#fmdmin

it’s why she tracked down minhee despite his much busier schedule and asked for some help. who else to get lessons from but the original choreographer? “can you go from count 1 again?” running a hand through her hair, she’s finding herself frustrating for not being able to memorize the choreo. it wasn’t even all that difficult, especially compared to some of the ones they’ve had before, but her body simply doesn’t seem to want to follow along.

“sorry. i’m sure you don’t even have lots of time in korea these days,” she comments as she drops her head apologetically. hyojung didn’t want to be wasting her time, but she also wasn’t going to pretend like she had this choreography down. pride meant nothing if it meant ruining a group comeback.

she’s in the middle of america—though some would argue that texas was not the center of america—and on a world tour. to other artists, this may be a dream come true but for jaein it was closer to a nightmare. it’s not that she didn’t know how to be thankful for the love and support her group got, but this wasn’t the type of love and support she preferred. would it have hurt gold star to give the girl a little more than a week in korea? she could feel her body breaking down on her, and it was only the beginning of the tour. 

“like i’ll talk about how tired i am, and someone just feels the need to jump in and lecture me about being thankful and whatnot.” a groan leaves her lips as she flips around on her hotel bed. she’s on the phone with probably one of the only people that listens to her concerns without butting in with advice she never asked for. she thinks it has to do with the fact that minhee’s gone through this before she has and has probably experienced the same thing. “wish i could tell them to shut up but how can i when they’re all seniors.” 

when the first day of their concert is over and they’re headed backstage with the staff giving them a round of applause, hyojung can’t help but think she could have done a better job. although it’s just a promise to herself, she swears she’ll put more of herself on stage tomorrow. 

just as she’s making this silent promise, she spots a familiar face in the hallway. breaking out from the staff members who have surrounded her, she makes her way toward minhee, greeting him with a slight wave of her fingers. “did you come to check up on how well i’ll pull off the hairography of gogobebe?” she says rather teasingly before ruffling the bottom of her still-bobbed hair. it’s grown out quite a bit, but it was still rather short since she’s still fiming. “i think i did a nice job with the amount of hair i have right now.”

a chill had seemingly gone through duri, the weather seemingly a bit cooler. which is how he knew that the right choice for dinner was choosing to go the route of ramyeon. truth be told, duri really wanted some spicy ramyeon with all of the fixings, something he was craving for a bit, and he decided that it was finally time to actually get some ramyeon. of course, duri did always choose the smaller restaurants to go to, where not a lot people were. it was always a bit nicer, to say the least, but he did go to places that were popular if there’s something that he likes.

nonetheless, he enters the restaurant, taking off his “disguise” that he uses when he’s walking around; just so that duri doesn’t get noticed when he’s out and about. duri never minded talking to fans at all, taking photos with fans, or giving autographs. but, he was always a little worried about potentially being followed; he’s heard the stories, but it’s something hasn’t seemed to happen to him in the twelve years as an idol; duri was one of the members that bc had seemingly taken care of his saesang problem. but, that wasn’t here nor there, and he takes his seat in the back in the restaurant. 

joosung shifted on the sofa, turning at an angle to open her body language to minhee. cheek leaning into her hand, elbow pressed against the sofa back, feet still at the floor despite instinct, she prompted conversation, “what do you think you’d have picked if polaris had pulled the twist card?”

these days were long and difficult. while sung liked to keep in a work mindset, having conversations about what was going on would only make stronger connections along the way. surely a large part of the reasoning for the competition show was for the opportunity to see idols interact where they might not otherwise be able to. that was the whole point in the base... thing... perhaps she didn’t entirely understand what base encompassed still, but she knew almost everything that had been asked of them had to do with connecting with other idols.

“or, i guess, what your group would pick? no, actually, okay- say you’re a soloist and you pull the twist card, what would you choose?”

  no worries had been needed today, considering this day had just been a photoshoot for all of the groups involved in crowned. sure, practice was probably something that would happen afterwards, as it was happening now, just to get some more footage. but, at least, it felt a little bit more chill to just get the photoshoot done. duri had gotten rather used to doing photoshoots, with the amount of years that titan, and even himself, had them done - it was a bit like a walk in the park now, as things simply came naturally to him.

though, he was a bit unsure on how he was meant to portray himself for the crowned photoshoot. was he supposed to try to look intimidating? then again, he is park duri after all, so there was definitely no way he could even look intimidating. so, he kind of just went much more natural, and maybe a little more stoic. but, even then, there was still that certain sparkle in his eyes that he seemingly would always have. maybe he really didn’t fit the concept of titan fully - but, hey, he could play the part, so maybe he was better at acting than he thought. 

when sung had been asked to do a live with min, teaching him something he didn’t already know, sung came away at a loss. most of any skill he felt confident in, he would already know, considering how many of sung’s skills revolved around the idol world. they even had the same position title in their groups. coming up with something that was as unteachable as scrapbooking hadn’t been a choice as much as a necessity, “but,” he paused with an inhale as he looked over to min, “i thought it would be nice to show you how i’ve been scrapping lately, and share some stories with our fans while we do.” the best he could do was be honest. their fans likely would like seeing pictures they’d have to share, and what the context behind them was. “did you bring some pictures?” sung looked to min, but flicked away momentarily to the manager outside of the camera view. though he’d made the request ahead of time, he couldn’t always expect a follow through, not with how busy they could get at times.

coming towards the tail-end of practice, ruby feels close to death. she chugs down her bottle of water and wipes the sweat dotting her neck with a towel, trying to catch her breath. when the staff gives her a gopro mounted on a hand-held tripod, she swallows down the exasperated groan threatening to escape her throat and instead mutters a mindless, “thank you.” 

approaching minhee, ruby fiddles with the gopro. “this choreography is no joke. i’m winded,” she huffs. even with the strength training she’s done lately, she’s finding it challenging to nail each move to polaris’ ‘i need u’ just right. the dance demands the kind of energy and power not typically present in andromeda’s performances, making every move she tries to hit look feeble. she makes a mental note to put in extra hours the next time she’s at the gym. 

before turning on the gopro, she checks in the studio mirror to make sure that she doesn’t look too disheveled (she suddenly regrets not filming before getting to work earlier) and takes a deep breath. filming vlog-style videos has never been her forte, forcing her to be confronted with her own awkwardness. she’s gotten better over the years, however. and she figures she might as well do her least favourite part of this whole cover-swap thing with someone she’s comfortable with.