The Snow Queen

“ to be entirely fair, ” yoojin starts, holding up her finger. “ yuju probably wouldn’t even notice if i snuck in late at night. she’d be asleep anyway. or with sehoon. ” she points out – although, honestly, yoojin’s not entirely sure of how true that is. she knows yuju worries, probably too much and far more than yoojin wishes she did. if yoojin could control it, no one would worry about them – she didn’t need to take up any room in other people’s minds. but yuju had been worried, yoojin knew – she probably wouldn’t be so worried that yoojin was with seola. after all, she was their leader and friend, yoojin knew that there would at least be the comfort of knowing yoojin was with someone they knew, and someone yuju could contact if she were too worried. 

but still. yoojin would like to think that, for one night, yuju wouldn’t be worried about yoojin’s general state of being. that was probably too hopeful of her, however.

“ do i ever ? ” yoojin asks idly, leaning onto the table and propping her head up with one hand. she does, usually, but still. yoojin works too hard for her own damn good, and far too much for what she gets in return in her opinion. she doesn’t know why she continues. “ i guess there is that … ” yoojin comments. although, yoojin’s not sure that she has been trying her best. 

yoojin thinks for a moment before settling on, “ too much. ” she says, quietly. she doesn’t exactly know how to describe it, because quite honestly she’s not sure she feels anything. but that nothing is ridiculously overbearing. “ there are too many expectations. for me. for us. plus, there’s way too much going on – always something going on … between 7ROPHY and other stuff … ” she sighs and runs her hands back through her hair. “ it feels like i have way too much weight on my shoulders. i’m not sure why dimensions thinks i’m some indestructible music-making machine. never sleeps, never eats, never … i don’t know, ” she sighs out, shaking her head. “ i don’t know ! i don’t know … i guess i’m just … tired ? but like i can’t sleep. too much on my mind. ” she says, frowning. “ this company’s gonna put my in my grave. ” 

“I’ll only text Yuju when she asks then.” Seola nods. At some point, she owes it to Yuju as basic courtesy to let her know where her housemate is. Seola doubts Yoojin would do it herself, knowing that Yoojin doesn’t want to be a burden to anyone in any way. Despite Seola’s attempts to assure Yoojin that she will never be a burden, Seola is fully aware that it’s something that lingers at the back of the other girl’s mind. Deciding that she’s too exhausted to actually cook dinner, she slides her phone toward Yoojin while keeping the ingredients she brought out. “Choose what you want to eat, Yoojin. I decided I don’t want to do the dishes tonight, and as a guest, I’m not making you do them either.” 

There’s no way Seola’s letting Yoojin handle anything breakable... Not when she’s too tired to function, let alone take care of herself properly. They’re using disposables tonight if Seola has anything to say about it. 

“Nice to know you’re self-aware,” Seola mutters. She chuckles to let Yoojin know that this is all in good-natured concern for her well-being. Dimensions clearly has no idea how even distribution of work load works. There are some like Yoojin who are overworked beyond what is acceptable, while there are also people like Seola who are fighting to even be allowed to work. 

jaein begins to wonder when this whole family thing started within companies. who was the genius who thought that it was smart to advertise a company as something more than a business center? she means genius sarcastically but in a business point of view, it was a pretty smart move. unfortunately, there seemed to be people who actually bought into it. she hasn’t seen many herself, but she knows they exist. people who claim they’re dimensions stans and love all the groups in the company. 

she scoffs in agreement at seola’s statement before letting out another sigh. “what’s new? dimensions being incompetent definitely isn’t.” for a moment, she wonders if she’s in a position to be complaining about that. lucid’s been getting good promotions since their debut and technically she hasn’t had a single day to really rest up since last year. whether it was group promotions or solo promotions, she fell in the pool of busier idols. there must be people who find her annoying for whining about the company. “it’s okay,” she says with a shake of her head. “i have a cup of coffee somewhere in this studio instead because i don’t think i can do this without caffeine.”

As much as Seola gets along with some other members of Dimensions’ groups, she is fully aware that they are far from being one big happy family. Sure, she and Jaein may not be ripping each other’s hair out on sight, they aren’t exactly best friends either. They’re cool with each other, if anything. As much as the happy family image is something the fans would like to see, it only becomes believable if the artists themselves actually behave that way without cameras. If this were solely a 7ROPHY shoot, they can sell the hell out of that because all seven of them genuinely like each other. In this case, where some of them don’t even know other company group members exist? it’s not happening.

