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soramei · 3 years

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Intentional - Part 1

Pairing: Bang Chan x Reader (she/her)

Summary: Landing your first real job at JYPE was something short of a miracle. You were prepared to face the new struggles of this elusive career whilst moving to a new country, however, nothing could have prepared you for him. Will stolen glances, secret touches, and hushed nights spent in the recording room ever be enough for the both of you?

Genre: idol!bang chan au, forbidden relationship, coworkers to eventual lovers, slow burn

Warnings: none right now, eventual smut,

Word Count: 7.3k

Masterlist

A/N: hey yall this is my first ff im posting on tumblr :D im kinda scared to post but i hope anybody who stumbles on lil ol’ me will join me along the way :) also important!!! i made oc/reader asian cus i am lol (and this whole thing is basically a glorified self insert) so plz keep this in mind when reading!! oh god i didnt realize how slow this first part was sry...

The cold silence of the room felt like stabs at your inside. You commanded your feet to stop bouncing up and down as you unconsciously started to bite off the dead skin of your bottom lip. The white corporate light from above reflected off your brand new lanyard hanging delicately from your neck. You felt the coarse blue fabric rub against your neck as you mindlessly fiddled with your lanyard; the newly printed photo of your face stared back at you with a smile.

The creak of the door to your left was what broke you from your nervous fidgets. Whipping your head up from your lanyard, you immediately stood up ready to bow to whoever came through that door.

It was a girl. She looked around the same age as you, if not older. Her attire was what gave her away. Her appearance essentially mirrored yours: hair tied back into a ponytail with a white blouse and black work pants. She also had the familiar blue ‘JYPE’ labeled strap hanging from her neck.

��Hello,” you spoke meekly, scared to disturb the cold silence that had a hold on the room you were in.

“Hello,” she replied. “My name is Choi Na-eun, I’m the new social media strategist intern and today is my first day.”

This is so relieving, you thought, another newbie to share the stress with me.

“This is my first day too,” you perked up, “I’ll be starting as the new junior Chinese marketing assistant.”

Getting the acceptance email from JYP Entertainment was definitely a high point in your life. The feeling of butterflies swarming your insides as you clicked the email open only to see your acceptance was immediately locked as a core memory. All the years of memorizing thousands of Korean and English vocabulary flashcards, the panic attacks before your finance exams, and the many, many late night coffee breaks were worth it the moment you received your first legitimate job offer, and from the esteemed JYP Entertainment company no less.

“Chinese marketing?” Na-eun asked. “So you aren’t from here, I take it.”

You shook your head. “I am from China. I completed my degree a while ago with a major in Language and a minor in Business. To be honest, I’ve done internships back home, but it’s been my dream to move to a new country.”

All of what you said was true. Up until now, your surroundings have never changed in all of your twenty-three years living. From the walk with your grandmother to daycare to the vast campus of your university, the view of your city has never changed. Your social circle stayed stagnant since you were able to talk and your love life was — for a lack of a better word — uneventful.

It wasn’t until the day you decided to start applying for careers outside your home country that you felt hopeful. Hopeful that you could find an escape from your inert lifestyle and escape the burnout and stress that has been building up over the years. And so, on a day when you were feeling unusually confident, you gathered up the courage and spent hours sending out applications to organizations all over Asia that pertained to your specific degree. The applications were mainly for small jobs at small companies, however, your strange spike of motivation gave you the confidence to apply to the everso esteemed JYP Entertainment located in Korea. Of course you knew about this company — you and your friends played songs by ‘Twice’ nonstop back in highschool — but you didn’t realize the full power that this company had on the entertainment market until you did your full research. To say that you thought you had no chance was an understatement. This application was so far of a reach that you purposefully forced your mind to erase all memory of even applying.

However, with your education, your work experience, and whatever tiny bit of luck you had, you somehow made it through the initial application process. Then the next. And the next. Then the interview. And now, you were nervously sitting in this white painted room with Na-eun, in a completely new country, waiting for your manager to come greet you.

“So you’re from China? You’ve got to teach me chinese sometime.” Na-eun smiled.

You giggled in return while nodding your head. You were relieved that you’ve met a potential friend so early in your career in this company. This was one of your big worries. With your social circle being so stagnant for the majority of your life back in China, you rarely had the opportunity to meet new people, much less make new friends.

You were about to inquire more into Na-eun’s life when the door to your left abruptly opened. In the blink of an eye, three new people strutted in — two women and one man. They seemed to be higher status than you and Na-eun judging by their attire. All three were styled in some type of blazer and dress pants and there was no lanyard to be found on any of them.

“Hello new employees,” the man greeted. Judging by his face, he looked to be in his late thirties at the least. His hair was styled back neatly and his lips slanted up, giving him a fox-like appearance. “I am Executive Manager Kim. Joined beside me on the left is Social Media Manager An and to my right is Marketing Manager Chen.”

Both you and Na-eun immediately stood up to bow and introduce yourselves.

“Hello. My name is Choi Na-eun, I’m the new social media strategist intern.” Na-eun said.

“Hello. My name is y/n, I’m the new junior Chinese marketing assistant.” You repeated after her, copying exactly what she said. You did not want to screw anything up on your first day, especially your first impression.

Manager Kim reached over to Na-eun, introducing himself and giving her a firm handshake. He then slowly moved over to you, and reached for your hand.

“Y/n,” he gave time for your name to settle on his tongue as he gave a sly smile. “You’re not from here, aren't you?”

You shook your head ‘no’. “No, sir. I’m from China where I studied language and business. I hope to do well here as the Chinese marketing assistant.” You replied, mentally cursing yourself for sounding so timid.

“I’m glad to hear,” Manager Kim chuckled, “I’m sure you’ll treat me and your other managers well.”

You felt an uncomfortable shiver pass through you as he brushed his thumb along your hand before letting go. This feeling was excused as nervousness, after all, this was your first day and your first time meeting your higher-ups.

You introduced yourself to Manager Chen, assuming that she would be the one you were to assist in your time here at JYPE. Judging by her last name, you presumed that she was Chinese as well.

“Forgive me for being so straight up Manager Chen, but are you Chinese?” You asked.

“That is alright, y/n,” she smiled, “I’m not. My Husband is, but I’ve lived in China for more than half my life. I don’t want to brag, but my mandarin has gotten proficient over the past decade or so.”

Proficient? It’s amazing. You thought. This first day was turning out better than you thought. Other than the weird feeling you received from Manager Kim, everything was turning out splendid. A potential friend and a manager that could speak your first language.

“Since it’s about noon right now,” Manager Kim took a look at his watch, “What do you all think about some lunch?”

The other managers nod their heads in agreement and gestures for you and Na-eun to follow them out of the waiting room you were in for so long.

The whole building seemed so clean. With every corner lit, by natural light or artificial light, you could clearly see that every room, every piece of furniture and decor had been purposefully placed. You couldn’t help but have a stupid look of awe plastered on your face as you mindlessly follow your superiors over to the cafeteria.

You turned your head over to Na-eun and gave her a tilt of the eyebrow, silently saying wow, this is where we work.

With the turn of a corner and several silent strides, your little group made it to the cafeteria.

The difference between your claustrophobic waiting room and this vast room was astonishing. With countless tables and romantic yellow lighting, this place almost resembled a five star restaurant. You’ve never seen a cafeteria as extravagant and clean as this before. However, to be fair, you’ve never had the experience of working with such a large corporation before.

The managers led you to the serving station where you grabbed yourself a tray and proceeded to spoon small portions of rice and side dishes onto your plate. This cuisine was different to what you were used to, but nonetheless looked delicious. You were prepared for the small cultural differences, especially with the food, but from everything you’ve witnessed so far, the culture shock would be easier to overcome than what you’ve anticipated.

“Have this soup y/n,” Manager Kim’s grating voice came from in front of you, interrupting your inner monologue. “It’s good for your complexion.”

As Manager Kim hands over the bowl of soup, you feel the sleeve of his blazer brush up against your shoulder, causing the pit of your stomach to drop.

First day nerves. That was what this feeling was. You thought.

You quietly thanked him with a small nod and walked briskly from the service line, trying to find where Na-eun went with the other two managers. Thankfully, they were just a step away and you quickly made your way over to the comfortable spot beside Na-eun. She gave you a small grin and you both followed your way to a table right in the middle of the room.

Soon, all five chairs of the table got filled and sounds of chopsticks tapping and scraping against plates and bowls filled your ears. An awkward silence dominates your table as you start to pick at your food.

“So,” Manager Chen cleared her throat, “after lunch I was thinking we should go to a meeting room and discuss Miss. Y/n’s role in our new project.”

“I was thinking the same for our new Intern Choi.” Manager An cut in, “What do you think, Manager Kim?”

“It all sounds good. I will be accompanying Manager Chen to her meeting room as I wish to also further discuss the preliminary steps for our project.” Manager Kim looked from Manager Chen over to you.

“Project?” You ask.

“We’ve had a very successful year with our idol groups and we wanted to ride this success and start marketing in China. Recently, we’ve noticed a very large and growing Chinese audience for this group. I’m sure you’re very curious now, however we can discuss further details once we are in the meeting room.” Manager Chen replies while taking a sip of the water in her glass.

Manager Chen appeared to be a very professional and respectable woman. With prominent collarbones and wide shoulders, she easily looked the part of a confident and adored manager. She needed minimal makeup to highlight her tall cheekbones, and even with a short heel on her feet she seemed to tower over you. However, her warm and comforting voice was what broke her intimidating demeanour. Just listening to her voice felt like you were back in your high school classroom with your favourite teacher explaining the motif of a sad love poem.

After some more awkward conversations mixed with a few work discussions, the five of you finished the delicious food on your trays.

“Please excuse me whilst I head to the restroom” Na-eun spoke up after your group finished clearing the table.

“Please excuse me as well.” You quickly followed, bowing as you both ventured off to the washrooms.

I should get her number so I’m not completely a loner in this place, you thought to yourself. And so, after a quick inner struggle to speak up, you finally decided to ask.

“Hey, should we exchange contacts? I don’t wanna look like the newbie eating in the cafeteria alone after today.” You chuckled.

“Totally!” Na-eun beamed. “I was actually thinking the same thing…”

And so, you both quickly exchanged each other's contact as you made your way to the restrooms.

The hall of the washrooms were narrow, hidden away from the main cafeteria. You walked in, deciding you only wanted to retouch your hair and makeup before your first official meeting. You carefully fix the loose hairs that somehow escaped the confines of your elastic and dab on a fresh layer of foundation before applying your lipstick which rubbed off while eating. Looking over at Na-eun, you see she’s quite in the zone redoing her mascara.

“Hey, I’ll just wait for you in the hall.” You said.

Na-eun gave you a disinterested nod back as she kept focusing on her mascara.

You walked to the end of the hall, leaned against the wall, and pulled out your phone. Smiling, you opened the virtual Tamagotchi app and saw your little friend staring back at you, bouncing up and down. The bundle of virtual pixels happily bounced as you fed and bathed it, making you happier in return. Playing this game, you were so entranced with your phone that the abrupt closing of the washroom doors broke you out of your hypnosis fast, causing you to flinch and drop your phone.

You looked up, only to see a brown haired man wearing a long sleeved black shirt. The hem of his sleeve fell, covering his hand as he bent down to pick up your phone. He stood back up, fully facing you now and you immediately recognized who he was. You weren’t a fool, of course you did all your research on the artists of JYPE before applying for the job. Looking down at you right now, holding your phone in his hand, was Bang Chan of Stray Kids.

The wispy tufts of his brown hair bounced over his forehead as he stepped over to you. He smiled, his dimple poking out of his cheek, and handed your phone back to you. “I think you dropped this.”

Blushing tomato red, you embarrassingly accepted the phone, trying not to make your shaking hands noticeable. It seemed like that failed, however, as you noticed him glance at your hands and dimple grow deeper.

“Thank you.” You meekly chirped and lowered your head, still in awe that you somehow bumped into a JYPE idol in the bathroom hallway of a cafeteria.

“It’s good that there’s no cracks.” Bang Chan said, looking in your eyes.

You looked back into his eyes. His smile never left his face, and you physically felt the warmth radiating off his body like rays from the sun. Some boring, objective part of your brain knew this interaction only lasted a fraction of a second, but you swore that time froze.

“Hyung!” A distant voice called.

Your trance was broken as Bang Chan looked over to the person calling his name. He turned back to you, politely bowed, and casually sauntered over to the man who called him.

What just happened? Your inner monologue ran, still trying to process the embarrassing interaction. The scent of his cologne lingered, swirling the atmosphere around your body.

Thankfully, you didn’t have too much time to dwell on this interaction as Na-eun finally opened the washroom doors and was making her way toward you.

You and Na-eun trailed behind the managers until you reached the set of elevators. It was there where you had to unfortunately separate from your comfort work buddy as she hopped in the elevator across from yours with Manager An. The other two managers led you to the elevator at the end and pressed the button for your destination floor. The ride in the elevator was silent. You stood there, fiddling with your nails.

Once the elevator gave the ding of arrival, the three of you headed down a hall where you presumed had the meeting room.

Manager Kim took a look at the watch on his wrist. “We are a minute late, everybody should be there already. Enter silently and respectfully.” He said in a stern voice.

You reached the frosted glass door of the meeting room and entered through the already opened door. The managers followed behind you with Manager Chen being the last one in and closing the door.

Your eyes widened at whom you saw.

There was Bang Chan, who sat in all his glory, staring right into your eyes with his mouth ajar. His shocked expression didn't last long, however, as he quickly composed himself to fit with the professional atmosphere of this room.

But why was he here? You thought. He’s an artist, isn’t this a management meeting?

Your inner monologue was broken by Manager Kim’s stern voice. “Y/n, why don’t you sit with me for today?” He asked with a slight tilt of the lips. His hand was hovering above your back, almost guiding you to the seat just right of the head chair.

Your heart rate quickened. There was no way that you could handle sitting right beside a high position manager on your first day. You barely knew what your duties entailed, you definitely could not handle the pressure of this seat today. You whipped your head around to look for Manager Chen. She was already sitting in her seat, looking like she was right at home.

“Manager Kim, if you don’t mind, I would like to sit in this position for today, '' a voice spoke up, “I have a lot of new ideas I’d like to share that are written in my notes.”

Bang Chan.

He paused a brief second, eyes switching between you and Manager Kim, and raised his iPad to show the screen filled with words.

“I don’t mind at all, go ahead.” Manager Kim monotonously replied. He then made his way to the head chair.

You looked over at Bang Chan, trying to subtly send the most grateful facial expression over to him. He returned your look, slightly grinning as his fingers tapped on the screen of his iPad and sat down to the right of Manager Kim. You looked over to see Manager Chen gesturing you to sit in the chair beside her and swiftly made your way over. At your seat, she handed you a notepad and pen, both adorned with the JYPE logo.

“Now, as of 1:02 p.m., September first, the meeting will officially begin.” Manager Kim clasped his hands together on top of the table. “As most of you already know, we are in the preliminary stages of planning a Chinese debut for our artist group ‘Stray Kids’. All we have right now is the estimated timeline, which is four months. We have a basic grasp of the concept we are working towards, however, as you all know, trends are always changing and growing. While we are working to create a new and original concept for Stray Kids, we also want the concept to gather as much audience reception as possible.”

Wow. That was a lot to take in. Your hands struggled to keep up with writing down what Manager Kim was saying. You knew this relatively new group was really starting to explode in the past year, but a debut in another country? This group must work really hard to even have the company consider a step as risky as this. So this is why Bang Chan is also involved in this meeting.

You peaked your head up from your notepad. Bang Chan sat across from you, one hand on his chin and the other one holding the pen to his tablet.

Manager Kim then carefully discussed the duties that each group in the room would take. Many of the jobs were directly involved with developing the concept itself, such as producing music, concept art, and theme development. Your pen never took a break from gliding on the notepad as you hurriedly jotted down everything that Manager Kim said.

