salomesbed

first dreamwidth post!! if the formatting is abysmal, that's bc i literally have no idea how this platform works i am simply typing into the void and hoping something blinks back. god so anyway renhyuck. i am literally obsessed with them. more importantly, they are absolutely obsessed with each other. these boys are so stupidly whipped. we are all subject to their exhibitionism and every time i get a notification for dream content i let out a very prolonged sigh and go fetch my tinhat that i used to only get out for special occasions. 

this post is less of an analysis or theory and more of a general braindump of my thoughts on renhyuck because i simply have so many. expect absolutely no coherence or structure, just a ramble about renhyuck dynamics because they genuinely make me feel like a zoo animal getting mental enrichment toys every time they have a new Moment™. so here is that.

ok ok so WHY renhyuck. because like, renhyuck have always been a kind of peripheral ship (both in wider nct shipdom and my own canon) like when 6dream were a thing haech and renjun kind of defaulted to each other because thats how the group splits up easily - and we all seemed to have vaguely positive associations with it but now its like. THE dream ship. like i know thats a tall order and i am speaking from a place of bias but the go-to company pairings have kind of been starving us recently, and renhyuck have been by far the most vocal pairing during hot sauce era. my point is, renhyuck went from pretty middling ship to almost mainstream in a little under a year, with SO MANY moments coming from basically the last quarter or so. 

my answer, and honestly THE answer, is just that their dynamic hit a turning point both in how we perceive them as fans, and in how they perceive each other. i think pre-hot sauce, they kind of got viewed as the dream version of dotae - that sort of constantly bickering, light hearted jabs, clowning on and trying to embarrass each other - so they got labelled as the tom and jerry bffs rather than the more In Love ships like nomin and chenji. and to some extent, they’re still like that, like no force on heaven or earth could convince hyuck to stop messing with renjun whenever the opportunity presents itself, however i think it’s definitely changed a little bit. 

like i said at the beginning, they are truly just completely obsessed with one another. and i use the word obsessed because thats exactly what it is - they’re just so… enamored? like, they just pay so much attention to each other. even setting aside the touchy-feely fanserviceisms they constantly feel like theyre always hyperaware of the other. And that’s the thing about how i think the clowning on each other (specifically haech clowning on rj) has changed. I think in the past renjun made a good target bc he’s pretty reactive (aries duh) and would understand that hyuck was just screwing with him and isn’t actually trying to upset him - so add those together and clowning on renjun = good source of entertainment for the members + the camera. so now hyuck is still messing with renjun, except this bitch is so obviously doing it for renjun specifically. like, he cares about entertaining the others but he is far more concerned with entertaining renjun. off the top of my head, i automatically go to that backstage clip where he’s pretending they don’t know each other and he’s like “so you’re renjeon?” and rj is like “no its JUN” and nobody else (cept the camera) is there and he’s not trying to embarrass him in front of the other members he just knows that renjun hates having his name mispronounced and plays into that. like i am absolutely not the first person to draw parallels with pulling pigtails but yeah that’s exactly it. he wants attention and specifically renjuns attention and the clowning is the best way to get that.

and renjun. i have not forgotten about you. you are also stupidly whipped. like yknow how i said renjun is super reactive and that’s why he’s a good target for hyuck’s nonsense? he is also super reactive in that i have never watched anybody be more transparent about their heart eyes. its actually kind of impressive. 

renjun literally acts like haechan is the funniest, smartest person of all time, and like yeah i get that deservedly so but the boy seems to have completely given up on trying to pretend otherwise. i think that generally dream (and nct. and the entire world) tend to go along with whatever hyuck wants to do because he takes on a very naturally socially dominant persona and everyone recognises that the conversation is just better to take part in (and to watch) if haechan is cajoling the others into some nonsense. but whilst everyone else goes along with him because of that reasoning, renjun just seems to enjoy hyuck speaking SO MUCH? haechan is obsessed with teasing, and renjun is obsessed with being teased. It’s like balancing out the eco system or something

and that’s why they make me want to hurtle directly into the sun, because other dynamics are good, yeah. vaguely one-sided (i’ll save that for another time) johnmark? great. literal opposite halves fated to be together chenji? love it. but i seriously don’t think theres another ship of two people who just seem to ENJOY each other so much. like just completely tunnel vision, i-turn-to-this-person-whenever-something-funny-happens, heart eyes nonsense. 

