CHAPTER THREE.
ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ TRVㅤ✕ㅤBIGHIT'S NEW GIRL GROUPㅤ:ㅤChapter three。
an affected posh accent is heard in the dressing room as the phone's camera darts to tsuta, who sits like the thinker on the faux leather couch. "and now it's time for 'deep thoughts with umoto'. starring your host, umoto."
tsuta looks up slowly, eyes slowly opening wide. they're glossy, as if she heard the word of god. with languid, tranquil river-like movements, she reaches out for the camera ( wielded by the one and only jiwoo ), close but never reaching it. "why?"
it's a simple question, broad and open-ended, one with infinite possibilities.
"and this has been 'deep thoughts with umoto'."
"hey you anchovy! i wasn't finished!"
"were you wondering which brilliant thought you should share with the world and our fans?"
"honestly? yes."
jiwoo turns the camera to her face, shaking her head. she ignores tsuta's cries for attention and a 'at least quinn will always love me!'. jiwoo heads towards seohwa and haneul. "and here we have the pepe and the frog."
seohwa laughs, "it's like princess and the frog only with more memes."
"may-mays." haneul chortles through tightly pressed lips. she can't hide her smile as seohwa literally looks into the camera like she's on the office.
"leave this place and never come back, you beautiful sunflower."
the girls have fun. they get ready for their performance, but quinn isn't there. she's not there and tsuta is bored and manager park is nervous. there is only twenty minutes left before they went on stage and quinn jang isn't there.
manager park pulls mei xie aside, nostrils flaring and sweat decorating his hairline.
"come on mei xie, what do you mean you don't know where jang is?"
the girls in the room hush down, jiwoo quickly signing off and turning off the camera on her phone as they watch their leader get scolded.
mei xie stares at manager park furitively, lips pursed. she wishes he'd stop nagging her about every little thing, he was beginning to sound like her mother. quinn jang isn't her problem—except she is. because mei xie is the leader, everything is her problem.
the others can see the irritation radiating from her. they can see her muscles tensing and her fingertips twitching. she can't say anything because, much like yeoreum, she's also kept in line by a very large eagle who is also in charge of her paycheck and life.
"what kind of leader lets their members disappear right before a show? what will you do if she misses the stage? will you take responsibility?"
"yes." the word is forced through tightly clenched teeth. seohwa can feel the warm anger flushing through her body. she hates seeing mei xie getting scolded for the actions of someone who shouldn't even be in the group. at least tsuta cared enough to not disappear to do god-knows-what with god-knows-who.
with three minutes to spare, quinn jang returns to the dressing room. her legs tremble a bit like jello, her hair is disheaveled, her lipstick is smeared. probably from some guy's—. she gazes at everyone in the room. seohwa avoids eye contact, arms folded across her chest with her nose upturned with a 'hmph!'.
everyone knows what happened—except maybe yeoreum who literally could not care either way. quinn jang is notorious for it, after all.
quinn grins as she approaches tsuta, only stopping when mei xie calls her over. "sit in the chair, jang." quinn does as she is told. mei xie's voice is cold and hard, "do you have any idea what time it is? we only have two minutes until we're supposed to be backstage."
"oops!" she says, flashing a coquettish and unapologetic look at mei xie.
seohwa want to explode. 'oops'? 'oops'? quinn jang nearly tarnishes the name and reputation of trv and all she can say is a single ing oops?
mei xie heads towards the door, and the others get up and follow like a bunch of baby ducks following their mom. funny. quinn thinks as she watches a barrier go up between herself and the group.
and it is funny, the way mei xie doesn't even look at her and the way seohwa asks, 'mei-unnie, are you alright?' only to be met with silence in response. if the situation was reversed, if mei xie was the one late because of and quinn was the one upset, no one would care.
but because it's quinn, it's wrong.
as they head onstage, seohwa 'bumps' into quinn. she holds her head down and the corner of her lips twitch upwards for a moment. it's funny.
"hey boy."
"make 'em whistle like a missle, bomb bomb."
"shouldn't we feel bad for getting jokbal before maengsi-unnie and jiwoo and yeoreum get back?" haneul, oh so sweet and considerate haneul, asks.
tsuta, with stuffed with nearly three whole pig trotter slices, says, "jokbal waits for no man."
"don't talk with your mouth full." seohwa nitpicks, dropping in a frown at tsuta's table manners. "sit up straight, elbows off the table. wipe your mouth, tsuta."
tsuta does exactly the opposite of what seohwa tells her to do. "besides, things have been awful since teddy showed up—"
"mr. teddy. have some respect."