Eventually, Manager Kim’s delegations moved to Manager Chen. “Manager Chen, I’ll let you take over from here.”

“Thank you Manager Kim,” Manager Chen cleared her throat. “While my main job here was to market Korean comebacks towards the Chinese audience, this new project changes things up a bit. Now, not only will I be in charge of marketing to the Chinese audience, but I will also be directly in charge of the concept itself. I will be working carefully with our team in China to monitor the trends which we can incorporate into our debut.

“This is my new assistant, y/n,” She turned and gestured to you. You politely nodded your head. “She will be gathering information on useful trends and reporting back to me, as well as some translating. Please report any ideas that you deem useful to her by the end of every week for her to sort through and deliver to me.”

You almost want to call Manager Chen crazy for giving you so much power, after all, you were only starting out as her assistant. Despite this, however, you were determined to go above and beyond with the new responsibilities given to you, after all, you knew that choosing to work in an organization as big as JYPE would take blood, sweat, and tears.

After some clarifications given by Manager Chen and a few more questions directed at her, Manager Kim took the reins back in his hands.

“Now, as I’m sure you all know, this is Bang Chan: the leader of Stray Kids. Although our management team is in charge of this debut, we like to include the opinions of artists whenever possible. He will make an appearance whenever he can and act as a representative of Stray Kids, sharing their ideas and opinions.” Manager Kim explained.

Bang Chan politely introduced himself, and quickly went on to express some concerns of his members. He made sure that each concern was answered thoroughly by Manager Kim before moving on to the next.

“As for our concept ideas,” Bang Chan’s soft brown eyes met yours, “will I have to report to y/n?”

You felt your ears redden.

“You could, yes,” Manager Kim straightened his back, “but if you find the weekly deadlines too much of a problem, you may just report to me or at any subsequent meeting.”

“No worries sir,” Bang Chan’s eyes lingered on yours for a fraction of a second more before grinning at Manager Kim, “I’m always punctual.”

The rest of the meeting consisted of more introductions and preliminary plans. After about an hour, everybody seemed satisfied with the contents of the meeting and were starting to pack up all their clutter on the table. You looked over at Manager Chen, silently asking what should I do next?

Manager Chen smiled. “Let's head to my floor. I can give you a quick tour, you can get settled at your desk. I have some paperwork that I’m almost done with; I’m sure you’ll have no problem finishing it for me.” She already was standing up and straightening over the creases of her jacket.

You stood up as well and followed behind Manager Chen like a lost baby duckling. You both made your way over to Manager Kim to bid farewell. You politely thanked him, said your goodbyes, and were about to leave when he stopped the two of you.

“Manager Chen, let’s go out for drinks tonight.” Manager Kim took a look at the intricate watch on his wrist. “With our whole team, of course. It’ll be a welcoming night and we can get to know the people on our team better.”

“That’s a great idea, Manager Kim,” Manager Chen nodded at his idea in approval. She turned on her iPad to quickly get a glimpse at her schedule. “What do you think y/n? Can you make it tonight? I know this is very last moment, but I think it’ll be a great opportunity for you to get to know your coworkers better.”

“I should be able to make it.” You definitely could make it. You had no plans anyways.

“Am I invited to this top secret party you’re all having?” A now very distinguishable voice came from behind you. Bang Chan stared at Manager Kim with a very mischievous expression.

“Would your manager allow it?” Manager Kim questioned, knitting his eyebrows.

“I’m on a diet, so I can’t drink alcohol or eat anything,” Bang Chan’s nose scrunched up in annoyance, “but I want to be as involved as I can. Just because I’m an idol doesn’t mean I can’t help behind the scenes as well.”

“Very well,” Manager Kim nodded with a fixed expression, “Let’s all meet at that restaurant about a block away west. I’ll go tell the others.” And with that, Manager Kim left you, Manager Chen, and Bang Chan to stand in awkward silence.

“Well,” Bang Chan cleared his throat and clapped his hands together, “I’ll get going as well to do some work now, but it was nice meeting the both of you.”

“You as well.” Manager Chen replied for the both of you and Bang Chan left soon after.

Manager Chen then led you to the elevators again and you headed up yet another few floors to reach your destination. You nervously fiddled with your hair as you silently waited behind your boss, looking up at the smooth lines of her blazer every few seconds. The elevator doors dinged, letting you know of its arrival. The two of you swiftly headed out the elevators and walked to what you presumed was Manager Chen’s office area. You kept following behind Manager Chen in silence before you stopped in front of a set of doors that looked identical to the ones at the previous meeting room. Manager Chen opened the doors for you, and you headed in.

You paused a step in, looking wide-eyed at the interior. The office was clean. A big glass desk sat right in the middle of the vast room in front of a huge set of windows. There were a couple of soft looking chairs placed right before the desk with a huge rug right underneath it. Over to your left, you spotted a water dispenser with a kettle right beside it. You stared at the room a bit longer before realizing you must have looked very stupid with that astonished look on your face.

“Is this your office, Manager Chen?” You asked.

“Yes. It seems that you like it,” She chuckled. You felt the heat rise to your ears.

“Since you’ll be working so close to me, I’m sure you’ll be happy to come here more often.”

“Thanks.” You awkwardly laughed. You blamed your bad response on the fact that you still weren’t familiar with the language, not your blatant awkwardness.

Manager Chen made her way over to her desk, picking up a small stack of papers. “These are some letters I’ve received from several designer companies in China. Since we are still in the very preliminary stages of this project, we would like to keep our options open for the stylists here.” She picks an annotated letter from the pile. “I’ve translated and created a summary of the main points of this letter. There are a few more left which I believe I can trust you with. Just do as I did with this letter and add the sample pictures along with it.”

You quickly complied, taking the stack of papers from her hands.

“I’ll show you to your new work space.” She led you out of your office and over to a cubicle that wasn’t too far away. It was considerably smaller compared to Manager Chen’s office, but you thought it had a certain coziness to it. Plus, working close to your coworkers could also boost your motivation. “Here is your desk, it’s not the most exciting thing, but you may bring photos or whatnot to decorate it. Now, I’ll let you settle in and get started on your work. You can meet me at my office around six, I can double check your work before we leave.”

You thanked her before she left and immediately got started on your work. You diligently translated the whole of the letters before picking out the main points that matched with Manager Chen’s example. After this was done, you included the photos that came with each letter and slipped them into their own cozy folder. This work was monotonous, sure, but it was something you needed on your hectic first day here.

You were so captivated by your work that you completely forgot about the time. The sun was starting to set, and you only remembered to look at the time after you tucked your last letter neatly in its folder. You briefly panicked, praying that you weren’t making your manager wait. Thankfully, it was only a quarter until six. You took the next fifteen minutes double checking your work, making sure to also check the time every once in a while. At exactly six, you left your desk and scurried over to the big doors of Manager Chen’s office.

Knocking a couple times, you waited patiently to be let in.

“Come in.”

You let yourself in, handing the papers to your manager, then sat quietly in one of the chairs before her desk, crossing your fingers together. You fiddled with your thumbs, patiently waiting for Manager Chen to speak up.

“Not bad, this is some decent work.” Manager Chen announced as soon as she finished glossing over your work. “I’ve noted some places that you can either fix or improve. I’ll scan them and hand you a copy tomorrow.”

You let out a breath that you didn’t know you were holding. A tidal wave of relief washed over you as you let yourself relax further into your chain. Not bad, this is some decent work. You proudly repeated this moment in your brain. Although you were disappointed with the mistakes that you let slip through, to get somewhat of a compliment on your first day meant a lot to you.

“Shall we get going now?” Manager Chen asked.

You grabbed your bag and stood up. “I’ll let you lead the way.”

_______

It seemed like all you were doing on your first day was following Manager Chen around like a lost puppy. The situation right now was no exception either, as you tried to copy her confident strides over to the restaurant a block down. You watched the busy rush hour streets and sidewalks fill with people, some people going home after a long day, some people going to party just like you.

Soon, after a few more minutes of walking, the both of you arrived at the small wooden doors of the restaurants. It seemed like the both of you were a bit late as Manager Kim was already waiting in front of the entrance with the rest of the team. Bang Chan was also there, head down looking at his phone.

“Sorry we’re late, have you been waiting for long?” Manager Chen somehow sounded confident despite making everybody wait on her.

Her voice seemed to have caught everybody’s attention. You watched as Bang Chan swiftly turned his head up from his phone, his eyes making contact with yours. You immediately focused your eyes somewhere else, trying to casually play off the fact that your eyes subconsciously drifted to him.

“We’ve only been waiting for a couple minutes.” Manager Kim gave a tight smile. “Let’s go in before you all get too cold.”

Your little group of around ten people slowly entered the doors, filling the restaurant. Manager Kim called over a waitress, signaling that you had ten people in your group, and let the waitress lead you all to a long wooden table.

The restaurant was nice, nothing too fancy, but that’s how you could tell the food was good. With dim lighting and tightly packed tables, it made you feel fuzzy and warm on the inside.

However, your thoughts on the restaurant were soon broken by a hand on your shoulder.

“Y/n, why don’t you sit with me?” Manager Kim’s lips curled up, “After all, this is a work gathering, how good of a boss would I be if I didn’t even treat my newest team member to a drink?”

Your brain was in shambles. You seriously didn’t feel comfortable sitting with him all night. However, the logical side of your brain was saying something different. He’s just being nice as a boss. You don’t know how people in this country act anyways, stop being paranoid.

It seemed like your inner turmoil was taking longer than necessary, as you heard another familiar voice speak up.

“Manager Kim-” Bang Chan called out.

“You don’t need to sit with me here, Bang Chan.” Manager Kim chuckled as he stared directly in Bang Chan’s eyes. “I’d rather not talk about work outside the office.”

You watched as Bang Chan’s eyebrows furrowed, looking back to you in reluctance. You smiled at him before turning your attention to Manager Kim. It was just one night, right? Plus, there’s no harm in establishing a good impression with your boss.

“I’ll sit with you, Manager Kim.” You smiled, “thanks for offering.”

And so, you took your seat next to Manager Kim at the table. Bang Chan, who was to your left, looked askance at Manager Kim for a brief second before his facial expression did a complete 180. His familiar, boy-ish smile was plastered on his face like it was the most natural thing.

When the menus came, everybody at the table — including you — started to order onslaughts of food and alcohol. After brief moments of casual chatter about topics such as the weather or how good the food was here, everything that was ordered arrived at your table.

You grabbed a can of beer and started sipping on it. You’ve drank before — of course — with your old friends at university, but it’s been at least a year since you last did. Better ease myself in. You thought.

However, your preconceived plans were ruined when a small glass of clear liquor got pushed in front of you.

“Y/n, surely you aren’t going to sip on that can all night.” The ends of Manager Kim’s lips curled up.

“Wasn’t planning to, sir.” You replied while tipping the glass up and into your mouth. The bitter liquid burned your throat as it went down. You took a moment to recollect your surroundings. Seems like your tolerance was higher than you thought.

“Bang Chan, do you not drink? Why not eat something then?” Manager Chen pointed to the food on the table.

“No can do ma’am, I’m on a strict diet. My manager would kill me.” Bang Chan pointed to his glass of water.

“In that case,” Manager Chen filled another glass, “Y/n, have another drink.” She slid the glass down the table in front of you.

You gladly accepted your second drink, downing the alcohol in one go. Your eyes instinctively squeezed together as you felt your throat burn. From the tips of your ears to the ends of your toes, your whole body felt warm and alive.

You lost track of the time. As your conversations got livelier, your head got fuzzier. You stopped counting your drinks after four, especially since so many people were eager to offer the new employee a drink. Although your vision was starting to blur, you could still think straight. I can still think, you thought to yourself, still — what a powerful buzz.

Your thoughts ran rampant in your mind as you stared at the lightbulb across the room. What a pretty light. So bright. Warm.

“Y/n.”

Was the light calling your name?

“Y/n!”

Your eyes focused again and snapped away from the lightbulb. Where was the voice coming from? You slowly turned your head. Bang Chan.

“Hi.” You smiled.

“Hi.” He smiled back. So bright. Warm. “It’s been hours and I haven’t even offered you a drink yet.”

You tried to focus your eyes on his face as he slid the glass over to you. One more drink wouldn’t hurt your buzz, right?

You gladly accepted, slowly moving your hand over to the glass to pick the clear liquid up. It went down in one go just like all the others.

Huh? Was this water?

You struggled to focus your eyes on the person who offered you the drink. “That was yummy.”

“I bet it was,” the talking blur chuckled, “How about another one?”

You nodded, then took the glass he slid towards you. It’s funny how water flows even when in a cup. Water. You needed to pee.

“Hey,” your words dragged out, “where’s uh, where’s the washroom?”

“Follow me. I’ll show you.” Manager Kim stood up and reached his hand out towards you. You didn’t want to take it, but it seemed like nobody was noticing his offer.

Reluctantly, you took his hand and stood up, only to stumble down again. Did your knees not want to listen?

“Whoa there, better hold on.” Manager Kim said.

“No, I can walk. I-I can walk.” You let go of Manager Kim and tried to focus all your brainpower on moving your feet in a straight line. This tactic only worked for a second, however, as your knees gave in and you stumbled down.

“It’s obvious that you can’t.” Manager Kim’s lips turned up. “It’s time for you to go home. I’ll take you back.”

What? No. You didn’t want Manager Kim to take you home, not after all the awkward events of today and the general vibe from him. You tried to express your thoughts, but nothing came out of your mouth.

“Manager Kim, you’ve been drinking!” Bang Chan’s voice came from some part of the room. “It’s not safe to drive, I’ll call a taxi for you.”

“What about Y/n here? I’ll get a taxi for us both.” Manager Kim said.

“I called my manager earlier to pick me up, we can drop her off along the way. It’s not a good idea to put two drunk people in a car. I’m completely sober right now, so let me do all the work.” Bang Chan grinned, patting Manager Kim on his shoulder.

“Is that what you want, Y/n?” Manager Kim glared.

You dizzily nodded.

“Alright. In that case, I can call my own taxi later.” Manager Kim grimaced.

“Stay safe, Manager Kim.” Bang Chan smiled. He turned to you. “My manager’s been waiting outside for a while now, do you want to leave now?”

You nodded. You tried to start walking again, but your damn knees just wouldn’t listen.

“Do you want to hold on to me?” Bang Chan knitted his brows together and held out an arm.

“I,” you slurred, “can walk.” You tried to start your feet again, only to end up stumbling down.

“I know you can,” Bang Chan said as he reached his hands out to stabilize you, “but — ah — I’m really tired after today. Can you hold on to my arm so I won’t fall out of exhaustion?”

You agreed to help him. Bang Chan waved to everybody still at the table before leading the two of you out to a black SUV. He allowed you to stumble your way in the back seats first before sliding in himself. He asked you for your address, which took many tries for you to accurately type it into his phone.

You leaned your head against the window, staring at passing blurred lights as Bang Chan’s manager started driving. Just being away from the loud and bright environment seemed to have cleared your head a little, but the pounding would not stop. You cursed yourself for being so irresponsible on your first day, especially because you were still alone in this new country.

“Hey,” you felt a gentle tap on your shoulder, “want some water?” You looked over to see Bang Chan holding out a plastic bottle with the lid screwed off.

You languidly reached your hand out for the bottle and gulped down as much water as you could in one breath before handing it back to him. The street lights started getting blurrier as you tried to fight exhaustion, the muscles in your eyelids starting to get more and more uncontrollable.

“Y/n.”

“Hmm?”

“Don’t fall asleep yet, we’re almost there. Ten more minutes.”

You couldn’t hear anything after that, however, as you felt your eyes give up on you and your body fall into a deep sleep.

“Y/n… Y/n.” A familiar voice called.

You fluttered your eyes open, your head pounding. Not knowing where you were, you surveyed your surroundings in a panic. It seemed as though you were in the back of a car… Parked outside of your apartment building?

“Hey, you’re finally awake.” Bang Chan’s voice entered your ear. It all came rushing back to you; the restaurant, the drinking, entering the SUV.

