basic profile.

me, me, and me. 

style — Jiho has never been and will probably never be a big fan of pastel and girly colors, describing herself as more of a tomboy kind of girl, if any. Only once in her life has she worn anything remotely close to being pink, at her baby cousin's christening when she was 4, and she has sworn not to ever go near the color again. She wouldn't describer her style as very feminine (or girly, whatever) seeing as 9 out of 10 items in her closet are either black, grey or a size too big. Some of them are even all three things, but hey, when there's a sale there's a sale, and what's a girl to do? 

She believes that less is more when it comes to fashion, and usually she's teased about picking her outfits with her eyes closed (that was one time!). But according to the aforementioned greyscale color scheme, nothing disastrous has come out of that habit. When her outfits are often described as plain or bland, she likes to spice things up with neon laces for her sneakers or some wacky color in her hair. Preferably both. And despite often being called the fashion disaster of her group, there are three things she won't ever leave her dorm without, also dubbed 'the three s'es': Sunglasses, sneakers and sweatbands. 

Appearance — At 173 centimeters and with 56 kilograms, Jiho has been gifted with long legs that look good in skinny jeans (a fact she both treasures and exploits the living daylights out of when the opportunity presents itself), a round face with somewhat pouty lips and very soft-looking eyes. Despite being simple, she puts an honor in looking bomb when she's going out, and nobody can take from her that when she actually cares for her looks, she's worthy of the once-over elevator stare. Being very confident in the way she presents herself and the way she looks has also spurred on quite a few crazy style periods over time, only because she was positive she would rock any style, but in the end finds the most comfort in airy street clothing that doesn't prevent her from moving around, but still makes her look like the idol she is, and has trained to be. 

personality —

× Positive :: Proud, honest, determined, fast learner, community oriented

× Negative :: Brute, impatient, egocentric, hotheaded

First and foremost, Jiho is a very proud and resolute young woman. She has never, not even once, backed down from her principles, and it takes a great deal of effort to make her change her mind (pro tip when discussing with Jiho: Get your arguments checked). She's honest and doesn't give much for wrapping the truth in bubble wrap to not come off as harsh or brute - she is who she is, and nothing can change that. She has inherited a very determined mindset from her father (or her uncle, she doesn't know), meaning that once she sets herself a goal, she doesn't allow herself any rest before she has achieved it. This means, among other things, that she has become a pretty fast learner, something that has proven to be a very useful skill. 

On the other hand, however, nothing bores Jiho more than studies and classes. It's not that she doesn't want to learn new things, but her academic achievements have never been at the top of her to-do list, and when something doesn't work out the way she wants it too, she's too impatient to wait for a potential solution - by the time the problem stops being a problem, she's long gone into the next thing she tries. And if you want scholastic advice, it probably isn't Jiho you should go to.

Having been brought up in a very supportive family who never really told her that there were things she couldn't do, Jiho is under the impression that she is, by default, a pretty great person. She may be described by some people as self-centered or egocentric, and the fact of the matter is that she probably is: Her ego is big, she'll openly admit it, but she doesn't think that that's necessarily a bad thing - that's all about impression and interpretation. 

Another thing about Jiho is that even though she is the oldest member, she is by no means leader material. She's not that good at giving all kinds of advice, but she'll try, but what really takes the cake is her hotheadedness and her relatively short temper. When she's overworked, deprived of sleep or food or tired, she'll make damn sure people around her know, mostly by being exceptionally snappy and some kind of a . She rarely means what she says in these situations, and all it really takes for her to calm right back down is someone putting her in her place. 

likes — 

× Neon colors

× Black bean noodles

× Calling people shorter than her 'pipsqueak' talk get hit lmfao saranghae

× Cycling and hiking

× Dying her hair colors that make her mother question whether or not it was a good idea to let her uncle get a hold of her at the age of 16
× Being messy - a messy desk belongs to a creative person, after all, and it's not her fault the rest of the world can't see the genius that are her system and planning skills
× Music loud enough to damage her ears more or less permantly
× Abusing the fact that she's the oldest in the group (read: she makes the younger folks do stuff for her because she's lazy as hell)
× Light effects/visual effects and fireworks
× The Belgian artist Stromae
× Purposedly trying to mess with saesang fans or antis (i.e. giving them the address of a closed pottery shop, making her manager drive away in the van with her following behind him in an old Ford 500 etc.)

