebong Festival, "너의 세상으로" (LOOK HOW HE HOLDS HIMSELF AT 2:06 AND AT THE END JFC)
2012 MAMA Awards (starts during his part in "MAMA"; watch for him in "Descendants of Warriors," bottom left, "Mirotic," back right, and "Lucifer," mid-left)
2013 Golden Disk Awards, covering H.O.T.'s "We Are the Future" (and wearing Lu Han's neck cage from the "History" video, good god)
in summation
He's perfect. I've never stanned anyone this hard in my life and I look forward to seeing more of him as EXO produces more music and becomes more successful. ♥
notes
1 This account is from the same girl who released Baekhyun's middle school and high school yearbook photos and blogged about him just after debut. And it doesn't sound out of line with his personality. I'm thinking it's legit. Here are some more hilarious perfect excellent fan/school accounts that show off his great personality. [ ⤴]
2 No, seriously, I cried while watching Air Bud because the clown was mean to the dog. I cried when my mom merely told me the plot to Marley and Me. One time I saw a cat that had been hit by a car and I immediately started crying but my mom wouldn't pull over. (I was 23 at the time.) I cry more about pets dying than I do people. So this story pretty much sealed the deal for me as a Baekhyun stan. As Andrew Lloyd Webber put it, we've passed the point of no return. Good luck regaining your sanity now!!! [ ⤴]
3 This one is a little funnier/more interesting if you understand Korean, but he's talking about Leeteuk here. Leeteuk is the subject of the sentence, so Baekhyun says "Leeteuk sunbaenim-i… (etc.)" -이 (-i) indicates the subject of the sentence if the noun ends in a consonant (-가 [-ga] for nouns ending in vowels). But then he realizes, "Oh crap, 'sunbaenim,' I should use formal speech" and backtracks to add the formal subject particle -께서 (-kkeseo). And then proceeds to trip over it twice while Tao tries very hard not to burst out laughing. It's so precious. [ ⤴]
4 SMH every time he refers to himself as "EXO-K's eyeliner Baekhyun," btw. You are so much more than that, Baekhyun. :( [ ⤴]
5 This is my video, and for that I apologize. This was the first (and so far, only) time I'd seen EXO (or any Korean idol), and I might have lost my shit during this event… just a little. e___e My Korean isn't that great, but as soon as I heard the word "aegyo" come out of the MC's mouth, I was gone. This is a pretty good barometer for most of my reactions to anything Baekhyun does, though. Just imagine me making that sobbing noise at basically every fancam ever, especially when he's doing something cute, like beating up Sehun or Chanyeol. My love is twisted. [ ⤴]
6 He really is so dumb and weird sometimes, I don't even know what to do with him. Like the first time he visited the SM building and had to ask the fans how to open the door. [ ⤴]
7 "[FAN] Baekhyun-ah does Sehunnie talk to you informally
I will scold him for you so come here ㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎ come running!!!!!
[BAEKHYUN] Such a cute and nice kid ㅎㅎ Thinking that he spoke to me informally !! ㅎㅎ" - meaning it's funny the fan suggested such a thing, because Sehun is a nice, obedient little dongsaeng (which we clearly all know to be a lie, but Baek is sweet to stick up for him) [cr: 121224 Baekhyun & Sehun Fanboard Replies] [ ⤴]
8 At Tao's birthday party, he referred to Baekhyun as "beef" because they are both Tauruses, born in May. He didn't know how to say Taurus in Korean, and since the symbol for Taurus is a bull, he figured "beef" was the best he could do. Bless his heart. [ ⤴]
9 Baekhyun and Chanyeol talk about rooming together, etc, until 28:36. [ ⤴]
10 Some fan accounts from the airport on 130118 state that some of Jongin's fans (probably sasaengs, not the good fansite noonas) who were taking pictures after Jongin got hurt (and was very obviously in pain) got pissy at Baekhyun for getting in the way of their shots, to the point that they were supposedly swearing at him and yelling at him to get out of the way. I was livid, to say the least. [ ⤴]
11 One thing that annoys me is this tendency for people to call Baekhyun "greasy" and "fake" when it comes to fanservice. I mean, I get the "haha greasy bacon" joke but it's still frustrating, because his fanservice is more of the cute variety and not the "fans are all my girlfriends~" variety that Infinite's Woohyun, for example, likes to employ. I don't think he's been in the industry long enough to develop a fanservice "personality," per se. He's just Baekhyun. He's always been playful and jokey and that's how he acts with the fans. He's not very self-conscious about his actions or his dignity (lmfao) which is why I think he's EXO-K's real aegyo/variety superstar, lmao. He wants to make people laugh and be happy. They call him the mood-maker for a reason! But yeah, tl;dr, he's not greasy, he's sincere and perfect and people who call him fake can get out of my life and shut up, tbh. [ ⤴]
12 Baekhyun has a tendency to make little puppy noises in his sleep, which causes me to make ugly pterodactyl shrieking noises at my computer. No one should be allowed to be this cute! No one!!! [ ⤴]
13 "Nightmare of the 13th" is the Korean fans' term for the disastrous April 13th Music Bank performance wherein EXO had to perform live and it was not good. I can't even watch it all the way through. I felt so bad for them. :( Baekhyun sounded the most stable, though, so… small victories. The fact that he knows it by that name makes me a little sad though, lol. [ ⤴]
14 I get the feeling that it makes him uncomfortable when they're all "Oppa, say 'I love you' with my name! Please!!!" like this girl asked in Gwangju. I personally think it's weird to ask those kinds of things, and I think it weirds him out, because he lived outside the idol machine for so long. And people still insist on saying he's fake… lord. [ ⤴]
15 He's in his element. Get it? Because his power is light and the light are flickering on and off… hahahahahahaha… shut up I'm hilarious BYE [ ⤴]
16 Yep. That is a festival that exists. Korea has all kinds of festivals. [ ⤴]
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last updated: 2013.02.24