17 reasons why svt deekay *___*
Feb. 20th, 2021 01:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sunwalkrohhh i'm horribly embarrassed to be writing this but as someone who is perpetually in a svt dokyeom/deekay/dk/lee seokmin moment i think it's only right that i do this... for all that i've been a svt fan [1357 days, and counting] and active on twitter [thousands and thousands of tweets, i'm too terrified to check] i've actually never taken the time to fully articulate why seokmin is My Emotional Support Kpop Boy besides the general gesticulating n crying on twitter and that is an actual shame.
inspired by xia's essay on soonyoung - such a great read, please please please check it out, i'm still in the middle of it myself jadkhfjf - and kai's lovely lovely words about soonyoung too, which made me cry T__T
so here's a love letter in the form of a list [warning, it's stupid long]. thank you in advance if you do end up reading this and apologize for the influx of words. it got away from me...
before i begin, i just want to say a couple things:
1. his smile
[this video: he goes from all serious to :DDD in 0.2 secs because the staff called him handsum and he got all shy]
it would be criminal not to start with this. i know everyone and their moms talk about seokmin's smile but no really.... T_____T really look at this and tell me you are not endeared. i've said this before [dec 21, 2017] but when he smiles his eyes LITERALLY look like ☆彡 ITS JUST SO :DDD instant serotonin boost every single time. as a smile enthusiast and someone who loves to see other people happy/equate smiling with happiness... seokmin's smile is one of my favorite things in the entire world. mainly because it's such a spectacle and a sight to behold.
i get absolutely gutted by the sight of it sometimes to the point of tears because he's not someone who does anything by halves. i really don't think this is any different - his smile is the kind that explodes and unfurls and blooms one his face, without a second's warning, without anything else holding it back. seokmin is very free with his smiles, which is. so nice. so very nice.
my favorite smiles are displayed above, of course he has the polite :) or :] ones but these? these are my favorite, where you get to see his tiny cheek dimple(!), and get to (usually) hear his little laugh/chuckle that follows. there's so much that emotion stored in seokmin, i feel like, and he's not one to skimp out on feeling/expressing the full magnitude of it. his smile is a prime example of it. i can't imagine what it's like to have the full force of it directed at you if i can already feel it from a screen. it makes sense that he's always compared to the sun; he's always one of the first seventeens to offer up a smile, whether to diffuse the mood in the room or because he is so very genuinely happy being where he is, right now, with his people. he has a smile that makes you want to return the favor. there are some people who i would do anything in order to keep that smile on their face, and i think it goes without saying that seokmin is one of them.
2. his laugh
seokmin's smile is almost always followed by his laugh, which i'm obsessed with. again, as someone whose love language is probably keeping my people happy, which includes invoking laughter and smiles whenever i can, it just makes me absolutely delighted to hear that sound. simply put: hearing him be so happy makes me happy beyond belief. not to mention, it kind of bleeds out of him too, the way his smiles do ;___; i say this because seokmin is a Physical Laugher. he's someone who will express his emotions in multiple ways just because one dimension isn't enough to properly capture what he's feeling.
he's the first to get out of his chair to laugh, or the type to lean over into someone's space to share his laughter and it's just !!!!! every time i see it. in the last 218bros live you can see how he leans back onto vernon as he laughs up at him [soooo much fondness there...] and here you can see him turn to and seek out jihoon's hands almost instantly.... seokmin's such a people person i shrivel up every time i think about it a little too much he just enjoys having someone else there to share himself with. i also think it's so cute that you can always catch him laughing the background of going svt, even when the cameras aren't on him.
there's this one laugh of his recently, which has become a personal favorite. i'm not sure if i can find it or properly describe it, but he'll clap his hands together and smile and go, HA HA HA HA, all low and chesty. it's one that is totally for the cameras, but sometimes, when a member turns to identify the source of the sound he'll go right back to his regular one out of embarrassment and it'll morph halfway. someone should categorize all svt laughs i'd endorse the hell out of that project
3. mic: ON
svt dokyeom is so, so loud. granted, all of svt are, but specifically this one!!! this kind of ties into (1) and (2), if i'm being honest. i think of seokmin as someone who is too big for his body, someone who tends to be messy because everything spills out of them, whether he means to or not. it just kind of .... happens? he's so vocal about everything, and i really love that??? it's kind of a way for him to be excited about things and also shake off his nerves. he'll go YAHA!!! or YAHO!!! to pick up the mood, alongside soonyoung/seungkwan who are also the mood makers + the ones who usually will go break the ice a lot of the time in programs.
it's very silly but it works! and i admire a lot about him. it takes a whole lot of bravery to be loud and to take up space. i'm a little bit on the shyer side, more hesitant to be so overwhelmingly loud. but seeing seokmin as he is, despite all his worries & thoughts, he is, at his very core, a speak first and think later kind of guy. it makes me really fond. he really will just say anything that comes to mind that, silly goose, and i can't help but say "that's really my guy!" i don't even get embarrassed anymore.
i think because we are lucky enough that we get all this seventeen content, we also get to see how the seventeens receive him, and it gives me a lot of courage to try and do the same in my own little corner of the world. cheesily enough, i think seokmin has really helped me experience the world as it should be: bright and sharp and full of love, instead of being too scared to even jump in the water to make my splash.
4. mic: ON (2.0)
okay now for the Real Thing. MAN'S MIC IS ALWAYS ON. his adlibs!!!! he has so much fun on stage ;___; you can always hear him yeehawing in the background with soonyoung and all that jazz. he brings soooo much energy with him!!!
maybe this is a very well, duh moment, especially because seokmin is a main vocal, but i think a lot of people often take him for granted. he is just so incredibly, so very good at what he does (all of svt are, really). actually, seriously, one of the best in the industry, alongside seungkwan. i will never ever not stop to talk about their voices and how talented they are and how sometimes carats really do just slap the "mariah carey" label on them and leave it at that without truly understanding how powerful seventeen are with those two leading them. i apologize for getting sidetracked asjdfhkasjh
we're here to talk about seokmin's voice, because it's my favorite thing in the entire world. it's warm and lovely and so incredibly rich, just like honey. someone left a cc asking me my favorite seokmin verses + honestly i'm stumped, because i just love the sound of his voice and every time he does sing i swoon. i'd know it anywhere. a special verse to me, i'd have to say, is the way he starts off 9-TEEN because i'm a Sentimental Fool and i heard them perform it when i was 19 and it felt so special. one of my favorite things about seventeen is that they always say things like "let's walk this road together" and "you're my youth" which to me means so much more than fanciful "i love you"s, because it's almost like they're telling me i've got a place to call home with them, always, in the time that we spent together ;__; and seokmin's voice is the perfect embodiment of that, in my opinion. it just feels so warm and welcoming T____T
i am in no way classically trained but i do truly think his voice is phenomenal. it's one thing to sing so smoothly but another to do it stably, especially with seventeen's crazy choreos. unbelievably enough, he's only gotten better over the years. you can really tell the difference with ode to you (2019) seokmin (yes, this is /that/ video). when you watch their performances of old songs and compare them to how he sounded when they had just released them, the difference is so stark. i really loved the 2020 end of year stages, too, because in my opinion they really showcased his voice so so well [in general, all of seventeen said mics: on during recent stages. and there's nothing sexier than that]. i'm linking the kidult performance, mainly because i'm a sucker for sad songs, but also because there's quite nothing like hearing this blasted into your ears in the dark, staring up at the ceiling, at 2AM in the morning. what i love about seventeen (and seokmin's voice) the most is how much emotion is conveyed and can be held in there (it's so piercing and clear, god) despite the language barrier. music is crazy.
5. excalibur
SEOKMIN WITH A SWORD. first off. WHEEEWW... HE IS SO SEXY!!!! (also when i say sexy i don't mean sexy at all i just think he's so neat). tbh i wasn't on stan twitter all that often during excalibur because of school but i really think this was absolutely monumental for seokmin. A Turning Point, if you will, in terms of personal growth. i was so incredibly proud of him for this. for starters, it's one thing to be an idol singer, but it's another thing entirely to be good enough to be on broadway/musical singing, because those performances are live + you have to act alongside all your singing too. being an idol and a musical actor are similar in the sense that you have to sing to entertain, but the similarities stop there. the techniques (and way of singing) are completely different, and seokmin had to put so much work into that, alongside preparing for hit promotions.
i really, really wish i had gotten to see him on stage to see the fruits of his efforts (and hope to one day, when everything clears up). i have actual shivers from just hearing the (illegal) recordings that kcarats were kind enough to grab, i can't imagine what it was like to see him on stage. yes i have this drive bookmarked. not to mention the inside svt clips where the members were visiting him backstage and said that he was so good they nearly cried (x) (x) (x).
GOD. JUST!!! i know a lot of dokyeom fans hype this up for him but i hope you know that this opportunity was really SO GOOD for him. in terms of career-wise/singing/everything, really. with this role, as arthur kyeom, seokmin was able to show a new side to him that wasn't just svt main vocal/the comedian of the group. he received so much praise from people for doing this (and doing it so well) T____T he was so happy to soak up all the compliments and praise and enjoy the king arthur bit.... him and the xcalibur cast were so cute... he was the baby and they all spoiled & loved him so much. seokmin's really shy by himself and when he's not with seventeen, but i think they were just so welcoming and understanding of him, cheering him on so that he could do his best, and that just made me so emotional, that people outside kpop were able to see seokmin for who he was and recognized how lovely he was, too.
i also think it's so so cute that he lights up when carats ask him about doing more musicals. what made me so happy about excalibur especially was that musical + acting became something that was Seokmin's Very Own Thing and not a role/part of his company-assigned stereotype. carats were able to view him in a different light (more serious!), and i like to think that he learned a lot more about himself too with this opportunity. not to mention he gained so much confidence; he's so much more self-assured and confident nowadays, especially on broadcast content, which is so wonderful to see.
6. his ears
THIS IS ALREADY SUPER LONG I'M SORRY. i'm someone who is terribly endeared by the smallest things, and i think cute/big ears are a constant amongst a lot of my biases [see: seulgi, seunghee, lucas, chanyeol]. i think it's a physical feature that adds so much character but isn't very noticeable until you really stop to look. seokmin's ears stick out a little bit, especially when he slips on a beanie, and it is absolutely adorable to me. he also has this one cartilage piercing that's in a strange place to me, low on the left (?) ear, like right above where you'd get a third. when he got it like last year, around left and right promotions, he lied about having it but then proceeded to post a selca to weverse to show it off, the doofus.
7. his catchphrases
i didn't know how to categorize or name this one but it's his tendency to coin a phrase he really likes and abuse it to pieces, even if it's cheesy as hell. what can i say? he's committed to the bit, 10000%, and i am so terribly endeared to pieces by it. i respect it!!!! he really likes to find ways to use commonplace words/phrases and incorporate a little bit of dokyeom into it, which makes me all the more devastated because he uses them really often to the point where it becomes this running joke/secret that we share because only carats would know that it's His if they heard it [see: doahae, kyeom night, DOUGH-KYEOM???!!! etc.]. also fun fact, when fansigns were a thing, he would always draw these specific smiley faces like this ♡ ~ ♡ on his answers right next to the person's name, so that it'd feel more personal. he even drew it on all the merch/trading cards when asked to draw smiley faces. it's sooooo stupid cute.
8. tenderisms
[this one video but it's just cuts of seokmin placing his hand near minghao's face/neck]
obliterate me now please. i don't even know what to say about this i just think seokmin is one of the first members to be holding hands/leaning into someone else's space and initiate touch, which makes me terribly fragile. again, it's my "he has so much love in him" thesis, and how he's always reaching for someone to share what he's feeling with, because he's not that best at words, like wonwoo is. he's more of the type to show people what they mean to him instead of tell them how he feels. tackling an injured vernon in a hug! hugging and clinging onto a cheol who is trying not to be endeared! he's always got a hand on someone's shoulders to congratulate them, or a hand on the head for pats well done, or sitting close to someone else. the fact that he's one of the members that are more prone to initiating skinship just adds to the overall Friend Shape that seokmin assumes in my mind. he is just so comfy! and opens his arms for everyone, which is always so nice to have in a friend. i think about how jihoon is usually one who doesn't really like to be touched but for seokmin he always makes that exception and/or is the one who initiates things. he is [scoups voice] the best.
