besaea

[besaea]

"oh my god, i'm so glad i didn't have a public mental breakdown," she comments, and she can only imagine it had been worse for some of the other contestants. she had had a relatively easy ride through the competition, and had enjoyed every moment of it. it was one of the reasons that she thought she had the will to be able to do this, since she had enjoyed so much of what they had done on next gen and hadn't really struggled through it. compared to some of her friends that she had discussed this with.

she shakes her head, trying to imagine if there were cameras all the time filming them now, and she feels like it would be kind of motivating—in the sense that the coaches were always watching—but also terrifying, since everything they did was being watched. like, of course there was cctv, but that's different.

the idea of having good hiding spots is intriguing and saea is also easily baited so she leans in closer immediately, genuinely curious. "hiding spots? she echoes, lowering her voice as if they were discussing something taboo. "not that i would need that, but you never know right?"

besaea​:

YUJI ✨

     “at least it was good for something,” saea says with a laugh, a little bit surprised at what the other girl had said but she feels pretty good about it, to be the inspiration behind someone else improving themselves. it’s a nice thought, anf though she misses her busking team and her busking days, saea is pretty excited for what’s coming. hopefully giving up everything that she was used to would manifest her dreams coming true. hopefully.

     she twists open the bottle of water to take a sip, thankful for the gift from the other trainee and she’s feeling rather at peace, considering that she’s only been living this schedule for a few days but she doesn’t mind it much already. sure, the early hours were a bit grueling, but doing the same thing for next gen had sort of prepared her for this.

     “pretty good,” she answers the question honestly, and maybe it’s because she hadn’t been in school or anything that this feels like less of a sacrifice for her. she had given up busking and her job at the dance studio, but she’s doing what she wants to do for a career now so she can’t even be mad. “honestly, after next gen, it’s not that much different,” saea admits, shrugging and maybe she’s being a bit too nonchalant but that’s also just how she is in general. she’s always been the type to just go with the flow. “less cameras though, so i think that’s a win actually.”

“of course it was. you don’t like being inspiring?” she counters, though yuji’s tone is covered in playfulness. she does mean it though. and now that saea’s here, she’s sure that the other will be even more of a motivator to work on her dancing, even if she does nothing at all for yuji. just having talented people around always pushes at her to do better. 

yuji crosses her arms loosely, head cocking to the side as she listens. she gives an understanding hum. the atmospheres definitely don’t seem much different. “just the standard ones.” yuji jokes, cracking a smile. “i don’t know what i would do if there were camera’s around to catch my breakdowns.” not that there’s many– but under deadlines and evaluations, yuji’s only human. and humans crack under pressure. 

“you just have to worry about nagging instructors everyday. but it’s not too bad. especially if you know all the hiding spots.” which yuji is always happy to divulge. this is a tiring industry, full of ups and definitely more downs.

[besaea]

"damn, i wish i had time to do that too," she comments, sighing and she really does miss skating as often as she used to. next gen had sucked up all of her time and now that she's a trainee, she's not sure how many chances she'll get to board anymore. hopefully a bit more before the summer is over though, since she still has some free time on sundays.

as long as she doesn't hurt herself, she's technically still allowed to skateboard whenever she can.

she lets out a laugh when he pushes her shoulder, dramatically stumbling backwards as if he had really pushed her hard. "okay, okay, fine, let's take one right now then," saea teases, rolling her eyes playfully as if he had really twisted her arm for this. she reaches out to take his arm, tugging him closer so she can get them both in frame for the selfie. "also, you know, i guess it's survivor's guilt in a less intense way," she adds, trying to explain the weird feeling in her chest when it comes to how she had been chosen and a handful of her friends and favourite people had not. including stevie, of course.

she makes sure her board isn't rolling away or anything before she looks at the screen, grinning in a way that made her whisker dimples show up.

"on three okay?" she warns him, before she counts, trying her best not to move her mouth from the smile, and then also snaps about ten more pictures, the shutter sound going off a few times as she brings the phone closer and closer to their faces.