"respect an authoritative, mediocre music producer who doesn't respect and value our input on our own comeback? you realize how dumb that sounds, right?"
"do you realize how dumb you sound? if you don't have manners and a good attitude, you have nothing in life."
tsuta's tongue pokes into her cheek, teeth clenched. shoving more jokbal in , her chopsticks clank against haneul's, who looks like she's about to witness the detonation of a bomb.
and, she most definitely was. with mei xie and jiwoo gone, there's no one to keep anger in check and no one to lighten the mood. it's all up to haneul now.
i have to fix this. i have to fix this. i have to fix this before things get worse.
quinn eats some of the side dishes, pressing the cool metal chopsticks against her plush, pink lips. "teddy is seriously bad for the group..." it's musing, mostly to herself, rather than an actual contribution to tsuta and seohwa's argument. no one was happy with teddy around.
she opens to say something else when seohwa cuts her off. there's a dangerous kind of tightness in her eyes, an angry kind of tightness. tsuta may have pissed seohwa off, but quinn pushed her right over the damn edge.
"you have absolutely no right to say what's bad for the group, quinn jang. after what you pulled today—"
tsuta slams her chopsticks down on the table, staring seohwa down with cold, flinty eyes. "why don't you just shut up, seohwa? you always have a problem with whatever quinn or i do. you're not our mom, you're not older than us, you're not any better than us."
"so you're saying what quinn did today wasn't royally ed up? you really think it wasn't bad?"
"good and bad are just social, man-made constructs hand crafted by the building blocks of modern religion in order to control people's minds and faiths via fear!"
"oh my god. oh my god! you're seriously condoning the jepordization of our group because of some bull philosophy theory you've only read about on wikipedia? why the do you try so hard?"
haneul tries her best to de-escelate the situation, placing a soothing hand on seohwa's arm, trying to redirect tsuta's attention towards her one true love, trying to bust out a funny pun. haneul tries, but she is seen and not heard in the smoke of conflict between women.
"it's funny how you're so concerned with our behavior when you're irresponsible too. remember our debut stage? where the hell were you, huh? even quinn was there for that."
seohwa opens to retaliate, only to shut it as tsuta brings up the debut stage.
"you're not good enough to criticize us. you'll never be good enough to say to us."
you'll never be good enough.
seohwa's thin, lanky legs twitch, itching to run away. her entire body is tense, and she feels a lump in . please, not now. she breathes through her nose, nostrils flaring as she inhales as much air as she can as rapidly as she can. she trembles. she wants to throw up.
she gets up, trying to hid the way her lithe frame shakes like a wooden structure in the wind. seohwa storms away, haneul following her immediately.
"yaman tv!"
mei xie, jiwoo, and yeoreum enter the giant container box and are noisily greeted by haha, mino, and seo janghoon. the emcess of the show talk for a bit, techinical things about the episode.
"so today," seo janghoon, the judge for the day, says. "we have some rising stars and veterans in the hip hop world. here with us today are mei xie, jiwoo, and yeoreum of rookie hip hop girl group, trv."
"one, two! we are the renewed vibe, trv!" the girls greet the cameras before haha and mino introduce the seniors. tablo, which the girls marvel at, and tiger jk, which mei xie swoons at.
and then.
he walks in.
languid gait to his steps, a crooked grin plastered across his face that only seems to grow when he lays eyes on mei xie.
giriboy.
the seniors go around introducing themselves, seo janghoon commenting on how drunk giriboy sounds. "i just... talk like this when i am talking like this to talk. like this."
haha gestures to him, "even though giriboy hasn't announced a comeback yet, he asked to be on the show for a very specific reason."
"why is that?"
"because i'm a fan of trv." he says 'trv' but he gestures to mei xie.
"then let's watch them perform!"
the girls were thankful that only three of them got invited to be on the show, because that container box was small. yeoreum covers quinn and seohwa's parts, jiwoo covers tsuta's, and mei xie covers haneul's.
"hey boy."
"make 'em whistle like a missle, bomb bomb."
after trv, giriboy, tablo, and tiger jk all perform and the show carries on. the emcees ask tablo and tiger jk what hip hop is like after starting a family. it's easier for tiger jk because yoon mirae was also an influential hip hop artist. for tablo, his wife, and haru, things are a bit different.
"if you ever need a babysitter, trv can do it!"
mei xie nods, yeoreum likes the idea. she likes kids. jiwoo wonders if it's just because they're girls. that pisses her off. before she says anything, the hosts move on to the 'guaranteed five seconds of screen time' corner, the five second keyword story.
trv starts the section off, with yeoreum going first. falcon, ghosts, pimples, bugs, morning musume '16.
