Any ATEEZ fan can tell you that the friendship between Hongjoong and Seonghwa is a sweet and precious one. As the two oldest members of the K-Pop group, they’re often seen as the “parents” of ATEEZ’s members, and the pair has been through thick and thin together for the past six years during their career and even longer before then during their pre-debut days.
The duo are even known as “MATZ”, short for “madhyungs” (맏형), symbolizing their status as the eldest members of the group both born in 1998. They fully encourage this label and even released a sub-unit song with it as the title — and it is absolute fire.
There have been countless examples and plenty of evidence that shows that the friendship between these two idols is much deeper than that of two co-workers working together in the same K-Pop group. And recently, a gesture made by Hongjoong towards Seonghwa during a time of grief has only made it that much clearer.
Tragically, Seonghwa’s grandfather recently passed away only a few days after the group started the North American leg of their ongoing world tour, Towards the Light : Will to Power. While he took off a brief amount of time in order to grieve with his family over the loss, Seonghwa was only absent from a single soundcheck performance before he was back to lighting up the stage.
Based on clips and images that have been shared online by fans, though, it’s clear that the soft-hearted Seonghwa is still deeply mourning the loss of his grandfather. Thankfully he has the full love and support of ATINYs and his fellow members to help him through this difficult time, and he shared what Hongjoong did for him to help him try to cheer up.
On his Instagram story, Seonghwa posted a picture of a Star Wars Lego set that was gifted to him by the ATEEZ leader. Both Star Wars and Legos are two of the idol’s favorite things, so the present was perfect for Seonghwa. On the image, he shared the caption, “A friend who scolds you for being gloomy with a gift;;” along with “Thank you” with Hongjoong’s Instagram handle.
Additionally, he used the ATEEZ song “Thank U” for the story, which is one that Hongjoong wrote specifically for Seonghwa and their friendship. The lyrics included are, “These days I get such thoughts sometimes/That maybe I’ve been doing pretty well, and the proof of that is you”.
stahpp seonghwa just posted an instagram story update showing a lego set that his friend hongjoong gifted him as he’s feeling lowㅠㅠ and he put ‘thank u’ as the bgm OH MY MATZ 😭💗
⭐️: “friend is scolding me with a gift for being gloomy/feeling low;; @.no1likeme8_8 thank you🥹” pic.twitter.com/qWaAEgLe18
— itida || ATINY 🐇 (@sunshine_1117) July 19, 2024
ATINYs love to see the sweet, genuine bond between the two ATEEZ members.
We hope that Seonghwa is able to take time to grieve and heal properly during this difficult time, and we’re so glad that he has the ATEEZ members by his side to help him through it.
Source: Reddit
