☾ https://projectdream4u.kr/members/jiwoo
FREE HER FROM THE SHACKLES OF IDOLHOOD (THE TRANSPOSED)
BYUN JIWOO
BYUN JIWOO
FULL NAME – 변지우, byun jiwoo.
ALIASES
– 서우, seowoo. her stage name as part of neon. she and her group were remarkably terrible at using it, though. even in front of fans they'd forget about her stage name and call her jiwoo anyways, probably because they rarely interacted with fans in the first place and didn't shoot much variety content. she didn't mind, she wasn't attached to seowoo and she was cool with fans using her real name. take that, nugudom!
BIRTHTOWN – seoul, korea.
HOMETOWN – seoul, korea.
NATIONALITY – south korean.
ETHNICITY – korean.
LANGUAGES
– korean, native. jiwoo just speaks korean, no satoori, and the bare basics from her high school english class. to be real with you, neon's agency didn't have the resources to provide them with foreign language classes. to be even realer with you, they never thought neon would be popular enough abroad to warrant those classes either.
BIRTHDAY & AGE – 1999.10.01
HEIGHT & WEIGHT – 163cm & 49kg.
FACE CLAIM – yena, iz*one (over my dead body will i say former izone).
BACKUP – dreamcatcher's gahyeon / oh my girl arin.
APPEARANCE & STYLE –
you don't wrap up five years of promoting under a group without coming out on the other end with a smaller nose and bigger lips. the funny thing is, though, when you look at jiwoo's freshly debuted teen-aged pictures from 2015, she looks just as cute now as she did back then. her baby-face is, indeed, perpetual. but all things should be perfectly balanced, so that's where her bad business casual fashion comes in! jiwoo might be five years' worth of promotions in debt but her clothes paint the picture of a chaebol heiress. money, honey. she doesn't have it.
ALIASES
– 서우, seowoo. her stage name as part of neon. she and her group were remarkably terrible at using it, though. even in front of fans they'd forget about her stage name and call her jiwoo anyways, probably because they rarely interacted with fans in the first place and didn't shoot much variety content. she didn't mind, she wasn't attached to seowoo and she was cool with fans using her real name. take that, nugudom!
BIRTHTOWN – seoul, korea.
HOMETOWN – seoul, korea.
NATIONALITY – south korean.
ETHNICITY – korean.
LANGUAGES
– korean, native. jiwoo just speaks korean, no satoori, and the bare basics from her high school english class. to be real with you, neon's agency didn't have the resources to provide them with foreign language classes. to be even realer with you, they never thought neon would be popular enough abroad to warrant those classes either.
BIRTHDAY & AGE – 1999.10.01
HEIGHT & WEIGHT – 163cm & 49kg.
FACE CLAIM – yena, iz*one (over my dead body will i say former izone).
BACKUP – dreamcatcher's gahyeon / oh my girl arin.
APPEARANCE & STYLE –
you don't wrap up five years of promoting under a group without coming out on the other end with a smaller nose and bigger lips. the funny thing is, though, when you look at jiwoo's freshly debuted teen-aged pictures from 2015, she looks just as cute now as she did back then. her baby-face is, indeed, perpetual. but all things should be perfectly balanced, so that's where her bad business casual fashion comes in! jiwoo might be five years' worth of promotions in debt but her clothes paint the picture of a chaebol heiress. money, honey. she doesn't have it.
THE HUMAN
TL;DR – baby hag. the idol thing was great i guess... the first time around. in some ways, she's still the teenager she was when she debuted with neon, in others, she's an adult hardened by that experience. believes she's had enough and wants out of this whole thing. she would interact more comfortably with a tarantula sitting on her lap than with a girl who calls her "unnie". was the youngest in her (now disbanded) group so what do you mean there are idols younger than the 2000 line???/? unhelpful but reassuring. nice but awkward. comedically challenged. give her a beer. her joints hurt, her best friends are all finding their own paths, she feels like a complete failure. what do you mean dream4u charts on melon and has music show wins???? why do you guys believe she deserves it and she isn't a flop?????? ??
