saracupcaked | the illustrated guide to kim myungsoo

to sum this up simply, i love kim myungsoo. i love writing about him, i love looking at photos of him, i love his nasally voice, i love how much he loves plaid, i love his face and i could go on forever. which isn’t productive at all so i tried to do something a little more productive and organise everything into an appreciation post/pimp post/meta post of sorts!

i will also try to keep this as updated as possible \o/ (last update: 24/08/13 - master's sun eps and one great step solo stage)

sidenote on meta: removed relationship meta parts. i kept the one on myungsoo himself even though i wanted to get rid of it because it has some pretty important info. the main reason why i removed the meta section is because i don't subscribe to the 'headcanon' narrative: you can't summarize a person or his/her relationships into a word or even a paragraph/paragraphs. people are way more complex than that, and i'll be doing you a disservice by telling you how to see a person or their relationships. that isn't to say you can't have them! but they're your interpretations, and that makes all the difference. sorry for this long spiel and back to your usual programming n__n

cr: 19920313

the basics

Name: Kim Myungsoo
Stage Name: L
Role: Vocal
Date of Birth: March 13, 1992
Blood type: O
Height: 180cm
Hobby: Reading comic books, cooking, fashion
Specialty: Photography, acting
Hometown: Jeollabuk-do
Family: parents; younger brother

[!!] if you can understand korean, this is the ultimate guide to kim myungsoo

predebut

»photos

baby myungsoo
[x]
myungsoo as a child
[x] [x]
elementary/middle school
[x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]
high school
[x] - must see! [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] - LOLOLOLOLOL FOREVER
miscellaneous
[x] [x] [x] [x] [x]

compilation of most of his predebut photos~

»life
loved plaid even before debut, lmao. was a fashion disaster in high school: he loved cargo pants with loose pockets and corduroy pants. He was shy around people he didn't know, but had a 4D personality around his close friends. a quiet student and the girls would watch him during sports competitions and try to get his number. also received gifts like chocolate milk from girls on buses for being so goodlooking. street-casted by woollim and a lot of his high school classmates were suprised since he was so quiet.

also, myungsoo was not an ulzzang. he's known as the 'ulzzang member' for his looks but he was never an ulzzang in the traditional sense - posting his photos/selcas on the internet and becoming known that way. he's never mentioned being an ulzzang in any interviews and there are not nearly enough photos of him predebut for him to be an ulzzang. the closest we get is that he used to model (clothes model and a shopping mall model) but we don't have photos of those, unlike with woohyun.
cr: 1, 2 , 3

was active on naver boards in 2008 (ahaha). used the username 'ansxoddl123' (which was also his twitter handle right after he created it) and he answered questions on a range of topics, from identifying snsd performances in record time to giving his opinion on entertainment companies. if you can understand korean, here are the rest of his answers.
+ screencaps from beatles code

front and centre

the kim myungsoo tier list

aka my why-i-love-this-boy-sfm scale

»handwriting
are you sure this is handwritten? / negl i might like your writing almost as much as your face / please be my secretary / pretty / kindergarten myungsoo / pretty ugly

»clumsiness
slipping on air is an art / omg

»smile
are you sure he’s human / so so so gorgeous / nice smile / yup he is human / sometimes they mean he's infinite’s 'visual' ironically / cute sometimes means ‘ugly but adorable’ and this is more ugly than adorable / okay what are you doing no really what are you doing i love you so much

»obsessions
what do you mean i can’t have more plaid / ...but i really like fedoras / the bamboo pillow is mine / sungyeol is my best friend that's why i always talk about him

»awkwardness
this is adorable let me cuddle you / lol ok myungsoo calm down / pot meet kettle / waylt / WAYLT

»cameras
two of myungsoo's older cameras (2010/11)
three of myungsoo's newer cameras (12/13)

meta

»myungsoo
traditional in the sense he’s very conscious of age roles as we saw in birth of a family ep10, where he talks about his mother. he's the eldest son so he needs to play the colder role as compared to his younger brother, who can act more like dongwoo did with his mum. and i think it does burden myungsoo, having to act this way. he also said in that ep he finds it hard to express himself. myungsoo and age roles interest me too because if infinite did debut as a 5 member group, myungsoo would have been maknae. and maknaes are never sold with the cold ice prince image, so it would have been interesting to see him in sungjong's role, where i think he could be more comfortable. but being an older brother does help him handle L well on stage.
+ boaf ep10, myungsoo cut

obsessive behaviour - his collection of plaid and fedoras and how much he likes bamboo pillows. he has an air of quiet confidence where he doesn't show off and while he doesn't seem to be anything like L, he certainly knows how to play him well. introverted, which ties into his predebut shyness and his inability to express himself and i don't believe he had any plans to become an idol.

but he did debut, and L has been useful for myungsoo in the sense he has a completely separate persona he can put on for the stage and take it off when he needs to. myungsoo knows he is not L and that they're nothing alike and therefore, L cannot interfere with his personality off-stage. it works both ways though, because on-stage, he doesn't talk/do much than look at the cameras during interviews. myungsoo compartmentalizes well: the role of the older brother, as L, as an idol.

