ECLIPSE / SUN CHAE MINJOO채민주 / SAY세이_02
Personality traits
— ENFP Personality
— Positives: Gregarious, Outspoken, Creative, Outgoing, Compassionate and Supportive;
— Negatives: Impractical, Overly Optimistic*, Gullible, Emotionally Inclined, and Indecisive;
Personality
Wearing your heart on your sleeve is both a blessing and a curse.
Chae Minjoo grew up to be a young man who depended greatly on his emotions; that meant that his actions were heavily influenced by how he felt, at the moment in question, whether that meant he would bring the mood up with his bubbly nature or appear pained and glum for the rest of the day. This part of him makes him easy to read, and pairs well with how easily he can be affected by people's words and moods. Some may argue that this makes him a perfect target for pranks or scams, as he's just so easily trusting and does not think deeply about the consequences of his actions. He is a young man who mostly acts on impulses, an can be seen as irresponsible and insufficiently emotionally mature by those who simply cannot reason with his actions and words.
All in all, despite how foolish he can be, he's known to be a kind-hearted soul who would willingly drop anything he's doing just to aid anyone who needs his help, or offer an ear to listen to anyone's troubles. More than anything, he enjoys being around others, whether that means he's mingling with them or performing for them, and always has a new story or an opinion to share.
Background
The only thing Minjoo was told of his birth was that he once had another mother that was different from the one whom he currently knows, and that she left before he could even begin to remember her, and his father had been taking care of him ever since. Chae Woncheol had no regrets, though, as he continued, and still continues, to claim that Minjoo was a gift from the heavens and was meant to steer him into the right direction. From then on, he knew that he was loved, and even more so when his father introduced him to his then-girlfriend Doctor Zhang Zhihao and her daughter, Jiang Xiaoyue. Three years after they were introduced, the four of them officially became a family, and Minjoo never once wondered how his life would be if his biological mother never left them.
Minjoo's family moved from city to city, in his youth, with his father being one of the most sought-after professionals in his field in the country. He never understood why, he still doesn't, but he always knew his father was the best at his job. From Goyang, to Yongin, to Daegu and eventually to Seoul, his family relocated whenever his father was asked to lecture and sit in as a professor for multiple universities. When Minjoo was ten, his father moved him and his family to Singapore after agreeing to fill in a position as a professor at a prestigious university there.
Five years were spent learning languages and making friends with all sorts of people, and Minjoo was very happy. There, he developed a love for music after being introduced to various genres by his closest friends, learning instruments with his mother's encouragement and practicing his talents of rapping with Xiaoyue's insistence. By 2012, they returned to South Korea, where Minjoo was made to experience life as an average Korean teenager.
His love for music took him to Seoul's prestigious School of Performing Arts to improve his skills and properly follow his dreams, not once having a second thought about what he wanted in life.
Trivia
— Likes
Cartoons / Anime : Minjoo enjoys creative and funny animations ranging from online creator content to both popular and obscure anime series;
Music / Music Theory : Minjoo lives and breathes music, and is often willing to listen to new genres that he hasn't already tried;
Fruits : Specifically Bananas, strawberries, watermelons, grapes and peaches. Minjoo likes to believe that his love for fruits immediately make him healthy;
Video Games : When he's not geeking over music, he's most likely geeking over newly released games and arguing about past games and what makes them worth playing;
Board Games : Just as much as he loves video games, he is also extremely fond of table-top games and old fashioned boardgames like Monopoly, Game of Life, and Dungeons and Dragons;
Boy Groups and Girl Groups : It may just come with the job, but Minjoo is a fan of various senior groups. His favourites happen to be INFINITE, SEVENTEEN, BTS, Super Junior, SHINEE, EXID, Red Velvet, Girl's Generation and BLACK PINK;
Animals : The fluffier the better! He is incredibly fond of dogs, cats, rabbits, foxes, horses, and raccoons, to name a few;
— Dislikes
Raw Food : Including but are not limited to sashimi, yookhoe, tartare, poke and raw ceviche. He doesn't even like eating meat that's been cooked medium rare!;
Hot Weather / Summer : He hates the heat! But most importantly, Minjoo is not comfortable wearing clothes that expose various parts of his body like his arms and shoulders, being somewhat conservative with his style;
Vegetables : Much like a child, he is not fond of a diet that consists only, or at most, of vegetables. He is also particularly not fond of the salad diets that trainees and idols must adhere to;
Open-mouthed chewing : If Minjoo even so much as hears a second of someone loudly chewing, he could lose it! He just isn't fond of the sound jeop jeop when he's eating with someone else, to the point that he claims that hearing and seeing someone eat this way can make him lose his appetite;
Over-sized ear gauges / Overdone body modification : Although he appreciates piercings, even claiming that they're y, he cannot stand looking at body modification that he deems to be too much.
