alex 🦷
alexenglish
questions & compliments
#skz
my toxic trait is i love that jisvng can't stay away from the gym... and therefore changbin 😈
i'm screaming me TOO. like it's so funny because in one way binsung is better when jisung misses changbin because he gets clingy, but when they're at the gym together, he's always in changbin's face so changbin is bbling about him and talking about his tits and checking on his body's condition. i love knowing that they have a dedicated ritual where they're spending time together constantly outside of work. like i makes me crazy. i am deeply dedicated to the binsung gym buddies trope even when jisung wasn't working out so this just feels like a reward for me. IF it's true that they're lifting weights again... my patience and loyalty have been rewarded.
I think you're getting at this in some of your answers, so I'm wondering how you think bnsvng don't understand eo and how they work on it? They're like opposites, but no one makes them an opposites attract trope.
ooo yes, love that you caught that! i DO think they have a hard time understanding each other. i think with binsung it manifests where they're just different people who are really alike in some ways and not others. like their goals are insanely aligned when it comes to work and creativity, but not so much when it comes to their interpersonal dynamics. a past anon said "a lot of early jisung's worst traits just made no sense to (changbin)" which i love -- like that's really the gist of it, they can't interpret each other well. they don't necessarily know how to read each other because they would make different decisions from each other, and that leads to some confusing moments of misunderstanding or tension between them.
i also think there's an underrated on-screen off-screen dynamic for them that leads to tension specifically on camera that might not be there otherwise. like we all know about Jisung's Skinship ThingTM, but we also know that when changbin tried to work on it OFF camera that jisung got embarrassed by it. and we also know that changbin asks for attention off camera; like when he would come home from the gym and show jisung his body and do aegyo and ask jisung to praise him -- he would literally not get caught dead doing that on camera. whereas, with jisung, he is really desperate for changbin to prove his love on camera, and changbin actually genuinely (endearingly) likes to keep that mostly off-camera and then tells us about it randomly sometime later.
i think a lot about how changbin's reaction to jisung's on-camera antics is usually just holding very still and letting jisung do what he wants until jisung runs out of steam. like they have such a weird dynamic because jisung is just SO sensitive to changbin and changbin is hyper-aware of that. if he just holds still and lets jisung do what he wants, then mission accomplished. i actually think this is why a lot of their little moments are really cute physical bits together where they mimic each other and dance with each other and play that way, because there's no pressure to perform any kind of joke where the other person doesn't know where it's going and neither of them will be embarrassed... like jisung getting embarrassed when he leans their foreheads together, or tries to get changbin to play along with a kiss only to scream when he actually does, or changbin trying to joke and jisung getting pouty, etc etc.
it's actually so cool because i got this before neospring crashed and i didn't answer it in time, but in the meantime, bom wrote this exact perfect paragraph in her binsung fic, learning curve:
Jisung sighs, staring up at the ceiling. He thinks the shade of white is different from the one in his own bedroom, off by about six colors. He thinks of all the times he and Changbin glide right by each other, living in different shades, barely touching along their edges, but close enough that from a distance it looks like the same paint.
i think that's the perfect metaphor for them. they are kind of opposites, especially in the way they approach interpersonal relationships, but they're seemingly so similar that their differences get overlooked. nearly the same! but not quite. which is why i think they're not a perfect opposites attract trope and why people don't trope them like that. but i am me, so i'd love to see it regardless asdkfjk
https://x.com/dandy_voice/status/1845322130868809970 I present to you, jsng falling over, and chngbn standing up automatically, and then standing awkwardly. I have no idea what it means, but I would love your thoughts.
IT MEANS JISUNG IS HIS BABBBBYYYY. love the hesitation... the fact that he was the only one that stood up and stood up QUICK. his instinct to help and make sure jisung is okay having to pivot to point and laugh because he realizes jisung doesn't actually need his help. it makes me crazy how changbin's instincts are always so cautious with jisung. reminds me of that one stay week live where jisung is standing on that platform on wheels and changbin rushes to steady it for him... gotta be one step ahead of disaster 🤧
i have a question!! how do you think the binsung dynamic changes when it's 3racha? chan's total willingness to both baby and be babied seems (to me, at least) make changbin more willing to treat jisung that way too? i would LOVE to hear your thoughts though!!
