sato kou. twenty one. "i was happy. i loved the night, i loved it so much it almost hurt. in the night everything seemed possible. i wasn't sleepy at all." sr media trainee.
SBS Releases Character Chart for New Drama "Cheer Up!"
TV DRAMA • 1 hour ago
In collaboration with AXIS LABELS and SR MEDIA, SBS TV has released a character chart for the new drama CHEER UP! In a surprising turn of events, the main cast is comprised of new faces in the world of acting!
Netizens are curious about the acting skills of the rookie talent, and if they'll be able to live up to the hype, or fail miserably.
Cheer Up! tells a story of a group of cheerleaders. It is a mystery campus romance set in the backdrop of a cheering squad where worry is useless in the moment, but splendid and precious romance is.
i think we both have it wrong, kou says, and joomi can't help but laugh a little, both at how straightforward he is and the fact that it's probably true. kou is usually straightforward, though – always in his strange kou way that no one else can really mimic.
he watches the choreography video alongside him, eyes tracking the movements closely, blocking them out as he does. he nods in understanding. "yeah, we weren't too far off," he agrees.
"let me get a sip of water, then we can go again," he decides, crossing the room to where his water is sitting on the floor. he unscrews the lid, then takes a sip. "how much do you think we'll be dancing for the drama, anyway?" he asks. he can only assume a lot, if the labels are making them practice their dancing so much.
joomi doesn't think he's that bad of a dancer – not anymore, at least. he can admit that he's focused more on other areas lately, though. there was a time where he was dancing a lot and improved significantly in a short time. there's something cathartic about movement that's different than songwriting, so he doesn't mind it at all. he might even like it. past joomi would never believe it.
kou replays the video as joomi takes a drink, eyes following the movement of the dancers again. he wants to make sure that he doesn't screw up; and while he isn't the world's best dancer, he thinks he can at least do that much.
"probably a lot," kou replies, stretching his arms. he remembers how sore he'd felt the last time he'd danced this much without stretching properly. "it's called cheer up, so... i'm guessing a lot," kou nods his head. the video stops, and he turns to look at joomi, grabbing his own water bottle and taking a sip.
kou doesn't look particularly excited about having to dance so much. "it probably means we have to build a lot of endurance and stamina too," he continues, mumbling to himself in thought. something else that he isn't particularly excited about, but he's sure it'll help them in the long run.
he places his bottle down and walks over to joomi. "sure," he pats joomi's back and balls his hands into a fist into a 'fighting' gesture, despite his facial expression being unchanging. "joomi, fighting," he says monotonously. "we can do this."
training for axis labels' drama feels a little bit like starting over. suddenly, despite training for nearly two years, he feels out of his element again. so much is new, and there's so much to improve.
there are plenty of differences, too, though. he feels lonelier than when he first started training under delta, despite knowing more people than back then, and plenty of his co-actors in cheer up needing extra work too. he knows it's probably just because he isn't stumbling through the early days of training alongside jinyoung, and he goes home alone.
but at least there's kou, and even though kou has never been in studio delta, he's always been a presence in joomi's life. neighbors first, then dead calm members, then trainees. kou is never the smartest man in a room, but he's sincere, and he knows joomi in ways most others don't.
he also needs to practice his dancing for cheer up, apparently – so they've taken the opportunity to train together after regular hours, just to make sure they can do the choreography they learned in lessons today well for tomorrow.
he wouldn't say they're exactly synchronized, but he doesn't think they're bad.
there are a few moves they clearly didn't match up on, though.
"this part, right before the chorus," joomi says, and he demonstrates one of the moves in question. "i think you have it wrong. unless i have it wrong? how well do you think you remember the choreo?"
this is all joomi's fault. literally, it is. kou had pushed joomi to audition, something along the lines of "what's the worst that could happen? they'll just say no." and after some sort of odd deal, joomi decided to audition as long as kou did. and somehow, that led to the both of them being casted -- and for kou to become the main character of a drama.
some may say, by accident.
a lot of the things to happen to kou's life had been by accident; not that he dislikes it in any manner. these things happen, he guesses, maybe not like this for the average person, but they seem to happen quite frequently with kou.
"i think we both have it wrong," kou replies plainly. we scrunches his nose and pulls out the ipad, replaying the part they're both supposed to practice. kou isn't the best dancer out there, could barely move his feet in synchronization when he'd first entered sr media; and while there's been some improvement, he still finds himself struggling from time to time.
