name 김 다영 (Kim Dayoung)

nicknames

1. Daya

Her family and friends called her this ever since she was little. It was a cute nickname that shortened her  name. But also, it reminded her of Zendaya, who is basically her idol when it comes to being in the public eye and a leader to EMPIRE. Nowadays it's used interchangeably with her full name and was even used by some of YG's instructors.

2. YG's worst kept secret

She debuted so early into her training period and was pulled back quickly. Then she trained and trained for years, to the point where people questioned if anything was going to happen again. When Blackpink was announced someone had the scoop that she was still at YG and the internet wondered, if she was going to be a part of it. Then Blackpink came and went, was well off into the world and the people that remembered Dayoung were confused. She dubbed herself YG's worst kept secret, it caught on at the company and she thinks somebody tweeted it, so once again it reached the internet. Worst kept secret of all time.

3. Ricket

This is a nickname only Jongbin, Yonghwa and Yuna get to call her. Her friends were teasing Dayoung with the fact that her and her then-girlfriend Hayoung's names were near identical. The only defining feature was the D and, well, that spiraled into a joke. Never said they were classy. That led to a discussion about other nicknames for Richard. At first she was Ricky, until Jongbin came along and suggested Ricket - after all Dayoung had a tendency to make a racket and also it sounded more fun.

birthday february 21 - 1993

birthplace Seoul, South Korea

hometown Seoul, South Korea

ethnicity korean

nationality korean

languages

1. korean. native speaker

2. english. fluent, got lessons at YG since she was 18, lightly accented

3. thai - conversational, got lessons at YG since she was 20

faceclaim Wheein (Mamamoo)

backup Jimin (AOA)

height 174 cm

weight 61 kg

appearance An upturned nose and a sly smile are framed by hair that was cut to chin length a few months ago. She only got her ears pierced when she joined YG and still regularly forgets to wear any earrings. She's pretty used to wearing colored contact lenses, though. She started wearing the ones that blank out your iris to freak out her friends when she was younger, so she's figured out how to wear them well. She's not as muscular as she used to be, having not trained for martial arts in years and eating unhealthy diets. Still, the managers have made sure she's healthy and looks good.

fashion style

To the public, she's considered  pretty great at fashion. Maybe not the groups' top fashion queen, but definitely not bad. In truth that is all the work of stylists and her friends. As soon as no cameras are on her, she is buried in jeans, t-shirts and hoodies. When Jongbin moved out and they had to separate their closets, he remarked, that it was probably for the best, that she was into women, because any potential boyfriend would have lost his entire wardrobe to her. He, as a roommate had already had to give up a few shirts. To remember you by, she had said, pirouetted and kissed him on the cheek and he had said sure, in a voice dripping with sarcasm and fond amusement.

In music videos and on stage, she's often assigned outfits meant to be y because she's one of the older members and isn't too shy about her body.

Airport fashion is the area in which she struggles the most because if you ask her, flying should be comfortable above all else. But oh no, it's just another place to be photographed and scrutinized online. So she usually goes all makeover montage, trying on ten different outfits and dragging some poor sod into helping her choose. But hey, it works.

traits

positive

1. funny

2. mature

3. caring

4. loyal

5. confident

6. shrewd

neither here nor there

1. deadpan

2. tough

3. to the point

4. hates relying or leaning on others, fiercely independant

negative

1. reserved

2. blunt

3. wary

4. bad at sugarcoating

5. doesn't like showing vulnerability

6. aloof

references

1. Gryffindor

2. Chaotic Good Half-Elven Illusion Witch

personality

Growing up, Dayoung was brash and unkempt. She was funny and adventurous, but didn't do too well with authority, which landed her in her fair share of trouble. With time she learned to be more mannered. In her late teens and early twenties she grew up a lot, became much more ready to talk, rather than jumping straight into an argument. In fact, she's become a pretty staunch supporter of ask questions first, then punch, if you really still want to. And 99%, that last part is just a joke. Unless they punch first. Or hurt someone you love. Or push you into traffic. Or scam your parents out of money.  Or they literally ask you to punch them. You know, judge the situation and don't be a .

She's also become better at remembering that everyone she interacts with, is also just a person. She used to hold grudges, but really, everyone's human and in the grand scheme of things few things are worth getting genuinely angry about.
One of the few things she has not managed to completely get over, however, is a lot of her school friends dropping her in order to appear like better students to the teachers. To this day, she has little tolerance for those, who are only out for themselves, or will leave their friends in the dust to get ahead.

While she isn't necissarily generous because she is so weary and slow to trust, she is quite giving, once she does trust. Any charity has to undergo the scrutiny of close research, before they get anything. But once they've passed her tests, they do get a fair bit. Once EMPIRE has a bit of traction, she's already thinking about starting a charity thing. Maybe a yearly concert? Or a live-stream covering Christmas songs? There's a few ideas floating around in her head.

When Dayoung was at university, she spent a fair amount of time around stages. As such, she has developed an on-stage and an at-home aspect of her personality, a professional side and a casual side, if you will. When the cameras turn towards her, she replaces fingerguns and curt nods with sly winks and flips of her hair. When she first debuted as a solo artist, she slowly learned to be a lady. Though she scoffed at the idea in the beginning, class and an ethereal confidence now come to her rather naturally. She no longer minds dresses, makeup, easy smiles and composure. Although she does appreciate that she gets to let loose around her old college friends and some of EMPIRE.