"god, these are terrible," she comments, her tone full of mirth as she looks through the blurry pictures she had taken.

besaea​:

fame < infamy

     “it’s my favourite picture of you,” she says solemnly, mock seriousness in her tone as she salutes at him. it’s a great thing to wake up to, considering the first thing she does in the morning is check her phone. maybe she’ll convince him to take a selfie with her to replace the picture—but at the same time, she doesn’t think anything could get better than this picture. one day she’ll use it in a powerpoint presentation or something, just to say that this is one of her best friends.

     the thought is an amusing one.

     his shriek pulls her out of any thoughts she has on a future powerpoint presentation of their friendhsip, not even sure when she would get to showcase that, and saea’s expression is fully alarmed as she reaches out to steady him, hands gripping at his shoulders in her panic. “oh my god,” she exclaims, expression going from worried to playfully annoyed in a second and she slaps his shoulder. “you almost gave me a heart attack.”

     she can understand though—it’s been a while for her too, but she hasn’t fallen yet. she sticks her tongue out at him playfully, “i was going to ask you to take a selfie with me for a new lockscreen but now i dunno if i want to.” she shakes her head, putting her foot on her skateboard and frowning slightly. “a bit,” she admits, knowing she could trust him with this. “i’ still kinda confused that i was chosen at all, ya know?”

stevie gives saea a long, incredulous stare, before barking out a laugh. “your favorite? when i have so many good ones…” he gives a heaving sigh, playful and dramatic, smile budding on the corner of his mouth. he’s not too torn up about it. as the sting of next gen fades away – it is pretty funny. he’s glad at the very least she can find humor in one of the most embarrassing and televised moments of his life. 

the scare of almost falling causes a rush of adrenaline to fuel through him. he gives a little laugh, sheepish at the sight of saea’s annoyance. “sorry– ouch!” he rubs at his shoulder, still shaking with amusement and adrenaline. “i wasn’t looking where my feet were going! dude, i’m still trying to regain my skating feet and not my dancing feet.” saea doesn’t need to know how many embarrassing crashes he had on his board the first week he was free from next gen. 

“huh? wait, what– you still can! what did i do?” he sputters out with a laugh, reaching out to gently shove a hand at her shoulder. as he steps back a bit (this time triple checking for his board– no more close calls!), going quiet when saea speaks up. his brows furrow, head tilting to the side. “what are you confused about?” stevie asks, scratching the side of his head. “you’re cool and fun! you’re nice! are you trying to fish for compliments?” he switches languages easily, lightly joking. “i mean– you did great all during it.” stevie hums in thought. he has no clue what makes companies decide who gets the contracts and who doesn’t– but saea had hit all the points they were having them focus on. 

[besaea]

ON TOUR moon saea explores the new axis labels building

when they're told about the merger, saea is genuinely surprised. she really hadn't thought anything would change after she had joined sr media, let alone having such a big change that affected all the trainees, and even the staff.

but getting a new building to explore is kind of fun, especially since it's so new. and big. she's honestly pretty amazed and is one of the ones ooh-ing and aah-ing over the place as the staff show them around. she takes note of the practice rooms and some of the recording studios, hoping that maybe one day she would get to be in that for a group that she's debuting under.

it's a far off dream, but maybe it's not so far off after all?

she kind of still feels like she's dreaming, if she's honest.

the axis building is beautiful and she'll admit that she's the most excited about the cafeteria after hearing some staff comment that the food was really good. she's not going to say that the food isn't good at sr media—because she's slowly started trying all the menu items, and someone of them are delicious—but getting a whole new menu is very, very exciting for her.

all in all, she's actually very excited to have this new building. especially because it meant she would get to see some of her friends more often.

[besaea]

GO, GO, LET US PUT ON A SHOW moon saea performs paint the town with @behyejin, @bechaeyeon & @noelxbe

the whole merger thing is kind of interesting for sea. considering she's only been in sr media for a few months before it, she wonders what's going to change over time. thankfully, the group is had been given is one with people she actually really likes.

chaeyeon had been one of the first people who had approached her when she first stepped into the building as a trainee, and noel and her had had fun during next gen, considering they had spent a good while accusing each other of being spies. and lastly, of course, hyejin was there and she always had a good time with her best friend.

honestly, this whole thing was great just because she got to spend more time with the older girl. it felt almost like when they were in the same group during next gen again.

but the difference now is that they have to be good, right? she has a feeling that they've all been thrown together like this so that the companies can assess who needs to work on what. she also wonders—despite knowing it's much too early for her—whether this will start determining who is going to debut. it's kind of fun for her to see how hard everyone is working and how serious they are, so saea knows she needs to as well.

