GOODBYE, MARY KWON.
☁️ MARY KWON
name mary kwon
other names
권충차 ☁️ her korean name, given by her parents, but no one calls her this except for her close family.
카리나 / carina ☁️ her stage name, after the constellation representing the main body of the ship used by jason and the argonauts in greek mythology. she matches her brother, michael, whose stage name is canopus.
smile fairy ☁️ a nickname from her fans, given how often she smiles. whenever she got asked prior about what it took to keep her smile so nice, she would laugh and say it was a secret.
birthdate february 28, 1999
birthplace sydney, australia
hometown bucheon, sk
ethnicity korean
nationality australian
uality questioning
languages
english ☁️ native english speaker, speaks with an australian accent that gives away her birthplace when she speaks on talk shows and her youtube videos. her accent's fairly strong, but not as strong as a bogan accent.
korean ☁️ fluent after so many years of living in korea. speaks with a gyeonggi dialect.
faceclaim 김지우 & 김소혜
measuremnt 165 cm & 48 kg
appearance after she left the company, she's dyed her medium-length hair brown, near the warm shades her eyes appear in the sunlight. the most noticeable feature about her is her smile, which her brother had once sardonically compared to "angels descending upon the earth" due to her ability to quickly get out of trouble with their parents. she's gotten a small tattoo of a butterfly in between her shoulder blades, done when she became of age, and the words "you are my strength" are scrawled across her collarbone. she's often teased for being shorter than her friends, and teased even more for getting sunburned as soon as she steps outside from how pale she is, after spending all her time indoors to train.
style
in the mornings, she gets ready with light makeup, using a brown pencil to line both her brows and her eyes, breathable foundation for her skin, sunscreen on top, and a peach lip tint for both her lips and used as a light blush. she prefers to wear dresses of all colors with comfortable platform boots, sticking to autumn shades that complement her makeup and hair, and when she's not wearing a dress, she's wearing a skirt with a blouse or a vest-shirt - anything considered preppy. mary accessorizes whenever she leaves the house, including rings on her left index and right middle fingers, stud earrings, and a helix-shaped cross around the shell of her left ear. before she leaves her apartment, she uses her ariana grande cloud eau de parfum, ordered online to make her smell like lavender blossom and bergamot and worth the hefty shipping cost.
infp-a, 3w4, qwq, sp/su, hufflepuff
pisces sun aquarius moon gemini rising
when others in the industry gets asked about mary, their impression is of a vibrant young lady full of life, always willing to smooth arguments over and someone who doesn't hesitant to jump into the fray to have fun with her group members. when eclipse are asked about mary, they think of someone who's empathetic and open-minded, and who really enjoys hearing the input of others. when the members are all working on concepts alongside their agency, mary notices when one of her members wants to speak up and prompts them to do so. if she's offering up a written piece to be critiqued, regardless of how harsh the feedback, she'll take it as a learning opportunity and take pieces out of the commentary that she can directly apply to her work.
she enjoys what she does, and she's really passionate in both her work and how she perceives the world. because of that, she strings herself out a little too far sometimes - she tends to stretch herself too thin working on projects that she enjoys, such as her non-idol hobbies or her lyric-writing. she keeps herself busy not necessarily for the sake of others, but for her own enjoyment and feeling of fulfilled purpose, and she's so focused on the present that she can't see very far into the future with respect to any repercussions or outcomes of her actions. it's not uncommon that mary will burn herself out or work herself into an actual fever without others monitoring her when she finds herself on a roll.
her strong feelings can also work against her; sometimes what she's passionate about putting forth and believing in, whether it's about social issues, scandals, or someone else's character, can be unrealistic to the point of either deluding herself into believing it, or she chooses to deny any other truth aside from the narrative she's crafted. when she's confronted and forced to face the reality of the situation, she defaults into anger, and has to be left alone to stew in her emotions before she can collect her thoughts and realize she's in the wrong.
above all else, she's a bright personality with an expansive future in front of her. she's grateful for the many opportunities provided to her over the past seven years, and though her soul's a little weary from carrying the burden of an idol career, she wants nothing but the best for her fellow members and for the fans who have supported them since debut.
background
mary and michael kwon were born in sydney, australia to two catholic parents, who were on a mission trip to australia when the twins were born. they grew up attending church and participating in youth groups, which, despite the droll worship songs, led to mary taking an interest in singing and music, especially christian rock. she'd spend hours creating cringe-worthy lyrics in a small notebook, which she'd then pass to her brother to read and they'd hum melodies together, interested in playing around with sounds and experimenting with rhythm.