× Cars and mechanics

dislikes — 

× Humid weather
× Clichés 
× Someone waking her up (rule #1: Never wake Jiho up unless the world is ending, their dorm is on fire or the time machine has been invented)
× Mushy talk. Encouraging advice is okay and welcomed as a conversation subject, but when things get too touchy-feely, Jiho recoils
× Romantic comedies
× Being rushed
× Greek food

× Being called cute/adorable 

fun facts — 

× Jiho would very much like to learn Chinese or Japanese someday

× She's had her driver's license since 2012, and currently drives a black Hyundai Elantra

× She has no idea where her interest in cars come from, but it's always been there
× Her grade in high school graduated in 2011, when Jiho was 18. Jiho, however, failed her CSAT and after nothing short of three meetings with different student counselors, she was deemed unsuitable for college because of her very low GPA - needless to say, she's not a very scholastic person

× She cares a lot about what she - and, ultimately, her members - eat. She won't admit it publicly, but every single member of Spice can confirm that she's a health freak

× If she could, she would like to re-take her high school final exams

× If not an idol, Jiho would've found a way to study being a nutritionist

× Her instagram @jihotstuff is like 75% pictures of her sitting with a cup of something in her hand and 25% work out quotes (yes, she is one of those persons). Her twitter @jiho_spice is almost never in use

× Despite her looking like a closed-off and antisocial person, she's actually a very prominent cuddler. No one is safe. Beware (lol poor maknaes)

× She still keeps in touch with the girls of DIAMOND, but doesn't see them as often because of her busy schedule

× Even though DIAMOND turned out to be a flop, Jiho still thinks she owes her uncle her entire career (although it's still very small)

× She's the happy owner of a prominent big-sister-complex. It basically means that she has a soft spot for people younger than her (and do her groupmates take advantage of that? yes they do)

× She treats the anniversary for DIAMOND's debut as a very special mini-holiday

home is where the heart is.  

background — When asked about her family and her upbringing, Jiho's immediate answer is very simple and clean: She had a good childhood, living in Ilsan with her middle-income parents (and occasionally her uncle), and as the only child of her parents and the only niece of her uncle, she was positively smothered with affection. Her parents were very lenient concerning rules and regulations, both being strong believers of learning by doing, and so, most of the time, Jiho didn't face any limits or boundaries. 

She was not the best in any of her classes, neither in elementary nor high school, but she found rap relatively early, and started losing interest in her studies while her interest in rap and music only doubled tenfold. Her favorite classes were PE and Music, and her dedication and termination in those two things were probably the only thing that didn't get her kicked out of school for low attendance in the rest of her classes. Despite later on joining the girl group DIAMOND, Jiho managed to get herself through high school, although with a lower GPA than what she'd like to show her mother. 

At the age of 16, her uncle - ever the eccentric and adventurous type - proclaimed he had in mind to open a recording label in the capitol, supposedly called IGNITE, and Jiho's interest was piqued from the very beginning. Agreed, she didn't know the first thing about being a star or a performer, but the thought of her, eventually, standing on a stage and rapping in front of a lot of cheering fans was pretty much all she though about at the time, and her uncle welcomed her enthusiasm. Despite initial protests from Jiho's mother, Jiho left for Seoul with her uncle in early 2009, and the two of them moved into a small apartment 15 minutes away from the building he had apparently leased his way into. It was here, in this very simple and raw building, that Jiho's rise to stardom began. 

She didn't have anything to do with the audition proces of the future trainees - that would just be too shady -, but during the following 6 months the label gained recognition and some press coverage, mainly centered around the fact that it had started from nothing. In May 2009, Jiho met four other girls - Cha In, Hee Sun, Li Wei and Jin Ae - whom her uncle introduced as her future groupmates. Jiho was ecstatic: She was going to be famous! At the age of 17, on november 28th 2010, the girl group DIAMOND debuted with the song "Mach"

Now, despite the group being from a relatively unknown company, DIAMOND managed to get themselves a medium sized grup of followers, and although they didn't win any music shows in the week of their debut promotions, their debut mini album "X:PECT" was praised for its hip sound and catchy beats. 

Unfortunately, DIAMOND didn't last for very long - soon after their debut and the hype around them had died down in favor of more recognized groups, like Girls' Generation and BEAST, the finances of the label started going sour, which eventually led to DIAMOND's disbandment and Jiho's uncle closing down his business. Following the disbandment of DIAMOND, Jiho pondered whether or not to return to Ilsan and go back to school, but ultimately decided against it because she was too stubborn to accept the fact that this short period should be the end of her career. She still lived with her uncle, but while he was working to pay the bills and make a clean break with the leasing company, Jiho went out and about, participating in rap battles and wrote songs to send to different labels, seemingly without any luck for the first long period of time. 

A few months after her 20th birthday, however, she finally caught on - one of her auditions (which was actually not an original song, but a calm kpop song she'd rearranged into a rap song) caught the attention of a supposed co-CEO of the AOMG label. He introduced himself as Simon D, and he offered her spot as a trainee for a new project he and his other co-CEO were currently working out - a brand new girl group. It only took a day for Jiho to accept the offer. 

family — 

▪ Yoo Jae Hwan | Mother | The one woman on earth Jiho tells everything to, her absolute inspiration and rolemodel is her mother. Being an only child, Jiho's mother made sure to absolutely shower her with affection and love, and despite her younger brother's antics and her initial doubt about sending her offspring into stardom, she's ultimately proud of her daughter for sticking to fullfilling her dream despite some hard times in Seoul. She does wish for her only child to call a little more, though. 