PERSONALITY – have you heard one of the dream4u participants used to be in a group? for five years. five. damn, that's intimidating. talk about sunbae vibes. wait! is that her over there? the one with the blonde hair? wait, you mean byun jiwoo? no way. you've got to be kidding me. jiwoo? jiwoo who says 'knock knock' out loud before she comes into a room with a closed door? whose experienced senior advice is to tell the maknaes to skip practice at the mildest inconvenience? who stops speaking mid-sentence because "can't do words right now..." and you already know what she means anyway? well... yeah. that jiwoo. let me explain.
PERSONALITY – have you heard one of the dream4u participants used to be in a group? for five years. five. damn, that's intimidating. talk about sunbae vibes. wait! is that her over there? the one with the blonde hair? wait, you mean byun jiwoo? no way. you've got to be kidding me. jiwoo? jiwoo who says 'knock knock' out loud before she comes into a room with a closed door? whose experienced senior advice is to tell the maknaes to skip practice at the mildest inconvenience? who stops speaking mid-sentence because "can't do words right now..." and you already know what she means anyway? well... yeah. that jiwoo. let me explain.
scatter-brained, hopeless, awkward, cynical, can't embrance change, reassuring, emotional, impractical, approachable
not the experienced idol that you wanted, not the one that you needed, but the one that was available and you're now stuck with
not the experienced idol that you wanted, not the one that you needed, but the one that was available and you're now stuck with
jiwoo struggles with change. she was profoundly shaken when neon disbanded and she's definitely shaken now that she's got to do a gig she doesn't want to with people she doesn't know and it's all on broadcast for the nation to see. neon wasn't like this! neon was family! neon was comfortable. she was the baby in neon, dang it. back in neon she felt safe to do and say anything because the members all loved their maknae! what's she gonna do here, huh? she's come a long way, increasingly getting rid of her teenage awkwardness the more time she spent as an idol. pressured by circumstance, she's had to ditch her tiptoes and stutters, just like her teenage hopes of being the next taeyeon or flying to japan. so she has a backbone... sometimes, but she isn't not that awkward teen still. how does she even begin to talk to girls whose birth years start with a two? help.
on top of this, jiwoo doesn't have what is commonly known as a "train of thought". she has three, ten, twenty, fourty-five trains running in different tracks. her brain is the hov lane. she's half-listening to you, half-listening to that song that's stuck in her head, half-wondering how she can get a role in a cable drama and half-trying to figure out what the word is for those things with the circular thing that make sounds louder. right, microphones! oh, what were you saying again? that's how her brain works at any given time.
still, let's give jiwoo some credit. for all she gets mortified in the face of being in a new group and for all her jokes are corny as hell, she makes up for it in sheer likeability. lord knows she's not here to do the idol thing again, so she'll just have her fun between breaks and make it easier for the girls going into it for the first time. if you're confused, you go to jiwoo: even if she isn't, she looks just as confused as you are, but with a tired-experienced-nice-unnie vibe. don't know what to do? jiwoo will make all your worries seem temporary. she understands how bad you have it but will encourage you even if just with her warm vibes and a heartfelt "i think it'll be fine". people grow comfortable around her and confide in her before she can get to warm up to them. there's something very affable and reassuring about her, everything she does carries the slightest wholesome touch... no matter how truly terrible her advice can get.
you see, neon was a well-oiled machine. they got each other. if someone half-assed their rehearsal because of period cramps and just went through their marks, the performance still turned out good. neon went on variety six times tops and they have meager screentime to show for it, so they would always kinda wing it. jiwoo's had the idol experience, yes, but the nugu experience, the one where effort is welcome but not mandatory, where eventually you stop dieting and your manager just lets you do whatever. speaking as a sunbae, she'd tell anyone not to bother trying too hard at this idol thing (and always tell your manager that you heard the creepy-looking investor say he was in debt in a phonecall. morals, lying is great.). but dream4u is not neon, so when she gives the members the same advice she'd give neon, the performance turns out a mess. when she goes out for ice cream with them and they get scolded, she gets whiplash. instead of gathering herself, reflecting and changing her approach, jiwoo's stuck in her ways. she tries and tries and tries once again to do what she knows. time and time again, it doesn't work. suddenly she can't cut practice short to gossip with The Girls because they legitimately need practice. and it makes her brain spin. and she's very, very tired. she didn't even sign up for this.
