“i don’t know if you actually get time with us to practice, but if you got to watch me perform some of the snippets, i would love the feedback. umm… maybe let’s head off to the practice room?” nayoung wasn’t positive what the scope of the advice was but she figures it’d be even better if they could go hands on, rather than just theoretical. the area that they had for future dreams was honestly so amazing, and it’s pitiful that it wasn’t their actual dorms, but don’t be fooled- despite it’s aesthetics, it’s hard to focus on that when their brains were rotting on the competition.
giving a small laugh in response, arin looks at the older female for a moment before shaking her head slightly. “i guess it’s not really that important if you’re out just relaxing and enjoying yourself, though you do still have to be mindful of fans seeing you and taking pictures. you wouldn’t want a weird picture floating around on the internet. would you?” she half-jokes.
becoming serious once again as the question is asked by nayoung, arin nods slowly as she sits there and thinks for a moment. “well, aside from facial expressions, i think that your performance and dancing could use a bit of improvement. i’m not saying either are horrible, because you are talented, but from my own experiences i can tell you that i wish i had focused more on even just my performance aspect in the beginning.” she smiles faintly at the memory before returning her attention to the other female.
“we can do that! you can show me a small bit of your skills and i can help with improving the areas that i see some flaws in. it’ll be better than just telling you what to fix, especially since i’ll be able to see what areas you may need some more improvements on.” she states, smiling at the older female as she speaks before standing up. “don’t worry, i’ll make sure to give critique just like any other mentor so that you’ll hopefully stand out even more next time.” arin only hoped that her efforts would be favorable for nayoung in the end, that she wouldn’t give the wrong advice to the other.
being able to be a mentor for someone on the show had arin feeling a bit nervous in the beginning, though after she was able to fully settle herself down the day of meeting nayoung and helping the other female, arin wanted nothing more than for the other to get through all of this. she wants to see nayoung make her debut through this program, though only time will tell if the other could make this happen.
she sits there, staring down at the variety of colors that are in front of her, the different sands and gemstones displayed for her to choose from. a small smile forms on arin’s face as she picks up a few different colors, the purples, sky blue, black and white, before she begins to pour the sands into the jar. the idea is to make it look like a galaxy, hoping that those who look at it would be able to see that arin wishes for nayoung to shine bright like the stars in a galaxy.
of course this is probably just her own wishful thinking for the other female, though it’s not like the other isn’t talented enough to make it if she tries hard enough.
after she’s managed to put in the right amount of sand, arin then picks up the clear tree of life gemstone, holding it up before placing it carefully into the jar. a small sigh of satisfaction escapes while she finally holds the jar up, speaking to no one in particular in the room. “i hope that nayoung can shine bright like the stars and make her debut soon.”
why did she even choose the clear set of gemstones out of the many options? well, it was rather simple actually. the clear tree of life was supposed to hint at the gemstone being nayoung as a ‘star’ amidst the colorful galaxy. she only hoped that the other female would like the route that arin had taken for this task as her mentor.
there was some racing games, and some table hockey, but then he spots… an area for some dance simulators and the traditional ol’ ddr machines. “oh i wonder if there’s really modern songs on here, or if it is things similar to when we were kids?” which - no way. of course these companies had to stay up to date… “i haven’t been on one of these in what feels like decades!” granted he’s barely been alive for more than two. “do you want to go for a few rounds of this? um…. loser has to…. pick up the tab for food today?” and this place was fancy - they had an area for photobooths and snacks and food. he had a feeling he’d be the loser, but. after all. lilly was the idol, not him and that had to make a difference.
if you compared arin between her past self and her current self, you’d probably see a big difference to even the smallest changes that she’s made. the major being her personality, often still showing that old side of her in front of the cameras, though off camera she was by far different than usual. blame it on her experiences, not with her career as an idol but her personal life, and being tossed to the side countless times. it’s what had made her stronger and she wouldn’t change that for the world. the only difference with her when it came to being around jisoo? well, the other male happened to be one of the few that actually knows her a little better than most. “i’m down for anything actually! i think that, either way, i won’t back down so easily.” she half-jokes, giving a small laugh afterwards.
even as she glances around the arcade, arin allows her gaze to stop in the direction of the DDR machines, a small smile appearing on her face. “maybe we should check it out? i’m sure that i can confidently beat you without breaking a sweat.” she makes a point to playfully cross her arms, more-so joking than serious as she shows her own confidence in the game. “deal! i’ll make sure to get the most expensive food possible.” that was yet another joke, not really being one who would purposely break someone with food. most of the time she was just happy to have a bowl of noodles even when it was someone else buying. “are you ready to see which one of us will leave here as the champion today?”
