will you bloom like you always do?

“you would be a ghost,” gyumin replies somberly, using the same innocently self-important tone he uses to tease his hyungs — and the same one that used to infuriate solmi when they were both trainees. it’s sold by the look on his face, wide-eyed and open, and gyumin could really make a career in acting if all acting was was the ability to look innocent with a hand caught in a cookie jar. 

“i can definitely see you as one of those souls who moves on without making amends, destined to haunt earth for all of eternity. i’m pretty sure there’s a drama about this,” he continues to rhapsodize, dreamy-eyed with his hands clutched against his chest. he’s so into his own monologue that he doesn’t realize solmi’s plan of attack until it already happens, and his eyes are submerged into darkness. in the past, this would be the point where gyumin gets pissed off and sprints away to hide her hat somewhere that she’ll never find it. but now he simply says, “ah, you look much better like this,” with an easy smile on his face.

he adjusts the hat on his head, knowing that solmi could easily steal it back if she wants to. “want to walk to dinner together ?” he asks.

her eyes narrow just barely, his words running through her head. “hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” there’s a hint of a whine in her voice, though she adds it simply for show. solmi picks up on his tone, it’s effortless with gyumin and it makes her want to press all of his buttons. the face he managed to pull brought back the slightest bit of annoyance in her.

solmi approached the stereo system, pausing the song. her mind ran a million miles a minute as she bent over, hands pressed against her knees. she shouldn’t have eaten so much food with taehyun, shouldn’t have spent so much time in the arcade with yoosung, and good god did her legs ache from biking with seungyong. no matter what she tried she could not hit this one part. she wanted everything to be perfect for their comeback and she was fretting.

a woeful glance was given to her abandoned animal crossing game and then to the reason she was practicing. particle member yong hwan. 

she’s never sure how he does it. how he just slipped inside without alerting anyone that anything has changed. surely there’s a camera somewhere in the building that had caught it, but summit had never bothered to bring it up before, and she’s almost positive they won’t do it now. it’s spooky, and she’s sure if she ever attempted something like it she’d get kicked out immediately. -- though she wasn’t expecting him quite so soon. she’d about broken her gamecube controller when she tossed it out of her hands.

her eyes narrowed, and her words came out all squished together. “oppa please let me finish my letter to vanilla, i was telling her how cute she is.” finally she took another breath. “or can you at least not look so comfortable, pretend you’re in pain with me.” a pout painted her face. “ugh, remind me whose idea this was again? i feel like my legs are going to fall off. tell me your secrets.” the rookie idol remained bent over, giving hwan a sideways stare.

Tae laughed. He was hardly an expert, he simply did it because it was fun and it keep him distracted when there wasn’t much to do between schedules. At least they would do something fun that month, and Tae wouldn’t lie, he was excited to work with Chu. He thought it would be fun. When she called him oppa, Tae couldn’t help the blush that rushed to his cheeks, looking down a little to hide it. Some fans calling him like that, but it wasn’t the same. He just wasn’t used to girls calling him oppa, at least those who weren’t his very annoying little sister.

“It’s fine! I wasn’t winning anyway. I’m not as good as you think I am, I can assure you that. You were happy because you won, and that’s valid. I’m glad that you did.” He paused, realizing he was just speaking too fast to be normal. If he had to be honest, Tae didn’t expect to be recognized ever, especially since he never wore glasses on stage and tried not to during any video they filmed. It kinda made him like Clark Kent, who would hide his true identity behind his glasses, but people were smarter than that and he knew it.

“Um, yes, yes I do.” And of course he knew who she was, and he had never expected to find her here. In a city this big, it was certainly a very small world. It surprised him that she had recognized him, as he didn’t really think Legion was as popular. They knew each other from the chat they shared with other leaders, but they had never really talked that much other than the occasional comment. “And you with Summit Media,” he whispered just like she did, just to play along. “I see you’re a person of many talents. I’ve played many times, but I don’t really win at all.”

His laughter managed to widen her smile, at least he didn’t seem completely annoyed by her outburst - or her, for that matter. She really hadn’t meant to disturb him and finding that she’d been abandoned wasn’t surprising it was running into another idol that surprised her. And on top of that making him blush, though she seemed unfazed by it more focused on biting her own tongue and the blush that rushed to her cheeks.

“You weren’t winning?” She raised an eyebrow. “Then you look very good while you’re losing.” She wasn’t sure the wording of that was exactly how she meant it, and she hesitated. It wasn’t her intention to calling him good-looking and she quickly wondered if he would take it that way. Though it was true. “I mean, you didn’t look frustrated or anything. You seemed confident in what you’re doing. Though I suppose we’re all trained for that.” Solmi laughed softly, hoping she conveyed herself well enough. “Thank you, I think the computer cheats so it took me a while to really beat it.”

