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(Written August 24, 2025)
Welcome back to double dating
with ATEEZ! So far, I think Hongjoong
and Wooyoung are in the lead for the best date prize. They’ve been doing crazy water sports, losing
several baseball caps and much of their dignity in the Han River, while the
others have been making pottery, taking nature walks, and enjoying gourmet
meals. Time for these other bandmates to
kick it up a notch.
We start with Mingi and
Yunho, who are winding their way through the forest in a luxury sports
car. Mingi says he has prepared “an
extreme that you can’t even imagine.”
NOW we’re talking. Yunho reminds Mingi about how they went
bungee-jumping in Macau when they were trainees. I’ve seen a lot of videos of K-pop idols
bungee-jumping. Is that a K-pop rite of
passage?
We see footage of the In
Your Fantasy tour, and I have another question. Some Redditors insist that ATEEZ has an age
restriction on their concerts, like R-rated moves in the U.S. I can’t find any confirmation of that. To any ATINYs reading this who have been to
an ATEEZ concert, did you have to show ID?
With some of these concert clips I’ve seen online, I wouldn’t be
surprised. If you’ve ever wondered how a
microphone can be used as a phallic symbol, ATEEZ will be happy to show
you.
Last week, we learned about
how ATEEZ was treated badly after their debut because they came from a small
label. Now we’re seeing clips of them
playing packed stadiums. I hope that all
the other groups who refused to bow to them and producers who cut their
performances short are watching this show.
It’s time for another Hidden
Ask question for the group. This one is
inspired by the song “Déjà vu” and submitted by Yeosang: Was there a moment you enjoyed inescapably?
Yunho says it’s
Coachella. Back in the studio, several
of his bandmates agree. These boys still
haven’t come down from that high.
Mingi says he loved
performing at New York City’s Field Stadium, and I think he means Citi
Field. That concert was delayed two
hours due to rain and almost got cancelled.
But when they finally decided to perform in the rain, the
45,000-capacity crowd was still there, waiting for them. New York ATINYs are not afraid of a measly
little monsoon.
“We were crazy back then,”
says Hongjoong. Yes. Back then.
As opposed to the time the group decided to film themselves getting a
sleep endoscopy in 2023 for their YouTube channel. They really did that. ATINY may debate me on this, but for me, the
best part of that video is Mingi waking up in recovery, still under the affects
of the anesthesia, and bragging repeatedly and triumphantly that he was the
first one to wake up. He also got up and
danced around while a nurse tried to get him back onto the gurney. God help us if this group is still crazy
famous when it’s time for their prostate exams.
Back to our show. We join Jongho and Yeosang in their pottery
class. It’s time to move on to their
next date, prepared by Jongho. And of
course, there’s a Porsche Boxster waiting for them.
As they drive through the
night, another Hidden Ask question pops up on Yeosang’s phone. What do you think is true coolness?
Yeosang says modesty is
cool. For Jonho, coolness is being truly
great at what you do. Plain and simple.
We cut to Seonghwa and San at
the restaurant as they wait for yet another beef course (between them, they’ve
eaten an entire herd of cattle at this point), and they’re already on another
question: Have you ever had a moment
where you just had to enjoy it because you couldn’t avoid it?
That’s a tough question. San says he can’t really enjoy things he
can’t avoid, so he just grits his teeth and pushes through. Seonghwa makes a good point – the band has to
be careful because everything they do is in public, so they have to make the
best of the things they don’t enjoy.
After everything I’ve learned
about toxic fans over the past year, I get it.
The last thing a K-pop idol needs is a picture of himself showing any
sign of frustration. Whether it’s having
a very short time to prepare a performance or doing a concert in the pouring
rain, they have to put on a smile and power through.
Seonghwa and San agree that
if you can avoid something unpleasant, you should. “So what’s the thing you most wanted to avoid
during ATEEZ activities?” Seonghwa asks.
“Preparing a stage when we
didn’t have enough time,” San responds. Idols
sometimes get opportunities to perform on a show last-minute and have to make it
look like they’ve been rehearsing for weeks.
