rise up!

how do you choose who you spend your time with?

“easy, i spend time with everyone!” yinuo can’t for the life of her think of anyone that she's ever gone out of her way to avoid. sure, she doesn't necessarily like everyone, but there's something important to be learned from all types of people, even the ones she doesn't vibe with. growing up behind a bar certainly has made her more open minded about certain personalities. "i'm still learning korean, right? so i need to practice with anyone who's willing! and it's good to talk to a lot of different people, because there's a lot of different accents, and everyone uses different slang. i'm learning a lot!"

who is the most important person in your life?

she has to pause and think. her parents are the first people to come to mind, but she hasn't seen them in almost a year now. can they really be that important in her life if they're not even present in it? she could answer her friends too, but she can't understand half of them half of the time. and now that she's thinking about it... do any of those friendships go any deeper than surface level? she doesn't know if she'd tell any of her secrets to any of them, even if she had the words for it. "i don't know," she answers simply, trying not to let the smile fall from her face.

if you were in desperate need, who would you turn to?

again, another difficult question. but at least she has some sort of answer for this one: "my parents," she can smile brightly again. "i know they're not here right now, they're still back home, but if i really needed something i'm sure they'd be on the first flight here." she, very briefly, thinks about faking an emergency just to see her mom and dad again. she'd love to give them a big hug. it's been far too long. "and they know i'd do the same too. they don't tell me anything that goes on because they know i'll come right back home to try to help them."

have you ever lost anyone important to you?

"i left behind a lot of friends when i moved to south korea, to be honest," she doesn't know if that counts. they're not really lost, they've just... lost contact. "i guess i could reach out, but we've all gone down such different paths. we stopped talking because we don't really know what to talk about anymore. now that we don't all have school in common... i guess our friendship wasn't really that deep." a frown does cross her face now, if only briefly. "i guess i'm not very good at making deep friends. i always felt like i had a lot of friends, but i guess we weren't actually very close."

have you ever felt truly loved by someone else?

"my dad is amazing," she answers immediately, face lighting up joyfully. "my name means 'promise', right? he told me that he made me a promise when i was born that i would be the most important thing in his life. that's really amazing, isn't it? and i think he kept it. he sort of raised me like a son. i remember one of my friends in elementary school, her mom was scolding me for playing rough with the boys. but my dad was the one who taught me how to play like that, he was always teaching me his favorite things. as i've gotten older, i really appreciate that more."

what’s your idea of romance?

yinuo almost swoons in her seat, her gaze going far away and dreamy. what sort of girl doesn't like to dream about her perfect fairytale romance? "red roses and chocolates and always making each other laugh and..." she could go on and on and on, but she lacks the vocabulary in korean to go into detail about her perfect romance. "you know in dramas, when the lead flips his life upside down for a girl he suddenly fell in love with? that's romance. and when he defends her even to his family, and when he gives her his coat so she won't catch cold... i love love."

how do you show someone you care about them?

lgcjiyeon​:

“don’t worry! i can tell you are– it’s just easy to lose it once you’re in front of the actual team.”

she’s glad that the other girl seems nice, jiyeon despised dealing with stuck up model and especially ones that thought they were above whatever shoot they were at. “mm, usually the director has a vision and will guide your poses– at least in my bit of experience, but you can always just move into new ones after they get their shot because sometimes on the off chance, you’ll do something they didn’t think of and like.” she points out to whoever is currently up under the lights. “see they do whatever is told to them and then after a few clicks, they’ll try something slightly different. looking over  the shoulder or tilting your head always works!”

she notices the girl beside her fidgeting but doesn’t point it out, she’d been in the same spot just weeks ago.

“yinuo?” she tests it out on her tongue, eyes flickering up to check if she’s said it right before smiling and shrugging. “we can be! i turned 23 just recently so i’m in the same boat–”

she smooths out the pleats in her skirt. “i haven’t been in a uniform in so long and they were never as cute as this… i’m kind of relieved we were scheduled for this so we could wear them one last time without it being weird?” there was still the trend of renting uniforms for lotte world but that was more something she’d heard of through other trainees- never having been able to experience it herself. 

“are you excited for the show?”

yinuo has never had trouble making friends, but she’s still glad to have found jiyeon here. the older girl is nice enough, friendly and seemingly happy to give advice (even if yinuo just nods and smiles and pretends she understands more than half of it). she takes the cue to study the models currently on set, watching them as they hold their poses, shifting their expressions and bodies ever so slightly every couple of clicks. right, she can do that. she wishes she could immediately see the results like she would with her own phone camera, but at least she knows the basics of her own best angles and poses.

