#andromajulyeval
rkwendy:
Wendy blinks as she listens to Sunmi unni swear. Wendy hadn’t been initially happy with the lines she got, but she re-reads the line distribution to see what Sunmi unni got and squints her eyes. She wasn’t seeing that incorrectly, was she? And Sunmi unni was designated as a lead vocal… Shouldn’t that mean she had more lines? Her confusion is probably evident in her face as she frowns as the sheet of paper in her hands again.
“I don’t know what they’re thinking,” Wendy says with a soft sigh. And she isn’t sure whether she understands what she’s supposed to feel. She’s not angry like Sunmi unni obviously is, but she’s certainly disappointed at how repetitive her lines are. Sure, she’s singing the chorus, but she’s not sure she’s happy with what’s happening. Sometimes, she wonders whether she’s being punished for something? Was it for not being pretty enough? Was it because she had teased CEO Hyun Bin about taking over after him?
“I guess I’ll stop complaining about how repetitive my lines are then,” she says with a chuckle. Wendy shakes her head, unsure how to pacify Sunmi unni. She’s never been good at dealing with people’s feelings, let alone pacifying them. Wendy’s usually the angry, cranky one, but it looks like she’s going to have to be calm this time. She had a lot of plans for their group, but it’s just sad that CEO Hyun Bin isn’t likely going to let any of them have any creative input on their career. She really wants to trust the old man, but he’s making it very difficult.
“I guess I need to take over much sooner,” Wendy says with a soft sigh. She wants to think that CEO Hyun Bin knows best, but seeing how unhappy and demotivated people get is beginning to affect her own optimism. Debut is supposed to be exciting and nerve-wracking, but why are people unhappy? “I always knew I wasn’t going to be pushed by the company, but you? But knowing you, unni? You’ll find a way to make this debut your bitch.”
“i would love repetitive lines that were longer,” sunmi says. chorus was expected to be repetitive: it was the chorus. listeners heard that the most throughout the song. it was the part they remembered. if wendy wasn’t happy with getting what main vocalists usually get (chorus) then sunmi would trade in a second.
pepe was not a vocally challenging song and it definitely wasn’t a song that had a hard dance. maybe because they were supposed to look cute and sunmi was, well, the literal oldest of and*roma? but that logic wouldn’t make sense; solji is only 8 days younger than she is and has a good majority of the song. besides, even if the dance is a little on the cuter spectrum, the lyrics and vocal range don’t really reflect it.
the longer sunmi tries to make sense of it, the more frustrated she becomes. “you’re the main vocalist. the only main vocalist. i’m surprised solji isn’t a main vocalist too with the way the gave her a good amount of lines both songs.” she pinches the bridge of her nose, trying to calm herself down. at least in deja vu she gets chorus – but that’s because the dancing there is a lot more complicated. hyun bin may constantly get on her case about her vocals (for whatever reason) but she is unfalteringly stable while dancing and singing. that was one thing he cannot get her for: she never sounded breathless while dancing anymore.
sunmi shrugged. it didn’t matter, did it? “i’m the leader, i shouldn’t be so selfish.” but a part of her feels justified. it’s been nearly six years. if they don’t debut before the end of the year - which was nova’s promise - then she would quite literally hit her six year anniversary as a trainee. that isn’t something worth bragging about. “i just really felt like this should be a moment of relief for me. i spent my entire young adulthood training restlessly and for what? four lines in our title track song? that seems like a giant fuck you from our company.”
rkwendy:
Honestly, Wendy’s not sure she’s happy with the line distributions. Sure, she’s happy to be singing what will likely be the catchiest parts of the song. However, there isn’t really anything else for her to sing. She had expected that with their pre-debut single. After all, with a sound similar to Deja Vu, the rappers were expected to shine. Although as the main vocal, she was expecting to get at least a few more lines than what she really did. She’s glad she got the adlibs, but she actually wanted a little more? Was that wrong? Was she being too greedy for more?
She tries keeping her facial expression neutral. She doesn’t want her lines taken from her and be given to someone who’d be more grateful. Wendy is going to milk these lines for whatever they’re worth. She supposes, with a song like this one, sacrifices had to be made.
The idea of the main vocalist eventually not getting any lines at all scares her. She has seen it happen to some groups. Although they sing so well and are the main vocals, their lines are given to the more popular members. They might as well have become backup singers at this rate. Wendy wonders whether that will be her fate if she doesn’t work on her stage presence.
She masks her disappointment with a small smile. After all, this is still part of the learning process. She sighs as she stares at the paper. The song is good to listen to, but it’s not particularly vocally demanding. The biggest challenge is staying on pitch while dancing, but that’s not much of a problem for her. “This definitely wasn’t what I was expecting,” Wendy says once everyone else has left the room.
wendy’s words are a vast understatement. in her now sardonic mood, sunmi can’t hold back the scoff and the way she abandons the paper with the line distributions with a huff and an eye roll. if this was hyun bin’s retaliation for how she so openly said she’d leave the company during sn project then fine. but sunmi had long since grown tired of this bullshit dance they did. had this been a few years ago, she would have burst into his office and demanded more lines.
now the leader just sits on the couch with her jaw clenched, refusing to look at the paper with the highlighted coloured lines to show which is hers. “i have four lines in our title track. four. and two of them are the same repeated line.” so if you ignored the repeats, she actually had only 3 lines.