As a veteran watcher of K-pop survival reality shows, I see this a lot. One particular Wild Idol mission had trainees
coming up with a stage in just 90 minutes, outdoors in the pouring rain.
Our boys enjoy their final
beef course. It’s snowflake beef with an
egg yolk for dipping. Of course, the egg
was free-range. I’m surprised the hen
didn’t lay the egg right there in the kitchen.
Now I’m thinking the meal is over, but nope. Those were just the beef courses. The dishes keep coming. I hope they’re saving room for six rounds of
dessert.
Speaking of dessert, it’s a
four-color set. Black sesame jelly, soft
persimmon, Earl Grey pave chocolate, and matcha (a type of green tea). I wonder if DoorDash would bring any of these
things to my apartment. I really want to
try them.
When this meal started, it
was early afternoon. It’s now dark
outside. I would want to go right to
sleep after a meal like this, but no. San
gets a text alert. It’s time for him to
bring Seonghwa on the date he has planned.
They’re going to Songpa-gu.
Everyone in the studio is
excited, so I look it up. Songpa is the
largest district in Seoul (by population) and hosted many of the events of the
1988 Summer Olympics with of all its sports facilities. The district’s Wikipedia page is
mind-boggling. Songpa has a childcare
center that is actually called the “Children-Only Multiplex Facility,” which
has a theater, experimental education room, book café, and cafeteria. I am deeply jealous. I never had a multiplex facility growing up. Is this South Korea’s way of trying to bribe
the country into having more children?
We’ll have to wait to see
what awaits them in Songpa-gu. Back to
Yeosang and Jongho in their Porsche Boxster.
They’re bickering because Yeosang thinks Jongho has gotten lost. “Even the streetlights are getting fewer!”
Yeosang wails. “Don’t worry,” the maknae
responds, but it really does look like he’s kidnapping his bandmate. Driving down mountain roads at night is
creepy.
Jongho reminds his date that
this is supposed to be romantic and asks if they should hold hands. After a pause to allow the fans watching this
show to shriek in response, Yeosang declines.
“Shouldn’t we interlock fingers?” Jongho insists. “Knock it off,” says Yeosang.
Jongho getting shot down by his date
Yeosang might want to
reconsider, because Jongho says they’re going to a haunted house. I can’t tell if he’s kidding. We eventually arrive at a lake and what looks
like campgrounds. No one does glamping
like K-pop idols on these shows. Jongho
has rented the entire facility.
Turns out, they’re going
night fishing! This looks really cool. There’s a fountain in the middle of the lake
and a surprising lack of mosquitoes.
Back in the studio, San is
getting a bit too much into the romance of it all, wondering if they’re going
to kiss. I’m sensing a
passive-aggressive vibe because he’s still jealous that he’s not on that date
with Yeosang.
Before hands are thrown, we
cut to Hangjoong and Wooyoung, still weaving through city traffic in their red
Porsche. They get a Hidden Ask
question: Is there a trophy or honor you
still want to get?
Hongjoong says he wants the
band to eventually get a 30th anniversary trophy. They’ll be in their late 40s at that point,
which means they can celebrate that anniversary with new songs like “Blind
(without my Bifocals)” and “Not Okay (an ode to Male Pattern Baldness).”
Hongjoong would also like to
win a Grammy. I checked and was
surprised to learn that as of this writing, not a single K-pop group has won a
Grammy Award. I thought for sure BTS
would have at least one, but after five nominations, they still haven’t won
any. I hopped over to Reddit to see if
anyone there had an opinion on the matter and was knocked out of my seat by the
angry rants. K-pop fans are PISSED.
Wooyoung says he wants to
perform at the Super Bowl. Again, I
can’t believe not a single K-pop artist has done that. Jungkook from BTS was invited to perform with
Usher in 2024, but he was doing his
military service. Can you imagine ATEEZ
doing the halftime show? That would be
insane. Someone get an online petition
started.
Our boys get another
question. Was there a time when you felt
like the bandmates are connected, even if you didn’t say it?
