Starring: Kim Hosung and Kim Doyeon ( @rkdoyeon )
Genre: Romance, Comedy, Childhood, Friendship
At what point in time do feelings change? How far into a friendship do two need to be before it turns into love? Can two childhood friends remain just friends or will their feelings take hold and force both to rethink everything?
yuzu still remembers how she’s first seen the girl on tv as she arrived in seoul. watching the show back then with only mild interest and slight curiosity for the entertainment industry, she’d never have imagined herself in this situation now. both of them debuted artists and attending the same party.
doyeon looked stunning in her costume and even prettier in real life.
in her disguise, yuzu expected she would have felt more secure and confident. seeing as she embodied the personification of grace and self-assurance, she should get her shit together and act like the confident young woman she was supposed to represent. after all joker was a symbol of charm and suaveness.
but doyeon was coming right her way and suddenly yuzu felt anything but suave. “drinks-,” she thus speaks up like an idiot as she toasts her glass to the senior artist. “uhm I mean- cheers....” a long moment of silence follows in which yuzu is about ready to disappear into thin air.
vanessa wants to do a monthly vlive. that's what she decides after the two other ones she's done before. she likes it, a lot more than she expected; it's fun, easy for her-- a good way to interact with the fans (especially when they're trapped with little to work on, but she won't say that out in fear of jinxing it). for this episode, she doesn't really have much all planned either.
so when she's set up, starting the video with her usual relaxed, somewhat tired demeanor, she's completely shocked when the door opens up-- only minutes after she's started. for a moment, she's a little stupefied, and she's sure it shows on her face, but sohee's appearance has her grinning wide and happy.
"look we have a guest~~" she sings, clapping her hands as she tugs over another chair for sohee. seeing the sweater that she had gifted the other has her grinning happily, and she can't help how happy she is at the other's appearance. "wah, i'm so happy. k.arma's kiyeon? here? with me? i'm so honored." she can't help but reach out for a hug, clutching the other girl to her as she happily settles back in front of the camera. she can see the comments going wild, but she looks over to see what sohee's brought.
"what? food? whoa." she's surprised, but utterly thankful for sohee's kindness and thoughts. she can feel her stomach grumble at the thought of food. "you're an angel, kiyeonnie~~ i didn't eat much earlier." she pouts cutely at the other.
they're munching and eating, and vanessa can't help but stare fondly at sohee as she sings a bit of song requests (she's belting out those disney high notes, and vanessa can't help but to stop eating to give her a wordless applause, shooting a thumbs up at the camera). "our kiyeon is no joke. have you streamed her show yourself cover? you better~ should we play it?" she teases, wiggling her brows at the camera and then at sohee cutely. it's fun with sohee, even if she blushes and squirms at sohee revealing the origins behind the sweater she had gifted. she lets out long groans as she speaks, hiding her face as she laughs. "it's cute though, isn't it?" she manages, reaching out to lightly tug at the carrot hoodie strings. "comment hearts if you think it does!”
at thirty minutes, vanessa hears noise at the door. glancing over curiously, she blinks as she's see someone outside through the window, and for a moment-- she's very, very confused. when the door opens-- she lets out a shocked noise, before breaking out into laughter.
"who is this, who are you?" she can't help but laugh. "sejeong? does that say sejeong? wah..." she knows it isn't sejeong-- trapped away at filming as she is, so she can't stop giggling at the imposter. it's silly, and from the voice alone she knows it's jinah. it's cute, sweet-- they miss the girl when she's away, and she's happy to know she isn't the only one missing sejeong's presence. she smiles fondly at jinah’s antics and attempts at sejeong-- she’s pretty good, vanessa will admit. it does make her miss the girl even more though, so she brings her phone close, peering at it briefly before looking back to the comments.
“should we call? let’s call sejeong,” she shoots a glance at jinah teasingly, wiggling her brows. a quick call to sejeong chooses to be futile, as it goes to voicemail and vanessa hums. “ah, maybe we do have sejeong here all along?” she muses, chuckling as she reaches out in an attempt to playfully ruffle jinah’s hair, like she’d do to sejeong normally. “our sejeonggie~”
vanessa thinks it’s fun with more than one person. there’s a lot of fun to be had with sohee and jinah-- and she’s grinning fondly at them when she sees something pop out from the corner of her eye near the door. she’s quick to look over, and she can only beam with a wide grin at doyeon’s face peeking out from the window. she watches the other wave for a moment, amused and grinning-- probably looking very distracted to the vlive viewers. she moves to point towards the door, turning to the camera with a happy laugh. “another visitor~”
when doyeon walks in, joking “someone told me there was a party happening, so i came!” causing vanessa to clap her hands happily and glance around, frazzled for a moment. she reaches out for another chair, tugging it close and patting it for doyeon to sit. “come, come~ thank you for joining. i’m a big fan,” she jokes to the girl, reaching out to lightly pat her arm once she’s seated. there’s a warmth in her chest, with the girls coming one by one to join her. she’s so happy, so so happy-- it has to be obvious on her face, her features. pulled up into a smile.