The rookie was surprised momentarily, that Taehyun of all people even knew of her. And then it clicked - no matter how quiet she was in the group chat surely the other leaders knew she was at least alive. It was strange to think that they all existed in their groups under the same title, yet they all seemed so different. “I thought so, and yes I am,” she continued with the hushed voice, leaning back against the motorcycle. “A-a person of many talents?” Solmi almost lost her balance at his words as she leaned too hard and the motorcycle swayed to the side. “Not me, I mean - Maybe...” It made her flustered, she wanted to accept compliments but she didn’t want to sound full of herself. There was a strange balance to all of this. “You must not have found your game yet. I’m sure there’s one here you’d be an expert at.”

Somehow she’s seated here in her workout clothes, peddling alongside the leader of Particle. She’s thoroughly impressed with herself, for somehow earning this and for the fact that she hasn’t run into him yet or cut him off. “Ah... Seungyong-ssi,” she made sure to stay clear of oppa after watching Taehyun just about keel over when she said it to him. “Thank you for inviting me to go biking with you, especially with how busy you are. It’s quite the adventure and it’s nice to be out of the dorms for a bit.” A bright smile appeared. “Are you enjoying yourself?”

It must have taken a while to find a quiet place, because the next thing she knew she was woken up by the gearshift sliding into park. She picked up her things and gave a quick thank you and goodbye to her staff before sliding out the door. Her arms raised above her head in a stretch as she walked, taking in the scenery. It was a beautiful park, and while there were people around she figured this was the best they could find. Solmi took a quick glance around, weighing her options as best she could. There’s a bench off to the side that probably wouldn’t gain her too much attention, only problem is it’s already occupied.

It takes a moment before she defeats the battle in her mind, making her way over. She turned on her leader persona and hoped for the best. “Do you mind if I sit here?” Her voice came out more confident than she expected it to and she appeared almost startled for a moment. “Or- or I can go somewhere else.” Solmi smiled a bit sheepishly. “I promise I won’t be a bother.”

once he gets over his initial split-second of panic over being approached by a stranger — and once he realizes the so-called stranger is none other than solmi — a wave of relief washes over him and he returns her bow, his a little lower than hers had been. she’s a year older, but he’s technically her sunbae, and while their trainee rivalry has long since faded, old habits die hard and he still can’t resist an opportunity to tease her.

“ah, solmi-ssi,” he says with a false air of formality. “i’m here to make sure you’re still alive. your members wanted to know if you’d be coming to dinner ? though i’m not sure how i became fantizy’s glorified manager.” he picks up her baseball cap off the ground and dusts it off, and places it atop his own hair. he sees his own reflection in a mirror-like backing of one of the claw machines, and adjusts the cap until it looks more or less styled. “ah, it suits me. matches my outfit, no less.”

oh good - now she really wishes she would have packed up and left twenty minutes ago. so she could dodge gyumin and avoid the questions that are sure to be tossed around at their dinner. she could hear the girls now ‘did you see him?’ and then he made it ten times worse by letting her know that he and her members had already spoken.

it’s late. probably far too late for jihu to be out and about, yet… here he is, roaming the streets at nearly two in the morning, despite manager’s plea to not stay up too terribly late. schedules were early the next day, but a restless huzy found himself walking aimlessly around the neighborhood of his shared residence. it’s deep into the night, jihu’s fear of the dark is running rampant, and the dim streetlights do an awful job of illuminating the sidewalk, so he trots with the flashlight of his phone turned on, aimed in front of him like the man on a mission he is… despite the lack of a mission to begin with. this idea was stupid, he thinks to himself, as a howling breeze blows by and suddenly he’s quivering, from cold or, frankly, the fear of being alone on this street, and he turns around abruptly to head the four-block walk home.

to ease his nerves, he starts singing. earbuds in, music turned up, vocals on. he hopes that maybe, just maybe, the demons or thugs or whatever is out to get him will hear his song and run instead. yeah, that’ll work. except it doesn’t, and as he rounds the corner he runs chest-first into a stranger. almost laughably, huzy lets out a loud whimper, one hand reaching into his pocket in case he had to throw his wallet and run– self defense 101, duh.

“don’t hurt me!” he whines, the still-lit cell phone flying out of his hand and onto the sidewalk as he raises it defensively. he knew in his soul the screen was shattered, but all he could really think about at this moment was not dying. “i’m an idol, they’ll look for you! just take my wallet!” and suddenly, the wallet is flying too, huzy’s eyes squeezed shut as he anticipates the worst.

she’s about seventy five percent sure she’s going to get scolded for this in the morning. but she’s hungry right that second, and with their fridge in the dorm recently being cleaned out there aren’t leftovers. but she had let the girls know where she was going, they were all still up playing games when she’d left. as long as she wasn’t gone for too long she was pretty sure things would be fine, they couldn’t tear the dorm apart while she was gone. could they? - though traveling an hour to get food wasn’t her brightest idea. plus she was sure she’d left her driver somewhere around here... maybe?

the thought bounced around her mind for only a moment before someone singing caught her attention. at this hour? were they practicing for something? a trainee? no, surely a trainee couldn’t be out this late. the singing is getting louder and she clutches her phone a bit tighter, ready to call staff or one of the girls if need be. her thought process is once again cut short, running head-first into someone.

she shook her head, trying to get her bearings as the flashlight just about blinded her before it hit the ground. his next exclamation almost makes her laugh, she watched as his wallet hit the ground. solmi picked both the wallet and his phone up, eyeing him. “shhhh, you don’t want everyone hearing that. then we really will get robbed.” she grabbed his arm, placing his things in his hand, making sure he had them held securely before letting go. “you should really put a screen protector on the next one. you okay?”

