Somewhere right now, an ATINY is lacing up running shoes they swore they would never buy. Another one is standing in the kids’ section of a department store, tearing up over a tiny cardigan, with zero children to shop for.
We know exactly who is responsible.
Hongjoong has captained ATEEZ since 2018, and that job alone would flatten most people. He treats it like a warmup. The trouble (and we say trouble with a lot of love) is that ATINY don’t just watch what he does. Somewhere along the way, his hobbies quietly turn into ours. So yes, we are calling him a terrible influence. And we came with receipts!
Why Does Your Notes App Look Like A Ransom Note?
Open any ATINY’s phone and you’ll find it. A grocery list sitting on top of a lyric you’ll never finish, right above a playlist title with no songs in it.
Blame the captain. Hongjoong has admitted his own notes app is basically overflowing, because ideas hit him everywhere and he writes every single one down. The difference is that some of his notes actually grow up. ‘ENOuGH’ was one of them.
Waiting For Your Bazzi
Hongjoong built the bones of ‘ENOuGH’ back in April, liked it, and then sat on it. The song felt unfinished on its own, so he waited for the right voice to come along.
That voice turned out to be Bazzi. Hongjoong had been a fan of Bazzi’s music since his trainee days, and in June the two finally crossed paths in London, when Bazzi played right before ATEEZ at BST Hyde Park. A few WhatsApp messages later, Bazzi had pitched a new chorus part and the outro, and the song finally felt whole.
Is it a little romantic? Kind of. ATINY who used to double text and regret it are now holding out for their own Bazzi. And if you’ve started skipping the original to play the acoustic version, the one with nothing but a guitar and his voice, that’s on him too.
Since When Do You Have Balmain Opinions?
Not long ago, plenty of fans couldn’t have picked a Balmain jacket out of a lineup. Then Hongjoong joined the house as an ambassador in 2023. Now Paris Fashion Week gets the same refresh energy as a comeback teaser, with ATINY waiting to see what he walks into Balmain or Jacquemus wearing.
Designers have called him their muse. Fans have called him a lot of things during Fashion Week, and most of them can’t be printed here.
The Film Grain Phase
Hongjoong shoots on film. His 2023 exhibition, ‘WALKER A,’ was built around film photography, and it made a lot of fans suddenly very curious about the dusty camera in their parents’ closet.
The sweetest part has nothing to do with gear. Hongjoong has said that when he was young, his dad was the best photographer he knew, and one day he’d love to do a photo shoot with him. So if you dig that old camera out, maybe ask the person who owned it to pose for you. We’ll wait while you text them.
Ambushed In The Kids’ Section
His mom gets a moment too. She once ran a children’s clothing shop, and a young Hongjoong spent his days surrounded by tiny clothes. In 2025, he turned that memory into Petit Coussin, a handmade collection of 24 children’s looks with its own fashion film. Which explains why grown adults with no kids anywhere in their lives are now getting emotional over toddler overalls. We tried to warn you!
Your Bank App Thinks You’ve Been Hacked
Remember those photo exhibitions? The money never stayed in his pocket. His first show in 2022 supported kids who want to make music despite tough circumstances. The proceeds from ‘WALKER A’ went to the Korea Childhood Leukemia Foundation, and he topped them up with his own money for a 50 million won donation.
He has been giving to World Vision since 2022 as well, including Children’s Day donations for young people who care for sick or disabled family members. Once his total passed 100 million won, he landed in the charity’s Bob Pierce Honor Club for major donors.
Here’s the sneaky part. When Hongjoong asks ATINY to come along for something meaningful, they show up. Which brings us to the shoes.
The Running Shoes Situation
Every year, Hongjoong teams up with World Vision for a virtual 6K, a nod to the kids around the world who walk six kilometers a day just to reach clean water. You sign up, cover the distance wherever you live at whatever pace you can manage, and the money goes toward clean water projects.
ATEEZ members Seonghwa and Yunho have joined in before. So have a whole lot of ATINY who, until recently, considered jogging to the bus a cardio day. We see you. Your calves see you too.
Your Watchlist Got Weird
Not many idols make their film debut behind the soundtrack. Hongjoong did. In 2026, he became the music director of Hallucination, a Korean indie film about a human fashion editor who falls for an AI system. He produced two tracks for it, ‘Bleeding Light’ and ‘Nothing Left,’ and sang on the second one himself.
It premiered at the Jeonju International Film Festival, and his older brother, Kim Bum-joong, plays one of the leads. So now a small indie romance about a robot boyfriend sits at the top of a lot of very serious watchlists.
Explaining EDC To Your Mom
Here’s a plot twist. The same guy who stripped ‘ENOuGH’ down to one guitar walked into EDC Korea this October and stood behind the decks as NO1.
That sounds like a contradiction until you remember where NO1 came from. It started as his solo track on Golden Hour Part.3, and he grew it into a whole DJ persona with sounds we hadn’t heard from him before. Soft and loud have always lived in the same person. He just finally gave the loud side its own name.
Now there are ATINY on group chats trying to explain to their parents what a rave stage is and why it matters so much.
So, About That Terrible Influence
Look at the evidence. Fans are running for clean water, donating to kids’ charities, digging out old cameras and asking their dads to pose. Some of them are even finishing their notes app ideas. If this is what a bad influence looks like, we hope it’s contagious!
What’s the most Hongjoong habit you’ve picked up? Find us on our socials X, Facebook or Instagram, and let’s chat about it!
Want to read more about our K-Pop pirates? Please, help yourself to as much ATEEZ content as you like!
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