“okay, okay, i just wanted to run a few things by you - like… first of all, i did practice my expressions for my monthly sns, so that my posts don’t get boring. but also, i practiced my expressions and angles for while i perform too and tried my best to make it look natural. that being said, what i see could still be different from what you see, or a camera sees… do you mind being my ‘spotter’, or coach, well- you’re my mentor i mean!”
@lgcarin
future dreams was something that many watched, a show in which helped show ones strengths and weakness’, though it was more important to see who would be able to fit into a group compared to others. arin knew this and that was one of the reasons why she wanted to be a mentor when given the chance. if she had, had the same opportunity in the past it would have helped a lot more back then, though she didn’t and it only made her want to help her mentee even more. upon meeting nayoung, arin could see a little bit of her old self in the other female, bringing back the past memories of when she too was in future dreams. at the time she hadn’t even had much hope in making it to the finale, thinking that the other girls with her had been more talented than her. she didn’t want nayoung thinking that herself, so arin had to make sure that she did her best to help the other female in any way that she possibly could.
“that’s good. facial expressions are, of course, a major necessity to have when not only taking selfies, but also performing. i like to think that expressions help you stand out a bit more, especially within a group.” she states, giving a small nod of her head before smiling gently.
after hearing what nayoung says, arin can’t help but laugh a little. “of course, that’s what i’m here for. i want to help you the best that i can so that you are able to easily pull off any facial expression that you can while doing something such as taking pictures or even performing in front of an audience.” she pauses for a moment as she thinks, pursing her lips slightly before she’s speaking once again. “i saw your video, i’ve even been keeping up with this season of the show, and i feel like you’ve definitely got a chance to make it to the end. as someone who practices facial expressions daily, i can assure you that it’s not easy to pull such a thing off, though with enough practice i’m sure you’ll be able to handle it all in no time.”
“so we’re with a familiar face to probably some of you today, and i am waiting for our guest to show up… they should be here sometime shortly. now i know what you’re thinking, why are we filming even though we’re not both here, well… to showcase a little bit about where we’re at right now. and i’m going to let you in on a secret, it’s kind of embarrassing. i’ve never been much of a gamer, and i’ve never been someone to play anything at arcades, and i don’t know what half the things here do. so we’ll need the help of…. oh look, here is she now!” the camera pans, and it pans to arin, who jisoo is very thrilled to have be a guest on the show, especially after the hiking bit did not work out. the model had planned this out with arin of course, having some of the activities that they could do be any of the arcade games arin wanted, including ddr, much to his dismay, but it was more important that she guest than him reject the ideas.
after dealing with the experience of hiking and fighting off nature, more like jisoo fighting for her while she screamed each time something flew past her, she vowed to never go hiking again. you’d think that she would have learned from the experience she had while filming in the woods with her fellow fabula members but.. nope. that’s what she had expected to happen again when the topic of jisoo’s show came up, though she was more than relieved to find out that they would actually be filming indoors rather than outdoors, making her sigh in content at the fact that she would get to just relax and not worry about keeping her guard up the entire time. imagine how embarrassing it would be if the fans saw her screaming over a small bug.
waiting for her ‘grand’ entrance, arin messes with a few strands of hair once more to make sure they’re in place before she’s finally ready and walking into the building that she had arrived at for the filming of this particular filming. if anyone knew that the two of them were exes, well that would probably cause some havoc amongst not only her fans, but jisoo’s as well. though, as she walks in and stops near jisoo, not once does arin’s smile waver even as she bows politely towards the camera. “hello everyone! i’m lilly of fabula, it’s nice to meet you all!” she then turns towards jisoo when she speaks once more, keeping that same friendly, yet neutral, smile as she does so. “thank you for inviting me today. i’m excited to see what all will happen.” no matter what would happen, arin was one who had become quite competitive when it came to games, especially after her appearance on dream team. she wouldn’t back down from whatever was thrown at her today.
