?

“that’s a fair description of her,” he agreed with a tiny laugh. “you should see her next to her boyfriend, though. she’s a lot less scary when she looks two feet tall…”

“Sure, I’ll buy it,” Baohui laughed. “It’s like those trust exercises.”

“no, raein and i have talked. we’re both terrible dancers,” sangmin answered. “if i hide behind him, it’ll only make us stand out for being bad more, obviously.”

“we just need to go back in time, before everyone had to do hard dancing. empire did barely any choreography at all-- why can’t we do that?”

“Bonding over being awkward sounds pretty awkward in and of itself,” Baohui laughed.

“c’mon, quyen. we can’t be together. we’re the two most clockable gay men in this company. that’s just too cliche,” daewon teased. “yeah, i’ve learned a ton from her. she’s a huge role model to me.”

“you’re not allowed to quit! i need you so i can use you as a prop to hide behind when i need to hit a high note and don’t want to dance,” sangmin whined.

“use someone else as a prop! maybe raein-- he’s taller. and built like a man’s man. i’m not going to hide anyone with this figure,” quyen insisted

“i came here for all the hot chicks,” daewon said blandly, rolling his eyes with a laugh. “it was for the dance team, mostly. it was my best shot at being an actual professional dancer. but the company politics definitely aren’t a downside.”

“i have faith that one of these days, it can happen. and new age seems like a place where they would let it happen too,” daewon answered

“i don’t think so– byulbit’s got a lot of units already that need attention and promotion. i think a vietnamese one is pretty far off. whereas i think scope is going to start pretty soon, you know? like really start.”

“yeah, but it’s going to be a unit thing, right? i’m not the most popular-- you idol project guys are toing to get the green light first.”

“that’s a fucked thing to be grateful for but…i guess i’m grateful for that. like…they have nothing to be ashamed of, obviously but…… no one deserves to be outed.”

“it’s definitely scary, but i can only hope that the the louder the angry voices are, the more united the good voices become to combat them.”

“True true–realistically it’s probably not something they want us thinking about? Better to keep us focused on performing, and training at this point.”

“i think whenever any sort of idol has fringe, some people want to free the forehead. but i can promise, that’s never happening again.”

“well, screw em. it’s your hair and you look super cute with bangs,” quyen answered

“you’re gonna be the first vietnamese kpop star, from how things look like theyre going to turn out– how can you say you’re not special? you’re a trailblazer.”

“nah, that’ll be hoa or bian. not me,” quyen insisted. “and i’m not anything. foreign idols debut all the time, sangmin.”

“that’s smart. honestly, we should both sit down with the security team sooner rather than later. because knowing mom and dad, they’re probably just waiting for an opportunity to make a scene.”