evil has invaded my heart so now i’m just vibing and thinking of what circumstances would bring notorious attention hater eun jiho to partake, nay, lead something like a host club. i think my best bet lies in tamaki’s very real divide between loving someone as a person (a “man” in his case) and performing the duties of a host -- he’s striving to make these women happy, going out of his way to do so, in fact, but he’s not really doing it as, like, himself (note that when he does bring himself or the club into the equation it’s often in supporting roles to the pursuit of someone else’s romantic/affective ambition). he’s not their friend, much less their lover. he’s a host, he’s playing a role. here the performance necessarily rescinds any (or most, depending) of the vulnerability that comes with exchanges like these, which in their natural (as in not artificial) form are meant to be taken seriously.
it provides, in many ways, a shield. it’s how, for example, hikaru and kaoru can put on that brothers’ love act of theirs and the under layers of truth in it--which performances need in order to ring, well, true to its audience--don’t threaten their inner, private dynamic, even as haruhi’s involvement is upsetting the pre-set balance of their relationship. and, beyond that, it also provides distance. there’s an audience to which you are performing, they are the ones consuming it, it technically exists for their benefit. in traditional settings, the performers and the audience are divided by the physical form of the stage, even if these boundaries are pushed nowadays to make a point. within the system of hosting, the boundary is not physical but it doesn’t mean it isn’t present and constantly being pressed upon.
now, thinking about jiho and the boys (and even ban yeoryung, who in this context would probably serve as haruhi), it doesn’t seem wildly out of the question that these aspects of the system would be seen as benefits. i still don’t think they’d be inclined towards it (rather isolation seems the knee-jerk reaction) but i could see it. and (the performing of) hosting also introduces something else, which in jiho’s case would perhaps make the most difference: control. they are all already constantly scrutinized and objectified. peoples’ fantasies can and will run wild, often in worrying directions, and if they’re not something you can do away with or hide from, wouldn’t the second best option be to control the way they go? turn them malleable in your hands, curbing the want of possession, putting a stop to the personal and turning it into commercial, offering a service, establishing end hours of this performance of my life that you insist on me reliving. so that i can go home and be myself there. so there’s an end to this thing. if you want a show, i’ll give it to you. but there’ll always be a curtain closing.
in that sense, i don’t think it’s too outlandish a notion.
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