the post-hyperfixation eunreum deep dive

[onetenths]

i originally started writing this post almost two years ago (wow) when i was truly in the hideous depths of my wjsn fixation, and now that ive stumbled my way back to being unemployed, single, and on intermission from uni (i.e. a loser) ive found myself drifting back to the graveyard of wips i left behind. unfortunately, i also no longer have the almost freakish encyclopedic level of knowledge i used to have on yeoreum, which means those wips are currently still graveyarded while i try to regain my bearings.

anyway. this primer was never finished, so im leaving it basically as it was + adding my own post-obession normal person (sort of) musings on yeoreum (& eunseo). new comments are added in italics. <3

small intro

the goal of this post is basically just to:
- help re-solidify my own understanding of eunreum, and;
- compile a whole bunch of my favorite moments into somewhere accessible for posterity

i want to discuss them both individually first, but here's a quick rundown.

eunreum is a ship comprising of two wjsn members: eunseo (son juyeon) and lee yeoreum. both are members of the maknae line, with yeoreum the oldest member of 99z and eunseo the only member born in 98. ever since they met in 2015 and the inception of wjsn in february of 2016, the two have consistently been visible together as a pairing both on and off camera. i still stand by this - however i also possess an unforeseen level of tunnel vision when it comes to them so i really dont know anything else that goes on. however juyeons qdp final appearance truly did cement the eunreum best friends agenda to me. TO ME!!!

son juyeon (eunseo) | 손주연 (은서)

birth date: 27 may 1998
birth place: incheon, south korea
height: ~171-172cm
star sign: gemini

about eunseo🐯

eunseo is one of many moodmakers within wjsn; she has a heap of energy most days and in a good chunk of their content you can see her playing around with almost all the members-- being generally chaotic and a little bit weird sometimes. shes the fourth youngest member of the group and in that regards is considered a 'dongsaeng' to the six members older than her, but she's also super super caring to everyone, and spends more time taking care of the unnies and helping them be functioning human beings than being a stereotypical maknae.

e.g. she's been known for a while for nagging at all the members a lot to do little things like clean up; seola claims shes better at being her mom than her actual mom. one of her most dominant love languages is definitely physical touch, she's probably the member that enjoys and initiates skinship with all the members the most, and in turn theyre all (mostly) willing in letting her do what she wants lol. i think this is true. i really dont remember. i think to me, now, she's much more of a mature presence than i used to view her as--in my head shes quieter, but id attribute this more to the fact i havent watched any group content in like a year haha.

besides her outward, extroverted, ball of energy personality, i'm also inclined to say she's a lot calmer than she appears. you dont know the ins and outs of everyone without being patient and quietly attentive when you need to be. unlike members such as dayoung, who is practically 24/7 go (she is but i'd still disagree with this, like eunseo i think dayoungs got a lot of calm to her as well), eunseo has a relaxed air to her; she likes taking a step back and letting other members speak, and will often urge the quieter members (dawon, yeoreum) to speak up if she's next to or around them while filming. she's confident in herself, incredibly determined, very athletic, cannot multitask for the life of her, and will cry if you dont let her kiss you.

some fun fun misc facts:
- will not eat snacks
- doesnt like sweet things
- cant sleep if she drinks coffee
- once drank four americanos and a red bull in a day, and id be willing to bet its not the first time
- attends university; she gets good grades despite all things idol-related and is super passionate about it
- very good at chinese
- was on real men 300 (really shows how insanely determined she is when she wants something/wants to be good)
- gfriend/viviz's sinb is one of her closest friends, they graduated from high school together and have known each other for ~12ish years

lee yeoreum | 이여름

birth date: 10 january 1999
birth name: lee jinsook (legally changed it around happy(?) era)
birth place: seoul, south korea
height: 162.4cm
star sign: capricorn

about yeoreum 🐿

oh boy... where do i start with her... ill try to keep this from being an actual essay since yeoreum is hands down probably my favourite kpop girl of all time. (she still is) she is, to me, one of the most difficult people to describe in terms of personality.

in wjsn i would say that at first glance yeoreum is the most 'maknae' out of all three 99z. she's super cute and has aegyo practically infused into everything she does, is just very generally a lovely person, and despite dayoung and yeonjung being younger than her (with yeonjung being the 'true' maknae) im not surprised lots of people think she's the youngest based off how all the members dote on her. can never do anything wrong yeoreum. theyre just like me. whats most interesting to me about this though, is that yeoreum is actually the oldest child in her family (she has a younger brother)— because of this she actually has a lot of unnie-like tendencies that don't come out at first.

