there's this fundamental frequency about the two of them that's been poking at me since march or april and then a few weeks ago 8jiushiweilai even posted the whole the8/dzr comparison and i felt SO validated fufufu but to articulate it...i think the best way to think about it is the way yanchen described zeren as very upright?? upstanding???? i think both of them are kind of straightforward and righteous and don't take any nonsense and they're both people i can see who would 骂别人一顿 for doing wrong (eng trans: scold?? criticize??? go off on????????). they just have this weirdly similar aura and even tho their features might not really look that similar, to me for some reason they become one person at times like just in sync...resonance...i think resonance more than similarity is the best way to describe it i super wanna see them interact lmao...part of it is because i didn't really start liking the8 until maybe last august ([imee voice] i told you so) so he's still in the growing phase with my blossoming affections and as i watched ip and got this same vibe from zeren and came to love him more and more it transferred more love to the8 as well and vice versa. i mean...when you look at their weibo updates...it's so striking to me but i can't explain it that well either haha

things i like about xmh: 有自己的想法. this is the biggest one, that he comes to formulate his own opinions based on his own independent critical thinking, that he evaluates the world he lives in and his reality. i think it's very easy to teach people intelligence but it's very difficult to teach people to think so the abundant evidence of his thought construction is something that really draws me to him. there's this level of maturity he brings to the table that has to do with this and forms his own universal code of ethics and morality that isn't based on necessarily rules or laws but his own sense of justice. and he has this very strong sense of right and wrong (also see: dzr) based off of laws he's arrived at independently without simply parroting societal norms. another thing that i find really appealing about xmh is that he knows what he wants. omg is it hard to find people like this lmao but not only does he know what he wants he also actively works toward getting those things. i like people who are of action and xmh is really about putting plans into motion more than just talking about it. and this ties into another aspect of him i really like which is this unstoppable drive for self improvement. that's like *hand on chest* the character trait i most like in people. people are by nature going to make mistakes and stuff like that but if you always try to make yourself better, where the goal is improvement in and of itself rather than improvement to achieve something else...that's a quality i really admire in people. and again it's this level of maturity in terms of social cognitive behavioral development...i've said in the past that i think most men really never grow up past being children emotionally/to handle conflict and stuff like that and i don't necessarily want to say this as if the8 is an exception to that but he like makes an effort...am i rewarding the bare minimum by liking this? at any rate i just think he's like at a stage of personality development that's more adult than a lot of his peers lmao. do i still think he's childish sometimes and does dumb stuff sometimes and fucks up sometimes? yes...but i also wanna give credit to the parts of him that are trying for good. jenny and i sometimes talk about how jun's personality is not one of someone we'd normally get along well with irl but for me personally i think the8 has a character type who i'd like to have conversations with and befriend. i think he's the kind of person who because of his own relentless pursuit of excellence really pushes the people around him to grow as well. another thing i really like about him is his softer moments, like when he talked about waking up crying from that mingyu nightmare or so forth like he's someone who really kind of is alive in the moment and cares and lives...it's nice...i like...
on the flip side i feel like he can have his fuckboi moments and do some stupid shit and like i said he has his own thoughts but i don't necessarily agree with all of them...but i suppose that's why i wouldn't mind befriending someone like him because it's cool to talk to people who think differently than you so you can challenge each other. another thing i don't like is his, idk, 2008ish brand of 'artsiness' but i feel like his art tastes will mature right and evolve from the kind of teenage angstiness era that it's in now...even if it doesn't it doesn't really matter i just don't look at his 模糊 pictures so i almost forgot to mention this but it really is easier to just ignore things u don't like LMAO
i will end this now...i feel like i could talk about the8 for a long time because my thoughts on him have really changed a lot since 2015 and i like him loads now nisa chinaline gaein fan