"one... two... hand - up, leg - left," he says, eyes darting around to the movement of the limbs in the video. "should we try again, joomi?" he asks, turning to his friend. "i think we've almost got it."
admittedly, she can't help but chuckle at how exasperated kou looked. the drama was a little out of the norm with how much dancing and cheerleading would be involved. sure, eunbin would find it fun as it was mixed all her interests together, but she could see how it could be stressful to others.
"well, if flexibility isn't your thing, i guess another tip would be to just really stretch out your arms and legs as far as you can." it was always easier to show an example than explain it with words, so eunbin quickly showed him one of the more basic cheer moves that all the newbies learned when they first joined the squad.
of course, she didn't want to get ahead of herself. there was no certainty that they'd be doing exactly what she did back as a cheerleader, but this was still a basic dance move that she thinks would be helpful. "like this!" she said before giving kou an encouraging smile. "that way the move looks longer and complete, and you can hide your inability to reach your toes," eunbin said a little teasingly.
back in highschool, kou was never much of a 'cheer' kind of guy -- he wasn't even the guy that others would cheer for. and now he's found himself in this position, completely clueless as to how to go about well, anything. he isn't a hopeless dancer (or at least, he'd like to think that he isn't), but he isn't the world's best dancer either.
kou learns best by modelling, watching someone else do something and then attempting to copy it. and so this is exactly what he does - watches as eunbin stretches her arms and legs, showing him basic cheer moves, as he stared wide eyed.
"how do your arms move like that?" he asks, but there's a smile playing on his lips as his limbs subconsciously move ever so slightly in the same manner. "that's amazing," he's in genuine awe, really.
"okay, let me try," he attempts to copy her (probably not exactly), one... two... three - "ah, help me, ouch!" he groans in pain, realizing that he's probably pulled a muscle. he lifts his head, eyes meeting eunbin, "eunbin..." he begins, "i may be a lost cause."
when eunbin had initially auditioned for the drama, she didn't think it would involve a cheer squad. now, she was surprised to say the least, but she was also very excited because this is all she's been doing for the past couple of years.
they had been given things to work on, and she was a little surprised to find that she had to improve her dancing, but it probably had to do with the fact that she simply hadn't been around as much as the others. knowing how intense the choreography for cheerleading could go, she was aware that a little more focus on her dancing wouldn't be too bad.
"we're really going to have to work on our flexibility," she told kou. it sounds almost like a warning, but the amount of stretching she would do before practice each day was proof that this drama would push them physically. "once we start learning the actual cheer moves, they're going to want us to stretch our arms as far as we can," she explained with a chuckle. "maybe that's why we're being given extra dance lessons."
kou can't quite figure out how exactly he's gotten in this situation, or no, more broadly – how he'd gotten to this point in his life. an idol trainee? that had taken him a while to wrap his head around. but now an actor-to-be for a drama? that was something, that he can't quite imagine.
he's never thought of himself as an actor, back at home he'd never gone for any acting classes – only started when sr media began pushing their trainees to do so – and he'd never shown much interests from dramas, aside from a few good ones here and there.
and now here he was, preparing to act in a drama called cheer up. he decides to take eunbin's lead, because in truth, kou still found himself second-guessing his own dancing abilities often.
"this sounds like my nightmare," kou replies. he's not flexible, not at all – the last time he'd tried to stretch (hard), he's sure he'd pulled a muscle and wasn't able to stand straight for a few days. but eunbin has a point though, they'll want them to learn actual cheer moves, and kou doesn't want to be a burden to anyone. "do you have any tips...? i'm so stiff, i can't even reach my toes," he says, showing her a real-time example of him bending over to reach his toes, and failing. "please?"
“employee of the month?” sooyoung repeats, eyebrows lifting as she leans in to inspect the photos of kou’s face plastered on the wall. “wow. congratulations to you and your natural-born cat charisma. i’m sure the cats gave you unanimous votes.”
she crosses her arms, lips curving into a mischievous grin as she peers at the stealthily handed-over treat. “oh? exclusive, you say?” she repeats, examining the treat like it’s some sort of precious artifact. “this is going to make me the favorite customer, huh?”
sooyoung casts a quick glance around, checking for café staff or other customers. the coast is clear. she crouches down, trying to subtly tempt a nearby cat with the exclusive treat—only for the cat to give her a look that’s so disinterested it’s almost offensive.