“How long have we been parked here?” Your groggy voice sounded inhuman. You had to clear your throat a couple times.

“It’s only been twenty or so minutes. I’m not allowed to leave the car, are you able to get home alone? I can ask my manager to go with you.” Bang Chan scratched the back of his neck.

“I should be fine.�� You mumbled, a bit embarrassed to have fallen asleep in the car of a person you just met that day. This wasn’t even his car, it was his manager’s.

“Hey… can I put my number in your phone?” Bang Chan avoided your eyes. “Just so you can tell me when you get home.” He quickly added.

“Okay.” You awkwardly handed him your phone with your contacts already opened. He quickly typed his phone number in before handing it back to you.

“Text me when you get home. Remember to lock your door, okay?”

You thank both him and his manager before hurrying back to your apartment. Your head was still pounding unrelentlessly as you pressed the elevator button for your floor. The events of today were still unprocessed in your brain. You met a potential friend, which was a highlight. However, you also met two higher up managers and an actual idol, only to get hilariously drunk in the presence of. At least it’ll make a good story to tell my mom. You thought.

In no time, you made it in your apartment and locked the door behind you, remembering what Bang Chan told you in the car. You texted the new number in your phone.

Y/n: Hi. It’s y/n. I just entered my apartment.

Not even a minute later, your phone lit up, signaling a new text message.

Bang Chan: great!! remember to lock the doooor hahaha ( ◕ω◕✿ )

You subconsciously grin at your phone. Cute. Throwing your phone haphazardly on your bed, you begrudgingly began your night routine. After washing up and throwing on a random shirt from your closet, you fell on your bed ready to sleep. You were about to close your eyes when your phone lit up again with a ding. It was another text.

Bang Chan: Hey… Just so you know, if you ever feel unsafe around the office just tell me okay? I’ll always try to help you in whatever way I can.

#stray kids #stray kids scenarios #stray kids imagines #stray kids x reader #stray kids smut #stray kids fluff #stray kids angst #stray kids fanfic #skz scenarios #skz imagines #bang chan #bang chan scenarios #bang chan imagines #bang chan fluff #bang chan angst #bang chan smut

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ilhoonftw · 2 years

Note

okay so i thought i remembered wrong so i looked it up but in those predebut trailers aespa made, giselle had one (synk) where she was raping (and supposedly the lyrics are from her) and she say the line "welcome to my palace, champagne in my chalice" which is eerily similar to a lyric from janelle monae's django jane. people defended it, other didn't. everyone agree it was a wild time.

also yeah omg nmixx is SUCH a fever dream, i still can't believe that song was release at all but like you said, jyp is more often then not smart with their marketing!!

sometimes i feel like a grandma when i look at new groups because it has become so obvious how much the field isn't leveled for everyone so you just *sighs* hope the best for the group not-from-a-big-company that you like.

it wouldn't be the first time stuff like this happened 🤔🤔🤔 sorry to that woman but what is she even doing in that group 😭 what does she contribute. maybe it's true a successful group needs a dozen group ppl talk about bc it's publicity after all... to me that group is ningning and 3 karinas

nmixx is as experimental as putting ketchup on ice cream, i mean it's unique, sure, but why

agree... it feels like despite smaller company groups being able to make money overseas and building stable(ish?) fanbase overseas, big company backing is still a huge benefit. a lot of smaller/medium companies got aquired by other, sometimes bigger agencies. it's almost like the 'big company buys once big now in bad shape company to aquire their patents etc and that's it, leaves them to rot' thing. the market is oversatured and it's hard to succeed. musically companies try to appeal to 1. k-fans 2. i-fans 3. k-non-fans 4. i-non-fans 5. melon users normies 6. overseas normies 7. music critics... All At once. it's kinda boring tbqh. i saw too many promising nugu groups disappear it's :(((

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not-reagan · 3 years

Text

milf: man i love forests

pairing: deforester boo seungkwan x frat boy mirror demon han jisung (side pairing reagan x rainbow)

genre: crack, strangers to friends to lovers, non-idol au

warnings: cursing, brief supernatural elements, i don’t know if this applies but all lcase, and i listened to christmas music and abba while writing this

word count: 2.7k

authors note: happy birthday @miyuuraiura !! i am so sorry about this monstrosity being your birthday gift but you asked for it so it's your fault entirely. i was gonna include some context on this story for those who are not rainbow and i but actually i don't think i will.

seungkwan did what he could to get by. he loved nature, he really did, but sometimes you have to make moral sacrifices to survive. he was a college kid strapped for cash, and when he saw a sign reading “GET RICH QUICK, INVEST IN DEFORESTATION” in the summer going into his freshmen year, he jumped at the opportunity. sure, he would have rather been a freelance singer, hired for bar-mitzvahs and children's parties, but that job market was flooded at the moment.

jisung, on the other hand, had no care for nature. actually, he didn't care for any human things, apart from “banging parties, booze, the boys™, and bitches”. he hated quite a bit about earth, the worst of all to him being college. as a demon, he had no reason to attend university, but after he was summoned in the bathroom of a frat house by the school’s power couple; rainbow and reagan, he felt obliged to follow the two around and keep them company.

for seungkwan, his main job rarely required in person work. he usually just chose plots of land to demolish, and sent plans to local managers. the only time he actually had to knock down any trees himself was during his summer break. he has a part time job of course, but it didn't provide him enough cash to survive. for someone with a job as a deforester, he truly did do what he could to save the environment. he joined his schools environmental club, becoming vice president his sophomore year because of his work with them. he kept his job a secret, not even telling his parents where the influx of cash was coming from. he kept a low profile and went through the motions of life. he didn't have much of a social life, with his small amount of friends being from the environmental club.

han jisung found joy in witnessing his professors and fellow students lose their minds over his lack of effort in class. he did the bare minimum and still passed with flying colors. most of all, it angered his seatmate in earth science, who happened to be none other than boo seungkwan. seungkwan was a hard worker in everything he did, particularly in school. he didn't get the best grades, but by no means was he the worst. averaging a steady B+, seungkwan spent most of his nights studying or working, rarely going to parties and enjoying himself only through one person karaoke rooms.

this fact upset jisung. he didn't know why, but seeing seungkwan so tired every day made him feel sad(? jisung wasn't sure what it made him feel. it was an emotion he had never experienced before. rainbow told him it meant he had a crush. to this he threw an empty soda can at them). not to mention seungkwan’s upsetting karaoke addiction, which he knew all about the danger of because of reagan, who spent most of her weekends drunk and singing. jisung didn’t know why he took such a liking to seungkwan. what he did know was that he was ecstatic to find that they would be paired together for a project. a project that required quite a bit of teamwork, and a lot of after school work sessions.

seungkwan liked to think that he didn’t hate anyone. he hated evil people, like hitler and stalin and jyp, but he didn’t really hate anyone besides the worst of the worst. that was until he experienced jisung. he wasn’t sure why jisung always talked to him when he was trying to take notes in class. he especially wasn’t sure why he was so excited to be partnered up together for the project that was worth 25% of their grade. seungkwan was less than happy to have to cooperate with jisung for an extended period of time, and he was not looking forward to letting him into his dorm room, or going anywhere near jisung’s frat house. seungkwan had no idea what he was pushed into.

they planned to meet at the cafe on campus at 5:00 pm after class. seungkwan was less than happy. jisung was thrilled. when jisung arrived seungkwan was sitting at a table drinking an americano and working on an english essay. he wasn't sure how to approach him, slowly walked closer before tapping on his shoulder. seungkwan jolted in his seat.

“jesus fuck jisung. you scared the crap out of me,” seungkwan gasped. jisung’s ears flushed as he brought his hand to the back if his neck.

“sorry,” he started, pausing for a second before starting again, “why don't we get started?”. he swung his bag down to the ground as he took a seat. seungkwan offered a small, non genuine smile before pulling out the project’s guidelines.

“let's try to finish this as quickly as possible. im pretty busy and don't have much time to fool around.” seungkwan said. jisung felt his heart drop. did seungkwan really think that little of him? granted, he always dozed off in class but he got his work done on time and in an orderly fashion. he felt his mind begin to wander. if seungkwan felt this way about him now, how would he feel when he found out that jisung was a demon. would seungkwan start to like him if he knew him better? jisung couldn't figure out why he cared so much about how seungkwan perceived him. he had never had an issue with others opinions of him before, so what made seungkwan so different? for some reason, jisung felt the need to connect with seungkwan. if not for himself, then at least to help him let loose.

after working silently on each of their portions of the projects for 3 hours, jisung finally spoke up. “do you want to maybe come to my party next month? well, it's not my party, it's for rainbow’s birthday. i know you're not one for social interaction but it would be cool to see you there. i’ll give you the details if-”

“i’d love to go,” seungkwan cut off jisung’s rambling. to be honest, he wasn't exactly sure what he was agreeing to, but he knew it would shut jisung up, and seungkwan valued his peace and quiet. part of him also just felt downright bad for the other. he seemed to be trying awfully hard to become friends with seungkwan, and he wouldn’t admit it, seungkwan had started to warm up to the boy. he really wasn’t as much of an issue as he had thought before, and was actually really respectful of seungkwan’s wishes. maybe i’ll give him a chance, seungkwan thought before going back to his work.

over the next month, jisung and seungkwan continued meeting to work on their project. seungkwan was less short with the other, and jisung was still red faced every time seungkwan decided to talk to him, which became quite frequently over the next few weeks. jisung was starting to realize that the feelings he had for seungkwan were not simply platonic, and that he didn’t just want to be friends with him. with the help of rainbow and reagan, he had come to the conclusion that he really, really liked seungkwan, and that he was going to do something about it. remembering that he had invited seungkwan to the party, he devised a plan to not only tell seungkwan about his whole “i’m actually a demon” thing, but also about his true feelings. it wouldn't be easy, but it was what he had to do.

a month later, seungkwan still wasn’t exactly sure why he had agreed to go to jisungs frat house at 9:00 pm on a saturday night. yet there he was, standing on the front porch of a large house, wondering if he should bite the bullet and walk in, or spare himself and leave right then. he didn't get a choice, however, as rainbow and reagan stepped out of the house giggling while clutching onto each other. both stopped in their tracks when they saw seungkwan. the couple and seungkwan stared at each other for a good minute before seungkwan shook himself from his trance.

“hey rainbow!” seungkwan started, “and reagan too. i know we aren’t super close, but jisung invited me and i thought i’d just drop by and wish you a happy birthday.” he passed her a birthday card filled with $50 bucks and then turned to leave. “i’ll leave you guys now. have a great birthday!” before seungkwan could get very far, however, rainbow grabbed him by the arm.

“hey, i’d love if you’d stay! at least go say hi to jisung. i’m sure he’d like to see you,” she said, silently making note to have jisung pay her back for being a great wingwoman.

“he’s probably hiding in the second floor bathroom. if you don't see him in there, just say his name three times in front of the mirror. he’ll appear.” reagan explained. seungkwan thought she was joking. how wrong he was.

following his entrance to the house, he had to refuse not one, not two, but three different people who were looking to give him bottles or cups of something which seungkwan presumed to be various types of alcohol. navigating through the house was difficult, reaching the stairs to the second floor only after running into numerous people borderline fucking on two large couches in the living room, a smoke circle taking place in what seungkwan assumed to be a dining room, and a very aggressive makeout session against a wall. once he finally reached the second floor, he had some difficulty finding the bathroom, accidentally walking in on reagan and rainbow, who had miraculously made it upstairs faster than he had.

“if you don’t stop shitting constantly i am going to break up with you! also, stop taking feet pics! it’s weird!” he heard rainbow shout.

“at least i can eat seafood! how does it make your head hurt? you’re the weakest link! that fucking seafood platter was delicious. and you know what, i’m glad i didn’t have to share it with you!” reagan responded. seungkwan quickly shut the door, not wanting to get involved in whatever drunken argument was going on there. after a bit more searching, he finally stumbled across the right room. knocking first to see if anyone was in there, he entered, and to his surprise, nobody was there. jisung was nowhere to be seen. seungkwan reviewed his options. he could a) leave the party, or b) continue to look around the packed house. but there was another option. he thought about it for a second.

“what's the harm in trying,” seungkwan thought out loud, before staring directly into the mirror.

“han jisung, han jisung, han jisung.”

nothing happened. that's what seungkwan thought, until a minute later the lights in the bathroom flickered off and the mirror began to glow. “what. the. fuck,” seungkwan managed to squeak out before falling backwards into the tub. first a leg emerged, then two arms, and finally the rest of jisung’s body.

“i feel like the genie in aladin every time i have to get into a fucking mirror,” jisung complained before seeing seungkwan toppled over. to that view, he jumped down off the counter and moved to help him up. seungkwan, aside from falling, seemed to be reacting well to the whole situation, at least in the sense that instead of freaking out he seemed to be in a state of shock. jisung took this as a good sign, and lifted the motionless body up onto the toilet seat.

“hey seungkwan, you there?” jisung waved his hand in front of seungkwan's face as he slowly came to his senses.

“what kind of twisted party trick was that?” seungkwan asked, pretty seriously. jisung just laughed.

“you summoned me from the mirror. i’m like a funny version of michael jackson except i'm a demon and not a man in the mirror.” jisung explained. seungkwan just stared. “are you ok kwan? do you want me to get you some water?”

“it was… kind of sick.” seungkwan stated. he didn't know why he wasn't scared. under any other circumstance like this one, he probably would have shit his pants. for some reason he felt comfortable around jisung. he felt warm. he felt seen. it was something he hadn't felt before. that's when he realized. he wondered why it took himself to long to figure it out. he never hated jisung. he just didn't know what to do with the fact that he made him feel special, and that he felt as though he belonged when they were together. it had hit him why he was so nervous the whole night, why he had wanted to make such a good impression, and why he was willing to embarrass himself by calling out jisungs name as opposed to just choosing to go home. it was because he loved him.

“can i tell you something?” both of the boys said at the same time. jisung giggled and seungkwan flushed red. **authors note! bonus starts here**

“you first,” seungkwan offered. he wasn't exactly sure he would be able to make it through a sentence without getting any redder than he already was.

jisung took this opportunity to finally get his true feelings out into the air, “i like you… uhh like, i like like you. i have since we first became seatmates. well, i think that's when i've liked you since. i knew whe-”

“you're rambling again,” seungkwan told him. jisung flushed a dark shade of pink. “it's a habit of yours. i think it's cute actually.” seungkwan wasn't sure where his sudden surge of confidence came from, but he was glad it came. he was standing up now, holding jisungs hands in his. jisungs heart was racing a mile a minute as he looked down at their intertwined hands and them back up, catching seungkwan looking directly at his lips. “can… can i kiss you?” seungkwan stuttered out. jisung couldn't find his words, so he opted to just nod.

when their lips connected, seungkwan could have sworn he heard fireworks. he did later find out that someone was setting off a firework in the back yard, but it was the thought that counted. their lips melted together perfectly, and seungkwan wondered why it took him so long to admit his feelings to himself. he could have been kissing jisung for a month before this.

once they finally parted, seungkwan spoke softly, “i like you too. i think that's pretty obvious now but just in case you didn't know.” jisung had the dumbest, most confused face on, and seungkwan had the brightest smile he'd ever had. seungkwan had rendered jisung speechless, for once in his life. not long after, they started kissing again, content with their emotions and their new relationship.

seungkwan was never one to believe that good things were permanent. he was overdramatic, stubborn, and hated interacting with people outside his small social circle. that was until han jisung came along. he was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, he could let someone else into his life.

jisung was a simple man. well, not a man, but he was simple nonetheless. he liked banging parties, booze, the boys™, and bitches. well maybe there was one more thing he liked. he knew for sure he liked boo seungkwan. maybe he loved him. maybe seungkwan even felt the same way.

-fin

**BONUS**

reagan and rainbow leaned up against the door to eavesdrop on their matchmaking work.

