why #sunjay

[lackingdaze]

(source)

initial misconceptions

i actually started writing this sunjay thesis in...march? when i first got into enhypen and i thought sunjay was the funniest thing ever because i thought they didn’t like each other all that much.

if you’ve ever seen the iconic “i don’t understand you” screenshot from their first vlive together, you would know what i’m talking about. on the exterior, they look like polar opposites? and it felt like they were just . . . orbiting around each other. also some of their “selfies”/moments together were sunoo giving his customer service smile while jay isn’t even looking at the camera. [1] [2]

i was also really confused by how jay is obsessed with jungwon (‘04) and doted on him, but not sunoo (‘03)? [though understandly, yangjungwon is #cutest_in_the_world]

i went back to the notes i took on sunjay’s vlives and seriously at the time their dynamic to me could be summed up as:

q: what are you jealous of each other for
jay: being shameless

which is just %$%^$. but i digress.


the actual #bestieship of it all

over the questionable amount of time i’ve spent consuming enha content over the past few months though, i came to realize: sunoo and jay are actually pretty close?

while i don’t think they really “knew” each other as trainees per the structure of belift, they got along pretty uh well on i-land. for example, one of my favorite interactions was when they were on the same team for “dive into you”:

sunoo: you should be leader ^^
jay: okay
sunoo: i’ll do my best to support you ^^
jay: okay good

aside from the blatant, blunt jaypark-isms of it all, i saw this interesting reddit post where op speculates that sunoo is not that open with physical affection but jay is understanding of that somehow? i can’t confirm or deny because um i haven’t paid that close attention, but if it is, it certainly illuminates these instances where sunoo hugs jay / jay also hugs sunoo.

also there is that whole thing on that "dive into you" ep about how jay made everyone do push-ups because sunoo struggled with pulling off the scorpion dance. once again i am just a parkjay fan.

ok now onto post-debut content. well i think the most obvious one is their vlive. my favorite part of that was the discussion of how they’re both overthinkers, and that’s how they’ve bonded?

a part i didn’t notice the first time i watched it, but noticed now is that sunoo mentions how he “always goes to jay with his concerns.” he’s also mentioned this on enha & hi season 2 episode, during their little heart to heart campfire scene.

to revisit that little note i made earlier about how jay treats sunoo and jungwon differently — i recently learned that jay and sunoo go to school together now! also jay has been going to school with other students sunoo’s age because he took time off to train [edit: the lovely dw user permutative has informed me he actually did not a take year off, he just repeated his first year of hs at hanlim for some reason], so it makes sense to me now why he seems to “dote” less on sunoo despite sunoo being younger? [there’s also like, the jaywonism of it all, but it is better that you hear it from the jaywonists of the world than from me.]

recently for jay’s birthday, sunoo wrote that they’ve gotten closer since going to school together and also released these selfies of them which just. wow they are still so groundbreaking to me.

what else. i’m sure there’s other stuff i’ve missed since i’m not very caught up/and probably never will be all that caught up on enha content, but here is jay comforting sunoo with a little pat on his shoulder when they won on music bank. and here is jay doing his little uh sunoo imitation at a fan meeting while jake sim screams shake that booty in the bg.


why #sunjay?
it’s the humanities nerd / gg stan dynamic of it all, tbh. on the exterior, jay and sunoo look like the abb / the gay one, aka opposite ends of the kinsey scale, but i’m really endeared by their depths?

[also hot take: how straight can jay really be if he’s voluntarily learning FRENCH because he’s into fashion. as someone who also chose to learn french in hs because i was into fashion...um. did we also forget he is a notorious bts fanboy.]

they had pretty different backstories growing up [ex. jay coming from a pretty well off family, living in the states for part of his youth vs. sunoo being a just your average kid going to school in korea and doing gg dance covers] and training wise, so it would make sense for them to not get along, but they still do!

because i am once again just a parkjay fan, i think this speaks to jay’s ability to get along well with everyone. enha members are a bit obsessed with him and constantly sing praise about him, which like, yeah <3

my personal take on sunoo, who is a fellow cancer sun like myself, is that even though he has bright idolsona, he has a bit of shell when it comes to people? which makes it all the more fascinating that he’s bonded with jay, more so than i think anyone else in enha. obv i don’t think this is the same for jay [who seems closer to heeseung and jungwon, members that he has #history with] but sunoo seems to really trust and admire jay, which is just.

[screams into hand]

THE MOST PLEASANT SURPRISE IN ALL OF ENHA DYNAMICS TO ME. i just love it when people who don’t look like they would get along are actually #besties.

my thoughts on writing them

even though i tinhatted them together at first, i’m not very into them as romantic dynamic? let it be known that i have tried writing them romantically, but it just didn’t pan out in the way i thought it would.

i’m a bit obsessed with the idea of them as frenemies who grow close due to being in the same circle of friends, like. sometimes people who vaguely dislike each other upon first impression but are eventually stockholm syndrome’d into tolerating each other and end up forming oddly deep bonds from random connections can be so personal.

alternatively, i see them as that one romcom trope where the mc has a best friend who calls them a dumbass for not seeing what’s right in front of them. i think it could go both ways personally um [jay for sunoo > sunjake, sunoo for jay > heejay SORRY I’M JUST A HEEJAYIST LIVING MY TRUTH.] this basically aligns with a crazy little fic i’m currently writing

ok that’s all i got for now, but yeah i’m just a lot in love with their #besties agenda or whatever. the opposites attract dynamic wins every time.

Comments

[permutative]

i mean u know how i feel about platonic sunjay. VAN IM OBSESSED WITH THIS!! also i love how u inserted jaywon propaganda against ur will AND namedropped heejay & sunjake. ur an icon tbh

++ losing it at the “how straight is jay really” 😭😭💀😔❤️
++ i don’t have a good explanation for why jay is a year behind but it’s not the same reason as beomgyu — it’s not that he took a year off schooling, he literally just repeated his first year of high school after he transferred to hanlim 😭😭 #themoreyouknow

i love your explanation of the sunjay dynamic/awkward_enemies_to_friends of it all and the documentation of the #growth we’ve witnessed over time... who’s doing it like them tbh. CAN’T WAIT TO SEE UR HEEJAY FIC and i love all of ur enha contentz van ❤️❤️