Kim Chaerin

Maybe he was a little distracted. His mind kept playing the opening choreography to I Love You in his head. The way to slide on the ground and then hold his position was going to be difficult, but it wasn’t anything he didn’t do while he was a ballet dancer. Yet, it was different when he was an idol. Everything was expected to be perfect with absolutely no deviation. By the time he had snapped out of his thoughts, he was practically thrown from them as he walked into one of his labelmates with an oof. Gaeul patted his chest, to make sure he was all okay after the wind got knocked out of him, before glancing to the one he had walked into. Instinctively, he pulled the edge of his thumb to his lips and began to chew on its nail. “Oh, god. Oh no. I didn’t like hurt you?” Gaeul panicked. He knew of her face, at least as one of the members of ELLA. It was clear with the makeup and the lack of cover since they were in their company’s building who she was. Gaeul dipped into a bow. “I should have been watching where I was going… You’re not hurt? I know I just asked that, but still.”

Only after she realized how hard she ran into the boy did she realize who it was. The maknae of the newest group, so he was the baby of the babies of WJB. It sometimes blew her mind that she, as the youngest of ELLA, was older than the leader of a few groups in the same company. Her eyes widened as she saw she knocked the wind out of him. “Oh no, I’m fine, are you okay?” she asked, concern evident on her face. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt a fellow labelmate. “I’m really alright, I’m so sorry, I should’ve been paying more attention.”

she did have friends. not that most might’ve known but that was the reason she found herself walking through the halls of wjb.

it was suppoesed to be a quick lunch with one her friends that was staff a member. instead, something happened and lena didn’t find out until she arrived. which wasn’t a real problem, things happened in this industry and if the company called a meeting, then you showed up. but another unexpected thing happened, someone nearly bumping into her. ( at least she managed a few steps back. ) “it’s fine.” as always, her voice didn’t give away much, “are you alright?”

Chaerin was surprised to see Lena of Adora walking around WJB. Adora debuted a few years before Ella did, and Chaerin used to listen to them casually, since she loved soft girly concepts. Then, with the revamping of their music happened and Chaerin somehow loved them more; maybe it was the powerful women allowed to be powerful women. Chaerin bowed in another apology before saying “I’m fine, thank you, are you?” 

If there was one way to Keiko’s heart, it was through her stomach. With a smile, she nodded quickly. “Food sounds fucking awesome.” They technically trained together, but Keiko was so one-track. Her mind focused on one thing and one thing only until she was completely done. It took until after training and around the time of her debut for it to dawn on her that she barely knew anyone else under the company. “Yeah, you’re the one who does the male leads in What is Love. That ones is my favorite of you titles,” she admitted with a small a laugh. “Honor to finally meet you.”

Chaerin didn’t train for that long, and she honestly thanked the universe every day that she got to debut when she did. Still, she did remember Keiko from those days, so focused that Chaerin never wanted to disturb her, even to introduce herself. Chaerin couldn’t help but beam and have a slight pink tint show up on her cheeks at the mention of What is Love?’. “That’s my favorite MV we’ve ever done,” she admitted, clearly proud. “Well, let’s go then!” she said with a new pep in her step; she was getting food, and she could make a new friend.

Finally finished with vocal training, June chirps a goodbye the coach and heads out the room. She was eager to head off to lunch, her throat feeling particularly parched despite the two bottles of water she had consumed within the hour long lesson. Walking down the corridor, she perks up when she hears a familiar song being sung by a familar voice and changes her direction. Though she doesn’t expect the person to be literally just around the corner.

“ Ah, I thought I heard the dulcet tones of our maknae echoing through the halls,” June says as she comes across Chaerin, not even the slightest bit pertubed by the near miss except for a small “whoops” and her hands moving up, ready to stabilise the younger girl if needed.

“Looks like I was correct in my thinking, huh. You off to lunch or a schedule?”

