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eight people.
eight channels.
eight famous youtubers that had nothing do with each other, at least not before that one day in the beginning of january. it was a day that had the internet overflowing with questions, conspiracy theories, and general confusion, all centered around a group of eight boys. previous to that day, no one had even known they were friends. that one day changed a lot about how the internet perceived all of them.
one of the reasons it was so surprising to see that the eight of them were close friends was because they had never even mentioned each other before, at least not by name. another was the fact that their content was so different that people couldn't find a reason why they would want to collaborate, unless they were friends.
first, you had chan, who's channel was called "channie's room". he was a music producer before a youtuber, only coming to the platform after having made a name for himself in the industry already. on his channel, he posted weekly videos where he talked to his fans and recommended music. it was a safe space for everyone, and lots of people took comfort in his videos and the advice he gave. one week, he had missed the time he usually posted, which resulted in a complete meltdown on twitter that made the stupid bird app crash. the video had been successfully uploaded the very next day, but that occasion became proof of his influence online.
lee minho, or "lee know" as he called himself, danced. on his youtube channel you could find plenty of covers, original choreographies, as well as improvisation videos where he danced to whatever he felt like that day. regardless of your interest in dancing, his skill was undeniable and given how he had toured with famous bands as a background dancer, you were sure to have heard of him. not only did he showcase his own skill, but he also made dance tutorials so fans could learn their favorite choreographies.
next was seo changbin. on his channel, he posted videos of himself rapping (and occasionally singing), making both covers and original pieces. there were also videos from live stages he had done, shakily filmed by whoever he had convinced to hold the camera that day, but the sound quality more than made up for the blurry frames his viewers had to put up with. whether we was singing or rapping, making a cover or posting something original, he always gave 100% and it was always equally impressive, which is what had attracted his large following on the social media.
hwang hyunjin did makeup. his style ranged from flawlessly neutral looks, to sparkling and colorful ones, to some more theatric stuff. the one thing they had in common was how impressive they were. while doing his makeup, he would talk to his viewers about whatever he felt like that day, both serious topics such as the hate he got for being a guy wearing makeup, but he could switch to being a goofball in less than a second, and none of his videos were complete without a wide selection of dramatic noises. simply dropping a brush on the floor would cause the boy to gasp, but his dramatic personality was one of his charms.
when it came to vlogging, han jisung was a name you couldn't avoid. the young boy did a little bit of everything in his vlogs that were posted 3-4 times a week, simultaneously entertaining and inspiring his subscribers. fans had dubbed him as "quokka", both because of his resemblance to the animal, but also because of his ability to uplift people's moods when they needed it the most. his videos showed his daily life, and jisung had over time proven himself to be quite talented in singing and rapping, as well as art. viewers could never be sure what they would get to see in each video, but they were pleasantly surprised every single time.
felix lee was the voice behind the most hilarious asmr channel on youtube, one that attracted both people who generally enjoyed asmr as well as people who didn't enjoy it at all but came for the bloopers. because, let's be honest, there were a lot of those. even the australian himself liked to make fun of his most iconic moments, such as that one time his adam's apple hit the mic when he swallowed. the amount of funny compilations with felix in them was no joke. his bright attitude had also earned him the nickname "sunshine" from some of his fans.
next was kim seungmin, whose biggest interest was filming and editing. his videos were a whole visual experience, the actual content often secondary to the beautiful way in which they were shot. if you had to categorize his videos, they would probably classify as vlogs, even though the feeling was way too aesthetic to be compared to normal vlogs. and, of course, no video was complete without a bit of day6 playing in the background, which is what has given him the title "myday president" online.
the youngest of them was yang jeongin, or "I.N" as he called himself on his channel, and he was famous for his gaming videos. viewers could watch him play most games on there, ranging from action games to kid games, but most of his subscribers would honestly watch him play anything simply because of his cuteness and funny comments while playing. most people came for the games, but they stayed for his personality.
a random day in the beginning of january, the internet turned into a mess as these eight boys got publicly involved with each other for the first time.
there was nothing suspicious about the first video any of them posted that day. it was on felix's channel, and the title was simply "a collection of bloopers". nothing out of the ordinary. at least not until the video started.
the only person in the frame was felix, but his eyes were turned to something behind the camera, and he was grinning widely at whatever was there.
