➤ BABE
➤ BABE? ? ? ?
➤ EMERGENCY ? ? ? ?
➤ I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED I THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO BE JUYEON BUT THEN IT WASNT
➤ THEY SAID MY NAME FUCK
➤ I’M GOING TO BE AN IDOL ? ?? ? HOLY FUCK
@rkmeiqi
[ txt mssg → chuu~ngha 😚 ]
✉️️ → WHAT
✉️️ → WHAT
✉️️ → EMER
✉️️ → ARE YOU O
✉️️ → YOURE WHAT
✉️️ → YOURE HEARTZ??!??!?!??!
✉️️ → YOURE KIM CHUNGHA OF HEARTZ?!?!?!?!??
✉️️ → CONGRATULATIONS OMG MY HEART IS RACING RN WHAT THE HELL
✉️️ → IM SO PROUD OF YOU BABY
✉️️ → CALL ME WHEN U CAN OMG
✉️️ → AND WE HAVE TO CELEBRATE
✉️️ → MY GIRLFRIEND’S GOING TO BE AN IDOL
✉️️ → [ voice message: meiqi screaming, then choking on her own scream, followed by a distant voice yelling at her to stop being so loud ]
—september 25th, 2020.
break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored.
sometimes dancing feels like a chore. with and*roma’s simple and cute choreographies, meiqi feels like she just goes through the motions: the smiling, the playful winks, the bouncy movements that are nowhere near what she wants to do or what she knows she can do. it’s not fun for her, but with the nature of their concept, it has to appear like she’s having fun. that’s where most of her energy goes—putting on an act while on stage.
but choreographing with the rest of the dancers in the group reminds her of her love for dancing. they don’t go for boring and repetitive moves; they incorporate careful hand movements, interesting transitions, opportunities to focus on each member, different levels and floorwork—god, does meiqi love floorwork. most of and*roma aren’t exactly fans of their concept, it seems, so when they work together to create their own content, their true colours are able to shine brightly.
it also helps that the music doesn’t irritate her despite the countless times they’ve replayed it, both while choreographing with sunmi and seulgi, and while teaching the dance to the rest of and*roma. ariana grande is always a pleasure to listen to, and her music has the perfect vibe to match meiqi’s dance style. whereas with and*roma’s discography, she finds herself getting annoyed with it the more she listens.
the set up for their video is more mature, too. rather than colorful dresses and high heels against a vibrant background, they’ve decided to dim the room and add in neon lights to illuminate the matching white outfits and sneakers.
everything about this video is more comfortable than anything they’ve done before. maybe because it’s just a gift for their fans and therefore there’s less pressure to get something in return (like a music show win). maybe it’s because it’s not a live viewing but something recorded, or maybe because the girls themselves had more of an input. either way, this is the most fun meiqi’s had since debuting, and she wishes it would never end, that they’d continue down a more mature path like this in their career.
unfortunately, she knows she only has this day to indulge herself.
it’s all too familiar. in a sea of idols, with industry seniors or familiar faces or groups meiqi has never even heard of, and*roma stands on the stage for the final hurrah of the music show. as first place nominees, they stand in front of the large crowd, separated from their competitors with the mcs in between them, ready to announce the results.
but meiqi tunes it all out, dropping her head so her disappointment can’t be captured by the cameras. to viewers, it might just seem like she’s praying to herself for the win, but she has no hope. they’ve been here before, waiting to hear if their hard work has been worth it, if people like them and their music enough, if they’re good enough to be considered winners.
last time had been a reality check. it’s not that easy to win a music show award. someone will always be better them them in every single way, and they’ll have to settle for second place: a simple title, with nothing to show for the efforts that earned them the placing.
meiqi doesn’t want to feel that mortification again, thinks that if she just doesn’t pay attention, it won’t hurt. but it’s hard to consciously ignore the world around her (something so easy when she’s not trying), and she can still hear the drumroll, the quiet pleas of her members beside her, and—AND*ROMA.
her head snaps upwards in surprise, and she glances around at her group to make sure she’s hearing it right. she wasn’t just imagining, right? her hope hadn’t manifested into some crazy, unbelievable vision of their first win with what she thinks is their worst concept and album ever? that’s impossible… that’s…
she’s crying. she’s crying because they’ve won and because she hates what she’s won with, but they’re still winners regardless. for once, they’re winners.
meiqi is grateful for the eloquence of her members that leaves no room for her to attempt a speech (not that they have much time for all of them to speak). at some point, she reaches for the trophy from whoever has it at the moment, just to feel if it’s real and if it’s actually theirs, and then she cries even harder. she forgets that there are cameras and fans and other idols probably congratulating her (or judging, in this case). she’s just so emotional.