after everything that had happened here lately, arin realized that she had a lot more that she was lacking and it made her feel the need to push herself even harder, hence why she was now in the practice room pushing herself beyond her limits.
she stares at her own reflection in the mirror as she tries to catch her breath, the critique she had received recently replaying through her mind over and over again as she stands there. when arin had initially thought she was doing well, she was in fact still lacking in other skills that she had neglected over the previous months, now regretting all of it and hating herself for not putting more thought into those skills.
sighing heavily she gets back into position again before the song begins replaying, stopping when she’s not satisfied with even her facial expressions before she’s starting all over again. normally she wasn’t this hard on herself, so why was she being like this now? even she didn’t know the answer to that question, though what she did know was that she wouldn’t give up. arin would do her best to fix even the smallest details she needed to in order to stand out more, to be remembered within her group.
she couldn’t give up now, not after she had come this far. she was living her dream and she couldn’t just let her lack of talent is certain areas bring her down now, wanting to fight even harder to become one of the members within fabula that could proudly hold her head up high. she didn’t want to bring the others down due to her incompetence in certain areas, despite being fairly confident in others such as singing, dancing and even rapping. her stage presence was lacking and she wouldn’t give up until she perfected this part of her.
even if it did end up taking her all night to finally be satisfied, arin wouldn’t back down so easily. she would make sure to do what she could to stand out.
she twirls a strand of black hair and tilts her head. “some purple hairclip extension would be fun. should i ask the stylist unnie if she has some?” it’s just a random thought that leaves her mind as soon as she says it because she didn’t really want to give them any ideas. “huh?” hayoung blinks up, slightly confused. she can see the strings and… “oh! is this funny part upwards?” wow. this is harder than she expected.
arin can remember when she first learned how to play the piano, struggling to really remember the keys at the time and their tunes, so just the thought of learning another instrument such as the drums or even something like bass has her mentally shaking her head at the thought. maybe one day in the future she would attempt it, though for now she would rather stick with doing what she does best on stage. “you should! i’m sure the director wouldn’t mind, unless they have certain instruments set for each of us. though, if they give it to me i’ll see about switching instruments with you.” she says this while smiling at the other female, not one to really mind which prop she got for such occasions. either way, they would all be looking good no matter which instrument they took photos with.
nodding slowly at hayoung’s words, arin thinks for a moment. “true, though i even had troubles learning that so i’m not really sure how different the two would be from each other? maybe just the amount of keys both have?” she thinks for a moment as she pictures a keyboard piano and a grand piano in her head, shaking the thought out soon after. “i honestly wouldn’t mind learning to play the guitar though someday, maybe even take lessons when i have the free time to do so between our schedules.” she says this with a smile, the hint of confidence heard in her voice as she speaks.
“oh you should! i think it would really help you pull off the concept very well. maybe we can add some pink to mine.” she pauses for a minute. “wait! wouldn’t it be super cute if we each had our own represented color in the group?” she asks with a hint of excitement in her voice, looking at hayoung with a widened smile at just the thought. they each had their own emoji’s, so why not have colors as well? “do you think we could? maybe when we get back to the dorm we could suggest it to the other members. i’d love to have either pink or mint green actually.” looking at house hayoung ends up holding the guitar in her hands, arin nods. “that looks right, though what do i really know about guitars?” she jokes, laughing at her own words.
flirting was still something he (obviously) enjoyed, but he didn’t have as much time for it anymore, and perhaps after joining future dreams and the variety shows he didn’t see flirting in public with strangers as… safe? anymore…? he was very well aware of that he wasn’t famous, but a few people recognized him, and would fans like if he went around flirting with everyone? still, he shot his shot with this girl, and it would’ve hurt less had he not tried. “i wanted to at least give it a try” he smiles slightly as he shrugs. he pulls a piece of paper from his pocket, quickly writing something on it. “you don’t have to text or call me, and you can throw it out as soon as i leave, but here’s my number, in case you do want to text me” he hands her the piece of paper, he doesn’t want to force her or make her uncomfortable, but he still wants to try.
