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On the night of July 15, 2019, Kihyun changed the lives of many Texas Monbebe when he logged onto vlive after the DFW We Are Here show while eating Whataburger. If you’re from Texas, you probably also know what this means. Like Jollibee or White Castle are important to their respective regions, this is THE Texas Fast Food. Not only that, but he was telling Monbebe to dip their fries in the milkshake!!!! Like a Real Texan!!! This is a maniac food combo I didn’t hear about until I moved to this damn place!!!!!

A day later, I fell in love with him in Houston. There, he revealed him & Joohoney both have family in Texas!!!! Like, no wonder he was dipping fries in his shake!!! A family member had told him to!!! This all completely side-swiped me, and as soon as I got my tickets for the 2020 tour (lol), I started plans to make a shirt with big letters on the back that said: YOO KIHYUN ATE WHATABURGER IN TEXAS. Obviously, that didn’t happen, so I made this section of the shrine instead.


If you can believe it, I’m from a southern state with a worse reputation than Texas (yes!! they exist!!), so when I moved here, it was a significant step up. I’ve always loved the south, but a lot of people (very understandably) don’t. It wears on you after a while...! Being told you & your loved ones deserve the pain & hate you get because of the worst people in your region. It’s easy to ignore the natural beauty, vibrant cultures, and the joyful, diverse communities that form in places like these. With all the doom that makes it suffocating to live here, it's little things like those–and like Kihyun eating Whataburger–that keep you going.

I held on to that a lot through these past several rough years of failing infrastructure in my country, my state, my city. You can imagine, then, when I finally got to see Kihyun again in DFW in 2022, I was ecstatic seeing his and Joohoney’s family in the high balconies. The last time, they joked about how they were holding back sexiness bc they were self-conscious of their families. But this time...they did not LOL.

Kihyun’s grandma was there and went into the pit and waved to him!!!! Their families were sharing pics of all of them backstage with their adorable nieces!!! And their nieces were all wearing little glittery pink cowboy boots!! It was truly a gift to see Monsta X as hot uncles doting on their cute nieces.

But the real shot-through-the-heart moment for me was during Kihyun’s final ment. At the end, he switched fully to English, to point out his family in the balconies and say hi to them. Afterwards, he wistfully added, in his obliging and sweet nature, that if he had the chance someday...he’d like to move to Texas. Joohoney quickly agreed, and the two shook hands, saluting to Monsta X living in Texas and saying we’d have to find jobs for them...?!?!?!?!??!?!?

And, of course, I lost my fucking mind. I can confirm!! He did not say anything like this at the New York show!! Everyone says shit like “this city is THE BEST!!!” at shows but for real, FOR REAL, he only said this in fucking Texas because of his fucking family!! He even kept calling Dallas Houston through the night!! (Where his family actually lives!!!!!) Which like, you’re right, King!! I wish we’d been in Houston, too!!!!!!!!!! LMAO


Well, if you’ve scrolled this far, here it is. I was too shy to have this out in the open, which is why it’s hidden deep in this scroll box. But if you want to hear Kihyun actually saying he wants to move to Texas and that he loves us, his darling Monbebe and me losing my fucking mind (the best I can make out is me yelling “SKDFJSLDJFSH TEXAS!!!!!”), here it is. This is a very precious momento for me. It’s nice to know, somehow, to even my favorite idol, this wretched state I love is a place worth living in.