ㅤㅤㅤ˗ˏˋ MAY IS READY TO CONQUER THE WORLD ˎˊ˗
at midnight
at midnight
may'S VER.
© S.M. ENTERTAINMENT CO.,LTD.
DISTRIBUTED BY KT MUSIC CO.,LTD. KOREA.
WARNING: ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. LAYOUT INSPIRED BY
SCHOOL OF ROCK FROM THE LAYOUT MUSEUM.
it's lumiÈre's spring, may!
NAME May Xiao.
OTHER NAMES
chenguang (晨光) Her Chinese name. Used by Chinese speakers within SM.
Shinkwang (신광) Her Korean name. It's very rarely used, most prefer to call her May if they can't pronounce her Chinese name.
spring Resulting from her name, birth month, and bright demeanor, May was awarded with the title of Lumière's Spring. She's known for bringing a refreshing air with her every step and is extremely popular among uncle fans for this reason.
april Perhaps it's the result of being born to American immigrants who thought May was just a pretty name, but unfortunately the month she was named after was not the month she was born in. Resultantly, May has been called April throughout her youth and this trend is being continued by the English speakers within SM.
small With the direct translation of her last name into English meaning small, paired with her small stature, the moniker is employed as both an endearing name and an insult by none other than Wong Yukhei. He towers over her and finds the translation of her surname absolutely hilarious, so the boy has been using various translations of the adjective to call out to May to the point where she questions if he even knows her name. At this point, it's become instinctual for her to respond to any mention of the word small, no matter the language.
BIRTHDATE April Nineteenth, 1999.
BIRTHPLACE San Francisco, California, United States.
HOMETOWN Los Angeles, California, United States.
ETHNICITY Han Chinese.
NATIONALITY American.
LANGUAGES
English Born and raised in California, May is most fluent in English. She speaks it a little slowly compared to most speakers, usually with a deep tone that makes her slow pace more noticeable.
mandarin Being raised by two Chinese immigrants, May spoke Mandarin at home on a daily basis, resulting in conversational fluency in the language. She speaks with a slight American accent that other have poked fun at, but she's been improving her reading and writing literacy so she doesn't mind.
korean Having only begun learning the language upon moving to Korean two years prior to debut, May's Korean is lacking. While she's improving greatly and knows much more than other foreign trainees, she has a tough time grasping idioms and speaking comfortably in formal settings. During interviews and variety shows, she tends towards stepping back and allowing other members to answer questions. However, her confidence grows as her career progresses.
FACE CLAIM Song Yuqi, (G)I-DLE.
BACKUP Liu Xiening, GUGUDAN.
STATURE 159cm & 42kg.
APPEARANCE Petite frame, bright eyes, pale skin, and button nose, May's appearance is often described akin to that of a fairy. It doesn't help that she moves gracefully, airily, and in doing so perpetuates this image of herself. Her hair is worn down and she's dyed it an ash brown, retouching her roots every few weeks until further direction from the company. May works out regularly, resulting toned muscles. Out of the members, she's renown for her 11 abs.
STYLE In the privacy of the dorm, May is known for being the most experimental with her clothing. Her closet consists of fitted crop tops, ripped jeans, and high heels among a plethora of other items. Accessories include large hoop earrings and her favorite chunky necklace. The members poke fun at her for living up to the American stereotype of showing off her body in risqué fashions, noting her especially short shorts for exercise. She enjoys these styles, however, finding the varying, intense range of colors and breadth of styles exhilarating.
That is, if only she were permitted to wear her clothes in public. Following the terrible reception that Lumière received, SM became increasingly controlling of the girls' every action — May's wardrobe is collateral damage. She became restricted to wearing solely clothing that matched her image: feminine. May goes out wearing pastel pinks, blues and white hues; oversized shirts tucked into unripped jeans with simple studs to perpetuate the innocent image she holds for the group. Her fit body goes unnoticed by the public in favor of her delicate features; she becomes the hallmark of spring.
ENTJ.
ENTJ.
ENTJ.
visionary. straightforward.
ambitious. sedulous.
2012 vibrant. charismatic. passionate.
apprehensive. withdrawn. constrained. 2018
think: kim taeyeon
Renown for her cute charms and soft profile, May is made to play up these attributes of her person on camera. She's the refreshing one, youthful and smiling at every twist and turn regardless of what's thrown her way. A voice littered with forced aegyo and creased eyes are the images she projects; images that are the first from Lumière to be well received by the general public. Never one to play up her talents or react extravagantly unless required to, May sits quiet. On a childlike, ized pedestal bestowed upon her by her company, the public has taken it well.
