“unstoppable enfj meets immovable estp”

— kaia

“2pick shipping gone wild”

— shakti

“taegyu r ,,, they're just so fucking Good . they're like when u pull on the hoodie strings of ur almost crush and they get annoyed but they keep wearing the sweater afterwards just in case u pull them again ,,, u Know???”

— mira

this manifesto is dedicated to the relationship & dynamics of choi beomgyu and kang taehyun of tomorrow x together (txt). txt is a boy group under bighit entertainment that debuted in march of 2019; they’re well known for having amazing songs, really long korean titles, and… honestly i’m not sure where i was going there, but these boys are really, really sweet.

for more information on txt as a whole, i would definitely recommend checking out this primer. disclaimer: everything is 100% my opinion and, like, everything in kpop is fake anyways n___n

PART 1: WHO ARE THEY?

CHOI BEOMGYU: “i think real love is loving someone for being themselves rather than having a set criteria that makes up an ‘ideal type’”

birthday: march 13, 2001

mbti: enfj

sun sign: pisces

height: 180 cm (2nd shortest in txt)

beomgyu is technically the “middle child” in txt age wise although he’s usually grouped into maknae-line. he’s someone who i’d describe as having a 4-d personality, even though people don’t exactly use that term in kpop anymore—sometimes he says/does really random things, such as calling hand sanitizer by another name, claiming that he’d want to dye his hair clear, and also playing recorder in the middle of the street (?). he’s from daegu. he’s also super good at playing the guitar. personality-wise, he’s definitely very extroverted and talkative and playful but also surprisingly introspective. i personally find him really funny, he’s quite impractical at times ;; n___n i would definitely classify him as a yearner… he’s also a perfectionist when it comes to his own performance as an idol—for more insights on this, i would recommend his weverse interview. he’s also very aware of how he has a perfect face basically…

for more info, please check this or this out! this thread is also very delightful.

KANG TAEHYUN: “the world's pace isn’t really important, it’s the direction that matters”

birthday: feb 5, 2002

mbti: estp

sun sign: aquarius

height: 177 cm (shortest in txt)

taehyun is the second-youngest in txt, although he’s definitely one of the most practical members and the only thinker in the group. personality-wise, he’s quite reliable and straightforward. he’s also an extrovert, and while growing up he wanted to be a bunch of different things (including a magician!), each profession having the common thread of him wanting to talk to/connect with others. he also likes math, which is probably only relevant to me, and was a good student at school/still is pretty good. he’s well known for having a blunt personality, even towards his fans—for example, when a fan asked him what his ideal type was, he said “aren’t you [noona] just asking me to describe you?” lol. he’s very determined to show that hard work will triumph over talent—for more insights on this, i would recommend his weverse interview. he also likes working out and can hold 60kg in one hand.

for more info, please check this or this out!

PART 2: MORE CONTEXT ABOUT THEM TOGETHER

in terms of predebut, beomgyu joined bighit fairly later on (2017) and it seems that he was added to the debut lineup very quickly; taehyun joined bighit a year before that, in 2016. their first impressions of each other were basically both of them finding the other person outrageously handsome… both of them were inundated with casting offers when they were younger so this isn’t that surprising ^^ beomgyu decided to take a year off school to focus on training, and as a result, he and taehyun entered hanlim at the same time and attend school together. i don’t know much about their predebut friendship, but beomgyu gave taehyun a watch that he wore to his middle school graduation, and this adorable selfie circa march 2017 also exists.

post-debut, beomgyu and taehyun have an ongoing segment on vlive called “smash the universe radio” (which i will probably call usr as an abbreviation)—it’s one of the main sources of content, where they read member’s stories and discuss topics with the viewers. most recently they had a “universe smash playlist” live where both of them recommended a lot of yearning songs… lots of fun.

taehyun/beomgyu is referred to by i-fans as “taegyu.” within a non-shipping context, k-fans use 우뿌즈 (ubbujeu), which refers to their vlive series—they’re essentially radio line. within a shipping context, k-fans use 밤텬 (bamtyun) / 텬밤 (tyunbam). please note that k-fans are very rigid about their dynamics so bamtyun is basically taken as a different ship than tyunbam—it’s more common to find an krn account focused on a member in a certain dynamic (for example, bam-right) than it is to find a krn account that ships reverse (both dynamics).