Dayoung has always portrayed herself. Her personality has always been halfway a show, for others to grin at, to recognize certain story beats and clichees and to know what to expect of her next. First, she was argumentative and untamed, then articulate and responsible. In reality, of course, she is both and swaps between the two or lets them bleed into each other, as she sees fit. But let us consider for a moment, the show. For all the condescending glances she used to get and often provoked herself, one trait was always crammed to the back, hurriedly hidden between the sofa cussions  and ignored until she was alone again. That was vulnerability, pulled from the pillows in moments Dayong has to herself. Around her college friends she is tough and unbreakable, around EMPIRE she is a role model and an unafraid shoulder to lean on. Never are there cracks in these personas she has constructed for herself. Well, that's not true. But she'd like there to be none. She'd like to forget the moments the mask has slipped. The fact that her on-camera persona includes little vulnerability, she has been criticized for being aloof, for floating a step above people's everyday problems and acting like it, too. Which isn't completely wrong. She has a little trouble with empathy, or at least stumbles over her words when she's sincere and that is something she's not willing to let the public see.

All in all, the persona she embodies around her college friends and some specific friends, that can deal with occasioanl roasting and arguing vs the one she shows on camera, in professional settings and to people she feels responsible for, like a majority of the members of EMPIRE, are two sides of the same coin nowadays. The latter was a fake it 'till you make it sort of thing and she is comfortable with every version of herself, just a little worried of seeming fake.

background 

Born the daughter of a maths teacher and the owner of a martial arts dojo, Dayoung was rigidly raised to try to understand the world and have self-control. What she actually learned, was to act like she understood more than she did and to drop self-control and etiquette as soon as her parents were looking the other way. She was a brash and over-confident. Her devil-may-care attitude promised adventure to all those, who would be her friends. And once she had taken them into her heart, she was protective of them, as though it was second nature. And whenever she said anything heartfelt or tried to express how much they meant for her, she fumbled for words with an awkward sincerity, that let you know, that she meant every word. At school, she was bored a lot and really had to bite her tongue a lot, when it came to respecting authority. That wasn't well recieved by the teachers, her parents, or her friends' parents. Some of her friends stopped associating in school, only hanging out after. Essentially having to face the pressure of the Korean education system with a very limited support network, made her fall further into her worst habits. She graduated with mediocre grades, leaving behind mostly confused teachers, who weren't sure if her confidence and willingness to speak up would land her in serious trouble or in an influential position in the future. Music was the only class she had excelled in and the only class she truly loved. Over the past year, she had formed a plan and as she stepped out those doors for the last time, she had only two goals. Number one: get the out of her parents' house, to get away from the worried glances they cast her way, their control and to prove that her independent nature would ensure she stood on her own two feet. Number two: study something with music. So she applied to a bunch of universities in South Korea for various music related programs and after a few rounds of auditions was accepted into Korea National University of Arts for Composing. Dayoung was thrilled and surprised. She hadn't thought she would get in with her grades being just okay, but her performances at the auditions and interviews had been convincing enough. Studying composing comes with learning an instrument. While most around her chose guitars, pianos, classical Korean instruments and typical orchestra instruments, Dayoung had interesting criteria. She picked the saxophone. Because it can be kind of y, if you're into that and more importantly if it's actually played well. Which leads nicely into the main reason she chose it. Because it would take quite a bit of practice to get the hang of and it would annoy the out of her neighbours in the meantime. What more could you possibly want? A side-effect that she forgot to plan for, was the fact that she now actually plays really well. The next step was finding neighbours to annoy, aka finding a place to live. After scouring multiple ads and getting referred by places she didn't get into, she got lucky. Kang Jongbin was smart and collected, a far cry from Dayoung's wild grins and loud humor. But he wasn't shocked by her, he mearly chuckled and delivered his own jokes in such a deadpan fashion, she almost didn't catch them. In ten minutes they had gone from talking about cleaning plans to arguing about movies. After a little while, Dayoung marched over to the TV, threw a movie in, slammed herself down on the sofa and skipped the movie to a certain spot to illustrate the point she was making. He wouldn't stop laughing and when she asked him what was so funny, he replied At this point you're basically already living here. Just promise me you'll calm down a bit, yeah? Her eyes had grown wide and she had hugged him. He hadn't responded, but had smiled and said Let's go get your and they had piled into the train to go grab her suitcases from her parents' house. Her parents weren't that thrilled that she was living with a man, especially one three years her senior. So she just assured them, she could kick his , if he tried anything. It was still rather scandalous, so her parents, knowing she wouldn't listen to them anyway, just made her promise to keep it a secret and pretend she was living with a girl. She mostly kept that promise up until the moment she invited her better friends to hang out at the apartment.

At university, Dayoung soon fell in love with both her classes and the musical scene. As often as she could, she hung out at their rehearsals. She helped people go over lines, helped set up the stage and listened to the older composing students talk about their work. So when the time came to perform and a minor role was too sick to sing, it seemed only natural to ask the student with the good voice, who knew every word, to jump in, just for that night. After the show, she was approached by a YG representative. She was surprised, talked it through with Jongbin and her parents. Eventually she decided to go to an audition, mostly because she didn't expect to get in. After all, her friends were going to a bunch of auditions for their respective disciplines and only got a small percentage of the parts they auditioned for. Plus, it would be a way to practice dealing with rejection and then testing her perceverence. It took three auditions to get a callback. Once she did, she once again took a few hours to consider, if she wanted to keep trying this. Because it was suddenly becoming more of a reality. She came to the conclusion that as long as she was allowed to keep studying, she would take the offer. That time, she got in. Training was interesting. On the one hand, Dayoung was a good singer and loved her singing lessons. On the other hand, everything else was rather difficult for her. And she was suddenly back in a position where she had to take a lot of criticism and was expected to have composure. It took a month or so and some stern talking-to, but she eventually managed to accept, that the instructers only wanted to help her and that she would inevitably be dropped from the company, if she kept this up. The change in attitude allowed her to grow her abilities or excel those that were already good.

