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Moondae & the Sejins: A Love Triangle
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Testar are gathered in two rows of chairs for a full group W-live, answering fan questions while they eat cake to celebrate some anniversary or achievement. Moondae has the stack of cards with previously-submitted fan questions, while Eugene spins a wheel with the members’ names on it to determine who the question will be for or about. It lands on Bae Sejin.
“Ah, for Sejin hyung…” Moondae notes the wheel result then reads from the topmost card. “Loviewers want to know hyung’s charm… in a sexy way?”
“There isn’t any,” Bae Sejin says, semi-hiding behind his slice of cake. His ears are red. “Eugene should spin again.”
“No, that’s not true,” Moondae says calmly, placing the question card in the pile of discarded ones they’ve already been through. “Hyung has a kind of charm, how should I put it? Like he’s the male lead in a romantic drama.”
“Which one?” Ahyeon asks.
“No, his life is the drama. I don’t know how to explain, except that the things hyung says sometimes, they seem like they should be said to the female lead while the OST plays in the background?”
This has caught the interest even of the members who were more focused on monitoring the comments (Chungwoo), eating cake (Eugene), or playing with the spinny wheel (also Eugene), so Moondae has a captive audience as he explains.
“Everyone is the main character of their own life, right? And the genre might be coming of age or comedy or anything, and you live your life like that. But you have to know that if you’re in a room with Sejin hyung, then you might suddenly have a romantic interest in the scene even if that wasn’t the genre you were in a minute ago. Because he might walk up to you like ‘Moondae-ya, have you eaten yet? Are you going to keep making everyone worry about you? I guess I’ll have to take care of you a while longer–’”
Bae Sejin has abandoned hiding behind the cake in favor of fully facing the wall. The hands over his ears might be to tune out any more of Moondae’s analysis or to hide how red they are. Meanwhile, Chungwoo is stifling his laughter and Lee Sejin is not stifling his at all.
It’s possible none of them, until now, mentally categorized that behavior as sexy or romantic, but the way Moondae does Bae Sejin’s voice, some midpoint that combines Sejin’s reserved way of carrying himself and the demeanor of a cool, older love interest from a drama, recontextualizes it entirely – by showing they’re not very different, afterall.
“I think I’ve seen that drama,” Eugene says, mouth full of cake.
“Yeah, in our living room,” Lee Sejin cackles. He doesn’t mean on the TV.
Lee Sejin’s solo live is quieter, just him talking to the camera and picking out comments to respond to.
“The challenge I filmed with Ahyeonie?” he says, taking out his phone. “That’s right, we didn’t post it yet. It didn’t turn out well so we need to film it better. But I can show loviewers the first attempt, right?” He holds his phone up to the camera to play a clip of the two of them dancing to a currently popular song, not a new one but a much older idol song that recently resurfaced as a dance challenge trend.
“Huh? You don’t think it’s bad?” He peaks around the phone to smile at the comments as it plays. “But it’s honestly not our best, so we’ll do better and post it then.”
Then his finger accidentally touches the side of the screen, prompting it to flip from the currently playing video to the next image in his camera roll. It’s a photo of Moondae holding up peace signs backstage at a weekly music show. His outfit matches the stage outfits Sejin and Ahyeon wore in the challenge video, so Sejin must have taken it for him the same day.
Sejin sees this on the stream’s monitor. “Oops, that’s Moondae-ya…”
There’s nothing particularly notable about the fact that he took some photos for Moondae… until he tries to slide back to the challenge clip to finish playing it for the viewers without moving his phone away, and instead accidentally exits into the view of his entire camera roll.
Aside from the one square of Sejin and Ahyeon that represents the challenge video, the squares of Moondae photos take up the entire grid of his camera roll.
“Ah sh–” Sejin quickly takes his phone away from the camera. “Ha! Anyway! Loviewers, please look forward to our better dance challenge!”
He glances at the comments and laughs, his face a little pink. He’s talking faster than normal. “Oh, were there a lot of Moondae photos? The truth is I’m not a good photographer. So if a member asks me to take their photo I have to take a lot to make sure some will be good, and I forget to delete them until my phone tells me there’s no cloud space. Then I go, ‘What are all these?’ And I delete a thousand at once.”
The live comments captured on the side of the video have been moving at a faster pace since his finger slipped.
- You delete them???? Jail
- buy more cloud space so you can keep them forever
- KeunSe having more photos of Moondaeng than of himself, it makes sense
- There are Moondae photos that exist but aren’t shared with loviewers…. Today I learned what selfishness is
Sejin looks through the comments for a long moment, maybe searching for one that can provide a segue to a new topic, and ends up with his head in his arms, shoulders shaking with laughter. “Well… I’ll tell Moondae to choose some more to post before I delete them, okay?”
