#01 : MEET 주원 !
허주원
CHAPTER 01
birth name heo joowon.
NICKNAMES
Ella. // the english name joowon had chosen for herself when she moved to america. it was easy to pronounce and spell without being too common.
hee.o. // because of how her surname was romanized, everybody pronounced "heo" as "hee-oh" instead of "huh." they found this strangely ~exotic~ and most people around her called her by her surname instead of just ella, so she stylized it and made it her name on soundcloud.
dad. // unlike the nurturing nature of (plotline #2), joowon's the type to simply tell her members what to do and gives them money to buy certain things which earns her the title of "dad" in statice. (she also drinks the most and walks around the dorm pantsless.)
birth date april 12, 1996.
birth place bupyeong-gu, incheon, sk.
hometown bupyeong-gu, incheon, sk.
ETHNICITY korean.
LANGUAGES
english. // her "first" language. despite learning korean first, she'd spent significantly more time in america and english is consequently the language she's the most comfortable speaking.
korean. // she grew up speaking solely korean to her parents, so she's fluent in conversation and is familiar with more advanced vocabulary since: 1) they made her go to a korean after school program to maintain her fluency, and 2) she had to translate just about everything for them be it immigration papers or apartment leases. unfortunately, she knows virtually nothing about the culture tied to korean; she's hilariously behind on korean slang and has accidentally used informal speech in inappropriate situations a few times.
japanese. // chose to learn japanese in high school since spanish classes were all full, and she was piss poor at it but upon entering sm they made her learn the language again anyway. she's pretty solid when it comes to reading and writing but she's terrible at actually speaking it.
FACE CLAIM somin, kard.
backup cathy, dia. seungyeon, clc.
PLOTLINE 1 (2).
BUILD 164 cm, 45 kg.
APPEARANCE when it comes to height & weight joowon lies along the average, but she'd lost a bit of weight and some muscle upon training under sm to achieve a smaller figure that better fits the image they desired. she cut down significantly on proteins and weight training to make some of the prominent bulges on her thighs smoothen away, and since she's the type to easily gain weight she's on a constant diet plan managed by the company to upkeep her newly obtained shape.
style joowon is still yet to adjust to korean fashion and makeup, so whenever she's allowed to style herself she dresses in more showy, intense looks that the other girls would only really wear for their stage performances—when it comes to her a middle ground is nonexistent and she'll either be in glam makeup or no makeup at all. joowon also prefers more revealing clothing that her stylists beg her to stop wearing in casual settings, (notably practices in just a sports bra and sweatpants when alone with her members, but for official dance practices and broadcasts she puts on a baggy shirt over it) and is unfailingly found in either a cropped top, tight leggings, or exposed shoulders.
takes a liking to accessories like large hoops and rings, and she originally had 10 piercings—5 on each ear—but sm made her leave a few alone to soften her image at least a little bit so she's more digestable to the public. currently hoping to get a tattoo, but she knows management wouldn't let her until they're at least 4 years into their career.
CHAPTER 02
the commander.
entj-a. aries. gryffindor.
dedicated. outgoing.
enthusiastic. loyal.
enthusiastic. loyal.
cANDID. INITIATING.
cONFIDENT. OPTIMISTIC.
impatient. STUBBORN.
aggressive. INTOLERANT.
aggressive. INTOLERANT.
at first impression, intimidating. / has a direct, straightforward way of speaking that can come off as either charismatic or aggressive. / doesn't like to sugar coat what she says, thinks beating around the bush will only lead to more misunderstandings. / expects the same from others so she's unaffected by blunt criticism. / always willing to talk out conflict but has a hard time acknowledging her own faults. / hates it when people act passive aggressive, will definitely call it out and start an argument over it and will fight someone if she feels like she's being disrespected. / but as intense as she comes off, she's actually super positive and uplifting. the best hypeman, shamelessly promotes the other members' side activities. / laughs extremely loudly and really easily, cracks jokes about people as her own form of affection. / self praise but she means it. / takes everything as a challenge. will do any and every dare to assert her dominance. / easily forgets and forgives. / doesn't like a lot of things, but for the things she does she's extremely dedicated to and takes seriously.
background
01. // spent all of elementary school in incheon, but even then she took an interest in american media and dreamed of becoming a pop star after watching high school musical when she was 10 years old. she was still young, so her parents had no problem feeding into her claims of becoming famous and bought her as many toy microphones she asked for.