Some people at university were involved in South Korea's underground rap scene and started dragging Dayoung along. She mostly hung out and listened, sang some choruses here and there. Signing with a kpop company initially lost her a lot of street cred, but since she had always been pretty clear about the fact, that she was mostly just there to hang, it wasn't seen as as much of an insult. In fact, she began to sing choruses for a few tracks here and there. That was also how she met her now ex-girlfriend, Lee Hayoung. They were good together for quite a while. They were secretly together all through uni, debut, hiatus, comeback and the eventual demise of her solo career and a few mixtapes and her own uni graduation for Hayoung. Shortly after, things fell apart. Hayoung's career wasn't working out that well, Dayoung was having a hard time dealing with the fact that she was back in training. They started fighting more and more and eventually called it quits. They crossed paths briefly at a party and in the supermarket, said hello and went on with their lives. For a few days after the breakup, Dayoung blasted Hamilton's Satisfied through the flat, singing sadly over it and would listen to nothing else. Jongbin walked in on the second day and deadpanned Do I need to beat her up? Dayoung let out a snort of laughter, giggled and sniffed because as much as she loved him, she didn't think he was capable of beating up anyone ever. After a small grin, he stepped in, sang the male parts and spun her around the living room in a waltz.

But let's do a little rewinding of our own and focus on Dayoung's solo career. To this day, she's quite proud of what she managed, but is the first to awknoledge that it was both badly timed and not all that thought through and she's glad she got the chance to train more. Dayoung had thought she'd be used to spotlight, as she had been on stage a fair few times for uni productions, and had had judging eyes on her since early childhood. But being scrutinized on an international level was a little more, than she had expected. Still, she held her head high and braved stages and interviews with poise and composure, only cracking the occasional joke. After a long hiatus and a somewhat controversial song, she was just no longer financially viable. She was both sad and angry, but she didn't know where to direct those feelings. So she whined to her friends, worked out through martial arts and bit her teeth together and poured her soul into training. She had fallen and she was going to get up again, damnit, and she was going to do it so much stronger, than anyone could ever imagine. Then Blackpink came and went and years passed and she was worried. But Dayoung was too proud and too much of a sore loser to give up. Which has payed off nicely now.

likes

1. musicals

2. polaroid photography

3. performing

4. various martial arts

5. stand-up comedy

6. baking & making desserts

dislikes

1. fakeness

2. rom-coms

3. forced positivity

4. wearing anything fancy in a more casual setting

5. chocolate ice cream

habits

1. doing weird voices in the shower

2. flipping a coin if others take too long to make decisions

3. baking when she's too stressed out

4. beatboxing terribly whenever someone's supposed to freestyle

5. taking forever to text people back

hobbies

1. singing

2. martial arts

3. baking

4. going to concerts

5. running

fears

1. She's afraid to seem weak and to falter in front of her members. It wasn't so bad, when it was just her, but now she has so much responsibility. And as one of the oldest, she's afraid of being anything but strong and reliable for her members.

Akin to that, the fact that she is now a role-model is exhilarating and terrifying to her.

2. On a similar note, she's run into a problem she's not used to. Suddenly being in the public eye, she's scared of her uality being revealed to the masses. She'd love to just say it and to hell with anyone, who would judge her for it. And if she honestly thinks about it, YG is one of the only agencies she can think of that just might have her back. Maybe. But being the leader of an up-and-coming kpop group, a co-ed group no less, she knows better than most that they need to be financially viable if they want a shot at making it in this industry. And as much as she'd love to give gay kids out there the idea that there's really nothing wrong with loving who you love, she knows it may well sink EMPIRE and she's not willing to take that risk.

3. That one of the members becomes or is involved in serious controversy. Not only would it harm the whole group, it would probably be very hard to handle for the affected person. And although she would try to support them through a lot, some things are considered unforgivable in this industry. She really just doesn't want to lose anyone.

trivia

1. her favorite driving music is the Baby Driver soundtrack. It used to be her ex' mixtape, but yeah no...

2. Dayoung is very good at imitating accents and tends to practice them by singing in accent. She's still waiting for the day she slips up and does a silly voice on stage.

3. she's a mediocre cook and a pretty good baker, but her lemon-meringue tarts are absolutely fantastic.

4. Dayoung lip-synchs Hamilton in the mirror and even sings and raps out loud when she thinks no one can hear her.

5. her favorite film is The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. After her last breakup, she invited her two best friends and parodied the typical rom-com-marathon with tubs of ice cream, by instead marathoning Clint Eastwood films and eating a frightening amount of rice cakes.

6. she carries a flip-phone in her purse at all times, in case something happens to her smartphone. Also, she thinks it makes her look like a spy, or like she has something to hide, which she thinks is funny.

7. she has huge admiration for Lee Hi, who managed what she couldn't do at an even younger age.

8. When she was younger, she wanted to be a cinematographer. Once her good singing voice was discovered, she fell in love with music and changed that dream to composer.