the song they had chosen is one that saea already knows the dance to, though she's a bit rusty at it. it's different relearning it in a more technically point of view, considering how she originally learned dances was just for visual impact and to be able to interact with the crowd during busking.

ptt is a fun song and it's right up her alley when it comes to the image that she wants to give. that's why she had auditioned with a boy group song, after all. she had always considered her strength to be in boy group songs, but ptt had a similar vibe to the songs that she liked. hopefully, she wouldn't let anyone down.

she had gotten most of the rap parts, along with a few singing lines that she had asked for in hopes of showing that she really could do all three. she was already confidence in dance and in rap, and had currently been working on singing and this was the perfect opportunity for her to show it. chaeyeon got the high notes, of course, but saea had received one of the killing lines and she did her best to portray it the way that she thought it should be.

once the song is over, she holds the serious expression on her face until everyone else starts moving out of their ending poses and she bows and thanks everyone, pleased with how she had done. hopefully, she proved that she was doing well in her training.

[besaea]

YUJI ✨

even better. yuji listens to only a handful, so that’s a fact she’ll store away from the future. she knows where she’ll go again into the future. she cracks a small smile at the joke, huffing out a tired laugh. “i came to the right person then.” yuji muses, placing her hands on her hips. she lucked out.

she lets out a relieved sigh when saea moves to sit. “thank you,” she yuji shoots the other a grateful expression, turning around quickly to prepare. “my timing is off. i’m not sure if i’m skipping over a move or i’m just– overcompensating speed for the beat? i don’t know.” yuji huffs. she opens the original song on her phone and plays it from it’s speakers, squatting so she can set it down and move into position.

she waits until the chorus, and then steps into the beat, eyes watching her reflection for any missteps, while trying not to think too much about saea analyzing her. once she’s finished the chorus part, she pauses for a moment, catching her breath. yuji’s eyes catch saea’s in the mirror, head cocking to the side. “was i on beat?”

     she settles comfortably on the ground, or as comfortably as she can and she waits for yuji to set up everything to prepare to dance. she’s actually very impressed, if she’s honest, that the older girl came right up to her to ask for a second opinion. she’s not one to be super proud or anything, but she knows a lot of people who would rather die than ask someone else’s opinion on something. especially since she’s technically the newcomer in the whole training thing.

     once the song starts, saea pays close attention to every move that yuji does. it’s a song she knows well and one that she actually does know the dance to and she watches carefully to see where something might be going wrong.

     oh. she sees it.

     once the older trainee stops moving, they make eye contact in the mirror and saea is quick to get on her feet afterwards. “okay so at this part,” she demonstrates the move, “you’ve kinda blended two moves together quickly so you’re like. uh. half a beat fast,” she says, moving to stand properly. “if you do it like this,” she shows the moves slowed down and separate, “it’ll be better.”

[besaea]

     “honestly, i listen to almost all boy groups,” she admits with a laugh, and she stops what she’s doing to give the older girl her full attention. she likes yuji, glad that they had met all those months ago when saea was only a busker who was dreaming of one day standing on a stage. little did she know, she would get to participate in next gen and then also get signed into a company as a trainee. if someone had told her this a few months ago, she wouldn’t have believed them.

     yet here she was. once a fansite, now a trainee. insane.

     “and i know most of the recent choreography too,” saea adds, assuming that’s what yuji had wanted from her and she grins when she’s right. as a busker, she had tried her best to learn boy group choreography right when it dropped so she could be one of the first to perform it and hopefully be one of the first to upload a cover on youtube as well. 

     she moves closer to her friend, indicating that she’ll watch and she plops down onto the floor in front of the mirror. “tell me what you’re having trouble with and i’ll see if i can help?”

a starter for @besaea !! ( fast forward )

yuji feels like she has improved a little with dancing. at the very least she's a lot better than she was a year ago. that's progress-- progress she's proud of. though this evaluation makes her a little bit more aware of skill level, compared to her teammates. it forces yuji to drop a few more hours into dancing so she can keep up-- and that's okay. she's fine with that, especially if it helps the evaluation performance.

what she doesn't like is their song choice's dance level is a bit harder than yuji's used to. and it's a bit frustrating to her. she saves face with her teammates, but in the walls of sr media-- she doesn't hesitate to scowl at her reflection in the mirror. shoulders drooping with a sigh, she rakes a hand through her hair, and directs her attention to the saea.

"hey, do you like bxy?" she asks, turning around to face the other. she's not too familiar with their discography, much less their catalogue of performances and dance. "i need another set of eyes. i feel like i'm at my breaking point."

[besaea]

CHAEYEON ✨

oh. this girl seems like the excitable kind – chaeyeon resist her instinct; to blink at her, laugh through her nose and roll her eyes at that enthusiastic little yes please, and instead smiles back at her, giggling in what she hopes is a good natured, sincere way. sure, this girl, and everyone else too, are competition, but it’s in her best interest to be nice… and chaeyeon is trying to be nice, after all. these days, being mean has lost a lot of its fun. she’s determined to get to know these girls one way or another, and for the time being, the way is by actually trying to get to know them. 

chaeyeon shrugs, hums, and tilts her head to one side, then the other, knocking her thoughts back and forth. by nature, she’s more of a picker, a snacker, than a meal-eater, but since starting as a trainee chaeyeon has been forced to actually sit down and eat three proper meals a day. she’s taken her breakfast and lunch to-go a couple of times, but always finds herself too busy to eat them before dinner rolls around. 

“i stick to the salads most of the time,” she says, totally truthful. “there’s nice ones, with salmon and sesame. stuff like that. i haven’t tried any of the more… decadent offerings.” though, to be fair, there weren’t many of those. chaeyeon looks at saea carefully. “i’m chaeyeon by the way. rebecca. chaeyeon rebecca song. you’re saea, right?” a light, weightless laugh floats from her mouth, and she smiles at her with all the grace she can muster. “don’t worry. you’re the one who was on t.v. – i think everyone here knows your name. you can’t be expected to know absolutely everyone’s in return immediately.”

… though she is a little bit miffed that she’s the one who has to introduce herself. the whole time, chaeyeon continues cooling down with her stretches, though admittedly she’s a little lazy with them. she’ll stretch again before bed, so, like, whatever.

     “mmm, salads,” she repeats, nodding and trying her best not to sound too disappointed by what had been mentioned. it’s not that she’s against salads or anything—she just personally thinks there are so many more interesting foods to eat out there than just eating greens! there’s no reason to waste calories on something that isn’t delicious, obviously, and she’s hoping that chaeyeon will have something else to add. maybe some secret combination that is killer than no one would think of! or secret codes to get the cafeteria workers to serve her something else? who knows!

     when she doesn’t get any more insider knowledge of the cafeteria, saea doesn’t let it defeat her and only thinks that she will have to figure it out on her own. she had scouted out the meals on the menu and also what everyone else was eating around her. thankfully, the meal she had tried had been pretty good and she’s always had a good metabolism too so she’s not too worried. maybe she’ll be able to share the finds to chaeyeon in return in the future.

     “chaeyeon rebecca,” she repeats, doing her best to commit it to memory. to the point that it takes a moment for her to realize that the other girl had introduced herself with an english name and she perks up a bit. “were you born abroad?” she asks, curious, mostly because she definitely wouldn’t mind having someone else to speak english with. her brother doesn’t count, because he coddles her no matter what language she’s speaking in so she never knows whether she’s remembering all her grammar and stuff correctly.

     she feels a bit sheepish, a bit awkward in this conversation because she was on next gen. there’s a gap in knowledge between her and the other trainees and she would like to bridge that by getting to know them, and finding out what they knew about her. “my english name is charlotte! but most of my friends called me charlie when i lived ... not in seoul,” she ends the sentence a bit awkwardly, remembering she’s stayed at multiple places. “it’s nice to meet you!”

[besaea]

YUJI ✨

her smile twitches a bit, turning sheepish as saea accepts the bottle. “you caught me,” she admits, retracting her arms to cross them loosely, shifting her balance. it’s not information she’s privy into letting a lot of people know– even some of her closest friends she’s kept it quiet from. being a trainee doesn’t equal certainty after all, and it comes with expectations that yuji isn’t sure she meets quite yet. 

she laughs at the time mention. she does remember the event well, even if it was some time ago now; yuji had left feeling a lot more inspired and willing to be more proactive in dancing afterwards. “time flies,” she muses. “and hey, you guys and your instagram helped me get my own dancing prowess up.” it’s certainly not her best skill, but yuji’s at least confident enough to say she’s improved from before. there will always be room for improvement– but now that saea is here, yuji has more opportunities to learn too. it’s always better to learn when it’s with people you like, after all. saea’s well on her way to that for yuji. 

“how do you feel?” she asks, head cocking to the side. when yuji had first become a trainee, it had been a little bit of adjusting. with next gen, you at least get a taste before locking yourself in. “it’s a lot at first, but after a while…it gets a little monotonous.”

     “at least it was good for something,” saea says with a laugh, a little bit surprised at what the other girl had said but she feels pretty good about it, to be the inspiration behind someone else improving themselves. it’s a nice thought, anf though she misses her busking team and her busking days, saea is pretty excited for what’s coming. hopefully giving up everything that she was used to would manifest her dreams coming true. hopefully.

     she twists open the bottle of water to take a sip, thankful for the gift from the other trainee and she’s feeling rather at peace, considering that she’s only been living this schedule for a few days but she doesn’t mind it much already. sure, the early hours were a bit grueling, but doing the same thing for next gen had sort of prepared her for this.

     “pretty good,” she answers the question honestly, and maybe it’s because she hadn’t been in school or anything that this feels like less of a sacrifice for her. she had given up busking and her job at the dance studio, but she’s doing what she wants to do for a career now so she can’t even be mad. “honestly, after next gen, it’s not that much different,” saea admits, shrugging and maybe she’s being a bit too nonchalant but that’s also just how she is in general. she’s always been the type to just go with the flow. “less cameras though, so i think that’s a win actually.”

[besaea]

(220729) ryujin — sneakers

[besaea]

fame < infamy

STEVIE ✨

“no, i’m stevie.” he responds back, armed with a cheeky laugh and a dumb grin. he lets out a strangled noise at the tight hug, wiggling dramatically until she lets go of him. “freedom,” he sniffles, moving his board under his foot left to right slightly. he’s stretching out his arms when she continues, and he lets out a loud snort at the memory.

“dude, still?” he asks, incredulous and just slightly offended. he doesn’t really blame her though; he’d do the same thing if the roles were reversed. stevie pouts regardless. “people kept sending that to me on instagram…” infamous is definitely right. stevie didn’t gain any sort of contract or opportunity for performing or the like, but he certainly got attention of another sort. even if it’s more clowny than cool as he wanted. oh well. water under the bridge!

“it’s okay, though. i know you’re just in awe of my super skilled flexibilit–waah!” he cuts himself off with something similar to a squawk as he steps back, losing slight control of his board and his balance. he stumbles back, but thankfully doesn’t fall, thank god. his previous injuries have just finally healed and faded. “i’m good,” stevie flashes a thumbs up, a sheepish laugh as he pulls up his board. “just been a while.” he admits. 

"are you nervous?” stevie asks, curious. next gen was one thing but training is a completely different story. 

     “it’s my favourite picture of you,” she says solemnly, mock seriousness in her tone as she salutes at him. it’s a great thing to wake up to, considering the first thing she does in the morning is check her phone. maybe she’ll convince him to take a selfie with her to replace the picture—but at the same time, she doesn’t think anything could get better than this picture. one day she’ll use it in a powerpoint presentation or something, just to say that this is one of her best friends.

     the thought is an amusing one.

     his shriek pulls her out of any thoughts she has on a future powerpoint presentation of their friendhsip, not even sure when she would get to showcase that, and saea’s expression is fully alarmed as she reaches out to steady him, hands gripping at his shoulders in her panic. “oh my god,” she exclaims, expression going from worried to playfully annoyed in a second and she slaps his shoulder. “you almost gave me a heart attack.”

     she can understand though—it’s been a while for her too, but she hasn’t fallen yet. she sticks her tongue out at him playfully, “i was going to ask you to take a selfie with me for a new lockscreen but now i dunno if i want to.” she shakes her head, putting her foot on her skateboard and frowning slightly. “a bit,” she admits, knowing she could trust him with this. “i’ still kinda confused that i was chosen at all, ya know?”

[besaea]

[besaea]

     starting as a trainee was a little bit nervewracking for her. she had thought of asking her brother for advice, but had felt like that might be too mean and like she was rubbing it in his face or something. honestly, she probably would’ve given up her trainee contract offer to him if that was possible, since she knew this meant more to him than it did to her. hopefully it wouldn’t be too long before he gets a contract as well.

     for now though, she’s on her own.

     everyone has been nice so far, and she’s glad that she’s run into a few familiar faces at least. yuji, she had no idea was a trainee and had been pleasantly surprised considering the circumstances that they had met under. and of course, nayoung was here but saea wouldn’t really consider them friends either. she kind of wishes that she had hyejin with her, but she has to be a big girl and take this head on on her own. 

     she hadn’t realized that they would have required gym sessions, and had been somewhat surprised when she had been looking at the schedule she had been handed. it’s a bit interesting, but she’s been doing her best to remember where everything is and where she needs to go at what time. she’s sticking on her own right now, if only because the trainees who were already there seemed to be a bit wary of the newcomers, and she’s pleasantly surprised when one of the girls approaches her during the cool down time as she’s doing some stretches. 

     “yes please!” saea replies, trying not to sound too enthusiastic. don’t get her wrong, she’s absolutely ecstatic that someone had approached her in the midst of her weird shyness. “do you have any reccs for food? i was scouting at lunch but i have no idea what’s good.”

brand new girl  /  a belated closed starter for @besaea !

so, this was the new girl. there was the other one too, nayoung, but this saea girl was real fresh meat. from her position on the elliptical during their seven p.m. gym time, chaeyeon did her best to subtly size her up. she’d already introduced herself, but she didn’t have a clear read on her just yet.

she seemed nice. like, normal. chaeyeon could definitely handle nice and normal. 

despite her recently acquired permanent trainee status, and the freshly dry ink that meant sr media was stuck with her for another year at minimum, the arrival of the next gen winners – primarily the girls, of course – still had her feeling a little bit shaken up. the worst part of it all was their public status. when would she be bumped up? they, like the rest of the next gen participants, even the ones who hadn’t won anything, already had fans anticipating their debut and she was still some nobody… some nobody who was definitely overthinking. chaeyeon sighed and focused back in on herself. 

at the end of their gym session, chaeyeon dropped her weights unceremoniously back onto the rack, threw her head back and groaned at the ceiling. she hated the strength training part of their company mandated workout, but the next part, their cool down time, was her favourite. maybe her muscles needed some work to recuperate, but chaeyeon had managed to retain her ballet flexibility.

chaeyeon strategically lowered herself onto the yoga mat next to saea and started stretching out her muscles.

“hey,” she said, from above the arm stretched across her chest. “you wanna sit together at dinner?”

how schoolkid can this shit get?

[besaea]

     she’s not sure she’s ready for this. as a public trainee, it’s probably likely that there will be a bit more scrutiny on her than some of the private trainees and she doesn’t even know if anyone she knows is there. she’s curious, really, to know if anyone she knew had been keeping a secret from her all this time or not. it’s kind of fun, she thinks, and after the initial introduction to the company before being set free to their schedules, saea doesn’t have too much time to scrutinize the trainees around her. 

     shy isn’t a word she ever would’ve considered herself as, but she does feel a little bit out of her element and therefore had pulled back a bit, wanting to focus on the lessons before making friends.

     when her eyes meet yuji’s, with a water bottle extended towards her nonetheless, saea can’t help but let out a soft laugh, feeling like she had been suddenly transported back a few months into the past. “were you a trainee this whole time?” saea asks, taking the water bottle with a smile and untwisting the cap to take a sip. “i feel like it was just yesterday that you asked me for our instagram!”

a starter for @besaea !!    ( all this effort to make it look effortless )

with the finale of next gen up, it becomes a waiting game. each morning is spent scanning over the familiar faces of her training group to see any new ones. she’s unnecessarily tense about it– but change is happening and yuji has to be ready for it. even though she knows all of them, some way or another– the appearance of them instills a sort of prickly feel in her that won’t go away until the wait is over.

and she doesn’t wait long at all. the new additions faces are some of the first she sees in the morning– but she waits until long into the day to garner up the courage to approach. when her mind is more awake, her thoughts more in order; when there’s a bit of a moment to breathe between lessons. approaching sarang is easy enough, comfortable and familiar. 

the girls are a little more difficult for her– just in the nature of the training atmosphere and yuji’s overthinking mind of a potential debut on the rise. but in the end, yuji decides to go with saea first. comes up to her slowly in the lull of things and holds an extra water bottle out to her, reminiscent of the first time they met. “isn’t this a small world,” she muses, offering a small smile when their eyes meet. “hi. congrats on your contract.”

[besaea]

     with the results of next gen coming out, saea has technically signed her life away. she’s not too sure about how she had ended up with a contract but her brother didn’t, and some of her friends had been eliminated. everything that had happened in the last couple months had been a wild ride, both physical and emotional. she’s glad she hadn’t really had too much to stress over, but seeing stevie get eliminated had been a big thing for her and she’s still a bit sad about it.

     they had decided to meet at the skate park and honestly, saea is glad they’re doing this before her time is monopolized by training. she’s a little bit worried, but she hopes she’ll still be able to make time to see her friends outside of training. 

     the obnoxious horn blaring in her direction shakes her out of her thoughts, and she whips her head around in surprise before a grin appears on her lips when she sees her friend. “you’re so annoying,” she manages to say before she returns the hug, squeezing him extra tight just to be annoying.

      “i mean, i feel like you’re just as famous? maybe infamous?” she teases, stepping on the edge of her board to grab it. “your leg thing is still my lockscreen.”

fame < infamy

     < a starter w. @besaea >

next gen’s over. done and gone– which means half of his friends are released from mnet’s clutches so he can actually see them again. the catch is that some are going to be signed. which is a whole other type of dungeon that stevie knows will take up most, if not all of their time. 

so naturally, the moment he can monopolize saea’s time, he does. as he rides up to the skatepark on board, he’s got one of those little party streamer horn things in his mouth, and once he rolls up close enough to saea, he blow it at her, the little think honking out annoyingly as he grins around it. 

“congrats on your epic win.” he braces one foot on the ground as he comes to a stop, plucking the little party toy out of his mouth. “and you signing your life away.” he tacks on cheekily, reaching out to wrap an arm around her shoulders in a brief hug. he makes a sharp inhale, and then croaks out in a trembling, watery voice (that sounds more like laughter than anything else), “i’m gonna miss you~” he fake sobs. “remember me when you’re famous.”

[besaea]

COME OUT, COME OUT, WHEREVER YOU ARE moon saea performing tales of the unusual with @bejinyoung, @bejoomi & @behyejin

     she really loves this last song she had gotten for next gen. it feels like a really great finale song, even if they’re also going to be performing my turn together for the first time since the mcountdown performance.

     it’s exciting and she’s super hype for it. especially since she had enjoyed her team for this song. she was with a bunch of her good friends and she had made a good friend in joomi too. it was nice, she thinks, and this all rounds out in a good way for her.

     no matter how this goes for her, saea is proud of herself and she had had a great time on this show.

     perhaps it wasn’t the right way to think about it, but she had really just had a lot of fun on the show. she had met some of her old friends, and she had actually ended up making a lot of new friends. she wasn’t even mad about her ranking dropping, if she’s honest. part of her thought that she hadn’t really deserved getting that high of a rank, when being compared to a lot of the others who were more talented and also probably better at rapping and singing and dancing. and had more experience.

     it didn’t escape her notice that she was the youngest on the show, and that just meant that she had a lot to prove right? after hearing that her brother had helped with the outfits in the frost performance, she couldn’t help but want to contribute a bit to the tales of the unusual performance. she loved the parts that she had and she wanted to show that she could do well with all these different concepts too.

     it’s fun getting into costume for this performance and when she puts in the white contacts and looks into the mirror, saea can’t help the grin that spreads across her lips. she goes to accost all of her teammates to take selfies with her, making creepy faces and even cute ones just for the fun juxtaposition.

     once it’s time to get on stage though, she gets serious. this is the final performance of the entire show and she knows she has to do well. she had been practicing hard, when she wasn’t thinking about contacts and bloody art, and she feels confident. she likes the lines that she has too, having been practicing many facial expressions in the mirror. 

     hopefully it’s not so creepy that they scare kids or anything though.

     that’s not a worry that’s at the forefront of her mind for very long though, and she loses herself in the whole vibe of the performance. all her lines are fun, and she delivers them in a half-singing tone, to try to get the whole thing to be slightly creepy, vaguely off-putting. the children songs that are put into the song add to that and she really hopes that their team does well with the concept.

     she hopes that the judges appreciate the added touches they gave to the song, and when the song comes to an end she’s breathing hard but she feels very proud of her team. 

     they did it. and now onto the results.