“…betrayed by a cat,” she mutters dramatically. “this is worse than the time jinyoung tried to sneak in his audition video with a cat filter on his face. and that was tragic.”
she straightens up, mock-scandalized, brushing her hands off like she’s dusting away the cat’s rejection. “honestly, kou, i’m going to need you to give me a full cat-introduction tour. like, which one’s the secret snack-lover, which one only pretends to like people for the aesthetic. i need to know the power players of this café if i’m going to keep my reputation intact.”
she pauses, then adds in a more genuine tone, “...and if you need a co-conspirator for your next employee of the month campaign, you know who to call. i’m very persuasive. i’ll rally the cats for votes. just say the word.”
kou doesn't take pride in a lot of things ( mostly because he can't bring himself to care for a lot of things ), but being employee of the month whilst juggling his trainee and school career is something he thinks he can brag about a bit. just a little bit.
because despite it all the one thing that kou knows he can never truly give up, is his love for cats. "a catnanimous vote," he says, though his usual facial expression remains unchanged, despite his attempt at a pun.
he watches as sooyoung tries and is rejected by a cat, and he can't help the little laugh that escapes his lips. of course it'd be a cat to make him laugh. "she doesn't like the treats, she's really picky," he says, referring to the cat. he calls her over, coos at her before rubbing the back of her ear.
"how long do you have? honestly, if i wasn't swamped with training, i could easily write you three facts about each cat here," and he isn't really joking this time. it's true, kou's grown so attached to the cats that he thinks he could recognize them by meow alone.
he hands sooyoung more treats though, glancing around to make sure no one else is looking. "the cat by the back there - the tabby - he really loves these treats. don't give him too much though, it's salty," he whispers.
"i'm taking your word," he smiles. "if i'm not employee of the month next month i'll be really upset."
his closet is overflowing with garments that he's spent his sundays creating, and while he wishes so badly that he could keep most of them for himself, it's getting to the point where he absolutely needs to part ways with some of them. most of them are fit to his shape, but they can be altered, and there are also handfuls of other looks that were constructed merely for the sake of creation, as it's important to him to remain versatile in skillset.
while all designers have their specific areas of expertise, sarang has always wanted to expand his knowledge to capture various types of silhouettes; from wearable day-to-day, to haute couture you see on the runway, to extensive and complicated habiliments meant for grandiose theatre productions, drag, or for those with an insatiable need to make a statement wherever they go. there's nothing he can't do, even if he excels in certain areas and not others.
lately, he's been tempted to open secondary social media platforms to showcase his work, as well as to possibly auction off the pieces to better line his pockets, but before he does any of that, he wants to ensure that his loved ones have first pick of his collection. not only does he love dressing his friends, but someday in the likely distant future, they'll be able to say that they've been lucky enough to wear yeom sarang originals since before he became the biggest revolutionary figure in fashion. it's a win-win situation for all.
so, as he guides his guest into his bedroom, he swings open the door to his closet and begins laying out ideas for them on his bed; taking moments to give them once-overs to assess their measurements, as well as their overall vibe, skin tone, eye color, and hair color.
"almost all of this is up-for-grabs! i already separated most things i can't part with from here, so even if you don't like anything i put on the bed, there's more..." he laughs, happy to have something to do other than training. "i'm just glad whatever you choose will be going to a good home. oh, and don't worry, if you need something taken in, or out, or anything needs alterations at all, i can do them for you!"
it's in moments like these where he wishes that sr media would retire him from the trainee program and hire him as a stylist. sarang knows they wouldn't regret it, either. all of the senior groups would look absolutely immaculate in his work. "is there anything you're looking for, or like, any styles or colors you love to wear, or would rather avoid? just so i can start pulling things that'll already align with your interests!"
fashion has never been kou's strong suit. and while his closet doesn't consist of only monochrome clothing ( kou has always enjoyed the splash of colour and design here and there ) – he's never actually gone out of the way to try and step outside of his comfort zone. if he even had one.
with training taking up a large portion of his time as well, his fits have been filled with mostly tank tops, t-shirts, sweatpants and hoodies, with the occasional cap and beanie to hide his disheveled hair. he's never been the type to say no though, really, kou has never been able to straight up say no.
so when sarang brings up the idea of giving away some clothing to kou, he thinks why not. he hasn't bought anything new in a while and despite knowing close to nothing about fashion, he's still very much aware of the fact that sarang's a pretty good dresser; probably the best among the sr media boys.
he takes a step into the boy's guest room, and his eyes widen at the sight of clothing. he thinks he's never seen anything like this before – so completely different from his own personal style. his lips part, as if to say something, but the words are swallowed down.