WAHHH GREAT QUESTION. i agree, re: babying and babied chan. i think chan really changes things between them. he makes binsung so much stickier than they are when it's just them. 3racha is really its own solar system in a way, right. all these inside jokes and established dynamics that feed off each other plus their aligned work flow and goals. binsung are way more bro-y and less careful with each other when chan is there -- like i think this is a more authentic peek into how they are with each other off camera than them interacting one-on-one, simply because chan alleviates the expectation and attention of any moment they're stuck in together. chan is SUCH a good temperature gauge because he can sort of... steer them at times. if jisung is going too hard, he can reel him in or if changbin is moody, he can tease him out of it. not that i think binsung are incapable of that on their own, but things are SOOO much more malleable with chan there.
changbin is way more willing to indulge chan than he is jisung, and jisung finds it really easy to be sincerely obsessed with chan in a way that he could never be with changbin simply because the embarrassment would kill him. i love love when binsung band together to tease chan. i think changbin is much more likely to following jisung's directive in a 3racha setting, like when jisung ropes him into messing with chan. changbin doesn't initiate a ton of that stuff, but he will go along with it, and that's such a sweet spot with both jisung and chan, they both really love when changbin plays along with them.
actually i just ran into this video because i'm rounding up all my binsung tweets, but during a stage game jisung gets annoyed because changbin can't guess what he's saying and he goes to jokingly choke changbin out, and changbin looks at CHAN who is sitting there watching them and smiles at HIM. like idk, it's like a electric circuit where the current has to go through all the parts to make a full loop, they're just in tune with each other in a way binsung on their own struggle to be.
as a trio they've really practiced and learned each other's boundaries so they can figure out their work and interpersonal flow, and i think that does bleed into binsung's dynamic as well because they understand the work they have to put into understanding each other and it's worth it to do that. it's just that binsung on their own have different approaches and expectations, but chan bridges that gap with his understanding of them both.
as a bnsvnger you're my lord and savior not gonna lie
PLEEEEASE... i'm just some guy who can't shut up. thank you so much for being here with me 🙏✨
me, in a slinky evening gown and fur stole, long cigarette holder in one hand and a fifth of bourbon in the other: binsung. get inside each other, darlings. now
wow you're so beautiful to me. you tell 'em!
There's something that chngbn does whenever jsvng flirts with him onstage he bites his lips and his ears become so red and he can't keep eye contact with js it's cute and sexy at the same time
he's ALWAYSSS BITING HIS DAMN LIP WITH JISUNG. wish he would do something about it tbh!!!
i love how it's like. he's horny and ALSO like he's trying his damnedest not to smile too big at jisung's antics -- going back to keeping his ego in check. locked into this bit where he won't let himself overreact even though jisung is so literally so cute and funny to him. jisung literally drives him NUTS and he bites his lip and turns away LMFAO
another person here to talk abt bnsng…. i also want to talk abt their pre debut days and jsng having a lot of respect and feeling very competitive towards chngbn, knowing how he used to be the best rapper in the company and then this guy shows up and he’s got better skills and better ways of approaching life and maybe he befriends ppl jsng had trouble getting close to and he gets through it all with ease and idk if i were him I’d let jealousy kill me tbh. but he didn’t, seeing chngbn like that made him want to work even more on his own craft and on his social skills and get better at things, chngbn really pushed him to be his better self
i do think within the idol system, there's an expectation that you won't always be the best and other people will have greater strengths than you, so i think jisung was prepared for that reality in some way hence not really being jealous, but the competitive nature of the system helped him focus in a specific way as he honed his skills. but then the flipside of being a creative genius was this like excruciating interpersonal dynamic he had with basically everyone sdklfj love his little anecdote in the jilix 2kr where he told felix he asked changbin how to talk to him because jisung didn't know where to begin.
i definitely think changbin has been an influence on jisung in all those ways, but i also think they're really different in the way they pursue things. part of jisung's arc has kind of been learning that. trying things different ways and learning what works for him, especially with self-discipline and, seemingly, his mental health.
i think a lot of my noodling relies heavily on assumption so you can disregard this but i personally love the idea that changbin "avoiding" jisung was him deciding that actually he couldn't help jisung or hold him to his standard and that created distance between them when maybe he was genuinely trying to mentor him before. but it's like SO much energy to pour into one guy when you have 6(/7) others that make the entire team. and in that time, changbin realized he wasn't really in a position to scold jisung and jisung chilled out a little more and figured out the dynamic he needed to have with others and that change kinda booted them into this fascinating space of closeness that they're navigating now 🧐
god alex your binsungisms are incredible to me. i did not have brainrot for them until i read one of your fics and then it was like a switch in my head flipped and suddenly the world changed. i truly don't get why their dynamic is not explored more!!! because the way you mapped it out just now is like yeah.......YEAH!!!!!!! i started to write like 3 fics for them and i don't know if they will ever get finished and posted but if they do i can only hope you would consume and enjoy them the way i do yours since it is partially thanks to you<3
their dynamic really is underrated!! i think it's because people don't really look at them TT both of them have more popular ships with more overt fanservice so it's like why go digging for fossils when there's seashells littering the beach, but obviously i think their dynamic is some of the best in skz just by virtue of how weird they are about each other and the many ways it can be interpreted.