9. second kindest after god...
this section kind of goes without saying. seokmin is so very, ineffably, good. this is something that's only been bolstered over the years. it's something that hasn't really changed - which i like to think, means that this aspect of his image is as close to his true self, as authentic as it can be. i know idols always have one hand on their idolsona at all times, but i really do think seokmin is truly kind-hearted.
he's one of the members that get recognized for his niceness and his kindness (his whole presence just oozes warmth and empathy to me). even when unprompted, it's something that a lot of them jump to point out. this is also really important to me, because i think it's really easy to sometimes forget the good things, the kind gentler moments (love is hosted in the small things!) that people don't always stop to appreciate. seventeen in particular, i've noticed, are always ones to circle around to these types of things, like when soonyoung tries to thank all the staff behind their perfomances, and mingyu's heartfelt thanks to essays at the end of albums. the members also try make sure that seokmin's efforts get recognized in this category, and we'll get bits and pieces of anecdotes and stories about seokmin off-cam that make me so heartfond. because it showcases the real him, and then i'll look at him and think, wow, you really do exist! i'm super grateful that they do this - it just feels really intimate and contributes heavily to the found family-isms of being seventeen's fan, how they'll recognize the littlest things and constantly revisit them to give value and recognize their significance to each other.
it's very clear to me how much seventeen loves him and his kindness.
10. ... and how, in his own way, he is fighting that, one mingyu at a time :D
i'm hesitant to describe seokmin as nice sometimes, just because there's this tendency that a lot of people have to flatten seokmin this guy who's Just Very Kind and Nice and leave it at that. even though the modifier is good at heart, being described as "nice" becomes a weighted blanket. it's very comfortable, and everybody loves you for it, but it gets hard for you to leave. and sometimes, you feel trapped because people perceive you in this way and holding you up to impossible standards (who can be nice all the time?) and you feel a bit burdened by something that is supposed to be a compliment. i once had a lecturer talk about "the tyranny of nice" and i think that is a perfect way to describe what being called nice does to you, even if it does sound contradictory.
although a bit of the above is a bit of self-projection, i do know that he's mentioned how burdensome the title can be, and how it's impossible standards to be held to. no one can be nice all the time! and that's just a fact of life. we're all human. i'm here to postulate that seokmin is actually insanely petty and is very childish (the type to hold grudges!) when it comes to anger. he might not hold it for long but he's very good at feeling all the emotions in that tiny moment in which he does have them. i would say this is evidenced by that one booseok story where they were fighting when going out canoeing with yjh over the smallest of things, and they took a picture anyways to commemorate the moment.
my favorite dynamic to show this currently, is seokgyu. it's like, the nice guy that everyone loves is nothing but mean to you. which. *chefs kiss* the nature of their banter is very, I'm Annoyed Because You're Actually So Perfect, and i think seokmin goes out of his way to purposely "poke the bear" and ruffles mingyu's feathers to destroy his ace image (all in good fun!) because 1) it's fun and 2) mingyu can't do anything about it while they're on camera. i'm here for it entirely. even if you have to learn to be angry, seokmin, i'm glad you're learning how to do it, and that you're allowed to be it.
11. his little habits!
he licks his lips a lot. someone please get him chapstick. svt are double or triple million-sellers by now and he still does not own a single chapstick or lip balm? BLASPHEMY.
or, sometimes, when he's sitting down, he'll swing his legs or bounce his knees together. he looks positively pocket sized when he does this.
he also has this habit of sweeping his hands through his hair. and then doing the tongue thing. or like.. opening his mouth? and gulping air? idk how to explain it please just watch the videos!! ty twitter user dkzones btw i'm not in anyway being paid for this they're just amazing.
12. he's a dog person.
listen. i am opening my eyes up to cats but first and foremost i am a dog person. probably also because i am puppy-like in nature. and i am so happy that seokmin is such a dog person. (that one vlive where he went to a DOG cafe?) (x) (x) not to be me, but i am EXACTLY the same. seokmin's only sin is that he wants one of those fluffy white rat dogs that every single korean idol seems to have. seventeen alone have 4? 5? woojoo, kkuma, aji, babpul (yo i think babpul had a kid but i do not know for sure and am too lazy to look up), bookeu. i will acquit him on woojoo's account but PLEASE. seokmin. variety. [prayer hands emoji]
i'm also going to extend this category to kids too - any sort of creature, really - because every time he lays eyes on them, he forgets where he is and forgets that the cameras are rolling and becomes infatuated/obsessed with getting attention from or playing with them. he's obsessed!!!! he just gravitates towards them honestly... he'll coo and pout and immediately start talking in baby/pout. he won't stop there though. he'll mirror their expressions and bob his head and make kissy sounds to try to get them to come to him and just ^__^ alongside it. you can see the hearts in his eyes when he looks at them. he's so good with kids and pets too?? they love him back, tenfold. aren't they supposed to be great Good Person Detectors? anyways. my point exactly. he's just the best.
13. his passion & dedication to his craft
[that one time he cried because he couldn't get his part right for the recording of home (which in all honestly, is probably somewhere around 15s or less) and he'd been practicing for three days.]
i think this is something that gets overlooked a lot. it's been mentioned several times through the years, offhandedly, but sometimes when we get videos like the one seungkwan posted; his hit the road episode right before oty LA, where he was visibly upset that he wasn't able to perform to his best ability despite battling a cough, which was then followed by this junhui interview about how passionate seokmin is; this relay message from vernon. you can really see how hard he works behind the scenes, and how seventeen get to see him at these moments and are equally inspired by the fact that he works so hard to be so good at what he does. seokmin is a bit of a perfectionist, despite his silliness and his loudness. he puts everything that he has into everything he does, and when it doesn't turn out the way he wants it to, he gets very severe with himself. i think it stems from the logic that, if he put all he had into the recording or the moment or the stage, and it still failed, then it must be something on his part, his mistake. and he'll get very down in the dumps about it, because he expects better. all of seventeen consider themselves lucky to be doing what they're doing for a living, and i constantly see that in seokmin. he takes his singing so seriously. it's not just his job, it's a responsibility. everything that he does, he does because he wants to be the best at it, because so many eyes (and hearts) are on him now. again, he's not one to do things by halves, and it's on stage that this shines the brightest to me.
