Personality

(+) Amiable, Helpful
(/) Awkward, Follower, Desperate, Eager
(-) Defeatist, Pushover

Minah is the personification of "open mouth insert foot". She's so desperate to be included and helpful that she ends up tripping over herself and usually making things awkward or downright embarrassing for everyone else. She's often too quick to jump into things in her eagerness to be useful and noticed, so she ends up not actually having any idea of what to do next once she's there. This doesn't stop her from trying though. Minah is the sort of person who can come back from falling flat on her face, mostly because she's done it so many times that she's pretty used to it (though that doesn't stop her from getting extremely flustered every time anyway). For the most part Minah is easy to forgive though, she's just so dang apologetic and awkward that it's hard to stay mad at her - it's like staying mad at a kicked puppy.

Also like a puppy, Minah is very much a follower. The day she makes her own decisions will be a day of miracles. This mostly stems from the simple fact that Minah really doesn't have that high of an opinion of herself. Not in an "oh woe is me no one loves me" sort of way, but more of a "well I'm just not as good as other peope, that's just how it is." Being awkward, fat, and a failure is simply who she is and it's not something to get worked up about. This outlook on herself naturally makes Minah a major defeatist, believing she's going to fail before she's even started, at least when it comes to things she cares about. When itcomes to helping out others Minah is all about putting her best foot forward and being a strong support, like she always was for cheerleading.

One thing people usually get wrong about Minah is that she is not, in any way, shy. Does she give up quickly? Heck yes. Does she not know how to handle herself in social situations? Someone teach this girl how does human please. But that doesn't stop Minah from rambling on and always doing her best to be friendly to everyone and anyone she comes across. And this is the main trait that make people so frustrated with Minah - because she's nice people want to help her out, but her tendency to defeat herself before she's started means that any attempted help is often wasted. Mostly she sidelines herself and plays the cheerleader, never really thinking for herself and convinced that she's completely okay with that.

Background

Born in California, Minah was a first generation American in her previously all-Korean family. Her parents had moved to the "Land of the Free" in search of better opportunities for their family not long after they got married, and three years later Minah appeared, closely followed by her little sister Minri. The girls were very different, but got along well enough growing up, despite disagreements over the usual sibling stuff. The girls grew up speaking Korean at home, since that was the language their parents had grown up with, and English everywhere else, so they ended up bilingual. This is one of the two things that Minah personally feels made her childhood interesting.

The second and more important detail, to her, was her cheerleading. Minah had always liked the idea of being a cheerleader since she was little, so when her middle school held tryouts when she was 11, she was right there. She didn't pass in her first attempt, but when she tried out again in seventh grade when she was 12, she made it onto the team as a backup. She worked hard during practices, determined to improve enough to make at least the JV team in highschool. She suceeded, but instead of doing tricks and flips, Minah found herself as the base of the pyramid, as she was "too heavy to lift." For all of highschool Minah was always the support and never the star, though she was usually just happy to be included at all.

KPop came to her during her sophomore year when one of the girls on the squad, Amy, came up to her and started talking about it, assuming she knew about the genre since "you're the ony Asian on the team and I need someone to fangirl with!" Minah had no idea what Amy was talking about, but she didn't want to lose the chance to be friends with the other girl so she went home that night and looked up KPop. And luckily for Amy, Minah fell in love with it. The two became extremely close over the next two years and when SM held auditions only a few blocks from their school a year later Amy had the brilliant idea to go audition. Minah was worried about missing school but Amy was very convincing and the two headed over to sign up. However both girls were turned away and were told they weren't "what SM was looking for." Amy complained about it for weeks after, but both girls still enjoyed the music.

When the two graduated a year later, Minah revealed to Amy that she had decided to go to university in South Korea to get a real taste of her parent's culture. She'd arranged to stay with her grandmother while she was there. Amy told her to write every day, and if she saw an audition she should go for it. Minah thought it was silly since she knew she was too big to ever be an idol, but when she landed the first thing she saw was an open audition for JYP Entertainment. It seemed like a sign. And so Minah went to the audition, but while this time they let her actually perform her dancing simply wasn't JYP level and she was rejected in favor of younger and more skilled trainees. However it wasn't for naught as the CEO of Cowl Entertainment had been watching the auditions looking for decently talented girls for his planned girl group, and he caught up with Minah after the audition and offered her a spot at Cowl.

Training

Company: Cowl Entertainment
Backup Company: Elijah Entertainment
Trainee Years: Almost 1 year
Trainee Life: Training was tough for sure, but as a cheerleader the intensity and high energy of rehearsals just felt like another afternoon. The biggest thing for Minah was giving her more vocal stability so she could sing backup (since she really is not a natural singer) and to give her a style of dance to make her stand out. There was also quite a bit of pressure put on her to drop some weight, and while she did loose a few pounds it really wasn't enough, so when Various did debut in early 2016 Minah was not part of the line up. The CEO told her she could keep training with them for the time being but that once her contract was up she would have to leave since the company couldn't afford it. Aware of her limited time, Minah worked twice as hard to improve so she could get into another company after her contract ran out. Because in her time at Cowl she'd genuinely come to love the intensity of the idol world, and she was determined to join it, however long it takes.

Why was she chosen for \/s?: Mostly to get the company's name into the public eye. They know Minah isn't that skilled, but they're hoping her awkward nature will be endearing enough that she'll be able to last and promote the company's girl group "Various" on the show. It's also slightly out of guilt on the CEO's part since she was somewhat promised a debut and then told she was being dropped instead.

Talent Twins

Singing: Rainbow's Jaekyung
Dancing: Rainbow's Jaekyung

Q: Why do you think you were chosen to be on this show?
A: Well, um, I was the only one left? Since Various just debuted and so the other girls are busy with that. And are debuted. So they can't be on the show and all. Why they decided to send me I'm not really sure? Um, I mean I don't think my dancing is that great since really I'm a cheerleader and all. Agh, I mean, maybe they can see more potential in me than I... actually I'll stop talking now.

Q: What would you say your main talent is?
A: I guess dancing is really what I'm good at I think. At least usually flexible girls in KPop are considered good dancers? I-I mean, I don't mean that not being flexible makes you a bad dancer! O-or that being flexible makes you a good dancer or a-anything like t-that. *She turn bright red and buries her face in her hands* S-sorry...

Q: What are you most nervous about concerning the show?
A: Ah, um, probably talking probably. I know I ramble and I stutter when I'm nervous and all and, and that could be bad. And, um, I forget what I was going to say a lot and just go into tangents and then confuse everyone and I'm sorry... *She clamps shut and turns red again* Y-you know, like that...

Q: Is there anything else you'd like to say?
A: Oh, um, sorry for talking so much?