#sphere;thread

@rkluna

like she has been all month, eve hums her evaluation song under her breath even as she lies on her back on luna’s bed, holding her phone above her face as she scrolls absently through twitter. “popsockets are the best invention since the calculator,” she says, remembering how she always thought the calculator was the best invention ever when she was studying math in high school. “never again will there be a fear of randomly dropping your phone on your fa-”

@rktaeyxng

date: october 14th // convex jacket photoshoot

debut. it’s so close it’s tangible, and they’re in uncharted territory. their showcase date looms, two weeks away. it’s closer than it’s ever been, but kibum knows that these next two weeks will probably feel like some of the longest of any of their lives. for now, at least, he’s still in familiar territory -- this weekend has been spent in a photoshoot for their album jacket, and for kibum at least he’s still in his element. modeling is something he has experience with, after all, so he’s settled easily into his usual role as leader and role model for the others. 

he lounges on the floor of their current set, an open-air courtyard. there are several photographers flitting around, and for now they’re telling convex to just act natural, like they’re just all hanging out together around the courtyard. kibum sits with taeyong, watching as most of the others take part in a seven-person game of rock-paper-scissors, two photographers moving around them and snapping pictures. kibum can see the others going between the small pairs and groups of the remaining members, snapping candid pictures of them all hanging out together. 

@rkjinkis

[ tw: injury ]

the fall was surprising. kibum knows he’s been injured while dancing before, but nothing serious has happened since he was much younger, since he was always dancing outside with luminosity. it’s been a very long time, but he has sprained an ankle before, and as soon as he stands from his fall and goes to continue dancing, he’s fairly certain that’s what he’s done now. 

he doesn’t let himself think about what this means for the rest of convex promotions, all of the rest of his focus going into finishing the last verse of the song and trying to avoid putting weight on his right foot whenever possible. his expression is more of a strained grimace than a smile, he’s sure, and he can’t quite spare enough breath to contribute to the singing of the chorus, but he mouths the words automatically, keeping all his focus on not falling again. 

@rkwoohyun

as jooyeon pulls him toward woohyun, a hand touches kibum’s free wrist. he turns to see hyoyeon walking next to him, their mother on her other side. “i see hyun over there,” she says, pointing. “we’re gonna go say hi!” kibum grins and nods -- he knows that both hyoyeon and hyun will love the chance to catch up. as the two of them walk away, jooyeon comes to a stop in front of woohyun, bouncing up and down next to kibum. 

“are you a singer like kiki oppa?” she asks, literal stars seeming to sparkle in her eyes. 

“he’s a better singer than me, jooyeon,” kibum tells her honestly. “he’s one of the best singers in the group.” he looks up to woohyun then, still holding his little cousin’s hand in his own. “woohyun, this is my little cousin, jooyeon. she’s here to watch our showcase tomorrow,” he explains with a wide, bright smile. 

@rkrachel

he approaches her on the first day of filming, before everything gets underway. there are staff running around everywhere, and kibum has only just been dismissed from the makeup chair, where the makeup noona chatted his ear off about how amazing his skin is, and how lucky sphere is to have so many visuals in their new group. the showering of compliments led to kibum feeling confident and happy, even if it sounds shallow. he’s grown up since the time when he chased shallow validations like that, but that doesn’t mean he can’t appreciate them now. 

he met rachel at the height of that time, though, when his insecurities and anxieties overwhelmed him so much that he put up an overconfident front, to hide his anxieties from both the rest of the world and himself. it’s been over six years since he met rachel, back when he was so alone that he moved all the way around the world without leaving anyone behind. 

looking back, it seems like it was always inevitable for them to come together, but kibum still hates the way they fell apart. 

he can’t help but look for her now, knowing that she’s gotten a featured role in the music video, knowing that ironically enough, she’ll probably end up with more screentime than him. that doesn’t bother him as much as the fact that they’re still not on speaking terms, though. he’s lost count of how many times he’s clicked on her name in his phone, preparing to send a text about some funny thing one of the convex members said or did, before seeing the short, to-the-point messages they exchanged when seonho was in the hospital and remembering that she’s not there anymore -- not for him. 

they’d known they would have to break up. that’s the part that kills him -- they knew it was coming from the moment kibum entered sphere. it was building for six months before everything fell apart, but he never expected them to fall apart so horribly. after everything, even with all the stress they were under, he never thought things would get so bad. 

and now, over three months later, kibum can’t take it anymore. he misses rachel -- in a romantic sense, of course, but mostly just in a general sense. they were best friends long before they were ever anything romantic, and he sometimes wonders if their relationship is what led to them ending so disastrously. but regardless of what’s happened over the last year and a half, he can’t help but miss his best friend. 

so he approaches her when the makeup staff leaves her at her chair. there isn’t anyone else close enough to overhear them, but there are still people milling about -- convex members, other female trainees, and staff members move around everywhere, either waiting until filming starts or rushing around to try to get everything ready to film. nobody pays them the slightest bit of attention, though kibum does sweep his eyes over the room as he approaches, just to be sure. 