in my eyes, seokmin is someone who is so harsh on himself because he has difficulty reconciling the version of himself/the opinions people have of him with the version of himself in his head. because in his head, he can never meet his own standards. and that's something i relate to so heavily, on an emotional level. in my notes i wrote, "seokmin, to me, seems like the kind of person i am to myself", and i stand by that 100%. it's a theme i write a lot in my fics, embarrassingly enough, this idea that you can give love so easily but find it incredibly difficult to receive it yourself, despite the heaps and loads of love that's surrounding you. the version of you that exists doesn't seem to line up with what other people are saying about you, and it makes you frustrated that you can't be that person to those people.
when i look at seokmin, i see someone who's very precious to me. we're not always made aware of all the hard work that goes into the endless amount of content that seventeen churn out for us, nor the tumultuous feelings that come with always being on display/under the spotlight, so i am just very grateful that i exist, in this universe and this specific moment in time, where i get to enjoy seventeen as they are.
14. a crybaby!
[that one vlive where he was just telling carat that he was so grateful and he starting sniffling out of nowhere]
[this one video of the camera panning to him during the fan-made version of us, again at incomplete and a tear sliding down his cheek with his smile so bright]
i say this with so much fondness. he's such a crybaby, and maybe he's rubbing off of me because i never used to be, but now you can honestly catch me crying at the drop of a hat. seokmin has so much feeling stored in him and sometimes that means it comes out as tears instead of words that he has to say and that's perfectly okay! it makes me T____T seeing deekay cry (SO DEVASTATED) because usually he'll be talking and just so overcome with emotion that it'll happen without a second's warning, surprising even himself. if any seventeens are near they'll just fly to him to comfort him. and even when he cries, he laughs or smiles, like he can't believe it himself, which. ouch. yeah.
it means the world to me that he's so open with his emotion. seeing the way he cries so freely (how he feels things to extremes), funnily enough, has only increased my admiration for him. emotion is a tricky thing, and to have it displayed so openly/have people perceive you when you do express your emotion is something that terrifies me (from what i know about astrology, i'm a virgo sun/rising coupled with scorpio moon so it makes sense that i want to appear perfect all the time) but seeing someone i love so much being able to express themselves in this way has made me want to be like him more!
side note: seventeen really are idols in every sense of the word to me. i admire their way of thinking/the way they carry themselves so much. i've talked about this with xia before and they're really so good at taking the time to stop and reflect and be grateful to all the circumstances that built them. it's evident in their choreos, how they'll always refer to themselves in the past, taking a step back to remember who they were and use that to propel where they want to be. of course, they're not perfect, and i'm not completely blind as to think they hang the sun, but i do truly think they're really good people, and it's done me good so far to try and bring their philosophies into my life.
15. and a scaredy cat. self-proclaimed coward!
[him getting up to bungee jump and taking 30 minutes to gather the courage to do it. you can tell time's passed because the clips of the members on the ground show them, initially, very enthused, and then less so as time passes. wonwoo even ends up lying down in the shade when he realizes there is not going to be a jump any time soon. vernon says he managed to record a 20 minute video and as he turned it off seokmin jumped so they didn't even get the footage for it.]
[what if i die? then you die!]
[just talking out of his ass in that tag/haunted house going seventeen episode as he runs for his life.]
what makes me laugh the most is that he's so visceral in his fear. none of this is for show. he's genuinely terrified for his life. what a baby.
16. his little mole
recently he went on live to point out his little cheek mole (and proceeded to call it a chocolate chip, which devastated me for hours on end after that). for him say that it's a point for people to like about him [because he likes it] made me so happy. he's been pointing it out a lot more lately. i think it affects me the most because i have some moles too that i'm not the biggest fan of, but also because in krn culture/kpop in general, there's a lot of focus on removing blemishes/powdering over imperfections, so for dokyeom to come out and explicitly say that he likes his little cheek mole, and that he specifically asks the makeup artists to not cover it up makes me T_____T
soo many fanartists draw him with it as well and it's really become his defining mark! this can also tie back into his catchphrases and the way he likes to personalize little tidbits/cater them to him and give them that Seokmin twist. it's so cute (i feel like a broken record).. but it really is, because i can pick him out almost instantaneously with it!
17. the way he's literally everyone's favorite/everyone seems to have a soft spot for him ;___;
everyone loves him. you could tell me i'm wrong but i'm not.seokmin's right in the middle, older of the maknaes but the youngest of the hyungs, but i feel like he's never been one to stress titles or formalities. he's just a Friend to everyone in seventeen. again case in point: jihoon selectively choosing to koala seokmin, chan being grateful that seokmin is someone he can go to for advice and for strength, soonyoung giving seokmin a lot of kisses/being very touchy with him, minghao fondgazing at seokmin, mingyu alternating between taking care of seokmin and putting him in his place, him being jeonghan's favorite person/dormmate, always, how integral he is to seungkwan (going to watch volleyball games together!) and vice versa in terms of emotional support, being roommates with vernon (and vernon entertaining all antics), junhui helping seokmin with his pronunciation, seungcheol being silly with seokmin etc. etc.
going to reference that bungee episode again. he took 30 minutes to jump but everyone is so so happy for him and they're praising him for a job well done. there are members waiting for him as he gets off the boat, and they all sit there for a moment as he's eating to recharge his energy (a little embarrassed, i think, that he took so long to jump) and they're all reassuring him that it's no big deal, that he did well, and try to lift his spirits instead. they're really a family.
i love them.... i love them all so much.....
thank you if you've made it all the way here. goodness gracious i didn't know that i had this all in me. this is probably terrible, 99% ramble and 1% coherent thought. here's an honorary trophy for making it through this. 🏆 i feel like this isn't even half of what i want to say (about seventeen, about seokmin). but, if you did enjoy this, please let me know your thoughts! about any of the seventeens, or dokyeom or anything! i'd love to discuss more with you, either here or on my twitter![[twitter.com profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/e0caa790ec10/-/twitter.com/favicon.ico)
loveiees
inspired by xia's essay on soonyoung - such a great read, please please please check it out, i'm still in the middle of it myself jadkhfjf - and kai's lovely lovely words about soonyoung too, which made me cry T__T
so here's a love letter in the form of a list [warning, it's stupid long]. thank you in advance if you do end up reading this and apologize for the influx of words. it got away from me...
before i begin, i just want to say a couple things:
- that all of this is my own personal interpretation/projection/how i view seokmin! in no way am i saying that This Is Exactly How He Needs To Be Perceived, nor that this is the only way to know him
- first and foremost he is an idol, and i am grateful for all the snippets that we do get to see from going seventeen/inside seventeen/vlive [svtcontent is never ending] but i cannot pretend that i know anything for sure about him beyond what is shared with us.