"you're working your magic," kou comments as he watches as sarang lays clothing down, clothing that is supposedly suited for kou. he takes a step closer and picks up a shirt, followed by a pair of bottoms, before tilting his head.
"sarang, these look really nice..." he begins before furrowing his brows, "but i have no idea how to style them," he adds after a moment. "should i be your barbie doll today? if it's not too big of a favour. make me a walking lookbook... so i don't accidentally mismatch anything," his gaze falls onto the smaller boy, eyes seeking help.
most of the time, kou has little to no clue as to what he’s doing. if anything, he’s surprised that he’s even made it this far into being a trainee. for some odd reason, sr media wanted to keep him and kou, being the kind of guy to go with the flow - had decided to keep up with it.
still, despite the months ( maybe years? … year and a half…? he’s lost track ) of training, something that kou still finds himself struggling with quite a bit… is dancing. for some reason, it’s as though his body won’t listen to him, his brain tells him to move his legs left, but it’s always a beat too soon. how annoying, he thinks. but he has no choice but to at the very least try to be decent at this.
he turns to seira, who seems to be facing similar training related problems and he nods, leaning close to look at the video on the screen. “ah that’s…” oh no. oh dear. he’s getting flashbacks to when they went ice-skating together, and kou had fallen ass first onto the ice, all while trying to act as though he could be a reliable older brother-like figure to seira. he can’t let her down now! “… ah yeah… sure,” he nods his head once more. “i think, okay uhm… first, the legs - the count is one, two and then you twist and - wait, let me watch the video one more time.”
seira was very obviously a slow learner when it came to dance. her rap had improved a great deal, and quickly, but no matter how much she practiced dance, it felt like she was stuck with two left feet for forever. maybe it was because she was super interested in rap, but was just learning dance so she could debut again some day. sometimes dancing felt more like a chore that needed to be done, but seira was sure with enough practice she’d eventually manage to figure out how to dance.
she’s not been practicing much by herself though, she’s always asking someone for help, whether that’s a coach or fellow trainee (or simply someone interested in dance). she’s looking up at kou with puppy eyes, hoping he’ll be able to help her with the moves she’s done a million times but still can’t figure out how to do. “it’s complicated, isn’t it?” she pouts “is there like a button to control the speed? it might be easier to figure it out if we watch it in slow motion”.
kou has no fucking clue what he's doing - really, he has no clue at all. if anything, he has no idea how he's even gotten this far in sr media. at this point he's a senior trainee of sorts, so he should at the very least be able to help seira... right? he glances at the video and then at seira. her puppy eyes, her look for help. right. kou needs to be a good senior, and even though seira's older than him, he should be a good older brother figure.
"i think we can watch it at 0.5x speed here..." he says, gently reaching out for the device. this time he focuses more on the movement, specifically the portion seira had pointed out and his eyes lock in. "okay, i think... the movement goes like this. your feet..." he makes a small movement, similar to that in the video, "move like this, i think...?" though in truth, kou isn't so sure himself. "and then uhm... am i doing this right?" he asks.
what had originally been seira asking for help, has now turned into kou asking for seira's help.
drama casting audition: scene three
word count: 618
it's not like kou had any intention on auditioning for the drama in the first place. things had just somehow ended up this way – he'd spoken to joomi and somehow, whilst listening to his friend complain about being pushed to audition; kou finds himself here, in this very situation.
( "sure," he'd said when joomi had brought up auditioning. "it's not like anything will happen." which, kou had in that moment, truly believed. that nothing could possibly come out of this ).
he stands in front of the staff, lines already prepared. kou had never really thought of himself as an actor; though in truth kou had never really thought of himself as well – a-to-be-celebrity of sorts. yet, here he was now, in sr media, training to be exactly that.
if anything, he's thankful though, that sr had practically drilled him when it came to acting. it's not that it's second nature to him, but acting isn't something that kou is completely unfamiliar with. the memorisation of lines too aren't as difficult.
he faces them with his usual stoic expression, and bows. "hello, my name is sato kou," he greets.
there isn't much that goes through his mind, kou simply takes a deep breath and closes his eyes for a moment. he thinks back to all the workshops sr media had sent him for, all the training, the lines that he'd recited.
the character in this script is particularly hurt, his heart is broken - a break up with someone he was in love. kou taps into that.
the staff says the female lead's lines and kou stares at her, eyebrows furrowing and his eyes slowly filling up with tears as he listens to her read out the words.