“holy shit!” reagan gasped.

“what is it?? tell me what happened. you're hogging up the door!” rainbow hissed.

“our boy is so grown up,” reagan pretended to cry. “put your goddamn ear up here.” rainbow felt her ear connect with the cold door just as jisung confessed his feelings.

“i like you… uhh like, i like like you. i have since we first became seatmates. well, i think that's when i've liked you since. i knew whe-” his next words were cut off on the girls side of the door as reagan squealed.

“shut your mouth! seungkwans saying something!!” rainbow said, obviously annoyed that reagan was obstructing her ability to hear the exchange.

“can… can i kiss you?” they heard seungkwan say. both looked at each other in shock.

“oh. my. god.” was all rainbow could say.

“i think we should give them some alone time,” reagan suggested as she tugged rainbow down the hall.

“i think we need some alone time for ourselves,” rainbow said as reagan pushed her into a random room and locked the door behind them.

#kpop #seventeen #stray kids #svt #skz #fanfic #guys i am so sorry #seungkwan #jisung #boo seungkwan #han #han jisung #a birthday gift #miyuuraiura #for you 💕#han jisung x boo seungkwan #jisung x seungkwan #han x seungkwan

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peekbackstage · 3 years

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Hello. At first let me thank you for your blog. I mean your posts and opinion as an insider is so interesting to read, it’s like you let us see a little more in this entertainment industry. After reading some posts I can now clearly see why so many stars live hard life, often have anxiety and even suicide thoughts. I mean their life seems to be fully controlled until they become really “someone” in this industry. Does it mean that until it happens they will do anything their company want and have nothing to do. I mean even if they get hate, they should pretend like they don’t care and can’t even say something against haters. My question is so random, I’m sorry. I also wanted to know, why so many singers and idols go acting even if they know many will hate it, they know they will get comments like “idols don’t let real actors to play”. I’m not sure about c-ent as I’m new. But I saw many such comments and reactions in Korean media. So why do they do it? Will they earn more money than being a singer or? Why not to try acting then? Why do they try to become idols? I mean there are so many talented singers and trainees who want ro sing. But eventually we see that many people who debuts as idols soon or later give up singing and try acting. I was just wondering. Thank you in advance, sorry if my question is too obvious. And better late than never. Happy New Year :)

Disclaimer: The following post is informed by my own experience working in the music industry. Chinese industry practices might vary.

In Asia, the world of entertainment tends to be pretty tightly regulated. It’s generally pretty difficult to get a foot in the door and even more difficult to actually “make” it. This post is going to mostly discuss Korea and Japan’s industries, as I am most familiar with those two markets.

LET’S TALK A BIT ABOUT IDOL HISTORY!

(Skip this entire section if you aren’t interested in history.)

In 1962, Johnny Kitagawa, the CEO of the entertainment company, Johnny’s & Associates, launched Japan’s first boy band, Johnnys. While this group saw some minor popularity, it paled in comparison to the group that is often considered to be Asia’s “first” idol group, Four Leaves, who debuted in 1967.

Four Leaves was a project composed of bishounen (pretty) boys who sang and dance but didn’t play any instruments. They were hand-selected and trained by Johnny Kitagawa himself, who largely focused on the artists’ personalities, attributes, and physical characteristics.

Four Leaves’ success was so great that Johnny’s sought to replicate it, creating the first idol (aidoru in Japanese) training camp system which is the foundation of all idol companies these days. Just like idol companies today, Johnny’s selected young bishounen boys who were admitted via an audition process, and then placed them in a dorm together. There, they would train as Johnny’s Juniors (aka trainees) until they were ready to debut.

By the 1980s, Japan had quite a few idol management companies (jimusho) that wanted to replicate Johnny’s success. By that time, the idol industry had matured, and the training camps had become extremely rigorous, Olympic-style singing, dancing, acrobatics, etc. all for the sole purpose of improving stage performances. By the time SMAP debuted in 1988, the system was already in place. But what SMAP did changed the game entirely: they launched their own variety show, effectively putting themselves into every Japanese household and endearing themselves to every single Japanese housewife.

This caused their popularity to skyrocket, which in turn led to the creation of the ecosystem we now all know: the all-encompassing idol who sings, dances, and acts in tv shows, variety shows, plays, and films. Brand deals and endorsements also really took off during this time, especially with the most popular member, Kimura Takuya.

(It must be noted that SMAP became very popular not only in Japan, but also all over Asia!)

By this point, South Korea was taking notice, and by the 90s, debuted their first generation of idol groups, which included the likes of H.O.T. and Shinhwa, who all went through more or less the same style of training that Japanese idol jimushos put through trainees through.

It must be noted that during this time, South Korea was pretty invested in trying to find the right secret sauce to also debut their artists in Japan, given the mature idol market there. S.M. Entertainment succeeded in doing this with their second generation artists, BoA, Super Junior, and TVXQ, by partnering with Avex Entertainment in Japan. (They even went as far as debuting a visual kei idol group, TraxX, which was actually produced by Yoshiki from X-Japan, to capitalize on the entire visual kei market in Japan.) JYP followed suit with Se7en and Rain, and YG Entertainment debuted BIGBANG and 2NE1.

During this period of time, it must be noted that the big talk of the town was surprisingly not pop internationally - it was actually Jrock, which had a big surge of popularity in overseas markets between 2007-2009. (Hence S.M.’s desire to debut a visual kei idol band in Japan.) The Hallyu wave hadn’t really started yet, but within a matter of a few years, Kpop was suddenly the hottest new thing just about, well, everywhere.

In fact, it was so popular internationally, that by 2013, Kpop had become the #1 biggest contributor to South Korea’s GDP. It was so important to South Korea that the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism established KOCCA (the Korean Content Agency), which began heavily investing in the export of all things “Hallyu,” but especially Korean music. International industry conferences worldwide suddenly started to see the rise of Korean showcases, which took place literally everywhere. KOCCA was determined to export their idol culture all around the world.

To capitalize more on international success, companies such as S.M. Entertainment and JYP began to incorporate Chinese members into their groups. This was specifically to give them a foot into the massive Chinese market, which, until the Hallyu ban in 2017, had a massive demand for all things Kpop.

It was around this same time that TFBoys in China debuted. The industry largely considered them to be the first real homegrown mainland Chinese idol group that rose out of a similar training system used in both South Korea and Japan.

HISTORY LESSON OVER!

Why did I feel the need to explain all of this history, you wonder? Couldn’t I just answer the question in a straightforward way?

Well, not really. It’s pretty important to understand that oftentimes, in the industry, idols aren’t seen as true artists - they are actually seen more as manufactured cultural products. The more products there are (i.e. music, acting projects) the more money there is, which in turn leads to more opportunities. When they are just starting out, idols never get to pick what activities they actually participate in - especially if they haven’t yet established themselves as very successful artists.

And even when they are established, oftentimes, an idol company will push an artist to try expanding/broadening their various creative outputs with acting. Why only sell music, when you can make money through tv and film?

Add in the additional benefit of not having any risk at all involved in said tv/film project and it’s win/win for the company - because they aren’t putting up any money upfront to produce and market the project.

Companies want their idols to pursue acting gigs because it increases the market share for the artist and more opportunities for their artist to create new fans who might discover the artist through the drama or film. This tends to be a big part of the idol ecosystem, though it must be noted that not all idols do go down this route if their company determines that their music products might generate far more money than their acting products.

This is especially true for rappers in particular, whose solo musical releases might not generate as much fanfare (or as much money) as an acting gig - especially in South Korea, where there is already a very mature, established Korean hip hop genre with plenty of very established hip hop artists. (There’s also a very popular hip hop competition show, Show Me The Money, that regularly features celebrity Korean hip hop artists.)

Sometimes, it just makes more sense to take acting opportunities, as they can generate better income than music.

Talented singers sometimes might also choose to go the acting route for the same reason - also because opportunities keep coming across the desks of their managers, who sometimes talk them into the projects. Other times, it may simply be that once an idol tries their hand at acting, they realize they have a real knack for it and end up wanting to pursue more acting projects.

In any case, there isn’t a single, universal reason why idols choose to go from singing to acting, but there is a universal reason why all idols inevitably do make the switch: money.

And for companies in particular, acting projects their artists star in are 100% pure profit with zero financial risk.

In any case, quite a few artists started out in music, tried their hand at acting, and then continued to do both. We see this especially with artists such as Vanness Wu, IU (Lee Ji-eun), and BLACKPINK’s Jisoo, who are all still active in both acting and music.

I hope this massively long post was informative and also helped answer the question, “Why do idols go from singing to acting?” (I also hope I helped explain the way the idol ecosystem works and how it all started!)

Thanks for the questions and for reading.

Edit: Oops, I totally forgot to answer the question, “Why do some people become idols?”

The answer is pretty simple: it’s really hard to get into the entertainment industry, and many people see idol factories as a straightforward roadmap into a career in entertainment. While it isn’t the only way into entertainment, it often is the path many artists do ultimately choose to take.

#Anonymous #ask #history of idols in asia #jpop #kpop #cpop #idols #music industry #entertainment industry #acting #peek answers

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k-llama-llama · 4 years

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Rainism

Stray Kids AU: 9th member

Tori x Stray Kids

Tori runs into one of her idols.

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“I really like this.” JYP set his earbud on his desk.

Tori beamed. “Really? I wasn’t sure if I should show you but I didn’t really want to show Chan so I thought-”

“You can always come to me with music.” JYP laughed. “I love to hear the stuff you guys make.”

Tori sighed in relief. “That’s so nice of you. Any advice?”

“I mean, some of the instrumental could fine-tuned bit, but the lyrics are great. Very quirky and fun. What’s the plan with this? You want to release it?”

Tori quickly held up her hands. “Oh no. I didn’t mean...I’m still in the girl’s group so I wouldn’t want to-”

“The girl group is coming out in a few months, and it will be a one time promotion.” JYP reminded her. “If you like this song for a solo debut, we’ll give it to you.”

“I...I should really...”

“Think on it.” JYP told her. “There’s no rush, but I think you have something really good here.”

“Thank you, sir. That really means a lot. I think I would like to-”

A knock sounded at the door, and it swung open before JYP could say anything.

“Hello?” A familiar face stepped into the room.

Tori shot to her feet. “I can...I should...I’ll go.”

Rain shook his head with a smile “No, please. I didn’t realize I was interrupting.”

Tori looked helplessly at JYP. “I can go.”

“Actually, Ji-Hoon, if you don’t mind, Tori was just showing me a song she was working on. We’d love your opinion, right Tori?”

“Ah, right.” Tori dropped back into her seat, staring at her hands. JYP was one thing, she saw him all of the time and he always listened to Stray Kids music.But this was Rain. Literally the first male solo artist that Tori had ever stanned. She’d seen his dramas and could do the choreography to all of his songs and-

“I’d love to.” Rain sat in the chair next to her, holding out a hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Tori held out her hand, lightly shaking his. “You too.”

“You produce a lot of music?”

“No, I...I do lyrics sometimes, but I’m better with choreography. This is just sort of a hobby.” She explained.

“Here.” JYP held out a earbud. “What do you think?”

Tori was pretty certain that she wasn’t going to have any fingernails left by the time they were done listening to it. She chewed on her fingers, studying their faces. JYP nodded his head along; it was his second listen through and he was familiar with the beat, but Rain just stayed stoic in thoughtful silence.

When they were finally done, Tori thought she might pass out.

“It’s great, right?” JYP smiled. “I mean I would change up some of the instrumental but I-”

“I wouldn’t change anything.”

“What?” Tori exclaimed, before slapping her hands to her mouth. “Sorry.”

“No, don’t apologize.” Rain laughed. “I just mean that I wouldn’t change anything about it.”

“But it’s...” Tori floundered for words. “I don’t produce really so we should probably...”

“I mean, I’d change the volume to balance out the vocals and background, but I don’t really think anything else needs to change.”

Tori nodded. “Balance...I can do that.”

“Anyways, I’m sorry for interrupting.” Rain looked towards JYP. “A solo debut is a big deal, so I can step out if you need to finish up.”

“I’m not debuting solo.” Tori said quietly. “I mean...I haven’t decided yet.”

“Why not?” Rain seemed surprised.

“I know, that’s what I’ve been saying.” JYP sat back in his chair. “We’ve needed a good solo artist and Tori is exactly what we need. She can dance, she’s strong vocally, your rapping has really improved...”

“Gee, have you thought about acting?” Rain snorted. “Seriously though, you’ve got it all going for you. Why don’t you want to solo debut?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to.” Tori tried to explain. “I just...our group just lost a member and I have another kind of solo project so I-”

“You aren’t leaving your group by going solo.” JYP told her.

“And...” Rain offered. “Not to pressure you, but launching a solo project at the same time as other activities is actually really good marketing.”

“I guess so...” Tori went back to chewing on her nails.

“Just...go home.” JYP told her. “Work on the song. And when you think it’s ready, come back. Because I really do think you have something good here.”

“Um...ok.” Tori stood. “I’ll leave you both now, then.”

“It’s not like it’s important.” Rain laughed. “We’re just going out for lunch.”

“Well, enjoy your meal.” Tori bowed. “And thank you for your advice.”

“Anytime.” JYP smiled.

“Thanks for letting me hear a sneak peek.” Rain gave her a casual wave. “I’ll keep an eye out for you.”

“Right.” Tori squeaked. “Bye.”

She darted out the door.

“I think she’s a fan of yours.” She heard JYP say. “She had them do a cover of your song at KCON a while ago.”

“Really?”

Tori ran down the hall as fast her her heelies could safely carry her.

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starcrossedau · 4 years

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ANONYMOUS SAID:

Do you think Gotbang is really a thing? Or they do it for marketing purposes? I love when they hang out at music shows but I don't know what to believe HELP ME MIYA

Hi anon! I think some of them are truly close while others not as much - but all of them respect each other. You know they’re all friends since they were trainees, right? So even though not all of them are bffs™ I think they still hang out at times and all that. But some of them truly get along or truly like each other even if they don’t see each other often.

Maybe this will be surprising to some but I see so many similarities between Jackson and Yoongi (their charts are almost identical when it comes to placements) that I’m willing to bet they hang out at times, the only problem being that both have some really busy schedules. But they’re very good for each other friendship wise. We even have some proof that they’re close, these don’t seem scripted at all to me:

Originally posted by jeonheart

Originally posted by markjin

The second has been posted at least a hundred times around here. lol But it’s just so obvious that Yoongi does not get soft for just anyone and the way he looks at Jackson shows a lot, you know?

Also. I think Namjoon and Jackson are like… They know each other, respect each other and could be the best of friends but that hasn’t happened yet. Like. They’re familiar with each other enough to truly joke around but they’re not real close, you know? Probably because of schedules or things like that, but I don’t see them like they’re very close. But they could be for sure, some time in the future.

Originally posted by beagletae

(AND THIS WOULD MAKE THAT HAPPEN FOR SURE sorry i’m yelling out of excitement)

I think Mark and Jaebum are actually the ones that talk to all of BTS the most. Mark because he’s a social butterfly. lol Jaebum for some weird reason that we might never get to know, but his interactions with Seokjin, Hoseok, Taehyung… They all seem legit to me. I don’t have his birth time but this implies in a nicely ruled 11th or 7th. Seokjin too, seems to talk to all of GOT7 in my opinion. And Hoseok does talk to all of them but isn’t close to all of them - he’s surprisingly picky with the people he lets get real close to him (Venus conjunct Saturn does this quite often and he also has a possessive and sometimes reclusive Moon in Taurus).

If anything I’m willing to bet the least social one is Jinyoung (it’s hard for him to interact with people at times from what I can tell, but there’s nothing in his chart without the birth time talking about this so I definitely could be wrong) and surprisingly Bambam, because I haven’t seen much proof that he interacts with them that much and in real ways and his chart does have a lot of Taurus and depending on where those placements are at it’s likely he keeps to his own old friends and can even be a tiny possessive. I mean. Don’t you think he gets jealous of Jungkook and Yugyeom at times? Because I honestly think he does.

