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...