#X calls Kevin Kevi-hyung and it is adorable

[whysojiminimnida]

OKAY SO DON'T CALL YOUR KOREAN FRIEND AND ASK HIM IF HE CAN HELP WITH MATH

Unless you're me and your friend is Kevin From Itaewon and you already know he's already taken the whole week off work to get older and eat rice cake soup with brisket of all things. So it went kinda like this:

Me: Kev hey Kev oppa, I need a proper Korean, can you help me with some numbers and shit? KFI: You want help with MATH because I'm ASIAN?

Then this happened, metaphorically:

But after I recovered from being facepunched over FaceTime and Kev allowed as how he is actually very good at numerology type things (and also math but that's NOT RACIST I DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT IT WAS A CULTURAL QUESTION OKAY DAMN) I explained about the whole furor over Jungkook's cover... sort of thusly:

Me: NO BITCH BUT I need numerology help with this Jungkook cover because apparently KARMY in your local area is all atwitter.

KFI: OH god, you're on the bird app again. I told you to stay off the bird app.

Me: X is on the bird app is he home?

KFI: IT IS ONE IN THE MORNING YES HE IS HOME AND NO HE IS NOT GETTING UP TO HELP YOU WITH THIS.

X, kind of blearily, walks up behind his man and waves. Y'ALL X IS SO CUTE HE'S KIND OF LITTLE AND JIMIN-DORABLE

Me: Oh hey X sorry, I suck. I'm bothering oppa about numerology as it relates to the Jungkook cover of "I Hate Everything" At this point Kev gets up to make his boyfie some tea and X and I chatter about the Jeon-Parks and Jimin's unfortunate erstwhile appendix and how COVID sucks and X allows as how Jimin will probably stay in hospital until the weekend because HE HEARD that Jimin's COVID was complicated. Probably due to the appendix. We have no receipts, this is just on the ground gossip. (Apparently HIPAA does not exist in Korea but okay).

ANYWAY tea is served and links are shared and X is working but only tomorrow afternoon for a few hours (today) so he decides to join us for a bit. I like having X around and actually being allowed to talk to him so I try VERY HARD TO BEHAVE MYSELF AND FAIL. MISERABLY. Like I do. We'll get to that later or not. Anyway I bust out the numbers like so: Me: So the video was cropped to 1:18 and 11/8 is the date of GCF Tokyo and this seems to be IDK kind of a thing. Is it a thing?

KFI: It might have been an accident, but I doubt it. If he did it on purpose it is definitely a thing. Did he do it on purpose? Me: I have no idea, oppa, do I live in the man's brain? But is that something that would, like, get done on purpose? Because KARMY seems to think that these two are always up in secret number code land doing secret number code things. X: That's true, they do! It's very popular here with couples. Kevi-hyung doesn't fully get it because he was raised in America. When we had our 2000 day anniversary I folded him 2000 origami swans and all I got was a week in Guam. Which was nice, but it wasn't TWO THOUSAND SWANS. Y'all I wish I had pictures of Kevin's face I feel like this is a thing that has come up more than once. I may have laughed out loud. KFI: .... Anyway. It might. Has he done things like this before? X: Kevi-hyung remember? I was telling you about this.

Me: Abouuut?

X: Just recently, when Jungkook did the Keep It On The Low cover!

Me: OH HOLD UP I HAVE A THING!!

And I did, I had this in my inbox from @kkhluvsbts from WEEKS AGO that got hung up in piles of crazy anons (and I apologize):

X goes: YES! That’s it!

And KFI goes: Oh. That’s very specific and a 1000 day or 1500 day anniversary is very significant. That Tokyo film is very romantic, I've seen it several times.

Me: SOOOO?!

KFI: I think that Jungkook must put thought into everything he does. A man who believes so strongly in destiny is very likely to do all those things on purpose, and their special numbers are clearly very important to both of them.