02. // her and her mother move to jackson heights, queens, ny to live with her mom's sister after the divorce by the time she's in middle school. she speaks no english and gets bullied for her accent, and she spends the first year friendless in esl classes. it was common for the other asian kids in class to imitate her accent and leave her out of birthday parties, at some points she got into physical fights with the other kids if it became too much.
03. // joowon took out a lot of her anger and aggression through hours of practicing english during her free time to properly assimilate. she'd caught herself up to american slang, fashion, and trends completely by the time the next year rolled by and was almost immediately accepted by her classmates.
04. // during that period she got into hip hop and r&b, and when high school came around she'd started rapping and made a soundcloud. it was kept a secret from her friends since she didn't want their input in the music she's making for herself, but it came to light eventually and it was actually pretty well received by her peers which did wonders for her ego.
05. // unfortunately, her mother found out too and she was nothing but disapproving. she couldn't believe her daughter was wasting time rapping and wasting money on mics and tech instead of focusing on academics, and while joowon was only planning on keeping rapping as a hobby, the constant arguments with her mother only made her want to puruse it more. so, upon graduating high school joowon took her money saved up from her past part time jobs and moved out.
CHAPTER 03
TRIVIA
01. // absolutely hates being fooled and/or emotionally manipulated; the members don't dare to pull a hidden camera on her after that one disastrous time they did it for her first birthday with them as statice, and instead of crying out of joy like they'd anticipated, she got legitimately angry and exploded on them for messing with her emotions.
02. // really touchy and known for giving good hugs (she will always squeeze you tight and if she misses you enough, expect to be lifted). a lot of casual touching, has a tendency to put her arm around people or play with their hands and/or ears.
03. // mildly athletic? she joined the basketball team in high school and while she's a lot less fit than she was back then after a string of forced diets, she thinks she can still keep up her own. probably only does track on isac though since she doesn't have the patience to compete in archery or bowling.
04. // has by far the most dating experience since she didn't waste away her adolescence in the confines of sm's training room, but nobody takes her dating advice anyway because none of them are as confrontational as she is which renders her tips useless.
05. // currently doesn't talk to anyone in her family, no plans to either.
06. // was originally planning on being a business major like the rest of her friends before ultimately deciding to ditch college to pursue music instead.
07. // as of now all she does is write lyrics and throws in the occasional suggestion for adlibs and voice doublings in the recording process, but she wants to get into beatmaking and eventually full compositions.
08. // when texting in english she throws in a ton of "lmao" and emojis, when texting in korean it's replaced with "ㅋㅋㅋ" and free kkt stickers. in both cases, there's a lot of curse words.
09. // youtube crack videos associated with her: ella heo being an aries for 15 minutes, lael and sky dynamics, statice annoying lael for 10 minutes straight, lael ignoring sm's rules: a compilation, lael being a bad influence to sm maknaes for 8 minutes straight.
10. // hates sweets, even with coffee she drinks it black. generally willing to eat anything else, even the crazier like silkworm pupa, chicken feet, and live octopus. will try every and any food at least once.
11. // in one way, a terrible leader since she has a bad temper and has trouble connecting with them emotionally, can't play peacemaker for the life of her either. in another way, a great leader since she naturally takes charge of situations and they all generally listen to whatever she says.
12. // doesn't relax, ever. whenever she takes a break because of stress, she gets stressed over not dealing with whatever it is that's stressing her out in the first place. so rather than lying down and taking a nap, she probably takes kickboxing classes to let out her stress and pent up aggression.
13. // her favorite artists are: tinashe, jhene aiko, and rihanna, but she has a secret playlist of high school musical tracks she listens to regularly. (gotta go my own way is america's anthem.)
14. // talks with her hands a lot.
15. // likes to drink since it's always a fun time getting tipsy with her friends, but she doesn't like the taste of it so she never drinks it alone and only takes shots in social settings.
16. // has like... nothing to do besides listening to and working on music. plays basketball time to time, but not enough people around her play it for her to call it a hobby and she'd rather not waste her time shooting hoops all alone.
