hi anon :3 i don't think pedestal is the right word either but i know what you mean and i agree!

i remember when that first came out and thinking WOW... they subverted my expectations... and this makes their dynamic So much more interesting. something something complete trust in each other something something clear boundaries... it makes me wonder if jay is okay with jungwon's teasing no matter what because he always trusts him to apologise afterwards. this kinda reminds me of that ot7 live where they were in their daydream fits and jungwon teased jay with his "jay is hungry" aegyo lmfao and one of the members was like "oh jay is definitely going to say something to jungwon after this like he always does" like... say what? WHAT IS JAY GOING TO SAY TO HIM? TELL ME TOO!

as for jay apologising to sunghoon first... maybe it's because sunghoon always puts jay's feelings into consideration anyway so he never really gets into situations where he has to apologise first, whereas jay can be more unaware of sunghoon's feelings and is more likely to hurt him lol. sunghoon is also the type who absolutely won't apologise first if he thinks he's right (and he probably thinks he's right most of the time and is stubborn about it) so it makes sense jay would apologise first. he's just like me my lovely hoonie <3 with ni-ki, yeah... jay can be so unaware of other people sometimes it kills me lol

this is going to be a long one bc you're giving me an excuse to talk about nikjeng (+ jungwon). i've felt the same way but i couldn't find any "real" evidence to support it apart from the little things (which i'll talk about later), ni-ki's pointed side-eyeing whenever jay and jungwon go off in their own world, and how different his temperament towards jay has changed from i-land to now, so there's a lot of inference on my end really

for context, i started watching enoclock s3 yesterday and was startled at how different ni-ki and jay's relationship was back then (oct 2022) vs now. i'm sure it was bc ni-ki was younger as well, but jay was much more... gentle? endeared? towards ni-ki, to the point it's no surprise to me he still thinks of him as his aegi today lol. for lack of a better term, ni-ki outwardly showed much more respect and was kinder to jay back then too, unlike now where he teases him constantly...

i don't know when things changed but they did lol and nowadays i feel like jay sees ni-ki more as a rebellious teen than anything else bc jay is either 1) oblivious to the moments ni-ki is bidding for his attention or 2) taking ni-ki's teasing the wrong way. an example of 1) is when ni-ki asked jay why he still hasn't worn the pants he bought for him even though jay already wore the ones jungwon bought (omfg this still hurts me my poor BABIE PUMA DUCK) and one for 2) is when ni-ki said jay's face is art and jay just scoffed in response OMFG COME ON NOW JAY.

i mean just from the multitude of things ni-ki has said about jay i can tell he loves him a lot even if he says them with a teasing lilt. i don't think ni-ki is the type of person to shy away from how he actually feels (guy who wants to die with his hyungs btw) so i get the feeling he's being genuine about the things he says, at least to a certain extent

as for where jungwon fits into this... well. this is where it gets handwavy and i have to put on my rps glasses. i do think ni-ki noticed jay's favouritism for jungwon (i mean who wouldn't) and i think his imitation of jungwon's behaviour comes from three places. one, because on top of jungwon being their leader, ni-ki and jungwon's bond is a bit more special because ni-ki is really the only member jungwon can dote over and who brings out that hyung persona out of him since he's the only member younger than him. two, because ni-ki has seen how jay favours and continues to favour jungwon despite the drastic increase of his teasing starting 2022, and he wants the same attention from jay too. and three, maybe it's his pouty and sulky way of getting back at jay for showing obvious favouritism for jungwon...? and it's his way of testing him in a sense? in a "if you're okay with jungwon saying something like this, surely you'd be okay if i did it too, if you're truly impartial" way

what's very very interesting to me about jungwon's teasing and ni-ki's teasing is that for the latter, the boundaries are much more unclear and you can tell that jay is more doubtful and mistrustful about whether ni-ki truly means what he says or not, and is more likely to take it the wrong way. i'm thinking specifically of enoclock ep 96 26:57 when they're about to leave to the supermarket in two separate cars and ni-ki said "this car is a dud bc jay-hyung is in it" and jay's response to that was "really, hyung is seriously going to get his feelings hurt" and wow. that moment has stuck with me even almost a year after watching the episode bc i've never heard that as a response to teasing from jay ever. he really meant it lol. then it begs the question... would jay be okay with it if jungwon said that? would jungwon say that at all?

