mitochondria

“this is the place.” jiyoo nodded her head in conformation, this was the place. the only place she wanted to go to for the day. she turned to a rack near them, lifting up one of the stripped t-shirts, holding it close to her body. “i found it online, honestly, i did a bit of online shopping.” while she didn’t buy anything, it helped. “i wanted to narrow it down to one store, so i hope they have extra stock in the back.” jiyoo did intend to buy a fair amount of clothing and she refused to walk out unless she had at least five bags. 

“and i’m talking all the food you could want.” when it came to that, she wouldn’t spare any expense. 

“ah, okay.” joomi nodded her head in understanding. “i’ve never heard of this place before, but i hope i can find something that suits my tastes.” her fashion sense, while diverse, was still very specific and exactly tailored to fit her vibe and aura. it had taken her years to figure out what worked for her fashion wise, and now that she had, she tended to stick to her own lane. disregarding the times where dimensions had their own stylists give her clothes. “oh, that’d look good on you,” she commented on the shirt she held up to her body, nodding her head. “is it your size?” joomi began perusing through the clothes, trying to find something that she liked. “i’ll be holding you to that,” she chuckled.

setting: online exclusive photoshoot, september 2021 with:  @fmdjoomi

minah was having the absolute worst day. she didn’t care for fashion, it simply wasn’t a realm she was interested in. sure, she liked looking presentable, looking good, but she had never kept in mind with how that held up to the latest trends, she just did what worked for her. so when she had been tasked with styling another idol for a photoshoot, even if just for silly variety reasons, she felt out of her depth.

styling her ex… something truly only made matters worse.

it had been a long time since minah had last seen joomi and not felt a seething anger. perhaps that was unjustified, joomi wasn’t really her ex-girlfriend at all, they never actually got to that point. was it fair to be this upset still with someone who had never really been hers? but perhaps that was exactly why minah harbored so many hard feelings, because she had been so much more invested than joomi had been. 

either way, now she was stuck working together with joomi and if anything infuriated minah more than seeing the other girl, it was stumbling in front of her, not looking on top of her shit and with the task at hand, minah certainly wasn’t. “i’m working with calypso’s mimi as my model today, we’ll be doing a little photoshoot.” minah chose to avoid joomi’s eyes as much as possible, focussing on the camera keeping a close watch on them instead. the fact that they would be filmed throughout the entire thing only made it harder, far too many things going on for minah to keep up with. “as you can see, the concept we went with is sportswear.” finally she turned her head to look at joomi. “any thoughts you wanna share with our viewers? are you excited for the photoshoot.” minah surely wasn’t.

joomi had always had a penchant for fashion, even stemming from her young childhood. she presumed that a big chunk of that penchant arose from the fact that she was brought up and raised in a wealthy family; a family that didn’t hesitate to buy luxury items, especially clothing. her closet was flooded with clothing, so much so to the point that she had to use the closet in her spare bedroom. her shopping regime was the only thing that she allowed her father to financially support her for. and seeing as how prideful of a person she was, it was saying a lot that she would actually accept money in the first. 

so when the exclusive photoshoot opportunity arose, she was more than excited to get involved. that was right up her alley. 

what wasn’t up her alley, however, was working with someone she had been romantically involved with before. minah was another idol that joomi was all too familiar with. while the two of them had never made things exclusive, not even close, they were very intimate with one another and shared a lot of nights together. unfortunately, that all came to a screeching halt when feelings and emotions got involved. the last thing joomi wanted to do was hurt minah, but she hated the thought of trusting anyone romantically even more, so it had to be done. she felt guilty, of course, but what could she do? 

“so, first thing’s first.” jynx did a little spin and clapped her hands together. “i’m not really a shopper.” it was true, jiyoo wasn’t sure how she got her clothes. well, mostly, she they came from her step-mother and jynx was pretty good about taking care of them, maybe she had some spills here and there but it wasn’t nothing that couldn’t be washed out. “but, i cleaned out my closet. did some work and i need clothes.”

and she while she could get them from her step-mom, she wouldn’t ask. she always felt bad asking for things. “so, we’ll be doing some shopping but only at this store. i found it online and i liked the style, so let’s go for it.” it was called underbitlover and the fashion looked cute. “i’ll pay you in love and food and more love.”

while joomi would never really consider herself to be a fashionista so to speak, she liked to believe that she had a good eye for fashion and that she didn’t look like complete trash whenever she styled herself or got dressed in her everyday clothes. now what she could say was that despite not considering herself a fashionista, she did tend to buy designer and luxury brand things - all on her father’s tab, of course. she wouldn’t let him pay her bills, but she wasn’t going to turn down clothes. maybe she was a little bit of a fashionista after all? 

