this is a formal warning to prepare yourself for the length of this thread lol… i tried to keep it concise but theres a ridiculous amount to get through, nonetheless i hope you enjoy ♡

december 5th-7th, 2022: the trainees moved into the dorms and BP filming began with the star level test

bin performed beautiful beautiful and showed off his waacking/tutting skills, while zh performed kick it and showed off his violin skills… that was really all it took

as part of bin’s specialty he does a dance battle with one of the star masters; you can see zh getting up and standing up and cheering for bin, it was one of the only times he stood up while watching another performance

zh really enjoyed bin’s performance, noting the high level of his performance, and was baffled by him only getting three stars

bin’s performance was quite impactful, zh later said “i’m not good at remembering names, i only remembered shb’s name after the star level test”

when it’s zh’s turn to show his specialty he takes out his violin and bin immediately says to himself how cool it is

bin later spoke about how while watching zh play violin he thought “he was so cool. when zh hyung played violin, i was like woah... is this an audition program or orchestra?”

(note)

later when asked in an interview what song they’d want to sing for their initial test if they could go back to the first episode of the program, bnb picked each other’s songs!

later rk describes bnb’s relationship as “love at first sight”, i think this is especially cute since rk was the one sitting next to zh during the star level test

(zh and bin also agreed that that it was love at first sight)

a fan later asked matthew when bnb got close: he immediately says star level test before correcting himself to say it was during the theme song

^my personal theory for why he initially said they got close during the star level test (aka before they even met lol) is that right off the bat bnb were already besotted with eo and mt had to listen to bin talk his ear off about the very handsome, cute, and talented violinist~

while the boys are still being taught here i am by the mentors, bin was surprised over zh’s vocals and his confidence in singing and talks about it in the interview room

^here we start to see how bnb view each other as very formidable rivals, and how that will eventually evolve into them motivating themselves and each other to be better

while bin performs here i am in front of the judges, zh is enthralled by his performance (he really stands up all the time for him, which isn’t something i really see him doing for the other trainees?)

the boys are asked to pick a trainee from the other group as a visual to represent them, bnb pick each other

when bin was picking visuals there were so many g-group trainees but in his mind “there was no one besides zh”, he thought he was the most handsome

after the boys had selected their picks, bnb met for the first time 🥺they were standing around next to each other being a bit awkward and shy when zh cutely told bin “i picked you as visual…” and bin shyly responded "i picked zh-nim..."

bin later says: ☘️: i felt it when we first spoke, it was like looking in a mirror he also said that from then on they got close, and got even closer during the signal song

it’s a special memory for them, when asked “if your memory were erased, what would you be most afraid of forgetting about BP” bin responded he would be very sad and specifically brought up the visual pick conversation as a precious memory

later bin is picked as one of the k-visuals, while filming the behind bin talks about how “g-group friends” went up to him to tell him they picked him as visual, which we know was what zh did

and now the signal song mission aka here i am~ what really changed it all. both bnb were picked as the centers in their groups and got to practice and film together

on one of their first bus rides together there was a dolphin on top of the bus. zh didn’t know the korean word for dolphin so bin taught it to him and zh taught bin how to say it in chinese

bin really treasured these moments when he could help zh with korean, saying “when zh-hyung didn’t know much about korean, and i was able to help him by teaching him. that made me happy”, it’s something he’s spoken about multiple times

this conversation marked something so monumental to them that bin saved zh’s name on his phone with a dolphin to commemorate it, saving his contact as “jjanghao🐬”

even over a full year later bin does a live where he talks about how he saved the members on his phone and he still brings up the 🐬 in zh’s name

when bringing up the anecdote about having zh saved with a “🐬” bin asks zh “should you tell them (the reason) or should i?” which again really shows how this moment is so special to them that it’s fully established in their minds

early on bnb dropped honorifics with each other, zh later says “(bin) spoke to me informally since the start” so i would say this happened around here