Hi! It’s Annie!
As usual this is a little late, but I really do want to say the absolute warmest happy birthday to San right now! San is the most biased member of ATEEZ and that is certainly because he is one of the most eye catching members of any group ever. It’s really difficult to not notice San in just about anything. But I also know that this comes at a time where I know I’m going to have to address something recent. I will address it as a notice below because I don’t want to make the entire post about that. Really, it’s not my place to judge how harmful or not harmful it was. But I do think it’s important to remember that, as I have always said, idols are human beings. That means they both deserve to be respected and to have boundaries and it also means that they mess up sometimes. I think that San is one of the most positive and caring members of ATEEZ and I can’t imagine that he’s not feeling remorseful right now. But that aside, his caring nature and positive energy have helped many people see the light on particularly dark days. I know that he’s always been a big part of the comfort that I get from ATEEZ. So I’m just going to get into how amazing this man is! One of our primary vocalists and the man you physically cannot look way from.
NOTICE: If you are at all triggered by racism or already know what went down and don’t want to see it again, that’s understandable. SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH and keep going on with the birthday post! Recently a behind the scenes video was posted of San singing and dancing to the curry song. A little while before then Seonghwa had mentioned the curry song on a variety show that they did. This song is incredibly racist and KQ Entertainment has since issued an apology. I think it’s important to know that idols are human beings and that means we are going to see them make mistakes and learn and grow from them. Every person is flawed. But that doesn’t take away from the pain that this song has instilled and continues to do so when idol groups keep singing it. We definitely need to spread the word so that incidents like this can stop. But flinging blame everywhere doesn’t help anyone.
The Entertainer:
I think everybody can agree that San is a massive entertainer. Many Atiny have joined the fandom because they saw one of his fancams and couldn’t look away. From the beginning San has been noticed for his facial expressions and acting during stages as well as his impressive dance skills. Though San has been teased by his members multiple times for adding his own twist to specific dance moves, you can’t deny that Atiny go crazy for them. For a long while, and still to this day, San has received hate for being overly “dramatic” with his performance style. I honestly believe that all of those comments are made out of some form of jealousy. Yes, his members have teased him for it before. But they also have talked about how eye-catching he is. I think his performance style is a huge factor in the worldwide interest that we see around San and that’s because he completely draws you in. He makes you feel the emotions or absolutely swoon and there’s no in between. It’s intense and so addictive at the same time. And we’ve seen in any part of the music industry that big performers like San are always incredibly successful. There’s a reason why San was originally given the opening chair choreography in all of their performances of ‘Cyberpunk’. And his pain and anguish almost made me cry when watching his ‘INCEPTION’ fancams. He is the entertainer of the fourth generation and you can’t convince me differently.
The Cutie:
One of my comfort videos is one of the pre-debut trainee videos that ATEEZ and KQ released when they were still going by KQ FELLAZ. It’s a video of all of the members going to Universal Studios Hollywood. Theme parks are something that I grew up with living in California and have always been safe places for me. After my family stopped being able to comfortably afford Disneyland because they were driving up their prices so much, we started going to Universal Studios Hollywood instead. We would have had annual passes around the time of ATEEZ going there for this video. It always kills me that we could have seen ATEEZ before their debut and we just wouldn’t have realized. But somehow knowing that we share a similar comfort place makes me feel so much better. One of my absolute favorite parts of the video is actually San though. San is someone I relate to immensely because I also find a lot of comfort in plushies. And seeing that San found so much comfort that he brought around his plushie Shiber, makes me feel less alone. Especially because I also used to do the same thing. Watching him coo over Shiber is always the cutest part of the video for me and one of the parts that, funnily enough, makes me feel seen. San has always given off that energy though. He has the extreme duality of being devilishly attractive on stage and then getting off stage and being so devastatingly sweet and adorable.
The Caretaker:
To not talk about how San is with the other members would be like skipping an entire portion of his personality. San very much acts like a caretaker of the group and is one of the members most likely to initiate skinship. You can often find San cuddling with other members. Most often those other members will be Wooyoung, Yunho, and an unwilling Yeosang. Lately San has been snuggling the most with Yeosang. In a most recent ATEEZ-centric episode of Idol Radio, all of the members of ATEEZ were asked to choose a member that they feel a particular current affinity to. Yeosang and San ended up choosing each other and were asked to play the ‘I love you’ game along with Wooyoung and Yunho who also chose each other. A lot of adorable hugs ensued. San has been saying more and more often over the past few years that Yeosang is his. During their most recent video chat fan signs an Atiny told San that Yeosang belonged to himself and not to anyone else. San dismissed this. When the fan pointed out that Yeosang was actually living with Yunho, San defended himself by saying that some married couples don’t live together. San has also talked about being roommates with Yunho for a long time and how he would play games with Yunho whenever he pouted because he just wanted to make the large puppy happy. San is always about including people and making sure that everyone is happy and well taken care of. San seems to be one of the members that works like glue for the other members. He keeps everyone tightly wound together. That is not something that we should take for granted!
The Dynamic Duo:
San and Wooyoung have always been close and have very often been paired together for MVs or promotional content. I would say that them being paired together has only gotten more frequent with the passing years. In recent tours we’ve seen San and Wooyoung get amazing dance breaks together that make all Atiny go crazy seeing live. In the MV for ‘BOUNCY’ their characters were linked together as San was a boxer or street fighter and Wooyoung was his manager. And their move in ‘Deja Vu’ towards the end made everyone who saw it fight to continue to breathe afterwards. While these two go together very well, one of the reasons they do is because of how different they are. Wooyoung has a clean cut style and playfulness that matches San’s more dramatic dance style and almost devilish stage nature. I don’t think many other groups could boast having a duo quite like this, which is one of the reasons why KQ knows to put them front and center whenever they can. Their dance breaks break time. You just want to live in a loop of seeing them over and over again.
The Smolder:
It would be a crime to go through this entire birthday post without mentioning San’s smolder. Can we talk about that eyebrow quirk, please? He does that every time during his spoken part in ‘The Real’ and I always feel like I’m not going to survive it. This can kind of go back to San’s facial expressions, but I can honestly say that I never thought I was going to see a guy successfully smolder. I know that we’ve seen Flynn Rider do it in ‘Tangled’, but I also think that not even he was really successful at it. San with his quirked eyebrow and the way he holds his lips? Now that’s a successful smolder! And yes, I did have to include this exact facial expression from San as the main photo for this post. I mean, how could I talk about it and then just not include it!
I could go on and on about this man and his performance skill. I mean, he wasn’t originally part of the dance line until fans forced KQ to realize that he really needed to be. Though I can’t imagine any member of ATEEZ not being a part of their dance line. They are the best and most advanced fourth generation dancers! And I could also go on and on about how incredibly sweet he is and how much he takes care of the other members. I really don’t think we’d see as many cute member moments without San. He really has the biggest heart and the way he treats each Atiny who meets him like they are his entire world makes me tear up. It’s seriously difficult for me to get through a video of an in person fan sign without San making me tear up at some point or another during it. I really do hope that he gets the opportunity to apologize after recent events, but knowing KQ I don’t think that he’s going to be allowed to. I guess we’ll see what happens. But knowing that this man exists gives me a little more comfort and makes me feel a little lighter. I hope he knows how much his Atiny love him. Happy Birthday, San!!!
See you across the pond!
Sincerely, Annie
Oreos & Peanut Butter 