Slant Of Light

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.

Heather Havrilesky, How to Be a Person in the World

mirrorball by taylor swift

GIRLS5EVA 2.04

Jihye's been told she has a vivid imagination.

Today it seems more overactive than anything.

She eyes the wide-eyed girl with hands on both cheeks in embarrassment as she profusely apologises to the entire studio for the nth time for making a mistake. Really, wasting everyone's time, but Jihye digresses.

They'd gone over it all of last night, and while she doesn't think Jimin would be on SMTM anytime soon, she'd thought the other girl had at least gotten the verse down. If it's a ploy to get more screentime, Jihye would get it. Respect it, even. It seems more genuine incompetence than anything, though, and Jihye wants to shove the other girl's head through the glass of the recording booth.

She's visited her happy place so many times during the survival show it's been struggling with overtourism, and right now, it's just not cutting it. Her lyric sheet's crumpled with the amount of times she's tightened her fist around it every time Jimin fucks up, and as she takes a glance around the studio, everyone seems similarly tired.

She sighs involuntarily, because she might scream if she doesn't. It's louder than she means it to be, though, and she locks eyes with their producer, who looks like he's in a similarly frustrated boat.

IT'S NICE TO HAVE A FRIEND. with ♡, for @ofgreyskies' ash.

Huh Jihye (허지혜) is a member of the South Korean girl group, FUTURE/FEMME under Culture Creative.

Stage name: Huh Jihye (허지혜). Birth name: Abigail Jihye Huh.

Position: Leader, main vocal. Birthday: December 8th 2002. Zodiac sign: Sagittarius.

Height: 168cm. Blood type: AB. MBTI: ISTP. Nationality: Korean-American.

SNS: @abigailjhuh (Instagram) / @jihyes2 (Soundcloud)

She was born in Atherton, California & lived there until she was 14.

She has two brothers and an older sister.

She’s been a trainee for a total of 4.5 years.

Jihye said that Taylor Swift is the person who inspired her to become a singer & start writing songs, while Beyonce is the person she wants to become on stage.

She is one of FUTURE/FEMME's composers and producers, with multiple credits on their albums.

In a live, she said that she doesn’t have a standard for liking someone and that she doesn’t believe in an ideal type.

She prefers soy/oat milk over regular.

Her favourite place in the entire world is on stage.

Her favourite accessory is a cap.

She has a habit of bringing a pen into the recording studio as she says it helps her when recording.

She likes to listen to FUTURE/FEMME's songs in the morning while getting ready because she feels like it boosts her energy.

She likes eating spicy food.

Her motto is 'Fortune favours the bold'.

She likes to make food-related puns before eating.

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.

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.

Maybe she's less mysterious than she thinks. Jihye's jaw drops as the second message comes through, feeling strange at how accurate the read was. She spins around to check that the wall behind them's still up, keeping her identity anonymous, and her partner isn't peeking.

[TO: lucky charm] how... did you know....!

[TO: lucky charm] do Es know Is the moment they see them..?!

[TO: lucky charm] mbti at first sight

She's so immersed in the conversation, it takes their desperate waving for Jihye to notice the PDs holding up their sketchbook with the next prompt on it. "Oh, I actually..." She grins. "On the way here I made a playlist of the songs I've been listening to recently." Half of which belong to her. Is it chart fraud if she streams her own songs?

Deciding to look at her partner's playlist before she shows her own, she studies the songs on there carefully and hazards a guess. "I don't know why, but I feel like... it's a girl."

[TO: lucky charm] do you listen to music a lot?

yebin has to stop herself from screaming when her phone lights up with the notification of a text. when she was first told of this shoot, she didn't think much of it, but it was a lot more fun than she expected.

[to: spring breeze] i am an E! [to: spring breeze] what about you? my hunch tells me you're an I because most E's i know don't jump to mbti for a conversation starterㅋㅋㅋ

she didn't even know who was on the other side of the wall, but yebin was already having so much fun. when the producer in front of her asks her if her text is true, she nods. "it's what i've noticed! like i don't think i would have asked this person's mbti right off the bat," she confesses with another chuckle.

the producer puts up her sketchbook with the message show each other your playlists, and so she quickly goes into youtube music and screenshots the last few songs she's listened to. "okay, thankfully, i haven't listened to my own music."

there's a track from her former groupmate as well as other idols. it's a mix and match of a lot of songs, but anybody could tell that she mostly listens to fun, energetic music and kpop.