Perhaps the person she once was allows her to reflect the empty shell of her onscreen persona to the world. There are those who remember when she first began the path of her career. Every time she danced, her talent was evident. Watching her was mesmerizing, an alluring stare adorned with such zeal — she left those around her in awe of her abilities. It may have been her youth or her untainted knowledge of the entertainment world, but there was such a spirited tone in each of her words no matter how demanding they were. She empowered those around her with a fiesty spirit. There was sanctity to be found under her direct, harsh words because no matter how much younger she was, no matter how broken her Korean was, she had admirable intentions and grand goals. Beyond social boundaries dictated by age, she was respected.
Nowadays, she feels lost. She still has goals she plows toward. She moves full speed toward improving her dance and language skills, but somewhere between becoming accustomed to the evils of the world and being controlled by the everpresent need to be perfect and cute and everything that holds untrue to her person, she was broken and has lost her identity. Her acting skills have definitely improved she believes, along with her tolerance to the way she is stared at. She finds herself within bounds, removed from comforting novelty and caged in a stereotype. It's there somewhere, she's hopes, her passionate self. But between poor public reception and striving to show her parents that she's definitely okay, bringing about her effervescent past is never paramount.
BACKGROUND Growing up the youngest of three, May is given the most freedom in her choosing. Her older siblings are eleven and eight years to her senior, so the leniency she's given is exponential compared to her Ivy League medical school and Silicon Valley bound siblings. She asks to do gymnastics at five and her parents sign her up right away. Her teacher recommends dancing alongside gymnastics and by the age of nine, she begins learning contemporary dance and excels in it. She loves it.
In November of 2012, she tries her hand at SM Entertainment's Los Angeles global audition where she's a shoo-in trainee. After consulting with her parents and the company, it's agreed upon that she'll complete her middle school education in the states and spend breaks in Korean before ultimately moving to Korea to train full-time. Undoubtedly, her parents proposed this without expecting that she'd enjoy the time she spent at SM enough to completely follow through and move to Korea, but before they know it, her bags are packed and they're seeing her off at the airport.
TRIVIA
one Her role models are BoA and f(x)'s Victoria for their dancing prowess; hopes to one day be known as a dancer with skills on par with the aforementioned.
two Definitely not the best at random play dance. It takes her a while to adjust to the new music and in the meantime, she's usually just standing there with slightly agape as she tries to match the song that's playing with one in her head.
three Has a large amount of personal talents with flexibility, tumbling, and freestyle dance being the ones she's usually showing off. Otherwise, her other talents are impersonating cute viral videos and displaying her overwhelming aegyo.
four Is one of the members who takes the lead during ISAC. As she exercises so often and dances regularly, May is incredibly fit and participates in a few of the track events. However, she's most known for her complicated and precise rhythmic gymnastic performances.
five Luckily born with a fast metabolism, May doesn't diet much. Upon being accepted into SM, May has changed her choice in food to accommodate more healthy foods and has cut back on carb-loaded foods. She cuts back on food intensely prior to and during promotions while exercising to maintain her lithe figure, but when not promoting she eats a normal amount.
six As a trainee, May was allowed to visit home once or twice a year during the holidays, but after debuting, she sees them progressively less and less. Resultantly, she tries harder and holds in a great deal of her sorrows when she is able to see them. The between her and her siblings has rendered their relationship distant and it's no secret that her parents are getting older. So she's always kind when she finds the time to steal and call them; happy and sweet and speaking only of good times no matter how much she's hurting.
seven In her free time, May likes getting away from the building. Before debuting, she would attend dance workshops that she could find around the city. Otherwise, she tends to visit a boba shop near the SM building and get some time to herself.
eight One of the more popular members of Lumière for her cute appearance. Especially popular in their main fanbase, the army and uncle fans, for her adorable speaking tone. Known for bringing the soldiers a refreshing feeling; they're big fans of the moniker Spring.
nine To be added.
may.
may.
may.
lead dancer
& vocalist.
BACKUP Main Dancer, Vocalist.
VOCAL TWIN Hirai Momo, TWICE.
DANCE TWIN Choi Yujin, CLC.