17. // does the least vlives and appears the least in their youtube, but runs her own series on their official channel called "lael's tots" where she does mukbang interviews with the maknaes of sm. (strictly 99 liners and after.)
18. // strong preference to girl groups. joowon keeps up with all of their comebacks, names them off as her ideal types on variety shows, (think: exid hani) and even in her own group she's always doting on the younger members by squeezing their cheeks or pulling them on her lap. in conclusion, loves cute girls.
19. // can't really cook if she's not following a specific recipe, so her role in the dorm is generally to open jars and order food on the phone.
20. // future friendships with sm idols as the story develops: taeil, amber, key, ten, hyoyeon, jaemin, yeri. in nct specifically, she generally gets along better with the dreamies because of her series, functions as their unofficial vodka aunt.
CHAPTER 04
어하늘
joowon dotes on haneul the most. she’s sunshine personified, and she was the first member joowon befriended when thrown into statice’s debut lineup. she laughed at her jokes, reciprocated her hugs, and within only a week of talking to each other it’s become natural for joowon to pull her on her lap and hold her hand. their chemistry carries into their work—being the main rappers of the group they undoubtedly spend the most time together during album preparation periods, and there’s been many a night where they stay up together in the recording studio to edit their lyrics. haneul is the little sister joowon never had, and that’s precisely why they fight the most often as well.
joowon seeks transparency in relationships, wanting open communication when addressing certain problems. haneul, however, is the exact opposite and it drives joowon absolutely insane; she doesn’t get why haneul has so much trouble with confrontation when it isn’t as if joowon’s going to clock her if she disagrees, and it infuriates her whenever she brushes away a problem and passively ignores her until she cools herself down. consequently, their disagreements often escalate quickly into something substantially bigger than it originally was and can last for as long as a week since haneul avoids her and joowon’s too prideful to play her role as a leader and take responsibility.
이민형
the most surprising friendship between nct and statice is probably joowon and mark. she first meets him and the rest of 127 in the dance studio by pure chance, when they’re prepping for their rehearsal and she ducks in quietly to grab her water bottle that she’d left near the mirrors; she’s attempting to dip as quick as she entered, only to hit her elbow on one of the tables on the side and accidentally hisses out, “ow, motherer.” being the 12 year old he is, mark finds her swearing absolutely hilarious and bursts out giggling. his laugh is painfully contagious and she ends up cackling until she closes the door, and the next time they see each other the wall between them had already melted away.
they speak solely in english and he calls her ella without any formalities. she’s his older sister figure, and she buys him food as often as she treats her own members and lifts him up in a firm hug whenever she sees him. he’s a refreshing reminder of home, and having someone she can comfortably talk to without paying mind to korean social norms is one of the only things keeping her sane. unfortunately, joowon becomes the awkward middle bridge between him and haneul, and ends up being on the receiving end of mark’s worried kakaotalk spam of what he can do to make it better.
서영호
if mark’s a little brother, johnny’s a real friend. she never thought they’d befriend each other since he always seemed so proper and joowon’s anything but, assuming he’d be turned off by her cursing habits. surprisingly enough he pays it no mind, and he’s a constant warm presence that she could rely on when she’s having a rough day; if she wants to rant he lets her, if she wants him to buy her food for consolation he does so, and he’s understanding whenever she snaps at him out of pent up stress. the opposite holds true as well, and johnny often messages her on kakaotalk when he wants some positive energy to distract him from the life throws at him.
it’s why he’s the only close friend she has that she doesn’t clown on no matter how much he makes fun of her, (which is… fair considering the gross she talks about with him) and it’s also why he’s shipped with her the most. they have endless videos on youtube as “proof” of a secret relationship much to their disdain, because despite how she hypes his looks up and yells at him to take his shirt off when she sees him practicing, she feels absolutely nothing when she looks at him.
