Hi! I didn’t want to hijack your conversation about Jp ktaki shippers, but I wanted to say something about it. Hope you don’t mind.

First, I’m not saying, and can’t be sure, that any of the people I’m gonna mention have romantic feelings for each other, obviously, but they’re a big “hmm, that’s suspicious” for me, so I’m writing based on that.

So, I completely understand that shipper… because every time I see a shipper from the other ship putting on the list of “how many times K has posted the members on his Insta” like it was proof of his love and not something curated by the company staff, it makes me both mad and sad lol

It’s weird, right? Both the part about being mad/sad and the fact that he never posts Taki. And I kept thinking it was weird until, first, I remembered what an actor RPS shipper said once: “If it’s too much in your face, it’s fanservice” and, second, the fact that the other two “there’s actually something going on here” ships of &TEAM don’t seem to do that much unprompted fanservice together either. At least not such an obvious one, they rely on chemistry. Like, EJ has posted Nico on his Insta once, and before the whole “playing that they’re a couple” thing with Maki and Harua, most of their stuff was little glances and smiles during concerts or content. Now, both Harumaki and Nicojoo do have the company’s support because they’re pretty safe ships that people don’t ignore, so they’ve been getting more and more content lately, especially nicojoo. But what I mean is that they don’t seem to be actively pushing their ships themselves (I think Harumaki has to do it now thanks to the tokubechu shite thing, but before that, a lot of people believed they were divorced).

Maybe it’s because those two ships are already bigger than fanservice, so they don’t need their own extra push to make them believable, or maybe KJo actually have this real thing they’re trying to normalize with the fandom (though I doubt it after K replied to a fan on Weverse who asked if he and Jo were dating). But what Ktaki have in common with Harumaki and Nicojoo are the little things. Again, those three duos aren’t constantly making grand public gestures toward each other. What we get from them is mostly stuff they do in the background (Harua and Maki winking at each other at concerts, and Harua patting Maki’s butt during Back to life), how they react when the other is around (Nico’s big smile every time he hears Ej’s name), or things they say about the other (like at the Kjo unit sign, where we learned, thanks to K, that Taki likes to sniff his armpit???? Did we need to know that during a Kjo event? Probably not).

Now, I do think that Nicojoo and Harumaki are more heavily pushed by YXL than Ktaki, but I believe it’s because any Ktaki interaction is framed as familiar by the fandom, or completely ignored when it’s too intense to be called familiar, so there’s really no reason for YXL to push them. Like, let’s compare the birthday posts:

Taki asked K to be by his side from now on vs. Jo’s “let’s keep eating lots.” Which post got more interactions? Yeah.

Also, I believe their dynamic is changing far more than we can actually see on screen. Taki isn’t just rebelling; there’s probably a whole relationship evolution going on between them in that house. And apparently, Taki has never liked going out to eat, not even at 14 (at least, that’s more or less what K said last year on Idolrush), so…

Anyway, sorry for having my own meltdown here. I’m definitely coping lmao, and I do think K is less “sweet” with him recently, but all of this seems like a normal progression of their relationship. Taki isn’t a kid anymore (he calls him Yudai, and without honorifics, like???). K has started to see him as an adult (he thinks Taki looks cool while drinking???). They’re gonna be fine 🥲