“like this?” yinuo, shameless as she is, immediately turns away from jiyeon, turns back to her over her shoulder, and tilts her head with a brilliant smile. it’s completely unnecessary and yet she has the time of her life testing out poses before going in front of the camera. jiyeon seems like she’ll give her an honest review too (though yinuo is absolutely certain that she’s simply stunning; her confidence is based on absolutely nothing).

she relaxes back into casual posture and returns to shifting her weight from hip to hip. the anxious energy hasn’t left. she just lets it flow through her; it doesn’t really matter until she’s in front of the cameras anyways, she thinks.

“i was such a bad student,” she reminisces, staring off into the distance as she brings up memories from her high school days. “our uniforms weren’t this cute either, but i tried to make them cuter. i was always getting in trouble for rolling up my skirt to make it shorter. all sorts of dress code... what’s the word in korean? when you don’t do it right. i got in trouble a lot.” she knows the word violation in her native tongue, but she'd rather know how to say it properly in korean. “i don’t feel like i want to change this, though. i already look cute.” the girl grins brightly.

lgcjiyeon​:

the whole shoot reminds jiyeon of cafeterias and after-school clubs, the metallic tang of her locker that she’d talk to her friends at, tired nights spent studying. it’d been a handful of years since she graduated but she was lucky enough to still pass for a somewhat fresh graduate. which she assumes is why she finds herself modelling for a school uniform line. it was probably also their tactic to get slightly older models to push the cool factor, students didn’t want to see acne-ridden people their age– they wanted to buy into the fashion and illusion of popularity.

her high school back home did have a dress code with uniforms but they were never this stylish. sure, she’d made sure to alter to her own taste without getting in trouble but it was nothing like the uniforms in korea. she loved how cute they made her feel.

it was kind of sad how nostalgic it made her feel. she didn’t miss homework or tests or anything but she had loved the social aspect of school. she knew almost all the students of her year and a huge chunk of the students in the upper and lower grades– it was where she had thrived.

jiyeon zones back in when she hears the voice of the girl beside her. “mm, it is!” she looks over, it’s not someone she recognizes– slightly younger than her and not a familiar face in her dorm building. she’s cute though, and seems nice from how she’s holding herself.

“a bit! i’m still bit of a newbie around here but what i do know is just be confident even if you don’t feel so– the cameras pick up that kind of thing in your body language.” she chuckles and turns to fully look at the other girl, “i would know unfortunately, but most of the times the shoot directors will guide you, they’re pretty helpful!”

she chances another look over at the management team to make sure it wasn’t her time. “i’m still nervous, you’re not alone.” she offers her hand out, “it’s easier when you have friends around you though– my name is song jiyeon, what’s yours?”

“i’m confident!” yinuo insists, and she doesn’t have to lie about it. she knows that she’s pretty. she knows that the outfit she’s wearing has been pinned and hemmed to perfection, using the model’s shape to make the garment look as appealing as possible. if she had insecurity about anything, it’d be that she’s a little bit on the shorter side. but she’s eye to eye with the girl she’s talking to, so obviously that’s not an end all be all when it comes to modeling in a photoshoot.

she shifts her weight from one leg to another, swaying in place just so she has some way to get some of this nervous energy out. she feels like she could still run a marathon and not be tired. “what about poses? will they tell me what they want to see or am i supposed to know what looks good?” she really wants to do well with this shoot. there’s always the hope that one good gig will lead to another, and then another, and then suddenly she’s famous. yinuo is under no delusions that one school uniform shoot will kickstart her entire career, but everyone starts somewhere. at the very least, she wants her future portfolio to look good.

“zhao yinuo,” she shakes the other girl’s hand when it’s offered, ducking her head in a slight bow when she remembers she should be more respectful and less casual with her seniors. “are we friends? how old are you?” she wants to make sure she minds her manners, even if she realizes it a bit belatedly. “i’m already a little old for a uniform... i’m twenty.”

