Therapuss with Jake Shane | favorite songs, LA life, dating and personal aches - part 1
katseye 7th member au
Isa and the girls being iconic in Therapuss with one of her besties
WARNINGS: so, babes, I'm splitting this episode into different segments because I want to be as detailed as possible, but I also don't want each post to be overwhelmingly long. hope you guys enjoy!
masterlist 🔥requests are open feedback is always important to me!
When Isa was a trainee, one of her biggest fears about debuting wasn't singing, dancing or performing: it was interviews. It wasn't that she wasn't media trained, quite the opposite. She knew exactly how to answer questions, smile at the right moments and avoid saying anything that could become a headline.
The problem was that she never felt like herself unless she was speaking Portuguese. Everything else felt too translated.
Over the years, she learned how to compensate for it. She became quieter. More observant. She'd only speak when the question was directed at her, carefully choosing every word so she wouldn't sound cold, rude or misunderstood.
Then KATSEYE happened.
Debuting in a group that promoted primarily in English, under an environment far less rigid than she'd expected, slowly gave her permission to become herself instead of the polished alter ego she'd spent years believing the industry wanted.
So when Jake Shane, one of her closest friends outside the group, casually mentioned wanting KATSEYE on Therapuss, Isa practically moved mountains to make it happen.
Now, watching the girls slowly relax into the conversation, interrupt each other, laugh over old stories and expose one another every five minutes, she knew this was going to be one of those interviews fans would quote for years.
Isa smiled to herself before pulling one of the duvets higher over her legs, the air conditioning hitting her bare thighs just enough to make her shiver even if it was hot outside.
"So, tell me." Jake said. "Do you guys each have a favorite song to perform?"
Sophia started.
"I love MIA. I feel like we have the most freedom while performing it. Even if we have staging, we can move around more than just follow the choreography. I feel like Animal is giving that a lot too."
Isa, seated on the other end between Dani and Jake, nodded.
The next to answer was Yoonchae.
"I love performing Gameboy, especially at festivals, with the wind and everything. I know Lara doesn’t really like it." she exposed, making the girls laugh.
"You don’t like Gameboy?" Jake asked Lara.
"I love the song, I just don’t really like the choreography." Lara defended herself. "There’s so much hopping and jumping."
"It’s basically cardio." Isa chimed in.
Megan answered next, saying it was MIA as well. Lara agreed, followed by Dani, who added that she especially loved the dance break in Gnarly.
Jake looked around the couch, turning to Isa.
"And what's your favorite song to perform, Isa?" he asked.
"The ones I wrote." she answered without thinking.
The girls burst into laughter, Daniela playfully slapping her thigh.
"Oh, period." Jake snapped his fingers. "By the way, girl... you need to tell us how you come up with all these amazing songs. Like, are you kidding me? Mean Girls, Tonight I Might, My Way... who hurt you like that?"
Isa tilted her head back as she laughed.
"That’s because you don’t even know her other songs!" Megan pointed out.
"She has some crazy shit." Lara agreed immediately.
"Tell them, Isa!" Sophia cheered.
"Hm, well..." Isa absentmindedly played with a strand of her pink hair, trying to think of an answer that wouldn't sound like she was bragging. "I don't know... it kind of just happens."
"No!" Lara protested. "Tell them the truth, Isabelí!"
Isa groaned, already knowing where this was going.
"She’s a natural lyricist, that’s what happens." Lara continued. "You know Iconic By Mistake? Our collab with the ILLIT and LE SSERAFIM girls?"
Jake’s eyes widened.
"You've got to be kidding me." Jake turned to Isa. "You wrote that too?"
"The chorus!" Isa immediately corrected. "And our verse."
Jake stared at her for a second.
"You just... keep casually dropping these bombs?"
Isa laughed.
"Well," she shrugged. "nobody really asked about it."
The girls burst into laughter once again.
"But, if you had to pick one." Jake leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "What's the song you're proudest of?"
Isa thought about it for a moment.
"I always get emotional with Mean Girls and Tonight I Might." she admitted. "They take me right back to when I wrote them. I remember exactly where I was, what I was feeling... everything." she smiled to herself. "And now we're playing them at festivals with thousands of people singing the lyrics back to us. We get to perform them exactly how we imagined they should feel when I first wrote them."
"Period." Megan mumbled proudly.
"No, because she's not telling the whole story." Sophia interrupted. "She literally cries every time we finish recording one of her songs."
Isa looked around the couch.
"I get emotional!"
"You cry." Lara corrected.
"I get emotional."
"You cry!" the other girls said together.
Jake laughed so hard he had to lean back into the couch.
"I must be honest with you..." he said, finally catching his breath. "The first time I heard Mean Girls, I was like ‘what the fuck is this beat?', and then I actually listened to the lyrics and I was like...” he threw both hands in the air. “'WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS LYRIC?'"