- i do not know korean at all. fan + vlive translations are all i have to go by.
- and finally, i could never hope to capture All of seokmin in a single post. humans are funny like that.
1. his smile
[this video: he goes from all serious to :DDD in 0.2 secs because the staff called him handsum and he got all shy]
it would be criminal not to start with this. i know everyone and their moms talk about seokmin's smile but no really.... T_____T really look at this and tell me you are not endeared. i've said this before [dec 21, 2017] but when he smiles his eyes LITERALLY look like ☆彡 ITS JUST SO :DDD instant serotonin boost every single time. as a smile enthusiast and someone who loves to see other people happy/equate smiling with happiness... seokmin's smile is one of my favorite things in the entire world. mainly because it's such a spectacle and a sight to behold.
i get absolutely gutted by the sight of it sometimes to the point of tears because he's not someone who does anything by halves. i really don't think this is any different - his smile is the kind that explodes and unfurls and blooms one his face, without a second's warning, without anything else holding it back. seokmin is very free with his smiles, which is. so nice. so very nice.
my favorite smiles are displayed above, of course he has the polite :) or :] ones but these? these are my favorite, where you get to see his tiny cheek dimple(!), and get to (usually) hear his little laugh/chuckle that follows. there's so much that emotion stored in seokmin, i feel like, and he's not one to skimp out on feeling/expressing the full magnitude of it. his smile is a prime example of it. i can't imagine what it's like to have the full force of it directed at you if i can already feel it from a screen. it makes sense that he's always compared to the sun; he's always one of the first seventeens to offer up a smile, whether to diffuse the mood in the room or because he is so very genuinely happy being where he is, right now, with his people. he has a smile that makes you want to return the favor. there are some people who i would do anything in order to keep that smile on their face, and i think it goes without saying that seokmin is one of them.
2. his laugh
seokmin's smile is almost always followed by his laugh, which i'm obsessed with. again, as someone whose love language is probably keeping my people happy, which includes invoking laughter and smiles whenever i can, it just makes me absolutely delighted to hear that sound. simply put: hearing him be so happy makes me happy beyond belief. not to mention, it kind of bleeds out of him too, the way his smiles do ;___; i say this because seokmin is a Physical Laugher. he's someone who will express his emotions in multiple ways just because one dimension isn't enough to properly capture what he's feeling.
he's the first to get out of his chair to laugh, or the type to lean over into someone's space to share his laughter and it's just !!!!! every time i see it. in the last 218bros live you can see how he leans back onto vernon as he laughs up at him [soooo much fondness there...] and here you can see him turn to and seek out jihoon's hands almost instantly.... seokmin's such a people person i shrivel up every time i think about it a little too much he just enjoys having someone else there to share himself with. i also think it's so cute that you can always catch him laughing the background of going svt, even when the cameras aren't on him.
there's this one laugh of his recently, which has become a personal favorite. i'm not sure if i can find it or properly describe it, but he'll clap his hands together and smile and go, HA HA HA HA, all low and chesty. it's one that is totally for the cameras, but sometimes, when a member turns to identify the source of the sound he'll go right back to his regular one out of embarrassment and it'll morph halfway. someone should categorize all svt laughs i'd endorse the hell out of that project
3. mic: ON
svt dokyeom is so, so loud. granted, all of svt are, but specifically this one!!! this kind of ties into (1) and (2), if i'm being honest. i think of seokmin as someone who is too big for his body, someone who tends to be messy because everything spills out of them, whether he means to or not. it just kind of .... happens? he's so vocal about everything, and i really love that??? it's kind of a way for him to be excited about things and also shake off his nerves. he'll go YAHA!!! or YAHO!!! to pick up the mood, alongside soonyoung/seungkwan who are also the mood makers + the ones who usually will go break the ice a lot of the time in programs.
it's very silly but it works! and i admire a lot about him. it takes a whole lot of bravery to be loud and to take up space. i'm a little bit on the shyer side, more hesitant to be so overwhelmingly loud. but seeing seokmin as he is, despite all his worries & thoughts, he is, at his very core, a speak first and think later kind of guy. it makes me really fond. he really will just say anything that comes to mind that, silly goose, and i can't help but say "that's really my guy!" i don't even get embarrassed anymore.
i think because we are lucky enough that we get all this seventeen content, we also get to see how the seventeens receive him, and it gives me a lot of courage to try and do the same in my own little corner of the world. cheesily enough, i think seokmin has really helped me experience the world as it should be: bright and sharp and full of love, instead of being too scared to even jump in the water to make my splash.