"let's start with pimples."
yeoreum looks to mei xie, and mei xie translates. "yeoreum is still young, so she gets pimples on her forehead."
the pd looks a bit grossed out. did he not know girls can get pimples too?
"ghosts?"
"i'm pretty sure yeoreum can see ghosts. like 98.2%" says jiwoo.
"i can."
"bugs?"
just the thought of her beloved creepy crawlies makes yeoreum grin. "they can't feel any pain when the i kill them, but i still love them."
everyone pauses and stares at yeoreum, fear instilled in their hearts. yeoreum can see the pd mouth 'let's not invite her back here'.
"um... jiwoo?"
bread tanner, not your mama, barbie.
bread tanner because of her infamous brain fart that made her a laughing stock among the english speakers. barbie, because of her precious time spent with haneul watching barbie's life in the dreamhouse. it's the best show ever.
"not your mama?"
"our fans think me and yeoreum fight over who's mom mei xie is." she says, "but i just wanna say that it's completely untrue and there's no argument needed since she was my mom first and my mom only!"
"she likes me better."
"you're both my kids, i like both of you the same."
mom xie's words : god-xie, ama, son. she contemplates adding in coma, but that's a bit too heavy for first variety appearance. just the thought of it made itch, as if she still had respirators in there.
"ama?"
she swallows the lump in . she won't talk about her coma. not about her dead boyfriend. not about her weakness, especially not in front of a guy she ed.
oh god.
she ed giriboy and he's just...... sitting right there, staring at her with the crooked half-smile of his.
"eat at ama's taste of taiwan located in seodaemun, incheon! across the street and down the block from yonsei university!" she looks at seo janghoon, "my grandma told me to advertise the restaurant."
"if you're advertising, you have to do it like a cf."
mei xie looks towards the main camera before her small eyes narrow into a smoulder. she runs a hand through her mane, and the lion is ready to pounce. "want to be y, like me? eat the special menu dumplings from ama's taste of taiwan for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!"
haha gets up from his seat and walks towards the entrance of the storage box, "come on everyone, let's become y like mei xie!"
mino beckons him over, "even if you eat those dumplings every day for the rest of your life, you'll never be y."
"haha-hyung, you can't be as y as her." giriboys adds. the hosts 'ooooh' at his bold and scandalous statement. mei xie crosses her arms, gripping her biceps.
giriboy's words : no more suzy, joker, and pc bang.
"no more suzy? i thought you loved suzy."
giriboy sways in his seat, a lazy look of contemplation on his face. "suzy has a boyfriend now. and," his eyes flicker to mei xie, "i met mei xie."
everyone in the room, including the staff and camera men, cringe and curdle at how cheesy his words are.
seo janghoon scolds him, "you keep talking about mei xie. she just debuted, she doesn't have time for the likes of you!"
"all men are wolves, girls." mino adds.
jiwoo frowns. isn't that just the equivalent of boys will be boys? does that somehow make it okay for giriwhoever to be making advances at her mom? her dear sweet and elegant mother meixie?
"the ghost won't like it if you pursue her." yeoreum says.
everyone in the room freezes, necks slowly turning to the creepy girl. "what ghost?"
even mei xie and jiwoo are a bit unsettled as they listen to yeoreum's explanation. "there's a spirit that follows the old woman around all the time. i try to scare it away with incense, but it's always there. maybe it's a loved one. it doesn't want you to pursue her."
manager kim—a large man who is sixty percent teddy bear and forty percent body guard—is ready to dart to the nearest exit at the mentions of ghosts. he can handle many things, but never ghosts.
yeoreum secretly hopes the emcees ask her to talk to the ghost so she can perform a seance. the managers won't let her do it in the dorm, and mei xie won't let her summon any spirits on school nights.
instead, they carry on their previous conversation. "now i'm curious as to how mei xie feels about giriboy."
everyone looks to her, and she looks to manager kim and manager "receding hairline" park and she can sense the fear in their eyes. "no, no, no. don't worry about the managers, just tell us how you really feel."
"i—"
"if it's too scandalous, we'll edit it out!"
she has to force the words out, the tips of her fingers trembling as she skims them against . "i like him."
"what do you like about him?"
"he's talented. um, very talented? and," he also ed me pretty well, "he's just... my style."
the guys all holler in shock. giriboy leans back a bit, chin jutted out as he nods his head in relief hidden by smugness.
"does your company have a dating ban?"