And when it comes to Yugyeom and Jungkook… I honestly think it’s real and they hang out sometimes but a lot of it was media play as well. They were probably good friends already but their companies decided it would be a good thing to show it off and all that. Which, I mean, I’m not complaining. Bangtan and GOT7 definitely have some real good friendships with other idols that we might never get to know so it’s good that BigHit and JYP work nicely together when it comes to this. You know that BangPD used to work there much like Hoseok trained there and all that, right? So that’s why they overplay their hand at this sometimes and it might seem like something’s off but it’s simply because most companies don’t have good relationships with each other like these nowadays so they don’t allow their idols to show off their friendships. I get why you got paranoid about it because this Kpop generation doesn’t show many interactions like this (older ones did A LOT and I miss it), but when you think about it all and their specific situation it all makes sense. So the answer is yes, I think it’s real. lol Only took me an essay to get to it but there you go. Also… ISAC is very heavily and obviously scripted, many (if not all) interactions are often clearly agreed on beforehand so I’m not basing the things I said here on things I’ve seen there.

15.12.17

Disclaimer: This is not for commercial use, all intellectual property belongs to @timetohajima. Copyright: here.

37 NOTES

REBLOG

#gotbang

#ot7

#jackson

#yoongi

#mark

#jaebum

#seokjin

#bambam

#jinyoung

#jungkook

#yugyeom

#miya answers

#hoseok is very social you guys

#he has many friends

#and many friends from old times like

#before he was successful

#before he was even a trainee

#there's many pics of him with friends that he's known since forever

#he has great social skills but doesn't necessarily allow everyone

#to join him in his personal life per se

#which is by far the most clever thing he does lol in my opinion

#also you didn't mention it but some of monsta x and got7's interactions are quite real for me to

#miya #astrology

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z-stars · 5 years

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The Vietnamese singer was confused when asked about the suicides of Kpop

Roy is a Vietnamese member of Z Boys - a multi-national group operating in Korea. Debuting in the Kpop market, he faced many difficult questions from the media.

In addition to Queen (real name: Luc Quyen) in the Z Girls group, Z Pop Dream project also recruited another Vietnamese face to debut in the Korean market. It was Roy, whose real name was Nguyen Hai Hoai Bao. The guy who was born in 1996 is taking a short vacation in Vietnam after working abroad.

Roy revealed his determination to be an idol singer not only for himself but also for his family. "I want to help my family have a better life," the 23-year-old said. He said that he is a close person with relatives, always looking forward to being with his parents.

Because of this, the biggest difficulty Roy encountered when going to Korea to practice was homesickness. "Sometimes I call Dad and tell him 'I'm tired, can I go home'. However, I told him not because I wanted to give up. I just wanted to let him know that at times I was the most tired and the most difficult, I only listened to him, but at that time, if he said okay, just go home and I would have more motivation to go through training and learning in Korea. and "Z Boys group members share with Zing.vn .

He said he and his teammates as well as Queen (Luc Quyen) practice about 12 hours a day. "In addition to classes on singing and dancing, we also have communication sessions in front of the crowd, so that when we stand in front of the audience we have to show the professionalism of the artist," 9X Vietnamese said. . Roy also revealed that the management company instructed the Z Boys and Z Girls members to find a way to deal with the too hard, too harsh questions from the kimchi press.

"Because of my public debut at a time when Kpop was having a lot of big problems, I was often asked how I would solve the situation. In particular, a reporter even asked me that I would do it. How to preserve the image after getting into a scandal Currently, I have not encountered any scandals yet and I was always thinking of how to meet more audiences. difficult, it took a while to answer, "the guy born in 1996 recalls.

Regarding the fact that Korean idols are under a lot of psychological pressure and making negative decisions about life, Roy said he was not sure if he would fall into that situation in the future. According to the male singer, he is a very active and fun person. "But there are times when no one would expect the person who always acts so positively to make such an extreme choice. Therefore, I'm not sure what my future will be like," Roy said.

According to him, the future story could not be calculated in advance. 9X said it was always in a happy, relaxed mood and always trying to convey this positive energy to the audience. Roy sees the pressure in an idol's life as a challenge to overcome in life. The 23-year-old singer said: "I accept and will turn those pressures into a hobby in life. Right now, I'm enjoying the pressure”

Roy revealed that the idol of GOT7, especially loves the style and dance style of the JYP male group. GOT7 is also a 9X model that Vietnamese people strive to pursue in the future.

#roy #z-boys #z-pop #zboys #zpop #e:it's christmas #e:interview #191222 #m:zing #zpop 1st gen

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seventeen-imagines-reactions · 5 years

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Welcome back. [Minho Story // Pt. “]

Summary: While waiting for the meeting to start Minho noticed a group of people dancing on the streets. He wasn’t quite sure why, but it made him miss his predebut times. After overhearing their conversation he decided to go back and relive those days. Even if that meant living with the constant fear of someone recognizing him.

“The meeting should start soon. We’ll just have to wait a bit. It’s rainy out and PDnim has to drive slower.” Everyone nodded. Stray kids had a meeting with JYP at a café in the city, they liked doing these things in smaller but public places. The atmosphere was a lot more comfortable that way. And people around were nice enough not to interrupt them, other than a couple of pictures here and there after and before the meetings which was fine.

It wasn’t too crowded thanks to the weather, there were some people in the café and almost none on the streets.

Minho kept looking outside, he liked watching the rain actually. It was calming. He looked around, his eyes wandered until he spotted a group of teenagers just standing in the middle of the market place. They seemed to be waiting for something. “They didn’t think it would rain, I guess.” Woojin said, as he spotted them to. The view of them made him shiver. “It’s probably so cold.”

Minho nodded slightly, still not taking his eyes off of the group. They had to be around their age and they kept rocking back and forth and doing little jumps to keep warm. But then all of a sudden one of them jumped up full with energy. Minho couldn’t really hear what she was saying but she seemed to pull a speaker out of her bag and played some music. Not too loud, but loud enough for the group to hear.

They looked around, a bit confused but one by one they joined the first girl and started dancing. At first, still tamed, slow movements. They looked like they knew what they were doing, but the movements were still shy. After the third song, however they went full blown. Sharp and strong moves, everyone was in synch but they had so much fun. As Minho looked at his friends to tell them, he realized that everyone - including staff and others customers - were standing close by the windows and watching them. Even people walking by stood with a bit of a distance and watched them.

Minho couldn’t help but look at the first girl, though. She made everyone dance and her smile was so bright. She was a happy virus. The way that she moved, her now completely wet hair and and her loud fanchants made his heart make weird noises. His hands slowly made his way up to his heart. It was beating like crazy.

It reminded him of his old days, where he wasn’t known - not even as a back-up dancer. He loved joining classes and “underground” dance competitions. Even as a trainee he still participated. But now it was difficult, he wasn’t able to just got somewhere without getting recognized. It wasn’t that he didn’t like being an idol, he just wanted to dance with a free mind, without people being shy to dance with him.

“You miss it don’t you?” Chan looked at his friend, he knew the look on Minho’s face. “Yeah... Sometimes I do really miss just being able to dance somewhere.” His friends understood how he felt, he had given up what he loved in some way. The boys didn’t bring up the topic again, they just waited until JYP arrived. Minho however, couldn’t take his eyes of the group outside. Even when JYP was there he didn’t really pay attention. He wanted to, it just didn’t work.

By the end of the meeting he was able to focus, finally. They talked about their comeback and sales. General things that were rather important. “Who’s gonna be there tonight?” A group of teenagers walked in, rather loud until they noticed JYP in the room. Out of respect they tried to be quiet. All of their clothes were wet, soaking wet to be exact. Another quick look and Minho knew who those people were. “I’ll be there I think. Where was it again?”

They must have been their age, if not even younger. All of them were buying coffee and prepared to leave again. “We don’t know yet. They’ll text us time and place. We just know it’s tonight.” They still do those things? Minho must have looked confused, Felix tapped on his thigh to get Minho out of that state. The younger mouthed “What’s up?” while looking back and forth between the group and his brother. “Nothing.”

After the meeting was over, the boys still sat there. It was late already and they decided to walk home after eating a bit. Minho just sat there in silence, his head was still with the group. “So... Minho. Do you want to go?” Woojin looked around, everyone had noticed and heard what those kids were saying. And they also knew how much he loved dancing. “How. I’m going to be recognized.” He took a deep breath and started playing with his food. “And even if, he doesn’t know the place.” “That’s easy-” Minho looked up to face his friends. “They did those things even before I was a trainee. I’ve been there for years and years. I was actually rather known with the old organizors. I can just ask my friend from that time and he’ll let me know.” His friends were shocked, it wasn’t shocking that he participated but that he was known. “But how? The word never spread after debut.” “That’s because even then I’d hide my face and use another name.”

“So.... there’s nothing holding you back. I’d say just go.” Minho looked at chan, confused to say the least. “What?” “I know we shouldn’t risk anything and you can’t get recognized but if you say you were known already and someone figures out, just say you were abroad or something. Act on that character you had already created.” “You sure?” Chan nodded in approval and so did all the other boys. A smile grew on Minho’s face as he quickly grabbed his stuff and got up. “I promise I’ll be careful.”

He ran out of the store, took his phone and called his old friend. “Ya, jungsik. Did you get my messages?”

#kpop #kpop scenarios #kpop reactions #kpop imagines #stray kids #jyp stray kids #stray kids kpop #stray kids jyp #stray kids reaction #stray kids reactions #stray kids imagine #stray kids imagines #stray kids scenarios #stray kids scenario #stray kids minho #stray kids lee know #lee know #lee minho

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nextcassie · 5 years

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Unpopular Kpop Industry Opinions

While everyone is probably waiting for me to write something for one of my stories, I wrote this because they are being heavily edited and I felt like it. Also people keep messaging or commenting on my stories with some of these things and now I’m setting them straight on how I feel. It’s unlikely that someone will change my mind, but you can try.

1. It’s okay to not like a person in a group or only like one member.

It’s a controversial opinion because we all want to believe in the unity of a group and people have begun to shame solo stans and call them out for being problematic. However, the reality is no one is going to like everyone, so why should someone have to like every single member of a group. Everyone is saying solo stans destroy a group, but it’s not people who solo stan idols, but people who in general hate on idols within the group. There are idols who get involved constantly in scandals or can just be plain uninteresting to people. No one should be forced to full heartedly support every member in a group. People like what they like. That being said those people who only like one member should be aware that when supporting the one member they like, they’re probably supporting the rest of the group as well.

2. Being an idol should be a job and not a lifestyle

So this one is a bit hard to explain, but I’ll do my best. When someone becomes an idol they give up a lot of different things from the ability to date someone to higher education opportunities. That being said I don’t think they should have to give up certain things like dating. However, they do, to an extent, have to please their fans and give up some of their privacy. NOT ALL of their privacy but SOME. Look at the early BTS logs where they gave fans a small peak into their dorm life, I’m talking that type of privacy. They should not be followed, their family members should not be followed, and their significant others should be left alone by the public.

However, Idols need to realize that when they choose to reveal parts of their private life they can have backlash that is justifiable. For example, D.O. choosing to enter the army. He handled it in a smart professional way where he let SM release and official statement after it was discovered that he had submitted for military service. A bad example would be Sulli for posting a picture on vacation during the middle of Red Light promotions, despite both her and SM making a statement that she was sick. While she is entitled to a mental health holiday it was dumb to post a picture or let a picture be posted. Her job was to be an idol and promote with f(x), but it looked really bad when she was at the beach having fun while the other members were all at music show recordings. Especially when later Krystal ended up fainting from overworking during the same time period. She was dealing with a lot of scandals at the time, but it’s not really an excuse. Look at it this way, if you called in sick for work during an important time, where it’s busy and were friends with your boss and coworkers on social media, you wouldn’t post about how much fun you’re having at the beach.

It is an idol’s job to maintain their image, but they’re people as well.

3. Hyuna made the right choice by revealing her relationship with E-Dawn even though Cube denied it

This was a huge issue at the time and it basically blew every other thing currently happening in the Kpop world away when they two came forward with their relationship while their company denied it. One of the issues it also blew away was the fact that the entire Kpop community online was referring to Hyuna as a sexual predator for the way that she was interacting with E-Dawn with petitions popping up to have her charged with sexual harassment and kicked out of Cube. All this was happening during the time that #Metoo entered South Korea, so many people became invested in Hyuna and E-Dawn before they were even officially announced for the fact that many believed Hyuna was getting away with harassing him.

At that point in time it would be unknown if Pentagon was going to continue to thrive after Shine, but one thing was certain was that if they didn’t confirm the relationship Hyuna’s career would be over and she would be labeled as a sexual predator. The two of them announcing the relationship saved Hyuna’s career. In all honesty, Hyuna is an amazing dancer and idol, however, she’s just an idol. While her image is seen as sexy and raunchy at times it’s not criminal and she needed to maintain it if she wanted to keep making money. When looking at E-Dawn there’s no denying he has talent, but Hyuna has been a part of the industry for so long that there’s no denying her career was worth more sentimentally to a lot of fans and quantitatively when it comes to income.

I believe the two of them were smart enough to know that Hyuna could get picked up by another company. I also think they were smart enough to know that eventually when everything died down E-Dawn would probably be able to work as a producer or composer, even if he never got to perform on stage. If the two had not revealed their relationship pentagon would have still lost a lot of popularity due to the multiple dating scandals popping up and Hyuna probably wouldn’t have a career at all.

4. Twice is currently the only girl group from the big 3 companies that is actually interesting to WATCH

So in all honesty Twice isn’t really my thing, but I’m honestly a little sick of people hating on them and saying that Red Velvet and BlackPink are more talented. In all honesty, all 3 groups are talented. However, Twice seems to be the only group that has consistent stage presence and chemistry compared to the other two. Not to mention JYP has done an incredible job in styling them different for each concept and also changing up choreography and choreographers to make sure that each individual release isn’t the same. I think SM does a pretty good job with this when it comes to music videos and MVs, but when it comes to stage performances I don’t think they change it up that often. I also think one of the reasons that Bad Boy did so well was because it was truly different from everything they had done at that point. Also, sometimes the Red Velvet members don’t seem to mesh well together or look uncomfortable on stage. Part of it comes down to styling because both Irene and Joy were forced to wear revealing clothing that made it hard to do choreography wise. However, sometimes they just give lack luster performances though when it comes to stages, especially when compared with the other groups in their company that have great chemistry and stand out performances. That’s not to say they don’t have some absolutely phenomenal performances, but it’s sort of left up to chance. When it comes to BlackPink… Everything except for Stay is the same. The concept the style and even the choreographies and formations are the same and maybe they’re slightly elevated but not by much. A lot of choreography for BlackPink is done by the same choreographer and he has a tendency to use the same planes of motion when choregraphing for them and it’s starting to show. I also think this comes from there always being such a quick release for BlackPink, so not much time is given for the members of the team to prepare something new, so they use old concepts and things they know will look decent on stage. I also think that a lot of BlackPink’s music sounds the same and I also think that’s due to them rushing out what they know will sell.

I just want to make it clear that all these groups have decent music. It’s just that you know you’ll get a good live performance (styling, choregraphy, and stage presence) from Twice, you can get some but not consistent lives from Red Velvet, and you’re getting almost the same performance from BlackPink. Not that BlackPink’s performances are bad, but it just feels like I may have seen it before.