she and her brother stayed in australia up until they were twelve, when their parents made the decision to return to their family home in south korea due to the mission trip taking a toll on their mental health and their marital conflict challenging their ability to serve. saying goodbye to friends was rough, making the move was even rougher - when mary finally arrived in bucheon, the only thing that cheered her up was knowing that her brother was also stuck in elementary school to suffer with her.
in an effort to familiarize their kids to their surroundings quickly in between school days, mary's parents took them around surrounding areas using public transit, and over the course of several months, brought them out of the home to walk tourist-laden streets or try the street food from stalls. by the time their parents brought them to hongdae, they were already familiar with the public transit system, and seeing busking in person absolutely floored mary. she enjoyed viewing the performances, seeing how many stopped to watch performers and how many variations of performances there were. it was like opening a portal to a new world.
so when michael was the first to propose they perform in hongdae, she was onboard all the way. they were already cajoled into singing at the local catholic church, and by that time were performing together on a regular basis. when they asked their parents for permission to sing at hongdae, their parents assumed they were spreading their religious faith, and were glad to see them settling in. they called up friends that operated youth groups and asked to borrow equipment for the siblings, and struck up a deal with their children: they would be allowed to perform on the weekends, so long as their extracurriculars didn't interfere with their schooling.
the first couple of instances they performed in hongdae, their parents helped them haggle over spots and set up the portable speaker and microphones, but eventually the two were self-sufficient enough to take the transit on their own to hongdae and set up their equipment. mary took over the main melody of the covers they picked, while michael would play the guitar and harmonize with her. sometimes, they decided beforehand to play some of their experimental, self-written pieces, which usually garnered rounds of polite applause before they started slowly improving.
it wasn't until several months into this that a sunrise ent agent saw them performing together and stayed behind to give them his business card, and that's when their trajectory collided with eclipse's.
lifestyle
mary is currently living on her own in an apartment complex within seoul, where she shoots her GRWM videos, song covers, and posts her backlog on instagram once every week or every other week to show that she's still alive. mostly, she's back to attending school and getting her prerequisites at a public university so that she can pursue dentistry, an unconventional career field that she's recently been interested in after talking with family friends who live overseas that work within the same field.
during the mornings, she takes the transit to her university and attends courses under the disguise her reusable black face mask provides, which is the main reason why no one has recognized her thus far. fans have narrowed down her university location from previous instagram photos, but still haven't figured out what department she's in. she doesn't do many extracurriculars with her peers in part because she doesn't want her identity interfering with her studies. when she's not holed up in her apartment, she's taking her dog belle out to local dog parks to socialize and hitting up former eclipse members if they want to hang out with her for the day. her open schedule has also given her more freedom to attend mass at a catholic church every sunday.
trivia
likes ☁️ her family, the fast and furious franchise, mini cupcakes, sparkling water, bubble tea, upkeeping her dental hygiene, japanese media like dr. stone and one piece, animal crossing
dislikes ☁️ spiders, the dark, comments about her being a pushover, clowns, horror film dolls
habits ☁️ taps her chin when she's deep in thought, bouncing her leg when she's bored, biting the skin on her lips when she's nervous, smiling at herself in every mirror she passes in public
hobbies ☁️ playing animal crossing on her customized switch lite, watching anime and kdramas, aggravating her brother on a daily basis
sns ☁️ both publicly on youtube and on instagram under the name smilekwn. she often uploads GRWM videos on her youtube channel, and creates reels of them to promote on insta. she has a private insta where she posts her collection of memes and inner thoughts, under the name jeezitsyeah, that she allows old friends from the states she's kept in contact with as well as family friends and eclipse members to follow. she used to have a public snap, when snapchat first came out, but has since abandoned it for a private one after her phone was overwhelmed by the amount of friend requests she was getting.
favorite hollywood actor ☁️ mentioned in an interview and without a doubt, chris evans, who acts as the titular character in captain america and the marvel cinematic universe.
smiling ☁️ when asked about what she notices first about an individual, she says she notices the other person's smile, and it's one of the reasons why she tends to smile so often.
puppy ☁️ has a little puppy adopted from a nearby shelter named belle that's three years old, taken in when eclipse came back with their second full album. when the members went on their world tour, she left belle with her parents, and picked her up in february of 2020, when the pandemic began to be in full-swing.
religion ☁️ a practicing catholic that prays before meals and attends mass when she can, though eclipse's busy schedules make it difficult for her and sunrise ent leadership has been less than understanding. sometimes, she guiltily orders communion wafers online so she can have a quick snack away from the prying eyes of her agent.