김누리
kim nuri, or sandy kim, is joowon’s person. she’s known by statice’s fans as joowon’s best friend and the messiah who’d brought joowon to sm’s open auditions, but more importantly she’s the girl who’s been there for her since the very beginning. when joowon was being made fun of when she’d first come to america sandy was one of the only kids nice to her, and though they didn’t talk too much because of the language barrier, sandy always tried to make her feel included and tried to defend her whenever she was bullied. once joowon was able to speak english somewhat the two became fast friends, and their friendship lasted the rest of middle school and into high school.
sandy’s also the one who’d housed joowon when she moved out of her mom and aunt’s home, brought her along to her family trip to south korea, and eventually pushed her into the career she has today without any bitter feelings. the two are essentially sisters (see: them calling each other “” affectionately and joowon calling sandy’s mother “mom”), and sandy even moved into her cousin’s seoul home to work as an art teacher so that joowon wouldn’t feel so isolated from her life back in america. there’s absolutely no barriers when it comes to the two, and they even have plans to live together once joowon’s able to move out of statice’s dorms.
CHAPTER 05
NAME lee taeyong.
NICKNAMe
skitty. // joowon sees taeyong giggle with his unstyled pink hair, and she automatically thinks of skitty from pokemon. he doesn't see it (and didn't know what she was talking about the first 10 times since its name in korean is completely different) but she does, so rather than calling him by his name or by any formalities, she calls him skitty instead.
BIRTH DATE july 1, 1995.
OCCUPATION nct's leader.
STATUS complete strangers (which turns into flirting, but mostly on her end).
01
despite his intimidating aura, unexpectedly soft-hearted. / painfully shy at first meeting, becomes super attached once close. / has a tendency to baby the people around him; feeds them, cooks for them, takes pictures of them, supports them and all of their decisions. / attentive, so he expects the same amount of attention in return. / seeks praise and validation, will test your love for him. / mostly because he's always stressed and overthinking. / extremely loyal, family and loved ones are always his top priority.
02
prior to debut, taeyong and joowon have technically met each other multiple times: there was 1) when joowon first entered the company and had to formally introduce herself to the rest of the trainees and artists, 2) joowon popping into the training studio to pick up her water bottle before sr15b’s rehearsal, and 3) the multiple times they’ve passed by each other after sm’s rap classes. they’ve just never caught each other’s eye, nor did they think they’d have to considering joowon was never introduced into the sm rookies and taeyong was guaranteed to debut. (secretly, taeyong’s absolutely terrified. they’ve had polite small talk before but joowon’s surrounded by a constant aura of “don’t with me” that he doesn’t want to risk provoking, and it doesn’t help that he’s overheard the way she scolds her members when she’s angry with them.)
the first time they actually talk is a week before christmas in 2016. unlike their seniors nct and statice don’t have the privilege of visiting their own families on holidays, so they spend most of december in the sm building to record countless covers and music videos for their fans. it’s the meals in between that statice call their “family dinners,” and when a few of them are eating at 11pm joowon spots johnny walking by the canteen with taeyong. she asks him to join, (“if you don’t eat with me right now i swear to god i’m robbing you”) taeyong waddling awkwardly behind, and he’s about to sit himself in the furthest end when joowon pulls up a seat next to her, waving him over.
the conversation is surprisingly fluid. most of the girls are (terrifyingly) loud and outgoing, and the group setting makes it that much easier for taeyong to fit into the flow and talk to them. joowon especially takes an interest him, partly because she’s never talked to him before and wanted to get to know him, partly because he seems so shy and unsure of himself that she wanted to put in the extra effort. she’s successful in that he’s become comfortably with her within the hour, but with their side conversations joowon finds taeyong painfully ing cute and she finds herself thinking about him when statice heads back over to the recording studio.
she’s not the type to repress her feelings. she knows that she has no time for an actual relationship when she’s barely keeping her life together as it is, but she just can’t bring herself to treat someone like a friend if sees them as something more than that. so whenever she hugs him she’ll hold on half a second longer, randomly play with his hair if they’re sitting next to each other, brush her hand over his shoulders when she’s walking by, calls him cute whenever the opportunity arises, and she thinks she’s making pretty clear signs that she’s into him but it backfires; what joowon forgets is the apparent culture difference, and her being so openly touchy with him throws taeyong in for a loop because she can’t possibly be flirting with him so blatantly. he had to be misunderstanding something, she probably does this with her other male friends and he’s just not used to it yet.
he doesn’t hate it. she’s pretty, talented, confident, takes care of the people around her, and they’ve gotten considerably closer over the past couple of months. he just doesn’t know if he’s reading too much into it and mistaking friendship for genuine romantic interest.
03
01. // she has him saved as "cuty" (which changes to "skitty" after cherry bomb) but he has her saved as "statice lael." and.. it doesn't change even when they start talking more.