"no hyung, you can't do that, this is asmr!" felix whisper-yelled into the mic, still with his eyes on whoever was behind the camera.
someone screamed from the side. it wasn't overly loud, since the mic wasn't close to the whoever the person was, but felix turned his head immediately, his look of annoyance almost overshadowed by the confusion on his face.
"minho hyung, what the fuck?" he said in a normal volume of speech, seemingly giving up on the asmr for now. whatever his hyung answered wasn't heard in the mic, but felix looked just as confused afterwards. "you... just felt like screaming? what the fuck, i'm trying to do asmr here!"
"key word, trying," another voice yelled from somewhere outside the frame. felix turned his face to the left.
"jisung, shut up!"
someone's maniacal cackling could be heard as felix sent a stern look to the person behind the camera, and then the scene cut to another room and another setting, and this time, he wasn't alone in the frame.
felix was sitting in front of the mic, but there was one boy on either side of him, clearly having invaded the set since neither of them had their own seat.
"ooh, i wanna try asmr!" jeongin said happily, reaching for a pair of chopsticks that were placed on the table close to the mic. felix didn't even try to stop him.
"don't use the chopsticks", seungmin advised from the other side of felix. "just use your mouth to make weird noises."
the expression on felix's faced was mildly disturbed, but he still didn't stop them, only leaned back and grinned as they both looked through the objects felix had on the table.
the rest of the video continued in a similar fashion. a small minority of the bloopers were just felix by himself in the frame, and most of them featured one or several of the other boys. it seemed like they had known each other for quite a long time since there were bloopers from some really old videos, and the other boys were in those, as well.
the weirdest part for everyone watching the video was that these other boys were also known on youtube.
the whole thing left every viewer in a state of confusion, and no more answers had been given by the time seungmin posted the next video, this one titled "vlog - jeju island". again, the title and thumbnail were nothing unusual, but this time, people were already a bit suspicious when they clicked it.
clearly, these boys were close, despite never having mentioned one another on their channels before. that much was obvious just from the two videos that had been posted so far.
per usual, seungmin's vlog was shot and edited in a very aesthetically pleasing way, but this time, the video featured the seven other boys and not only seungmin himself. there wasn't any talking in the video, only video clips that showed what they were doing, and a day6 song added in as background music.
they seemed to be much closer friends than anyone could have thought, as they practically sat on each other's laps when seungmin's vlog showed all of them going out to a restaurant to eat. everything was very casual.
the next video was posted by jeongin, and it was called "playing vr with my hyungs". this time, the other seven were visible in the thumbnail already, which let everyone know that the full group would be featured in this one as well.
their interactions were so natural that it only served to prove that these boys had known each other for a lot longer than anyone was aware of. all of their personalities fit so well with the others, and they could effortlessly tease or joke with the rest, even going as far as trying to sabotage for each other when they were playing the games.
changbin tried multiple times to joke that vr stood for video radio, until seungmin told him off while chan tried to kick him. minho got to try a virtual rollercoaster, and after him, jisung also tried the same thing, both of them making the rest of the group almost laugh their heads off as they constantly seemed to be halfway out of the moving chair. the amount of screaming throughout the entire video was insane, but... it was hilarious to watch.
that afternoon, minho posted a new choreography. it came as a surprise to absolutely no one that he wasn't alone in this one, not after he himself had already featured in three other videos this day.
the video was a dance cover of twice's song "dance the night away", and all eight of them performed together. it was slightly surprising to see some of them dancing, since they were unexpectedly good at it. obviously minho did well, but the others were also able to keep up with the choreo, despite never having showcased any dancing skills before.
less than an hour later, hwang hyunjin posted "8 pride makeup looks", a video were he created eight different makeup looks inspired by various pride flags. as models, he used the other boys as well as his own face.
some of them (read: jisung & chan) were artistic enough to help out a bit, applying different products after hyunjin's instructions, even though the owner of the channel did most of it. others (read: changbin) got their hands slapped away if they even tried to touch any of hyunjin's brushes.
in the end, all eight of them had pretty makeup looks with different color schemes, based on which pride flag their look was influenced by. it seemed like they had the flags of their own sexuality, since there were multiple looks inspired by the same flag.
