[[Official] SPARTACE COUPLE KimJongkook-SongJiHyo]

Hi guys . It’s been quite a long time. My apologies, my work suddenly required me to invest more time on it than the usual due to some horrendous events that happened in the past few months. Spread love people, not hate ; and goodness me, please don’t shoot people , even if they don't agree with your ideologies. For those that have sent me emails and messages asking how I am or just simply checking up on me, I truly appreciate you all and I am really sorry if I didn’t get to reply to you personally yet. Truth be told, this might be my last post for awhile. I find it increasingly hard to find some spare time and I’d imagine it would get even worse for the next few months. I won’t be gone forever (at least I hope I won’t be) and I will be back. For the foreseeable future, however, this would be last post .

 

Anyways, getting into what you guys are reading this post for, I had the chance to watch episode 228 of Running Man recently, and there were some bits that particularly caught my attention. 

 

First off, the famous “ice pepero” game. 

 

I know this is a bad screenshot but please bear with me . The reason I find this interesting is that in this roughly 2-second period. Jongkook’s expression indicates that he’s pissed. He doesn’t like what’s going on. 

 

1. his jaw is just “hanging” there; with the lower part of the mouth slightly going a bit more forward than the top part. You ever get so annoyed or mad at something that you did not expect? It’s like the feeling of getting caught off guard + being mad. You will unconsciously open your mouth slightly but not let your jaw drop, so it just “hangs” there. I know this is isn’t the best description but it’s just so hard to explain . I hope you get the idea, if it’s still too unclear then let me know and I’ll try to clarify more. 

 

2. His tone and repetition. If you watch the episode, Jongkook’s tone is elevated towards the end of his sentence. “Watch the scene again and you’ll get what I mean. His tone is suggesting, but more assertive with a hint of annoyance added to it. 

 

Now if you ask me then I honestly don’t know why. Maybe he wants to avoid any drama that might come out of him and Jihyo playing the pepero game together? Who knows. 

The next scene is where after playing the rock, paper, scissors they got selected to play anyways. Let’s take a look at Jihyo’s reaction. 

 

1. Take a close look at Jihyo’s actions. How she wanted to keep her hands busy. First she bent down (so I assume her hands were rested on her knees when she bent), then she tried to grab the ice stick, and lastly she touched her hood. If you remember, in my previous posts I have talked about how people like to keep their hands busy when they’re nervous. That may take the form of “the cling” or touching one’s hair. This is also the case here. Anxiety isn’t always caused by something negative. Such as this case where they are faced with a (happily) embarrassing moment. And I know that there is a high probability that Jihyo doesn’t feel “threatened” or negatively about this situation because she doesn’t put up any defenses; e.g., tucking her chin in. 

 

2. Jongkook’s actions are even more obvious. Did he suddenly find the ice stick more interesting after “winning” the rock, paper, scissors? Why is he so intently grabbing the stick and staring at it? And his laugh. My goodness have I never heard a more nervous laugh before in my life. These two alone are enough for the conclusion that this situation for him is awkward, but it isn’t something bad. It’s like having butterflies in your stomach when you first go to your high-school prom. You’re nervous, but for a good reason. Jongkook also keeps fidgeting. Fidgeting is probably one of the most obvious signs your body unconsciously do when you’re nervous. But his smiles aren't forced. They're natural. So that led to me to believe that he is anxious, but not negatively. 

 

All in all, it was a cute moment and definitely interesting to see how they’re so nervous. I thought they were meant to be like “family”? And they’re like so comfortable committing skinship and touching each other before, but I guess the pepero game is a whole different problem (maybe, who knows why they were so nervous). 

 

It has been my great pleasure to be a part of this forum. I really appreciate the opportunity and kind words I have received in my time in this forum. Thank you all for the recommendations, guidance, information, and criticisms. You have made me feel very welcome here. Although this is not goodbye, I hope this at least answers your questions about my whereabouts and why I was not and will not be active in the forum. So take care all, and keep on enjoying other contents in this forum and I hope you will all enjoy your time supporting these two . Until next time. 

 

 

[[Official] SPARTACE COUPLE KimJongkook-SongJiHyo]

6 hours ago, smartace said:

Last episode's opening scene when they talked about the "private meeting" please. 

