Hiii, welcome my very first anon on here!

Okay I have two answers. The first is Lay/Zhang Yixing. I fell for him on SDC3, he was such a captivating dancer, a fair judge and above all else, an incredible mentor and captain. When I discovered everything else from his solo work to properly giving Exo a chance, it was all because of that. I really admire how hard he's worked to stay true to himself and his values in an always difficult situation. He works so hard to balance his responsibilities, his dreams and his values. Above all else, he's a very kind person.

Now on to his music, some of his music is just sublime, I really admire how much he pushes himself to experiment and create and even though his songs aren't always my favourite, some of them are and when experienced with the proper audio equipment do crazy things to my brain. Watching him perform at Metamoon, I saw all his seeming contradictions between the power of his performance and his cuteness in the ments, and beyond. I will always admire how he's a man of many sides but always maintains his own integrity.

That being said, since he doesn't actively promote with Exo right now and may never again, I'll also talk about my bias that does promote with Exo, Xiumin/Kim Minseok. I fell for Minseok because of Yixing at first. The acoustic session was one of the first pieces of Exo music that hooked me and Minseok was sitting right next to Yixing in his cute like stripped blouse, looking absolutely beautiful and incredibly gender and then he hold out the microphone so steadily and looked at Yixing so much as he did and I immediately had a soft spot. In general, his looks stood out to me the more Exo content I watched as did his beautiful dancing. He has this incredibly ethereal quality and yet he's able to channel power, cuteness and sexiness as the dance demands while maintaining his own distinctive quality. I think a lot of people who dance like that aren't able to balance, fuze and flow between those spheres which are also quite heavily gendered and I really loved that.

I also have to credit the fic, specifically I looked up poly fic on ao3 for exo and a lot of the first hits involved Xiuchen with one other member (baekhyun/chanyeol/junmyeon/etc) and I really liked both of them in those fics but especially Minseok.

Around this point I had to admit I was actively interested in Exo itself so I started deep diving into their content, watching showtime, watching ladder, watching variety shows and interviews, exploring CBX and beyond. The more I got to know Minseok's personality, the more I liked him. I liked that he was quiet and calm but with the ability to deliver these really deadpan lines if he didn't hold himself back. His enjoyment of gossip, that he doesn't like it when it's too noisy, how he looks after the other members, how he smiles that wonderfully normal smile. I liked how much he values people he cares about. I enjoyed his sense of humour. I loved how much he loves music. In the end it was just so clear, by the number of photos I had saved alone that he was my bias as well and his solo debut made it clear that I had understood him as a person and that my love for him was here to stay.

Hope this answers your question and thank you again!

I'll start by saying that I think all the Exos are close to each other to a very significant extent. However, there seem to be some Exos who regularly meet up outside of group events (or work) which I'll highlight as being 'closer'.

Known to Hang Out Regularly Outside of Work:
- Junmyeon and Sehun: As the two who returned to living in the dorms together for some period during 2022 and perhaps beyond definitely see each other outside of work.
- Baekhyun and Sehun: Seen together during Baekhyun's enlistment going out to various events/galleries
- Chanyeol and Sehun: Have referred to hangouts together
- Chanyeol and Kyungsoo: Between boxing classes, trips to Japan and more, we've heard a lot about them hanging out together.
- Sehun and Minseok: During the Brand New promotions, Minseok talked about seeing and hanging out with Sehun.
- Sehun and Yixing: Sehun has talked about calling Yixing while Yixing has talked about seeing Sehun ahead of his enlistment.
- CBX: All three seem to hang out, in pairs as well as as a trio. Minseok and Jongdae in particular have been known to go to restaurants together and said during the filming of Hear Me Out that they hang out together a lot outside of work.
- Chanyeol, Junmyeon and Jungian all go to the same gym and workout together sometimes.
- Chanyeol, Baekhyun and Sehun have the same voice teacher.
- Sehun and Kyungsoo have been seen hanging out together.

As the members themselves have said, Sehun is a bit of a social glue and is one of the most likely members to organize get togethers and one on one time which you can see is also reflected above.

The members have always been supportive of each other's projects and often attended their solo events or their shoots. They've also gotten food /coffee support trucks for each other. Some like to use IG to comment on each other's posts.

Ultimately closeness is always difficult to discern from the outside looking in, especially with Exo who care a lot about keeping their private lives private. There's duos who are clearly very close like Junmyeon and Baekhyun who nonetheless have such a busy schedule that they don't seem to hang out much outside of work but might call or visit each other at their schedules. Obviously we don't get to hear a lot about Yixing's current relationship with the members beyond his relationship with Sehun and his IG likes and follows. I've also kept this 'closeness' analysis to 2020 onwards even though we know Chanyeol and Jongdae hung out several times outside of work in 2019. My recommendation is to not focus on who is more or less close but to instead pay attention to the interactions between your two favourite members/your favourite duo because you're sure to notice details about their relationship if you do. Exo loves Exo. We are one.