they’re a maincp within both the i-fandom and the k-fandom, with taegyu being the #2 ship on ao3 and bamtyun/tyunbam occupying the #4/#5 spots on postype (#1/#2 are yeonbin, #3 is yeonjun/beomgyu). so, essentially, they’re the second-most popular ship overall, which means that they end up doing some fanservice n___n (some examples: 1, 2, 3). outside of that/the radio vlives, i would say that they are close to each other, but definitely have other members that they’re each closer to—kind of like the middle ground in the spectrum between sookai being obsessed with each other and beomkai not really getting along as much (relative to their relationships with other members). that definitely fascinated me at first, because i felt like their closeness didn’t reflect their popularity—but now i see how that’s part of their appeal...

PART 3: SO… WHAT ARE THE DYNAMIX?

one of the hallmarks of the taegyu dynamic is how they bicker and banter with each other. most recently, they’ve been beefing over their height difference of 3 centimeters (1, 2) and taehyun has been giving beomgyu some up-and-down glances. in general i would say that taehyun’s more blunt, straightforward, and practical, whereas beomgyu often says random flirty/illogical things and is honestly one of the most inefficient communicators i’ve seen. it’s really fun to see them interact because often beomgyu will say something, taehyun will either correct/refute it/point out some logical flaw in it, and then beomgyu gets so easily frustrated/riled up but he also can’t say anything in response because he knows that taehyun is right!

here are some examples:

#1 (source)

beomgyu (bg): am i an angel or devil? i think i'm an angel
taehyun (th): why
bg: look at me
th: you’re a born devil
bg: born to be a devil?
th: you’re almost lucifer

#2 (source)

bg: *describes how he wants to visit eworld in daegu to view the cherry blossoms in the spring, the petals basically cover the pavement*
th: wouldn’t that be dangerous
bg: i don't want to talk to you…

on youtube compilations their dynamic is often presented as more one-sided, i.e. beomgyu praising taehyun and taehyun roasting beomgyu, but at the same time it’s become clear to me that taehyun is honestly pretty indulgent of beomgyu. for instance, during the most recent usr vlive, beomgyu started going on this random tangent about safe driving and watching cars on the road and they literally talked about that for several minutes. i think this moment during their chicken mukbang reflects their relationship pretty well:

bg: let’s play five questions
th: isn’t it called 20 questions?”
bg: *looks at chat* everyone’s making fun of me :(
th thinks of a word, then tells bg to ask him questions [following the rules of the game that bg literally proposed]
bg: no, that’s not how it works
th: u wanna look at the chat again?
bg admits that taehyun is right, looks pouty, etc. then he proceeds to ask a bunch of specific questions because he’s bad at this game LOL, and says that the game is too hard
th: beomgyu… you need to ask broad questions first…
eventually beomgyu narrows it down to food and then solicits questions to ask from the chat and gets fake-mad when they’re wrong…

like first of all taehyun is so patient and teasing with beomgyu the whole time and beomgyu refusing to back down even though he’s wrong is soo funny TT__TT

also, let me include some examples of beomgyu praising taehyun, because why not ^^

#1 (source)

th: before becoming a trainee i used to want to be a professor
bg: ah, wouldn't the students be troubled if he was? they won't be able to focus on the lesson since the professor is so handsome

#2 (source)

in response to the question of do you have a favorite athlete?
bg: i’d like it if taehyun was a football player

i think it’s pretty clear that they are very different people in most ways—taehyun is this unflappable estp faux-hyung whereas beomgyu literally described himself as “delicate” and he’s an enfj! taehyun is much more practical and realistic whereas beomgyu is a noted yearner and is “the most romantic member” in txt. however they also have some similarities, for example they’re both talkative (but in different ways—beomgyu really likes telling random anecdotes that don’t actually reveal that much about himself, whereas i feel like taehyun’s extrovertedness comes out through how he enjoys interacting with others), they’re both quite involved with txt’s music process (beomgyu got a production credit and i believe taehyun has the most lyrics credits, though i might be wrong on this one), and they also have surface-level similarities like hating mint chocolate chip ice-cream!