 

And thanks again for indulging with our little curiosity of these 2 lovely peoples.

I will definitely be checking that out since it generated a lot of attention. But maybe after I finish 178 then I'll watch the entirety of 441. Thank you for recommending and I'm glad you like what I wrote

[[Official] SPARTACE COUPLE KimJongkook-SongJiHyo]

Hi all, 

 

It’s been awhile. Work required a lot of attention but the funny thing is I couldn’t stop thinking about Pajama Friends. Like there’s an itch that I couldn’t get rid off .  I’m sorry for the delayed response to private messages and emails. I will get to them as soon as I can. But here I am again, just finished watching Pajama Friends and I guess I could say that this episode is a gold mine in terms of Jihyo and Jongkook’s interactions. I have selected my “favorites” or the ones that I find the most interesting down below, otherwise it’ll get too long (but please, always be warned that my posts WILL most of the time be lengthy .

 

I would like to preface this post by saying that the more I look at their interactions the more I am curious of what is happening between them. Their body language (especially Jihyo’s) showed a lot of things that indicates something “special”. I’m not gonna rush and say it’s romantic or the sort (I’m not a prophet or a shaman that can read someone’s mind or predict the future). However, from what I have mentioned in my previous posts, I saw a lot of things pointing to their relationship being built on immense trust, comfort with each other, and, Jihyo in particular, reliance on each other; this Pajama Friends episode and the information that I got from some very kind people in this forum has confirmed that this is the case due to some hard phases in their lives that they went through together. But let me tell you why I have my suspicions that something is going on (again, not exactly romantic, but I would use the word “attraction”). 

 

First off there’s this scene. Pay attention to Jihyo’s posture: left leg tucked inside, hands firmly rested on top of the thighs, and stiff neck and torso. These all indicate a state of wariness, or being on guard. It might seem confusing or unclear why I would say that Jihyo is setting her guard up, but if we look at what is happening collectively, we would get a clearer picture. Jongkook here is holding a book that Jihyo herself gave to him. The book apparently answers questions about life (which is total bogus, but hey, let us all have fun ). Now Jihyo is a smart person, and she is terribly close to Jongkook so what I would deduce is that Jihyo knows that Jongkook, or someone else in the room, would ask something about his marriage. Personally, when i was still chasing after my girlfriend and we played “describe your ideal type”, I got very nervous and wary of what the answer would be. I believe this is the case here too. It’s a question that generates tension for Jihyo and her posture shows that. Without getting too detailed:

1. the tucked in leg shows that she is trying to take a protective stance (this is a behavior that we do unconsciously when we feel threatened to shield the vital parts of our body; this NOT always the case but in this particular setting and her abrupt change from her previous posture led me to believe so). 

 

2. The hands on the thigh is what I like to call the “clutch”. It is similar to us clutching or clinging to the top part of the chair when we feel nervous or uncomfortable. This is a natural reaction when we are presented to a situation that is either new or just uncomfortable in general. see the picture for the typical posture.

But since Jihyo is sitting on a sofa, her thighs served as the “clinging place” for her hands. 

 

3. The stiff neck and torso is quite straightforward. When you are pensive or guarded your muscles contracts and therefore gives off the overall feeling of your body being stiff. 

 

Now put this all together and I can’t help but think, “why is she being so cautious?”. What’s the reason? It’s gonna be a question about Jongkook’s marriage, sure, but why is she so ….. pensive? Almost reluctant, even, to hear the answer. 

---

 

Next off, this scene where, whoever that woman was, asked if Jongkook’s partner is in the room or not. Spoiler alert: the book says no. Again, Jihyo’s reaction here is very interesting for me. 

I know it’s hard to capture what I would try to explain from the screenshot so I would encourage you to look at the video again if you’d like to see what was happening. But getting to the point, Jihyo’s reaction is quite exaggerated.

 

1. Her whole body moved and shifted all over the place when she heard the answer. Think of a time when you’re unhappy with something but have no choice but to hide it. Bet you my puppy that you would shift your body around. Or when you were nervous so you fidgeted or tapped your feet. For me, her big movements here (her body moving around, her lifting her right leg and the clapping are the results of her trying to hide something that she’s feeling, be it a negative one or something else. 

 

2. I talked a little bit about smiles a while back and at that time it was the positive side of a smile, or laugh. Here we find the opposite. 