02. // she definitely teaches him curse words in english.
03. // being as caring as he is, he occasionally gives her leftovers of whatever he cooked for 127 to share with her members.
04. // she messes with him.. a lot.. she finds ual jokes hilarious and it throws him off completely whenever she makes one.
05. // they don't argue often (in fact they've only ever had a serious argument once), but when they do it lasts. she's too prideful to admit what she did wrong, he unintentionally guilt trips, which only pisses her off more until they both cool down and talk properly a week later.
06. // and that fight was about family. she told him how she doesn't talk to hers and doesn't want to, which he doesn't get since he's so close with his? so he tries encouraging her to talk to them again, she says no, etc.
07. // he kinda. gets jealous if she calls another member of nct cute. he doesn't let his irritation show, but it's there.
08. // prefers texting or face timing over actually meeting up. they don't really hang out since their schedules never align, and even when they do they bring other people along since it feels too much like a date if they're alone.
+ more tba? idk but god im so weak for tough girl soft boy dynamics...
CHAPTER 06
STAGE NAME lael 라엘. (pronounced lah-el) sm decided to switch the characters of her english name (ella > lael) to establish a different identity for her whilst still keeping close to her roots.
persona dubbed the "girl crush" because of her image, but it doesn't really ring true since sky still has more girl fans than she does.
training period 1 year.
training history while planning her trip to korea with sandy and her parents, sandy talks about how she wanted to audition for sm while they were there and joowon had tagged along on a whim; funnily enough, joowon was the one who'd got in and was originally planning on ghosting the second round until sandy urged her to go. joowon had been doing music on soundcloud for a while now after all, and this was the perfect chance to establish an actual career that she wouldn't get in america as an asian otherwise. the second round flew by and she'd somehow got into the company, but the trouble comes when joowon actually becomes a trainee.
trainers praised her endlessly because of how quick she picked up on everything, but she was scolded just as often from how "disrespectful" she was. she still didn't understand korean cultural norms in its entirety, and rather than take any verbal abuse she'd snap back at the them. unsurprisingly, she was forced by sm to take extra etiquette classes to "clean up" her act and it generally worked—she argued less and put in more effort to ensure that informal speech doesn't accidentally slip out in professional settings.
but by then, rumors have already spread. every trainee has heard of “that new gyopo” who talked back, and it was instinctual for all of them to avoid her. joowon was never bullied or purposely excluded, but whenever she spoke to anyone she saw how unsettled they looked and it was more frustrating than if they didn’t acknowledge her existence at all. so the first month, she was alone—she’d scold trainees for messing up formations during their rehearsals, straying off tempo in rap classes, and with every passing day it felt as if more and more people were terrified of her.
it’s only in her third month of being a trainee that the gossip surrounding her starts to die down, switching from stories of her intimidating impression to how she might actually debut before all of them. joowon quickly became known amongst the trainees as the rap trainer’s favorite, and her assigned dance groups for their biweekly evaluations consistently received praise. people were interested, and there were more and more trainees were willing to approach her.
talent twins yezi (rap and vocal), somin, kard (dance).
headlines
01. // statice's lael bully controversy: with her image it was only a matter of time that a random netizen comes through with irrational rumors, and a pann post accusing her of bullying quickly surfaces. it quickly gains traction because of a video of her fighting a classmate back in middle school, and her "violent behavior" is backed up by false accounts of her picking fights with other trainees during her short period. the post is easily shut down by her old friend group when it's revealed that she was fighting in self defense after being bullied for her poor english, and it thankfully didn't leave a dent in their career but is still brought up frequently by her antis.
02. // statice's lael attitude?: her severe resting face has gotten her in trouble one too many times, and no one in statice gets as many out-of-context gifs of them posted as often as she does. it never actually amounts to anything, but she definitely is more careful to never trigger any actual issue that'll give her antis ammo to justify their hate comments.
her story
01. // it’s late 2017, and joowon’s huddled up in the studio playing a demo guide on repeat. statice is already starting comeback preparations when they’d only just wrapped up their promotions, meaning she had less and less time to whip up decent lyrics for the countless tracks their vocal line has been pumping out. her notepad’s scribbled with nothing but keywords and random doodles, and she takes out her phone to look through her emails when something catches her eye. it’s a message from makeus entertainment.