▪ Im Dae Jung | Father | Where his wife is very domestic and down to earth, Dae Jung can at times be a very eccentric and active man. Jiho has a great relationship with her father even though they don't always see eye to eye, and even though he has never really personally talked to Jiho about her career and life choices, Jiho's perception is that he supports her no matter what. Admittedly he doesn't know much about the entertainment scene, but he likes seeing he's daughter doing what makes her happy, and if rap does that, he doesn't want to stop her. 

▪ Yoo Seung Hwan | Uncle | Ever since Jiho was born, her uncle has played a very big part in her life and upbringing. She remembers him as a funny and quirky man who has always been around, and who has always had some wacky ideas. He's only two years younger than Jiho's mother, but sometimes, especially after Jiho's gotten older, it seems like so much more. Jiho has always loved her uncle, no matter what, and she was ecstatic when he allowed her to come to Seoul with him to be the first official trainee under his label. 

friends — 

▪ Lee Cha In :: Cha-Cha | Leader of DIAMOND, "Scary Spice", friend/mentor | Upon first meeting the older Busan native, Jiho was actually pretty intimidated by Cha In. She was older, wiser and more experienced than Jiho herself was, but she proved to be a fantastic teacher and a true mother - Jiho still thinks she was the best leader out of all of the members of DIAMOND. None of them would have survived if it weren't for Cha-Cha, to be honest. Out of all the members, Cha In is the one Jiho stays the most in touch with. 

• Moon Hee Sun :: Sunhee | Maknae of DIAMOND, "Baby Spice", like sisters | If ayone asks, Hee Sun was the one who brought out the aforementioned big sister-complex Jiho has. The younger girl was, and probably still is, the real life embodiment of sunshines and a litter full of kittens, and she was the one mainly in charge of making sure the other members of DIAMOND didn't kill each other. In the dorm, Hee Sun was the one Jiho roomed with, and they clicked from the very first time they met each other. From what Jiho's heard, Sunhee went on to be a trainee under JYP Entertainment. 

• Li Wei :: Wei Wei | Sub vocal of DIAMOND, "Ginger Spice", close acquaintace | Where Hee Sun was the cute, Wei Wei was the quirk, and the two maknaes were never more than 3 feet away from each other (which was sometimes kinda weird, you know, to walk into Jiho and Hee Sun's shared room and find Wei Wei fast asleep on Jiho's bed), and although the Chinese-born girl knows how to sometimes step on Jiho's nerves and make her snap, all in all Jiho thinks Wei Wei is a positive inflict in her life. Following the disbandment of DIAMOND, Wei Wei moved back to China. 

▪ Heo Jin Ae :: Gina | Main vocal of DIAMOND, "Posh Spice", enemy/mutual dislike | Concerning the roomie situation, it was probably within everybody's best interest that Jin Ae and Jiho didn't room together. Jiho still hasn't been able to figure out why, but something about the same-aged girl really just urks her to no end (maybe she's bitter, maye Jin Ae is just a mean girl, we'll never know), and despite both Cha In's sense of justice and Hee Sun's positivity, the two girls have never gone past the 'acquaintace' phase of their relationship. Jiho has no idea what Jin Ae is doing now. 

• Jung Ki Seok :: Simon Dominic | Labelmate, "Funny Uncle #2" | Back in 2012, when Jiho sent in a video of her audition, rumor has it that it was Simon who watched it and personally took a liking to what he saw. Whether that's true or not, Jiho doesn't know, but she does know that since she became a part of AOMG, Simon has proven to be the closest thing Jiho has to a family member in her home away from home. Their relationship mainly consists of playful banter and teasing each other, but also, at times, serious conversations (those are very rare and very very private). 

• Kwon Hyuk Woo :: LOCO | Labelmate, teacher | Even though she'll never say it out loud to his face, LOCO has been a huge inspiration to Jiho concerning her music and her artistic expression, and, admittedly, she fangirled pretty hard when she first met him (she is, after all, just a person). Their relationship has progressed from slightly awkward to kind-of-but-not-really friends, and when she's composing she makes sure to track him down and make him share some of his secrets in production and mixing. 

IM ReAdy to be a star.

STage name — Jiho. Rather than being known for someone she's not, and saving both herself and her groupmates from future embarassment by killing off the name Sporty Spice before it was even a serious suggestion, Jiho prefers to show the public... Well, Jiho.