The difference is very subtle, but to trained eyes a very clear indicator of a fake smile: a scrunched nose and excessively open mouth. For Jihyo’s case, she is also lowering her head as if protecting her neck (you could see here that her “double chin” occurs because she tucked her chin in when she’s laughing). This is not a genuine smile. It is too exaggerated to be one and her tucked in chin indicates a defensive posture that would occur due to a negative feeling. It’s something one would facially do to conceal disapproval. Combine it with my first point and it clearly shows that she’s not exactly having a jolly good time here but since it’s a show and what not, what other choice did she have? 

---

 

Overall, however, the episode is really sweet. Especially where Jihyo explained how Jongkook helped her through her tough times. A lot of her behavior now makes sense to me and why her actions a lot of times indicates reliance and tremendous trust on him. 

 

As always, please let me know if you got any questions or if you disagree with any of my points. I would be glad to discuss and answer any of them. I don’t have anything else lined up next so if you have some suggestions I would also gladly consider them since I have a bit of time this weekend; although I would prefer older episodes where the members had not teased them yet to fully grasp Jongkook and Jihyo’s behavior. I also noticed that the forum was very active the past few days because of Jongkook and Somin (?). It’s quite interesting to read all the reactions . 

[[Official] SPARTACE COUPLE KimJongkook-SongJiHyo]

Thank you all for the kind words :). I’m glad you enjoyed reading what I wrote. 

 

I did get the chance to watch 436 and I was really looking forward to it but contrary to what I expected there isn’t any particular scene that caught my attention nor is there much to analyze. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed 436 a lot. The episode was really funny from beginning to end but in terms of Jongkook and Jihyo’s interactions, the bulk of them were either mostly of their backsides (the running mission where they were holding hands anyways), or they would be static (the last mission where they had to sit on the pillows) so to be honest there is not much for me to say. Nothing in particular caught my eye — expressions, actions, or subtle movements. What also makes it hard for me to properly analyze this episode is that the members constantly teased them and therefore caused them to mostly react in a bashful or shy manner, which covered their genuine expressions. Like a lot of you have mentioned, they do stick to each others’ side A LOT. Even in 396. This is pretty much common knowledge and everyone knows this already but I’ll just put it out there: people gravitate towards those that they like or are comfortable with. In some cases I noticed that Jihyo would deliberately move to Jongkook’s side and vice versa so this does signal their extremely close relationship and that they are comfortable with each other. Another thing is that compared to the previous interactions with Jinyoung, I would say that Jongkook is definitely more comfortable with Jihyo and whatever she is doing even though her “skinship” with him is more extended. No sudden movements indicating awkwardness nor is there any signs of him disapproving of her approaching him. 

 

One thing I would like to mention, though, is during the beginning, when the cast members were making fun of Jihyo and Jongkook’s outfit, in particular on 9:04, 

Jihyo here has an interesting face state. Slightly puckered lips, tense facial muscles, and slightly lowered eyebrows. Analyzed by itself, puckered lips would indicate stress and uneasiness. However, since along with the puckering of lips she also tensed her facial muscles and lowered her eyebrows slightly, stressed would not be the right description. I would describe Jihyo’s situation as “waiting for Jongkook’s reaction and acting accordingly”. So the expression that she currently has is basically a “placeholder” before she decides what to do according to Jongkook’s reaction. If you watch this scene, her reaction is slightly delayed before she gave her reaction and only reacted to the joke after Jongkook acted positively. I’m not exactly sure why Jongkook’s reaction matters to her, maybe it’s because she’s afraid that he wouldn’t like the teasing or maybe something had happened before that made her more cautious. Either way, what follows is a happy ending. Jongkook laughed and played along with Jaeseok’s teasing and Jihyo exhibited a genuine smile. 

How do I know it’s genuine? Other than my experience, in this particular situation she is smiling with her whole face; wrinkles on the sides of her eye appeared, the contracting of cheek muscles, and expansion of the jaw. Your feelings cannot make you lie to your body. This is a genuine smile of happiness and joy. 

 

 

I feel really sorry that episode 436, which according to one of the comments is one of the best SpartAace episodes, yielded a short analysis from me. To make up for the lack of 436’s analysis, I will include a video that @sofiemarz sent to me and my thoughts on one of the scene. 