Wooyoung has an answer. When things go wrong onstage, like if the
stage lift malfunctions, the group quickly comes up with a workaround without
saying a word. They just look at each
other and know what to do. Hongjoong has
a similar answer, saying the bandmates can sense each other’s energy and know
when to mix things up onstage. After so
many years together, it’s like they can read each other’s minds. They think this intuition is why the band
doesn’t argue as much as they used to.
The fact that they’ve been
together so long really is remarkable.
Artists are temperamental by nature.
Put eight of them together in a band and have them travel, live, and
work together for years, and you’d expect them to drive each other nuts. Most bands, K-pop or otherwise, don’t have a
long shelf life for that very reason.
The fact that ATEEZ has gotten through the hurdles and made their bond
stronger makes me think there might actually be a 30th anniversary
celebration in their future.
Time to check in on Yunho and
Mingi. Yunho is trying to guess what
kind of extreme date Mingi has planned. They’re
driving upwards into the mountains, so he guess a zipline, and Mingi says it’s
similar. He says it’s a combination of
bungee jumping and ziplining.
Of course, we’ve seen the
previews, so we know where they’re headed.
That’s right, paragliding! As
they approach the site, even Mingi looks a bit nervous. Or he may just be a little embarrassed that
Yunho is protectively putting an arm around him while parking. Their bandmates in the studio tease him
mercilessly about that.
Turns out, neither one of our
boys have been paragliding before. In a
confessional, Yunho tells us Mingi might actually be crazy. “He’s not normally like this,” Yunho says worriedly.
Mingi tells us he’s chosen
the highest paragliding spot in Korea, and it’s also the longest course. He may actually be crazy.
They sign a bunch of
releases, absolving the paragliding company of all responsibility in case Mingi
decides to try steering them into North Korea to see if anyone recognizes
him. (Seriously, the guy is obsessed with
making sure everyone recognizes his name.
I honestly don’t think it’s an ego thing. I think he has this genuine innocent
curiosity to see how many people have actually heard of him.)
Our boys change clothes and
get their safety training. Their
instructor tells them the drive to the top will take twenty minutes on an
unpaved road, and then they will fly 2.5 km (about 1.5 miles).
They hop in the truck for the
bumpy ride up the mountain. They get
tossed around the backseat, and I’m wondering if the instructor is purposely
aiming for all the potholes. Mingi
starts getting carsick, so he just goes to sleep. He’s able to do that. Just puts his head back and starts snoring in
five seconds. I need a handful of
melatonin to sleep at night, and this guy just flips a switch in the middle of
a wildly jolting off-road ride.
Yunho shakes him awake when
they get to the site. I’m getting really
excited to see them flying. The
instructor inflates the paraglider wings and straps the safety gear on our boys. They have to wait for strong winds to die
down, which causes some anxiety because they do NOT want to have to go back
down in the truck. While they wait for
the winds to cooperate, their phones buzz with another Hidden Ask: When did you feel the destiny?
“Right now!” says Mingi. “I’m destined to fly!”
For Yunho, he feels it when he
performs for ATINY. We get more clips of
their live shows. The view of the
audience from the stage is dizzying. I
cannot imagine 50,000 people showing up to see me. All those people spending money on tickets
and travel and hotel and light sticks and merch, learning the fan chants, braving
the crowds, making new friends during the show, experiencing the kind of high
no drug can come close to causing, losing their voices from the screaming and
singing, and finally making their way back home afterwards and experiencing the
emotional crash, only to look forward to doing it all again … all for me.
No wonder this group keeps
talking about how much they love their fans.
I get overwhelmed when someone just remembers my birthday. Having 50,000 fans show up for me, concert after
concert, would be humbling beyond belief.
I understand why Yunho feels the destiny every time.
Now we cut to Seonghwa and
San, who are leaving the restaurant and heading for the Songpa-gu
district. Are they going in a flashy
car? Can Mingi fall asleep on command?