J-Boom probably should have gone with water instead of the iced coffee in his hand. For a number of reasons. And he knew it. He was in a physically demanding career, and he was fully aware of the effects of caffeine on his body – even his voice. 

And yet, despite knowing, he’d gone with the coffee instead, and now it was all over his shirt. 

He knew he couldn’t yell at or cuss out the person who’d startled him enough to cause the spill (as much as he may have wanted to.) He knew it wasn’t intentional. 

“Watch where you’re going.” Instead of a shout, he managed to keep his words down to something of a hiss. 

He sighed and looked down at the spill, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“My stylist is going to be thrilled.”

It was worse than Chaerin had thought. The coffee went mostly on the man in front of her, but there was definitely a few splashes of brown onto her baby pink mini skirt and white top. She was about to apologize again when he hissed at her and she only felt worse. “I’m sorry,” she said with a big bow again, using her lower vantage point to wipe her skirts a bit. She prayed it wouldn’t stain, or just made a mental note to buy a tide stick before she went home.

She looked up and recognized the face immediately. How could she not recognize the face of the “handsome and talented” J-Boom of Hercules? Chaerin really never saw the appeal of him. Maybe it was because he always seemed pretty arrogant. Maybe it was because she was gay. Probably a mix of both. Either way, she couldn’t help the way her nose crinkled at his second comment. “I can go apologize to her personally if you think you’ll get in trouble...”

This girl had a good point. Korean wasn’t her first language and it shouldn’t be expected for her to be perfect with it all the time. It was a good excuse, but the last thing she needed was fans to know how hard this stuff was. At least, no the KNets. International fans might be more gentle. It was always hard to tell. Keiko without a second thought responded with absolute earnest, “I ended up here and wanted to see if it was a place I could reasonably get into. But if it’s just lighting shit, then it’s kind of pointless, right?”

“I’d say so, yes,” Chaerin giggled before nodding towards the main hallway. “I was headed to lunch, actually. Do you want to join me?” She then realized she had forgotten her manners. “Oh, shoot, I’m sorry, where are my manners? My name is Chaerin, ELLA Maknae.” Chaerin already knew of K.Ko, but they had never actively introduced themselves, only seen eachother in passing at events and such; now was a great time to amend that.

Including her own.

“Lu lu love bomb, lu lu love bomb...” she was quietly singing to herself as her heels clicked down the hall. Her phone was in her hand, double checking that she really did have a rare hour for lunch instead of the regular 30 minutes. She was so focused on making sure she wasn’t mistaken that she nearly ran into someone.

“Shoot, sorry!” she said, finally looking up.

I’m forcing myself to get this done because I can’t allow myself to post a starter as Chaerin without it so HERE IS CHAERIN’S INTRO! Also, if you want to know more, here is her bio, her profile, and her musings.

tw bullying (online)

That was somehow worse than any of the other options she could have come up with as to the many reasons she could be embarrassed. She shoved her hands into the pocket of her sweatshirt. A part of Keiko felt as if she had to get defensive over all of this, prove that she was capable. With a shrug and a smile pushed onto her face, she glanced over to her labelmate. “I’m fluent and everything. I wouldn’t be a leader if I wasn’t. Just written words are… Hard,” she tried to explain without giving any real indication to her actual problems. She had been hurt too many times to give someone she only knew from training anything super personal. “Thanks for reading that though or, like, checking it. Just, like, keep this between us. The last thing I want is fans to make fun of this and my writing. The foreign excuse only works so much until they just think I’m dumb or something.”

Chaerin was confused for a moment, then shook her head. “N-No, I wouldn’t... I wouldn’t tell anyone, this was... this was nothing, so why would I tell, right?” she assured the other woman, though she wasn’t sure if she sounded reassuring or dismissive. “Korean isn’t your first language, so it’s only human to make mistakes.” She gave a reassuring smile, fixing a few stray strands of hair out of her face before asking “Were you looking for another room when you found this? Or were you just exploring?”