The girls immediately laughed and Isa buried her face in her hands.
"No, seriously." Jake continued. "It's one of those songs where I can't even explain what it makes me feel!"
The room grew quieter for a moment and Isa smiled at her friend.
"That was actually intentional."
Jake looked at her and she nodded.
"I wrote Mean Girls during Dream Academy, and one of the biggest things I actually still struggle with, and I think Sophia and Yoonchae might agree with me on this, is that when English isn't your first language..." she paused, looking at the two girls. "...it takes forever to explain what you're feeling."
Both Sophia and Yoonchae nodded immediately.
"You guys can sum up an emotion with one word." Isa continued. "I can't. I have to describe the whole situation before I finally go, '...so I guess I was sad?'"
The couch erupted into laughter.
"But because of that, I think I became obsessed with finding the right words, always." she leaned back into the couch. "So Mean Girls came from that. We had twenty girls living together, all from completely different backgrounds, trying to become the best version of ourselves while also dealing with... well, being eighteen, nineteen, twenty. There were days when I was probably the mean girl in somebody else's story. And there were people who were incredibly kind to me on days I probably didn't deserve it. I realized we're never just one thing. You can be somebody's heartbreak and somebody else's safe place at the exact same time."
Her voice softened and Jake and the girls simply stared at her.
"So I wrote Mean Girls specially like that, short and bitter, not so detailed, because I wanted people to get this feeling, you know? It's not a song you stop and try to find the meaning. If you get it, you get it." another small shrug. "Like, God bless us all. We're all going to mess up eventually. And, hopefully, we're all forgiven for it, too."
Lara started clapping, the girls following her and Isa laughing out loud by their sudden reaction.
"That’s our girl!" Daniela cheered.
"Oh, my God." Jake said, clapping. "I’m sat for you Isa!"
Isa laughed even more, playfully slapping the boy’s arm.
"I don’t even know how to continue the interview now." he said, making the girls giggle. He looked at one of his cards. "Hm… I’ve never asked this to this many people at the same time, but what are you therapissed about today?"
"I’m therapissed about the traffic in L.A!" Daniela answered first. "Like, people don’t know how to fucking drive here."
"That’s true, I’ll go with you in this one." Isa agreed, pointing at the girl. "I drove here once and never again. I can drive in like, fucking Seoul, friday, rush hour, but I can’t deal with the L.A traffic. That’s why I keep Megan around." she joked, the girl showing her a middle finger.
The topic went on with the girls listing what made them mad about during the weeks. Lara said she parked next to her ex while he rapped to himself inside his car, making Isa mumble a soft ‘ew’. Megan said she had a bruise because of taking IV and how she hated dating and bounding over The Cure, with Jake.
"But I also think it’s really hard, in our situation, to date as if we were our age, if that makes sense." Lara said. "Like, play around, hook up with people and just figure things out. We’re our age but our life makes it feel like we’re way older. So we kind of need someone who already has their shit figured out."
Sophia and Isa locked their gaze, and, while Isa tried to hide, Sophia left the loudest laughter she could.
"What happened?" Jake asked, confused.
"That bitch." Isa said, looking at Sophia as if she was mad.
Sophia put her hands up.
"I didn’t do anything! I just laughed!" the girl tried to be sneaky.
"Are you into dating, Isa?" Jake asked.
"I don’t think dating would be the perfect wording." Isa tried to explain, taking a deep breath. "But I like meeting people."
"And kissing them." Sophia complemented.
"Girl," Isa playfully looked at her. "shut the fuck up?!"
"Spill that tea, Sophia!" Jake said, laughing.
"All I’m going to say is," Sophia made a suspense, making Isa look at her, freaking out about what was going to be said next. "she has kissed some interesting mouths. Next!"
The girls laughed out loud while looking at Isa.
"Interesting mouths?" Jake repeated.
Sophia immediately nodded.
"Very interesting."
Isa buried her face in the pillow.
"Sophia! You’re saying too much!”
Jake looked between the two of them.
"Wait. Are we talking about celebrities?"
The entire couch exploded.
Isa shouted immediately, grabbing one of the cushions and throwing it straight at him. Jake caught it with a laugh.
"THAT REACTION TELLS ME EVERYTHING, ISABELI!”
"NEXT!"
"A SINGER?"
"JAKE."
"AN ATHLETE?"
Lara was laughing so hard she couldn't breathe.
"Girl, you’re not helping yourself.” Dani said.
Isa covered her face with the duvet.
"Can somebody mute him?"
Without missing a beat, Lara leaned over and gently patted the blanket where Isa's head was hidden.
"She's gone."
"Died." Yoonchae mumbled.
"Cause of death?" Megan went with the joke.
Sophia smiled innocently.
"Interesting mouths."
