Stray Kids: " 

Five months is a long old time in such a fast-paced industry. It was rough. There was one really sweet moment during the hiatus where Chan, on his weekly live "Chan's room", said, "...whoever made the Lovestay hashtag is a great person". Alluding to Hyunjin while they were obviously discouraged from mentioning him by name. Love this group and this song and your lovely reaction!❤️

sat here with my cup of tea smiling like an idiot at my little shoutout, your so lovely! but also super happy i can help with any info!

- Hyunjin created the #LoveSTAY tag, and it's become his signature on social media posts. He's referred to as the LoveSTAY Boy. Since it's his "signature" and lets us know it's him making the post on their shared account (several members have their own signature, whether a tag or an emoji), the others pretty much don't use it on posts -- except when they were using it as code to us during his absence. - They're still not allowed to speak about Hyunjin's hiatus, but we've figured out from things he said on bubble when the song released that much of this was almost certainly written during that period. He can't say stuff like "When I was on hiatus...," but he's made comments (in posts or in videos) in the past about "When I was having a really hard time for a while..." or "For four/several months..." or whatever, so basically he speaks about it in code (much like SKZ spoke about him in code to us during his absence, with everything from using his tag, to ot8 profile pics, to including silent visual references to him during Kingdom performances). During those months, he understandably went through a lot and had a hard time, and he's made it understood that even though he couldn't interact, he was aware of all the posts and comments, that he received all the letters, and that he leaned on the love and support of STAY that kept pouring in despite his inability to respond. - The members using Hyunjin's #LoveSTAY tag became a lifeline during the months we spent worrying about him and watching the other members be gag-ordered, while we weren't getting a single damn peep of reassurance from JYPE about whether he'd ever get to return or if he was doing ok mental-healthwise. Not long after his return, SKZ even held a LoveSTAY event as part of their Kingdom Week prize, scenes of which are included in this video (where most of them are crying on stage because of a surprise from STAY -- side note: you should absolutely watch that performance, and actually all of Kingdom Week, eventually). Anyway, unlike a lot of their songs, this one doesn't really have multiple meanings or fuzzy potential interpretation: from the lyrics to the title (both referencing things that specifically STAY would know about, right down to the mention of stars and the seasons), even down to the fact that it's Hyunjin singing first and last, it's a straightforward song to STAY (and more fancifully to each other, since they've declared SKZ and STAY to be one), significantly inspired by both the triumphs and challenges of last year, especially his hiatus. - A cute little side note about the video is that all the #LoveSTAY tags and lyrics are in the members' handwriting -- specifically, it's the writing of the member who's singing at that time. - Yup, you're understanding "Stray kids all around the world, you make Stray Kids stay." They've explicitly clarified it, so we know that it means pretty much what you're thinking: anyone around the world who feels alone or lost or outside -- anyone who's a stray kid -- is welcome here with the other strays (which includes Stray Kids), and together we're a chosen family. - That moment when they had their phones and were so excited was really significant. Despite their popularity growing by leaps and bounds internationally, within Korea they're still kind of shat upon; their "noise music" isn't palatable to the majority of the narrow mainstream. So our in-country digitals for them are usually pretty low, which is the main thing that limits their comeback stage wins (our numbers for voting and sales are generally notably higher than competitors', but the awards are heavily skewed toward Korean digitals, and the number of K-Stays is still much smaller than many other groups, so our digitals just don't compete yet). So that phone moment was the first time they charted on several Korean charts, and with several songs, no less. They were sitting there openly talking about whether they'd get a single song to chart, declaring that they'd just have to work harder if they didn't make it yet. They certainly weren't expecting multiple songs on multiple charts, especially so high ranked. So it was a HUGE moment for them (and us), showing that even though they're up against a lot of hurdles within Korea, they're finally starting to gain a foothold. It was pure validation after three and half years of being ignored or hated there. - The lyrics videos aren't entirely accurate about who's singing what (for instance, some of Lee Know's lines are miscredited to Felix). - FWIW, Hyunjin is in one episode of Kingdom. Mnet wasn't able to cut him out of the prerecorded intro performance, so they had to leave him in and then just cut him out of every other possible shot for that episode. Beyond that first performance, the members managed to include coded references to him, not just for STAY but presumably for themselves and him as well. For instance, they made "I'll Be Your Man (Pray)" about a "precious person" rather than the original straight-people-romance theme (the statue of that missing precious person whose return they were praying for is literally wearing Hyunjin's ring, which matches the rest of the group's). The number 8 was flashed in graphics. A bell was physically rung eight times but only sounded seven. In "Wolfgang," Changbin is surrounded by eight wolves, eight dancers were included in the line to be ridden upon despite one of them being riderless, and we all knew which part of Han's rap was clearly written for Hyunjin's style -- and we've since gotten to see him inserted into those spots, so we weren't just imagining stuff in our desperation. Anyway, he's physically in the first episode, and they did everything they could to include him in the others.

