#the idea for that being Jinshi is the bachelor and Maomao is his camera person who follows him around

[chibimui]

The Apothecary Diaries Idol/Boyband AU (JinMao)

Omg. The brain worms really struck me yesterday after @blur0se shared these scan and like... I just cannot get this idea out of my head. This ended up being a 1000+ text note on my phone which I wrote before I went to sleep and am now cleaning up and fleshing out for public consumption.

Hiding the rest under a cut cause giddy up folks, you're in for a ride.

(also if anyone wants to take this idea and make it their own, by all means go ahead).

So, my thoughts/outline for "What if Jinshi joined an idol competition where Maomao was the dance instructor and one of the judges?" (she's no longer a judge).

Setting:

Jinshi is part of an idol competition TV show being produced by Li Entertainment owned by Ka Gyouyou (You, the Emperor). It's an elimination style competition where folks get to remain based on popular audience vote AND the judging panel. A new 5-member boyband will be debuted based on the winners of the competition.

Jinshi:

Jinshi is an immediate audience favourite mainly due to his looks and ~charming personality~. Jinshi is also a stage name - his real name is Ka Zuigetsu. He is the son of You and Ah-Duo - he is aware of this, but was raised by both his grandmothers mostly and kept out of the public eye. You and Ah-Duo never got married, it was a teenage pregnancy that was kept hush hush since both of them were up and coming celebrities. The public has no knowledge of Jinshi actually, but it comes out at some point during the show due to the scarily competent/intrusive detective work that only fans are capable of.

His dancing and singing skills are also pretty decent. Unfortunately, his skills get unfairly judged by viewers who are overly critical, so they end up downplaying his talent, to offset his fans who tend to put him on a pedestal. This gets even worse once his background is revealed.

In reality, on stage he does often appear to be kind of stiff/awkward due to his lack of self confidence. However, behind-the-stage clips show that when he thinks he's alone/off camera he's actually really damn good at both singing and dancing, and he clearly puts in a ridiculous amount of effort (some would argue too much).

You actually just wanted to debut Jinshi without any real prior exposure when he started showing interest in the idol industry, but Jinshi felt he didn't deserve that so he was the one that chose to enter the idol competition to prove himself. Of course, once the public finds out his connection to Li Entertainment they start assuming the competition is rigged anyway.

Maomao:

Maomao is one of the dance instructors. She was in last years production as well and is known for being a bit of a taskmaster, incredibly blunt and sharp with her critiques, but she's not mean. Previous watchers know that Maomao takes her job as an instructor seriously, she really wants to teach the craft well and genuinely hopes the talents succeed. She's also really quick to know when someone is just hoping to coast and will immediately put them in their place.

Viewers know that if you want to succeed you a) don't mess with Maomao and b) LISTEN TO WHAT SHE TELLS YOU CAUSE SHE'S RIGHT.

The reason Maomao knows dance is because she was raised in her families dance academy (The Verdigris House)! Maomao also personally enjoys choreographing dances - she's not interested in performing herself, but she likes the "puzzle" of matching dance moves to a song and creating a captivating performance. This was why she accepted the offer to be a dance instructor for the show when producers came knocking on the door of the Verdigris House. She is also a university student studying pharmacology and hopes to become a full-time pharmacist like her grand uncle, Luomen.

Other Characters:

Basen, Rikuson, Lihaku and Lahan are all part of this competition as well. They are the guys who end up debuting with Jinshi to form the idol group "Flower 5" otherwise the F5 (Yeah, I'm unoriginal, but COME ON. HOW COULD I NOT JUMP ONTO THE FLOWER IMAGE).

People do not know Lahan and Maomao are related and at first just think Maomao super hates Lahan because he seems like one of the guys who just wants to coast. When Lahan calls Maomao his "little sister", fans just think he's purposely trying to piss her off (they're not wrong...). Of course, eventually it's dug out that they are actually cousins which adds more fuel to the "this competition is rigged" agenda.

Much to Maomao's chagrin, Lahan is actually quite a competent all-rounder in singing and dancing -- he just seems to have an innate understanding of rhythm and music. He constantly says "It's just numbers". No one gets it, but it works for him. She doesn't get how, but he also manages to gain a lot of the audience vote. Because Lahan has such a good sense of rhythm and words, he ends up being very good at rapping.

Lihaku is his typical himbo self. He's super physically fit and a great dancer, has amazing stamina and his personality is A+++. His singing is a bit lacking, but it's not terrible. He's also dating Pairin, never tries to hide it, and will come to defend her honor whenever anyone tries to talk bad about her. She was the one who encouraged him to try out for the competition.

Basen and Jinshi are closer to childhood acquaintances, rather than friends, but they end up bonding on this show more. Basen is a great dancer as well. Him and Lihaku are absolute powerhouses when it comes to doing some insane dance sequences. Fans love it. When it's off-stage, fans really enjoy seeing Basen and Jinshi losing brain cells around each other because both were raised in rich but sheltered environments so neither of them know how to do a lot of basic tasks. These are the two idiots who set off the fire alarm trying to make instant ramen.

Rikuson is the biggest rival when it comes to Jinshi's popularity. Rikuson fans and Jinshi fans DO NOT GET ALONG (except for the shipper fans). Rikuson also has the face, the dancing and singing skills, and instead of being awkward and lacking confidence (like Jinshi) he's just politely humble about it. There's definitely a portion of the viewers who think he's just a major fake.

