▍ diversity
my favorite thing about involving all of them is the room for representation. they all have different body types, upbringings, mentalities, etc. people tend to have a single definition of what it means to be chubby, but that’s not the case at all and the boys embody those differences. everyone has bouts of insecurity (as anyone does), but the roots are different as is their development. where hyunjin might fluctuate with a flimsy grasp on confidence, changbin is strong in mind, body, and self-image. it’s all a matter of what plot lines i choose to focus on—but across the board their identities are the same.▍ dynamics
their relationships with one another are also unique to what we know! while some might have relationships with each other, some have friendships that are equally as meaningful. the first among them was chanlix—childhood friends growing up chubby together, but chan loses the weight where felix has only ever existed in a bigger body. it creates a much more interesting story than simply saying “oh no! angst!” they’re human, there’s real feelings there that i know well enough to trust my instincts. it’s also a blast to throw in twists whenever i’m daydreaming.

▍ the first
the first, believe or not, was lixie. he was special to me then (still is in a lot of ways) and it began as a way for me to project the love i hoped to receive. i wrote serial one shots, glimpses, into different stories i needed to hear. because, really, there’s no demographic for this and it’s part of the reason i don’t publicize it. people twist it into fetish content or an attack on the kids, but it was never like that with lix and it’s not like that now. lixie was the first step into a bigger narrative that encompasses a lot of experiences shared among bigger bodied people. it’s love, it’s hardship, it’s insecurity, it’s confidence, and above all it’s about being seen.▍ the rest
the rest of them came much later with varying storylines. i made a few close friends (hi!) that understood me and let me share my little thoughts. they asked about chan and jeongin and hyunjin and so on. i realized there was so much more i could do. relationships and friendships among them, different struggles that didn’t have to be exclusive to lix anymore. the thing is: i could never settle on one singular all-encompassing plot to make anything like a cohesive narrative. there was too much potential, which is why it continues to build and branch off of itself. reactions may direct my train of thought, but it always starts with my own experiences

welcome to the kitchen !

let me paint you a picture

CHANNIE .
dad bod!!! definitely the kind of guy to still have a lot of muscle regardless. he’s got the round tummy and soft face, but he’s still so strong. he has the biggest appetite of them, but he stays pretty stable. definition of “meant to be this way.” my favorite way to picture him is fresh out of bed in the morning: fluffy curls, swollen cheeks, no shirt and no shame—also he has stretch marks on his arms because that’s hot.LINO .
he’s stacked and soft. unlike chan, his muscles have a lot less definition purely because he’s more indulgent. he’s strong, though, with rounded edges. his waist doesn’t taper and his thighs are thick—lots of stretch marks there. his face is round and his hands are a little chubby. he has that whole “sleeper build” phenomenon. my favorite way to picture him is in the kitchen, cooking for himself, with his tummy up against the counter.BINNIE .
bro is the closest thing we have irl and i love him for it. he honestly looks pretty similar to the way he does now, maybe a little bigger around the middle but the same structure. he’s the one who grew up comfortable with himself, so he’s a lot more settled into his figure. holiday weight champion. he’s just big, subtle definition, and puffy hands. he’s pretty much always in his underwear in my head… don’t ask.HYUNE .
curvy. you heard me. he fluctuates up and down a lot, the most out of all of them. he has faded stretch marks and loose skin, squishy arms and wider hips. he’s prone to softening all over and his lips actually get bigger when he gains weight? go figure. he’s prone to creases and rolls, too, and his skin has a really soft give to it. i love thinking of him laying down, shirt pushed up to his chest with his tummy out like he’s waiting for attention.

SUNGIE .
he’s not the biggest, but he’s very squishy. there’s no real cut or sharpness to his body, it’s all gentle curves. rounded shoulders, soft chest, a tummy that could reasonably fit into the palm of a large hand. he has a small waist, but his hips and thighs carry a lot of the weight. he jokes about having the best ass (he does) and his face is impossibly round. my favorite thought is of him getting tattoos to make him feel more confident about his biggest insecurities.LIXIE .
oh my big love. here’s the thing—lixie has three tiers: from chubby, even chubbier, and (my personal favorite) teddy bear. he’s the biggest of them all, at least sometimes. freckles on soft skin and the roundest face you’ve ever seen. his cheeks are my favorite, really chubby hands with dimpled knuckles. it’s the details that matter most with him, signs that he’s lived in this body or a long time. my favorite image is of him baking, apron tied tight enough to squeeze.MINNIE .
he’s consistently the smallest, albeit the weakest. he’s skinny fat—no definition and not a firm spot on his body. he’s prone to bloating, though, and his body swells easily. his chest and tummy have some give. his thighs spread when he sits and his skin is pinched in almost all of his clothing that’s “his size.” i like thinking of him in a tight pair of shorts, we get the barest hint of love handles.INNIE .
round. that’s the best way to describe him, tummy is round and most of his weight goes there and to his face. he has a sweet set of cheeks, too, and a double chin (which may be my favorite part of him). he’s got soft arms, but they’re strong and he’s so warm. he has a few stretch marks on his navel, his thighs. i love to picture him red faced after a kiss, pink lips framed by heavy cheeks and a little breathless.

