rkwendy​:

BUWYB,but Not With Me

Wendy bursts out laughing at Seulgi’s praise. She’s fully aware that she has to work on it, but the validation somewhat boosts her mood, if not her confidence. “You guys are geniuses for coming up with this choreography,” Wendy says, heaping some praise on Seulgi in return. “I could never.” Having to come up with her own solo dance for SN Project had been difficult. She has no idea how she managed to get through that one, to be honest. 

“I still need help with making sure I don’t stick out like a sore thumb among you guys,” Wendy says after much delibration. As much as Wendy has improved, she’s not exactly on the same level as the rest of the group in terms of dancing. She has a good memory. It’s a matter of execution at this point. “Should we do it together? What do you think?” Wendy does her rendition of a duck face at Seulgi for laughs. “You’re the one in charge here, Seulgi.” 

“We try,” she laughs a bit, more than willing to take the praise. It had been a lot of work getting with the other members of dance line to figure out a choreography for the song, but she was pretty proud of the end result. She was confident that they’d be able to do a great job and get a lot of views on the video once it was posted.  She shakes her head, disagreeing with one thing Wendy said, though. “Please. If there’s one thing in the world that I know for sure it’s that if you put your big brain to it, you can do anything you want to.”

“You’re going to be fine~ I know it for sure!” she says, as always having faith in her best friend.  She knows that Wendy doesn’t share that same sentiment, but if she were really as bad as she thinks she is, she was sure staff would say something about it.  “Yeah!  I’m always up for dancing with you~”  she agrees with no hesitation, giggling a bit at the face Wendy was making. “Now you’re being too cute~ But yes, let’s give it a try!”  she walks over to the music, getting it started before quickly joining back in line with her, ready to start.

rkwendy​:

BUWYB,but Not With Me

“Ddeulgiiii!” Wendy says in response to Seulgi’s call. She turns away from the mirror to look at her best friend. They’re working on the choreography that the dance line had come up with. It’s something unusual for all six of them to do, but it’s a great way to bond and showcase their dancers’ choreographing skills. Wendy is so proud of the girls (not to mention impressed with them) for coming up with choreography despite their busy schedules. 

Letting herself be hugged, Wendy resigns herself to waddling around for as long as she can. When Seulgi lets go, Wendy turns to her to give her best friend her full attention. “I was working on my center part,” Wendy says with a chuckle. “You know, the one where I have to sexily push my hair back?” She shows Seulgi the aforementioned part before she laughs. “I need to get that part down, since apparently, that’s the killing part in my segment.” 

Seulgi is so thankful to be in the same group as Wendy, debuting in the same group as her, even if she was a little late, brought a sense of familiarity to her life, as hectic as it now was.  She’s glad too that she seems to be enjoying this little side project everyone was working on.  It was different enough from their normal music that she felt like everyone was welcoming the change, it was nice to see everyone being so receptive to the suggestion.

She watches Wendy go through the motions of her part and it just brings a grin to Seulgi’s face. “Ah! Too sexy~!” she joins in on the laughter, absolutely beaming at her best friend.  “It is, it is, I think I fell even more for you, is that possible?” she asks with a giggle.  She tilts her head, still smiling brightly. “Is there something you need any help with?  You know I’d do anything for you~”

@rkwendy

“Wannieee~” Seulgi called out, scampering over to her best friend.  They had agreed to meet up to go over some of the choreography of a cover that the group had planned to do together.  She was happy that they had gotten to do this, because she hadn’t exactly succeeded in doing her vlive yet, but she hoped she’d be able to get it done in the future.  For now, this was a great thing to focus on, even if right now she was just focused on clinging to her smaller friend.

