Idol (leader and main dancer of J.B.N.).
Lesbian.
Single, very closeted.
04/04/2002.
20.
Horse (Korea)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Woo Seojin on Jul 24, 2020 14:48:07 GMT -8
Seojin was in professional mode as she said, "That was very good. I can tell you've been practicing it well. There are a couple of bits of stylization that we will need to adjust to have you match with the rest of the group, but at this point, that mostly comes down to actually getting you in formation with everyone and adjusting lines and angles to make it work."
She considered the choreography arrangement and said, "Fortunately, since you're the second tallest, you're in the symmetrical position to Hayun, so it will actually help visually balance things a little bit. I'm enough shorter than Hayun, and I'm the next tallest after the two of you, that I can't really visually balance her as well."
Considering what she could give as feedback that would actually be something that would be immediately valuable to Elena, she said, "I think that the one thing to think about style wise is that you're used to dance styles that are a little bit more slinky and fluid than this, so focus on giving your moves a little bit more bounce and sharpness through the end of the move, and it will mesh better with the way that the dance has been practiced."
She nodded again and said, "Do you want to move on to the recording room so that I can get you familiar with the equipment and you can practice your lines in studio?"
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Dreams Ent Trainee.
Bisexual.
Single.
04/13/2005.
17.
Rooster (Korea)
Authored by Velexa.
Offline.
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Post by Elena Moon on Jul 24, 2020 16:27:58 GMT -8
Elena swayed a bit as she listened to Seojin's critique, taking it in. She could never stay still for too long, but the slinky and fluid comment made perfect sense to her. "I might need you to show me which parts I should focus on the bounciness and sharpness.
She was excited to practice as a group. She'd been watching J.B.N.'s practices for months now, she couldn't wait to actually be part of one. "When do you think I'll meet the others?" she asked, "I'm actually really nervous. I'm glad we get along so well, but I hope the others like me too."
Elena made her way to Seojin's side and slipped her arm in hers, "lead the way!"
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Idol (leader and main dancer of J.B.N.).
Lesbian.
Single, very closeted.
04/04/2002.
20.
Horse (Korea)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Woo Seojin on Jul 24, 2020 21:21:30 GMT -8
Seojin nodded and said, "I'll definitely go over it with you. I lead a lot of dance practices, along with Tai when we're doing joint practices with the boys. Tai and I actually both worked on this choreo, though the company brought in a well respected choreo for getting us set for debut. We do a fair amount with the boys, though I'm not sure how that will change with debut coming up. Like right now the Yuseong-sunbae get priority on practice and recording space while they're here, because they have to work it around schedules, so we'll probably start having that be a thing over the boys since they're not debuting for a few more years."
She realized that she'd veered off topic a bit and tried to figure out what she was actually trying to talk about. The warmth of Elena's arm linked through hers was still a distraction, though it was a little less flustering now that they'd had their talk, or at least a little less panicked.
She said, "Getting you practicing with the group is really what's going to help with the stylistic stuff. And they'll be around this afternoon and evening. Hayun will be the first of the girls to get back from school, along with Felix and Seoji, though Tai and Meri will be back be very first because their middle school is right across the park. Hayun and Felix and Seoji are all in their second year at SOPA. Anya and Jane take a little longer to get back because their schools are farther away on the other side of the river. Normally Shieon would be here too around this time, but she had something that she had to go do today, might have been an appointment or something. Even if the CEO doesn't take us out to all have dinner together tonight, I'll aim to have us eat together so that we can get all the introductions handled."
She thought about the other girls, trying to see how Elena would fit in. She said, "They're a good bunch. Shieon's the eldest, and she and I are the only ones out of high school already, though I just graduated. Shieon's very sweet and friendly, and she's a good listener. You're going to be working with Hayun a lot if you're both doing main vocals. Jane is definitely the most reserved and shy member, so probably don't push too hard on the skinship right away at least. Anya's a sweetheart, and they're debuting her awfully young, but she's a really good dancer and she works really hard. I think that you'll fit in fine. Everyone's nice, and with you, half of the group is international members, so I think that there's a lot of leeway towards not expecting everyone to be used to being here yet. There are a lot of international members among the boys too."
She realized that she'd rambled all the way to the studio and pulled open the door for Elena, letting her go into the room first.
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Dreams Ent Trainee.
Bisexual.
Single.
04/13/2005.
17.
Rooster (Korea)
Authored by Velexa.
Offline.
|
Post by Elena Moon on Jul 24, 2020 21:35:44 GMT -8
Elena listened and followed along, finding herself synchronizing her steps to Seojin's. "Jane, Jane, Jane," she muttered to herself, trying to make sure she remembered to not be so touchy feely, "don't touch Jane."