aussie ☁️ yes, she says naur. no, she doesn't eat vegemite, nor does she use mate as often as some of her fellow australian-born artists. and yes, she's parked her kangaroo in the back of the dorms, next to the ceo's bentley.
music style ☁️ different than her brother in that she prefers more upbeat harmonies and leaning towards an edm / electronica style, and has assisted with the composition of several songs within eclipse's comback along with her brother. in the last couple of months of 2020, however, she's been getting blocked up with regards to songwriting, and has left composition to her brother and composers within sunrise ent.
audition ☁️ attended with her brother; she sang beyonce's halo while he performed an acoustic cover of a maroon 5 song.
plotline hyperion
speciality main vocal, dance
talent twin weki meki's kim doyeon
trainee years two years
trainee experience
mary initially started off well - she's never been one to shy away from making friends with others and out of the kwon siblings, she's the more proactive one. however, when she separated from her brother, such as during practices times where the male and female trainees were separate, bouts of loneliness would overcome her. at the time, she wasn't fluent in korean and her pronunciation wasn't up to speed with what the company expected. she would only be able to meet her brother during meal times and free sessions, where they'd be able to meet up and share what they've been training. aside from vocal and dance courses, she'd sit with a language tutor who taught her korean, and her afternoons were filled with worksheets and impromptu oral presentations that would make her head spin. by the time eclipse was ready to debut, however, her korean was good enough that she could hold lengthy conversations, despite her slight accent.
idol experience
starting from debut, mary was known to be a stable singer with a varied range, carrying the choruses of "hola hola" and "sunshine." she was recognizable by their fans with her personable smile and her high notes. however, ongoing promotions and uninterrupted practices coupled with her still going through puberty meant that she strained her vocals by the time eclipse released their second mini album. it developed to the point where she would struggle reaching a C5 at the end of the bridge in "sunday morning," and thus began her miserable internet presence, with fans and anti-fans alike creating compilations of her voice cracks. by the middle of january, it was announced that she would be sitting out on the rest of eclipse's comeback. she'd still be with the members while they were promoting on variety shows, but because she never performed, it made her both distressed that she was unable to perform per doctor's recommendations and unsettled that she seemed to be riding off the hard work of the others. it gave anti-fans leverage to claim she was only brought on eclipse to be a visual, despite that never being part of her position description.
around eclipse's third comeback, mary recovered, and not only was she back to performing with the group again, she was able to better creatively collaborate with the composers on the dark album. around this time, mary got in touch with fans more via vlive and starting up her agency-approved instagram. out of eclipse, she was the member most likely to do a late-night session with fans and discuss anything and everything. international fans were happy, because this meant that she'd be around to answer questions in english and fans wouldn't have to get up at three or four in the morning to catch her vlives. these meetings led to fans turning over their perception of her being solely a visual piece, and they were able to bond with her more over japanese media, her favorite marvel movies, and her small animal crossing amiibo figurine collection she's begun. among international fans, edited screenshots from her vlives were also used as meme react images on kpop tumblr in 2013-14.
unfortunately, despite having a nice vocal range, her voice didn't quite suit melodramatic osts. her face, on the other hand, was well-suited for school webdramas, so from 2015-2016, she both sang light-hearted soundtracks and was part of the main cast of several different webseries. because her acting wouldn't hold under scrunity within works that required powerful displays of emotions, her acting career never furthered past 2016. she didn't mind, because she did enjoy the experience and working with the cast, but she enjoyed singing with eclipse moreso.
because of how often she was promoted with her brother, michael, management felt as though they would stir more news up debuting together versus separately, and so mary and michael debuted together in 2016 under the name new future. they were surprisingly more popular as a duo versus within eclipse, directly promoting as a competitor to their truth comeback with new future's second mini album release and title track "how people move." some fans were able to discern similarities between the kwons' songs and previous eclipse releases, garnering them more acclaim. part of the reason why they were more successful separate than with eclipse, mary believes, is because sunrise ent could spin a "siblings inspired by music" image; the other part is because eclipse was truly, genuinely, filled with hardworking and awe-inspiring members, each and every single one of them talented to the brim. it's not a surprise to her to see andy and haerin with an endless line of fans during meet-and-greets, and if popular members existed, then there'd have to be less popular members to compare them against. it's no wonder, then, that they'd have more attention away from eclipse than with it. their duo continued through the end of 2018, with several more releases and music show wins, before going silent until the disbandment of eclipse.
some other things in mary's career!
sasaengs ☁️ mary has never had sasaeng issues as bad as her other group members, and especially not as bad as michael, but she still got letters worrying enough that for a time she declined all gifts from fans and spoke against it on vlive. this led to more awareness with regards to stalker presence and eclipse's troubles for a time.
