Jeonghan’s friendship with Jihoon was one that developed slowly over the years through small misunderstandings and easy resolutions. It was a relstionship with different faces but one that he felt suited them well.

First there was their dynamic in the studio. Although he is the hyung, Jeonghan found it very easy to defer power to the younger as their producer and unit leader. Jihoon was one of the most intelligent and hard working people Jeonghan knew. He was constantly impressed with his ability to produce their tracks and conduct their vocal unit. As someone who sometimes hardly felt like he could conduct himself, he held nothing but admiration for the other boy. Taking the youngers advice and criticism came very naturally to him. Not that criticism was really something he had to expect from Jihoon.

He didn’t know if it was because the boy was being cautious of his sensitivity regarding his voice and singing, or for some other reason, but he found Jihoon was much kinder with him in the booth than with the others. The boy also went out of the way to compliment him, once again for reasons unknown but assumed to be related to his low self esteem when it came to his abilities. He reminded Jeonghan of a good teacher. Constructive but more so nurturing. One that sincerely desired to see his pupils succeed. Jeonghan could only appreciate it, regardless of what fuelled it. If Jihoon was soft on him that was perfectly fine.

Then there was their causal relationship. How they were together at shows, during broadcasts or practice, and in waiting rooms. Jihoon was of course his friend and they shared laughs and smiles behind backs, as well as small jokes and praise. They weren’t attached at the side like some, but they would come together and drift apart with bits of conversations or offhand remarks. Jihoon also liked to play with his hair. While most of the boys would help him keep it neat, tuck it behind his ear or flatten any stray strands to help him keep up his image, Jihoon seemed to enjoy running his fingers through it. It was cute how when sitting behind the elder he’d sometimes, seemingly absentmindedly, just separate out a section and run over it with his fingers. Or he’d just take the entirety of it and comb through it with his hands, taking out little knots and tangles. It wasn't particularly soft after bleaching and constant styling, but the unit leader seemed to enjoy just feeling and arranging it anyways.

It was in both these facets that Jeonghan felt taken care of. It was a bit odd, given that he was the elder and also accustomed to watching over the others, but it felt nice. He did his best to reciprocate as well, nudging the boy gently awake and out of his chair when he fell asleep in his studio, making sure he's eaten before practice and going to wake him last in the mornings.

If he was asked to pick a member he was least close with it would likely be Jeon Wonwoo. This isn’t to say he isn’t close with the younger in any way, they still talked and played together. They were friends. However, they didn't share much. This is also misleading because they do share some traits personality wise, but as for shared jokes, experiences, and ideas, they didn’t have much that wasn’t also the group’s. Perhaps their shared capacity for being quiet and still was something of their own, but even that can be questioned. If Jeonghan was the type to concern himself with every trivial aspect of his friendships this arrangement may have bothered him, but he was fine and content with how they were, and assumed Wonwoo felt the same.

The only aspect of their friendship that felt developed truly to Jeonghan would be his occasional instinct to watch out for him. Now Jeonghan felt this for all s, it came naturally to him, but with Wonwoo the instinct didn’t surface very much. The younger boy conducted himself in a way that made him come off as very solid and unneeding of it. He rarely showed insecurity and, if he felt it, likely only shared it with a few select members. Jeonghan did sometimes catch bits of insecurity from the boy however. It was on rare occasions, like if Wonwoo said something or made a joke but it was not heard or acknowledged, that he would go to assure the boy he’d been listening. Small instances like those that would often be followed with a bit of grateful clinging for a couple of hours, the normal result of making the younger boy feel happy, but wear away quickly in the grand scheme of things.

Maybe there wasn't much building up on what they had, or if there was it was very slow and small, but he couldn’t really find a problem with that. He was lucky to have that friendship regardless.

