#fmdjace

truthfully, the rankings for the first round were unexpected. well, she’s not sure if she should say that when she had also picked catalyst as the weakest stage, but she had said that only because she really wasn’t sure who to pick. plus, she did think the concept to their song was a little off and despite the members being talented, it just felt all over the place. 

nevertheless, when she ends up bumping into jihoon in the halls of gold star as they’re preparing for their next round, she can’t help but feel a bit of guilt. clearing her throat, she slowly made her way towards him before giving him a poke on the arm. “hey, how are rehearsals going? that is, if you can say.” there were no cameras around them at the moment, but they did have microphones on. realizing this, she reaches over to turn off her own mic pack. they could all use some moments without the production crew potentially spying on them.

she didn’t want to ask about his feelings on the last round, but she thinks they’ll come out when he starts discussing the current round they were preparing for. there were all kinds of remixes that played through the hallways so she wasn’t even sure what song catalyst ended up with.

“excuse me.” dry, much too dry. after finishing practice, one of the longest days so far since her schedules had finally started slowing down, kiana made the grave discovery she’d forgotten one of her daily essentials in another bag. she’ even cleaned herself up before the discovery, which only made the gross feeling on her skin all the worse. in another circumstance, she wouldn’t think to bother someone outside of her group or staff, especially a man in a situation when cameras could show up at any minute, but she was starting to feel desperate. “do you happen to carry any unscented lotion? i’ve forgotten mine at home.”

it helped that this idol was a nice one. what conversations they did have stuck out to kiana, a hard enough feat on its own, let alone for a younger and junior idol. “it’s nice to see you again, by the way. i hope you’ve been well. how are your plants doing these days?” was the plant talk too much? she hoped he wouldn’t become bored of her being so one-track minded.

he’s at the side of the stage, eyes watching the performance. it was something that he would often do when he got out of hair, makeup, and wardrobe when he was backstage. duri’s always loved watching others perform, and perhaps that’s because he’s always just been such a big fan of music. but, he always enjoyed these things, because he got to see it. it was like a free concert, in a sense - even if he didn’t get to see the entire thing and he’d be performing as well. but, you always took what you could get, right? 

nonetheless, he had stood there on his own, enjoying himself, and kind of just dancing himself a little bit. truth be told, it probably looked a bit embarrassing, but as long as he was having fun, right? 

     as a resident foodie, it only made sense for duri to attend the food truck festival. he wanted to see what exactly the trucks had to offer and what was around, as he was simply curious. he was hoping for something good, he was sure that it had been lingering somewhere in the food trucks. so, he made his plans to go, and that plan had included one of the members of charm, jihoon, also known as jace. 

duri’s eyes sparkled in a way as he looked around, certain smells lingering within the air around him. it almost felt like he had way too many choices, not entirely sure which truck he should pick to go to. did he want french fries? maybe he wanted food truck pancakes? there were also something called fried oreos and fried ice cream... he wasn’t entirely sure about those two things, to say the least. ah, what should he get?

looking up at jihoon, she makes a gesture towards the many empty seats in the studio. “take a seat anywhere, really.” she had been in the middle of working on music for her upcoming album that was only recently given the okay by gold star. while there was no precise date out just yet, she knew that they would give her a slot sometime towards the end of the year. “i have a bunch of drafts, but i don’t think any of them are gonna work for this next album. i guess i just needed a second pair of ears?” she’s not sure why it comes out sounding like a question, but she’s always appreciated having a second opinion. or three.

  baking was something that duri had really gotten into, something that had followed after cooking. truth be told, he did enjoy cooking a bunch more than he did baking. but, baking was still something that he had found joy in doing, truth be told. it was really fun just creating something from a recipe and doing your best to make sure it was right. baking is a lot different than cooking, considering baking is a science, whereas cooking you can easily do whatever you want.  however, he thinks he likes that a lot about the both of them, because they’re so different, and how you go about creating something. 

however, today was rather nice because he wasn’t baking on his own. instead, he had gotten jihoon to come over to his house to bake together. which really seemed to make everything a lot more fun. usually, duri would be cooking, and jihoon would be baking. but, it seemed things were switching up a bit, and both of them were baking today. duri, of course, was sure to make something chocolate. 

confirmed to the point that she can now freely talk about it. that’s how the conversation with jihoon started anyway. “i probably sound like a broken record, but i swear this one’s going to be a little different,” she explains with a chuckle. frankly, jihoon was not the person she had to convince about this concept change. it was the public, or whatever percentage of the public that will be tuning in to her next comeback. 

“imagine like pink clouds and a lot of fluffiness. i’m not sure what the official comeback headline is going to say, but i think that’s the concept we’re going for.” she’s never been too focused on the conceptual part of her albums. it was always more about the music for her, but this one was such a contract to her previous ones that it was fun to talk about. “how about you? is there anything on your plate in terms of music?”

a lot of the conversations that duri had had this evening involved music - which he definitely couldn’t complain about, since it’s one of his all time favorite things. a majority of it had to do with the fact that his next mini album is coming out in just a few days time, something that duri had always looked forward to. though, there was the thoughts of how it was going to do, though it follows his usual spectrum of his current releases with the vocal focused releases that he tends to do - a current comfort zone and something that always does well. that always seems to be the best in the eyes of bc entertainment, plus duri always enjoys doing the ballads and vocal focused songs. 

he finally exits another conversation with someone important in the industry, a usual thing to happen at events such like these. but, duri was more than okay with that because he always enjoyed talking about music - it’s the main thing that he does within his career, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. nonetheless, once the conversation had ended, his eyes fall upon jihoon, and excitement ensues. simply because it had been a while since duri had seen jihoon and gotten to talk to him, but also because duri finally got to praise tell me, jihoon’s debut mini album.