— Hobbies
i. He sometimes practices Taekwondo and gymnastics to keep up with his previous experiences while learning them;
ii. He likes toying around with music production/creation programmes like Ableton Live, Garage Band and FL Studios to create backing tracks for songs he writes lyrics to;
iii. Whenever possible, he also practices playing piano/keyboards, violin and guitar;
iv. At home, he likes to spend his free time playing video games, board games, table top games, and watching cartoons/anime. His current favourite game to play is the online South Korean video game, Closers;
v. Although he is beyond terrible at sports, he does have fun playing basketball, soccer and dodgeball with his friends and members when they ask him to play;
vi. With help from his sister, he collects jewelry like earrings and bracelets that he thinks will suit him, quite fond of accessorizing;
vii. A new hobby he has gotten into is reading comic books and webtoons;
— Habits
i. When he's stressed or sad, he starts scratching and pinching at his wrists and thighs;
ii. Anyone can tell that he's tired after a long day of training or writing songs when he starts lightly tapping at his cheeks with his palms;
iii. When wearing the oversized sweaters, hoodies and cardigans he loves so much, he starts to make "sweater paws" with his sleeves for no particular reason other than he thinks they're cute. Similarly, when he's wearing dangling earings, he sometimes starts to randomly play with his earrings because he thinks they're fun;
— Trivia
i. Although Minjoo was born and raised Christian, he later became Agnostic and tries to avoid the topic of religion as often as possible;
ii. Although he was born in Goyang, he has since not lived in or visited his birthplace. He considers Yongin and Seoul to be his hometowns;
iii. Has never met his biological mother nor did he plan to do so. However, after curiosity nagged at him, he prodded for information from his paternal grandparents and gathered that a woman who lives in Goyang by the name of Goo Ahyeon must be his mother;
iv. Minjoo is gay, a piece of information that everyone close to him knows about, including and limited to his immediate family, his best friend Jungkook, and his group mates;
v. For publicity's sake, he announced that his ideal type was EXID's LE, someone who can be both fierce and cute at will, and is honest with her opinions. In truth, his actual ideal type falls between fellow Eclipse member Eom Siyoo and BTS' Kim Taehyung, who are both charming and unpredictable;
vi. Minjoo began learning to play the piano from age five, and violin at age eight. By the time he was twelve, he started learning to play the guitar, and started writing his own lyrics at the age of fourteen;
vii. BigHit originally trained Minjoo to be a singer and often shared tips with Jungkook, but was persuaded by BigHit representative that recruited him and a brief talk with BTS' Namjoon to become a rapper instead, both noting how his voice better suited rap and hip hop ;
viii. As a young boy, his father had always asked for him to pick up a physical activity, as any father would. Given the liberty to choose which, Minjoo chose to learn Taekwondo and gymnastics, the latter of the two met with slight protest from his father. He is currently a 4th dan blackbelt holder, and has continued to practice gymnastics on his own time;
ix. He uses social media almost obsesively, having various accounts ranging from Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc. under the handle @SAE77, which is the same handle he uses for online gaming. It wasn't until ECLIPSE's formation and debut that he changed his social media accounts to @SaysEclipse;
x. When he's not living at ECLIPSE's dorm, he's at his sister Xiaoyue's house, where they both raise a red welsh corgi named Baobei, a shiba inu named Didi, a turkish angora named Xiaxue, and a chartreux kitten named Jiaozi, all of which Minjoo considers to be his family.