From what I understand, Minseok definitely was part of the Masters program for a Music major in "Applied Music" at Catholic Kwandong University back in 2014 and we even have a presentation he gave back then which was recorded, see below. There were statements from professors as well so it's well supported.
https://xiuminindo.wordpress.com/2014/11/27/trans-audio-141126-xiumins-presentation-at-gwandong-university/
https://xiuminindo.wordpress.com/2014/11/26/compilation-141126-xiumins-presentation-at-catholic-kwandong-universitys-applied-music-seminar/

However, the evidence that he did a PhD is spottier, even in part is more spotty and what exists is present in this Koreaboo article (https://www.koreaboo.com/stories/exos-xiumin-is-pursuing-his-phd-at-hoseo-university/). Essentially these reports were based on a visit to Hoseo University by Xiumin as well as a person claiming on twitter that he was currently completing his PhD program and that it was not in contemporary/practical music. As far as I'm aware, we never got any other information on the subject making it difficult to know if this is true but if anyone knows anymore, please speak up in the comments!

Hope this helps!

I AM HERE AND I AM READY, I HAVE BEEN TRAINING MYSELF FOR THIS!!!

The first things people should watch:
- Prince of Tennis: This at first isn't an obvious answer to 'solo content that will make you understand Minseok better' but push through the first couple (very fun) episodes I think you'll see why I recommend it. Xiumin's Prince of Tennis puts Minseok in a situation where there's a bunch new skills he has to learn about something he has a high interest in and some background athleticism in. This is kind of perfect because he's both challenges and motivated which means that he, especially once he starts playing matches against his teacher and other students, drops a lot of his persona and shows more of who he is. We see how he does in team vs solo environments, how he responds to critique and also we get to see him win over his teacher (and some kids). He never sets out to explain himself in this but you'll learn a lot about him anyways if you give the whole thing a shot.

• Chae Shit Drifter: This recent episode of Minseok on his friend Hyungwon's show is one of the most honest I've ever seen him be. In his attempts to prepare his friend for his upcoming enlistment, we get to see more of Minseok explaining himself and what he struggles with than usual. I think this will be especially important for anyone that struggling with the Xiumin-Minseok gap.

• Xiumin's Heart4U: Although I deeply adore the house party with all the EXO members, I actually think the best reason to watch his H4U from a meta POV is to see Minseok amongst his long standing high school friends who we get to see both en masse with him as well as in a smaller setting AND also interacting with ChenKai. I think seeing him around friends he chose for himself really lets you see what he's like when he's happy/more natural and his friends call him out if they think he's being weird.

I think those are the best starting points, the only other one being his couple talk with Baekhyun from last year's Japanese FM here and here. Unfortunately, while there's a wonderful document that translates it, there's no hard or soft subbed version so you're left running the video while you read along. Drink with God likewise has similar struggles (no easily available subbed version) but I did assemble one from some subs someone posted on reddit and anyone's who's interested can DM me about them. However while it's enjoyable, there's a lot of other people to get through and I never assembled a Minseok supercut. His episodes of Crime Scene Crackdown are fun but mostly persona (though he is good at the game) and his appearances various places with Changmin tell more about their relationship than Minseok himself. Dangerous Outside the Blankets is also super fun but if you know that Minseok is neurotic and awkward but tries to be a good senior, that's most of the info you'll learn.

In terms of group content where he shows up but you learn interesting things about him, I'd have to say Ladder S1 (you can contrast with Ladder S3) is my major recommendation as well as the interview included in Magical Circus 2019. There are other interviews, lives and showcases where he shared specific info so if there's a topic you're specifically interested in (like Minseok and weight/diet or Minseok and [member]), there are specific suggestions I would give.

All in all, Minseok is a bit of an enigma who's tried to remain so in lots of ways. He's definitely a jigsaw with lots of pieces and he doesn't give out pieces easily.

I'm always happy to talk about him or any of these in more detail whether here on retrospring, on discord or on twitter and I'd love to hear any reactions you have to them!

Oh goodness what a question XD

So first thing: if at all possible I like to write well in advance of a deadline. I'm the kind of person who would start assignment 2-4 weeks early. But I do like the structure of deadlines and having something to plan and work towards, to motivate me to start working and thinking about something instead of putting it off for another day. I generally start working on snowspark 4-6 months in advance.