The meaning of L? My real name is Kim Myungsoo. From way before, my gestures or speaking tones, and my image seemed close to Death Note’s L, so people around me called me L.
+ ceci magazine, september 2010

i find the first part very interesting because he does not try to define L, he just cuts straight to it and say he's kim myungsoo. and i can believe, to a certain extent, that the trainees did call myungsoo 'L' as a nickname but that was all it was then. the company made L into a stage personality and that's when it ceased being just a nickname.

one of the things that stand out the most to me about myungsoo is that he's the type of person who would get the job done, even at his own expense. he didn't cry once when infinite won on music shows and it fits seamlessly with the ~aloof~ image L is supposed to have. he also doesn't believe he has the best face to ever grace the planet (i would disagree!), but he consciously positions himself in the 'center' of the group for red carpet interviews/photoshoots. he's not known for singing or dancing (both predebut and now), but he tries his hardest and he does do his best to keep up with the others. he has said his best quality is diligence ♡

also, on his 20th birthday, after everyone had wished him on twitter, he tweeted this gem. i am in love with this boy.
+ first be mine win @ mcd
+ second be mine win @ mcd (without sungyeol)
+ paradise win @ inkigayo
+ paradise win @ mcd

+ tv asahi interview

miscellaneous

»links
+ you have to click this i'm not even kidding
+ [cut] the reason why they created L for myungsoo and didn't let him talk on screen (paradise bts interview)
+ [cut] wooya tricking myungsoo with 'coffee' and myungsoo is a thankful dongsaeng (days of infinite)
+ [cut] myungsoo and his cheap accent (yamo)
+ [fancam] awkward dancing myungsoo is the best myungsoo
+ [webcomic] myungsoo wants his hat back
+[fancam] myungsoo saying "hello" into the fancam ;;

»birthday gifts
2013
lkimfan [x]
l'aile [x]

»other friendships
minhwan (ft island)
his fellow '92 friend and he thanked minhwan in their over the top album. minhwan tweets him occassionally. also tweeted myungsoo this on his 20th birthday ♥ minhwan also chose to be in infinite if he could be in any group. more recently, myungsoo was hanging out with minhwan and seunghyun (also ft island) at a kbs concert where both groups were perfoming.

eli (ukiss)
they've taken a photo together and interacted a lot on music shows and sports festivals (since 2010!) also, eli has mentioned myungsoo on his tumblr

ljoe (teen top)
myungsoo was his usual clingy self with him during 2011's sports festival

daniel (dmtn)
daniel's tweet myungsoo + another one ~~shipping~~ addressing myungyeol. watch this to find out how they first became friends! during infinite's comeback for the chaser, it's obvious how close they both are - daniel called him on a radio show and during infinite's first music bank win, daniel hugged him.

kim yerim/yealim (child actress)
filmed shut up! flower boy band with him and was his little sister. calls him oppa :') shares the exact same name as two months' kim yerim so her name will be romanticized as yealim.

yoo minkyu (acted as kyungjong in sufbb)
castmate in shut up! flower boy band as well. myungsoo seems to be closest to him out of all the other sufbb members and they've selca-ed together before. wished him happy birthday on twitter.

kim minseok (acted as hajin in sufbb)
castmate in sufbb and tweeted him on his birthday.

jung euichul (acted as seunghoon in sufbb)
another castmate from sufbb. also wished him on twitter!

yuu shirota (japanese actor in jiu and singer)
castmate from jiu. they've taken photos together and shirota has tweeted him occasionally and on his birthday.

kwak jungwook (woollim actor; acted in sufbb and school 2013)
jungwook tweeted about him when he went to watch infinite's concert and recently myungsoo tweeted him about school 2013.

lizzy (after school)
they're from the same year line ('92ers) and they exchanged cute texts on a show champion episode.

the end

▲ this wouldn't have been possible without the help of these sites: 19920313, -fyinfinite- and infiniteupdates along with a variety of other tumblr blogs and tags!
▲ all videos/fancams/gifs/photos are credited as tagged
▲ if you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them here or pm me

~kim myungsoo thanks you for your time~

cr: lambotran

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

words cannot express my joy i love you for making this ALSO RELATIONSHIP META YES
ugh ugh ugh myungsoo is the cutest most awkward baby darling in the whole world homg also we have similar myungsoo feelings or so it seems
scream really though thank you for making a relationship meta sob sob power couple OTP omg my otp ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

this is rather incoherent ohp i shall leave you with hearts ♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

this has been my pleasure to create and compile ♥

some of the pics you linked to tumblr pics are dead ;-;

i've checked them and they all work on my computer ;__; do you have specific examples?

the second and third links under his handwriting bits. i get the whole expired link white page

replaced them! ty for pointing that out

Hi there, thanks for making this awesome guide.

Btw, @dpfla0109 is not Kim Yerim of Two Months' twitter. It's Kim Yea Lim's twitter, the one who played the role of Daseom (Hyunsoo's little sister) in SUFBB ^^

Cheers

sorry for the extremely late reply but thank you! it has been edited :)

This is an AMAZING post. Idek where to begin, omg ;____; Thank you so much for doing this!

The HTML's a bit broken, though :(

I somehow stumbled upon this but BUT

OMGILOVEYOUI'MGOINGTOMEMTHISFOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sorry i'm on myungsoo high + the gif above is not helping!! omfg so distracting!!!!!! ._.

but that myungyeol thing...aren't they same age friends? even though myung's born on 92 infinite seems to consider them the same age.... well that's what they said on weekly idol...

yup, they're considered same-age friends but it's only inside infinite, because if you're following the standard age cutoffs and all, sungyeol is myungsoo's hyung. but myungsoo is considered an 'age breaker' too. i changed out one of the 'hyung' usages in the links and this is just one of the other reasons why myungyeol are so close - for sungyeol to accept myungsoo as a same-age friend when he doesn't have a concrete reason to

the illustrated guide to kim myungsoo

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OMGILOVEYOUI'MGOINGTOMEMTHISFOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sorry i'm on myungsoo high + the gif above is not helping!! omfg so distracting!!!!!! ._.

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