most notably, yeoreum is so exceptionally selfless and caring. i cannot express this enough: she is so so kindhearted. this is a big facet of her personality, she takes care of the members and people around her a lot and is honestly just an angel a majority of the time. i think this is easier to show than put into words, so here's a non-exhaustive list of yeoreum being the best person ever:

yeoreum, to exy when she was sick: "unnie, when you wake up, there’s porridge in the fridge so heat it up before eating :) I felt bad so I made it before leaving~"
she apparently only got two hours of sleep preparing everything for exy...

when she took care of seola during the scuba diving training. this one is exceptionally dear to me, yeoreum really didnt leave seola's side at all during the entire process, all the members managed to finish the training by the time seola touched the bottom and yeoreum just. didn't leave her

when she gave seola syringes, medicinal rice and dried pollack when yangie was sick unprompted

writing letters for the members during christmas, making cookies the day after soobin asked for them, baking carrot cakes for music bank as snacks and refusing to eat any until all the members had some... just this entire thread

yeoreum: [...] but yuqi might've been going through a hard time one day because she was there crying alone. so i went to give her water
yuqi it hadn't been long since i debuted then so i thought i had to do well [...] it was before i adjugsted to life in korea so i was lonely and i guess i couldn't help but cry [...] she was the first person aside from my members to tell me to "cheer up" so of course she's special. i feel assured whenever i think of yeoreumie. shes someone im really comfortable with.
yeoreum and yuqi's first look magazine interview is a goldmine i recommend reading all of it tbh

making seaweed soup for yeonjung after realizing yeonjung didn't have any on her birthday

yeoreum about dogs: "but i hope you wont raise them just because you find them cute. you have to look after them and be responsible for them more than you think. they're not dolls, and when they're in pain their surgeries might cost more than a human, so i think you need to be able to handle all that and be in a condition where it won't stress you out before you can raise them"
her mom getting worried over yeoreum being worried over yeolmu :(

"seriously, how can there be an angel on earth like that?" - exy

for some more misc observations about yeoreum here's a cc reply i made a while ago. i could talk about a lot of these in more detail but im trying to keep this concise since this is meant to be an eunreum post and not an essay on Lee Yeoreum lmao

for my own future reference, the cc answer:

- yorm is so genuinely selfless and kindhearted as a person i could talk about this all day... when she stayed with seola during the diving training during their debut show, diving with seola so she would be less scared, neglecting finishing the course with the other members so someone would be with seola; taking care of exy when she was sick to the point she only had two hours of sleep; buying seola medicine and medicinal rice when yangie was sick; making cakes every year if she can for the members birthdays to their EXACT taste; yeoreum doesnt typically approach people first but she became friends with yuqi during isac because she saw her crying and wanted to cheer her up; the whole segment of her talking about dogs and yeolmu on pm and how you cant just have a dog because its cute... i could go on
- basically her love language is absolutely acts of service
- her favourite flowers are tulips
- her biggest habits are fiddling with her hands, other peoples hands, and sticking her tongue out
- to add onto the last point; i think people think yeoreum doesnt tend to initiate skinship but imo she definitely does? especially with eunseo (surprising!) dawon and bona... she likes fiddling and holding their hands a lot lol its very endearing, she'll latch herself onto them given the chance
- when shes serious/angry her lisp(? for lack of a better term) goes away
- her voice is actually kinda deep if u listen out for it... i dont want to say its her "natural" voice but i think when shes really relaxed or just not actively trying to show aegyo it comes out
- shes the oldest child in her family
- she has a scuba diving license, went to cooking school for a month predebut, and did taekwondo as a kid
- yorms such a perfectionist; shes mentioned recently she doesnt like making mistakes... i think about this a lot when they post tik toks doing challenges because yeoreum wont goof off like eunseo or dayoung will she takes them so seriously 😭
- it was her idea to bury their phones when they werent allowed to have them
- her legendary window cleaning personal talent ajsdjgldfs
- she has a cat allergy
- when she drinks she becomes an extrovert, when shes drunk she sleeps funny with her lips sticking out idk but thanks eunseo for that tmi i keep it tucked away in the back of my mind at all times
- she counts down to her birthday and will tell the members "D-1 ^^"
- according to herself and the members when shes having a hard time/is mad/not feeling All That Great she wont tell anyone and keeps it to herself

eunreum in fandom

unit name: 문낙 (munnak)
korean ship name: 긍름
english ship name: eunreum
eunreum are so fascinating to me in the context of wjsn fic writing: they're practically best friends and spend so much time together but on the international side they tend to get overlooked a lot.
the most likely reason for this is probably because yeoreum is one of the least biased members internationally and so kind of just... gets forgotten.
its even more fascinating to me given that eunreum are a popular pairing internationally. just not for writing.
i remember at the time of writing that eunreum were also quite popular in the k-rps scene, but i really dont look at that side of the wjsn fandom so i can't say definitively. post the end of 2022 and the start of wjns inactivity i think they've definitely dropped off in popularity as a whole. yeoreums not that popular, and eunseo has more dynamically interesting pairings people are more inclined to explore. especially when yeoreum is hardly biased.