4. mic: ON (2.0)
okay now for the Real Thing. MAN'S MIC IS ALWAYS ON. his adlibs!!!! he has so much fun on stage ;___; you can always hear him yeehawing in the background with soonyoung and all that jazz. he brings soooo much energy with him!!!
maybe this is a very well, duh moment, especially because seokmin is a main vocal, but i think a lot of people often take him for granted. he is just so incredibly, so very good at what he does (all of svt are, really). actually, seriously, one of the best in the industry, alongside seungkwan. i will never ever not stop to talk about their voices and how talented they are and how sometimes carats really do just slap the "mariah carey" label on them and leave it at that without truly understanding how powerful seventeen are with those two leading them. i apologize for getting sidetracked asjdfhkasjh
we're here to talk about seokmin's voice, because it's my favorite thing in the entire world. it's warm and lovely and so incredibly rich, just like honey. someone left a cc asking me my favorite seokmin verses + honestly i'm stumped, because i just love the sound of his voice and every time he does sing i swoon. i'd know it anywhere. a special verse to me, i'd have to say, is the way he starts off 9-TEEN because i'm a Sentimental Fool and i heard them perform it when i was 19 and it felt so special. one of my favorite things about seventeen is that they always say things like "let's walk this road together" and "you're my youth" which to me means so much more than fanciful "i love you"s, because it's almost like they're telling me i've got a place to call home with them, always, in the time that we spent together ;__; and seokmin's voice is the perfect embodiment of that, in my opinion. it just feels so warm and welcoming T____T
i am in no way classically trained but i do truly think his voice is phenomenal. it's one thing to sing so smoothly but another to do it stably, especially with seventeen's crazy choreos. unbelievably enough, he's only gotten better over the years. you can really tell the difference with ode to you (2019) seokmin (yes, this is /that/ video). when you watch their performances of old songs and compare them to how he sounded when they had just released them, the difference is so stark. i really loved the 2020 end of year stages, too, because in my opinion they really showcased his voice so so well [in general, all of seventeen said mics: on during recent stages. and there's nothing sexier than that]. i'm linking the kidult performance, mainly because i'm a sucker for sad songs, but also because there's quite nothing like hearing this blasted into your ears in the dark, staring up at the ceiling, at 2AM in the morning. what i love about seventeen (and seokmin's voice) the most is how much emotion is conveyed and can be held in there (it's so piercing and clear, god) despite the language barrier. music is crazy.
5. excalibur
SEOKMIN WITH A SWORD. first off. WHEEEWW... HE IS SO SEXY!!!! (also when i say sexy i don't mean sexy at all i just think he's so neat). tbh i wasn't on stan twitter all that often during excalibur because of school but i really think this was absolutely monumental for seokmin. A Turning Point, if you will, in terms of personal growth. i was so incredibly proud of him for this. for starters, it's one thing to be an idol singer, but it's another thing entirely to be good enough to be on broadway/musical singing, because those performances are live + you have to act alongside all your singing too. being an idol and a musical actor are similar in the sense that you have to sing to entertain, but the similarities stop there. the techniques (and way of singing) are completely different, and seokmin had to put so much work into that, alongside preparing for hit promotions.
i really, really wish i had gotten to see him on stage to see the fruits of his efforts (and hope to one day, when everything clears up). i have actual shivers from just hearing the (illegal) recordings that kcarats were kind enough to grab, i can't imagine what it was like to see him on stage. yes i have this drive bookmarked. not to mention the inside svt clips where the members were visiting him backstage and said that he was so good they nearly cried (x) (x) (x).
GOD. JUST!!! i know a lot of dokyeom fans hype this up for him but i hope you know that this opportunity was really SO GOOD for him. in terms of career-wise/singing/everything, really. with this role, as arthur kyeom, seokmin was able to show a new side to him that wasn't just svt main vocal/the comedian of the group. he received so much praise from people for doing this (and doing it so well) T____T he was so happy to soak up all the compliments and praise and enjoy the king arthur bit.... him and the xcalibur cast were so cute... he was the baby and they all spoiled & loved him so much. seokmin's really shy by himself and when he's not with seventeen, but i think they were just so welcoming and understanding of him, cheering him on so that he could do his best, and that just made me so emotional, that people outside kpop were able to see seokmin for who he was and recognized how lovely he was, too.
i also think it's so so cute that he lights up when carats ask him about doing more musicals. what made me so happy about excalibur especially was that musical + acting became something that was Seokmin's Very Own Thing and not a role/part of his company-assigned stereotype. carats were able to view him in a different light (more serious!), and i like to think that he learned a lot more about himself too with this opportunity. not to mention he gained so much confidence; he's so much more self-assured and confident nowadays, especially on broadcast content, which is so wonderful to see.
6. his ears
THIS IS ALREADY SUPER LONG I'M SORRY. i'm someone who is terribly endeared by the smallest things, and i think cute/big ears are a constant amongst a lot of my biases [see: seulgi, seunghee, lucas, chanyeol]. i think it's a physical feature that adds so much character but isn't very noticeable until you really stop to look. seokmin's ears stick out a little bit, especially when he slips on a beanie, and it is absolutely adorable to me. he also has this one cartilage piercing that's in a strange place to me, low on the left (?) ear, like right above where you'd get a third. when he got it like last year, around left and right promotions, he lied about having it but then proceeded to post a selca to weverse to show it off, the doofus.
7. his catchphrases
i didn't know how to categorize or name this one but it's his tendency to coin a phrase he really likes and abuse it to pieces, even if it's cheesy as hell. what can i say? he's committed to the bit, 10000%, and i am so terribly endeared to pieces by it. i respect it!!!! he really likes to find ways to use commonplace words/phrases and incorporate a little bit of dokyeom into it, which makes me all the more devastated because he uses them really often to the point where it becomes this running joke/secret that we share because only carats would know that it's His if they heard it [see: doahae, kyeom night, DOUGH-KYEOM???!!! etc.]. also fun fact, when fansigns were a thing, he would always draw these specific smiley faces like this ♡ ~ ♡ on his answers right next to the person's name, so that it'd feel more personal. he even drew it on all the merch/trading cards when asked to draw smiley faces. it's sooooo stupid cute.
8. tenderisms
[this one video but it's just cuts of seokmin placing his hand near minghao's face/neck]
obliterate me now please. i don't even know what to say about this i just think seokmin is one of the first members to be holding hands/leaning into someone else's space and initiate touch, which makes me terribly fragile. again, it's my "he has so much love in him" thesis, and how he's always reaching for someone to share what he's feeling with, because he's not that best at words, like wonwoo is. he's more of the type to show people what they mean to him instead of tell them how he feels. tackling an injured vernon in a hug! hugging and clinging onto a cheol who is trying not to be endeared! he's always got a hand on someone's shoulders to congratulate them, or a hand on the head for pats well done, or sitting close to someone else. the fact that he's one of the members that are more prone to initiating skinship just adds to the overall Friend Shape that seokmin assumes in my mind. he is just so comfy! and opens his arms for everyone, which is always so nice to have in a friend. i think about how jihoon is usually one who doesn't really like to be touched but for seokmin he always makes that exception and/or is the one who initiates things. he is [scoups voice] the best.