9. She listens to Panic at the Disco for the music. Yuna introduced them to her. One day, she'd love to cover Emperor's New Clothes, but she's not sure she could get the lyrics past YG. The other song she really wants to cover lately, Never Enough from The Greatest Showman seems a lot safer.

10. She's really pushing for  a saxophone part in one of EMPIRE's songs, even if it's just in the background. Because she is going to go off.

11. She enjoys being on variety shows and is always quite fun, friendly and subtly supportive of members, who get anxious in the spotlight. Although some viewers have remarked that it feels a little too professional and polished, that her actual personality may be hidden somewhere beneath a put upon on-camera version of her. They're certainly observant, she'll give them that.

12. Dayoung is very responsible and thought through when it comes to making decisions that concern the whole group as their leader. She is also very irresponsible and impulsive when her descisions affect only/mostly only her. Like choosing to join Lee Hi on diets that were not made for her and strongly considering doing the same for some of the other members with the harshest diets. Cause , if that's a fight Jaeho can't win against their higher-ups and YG is going to stick perfectly healthy kids on diets, Dayoung is at least going to share the suffering.

13. Her favorite word in the whole world is darling. Because it can be really sweet, really y or really condescending or all of the above, just depending on your intonation. She absolutely loves that. And yet, she tries to keep the usage of the word to a minimum, so that it doesn't lose its impact.

14. She reads every contract or Terms of Service agreement carefully. On the one hand, she is a role model and should be responsible. On the other hand, she just wants to know no one can with her without her seeing it coming.

15. Her parents sent her to a lot of martial arts tournaments, when she was younger. She still likes sparring, when she finds the time.

16. She has a love-hate relationship with alcohol. She quite likes casual drinking with friends and always has. But after the breakup, she turned into a really heavy drinker over a longer period of time. It eventually took her closest friends ganging up on her and telling her, that she had a problem and she  needed to fix it, for her to realize that she was drinking in unhealthy amounts and was unsure how to stop. So she, her friends and manager worked together to ease her off alcohol and after she remained sober for a few years. Recently she's started to casually drink again in very controlled amounts. Whenever she's in a bad mood or sad or in a negative mindset, she refuses alcohol because she has seen herself spiral.

relations 

The Dudes

1. talk less, smile more

Bang Yonghwa - 26 years old - choreographer for stage productions - friends for seven years

Everything he does, has a flair of the dramatic, the theatrical. Honestly, it's still hard to believe that he didn't study acting, instead learned to choreograph. Then again, Dayoung has no doubt he'd work as a drag queen, if they lived in a less homophobic country. They met in their second year of uni when Dayoung composed for a multi-faculty musical he was one of the choreographers for. It was a bit of a mess for a while, but they pulled multiple all-nighters in random bars and then spent the early hours before class sorting through their notes, trying to figure out what was good ideas and what was drunken stupidity. Yonghwa's main goal is to make people happier, but if he gets to  mess with people along the way, he will. Dayoung, who takes life a bit more seriously and often winds up in arguments with people, is regularly annoyed by him, which he takes with mischievous delight.

2. A million dreams for the world we're gonna make

Kang Jongbin - 29 years old - history teacher - best friends for nine years

Jongbin was Dayoung's roommate when she first moved to Seoul. Where she is outspoken and blunt, he is reserved and good with words. But they both share a cynical honesty and strong ambitions and soon decided to be best friends and allies in this rush of growing up. When she was nineteen and he was twenty-two, they made a pact to hold each other to their ideals and morals, should they ever stray. He never talks about his family and she doesn't ask. Well, he does talk about his new family: a year ago, he married Kang Yuna, who studied stage design while Dayoung was at university. The two had a daughter a few months ago.

3. now that we're friends, I've decided to make you my new project

Kim Yuna - 25 years old - stage designer - friends for eight years

Kind, considerate and artistic with a good portion of mischief that immedeately won her Dayoung's friendship. And after a while, Jongbin's heart. Usually, Yuna would have been listed as a friend, rather than one of the dudes because she's far too sweet and girly to be considered one of the guys. But since she got together with Jongbin four and a half years ago, married him last year and now have a wonderful daughter together, she's become an honorary dude. She's a sweetheart and a sweet-tooth, constantly exchanging recipes with Dayoung. Yuna was also the person Dayoung rushed to in a panic to teach her how to be more girly, when she was supposed to debut as a solo artist. Ever since, they've considered themselves two out of three Schuyler Sisters and tend to annoy their friends by greeting each other in song every once in a while. Though Yonghwa has started jumping in as a very warbly voiced Peggy, which usually throws the girls into fits of giggles.

4. And you'll blow us all away, someday, someday

Kang Kyuri - seven months - babby - honorary niece for seven months

There isn't too much you can say about a baby, except that Dayoung cares about this child even more than she would have ever expected. Because of her strict schedule, she hasn't been able to see Kyuri, or to help out by babysitting as much as she would have liked and her friends deserve. But Jongbin and Yuna were still kind enough, to consider her an honorary aunt. Which of their sister she's meant to be is still unclear.

YG fam

1. Lee Hayi - 22 years old - soloist - friends for almost nine years

Dayoung started training a year before Hayi debuted and silently thought it must be tough to have that much attention and criticism thrown at you at age fourteen. Fourteen year old Dayoung certainly couldn't have handled it. So she swore to herself to help the younger girl out where she could. So she stepped up and became a strange sort of friend/older sister figure that display quite possibly being part of the reason, she was appointed one of EMPIRE's leaders today. Dayoung herself was only eighteen at the time and some of her choices may not have been the smartest either: there were multiple occasions on which she insisted on going on the same diet as her friend, in order to share the burden, despite having quite different body types. And good luck to anyone, who tried to convince her not to do that. In an ironic twist of fate, Hayi became Dayoung's guide a few months later, when she debuted herself, but after that failed, they went back to their old dynamic pretty quickly.