so renhyuckisms. ok so technically anything renhyuck do counts as a renhyuckism bc tinhattery but i must unpack the specific renhyuckisms that i think could probably kill me if they happened frequently enough so please bear.

so obviously renhyuck do A LOT of fanservice because kpop but like something something a trace of the true self remains in the false self. like objectively it is fanservice but not all fanservice has to be lee soo man behind the camera with a gun telling them to hold hands. i would even go so far as to say that sometimes it comes from a place of genuine affection. sometimes it can be because they just wanted to do that, even. sounds crazy, i know. my point is, if there was some kind of quota to be met for the amount of fanservice they had to do, renhyuck passed that point about twelve back hugs ago. but the different ways the two of them approach fanservice is like SO GOOD let me explain.

so as we know haech is a literal insane person and has taken to spending every single vlive infringing upon renjun’s personal space and it’s honestly pretty par for the course for him, since i think a big part of an idolsona is whatever role they take in ships. like, in basically every mainstream pairing, winwin is the awkward object of affection, ten is the hyper-flirty one making the other flustered, chenle is super forward and teasing etc etc. in almost every hyuck ship, he seems to take the role of the pursuer - he initiates fanservice, he gets all pouty and needy, he gushes over the other one, and like he absolutely still takes on this role in renhyuck HOWEVER what’s different is the way in renhyuck he seems genuinely incapable of having a taste of his own medicine. and thats like, the best trope ever. haech loves going on about how cute renjun is and getting all whiny when he wants attention but when renjun initiates it??? when haechan goes from the pursuer to the pursued??? he’s INSUFFERABLE. like fidgeting with his hands, blushing, not making eye contact levels of ridiculousness. i am of course specifically thinking about the elbow kiss because he’s SO CONFIDENT when holding up his arm and then renjun actually DOES IT and it’s like, oh?? thought you wanted his attention?? why suddenly so quiet?? yeah that’s what i thought.

i don’t have a category for this but i want to briefly mention the foot volleyball episode of 7llin because it is genuinely 20 solid minutes of renhyuckisms and also jisung is having a panic attack in the background but it’s good hes fine.

so hyuck is renjun’s jock boyfriend and that is the end of that sentence because applying boyfriend and [GUNSHOTS] labels to renhyuck on here gets you literally crucified apparently but like. he is. that is what they r

this game is so life changing bc it just shows why renhyuck works so well like. obviously the combination of the two of them being on the same team and hypercompetitive and screaming bloody murder at the umpire uwu. fucking insane couples work man. BUT ALSO renjun did not want to play that game like renjun does not care about sports he does not give a single fuck about whether the ball is out he could have just traded with jisung but he fucking played because haechan wanted his guy on his team !! and that’s his guy !! renjun fucking tried ok man!! that’s love!! when renjun pretends to get hurt and is like “i can’t do it anymore” and hyuck is like “one more?” and rj is immediately like “okay<3” they r just sooooo.

also haech spends the entire time keeping rj involved like both he and jeno are clearly better at the game but haech keeps passing to him and getting him to serve and doing little skits with him because he knows rj is putting in the effort too and like am i absolutely reading way too much into a volleyball game for the sake of my renhyuck tunnel vision? yes. but also it is not my fault that theyre in love sorry

god so that’s like the briefest overview of the brainspace renhyuck takes up for me which is in all honesty a frightening amount. i could go into idolsonas and possessiveness and renhyuck versus other ships but i think the high is wearing off and i’m starting to remember where i am so like. overall to sum up in conclusion my thesis statement is that renhyuck whipped.