“ah, this store?” joomi looked at it, a frown on her face. not because she was upset, but because she was unfamiliar with the establishment. “never heard of it, but i guess i’d be up for giving it a shot.” it wasn’t like she had much of anything to do that day either, so spending that time perusing around a clothing shop wouldn’t be the worst way to spend her free time. “how much food are we talking?”

yena didn’t like being at military bases. perhaps it was her inherent distaste for male dominated spaces, maybe it was the enviroment created by the military mindset.  either way, there was always a certain amount of reluctance ahead of their military perfromances. it wasn’t even that yena was bothered by their largely male fanbase, it made sense, pretty girls dancing in sexy clothes, it was just the way it worked. it was the military setting specifically that had yena feeling overwhelmingly… meh.

not that it mattered. her complaints fell on deaf ears. for their group activities, their military performances were one of the only things that actually brought in money rather than cost dimensions even more. surely yena’s whining wouldn’t get her out of this one.

joomi’s presence, the older girl’s arms wrapped around her from behind, was what shook yena out of her thoughts, meeting her leader’s eyes in the mirror. “you know me, i’m always ready.” though as bold as the statement was, her smile didn’t quite convey the same message. “ah yes, another day of pandering to military men, truly the sole reason of my existence.” she deadpanned in response. letting out a deep sigh, she let her head fall against joomi’s shoulder, pouting up at her leader. “is this what we’re gonna be stuck doing for the rest of our days? military perfromances until the last of our mediocre relevancy fades out?”

there was a part of joomi that immediately felt jaded towards men,  maybe even some form of malice. for the most part, it was due to her past experiences with them, which had put her off of relationships for as long as she could remember. but also there were the moments like the ones they were currently in; having to perform in front of a bunch of men who acted like they hadn’t seen women before in their entire lives. she appreciated the support coming from their fans, but it could get downright sad at times. it was as if they couldn’t control themselves around women, which was especially sad to say because a lot of them were grown men, some of whom were probably old enough to be the maknae’s father. 

but her jaded thoughts towards men were always stopped in their tracks when she thought about her own father; literally the kindest, sweetest human being she’d ever encountered in her entire life. she knew that with seven billion people in the world, he couldn’t be the only decent man out there. she just hoped that at least some of those decent men were in their fandom. 

“you know we always have to go where the money is.. and these military bases pay good money to see us.” she wasn’t sure if she felt flattered by that or not. like yes, from all the girl groups they chose to spend money on, they chose calypso - she was grateful for that. but the reasoning behind it was what made her a little uneasy. although she always tried to brush those thoughts off to the side, instead focusing on how it was money out of their pockets and into the members of calypso’s. kind of. 

a lot of joomi’s friendships cultivated just solely based on proximity or coincidence. she had been in the industry for over ten years - it wasn’t surprising that some friendships had formed because of that. it was damn near impossible to see the same familiar faces several times a year over the course of several years without forming some kind of dynamic or bond. taejoo was one of those people. both of them having been in the industry for so many years, they had run into each other many times. those run-ins had eventually led up to conversations, each one growing deeper and deeper until she found herself knowing a lot about taejoo - including his not so great relationship with his mother - something that she could heavily relate to. 

another thing they could bond over was being the main vocalists of their respective groups. she enjoyed platinum’s music quite a bit, and found herself keeping up with most of their releases. not only out of respect for their friendship, but because she actually wanted to. she liked taejoo’s voice a lot, something she never shied away from telling him, which was exactly why she had called him up and asked if he wanted to perform a cover of a song with her. she was glad that he had found the time in his schedule to agree. 

it was a double edged sword; joomi was happy that calypso had some sort of fanbase. she was happy that there were some people who looked at calypso and found them entertaining and kept up with their music. however, it was a little telling that the majority of their fanbase consisted of teenage boys with overactive hormones and grown men, many of whom were in the military. that alone was enough to give everyone else an opportunity and reason to fire shots at calypso - saying how they were a group who relied on their looks and selling sex to get by. how they were a disgrace to women. she’d heard it all before, or read would be a more accurate word, and luckily it had never really bothered her too much. 

she always tried to check in with her members though and make sure they were alright. that things weren’t getting too intense for them or that they weren’t going through a phase where the negative comments go to them. she herself felt those thoughts hit the most when they were about to do performances like the one they were currently giving - to a crowd of military men on a base somewhere far away from the city. 

introducing mimi., the leader, main vocal and rapper of calypso...