"dalmi, please," his voice breaks, just like the character's from the script. the voice of a man who's pleading for his lover to stay, to not leave him - for a second chance; a voice full of desperation as he clasps tightly onto the imaginary hand that is slowly slipping away.
the staff continues the lines, and kou has to hold back his tears ( well, not his tears, but the character's currently holding back his tears, and kou is simply trying to reenact the same ). he plays with his breathing, feels the character's desperation as he says the next lines, "are you breaking up with me?"
he's had his fair share of relationships but kou has never been one to hold onto something that's already come to it's end - but it isn't a question he's unfamiliar with asking, though that was simply because kou was a man that needed clarity.
the scene continues, heavy and dripping with emotion, as kou's character begins to break down - a pathetic man calling out, yearning for his lover to stay. he's read the synopsis of the drama he's acting out, and it isn't exactly far-fetched to call his current character a liar.
"it's my birthday today."
"i know."
"did you come just to tell me this?" still, it isn't lost on him, the situation in the scene, the tragedy between two people that are in love with each other, his voice is slightly more stable, but it still it shakes. he takes in a deep breath, prepares himself to say his last few lines.
"from the beginning... was this your plan from the beginning?" he asks, and the staff replies. the scene doesn't end there though, kou stares at the panel of staff, and silently, he cries, his voice shaking as he does so - as though his character has given up on everything, as though he's lost everything he's held on to.
a few seconds pass, and kou bows, wiping the tears from his face. "thank you."
that was the plan—some soft lo-fi in her earbuds, an overpriced lavender latte, and a lazy afternoon spent trying to win the approval of cats who clearly had better things to do than acknowledge human existence. a little harmless escapism. no stage lights, no pressure. just her, a sketchpad she probably wasn’t going to use, and one particularly judgmental scottish fold she’d seen on the café’s website.
what she hadn’t planned on was turning around after placing her order and nearly walking straight into a human tornado disguised as a boy in a café uniform.
“…you’ve got to be kidding me.” she blinks at him, immediately suspicious. “you work here? like—officially? people willingly left you in charge of living creatures?”
the disbelief is only half-serious, her lips twitching like she’s fighting a grin.
“do they know your qualifications include ‘potential menace’ and ‘likely to hand out unauthorized cat snacks’?”
a beat passes.
“…wait. do you have unauthorized cat snacks? because if so, we might be able to renegotiate my judgment.”
kou’s only escape recently, has been his part-time work at his cat cafe. really. he’s not too sure how he’s able to juggle everything, but he knows that he isn’t in a position to suddenly stop working, and his parents would probably kill him if he stopped going to school. and kou well - leaving sr media would be a waste.
if there’s anything that he looks forward to in the day, it’s his shifts at the cat cafe. surrounded by cats, feeding them, petting them, talking to a human ever so often ( customers. they’re called customers, his manager had told him ). it isn’t all so bad.
as he stands at the counter, he watches as a familiar figure walks in. in true kou fashion, his facial expression doesn’t quite change much, he simply blinks and gives her a wave. “hi noona,” he says in reply.
”i’m actually employee of the month. have been for the last few months,” he says, and he points her towards the wall where his face had been plastered for the months of march, april and now may. “my manager asked me if i wanted to take over, but it’s too much hassle.” right. and he’s a trainee.
he scans around the cafe, and thankfully there isn’t much of a crowd. quietly, he turns to leave for the back, grabs something for his bag and passes it to sooyoung stealthily. “it’s a new treat my mum uses to feed the cats back in japan,” he says, voice slightly softer. “an exclusive.”
it was kind of sad but hilarious at the same time. seira, a former idol for four years still suffered from two left feet. her old group was so nugu that people probably cared too little to see seira wasn’t a good dancer and a very bad main rapper, but now that seira is in studio delta, she’s pretty sure she needs to get rid of her two left feet in order to debut. so even though the girl has far more interest in practicing her rapping, she must practice her dance as well.
she’s with kou, who has been an amazing friend throughout seira’s second trainee journey time. “kou?” she lifts up her phone and plays a dance video “i can’t figure out whatever they’re doing with their feet, can you… try to figure it out and teach me?” too terrible at dancing herself, she just hopes kou is better than her.