2. Lee Yunso - 25 years old - leader and main rapper of c2c - friends for about five years

They've known each other since the time they both hung out around the underground rap scene. They're at that sibling-like stage of friendship where they bicker constantly, not helped by the fact that they can both be pretty blunt and outspoken. Dayoung tried helping Yunso cook a few times during their trainee years, but it would always devolve into him snapping at her, that she was doing things wrong and her getting annoyed and just eating the ingredients raw. Not great times. So they no longer cook together, but Dayoung enables his sweet tooth by bringing him leftovers from whatever she baked or whatever dessert she made. They also take terrible pictures together every time they hang out, but Dayoung will not let him near her polaroid camera because film is expensive as . He is also the only person at the company that she is officially out to. He did meet her while she was dating a woman and every time he mentions that he wouldn't date any of c2c's members, if he was a girl, she says huh, neither would I. He usually feels very validated for a moment, before he remembers, groans, laughs, punches her arm and calls her an .

3. I know what I'm here for, follow, follow me

Jason Shin - 25 years old - main dancer, lead vocal, visual of EMPIRE - friends for about a year

These two have met their match in each other. Both of them push their argumentative and filterless natures aside to be role models and offer support to both EMPIRE's fans and members. If EMPIRE were running from a monster, Jason and Dayoung would work together to boost everyone else over a wall and then bicker about which one of them would help the other, until it was too late and they both got eaten. They've also mostly dropped any acts around each other and are comfortable playfully roasting each other. Honestly, once no one else is involved, the two will bicker like an old married couple. A lot of their day to day interactions happen in passing. She's walking from one room to the next, sees him on a computer. She asks him, what the international kpop community is saying about EMPIRE and he'll usually say something like They think you . She'll laugh, give him the finger and keep walking. She does try to look out for him where she can because she knows masking any vulnerability isn't easy and she's noticed he's much quicker to listen to other's problems than share his own. She doesn't exactly know that he's insecure about his looks, but she guesses as much. If she notices him fretting over a mirror too long, when they're getting ready, she'll amble over, throw an arm around his shoulders and say You look lovely today, darling. Can I borrow this shirt? You know, trying to give an ego boost, but keeping it casual. At this point she has a decent grasp on his fashion sense and will occasionally buy him shirts she thinks he'll like when she's out, to make up for the amount of times she's borrowed his. In return, he's dragged her out of bed to spar sometimes, seeing as they both do martial arts. They also write songs together sometimes, but considering there's a saxophone involved there's a limited number of hours in a day when it won't get them kicked out of the dorm.

the non-YG darlings

1. Cause you get up in the morning get ahead then get to bed and then you do it all again until the moment that you drop

Bang Yongguk - 28 years old - ex-member of BAP - friends for almost eight years

They  met during the writing process of Dayoung's second single, Going Crazy. Having worked with rappers before, albeit in a far less professional and lower budget setting, working with Yongguk was almost like falling into an old rhythm. She took a liking to the guy quickly, honestly he reminded her of Jongbin. On the other hand, she felt like he was a little put off by her, so she dropped any facade and became more the Dayoung her college friends get to see. The switch of atmosphere was noticeable and they got along much better. At the end of the whole process, they considered each other friends. Although they both have a lot on their plates and aren't the best at texting back quickly, they managed to keep a casual friendship going somehow. During the trainee years following the end of her soloist career, she was mixed into the crowds for a lot of BAP's Seoul shows, having a ing blast. Usually he'd text her something like I saw you, you know. And she'd shoot back Good eyes, man. I didn't even see myself, I was dancing so fast. To which she'd get a tiredly amused That makes no sense. And she'd laugh and let him rest because live concerts are really exhausting. Now that he has left TS and EMPIRE is debuting, they try to be part of each other's support network and help each other where they can. Honestly, it's tough, because they're both going through a radical change in life, but it, they try.

what lies in the past

1. thanks for the memories, even though they weren't so great

Lee Hayoung - 26 years old - ex-artist in the underground rap scene, who knows what she does now - ex-girlfriend

Dayoung and Hayoung met, when they were eighteen and hanging out in the underground rap scene. Hayoung had already made a bit of a name for herself and Dayoung was really just there to watch, listen and go oooh and whooooa, like she had seen in the movies. If she was ever asked to rap, she never took herself very seriously and would usually collapse into a fit of giggles half-way through a battle. When she signed with YG, it got her a fair bit of judgement that she shrugged off. She told them she was a lot better at singing than at rapping anyway and if there was an underground singing scene, they should point her to it. The fact that it was YG of all the big kpop companies at the time and that she offered to sing on tracks here and there, got her a bit of street cred back. But she would always be the first to admit that she was mainly there for the atmosphere of the scene. One evening she was approached by Lee Hayoung, if she wouldn't like to sing on a track or two. She said sure. Things spiraled at that first recording session and after a few weeks, the two decided to officially date. And by officially date, I mean go on dates masked as just hanging out with a friend and keeping any intimacy behind closed doors. Because they were both chasing a future in the entertainment industry, after all.