"no." they holler even more, "but i'm still a rookie. now's not the time for love, gotta make money."
jiwoo's more than pissed when the conversation turns from things about them to things about their love lives, as if as girls, that is the most important and interesting aspect of their lives. forget the fact the write their own songs and choreograph their own , forget the fact that mei xie taught the rappers how to rap, forget the fact that the youngest is able to compose good songs. all that's relevant about trv is the fact that giriboi-don't-do-it finds their leader ually attractive.
"yaman tv!"
giriboy stops mei xie after the show to get her number, ignoring the death looks the managers and the daughters give him. she is his cinderella after the ball.
after yaman comes practice. jiwoo's ready to show off some cool choreo she thought of for yum yum yum while trying not to curse out everyone in the yaman storage container. the mother-daughter group walks into the practice room, air so thick that it is hard to breathe, hard to make out any scents, even the scent of the coffees they brought for the group.
"mei xie-unnie, i think i forgot how to smell."
"first toasters and now smells?"
seohwa, quinn, and tsuta sit on literal opposite ends of the room, silent as can be. haneul sits in the center of the room, between the two factions.
quinn raises her hand as soon as mei xie walks in. "can i leave?"
"we just got here, jang."
"yeah but, i have plans."
seohwa's mouth slacks and her eyes widen at the audacity. her stomach feels hard, but also as if it's heaving.
"quinn jang." she says, "i cannot believe you. do you even want to be in this group?" quinn holds her head down, "do you seriously not care what happens to the group without you?"
"since you think you're hot as a 'lead vocalist', why don't you get off her case and just take over the main vocal position yourself if you're so worried about the future of the group?" tsuta shouts from across the room. "oh wait—you don't have the talent."
mei xie glances at haneul and haneul glances back. please help they've been at this all day.
seohwa gapes, "what the hell is wrong with you? she's probably gonna go—have... y'know."
"oh no, so adults of consenting age can't have now in the queen's palace, huh?"
"not if said adult is trying to put ahead of her priorities and career!"
"kids!" mei xie's face tightens, "women can and should embrace their ualities and practice safe, sane, and consensual , but the group is of greater importance than some...some fling."
"thank you, mei-unnie."
"how could you take her side? i thought you loved me unnie."
"i—i'm not taking sides!"
manager park pulls mei xie aside as tsuta and seohwa continue to go at it, a very bored yeoreum staring at the wall instead of focusing on the borderline bedlam.
"honestly mei xie, what are you doing just letting them fight like that?"
"what do you want me to do?" she avoids his gaze, just the sight of his receding hairline being enough to make her blood boil. "i told them what to do, and now they're fighting over who's side i'm on."
"do something. they're your responsibility."
"isn't managing us part of your job?"
mei xie cancels practice before it even begins, telling everyone to go cool off and not to bother coming back to the dorm if they're still angry. she huffs and runs a hand through her hair, standing in a corner as she texts the most recent number in her phone.
quinn can read over mei xie's shoulder. are you free right now? i wanna see you.
it's funny how mei xie is doing the same thing quinn gets scolded for.
it's funny how everyone looks at her with dirty eyes but sees mei xie as a goddess.
it's funny how she thought she could befriend mei xie, how she thought they'd get each other and click immediately.
quinn turns to yeoreum, "well, i'm leaving then." she only gets a quarter of a nod in return.
"quinn jang log!" she leans into the camera, the smooth and fair skin of her pretty face captured perfectly. "today was a fun day," she leans back in her chair, smoothing out her chocolate hair, and the dim lighting of the recording studio sheens over her thick couplets. "i got to hang out with rap monster in his studio. we ordered pizza and worked on some songs together. should you anticipate a collaboration? perhaps!"
it's anything but the truth. the day wasn't fun, it was hell. especially dealing with seohwa's criticisms and the unbelievable hypocrisy of the entire situation throwin into her face yet again. making out with namjoon may have been the only decent part of her day, really. "that's all for today. stay jjang!"
AUTHOR'S NOTE: this was supposed to be out on saturday but college is stealing all of my time and money.
Who was your daughter's idol growing up? someone she really, really looked up to?
for mei xie, it was and always will be her grandma.
tsuta's has to be sailor moon. she'd spend saturday mornings watching the original japanese broadcast with her grandma so it holds a lot of fond memories to her.
Who was your daughter's idol growing up? someone she really, really looked up to?
for mei xie, it was and always will be her grandma.
tsuta's has to be sailor moon. she'd spend saturday mornings watching the original japanese broadcast with her grandma so it holds a lot of fond memories to her.
yall should give me ur girls astrological placements. lemme see those birth charts
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