also, although most of the time it’s more common to see taehyun watching out for beomgyu, it should be noted that beomgyu takes care of taehyun/used to take care of him much more when they were younger. one example would be how beomgyu scolds taehyun when he scratches his neck while sweating because it’s bad for his skin… lol. another cute example would be how beomgyu fell asleep during a horror movie and then woke up to taehyun clinging to him n__n isn’t that seriously so adorable!

in terms of their physical dynamic, i would say that most of the physical “affection” i've seen between the two of them is company-backed fanservice. when they do touch each other it seems kind of… aggressive. for instance there’s taehyun tackling beomgyu to the ground and taehyun and beomgyu reaching a stalemate while arm-wrestling. it’s also very common for taehyun to lift beomgyu up and he’s done it several times. taehyun has said multiple times that beomgyu is “as light as a feather.”

PART 4: WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THEM

>> at surface level the bantering is sooo fun. like their entire dynamic is kind of just like [insert bickering] most of the time AND IT’S REALLY FUN!! there’s nothing better than choi beomgyu, older feeler who often says random shit, interacting with kang taehyun, younger thinker who corrects/indulges in him.

>> i like how versatile their dynamic is and how it can be interpreted in different contexts: beomgyu, when assigning family roles to txt, will often state that taehyun is the “hyung,” but at the same time he’s also a year older than taehyun. further, because beomgyu took a year off between middle school and high school, beomgyu and taehyun are in the same grade, so they’re classmates/equals in that regard. don’t even get me started on beomgyu being three centimeters taller than taehyun yet taehyun never forgetting that beomgyu is the one txt member who weighs less than him… i just like the power dynamics fkery of it all!!

>> taegyu aren’t as naturally close with each other or tight-knit as taehyun is with kai or beomgyu is with soobin, and that’s honestly part of the appeal! there’s definitely some effort involved in their relationship and in reaching that stage of mutual understanding, and i just think that is so great… also i really appreciate how practiced taehyun’s treatment of beomgyu seems—it’s just another thing he works hard at! SOMETIMES PUTTING EFFORT INTO THINGS IS OKAY.

tldr, quoting kaia: “there’s something about the taegyu unsoulmatery because taehyun finds value in the process and working for things and that’s what his relationship with [beomgyu] is like :3c”

>> along those lines, the bbb-isms of it all really /do/ get to me! like woah doing blatant fanservice with someone you’ve never been the *closest*/most comfortable with is soo delicious.

my favorite tropes for taehyun: inflated ego due to being smartest of the illiterates; most ambitious, least popular; hero worship [towards soobin, txt’s leader]; ominous mind-reading abilities.
my favorite tropes for beomgyu: sleep deprivation is a form of torture, last minute addition to the group.
my favorite tropes for taegyu: clashing love languages, shipping alters relationship, irony the sixth love language, stop smothering me!/no wait come back please smother me, pavlov’d by skinship/fanservice

>> because they’re different from each other, i really think they can learn a lot? like obviously taehyun is pragmatic and good at more practical things such as school and having common sense, and beomgyu can benefit from that. but also, at the same time, i really do think that beomgyu’s romanticism can also help taehyun!! i truly do think they better each other/complement each other in so many ways…

one example i love is from this vlive where soobin and beomgyu basically affirm their status as txt’s yearners and say that they’d only confess their feelings to someone if they knew it was reciprocated. on the other hand, taehyun’s more direct and considered the possibility of the crush returning his feelings after he confesses… that’s just really cool to me n___n
another example would be the angel/devil discussion mentioned earlier. they decided that, within the context of the song, beomgyu was an angel because he’d rather take things slowly romance-wise whereas taehyun’s more straightforward and impatient

PART 5: MEDIA CONSUMPTION + CONCLUSION

in general txt’s k-fandom is much bigger than its i-fandom, from what i can tell, and this is reflected in shipping as well. there are far more works under the 밤텬 / 텬밤 tags on postype (basically what k-fans use for rps/rpf, fanart and fanfic can be found there!) than there are under the taegyu tag on ao3. further, internationally i would say that taegyu suffers from the “nation’s side-pairing” disease, because they are often put as a side ship in yeonbin fanfic. for reference, only seven out of the top twenty most-kudosed “taegyu” fics on ao3 actually have them as the main pairing…

that being said, i have some taegyu fics bookmarked here on ao3, and my friends have written me some lovely taegyu drabbles/fics which i’ve compiled in a list here. also, uh, not to toot my own horn or anything, but hopefully over time this link will fill up with a bunch of taegyu fics! i promise! my friend also wrote up this taegyu synastry post that is quite interesting n__n

now let me just recommend some of my favorite taegyu accounts. most are k-rps, so just be mindful of that i guess, especially when it comes to replying/quote-rting on a public account. i put them in order of how much i like them personally, and also indicated whether they ship tyunbam, bamtyun, or taegyu… lol

