omg i admittedly didnt listen to lush that much so i didnt realize mitski has a longterm relationship with pearls ooooomg.... thank u for the rec and im glad u liked the playlist.

we can talk about the ending if you want to get spoiled! you can come dm me about it. it might change a little from whatever i tell you but it will end a very specific way i've envisioned for a while.

i've been having taki call kei hyung to reaffirm and reestablish their dynamic and kind of bring him back to himself, his role, his responsibilities. i think taki does it without thinking but its like hes asking kei to be the older one again and to manage his emotions better. thats why i keep using it. in real life taki only calls kei Kei-hyung but he rarely calls him "hyung" alone, and it's pretty much exclusively when they're doing content in korean. i think its funny that kei-hyung got exported but "hyung" itself did not--a real product of their relationship mostly taking place in korea in the beginning. i think thats also why they're so touchy with each other in a way that, tbh, a lot of the other japanese members are not. like, honestly, &team are not a super touchy group naturally, but og4 are definitely the touchiest (besides yuma, who is groping people which is sort of a whole nother thing. lol) and get touched the most. imo i lived in korea and i've visited japan and korean culture definitely is more touchy and affectionate especially between men. so its interesting to think about og4 in that environment, learning that touch was an important part of their relationship marketing vs the other five who spent some time in korea but mostly just for the show and definitely are not as touchy as a fivesome. like i think all the touchiest couples in &team include an og4 member. wow thats a huge ramble. anyway its cool to think about how korean culture and social behavior effects the group even though all of them are not korean except euijoo (and he's so repressed).