Generally, my writing process starts with me drifting through ideas until I find one that grabs me by the chest and that I can't stop thinking about it. I'll often dash off a scene or thoughts in a group chat or DM to a friend and then either in that same chat or in a doc, I'll write up something that's in between a first draft and an outline. Basically I'm telling a significant portion of the story with some POV moments, some dialogue where it feels right, etc. When I'm done I'll generally have 20-70% of the outline of the story written and will have hit on some major beats and moments.

At this point, I'll go back to what I've written and start 'back filling' aka I'll be reading what I wrote and filling out the scenes including adding whole new scenes. I'll keep up this process and also jump around, leave lots of [...] or [and then they did thing] as I need to. I'll also jump forward and continue my outline-first draft hybrid. Each session I will generally backread some if not all of what I've written before and edit, fill in further as needed.

This whole time I'll be sending snippets to some friends in a GC and getting their excitement feedback or sending the whole document and my friends will alpha read it/some of it. Their comments and reactions will often spark thoughts and edits for me which will push the story forwards and make me understand what I'm writing better as well as keeping me excited about the project.

Generally there's a point where I get stuck, where the POV character is really resisting me in some way and I need to do a deep read, maybe talk to a friend, maybe listen to a TTS version, probably all of the above. Often a character has some need that needs to be addressed before it feels right for that character to go to the next planned part of the plot. In 'Waxing Ecstatic' for instance, I got stuck twice, once in the scene where Jongdae takes his first bath after being waxed and once soon after Jongdae enters the club. In the bath scene, I had planned for Baekhyun to tease Jongdae and convince him to go to the club but I was totally stuck with Jongdae in the bathtub and feeling bad which I realized was coming from his character in my head. So I leaned in to those bad feelings he was feeling and wrote this whole breakdown and as I did I realized that he was actually really upset and confused by the feelings he was having after getting waxed, that he had all these fears about being left behind by his friends, about Baekhyun moving out and him being left alone forever. I then added more hints about these suppressed feelings to the first scene. In the second instance, where Jongdae has just come to the club, I was stuck because Jongdae was stuck and didn't want to be there so of course he wasn't cooperating when I tried to advance the plot. I realized he needed to have a conversation that made him willing to give the club and kink a try and since Kyungsoo and Jungian were right there, they were obvious people for him to have that conversation with. This also meant that when Baekhyun came around near the end of the story, Jongdae was disappointed to realize that Baekhyun hadn't read his mind about kink stuff just set up a meet cute with Minseok. But that also meant that Jongdae took ownership of his own growth in the fic.

The last phase of writing for me is usually the quickest. Ideally, I've given myself enough time to set the fic aside for a few days but ideally even longer. I try and read and immerse myself in other thoughts and works while that happens because I want to return to the fic with some perspective. I like to listen to a full TTS version (or read it aloud myself) as well as get a friend to do a proper beta read. Generally I've done so much editing at this point that this is pretty fast OR I've tapped in a friend while the fic wasn't all the way finished so again most of it is already done. But there is often some things that with the benefit of perspective aren't as clear they'd seemed before or a scene that doesn't have the effect I want it to and I'll make edits accordingly. Sometimes if I haven't started early enough or made enough progress, this all happens under a bit of a time crunch or I end up submitting for a fest and making some edits after the fact although I really hate doing that on AO3 because it's so easy to mess up formatting in some way.

Ultimately I would describe my writing process as being really dependent on conversations and interactions with friends and other writers because for me that's the magic of writing and fanfic. I could never write in a solitary tower, I need those reactions and conversations to give myself perspective and deeper understanding of my own work. My process also reflects that I really hate writing first drafts but love editing. At the same time if I just write a point by point outline I lose the feeling of excitement and momentum and wanting to know what happens next that drives me ahead in writing a fic for the first time. My process is designed to maximize that momentum and get down a first draft as quickly as possible so that I can move on to editing ASAP! I also make sure to give myself breaks where I'm not doing any writing because nothing is singing to me, especially if my brain is actively resisting the idea of writing. At the same time, I really value when friends mention a WIP they're excited about from me or I get a comment because those things can often spark that excitement that gets me to come back to a fic.

I hope this was helpful or interesting and thank you so much for asking!

I have been retweeting a lot of xiubaek recently, they're always fun!

My thoughts on them in 2024 are as follows:

They've journeyed over the years from really getting on each other's nerves to doing so for fun to becoming close during CBX. Then when Minseok came back from enlistment, he really needed and relied on Baekhyun when he did public facing work and I think Baekhyun thrived on that and on Minseok's company after a period of really having to do it all alone. Now that it's Baekhyun who's come back from his enlistment, we've seen them get even closer in deciding to pursue this lawsuit with Jongdae as well as form their own company together.