When they were holding each others’ hands, we can see here that Jihyo has a firm grip while Jongkook has what I would call an “open grip”. Jihyo was holding his thumb so he had no choice but to hold her hands but his ring and pinky fingers were not closed and instead distanced from Jihyo’s hand. This indicates restraint. Jongkook is one hell of a buff guy and I heard he’s a man of manners? If so, that would help explain why he is not gripping her hands properly. He was most likely afraid of hurting her by not controlling his power and was feeling regret of what he was doing (trying to defeat a woman using his power). 

 

It is also worth noting that they maintained very long eye contact. Looking at someone’s eyes for more than 3 seconds is a sign of endearment and affection. IF the eye contact is desirable. If an unknown person stares right at you for 3 or more seconds, you better run because chances are he’s a psychopath. If it’s your girlfriend or boyfriend or someone very dear to you then it’s understandable. In Jihyo and Jongkook’s case? Well, they’re certainly not strangers :). But again, I would like to reiterate that their body language, behavior, and tendencies that I have seen so far all point to the fact that their relationship is one that is built on tremendous trust and that they hold each other dearly. 

 

I have Pajama Friends next on my list and hopefully would be able to watch it by the end of this week. Please do feel free to voice your opinion if you have any disagreements with what I said, despite my profession I am still a mere human and none of my analyses are perfect :). I am always open to criticism (constructive ones, or even destructive ones as long as they have a point) and again if you have any particular questions or suggestions let me know!. Have a great weekend everyone!

[[Official] SPARTACE COUPLE KimJongkook-SongJiHyo]

Hello again everyone,

This one’s gonna be quite long so please be warned in advance. I am still working on how to shorten my analyses without leaving anything behind :(. 

 

(This is a little bit about myself, feel free to skip down if you’re not interested. I’m sorry that the first part of my post is about myself, but I do feel that since I can’t reply to those that messaged me one by one I have an obligation to them).

I am very happy that a lot of you are interested in my analyses of Jongkook and Jihyo’s behaviors. A lot of you have also been personally messaging me asking me about my background and how did I become a behavioral psychologist and how could someone be a behavioral psychologist (my inbox blew up and I was honestly quite overwhelmed, haha. I’m sorry couldn’t reply one by one due to Soompi’s posting limit) so I’m just going to address it here and if you do have more questions, please contact me at genorbbins@gmail.com where I would be able to freely answer any of your questions when my time allows. Please send me an email about questions of how to become a behavioral psychologist if you have them, it’s quite extensive and I don’t want to bore everyone in this forum with the details :). A little bit about my background: I went to Stanford University and majored in Psychology. I specialized in Neuroscience and graduated in 2010. Ever since then I have been involved with behavior analysis with various demographics but have stopped doing any personal counseling 3 years ago. I currently lead a consulting firm that helps businesses with their employees’ behavior and would also occasionally contract with government and law enforcement agencies to deal with criminal profiling and psychological assessments during let’s say, an interrogation. Enough about me, on to the good stuff :).

 

@tiglon  he GIF that you posted is very short and small so it was quite hard to properly assess their expressions, but one thing that I’d like to note here is in order for someone of a different gender to place their hands on sensitive parts of the human body such as the hips (the sides of your torso are some of the most sensitive areas of your body and the lower abdominal part of the human body is particularly sensitive due to one of their uses being reproductive) AND the receptor being okay with it is a big deal. You do not just naturally place your hands on someone’s hips (feel free to try it with someone you’re close but not particularly close with, or even with someone you are close with and see how they react) unless you are sure that that someone would be okay with it. And as we can all see, Jihyo did not react negatively. So this is most likely not the first time he has done it (please correct me if I’m wrong) and that she had most likely done it before to him too. This, for me, shows immense trust between the two of them and that they do have a deeper relationship than simply being friends (not necessarily a romantic one, but definitely a very faithful one). I can’t see what they’re pointing at nor do I know what was actually happening so I’m just analyzing this GIF in a vacuum, but this is what I gathered. Once I know what episode this is I might perhaps be able to provide a better and clearer dissection of the scene :). 