(Backup: May J Lee, 1MILLION.)
TRAINING YEARS Four years.
TRAINING LIFE As one of the few to make it in through SM's Los Angeles global auditions, May was well known amongst the other trainees for being a foreign American, if not for her delicate features that seem paradoxical when put aside her dancing prowess. But going back and forth between America and Korea her first year of training made it difficult to fit in among the other trainees so for the first year, May made it through without many friends.
All the while, she struggled. With learning the language and practicing a new type of dance, May found it difficult to feel completely at ease while she was a part of SM. But she wasn't about to quit.
Upon moving to Korea within the next year, May made enormous progress in all her goals. Her Korean skills improved as she forced herself to speak to other trainees more and after a few mistakes made in confusing informal and formal speech, May was getting the hang of the language and simultaneously making friends. It wasn't easy, nothing of worth did, but in pursuit of becoming big and making a career out of the dance she loved so much, May persisted, optimistic.
During her time as a trainee, she didn't have the easiest time meeting people who were willing to put up with her constant questions and confusions, so for the first few years, she found solace in Moon Jangmi. Through her, she met a multitude of English speaking trainees and used her own will to befriend the Chinese speaking ones in her language classes. It took her years, but finally, finally, May began to find her place in SM.
It all didn't fit according to plan, of course. SM trains her to use her voice in a nasally, girlish manner that would attract older male fans. They tell her to act docile: quiet and smiling. Always maintain a composed manner no matter how much something irks her, no matter how much comments thrown at her during variety shows threaten her conscious and infuriate her. She's taught to trip up her Korean even when she knows exactly what she's saying, taught to speak with aegyo to garner attention. She hates it and she protests but time breaks her down. Slowly, tripping up her Korean becomes habit. She despises this change she finds in herself, but she'll do anything to attain a debut.
Before she knows it, she is in line to debut and she couldn't have been more thrilled.
REACTION TO BOYCOTT For someone with such a quixotic outlook on her prospective career, the boycott took a toll on May's mentality. She had hoped to receive mostly positive attention; small negative things she could brace herself for. It's a confusing influx of emotions that she's flooded with, too much all at once. The continuation of it over the next days, weeks, months threatens to break her until it finally does. She, who had questioned the intentions between being coaxed and conditioned in acting cute, caves. Onscreen, she presents the image she's told to without complaint. Behind the scenes, she remains a shell of her former self as the onslaught on comments pour in. They don't know me, I've never met them in my life. Thoughts of why plague her daily until she's terrified of being anything different from the small, ized Chinese girl the public is beginning to love. Her only outlet is dance and she hopes it never gets taken away.
IDOL ACTIVITY
backup dancer Served as a backup dancer to various SM artists at SMTown concerts and other live performances. This feat was not noticed until a few years into Lumière's debut.
ARTICLES
a refreshing fairy in lumiÈre's midst Written during their summer comeback of A Luminous Summer, this forum post was written by a soldier who had recently exited the army and was captured by May's dance skills and stage presence. Attached to the post was a fancam of May taken during their performance. Attention was focused on her bright smile and fanservice. The post garnered decent attention and propelled a niche corner of Naver to share facts and pictures of the female idol. Gradually, more posts like this popped up and May's popularity grew.
other With how careful May is with maintaining her image and abiding by SM's rules, there has yet to be a negative article written about her aside from those that defame Lumière as a group. (However, if you think there's something that needs to be written, please do so!)
moon jangmi
moon jangmi
One of the first people she's introduced to upon entering SM, May's relieved to meet an English speaker — and an unbelievably kind one at that. For someone like May, with pride that teeters on the edge of stupidity, she's young. Lonely. Her parents are on the other side of the world and she can only call them and depend on them so often. It comes easily then, the comfort she finds in Jangmi. It's probably due to the similarity in native tongue, May would try to convince herself, but she knows that above all else, she trusts and confides in Jangmi with nearly everything.
They're not friends, May is blatantly and sadly aware of that fact: the culture has placed a barrier on that possibility given the social ethics of age, but that doesn't stop May from enjoying any time she can spend with her pseudo-mom, hoping that she'd one day depend on the younger girl too. Just a bit.
mark lee
mark lee
Introduced through Jangmi, Mark and May are akin to siblings. It stemmed from the fact that Jangmi had chosen to "adopt" the two of them as her children, but it wasn't long before the two established a good rapport through time spent learning Korean and practicing dance.