Against all odds, this closeted relationship lasted almost four years. In the beginning, they tried so hard to make things work and later they had grown into mature enough adults to talk out and come to compromises. Honestly the last half year didn't go too great, as they were fighting more and more. At one point Hayoung insulted Dayoung's career choice, told her she was never going to debut again, hit a little too close to home and at that point Dayoung was done. And was ing heartbroken for months, but luckily had enough friends to soften the fall. They have not spoken or even seen each other since.

stagename

Jimmy

Once again, a drunken movie night with The Dudes. Shortly after Dayoung was told she was finally going to debut. They had decided to show Yuna Yojimbo and Fistfull of Dollars back to back. The latter, of course, being a very creative rip-off. Half-way through the second film, probably trying to make some comparison, Yonghwa slurred his sentence and managed to horribly butcher the word Yojimbo. Everyone chimed in, to make fun of him, by messing it up even worse, until Jongbin clapped a hand onto Dayoung's knee and said "You should make Jimmy your stage name". To which Dayoung responded "If you keep that up, I'll go through with it, you do know that, right?" Yuna started chanting Jimmy, Yonghwa joined in and two days later Dayoung fought a grin when she suggested her stage name.

(if backup plotline is used:

Bunny. Her first idea was going to be Hare, in reference to the March Hare, but that sounded too much like hair, which might sound like a gross stage name out of context. So, not Hare, but something similar - rabbit seemed overused by rappers. So Bunny? Sounds equally cute and y, why not. Also a reference to Sailor Moon, which she never liked much. But the concept of a girl switching into a glitzy, girly, fantastical alter ego seemed surprisingly accurate. Oh and kicking - even in the most dolled-up way - is something Dayoung is happy to emulate.)

month january (march) 

zodiac capricorn

color pale blue #ccccff

animal hammerhead shark

flower poppy

persona The Queen Bee

She is classy, a badass, quick with the come-backs, talented. She's considered fashionable, but that's really the stylists. Mature enough to have a serious grown up discussion and find compromises, but also not afraid to shut someone down if they're spewing hateful and hurtful bull. Also, like an insect queen would be, she's kind of everyone's mom. At least that's how her concern for her members and her seriousness about the responsibility of leading Empire come across to the public. Since the actual members know that Jaeho and Jason already group mom and considering Dayoung is almost more comfortable being one of the guys off camera, she's kind of the group dad, in a way.

talent twins

January

vocal twin: Ailee

rap twin: Yuju of Cherry Bullet

talking twin: HyunA

(March

dance twin: Jia of Miss A

vocal twin: Joy of Red Velvet

rap twin: Yuju of Cherry Bullet

talking twin: HyunA)

training years

almost nine years at YG

pre-empire experience

She sang on a few tracks, produced in the underground rap scene when she was eighteen.

Dayoung was a soloist under YG from early 2011 to late 2014 with the stage name Daya, but was mostly on hiatus from mid 2011 to late 2012. The hiatus was due to the fact that promoting was difficult because of uni work and touring was completely out of the question. So they took a break from the public eye until she had graduated. Sadly, once that was over, the hype never really came back. That, along with the second to last song getting a few raised eyebrows, after almost two years back, they were forced to accept that there were more successful acts to pour money into. But YG didn't want to let Dayoung go just yet and neither did she want to give up so easily, so she agreed to go back into training for a little while, to hone her skills until she could return properly. She wasn't expecting it to take this long, but she gets it. After all they were busy getting other projects off the ground and honestly, she would have been a bit too old to fit in with Blackpink without anyone questioning it.

Discography

Don't Cry (2011)

As much as she enjoyed the emotionality of the song, she had a bit of trouble performing it without just standing in place the entire time. It's probably the most interesting break up song, she's sung because it seems like no one in this couple really wants to break up and she still isn't sure why they don't just sit down and talk it out.

Going Crazy ft. Bang Yongguk (2011)

During promotions, an interviewer remarked that they'd make quite the power couple. Dayoung laughed nervously and Yongguk said well, the song's really dark and My character burns at the end of the video... She added and I just sing along. It's not very nice. Maybe we could be like Mr and Mrs Smith, but that's about it. And that comment landed them in a mexican standoff of fingerguns for multiple minutes, which probably wasn't fair to the interviewer. Dayoung shot first. Had she been at all in control of her own merch that would have gone on a shirt.

U&I (2013)

Dayoung did not write the lyrics for this one. But she did write the music on her saxophone and was so proud of it. Still, she did the usual smile and made the usual vague statements about what the song was about and why it spoke to her. She had so much fun with that song and it holds some of her favorite memories of being a soloist. After all, it was one of two up-beat songs and the only one that involved her wonderful saxophone.

It's okay (2013)

This song was written during the fourth stage of dealing with the breakup. The first was dancing to Satisfied. The second involved bristling for a fight and being dragged to a fitness studio by her friends to power out all the anger. The third was very heavy drinking. The fourth was writing this song. When she showed it to Yonghwa, he sighed and said .

is right, she stated, you wanna drink?

Drinking is so not the way to deal with this, darling. You need to cut that out. Come on, we're taking a walk. He lifted himself off the ground, dragged her to her feet. Yonghwa led her all across the city, pointing out all the meaningful places, where she met her closest friends down to  the dumb spots like oh, dude, this is the lamppost you dared me to in... what? 2013? And my tongue got stuck and you had to buy tea from that shop that closed a year ago, to melt my tongue off that thing? We were ing idiots, weren't we. She had laughed and they had gotten tea at a nearby store that hadn't closed a year ago. She jokingly asked, if he was proposing, leading her around the milestones of their friendship. He had told her to keep that proposal advice for when Jongbin and Yuna were together. Dayoung's eyes had gone wide, wait, you think... oh my god, you're right! I'm really blind, huh?

