jigyu primer
Nov. 21st, 2024 08:35 pmI'm totally showing my age here, but back in the heyday of livejournal, there was a little thing called "primers". They were basically explanation posts about a ship, character, group, or piece of media, and could be used as a starter pack of sorts. They're very fun to read, and as someone who's written a few, very fun to make as well!! A few years ago, I wrote this up for a friend of mine that wanted to know why I like jigyu so much, and today I ended up revisiting it, and wanted to update it a bit. So here it is! My take on jigyu, their relationship, their dynamic, and why I like them so much.
I'll have links for pretty much everything that I talk about, but due to the nature of the thing, this is a personal interpretation. If you see them in a different way, that's perfectly fine! Also, due to how hilariously long this is, I wanna emphasize that none of this is real. I think most (hopefully all) people in the RPF space know that, but still. I may speak with conviction at points, but that's because this is a fan post in a fan space about fandom things. I'm not making any serious statements about anyone's sexuality or the genuine nature of their relationship, because I don't know these dudes. I'm just playing around with public personas in a clearly labeled fan space! It's not any deeper than that! But it sure is fun. Now let's get into it!
Okay. JIGYU. As cliche as it sounds, it started when they were kids. They both joined Pledis back in 2011, and as far as the order goes, Woozi was the first member placed in Seventeen and Mingyu was the third (Hoshi's in between them) and they've known each other for going on 13 years now. Many of the other members found Woozi terrifying (I was gonna say the younger members, but Jeonghan was also afraid of him lol) but Mingyu never, ever did.
This video is pointed to a lot when talking about predebut jigyu, and it's great. Woozi asks Mingyu for a hug and Mingyu gives it to him, but my favorite part is a little bit afterwards, where Mingyu goes to touch Woozi again and Vernon tries to stop him (no one else can touch scary Jihoon-hyung like this) but Mingyu’s like ??? and does it anyway, and Woozi is perfectly content to be cuddled.
They're like this constantly in 17tv videos. Clinging, hugs, cuddling, hand holding, kisses, piggyback rides, love confessions, and SO much wrestling. Woozi has even grabbed Mingyu’s dick on camera. (and all Mingyu did about it was giggle and hug him???) 17tv is part of why I ship them so hard, because I got into Seventeen during lockdown and inhaled all of the content I could find, including predebut videos, and they're EVERYWHERE. And Jihoon is almost always the initiator of it, always wants it and actively seeks it out. When Mingyu isn't paying attention to Jihoon he gets very "I am feel uncomfortable when we are not about me?" and steals his attention. Mingyu was paired up with a fellow trainee Samuel for an activity once and Woozi did a sexy dance in front of everyone to sway Mingyu into being his partner instead. It worked but also… Samuel was only 12 and just wanted to play with Mingyu for a while. Poor kid.

The piggyback ride thing in particular was very constant. The members joked about it, and the fans asked questions about it, and it's even in the official choreography for Adore U. (Which Woozi takes full advantage of, btw. Please enjoy this video of Woozi doing something to Mingyu’s ear with his mouth at the Taipei stop during their Ideal Cut tour. In front of god and everyone. They're horrible.)
When asked if Woozi was heavy to carry around all the time, Mingyu said that he wasn't. "Hyung is always only light in my heart."
But then Seventeen debuted, and Woozi was fully leaning into his "I don't like physical contact thing", which we all know is kinda bullshit, but it's the image he wants to portray so we're gonna respect it. And Mingyu does! Mingyu is one of the few members that doesn't push physical touch on Woozi as a joke like Hoshi and Scoups, and he also didn't get all gasp-y and overreact about physical contact from Woozi the way Dk and Seungkwan did at the time (again, as a joke). It was all as a joke and while I don't think any of those other members pushed Woozi too far or anything, I think that the consideration and respect shown there was something that really helped Woozi continue to feel safe and comfortable around Mingyu during debut. He knew Mingyu wasn't going to put him in a situation for laughs, would accept interactions without making it A Thing, and in moments where touch was initiated, acted more like it was just between them, instead of a fanservice-y show for others. Because of that, Jihoon continued to allow things like piggy back rides and hugs (and… scalp massages?) from Mingyu, despite squirming away from others and swearing up and down that he didn't like it.