“why’d the dude ask for an autograph from you by the way?
arin had been hit on a few times before, and maybe her old self would actually blindly fall for such tactics, though now it just made he feel sorry for the attempts others did to even try and get her attention. even now, she almost feels bad for the guy in front of her but that doesn’t mean she’ll give in, especially to some stranger she had just met. if it were he old self standing here, she’d fall for the flirting, she’d truly believe that the guy standing in front of her was interested in her, though she’s come to realize that some simple flirting didn’t mean anything, and this is why she can’t help but want to internally roll her eyes at him.
she squints slightly, eyebrows furrowing together as she watches him write something down on a piece of paper. taking it slowly she looks at the contents and slowly exhales. he was pretty persistent wasn’t he? despite wanting to toss it in a nearby trash can, arin just nods slowly while mustering up a slight, yet friendly, smile as she looks up at the male. “thank you. I’ll keep that in mind.” actually, she wouldn’t but she wasn’t about to say that out loud. how did her day out of shopping turn into this? she’d have to remember to call the one person that she trusted the most later and vent to them about this whole event.
after shoving the piece of paper into her bag, which would most likely be forgotten by the end of the day, arin tilts her head slightly towards the side at the question being asked of her, soon after letting out a small laugh. right, this made a bit more sense now. this hyoseop guy didn’t even know who she was, which was probably why he was flirting in the first place and made her realize even more how annoying guys could really be out there. yeah she’s had some exes that were worse, but how could someone just go out and flirt with random girls on the street? this only made her hate those kdramas more where scenes like this took place.
pulling her phone out of her pocket, arin searches up her own group before turning the device to face it towards him. “well, that’s because i’m lee arin, also known as lilly, from fabula.” well if this was how she’d get some free promotion for the group, at least there was something positive about this after all. “we’re pretty new so it’s understandable that you’d be confused about what just happened.”
“look at how harmless it is, it won’t hurt you arin!” jisoo has the audacity to giggle before it dangles only for a moment longer, before walking further back to set it down. “see, no harm done, arin. i’m guesing that bug spray really isn’t working on you, huh? maybe we should take the shorter route so we can get out of here earlier…for your sake.”
despite being a rather decent dancer, something like hiking was way more tiring in her opinion and she knows for a fact that tomorrow she probably would be aching, maybe even unable to really dance without having to tough it out and push herself through practice. his words have her glaring slightly at him before she rolls her eyes. “i’m not being dramatic, this is seriously torture for anyone.” she says breathlessly as she tries her best to keep up with him, though his next words have her stopping just a few feet away from him. “well, you should remember from when we-” she cuts herself off and quickly glances away, sighing softly. “never mind... we can’t always do what i want to do. that would just make me feel like i’m be selfish.” she mumbles under her breath.
arin doesn’t bother listening to anything being said after that, too focused on the bug on her arm, herself frozen in place like some statue as her gaze follows the small critter while it climbs up her arm. the tears well up in her eyes, wishing she wasn’t so afraid of such a small thing, though bugs happened to be one of her biggest fears ever since she was a child. even growing up she never managed to get over this fear. “j-jisoo, please” she practically begs the male, just above a whisper as if the bug would attack her if she were too loud. only when jisoo finally removes the small insect does arin move, realizing that she had practically been holding her breath the entire time when she exhales a heavy sigh of relief, quickly blinking the tears away while jisoo is preoccupied by the bug. “then if you love that bug so much why not just live here with it?”
she avoids his gaze while glancing around, ignoring the last part of what he says to her. “which way is the longest? this way?” she asks, walking past him towards one of the paths without waiting for a response from him. now she wanted to prove to him that she could do this, that she could finish this hike without taking the easy way out. arin only hoped that no more bugs would decide to try and become ‘friends’ with her along the way.