Hugging onto Wendy, Seulgi wasn’t actually paying any attention to what the other had been doing in the moment, fully getting lost in the fact that she could just do this.  After a second, she gave her a big grin and pulled back, not exactly letting go of her, but giving her best friend the room to shrug her off if she wished.  “What are you working on, my adorable wife~?”

rkwendy​:

Dancing for the Audience

Wendy allows herself to smile at that. While there’s no doubt she will occupy Seulgi’s attention, she wouldn’t be surprised if there are many people who would also want her best friend to notice them. She doesn’t blame them in the least. Then again, Wendy doesn’t mind. She would gamely show off Seulgi to the best of her abilities. With all the duets and sudden collaborations that happened during her lecture, she was suddenly hit with an idea. She’ll let it brew in her head a bit more. In the meantime, she redirects her attention to Seulgi.

“Oh you know how some fans can get,” Wendy mutters with a roll of her eyes. “As long as we’re not booed off stage, then it’ll be fine.” She snorts at that. It’s not exactly a secret that they aren’t as popular as the other girl groups who will be surprising the people throughout this whole speak up experience. Oh well, if they don’t like AND*ROMA, then they can go suck their tiny imaginary dicks. “It’ll be a challenge to make them have a good time, but we have to make it work.” She allows herself to be waddled around as Seulgi takes the lead. “Anything is good. Just so I can keep up with the rest of your energies on stage.” Wendy’s not very picky, to be honest. Her eyes wander over to the couch Seulgi was talking about. “I still don’t know how you fell asleep on that… But then again, I shouldn’t be surprised anymore.”

“You really don’t think we’d get booed off stage, do you?”  Seulgi still hadn’t done that many live performances with the group, but she thought they seemed relatively well liked.  She never understood that part of the music world. If you don’t like someone, unless they did something actually harmful to someone, why waste your time and everyone else’s booing them or trashing them online? Can’t you just like who you like and let people who do actually like the ones you don’t like be happy? That seemed like too much to ask of people, it seemed.

She shakes her head and chuckles. “Please, once they hear your voice, their icy hearts will melt~  They will instantly fall in love, but don’t fall in love back, you know I’ll get jealous!” she said, smiling over her shoulder at her.  “Anything it is then~” She starts piling a bunch of different fruits, especially ones she knows her best friend likes to eat onto the plate and grabs her one of the tiny plastic fruit prongs to eat it with.  “Yeah, you really shouldn’t be too surprised about that, you’re right,” she said, laughing, moving them over towards that couch now.  “I don’t think I ever told you, but there was one time at Sphere that we were dressing up as Pokemon to welcome some of the new trainees and you know what I got? Snorlax.  And I definitely went into a corner and fell asleep until I ended up accidentally scaring some poor new kid that thought I was a stuffed animal when I woke up.”

Reference Video: here (Wendy as Jiwon, Seulgi as Seoyeon)

When Wendy had come to her to see if she’d like to do a song with her for AND*ROMA’s YouTube channel, Seulgi said yes without even a second of hesitation.  Anything for her best friend, of course.  She was curious about what exactly that her best friend had in mind, though she could see a slightly mischievous glint in her eyes.  Whatever it was, because it was Wendy, she was on board with it.  She trusted her with her lie, and in such, her public image and career, so she knew for sure that Wendy wouldn’t do anything untoward to get either of them into trouble.

When finally Wendy brought what song she wanted to do, with her own arrangement, that was the real surprise.  A song that was quite popular between a male and female singer, one that had fueled quite a few rumors about the two when it came out, if she remembered correctly.  The fact that her best friend, who she often referred to as her “wife”, had suggested the two of them sing it together, including a flirty looking video to go with it, was not at all what she had pictured when Wendy had said she wanted to do a cover.  