jiwoo's biggest sorrow, though, what truly crushes is her heart, is to see dream4u get what neon should have had. the price to pay for idlolhood is still the same, still the one she knows, but this time the promises come true. vocal coaches, weekly idol, no music videos shot in tennis courts, they even wear luxury fashion sometimes. she's used to settling, no, hoping, for scraps: first it was leftover title tracks from bigger agencies, post-disbandment it's a middling acting career. the thing about mnet, though, is they don't do scraps. holy , the kpop dream does come true for some people. just not neon, apparently. just not her. everywhere she goes she's reminded of the failed chapter of her life, that pathetic attempt at her childhood dream. why are you here, jiwoo? in front of the confessional cameras, she weaves a beautiful story of wanting to try again and not giving up hope, but jiwoo feels precisely the opposite way. pitiful and lost, she feels like her time is up. deep down, she's not just sad over neon. not just angry, either. she's embarrassed. she gets why sunbaes scoffed at neon backstage and she feels like everyone watching the show is rolling their eyes, just like them. here's another sad and sorry idol chasing after some nu'est revival. jiwoo doesn't even want a revival! (or does she?).
underneath the adorkable unnie there's disillusionment and cynicism in heaps, a twenty-one-year-old that feels like a failure. does she want idolhood now? does she want it like this? ... , she would kill for a drink with her members. the neon members (who are all busy finding their paths post-disbandment... without her.... hahah... great...).
BACKGROUND – jiwoo's idol origin story is, bizarrely, church. her family attends church for the sense of community more than out of devout faith. a shy kid, her parents sign her up for choir pretty young and something about singing she simply can't pull herself away from. she soon ditches choir for vocal lessons and at age fifteen it's only natural she wants to be an idol. she wants to sing for a living and have fans like the girls on tv, the pretty girls that go to japan, the ones that hit a high note and make the world stop still. she doesn't dare show her face at sm or yg, she has an unsuccessful jyp audition and then tries for a series of small companies. she hears back the fastest from jgc media, who apparently want to add her to their active girl group, neon, as soon as possible. are you kidding? score!
BACKGROUND – jiwoo's idol origin story is, bizarrely, church. her family attends church for the sense of community more than out of devout faith. a shy kid, her parents sign her up for choir pretty young and something about singing she simply can't pull herself away from. she soon ditches choir for vocal lessons and at age fifteen it's only natural she wants to be an idol. she wants to sing for a living and have fans like the girls on tv, the pretty girls that go to japan, the ones that hit a high note and make the world stop still. she doesn't dare show her face at sm or yg, she has an unsuccessful jyp audition and then tries for a series of small companies. she hears back the fastest from jgc media, who apparently want to add her to their active girl group, neon, as soon as possible. are you kidding? score!
the best part about neon is it's a family. the neon members welcome jiwoo and hayoung, the newbies, and everyone's ready to lay down their lives for their new maknae. they embrace her awkward personality and they can talk about anything. the not so great part is, coming from a small company with limited funding, neon doesn't have a vocal coach or many fans. the company insists they all weigh less than 50 kilos no matter the cost and they run through schedules with little sleep. comebacks happen either a) in a disorganized rush when they finally get that very necessary investment, b) only seemingly because they prepare for a comeback until an investor or their distributor pulls out and they have to halt preparations, then resume preparations, then some other person pulls out or c) comebacks don't happen whatsoever. they spend more time promising their families they're fine, that this will work out, than taking pride of their idol status. vlive is their primary form of fan interactions, followed by haphazardly organized fansigns, and sparse variety appearances because getting on variety is for the established companies.
by the time the coronavirus casts doom upon their company the original members' contracts are done for anyways, so disbandment is the most sensible option. jiwoo and hayoung terminate theirs as well. truth be told, they weren't particularly gifted idols, only jiwoo's singing chops stood out. neon spent their last years as a group eating whatever, feeling free dance perfectly out of sync and accurately determining how best to cut corners. they all felt less like idols and more like best friends playing idols together, they won't miss promotions but all of them get emotional about their journey and group bond.
