1. i think it's difficult to judge if samuel likes minghao more from what we see in the episodes. it makes obvious sense that he'd want to collab with the8 more b/c of similarities in style and genre and concept, whereas jun is probably more like eric/yan an. if you watch the bonus clips outside the eps there's a lot of time when they all hang out together and samuel laughs at jun's antics. i also think it's weird to talk about jun/samuel's history together because he was like 11 when they met and it was 5 years ago and i don't think they really kept in touch. i mean the most obvious thing to point to here is when he got asked for his fave svt hyung and he answered seungkwan but wasn't even sure if that was his name.

2. it's interesting to me that we can have this conversation now because a few months ago ling and i were worrying about xmh's seeming inability to make friends LOL. he was very much on the sidelines at the ppf event while jun was making friends etc. and it seemed like jun held back on spending too much time with other people to keep the8 company. later, before cyzj started airing, it seemed like jun was again closer to the show participants than the8 was based on their online interactions. i think they just have different ways of socializing and forming friendships and again i'm self-cautioning because i find it easy to forget we really only see a sliver of these people's lives and i don't want to let myself draw conclusions based off any of it.

3. i mean, the8 obviously has more fans than jun. idk what ifans wanna tell themselves about "oh chinese viewers like the8 more than jun bc he was shown taking care of samuel" no there are no chinese viewers this show is only shown on the internet it's not got a live televised broadcast spot the only people watching the show are those who are already fans of someone on it or who are SUPREMELY bored with their lives, also, the8's votes were way higher than jun's in the doki hearts voting and that all took place before cyzj started broadcasting. i know ifans want you to vote 1 each for jun and the8 and like whatever y'all do what you want i personally think that doesn't make sense given that the8 is at least tens of thousands of votes ahead of jun and has been since june 4th or whenever the first round of voting started but the last time i said this i got called a jun akgae so i don't care you can continue voting one each lmao whatever. but at the end of the day the8 fans in china are voting for the8 and jun fans in china are voting for jun. and at the last time i checked the8's supertopic on weibo has 4000 more followers than jun's. the8 has more fans than jun and that's why he has more votes than him, that's just fact. sure there are chinese svt fans/other members' fans who are throwing in more votes for jun because he's so far behind but they aren't going to be as motivated as the8 fans would be to vote for the8. and they're not akgaes either, ifans have this obsession with acting as if people liking one member more than others makes them an akgae they're not they want svt to do well too but they like the8 more than the other svts. it's like when svt have fansites they take pics of mostly one member, maybe a few of the others on special occassions, but they have a member they focus on and that makes sense it's not in any way malicious. anyway as a result tho jun definitely has fewer fans and fewer votes but trying to discern the nitty gritty reasons behind why one person is more popular than another or why one group is more popular than another is impossible. people just like what they like. it doesn't necessarily have to do entirely with talent (then lee chan would be way more popular than he is) or entirely with appearance or entirely with 'it' factor...it just is what it is. if you could specify and bottle what makes people popular then entertainment companies would be set for life but it's unpredictable how people react to things and how different people react to things differently.

4. i legit tweeted this yesterday:
"i dont want people to be friends with jun DESPITE his embarrassing nature i want them to be friends with him BECAUSE of it…be delighted by his puns and bad jokes and shitty humour and nasally warble voice and terrible handwriting and simultaneous shamelessness and shyness"
for me, personally, i don't know if i would like jun as much if he weren't the way he is. the parts of him that make up who he is equal more than their sum. i wasn't this way before but now i LIKE when people are a bit awkward on stage and i'm endeared to people who shrink inward on themselves.
i don't really worry about him actively although i do feel indignant all the time...this is reminding me of a time back in like february 2016 when we were having a similar conversation on twitter and i was like yeah i moan about this all the time but jun is a grown man and can take care of himself and not unhappy with his situation. i said i think we can take a step back and not get too heated over it and i still feel like that...i think the moaning about jun is more for ME than it is for him i don't necessarily think he's unloved or anything although of course as his fan i wish he were more loved, obviously. i get your disenchantment...
i'm sure jun is loved and has good friends and is happy and whatever but he's not winning any competitions to become someone's best friend and he always seems to be on that weird side of showing people more affection than they show him. i don't necessarily think this is equivalent to liking people more than they like him tho and this is now entirely speculation (and has been for a few sentences now) but i think he's really good at surface affections and physical displays while actually possibly being worse at deeper emotional connection...i think he's opposite xmh in this sense and that's why he's good at initially socializing more maybe but not necessarily better at making friends overall. anyway not to project or psychoanalyze but i think jun makes it really hard to get that close to him because he doesn't want people to worry about him and he holds people at a distance even tho he really likes them and wants to be close to them, he doesn't strike me as the type of person who will lean his head against yours while lying in the grass staring up at the stars and tell you all his life woes or dreams or personal feelings, he's more likely to want to listen to yours and help you achieve what you want to achieve. i think. but that's just how he is...?