Testar is on the set of a popular idol variety show, which mostly consists of setting a group loose on an empty white set to play games and do improv. It’s not clear what kind of sketch would have prompted this, though, only that Lee Sejin started it.
“We’re married?” Moondae asks. There’s no inflection in his voice, complete indifference on his face. It would take a true fan of Testar to recognize that this is actually a rare sign he’s about to play along with the bit – in his own fashion. “How can we be married? Did you ask hyung for his blessing?”
Ahyeon chokes and has to turn away before he can ruin the scene by bursting into laughter.
Lee Sejin stares at Moondae with an amazed half-smile, then, unsure, looks around for the elder Sejin.
The elder Sejin’s expression, when he finds it, is not encouraging.
“H-hyung, can I have y–”
“No.”
There’s a pause.
“Your blessing to–”
“No.”
“It’s off!” Moondae’s voice shouts from the next room, so loudly it jolts whoever’s holding the camera. Bae Sejin hurries to the door to the next room to look in while the other members of Testar scattered around the small waiting room wait curiously.
Bae Sejin says wonderingly into the room, “You must like it, the look on your face…”
“Since the stylists did a good job!” Moondae’s voice comes out of the unseen room unexpectedly energetically, followed by the rest of him as Bae Sejin steps aside to let him barrel through the door. There’s a brilliant smile on his face and his hair is much shorter than it was in previous clips. His hairstyle, which has been long since their first comeback, is now a bit shorter than it was at the start of Idol Inc, and even trimmed closer to an undercut at the sides. It must feel incredibly light, because he’s practically bouncing.
“Woah, looks good!” Eugene calls.
Moondae, probably to the stylists’ distress, puts both hands in his hair to ruffle it wildly, then shakes his head so it flops around. “Look, there’s so little of it.”
“Pfft! Did someone give Moondae extra caffeine today?” Lee Sejin arrives in frame and reaches out to ruffle Moondae’s hair too, expression going from mischievous to openly pleased when Moondae unexpectedly lets him. “Ha, it’s soft.”
“They put stuff in it. Sorry, your hands are probably covered in it now.” Moondae keeps pressing his head into Sejin’s hand, though, like a cat, while Sejin keeps petting, unable to hide his delighted surprise that Moondae is letting this happen. The other members, gathering around, can also be seen exchanging surprised glances.
“Moondae, did you dislike long hair that much?” Chungwoo asks, probing. He doesn’t seem to believe Moondae would get this giddy just from liking a haircut.
“Dislike it? No, I was used to it. But now I feel so light.”
Bae Sejin is hovering enviously at Moondae’s shoulder, watching Lee Sejin continue to scrub his fingers through the newly chopped hair. “Stop that, are you trying to generate static?” But even as he says it, he reaches to rub a lock of hair between his fingers, like he can’t help himself.
It’s hard to say whether Moondae looks particularly attractive in the clip because of the new haircut or because he’s so into his new haircut. Either way, no one’s awe in the clip looks out of place.
Unselfconsciously, Moondae steps away from Lee Sejin and tugs Bae Sejin’s hand to cup the side of his head. “Look, they buzzed it too.”
“Oh… the short part is really soft.” Bae Sejin thumbs gently behind Moondae’s ear, shaved to the perfect length where it’s close to the skin but still soft rather than bristly. There’s an even softer look on his face and then Chungwoo suddenly has a coughing fit and briefly obscures the camera’s view by stumbling in front of it, probably for unrelated reasons.
“I wanna touch!” Eugene yells. “My turn!”
“Your hands are dirty,” Bae Sejin says, at the same time Lee Sejin points out, “Man, your hands are covered in crumbs.”
“Are not!” Eugene holds up his hands to show Moondae. “I was eating chips before but I wiped them!”
“Wash them properly first,” Bae Sejin says sternly before Moondae can respond.
In a solo live with an intimate feeling, hair still damp from a shower and only a nearby lamp on, Bae Sejin is speaking quietly. “Ah, Moondae-ya, we’ve been close since the beginning. Since Idol Inc, yes. Hm, it just happened that way… Park Moondae is someone who’s both young and mature, I think. He feels comfortable to talk to as if we’re similar ages but then since he’s younger I want to be reliable for him. So it’s that kind of feeling, sometimes one or the other. If you’ve ever… known someone like that?”