 

I thoroughly enjoyed episode 396 (only got to see one episode, hopefully I’ll get one more in today. Maybe episode 436). Running Man is indeed a fun show to watch and certainly very interesting. I would like to avoid any excessive length so I would just start from the opening of the episode and if people are interested enough I would expand to some other sections of the episode. 

 

In the opening segment of 396, the girl in black (Jinyoung if I remember correctly?) can be seen sticking like a magnet to Jongkook’s side. When the members commented that the 4 people wearing black should just form a team, the only girl in black remarked something along the lines of “I like it that I’m the only girl” and put his hands gently on Jongkook’s shoulder. Pay attention to what happens next: Jongkook very quickly turned his head to the girl’s direction and what’s important here is that his gaze briefly went towards the middle part of the girl’s direction and then proceeded to bring his gaze down to the general area of her shoes. Why is this important? Him looking firstly at the middle part of her general direction gives him enough vision of her hand that is an “intruder” to his personal space that brought him unexpected awkwardness, and then he looked down very shortly thereafter to possibly check her outfit. At first I simply thought that he was just looking at her outfit, however, the suddenness of him turning his head and the direction of his gaze tell a different story, and that, if I were to deduct, is discomfort. Further supporting my view is him bringing his hand to touch his nose after looking at her direction. Touching or scratching one’s nose is something that body language sciences categorizes as a negative body language. The touching of the nose shows a state of having unpleasant feelings and this is because when you feel discomfort or that something is wrong, blood capillaries in your nose will shrink, or contract, and this causes a slight itch that would consequently make you want to scratch it. For me personally, when I work with a suspect that is under interrogation and the touching of the nose occurs, it is in an indication of lying or negative feelings (this is NOT always the case but for the sake of brevity I will leave it at this for now) which would be a reason for suspicion. I have reasons to believe that when Jongkook touched his nose shortly after the girl rested her hands on her shoulder he was masking his discomfort. 

 

On minute 1:41 of the episode, Jaeseok (?) I still haven’t gotten to memorize most of the names but we’ll get there, told Jongkook to look at Jinyoung’s and this time she went even bolder and put her hands on his cheeks to force him to look at her. I won’t go into the details for this because I doubt anyone here is too interested in “how Jongkook is uncomfortable with Jinyoung’s actions” and I explained quite a bit in the previous part, but Jihyo’s reaction shortly after is what I would categorize as jealousy. Why? 2 reasons:

1. Her tone and a second of scrunched (lowered as in when you are angry) eyebrows. Her comment of “they look good” does not at all sound sincere. I’m pretty sure it does not take a genius to know that her “supporting comments” were as fake as Nicki Minaj’s rear. The reason is simple: her pitch. When a woman is presented with a situation or person she likes, her pitch would naturally go higher. Her pitch and intonation here instead went low which is generally tied to disapproval or disagreement. A scrunched eyebrow also indicates frustration, anger, or that the person is just highly concentrating. Now unless Jihyo was particularly focusing on something distant to her right, which I highly doubt, her behavior and body language showed signs of frustration and yes, jealousy. 

 

2. The touching of her hair. Similar to the nose one but a little bit different. The act of touching one’s hair is a reaction to a uncomfortable situation. It is an act of reassurance for one’s self in high-stress conditions. More importantly, she is touching around the area of her neck. When it comes to analyzing body language, context is crucial because in this case, touching one’s hair may also mean confidence in oneself. HOWEVER, a confident person would be openly baring their neck area, which is an indication of self-confidence and allure. Jihyo here can be seen covering her neck while simultaneously touching her hair which, unfortunately — or fortunately depending on how you see it, is a signal of feeling vulnerable and awkward. This and my first point led me to the conclusion that she is first of all uncomfortable with the situation and there is a high chance of her feeling jealous of what was happening. 

 

That would be it for now. I know I did not cover much “SpartAce”, I just feel that providing analyses on Jihyo’s and Jongkook’s interaction with other members would help set some sort of “starting point” for future context. Oh and a little bit of clarification, I would not consider myself a “shipper” as I am still very new to this. At least not yet, I just find the members dynamics and interaction highly interesting; Jihyo and Jongkook in particular. If any of you have any specific scene or segment you would like me to pay attention to, please also let me know. Again I apologize for the really long post and thank you for having me be a part of this forum :). 