Mingyu’s just so careful about it. He's so good at picking his moments, and leaving Woozi happier than when he found him (that video is Woozi directly after the 201229 hug btw), and that care and respect is one of my favorite parts about their dynamic. (I think it's also part of why Mingyu always, always, always looks at Woozi when he laughs—or migrates all the way across the set to hold his hand.) Mingyu loves physical contact; he would smother Woozi in it if he could (especially bc he gets absolutely delighted when Woozi blushes) but he doesn't. He wouldn't unless Woozi wanted him to, which is why this moment is so lovely: Mingyu wanted to hug Jihoon on stage, so he asked before the stage started if he could, and Jihoon said yes. Poor Jihoon almost died about it, but he said yes!!! That (and Mingyu not pushing for the hug to be closer, just smiling at Jihoon like a lovestruck idiot) shows that they're two people that understand each other's love languages really well and have a lot of respect for each other's needs and public boundaries, which implies a lot of compromise and open communication and I like that a lot!!!

(Lee Jihoon and the mortifying ordeal of letting your giant affectionate boyfriend kiss you on the cheek in front of all your friends)
Because Mingyu’s so good about the physical contact thing, they touch each other a lot; some part of them is usually touching when they sit next to each other, Woozi gives Mingyu belly rubs, and they hold hands so often that them holding hands is in the official Snap Shoot choreography. 99% of the time that we see it, it's Mingyu reaching for Woozi's hand, but when Woozi was asked which of the two of them reached out first more often, he thought about it really hard before saying that he didn't know. Which might mean there's some hand holding going on behind the scenes that we don't know about.
They just plain ol like each other. They named each other as who they eat meals with the most, they make each other laugh with the smallest, silliest things, they watch anime together, they go on marvel movie dates, and they openly find each other attractive. Mingyu said that "Woozi-hyung is cute all the time, even when he's pretending he isn't", randomly compliments him, loves to point out how pretty his hands are, and when he was staring at Woozi so much during a vlive that Woozi asked him why Mingyu kept looking at him, answered with "I just like it/you".

(I couldn't find the interview where they talk about going out to eat together (as you can see, the og tweet has been privated and I didn't do my due diligence in saving the screenshot) so please accept this tweet as my apology and supporting evidence. The "faves" I'm referring to in my tweet are Mingyu, Vernon, and DK, if memory serves, and Mingyu named Woozi.)

(this is an instagram post made by the original BongBong plushie that Mingyu made, before they became an official mascot. He carried them around during svt's first world tour and made instagram posts from their pov! It was very cute, and Mingyu used it as a way to document where he went and what he did on tour. Apparently, according to the tags, BongBong thinks that Woozi's hands are pretty, has a crush on Woozi, and is going on their first date with him. Good to know. Congrats to BongBong.)
There's also a phenomenon that I call F O N D, which is basically them looking at each other like this:



and it happens all the time. I would say that more often it's Woozi looking at Mingyu like that, but these gifs make me want to cry, so.


(woozi saying “wow!” out loud in the second gif cracks me up like yeah mingyu is VERY in love with you. pls get with the program. your ears are SO red, dude. nice ruby reference.)



Also they write songs about each other. And for each other. Come To Me is a jigyu song, you cannot change my mind (the love interest in the song is literally described as a tree), Rock with You was inspired by Woozi seeing Hip Hop Unit's sexy motorcycle concept photos (apparently, they embody passionate love. which inspired a song that is arguably about sex. okay then.) And Mingyu’s rap in Domino:





Though Mingyu does say that to him, love is pink.

This isn't everything, but I did want to add some bonus moments that are very important to me but I couldn’t find a smooth place to put them in:
-Mingyu being so painfully jealous watching SCoups kiss Woozi that Hoshi straight up hits him and says “What, do you want to do it too?”
-this ultimate rom-com moment
-Mingyu being completely unable to figure out how to hold up 3 fingers while trying to discreetly remove Woozi’s hand from his back pocket during a photo op
-a picture of Mingyu was the lockscreen on Woozi’s phone for a while! Woozi said that it was a private picture of Mingyu's face that he "decorated in a lovely way" (put a cute filter on it). He asked Mingyu if he could share the photo with fans, but apparently Mingyu declined, because he never ended up doing it. After Ruby came out, Woozi’s lockscreen was the Ruby fanart that Mingyu drew for him. (While he was drawing, Mingyu tried to talk about Woozi's performance on MCountdown that day and got so flustered mentioning Woozi’s unbuttoned shirt that he started stuttering.)
-Mingyu posting on his Instagram story from a hotel looking freshly fucked out while a Joji song plays and Woozi is lying on the couch in the background