hyunjin and minho both had rainbow colors over their faces. changbin and chan had yellow, pink and blue, their makeup inspired by the pansexual pride flag. jisung and felix's looks had colors from the bisexual flag, with pink, purple and blue on their faces. seungmin had the asexual pride colors (black, gray, white and purple), while jeongin seemed to be representing all of them, as he had the poly pride flag.
on changbin's channel, a video called "even a shadow needs light to exist" was posted. after fans clicked on it, the video turned out the be another original song, but this time, he wasn't alone in front of the camera. the song started with the strumming of a guitar before showing a scene of eight people sitting next to each other with microphones in their hands. then, they took turns singing, and the song was beautiful. the emotion in all of their voices as well as the message of the lyrics had most viewers teary-eyed.
maybe it should have been surprising that every single one of them was good at singing, but it wasn't. it just seemed right in some strange way.
the seventh video was posted on jisung's channel, and the title read "a normal day in our apartment". this confirmed what every viewer had been suspecting already: they eight youtubers were really close to each other, close enough to share an apartment. again, maybe it should have been surprising, but after seeing their interactions in all the other videos throughout the day, it wasn't. the group just fit together, as if it had always been the eight of them together.
in style with jisung's other vlogs, this one didn't have any planned content and simply showed the boys living a normal day, exactly like the title suggested. again, it didn't answer any of the questions about how they knew each other or how long this had been going on, but at the same time, it managed to satisfy every person watching.
it ended with chan, and a live titled "stray kids hangout!!!"
eight boys were crammed into the frame. all of them were turned forward, with the exception of jisung and felix, who were looking down at a phone screen, most likely to read the comments on the live.
all of them looked really happy, even though there definitely wasn't enough space for everybody.
chan was in the middle, and since it was his video, he was also the one who started talked first.
"hi everyone! welcome back!" he greeted the viewers, before taking a short pause as all the others said their hellos and waved at the camera. "as you can see, i have a few guests here with me today..."
some of them cheered at this.
"normally, i just talk and have music recommendations for you guys, but today, we're going to answer some questions instead, since i bet there are a lot of those right now." there was a brief pause as chan read the live chat. ""you're wearing white", yeah, that's right! i dressed for the occasion. but is that seriously what you guys are most interested in right now?"
his tone was slightly teasing as he said the last part.
when chan once again paused to read the chat, felix and jisung took the silence as a cue to start reading from the chat.
"are you boyfriends?"
"how long have you known each other?"
"are you guys dating?"
"is chan keeping all of you hostage and forcing you to fake date each other for clout?" several heads turned to jisung as he said that, and he grinned. "maybe i made that one up."
changbin hit the back of his head softly, but he was grinning.
"well, i think it's time we address those questions. except that last one." chan gave jisung A Look™. "but the ones that are actually relevant, i think we should answer those now."
"the answer is yes", minho said before anyone else had a chance to speak up.
after that, they all started talking over each other, some of them groaning about how he should've waited so that they could say it together, while others were confirming what he had said. it was chaotic for several more moment, before chan raised his voice to be heard over the rest.
"yeah, guys! what minho said is true. all of us are dating, we're boyfriends, and we live together." he paused to read the chat. "oh, and we've all known each other for at least... what is it, four years now?"
he didn't get a reply, but they were all smiling widely at the camera.
"i think we have a lot more questions to address, though…" chan trailed off, glancing at the boys around him. the phone had now been passed to seungmin and jeongin, and the older of the two read some of the comments in the silence that followed chan's statement.
"how did you all learn how to sing and dance? why didn't you share your relationship earlier? how did you all meet? why have you never been in each other's videos before now?"
"yeah." chan laughed. "we have a lot of explaining to do…"
things changed from that point. the eight of them explained everything as well as they could in that one live, but after that, they had many more opportunities to talk about it. after that one day, they started appearing in each other's videos a lot more often.
jeongin challenged felix in a bunch of different games. hyunjin joined minho for several dance covers. seungmin's boyfriends began featuring in his vlogs. jisung and changbin released a self-produced song written by both of them where they took turns rapping. chan started inviting his boyfriends to guest his weekly lives.
of course there's people that were unsupportive of them, but the opinions of those had no value in their lives, and the boys kept going with just as much energy as before. maybe even more, considering they were now being open about everything.
a lot of things changed, most of them for the better.
their future had never seemed brighter.