their history, intertwined sewn together

▍CHANNIE
chan grew up a chubby kid. best friends with lix in elementary school and middle school, until the bullying started. not wanting his life to be hell, he concentrated all of his effort in high school to keep the weight off. during this time, he and lix lost contact and weren’t close anymore. he went through college without any “set backs.” then, he gets a girl pregnant—throughout the pregnancy he gains sympathy/stress weight and yeah dad bods are hot, but those juvenile insecurities flood back. all he wants is his childhood best friend back too.

▍LINO
lino grew up average, so average he never worried about food, weight, or anything of the like. that was until his college relationship got serious. she was toxic (abusive, his friends said later). he woke up every morning nauseous with anxiety and ate scraps because he couldn’t stomach anything. post-breakup, he spirals into drinking and his body is hungry like it’s making up for lost time. he gains a lot of weight, fast, and he’d feel ashamed if he could will himself to feel anything. then, as if welcomed by an angel, he moves in with someone new.

▍BINNIE
he’s supportive, ask anyone. he grew up well, balanced and unaffected by insecurity or overthinking his body or what he put in it. he does things for the simplicity of them making him happy. does it sting when he’s picked last? sure. does he hate that, no matter how good he feels, it’s never good enough? absolutely, but he can’t unpack that right now. his friends need him—but sometimes they see right through him.

▍HYUNE
he really loved to dance once, but kids are cruel and he was a pudgy preteen and that killed any passion he had for it. his burden is constant weight fluctuation—shifting through sizes every season of every year like clockwork. it’s hard, but he’s happy. he tried his best to ignore the changes as they happen. then he hits his biggest and it feels like a swift kick to the chest, but it’s okay. he’s okay. everything will be okay, jeongin plans to make sure of it.

▍SUNGIE
by the time he was thirteen, jisung was on the dark side of tumblr and twitter. it affected him—more than he ever let on, but he had to recover by himself. he did, he’s stubborn like that, but not without a lot of effort. he still has the marks that show for it, the signs of his habits, the occasional binge-restrict cycles. he’s soft all over and he drowns it in oversized clothes so he doesn’t overthink it. until minho, no one really saw what was underneath.

▍LIXIE
he grew up in a house that never ran out of food, with parents that spoiled him and loved him so much it showed plain as day on his figure. sure, the bullying was a lot for a while. he trusted time would give him the friendships, the love he needed. he missed chan when they grew apart, more than anything. he’d stare for hours at hold photos and think of what he did wrong. he prayed for the day chan would walk back into his life. God answered.

▍MINNIE
seungmin’s parents made him eat all of his dinner before he was allowed dessert. that pissed him off. he grew up with that resentment heavy in his chest. he doesn’t finish a plate, ever, out of spite but he’ll make up for it with sugar. he’s never been subjected to criticism from others, only himself and his parents and maybe that’s why he can’t have a normal meal. he’s picky, unless his friends are craving something—he can make an exception for them.

▍INNIE
honest to God, he didn’t think the freshman fifteen was real. it ended up being a lot more than fifteen and, after a lifetime of lanky limbs and a narrow frame, he doesn’t quite recognize himself. so he hides his round face behind a mask and his tummy with bigger sweaters in hopes of not drawing attention to it. he’s shy about it, insecure to a fault and it stunts his social life. that’s what caught hyunjin’s attention along with those twinkly eyes.

the fat friend group we all need

one of my favorite things is to imagine them all big together. it’s a comfort thing, i guess, after growing up surrounded by thin people.imagine the comfort and care they would have for one another. the takeout family dinners, shopping together, and the meaningful conversations. they understand each other. they’d live together, maybe in apartments side by side or something like that. they’d grow more and more familiar with habits and routines. it’s lovely to think of and there’s so much potential for different slice-of-life headcanons.

▍CANON EVENTS !they play a drinking game to get to know each other better and some things come out that are a little deep. that vulnerability bonds them together, secrets traded and passed with bottles of wine. if they start to be a little codependent, no one complains.all of them are introduced to channie’s kid. she receives so much love and attention whenever she comes around. when she comes on weekends, they have pizza fridays, sweet treat saturdays, and brunches on sundays. she may or may not like felix the most; he gives the best bear hugs.they have little holiday parties. on halloween, they all dress up and eat bags of halloween candy and watch movies all night. they make thanksgiving dinner together and nap in the living room. on christmas, felix and lino make them a big breakfast and they do little gift exchanges.sometimes they just need the touch of another. so they’ll feel each other, sleep together, and kisses might be shared. it’s all from the same place of pure love—something they hadn’t found until each other.

tune into their world

my fav fics