Relations
— Step-sister / Jiang Xiao Yue aka Jang Sohye / 23 / Makeup Artist, Entrepreneur
Minjoo's older step-sister who currently works as a makeup artist for various idol agencies, and as the founder of Etienne, a small company that sells personalized skincare products, as well as makeup. She is a quirky and equally bubbly young woman who values happiness and family. The two have known each other since their parents first got together when Xiayue was seven and Minjoo was four, and have been close as siblings ever since. She has been very supportive of her little brother's dream of becoming an idol ever since he first mentioned it, and is arguably his biggest fan. Currently the only immediate family Minjoo has in South Korea.
— Step-mother / Zhang Zhi Hao aka Jang Jiho / 47 / Dentist
Minjoo's kind-hearted step-mother, and the only mother that he has ever known. She is a woman who puts her fmily over everything else, and is the firm matriarch of their family. Contrary to stereotypes expected of step-families, the two of them have a very deep and loving relationship as mother and son. Zhihao has never made Minjoo feel as if he wasn't her own child, raising him in a protective and affectionate manner. She and her husband have been living apart from their children for two years, both settled in Canada for work.
— Father / Chae Won Cheol / 48 / Theoretical Physicist
Minjoo's workaholic father who did, and still does, everything he could to support his family. He is a man of few words, but with a large range of emotions; Minjoo's personality, namely his optimism and naivety, were perhaps passed onto him by his father. Woncheol wants nothing but for both Minjoo and his sister Xiaoyue to be happy with and succeed in their respective careers. He and his wife have been living apart from their children for two years, both settled in Canada for work.
— Best Friend / Jeon Jungkook / 20 / Idol, Member of BTS
One of Minjoo's first friends upon coming back to South Korea, whom he met months after getting into Seoul's School of Performing Arts. The two were an unlikely pair of friends, being that Minjoo was a chatty extrovert and Jungkook an introvert. The two remain close friends to this day, despite lacking the time to hang out like they used to.
— Close Friends / ECLIPSE / ?? / Idols
Fortunately for him, he finds that every member of the group are pleasant to hang out with and to talk to. He considers them close enough friends for him to share his feelings with them and to share some personal details that he would often keep secret with others. Truthfully, he would do anything the boys ask him to do, if they will him to.
— Close Friend, Crush / Eom Siyoo / 25 / Idol, Member of ECLIPSE & MOON Unit
Siyoo is the senpai to Minjoo's kouhai, a comparison that he's certain the elder member doesn't much care for. This member was maybe the first real friend he made upon signing with Moon Entertainment, seeing him as both a mentor and a beacon of light during very trying times. Aside from having a great amount of respect for him, Minjoo had developed a light crush on him, which was something that anyone who knew him would poke fun at him for.
Stage name SAY / 세이
pLOTLINE 02 (07, 10)
Vocal twin Jung Hoseok of BTS (for 02, 07 and 10)
dance twin Yoo Changhyun of TEEN TOP (for 02 and 10, GNCD's Lee Jangjun for 07)
rap twin Lee Jangjun of Golden Child (for 02 and 07, ASTRO’s Rocky for 10)
talking twin Lee Jangjun of Golden Child (for 02, 07 and 10)
Trainee years 05
Trainee life
When Minjoo was fifteen years old, his father took him, his sister, and their mother to Everland for a day of rides and fun just months after moving back to South Korea from Singapore. During that trip, a casting agent for BigHit Entertainment saw Minjoo and approached him when he was on the safari ride with his sister Xiaoyue. He was asked to come in for an audition, which was initially blocked by Xiaoyue, who immediately thought it was fraud. The agent tried two times more to convince Minjoo to audition, and left his card with him before his family left for home. It wasn't until when a schoolmate and friend, who was an idol trainee of that company, encouraged him to come to the audition that he was convinced to give it a go. It took him two tries before he passed the auditions and became a trainee under BigHit from 2012. His friend, BTS' Jungkook, debuted the next year.