9. second kindest after god...
this section kind of goes without saying. seokmin is so very, ineffably, good. this is something that's only been bolstered over the years. it's something that hasn't really changed - which i like to think, means that this aspect of his image is as close to his true self, as authentic as it can be. i know idols always have one hand on their idolsona at all times, but i really do think seokmin is truly kind-hearted.
he's one of the members that get recognized for his niceness and his kindness (his whole presence just oozes warmth and empathy to me). even when unprompted, it's something that a lot of them jump to point out. this is also really important to me, because i think it's really easy to sometimes forget the good things, the kind gentler moments (love is hosted in the small things!) that people don't always stop to appreciate. seventeen in particular, i've noticed, are always ones to circle around to these types of things, like when soonyoung tries to thank all the staff behind their perfomances, and mingyu's heartfelt thanks to essays at the end of albums. the members also try make sure that seokmin's efforts get recognized in this category, and we'll get bits and pieces of anecdotes and stories about seokmin off-cam that make me so heartfond. because it showcases the real him, and then i'll look at him and think, wow, you really do exist! i'm super grateful that they do this - it just feels really intimate and contributes heavily to the found family-isms of being seventeen's fan, how they'll recognize the littlest things and constantly revisit them to give value and recognize their significance to each other.
it's very clear to me how much seventeen loves him and his kindness.
10. ... and how, in his own way, he is fighting that, one mingyu at a time :D
i'm hesitant to describe seokmin as nice sometimes, just because there's this tendency that a lot of people have to flatten seokmin this guy who's Just Very Kind and Nice and leave it at that. even though the modifier is good at heart, being described as "nice" becomes a weighted blanket. it's very comfortable, and everybody loves you for it, but it gets hard for you to leave. and sometimes, you feel trapped because people perceive you in this way and holding you up to impossible standards (who can be nice all the time?) and you feel a bit burdened by something that is supposed to be a compliment. i once had a lecturer talk about "the tyranny of nice" and i think that is a perfect way to describe what being called nice does to you, even if it does sound contradictory.
although a bit of the above is a bit of self-projection, i do know that he's mentioned how burdensome the title can be, and how it's impossible standards to be held to. no one can be nice all the time! and that's just a fact of life. we're all human. i'm here to postulate that seokmin is actually insanely petty and is very childish (the type to hold grudges!) when it comes to anger. he might not hold it for long but he's very good at feeling all the emotions in that tiny moment in which he does have them. i would say this is evidenced by that one booseok story where they were fighting when going out canoeing with yjh over the smallest of things, and they took a picture anyways to commemorate the moment.
my favorite dynamic to show this currently, is seokgyu. it's like, the nice guy that everyone loves is nothing but mean to you. which. *chefs kiss* the nature of their banter is very, I'm Annoyed Because You're Actually So Perfect, and i think seokmin goes out of his way to purposely "poke the bear" and ruffles mingyu's feathers to destroy his ace image (all in good fun!) because 1) it's fun and 2) mingyu can't do anything about it while they're on camera. i'm here for it entirely. even if you have to learn to be angry, seokmin, i'm glad you're learning how to do it, and that you're allowed to be it.
11. his little habits!
he licks his lips a lot. someone please get him chapstick. svt are double or triple million-sellers by now and he still does not own a single chapstick or lip balm? BLASPHEMY.
or, sometimes, when he's sitting down, he'll swing his legs or bounce his knees together. he looks positively pocket sized when he does this.
he also has this habit of sweeping his hands through his hair. and then doing the tongue thing. or like.. opening his mouth? and gulping air? idk how to explain it please just watch the videos!! ty twitter user dkzones btw i'm not in anyway being paid for this they're just amazing.
12. he's a dog person.
listen. i am opening my eyes up to cats but first and foremost i am a dog person. probably also because i am puppy-like in nature. and i am so happy that seokmin is such a dog person. (that one vlive where he went to a DOG cafe?) (x) (x) not to be me, but i am EXACTLY the same. seokmin's only sin is that he wants one of those fluffy white rat dogs that every single korean idol seems to have. seventeen alone have 4? 5? woojoo, kkuma, aji, babpul (yo i think babpul had a kid but i do not know for sure and am too lazy to look up), bookeu. i will acquit him on woojoo's account but PLEASE. seokmin. variety. [prayer hands emoji]
i'm also going to extend this category to kids too - any sort of creature, really - because every time he lays eyes on them, he forgets where he is and forgets that the cameras are rolling and becomes infatuated/obsessed with getting attention from or playing with them. he's obsessed!!!! he just gravitates towards them honestly... he'll coo and pout and immediately start talking in baby/pout. he won't stop there though. he'll mirror their expressions and bob his head and make kissy sounds to try to get them to come to him and just ^__^ alongside it. you can see the hearts in his eyes when he looks at them. he's so good with kids and pets too?? they love him back, tenfold. aren't they supposed to be great Good Person Detectors? anyways. my point exactly. he's just the best.
13. his passion & dedication to his craft
[that one time he cried because he couldn't get his part right for the recording of home (which in all honestly, is probably somewhere around 15s or less) and he'd been practicing for three days.]
i think this is something that gets overlooked a lot. it's been mentioned several times through the years, offhandedly, but sometimes when we get videos like the one seungkwan posted; his hit the road episode right before oty LA, where he was visibly upset that he wasn't able to perform to his best ability despite battling a cough, which was then followed by this junhui interview about how passionate seokmin is; this relay message from vernon. you can really see how hard he works behind the scenes, and how seventeen get to see him at these moments and are equally inspired by the fact that he works so hard to be so good at what he does. seokmin is a bit of a perfectionist, despite his silliness and his loudness. he puts everything that he has into everything he does, and when it doesn't turn out the way he wants it to, he gets very severe with himself. i think it stems from the logic that, if he put all he had into the recording or the moment or the stage, and it still failed, then it must be something on his part, his mistake. and he'll get very down in the dumps about it, because he expects better. all of seventeen consider themselves lucky to be doing what they're doing for a living, and i constantly see that in seokmin. he takes his singing so seriously. it's not just his job, it's a responsibility. everything that he does, he does because he wants to be the best at it, because so many eyes (and hearts) are on him now. again, he's not one to do things by halves, and it's on stage that this shines the brightest to me.