@lgcjiyeon

“oh, cute!” yinuo can’t help the giddy little exclamation from escaping before it’s already out in the world. not that she’s ever been the type of person to quiet herself, but she knows she’s probably expected to hold herself to some level of professionalism and responsibility. neither have been her strong suit historically. but she really just couldn’t stop herself from the outburst, catching a glimpse of herself in a mirror on set.

part of her wondered if she might be a little old to wear a school uniform. it hasn’t been too long, she knows, but it’s not quite as simple as slipping into an old, familiar skin. her uniforms growing up were never this well tailored, fitted to her body in a way that really shows off the quality of the garment. nor was she ever nearly as careful and precise as the makeup and hair artists who have perfected her appearance for the camera. looking in the mirror, yinuo can’t see the high school version of herself at all. dark circles concealed, every lock and curl hairsprayed into perfection. it’s probably everything she wanted to be as a student but never had the energy to achieve. she’s a little starstruck at herself.

yinuo can’t dwell on her own good looks for too long, lest she becomes narcissus and never leaves her reflection ever again, so she tears herself away from the mirror and goes to wait for her turn in front of the camera. there’s group shots and solo shots, and she waits for cues from the photographers and directors about where they want her and when.

areum chuckles gently and shakes her head. “ yeah, then legacy will have our heads with the amount of cavities they’d have to fill, ” she jokes. “ we’d never hear the end of it. ” not to mention how long it had been since areum last actually ate anything particularly sweet – a little treat here and there, but nothing more. despite her sweet tooth, she tended to not really have any time to put anything unsubstantial in her body. she barely had the time to put anything substantial in there in the first place, let alone anything to treat herself. “ i’m not even sure my stomach will be able to handle anything particularly sweet – let alone a whole container of icing on a few cookies, ” she points out, chuckling lightly.

at yinuo’s denial, areum whines slightly and pouts over at her friend. “ you’re no fun. ” she complains. “ after all, we don’t need to tell anyone that we made them in the first place – it could be our little secret, ” areum says. but then, she sighs heavily – “ but i guess you have a point, we should save them. ” she agrees. “ we’ll just save the best ones for ourselves. ” she states with a nod and a smile.

areum nods slowly at yinuo’s response. “ that’s fair. i can only imagine it’s a bit odd. ” areum says, giving a slight pout. even for herself, it was weird the first few holidays she spent sitting on her own in a dorm room full of unfamiliar people. despite her situation, she’d wanted more than anything to be home with her family, to be able to celebrate alongside them like they always had. but, areum was long past that now – but wondered if it only grew in other’s cases, ever holiday spent by oneself. “ did you guys have traditions you did every year ? ” she asks, curious. “ a long time ago, my family used to go out and see lights and stuff, never anything big but … ” she shrugs. “ what about you ? ”

//

“ i can definitely understand that, ” areum agrees, nodding. “ just … don’t get too wrapped up in that mindset, or you’ll end up like me and get a vocal chord injury like barely two years into being a trainee. ” areum says, smiling sheepishly over at the other girl. “ plus, i’m not sure that there’s anything to really catch up to, you know ? we’re all at different levels, and expectations aren’t necessarily the same for everyone. there’s no way they expect you to be at the level of a fourth, fifth, or sixth year trainee, you know ? that just seems a bit unrealistic. ” areum points out, then shrugs. “ it’s always good to want to grow, but i don’t know so much about catching up, per se. that can end up setting you back father rather than pushing yourself forward. ” 

if yinuo had it her way, she would eat all of the cookies right here and now with areum. the consequences to follow later be damned, she’ll enjoy her holidays the way they should be: fat, happy, and in the company of good friends. but, alas, there’s that shred of responsibility in her that reminds her that she signed a contract, and that her primary focus still has to be on being a good trainee. getting sick on sweets isn’t exactly the perfect picture of a good trainee.

talking is a good enough distraction from the temptation of the sweets, so yinuo throws herself into conversation. nothing held back, certainly not from a good friend like areum. even if her language skills still aren’t the best, she thinks she can get the majority of the concepts out into words.

“my parents own a brewery back home,” she’s always so proud of that; she misses being behind the bar and all of the regulars who watched her grow up from the other side of the counter. they’re family just as much as her mom and dad are. “so we’d spend days decorating the place for christmas. there’d be.. what do you call it? the strings of pine needles? we wrapped them with lights around every post and beam. and my dad would have his workers help stack kegs up into a big triangle, and we’d hang lights from it like a christmas tree. it was so fun.” she can only smile at the memories, longing to be somewhere far away. and those were just the public traditions; at home, they’d stay up all night on christmas eve exchanging gifts, still awake when the sun rises on christmas morning. and after a good nap, the big family dinner was always divine.

yinuo sighs a bit. the homesickness doesn’t hit her with the same intensity it did when she first left, but it’s still there. she thinks it might always be.