most of the time, kou has little to no clue as to what he’s doing. if anything, he’s surprised that he’s even made it this far into being a trainee. for some odd reason, sr media wanted to keep him and kou, being the kind of guy to go with the flow - had decided to keep up with it.
still, despite the months ( maybe years? … year and a half…? he’s lost track ) of training, something that kou still finds himself struggling with quite a bit… is dancing. for some reason, it’s as though his body won’t listen to him, his brain tells him to move his legs left, but it’s always a beat too soon. how annoying, he thinks. but he has no choice but to at the very least try to be decent at this.
he turns to seira, who seems to be facing similar training related problems and he nods, leaning close to look at the video on the screen. “ah that’s…” oh no. oh dear. he’s getting flashbacks to when they went ice-skating together, and kou had fallen ass first onto the ice, all while trying to act as though he could be a reliable older brother-like figure to seira. he can’t let her down now! “… ah yeah… sure,” he nods his head once more. “i think, okay uhm… first, the legs - the count is one, two and then you twist and - wait, let me watch the video one more time.”
at first, joomi was fine. he was happy, even, somehow – but naturally, that feeling would eventually fade, replaced by loneliness. grief. and he supposes it's expected, and even necessary, to go through this process of sadness and mourning of his relationship that was never actually defined as a traditional relationship. jinyoung was never actually his boyfriend, but they were something. it was enough for joomi, and more than enough to feel the absence of now.
he tries not to be too gloomy in the presence of other people. he does that too much and he's a little sick of it, honestly, even if this is a better reason than most to mope a little. he doesn't want to fall into another bout of depression or despair too much over it. he'd rather...find some way to celebrate it.
it's hard, though. he sees an opportunity when kou asks him out for drinks to catch up, and honestly, joomi isn't stupid. he suspects it's related to jinyoung's absence. he and kou bonded a lot over the love they felt for jinyoung and yuwol, after all. joomi knows things are going fine for kou in that area. they're trainees at the same company. joomi tries to dismiss that thought quickly, knowing if he dwells on it he'll wonder if his and jinyoung's worlds would be drastically different today if he just stayed with him at studio delta.
once they're settled at the bar, kou asks him straight up if he's okay, mentioning jinyoung. joomi almost wants to joke about being surprised kou noticed, as oblivious as he can be sometimes. he's not really in the mood, though.
"yeah," he sighs, wondering how much to say. he supposes it doesn't matter. it's just kou, and he thinks jinyoung would be fine with him knowing the full story. "i'm not sure if you heard about the project lime was doing, but he left studio delta for it. he was really busy with it for a while, and then...they eliminated him. he was devastated, understandably. and then decided he wanted to enlist. so...that's where he is now."
he takes a long sip of his drink. "i asked him if he wanted me to wait for him and he said no. that he can't predict the future. so i'm just..." he gestures vaguely with one hand. "single now. if i ever wasn't."
it all sounds so dire and depressing. joomi doesn't like that, even if it might be true. it's also true that his last couple of weeks with jinyoung were amazing – that he learned so much from loving him, and laughed more than he ever has in his life by being with him. somehow the moments he's gladdest for are the ones that hurt the most to think about now. he doesn't know if he'll ever laugh like that again, or if he'll ever love like that again. he doesn't know if he wants to. not with anyone else, anyway.
"he told me he loved me, though, a couple days before he left." joomi smiles softly, still facing the bar instead of his friend beside him. he takes another sip of his drink. "i wasn't sure he would. so i was happy."
kou is – unsurprisingly – a better listener than he is a talker. he listens as joomi speaks, has never been the kind of person to talk over him, or to intervene. in truth he hadn't noticed jinyoung's absent until only recently ( but then again, kou has never been the type to notice things so quickly ). he can tell though, that joomi is upset. it isn't that hard to tell, and he allows joomi to spill, even if only a little bit, his heart out to kou.
he knows a thing or two about being alone, but like he'd once told joomi – everyone loves differently. as he listens, he nods his head, takes a sip and watches as joomi reminisces. "that sucks," he finally says, never a man of many words.
instead, he pours joomi a drink once more, thinking that the other boy might need it. he momentarily wonders if this is enough for joomi – if knowing that he was loved, whilst spending months? years? not knowing if he was – is enough. if this is the closure joomi needed.
but as he watches his friend, he thinks maybe not. he thinks that moving on from love is harder than it seems. there's a pang in his chest, but it isn't his own, it's a pang he dedicates to joomi's lost love.