when jinah steps out, vanessa can’t help but pout-- but she’s soon enough distracted with the other girls and focusing on giving more of her attention to the comments. it’s a few song requests, chuckling at some of the things the viewers are saying-- a couple comments pop up that catch her eye, that sound so suspiciously familiar. leaning closer to the screen, she begins to smile, reading off a comment like ‘hello!! this is kil, do you see my comment?’. it makes her laugh. “wah, kil? really?” a few more comments pop up from the same user, and it only increases her amusement. ‘unnies look so pretty~’ and ‘please wait i’ll be there’ has her happiness soaring, and she claps her hands. “okay~ kil-ah we’ll wait for you~”
she doesn’t take too long. it’s reaching past the hour point when she pops in, and vanessa’s loud about it, holding her hands up in the air in a hooray! motion. hugs are given all around, and she can’t help but squeeze joy a bit tighter, just out of sheer happiness that she’s been gifted with so many sweet visits today. they return to reading the comments, and vanessa grows a bit quiet, smiling fondly at the girls; they do a few song requests, and vanessa has to stifle her laughter at the cheers that joy yells in response and her happy applause and barrage of comments. she bounces between chirping up every so often, monitoring comments and making cute faces at doyeon as she watches the girl press the heart button on the live.
jinah returns, bringing her own computer and commenting about themselves on the live that have all of them laughing and cheering. she brings snacks, and vanessa lets out her own happy shout at the sight of it. she takes more of a backseat here, happy to just listen and watch her groupmates have fun. jinah plays dj for this part, taking requests as they answer random fan questions and the like. hyuna pops in for a quick visit as well, and she knows that maybe they should wrap it up soon. it’s late, and while she doesn’t mind staying up far late into the night, she does worry for the other girls.
she’s gearing up to try and wrap it up-- and then the sound of her phone vibrating on the table jolts her. it’s loud, audible amidst the girls talking, and she’s quick to grab it and apologize, smiling sheepishly before she glances down at the screen, noting cutie sejeonggie~ as the caller, and she lets out a happy noise. “oh! sejeong is calling~ should we answer?” she asks cutely, chuckling. but it’s not really a question, as she’s already hitting the answer button and quickly pressing on speaker. “sejeong-ah~~ hello~ you’re live~” she’s quick to say, and the sound of the other girls greeting the other makes her feel warm inside. “how are you? are you working hard~”
they talk and chat a bit. sejeong speaks a bit of praise for vanessa’s lives that have her blushing and ducking her head, laughing happily. “but this is the best one yet, right?” she asks, wiggling her brows as she chances a glance at the other girls. “because it’s one with all of k.arma. that’s the best of them all, it has to be.”
they chat a bit longer, and soon enough sejeong’s break comes to an end and vanessa gears up for goodbyes. she’s clutching the phone in one hand, sohee perched on her lap and the other girls in a sort of leaning over each other, sharing seats and such to fit in the screen. they’re all mushed together, but vanessa’s never felt more at ease. “thank you for tuning in! it’s time to rest~ thank you for k.arma for joining me~ we had fun, right?”
the chorus of happy responses follow. “we’ll do it again, sometime! goodnight everyone~ bye bye!”
the video starts with some black and white shots of people setting up, adjusting lights, fixing the drapery on the floor for the set, etc. The staff members are faceless in these shots. The focus then shifts to the four girls of k.arma seated. some smile, others laugh. there’s no audio though. instead, it’s a voice over of kiyeon talking.
“h.a.m have always been an important part of my life, i feel,” she says as the video shows cuts of her smiling and talking with the other members and staff. the scene changes to her looking in the mirror as her hair is styled. “they were the girl group, you know? i grew up listening to their music. so now that their legacy continues on and it’s the anniversary of their last full length album i wanted to pay some respects to that.” it returns to kiyeon sitting next to the other girls. she looks at the camera and gives a small peace sign. “they were a big influence on me becoming k.arma’s kiyeon.”
the video in the beginning seems to follow that same format for the other girls as their voices come over: black and white shots of them getting ready for the video, small gestures to the camera, nodding and talking with staff and the like.