anyway... hope ni-ki and jay figure out how to properly communicate with each other...

falling to my knees every time someone tells me i'm so dissimilar to jay /j. not that i disagree anon, but i'm curious as to why you think i'm similar to sunghoon bc i don't actually know how i come across online. and do you say it's interesting bc you'd have thought sungjeng would be my #1 ship since i'm most similar to sunghoon or...?

but back to the yangjeng and sungjeng comparisons... in my eyes they're actually pretty similar in that both pairs show affection under the surface. none of the three are vocal with their affection (not that anyone in enha particularly is) but they all do these little things that, at face value, might make it seem as if they don't like or are neutral about each other but if you looked closely enough, clearly show they love each other, like A LOT. like jungwon's constant teasing of jay and putting him in situations lol... that's just obsession.

i think the key point is that it's obvious to /me/ that the reason they do certain things is first and foremost out of love rather than any other reason (e.g. reaching a goal, it makes for good TV, to uphold their principles), if that makes any sense. (this is making me think of i-land sungjeng when sunghoon was so torn about taking jay's dance position bc he was worried how jay would feel omfg.) maybe you could argue this applies to a lot of enha ships! but to me yangjeng and sungjeng are the most balanced in terms of how much they like each other and how often they show it, and the ones i enjoy observing the most in terms of the way they show their love 🤤🤤🤤 maybe it's bc the way they act is the most similar to how i'd act? i haven't thought about it that far so idk tbh but i'll think on it...

i guess these are the kinds of relationships (general, not necessarily romantic) i gravitate the most towards. i don't like showing my or being shown affection outright and would rather i infer how they feel based their actions lol. words of affirmation and physical touch are defo at the bottom of my love language ranking xd

i'm surprised you're surprised bc i feel like i've been tweeting more about yangjeng these days... the two are still very close in ranking though. also i don't factor in a ship being endgame into my ranking because i find immense joy in things like lack of communication, miscommunication, yearning, seemingly unrequited feelings, etc etc. it's very easy for me to lose interest in a ship once they're established lol

sungjeng was my #1 at one point even while thinking they were never going to end up together (also they are still very special to me and evoke emotions in me that yangjeng doesn't (and vice versa)). and i wouldn't necessarily say yangjeng is endgame for me either... i don't know if jungwon will ever fully let jay into his heart or if jay's love is too intense for him to deal with lmao. they're higher up bc recently i've been enjoying exploring and thinking about their dynamics more!

i'm crying at your final line i'm sorry that's how i feel sometimes too. anyway EXACTLY. i mentioned i-land jay and heeseung in a reply to oomf as well and how it was really obvious jay adored and worshipped heeseung and badly wanted his approval (and by extension, yearned for him and was in love with him). are we forgetting the major crash out jay had when heeseung didn't choose him as part of his unit?! ntm they had to play rock paper scissors right after to choose who got the bigger dance practice room and jay lost and was visibly upset and angry about everything happening and heeseung was like "wow he's getting /this/ mad just over rock paper scissors?" LMFAO. okay sure that was five years ago but i think that whole series of events is a perfect summary of how i see their relationship to this day

also i'm never not going to bring this up whenever we're talking about jay and an older man but bruh. jay loves his older men and being taken care of by them and you can kinda see that he had those expectations when it came to heeseung too lol. except heeseung's the youngest child in his family and i assume is only ever used to receiving love and attention (at least that's how it seemed when we saw his phone calls with his brother). i feel like heeseung realised that jay expected an older brother kind of relationship from him? and felt pressured and didn't know what to do about it so he just. started avoiding being outright affectionate with jay so as to not encourage him further

sorry i know you didn't exactly ask for my thoughts on their dynamics but this was the perfect opportunity for me to share