Although May's never had a younger brother, she treats Mark like one. Making sure to ruffle his hair from the time he was barely taller than her to now — when he's towering over her and tip-toeing so she can't reach him at all. They were spotted together much too often as trainees, leading to raised brows, but with their growing distance as Mark grows busier, it's become widely known that their relationship is purely platonic. That, of course, doesn't help the heavy heart May carries whenever he excuses himself from sharing a bucket of chicken with her to practice yet another comeback.
qian kun
qian kun
If Jangmi is May's mom, Kun is... also May's mom. Having joined SM a few years after her, May and Dejun are quick to jump to an oppurtunity to latch onto another Chinese trainee. Out of them, Kun seems the most approachable. He falls into stride with the two of them, studying Korean in their free time and helping the two with vocal training.
It isn't until Kun cooks for them one day, along with a few other Chinese trainees, that the moniker Mom is coined. As much as Kun hates being called it (it gets worse when they chorus MoOOOoMm together), he loves the idiotic bunch with all his heart. They reciprocate every ounce of it.
(He's been noticing her changes. He wants to confront her about it, but he can only do so much without repercussions.)
xiao dejun
xiao dejun
Despite having the same surname, May and Dejun are far from being related. That, however, doesn't halt the bond between the two of them. Dejun joins SM shortly after May and the two are quick to bond. Where Mark is busy with all the responsibilities he holds as SM's star trainee, Dejun has more time to practice with her. Choppy Mandarin aside, the two spend late nights talking as best they can about their homes, their families, and dreaming of the bright future ahead of them. In all honesty, it's this stringent belief that Dejun holds in her that propels her to keep going during training and after debut.
Their relationship, as close as they were, unfortunately finds itself faltering. Slowly but surely, she sees him less as she begins promoting more. She avoids him more as she's told to do, but on those nights that May's able to sneak into a deserted practice room with takeout from Yupdduk, the pair can stay up forever. Talking, just catching up, and cheering each other forth.
When she's around him, May finds that she can be sincere. A side effect of having a best friend? Possibly. But Dejun is the only person she has been upfront and honest with about her deteriorating self confidence and willpower. He wishes he could do something more for her.
lucas.
lucas.
lucas.
enfp. diplomatic. flirtatious.
tactless. vivacious.
Bursting with energy, Lucas is living evidence that a child can doubly exist with a teenage boy in a man's body. He's the embodiment of the class clown that, while hilarious, eventually tires everyone out. Untimely laughs and extravagent ideas comprise his being, but he's easily forgiven when he pulls out his childish demeanor. He's reminiscent of a two year old at times, but there are the rare instances where he tethers himself into reality and becomes accessible. It's in these moments, moments where he bravely bares his heart, that have pulled May Xiao in and provoked her into falling in love when she couldn't risk it.
NOW PLAYING: THERE'S NO WAY
They meet when he enters the company in 2014. He's a new student in her language class and he speaks in a amalgamation of languages and in ostentatious gestures. She laughs. He turns to her and grins.
He pokes her as their teacher is lecturing, slipping her notes in different languages and completely unaware that she can understand them all. It isn't until he tries, and utterly fails, to write something in Japanese that's not at all Japanese but poorly romanized spelt Japanese that she snorts. It's untimely, because their teacher had just made a mistake, and May is scolded for it. She tries to hold a grudge against him when he comes up to her a few days later to apologize, once again in all his languages. She can't stay mad for long. ("It's okay. Don't worry about it.")
His name is Wong Yukhei, Huang Xuxi, or Lucas Wong and she settles on calling him all of the above. She assumes he's a terrible student and she's right. Every time she turns to him during their class, his mouth is half open and he's staring into space or doodling with a concentrated face. But he's undeniably adorable and, for once, she can't find it in herself to care that someone isn't working properly.
(Plus, when he looks up at her occasionally and squints and grins and goes back to doodling, she knows he's drawing her. He shows her after class with an abrupt and excited "look at this!" and it's absolute garbage but there's just something so sincere and right about who he is and how he is and she just can't stay away.)
NOW PLAYING: THOUGHT OF U
As clear as day, the memory sits in her mind. They're alone in a practice room at two in the morning and, for once, it's quiet. She's sitting against the mirror, legs splayed out and scrolling through SNS on her phone. Quirking an eyebrow, she looks up at the boy who's sitting cross-legged and staring at her intensely.