One thing that was worrying Seulgi was her English pronunciation. She had learned the language, but not to the point where she was fluent enough in it that she really thought she could hold more than a surface level conversation in it, but she practiced the song as much as she could.  It helped that she was familiar with it even before they had decided to do this.  The day of the filming finally arrived and she took it on with her usual confidence in performing.  It was much simpler doing a production like this and having Wendy direct it too.  She really wanted to do more of these in the future, thinking it was a fun way to give something extra to their fans.

rkwendy​:

Dancing for the Audience

It was fun doing stuff alone once in a while, but Wendy finds herself most comfortable when she’s with the rest of the team. She would have liked to show off the other members who didn’t have their own classes to teach. “If you had been there, I probably would have had to compete with the rest of the class for your attention,” Wendy says with a playful pout. Seulgi was a new addition to the team, and there was no doubt that people would be staring. Besides, even if she wasn’t, Seulgi was gorgeous. Wendy wouldn’t have blamed a few kids for being distracted by Seulgi’s presence.

Wendy nods. “I hope they will be. They don’t really have a choice,” she says with a snort. “If they don’t like us now, then we can make them like us by the time the lesson ends.” It’s a tall order, but she thinks they can do it. Sure, they’re not exactly on the same tier as LUXE and the other girl groups who have come before them. This is a challenge to do something that will make them stand out and catch up. She allows herself to laugh at Seulgi’s activities. “Is there still fruit left? I didn’t get to eat any of the snacks at the snack bar. How soft was the couch by the way?” 

Even without speaking it out loud, Seulgi feels the same way Wendy does, especially being one of the two new members of the group.  She would have liked to have been Wendy’s assistant more than she would have liked to have taught her own class.  “No way~  You always have my full attention~” she says, looking over her shoulder with a grin, patting the arms still around her middle.  She honestly wouldn’t be surprised if at some point the fans notice just how much she pays attention to her best friend and start commenting on it.

“That’s also very true. If they aren’t, that’s just rude,” she says, laughing a bit herself.  “I firmly believe anyone spending any amount of time with you will automatically like you.  I might get jealous if they like you too much, though~” she smiles, thinking that that much was true at least. They weren’t the most popular of groups, but she figured they always put on a good performance, so they were bound to win over some people.  “There was last I saw,” she says, waddling the hugging duo over to the food now instead of the drinks. “What would you like? I’ll make a plate for you~”  she chuckles softly. “It wasn’t as soft as I would have liked, but it was soft enough for me to pass out for a little bit. I’m kind of surprised anyone got me to wake up, even.”

rkwendy​:

Dancing for the Audience

Wendy accepts the water bottle from Seulgi with many thanks. Teaching was exhausting, yet rewarding at the same time. Once she finishes half the bottle, she directs her attention back to Seulgi. “There were so many people in the singing class,” Wendy says as she catches her breath. “And had you been in the class, I would have probably just paid attention to you the while time.” She laughs while resting her had on Seulgi’s shoulder. “The polaroids and free albums were a hit,” she continues. 

She decides to add on something she noticed on her way to the holding area. “The crowd outside is pretty big,” Wendy says. “Then again, people heard about LUXE being in the building. I hope none of the students in my class were huge LUXE fans.” She allows herself to laugh. “Otherwise, I’d feel bad that they didn’t get the chance to see their faves.” Snorting, she purses her lips. “What happened while I was out missing? 

Hearing Wendy talk about it, it seems as though she had had fun with it, even if it had been hard work.  She had hoped that would be the case.  She kind of wished she had been able to teach a class, but she was so new to being an idol that she didn’t really blame them for not taking her suggestion for a class. No one would know who she was.  “Me? Getting your attention?  Now I really wish I had been there~” she smiles, feeling the affection from her best friend.  “Of course they were, they could hear your beautiful voice and beautiful visuals~”

“Is it?” she hasn’t been out to see the crowd yet herself, but that was interesting that there was already a big crowd.  “Oh, well, I’m sure they’d be just as happy to see us, right?” she says hopefully, though she knows that Luxe is a big draw with as popular as they are.  “Don’t feel bad, they should feel lucky that they got to spend time with you.  Even before we debuted I would say they same thing~” she gives Wendy’s arm a gentle, loving squeeze.  “You missed me falling asleep on the couch over there and then eating some fruit. Big stuff you missed,” she laughs “Nothing much has happened back here, though.” 

collaboration with @rkwendy for the @novaent yt channel to be uploaded on 31/08
based on this cover

Hugo’s departure hit Hosung like a sledgehammer.