in my eyes, seokmin is someone who is so harsh on himself because he has difficulty reconciling the version of himself/the opinions people have of him with the version of himself in his head. because in his head, he can never meet his own standards. and that's something i relate to so heavily, on an emotional level. in my notes i wrote, "seokmin, to me, seems like the kind of person i am to myself", and i stand by that 100%. it's a theme i write a lot in my fics, embarrassingly enough, this idea that you can give love so easily but find it incredibly difficult to receive it yourself, despite the heaps and loads of love that's surrounding you. the version of you that exists doesn't seem to line up with what other people are saying about you, and it makes you frustrated that you can't be that person to those people.
when i look at seokmin, i see someone who's very precious to me. we're not always made aware of all the hard work that goes into the endless amount of content that seventeen churn out for us, nor the tumultuous feelings that come with always being on display/under the spotlight, so i am just very grateful that i exist, in this universe and this specific moment in time, where i get to enjoy seventeen as they are.
14. a crybaby!
[that one vlive where he was just telling carat that he was so grateful and he starting sniffling out of nowhere]
[this one video of the camera panning to him during the fan-made version of us, again at incomplete and a tear sliding down his cheek with his smile so bright]
i say this with so much fondness. he's such a crybaby, and maybe he's rubbing off of me because i never used to be, but now you can honestly catch me crying at the drop of a hat. seokmin has so much feeling stored in him and sometimes that means it comes out as tears instead of words that he has to say and that's perfectly okay! it makes me T____T seeing deekay cry (SO DEVASTATED) because usually he'll be talking and just so overcome with emotion that it'll happen without a second's warning, surprising even himself. if any seventeens are near they'll just fly to him to comfort him. and even when he cries, he laughs or smiles, like he can't believe it himself, which. ouch. yeah.
it means the world to me that he's so open with his emotion. seeing the way he cries so freely (how he feels things to extremes), funnily enough, has only increased my admiration for him. emotion is a tricky thing, and to have it displayed so openly/have people perceive you when you do express your emotion is something that terrifies me (from what i know about astrology, i'm a virgo sun/rising coupled with scorpio moon so it makes sense that i want to appear perfect all the time) but seeing someone i love so much being able to express themselves in this way has made me want to be like him more!
side note: seventeen really are idols in every sense of the word to me. i admire their way of thinking/the way they carry themselves so much. i've talked about this with xia before and they're really so good at taking the time to stop and reflect and be grateful to all the circumstances that built them. it's evident in their choreos, how they'll always refer to themselves in the past, taking a step back to remember who they were and use that to propel where they want to be. of course, they're not perfect, and i'm not completely blind as to think they hang the sun, but i do truly think they're really good people, and it's done me good so far to try and bring their philosophies into my life.
15. and a scaredy cat. self-proclaimed coward!
[him getting up to bungee jump and taking 30 minutes to gather the courage to do it. you can tell time's passed because the clips of the members on the ground show them, initially, very enthused, and then less so as time passes. wonwoo even ends up lying down in the shade when he realizes there is not going to be a jump any time soon. vernon says he managed to record a 20 minute video and as he turned it off seokmin jumped so they didn't even get the footage for it.]
[what if i die? then you die!]
[just talking out of his ass in that tag/haunted house going seventeen episode as he runs for his life.]
what makes me laugh the most is that he's so visceral in his fear. none of this is for show. he's genuinely terrified for his life. what a baby.
16. his little mole
recently he went on live to point out his little cheek mole (and proceeded to call it a chocolate chip, which devastated me for hours on end after that). for him say that it's a point for people to like about him [because he likes it] made me so happy. he's been pointing it out a lot more lately. i think it affects me the most because i have some moles too that i'm not the biggest fan of, but also because in krn culture/kpop in general, there's a lot of focus on removing blemishes/powdering over imperfections, so for dokyeom to come out and explicitly say that he likes his little cheek mole, and that he specifically asks the makeup artists to not cover it up makes me T_____T
soo many fanartists draw him with it as well and it's really become his defining mark! this can also tie back into his catchphrases and the way he likes to personalize little tidbits/cater them to him and give them that Seokmin twist. it's so cute (i feel like a broken record).. but it really is, because i can pick him out almost instantaneously with it!
17. the way he's literally everyone's favorite/everyone seems to have a soft spot for him ;___;
everyone loves him. you could tell me i'm wrong but i'm not.seokmin's right in the middle, older of the maknaes but the youngest of the hyungs, but i feel like he's never been one to stress titles or formalities. he's just a Friend to everyone in seventeen. again case in point: jihoon selectively choosing to koala seokmin, chan being grateful that seokmin is someone he can go to for advice and for strength, soonyoung giving seokmin a lot of kisses/being very touchy with him, minghao fondgazing at seokmin, mingyu alternating between taking care of seokmin and putting him in his place, him being jeonghan's favorite person/dormmate, always, how integral he is to seungkwan (going to watch volleyball games together!) and vice versa in terms of emotional support, being roommates with vernon (and vernon entertaining all antics), junhui helping seokmin with his pronunciation, seungcheol being silly with seokmin etc. etc.
going to reference that bungee episode again. he took 30 minutes to jump but everyone is so so happy for him and they're praising him for a job well done. there are members waiting for him as he gets off the boat, and they all sit there for a moment as he's eating to recharge his energy (a little embarrassed, i think, that he took so long to jump) and they're all reassuring him that it's no big deal, that he did well, and try to lift his spirits instead. they're really a family.
i love them.... i love them all so much.....
thank you if you've made it all the way here. goodness gracious i didn't know that i had this all in me. this is probably terrible, 99% ramble and 1% coherent thought. here's an honorary trophy for making it through this. 🏆 i feel like this isn't even half of what i want to say (about seventeen, about seokmin). but, if you did enjoy this, please let me know your thoughts! about any of the seventeens, or dokyeom or anything! i'd love to discuss more with you, either here or on my twitter