"i've always been a big fan of h.a.m sunbaes." jinah’s voice is next. there’s shots of her interacting with the members as they walk onto set. smiling at the camera as she passes. her voice is soft. "especially, their earlier albums. they have a very classic sound." there’s a clip of the members sitting together: doyeon, kiyeon, mona and jinah. the camera zooms in on jinah as she laughs. her voice over going over the clip. "i've always wanted to produce music but it was h.a.m that inspired me even more. i think they're the first girl group where all of the members had a hand in producing and were really at the forefront of making their sound, expanding on it and developing it but what i love most about h.a.m is their sisterhood, their bond. i hope karma can develope that."
doyeon’s voice is next. the next clip is of doyeon fixing her hair in the mirror. “yeah, i remember watching them and discovering dance wasn’t only ballet, then deciding i wanted to be an idol like them. i used to learn all their choreographies and perform to my friends at school.” there’s another clip. this one is of her talking with the girls. they seem to laugh at whatever she said, clapping their hands. “they are admirable seniors in the industry and i hope k.arma can walk on a flower path like them and become as memorable.”
the final voice over comes from the leader, mona. her audio is shorter than the rest. the clip is of her being the last to take a seat on set after she made sure everyone was ready. mic in hand. there were staff members scurrying about for last minute checks. mona’s voice is gentle. “i’ve always admired h.a.m sunbaenim. i’ve always respected them.” in the clip mona looks around before making eye contact with the camera. her eyes curve as her lips spread into a smile. “i’ve always loved their later works. like why so lonely? i really liked that song a lot....” as mona’s audio ends, the clip fades to black.
it reopens to all four girls seated in the same set from the barrage of clips we’ve seen. they’re dressed in plain clothes. they’re gently swaying as the music comes in. the tone is really somber. doyeon sings first. her voice is soft, perfectly matching the tone of the song. jinah’s voice comes in to supplement the hook of the song before mona sings the first chorus. they’re singing this live in the video. their vocals are clearly heard through the microphones they hold.
jinah sings the beginning of the verse after the chorus. doyeon finishes the verse for jinah’s voice to flow back in for the hook. this time, both mona and kiyeon lift their mics. they harmonise the chorus. kiyeon’s voice is stronger, her vocals the forefront of the chorus but mona sings in an alto, soft and weaving in the background of kiyeon’s singing.
doyeon and jinah both share the bridge of the song. they’re both fluent english speakers and it reflects as they sing. kiyeon’s voice comes in at the end of the bridge, supplementing the high notes of the song as doyeon softly sings the final chorus. mona’s strong and stable vocals come in to relay the final lyric of the song as it fades out. kiyeon rests her head on jinah’s shoulder.
“thank you for such a beautiful song, h.a.m sunbaenim,” she says into her mic, looking at the camera. the video ends.
this was something so different than their usual schedules and he was happy to try something new. even though this was essentially an idol exhibition he was glad for a change in pace, it wasn’t often that they got to do something active. well, dancing was active but it wasn’t the same as running or playing a sport. it was nerve wracking to show this different side of himself and he really didn’t want to make a fool of himself on tv. or in front of the other groups.
but having the other idol groups here meant that he could finally see doyeon for the first time in... a very long time. of course it was an official schedule and there would be many eyes around to watch their interaction but he’d be damned if he wasn’t going to speak to her. he missed her too much.
he spent most of the day with his team, cuddling up to hak and eating snacks in between doing dumb things much to the amusement of their fans. when there was a lull in activity, hosung excused himself and began to search for his girlfriend.
upon finally spotting her standing in the distance he decided to sneak up behind her, making a ‘shh’ gesture towards the fans in the stands as he crept closer. “boo!” he said, grabbing onto her shoulders giving her a tiny shake before releasing her with a grin. “did ya miss me, doyeonie?”
“Doyeonnieee~” Sejeong coos at her fellow K.ARMA member, though to her own ears it sounded more like whine. Sejeong hadn’t been home to really spend time with the other girls lately, she was shooting her drama almost every day and even then when she got out of filming, she typically had to get changed and head over to the studio to practice for their upcoming comeback.
She comes over and gives the taller girl a hug around her waist, looking up at her with a grin. “I can’t wait to see your photos when they come out for your photoshoot! I bet I won’t even be able to see the pictures in print, everyone’ll scoop up everything you appear in!” she claims, speaking on Doyeon’s Dior shoot. “How are you feeling about the comeback prep? I feel like I’m so far behind you all lately.”