Nah, you've just got a lot on your plate right now. You would've caught on sooner or later. Wanna make a bet on how long it'll take them.

You're on. We're s, aren't we?

He shrugged. All the best people are. That memory and that bet made promotions for the song surprisingly bearable. Also, Dayoung won the bet.

Don't look at me like that (2014)

This one's promotion was tough to get through. Dayoung has always struggled a bit with using strictly male pronouns when talking about the fictional lovers the songs are about. She'd love to go the route of  saying people or the person instead of boy or man. But that's not something she could get away with, while promoting this particular song since it's lyrics were already risking controversy. If she hadn't been so hyper-focused during every interview, she would have counted how many times she bit her tongue.

Don't Touch Me (2014)

This was another fun one. To be honest, she co-wrote the melody on this one, but otherwise had little to do with the actual songwriting process. She likes the lyrics though, it's a breakup song where both sides are probably unhappy in the relationship and will hopefully become much stronger and more mature after they leave each other. In her mind, this song speaks with more perspective, maturity and authority than U&I and a lot of other breakup pop songs she's heard. But, if you ask Dayoung the music video is the best part about it: despite being a mediocre dancer, with good direction, she managed to feel badass and she thinks she looks pretty good, too, if she may say so herself. While she may love her current short hair, long hair is just so much more fun to dance in. Aah, if you ask Dayoung, she ended her soloist career on a high note.

training background

Dayoung has been with YG for so long, she's dubbed herself YG's worst kept secret. She was only a few months into her first year at uni, when she was scouted. She jumped in for the sick performer of a small role in one of her universities musicals. When she was first approached by a YG representative, she said, she'd think about it. Went home, threw herself on her bed and called out to Jongbin Yo,  you think I could be a pop star? He laughed and said, You'd need a lot of polish, but I'd love to see it. She'd tossed and turned and interrupted him making dinner the next day, grabbing a zucchini and a cutting board and saying Okay but polish like who? Jongbin said What? and after she had explained what the she was talking about, they sat down to research. She wasn't cute. As soon as he told her to just try for a minute, she pulled a face and glared at him. Not cute. So what then? Put together? Classy? She scoffed and pointed to where DVD-boxes of action movies were still scattered around from two nights ago. But Jongbin wasn't going to give up this one so soon. Nah, I reckon you could be like a Beyonce. She choked on her drink. You're kidding, right? Tell me you're kidding.

Okay, maybe not that intense. But, give it a shot! Fake it 'till you make it, baby.

She had only groaned and buried her face into her hands. But the next few days their apartment played Beyonce on loop. On day five, Dayoung went out, bought a pale blue dress shirt, cleaned her converse and looked up where the YG building was. She was nervous as the next day, as she stood in front of those doors and maybe it hadn't been the best idea to wear a shirt she wasn't used to? Oh well, no changing now. She had an appointment. So she let her hair down, checked her reflection in the side-mirror of a parked car, resisted the urge to give herself a thumbs up, and winked instead. And winked again, until she thought it looked good. Stood up straight. She had put on a tiny bit of makeup that morning. Brows, mascara, lips, trying to emulate the stage makeup she had gotten for that musical performance. Marched in, smiled assuredly, announced herself. A few weeks later she signed a contract. Training was rigorous and tiring, but it was manageable. Fake it 'till you make it, baby. And apparently she faked it pretty well, already starting to feel alright in this new found skin, when she was asked to debut after about seven months of training. Dayoung was blown away and nervous, but she also wasn't going to say no.

Getting pulled back into training was less tough, than she had thought it would be since she had been on hiatus in between. The only really unusual thing was working with other trainees again. But between being a classy lady towards some and a blunt nerd towards others, she got along at least on a basic level with most. She stayed out of clique fights, because, honestly, you gotta pick your battles and after years of martial arts turnaments as a teen and far more important verbal arguments, petty catfights just don't seem worth it to Dayoung.

Her favorite thing to practice was singing because she felt like she could really let loose. Rapping was just a silly aside in the beginning. Then she may have drunkenly complained to Yongguk about her instructors pushing her to take it more seriously. And he may have asked her, if she was scared to really try. Because if you put your heart into something, you risk losing it. She misunderstood it as a challenge, though. Over the years, she became pretty all right at it. Not great, but decent. Passable. Whatever. Yongguk was proud of her and way more importantly, she was proud of herself.

Now dancing. That was really a struggle. Because she was so used to martial arts, her movements tended to be either too choppy, or flowing into one another so much, that you could barely tell, what she was actually trying to do. She's gotten pretty alright at dancing now, too, though. Nine years training or working in the kpop industry will do that to you.

scandals 

1. [disproven] YG's Daya dating? (2011)

Fotos of Dayoung and Jongbin started circulating online, wondering if the two were dating, because they hung out a lot, hugged a fair bit and some of the fotos seemed rather old. Dayoung released an official statement denying the rumors. It was only officially disproven when her next scandal surfaced and then properly, when he started dating Yuna four years later.

