my moment

“well…. siwan and junjie are the only two really pursuing solo careers, and junjie takes care of himsef. he shouldn’t have to, but he does,” she said, trying to make sense of it all.

“that’s still ridiculous! do you ever get a day off?” solhee insisted.

“well, it’s a good thing you’re doing. you’re not asking to shave your head, you’re asking to be an advocate for something that would benefit your fans. talk to pr, but i’d be surprised if they weren’t interested.”

“i would be surprised too, but you never know with spotlight. especially with their history with woori... that’s not all public but still.....they could be afraid of their past coming back to haunt them.”

“well… i’d keep an eye out at the very least. protect yourself. because i doubt it’s as uncommon as you’d probably like to hope.”

“have... you ever been blackmailed for something as an idol?” she hated to ask, but now she was morbidly curious.

“spotlight is a top three company. if they didn’t debut to love, that would be more surprising,” shinwoo pointed out. “whereas it’s much harder for unknown groups from unknown companies to blow up like they could before. think about it.”

“i guess you’re not wrong,” she admitted with a sigh. she had to recognize her privileges'. “that’s...... unfortunate. i wish the playing field was more even.”

“oh… was that ever something you like…talked about when you trained with them?” mandy asked. “sorry if i sound nosy. i’m just curious.”

“i didn’t spend a lot of time with them while we were trainees,” solhee admitted, embarrassed. “i....a lot of the rumors in the fandom aren’t as fabricated as our fans claim. sera really had the entire trainee system segmented into people she liked and people she didn’t. i had no bad blood with them but.... if i was spending time with luri, and they associated luri and i with sera, they probably wanted nowhere near us,” she explained.

“solhee, sweetie, have you seen my haircuts? even before i debuted? i promise you, that wasn’t the styling department,” she laughed. solhee was cute. even if this wasn’t for a bet with rhiann she’d be looking to pursue it, to be honest. “depends on who its with, i guess. if i got into a scandal with, say… someone from your company maybe….. lot more impactful…”

solhee bit back a bashful smile. “listen... i-- popular alternative culture steals so much from queer style..... you never know when that’s the case, or if someone’s taking inspiration...” she justified. she choked on her words after that, though. was mengxia hitting on her? “o-oh? i guess that would be really impactful....” solhee agreed, trying not to stumble in her fluster. “i...um....from what i know there’s a handful of queer women too..........”

“I think it’d be fun too, kind of like the vibe in those old beach party movies,” Sowon said. “I like the beachy, summer-y vibe, even if the movies were super corny. I think it’d probably be a fun concept to take on.”

“what more is there? i thought the fans wanted to see themselves in the media. now they are– you’re here doing this. i swear, every single thing we do, people make it about sangsuk and her band of losers. it’s a headache.”

“sera, please. don’t make this a big thing,” solhee said, trying to add extra firmness to her voice. “i’m really happy and excited we got to do this, but i know why they’re upset, and they’re allowed to be. the way bia and sangsuk especially left our company has deep scars. on everyone.”

“they’re at the age where they all have their own schedules, too,” yuko pointed out. “by this point in their career, i’m fairly certain every member of empire had their own manager.”

“and spotlight isn’t giving any more mangers to you guys? that’s absurd-- you’re going to burn out!”

“if you’re able to swing it, i would love to work with you,” jina retorted earnestly. “if i need to write something up for your agency, as sort of an invitation, let me know– i will.”

“that might  help,” she said, biting the inside of her cheek. “i don’t know. i’ve never done anything like this on my own before-- i have no idea how they’d react. maybe i’ll bring the idea up first?”

“honestly, i wonder how many idols and staff are being blackmailed at spotlight already,” he mused aloud.

“that’s a terrible thought-- i don’t even want to think about that,” solhee admitted with a wince.

“in korea? that counts,” jia assured her, stifling a laugh and leaning back, arms crossed over her chest. her brain was going a million miles an minute. she was getting vibes, and if she was going to win her contest with ryan, she had to shoot her shot sometime. “it’s a real shame, i think. the only way people are going to be accustomed to queer people is if they see them. maybe i oughta get into that sort of trouble…get the ball rolling…”

“oh! i.... i didn’t know you uh...” she turned bright red, averting her gaze. “i didn’t know you were queer,” she finally said, looking back up and hoping her blush wasn’t super apparent. “i feel like that kind of scandal would be different coming from new age, though, don’t you think? you guys have junxi and iori....”