“both kaeun and chaeyoung ended up with more lines than i did and they’re rappers.” not that they weren’t allowed other lines (they were) but it seemed ridiculous that the group’s rappers were given more lines than one of the lead vocalists. sunmi exhales, feeling herself getting stressed out of the prospect of her regretting debut with this stupid company before it even happened.
it was just lines. would people really notice? (probably not. more popular members were going to get lines anyways and sunmi was tired andforgotten thanks to nova’s management.) but what was the point of suffering for 5 and a half years if towards the end of it, she’s given nothing as if she’s a newbie in the group and can’t hold a note? hell, even the one who wasn’t even given the position (initially) of vocalist got more lines than she did. make it make sense.
“fuck this,” she hisses, shaking her head and gritting her teeth. maybe she should have made like hyuna and dropped the opportunity of debut but instead left the company altogether. nova isn’t worth her time. the intrusive thought keeps circling her head and soon it becomes hard for sunmi to just forget about some stupid lines. “this is going to be a long debut cycle. i can already feel it.”
rkmeiqi:
the initial friction between the two trainees (brought about because of meiqi, of course, and more one-sided in nature than anything) has dwindled down to almost non-existent. almost, because for the most part, meiqi is over it. she has other things to do, and sunmi has never had foul intentions. but there will always be a small part of her, tucked away into the crevices of her brain and only baring its teeth in times of inferiority.
kind of like right now, though this time, her negative energy isn’t directed towards the leader. it’s more like anger at the situation and their choreographer and their ceo and herself.
“how am i feeling?” meiqi huffs, repeating the question with more emphasis. “i’m being robbed!”
she’s only half joking. meiqi has no problem with the dance for either songs, other than the few tweaks she personally would have made (but that doesn’t matter). her issue lies elsewhere. “why don’t i get to be center with you during the dance break for deja vu?! i’m literally the leadfuckingdancer!”
she eyes meiqi with vague interest although sunmi can’t say meiqi was wrong. not in the slightest. their lead dancer was being out-snubbed by their two main vocalists. which was a little unfair given that both girls are handed a majority of the lines in both their title song and b-side and were now given centre in choreography as well?
meiqiwas being robbed.
“i agree,” sunmi says, gently removing her arm from around their maknae’s shoulders and instead crossing them. “i’m not sure how all of this is decided but quite frankly it makes no sense.” the same way how sunmi has only a handful of lines in their title track and she’s the lead singer. their rappers have three times as many lines as she does. it was an insult. especially to someone who was leader of the group and barely sang in their own song.
“i assume once we’re given more of a veteran status we’ll be able to have weight and say in who gets what but as of right now, we get plucked and chosen by whomever the company wants to push the most. and somehow they want our mains doing that split.” sunmi tilts her head, eyeing meiqi’s legs. dancers weren’t meant to be masters by any means but a split like that was a move a little above their (solji and wendy’s) natural learning capabilities. as opposed to sunmi and meiqi, two girls who are more primed for dancing and could pick up the moves much faster; solji and wendy would have to dedicate some time to the move (although solji was an amazing dancer. someone who genuinely balanced both her top tier vocals and her dancing.) it still begs the question of how meiqi isn’t at least one of the girls in the middle.
“how flexible are you? how did you lose out on that anyways?” meiqi must be stiff as a freaking board not to be centre for the dance break.
sunmi wasn’t surprised when they called her to be amongst the three to be doing the split that was in their choreography in deja vu. not because she was the best choice but because she was just incredibly limber from years of gymnastics. while the choreography was being demonstrated to them she kind of matched up her positions in the choreography with her lines anyways so she knew before they even announced it that that was going to be the case regardless.
although she stretched earlier that day, sunmi took the liberty to stretch again. she doubts they’ll be reaching the part with the split the first day learning the choreography but knowing sunmi, she’d take the liberty of pushing herself to learn it anyways. she thought of the moves leading up to the split, gently doing them in the mirror. not to perfection mind you, just to get used to the beat in her head.
“split then a body roll back up. ballsy.” she turned to meiqi, throwing her arm around her roommate. “how are you feeling about the choreography so far?”
when they received the packet for the set line distributions, sunmi saw deja vu’s lines first. she was surprised that she was even getting part of chorus for a b-side. it put her in good spirits immediately. they were told they were going to promote the song as well so it would be fun.
yet when she turned and saw the lines for pepe, their actual title track, her smile disappeared and her mood plummeted. she only had a few lines. both of their rappers got more than she did. it was surely disappointing. she scanned through to see if it was only her that suffered from having minimal lines. it seemed like meiqi barely got any as well (even less than she did). she felt frustrated a bit. what was the point of being lead vocalist if there was no lyrics to lead in the first place?
she’s gripping the packet too hard. it crinkles under her hands. it’s only debut, she tells herself. it’s fine if she doesn’t have a lot of lines for a title track now. it’ll change next comeback, right? they can’t keep giving the lead vocalist practically no lines. though thinking of all the other groups that are in the industry, there always the one or three members that get virtually no lines and it’s always the same members. rarely does it switch to someone else. the idea scares her.
sunmi falls quiet. she was so excited to go over the lines with wendy - they had promised to look it over together when they got them back because they were theorising a lot. and now the excitement is gone. she forgets wendy is in the room next to her, probably looking over the lines excitedly to see who gets what. and there’s sunmi, not even matching her enthusiasm.
