#and advertising things like SEVENSTAR DRINK in the chat

[sage-nebula]

vergiliaux replied to your post: Saeyoung and Vanderwood are quite clearly...

“Vanderwood cares more about Saeyoung than some members of RFA” <- Definitely something worth thinking about. I need to get my facts straight, and I hope I’m wording this correctly, but it sometimes feels like Saeyoung’s barely tolerated in the RFA, even with Yoosung if we were to put V and Rika aside for now. But w/e, I’m hyped for the next posts. :O

Oh, I 100% agree. I’ve talked about this in a couple posts (for the second link, feel free to CTRL+F to “the RFA does not appreciate Saeyoung” to get to the relevant bit), but the RFA . . . well, doesn’t appreciate Saeyoung nearly to the extent that he deserves, and yes, it often feels like they’re just barely tolerating him (and, in some cases, are only tolerating him because V says they have to). And yes, I’m including Yoosung in this, wholesale, no exceptions.

I’m not saying that the RFA doesn’t care about Saeyoung at all, because it’s pretty clear that, when things are truly dire (and it’s his route), they’re going to show some concern over him. They’re not heartless, after all; they have basic human empathy, even if some of them often try to repress this aspect of themselves because they feel they’re better off doing so (looking at you, Jumin). However, it’s also very obvious that Saeyoung’s position within the RFA is “The Friend That Nobody Likes.” They tolerate him either because he’s useful, or because V says they have to, or some combination of both. Otherwise?

They show concern for him when things get very dire during his route, but otherwise tend to just react with varying degrees of annoyance over his poor eating habits and suicidal comments.

Yoosung is babied and handled with kiddie gloves by the older members of the RFA, who express grave concern when he seems to be slipping on taking care of himself even a little. By contrast, again, Saeyoung can quite clearly be falling to pieces, and everyone pretty much just acts exasperated or annoyed, despite the fact that Saeyoung is only a year older than Yoosung. (Granted, he’s also a great deal more mature than Yoosung for obvious reasons, but that’s not the point.)

Everyone in RFA, Yoosung included, consistently and constantly warns MC to ~not take Seven seriously~, and ~Seven’s just weird, don’t listen to what he says~, and ~Don’t worry about him~, and ~He’s a dangerous man, you should stay away~. Yoosung only changes his tune once Saeyoung’s route initiates, because he likes to ship people. Otherwise? I can pull receipts if needed, but he’s one of the characters who repeatedly insists to MC that Saeyoung is weird, strange, and shouldn’t be listened to or taken seriously, and (along with Jumin) expresses discomfort and surprise in Deep Route if MC refers to Saeyoung as “my Seven,” taking comfort when Jumin says it has to be a typo. Everyone in RFA finds Saeyoung strange and annoying at best, and warns MC to disregard him as well. Yoosung is no different in this respect.

Building on the above, actually, and bringing V and Rika into it---Yoosung makes it pretty clear that he’s willing to throw Saeyoung under the bus if it means siding with Rika / siding against V. In Saeyoung’s Route, when Saeyoung tries to cut ties, Yoosung gets to a point where he’s willing to accept this, if and only if Saeyoung will say that he’s doing so because of V. In other words, “If you want to never speak to me again, fine, just let me use this to justify my hatred of V.” Then, when the two make up, Yoosung seems happy . . . but he demands to know if Saeyoung is going to forgive V as well, making it sound as if he’s going to start throwing a hissy fit / tantrum if Saeyoung says yes. In other words, once again, it’s not his own friendship with Saeyoung that he’s concerned about, it’s about having an ally against V. Meanwhile in Another Story, there are multiple points where Saeyoung says that Rika seems to have turned against them, that V is suffering, and that they need to take care of V / wait to hear his side of things / continue trusting him. Yoosung pretty clearly states that Saeyoung can side with whoever he wants, but he (Yoosung) is siding with Rika, i.e., if Saeyoung wants to take V’s side, then Yoosung will see him as just as much of an enemy. So really, acting as if Yoosung cares about Saeyoung more than the rest of the RFA is . . . really not accurate, tbh. Sure, they get along sometimes, but it’s clear that there’s also a lot of distance between them (Yoosung claims he understands Saeyoung in Saeyoung’s Route, but not only is he proven wrong, but he was also only saying that as an excuse to go to Mint Eye so that he could stop doing chores with his mother), and that Yoosung mostly likes Saeyoung insofar as what Saeyoung can do for him, quite like the rest of RFA.

Oh, and Yoosung usually joins Zen in expressing disgust over Saeyoung’s crossdressing photos, so. There’s that, too.

It takes until Another Story (which is an AU) for someone in the RFA to recognize that Saeyoung has depression, and even then, no one follows up with it. Considering the fact that RFA is grieving someone who supposedly committed suicide, you would think that they would be on the lookout for another one of their members expressing depressive, suicidal tendencies (as Saeyoung often does). Yet they’re . . . not. They don’t care. Or at the very least, they don’t care when it’s Saeyoung until he says he’s leaving RFA. Then they care, and feel bad, because again, they’re not heartless . . . but they’re also losing someone who brings a lot to the table, skill-wise, so. It’s kind of hard to feel sympathy for how badly they feel when they’ve taken Saeyoung for granted this entire time, and never really shown much care or concern for him as a person.

In Secret Ending 2, it’s mentioned that Vanderwood visited Saeyoung a lot when he was in the hospital. Jumin is doing what he can for the Choi twins, and Jaehee both visits and agrees to stay with Saeyoung when Saeyoung confides to her that he can’t be alone right then (and she also calls Jumin on his request, and takes it upon herself to call Vanderwood, since she seems to have realized how close Saeyoung and Vanderwood actually are). Zen and Yoosung, meanwhile? Yoosung has been glued to Rika’s side since, again, he doesn’t really care about anyone else nearly as much. And Zen is too busy focusing on helping Yoosung help Rika avoid justice for her crimes, so. Jaehee and Jumin get a bit better with how they treat Saeyoung in the Secret Endings, but Zen and Yoosung? Mmmh, not as much.

I’m not wording this as well as I could (I did a better job in the other posts), but yeah, the RFA really takes Saeyoung for granted, and seems to just be tolerating him most of the time. They don’t get his humor, they act like he’s a dangerous, untoward, unsavory person, they warn a complete stranger and brand new member not to take him seriously or listen to him, and so on and so forth. I’m not saying they hate him, because again, when things get really bad (and it’s his route) they clearly do care enough to try and help, but they show very little interest or care for him most of the time, despite all that he does (and would do) for them. They’re always quick to assume the worst about him (like when he made that Tripter bot to help Zen’s career; there were multiple instances of Zen and Yoosung both worrying if they were good photos, Yoosung wondering if it was a breach of privacy, and I think Jaehee even being concerned about it, as if Saeyoung would do anything to hurt Zen’s career after he helped jumpstart it in the first place), and complain about him very often. He’s usually treated as a nuisance until they need something, and that . . . well. It’s not right, and in all honesty, Saeyoung deserves better.