"you haven't really been yourself," kou continues. but he can't quite tell what is 'yourself' when it comes to joomi, or when it comes to anyone in general. at least if anything, joomi was happy when he was told that he was loved.
but kou sighs a little. "that's a little cruel," he says after a moment of thought. "finally telling you he loves you, only to leave." but kou gets it, he thinks, why one would do that. but then again, he'd told yuwol he was in love with him just weeks after figuring it out himself, unwilling to waste a single moment without the older boy.
"the next person you fall in love with – if you do, and you should – i hope he tells you he's in love with you the moment he realizes it," he adds, resting his chin against his palm. "as long as you're okay, joomi."
there’s a reason why yuwol has been taking lessons to learn japanese on the side. he’d be lying if he said it wasn’t all because of @kouxbe, but he hadn’t exactly told the other boy that he had been dipping his toes in learning kou’s mother tongue. lately, now that he’s a trainee with little time to himself, he hasn’t been able to keep up anymore. not as much as he’d like to. luckily, there’s an opportunity right in front of his eyes taking the form of trainee workshops. what he hadn’t expected was kou taking part, after all, kou is already fluent.
“are you surprised?” yuwol says in japanese, a smile on his face. his accent is peeking through clearly, chuckling a little bit. “why are you here? brushing up on your mother tongue?” he questions, patting the spot next to him, gesturing for the other boy to sit. “i wasn’t expecting you to participate in this language workshop… i wanted to surprise you a little later down the road.”
oh well. yuwol is content, learning side-by-side with the other boy. it’s not bad at all. “does this mean you’ll be able to teach me a few lines?” he questions, a smile on his face as he waits for kou to settle beside him. “i think it’d be nice, learning from you.”
kou really has no reason to be here. really, he doesn't. it's not as though he struggles with japanese of all languages – he'd grown up in japan after all, raised by a japanese family, a large portion of his education had been in japan, in japanese. so really, there isn't any reason for him to be here. except yuwol.
yuwol is kou's only reason for being here ( and for being. but he doesn't say that part out loud, he thinks it doesn't need to be said ). "i wanted to be with you," kou says, and his face remains looking unabashed – if anything, he's used to saying these words to yuwol; straight from his heart, always genuine. he finds no reason to beat around the bush with them.
he smiles though, when yuwol speaks to him in japanese, and just like he'd always done, he leans his body close to the older boy. it's warm, and feels comfortable. kou feels like a cat, curling up close to it's owner. "i don't think i'd make a very good teacher," he answers honestly. kou had never thought of himself as the kind of guy to teach. but if it's yuwol, he'd at least try.
"your eyes look a little livelier today. is it because you're with me?" he asks in japanese, but he's unsure if yuwol understood what he'd just said. instead, he laughs to himself and pulls out a notebook. "my japanese has gotten a little crusty. it's been a while since i've last spoken to my family too."
kou's always been more of a listener than anything else. he's never been a man of many words, but he's always willing to listen to a friend if need be. it's no surprise that he and seira are close though – every time he glances at her, he feels as though he's transported back home with his little sister seated in front of him.
he knows that she's signed a probationary contract, and kou is always well aware of just how scary it might be, unknowing of whether she'll be offered a contract extension or if her journey would come to a halt.
"you've been doing a good job, seira," he says, genuine. kou sees no reason as to why they wouldn't extend her contract. "but it's hard not to worry, i know," he nods. "but if they don't extend your contract, it's not the end of the world. if they don't extend your contract, you just make them regret it."
seira is happy she has kou, he feels like a sibling, a sibling she actually gets to see. seira’s never been close with her sister, the older always treating her terribly as she meant it was seira’s fault their mom left them, her whole reason for becoming a trainee was so she could move to korea and escape her sister. her brother is more kind, but the last couple of years they’ve barely seen each other, they text and facetime, but it still doesn’t feel like they’re that close.
seira appreciates she can go to kou, that she has someone she can go to. it’s hard to be vulnerable in front of someone, speak her honest words about her worries, but kou makes her feel more calm, like was he her sibling.
