actually not to splat my thoughts out on the tl at this ridiculous hour but I've been thinking about this lately and came to the realization that it actually took a ridiculous amount of luck and coincidences for zxyn to come together throughout the show as they did (thread??)

they met at the hotels pre-dachang right, where their hotel rooms were opposite each other (coincidence 1) and hhyl was scheduled to perform right after team hunter (coincidence 2), so they got put into the same practice room (coincidence 2.5??)

and there was the elevator incidence too which is where they first properly met (let's just call that coincidence 1.5). then came the actual show and lgy (tho he should have been A), was put into B which meant he didn't have the rights to pick for position evals (coincidence 3)

then the weird sequence of events had to happen where out of random picking dxx needed to not only be NOT the first to pick, but he also needed to have not used his refusal rights at that point which hinged on lgy ALSO getting picked by somebody beforehand (coincidence 4, 5, 6)

then given the choice of rank in the 90s dxx and rank in the top 9s lj, lgy STILL somehow made the choice of going to dxx which many ppl viewed as the wrong choice beforehand considering lj is,,, u know,, lj,,,

lgy picking xbm with dxx is literally the true beginning of their entire friendship and lgy also implies when picking xbm that he admires dxx to some degree which affected his choice, which directly ties into them having met pre-show (see: coincidence 1, 2)

if lgy hadn't picked xbm with there would have been some sense of betrayal lingered (they made a promise with that first gaze!!) and they probably wouldn't have gotten so close no matter what came next. lgy picking xbm and hence dxx was also his saving grace later (coincidence 7)

anyways they did xbm and got close, but dxx also needed to get 0 votes for them to play the lgy narration which talked about how dxx was a good leader and took really good care of them and what not which was one of the main starting sparks of their cp??? (coincidence 8)

there was also being both picked for youth gym which was the other greatest start of their cp (9) and skipping to theme song this season also needed to use the ridiculous cp system (10) which created the balcony scene which they didn't even know would be filmed (11)

skipping again to 2gong dxx's ranking at still at 18 at this point which is where another ridiculous sequence of complete luck happens: nobody picks stand before dxx, dxx doesn't getting picked by stop sugar, dxx chooses to go to stand, lgy chooses to go to stand with dxx (12-16)

and i would argue that stand a was where both of them really busted into the forefront and became competitors for debut seats, AND the cold war edit was basically crucial for their cp becoming pretty much the 2nd biggest cp of the show (would argue this is coincidence 17)

then the show also needed to use the audience pick vs system for 2.5 (18) and bc they fought for a completely separate reason before dxx extended and olive branch which lead to them picking cinderella AND the "I'll let lgy pick first" edit (19, 20)

then during 2 elims they needed to be kind enough to give lgy the "wait for me" line in subtitles which would normally be written off (21). then 3gong i think them not being in the same group is actually another big coincidence since both of them needed to do well separately (22)

adding on them not being in the same group for 3gong was actually also crucial as it cemented the fact that they were friends even when they weren't in the same group via them walking together everywhere???? the more i say the more ridiculous this gets

and i won't count these are proper coincidences but their song choices for 3gong were also coincidentally the best possible choices for them with dxx's iconic sha ni perf and lgy really getting to come into himself and proving his vocals via domesticator

then taking into consideration the eliminated spots we were left with domesticator having to join different groups for the fanmeeting songs and lgy chose to go to sha ni (23) which lead to the crazy amount of interactions we got during the fanmeeting

also i assumed they talked about it beforehand but also them both picking zip for finals (with the slight assumption that there was some degree of blindness) is another,, big coincidence (24)??

and there's probably more i can't remember off the top of my head it's 2 in the morning and I'm really tired but just reading this is so ridiculous like the amount of perfectly aligned stars this must have took for this to end up exactly the way it did,,, they really are fated