💌 ⋮ it’s really no surprise when areum finds herself heading toward yinuo when given the opportunity to hand out candies for valentines’ day. while she was a new friend, areum already considered her a good friend – so really, it was just a matter of finding time. they had different schedules, which meant that areum had to figure out when exactly was a good time to hand candies her way. in the end, it made more sense to hand them over completely out of the eyes of the trainers – at the dorms.

valentines sweets from the sweetest boy

anything from baking and cookies was daeho favorite ( aside from rapping and dancing ). so he spent the night prior making heart shapes cookies with sweet messages for everyone. daeho didn’t understand the hype of all of this valentine stuff but if he had to share the love, he’s happy to do so with with these chocolate, and sugar cookies. each heart shape cookies was place in a clear bag tied together at the top with a red ribbon that he spent curling himself. 

aimlessly wandering around the legacy building, he did his best to be discreet about his mission for the day. “psst!” he called out. daeho has not yet to meet this stranger but everyone deserve something sweet to brighten up their day right? he approach the girl and handed her the bags of chocolate and sugar cookie. “enjoy! I hope these satisfy your sweet tooth” hopefully she one.

note on cookie:

when given the sweets, jinyoung at first wasn’t sure how exactly he was meant to go about this. the only person he’d thought to gift chocolates too was his girlfriend. (considering it was their anniversary as well and all-)

yet now he found himself writing tiny two line poems to those he cherished with tiny cards along with some generically kept ones to sneak them to people that could look like they were in need of some sweet cheer me up. did he have to invest the effort into this? probably not. did he want to do this while procrastinating his actual homework? absolutely. so after pulling an all night the man set out on his mission.

taking the whole secrecy mission quite seriously, he snug around with care, leaving behind no trace but some small sweet bags along with a neatly folded card.

♡  a valentine message from   ››   gong hyejoo !

     she stares at the candies and chocolates that are handed to her, wondering what she’s supposed to do with all of these. hyejoo has never been a particularly sneaky person, and to secretly give people bags of candy seems difficult to her. so she looks around, searching for a familiar face until her eyes land on yinuo. it’s perfect — yinuo is one of her close friends, and an easy first choice.

lgcnabi​:

     she’s glad that yinuo plays along, but she suspected as much. for all of nabi’s antis ( and there are admittedly a lot ), the other girl has never suggested or acted like she was above them. which is good, because this means nabi always has a partner in crime for things like this, but bad because it encourages her.

     which isn’t so bad. isn’t it good to be encouraged? her company might not think so but what they don’t know won’t hurt them.

     nabi carefully looks at the paper when it’s passed back, making a good show of pretending to listen in between. she doesn’t know what’s going on, and she’s honestly not that interested but for the sake of looking good in front of the company staff she should at least try and seem like she’s paying attention. especially if they decide to ask questions later, then she can still pull something out and give an answer. she doesn’t work hard, she works smart, and what are the chances she’ll actually need this anyways?

     songwriting is kind of like chemistry, nabi decides in the end. both things that adults make them do, but things that she’ll probably never touch once she’s done with it. at least there’s a small chance with songwriting though, even if it’s much later in the future.

     “cute!!!!” she draws an arrow to the stick figure, drawing some hearts next to it. “mine too, let’s go get something to eat after. or no….dessert?????”

nabi takes too long to send the note back. yinuo really wishes she could pay attention to the speaker the same way the other girl at least pretends to, but realistically... she just has no idea what’s going on. they’re using words she’s never heard and speaking far too quickly to have any hope of pulling up a translation app and trying to catch as much of the lecture as possible. it makes yinuo feel a bit dumb. she was never the most studious kid, but she still doesn’t like this feeling.

but nabi does eventually pass the paper back and yinuo has to smile at the little additions to her sloppy doodle. it’s almost worth the little bit of extra wait- now the mopey stickman looks like they might be in misery over a crush, and yinuo kind of likes that story. she’s always had a thing for romance.

before writing any more words, yinuo adds to the drawing again, this time scribbling in a little thought bubble and her best rendering of a piece of cake. she’s not the best artist, but she tries to make it as appetizing as possible. now the stickman is in misery over their love of sweets.