X: OMG Kevi-hyung we talked about this …

KFI: Sorry, I thought this whole thing was going to be about Life Path Numbers. Did you know you're a Life Path 4 with a Master Builder Number 22? Me: No. I don't know what that means. I DIDN'T GO TO SCHOOL FOR MATH OKAY X: You ARE? Hyung never told me that! Here, do Jimin and Jungkook! It devolved from there. And if it's important to you Jungkook is a 9 and Jimin is a 2 with a Master Number 11 and I still don't know what it means except I haven't reached my full potential as a person. ANYHOO VERY LONG STORY SHORT (this turned into a two part call)... WHAT WE LEARNED IS THAT: If you are a native Korean AND you were raised in Korea, number code is an actual thing that gets actually used and therefore probably none of this is a coincidence. The Jeon-Parks DO THIS SHIT ON PURPOSE. If you are Kevin and were raised in America you're more like I-ARMY in that way and it takes a minute to click. We also learned that X is more fun than Kevin when it comes to stanning BTS in general and the Jeon-Parks in particular, he knows how to fold a lot of swans, and I still don't know what Life Path numbers are. And that I just wrote a really long post for what is, essentially, information y'all already knew. SEND HELP IT'S GONNA BE ANOTHER LONG DAY

[whysojiminimnida]

https://youtu.be/kd9fLqQul-Y

At 34.35 did jimin really say to jk that call me brother???

Nope. Not the way you mean it. It's a bit of a mistranslation that gets tossed around because there is not a good equivalent term in English. We don't use age-system honorifics. They do. See, the Korean "hyung" does not translate exactly. The closest we have is "brother" but it doesn't mean biological brother, which is why translators often shorten it to "bro" - another word that doesn't mean actual brothers. It's... closer. But it's not there. And this causes Westerners no end of headaches because people do just what you did and use "hyung" as "biological brother" exclusively, when it is used between brothers but also between friends - and lovers.

Hyung" is used between people who are close. It's a casual honorific. It's used between men only. Older men to younger men can, but don't have to, use the gender-neutral suffix "-ah". So, correctly, because they are close, Jungkook should call Jimin "Jimin-hyung" and Jimin should call Jungkook either just Jungkook or "Jungkook-ah". That happens maybe 50% of the time.

Big dongsaeng energy with bonus honorifics

My friend Kev's boyfriend of several years refers to him as "Kevi-hyung" or even "Kevi-ssi". And I assure you they are very much a couple. The word "hyung" or the honorific -ssi does not negate romantic involvement. In fact, it is unusual (I'm told) for a younger partner - even a romantic one - to use complete banmal (casual) speech. According to my guys, Kev uses hae-che speech with X - but X uses haera-che banmal (with "you" but without dropping the -hyung) with Kevin. Confused yet?

That whole -ssi thing is an entire other issue but it's adorable. Jungkook uses haera-che (half casual) speech with members pretty often because they're friends. But he uses hae-che banmal (completely casual) speech with Jimin quite often. AND THAT'S WEIRD.

Not just the -ah suffix but the "where are YOU going" was banmal, here. In public. And I'm told that everyone there would have known what that usage meant. (It means "we banging" in case you weren't sure).

The only time it is acceptable to drop honorifics with your elder is if you are in a romantic, established relationship with that person AND/OR the elder party has allowed it.

Literally, if you are dropping honorifics you are assumed to be and very likely ARE having sex with that person. That's nearly the ONLY TIME IT'S DONE unless the elder party has suggested it. And Jimin never seems to suggest it - if anything, he teases back with the "be polite, call me hyung" thing. So instead of getting hung up on the translation of the word "hyung" maybe pay attention to when it ISN'T used.

Jungkook uses banmal here. Basically, "hey you". RUDE LOL Kevin explained it to me by saying it would be like me walking into my boss's office and instead of calling her "Doctor", I said "Hey you, babe." THAT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN. Not if I wanted to keep my job. But Jungkook does it often. He does it in public. And what's more, he GETS AWAY WITH IT. Look at him grin when Jimin calls him on it here:

"That's not how you address your elder", or, basically, "be polite" - and Koo just gives him a shit-eating grin and says "well how else do I say it", with all that implies. He might as well have said "what should I call you then, baby", because that is exactly what he meant. LOOK AT THAT BRATTY FLIRTY GRIN.

And Jimin, well aware they're on camera in public, says, "Call me hyung" And Jungkook goes, sassy AF, "Okay, hyung" That little shit. I love him. I love them both. ETA AND WELL SHIT KEV HAS CORRECTED MY ASS. I got haera-che and hae-che speech mixed up. THIS IS WHY YOU WANT A NATIVE SPEAKER KIDS. Okay so it is now edited and correct but if you reblogged me on the first run, might wanna make a note. Haera-che is the half-casual, less formal (6th on 7 levels of speech). Hae-che is level 7 or complete banmal. DAMN KOREAN IS HARD.