The Secluded

“i totally agree! especially since now that ankaa is doing okay, and because hoa is really popular, we get to fly business class, so those seats aren’t even that bad to sleep in,” chaeyoung insisted brightly. “it feels less stressful than music shows, too. i always feel like i’m going to do something stupid and derail the whole broadcast for everyone.”

“you’re sweet. and i’ll remember that– next time i’m so sore i can barely move after a promotion cycle, i’ll make you carry me around,” she answered with a laugh. “i think that it’s worth talking to them about. because that’s the sort of thing you can always reverse if you regret the decision, right? and plenty of older soloists have reduced schedules… dk, ilya… just to name a couple. i can’t see why they wouldn’t let you.”

“Sure, just ring me up and I’ll be your chauffeur for the day, I’m usually around,” Yeong said with a laugh. “I don’t think they wouldn’t let me or anything, I just feel bad about going back and forth on it for so long. I guess they’re more patient with me since I’m an older soloist.”

“yeah… i haven’t had too much of a hard time in videos, because they can take a billion takes and just choose the best one,” she answered, though his question gave her pause. “i…. nothing? the lyrics i have to remember? how bored i am? not a ton, honestly…”

He nodded while listening to Mija. "When you're singing a ballad, the core of the song is the emotion - you can sound good and look good doing it, but if that's all there is, if you don’t really feel the song, then it comes off as a bit... disingenuous," Yeong said. “Connecting with a song is hard, but it’s a good first step.”

“it makes the exceptions to the rule even more impressive, though,” she commented. “kiyoung and eli’s rise to fame, and jieun’s too to an extent, feel even more exciting because of that framing.”

“oh… so like me,” she replied, eyes brightening up a little as she chewed on her thumbnail. diadem was going to have other performers, but she was going to be the main vocalist, and most of her group was going to be a band. “do you get to have the same band every time?”

“i can relate to that a lot– juliette schedules aren’t nearly as manageable as they were when i was twenty-two,” she retorted with a little laugh, shaking her head. “you’re a fixture at new age now though, are you not? have you talked to them about a reduced schedule? or other perks? i know that when we promote now as a group, rare as that is, we only do inkigayo and m!countdown, and we pick and choose which variety we want to do, if any.”

“I wouldn’t have thought was the case, you look great on stage still,” Yeong replied, then pausing in thought. “I talked with them about ceasing promotions for a while years ago, but not anything about reduced schedules. I think it’s time, though."

“see, now you’re just trying to poke holes in my encouragement on purpose!” she objected with a giggle. “no sweat– i’ve only been away from the stage for a few months, and lyncis’ debut had me spooked. i get it.”

“well, it could be a lot worse i guess,” she giggled. “honestly, i can’t wait for the vietnamese unit to debut… my vietnamese is still shaky, but we don’t have to do the korean music circuit promotions… sure jet lag and travelling is hard, but i’d take that over three hours of sleep a night…”

“god, could you imagine?” lia aksed with a laugh. “like even beyond your throwback example….. could you imagine if burnout just fully pulled a harmony and i had to figure out how to be an idol? like we’re doing…fucking gee 2.0 or something, and there at the back of the formation is mahalia, probably forced to have had normal hair, arms wrapped up like a mummy to hide tats…..”

“i mean, it helps that like…half of those songs weren’t promoted i guess,” she pointed out. “promotions are the stuff that knock you out. but yein just released songs in batches and made music videos for her b-sides. i think that’s smart. reign fans get to see a ton of her so they flock to new age and to her new stuff. and she only has to do like half the promoting work for it.”

“please– you barely look like you’ve skipped a beat,” jinkyung assured him. “it’s all the same song and dance. i performed onstage for the first time in nearly sixteen years last year as a story arc for my show, and honestly, it’s barely changed from when i was an idol. you’re much more in practice than i am. i have complete faith in you.”

“unless they’re a complete asshole, the country will forget about them. i don’t mean that in a mean way, either. it’s a mercy.”

“i mean, liberty didn’t even mean to make burnout the way it is now. maybe they’ll make us accidentally stumble our way into that at some point. i’m not ruling anything out.”

“Don’t worry, now you’ve got your little sister promoting with you, you know!”  She says softly, knudging the elder on the arm gently  as she sipped her drink. Eunhye knew all too well, the stress of coming onto music shows.  Though her slip ups mostly had to do with worrying about the cameras trying to sneak in weirdly suggestive angles, wardrobe malfunctions and injuring herself on stage, she couldn’t help but sympathize with how nerve racking returning to the stage after so long could be. “But really, you’ll do fine out there! It’s Okay.”

He hadn’t thought about that before -- the last time he promoted on music shows, Venus had only just came onto the scene, so they hadn’t actually shared a stage before. “Thanks, Eunhye... I’ll try not to embarrass you, yeah?” Yeong teased, nudging her back.