2. [denied] YG's Daya Kim is an alcoholic? (2013)

She was spotted drinking with the Dudes at a bar some time after the big breakup, looking absolutely miseable. Usually she wouldn't have gotten drunk in public, if she could help it - after all, idols have images to protect. It takes a toll on her reputation and her mental state. But eventually YG explained it away, by saying Dayoung was not an alcoholic and that she and her friend had been going through a personal matter and needed support more than anything right now. It didn't fix all the damage that had been done, but she did recieve more supportive comments than hate after that, so it was something. The only other good thing about this scandal was, that netizens agreed, that Dayoung and Jongbin were probably not dating, if they were hanging out at a bar looking sad together.

news articles

1. YG to debut another female solo artist (2011)

2. Everything we know about YG's Daya (2011)

3. Daya debuts with hit Don't Cry (2011)

4. Daya and rapper Bang Yongguk tackle stalking in new single Going Crazy (2011)

5. Why Daya is a worse Lee Hi (2011)

6. YG's Daya on hiatus to finish studies (2011)

7. YG's Daya Kim preparing a comeback? (2012)

8. U&I bis success for Daya Kim (2013)

9. Daya's It's Okay is uncomfortably personal (2013)

10. Daya Kim releases controverisal new song "Don't look at me like that" (2013)

11. Daya Kim's solo career ending? (2014)

12. Daya Kim on undefinite hiatus (2014)

13. Failed kpop stars: Where are they now? (2017)

14. Daya Kim might still be with YG (2017)

15. Daya Kim to debut again as part of YG's next group? (2019)

future experiences

1. A charity stream, involving song covers and maybe video games?

2. a song collab with Rosé of Blackpink

3. an appearance on King of Mask Singer

4. either a new solo debut later on, or featuring on other members' solo songs every once in a while

name Park Chaeyoung (Rosé of BLACKPINK)

backups 

a female member of EMPIRE (I'm cool with either Rosé or a member of EMPIRE by the way. Whichever you like better/works better in the story)

nicknames Dayoung doesn't really have nicknames for Chaeyoung, but she sure does make a lot of wine and rosé jokes.

personality shy, fun, caring, ambitious, reserved, sweet, sensitive, creative

first meeting Chaeyoung started training when Dayoung was well into the hiatus period of her soloist career, so they never really met properly. During their shared trainee time, they were usually in different groups and so didn't talk too much, although they knew of each other's existence. As such, their first memories of each other are quite insignificant for a long time and they haven't really gotten to know each other yet. Dayoung is proud of BLACKPINK's sucess since they're a YG group and Chaeyoung thought it was unfortunate Dayoung's solo career didn't work out, but that's the extent of the feelings they have had for each other so far.

development They start getting to know each other when they get to work on a song together. One of those same-company-different-group-subunits. Dayoung is quickly impressed by the unique sound of Chaeyoung's voice. The first draft of the song sounded all right, but their voices just didn't seem to mesh all that well. So the two of them and the original songwriter were given a room with a piano and additionally allowed to take their respective personal instruments. Basically they were told to go crazy, as long as they got a song out of it by the end of four hours. They did, eventually, although a piano, two guitars and a saxophone caused a bit of a mess along the way. The songwriting process is where they really started to bond.

(I'm leaving this up to you to either write out, or have happen "off-screen" if you like. If you want them to already know each other better, this could have been a scrapped solo song of Dayoungs, that Chaeyoung was supposed to feature on, to hint her to the public.)

interactions See, the good thing about being two girls is that most people associated with the kpop industry assume you're just friends. Flirting is considered friendly unless it gets explicit, spending time together doesn't get questioned and doesn't provoke media scandals. People online might ship you together, but people online constantly ship friends together. Honestly, Dayoung has never been so thankful for heteronormativity.

So far, they've grabbed coffee between rehearsals. Just as friends, but there is a certain chemistry there that Dayoung can't let go of. But she is unsure of Chaeyoung's uality and if she would even have a chance. Any feelings that she has so far are pretty casual and mostly platonic at the moment, though. They're also planning to go to a concert together, wearing mouth masks or something not too suspicious.

They do text back and forth, too. Most of it is either music or movie suggestions and conversations, other times it's comparing life in South Korea to life in Australia.

relationship trivia 

1. When one of them starts singing or humming, the other will usually join in. If one of them doesn't know the song or they're making stuff up on the spot, they will just do backing vocals.

2. Dayoung dreads the ideal type-questions in interviews. She's started just saying Someone courageous and kind, because who wouldn't date Cinerella. Also, a little later when feelings are a bit clearer, they are attributes, she thinks Chaeyoung has. She's also trying to figure out a way of turning Cinderella into a good nickname, without sounding patronizing.

3. So there's this thing Chaeyoung's school friend group used to play, called the Scribble Game. One person scribbles one unintelligible line on the paper that can look any way. The next person then has to make a doodle out of the scribble. One time when they were bored, the played this game in the dressing room before a show. Now, they leave scribbles lying around where they know the other will find them. A few days later, they find the scribble as a doodle lying in their bag when they get out of practice.

Viola says heyy, I  hope you like my girl Dayoung! <3 I had a lot of fun writing her. Sorry for the walls of text, I tend to go into detail to make the characters feel alive and you did say you like trivia?

I hope the personality section makes sense. For some reason I also had a hard time with the love interest section. If that one doesn't have enough info or something, let me know and I'll add stuff.

I whish you the best of luck with your studies! You're gonna crush it! <33

scene requests

1. a scene that's basically Popular from Wicked, where Dayoung enlists either Yuna or one of the more traditionally cutesey members of EMPIRE (or both) to teach her to be cuter on camera.

2. a cuddly movie night for EMPIRE

3. the other members forcing Dayoung to take a break, because she is tiring herself out too much

password for Empire-G