the encore stage is hard to do when an ocean is streaming down her face. meiqi can feel her eyes swelling, and her sniffles are full of snot. whenever she opens her mouth to sing, another wave of tears wreck her plans and she has to put the microphone down to bury her face in her elbow.
she doesn’t stop even once they’re offstage. it takes a packet of tissues and the comfort of multiple people before she can speak without choking on a sob—and then, the only thing she can say is “we won.”
it shouldn’t be such a big deal. in the grand scheme of things, it’s just one measly win. this doesn’t mean that they’re guaranteed a repeat in the future, or that they’re suddenly the stars of south korea. but meiqi doesn’t care about reason. she never has.—july 19th, 2020.
learning so good and summer kiss.
she feels her face begin to scrunch up at the first sip before she’s turning to meiqi, her finger poking into the other’s side as she peers at the other girl’s drink. “hey – what drink did you get?” she whispers, about ready to ask if they could switch.
the idea of a cafe-themed show is brilliant in theory, even if they only use the gimmick for a small portion of the program. meiqi thinks it would be miles better if they served desserts instead, or at least paired the drinks with baked goodies like a real cafe—maybe she could tolerate it, then.
as it stands, meiqi hates anything coffee-related. she’s never been a fan of lattes or americanos, the flavour being too strong and bitter for someone with the sweetest tooth around. she’d tried coffee once before, back when she was in high school, and immediately spit it back out. therefore, it’s not the easiest task to pretend like she’s enjoying whatever concoction the mcs of the show have planned for them. so she simply takes one brief sip, then leaves it untouched in favour of having fun and joking around with everyone. no one will notice.
when juhee jabs at her waist unexpectedly, meiqi almost knocks the forgotten drink over from the surprise. she tries to hide the reaction with an exaggerated laugh, as if she’s just enjoying whatever is being talked about, before she levels juhee with something close to a glare. “what are you doing? why are you asking?”
her expression falls quick, however, as meiqi is never one to dwell on something for so long. she spares a glance at the younger girl’s drink when juhee asks about her own, suddenly wondering if it could be as bad as hers. based on the faintest furrow of her brows, it probably is.
meiqi’s fingers curl around her abandoned cup, probably for the first time in twenty minutes, as she lifts it to juhee’s lips. with her free hand, she steadies the straw for her member to take a sip. “try it,” she whispers, almost conspiratorially. “i don’t like it, so you can have it if it’s your style. just pass me yours and i’ll get rid of it somehow.”
💬 mengqi98 today, the scenery was pretty but the truly beautiful view was the birthday girl!!! everyone, wish our kaeun a very happy birthday!!! 💜💜💜 her gift today was me (and other things, but i was the best present obviously ㅋㅋㅋ)
available in stores now! …
the hotly anticipated third mini-album!
↱ track listing
★ 01. So Good
★ 02. 예뻐지게 (High Heels)
★ 03. Summer Kiss
★ 04. Sugar Baby
★ 05. I’ll Hold You (잡아줄게)
↲
Details:
This album comes with a 72-page photobook, 1 random member
photocard (1 out of 6 CONCEPT version), 1 random member
photocard (1 out 6 of the SELFIE version), and one poster (1 out of 2).
Release Date: 2020-08-19
Language: Korean
Disc Format(s): CD
Publisher: NOVA Entertainment
“it almost makes me sad i can’t bring my sister with me. she loves making new friends and she would have loved being here.” although the truth was, if she brought jinhee then she would have had to bring jinyoung. they hated being apart for too long. twins were a lot to handle. “did you bring anything?”
before being told about their scheduled guest appearance on the show, meiqi didn’t even know what the return of the superman was. her first impression after hearing the title was that it was a show about superheroes—would they have to cosplay as them while they played games to determine who was the strongest avenger, or something along the lines of that? will they get to pick their own outfits for it, or will she have to dress up in cheap halloween costumes prepared by the staff?
upon learning that the show is about kids, she doesn’t know if that’s better or worse.
it’s not that meiqi hates kids; she thinks they can be cute and fun when they’re not crying over something stupid. but she’s also never spent an extended amount of time with them, being the youngest in her family. the most she’s done is coo at a baby in the streets. and then that same baby cried.
she’s going to have to stick to sunmi and seulgi as much as she can today.