ARIN was called to a meeting with her manager, PARK EUNSOOK. while it was mentioned beforehand about what could be discussed to each of the members, there’s still a bit of uncertainty as to what EUNSOOK would say. “please sit down, ARIN.” EUNSOOK gave a sincere smile as she points towards the chair right across from her. the older woman turned her tablet towards ARIN as she shows some statistical data that would be hard for anyone to understand, but as EUNSOOK scrolls down on the document, the comments coming from the coaches are revealed. “many of our coaches have been analyzing the idols and their performances over the last few months, especially during the year end ceremonies. in addition to that, we have our marketing team checking to see how everyone is doing individually and through their gigs. as for you, we’ve noticed that you have the tendency to spread out all of your time and energy with your skills. however, doing this is like a double edged sword. on one hand, the coaches can see the gradual progress you’ve had with these skills which means that technically as a performer, you are a talented singer, dancer, and rapper. but on the other, it seems as if you’ve been spreading your time and energy a bit too thinly so it leads us to an issue that multiple coaches seemed to have brought up.”
EUNSOOK let out a sigh, knowing what she was about to say next. “and that’s how you are when you perform. as one of the coaches told me, it’s like a rose without a scent. they’re beautiful to look at, but a rose’s scent is what makes them unique — it’s what makes people attracted to them. in your case, you hit the right notes and know the timing of the song, but people aren’t captivated by your performances. they see it once and forget what you even did. it’s why all of the FABULA girls were told to work on ACTING, because we didn’t want people to forget about you or your performances. this became more evident during the year end ceremonies because as the other girls focused and worked on ACTING, you became less prominent during the performances. personally, i don’t want you to be satisfied with that because like i said before, you are talented and you should let the public see it too.” she smiled at ARIN. “aside from ACTING, we do want you to work on your stage presence (PERFORMANCE) and your language skills too — specifically KOREAN and ENGLISH. the latter would also benefit you seeing that you’ve been hosting on various shows. i believe if you work on all of those areas, the reward will soon pay off for you.” EUNSOOK concluded her feedback with a question towards the other, “we know that you’ve been doing an array of gigs lately, but we wanted to ask how you imagine your future to be. do you see yourself doing more variety and hosting gigs or are you also interested in working in other areas?”
arin really doesn’t know what to expect when she’s called in to a meeting with eunsook. she knows what the meeting is about but not what would even be said to her, this making her slightly nervous as to what it was she was still lacking in. upon entering the room, she bows politely before taking a seat when told to do so, sitting up straight and paying very close attention to everything being said to her. she nods every now and then, showing that she not only is paying close attention but also understands what she’s being told.
deep down arin knows that she’s still lacking, it’s why she spent a lot more time in the practice room lately, though what eunsook says about acting has her chewing on her bottom lip. that’s something she hadn’t worked on despite knowing she needed to. it made her feel sorry for not really putting more time into bettering her acting skills, though it made her even more determined to start focusing on it now.
once eunsook is finished speaking, finally asking arin the big question that even she wasn’t sure of herself, she averts her gaze for a moment as she thinks. up until now she had been doing what she wanted, though was that all she wanted to do? maybe that was the issue as well. arin had taken on gigs that she felt suited her more, but maybe it was time to branch out a bit more and try new things. with a deep breath, softly exhaling before looking back up at eunsook with a look of determination, arin finally speaks confidently. “i want to do more variety and hosting gigs but... i also want to take your advice and work more on my acting so i can take on some acting gigs.” she smiles gently as she continues. “i will try even harder to work towards this goal and make sure to not let you or the company down!”
she wants to do better, no matter how tiring or exhausting it would be, arin would make sure that she focused on improving her skills in different areas so that she could be someone that could be remembered through her hard work.
ᖴᗩᑎGIᖇᒪ ᗩᑎᗪ ᑎO ᑕᕼIᒪᒪ
a closed starter for @lgcsomin
...
staring at the screen, somin tries not too move so much since arin is resting her head on her shoulder. she does think it’s unfair that they haven’t met oneus yet, but she thinks they’ll have opportunities in the future. “we can probably go to their next concert? if it’s in seoul, i think we’ll be able to go.”
nodding slightly in agreement, arin’s cheeks puff out in annoyance. “seriously. it’s like some force out there is just messing with us.” sitting up straight, she zones out for a few moments as she stares at the screen, somewhat watching the members in the video. for someone who claimed they were anti-romantic, arin sure did have it bad for oneus, more so for seoho that is, even her lock screen was a picture of him. it was because of this reason that she couldn’t really show anyone outside of her group, with the exception of somin, her phone because she would either be teased or ‘attacked’. she wanted to avoid both.