"I'm really excited to meet everyone, and I'm excited to have my first meal in Korea. I hope to eat many yummy things." she grinned, wanting to try the spiciest ones. At home she always loved spice, and she knew Korean spice was different, but that just made her anticipate dinner even more.
"I've watched almost everything J.B.N. related but I honestly know nothing about the Yuseong-sunbae. I think that'll be weird, but also, you said my brother's name so I know I'll at least get along with him," she said, referring to Felix, assuming their shared language would automatically make them friends.
Elena let go of Seojin's arm and went into the room, "thanks," she looked around excitedly. She moved towards the sound mixing board, "what do these buttons do?" she reached out but stopped herself, retracting her hands shyly and placing them behind her back, "sorry..."
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Idol (leader and main dancer of J.B.N.).
Lesbian.
Single, very closeted.
04/04/2002.
20.
Horse (Korea)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Woo Seojin on Jul 24, 2020 21:59:03 GMT -8
Seojin couldn't help but smile at the way that Elena made a mental note to herself. It was adorable.
She was curious and asked, "Have you eaten much Korean food? Especially if you haven't I hope that the CEO will take us all to one of the good little restaurants nearby. A few of us can cook, but that would be a better introduction. Honestly, if he's not taking the whole group out to dinner to greet you, I'll probably run down to the convenience store and get some hot food or do a take out order so that we can make sure you have a good first proper meal here."
Seojin thought about it for a minute and said, "Yuseong-sunbae are pretty cool. We see the most of Taehoon-oppa. He helps with dance practice and choreography, and he's a good sunbae. He's Yuseong's main dancer. He speaks a little bit of Spanish too, so he helps Felix out when he's working with the boy trainees. He's half-Korean, quarter-Chinese, and quarter-Filipino. Other than him, Kangwan-sunbae, who's Yuseong's magnae and main vocal, spends some time with the trainees. He knows Tai really well, and Anya some too, but he doesn't work with us as a group as much. And then Joshua-sunbae, that's Yuseong's leader and lead everything basically, spends some time helping us, but mostly just alongside Taehoon-oppa. They're really close. We don't see nearly as much of the other two members, that's Qiwang-sunbae, who's the main rapper and lead dancer, and is from Taiwan; and Shihyun-sunbae who is the other main vocal. I'll make sure that you learn some of their songs because since they're our only sunbae group, we're expected to be able to cover them at least some. You've probably seen a few of our covers of their stuff."
She laughed, amused as Elena nearly poked at the buttons of the sound mixing board. She said, "That's the sound mixing board. I don't like know know how to use it, but I can do the basics for test recordings. So all those sliders and little switches do things that affect the settings and how the sound blends, and I've not learned how they work in detail, so I try to not touch them. The part that we're expected to know is the little part for basic recordings. This lets us play the music through the headphones and record the person singing. We can also use the monitor to pick what part of the song and stuff. There are people who could explain it better, Kangwan-sunbae or Tai or the vice-president of the company who does a lot of our production. I can pull up the demo backing track, and you can tell me what parts you know, and we can do a test recording session to let you see what it's like before they get you doing a whirlwind of recordings the rest of this week. I mentioned that we're filming the MV this weekend, right?"
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Dreams Ent Trainee.
Bisexual.
Single.
04/13/2005.
17.
Rooster (Korea)
Authored by Velexa.
Offline.
|
Post by Elena Moon on Jul 24, 2020 22:15:21 GMT -8
Elena muttered each member of Yuseong's name after Seojin, trying to commit them to memory. "I'm terrible with names, so I give a lot of nicknames..." she said uneasily as her brain started to reach capacity on people-related information.
"Who is Tai?" she asked, even though she knew she probably wouldn't retain the information.
"I go in there?" Elena wriggled in excitement, it was her first time in a recording booth. She went inside and stretched a little, happy they'd danced before because she felt pretty good. She put the headphones on, stood in front of the microphone and proceeded to shred on an air guitar.
She laughed at herself, "sorry, I'll get serious bonita-unnie." She was actually a little more shy when it came to singing over dancing. She just wanted to put her best foot, or in this case, note, forward this time. She turned her back to the booth where Seojin was and started some vocal warm ups, hoping to avoid the same issue she'd had dancing.
She did the yawn-sigh exercise, the lip buzzing, scales and slides before turning back to the booth. She put the headphones on, "I think I'm ready," she said.
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Idol (leader and main dancer of J.B.N.).
Lesbian.
Single, very closeted.
04/04/2002.
20.