it's sooo exciting to me that i flipped that switch for you!! i am so serious when i say it's an honor to be that person. 3 fics is SO many, i am stoked to hear it. i hope you're inspired to finish and bless the tag with your words 🙏✨
Different person about bnsvng. I have always thought that chnbn was way more socially adept than jsng, so a lot of early jsng's worst traits just made no sense to him. Jsng in the beginning was a scrappy, sensitive, insecure little guy puffing up his chest. But also talented. There is this episode that they talk about when they met, where some dance instructor asks them to rap battle and jisung "wins". and he was probably a little shit about it. I don't think chngbn understood jsng, and just thought he was an asshole. I think as the years have gone on, he has understood jsng better, but sometimes I think he still can't bring himself to baby jsng.
I think chngbn has always had what jsng wants friends and stability.
YEAH i totally agree about predebut and rookie years impacting their relationship, like changbin has talked at length about how he settled the dongsaengs fights for them and while the wording is vague but from what we have heard about their fights, i do assume that he's mostly talking about JISUNG'S fights. like it takes a lot to be the guy who is smoothing things out when jisung literally won't stop fighting with the others. i love changbin admitting that he lied to the members separately about the other person apologizing so they would stop being mad. at the end of the day, he's only a year older than these other boys LMFAO
another roman empire of mine is in their 2kr when they're talking about skinship and jisung wanting changbin's love where changbin is like "when i was avoiding you, you thought i hated you?" and that wording is really so important to me, like imagining a time where changbin was so genuinely fed up with jisung's shit that he was like idk you're not my responsibility so do your own thing, and then them having to navigate that "break" in their relationship and come back from it in a way that was genuine for them. i think jisung complaining in the 2020 varieties about changbin not giving him attention was his way to try to control changbin keeping his distance, but obviously i have no real concept of that timeline! just that they got infinitely hornier in 2021.
i LOVE how you said "can't bring himself to baby jisung" because i think that's such a huge part of how they interact with each other as well. i think changbin won't spoil jisung because jisung's ego and what changbin perceives as his ego. changbin has a hard time playing into it when jisung wants to be the center of attention and he has a habit of pulling away if jisung wants to rope him into fanservice. like part of changbin doesn't want to indulge jisung for his own reasons, and IT MAKES ME CRAZYYYYY LMAO actually that's one of my favorite things about them, because when they do play along and when they do something sweet or cute or horny it's like the ultimate indulgence and it makes them both smile so dopey and blush and be super weird like. that's beautiful. THE TENSION.
What's your bnsvng roman empire? Bonus points if it's not their hug lol
NOT THE HUG i'm cryinggg honestly the hug itself, as a singular event, is kind low on my binsung ranking simply because it was straight forward. there was cause for it, it was celebratory and something you would expect in that situation. but the hug's Impact, the Lore, the Meta... so meaningful that changbin would like... see jisung needing comfort and commit to it for SO long on stage just to soothe his precious dongsaeng. then it spawning an entire fundamental dynamic moment -- inspiring how we translate literally all their interactions... it's rare that ships have a singular moment of definition like that. not like the big bang, but like the first creature walking on land -- monumental and propelling us towards more complex arrangements...
like the FIRST thing i think of is that one 210809 live changbin did where he talked about jisung and their skinship -- of course that's inspired by the hug lore! but god he spent SO long how jisung was so cute all the time, and how he treated jisung cutely and would tickle his chin, AND how he actually did do more skinship with jisung, but jisung was the one who got flustered and wouldn't let him. then he realized that he still didn't try skinship with jisung as much as other members and he was like sorry hanie..........
it makes me crazy, especially from the angle of like... the skinship thing was such a set up for jisung just because he wanted to be the center of attention, and he wanted skinship publicly, and he wanted changbin to do it more -- but ultimately jisung wanted skinship because it translated something specific to the fans -- proof he is loved by this person. but when it came down to it changbin was like completely unwilling to do it publicly while jisung begged for it, but he DID do it privately and jisung couldn't handle it!! and like the... shrinking from it privately because it's harder to accept when it's actually just them makes me so fucking crazy. changbin admitting that he did it more so jisung wouldn't be as awkward. years later it's still a hurdle they haven't overcome because it was such a roadblock for so long.... the way their touch cannot be careless or thoughtless, but can be impulsive and impactful is like the CRUX of so much of their physical tension. even when they're trying to do something naturally, they are always weighing how it's been seen and viewed by others but ALSO how it's being interpreted by each other... RAAAAAH crazymaking!!!