5. Kpop fans need to get over it when someone says something negative about their groups in Western Media

So the main thing to note is I said negative, not racist. If someone says something racist it needs to be called out. However, when I think of this topic I think of Monbebe’s and Monsta X and NCT. I’m not going to lie I roll my eyes every time an interviewer asks these two groups about BTS, but I can also recognize that BTS is now what most people recognize as Kpop so the comparison is expected. I also even understand stupid comments like “I’ve never heard of them before”. It’s a fact that the larger world hasn’t heard of these groups. They’re allowed to dislike these groups and their music and make these comments because it’s their opinions, but fans can’t sit there and demand an apology from every person who makes a negative comment. It makes the larger Kpop fandom look bad as well as makes things more difficult for the groups. Western media does not operate on the same politeness that Korean media does, and fans need to recognize that. When they demand apologies for every little thing it makes people hesitant to work with Kpop groups in the future for fear of backlash and also may attract people who know they can draw attention to themselves by making fun of these groups and upsetting their fans. Neither is a good thing for Kpop groups.

6. Idols from the top 3 companies aren’t the most talented they’re the most marketable

So I’m not saying that groups from the big three companies aren’t talented because that’s just a straight up lie. Some of the biggest legends in Kpop come from the big three. When I started Kpop the joke was SM was 100% looks, YG was 20% looks 80% talent, and JYP was 100% talent. I sort of laughed at that then because I didn’t really believe it because of the groups in the companies. At the time Big Bang, Girls Generation, Miss A, 2Ne1, Shinee, and 2PM were super popular and all of these groups had undeniable talented, even though there are members of some of those groups that were put there just for looks all members could at least sing, dance, or rap(to a tolerable level). However, now I feel like the groups from the big three are lack luster. That could be because smaller companies have gotten better at promoting their idols, but I also think it’s because fans of kpop are more aware of marketing tactics. Idols get selected for groups because companies know they will sell not because they will be really talented. Take Irene for example, who is not particularly good at anything, but is exceptionally beautiful and an all around lovely human being. She was put there to draw attention for her looks not because she’s talented. Twice is another good example, when you look at the show they came from their were plenty of trainees who were eliminated who were as talented or more talented than the members when they first debuted. However, they were some of the more pretty and polished members as well as being high ranked on the fan voting. They literally added Tzuyu because they knew people would buy things with her face on it. At the end of the day although most people see kpop as music it’s a music industry and meant to make money. That means that people who will make these companies money get to debut. Part of the thing that attracts fans unfortunately is beauty and that probably won’t change anytime soon.

7. A visual position is one of the dumbest things to ever exist, but it will never disappear because of South Korea’s opinion on beauty.

I mean I had heard about how much appearances in South Korea mattered, but I don’t think it ever sank in how much they mattered in South Korea until I lived here. From mirrors literally everywhere (that people will stop to actually use) to how insanely young girls start dieting (Literally my 3rd grade student). Appearances matter here and will get you attention or completely shunned. I think it’s stupid that incredibly talented people will never get to debut because they don’t have the looks of an artist whether that be an idol or something else in this country. However, it’s never going to change. It’s something quintessential to kpop emphasis on the K for Korean, so it’s up to Korea if they want to change that and I don’t think they do.

#opinions #opinion #kpop #big three #girl groups

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jonwongton · 5 years

Text

KCON NY 2019 Recap

Wow I was actually in New York for four days and four nights. When I first saw the fromis_9 KCON NY announcement I knew there was no way I wasn't going to go. It looks like they made some great memories in NY/LA and I wanted a part of the fun too. Plus I wanted to avoid some of the regret I had last year in that I didn't go to KCON LA 2018. I already got super invested in them through June/July but I don't think I was emotionally ready/mature enough to go on a solo trip like this by myself.

Friday, July 5th

So to start out my trip, my flight to Newark was delayed for four hours. At least at the airport, I met the most beautiful family and got to play with their kids for a couple hours. The kids went boy girl boy where the youngest boy was causing trouble (literally me since I’m the third child), and the girl had no concept of stranger danger so she told me a wide assortment of TMIs about her family. The lady sitting next to me (Annie!) on the flight was also the sweetest soul imaginable, so we chatted for a couple hours before both watching Crazy Rich Asians (I admittedly cried at the ending).

I arrived after 9pm (no chance for early check-in or Klub KCON though I didn't want to dance with 16 year olds anyways), and I get anxious af when I'm in a foreign place without knowing exactly where I'm going, so I mass googled/kept asking for strangers for help to get to Manhattan. After I got settled into my hotel, Maya met me outside we went to Times Square! I'm so glad she came out and saw me that night because 1) I haven't seen her since summer of maybe 2016? so I missed her a ton 2) I literally had no idea how the NY subway worked before she told me 3) I wanted to go Times Square at night and 4) I wouldn't have wanted to go alone. We caught up on literally everything and I went to bed pretty late considering I wanted to check-in early to sell my A1 artist engagement pack.

and our “first date” pose because we were standing so damn far from each other:

Saturday, July 6th

I got up at 6am EDT (so 3am PDT aka rip), and rushed over to the Javits Convention Center to get in line. I brought like literally nothing because I was afraid you couldn't bring food in or they'd throw away my hydroflask. As it turns it, the staff didn't care at all, and there was hardly any line. After checking in, I got my A1 artist engagement pack ($150) which had an AB6IX high touch, a TXT audience pass, and an SF9 audience pass.

I almost panicked because I didn't know how popular AB6IX was, and if I had gotten ATEEZ/TXT I literally would have made at least a $100 net profit. I sat in line with some new people before I summoned enough courage to go into the artist engagement mob. Almost immediately, a girl ran up to me and asked me if I wanted to sell my hi-touch. I wanted to gauge the "market price" a bit more because I was still early af, but since I was still kinda panicking, I sold it to her for $100 and her SF9 audience pass. I looked around and that's when I figured out all the girls were trying to trade their hi-touches for the groups they wanted and all the guys were trying to buy their IZ ONE/(G)-IDLE hi-touches (the only two girl groups doing an artist engagement since Everglow couldn't attend and fromis_9 wasn't doing one). For the eight groups there, I'm pretty sure the market price went something alone the lines of

ATEEZ >>>>>>>> TXT = IZ ONE >> (G)-IDLE = The Boyz >>> SF9 = AB6IX >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> VeriVery

where the ">" shows the relative difference between each group. I thought TXT would be up with ATEEZ but I was clearly wrong. That's why I was pretty happy to get the AB6IX hi-touch off my hands. VeriVery hi-touches were being sold for $20 and people were throwing away their audience passes. I heard someone bought an ATEEZ hi-touch for $550 lmao.

I sold my AB6IX hi-touch, sat back in line with my new friends, and traded my TXT audience pass for an ATEEZ audience pass based on my sense of how popular each group was. I made another lap around the mob and a girl bought my ATEEZ audience pass almost instantly for $40. I made another lap maybe ten minutes later and sold one of my SF9 audience passes for $30 (I'm pretty sure I ripped her off on this one really hard but oh well). I couldn't find a buyer for my other SF9 audience pass so I decided to hold onto it until tomorrow since that's when their artist engagement would be. At this point, I was already +$20 in profit and I still had an audience pass leftover.

All the trading chaos settled at around 8:45am, but the convention didn't start until 11am. I just talked with some 16/17 year olds that were ridiculously into ATEEZ and other boy groups (surprisingly not NUEST or Seventeen).

I was one of the first into the convention and I made a full lap to scout around before picking something to do. The Toyota booth snatched me first and when I told them I was legit gonna get a 2020 Camry they were !!! and made me play their game. You had to search the Corolla for four QR codes, and take selfies with the filter that's prompted after scanning it in 90 seconds. The iPad they gave me glitched the fuck out so I only got three done. They gave me a "The Boyz Meet and Greet" pass which would allow me to go to the front of the line when they made a "surprise visit" at the Toyota booth. I was being a nice guy and told some The Boyz fan about it nearby, so the girl did it, succeeded, and won a fucking IZ ONE hi-touch >.> (people were selling that for $150 minimum...) so yes I'm salty as hell.

At the official merchandise line, if you bought more than $100 of stuff, they'd give you a special merchandise voucher. If you took that voucher to the KCON Star Square, played the game they had every hour and won, you'd get a chance to meet a "surprise artist". There were some official fromis_9 slogan towels for sale for $25, but I decided not to buy it right then and there in case they wanted one big purchase totaling $100. But my dumbass was wrong and the slogan towels sold out 30 minutes later and to this day I still don't have one (they're beautiful). I was also too slow to pre-order it when I bought my convention pass because they closed the presale.

I did some social media sellout booths, wrote some fromis_9 support on the "message to your idols" board, and realized there was nothing to do after that.

I just stood at the Toyota booth where they'd play an entire song and anyone that knew the dance would go up and do it (note they played the ENTIRE song and not just the chorus so for songs that weren't super popular, the stage was empty for a solid two minutes each time). I was only there for maybe 20 minutes, but they played Love Bomb and to my surprise, 4 Walls (which I haven't heard in ages).

I walked around aimlessly for another hour before I realized I hadn't eaten anything for the whole day. I got some really overpriced convention food and sat with some girls I met in line because I was pretty lonely at that point. They were from Chicago and were also there just for ATEEZ. We talked for a bit before they went to line up at MSG for the concert, so I walked around aimlessly for another 45 minutes before I went to one of the panels.

The panel was "The difference between American and KPOP" and Andreas Oberg (wrote Young and Free by Xiumin and Mark, one of my favorite station tracks) and David Amber (wrote Love Bomb, Heart Shaker, Yes or Yes, and Love Bug) were there! The third guy on the panel was pretty annoying, but I'm super interested in how these guys come up with these songs and they shed a ton of insight about it.

They talked about how most successful kpop songs now are actually a combination of multiple melodies put together, which supposedly make the song more interesting. For their particular styles, they try not to repeat the melody between choruses because that would bore the listener and try to have super catchy parts of the song or even the chorus start the track. Something else I found out which was super interesting is how they tailored certain songs for certain companies and groups. Andreas said SM gave him a ton of freedom, but when JYP asked for a song from David, he needed to make the verses long enough for each member to sing (aka Twice needs more lines since there are nine members) and add in rapping parts if the group had a rapper. They had a Q&A section at the end where two people kinda pissed me off since they went up to the mic and made shameless plugs saying how much they adored Andreas/David and were aspiring song writers like them. I actually summoned the courage myself and asked the panel a few questions:

Do you have a good sense of whether a song you wrote will become super popular?

How do you feel about songs that you are very proud of writing that don't become popular, maybe because it was given to a group that isn't that popular?

Do you think composers deserve more credit for making groups popular? The example I used is Blackpink is SUPER popular but their entire soud is almost exclusively produced by Teddy, which almost no one knows about.

I thought they gave me really insightful responses too:

A little bit, but once the song is produced, it's in the hands of the company to promote it with the artist and the choreography.

They're sometimes really sad about songs they create that don't make it big, and Andreas told me he was very fond of Young & Free

David said it's fine the way it is now. The example he used is with movies where the actors/actresses will get all the credit + make the movie famous, but a huge part of the production of the movie is because of the director, who rarely gets any attention.

I walked around aimlessly for another thirty minutes before standing at the KCON Dance Studio to watch the random play dance. I always saw the youtube videos of them so I wanted to see it in person myself. It turns out there was a cluster fuck of people there and we kept getting pushed back so far I couldn't see anything. Two guys in line next to me had Fun Factory albums and fromis_9 posters, so I decided to strike up a conversation with them. It turns out they were also huge flovers AND buddies, so we ditched the random play dance and talked for half an hour about our overall love for kpop. They were also New York locals, and they said they would take me under their wing for the rest of the weekend T_T. We met up with one of the guy's aunts and head to ktown since it was within walking distance, the convention closed at 6, and they wanted something to eat before the concert started at 8.

I took the 순두부 짬뽕 I ordered back to my hotel and ate it while watching the live stream since I only bought a Sunday ticket. On the way back, I also stopped by a store called Koryo Bookstore which sold kpop stuff. I couldn't find any GFriend/fromis_9 stuff I wanted, so I bought a Harry potter book in Korean to practice before going back. The concert livestream was okay, and it felt even shorter because IZ ONE got an extra stage, which I presume was supposed to fill in for Everglow. I lost my shit when NUEST performed Love Paint and Look though because those songs changed my life summer 2016 (they almost made me wish I went). I was still kinda disappointed in them because they had a ton of fans, but they gave off the vibe they only came to NY just to do the concert and leave. I tried sleeping early but as I crawled into bed, I got a fromis_9 vlive notification and I kinda had to watch it in case they spoiled the activities of tomorrow. I saw on twitter they actually arrived on SATURDAY and just toured New York, so obviously there was no way they could be at Saturday's convention. I spammed in chat if they'd have a pinky promise event for maybe 15 minutes but they never saw the comment. I didn't hear any spoilers so I just went to bed tired af since I got like no sleep in the past two days.

Sunday, July 7th

I woke up pretty late on Sunday and bought an expensive ass fancy bagel before getting to the convention center, though I could hardly eat it since I have literally zero appetite when I’m in a foreign place.

I bought the official fromis_9 jersey to match my two buddies just so everyone would know we were flovers at first sight. I also finally took out my Saerom sign and carried it around the convention center. We watched the Sunday opening ceremony and met up with a third guy (a Wiz One) while we waited for the fromis_9 fanclub meeting at 1:30.

I also found a lady willing to buy my SF9 audience pass for $15, which is ridiculous because I saw people giving it away for free at this point.

The fanclub meeting was really interesting. I instantly locked eyes with a girl that had a Saerom sign and we took a few pictures.

We played bingo with a lot of the squares consisting of fromis_9 memes, and two kahoot games where we had to guess which member it was (the pictures were ridiculous) and name the song after only hearing 1 second of it. At the very end, we did the Love Bomb and Fun! fanchants, but it was nearly impossible doing them without already knowing them if you could read romanized hanguel fast enough. I still screamed my heart out though (seriously).

There was nothing interesting left on the schedule, so we walked around before deciding to go to the (G)-IDLE fanclub meeting as well. I missed most of it because I met up with the girl that printed the banners, but there was a really entertaining random play dance at the end. On the way to get the banners, I met the girl that had the Saerom sign during the fromis_9 fan meeting, so we chatted a bit and exchanged numbers (she was here just for fromis_9 and she came from SWEDEN, so I thought we could bond over that). We closed out the day by going to the "2019 Year of Girl Groups" panel.

The panel was really boring, one of the members kept swearing, and they just talked about which girl groups they thought were the most influential in the kpop scene. Personally, I thought the SNSD/f(x) answers were meaningful since Gee shook the world and f(x)'s weird sound + Amber broke down a lot of stereotypes at the time, but some of the Twice answers in the group were a huge stretch. Two fans kept talking about how much Twice meant to them and while that's great and all, I think the rest of the audience felt the same way as I did. At the end, they forgot to give away their prizes, so they basically asked us to walk up and convince the audience why we should get the prize. I walked up and told them I was disappointed I came all the way from California just to see fromis_9 but still didn’t get the chance to. That won me this:

It was like 5:30pm after the panel ended, so we (five of us total) went to ktown to get chicken and hype ourselves up for the concert. They were playing Chung Ha and so many other not as popular girl groups (Weki Meki, Gugudan, Cherry Bullet) that we ended up talking about that for the entire time.

We all split up after we got to Madison Square Garden (I had P1, the group of three had P2, one guy had P3) and had maybe five minutes before the concert started because we showed up so late.

We were all super sad that they started with fromis_9 instead of one of the other boy groups, but I fanchanted and danced my heart out during all the songs.

The people in my section were huge mood killers though. I was sitting in the Chase preferred section, so I feel like the people in that section either a) had their parents use their credit card to buy their tickets or b) got the tickets handed out at some event and weren't even invested in kpop. The two girls to my life were there for seventeen and got on their feet at the end, but the two girls to the right of me sat down and were on their phones for the whole concert.

I got so lucky during the concert. VeriVery covered 24K magic, AB6IX covered Attention, and SF9 covered Love Shot, all songs which I know and love. And a word about Seventeen's stage. I was clearly at KCON for fromis_9, but I also LOVE Seventeen. I didn't pay much attention to their most recent comeback home though since it was a much slower song. However, EVERY SEVENTEEN SONG THEY PERFORMED I ACTUALLY KNEW. They started with 숨이차 which I knew but was indifferent to, but then we got Good To Me, Adore U, AND 아주 Nice. The stadium was freaking shaking during 아주 Nice and when they came back for the surprise encore I think the entire crowd and I died.