Once Jinshi is able to come into his confidence a bit more, him and Rikuson get along decently. They're not friends, but they have a healthy amount of respect for reach other. Rikuson has a bit too much fun teasing Jinshi with a lot of backhanded sarcasm though. When the two of them come together to ring in the rest of the group, they're terrifyingly efficient at it.

You and Ah-Duo, as mentioned, are Jinshi's parents. You was a former star who retired to take over his father's production agency. We do not speak of his father. He is the Johnny Kitagawa of this world (if you know, you know). That is why the company is called "Li Productions" and not "Ka Productions". No one wants to remember the name of the former CEO. Ah-Duo is currently still the most famous female solo artist. They hooked up when they were teens, Ah-Duo got knocked up, they decided to keep the baby, but neither of them really were mature enough or free enough to be proper parents so Jinshi kind of got shuttled between both their grandparents (Suiren and Anshi).

Jinshi has okay relationships with both of them. Ah-Duo actually shows up as one of the guest celebrity judges one of the weeks and that's how fans put two and two together that they're related because they look stupidly alike. Also because some BTS footage gets leaked that shows they're clearly familiar with each other and Ah-Duo calls him "Yue" and fans are like "??? WHOMST IS YUE???"

Fengxian and Lakan are married and Maomao's parents in this AU. Fengxian was also a former celebrity, but she retired after giving birth and took over running the Verdigris House from granny. The La Clan in general are just a rich family--they have a hand in a lot of business, but mainly agriculture and food exports. Lakan started investing a bit in the entertainment industry after meeting Fengxian.

Pairin, Joka and Meimei were all students at the Verdigris House. Pairin is now a model. Joka is an dance instructor and Fengxian is training her to take over the academy, and Meimei is a freelance back dancer.

JinMao-stuff

People immediately start shipping Jinshi and Maomao right from their first interaction. Of course, the Jinshi haters were immediately like "Ya'll are nuts, Maomao clearly doesn't like him, he sucks". The Jinshi fans actually really appreciated how Maomao seemed to take Jinshi seriously and is patient with helping him, even if her words are sharp. There are definitely the jealous fans as well, but they are able to keep to their own lane for the most part. Casual viewers love the banter between them.

As the competition continues there are definitely more and more moments where people witness Jinshi and Maomao actually just getting along. Fans are shocked when in the background they witness Jinshi saying something to Maomao that has her basically rolling on the floor laughing.

There are also cute moments like Jinshi pulling a muscle and Maomao immediately giving him a massage, or Jinshi always going out of his way to buy Maomao drinks or bring her snacks (although some viewers see this as bribery).

Maomao's first impression of Jinshi is... basically like the novel. She's kinda iffy about him, but eventually she is able to realize he's actually really serious about becoming a proper idol and he does have the skills to be a top star. Some astute shippers enjoy creating compilation clips of all the time Maomao inadvertently ends up blurting out how she finds Jinshi super attractive when that isn't even the topic at hand.

It'll be like "Yeah, the dance this time is quite tough, but many of the talents have worked really hard. Especially Jinshi. I mean, his face is already a 10, but I think his dancing is reaching that level too now, and I'm sure his efforts will pay off tomorrow".

Jinshi is 1000x worse. Anytime he does an interview it's basically "Maomao has helped me so much. She's so smart. The other day she taught me how ibuprofen and acetaminophen operate differently as painkillers... anyway, what was the question?" Like this guy is down bad and literally everyone can see it from 1000 miles away. Even his die hard fans can't deny he's absolutely smitten.

The relationship in this AU is just as much of a slowburn as it is in the novel. They do not get together during the competition, or even after Jinshi debuts. Maomao justifies it as she's too busy with her studies and Jinshi doesn't really push her on it.

The reason they stay in contact after the competition is mostly due to Jinshi's efforts, but despite how much Maomao insists she doesn't like him "that much", she never turns down an invitation from him to grab a meal or hang out, and oh yeah---she absolutely attends all his concerts (she justifies this by saying she's also supporting Lihaku, Rikuson and Basen. She ignores Lahan). She also happens to choreograph almost all of his solo performances, and when she's being extra generous, she'll choreograph a group performance too (and either stick Lahan in the back the whole time or force him to do something she knows will make him want to cry).

But she definitely doesn't like him.

Jinshi is willing to wait though, and he's busy enough with his debut and getting used to being a proper full-time idol. Spending time with Maomao is always a breath of fresh air to him regardless. Her opinion of him never changes even after everyone finds out he's basically popstar royalty, but she also doesn't immediately write him off as just a pretty face. She takes him seriously when he asks for help, and he knows that he can trust her comments are always true. Whether she's saying he did a bad job or an amazing one.

For Maomao, she respects Jinshi's work ethic and how grounded he actually is. He also actually remembers stuff about her studies even though it is not relevant to his life at all. He is also one of the few people in her life who encourages her to just do what she wants (the first person being Luomen). Jinshi is the one who actively plants the idea that maybe Maomao can do both pharmacy and maintain her work doing professional choreography work. Most people in her life have told her that eventually she will have to pick one and stick with it. Jinshi actively helps her to do both by insisting Maomao is the only person to choreograph his solo performances (the first time he asks for this after the F5 debut, she purposely waits until 3 days before the concert to give him anything to spite him - Jinshi pulls it off flawlessly. She expected this result - she wouldn't have done it if she didn't trust him, but she's still impressed nonetheless).

And that's all I have for now. Thank you for indulging in my brain worms.