5. another thing i tweeted yesterday:
"everyone else:
-jun’s really annoying but i still like him
-he's too clingy but i don't mind it that much
-we’re good friends because i’ve put up with his shit for four years
-jun isn’t funny at all haha
-he’s supposed to be older than me but i have to look after him like a baby

wu jiacheng: omg i love jun he’s so funny i miss him"

i almost wish wjc HADN'T shown us that unconditional love for jun because then i wouldn't want it as much for him from svt. i love wjc so much. i'm so happy he exists and that he and jun are friends. everyone in my cc inbox keeps talking to me about jun with the8 or yan an but i don't care about either of those as much as i care about wenwu. just that clip where zzn is like "shut up and eat" it was so much like how the8 deals with jun, or xmh actively saying "i had to put up with this guy for four years" meanwhile wjc says nothing he just laughs and laughs and laughs whenever jun speaks he genuinely finds jun funny he's super duper open and he's so funny himself.

the thing is, i think jun seems like a pretty open person on the outside but he's actually so reserved he doesn't tell anyone any of his serious concerns or worries bc he doesn't want to burden other people he tries so hard to be happy and positive at all times and he buries his insecurities so deeply that maybe he has made it from how much he's faked it. on the other hand wjc is LEGIT open like he puts all his insecurities out on the table for everyone to see, whether other contestants or his fans or whomever. they're both such happy people and people who bring others happiness and it is so so touching to me i'm so moved by their interactions, whether on the show (minimal), or in bonus clips (a lot more) and on weibo (soooooo cuuuuuute). i'm gonna be so sad when this show is over and we don't get to see them together anymore bc i've really not felt like i've seen this kind of jun dynamic with anyone before. i think the closest might be joshua but even joshua has a tiny bit of a sense of having to take care of jun but even tho xiaowu is three years older than jun he seems more likely to seek advice from jun than act like his older brother. but almost all the time when i see jun with other people, even if it's just a joke, and i know it's a joke i know that it's not that deep or serious or malicious or anything like that i get it, but even still, everyone always looks like they're "dealing with his shit". it's always this exasperation, even if that exasperation is fond, it's not this kind of unconditional love for jun that wjc has, it's this "tolerance" or "acceptance" like ah fine i'll accept your weirdness whereas for wjc jun's weirdness is precisely what makes him great and why he likes him so much. anyway it's another case of it is what it is i don't fault svt bc i know jun is annoying and clingy and his humour is very niche you can't blame anyone for not liking someone as much or liking someone else more that's just how people feel, and they're already kind and supportive of jun and show him love. but certainly wjc has kind of opened my eyes to the possibilities of what COULD be and now i only want that and nothing else is quite as satisfactory.

6. to be completely fair to everyone involved, i know svt have great cute interactions with jun and love him and i'm sure jun is happy where he is because he's said so with his own mouth. i've liked jun's friendship with mingming jeonghan hvc and joshua starting in 2013, wonwoo hosh wooz and mingyu in 2015, started championing boojun 2016, said one of the recent comebacks was chanhui era, fell for junhao eventually, etc. but i have a different vantage point as an outsider who selfishly wants more for jun the same way i'm sure svt are doing well, 250k+ first week sales, 2 music show wins, that's great but i selfishly want more for them i want a digital monster i want them to FINALLY win on mucore and INKIGAYO. good is never enough to me i always want more i want better...anyway i can't sell this in any other way i'm gonna get called a jun akgae no matter what i do and i frankly don't care...辉浩个人粉丝不喜欢别关注完了860

7. actually something i wanted to add is that i think i feel like super duper zen on the issue now after watching ep 1 of cyzj, like jun and the8's bond is so strong i have no worries whatsoever about him having friends or being loved or whatever, frankly even if xmh is more exasperated fond than pure fond idc because they're like this *crosses fingers* and nothing can take that way from me