It didn’t feel real—nothing did. He felt empty. As empty as the spot where all Hugo’s things used to be, where he used to sleep. Hosung found himself often standing in the doorway staring at his old bunk, all stripped, hoping—wishing—that he’d hear his laughter and see him walk around the corner and ask why the long face. He knew it would never happen. As much as it hurt him he knew it must’ve been an excruciatingly painful decision for Hugo. PER_SE meant so much to him he would’ve never given that up unless it was serious. 

Even though he understood his heart still ached for his best friend. He knew he wasn’t alone in his grief and had reached out to Wendy for some heart to heart conversations. They were both artists and what better way to work through your feelings than through music?

AND*ROMA were busy promoting their new songs but they managed to work around it. Hosung felt bad for taking time away from his friend to rest and recuperate whenever there was an opening in her schedule, but at the same time felt rather excited to be working with her. They’d been half-joking about it for a while now and finally something had come out of it, thanks to their dear shared husband.

Wendy had been an angel and managed to arrange the song in way that suited them both and incorporated him on a guitar. With only a few rehearsals under the belt Hosung felt confident enough to record. His vision was simple, nothing fancy, just them on stools singing with soft background lighting. After some hunting he found a small room in the Nova building that didn’t look like a closet or a practice room and thought it perfect.

Since this was a rather personal project Hosung involved minimal staff in the process, choosing to get hands on in setting up the lighting, cameras, and furniture. It was rather fun even though it was hard work, but he hoped the satisfaction when seeing the finished product would make up for all his doubts (mostly about himself).

The actual filming itself went smoothly. Wendy’s voice sounded heavenly, laden with emotion that made his chest tighten as he played the accompanying guitar, thinking of all the fun times he and Hugo had shared since he had signed to Nova. His own voice was low, mellow, but containing the same sadness and longing as the other’s. Hosung forgot about the cameras, opting to just look at Wendy, wanting to match and complement her performance. She was so skilled and much more accomplished than himself that he was happy to lift her up and play a supporting role.

After the last note faded, Hosung allowed himself to close his eyes and let a couple of tears roll down his cheeks before gently wiping them away with his sleeve. That wouldn’t make the cut—hopefully. 

“Thanks Wendy… for doing this with me. You’re an angel. Also… I’m here if you need me.”

It’s been a long day without you, my friend
And I’ll tell you all about it when I see you again
We’ve come a long way from where we began
Oh I’ll tell you all about it when I see you again
When I see you again

Smile and Stay Put

rkwendy​:

( … )

“Meiqi!” She calls out to her same-aged friend. Wendy felt that it was right to shoot Meiqi first. It was her idea to add signed polaroids, and she didn’t have a class to plan like Kaeun and Sunmi did. “Are you available to take polaroids for the students?” She gently waves her polaroid camera, which was a birthday gift from a fan. Wendy always made it a point to use any gifts she received as much as possible. “You’ll be taking and signing quite a lot of photos, so I hope you’re ready!”  

“of course i’m free!” meiqi calls back, trying not to sound bitter, because her schedule isn’t as busy as the members who are teaching classes. it’s not their fault she isn’t given the same opportunity.

taking pictures is always fun. meiqi loves being the center of attention, a camera poised to capture her beauty. she loves trying out poses for instagram, switching up outfits for different shots to make sure the end product is as aesthetically pleasing as it can be. but instagram and polaroid pictures are very different; you only have one chance to capture the perfect shot, or else film will be wasted.

(not that meiqi particularly cares about wasting film. she can always buy more, but she’s not sure if wendy wants to waste her money just because meiqi wants to look pretty and treat this as a photoshoot. she decides, for wendy’s sake, to be normal for once).

she bounds over to her friend, skidding to a stop in front of her with a mock salute. “how do you want me to pose? is there a theme for your photos, like a girlfriend vibe, or just cute selfies?”

rkwendy‌:

( … )

“Come on, Meiqi! We’re heading to the gym! ” Her voice sounds cheerful, just like Coach Seunghee’s was back then. “We’ll be doing sets of planks with breaks in between, then you’ll have to sing while walking on a treadmill. Beats running laps doesn’t it?” 

at the mention of vocal initiation rituals, she cocks her head to the side. confusion laces through her features as meiqi racks her brain for a memory that isn’t even there. something similar comes to mind, though; that time she had been put on an sns ban and “disciplined” by two very evil-looking employees. she wonders, vaguely, if one of them might have been named seunghee? she never bothered to learn the witches’ names.

she frowns at the thought, and shakes her head a moment later. “i don’t think i went through that… whatever thatis.”

meiqi remembers, briefly, the faces of sweaty and fearful contestants. she remembers being bitter that she couldn’t be there as well, if not to coach then to just watch the whole ordeal unfold in front of her (it was funny on a screen, but some part of meiqi believes she would have been a lot more scared if she were in the room, even if she wasn’t the recipient of the rigorous training).

at least this is a modified version, she thinks. maybe it’s easier? but no, meiqi knows wendy would never go easy on anyone she cares about, simply because she wants the best for her friends. so meiqi groans loudly, but follows after her friend anyways, hunched over and dragging her feet—the complete opposite image of wendy herself. “wendy… no… planks are the worst!my arms start hurting and i just ate, like, two and a half donuts for breakfast so my stomach is going to kill me. i think i would rather do laps! honestly! there has to be another way! like, a genie in a bottle that can grant me three wishes?” she grips onto the girl’s arm, staring at her pleadingly. “anything but the planks…”

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.”

rkwendy‌:

Wendy smiles as Sunmi unni seems to get her point. She’s still got it after all. A small part of her feels validated that her analysis doesn’t seem to be too far out. She just hopes the producers agree with her. Wendy makes a mental note to actually talk to the producers when given the chance. After all, they will be explaining the meaning of the songs to any shows they might possibly be promoting in. “That’s why I think it makes more sense for us to officially promote with Pepe,” she continues. “It has a catchy hook and a tune that’s difficult to ignore. It’s also closer to what the musical trends are these days, as well as what the general public is into.” 

She hums as she agrees with Sunmi unni’s opinion on Deja Vu. “Deja Vu is a strong pre-debut track I think. It gives the public an idea what we’re capable of, especially our rappers? But it leaves people wanting more… I suppose.” Wendy purses her lips in thought. Maybe her thesis should revolve around this new generation of artists they’re part of, if she dares call themselves that. This is an interesting discourse and one worth studying, if she’ll think about it. 

“I’m not a dancer, but I think there’s a lot more leeway for the choreographers to go crazy with Deja Vu?” Wendy asks with a slight frown, tilting her head in Sunmi unni’s direction. “As you mentioned, it’s not exactly hiphop, but it’s not like the common pop songs you’d hear in local radios. Perhaps in the West, yes, but not here in Korea.” She doesn’t see many options for Pepe’s choreography to actually impress, but she may be very mistaken. “As for Pepe, I’m thinking it’s got potential for a point-dance that people can do anywhere? Kind of like ChiChi sunbaenim’s “Gee” or H.A.M. sunbaenim’s “Nobody.” What say you, unni?” 

Wendy bursts out laughing at the comment. “I personally don’t mind waving around lollipops at my age, so I would hope we don’t have to do that.” Wendy’s trying to draw the big picture her CEO and the rest of the Nova staff have in mind for them. It’s a bit of a challenge trying to figure out what the old man is thinking, but she wants to know how similar or different their vision is. “I just know that if we film a music video in a dumb old boring box, I’m going to end up crying.” 

“i think deja vu is more dynamic,” sunmi ultimately agrees. of the song deja vu gives them more to experiment with both in song and in choreography. pepe was safe as a song to say the least. something to secure their popularity before they start experimenting and doing things that could possibly turn off the public.

“yeah that’s probably going to be the case. that’s the feeling i got from when we were recording lines.” just the beat and tempo to deja vu was completely different. sunmi was actually looking forward to deja vu more than pepe. it was a shame that it was a b-side track. “the thing is what is going to be our point choreography for pepe? it probably won’t be too cute because the song sounded a little bit more mature than that but who knows.” nova can’t just throw them on stage with a cute persona. three of their members were over 23 years old (she and solji were closer to thirty than they were to 20).

“your twenty so of course you don’t mind,” sunmi says pointedly. “i’m twenty-six. i would like to avoid a cute concept if i could help it.” but the reality was she couldn’t help it. if nova decided to throw her in ponytails and told her to look cute for the debut stage she would have no choice but to listen. “i think i’m going to have to start working hard to have more say and influence on our concepts. wouldn’t that be better to ensure we aren’t doing something dumb?”

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.

@rkwendy

rkwendy‌:

“Whoever wrote the rap obviously didn’t get an English speaker to check,” Wendy says with a chuckle. She shakes her head in amusement. “They tried their best.” She then pauses as she tries figuring out how to best explain her line of reasoning. “With Deja Vu, it’s unlike anything the newer girl groups have been putting out recently. I think it’s a throwback to the sound that was trendy in K-hiphop earlier in the decade,” Wendy says. Once she’s started talking about music, she doesn’t know when to stop. “It’s also straight to the point, leaving little room for creative deviation on our end. It does have a lot of potential for choreography.”

Wendy pauses, making sure she hasn’t completely lost Sunmi unni in her rambling. This can easily get boring for someone who isn’t into music as much as she is. “On the other hand, Pepe doesn’t sound like much at initial listen, but it has a good hook that draws people in the more they listen to it,” she continues once she’s certain she has the leader’s attention. It’s hard to control herself once she gets excited. She just hopes Sunmi unni doesn’t have any regrets listening to her and her nerdy analysis. “Pepe is a well-constructed song, honestly. It’s going with the throwback trend, but it also has a jazzy twist. That’s what makes it sound different from the other groups also going old-school. I would like for it to be a sign that we have a sound that is distinctly ours.”

Wendy makes a face after she’s done talking. That was a bit of a mouthful after all. She takes a sip of her water bottle as she gathers her thoughts. She had always been a better lyricist than a rap-maker, which is why she always preferred to let actual rappers write their own lyrics. She had tried her hand at it, but it only ended up in lots of laughter and secondhand embarrassment. She has a rough idea how it works, but she’s better off leaving rapping to actual rappers. She hopes to actually be involved with production in the future, before eventually taking full control of their musical direction.

“Let’s see how the choreography will turn out then!”

“i see what you mean,” sunmi agrees. “even the cringey english thrown in is reminiscent of early khip hop songs. but what i find interesting is that it’s not necessarily a hip hop track either.” the rap would lead you otherwise but the verses deviated from that. it was an interesting song so sunmi was wondering how it would be established. right now all they had was the sound of the song and how they wanted it performed. there was still left to the imagination.

“pepe also has that addictive quality to it, if we’re being honest.” no parts of deja vu left her singing it on repeat. the chorus was nice and all but it wasn’t something that had a repetitive quality to her like pepe did. “i feel like catchier songs always end up doing better. of course we want to deviate from what everyone else is doing but we want to make sure it sticks with our public at the same time.”

songs like that end up stuck in people’s heads to the point where they have no choice but to like a song. that would serve well for a newly debuted group. especially and*roma; nova had spent so long waiting to debut any group that the hype for them has long since faded and it would be hard to regain it. not to mention that the company did nothing to retain their names in the spotlight. 

“hmm who knows how the choreography will turn out.” sunmi was certainly ….picky when it came to choreographies. not everything needed to be over the top and amazing to be considered a decent choreography but she was tired of the lacklustre choreographies girl groups often had. for some reason many girl group stans considering idols bouncing around to be great choreographies which….wasn’t that hard. it’s embarrassing, honestly. sunmi wouldn’t want to be caught dead doing a performance like that. “if we have to do something stupid i may throw myself off a cliff.”

rkwendy‌:

After initial shock, Wendy finds that she kind of likes the songs they’ll be debuting with. Sure, she would have preferred to be given more creative freedom to participate in making AND*ROMA’s music, but she hopes she gets that chance in the future. For now, Wendy’s just content to learn all that she can as an idol, as well as make the mental adjustment from being a trainee to being an idol. 

She had learned the entire song and committed it to memory. Wendy may not be getting rap parts, but she’s going to damn well try. As a budding songwriter and producer herself, she knows the importance of all knowing the entire song. If professional producers are anything like her, they will want to experiment and have everyone sing the songs to see which singer matches which part. She had heard of the time Insoo sunbae had jokingly rapped Jun Q sunbae’s parts in Cover Girl and ended up getting the part in the final recording. 

“Same here. Though in my case, it was for both songs,” Wendy says with a chuckle. “The struggle is all too real though. I did it, since as a producer, I tend to have people doing demos for me learn the whole thing too.” She shakes her head. After SN Project, only a crazy fool would bother with giving Wendy rap parts. Her producer side wants to give it a shot all the same. Wendy hums as she contemplates on the question. “At first I thought I liked Deja Vu better, but now I listen to both songs more, I’m leaning toward Pepe.” She pauses because she knows she has no limit once she starts talking about music. “I could go on all day dissecting both songs, but I want to know your opinion first.” 

“really? i thought the rap for our b-side was corny,” sunmi shared with a scrunch of her nose. the english used in the songs were cringe worthy. it was clear that they either didn’t know english or did and thought it would be the cool thing to say for a “hip hop” concept. that you can just casually say “spit fire” for a rap that wasn’t even considered bars to begin with. sunmi was from new york. she heard better raps on the 1 train.

but at least wendy’s reason made sense. making songs for parts that you personally aren’t used to was a true mark of a good lyricist. if wendy got familiar with rap enough that she could write raps despite not being a rapper, it would make her a valuable asset to the company. maybe eventually they’d let wendy start writing their songs completely. sunmi knows that some groups from smaller companies make their idols write music because it was cheaper. would nova do the same?

( maybe not. )

sunmi had to laugh though. “wait really? i definitely like pepe though. it seems like a softer song especially with the vocals but the rap pulls you out of that. so it’s not really a cute concept, i feel. how would i describe it….” it wasn’t really energetic either. the verses were even a little slower. “i always liked pepe more although that may change when the choreographies come out.” sunmi wonders how they intend to do it. though she knows damn well they wouldn’t ever let her choreography anything, she wanted to see how good of a choreography the songs will be. though dancing wise, pepe didn’t have much hope. it was a slower song. deja vu had a lot of potential because it was an faster tempo song.

“you know how i am about my dances!”

✧ relay ;

rkwendy​:

Wendy allows herself to snort at that one. When are they not a disaster? (Assuming it wasn’t a setting that required decorum, of course.) At least this meant that there were always interesting outtakes. She almost feels bad for the video editors, but she can only hope they keep laughing as they do their jobs. After all, they’re meant to entertain. This is a lot better than being boring. 

All six members of AND*ROMA, new and old, have always found a way to make things work. Wendy likes to think that at least the four original members did their best to make the newer girls feel like they’re actual members of the team and not just sorry replacements for the girls who left. She thinks their team chemistry is what makes them click. She just has to wonder what their CEO is doing and not taking advantage of everything the team has to offer. 

“Jump in and have fun, got it,” Wendy says with a mock salute. She likes to think she’s improved her dancing. She’s not Seulgi, Sunmi, or Meiqi, but she can hold her own. She’s still a bit conscious about it, along with her stage presence. Those were the two things CEO Hyun Bin always said she lacked. She’s working on both, and she hopes that the fans and the other girls can see it. 

Wendy nods. She trusts Sunmi, and the assurance that she believes Juhee can handle it puts Wendy at ease. She lets Sunmi take the lead in this one. She’s the dancer between the two of them. Wendy’s just here to help in any way she can. Then again, it’s bold of her to assume she can help at all. 

“Sounds good to me,” Wendy says with a nod. “But if I end up with a challenging part, then I’ll just have to do my best.” As much as Wendy would rater avoid challenges, she doesn’t back down when faced with them. “I have you guys to help me along anyway,” she adds with a shrug before wrapping an arm around Sunmi’s waist. 

sunmi nodded. while it would do wonders if they were able to perfect relay dances, fans tend to like it when there was funny tidbits thrown in here and there. and if it went viral then maybe it would get more people to focus on and*roma as a group. they definitely needed it more than ever.

“i don’t think our choreography is anything you should be worried about,” sunmi says truthfully. their choreography was interesting to say the very least. but it was nothing above anyone’s ability. “don’t worry about having to match dance line.” that was probably where all the worry stems from. but they were dance line for a reason. no one should be lacking in their choreography. from what sunmi saw in their practises, all of them are really good at it.

sunmi smiles at her. “i trust you wen. there’s no way you’ll struggle.” after all, they do have to do it on stage anyhow. even though in a relay dance they would be put in the front when they’d usually be in the back, they could still do it. sunmi has faith in her girls. she gives wendy a squeeze.

“of course you do.” she parts and looks back at the set. “c’mon. let’s do a practise run through. best case scenario, we end up with funny bloopers!”

Too Old For This

rkwendy​:

Since they were going by age, there were at least two other girls who had to record before Wendy has a go. With this in mind, Wendy tries not to tire her voice too much. However, the song doesn’t exactly have anything she can use classical music theories to try dissecting the song. It’s just straight-up, in-your-face, cutesy pop. Wendy would have preferred something that applied complex musical technique or maybe even a crazier, out of the box sound. However, she doesn’t really have much say as a rookie. 

At the comment, Wendy makes a face. “So we are going to try that pre-teen, fake cute voice then?” She shudders just thinking about it. Wendy has a wide range, but she isn’t sure how well she can pull off that sugary sweet voice the producers want. 

“We’re going to need Jesus, Allah, Buddha, and every other heavenly deity,” Wendy says with a resigned sigh. Sunmi unni knows how she feels about the music. Sure, it will make people feel good, but she just worries what her professors will say when they see her. The song isn’t exactly becoming of a supposedly young woman about to present her thesis on the entertainment industry. “The masses better enjoy this one,” she says with a soft grumble. 

“oh yeah. probably worse.” the bad thing about the forced cute voice they had them do was how nasally they sounded. it wasn’t good singing technique. sunmi hated being forced to do it. she couldn’t wait until they would never have to do it ever again. though she’s sure they wouldn’t have much of a choice while they were still technically rookies.

unless she’s able to bargain with hyunbin. (she thinks about this constantly.)

sunmi snorts at wendy’s comment. it was true. they were going to need a lot of help. “i hope they do? but i’m not so sure…” they seem to be in limbo popularity wise. she’s not really sure if people are vibing with their music or just being nice. are they going to reach the top of the charts? how long will they go before they get their first music show win? she worries if they go too long without one, nova would pull the plug.

“i don’t know why nova keeps defaulting to this image. none of us enjoy it and it doesn’t seem to do well,” and it was so upsetting in comparison. they’re capable of more. why not allow them to? “and to force us into a comeback so soon….it feels like there’s so much pressure to do well but we’re not given the resources.”