#fmdtaejoo

meeting taejoo at the triple fantasy festival back in california was rather nice. he felt like himself and taejoo had some similarities, and they could become friends - despite being eight years apart in age. but, that never seemed to matter, right? it was natural to have friends that were rather far apart from you in age - especially when you were in the same industry, and that’s where you would manage to make your friends. 

duri had invited taejoo out for a meal - the same way that they had managed to meet while in california. however, it wasn’t going to have the same atmosphere as it did back in that large ballroom in a hotel. this time, it was the early evening, the sun still up, and it wasn’t as exhausting, to say the least. duri had made his way to the kbbq restaurant, getting a table for two in the back, where people wouldn’t really notice them. 

clearing her throat, she looks over at taejoo who’s sitting besides her in a chair of his own. the interview room’s been set up quite nicely with lights that look like a mixture of their respective fan colors. it helps that the interview’s taking place within the gold star building because she doesn’t feel so out of place. there’s a cue given to her by the producer behind the main camera, and she turns to face her senior. “ready?” she’s unsure if she’s asking him or asking herself, but she nods anyway, making it seem like a sort of reassurance for herself.

taejoo is a friend that duri has had for a few years now, someone that he has gotten rather close to. they both debuted around the same time and are both rather close in age, with taejoo only being able two months older than duri is. it was always nice having someone who was the same age and same position in the industry that you are, it was easy to relate to each other in a way. sure, duri may not be the maknae of titan, as taejoo is the maknae of platinum, but duri was close enough considering the fact that he’s apart of maknae line of titan as a whole. so, he could still relate to being young with taejoo in a way. the two had supported each other throughout the years, which was something that was really nice, to say the least. it really just helped with anything, to really just share things with one another. 

    duri isn’t entirely sure why he had decided to attend the first after concert meal. to be fair, he thought if he went early, there wouldn’t be too many people at the dinner. but, he had unfortunately, been wrong about that in it’s entirety. to be honest, he really thought about turning around and leaving, but it seemingly had already been too late to actually do that. so, instead, he attempted to suck it up, and just eat. simply, he would just have to pretend that it didn’t feel like the room was closing in on him with the amount of people that were in the room. would he ever be able to get over that? he wasn’t entirely sure,  but it was a feeling that he really didn’t like at all. he would much prefer to not be here, but he decided to just eat and show his face - but, he thought, maybe he should just cook back at the villa. but, who would really have the time to do that? he was tired, he didn’t feel like cooking - no matter how much he loves it. sources say, he’d probably make this mistake again.

sung didn’t feel that was the truth, not in his heart. not when getting up to perform his duties as someone in the public eye, with a contract, was a struggle every day. not when, even whisked away to the beautiful landscape of jeju island, all he wanted was to stay under bed covers.

forcing himself to get to know these two strangers was another task sung felt ill-equipped to handle, but had to. he had to put his best foot forward, try with whatever might he could muster, to open his heart. however, intent was only intent, so when deciding who would go out to pick up the group’s dinner, sung volunteered himself, and asked the youngest of the bunch to join him on the walk.

sung’s hands folded in the pocket of his hoodie, not quite cold enough for one, but soft and comforting enough to deal with the slight increase in temperature. his feet kicked stray pebbles as they walked. han taejoo, stage name tj. that was about all he knew about tj. despite the constant hammering reminder that sung preferred it this way, he forced himself to look up and ask, “so, um, do you have any hobbies?” 

If she could bring herself to care more, Chunhwa would be offended that Lucid was relegated to the newbies showcase. Literally everybody else participating was officially their junior by quite a period of time. Sure, the ex-Element members had debuted before Lucid, but since the group was no more, it meant every single one of the groups participating in it had debuted or were debuting in 2021, while Lucid had debuted in 2018. She could blame Dimensions for this, and their lack of interest in debuting another group because they could barely manage the ones they already have. It was probably because Unity was already bringing far more money than the company even knew what to do with and Lucid’s newly found success couldn’t be a bother.