a brief timeline of eunreum

2010/11-ish: yeoreum joins her first company (rough tl, apparently she trained for around 5 years)
2011-ish: eunseo is with pledis
late 2012/early 2013: eunseo joins starship
late 2015: yeoreum joins starship

first meetings: i think the two stories related to how they first met and became friends are adorable. there was a rumour spread around starship about a trainee who was joining them, jinsookie who's good at dancing, and this led to yeoreums first meeting with bona and eunseo.

yeoreum: on my first day, when i went to write my personal information in the managers office, [bona] came into the office carrying something, so i looked over thinking "oh, whats that?" and i saw her and she was so pretty. ...eunseo-unnie was standing outside... and i thought "wow, theyre so pretty, what am i meant to do?"
...
yeoreum: i guess bona-unnie must have been curious about me lol

apparently bona was not subtle at all about just being there to spy on yeoreum, and imagining eunseo as bona's partner in crime is so...
interestingly, since yeoreum is born in january she could have either been considered same age friends as eunseo or same age friends with 99z. they decided in the end that since she was so small and cute that she'd be same age friends with 99z lol.
yeoreum and eunseo became friends through a really heartwarming story that really shows of eunseo's caring tendencies and the contrast between their two personalities:

yeoreum: i came to the company a bit late compared to the other members
yeoreum: and i tend to be really shy.
eunseo: right, she's very shy.
yeoreum: so when i first got into the debuting team, i didn't know what to do.
yeoreum: i had to eat, but since i was still awkward with everyone, i gave up on eating back then!
eunseo: right, you gave up on that a lot.
yeoreum: i dont know why, but i gave up on eating.
eunseo: this foodie gave up on eating!
yeoreum: i didn't like that awkward atmosphere, since i was really shy, so i just sat in a room and sang.
yeoreum: suddenly ㅋㅋ,
eunseo: did i ask you to eat with me?
yeoreum: no. suddenly, someone opened the door and asked, "did you eat?"
yeoreum: [eunseo] suddenly came in with bread
yeoreum: you know that delicious bread? she brought in the bread and said, "if you haven't eaten yet, do you want this?" and i said yes.
yeoreum: so she got the butter, heated it up in the microwave and gave it to me.
yeoreum: i can't forget that moment.

its so sweet. so so sweet. i will never get over this. yeoreum being shy and withdrawn to the point of avoiding the other girls during mealtimes and eunseo coming to bridge the gap.

that's great, but where are you going with this:

good question! lets properly talk about eunreum as a ship now

when i think about eunseo and yeoreum ships, i think eunreum could absolutely be considered the best friend, ride or die, 4lyfers, soulmates ship for the two. eunseo is clingy with all the members, but eunseo and yeoreum are kinda... inseperable? if i had to describe it. they clearly spend a lot of time together and during wjsn ot10 content or basically any content where yeoreum and eunseo are involved, there's a high chance theyre with each other, or paired off with one another. they're semi-similar to seolbin in that where one goes the other generally follows.

→ the besties

to. eunseo unnie♥🐙
unnie~ it's your love, my love, lee yeoreum~
you can't live without me, right??
i know it all even if you don't say a thing~
whenever something comes up that's tough, happy or sad, you always come to me for everything and let it all out and for that i'm grateful
thank you for taking care of me and paying attention to me like a real unnie
let's go forever unnie~ ♥

ujung: eunseo, why are you always with yeoreum?
eunseo: we're partners

eunreums greatest appeal i think is that they truly get eachother. outside of their disgusting levels of onscreen and offscreen skinship (which is noteworthy by itself) they do everything together. cannot go more than 10 minutes without seeing eachother. if they go live there will be at least one anecdote about the other. eunseo keeps pictures of yeoreum on her wall. yeoreum knows eunseo's tells when she's lying and eunseo knows exactly when yeoreum's mad or upset. at wjsn's wonderland concert eunseo cried twice just because she happened to make eye contact with yeoreum. eunseo typically takes care of the members but yeoreum is her rock, someone she relies on, the person she goes to with her hardships. vice-verca too, for yeoreum. this IS best friends, with all its perfect fiction potential, in all its glory.

i would like to point out something im obsessed with - yeoreum and eunseo are so close that yeoreum's become friends with eunseo's high school bestie sinb, to the point where she's hung out with her (and eunseo) over chuseok with her dog. just like, for fun, cause eunseo and sinb wanted to know what she was doing. they interact all the time with eachother on instagram and on queendom sinb was basically yeoreums #1 fan. ( this is still funny to me lol yeoreum and sinb have really ended up becoming good friends)

neither part of eunreum is more whipped for the other, though eunseo's obsession with kissing yeoreum's face at any given opportunity may skew that. they both love each other an overwhelming amount, show that in different ways, and i think that aspect is one of the most important facets of their ship.