“Yeah, I am.” He nodded his head once, giving her a polite smile. Even though he wouldn’t exactly call Jihoon and Sehoon his friends, he could see what she was trying to do and he very much so appreciated the efforts she was taking to make sure that they weren’t being overheard by anyone that might by any possible chance be a fan of either one of theirs. Daisuke liked to think of Jihoon and Sehoon more so as his family members than friends. He thought too highly of them for them to just be his friends. He spent too much time with them for him to consider them to just be friends. They were his brothers, even if they weren’t extremely close, he couldn’t see them as anything other than family members. 

“How are you doing?” He asked politely as he settled down in the seat across from her, setting his food down on the table. Daisuke was pretty decent when it came to the beginnings of small talk. The ‘how are you’s’ and ‘what have you been up to’s’ were easy for him, it was when conversations take a different turn and became deeper that he began struggling to keep up. 

“Come, sit,” Seola says with a smile once Daisuke confirms who he is. She couldn’t very well expose him while they were out in a public space. Although he is a member of one of the most like boy groups, Seola still thinks Daisuke deserves his privacy. Heck, they all do. Besides, both Jihoon and Sehoon will have her head if anything bad happened to their group mate. “Oh, the girls and I have been busy.” Seola laughs as she shakes her head. “They wake up every morning and chose chaos, but what’s new?”

Oftentimes, because it’s easier and the chances of being caught by fans or the media are lessened, Jiah would invite people over to her apartment where they could either order food in or she would cook them a meal. But sometimes, just for the sake of changing things up and not falling into the sameness, she hung out. It was always her little monthly event, and she’s glad to share it with people she likes. “Can you talk about what kind of song this one is? I know you’ll probably have to repeat yourself a lot during promotions, but I’m always excited to hear from 7ROPHY,” Jiah asks as she looks up from the menu to give Seola a questioning look. She knows from experience that sometimes the songs do not please the performs much, but she could brush that off nowadays for the chance of standing on the stage.

“Oh please,” she says amusedly as she motions her hand as if telling Seola to stop. Jiah also missed singing and doing promotions for her solo activities. As much as she loves BEE as a group, they just had a comeback in March, while Jiah was still waiting for a chance of releasing another album since September of the previous year. She doesn’t voice her thoughts to Seola, and just smiles at the younger, “Why’s that? You don’t think your company will let you work on your solo activities as well? You’re a talented dancer and a great singer, too. They could be smart about this.”

Seola isn’t fond of talking about work when she’s supposed to be ignoring it, but since this is a chance to get at least one person hyped for their upcoming release, she goes for it anyway. Besides, Jiah asked very nicely anyway. “It’s inspired by old school hip-hop,” Seola says with a smile. “I guess it’s kind of like the music I heard while growing up in Canada, but still with the sound that 7ROPHY seems to favor at the moment.” Seola should probably consult with Yoojin and their team of songwriters on how to answer this question once promotions actually begin. But she likes to think this is a good answer as any. “I would let you listen to it, but I swore I wasn’t going to spoil it for anyone.” Seola chuckles and shrugs. 

Going out of their way with the intention of getting to know people is not something Sunghee is particularly interested in doing. They have a limited but satisfying circle of friends,  and if they somehow step out of it, there’s almost a certainty that something bad is going to come out of it. Or, at least, that they are going to be made to feel bad about themselves in some way. Which is why they also don’t bother socializing much with other idols in their company. Sure, they bump into each other every now and then, but that hardly ever leads to anything else and Sunghee is fine with that. While some people are like Jeonghwa and could befriend a rock, Sunghee is more the type to keep to themselves.

Being asked to treat Seola with some level of informality inevitably causes Sunghee to feel slightly uncomfortable. They know she’s just trying to be friendly, but they… are not friends, are they? Have barely exchanged a few words, even. But it would be rude for them not to respect her wishes, so Sunghee swallows it all down and nods. “Hm, no, I don’t think I have.” At her suggestion, Sunghee’s eyes widen. She’s joking, a part of their brain offers, and even that is not enough of a reassurance for Sunghee to fully relax. “I don’t think that would be appropriate for the photoshoot or… in general, really.” Sunghee hopes they don’t look too scandalized, but they are willing to bet their face is giving away very little. “We can… Just stand next to each other?”