stray kids have one of the most strong bonds between their members and their fandom. they really value their fans because they knew that not only them but the fans also work hard to help them get recognition that they deserve. and the thing about their lyrics too, you see they put season in their lyrics because hyunjin hiatus on february (still winter) and he loves winter sm he put snow emoji on his bubble status. and during hiatus he can't update his bubble so during five months hiatus his status still snow emoji eventhough the season has changed to spring n summer. the fans said he's stuck in winter. and he put it in his unreleased song too beside lovestay that is Spring (봄아). and during his hiatus we cant openly celebrate his birthday to not brought attention to him more. so we made project to send letters from fans all over the world to him. and after his hiatus ended he immediately changed his bbl status to four leaf clover and it became meaningful to us too.

These 4 months were like hell. Not only because they had to promote as 7 and couldn't even say his name, he was cut out and not shown anywhere, like he's never existed and the worst part was that we didn't even know anything what was happening with him and if he ever come back, because the company, since the announcement of his hiatus (that he's withdrawn from all activities and moved out from their dormitory) haven't given any single update about him for 4 months, not even a world, NOTHING. One day before Kingdom started everything was ok and the next day boom, the whole world collapsed, they've hidden him and didn't let the Kids used any social media for over a week. The only way they could assure us that he's still part of the group was Chan's bubble profil picture with all 8 of them, the hashtag #lovestay and all 8 SKZoo dolls they've been putting everywhere. And one day SKZ dropped their MV to the digital single song called "Mixtape: OH" and he was there! He suddenly came back, and we all were in tears. I'd been crying for two hours 😢 The first thing he wrote to us at 1st July was if we have eaten and that he ate lettuce and after that "hyunjin" and "lettuce" trended on Twitter with over 1 mln twits. We celebrated his return calling July Hyunjuly and it was a month only for him. He missed his birthday at 20th march and we couldn't celebrate it but this year we finally can celebrate it to pay him back everything he missed 😢 "Play with fire" you're going to watch was released 9 days after his return, as if he wanted to remind the world about himself and return with a BIG BANG 🥲 And it did was a big bang, getting 9 mln views in a week and becoming the most liked SKZ-player of Stray Kids ever 😍 I can give you the inside what this performance is about if you want to 🥰

Oh you're friends with alex! I subscribed to her chanel the moment she started make reaction vids for skz. She's one of my fav youtube kpop reactors now

When Hyunjin was gone... oh my gosh it was so painful for Stay, especially for the stay that were around when what happened with Woojin. When Woojin left the kids got so much hate even from stay and Hyunjin has always been so in love with stay and he cried on stage begging fans to STAY and he just...loves us so much, I've never seen an idol simply adore their fans as much as Hyunjin does, you can see it in his eyes at fancalls and stuff, his eyes sparkle when looking at stay 😩 so his hiatus hit really fucking hard, I think we all cried when we saw him in the mixtape: oh MV and then his skz-player play with fire came out and it was just...he was REALLY back 🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲

Well, they made me cry, when I listened to #Love STAY for the first time. So yeah, I cried too, you were not alone LOL. Its amaizing they wrote this for STAY. 🥰

Loved your reaction and all 3 of you. I don’t like putting this song as requests because of the meaning and I feel how special it is to me and the fandom but I do sometimes because of how beautiful it is and to showcase what amazing singers they are. This group has been through so much and have had their share of hate also. I don’t know why there isn’t much info on these guys (which can be good and bad). I think people miss out on their discography and only true people who are interested look into their music (that’s what is so important to them ) and see what amazing artist and people they are. I would recommend doing their discography in order. There may be songs you like or don’t but you see them evolve and how talented they are. Like BTS, some of their best songs to me are B-sides. You should check out their first Zach Sang interview from 2 years ago and then the new one. It’s an amazing interview and you learn a lot.

😭😭 love song 🎶

I love your accents😭😭 You guys are british?

💛