except, just as they pack up from the dorms and jiwoo starts looking into acting, she's called into their ceo's office. she's got an interview scheduled for an mnet show.
what? her contract's over. she's out of here, what do you even mean?
jgc had no way to know corona would be the final nail in the neon coffin. even though the original members had no plans to renew, they thought they could make hayoung and jiwoo stay for the two years they still had left if they offered them solo opportunities. in fact, they did did some heavy networking to get jiwoo into dream4u, hoping it'd bring in some much needed cash. she was the fan favorite in neon and it's no secret she sang circles around her members. but now she's a free agent, jgc's practically defunct and neither do they get to reap the benefits nor does she want to go on the show.
so here we are.
JUST A JIGSAW
TRIVIA
– after disbandment, jiwoo moved back in with her parents. her family has always been encouraging about her idol endeavors... to her face. they didn't get it at the beginning and what really eased their worries was jiwoo's relationship with the members.
– the rest of the neon members are moving on to fitness/beauty careers, going into acting or leading everyday lives.
– after disbandment, jiwoo moved back in with her parents. her family has always been encouraging about her idol endeavors... to her face. they didn't get it at the beginning and what really eased their worries was jiwoo's relationship with the members.
– the rest of the neon members are moving on to fitness/beauty careers, going into acting or leading everyday lives.
– jiwoo is actually pretty clueless as to what she wants to do post-debut. she likes singing but she really is over the idol . she's aiming towards acting, but only because acting is what everyone (aka neon and the members' friends) seems to be doing. plus it works out for enough people, look at kwon nara. it feels like the safest bet to her.
– jiwoo wouldn't claim she can play any instruments, but she has bare minimum piano skills. with some practice, she can play a pop song without a hitch.
– jiwoo wouldn't claim she can play any instruments, but she has bare minimum piano skills. with some practice, she can play a pop song without a hitch.
– has a high school diploma from sopa. neon wasn't always busy so she actually went to school and people liked her well enough.
– is familiar with a good bunch of active idols (who skipped school like nobody's business because they had standard kpop promotions) but not exactly friends with most of them. she'd probably shift uncomfortably in her place having to greet former peers or hoobaes as a rookie with dream4u
– is familiar with a good bunch of active idols (who skipped school like nobody's business because they had standard kpop promotions) but not exactly friends with most of them. she'd probably shift uncomfortably in her place having to greet former peers or hoobaes as a rookie with dream4u
– knows all the hacks to "managing her weight" and making that scale read less than 50. however, is she excited to have to do it? ... right
– the neon members are a bunch of very close women in their twenties so what i'm saying is they drink. jiwoo can't hold her alcohol for and has amused them for years.
– mandatorily stretches for a full fifteen minutes after dance practice. it's been five years and her body can feel the difference.
– ...
– ...
THE NETWORK
CHOI HAYOUNG – friend, former neon member. enthusiastic, objective, analytical, insensitive. jiwoo is close with all the neon members (whose names the ever-powerful author can choose) but, for the sake of practicality, let's talk about hayoung.
picture an awkward jiwoo all new and teen-aged and shy. now picture tsundere unnie hayoung who looks like she hates everyone and everything but would lay down her life for her close friends. the second she met their powerhouse vocalist baby maknae, these two became a package deal. all those thoughts jiwoo leaves scattered mid-sentence, all those vending machines she didn't want to kick, hayoung was there to help her out with. when she needs someone to confirm her belief her that this idol is not worth it and even tell her there's hope for her outside of idoldom, any of the neon members will suffice, but talking it out with hayoung very effectively clears all the doubts in her mind, even if they come back eventually.
JACK JUNG – friend and absolute mood (unless.... eye emoji.... do with this information what you will).
so you have jiwoo roaming the halls as per usual with no dedication to practice... she's bound to get to know the helix trainees. she doesn't precisely relate to most of them, though, with jack being a particularly glaring exception. the number one reason she gets along with jack? he lowkey hates it here and he's right. he gets it. was he in a flop group too? no? just canada? well, he should, in fact, make a sudden return to his homeland and please bring jiwoo along. until they both get enough cash for plane tickets they'll just talk their and jiwoo will speak cringy english to him.
