Red Velvet’s Irene And NCT’s Taeil Show Support For Each Other With This Simple Gesture

For the “oldest members” of all K-Pop groups, especially in Korean culture where age plays an important part in social roles, their responsibilities include making sure the younger teammates are doing okay and keeping everyone together by serving as the pillar and the glue. This goes the same for Red Velvet‘s Irene and NCT‘s Taeil who are both the oldest members of their respective groups.

And perhaps like being the oldest sibling in a big family isn’t always too fun, being the oldest member can also come with a different kind of stress and burden. Irene and Taeil are both well aware of this…

… and so when they ran into each other on stage at the recent Soribada Awards…

… they couldn’t help but show some strong, sincere support for each other! Taeil saw Irene first and gave her a thumb’s up for having been an awesome sister to her group members…

… and when Irene saw him, she flashed him a big thumb’s up too – for doing the same for his!

And in this brief but reassuring (and dramatically visual) moment, fans realized that Irene and Taeil are still good friends / agency-mates and are always rooting for each other! Both groups have come so far since their debuts and fans are forever grateful to these two “unni” and “hyung” members for being the rocks for their teammates.

Watch their full interaction here: