Jenny Slate, Little Weirds

Jihye'll be honest: she's a serial 'we've got to meet up soon!'er. God only knows how many unanswered messages on Kakao she has, inbox full of unread plans asking when she's free so they can finally meet up. She doesn't feel much, if any, guilt. Chances are, they're just like her and asking for the sake of asking.

It's not like that with Eunchae, though.

Their friendship thus far's been more support coffee trucks, Kakaotalk messages and Music Bank interviews than real face-to-face time, but they'd finally found a serendipitous spot of overlapping free time to finally meet up. There'd been this perfume-making workshop Jihye'd seen on SNS, and with a minimum 2 pax for a solo class; she'd decided to extend an invite to Eunchae.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry! We ended way later than I thought we would, but luckily traffic wasn't too bad on the way over. Did you wait for long?" Her apologies are profuse and endless, as she makes an impressive hop out of a still-moving taxi.

WE CAN GO WHEREVER YOU LIKE. with ♡, for @sunshinechae's eunchae.

slant of light

Member Teasers ღ Park Sohyun

getting back to all ims and replies now 🫡 but please like this for a pre-plotted starter (if we've plotted enough, i'll get one up! if not, i'll drop into your ims to plot w u!), or reply with a setting/prompt for a quick starter ♡

On hour 30 of severe sleep deprivation, Jihye starts questioning her purpose in life.

Eyes fixed on the mirror, she considers the possible paths she could've taken besides this one. Wonders if she'd be any less tired had she gone back to the US and became a normal college student, instead of so stubbornly pursuing her idol dreams. Starts debating if it'd be too late to break her contract.

Then her manager opens the door, announcing that coffee's here, and maybe Jihye can put those irrepressible thoughts aside for however long it takes to down her beverage. There's an extra cup and pastry for her co-MC for the day, and those in hand, she slips out of the room and goes to greet them. Their waiting room's a couple doors down from hers, and she knocks on the door, calling out a "Sunbae?"

FIGHTING. with ♡, for @sungpeach's sung.

Ugly, Bitter and True by Suzanne Rivecca

Heather Havrilesky, How to Be a Person in the World

"That'd be nice!" Jihye laughs, making her way into the room. "Does your mother cook lots? I feel like I wouldn't be able to stick to any diet plans if my mom liked cooking." It's been a long time since she'd had homecooked food, not being a fan of the culinary arts herself. An egg cracked into 2am cup ramyeon was the extent of her skills.

"I'm not sure, but I can check after the rehearsal and bring any extras to you." The waiting period would take forever, anyway. "Speaking of the rehearsal, the writers said that you've got the edited scripts for us to go over?" A gentle redirection to business, which is why she's here in the first place. Jihye doesn't believe in burning bridges, but she doesn't see a point in setting up camp there and making a home out of them either. In their line of work, friendly acquaintanceships make up the bulk of her interactions with others, a line cleanly drawn between her professional and personal life.

belated, sung recognized the voice behind the door, putting an extra speed to his step to beat his manager to opening it. as he swung it open, his hair - freshly fixed, his stylist will scold him for that one - finished settling down from his speedwalk to the door. sung made eye contact and smiled, "jihye," before getting distracted by his peripheral vision.

"oh, i love pastries. you know, my mom, um, well, her specialty is more full dishes, but sometimes she'll go for pastries and they're insane. if we do this again, i'll definitely have to bring some of her pastries so you can try them." perhaps his energy hyping playlist had done too good of a job. sung looked down at the floor before recognizing how awkward he was being. "oh, and yes, come in. make yourself comfortable." sung stepped back, opening the door more than the width of his shoulders, and gestured to the couple of staff members waiting around with him. "did they have any others leftover? i might grab one to take home."

i am not afraid of storms, for i am learning how to sail my ship.

432 words on jihye's thoughts about the antifragile album.

the hydra: starting off very strong, it's a challenge from the very first line. 'do you think i'm fragile?', jihye's credited as the sole producer & lyricist on the track. in line with the theme of the album, 'antifragile', she borrows the title from the greek myth of the lernaean hydra. for every head cut off, the hydra'll grow two more heads in its place. a very direct message to those trying to cut them down for the feminist message of 'tomboy', it's a bold declaration that future/femme are here to stay.

antifragile: their title track! for their first-ever comeback, jihye wanted to cement their voice and message and let everyone know f/f are the ones to watch. with partial production credits, it's a thrilling, upbeat earworm instrumental that sticks around in your head even if you just pass by a store playing it. the lyrics, which jihye co-wrote, are also unabashedly confident, with lines like 'i'll climb higher' showing her greed for success. even if they've been hurt in the past, it's only strengthened them.

impurities: and look, they're not perfect. they've never claimed to be- even if jihye'd like everyone in the world to think otherwise. she co-wrote this one, and for the bridge, possibly one of her favourite lyrics she's ever written, are the lines 'power stronger in adversity / i'm not afraid of the overwhelming shadow / i'll have it all, what i desire / just because it's what i am.' she's the most honest when she makes her art, and this is very much who huh jihye is.

no celestial: very, very special song to her! it's the first full song she's released that's ever been totally hers, in term of both production and lyrics. a little bit contradictory to her actual self/image, the song talks about being imperfect and embracing that, using celestial imagery. cutting off your wings, and falling down to earth with no fear, jihye personally thinks it's the song that describes f/f's the best. whenever asked what her favourite track is, it's this! no competition.

good parts: easy listening, with very straightforward lyrics. jihye's a cowriter, and one of the lines she wrote, 'everything's so blurry, but i hope it's polaroid' is a callback to one of their previous songs off i never die. self-love is easy to write about for her, because jihye loooooves herself, even the less-than-ideal parts. is it a good or bad thing if she's aware that she's not a good person all the time but chooses to keep those bad traits? who knows. she'll love herself regardless.

There's a tension in the silence that settles, heavy like a blanket over the room. Jihye knows she should do something as the leader, but frankly, she isn't completely convinced she'll be able to say anything suitable for broadcast to Jimin in this moment. Jimin, who's flitting about the room with a water bottle and excuses as to why she's unable to do what's expected of her, aegyo cloying.

"Yep." She chimes, keeps it as light as she can; nevermind her expressions for the past 30 minutes have looked like someone's shit in her salad. Jimin apologises to her with a pout and a blubbered explanation as she squeezes by. Mindful of the cameras still recording, Jihye smiles sagely and pats her on the back, telling her to rest and go over her parts.

Once inside the booth, Jihye straightens her lyric paper out. It's been through the wringer, having been scribbled on with her notes over the past week of preparing for it and acting as her stress ball, crumpled in her fist during Jimin's arduously long recording. She makes eye contact with the camera, and smiles awkwardly as she fits the headphones over her head.

"Ahhhhh... Okay, I'm ready." A quick warm-up, and she shows a double thumbs up to show she's ready to go. She doesn't plan on spending half as long in the booth as Jimin had, even though her parts were twice that of hers. "Do you want me to start from anywhere in particular?"

he gets it. it's an idol survival show. talent isn't really a prerequisite or even a consideration unless the superior qualities of looks and an endearing personality are missing. but there are still supposed to be limits to a human's ability to be simultaneously off-beat and unable to read the lyrics she's got right in front of her.

he's been patient, he swears. he's gone over the rhythm and delivery of each line over and over again, insisting she repeat it back to him before they even waste the time of actually recording it. it's clear she's just not cut out for the already simple job she's been given.

"okay," jaw clenched, he tries not to sound nearly as exasperated with all of the time that's been wasted as he is. "jimin — let's take a break. get some water or a snack and look over the verse some more and we'll come back to you."

his chair is on the verge of tipping over with the force with which he leans back into it as he all but gives up. the cameras still shooting only serve to sour his mood further, and he's well past the point of wondering why he'd taken this job offer in the first place. he's got deep blue now; maybe he should have just focused on that for the time being.

papers are flipped and rearranged as he draws circles and strikes through text, and then buttons are pushed and mouses clicked as his unhappy silence settles over the room. it's broken only when he looks over the shoulder of his chair, meeting eyes with the girl who'd seemed to be struggling with sitting through jimin's attempts just as much as he had been. "huh jihye, can you get in the booth?" it's not really a question with how thin his patience has been worn, but he tries to keep it friendly. it's not her fault half of the people on this godforsaken show need to be pursuing a different career.