[besaea]

— snack coincidence

JOOMI ✨

it’s all almost over.

honestly, joomi is ready to go back to his regular life; for the most part. somehow, he suspects, thanks to next gen, his life will never quite be the same again in one way or another, but hopefully it’s a good change. 

regardless, he’s tired and relieved and maybe, for some reason, a little sad, all at once. he made more friends here than he ever thought possible, and found encouragement and support here even when he was sure he didn’t deserve it. he hopes it’s all something he can carry with him going forward.

he tries not to think about winning at the end of this, because he’s pretty sure he doesn’t want to be a trainee. instead, he just focuses on the upcoming performance, because he still wants to do his best, if only for the others in this group who seem to want this greatly.

on the last day, joomi figures it’s worth celebrating. maybe he should’ve brought healthy snacks to give the team energy, but instead…he bought cookies. now that he has them, though, he’s overthinking it: what if nobody likes these cookies and it’s all a waste?

at least he tried.

he keeps them carefully tucked away in his practice bag, hoping they won’t be crushed, and during break, he’s ready to unveil them, until––

saea has a cake. that’s far more impressive and elaborate than cookies. he considers just taking them home for a moment, but he honestly doesn’t want to eat all of these himself and his roommate doesn’t deserve cookies, so he might as well offer them.

he pulls them out of his bag, then holds them out, laughing, more nervously than anything else. “i also brought something sweet? so i guess it’s a party.”

     “ooooh cookies!” saea cheers, and she thinks this was a great idea, surprised and pleased that joomi had also brought a snack. it’s always more fun when there’s more food and she’s not going to say no to more sweets, even if her sweet tooth isn’t as out of control as it used to be when she was a kid. she remembers being banned from eating sweets as a punishment instead of being grounded or anything. that had been the worst. 

     but now she’s an adult with adult money so that means that she eats more sweets when she wants to, and is better at portioning and controlling herself. of course, that doesn’t mean that she’s not going to eat cake and cookies right now.

     “we should grab water from the water machine maybe ... unless someone brought drinks?” saea asks playfully, looking around at the other teammates and then even at the staff, placing her hands on her hips as if waiting. it’s a joke, but she thinks she’ll miss the different staff that were always around, having chatted with a few of them when she wasn’t busy practicing.

     she’s still hoping that she’ll be signed and she’ll have a chance to work with these people more often. maybe she’ll get the chance to be signed, but she’s not really holding out hope for it. if it happens, or if it doesn’t, saea is just happy to have gotten the chance to be on the show. 

     “let’s dig in!”

[besaea]

— unusual

HYEJIN ✨

since they were having a break, hyejin found herself fiddling with her bag to pull out something to snack on. not that she needed to, just wanted something to occupy herself with as well as hold her over before getting real food. the choreography has been fun to learn and she already adores the creepy vibes she’s getting from the song. makes her eager to see what cool concepts they’d have for the performance.

perking up and turning to saea, she instantly goes over. her eyes are curious and wondering what the other female wants to tell her. she had ideas when it came to their song but she was almost certain that her best friend would have some she’d fully agree with. besides she doesn’t remember the last time she dressed up to fit a performance so she wants to do so now.

listening intently, she nods her head to show that she hears every word. “yeah, i’m right with you on that. it might be hard for them to wear even if they’d fit the creepy vibe. something easier to wear would definitely be best.” she muddles over the words as she finds herself glancing at the other female’s phone some.

“ooo, red and white ones would be too perfect. i love the idea of wearing them for the performance. they’d give off that creepiness we want. that’s a great idea! definitely up for doing that with the contacts. i think so too, it will work perfectly for our song.”

     she’s always grateful to hyejin for listening to her when she has something to say, considering that she’s often the youngest in a lot of circles and sometimes people don’t take her seriously. flashbacks to the first episode of next gen where they had given her little baby sounds whenever she had appeared. she doesn’t mind it, actually, it had been cute to watch and she has to admit maybe she’s been playing up the fact that she’s the youngest since then.

     and then she can’t help but be super excited right now, the ideas coming to mind and she hasn’t been able to think about the choreo during this break if only because she’s been so stuck on the idea of the contacts. “right? even if we mixed it up maybe, we’ll have to talk to joomi and jinyoung and see if they’re okay with wearing contacts ...”

      trailing off, saea can’t help but think about what other ways they could make this performance as creepy as possible without making it too scary. “maybe we could do some bloody makeup ... is that too much?”

      she’s not too sure about that second suggestion and she wonders if she can meet with the stylists beforehand and discuss a little bit about the makeup. actually, she should probably talk with the rest of the group first, but she does think that the contacts at least would make anything they wear a lot creepier.