"What's up?"
"I- uh, no. Nothing."
She stares at him for a heartbeat and he swears he just skips one in that moment. "I think you should date me."
("Maybe. If you want. It's up to you. If you, uh, consent.")
There's some sort of irony in the most flirtatious guy she knows asking her out in the most awkward way, further propelled by his need to justify his questionable statement and the clumsy execution of both. He's red from his eyebags to the tips of his ears. He's just about to run out in embarrassment and text her about retracting his statement when she laughs.
"Yes, dear god, yes. I'd never say anything but yes."
Every single smile she's ever seen from the boy in front of her was wide. Toothy. But in that moment there was something ethereal about seeing him under the dim lighting of the practice room. Even when he throws his body back and whoops and cheers and covers his red face with his hands, he doesn't break the moment.
She does, however, when she crawls over to kiss him.
NOW PLAYING: HURT SOMEBODY
It hurts like this. Pretending that things are fine when they aren't. He's just as beautiful under the rising sun as he was every single moment they'd spent together. She reaches out and tucks stray hairs behind his ear and giggles when they spring back into a messy bedhead.
"Hey," she starts, running her thumb over his cheek, "thank you. For everything."
She pauses, staring at him with a sad smile on her face. He's still asleep and unaware of her words. "I love you."
Leaning in to kiss him one last time, she reaches up to wipe a stray tear and gently unwinds his arms from around her waist. He gives her a light squeeze and she freezes but then he loosens his grip and she feels... sad. If he held on she could've stayed longer.
Quietly, she lets herself out unaware of the tears that left the corner of his eye. She was debuting in two months; she didn't have time to cry over him, not when they've talked about this and agreed that this would be their end. But there were tears streaming down her cheeks and she wished they'd met elsewhere, under different circumstances, and their demise would've been something that made her hate him. Or something that made him hate her. But he whispered that he would always support her last night and she could barely hold her ground.
Her willpower was slipping and she needed to get away.
THE ENDING Possible endings:
ONE They stay as they are, broken up and still in love. They never reconnect and move on to other partners.
two After he debuts, they see each other again. More often. But there's something different about her and he notices right away. He moves to act and tries to fix her and bring her back, but they just result more broken than before. (Note: him trying to 'fix' a broken May really, really wouldn't work early on in either of their careers. For one, he's too busy and most likely stuck in the past. Chances of them idealizing each other like this are high)
three Friends. They support each other like this. It's not easy, and there's surely some resistance, but they're not the same and they need to grow.
four Honestly, the path their relationship goes is all up to you.
THE LITTLE THINGS
one Part one occurs when he enters the company, he asks her out in early 2015, and they date for about a year and a half before breaking up prior to Lumière's debut.
two Their relationship was a violation of their contract at the time. Resultantly, only Jangmi, Kun, and Dejun knew about their relationship. Because the two ran in the same friend circles at SM, they kept the knowledge of their relationship restrained to these three and no one else.
three For the both of them, this was their first serious relationship. Lucas had gone on a few dates with other girls in Hong Kong, but May was the first person he got into a relationship with and can say that he love(d).
four Most of their dates were in their dorms or by the Han River at night. Because they were both trainees, not many people recognized them and they just looked like any other high school couple.
five They had a few couple items, namely baseball caps and keychains that they kept on their bags. After their breakup, May stowed away all the belongings that reminded her of him in a letter box and hid it deep in her closet. She takes it out from time to time.
six To be added.
COMMENTS hihi! i did rush a lot when writing this app, so i apologize for confusion or any inconsistencies you might find ꒰๑•̥﹏•̥๑꒱ please tell me if anything is unclear! i do think that may is a bit of a messy character, and it's definitely hard to find the entj in her, but i promise you she's there (albeit barely). she's suffering from a lot of hardships and that translates to her choices and relationships. she's comprised of a lot of irony (aside from her name and birth month), which makes me sad for her and i really do hope she gets better (ó﹏ò｡) sorry for submitting such an emo character and i hope you can find some enjoyment in reading her ー( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ
i'll be rereading this app soon to check for grammatical and spelling errors~
also, if lucas isn't available as a l/i, may will be single! you can just get rid of their relationship entirely if it doesn't fit~
SCENE REQUESTS i'll think up of some later~~
˗ˏˋ yaegis mo three ˎˊ˗
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