Tae never really did anything too exciting – he went to the movies, got food at the same Chinese place and sometimes he went to the arcade. Most of his time went to Legion and his leader duties, or to spend time with his hyungs, so he couldn’t say that any day was very much different than the other. It was good, he liked the routine. It made him feel safe. Too many things had happened and changed in the past few years, it was about time to enjoy the calm that came with some stability.

As focused as he was on his own game, he didn’t even see the group of girls that had filled the place, and even less when they left. Tae was too awkward for it anyway, he didn’t know how to talk to people, and he simply kept to himself most of the time because it was easier. His friendly nature only reached enough until he didn’t find the right words to say and acted like a real fool.

So when the happy shouting made him get distracted and lose his game, he finally looked up to see the girl that was on the motorcycle next to his. It was impossible not to smile at her little dance and how happy she looked, and he found it cute. Not that he would say it. No. He would never do anything that could make her feel uncomfortable.

“Oh… It’s fine! I-I was here and you won, so congratulations! I guess.” He rubbed the back of his neck in a nervous manner, as his other hand reached to lift his glasses that were slowly slipping off his nose. “You did great.”

She quickly picked up her hat, eyeing him as he spoke. Did she know him? Surely that couldn’t be so. Could it? Her internal dialogue continued to argue, contemplating just who was in front of her. Though the longer he spoke the quicker it clicked. Sitting there looking at her was Taehyun from Legion - better yet the leader of Legion. Suddenly putting on her hat back on her head had become the most difficult task in the world as she wondered why she had done what she had just done. There were only so many times she could fiddle with her hair before finally just leaving it alone, giving him a smile as she looked at him.

“Thank you, that means a lot coming from someone who looks like an expert.” She gestured to the game he was on, having kept an eye on the screen over her losing streak. “I’m sorry I shouted so loud oppa, you were doing really well.” Though the smile didn’t fade from her face as she stepped a bit closer. “You um...” Oh man, her brain felt like it was fried. Solmi looked around for a moment, trying to see who was near. She dropped her voice to just above a whisper. “You work with Atlas, yes?” Her eyes looked apologetic for even asking, especially in a place like this. At least this way she had about a 50/50 chance of not being completely wrong and being even more embarrassed than she already was. 

Yoosung wasn’t really sure how he had ended up in the arcade. The entire place was foreign to him — he had never stepped foot in a place like it before, and all the excited chatter almost made him feel overwhelmed. But at the same time, he was a kid in a candy store; because everything was new to him, everything was interesting. He took slow steps through the building, inquisitive eyes taking in every detail from the slot machines and vintage games to the prizes and neon decorations.

He had finally come to a halt near some kind of game that had something to do with a motorcycle. He didn’t understand it much, but the girl playing the game seemed like she was really into it, so it looked fun. He watched her with passive humor, silently rooting for her, but was taken aback when she suddenly turned around and was all but yelling at him excitedly.

As soon as he recognized her as a labelmate, he blinked a couple times, then laughed. “Oh. So what you’re saying is that you were disappointed when you turned around and saw me, instead of…. Well, whoever else. Is that it? I’m hurt, Solmi.” He took a few steps closer and then leaned down to pick her baseball cap up from the floor. “I was ready to cheer for you and everything, but I guess my happiness isn’t good enough.” He grinned as he placed the hat back on her head.

She blinked back at him, tilting her head to the side. It takes her a split second after he speaks the first time to register who she’s talking to. She’s more than happy he’s not a staff member, and overjoyed that he’s not a fan. Though she still quirked an eyebrow at him, holding her hands up in surrender. “I’m not happy that my members abandoned me. I’m not not happy that I have run into you instead, Yoosung.” A challenging grin appeared on her face.

And though her stomach continued to protest, she can eat whenever. Recently it’s a rare moment that she finds time to actually stop and do something with members other than her own. And she planned to take full advantage of it. Especially when he started like this with her.

Straightening the hat she looked up at him, “I’m terribly sorry if I’ve hurt your feelings.” She reached out to touch his arm lightly. “Horribly, horribly sorry. I would love to have you cheer for me.” Solmi laughed, leaning back on her heels and dropping her hand. “What are you doing here anyway, Yoosung? Shouldn’t you be at rehearsals or something? You’ve all seemed so busy recently.”

Of course they had left without her. She was taking too long.

yo hey what’s going on? I’m Brittany and this is my first kid here - she’s Mihn Solmi - the leader, lead vocalist, lead dancer and rapper of FANTIZY!! you are free to call her Sol or Mimi she will not mind either way I swear. under the cut you will find a few facts!! her bio is here and her public profile is here and the start of her private profile is here!! I’ve got a few plots/connections up here but I’ve seen a lot of you have some up (if you see my kid and think “hey, she’d fit” feel free to give me a shout), please feel free to message me here or on discord (britt#2368)  EDIT: this is now updated!!