a collection of eunreum being It for eachother in increasing levels of sentimality

uzzu tape 176
yeoreum: (about eunseo's hand sized purse) i wonder, seriously, what do you put in this?
eunseo: i only need 3-4 things
yeoreum: no, how do you go to schedules with this?
eunseo: everyone, see the baggage difference with yeoreum
yeoreum: we came for schedule!
eunseo: who brings this much like a peddler during schedules?
eunseo: but yeoreum, you know what, i don't carry much because you have everything i need

yeoreum on pm
to tell you how the members call me
seola - yeoreum-ah…~ yeolumie yeolum-ah
(etc.)
eunseo - doesn't call me, says everything with her eyes
how i call the members?
eunseo unnie - ah... do i talk with my eyes too?
i don't really have the need to call eunseo unnie
she's always next to me

eunseo on fancafe
ujung: juyeon-ah.. your sweet side of catching the bug... no doubt the #1 woman I want to marry
eunseo: everyone couldn't eat properly at that time because of the bug ㅜㅜ but I instinctively got up when it went to yeoreumie, I'll protect yeoreumie

uzzu tape mafia
yeoreum: everyone.
yeoreum: i spend a lot of time with eunseo-unnie.
eunseo: I swear. I can bet our friendship.
eunseo: can you?
yeoreum: when eunseo tells a lie, there is a sign.
wjsn: tell us, tell us.
yeoreum: her nose and mouth, become so awkward.

eunseo birthday vlive 2020
eunseo: 20 minutes before my birthday at 11:40pm
eunseo: i was on a video call with yeoreum
eunseo: and she wouldn't end it for some reason
...
eunseo: i didn't expect it at all but as soon as it hit midnight
eunseo: she wished me a happy birthday through the call

eunseo birthday tweet 2021
yeoreumie who is very good with her hands
i've been telling the whole town that I'm a yeoreum lover and she asked me what is my favorite color on my birthday, then she personally made an accessory tray while thinking about me. what's with her hand skill? 🐙❤️

eunseo rolling paper to yeoreum:
yeoreum, we have a connection that doesn't require us to say it out loud, and we get each other, making each other so precious.
i'm worried i might not have taken care of you so much, thinking that I know you really well
yeoreum, i'm always proud of you. lean on me more.

eunseo: lee yeoreum, i can't escape from the sea that you are

→ opposites attract

eunseo: to all the ujungs, eunseo doesn't like sweet things, even if you knew, ill just update again. the only thing i eat is jelly.

yeoreum fns update
watermelon juice eunseo bought for me~ 🍉🍉
(attached picture: two cups of watermelon juice)

i think where i start to find eunreum interesting to explore is in the difference in their personalities. like i said in my yeoreum essay, she slots into the role of maknae that gets babied by the members and her personality lends itself to this - she's cute, she's not particularly interested in teasing or being teased, and obviously, have you heard the way she speaks? eunseo on the other hand almost represents the flipside of that. she's cool and the epitome of girlcrush when she wants to be while also being goofy and the life of the party.
yeoreum is short where eunseo is tall, prefers sweet things to spicy where eunseo prefers spicy to sweet, eunseo will drink four americanos in a day and down a monster while yeoreum will get by on sheer will alone because i dont think that girl likes coffee that much. they're like marceline and bubblegum, kuromi and my melody. i wish i knew a modicum of information about mbti's because i think a comparison of yeoreum and eunseo in that regards would be intriguing.

beyond their surface level differences they retain a lot of similarities and share a decent amount of interests and hobbies.

this is as far as i got when i was writing it last time, so here's a final, two-year removed eunreum thought dump.
1. i truly think yeoreum remains one of the most underrated/misunderstood wujus. i dont want to act as if im the messiah of the yeoreum agenda, because everyone is open to their own interpretations of her on-camera/idol personality, but its obvious to me when people take her at face-value (her aegyo, baby sister look) and when they've actually paid attention to her. there is a reason she's the leader of el7z up after all.
2. i wish people were more interested in them
3. in terms of dynamic, i can admit they both have pairings that are more "interesting" than theirs, but in the same vein i think they've got a delightful level of untapped potential
4. juyeon is very hard for me to write. this was true back then and remains true now. yeoreum is easier for me because there are certain story/personality beats i can hit with her, but juyeons a lot more enigmatic to me. i think i struggle to balance her "casanova" (i hate using that to describe her), playful personality, with the off-camera, more mature personality i envision her to have.
5. they're still and forever my favourite pairing to write. maybe now that i have an exorbitant amount of free time ill be able to wrangle my adhd into order and actually finish something

in conclusion, i think a better use of my time would have been to just write the yeoreum essay. i obviously have no clue what im talking about. have some gifs i like