San looks so effortlessly
cool behind the wheel. They drive with
the top down through the city streets at night, and I get a bit wistful because
it really is romantic. The camera crew
really knows how to capture this. Huge
round of applause to everyone who worked on this show.
After some blissful moments
riding around the city, we return to our fishing spot in the campground with
Yeosang and Jongho. Yeosang has never
been fishing before. Jongho walks him
through it, and they cast their lines into the lake. I would give anything to see them reel in one
of Hongjoong’s missing baseball caps.
Back in the studio, San is
miffed that he’s not the one teaching Yeosang to fish. He actually looks jealous, and I don’t think
it’s for the cameras. I want to get a
degree in psychiatry just so I can poke around in that head of his. In the meantime, Yeosang is only thinking of
ATINY and wishing they could join him and Jongho on their fishing date.
While waiting for the fish to
bite, our boys get a notification of another Hidden Ask. We’re getting a lot of them on this
show. The question: When did you want to hit a member the most? I think we had this question in the last
episode, but I’m all for stirring the pot again.
Jongho says San recently took
his phone away and changed his name in the contacts from “Choi San” to “My
San,” so when Jongho looks him up, he has to type “My San.” So now Jongho wants to hit the bandmate who
looks way stronger and is already jealous that he’s on a date with
Yeosang. Maybe you should think that one
through, my guy. And San, seriously,
what in the name of Frasier Crane is going on with you?
Yeosang says in the past, he
and Mingi had the same phone case and kept getting confused and taking each
other’s cell phones. Yeosang had to do a
digital detox for several hours when Mingi took off with his phone. I hope Mingi had fun with that, answering the
phone while pretending to be Yeosang. I
would totally do that. “Yeosang speaking. San?
Who’s San? Am I supposed to know
you?”
Our fishermen aren’t having
much luck. The fish keep taking the bait
and swimming away. So they take a break
and cook ramen right there in the tent.
In the studio, the other
bandmates admire how these two chew and swallow. Mukbang is … interesting. I will say that the ramen looks so good, and
I’m ordering DoorDash as soon as I finish writing this.
Back to Seonghwa and San on
their evening drive through the city.
They are approaching an amusement park in Jamsil. That city name sounds familiar. I Google it, and yes, that’s the location of
Jamsil Indoor Stadium, where the first season of Boys Planet had its
finale. I am so glad I decided not to
recap the second season. Every time I
check for updates on Reddit, the viewers are more and more angry. It sounds like the Chinese trainees are
getting royally screwed over.
Seonghwa and San are not
heading for the stadium. They’re headed
to someplace even better – Lotte World Amusement Park! I love amusement parks at night. This is going to be so much fun!
San pulls into the parking
deck, and his bandmates in the studio marvel at how sexy he looks when he
parks. They go on about this for almost
a full minute. Yes, he does look sexy
driving, but it’s San. Objectively, he
probably looks sexy when flossing his teeth and picking up his dry
cleaning. I would think they’d be used
to it by now.
We’re running out of time in
this episode, but we get some great shots of the amusement park.
San has rented the entire
park for the evening, and he probably looked very sexy while doing that as
well. Seonghwa is so excited, he’s
dancing in the parking garage.
Are they starting with a
roller coaster? Maybe the carousel? Nope!
First they have to … put on school uniforms. Okay.
What?
There’s actually a shop in
the park that sells school uniforms.
I’ve learned a lot about Korean culture from recapping these shows, but
somehow I missed this.
I’d appreciate it if any
ATINYs familiar with Korean culture can tell me in the comments what this is
all about.
With our final couple of
minutes, we head back to the paragliding site with Yunho and Mingi, and the
winds have finally died down. They’re
actually going to paraglide while carrying selfie sticks.
Our episode ends here as
Yunho takes off, and this is a great cliffhanger. Next week, we’ll get to see paragliding and
amusement park rides. We’ll get more
questions for the group. Maybe Yeosang
and Jungho will actually catch some fish.
Whatever happens, I can confidently predict that San will look sexy
during it all while complaining about not being on a date with Yeosang.
See you then!