“wait,” she stops sunmi’s train of thought to count on her fingers. she’s unperturbed by the fact that she didn’t know this little tidbit about sunmi (she should really start paying attention when other people talk about themselves), just confused. “you have ashe and another younger sister, and then there’s you... how many siblings are in your family?”
sunmi’s gifts for the kids are perfect. you can never go wrong with clothes, and meiqi wishes she had thought of that before. though, she supposes showing up with two pairs of outfits might not be the best idea, but it was better than her plan. meiqi had originally bought the kids a switch to share (her logic: juhee is practically a kid at heart and she likes it, so younger kids must like it too), but everyone told her that was too expensive and the parents wouldn’t like it, so she bought two last minute doll houses instead.
she holds the bags carrying the toys up unsurely. “i brought these... i don’t know what kids like, but the clerk at the shop recommended them...”
the video starts with darae and meiqi in one of the nova dance studios. the time on the clock reads 9:47 although there’s no distinction to tell if it’s morning or night. meiqi and darae are running through a section of the song which seems to go well but darae pauses, shaking her head. the caption “i messed up” comes on the screen. they run through it again.
this time, it seems that meiqi was a beat ahead darae and they both pause. darae turns to her, held tilted. the audio finally comes in as darae asks meiqi “wait what’s the count?” with a question mark animation appearing above her head and an exclamation point animation appearing up meiqi’s. meiqi calmly says, “i thought the tempo was five-and-six seven eight.” darae chuckles, covering her face. “i thought it was five six seven and eight!” a caption appears on the screen “dancers communicating with their own language….” as they continue to talk about counts, figuring out where they were out of sync.
with a shift in the scene, meiqi and darae are both standing in front of the mirror. to anyone else, it looks like they’re just waving their arms stiffly. to anyone familiar, they’d be able to recognise this style of dance called waacking. darae moves behind meiqi to guide her into the movements. she’s talking as she does although there is a gentle music over as they go over moves. darae claps her hands and motions for her to go. a caption appears saying, “meiqi begin!”
meiqi begins with a count right before the waacking in the choreography. when she brings her hands back, she brings it too far – farther than we’ve seen darae guide her hand not a moment before. she smacks darae in the face. the audio of the room fades in on impact. you can clearly hear the smack and darae drops on the floor, laughing really hard. the scene replays twice more. once at regular speed and the second in slow-mo with a closeup of how darae recoils upon impact. as it returns to normal speed the second time, the screen is covered with
“ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ” all over to match darae’s laughing on the floor.
meiqi doesn’t seem to notice, as she continues to dance for a moment longer before turning and yelling. she crouches down next to darae, yelling “i’m sorry i’m sorry!” but it’s clear that she’s laughing too. darae looks up at her, putting her hands on meiqi. although the younger is insisting, “slap me twice to make up for it.” darae laughs again, instead patting her butt twice before getting up. meiqi whines from the floor, “that’s not what i meant unnieeeeee!” a playful caption appears, saying “bad girl meiqi wants a punishment for her mistake ㅋㅋ”. darae shakes her head. the next scene comes.
meiqi and darae seem more serious as they dance. the audio of the dance isn’t heard but as they transition to another move, two big laughing emojis are slapped over their bodies, effectively censoring the move that they do. although judging by the girls intense and sultry expressions, anyone can put two and two together and come to the conclusion that the move was a little too sexy. the video speeds up 3x speed of the rest of the choreography bit they were practising. it only slows until after a manager comes up and speaks to them before leaving. the manager’s face is blurred.
“too sexy?” meiqi complained with a pout. darae pats her head. “it’s okay,” she says although she’s pouting too. “we’ll edit it.” the image of the two girls moving to edit their choreography fades to black. the black screen splits horizontally, the two halves sliding away to reveal meiqi and darae. they’re dressed in outfits complementary to each other like a true duo. meiqi is standing a bit closer to the camera than darae is, making her more of a center focus as the music finally plays and the girls being to dance.
their moves are in sync, clearly a product of hours of practise of the dance they created themselves. as the chorus starts, they switch places and now darae is in the foreground position while meiqi is a bit back. their expressions are intense. their moves are crisp. they switch their positions again as the song hits its bridge. meiqi gives a smirk to the camera and a quirk of the brow. darae’s smirk mirrored meiqi’s as they dance. they switch once more.
the song picks up as well as their moves. they finish the dance seated next to one another. darae with her head thrown back in the final position and meiqi with her hand in the air, looking directly at the camera. after two beats holding their position they break their dancer personas and cheer. darae claps “we did well!”
—july 19th, 2020.
learning so good and summer kiss.
learning two new choreographies in less than two weeks should be hard, regardless of whether one is a good dancer. but it’s not. meiqi would kill for it to be difficult, to have sweat dripping from her temples, to mess up steps, or to get the wrong angle for a movement. she wants the trainers to yell at her for not being able to execute something sharp or fast enough, rather than the reason being her expressions aren’t cute enough.
meiqi doesn’t like summer kiss: not as a song, and definitely not for the choreography. the lyrics might be fitting for the summer season, but even so, she finds it utterly forgettable. it’s not just because of the cutesy concept, and she’s not biased at all when she says this. but hell, it’s their own b-side, they’ve been learning the dance for ten days, and she can barely recall how it goes. if that’s the case, she can’t imagine how non-fans would feel listening to the song. boring; that’s the only word she can conjure up to describe it.
so good is slightly better. it’s still an overall cute song, but at least it’s cute in a different way. there’s no cheesy lyrics about kissing on a beach or falling in love with a man who has broad shoulders, only a song about feeling good. it’s fun, dynamic, and the choreography, while not perfect, has elements of waacking that redeem it. no matter how brief the technique is used, it’s still there, presented as somewhat of a challenge.