THE LOVE INTEREST
i am begging you to matchmake. jiwoo has long struck me, unfortunately, as one of the hets but being so comfortable around no-nonsense slightly older women? .... idk sounds gay to me. whether woman or man, grab heads and make them kiss.
THE IDOL
TWIN(S) – wjsn's yeonjung (she's a singeeeerrr she singsss)
ENTERTAINMENT BACKGROUND –
in short: 5 godforsaken years promoting with a nugu group. thank god she at least got a family out of it.
ENTERTAINMENT BACKGROUND –
in short: 5 godforsaken years promoting with a nugu group. thank god she at least got a family out of it.
neon debuted in 2014 under jgc entertainment (made up company, the ever-powerful author can assign them a real one if you see it fit), but they were slotted for a 2013 debut that didn't pan out, hence why the original lineup's seven-year contracts were done by 2020. jiwoo and another new member joined in 2015 bc nugu companies do things like that.
neon, in my author imagination, is based on berry good musically and career-wise. they do just enough to stay afloat for years but never garner much popularity. their mvs range from standard kpop video to nugu group shot in a tennis court mvs.
jiwoo very randomly landed a small role in a webdrama because that's the kind of stuff nugu idols do. it's her only acting experience to this day, even though she's looking into acting as her post-disbandment path.
SUPPLEMENTARY EXPERIENCE –
singing lessons from the age of eight to fifteen plus training and a supporting role in a webdrama
WHY IS SHE HERE? – what made her audition? her company bc they needed to lure jiwoo into making more money for them by promoting her. it backfired immensely.
what does she want to get out of this experience? no, you see, she wants to get out of the experience.
THE END
COMMENTS – this app may not look all that great but i pulled out a horizontal scroll AND a triangle directly from my and i'm so satisfied with that. also jiwoo..... i've taken this girl through some twists and turns and i like her. she's fun and sad. love that.
SCENE SUGGESTIONS – i am on my knees BEGGING you for something similar to this scenario. there's dream4u handing their album around to senior groups and everyone knows jiwoo for this or that reason. one of the members is like "how do you know her?" "how do you know him" and the answers are all "we went to school together" "she's a friend of a neon unnie" "they were rude to us in 2016" until it's "we used to date" [CHAOS].
SCENE SUGGESTIONS – i am on my knees BEGGING you for something similar to this scenario. there's dream4u handing their album around to senior groups and everyone knows jiwoo for this or that reason. one of the members is like "how do you know her?" "how do you know him" and the answers are all "we went to school together" "she's a friend of a neon unnie" "they were rude to us in 2016" until it's "we used to date" [CHAOS].
also i can i get some wildly inaccurate backstage gossip via jiwoo? "aeon? stylist unnie was convinced one of them was a clone", " everyone that said hana left sm because she got pregnant", etc.
SONG SUGESTIONS – disclaimer: i'm not entirely sure what the sound is gonna be.
i'd love to hear wjsn. also izone's sequence. the people demand fromis9's feel good and we go. wow thing was great too !!! bring back wow thing !!!! maybe devil by clc, so what by stayc (not loona.). purple kiss' ponzona isn't really a song i listen to but it's got that 4th gen edgy sound ready for when dream4u has their surprise girl crush era like izone with ssots or ioi with whatta man (look at me planning ahead n everything). speaking of ioi would it really kill us to see the return of neomu neomu neomu ? seems worth mulling over to me
SONG SUGESTIONS – disclaimer: i'm not entirely sure what the sound is gonna be.
i'd love to hear wjsn. also izone's sequence. the people demand fromis9's feel good and we go. wow thing was great too !!! bring back wow thing !!!! maybe devil by clc, so what by stayc (not loona.). purple kiss' ponzona isn't really a song i listen to but it's got that 4th gen edgy sound ready for when dream4u has their surprise girl crush era like izone with ssots or ioi with whatta man (look at me planning ahead n everything). speaking of ioi would it really kill us to see the return of neomu neomu neomu ? seems worth mulling over to me
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