[[Official] SPARTACE COUPLE KimJongkook-SongJiHyo]

2 minutes ago, sofiemarz said:

Just go to youtube, and search spartace, you will have loads of vids to choose from. 

will do, thank you for the suggestion. Although if you don't mind, could recommend some episodes to watch? I have a flight soon so I would have some time to watch an episode or two. And I am glad to hear that you are also a psychologist! Always good to find a fellow in places I do not expect 

[[Official] SPARTACE COUPLE KimJongkook-SongJiHyo]

7 hours ago, spartace4ever21 said:

 Thank you so much for your insight! I really enjoyed what you had to say. I believe that she was trying to hide her actions, they are on a variety show and she could of been trying to rein in on her emotions in front of the camera. It would be awesome if you watched previous episodes but there like 440 at the moment, granted the show is hilarious and I believe you would enjoy them but I suggest searching on YouTube for spartace (Kim jong kook and Song Ji Hyo) moments and maybe give us your opinion on them? Also thanks for your time

I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed them. I also personally enjoy doing these analyses when I do have the time. A stress relief of some sort. Could you give me some particular episodes/Youtube videos as you mentioned that would be good for me to start off from?

[[Official] SPARTACE COUPLE KimJongkook-SongJiHyo]

8 hours ago, Regita M. P said:

@spartace4ever21 & @gnrbbns

 

Hi & welcome to this forum !!

 

Happy Shippers

 

Aaa we're the same @gnrbbns (psychologist)  

thankyou :). And that is good to hear that I have a colleague in this forum! May I know in what particular field of psychology are you in? 

[[Official] SPARTACE COUPLE KimJongkook-SongJiHyo]

Hi guys,

First time poster here. First time everything in soompi in fact. Long story short, I'm a behavioral psychologist and in my (very scarce) spare time I like to watch reality shows and analyze the casts' behavioral pattern and read into their body language (a hobby of mine while keeping it relevant to my profession). Recently one of my assistants was watching Running Man and that piqued my interest so having no appointments at that time I joined her for a bit and the "yeobo" part especially caught my attention. And somehow Google recommended this forum to me so I'd like to give my two cents. A little bit of a disclaimer here, people's behaviors are largely affected by a broad range of aspects such as culture, social upbringing (religion, morals, etc), and the most obvious one, emotions. I am not Korean nor am I terribly familiar with the culture, and I have not done my due research on the country, so I might be analyzing this through my own "personal lense", if I could say so myself, and am therefore prone to any misunderstanding and misinterpretation.

 

With that said, here's what I have. When Jongkook remarked "yeobo", Jihyo instinctively extended her arm to Jongkook's direction. Generally, this is a gesture that indicates that she is very comfortable with him and that their relationship is such an intimate one that she did not hesitate to do that and that that was her first reaction. I have noticed, however, that she sometimes do this with the other members too throughout the episode, so maybe they're all just family to each other. Her expression should also be noted. Her smile is an extremely genuine one. As a behavioral psychologist and having worked for almost 9 years in this field and analyzing hundreds of thousands of people smiling under different circumstances, I can confidently say that this is a very genuine smile, pure even. Needless to say, this indicates a surge of abundant joy that comes as a pleasant surprise to her. Almost as if she's been waiting for such a moment and his "yeobo" ended her longing. Shortly after, she ended up giving her extra money to him and her actions here are also interesting. She turned around quickly after giving him the money and even still then you could still hear the joy in her voice. But her turning around quickly is what's important. Why would someone at their joyful point turn away so quickly from the situation that brought her the unexpectedly pleasant surprise in the first place? At this point there are two possible explanations:

1. I am horribly wrong in my analysis and she just wants to get out of the situation quickly. Again, this is not entirely impossible due to my unfamiliarity with Korea let alone the show (this is probably my 3rd time watching it). 

2. She wanted to hide her next reactions. Imagine of a time where you are extremely happy in a situation where you know you need to keep it under control. If it was me, I would try to go to a place where I would be able to express it without restraint or try to "avoid" the reason of my happiness to prevent me from expressing my joy even further. And if I am right in this case, this was exactly what she was trying to do. 

 

This is becoming a huge wall of text and I apologize for that. I just find it extremely fascinating that there is a forum dedicated to supporting two celebrities to date or "shipping" as it's usally called and would like to give a piece of my mind on the matter. This forum is a joy to read.