Trainee Life — She was officially introduced as a new trainee under AOMG on March 31st 2014, and initially the idea of suddenly being around all sorts of famous people made her a bit queasy, because she felt like showing up pretty much from the street with a closed down label on her resume wasn't exactly going to get her mad credit, but despite her initial fears that she would stick out like a sore thumb, it didn't take long for her to thrive in the environment. AOMG was, perhaps in contrast to IGNITE, filled to the brim with professional people who were deeply invested in optimizing and improving their artists' sound, movement and skill, and Jiho proved to excel in writing and producing. Dancing, on the other hand, was not her forte, but hey, you can't win 'em all, can you? 

Despite her being 20 years old - significantly younger than the friends she'd made in the administrative department, she was apparently one of the oldest trainees, especially after a great deal of them left AOMG a year or two after Jiho arrived because of impatience. Jiho didn't particularly mind being one of the oldest, in fact she liked being able to give out some advice for the younger trainees, mainly because they reminded her of herself when she came to Seoul with her uncle: Young, hopeful and without any clue of what's going on. 

TRAINEE YEARS — 2 years and 3 months under AOMG, 1 year and 6 months under IGNITE - 3 years and 9 months in grand total

Fanclub + Color — Ruby + #FF0000. Rubies are red, just like chili peppers are, and very very valuable, just like Jiho's fans are to Jiho.

plotline — Chili.

Talent twins — 

× Rapping - LE (EXID)

× Singing - Hyoyeon (SNSD)

PERSONA — Pretty rapstar

INTRODUCTION — "Ayo, Spice's pretty rapstar Jiho here! Let's get it!" accompanied by a salute.

Pre-debut activities? — 

× November 28th, 2010 :: The first mini album "X:PECT" as a part of DIAMOND. The album consisted of 5 songs, where Jiho wrote and co-produced one of the tracks called "그냥 기다려야 (Just You Wait)"

× April 10th, 2014 :: Appeared in Jay Park's "Metronome" music video, featuring Simon Dominic

Scandals — 

× Driving under influence (DUI) :: True :: Following the release of labelmate LOCO's first album, LOCOMOTIVE, Jiho amongst other trainees was invited to the release party. She drove to the venue. When the party ended, she drove her way back to the AOMG dorm building, two other artists in the car with her. She didn't hit anyone or cause any accidents, but she was caught by the police and had her license taken away for 4 months, along with a 350 000 won fee 

× Dating AOMG labelmate Simon Dominic :: False :: Jiho and Simon Dominic have never been anything but close friends, and they probably won't ever be more. They're like Chip and Dale, bickering and fighting each other on a daily basis, but nevertheless got a good laugh out of the rumors. They didn't address them at first, but after a month of speculation, Simon D took to his instagram to declare that he was very much single - Jiho followed suit three days after

the one and only.

relationship  — Jiho sometimes have a heard time figuring Mino out, and when they first met by coincidence at a rap battle in Seoul, she actually couldn't stand him. She thought he was too boastful for his own good (and his name was ridiculous - Hugeboy? Really?), and initially had a very hard time looking past all that. They didn't meet again after that, at least not until Mino appeared on Show Me The Money 4, where Jiho, to her great annoyance and wonder, actually found herself rooting for him. He had changed a lot from the boy she met in underground Seoul, and when he didn't win she was legitly upset about for a few days. 

She met Mino for the second time through LOCO and Jay Park who had stayed in contact with the rapper even after Show Me The Money had ended. Here she chose a bit more open approach, and found out he wasn't actually all that bad to be around for a longer period of time. 

They aren't yet completely aware of what their relationship entails - Jiho's not even sure they have one, because they talk a lot over text or sns with messages there are borderline rude to each other, but she still gets a little giddy - ugh, just to say the word - when he says something funny or purposedly tries to annoy her just so he can laugh at her. They've hung out a few times, but Mino's a busy man, and with Spice's fast approaching debut, so is Jiho, so most of the time their interactions are limited to social media. 

imjiho: ya song minho!!!!!
hugeboy: are you annoyed yet? ;)
imjiho: i want to hit you - tell your members to hit you for me
hugeboy: taehyung says he'll do it if you give him 10 bucks
imjiho: i'll give him 50 if he duct tapes your big mouth too
hugeboy: *taehyung* DEAL!!!!

last messages.

comments/suggestions — Wow this ended up taking longer than i expected... I hope you like her - take her before I do something drastic!!!! *screams*

scene request —

× Some younger member trying to get Jiho to use Twitter
× Celebrating the members' birthdays
× Debut stage!!!
× Jiho being teased for liking Mino ("You like him, don't you?", "Do nOT!")
× Spice getting a show like Real GOT7 or something of the like
× Jiho and Mino hanging out

password — 

× 9Muses - Hurt Locker
× Hello Venus - I'm Ill
× EXID - Up & Down
× Fiestar - You're Pitiful

turn in — back to story