masked singer ☁️ was on the show a couple of times from 2016 to 2019, which showed off her versatility and improved her reputation as a singer to fans. she never officially won, but the positive comments the hosts made about her singing style and her song choices, ranging from english classic rock to older ballads from the nineties, made her a more well-rounded performer in the public's eye.
advertisements ☁️ mainly involved in bright and cheerful concepts; she was the star of banana milk, commercialized snacks, and mobile game ads, leading to a fandom image that she enjoyed sweets for a long time. the latter half of 2018, during eclipse's break, saw mary in chamisul soju commercials and cardboard cut-outs. she's more than amused to pose next to her double to post on social media whenever she sees one in a restaurant or on the streets.
acts of charity ☁️ known as a philanthropic character, mary has made donations to her alma mater in bucheon, good neighbors, and the seoul shelter for women. most recently, she has donated to the hope bridge disaster relief association to provide aid for covid-19 relief efforts.
new future ☁️ mary knows michael could do very well on his own, being able to both compose works and perform, never losing his touch of charisma he's slowly learned to flaunt under the guidance of their trainers. she's never felt the same way about herself, however. since birth, it's always been her-and-her-brother in musical acts, never separate. of course, she's grateful for the experience of being in a duo with him and having more creative freedom away from eclipse's themes, but she always wonders where he'd be now if he had ever gone solo from the beginning.
goals
mary has decided to switch fields, shifting radically from music to dentistry. this major decision is, in part, because she's somewhat lost with what she wants to do in life, and she's also lost her love for music with how the industry operated - as much as she cared about eclipse, it felt like she was being bled dry of her creativity and then some. to her, her compositions were just a means to increasing quarterly profits for the bigwigs at her company. her following on youtube and instagram combined would be more than enough to have a cushy annual income, but she doesn't feel like she would be able to create content full-time. there's only so many makeup tutorials and vlogs she can do, and her heart's not entirely into video editing and hearing feedback from fans every day.
ANDY KIM
by x-acto
years of being in eclipse has led to her developing what she perceives as one-sided affection for her fellow former group member. it quietly started somewhere during the beginnings of preparing for debut, and ended with her never bringing up how she felt within eclipse's seven years together. despite the commotion haerin and michael brought to the group through fake dating news, mary was never sure where andy stood, and sometimes it felt they were toeing the line between friendship and something more. she never wanted to use their relationship to bring scrutiny upon either of them, nor use it as paparazzi bait for sunrise ent. after eclipse fell apart, what she was most upset about was that she had less of a reason to see him everyday, unlike when they were group members. she still texts him back when he spams her phone with remarks about his day or photos of random things he's encounted, and she's hoping in the future, even if she never makes it clear how she feels, they can still collaborate on song covers and ballads.
MICHAEL KWON
by merengue
they're twin siblings first before they're former band members, and mary enjoys harassing michael often with both words and actions, prodding at him to get a move-on in the mornings when he's lethargic or teasing him to the point of an emotional breakdown, but he never snaps at her despite how high his temper rises. in truth, even though he's several minutes older than she is, it feels like she's the one with the emotional maturity in their relationship. when anti-fans post rhetoric about michael trying too hard to be a soft boy, although she can't outright defend him, she goes on vlives and extols just how much she enjoys his company and how genuine of a person he is. without him, she's not sure how much of her would survive the years being in eclipse.
CHO HAERIN
mary thinks haerin is not only well put-together, but also very pretty; if she wasn't secretly in love with andy, her heart would go out to haerin. she's not sure if this is a haerin-only situation, or if she's less straight than she thought she was, so she's kept quiet about this throughout the duration of the band. despite their differences, they work very well together - they're friendly enough that if she feels like she's being stifled, she knows haerin will have her back and tell others to act courteously, and despite haerin's wet-blanket attitude, her pessimism balances out mary's always-optimistic personality, so they work well together. when the group disbanded, mary made sure to gather haerin's contact info, in the hopes of still keeping in touch in the future despite her deciding to slowly leave the industry.
username ch0chang
alias cho
activity rate 100%
anything else Hi Author-nim its me again~ (*≧∀≦*) I had my lovely friend who doesnt use AFF help me look over my writing and beta for me..I hope this is good now!! I had to explain what AFF was and omo... (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)⁄ She deosnt read much kpop fanfic but thats ok hehe!Also my friend merngue also helped me with app layout so thank you cherry!! Anyway hope you enjoy Mary (not Mary-Ann anymore) again~
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