Their choreographer and performance unit leader was very similar to Jihoon in how he both impressed Jeonghan and possibly went soft on him in practice. Jeonghan wasn’t particularly good or bad when it came to learning choreography, and Hoshi wasn’t particularly aggressive or strict beyond drilling them in the routines, so there wasn’t much conflict to be had there. Of all their members, Jeonghan had the lowest stamina, and while Soonyoung would push them, Jeonghan never became ill or overworked due to practice. He was grateful for that.

Like with Jihoon, Jeonghan happily deferred to Soonyoung’s leadership in the practice room, always trusting and believing in him through frustration and fatigue. A large difference between Soonyoung and Jihoon however was their disposition outside of their leadership positions. While Jihoon tended to be more quiet and serious consistently, Soonyoung was much more loose, the type to only stiffen up in the late hours of practice before a comeback or important performance. He was a fun guy to be around, and rarely did he give off stress. That was something he admired about him His ability to retain his stress and anxiety, likely for the sake of the younger members. Jeonghan knew he often voiced his concerns to the two other unit leaders, but with the rest he was normally a happy constant in their lives.

One of the only instances Jeonghan could recall of the other boy somewhat giving away a bit of his anxiousness was during their filming for One Fine Day. They had just been shocked with the orders to fit as much of their luggage as they could in a small plastic bag and under a time limit too. Feeling the adrenaline, he himself moved quickly through his belongings and onto the boat with a resigned smile. Jeonghan could remember Soonyoung happily joking around a bit as they all expressed their concerns, as well as helping to fortify their teamwork in preparation for what lay ahead of them. With his confident happy attitude he was definitely not one of the members Jeonghan was worried about at the time.

A bit later into their trip however, the boy came from his spot on the edge to sit next to him in the corner. Jeonghan himself, as well as many of the other members, were already starting to lean onto each other in fatigue, and he barely noticed the movement. As they were finishing up their comments for the broadcast, and deciding to rest as a group, Jeonghan felt his shoulders grabbed as he was lightly pulled and rotated off of the already comatose Wonwoo and onto another person’s arm.

He remembered that when he looked over his shoulder and identified Hoshi as the culprit, the younger boy kept his gaze on seungcheol who was speaking as he lightly continued to manhandle Jeonghan along his side with somewhat fidgety movements. Soonyoung was a generally cuddly boy and Jeonghan of course had no issue with getting a free pillow on the uncomfortable ship, so despite the somewhat awkwardness of the action he simply turned into the younger boy and rested his head on his chest. Jeonghan had to admit he had felt pretty smug when Soonyoung’s restless shifting stopped almost immediately, and he did in fact fall asleep just a bit after Vernon’s arm draped over his waist from behind.

A fact about himself that caused him a lot of trouble when he first joined the Seventeen trainees was his apparent shyness. He had difficulty forming friendships with people unless they approached and spoke to him first. This of course was apparent in his fast friendships with Jisoo and Seungkwan. There were also exceptions to this like in the cases of Dongjin and Minghao. Then there was Junhui.

When he first joined the others he remembered his first impression of Jun being a bit intimidating. While he and Mingyu were both taller than the others at the time, Mingyu countered it with his puppy-like nature that made one feel at ease immediately. Meanwhile the Chinese boy was quiet. Looking back, Jeonghan would say that his first impression of Jun was the most misleading. It didn’t take long for this to be apparent. In his trainee days Jun was all lanky figure and long limbs, and what the boy lacked in conversation he made up in aggressive clinging and smiles. From the very start he was constantly leaning into Jeonghan’s back while standing around or pulling him into his lap in the studio. Jeonghan would suppose that was how he made it past his somewhat high walls so early in their relationship. He couldn’t be more grateful.

Nowadays Jun’s Korean has improved tenfold and he rarely if ever had any trouble communicating with their members and staff. Jeonghan believed his desire to assist Minghao correlated a lot with that. Junhui seemed to look out for the younger boy from day one as well. He had also grown into his body and place in the team as a member of the performance unit. Jeonghan was happy that their relationship stayed the same though. Junhui was still as prone to grabbing and hugging and leaning as he always had been. He was a comforting constant. Jeonghan wouldn’t have him any other way.