Seola does her best not to make an impatient face as soon as she realizes this kid is one of those who are a bit stiff. Internally sighing, she manages an understanding smile. “Okay, clearly that joke fell flat.” Seola snorts more to herself and the photographer than to Sunghee. “No strangling me or anything crazy, then,” she says with a shrug. She doesn’t mean to intimidate Sunghee or make him feel bad. As much as Seola wants to enjoy this shoot as much as she can, she respects her co-star’s comfort levels, too. She likes to think she can get along with people easily, but some people are tougher to decipher. Especially those she has yet to meet before. 

Jiwon’s first response to awkwardness had always been to tackle it head first—it was rare that anything really would ever really change, at least not as far as she’d ever been concerned. More than often enough it had gotten her into trouble for lacking subtlety, for not speaking before talking, for being impolite and she didn’t mean to do any of these things, it just felt hard to dance around a topic the way she and Seola had for the longest time.

“I’m glad! I’ve really enjoyed Uh-Oh, you know? It’s good to hear you guys are reaping the fruits of your efforts.” She nodded, as if to emphasize her point. “I’m a big fan of 7rophy. I mean that genuinely.” Jiwon brushed a strand of hair out of her face. “You know being benched by management was never something I’ve held against any of you, right?”

Sure, she lacked tact and perhaps just dumping that statement on Seola wasn’t all fair. She didn’t expect much of an elaborate reply but that didn’t mean that everyone would automatically share her attitude. But at least that way she hoped that she’d been more than obvious about where she stood and, in a less outspoken manner, where she took issue with how things between the two of them were. “But I’ve been doing well, thank you! Practice is exhausting, but that’s no news to you, I’m sure. And for once I feel like I really like whatever fluffy, innocent song we’re putting out for our daydream concept so I think all in all I’m very pleased.” Jiwon tilted her head to the side. “And– oh, we’re up soon! Have you already decided what you’re going to have?” She, for one, hadn’t, having been far too fixated on butting head-first into the conversation.

This is a safe start, so Seola can work with this. “Oh, that was all Yoojin, really, but I’m glad you like it,” Seola says with a smile. She can’t help but be proud of Yoojin who was involved with the songwriting process. “Celebrity was also a good song, and it’s actually on my MelOn playlist. I would show it to you, but my phone’s in my locker.”  

Seola blinks at the information overload Jiwon spills on her. First of all, she was not psychologically prepared for all that. But then again, she always remembered Jiwon to be the type to say what she thought, so there’s that. Second of all, Seola is thankful that at least Jiwon is taking the first steps to clear the air between them... even if there’s no beef to begin with. It’s just way too muhc awkward silences and stuff. Honestly, before this, Seola had thought that it would take them being shipped off to a deserted island before they spoke again. But she supposes this is better. She just has to laugh at how it’s all happening at the Dimensions cafeteria of all places.

Short Hair

being together for so many years and basically breathing down each other’s neck on a constant left little to be hidden between them. while their dynamics changed a little when each of them moved out to regain some sense of privacy or space, the group in itself still remained close. group chat busting with life whenever they were apart and filled with laughter and memes it thus came as a surprise when seola failed to inform the others about the very interesting and astonishing fact that she had gone for a bold change this comeback.

or maybe she had and yuzu had read past it in her attempt to speedread through the notifications.

but then yoojin could have told her-

for which circumstance whatsoever it left her jaw floored as the beanie falls off her leader’s head. in the midst of holding out her hands to take some of the bags, she can only blink at the elder female. “woah… holy shit eonni y’look hot!”

Seola isn’t sure how she feels about the change. Although she thinks her newly cut hair looks good on her, half of her is concerned that no one else agrees. It’s a drastic change, to be honest, and Seola isn’t sure how she wants to deal with it. It’s been way too long since she cut her hair this short, and honestly, she hardly recognizes herself in the mirror. 

“Don’t drop those, Yuzu!” she reminds as she hands her group mate some of the bags. At the compliment, Seola makes sure to put down anything that could spill or break before turning back to Yuzu. 

Seola didn’t have any younger siblings, so she enjoyed getting to play with kids whenever she can. Then again, this is probably why she appreciates the leader role given to her. But children this young are probably a bit more than she can handle now that she’s older and more tired than she used to be. They’re playing a game of tag, and sadly she has to evade capture in the hands of one of the loudest and fastest five-year-olds she has ever met. 

@fmdyuzu

Seola had been the last one to get her hair done for a reason. Apparently, the managers wanted her to have a dramatic reveal to the rest of the members once she gets back to the studio for practice. After all, this was going to be a huge change. It’s the first time since her teenaged years that Seola had her hair cut by this much. She almost worries about how people will react, until she remembers most people barely remember who she is. To be honest, it’s the members’ reactions she’s most worried about.