snapping out of her own thoughts, she looks over at her friend and smiles. “true!~ maybe the company will grant us a free day during that time so that we can go.” thinking on it, her smile grows. “maybe we could even make a sign and get noticed by the members!” her small burst of enthusiasm has her sighing softly at the image that pops into her mind, staring off into space as she looks like she’s some lovesick fool.
that’s when an idea pops into her head and her smile ends up turning into a devilish grin as she turns towards somin. “i just had an idea... even if the company doesn’t let us, we could buy tickets and sneak out.” okay so she’s only joking, though the idea would be tempting if it ever came down to it.
→ you shouldn’t have
→ i mean it, you really shouldn’t have.
→ yea you have some catching up to do, don’t you? (joking too, obviously)
→ but thank you so much, i’m kind of offended you dropped off cupcakes but didn’t actually come to celebrate 🥴 so you owe me!
[ Contact: JisoOoOo ]
— wow... i’ll remember that next year then
— hey, at least i’m still young and beautiful~ 😛
— well, i guess we’ll just have to hang out when we’re both free
— maybe if you’re nice enough i might buy you a gift, but that depends on if you act
— btw you still owe me for the torture i went through when we went hiking... i’m still having nightmares 😒
ᖴᗩᑎGIᖇᒪ ᗩᑎᗪ ᑎO ᑕᕼIᒪᒪ
a closed starter for @lgcsomin
there were moments where they just needed time to relax during their downtime, and for those like her and somin that meant sometimes meeting up to fangirl over oneus and be the biggest supporters of the group. even if there were times when the group would release content while somin’s and arin’s group were busy, that still didn’t stop them from watching together. it was sort of like some tradition, though at the same time they still would just hang out and rewatch music videos because it helped with the views. plus they got to stare at the handsome faces which was one of the main perks to all of this.
sitting there beside somin, hugging her matching plushie, she smiles at the screen and lets out a heavy sigh. “why can’t we just meet them once at least? like, we’re idols now so how come our paths haven’t crossed yet?” pouting she looks over at her friend. “this is like some hate crime against us.” she half-jokes before she’s laying her head on somin’s shoulder.
was she being a bit dramatic? nope, not to her at least. this was her favorite group out there yet she hasn’t been to a single concert of theirs, much less didn’t get to even meet them yet and she hated that. “i think we’re destined to just watch them from afar for the rest of eternity.” she whines out as seoho appears on the big screen. “ugh! why does he have to be so fine?! this is unfair!!”
she didn’t really think that something like this would happen, not just by looking into a mirror and putting makeup on, though that’s something about legacy she had learned. that you had to expect the unexpected, no matter where you were or when it was. how arin managed to be one of the lucky ones who even got picked, well it was still a mystery to her, though she wasn’t complaining one bit. this was another opportunity for her and she was ready to give it her all.
arin waits patiently and listens as the others in her group speak, answering questions that are being asked, smiling as she nods slightly. the moment that it’s her turn, she directs her attention to the ones asking the questions and answers truthfully.
“what are your feelings about representing Peripera?”
humming softly, she takes a moment before finally speaking. “i’m really happy that i was one of the few chosen actually. i started using the brand a few months ago after seeing an advertisement, and after that i think it’s one of the brands that is mostly seen in my collection of makeup.” arin gives a small nod.
“which products from Peripera would you say are your favorite?”
this has arin thinking for a few moments, going through a list of the products she had used so far. “this is actually hard to choose, because i love all of their products, but i would have to say a few of my favorites are their Whisper of Milky Spring palette, their Mood Drop Tint, the Ink Velvet and especially the Sugar Twinkle Liquid Glitter.” she smiles before pointing at her lips. “actually, today i’m wearing some of the Coralficial Ink Velvet.”
“how do you use the products of the brand on the daily?”
“i’d like to say that i use Peripera products nearly everyday when i’m wearing makeup. even if i’m just going out to do some shopping, or even running to the store for something to drink.” a small laugh escapes at herself before continuing. “this brand actually is taking over and replacing some of the other brands i used in the past so it’s pretty rare to not see me at least using even the lip tint on a daily basis.”