Horse (Korea)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Woo Seojin on Jul 24, 2020 22:29:18 GMT -8
Seojin noted that it seemed like Elena was starting to get overwhelmed with all the new information and said, "Don't worry, I don't expect you to remember all this, and I'll make sure to introduce you to people properly and in context. You'll get to know everyone before too long because the company is really small. There's eight employees who aren't trainees or artists, and with you that brings the trainee and artist count up to fifteen. There are some special trainers and choreographers and producers who come in sometimes, but you'll get told about those in advance and won't be expected to know them."
Seojin thought back to what Elena might recognize Tai from. She said, "You said you've watched all of our stuff. There was a Seventeen cover of 'Hit' that I did with two of the boys. Those were Felix and Tai. Tai's the little one. He'll be twelve international age in August, but he's kind of that genius kid. He's got a composition and a choreo credit on Yuseong's newest mini album, and he helped on our choreo. And he's in ninth grade, despite being tiny. He and Anya have been best friends since forever too, they auditioned together and stuff. I practice with him in the mornings sometimes, and he's the one I lead a lot of the joint dance classes with the boys with."
Seojin grinned watching Elena get comfortable and warmed up. She was glad when she was able to find the backing track for recording easily enough. They'd shown her how to run the demo recordings, but she'd not done it very many times yet. Seojin had the recording headphones on, and she got ready to turn on the music from the beginning of the song because she didn't know Elena's parts yet. She gave Elena a smile and a little wave and said, "I'm listening, just go ahead and do your parts. Don't worry about getting everything perfect this time, just get used to singing with the set up, and you can listen to it later."
She waited for a moment to be sure that Elena was ready and then started the music, curious to hear the other girl's voice.
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Dreams Ent Trainee.
Bisexual.
Single.
04/13/2005.
17.
Rooster (Korea)
Authored by Velexa.
Offline.
|
Post by Elena Moon on Jul 24, 2020 22:41:26 GMT -8
"Oh, yes! I remember Tai now!" Elena said, clapping her hands together when she matched the name to a face. "It makes sense who my brother is now, he fits the look," she said, now matching Felix to a face as well.
Elena took a breath to calm herself. She was nervous and it was very different singing in the studio rather than in her home. She took her time and sang her parts as instructed. She also added her vocals to join in on the chorus, harmonizing with the recorded ones of the other J.B.N. members.
When she finished, she took the headphones off, "how was it?" She felt nervous again. She loved getting feedback but it also made her want to freeze in terror. What if she had been terrible?
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Idol (leader and main dancer of J.B.N.).
Lesbian.
Single, very closeted.
04/04/2002.
20.
Horse (Korea)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Woo Seojin on Jul 24, 2020 23:05:04 GMT -8
Seojin listened carefully, and she was relieved that Elena was indeed taking her parts that were too high and breaking up the hard parts of Hayun's vocal line. It made the song more balanced. After a little though, she got caught up in listening to Elena, especially in the chorus. Elena's richer, warmer tones complemented Hayun's clear, smooth ones. It added a new layer to the song.
When Elena was finished, Seojin clapped and said a little breathlessly, "Your voice is beautiful! And it works really well with Hayun's. I'm sure that there's stuff that the vocal coach will tell you, but you're a way better singer than I am. I'm so glad that you're taking the parts that are honestly too high for me too, and breaking up Hayun's vocal line so that she doesn't run out of breath in the middle with the hard high parts."
She asked, "How did your first time in the recording booth feel? Want to come out and listen to what you sounded like?"
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Dreams Ent Trainee.
Bisexual.
Single.
04/13/2005.
17.
Rooster (Korea)
Authored by Velexa.
Offline.
|
Post by Elena Moon on Jul 24, 2020 23:15:52 GMT -8
It was Elena's turn to blush. She had always had her family talk about her voice and being accepted into the group had given her a confidence boost, but Seojin's observations just pushed her over the edge. "Thank you," she tucked her hair behind her ear shyly.
She was curious as to what it all sounded like from out there so she slipped out of the recording booth. "It was fun in there. What did it sound like?" She stepped behind Seojin and wrapped her arms around the other girl's waist, then rested her chin on her shoulder. This was how she wanted to listen to the recording because she always found it weird to listen to her own voice. She wanted a line of defense between her and the music, so she'd decided to use Seojin.
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Idol (leader and main dancer of J.B.N.).
Lesbian.
Single, very closeted.
04/04/2002.
20.
Horse (Korea)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Woo Seojin on Jul 24, 2020 23:22:12 GMT -8
Seojin resisted the urge to grin at how cute it was when Elena was being shy from being praised, though a small smile formed on her face as she watched Elena's reaction.