He tilts his head and reads comments for a moment. “Is it confusing? I guess Moondae feels like a same age friend when we’re alone together, but younger when someone like Lee Sejin is there? Different people bring out different sides of you… I think Moondae makes me want to be more reliable. When he accepts things as they come and makes the best of a situation, I want to do that too… and when he can’t, I want to be able to do it for him.”
The camera, held by someone in the audience at a summer festival, is a little shaky, and surrounded by the audience’s yells and whoops. Testar is gathered on stage, post-performance, a little breathless from the exertion and heat. Their performance outfits are summery but cool, a mix of grey nylon, black mesh and bright blocks of neons.
“One, two, three – take your star! We are Testar!” Chungwoo leads their introduction then introduces himself, “I’m Testar’s leader and vocalist, Ryu Chungwoo! Thank you for having us!”
“I’m Kim Raebin, producer and rapper! Thank you for your support for this performance!”
“Thank you! I’m Lee Keun Sejin, dancer!” He follows it up with their recent title track’s point move, drawing a spike of applause from the audience, but it’s nothing compared to the noise level that drowns out Moondae’s voice as soon as he starts talking next.
“I’m Park M–” The camera’s microphone only picks up delighted screaming from around the person filming as Moondae’s expression turns astonished and he stops talking. It doesn’t seem like he got any farther than saying his name. He blinks at the screaming crowd.
No context is provided by the editor, but any hardcore Testar fan would recognize the outfit Moondae’s wearing in the video: the long sleeve shirt resembling a rash guard, unusually skin tight compared to how he’s usually styled, stuck to the skin more than usual due to sweating in the hot weather. A fancam of Moondae from this festival, especially the moments when the crowd’s screaming drowned out the music during his key parts, went viral thanks to the perfect combination of styling, sweat, and unrelenting thirstiness.
“Uh… yes.” Moondae stares in blank confusion as the crowd loudly shows its appreciation. “Uh…”
The crowd yells back, audience members laughing. Some members on stage are laughing as well, noticeably Lee Sejin, who comes to Moondae’s rescue… or not.
Patting Moondae’s shoulder, he calls, “Moondae’s shyer than you’d think, be patient with him!”
Moondae swats his hand away, flustered. “I just forgot what else I have to say!”
Anything is funny to a crowd in a good mood from a good performance, so they cheer and laugh at this too.
“Aww, he’s so touched he forgot his introduction.” Lee Sejin’s infectious mood is in sync with the crowd, as usual. “Everyone! This is Testar’s Park Moondae! He’s a vocalist and our,” from the smile he tosses over he definitely knows Moondae will hate this, “stunning visual, just the most crazy handsome man you’ve ever seen, the one and only beautiful Park Moondae–”
The crowd yells and applauds while Moondae, appalled, edges farther away from Lee Sejin with each word out of his mouth. Every step he inches over brings him closer to Bae Sejin until he’s squeezed against Bae Sejin’s side, looking at Lee Sejin like he’s a detonating bomb. Bae Sejin puts a protective arm around him, watching Lee Sejin with a similar expression.
“It’s hyung’s turn to talk,” Moondae says, “please let hyung talk now.”
Lee Sejin laughs and mouths an apology to him, hands up in surrender.
“I’m Bae Sejin, vocalist and eldest member of Testar. Thank you for allowing us to perform for you.”
Moondae is still tucked under BaeSe’s arm and against his side, and he applauds earnestly from this defensive position as the crowd politely cheers for Bae Sejin’s introduction, and he stays there up until Chungwoo hypes up the crowd for their next song.
When the line disperses to get in place in the starting formation, Lee Sejin seizes Moondae’s arm and hangs off it. The mics are silenced during the transition so he’s inaudible but seems to be jokingly begging forgiveness for embarrassing him, while Moondae impatiently shoos him away.
Backstage at an event, Lee Sejin responds to a question asked from behind the camera. “Ah, our bracelets?” He laughs, self-deprecating, as he holds up his wrist to display the woven string bracelet on his wrist. “Yeah, I saw these with Moondae on the boardwalk and we both liked them. He said he was going to get one so I thought I would get one too and have matching bracelets with Moondae-ya… ah, but Moondae didn’t buy it for himself… he gave it to Sejin hyung. So hyung and I ended up with matching bracelets instead.” Sejin forces a bright smile. “The younger members think it’s funny, they call them our Sejin bracelets.”
“[The Sejins are BFFs!]” Eugene calls from offscreen, mischievous. “Woahhhh, cute! No one else in the group has friendship bracelets!”
Someone else is also laughing off screen, and it sounds suspiciously like Moondae.