‘yes!!!!!’ yinuo agrees immediately with nabi’s suggestion, using excess punctuation to make up for what she lacks in vocabulary. she thinks nabi will understand her excitement well enough. ‘what do you want to get? i’m older so i treat, right?’

she still has some money leftover from the holidays; what better way to spend it than on a meal (or dessert) with a friend?

lgcsomin​:​

     somin is very happy to have gotten to pair up with yinuo for this. even though they had only really gotten to spend a few weeks training together, she definitely thinks they had hit it off and had gotten along greatly. even the language barrier between them isn’t too much of a problem—that’s what charades and internet translation apps were for, anyway. they got along well though and had even hung out outside of practice times and everything, before future dreams happened and she had taken her shot at stardom. 

     of course it had actually worked out in her favour and she was on her road to debut in just a few weeks but that also meant that she was leaving the trainee life behind and she wouldn’t be able to see any of her friends so she’s taking every opportunity she can get to hang out with all of them before she has no time to anymore.

     (that’s a lie, she’ll always make time for her friends if possible.)

     “uh,” she pauses in adding another bead to her bracelet, having been deciding on which colours would look the nicest as a pattern and tries to think. probably since debut, but also she doesn’t know how long she’s liked the group. they debuted when she was seven so probably not since debut but she doesn’t think she can really pinpoint a song or an era in which she had liked them from, only knowing she had seen them on television and heard their songs on the radio. “i think one of the songs i remember liking a lot was come back again …” she says, already thinking about how she had learned that dance and had performed it for her family too. back when they still supported her dreams of being a singer and dancer. “he had one of my favourite lines and i remember just wanting to be as cool as him?”

      she turns the question back to her friend, wanting to listen and see if she could make some headway with her bracelet too. “what about you? we all know he’s a very talented person but why do you like him?” somin asks, trying not to think about having met him during the future dreams finale. “and what’s your favourite dbsd song?”

finally, after what feels like hours of struggling with the string, she gets that pesky knot undone. it’s permanently distorted the once smooth lines of the strand, but the beads should cover it anyway... right? that’s what yinuo hopes, at least, as she carefully threads a few on. the last thing she wants to do right now is drop the string and lose all of her hard-earned progress. with her luck, it’ll find a way to re-tie itself into an unwanted knot too.

personally, yinuo thinks that somin’s response is a little lame. it’s safe, and frankly not all that interesting. but she supposes that somin has to watch her image a little more carefully now, being an idol and all. yinuo has the benefit of mostly being a nobody, and on top of that being foreign and still not entirely comfortable in the language. if she says something weird, she can blame it on the language barrier and people will probably believe it. she’s only been learning korean for the last couple months after all.

“do you think you’re as cool as him yet?” yinuo can tease lightly even in a second language. it was her main motivator for learning for the longest time. “you’ve met him, right? do you think any of the coolness rubbed off?” she risks nudging somin with her elbow, her fingertips turning white as she holds onto her bracelet for safekeeping. there is no way she is dropping this thing now.

she manages a few more beads before she realizes that randomly choosing colors isn’t as easy as she thought and this is quickly becoming ugly. she could start over and try to make it better, but they only have twenty minutes. yinuo was never very good at arts and crafts like this; it’s better to just make the most of what she already has. she can’t help but frown as she counts the beads she’s already strung on and wonder if there’s any saving this.

“me?” yinuo pretends she has to think about it, like she hadn’t played the song on repeat for about three months straight when it first came out. she’s still not sick of it. “it has to be ‘shine’, right? i didn’t know korean when i first heard the song, but i remember seeing the dance and thinking it was so cute and fun. daehyun really stood out in that one too,” but doesn’t he stand out in everything? yinuo wants to add, but she thinks that might toe the line of what is appropriate. “i tried to learn the dance too. it was my first time seriously trying dancing.” and apparently she enjoyed it so much that she’d join an entertainment company a few years later.

@lgcsoyoun

Soyoun keeps the bags of candy in her bag, burying them among her things in case anyone asks about them. The need for secrecy excites her, to be honest. The tradition never gets old. It’s also a good way to endear herself to both senior artists and junior trainees. 

She approaches each trainee one by one, as discreetly as she can. She taps them on the shoulder and slips a pink bag of candy into their hand or their pocket. Each candy bag has a random candy-related pun written on it and a note that says “I hope this sweetened your day! Happy Valentine’s Day - Crystallis Astrid”

VALENTINES CHOCOLATES #009

maybe it was bold of her to try and do this, she had to be subtle and careful about everything, but somehow… she couldn’t help but feel rushed as well, she had to wait for all the staff to leave before attempting anything…