Seojin blushed again as Elena wrapped her arms around her, but she stayed much steadier about it this time. It was a slightly awkward angle, but she lifted the second set of headphones at the recording station and carefully fitted them over Elena's ears, saying, "Here, you sounded really really good from out here."
She kept her own headphones on so she could listen to it a second time, trying not to think too hard about the fact that she was definitely enjoying the feeling of having Elena wrapped around her like this. She hit play, letting the recording play back go. Most of the vocals were missing since it was just over the instrumental track with the chorus in it, but Seojin's mind could fill in the rest.
She turned her head very slightly so that she could watch Elena out of the side of her eye to see how the other girl reacted, even if it put their faces even more precariously close together.
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Dreams Ent Trainee.
Bisexual.
Single.
04/13/2005.
17.
Rooster (Korea)
Authored by Velexa.
Offline.
|
Post by Elena Moon on Jul 24, 2020 23:31:46 GMT -8
Elena removed a hand from Seojin's waist to help situate the headphones, then placed it back. She nodded along to the music and crinkled her nose a few times like a bunny when her voice first came through.
She started swaying to the music, swaying Seojin with her. After about a minute she noticed Seojin was watching her. She turned her head towards her, bringing their faces closer still and mouthed, "what's wrong?"
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Idol (leader and main dancer of J.B.N.).
Lesbian.
Single, very closeted.
04/04/2002.
20.
Horse (Korea)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Woo Seojin on Jul 24, 2020 23:38:51 GMT -8
Seojin resisted the urge to make a sound at the cuteness of how Elena scrunched up her nose listening to herself. It was hard to do, but she managed.
She was not prepared for Elena to actually face her though, their noses nearly touching with how close they suddenly were despite the awkward angle. She barely processed Elena's question, but she managed to stumble over the words, "I, um, wanted to see how you'd react, what you would think of it. Nothing's wrong."
She blurted out, "You're cute."
She bit her lip, trying to decide if it would be worse to say more and try to clarify something, somehow, or just not talk anymore, ever again. Elena knew, but that didn't mean that Seojin should be reacting like this, this much. She was frustrated with herself, but her mouth apparently was talking without her permission now.
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Dreams Ent Trainee.
Bisexual.
Single.
04/13/2005.
17.
Rooster (Korea)
Authored by Velexa.
Offline.
|
Post by Elena Moon on Jul 24, 2020 23:50:50 GMT -8
Elena grinned, delighted at Seojin's outburst, "thank you. I think you're cute too." She squeezed her waist a little and turned her face forward again.
"I think I did okay. I could have done a little better in that one part," she hummed the part in question, "I'm looking forward to meeting Hayun-nnie and working on these parts in person." She said, removing a hand again so she could remove the headphones. She set those down and reclaimed Seojin's waist, still leaning her chin on her shoulder.
"I think your voice is really pretty, unnie. But yeah, they put in some difficult higher notes for sure," Elena didn't even flinch when the door to the studio opened. In her mind, their position wasn't weird at all, despite only having met each other a couple hours ago.
The CEO blinked at them, unsure what to make of their position, "I was wondering how far you'd gotten in the tour. We should do dinner tonight, my treat."
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Idol (leader and main dancer of J.B.N.).
Lesbian.
Single, very closeted.
04/04/2002.
20.
Horse (Korea)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Woo Seojin on Jul 25, 2020 0:00:00 GMT -8
Seojin turned quickly, stepping out of Elena's hold, but not moving that far. She bowed to the CEO and said, "This was our last stop. I was making sure that Elena was familiar with the different studios. We went over the dance, and she is very well prepared, and I was just making sure that she was comfortable with the recording station."
The CEO smiled and said, "Very good. Did you record a trial run?"
When Seojin nodded, he held out his hand, and she handed him the headphones. He listened to the quick recording that they'd just done, and Seojin reached out and squeezed Elena's hand, trying to be reassuring. The CEO took off the headphones and said, "I chose well. That was very good. I'm sure that the vocal coach will have a few suggestions, but if that was your first try recording, it's quite good."
Seojin was relieved. The CEO said, "Let the others know when they get back, and we'll go to dinner at around 7:00 pm. That should give them plenty of time to do homework or get some practice in before hand if needed."
He whirled his way back out of the studio, but Seojin could feel her heart thundering in her chest, and once the CEO was out of the room, she put her hand up feeling how hard it was beating. She said softly, "It's OK, it's OK. Skinship is fine, and we're supposed to get close."
Seojin shook herself and said more firmly, "He approved of your singing though, that's great!"
She wasn't looking at Elena, though she realized that she was still clutching the other girl's hand. She wasn't sure if dropping it now would be more or less awkward, what if the CEO came back? He could have forgotten to say something. Seojin forgot to drop Elena's hand.
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