I met up with my friends after outside the venue, but three of them had to leave because they had work the next day (locals). I was ready to go back to my hotel content with the concert but disappointed overall, but Sweden girl texted me and told me to meet up with all the other flovers we were with. I met the moderators of the fan club meeting and like ten people that were huge fans and traveled as far as I did here for fromis_9. None of us were tired so we went to ktown to hang out. We talked for two hours over girl groups, fromis_9, guessing each other's biases, and learning our own backstories + age. Like where were these people during the actual convention. Apparently they all knew each other, but because I don't have a twitter, instagram, or am on discord, I was the reason I couldn't be found. I invited Sweden girl to do touristy crap with me on Monday/Tuesday because our flights on Tuesday were at like the same time, but one of the guys there tipped us off for the fromis_9 flash mob happening tomorrow at Washington Square Park at 2:30pm. I personally didn't give a shit about touristy stuff and I only felt obligated to do it because I was in New York, but I clearly only came this far for kpop. We decided to meet up for lunch at like 11am and we all went our separate ways.

Monday, July 8th

We all met up at Chipotle and sat around talking about more kpop stuff.

It was raining surprisingly hard in the morning, so we were all praying the event didn't get canceled. We walked over to Washington Square Park at 1pm and camped out there full of anxiety. I’ll type up what happened at the flash mob in a different post, but in summary, it was the best day of our lives. A ton of flovers had flights to catch, so Sweden girl and got milk tea and just held our hands crying over the event we saw. We rewatched the videos like 15 times (not kidding), took the subway to the Statue of Liberty, took the subway BACK to Washington Square Park because we missed some closure pictures, and then went to Central Park to take more pictures, all while lugging around my silly Saerom sign.

Our heads were in the clouds the entire day so we just sat on a rock and watched the sunset. She met up with a friend from Michigan while I got Halal guys and went back to my hotel room super emotional over the days events.

My dumbass put too much of the red sauce in it which was spicy as HELL so I couldn’t even eat much of it.

Tuesday, July 9th

I woke up late because I wanted to stretch out the best day of my life (yesterday) for as long as possible, and Sweden girl convinced me to go to the airport to say bye to fromis_9 before our flight. I was late as hell, but I booked my ass over to JFK and got to see (G)-IDLE and IZ ONE at the airport (I have videos, not pictures). At the end of the day, fromis_9 wasn't even leaving New York that day so apparently the twitter source was wrong. I wasn't too disappointed though given Monday's events, so I said my good-byes to my partner-in-crime from the weekend and booked my ass to Newark (I was almost late for my flight because New York rush hour, will never underestimate again).

---

All in all, I give KCON a solid 3/10, but my overall trip was a 12.4/10 because of what happened at Washington Square Park. KCON has much better, ethical ways to suck the money dry out of the fans that are willing to pay. They announce the artist engagement schedule AFTER selling the packs, which baited so many Nuest and Seventeen fans. The layout of the convention was absolutely fucking awful too. They put the Toyota booth dance stage, the KCON stage, the cover stage, and the KCON dance stage fairly close to each other so the music was playing over each other, and the other half of the room had empty booths full of cosmetic products and studying in Korea which has an appeal to like 10% of the people there. They also checked our wristbands when moving between rooms in the convention center, which makes no sense since we needed our wristband to enter the Javits Convention Center period. And in general, there was nothing to do "long term" so so many people were walking around bored like me. The lines for the stuff that could actually be done were ridiculously long (maybe 25-30 minute waits for the free food but that's long enough to miss an entire panel/engagement). The cherry on the cake is they announced the KCON LA lineup today without any teasers (no consistency?) and almost every single artist that went to KCON NY is going to KCON LA. I personally trust KCON LA a bit more to not fuck up everything as bad as KCON NY, but it still feels pretty unethical considering how many of us flew ridiculous distances to NY just for the same line up.

I'm not the biggest fan of New York either. The city is super crowded, smells awful, and I don't feel safe on the streets at all (and I'm a guy). One redeeming quality is that the people that I met were unbelievably nice. I probably asked for directions eight times and every time, I got the most helpful/friendly response. An old white man even saw how I confused I looked an approached me asking exactly how he could help me get to where I wanted to go.

At least now, I think I have the confidence to plan my own solo trip to a faraway place. This was a fun one.

I hope we answered your promise Saerom!

#kcon

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nomediaplay · 5 years

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What is the difference between a handshake event and a fan sign?

eh, ok, I will try to quickly explain how things work:

Korean “fan-sign” such as done by SM etc:Normally for 100 fans and lasts about 1 hour. Sometimes it’s held in a space where public can watch (like malls) but usually it’s held in a closed small hall. The 100 fans sits as audience, and in turn go up to a table and meet member after member then go back to their seat. They get like 30 seconds per member to sign something and ask something. 100 fans x 30 seconds = 50 minutes it’s over quite quick. The event is done in cooperation with 1 single CD store. For example, every CD sold during Monday-Wednesday in that one store is a ticket to the draw made to be 1 of 100 to participate in the Saturday event. Many fans will purchase from that specific store, so maybe they sell 10,000 CDs in those 3 days and 100 will be given event tickets (typically announcing winners on maybe Friday). SM acts will normally do these events right after music shows. Like, if SBS Inkigayo ends at 17:00, the artists get a few minutes to go to the restroom and then they go right next to the fansign venue in their stage outfits/makeup for an event starting 18:00 before being done for the day. Rookie acts will typically do loads of such events. Established acts will just do like 3 events. They’d rather not do any at all, but if they’re not completely brainless they’ll understand that doing 3 such meeting events per year actually is a very effortless way to personally meet fans.

Japanese “high five events” (as done by many acts, such as JYP acts in Japan and most Japanese idols):Events are typically held in 2-6 cities on different days. All events are basically all day events in big halls/venues. Every single CD (no matter where you buy it and when (as long as you get it before the event)) contains a card that is the ticket to do a “high five” with the 1 member stated on the card. As in literally a “high-five” that takes 1 second to do. The ticket is valid in any city/event but only for one single high-five with that specific member. You can buy hundreds of CDs to get hundreds of tickets and try collect tickets for your favorite member. But all events are “first come, first serve” with separate lines to all members so after using 1 of your tickets for a 1 second high-five you must run back to again stand last in the line to meet a new member (or the same member again).

Japanese “hand shake events” (as done by all XXX4X events):These are basically the same as above, but (1) you get more like 8 seconds rather than 1 second per ticket and (2) you literally pre-order which member you want to meet when and where. As in, you have to pre-order CDs on a specific site and at the same time you book a specific time slot for your “hand-shake”.As in member AAA may have a 1 hour 15 minutes time slot between 14:00 and 15:15 on a Friday, and there are 500 CDs/tickets available for that slot. Each member might (depending on popularity) have 1~40 such “slots” in different cities on different days (but normally multiple slots per day in one city). And basically, if you alone go buy all the 500 CDs for one slot, then you basically have the entire 1 hour 15 minutes for yourself to meet your idol. Now obviously, for the really popular members it will typically be restricted so that one person can only buy max 20 CDs/tickets per slot (= no more than say 2 minutes of meeting time). But obviously that same stalker fan can buy CDs/tickets to many different slots.

The most extreme Japanese idol groups like XXX4X… Most of their CD sales are from their own online store to book “hand shake event tickets”. But all of their “normal” CDs sold in other stores instead contain tickets for “high five events” or similar. So their crazy fans go buy hundreds of CDs both from the XXX4X online store and from other stores.

Then obviously now and then “idols” and actors hold fan-meetings which literally are just extremely half-arsed concerts to which fans buy tickets as if it was a concert in order to say “ooooaaawwwhhh oppppaaarrrr” when oppar can’t even be bothered to perform.

Why girl groups don’t do Fanmeeting?

Well, there are dual reasons:

If you watch any male idol fan meeting (no matter what format from above) you’ll immediately see that every single attendee is a completely brainless zombie girl who has absolutely no interest in any actual music or performance but who is only interested in the public persona he is (because she is a brainless zombie). Female celebrities would typically not have such brainless zombie fans paying money for nothing.

Secondly, even if there would be a 17 y/o girl attracting hordes of 50 y/o men to pay to meet her… If she had any self respect whatsoever she’d refuse to do that. Now obviously the lines are very blurred between the Japanese idol girl industry and the Japanese AV industry… But why would any serious person want to be a Japanese idol???

Do you think Spotify will a have a fighting against Melon and the rest in korea?

Eh, the question is kind of dumb. Korea was pretty much the country worst hit by piracy in the world. The legal music market died completely. When ILLEGAL services like Melon and Soribada eventually had to become legal and start paying rights-holders for music, that was still very small amounts. It’s been growing since and today it’s regulated by law that they have to pay something like 54% of revenue to right-holders. Spotify on the other hand pays over 70% of revenue to right-holders. So… Right holders giving licenses to Melon is just exclusive for Korea. That’s why it’s illegal for Melon to allow people outside Korea to stream on Melon. While foreign services can’t really enter Korea, because rights holders wouldn’t approve of such low shares on Spotify and then Spotify would have to charge a much higher subscription price than local services in Korea so nobody in Korea would pay for Spotify. Not gonna change until ratios in Korea are raised more in line with international ratios.

How much sajaegi do you think happens on the Korean digital charts?

None of significance. As said before. I find it mind-boggling that people somehow still don’t understand that streaming a song is free and streaming services are interlinked with SNS, and instead people somehow still try to compare streaming data with when people actually had to physically go to a music store and buy a physical disc for $20 USD per disc. It’s not the same. Nowhere near the same.

Talk about trainee debt.

Not sure what I’m supposed to say. Trainees in any serious agencies don’t have trainee debt (as long as they fulfill their trainee contracts). It should kind of go without having to explain that the whole purpose of doing an audition is to show the agency that you actually have the raw talent required to make it in order to persuade them to invest money in training you (and then you’ll split the profit you make as a celebrity if you succeed per the contract you agree on). Now obviously there will be countless of shit agencies without money that can’t pay for training and will try make trainees agree to pay for training, and there will be countless of shit wannabe celebrities that don’t get accepted by proper agencies that still are desperate to try become celebrities and proceed to sign such deals.

What do you think about JYP and how they pay their singers? Is the margin for the “management” segment reasonable for their groups?

Not sure what you expect. Clearly all JYP celebrities throughout history are talentless puppets just humming to JYP’s basic but addictive melodies. Not sure why any JYP singer ever would possibly deserve to be paid more than minimum wage since they contribute nothing.

Even though bigbang have a concert attendance as high as tvxq, they do not seem to bring the same amount of revenue.

BIGBANG had much bigger attendance and MUCH MUCH bigger revenue than TVXQ ever did in a year or two. Not in Japan, but total, when they did their MADE/0TO10/MADE-VIP in 2015/16.

twitter* com/neoliveson/status/1131957008918306816 do you think this petition is gonna work?

Some tragic useless old man is trying to make youtube ad-money from all of BTS’ fangirls??? Color me surprised.

Will YG and JYP ever pay for their crimes?

Pretty sure they’ve not committed any (serious) crimes by law. Maybe you’ve somehow missed it, but during the last 20 years pretty much the entire world has been swept by political liberal influences with the goal that nobody should ever have to be responsible for anything. If you’re a “kpop-fan”, it’s probably very safe to assume that you’re in fact one of those to blame for this liberal fuctardism. No, you can’t both have your cake and eat it.

Look it up this video 아이돌 QnA 2탄! 궁금증 해결! [ENG].

Wayland Q&A part 2? I watched it and I’m not sure what you’re surprised with.

Are BigBang and TVXQ in the same level of recognition as Arashi in Japan?

Not sure if serious or trolling. TVXQ has possibly like half the recognition of Arashi. BIGBANG much less than that. Besides, all the members of Arashi (and SMAP) are extremely well known individually.

Is Blackpink the biggest GG right now or it is mostly mediaplay from YG?

Not really sure what I’m supposed to say. Pop groups overall has been pretty much dead for the last 20 years outside Korea/Japan. So being “the biggest GG right now” isn’t really that much of a feat. Secondly… “or is it mediaplay from YG”… I’m not sure if to laugh or cry. They’re ACTUALLY BIG BECAUSE OF YG’S MEDIAPLAY that you’ve swallowed long ago. That’s the whole point of mediaplay. All you dumb girls all around the world swarm around anyone who’s painted as big in media/SNS. YG is the masters of making you dumbfucks become “fans” of their puppets.

Why Japanese concert tickets are cheap in comparison to other countries?

Uhh, it’s a bit difficult to understand for me too. I mean, I quite appreciate the Japanese system where all tickets are the same price and you apply in a lottery system to get to buy a ticket. But what’s strange is how the very very popular acts don’t charge much much more for their tickets. Like, for example IKON might perform in a Japanese arena with 8000 tickets available for $100 USD each, but only 6000 fans actually apply for tickets to that show. At the same time, B'z may be on an arena tour and play in the same arena with 8000 tickets available for $100 USD each. But 200,000 fans apply for tickets to that show. Clearly they could have charged $300 instead of $100 USD/ticket and still sold out. I’m really struggling to understand why top acts in Japan don’t charge higher prices.

What do you think of JYP saying that album sales are one of the best indicators for a group's success during his JYP 2.0 presentation?

Well, again, for JYP it’s very great with album sales as that’s how JYP make lots of profits.

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got7cutescenarios · 6 years

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Hey. I'd like to request a Jinyoung imagine. How would he pursue a love interest? Say, she's a strong, independent woman, who sort of lost her colors in the cold city of Seoul. She's in marketing, hypotherically works on one of the top floor of JYP. How would it all work out? How would Jinyoung try to get her attention? Confess?

Thank you for requesting! At first, I wanted to write something short but it kept getting longer and longer. This might have more than two parts, I hope you’re ok with that. :)

———————-

Meeting Again (Jinyoung)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3?

Homesick, lonely, and tired. Those three words kept going around your head as you laid down on the couch you were given by your company. Actually, the whole apartment was their property and you were using it for the four months you were staying in Seoul. You can say with confidence, that you loved working for JYPE’s international marketing team but prefer doing so at their facility in NYC. There was your family, friends, and apartment, that being honest, wasn’t as big and well decorated as the one you got in Seoul.

“So, how is the food?” asks your friend, who calls you often because you miss each other a lot. “Good I guess, I can’t complain”. “oh, c’mon you will be back soon, just try to enjoy your time there ok? I don’t know maybe date a little hahaha”. You both started laughing. “I don’t think is a good idea, I’m leaving in four months”. “Hey just think about it as your summer love even if its fall” …

The next day, you start the morning with the best attitude. “Be positive, try to make some friends, you’ve got this Y/N” you said to yourself while looking at your reflection in the mirror and brushing your teeth, slightly spitting some toothpaste everywhere. It is your second week in South Korea but your first day working at JYPE’s new building. You had visited the old building the year before and pretty much knew where everything was, but this time was different. As you entered, you greeted the secretary and she told you where to go for the meeting scheduled for that morning. Luckily, you find the right conference room and staring at the door for a little you try to gather confidence before making an entrance. Everyone gets up and greets you, they ask your name and you ask as well. They all seem to be nice people and the majority of them look to be around your age.

“I’m not sure who we are going to get assigned, I don’t think it’s Twice” you hear say “yeah, manager Lee already said his team will be working with them, we might get Stray Kids” answered a guy. You already knew which group your team was representing. Your boss back in NYC made sure to put you on the team managing GOT7 because they asked for you to be on their team. You had already worked with them in the past and the company said they liked how good the results were. Right when you were going to intervene in their conversation, the door opened and the marketing manager followed by the members of GOT7 came into the room. Everyone stood up and greeted them, you could hear whispers next to you, everyone talking about the boys.