“hey,” he says, rubbing the back of his newly-blonde head with one hand, being careful not to mess up his carefully styled hair. “i, uh...” he swallows, suddenly unsure of what to say. i miss you sounds like too serious of a way to start out this conversation, and the last thing he wants is to fight with her again. “congrats on the featuring role,” he says after an awkward moment, looking into her eyes and trying to convey with his own a silent apology, trying to extend an olive branch without saying it aloud. 

even after everything, she’ll still be able to read him like a book, especially now, when he’s opened himself to the most private pages to let her see, to show her just how honest and sincere he’s trying to be. he doesn’t want to hide anything from her, doesn’t want anything else to come between them. 

@jihoonrk

kibum loves his debut song. 

now that he’s here learning and practicing it with his group members, he can finally allow himself to think about the petty things like this that have been on his mind for years, that he’s buried and brushed off because they’re useless to worry about, being so far off and completely unimaginable. 

now that he’s held the music in his hands -- now that he’s carrying it around everywhere and marking it up with notes and reminders like he never did in school -- he allows himself to revel a bit in the fact that it’s a great song. it’s always stuck in his head, and he spends a lot of his free time ( or at least, the closest thing to free time he gets anymore, which is usually just breaks between practice sessions ) mentally designing choreography for the song, moving gently through it as he whispers the lyrics to himself. he also tries to imagine how he would have to adjust his style to account for 13 dancers rather than just a handful -- it’s more people than he’s ever done a whole dance for, and it’s an interesting concept. 

( actually, he doesn’t expect to be given a chance to work on the choreography for the song. the thought never once crosses his mind. he’s really just doing this out of habit more than anything else. )

@rkwoohyun

more than anything else he could say for it, the dorm sphere has given them is small. so small, in fact, that kibum finds himself wondering repeatedly whether convex somehow ended up in the wrong place. there are thirteen of them, after all. thirteen boys, two ( also small ) bathrooms, and four bedrooms. and somehow kibum ends up in the only room with four people instead of three. 

he does his best to hide his discomfort as he moves in. it doesn’t take long -- he left most of his stuff at the apartment, and really just brought the essentials. he has enough training clothes and pajamas to last him a little over a week before he’ll be forced to do laundry, two sets of sheets and a comforter for his bed, all his necessary toiletries ( which, to be fair, is relatively a lot, as he considers some things necessary that others may not ), and his current journal. the last three volumes of personal journal are left at home -- he trusts them more there in rachel’s hands than here, where he’s crammed into too-small spaces of too-forced comfort with people he hardly knows. 

because no matter how hard he tried, there was no chance of him getting to know all twelve of the other convex members in the three months he trained with them before moving into this dorm. and sitting on his bed, unpacked and wishing he still had the distraction of organizing his things to keep his mind occupied, kibum stares at the bare walls around him, at the three other beds that occupy the room with him. and he mourns silently -- he mourns the way of life he’d let himself get used to, the sense of home that surrounded the apartment and the people there. 

@tenrk

in the couple of weeks since coming to sphere, kibum has learned quite a bit about everyone’s personalities, but particularly the other members of convex, who he’s been actively trying to get to know better. one of the first things he discovered about ten was that the younger seems to absolutely adore any form of skinship. kibum doesn’t mind, of course, being rather fond of physical affection himself, and while they’re still in the slow process of establishing boundaries with each other, it’s becoming increasingly clear that those boundaries may not even exist.

and so they walk through lotte world with ten hanging on kibum’s arm in the crowd -- walking close together and ten hanging on tightly as they move through the crowd towards whatever ten wants to do next. kibum, personally, enjoys lotte world, but doesn’t really have anything he’s dying to do here. he likes all the decorations, though -- he’s not one of those people that thinks that halloween should die immediately on november 1st, so here they are on the evening of the fourth, still surrounding by all the ~spooky~ decorations and employees in various costumes. 

they’re both private trainees, technically, but kibum knows that he could still be recognized, because as far as the public knows he’s still a royal trainee. so he wears a baseball cap and nondescript hoodie and jeans combo, kind of wishing he had thought to bring a face mask but trusting in the huge crowd to hide them. besides, he’s been out of the limelight for long enough that they should be okay. still, though, it never hurts to be cautious.