TaegyuOfficial // taegyu, one of the few i-fan accounts dedicated to posting images/videos/interactions between the two of them!! i highly recommend n__n
taegyuloops // taegyu, they make video edits of taegyu interactions w/ eng sub!!
ccminp / tyunbam, literally my favorite fan artist (1,2,3)
O313XO205 // bamtyun, makes video edits of their interactions
tbvideo_ // tyunbam, makes video edits of their interactions
cherry_Btt // bamtyun, a super talented fan artist! n___n (1,2)
right_xy // bamtyun, another great source for fanart
taegyuhourly // taegyu, it’s mostly an account that posts individual pictures of the two of them [i vividly recall them posting soogyu content at one point] but, as someone whose favorite members in txt are taehyun and beomgyu, i love this account lol
Rappu_ // bamtyun, makes gifs! [all of the gifs in this post come from them n__n]
dhkqk_bt // bamtyun, one of the most popular bamtyun accounts i think… they make/rt a lot of content
taegyukr // taegyu, this is actually a personal account but i enjoy their taegyu tinhatting commentary even if they don’t actually make content…
txtdorong // tyunbam, just a general shipping account
Aulic_TB // tyunbam, just a general shipping account
bt_eez_real // bamtyun, not sure why i follow them but they’re definitely a popular rps account

further, for easy watching/reference, i have also compiled a list of all of their vlives where they’re the only two people in them. they also have good moments within larger settings (especially the choichoikang vlives with soobin, or whatever vlive this moment came from) but i wanted to make an accessible list hehe n___n i haven’t watched all of these yet but i marked which ones are my favorites so far.

list of vlives:

2019.05.04 | 범규&태현 : 우주뿌셔라디오! | https://www.vlive.tv/post/1-18395041
2019.05.17 | 범규&태현 : 우주뿌셔라디오! | https://www.vlive.tv/post/1-18395038
2019.05.29 | 범규&태현 : 우주뿌셔라디오! | https://www.vlive.tv/video/131788
2019.09.08 | BEOMGYU & TAEHYUN: Smash the Universe Radio is back! | https://www.vlive.tv/post/0-18384643 & https://www.vlive.tv/post/1-18395024
♥️ 2019.11.28 | Ask_anything_to_TAEHYUN_and_BEOMGYU | https://www.vlive.tv/video/162922
2019.12.14 | BEOMGYU & TAEHYUN: Smash the Universe Radio🥰 | https://www.vlive.tv/video/165699/
♥️ 2020.01.08 | Official Chicken Eating Show🍗 | https://www.vlive.tv/post/1-18394982
2020.04.13 | You waited long, right? Smash the Universe Radio❣ | https://www.vlive.tv/post/0-18384575
2020.06.23 | UNIVERSE Break Radio🍎🍏 | https://www.vlive.tv/post/0-18384548
♥️ 2020.11.16 | Universe Smash Playlist | https://www.vlive.tv/post/0-19934391

ultimately what started out as blatant 2pick shipping on my part has turned into full-fledged tinhatting and i am just completely enamored with their dynamic in general. i really think they work well together within so many different contexts yet have just enough tension to make everything interesting! n__n the unsoulmatery… the practiced caring/comfort… it got to me. it truly got to me.

anyways, thank you so much for reading. i wouldn’t have been able to make this manifesto w/out kaia helping me find taegyu content/timestamp vlives/etc & the support of my nctxt tlist at large... also the entire formatting of this post is inspired by this ship manifesto lol. i hope that this has opened your eyes to the possibility of being a taegyuist!! feel free to hmu on twt or cc w/ any taegyu thoughts ^_*

A PREDICTABLE STORY WOULD BE SUCH A BORING ONE: A TAEHYUN/BEOMGYU MANIFESTO