“Ok, let me introduce myself, I’m manager Hong and many of you know me already. A new year for music has begun and we have been assigned new groups as a marketing strategy. As you can see, our team is diverse and there are people that come from our facilities in Japan, the United States, and China”. At this moment, most of the members of the marketing team, as well as GOT7, stare quickly at you and the other international members. “I hope we get along well and gather awesome ideas to allow GOT7 achieve great and better results like last year”. The meeting concluded after everyone introduced each other and talked about the planned dates for the next comeback. You were the last one to leave the room. It took you a while to gather all your stuff since you were taking notes of what was said at the meeting.

“Mm, hi” you hear someone say and you quickly look up to see who it was, seeing him smile, you do the same. “Hi!, I’m sorry I didn’t say hello to you properly earlier, I was trying to be professional you know”. You shrug trying to be funny, and it worked. It was weird, you never considered yourself to be funny but he, for some reason, always laughed at your (sometimes stupid) remarks. Still smiling but with a more serious tone, he asked. “Do you want to catch up? Let me buy you some coffee, I know a place that reminds me of the cafe where we used to hang out in NYC”.

To be continued.

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3x3racha · 6 years

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Stray Kids Reaction: Their non-idol S/O works at JYP Entertainment

Chan: You kept your relationship a huge secret because you weren’t supposed to be dating a trainee/future idol and he wasn’t allowed to date so you tried to keep it lowkey. He still couldn’t hold back the romantic gestures that he wanted to do for you like sometimes he’d walk past your office and place your favorite drink or food in front of the door before knocking and walking away. When he’d come back from touring after debuting he was excited to see you and couldn’t wait so he’d sneak up to your office and knock on your door and you open it to see Chan with the biggest smile and deepest dimples in front of you holding a bouquet of flowers.

“I missed you!~~~”

Woojin: Woojin loved that you worked at JYP because he got to your beautiful face all the time. He really liked that you worked more in the business and marketing side of JYP rather than a trainee since he got to see you at work and you don’t have the trainee burdens. He knew he should try to keep your relationship on the down low, but he always seems to forget to. Every time he saw you he’d always wave at you and look like a super cute excited puppy which always made you laugh. You two would always bring each other lunch. When he sees you tired, stressed, and practically drowning in work, he would sneak into your office to see you. He gave you a cute and encouraging pep talk and brought you some sweets. He also offered to help you even if it was just bringing you coffee or tea. He’s very supportive and caring to you.

“I brought you some things. I know it’s a really hard time for you right now, but you know I’m always here for you, always.”

Lee Know (Minho): He would always text you to come over to the dance studio was empty so he could show you his new choreo. You always scold him for this because sometimes he texts you when you’re in a meeting and you forgot to put your phone on silent. You would I rather make up an excuse like the text is an emergency or wait a bit and take a bathroom break. Was this professional? Not in the long run. But hey it’s the only time you can really see each other. His schedule was hectic and so was yours so you really only saw each through these dance practice breaks or when both of you decide to take a 3am picnic date in the park.

“I know you told me to stop texting you during meetings but just one more time okay?” why tf you lyin’

Changbin: You find your own hidden spot where no one can find you two in the building. You two also have secret hand signals. They’re very subtle but when you pass each other in the hallway, only you two know the signals and no one even notices. There’s a hand signal for meeting at your secret spot for lunch or break. There was one for I miss you/I love you. Then there was one for ‘I need you’ which was the one you or he would use when you were hitting your breaking point due to stress and being overworked. If he’s walking down the hall with one of the members and he sees you, he’ll perform aegyo bc he knows how much you love it. Sometimes when he was with the others he would display more PDA towards them to see your reaction. He loved to make you flustered and wanted to test how well you could contain it to remain professional.

*gif* and then he looks over at you and winks then smirks about your flustered reaction

Hyunjin: He was always so flustered when he saw you working at JYP and literally thought he had no shot with you. He thought you were super smart and wouldn’t want to date an idol. One thing leads to another, you went on a couple of dates and ended up dating. The boys love to tease him bc they can see how happy you make him. You kept the relationship a secret, only Stray Kids and your best friend know. You both feared how ppl would react to it especially if JYP got word of it. Hyunjin worried about the trainees that are crushing on him would hurt you if they found out too. Your relationship was always outside of work but still had to sneak around so you don’t risk someone seeing you two. So at work, you would just exchange cute glances and sometimes he would call a floral delivery place to bring you flowers from your ‘secret admirer’.

‘You’re the cutest, Y/n~’ -your secret admirer

Han (Jisung): You couldn’t be open with your relationship with Jisung because others found it unprofessional to date a coworker especially if one is an idol. You had to constantly scold him for sneaking into your office because of the risk of getting caught. He loved going to see you and always wanted to make sure you were taking care of yourself, or so he said. Most of the time he wanted to rant about something. He’d be so focused on what he was talking about that he was confused when you pushed and shoved him under your desk when a coworker walked in. He still didn’t understand why and whined about his pain. So you had to kick him, hoping it’ll give him a clue. He didn’t fully understand until he heard your coworker speak and he silently panicked, hoping he didn’t bring your relationship to light. Once your coworker left, he came out from under your desk apologizing and asking if you thought your coworker found out. Luckily it didn’t seem like they did.

“Y/n, I’m so sorry! I’ll be more careful, I promise! ...but you didn’t have to be so mean. That really hurt!!”

Felix: Okay this boy loves you and he can’t show that because you guys got to be on the down low for now. So he gives you affection secretly and by that I mean he likes to leave post-it notes on your office door and sometimes all over the desk. They would super cheesy and you would always laugh at how sweet he was even if they said really lame stuff. Some would be really bad pick up lines. Others would be poetry. Some in Korean, some in English. You worried that all this attention would completely out your relationship but it didn’t because no one suspected you to be dating an idol. Felix caused the whole office to think you have a secret admirer and he would tease you about it. So, out of spite, you started leaving post-it notes on the door of the dance studio before Stray Kids were scheduled to practice. What started off as a sweet gesture quickly turned into a war between you two.

‘My dearest Y/n, I love everything about you. uwuwUWUWUWuwuwu’ -ya boi

‘Well ya boi, you a little shit but you’re my little shit ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ’ -Tragic

Seungmin: Seungmin is a cute, lil shy boi especially when it came to the person he’s dating. He’s hopeless romantic but he’s also realistic when it comes to making the relationship public and the risk of it. So, of course, you kept it private. At work, you sound softly smile at each other and do a small, quick wave. When he was feeling brave, he’d flash you a quick heart. Sometimes he would write a sweet, anonymous love letter when he was feeling sentimental and slip it in your inbox. But sweet boi is also a lil snake so he’d sneak into your office when no one was around and hide somewhere so when you came back he could jumpscare you.

“Stop giving me a heart attack you snake!”

“I just wanted to see you!~ ...and you’re cute when you’re scared.”

I.N. (Jeongin): Everyone noticed that Jeongin was constantly coming to get advice from you. They assumed it’s because you just became someone he felt comfortable with. When he got flustered around you, they would just blame it on him being young and shy. This really helped keep your relationship a secret and it was nice that you still got to see him at work. Jeongin knew you had to keep the relationship a secret but he still wanted to do all the romantic things he’s never done before. So sometimes he would sneak into your office after hours and leave you a cute plushie with candies on your desk. Other times he would order food like pizza to be delivered to you but he would expect you to save some for him.

‘I think I love you’ -like alot

~Admin Yeong ☾

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kholoudnine · 5 years

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THE ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS

Hey guys!

So I have just come out of last weekend's book fest, am writing this at like 4am waiting for my sleep aids to finally kick in because I really should be going to bed now, and I thought It'd be a good time to start a blog post.

This past week has been crazy and just picking up more and more as it goes on. I've been ordering books, selling to stores(more to come on that little detail soon), signing up for signings in other states, booking meetings, and getting together more places to perform my art live. It's a work out for sure but the more I do the clouser I feel like I am to where I wanna be in life, so it's all worth a little lack of sleep. Although I have been making a commitment to sticking to a decent regemin for taking care of myself. If you read my poetry, you know I struggle with this daily, but if I wanna be at my best on stage and at signings and in my work, than it's an important step. It's also something I wanna encourage. For people not to just accept the narrative of being unhealthy and tired, if you're unhealthy and tired, strive to change that. I have so many ideas for blog posts and videos about how I've been going about doing that which I hope you'll enjoy and take something from. This post though, I wanted to talk about something that I've been asked for a lot lately, advice.

Now I knew when I started this that there would be people who looked up to me and people who want to know I did it and want to know what they can do for their dream and just wanna know more about my journey, the thing about that was just I thought all that as a little kid and I thought it'd be something that came from record deals and being rich and screaming stadiums, never did I think my self-published books and my open mic performances would draw so many people asking me for guidance through their own journey or draw so much curiosity for how I got where I am today (which for a time I thought wasn't very far). I've even been mistaken as a professional in the craft, someone with years of signings and publishing under their belt. This got me thinking, what exactly makes a professional, and what do I have to offer?

So for the people who ask me about my experience, I've pretty much been at this my whole life. It's been a constant uphill battle for me with anxiety and doubt and obstacles of all sort pushing back, but since I was a little child dressed as Hannah Montana and using letter stencils to write songs I was sure this is when I wanted. Something I need. That meant going to every free class I could find. The library funded a lot of my passion and education, with improv and acting classes, guitar lessons, computer courses, open mics, and workshops. I lived in libraries. I would read books about design and flip through adventures, I'd sit in the stacks learning about podcasts, I took photography and leadership in freshman and sophomore year of high school (for the gods' awful times I was in online school *shudders*). I still go to those classes now, the maker's space is going to help me tremendously in the next coming year. I'm so excited about it all still. For a long time with all those classes, I was still the quiet one. Even with all these teachers believing in me, I couldn't beileve in my own voice. I didn't think I could speak, and around my peers I was still weird, so I was quiet. Until JYPS workshop, that is when I was put on a stage for the first time in my teenage career. Working with the group definitely drove me to who I am now, instead of just being taught poetry, I was taught business, I was taught to stand on corners and give out flyers, to promote myself, to be confident and build connections, and I still go now. I'll be there this weekend, learning just like everyone else will be. This is where I found my voice. So as you can see, I've got experience, but I'm still trying to learn more. I don't really think I'll ever not be a student.

Knowing that, I will now give my best advice. I'm going to break it down into FAQ's because I do get a lot of questions, and most are more or less the same things.

1. How Do yoU Find Events?

I find all of my events through my mum and word of mouth. My mother started releasing books about a year before I did and she finds a lot of the events this year since most are ones she researched years prior. Other events I find through the library system and old fashioned word of mouth, it is not uncommon for people to come to my performances or see me at a signing and invite me to another somewhere else. Networking is key. Always remember to talk to people at these things as you'll never know who you'll meet. Do not be afraid to ASK "Hey can I preform here? Hey what signings are there in town? Hey Siri search local book signings?" You'll find something surely.

2. How Do You Find Inspiration?

Everywhere. My life, other books and art, music, dancing, etc. I've been dancing and gotten entire scenes in my head randomly or laying back and listening to music then I'll start replaying the song as a whole outline shows itself to me. It's really a magickal thing, being an artist. It does take practice for some to get to that level of spacey but you can always start by writing about what you know. Many scenes or emotions or characters in my books can be connected to my life in some way or another, maybe an altered moment, maybe a name I heard, maybe a character that reminds me heavily of a friend. Start with writing what you know, I will occasionally write out my thoughts like a novel when I'm trying to sort things out or I'm in a funk, find your thing.

3. How Do You Get Over Stage Fright?

You just do it. Get on stage, it's really the only way I've found to deal with it. A lot of people don't know this but I do have grand stage fright, to the point of running off the stage when I was younger actually. It still bothers me and I'm in constant management with it. If you don't get on stage you'll surely never get over it. Start small. For me going up and performing in front of people who don't know me, acting as a character who was not me, would help tremendously. Occassionally I'll still channel some more confident and emotionally showing version of myself for my performances, it's whatever works as a small step for you. Some people feel more comfortable anon like me, but others may want to start by preforming in front of people they trust and slowly work their way to strangers. Don't push yourself too far to fast, and don't worry about if you start by running off the stage, you get over it.

4. How Do You Self-Publish?

There are several ways to self-publish your books, the way I chose to go through primarily was Amazon. I put my books on their website (not signing their exclusivity contract) and then I can sell it other places. So I've also been trying to add my books to Lulu, I have previews up on Tablo and Wattpad, and I'm selling them to a local bookstore. Amazon prints my books so I do pay them to order the copies but I do not pay the same price as a normal costumer, since they are mine I only pay the cost of shipping and printing. You can find loads of other self-publishing routes with some diligent research, look around and find what's right for you, don't be afraid to ask other authors who self-publish questions at book signings, many are willing to help others.

5. What are the benefits of self publishing?

Since I self-publish my book I get to tell the story my way, without some of the hurtles trade might give me. For instance, my books are quite dark and do contain not only strong language but descriptive violence. When JK Rowling was publishing Harry Potter, Ron actually swore quite a lot, but because the publisher felt the book series would appeal so well to children, they had her change that about the character so as not to poke any parents. Prisoner Nineteen could bring a very wide audience (though I in no way compare my work to Harry Potter) but seeing as the characters are mostly quite young (the main being only fourteen) I could see it drawing in a younger crowd than would be expected for a series like it, because I published it myself, I don't have to worry about that. I market it as YA, and really leave it up to the reader (and their parents) what they feel comfortable reading. This for me is the biggest plus of self-publishing, you get no deadlines and complete creative freedom.

6. How Do You Write A Book?

I can't exactly tell you that. Everyone has a different way of writing their book, I've seen a million different writing styles and writing processes, it's really up to you how you write your book. As for finshing it, what helped me was having a clear goal and deadline in mind.

7. How Do You Balance Everything?

Chaotically. I'm definitely not going to lie and say this is all super easy. Meetings, school, art projects, volunteering, blogs, writing, signings, performances, and whatever else I have to do that week balanced on having a social life and not going crazy? It's not exactly easy. And occasionally you will probably freak out and/or cry from stress and anxiety, that does happen to me sometimes, but if it's what you want to be doing and I mean really want to be doing? Oddly enough, it doesn't feel like work a lot of the times. It feels great to be able to be doing something you actually love and want to be doing. If going a little bit crazy is a part of the process, eh, just makes for better writing and more theatrics. Did the sane man really ever make great art or great changes?

8. How Do You Get Your Stuff?

So usually this is directed towards my merch. Everything you see on my tables is customised and designed by yours truly (save for things like my lights or shell). I get an idea, I plan it out, and I then search all over the internet to find my supplies. (Honey really helps with this. Save money, create smarter.) Look on Pinterest or Tumblr or at other cons to try and think of something that fits your book.

9. How Do You Find The Courage?

Caffeine. Straight to the vein. I just get an iv drip before every apperence.

No but, really it's a lot of channeling your nerves into your work. Of deciding if this is really really really something you wanna be doing. If the answer to that is yes? You'll find your courage and strength. A support system doesn't hurt. If that can't be friends or parents, then you can find it in groups. Look around your local art scene. I'm sure somewhere there's a workshop or two, check on NaNaWrimo they do video chats, join a group on social media, find a pen pal, but nothing can really replace knowing people are rooting for you and knowing that you're working towards your dream goals.

10. How old are you?

I am eighteen years old and my birthday is June 24th, so. You're certainly not too young to do something and make decisions with your life. There is no "starting age" that's when you decide it is.

And to close, the thing that makes you a professional. I really didn't know, but a friend of mine posted online a few days ago "You are a rapper if you are rapping." This I think is true in all things. Especially in art, there is no point when you should ever stop learning, but you are what you are. If you sing, and you're serious about it, you are a singer. If you dance, and you're serious about it, you are a dancer. If you act, and you're serious about it, you are a dancer. If you write, and you're serious about it, you are a writer.

#blog #writer #writeblr #writing #advice #the prisoner nineteen series #prisoner nineteen #faq #kholoudnine

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