Minjoo continued to be a trainee, performing as a backup dancer for BTS while receiving coaching to become a rapper and dancer for a future group. However, in 2015, he parted from BigHit to continue training under Moon Entertainment, the switch suggested by his sister Xiaoyue, who had been working as a stylist and makeup artist casually for the company, after hearing that the company planned to debut a boy group soon. He had since been working hard to catch up to the expectations of the company, hoping to be included in their rumoured new boy group's lineup.
Pre-debut
— 2007 — 2012 / Lived abroad (Singapore) for father's work.
— 2009 — 2013 / Became part of two youth orchestras as a violinist in Singapore (2009 — 2011), then as a pianist in South Korea (2012 — 2013)
— 2012 — 2016 / Trained under BigHit Entertainment
— 2015 — 2017 / Trained under Moon Entertainment
— 2013 — 2017 / Was a faceless independent YouTube and SoundCloud rapper under the stage name SAE77
As SAE77, he wound up releasing tracks like Good and You Don't Know in collaboration with his friends and fellow trainees, gaining popularity even as his identity was not known.
His final tracks as SAE77 were released both on his public social media accounts and by Moon Entertainment two months before Eclipse was set to debut. The first of his two tracks was called Hold Me Tight and the first time he used the stage name SAY세이, enlisting the help of Eclipse member Park Taewoong to duet with him. The second and last of the tracks was called Drought, the first time Minjoo ever revealed his face and identity, and featured fellow Eclipse members Lucien and Siyoo.
Scandals
— SAY of ECLIPSE Receives Harsh Criticism for Debuting as an Idol / 2017
In mid-2017, after Minjoo was announced to be part of the group, comments flooded their pre-debut fancafe criticizing SAE77's decision to debut as an idol. Fans of his work became aggravated at the thought of the former indie artist/underground rapper that they admired for his creativity and anonymity becoming the opposite of what he used to be, claiming that he had sold out and threatening that they would no longer support him if he goes on to officially debut. Rappers from the underground music scene, some of which he collaborated with, had even criticized the likes of him and BTS' RM. The issue went on without an official comment, and despite it all, SAY confidently debuted with Sun and Eclipse, gaining respect from the fandom for going through with his wishes despite the criticism.
Comments Hello and thank you for reading all of that! Um, I must admit I wrote too much and made little sense of anything, which I am apologizing for OTL I wanted to leave some parts as open or as detailed as possible, depending on your preference for writing — and I can change them if you'd like me to! Just say the word~ I hope you like my baby Minjoo ;A;
Scene requests
— The Night time VLIVE show that idols do (namely Seventeen) to help people sleep, where they're all in bed in pyjamas just chatting and answering fan questions! I think that'd be cute!
— A pair, one from each sub-unit, competing on Battle Trip and getting a weekend vacation! sponsored by he company~
— Their first ever music show win! I want to see the boys cry happy tears and get rewarded for all their hard work~
— A Collaborative stage/concert held by Moon Entertainment featuring Eclipse and Rose! Maybe both groups can also interact at a music show/awards?
— Eclipse getting their own unique series sponsored by a major network (MBC? MNet?) the style of Showtime, 1D2N or Woollim Pick which gives fans insight on what happens in the Eclipse dorms, how the boys interact when put into situations, and just get to know the boys in general through some good old fashioned fun.
— A Weekly Idol episode dedicated entirely to Eclipse! Or to Moon Ent. artists~
— S C A N D A L S !! Idol life can have some pretty juicy details on personal drama, and I want some for the boys !! Or at least some misunderstandings that the media blows out of proportion, like they often do~
Password
Alive tonight! Phenomenally yours, we're Eclipse!
We'll brighten up your lives! We're Eclipse's Sun unit!
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