02. // joowon finds out they’ve been eyeing her since her debut and they offer her a solo contract. the terms are enticing; they promise her complete control of her music, a major share of profits, and little involvement in her personal life. she’s given time to think about it, but the more she thinks about it the more she wants to sign it. she’s a solid performer with a stable individual fanbase, and all of her covers and work on sm station have gotten a decent amount of views. and seeing as how haneul was undeniably the company’s favorite, it might take years for sm to give joowon an opportunity to venture out of the music statice does no matter how much she proves herself. there’s no real reason for her to decline the offer.
03. // except, of course, the mess that statice was in. it was only about a year into their debut but they’ve already been hit with one issue after another, be it a dating scandal, an injury, or pasts being exposed. joowon’s one of the only members who haven’t been caught up in a major controversy, and realistically this could be her one and only chance to jump off a possibly sinking ship. but she doesn’t know if she has it in her to ditch the girls that she’s looked after for a year and a half, not when they were all at their most vulnerable.
04. // they’re not your family. they’re not your family. they’re not your family. they’re not your family. they’re not your family. they’re not your family. they’re not your family. they’re not your family. they’re not your family. they’re not your family. they’re not your family.
05. // a month passes. joowon doesn’t want to load more problems on the rest of them, so she keeps the offer a secret and stresses over it alone instead. it’s an offer she wants to take but feels too guilty over, and she finds herself looking for more and more reasons to accept it instead. statice has too many controversies, sm plays favorites too hard, she’s kept on a constant diet and has too starve some meals if she gains any weight, she has an irregular sleep schedule, her privacy is constantly invaded, and she barely has the time to keep her own life together but has to look after eight other girls and their respective problems. but none of these are reason enough to leave, yet.
06. // she’s drinking with sandy. their eyes half lidded and minds fuzzy, but sandy always had a talent for being eloquent even when they’re tipsy from continuous bowls of makgeolli. “assuming the worst, you either have to: leave and have all your girls hate your guts forever, or stay and potentially have all your chances of a stable career ruined.” she stuffs a greasy wedge of pajeon into , “which of those would be harder for you to handle?”
07. // they’re not your family. they’re not your family. they’re not your family. they’re not your family. they’re not your family. they’re not your family. they’re not your family. they’re not your family. they’re not your family. they’re not your family. they’re not your family.
08. // it’s 11pm at sum cafe. joowon and taeyong are the only ones there save for the part-time worker cleaning the countertops, and she reaches over to tug his cap a bit further down. as usual, they’ve mostly been talking about work and taeyong sighs exasperatedly when he talks about the stress s given him lately. he’s in charge of even more people, grown men in fact, and when you count in the dreamies he’s basically running his own daycare. so she can’t help but ask. “if you were given a chance to leave the group and become a successful solo, would you?” taeyong looks at her, confused. i’ve been taking care of all of them for years, why would i now?
09. // it’s march. joowon’s re-doing her lyrics for the seventh time; she hasn’t had inspiration in months and she’s settled on squeezing her brain dry for anything decent by writing and rewriting for the past eight hours. she has to submit something to the producers by the end of today, and she’s got her fingers tangled in her hair when the door slams open with eight girls grinning at her stupidly, cake in hand. it’s… not her birthday yet, over a month until then actually, so she’s completely confused as to why they barged in until they start congratulating her with a scream of “happy parents day!”
10. // they’re your family.
CHAPTER 08
last words tldr, joowon's an intense & passionate girl who learns to love.. lmao i rewrote her 2038420 times so some parts might feel inconsistent??? idk???
scene requests
01. // joowon collabing with taeil for sm station or smth with this song and then becoming friends by bonding over their rattling knees and joint problems lmao
02. // i love pain so scenes where everyone in statice is thanking their families or spending time with them and joowon's like, lol! i got nobody
03. // joowon fighting everybody..
04. // her secretly teaching all the youngins in sm bad words in english
05. // tbh... i don't want joowon and taeyong together? i was thinking that they'd flirt and probably like each other, but they both prioritize their careers so they just mutually agree to stay as friends nonetheless. not every crush as to end up as a relationship, you feel me
06. // joowon on masked singer!
code word "remember me, hello we are statice!"
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