(if she’s being honest, meiqi wouldn’t mind promoting this song as a b-side to something sexier—something sistar-esque).
and yet, so good isn’t even a full song. it’s an intro, a mere minute long. as it stands now, it’s at least a step up from their last one. but if it was a full song, maybe meiqi would actually like it. maybe.
“why did it look weird?” she waits for an answer – knowing there could be no other one except – hell to the yes. while scandalous, juhee even attempting this song seemed wrong on all levels, even to juhee.
“practicing.” there’s a beat of silence, and then meiqi cackles, a full laughter that has her doubling over and clutching her stomach for support. it’s hard not to laugh at juhee; she comes across as so innocent, and it makes her reactions that much more hilarious. she looks like she’s been caught in the middle of committing a crime—which, to be fair, meiqi would like to classify her actions as such.
it’s not that juhee is a bad dancer—quite the opposite, actually (and*roma has so much talent when it comes to dancing, and meiqi really can’t fathom why this isn’t reflected in their choreographies). it just seems like she isn’t used to or fond of sexy concepts. she’s the inverse of meiqi, in that regard. definitely better maknae material.
but meiqi is never one to hold back, always speaking her mind. just because juhee is younger than her and possibly more delicate, doesn’t mean she’s going to change that. so, without a second thought, she hits her with the truth, hard. “yeah. it looked insane. you know how, in variety shows, they edit in sound effects? they would have put in creaking effects for that. or a baby taking its first steps and falling over.” she does her best imitation of juhee’s attempts, but slightly (or extremely) exaggerated, paired with sound effects courtesy of her own creation. “like that.”
it’s all fun and games for now, but meiqi truly hopes that’s not how juhee is planning to perform for the special stage. just the thought of disrespecting their seniors, and even worse, ruining their chances at getting her dream concept sometime in the future is enough to replace any signs of a jovial attitude with dead seriousness. “what’s the problem, though? if you’re not hurt, why are you doing it like that?”
“i don’t think we have talked before, huh?” doyeon ties her long hair with a scrunchie, trying to remember if they promoted together before or just happened to be in the same award shows, and turns to the girl again. “but the fans said we should hang out because we’re both 98 liners.” she chuckles, slightly embarrassed for being so straightforward, but well, it wouldn’t hurt to say she wanted to be friends with her. “can i get your number?” she asks with a grin.
meiqi has been deprived of the sunlight for way too long. despite the recent welcoming of summer, and*roma have been spending their days preparing and practicing for their comeback, from morning to night. sometimes, meiqi feels like she’s forgotten what it feels like to have the sun’s rays on her skin without the barrier of a window. other times, she wonders if the heat outside is as stifling as it is in the practice room.
the pool party is exactly what she needs right now.
when her girlfriend has disappeared to mingle, and meiqi has made the rounds to greet everyone she knows and any strangers who catch her eye as well, she takes the opportunity to relax, spooning ice cream past her lips and nodding her head along to the music coming from the dj station. the last thing she expects is someone to disturb her—not when everyone is having fun on their own, already congregating in familiar groups around the pool—but meiqi catches a tall beauty approaching her, looking like a model as she takes long strides towards her.
she knows doyeon in a vague sense, one of the prettiest female idols meiqi has ever seen and her senior in the industry. she sits up almost immediately, though whether it’s out of respect or excitement, she doesn’t know. “doyeon! hi! oh my god, you look wonderful, too!”
it’s so easy to mirror doyeon’s smile, contagious and beautiful as it is. meiqi can’t believe she’s sitting beside her now, and yet, she thinks that the two of them side by side look like they were meant to be friends; doyeon looks expensive and high class, and meiqi has been spoiled since her childhood, taught to appreciate exactly that. “oh, you read what fans say too? back when i first debuted, i saw some asking for us and a few other idols like yeri to form a maknae friendship all together! looks like we’re one step closer to fulfilling their wishes now.”
she’s already pulling her phone out of her pocket when doyeon asks for her number, unlocking the screen (her lockscreen is a selfie of her and chungha, and she’s not shy to show it off) and bringing up her contacts. she turns it around for doyeon to take. “put your number in and i’ll text you right away so you can get mine! don’t forget to take a selfie for your contact photo too. i gotta admire your beauty while i’m texting you, you know!”