I think they've both reached a point in their relationship with each other where they can be more vulnerable and honest without getting defensive. Baekhyun's deep read of Minseok's insecurities and pushing him to be more confident would not have gone well in the past and we see an aborted, old reaction to that in Minseok's response being to immediately bring up a time that Baekhyun was vulnerable during the Paper Cuts performance at Magical Circus 2019. But he stops himself and ties it into a real and true response to what Baekhyun is actually saying by turning it into a compliment and saying that it made him realize how much Baekhyun really cares about him.

So now, 8, 9 months after that conversation, we've got them together with Jongdae embarking on a new label whose central goal is to explore new sides of themselves creatively and deliver more of that. It's something they all want and also what Baekhyun said he hoped Minseok would do with his next endeavour. I know none of us expected that Minseok would ever leave SM even to the extent that he has with CBX (ie still under exclusive contract, just with some extra clauses to allow for their label) and I don't think he would have without having a team around him. I think Baekhyun without a team to help him could have done it and would have been miserable.

So where do I think they are in 2024? I think they're the closest they've ever been and also that their relationship is deeply tied up in both of their relationships with Jongdae. I think they're honest and straightforward with each other and that they really trust each other. I think all the differences that existed between them that caused all the friction, also mean that they balance each other incredibly well and know how to be what the other person needs. Still, I don't expect that they'll stop teasing each other any time soon and I'm beyond excited for the next level banter we'll have about CEO vs mathyung and Minseok being so pleased they managed to stick Baekhyun with the CEO job so he didn't have to do it XD Also, they know they've got fans like me who love their shenanigans and flirting and we all know Minseok will be flirting with Baekhyun in front of our eyeballs soon while Baekhyun does his best to get back at him.

I love watching what we see of each of them together and I'm beyond excited by the fact that we should be seeing so much more of them together! They're always be one of my favourite ships, I basically ship every combo of cbx+yx and just really enjoy the friendships they all share so actually getting CBX back this year and as their own label is my definition of a dream come true. I hope well see an increase in CBX fic this year and I've already loved all the fan art we've gotten

I kind of feel like I've said a lot of nothing but I hope this is what you were looking for!

Hiii, welcome my very first anon on here!

Okay I have two answers. The first is Lay/Zhang Yixing. I fell for him on SDC3, he was such a captivating dancer, a fair judge and above all else, an incredible mentor and captain. When I discovered everything else from his solo work to properly giving Exo a chance, it was all because of that. I really admire how hard he's worked to stay true to himself and his values in an always difficult situation. He works so hard to balance his responsibilities, his dreams and his values. Above all else, he's a very kind person.

Now on to his music, some of his music is just sublime, I really admire how much he pushes himself to experiment and create and even though his songs aren't always my favourite, some of them are and when experienced with the proper audio equipment do crazy things to my brain. Watching him perform at Metamoon, I saw all his seeming contradictions between the power of his performance and his cuteness in the ments, and beyond. I will always admire how he's a man of many sides but always maintains his own integrity.

That being said, since he doesn't actively promote with Exo right now and may never again, I'll also talk about my bias that does promote with Exo, Xiumin/Kim Minseok. I fell for Minseok because of Yixing at first. The acoustic session was one of the first pieces of Exo music that hooked me and Minseok was sitting right next to Yixing in his cute like stripped blouse, looking absolutely beautiful and incredibly gender and then he hold out the microphone so steadily and looked at Yixing so much as he did and I immediately had a soft spot. In general, his looks stood out to me the more Exo content I watched as did his beautiful dancing. He has this incredibly ethereal quality and yet he's able to channel power, cuteness and sexiness as the dance demands while maintaining his own distinctive quality. I think a lot of people who dance like that aren't able to balance, fuze and flow between those spheres which are also quite heavily gendered and I really loved that.

I also have to credit the fic, specifically I looked up poly fic on ao3 for exo and a lot of the first hits involved Xiuchen with one other member (baekhyun/chanyeol/junmyeon/etc) and I really liked both of them in those fics but especially Minseok.

Around this point I had to admit I was actively interested in Exo itself so I started deep diving into their content, watching showtime, watching ladder, watching variety shows and interviews, exploring CBX and beyond. The more I got to know Minseok's personality, the more I liked him. I liked that he was quiet and calm but with the ability to deliver these really deadpan lines if he didn't hold himself back. His enjoyment of gossip, that he doesn't like it when it's too noisy, how he looks after the other members, how he smiles that wonderfully normal smile. I liked how much he values people he cares about. I enjoyed his sense of humour. I loved how much he loves music. In the end it was just so clear, by the number of photos I had saved alone that he was my bias as well and his solo debut made it clear that I had understood him as a person and that my love for him was here to stay.

Hope this answers your question and thank you again!