The third post of the series ‘Memory Lane: Got7’ is dedicated to our Sunshine, our Baby Otter and father of Coco (Got7’s 8th unofficial member): Youngjae!
Choi Youngjae (최 영재) was born in South Korea the 17th of September, 1996. Known by the ahgase fandom as sunshine, genius and otter, Youngjae has been gracing us with his magical and therapeutic voice for 22 years (and counting).
Born in a loving family, Youngjae spent his childhood surrounded by the unconditional love of his parents, older brother and older sister. Later on, his family would grow with the birth of his nephew and niece, making our baby otter one of the coolest uncles in the entire world (I mean, he gave the kids free card to get as many toys as they wanted, so… sunshine is cool 😎).
Even though we don’t have that many details about his pre-debut life, I think Youngjae was a really shy and kind kid. He was known for being a serious and hardworking person when it came to school, so it’s no surprise that the rest of the group acknowledges him as an honor student.
Fun little story: Youngjae confessed that one day when he was young, on his way back home he was happily eating a hot dog, when he suddenly started to notice that he was being followed by a man. When he arrived home, said man grabbed his arm an took his hot dog while asking him to give him the rest of his money. Luckily, Youngjae‘s mom came out and the man run away. He didn’t steal baby otter’s money, but he did run away with his hot dog (I’m sure the situation was scary at that time, but I find it really funny 😂).
Since a really young age, Youngjae loved singing. Even before wanting to be an idol, Sunshine wanted to become a music therapist. This means that he really cares about other people and what they are feeling. I feel that, in a way, he really did become a music therapist. There’s something special and magical about his voice that instantly makes you feel overwhelmed with emotions. He has that incredible ability to make us feel so many things in just a few minutes.
Before he entered JYP Entertainment and began training, one of the things he loved to do the most in this world was singing with his brother. He was the one who motivated him to debut as a singer (thank you Youngjae’s brother!).
One of the things we know is that he had a lot of part-time jobs, because at the time his parents didn’t really support his dream. Among the jobs he has done, our baby otter has worked flyering, at a billiard place and serving.
In the summer of 2013, after passing an audition at his music school, he entered JYP Entertainment and began training to become an idol. He only trained for 7 months before joining the final lineup of Got7 and debuting, making him the member with shortest training period in the group.
Our Sunshine has expressed in many occasions that he used to feel really anxious about debuting. The reason is because, even though he was older than Bambam and Yugy, he had less training experience. He confessed that because of this he would stay behind training after lessons ended, so he could catch up with the rest of the members.
Finally, the 14th of January 2014, Baby Otter debuted along the rest of the members of Got7 with the song ‘Girls Girls Girls’ (Btw, I don’t know about you baby birds, but it took me a while to spot JYP PDnim cameo in the MV).
This was officially the start of his dream as an idol. A dream we, ahgases, have been living with him for the past 5 years.
According to the members, Youngjae is the one who has changed the most throughout the years. He went from being a small and shy fluffball, to a handsome and extremely talented man. He keeps making our hearts beat with his amazing singing skills. There’s truly no one like him in the entire world, and I’m so happy he got to debut with Got7.
He has a gold heart, and loves everyone. He even bought presents for every Got7 moms’ members one time they went to LA (if this doesn’t make your heart flutter, then I don’t know what it does 🥰).
In this 5 years he has achieved many things. He became the dad of Coco (along with Markie-Pooh), opened his SoundCloud account “ARS” where he posts his personally composed and written songs, sang many OST, went on a World Tour, composed and wrote many songs for Got7’s albums (‘Nobody Knows’ gives me all the chills), etc.
I hope ahgases give tons and tons of love to Youngjae. It really saddens me to know that he is the most underrated member, he deserves to shine brightly just like the rest of Got7. I wish people can see Youngjae with ahgases’ eyes and realize how special he is.
I really hope you enjoy this post baby birds. And I promise to upload Jinyoung’s post next Friday. I love you ahgases! 💕💚💕💚💕
NCTsmtown_127: Because I saw Czennies today, I got warm ☀️ Please look forward to Mark Core (t/n: wordplay with Mark and Music Core) today as well~ -Youngho (1, 2)
Translation: Myeon @ FY! NCT (NCTINFO) | Source: NCT 127 Official Twitter — Please take out with full credits