#lucielxbe

christmas music blaring, festive lights blinking, joyous crowds slipping and sliding on ice — at the centre of it all is none other than song hansol dressed to the nines in his oversized fur coat ( faux, unbeknownst to him ). he shouts something unintelligible, laughs at something incomprehensible, throws his hands in the air and gets everyone to start clapping to the beat of the music.

it’s only when he spots luciel, benched, that he stops and skates over.

“still workin’ on that?” asks the guy who rushed to put on his skates so he could get onto the ice faster. sure, maybe it’s a safety hazard, but he’s left worse unchecked and he’s still alive, so it’s fine. “here, let me.”

a vybe mission starter for @lucielxbe

being able to perform at prestigious events like the busan asia one festival is something that he had never really imagined he would be able to do. perhaps it's because his dreams had been shattered a few years earlier from his old company dissolving, but it's something that hadn't even been on his dreams list when he had been thinking about how he wanted his career to go in the future.

but this feels different. the cheers of the fans when they step onto the stage, and hearing the fanchants as they perform their debut song is such a crazy experience that haneul wishes they could do this more.

maybe one day they would be able to hold their own concert in a big stadium like this.

"let's take a selfie together," haneul says, finding luciel backstage once they've finished performing.

there was so much going on now that noel had debuted, his schedule hadn’t gotten the slightest bit slower or empty, it was practice after practice, and then they had other stuff than practice to do as well. noel was enjoying it all, having fun with dancing this much, and though the fansigns had slowed down, they still had time to interact with fans, like at music festivals.

— FIRST CHAPTER: HELLO (@ VYBE.LIME)

there's some tension on her team for the finale. she feels like that's an understatement, too. for one, ren hates two members of the team. he's managed to keep it together, but nayoung knows him and knows he's barely holding it together. siwoo and jay also seem to be good friends whose powers combined may lead to disaster if not handled properly. she's pretty sure luciel and siwoo still have some sort of beef, too. all in all, it's a mess, and it shows in their performance. it's a total lack of synergy, and nayoung has little patience for it all. so she does what she usually does: tries to solve the problem as soon as possible.

nayoung knows it won't be easy, and doesn't expect her idea to fix everything. she just hopes it helps. she knows there's a possibility that it'll backfire, but nayoung is also aware that sometimes confrontation is necessary to work through any negative feelings toward one another. if this activity ends up starting a fight, it's probably a fight that needs to happen to clear the air and let the group as a whole move on and focus more effectively.

naturally, not everyone was happy about the exercise, but they ended up relenting and agreeing to participate. she had them draw pieces of paper numbered 1-7 to determine the order they sit in in the circle.

fate would have it be that some of the team members with the biggest problems with each other are seated together. luciel is seated on her left, and siwoo next to him, followed by inho. next is jay, then ren, and seira rounds out their circle, seated on nayoung's right.

"okay, let's go left in the circle. say something nice about the person to your left, and share something you're proud of yourself for related to next gen," she reminds everyone. "i'll start."

"i'm proud that i was able to help two teams take first place this season," she says, and she hopes it doesn't sound like she's bragging, or taking all the credit for it. "and of the team members, of course," she adds for good measure.

next, she has to say something nice about luciel - or jihyun, as she should probably call him. "i like that jihyun is good at handling criticism and applying it quickly, even if it's hard to hear." she's talking about her calling him forgettable. he certainly took what she said to heart, and earned praise from the judges last episode.

"okay, your turn," she smiles at him, and it might actually be uncharacteristically warm.

taking language classes as a trainee was expected, but jueun didn't think she'd be taking japanese lessons. while she wasn't fluent in japanese, with her mother being a japanese interpreter, she's picked up on the language quite well.

of course, the lessons will definitely help, but she always imagined that the company would prioritize english first or whatever. perhaps these companies were starting to shy away from the western market now and thinking of focusing in japan first.

"hey," she whispered to her fellow trainee beside her. she remembers luciel from next gen, of course, but with them being signed to different companies, it wasn't until lessons like this that she got to see him. "if i end up snoring in class or whatever, do you mind pinching me awake?" she asked with a chuckle.

seira finds herself struggling a lot, she auditioned with the only thing she’s good at: rap, just to make it through and remember she needed more than rap if she wanted to stay. she was a poor dancer, even worse singer. she’d been asking a lot of people for help, the coaches, the few familiar faces, strangers, she needed all the help she could get. she was thankful to everyone willing to help her, she’s not sure what she would’ve done without everyone’s help.

she sits down, looking over the lyrics, she looks up, a yawn escaping her lips, that’s when she notices someone who seems to be struggling with the rap, with all the help seira has gotten, the least she could do is help someone else. so she stands up, walks over and sits next to the stranger “do you need help with the rap part?” she tilts her head, smile on her lips.

there's a few familiar faces in this season of next gen, some people that yuwol isn't surprised to see signing up as participants in the survival show. yuwol thinks he's far out of his element here, in the first place his reasons for joining are flimsy, and if his parents found out he's a part of the show the likelihood of him being kicked out of his own apartment and stripped off of his family name is worryingly high. for some reason, he doesn't want to leave. maybe it's his gnawing need to feel something, and apparently this is where he'll be trying.

what's surprising is seeing @lucielxbe in the roster, having been ranked right before yuwol. he's not holding a grudge or anything, it's just a little weird. he hasn't seen luciel in a while, they don't have a close relationship; the other boy is simply engaged to his sister. nothing more and nothing less. yuwol certainly doesn't know luciel enough to know that luciel is interested in the idol world at all. they've both grown up on classical music, after all.

perhaps the both of them have similar reasons for being here, then. to find something, whatever that is.

it's probably the first time yuwol has heard luciel singing a song like that, he had been to a few of luciel's piano recitals but that's about it. they've just finished practicing their vocals now, and his ears caught luciel's turn earlier too. they've known each other for a while, practically years at this point—yuwol can't exactly pretend he doesn't know luciel. besides, being friendly with someone surely won't hurt, so he approaches luciel after they're all done; starting a conversation.

"i was surprised to find you here," he starts, donning a practiced smile that he'd often use when he's around his family. nothing that luciel hasn't seen. "you sing well, i didn't know you could sing." he says with no malice, simply expressing his surprise.