“thank you” she says, eyes on the ground, head tilted down. “but i’m scared” she looks up at kou, tears visibly rolling down her cheeks, it’s slow, not a whole waterfall rolling down, but there’s tears. “when next gen ended i thought i’d never become a trainee again” she attempts wiping away her tears. “when i first became a trainee and then an idol, it seemed so easy, now, the second time, it’s harder than ever”.
kou knows very well that he's never been good at word. it's never been something that kou has ever worried about though – just because he isn't particularly good at words, didn't mean that his thoughts were always as silent as him.
he can tell, just be looking at seira, how worried she is for the future. and while kou hadn't dreamt of being an idol (just yet) when he had first gotten signed to sr media, he now knew what that dream meant; and he could only imagine how closely seira held it in her heart for her to begin to cry.
it's almost instinctive as he reaches out to her, dabbing her tears with the hem of sleeve. he doesn't tell her to stop crying – kou's never been the kind of guy to do that. sometimes people need to cry, he thinks, and that was only human of seira to do. "it's hard, but you didn't give up," kou says after a moment, allowing his sleeve to be soiled with seira's tears. "and that's impressive. it means it's a really important dream to you, right?" he continues, "seira, i think you're the kind of person where... even if it's difficult, you never give up. and selfishly, i don't want to see you giving up either." kou is quiet for a moment, allows the both of them to sit in the silence. "even if they don't sign you again, you'll have a lot of people cheering you on. me included," he smiles.
seira takes in a big breath of air, letting the cold winter air hit her face. it feels like it’s been a while since she’s done this: relaxed. she’s standing with kou, practice finished, though her body wants her to go back, practice some more, even though every part of her body is hurting from practicing too much.
the date is coming closer and closer, the end of her probationary contract, and she has no idea whether her contract will get extended or not. she’s hoping for the best, but fears she hasn’t improved enough, even though she’s attempted to stay as late as much as she can, handling work and practice at once. she’d love to give up work, put all of her time into practice, but she needs money, food on her plate and a roof over her head.
“i’m nervous” she looks at kou, “what do i do if my contract doesn’t get extended?”.
kou's always been more of a listener than anything else. he's never been a man of many words, but he's always willing to listen to a friend if need be. it's no surprise that he and seira are close though – every time he glances at her, he feels as though he's transported back home with his little sister seated in front of him.
he knows that she's signed a probationary contract, and kou is always well aware of just how scary it might be, unknowing of whether she'll be offered a contract extension or if her journey would come to a halt.
"you've been doing a good job, seira," he says, genuine. kou sees no reason as to why they wouldn't extend her contract. "but it's hard not to worry, i know," he nods. "but if they don't extend your contract, it's not the end of the world. if they don't extend your contract, you just make them regret it."
it seemed silly for jueun to be taking a workshop on how to present herself on social network considering that before she became a trainee, she was essentially an influencer. of course, posting something online now came with much more risks. she's heard about media training before, but she didn't think there'd be specific lessons catered around what and how to post online.
frankly, this almost felt like a class she would've taken back in high school about being aware of what she posted online and how nothing online ever really disappeared. stifling back a yawn, she did her best to try to pay attention to what the instructor was telling them. the tiniest things they had to be careful about and whatnot. all things she had learned firsthand as she worked as a model.
when they were finally given time to come up with example posts they'd upload on special anniversary dates, jueun couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle. "wow, i knew idols weren't allowed to talk freely, but i didn't think this much training went into the actual posts," she whispered to kou, who happened to be sitting beside her. she was scribbling down some generic thank you's for her faux first anniversary post, unsure about what else she could add to it. "i feel like one good selfie will count more than whatever words i can scribble out."
kou doesn't think he has much of a presence on social media. it's not as though he's the type of guy to upload things frequently either. the only form of social media he really has ( and posts on ) is instagram. tiktok? he has an account, but has barely touched it. would only use it to scroll through videos of bands and cats.
but while he doesn't think he has much of a social media following, it's probably the smartest workshop to take. kou has heard more often than not that he's a bit of a ditz, doesn't really think things through as much as the average person would – all signs of a social media disaster if he doesn't take up the training needed.
he sits next to jueun, though in truth, he's already zoning out. eyes unfocused until they're given their task. "at this point, wouldn't it be safer for us to never touch the social media accounts...?" he mumbles to her. if there's so much thought that has to go behind a social media account, then kou would rather not think at all.
"yeah, they'd probably appreciate a good selfie more than anything else," he adds. "i'm not that good at words either. can't a thank you be enough? is that not?" he asks, furrowing his brows. "we have to be so careful about what we say too..."
