A final message

Hey everyone,

I’m messaging the admins right now, but I didn’t want to just leave without saying something. I got lucky enough to be a part of this really intensive college program, and I genuinely don’t think I’ll have the time to dedicate to this rp that it deserves. I want you guys to know I loved every interaction and every plot planned out and I’m sorry we couldn’t complete them to fruition. Hopefully I can return in the future, but right now, it just isn’t going to work.

I love you all,

Eddie

Ugly mobile post to say I’m moving into college this week and I left my laptop charger 5 hours drive away, so I’m saving my laptop battery for emergencies until I can get it back. I have a few responses half done in my drafts and I will get to those as soon as I can! Im not ignoring anyone I promise! <3

bejinyoung​:

“maybe you did,” jinyoung teases. there’s a new brightness to his eyes, his head running wild with different ideas. “i mean, don’t worry too much. i’m just thinking about how far i can take you out of your comfort zone without freaking you out too much, you know?” he laughs, still trying to get over the mental image of mason in something way out of his depth.

he takes the other’s hand easily, shaking firmly as he agrees to their terms. “deal,” he echoes, “a week is fine. i’m gonna have all of my teacher friends help me with this. you better be ready,” he laughs, not at all concerned about the cuteness that mason will bestow upon him in return. “do your worst, lee mason,”

~

“I’m nervous and excited,” he said with a smile before it faded at a thought he had and pointed right to Jinyoung’s face. “No making me take clothes off! Unless it’s like... a prop, like Yoojung does in Criminal, but no pulling off my shirt or anything like that!” He should have thought of that one before shaking his hand, but Mason really wasn’t the smartest guy. “Do you have any other rules you need to implement? Since I added one.”

He smiled wide at how much effort Jinyoung was going to put into this. He felt a bit honored that his silly idea of a challenge was worth the effort. Then, his smile turned mischievous. “Oh, I will,” he promised. “You’re going to be fucking adorable, Jinyoung. I already have some ideas.” He already narrowed down the groups he was going to pick from. Maybe a medly? He could put something together in a week. This was going to be fun.

sarangbe​:

sarang smiles towards mason at the compliment, but rolls his eyes at the same time; one of his hands reaching out to delicately nudge the other’s shoulder. “ well, it’s easy to know what to do with your hands when someone’s in front of you and you’re dancing with them, ” he giggles and licks over his lips. “ on my own though ?? i… honestly don’t think i’d know what to do with my hands either, so hey — we’ve got that in common !!” there’s an excitable energy that radiates from mason, and honestly, it’s helping sarang feel excited, too. it’s funny how little time it took to not only make a new friend, but to have said friend immediately calm the nerves that once bubbled in his stomach. he has no idea if he and mason will hangout after this, but apart of him hopes that they will. it may be too soon to tell, but sarang has a hunch that he’s a good guy, and it’s occurring to him that there aren’t many of those in the city. at least not in his experience of it. “ you’re so sweet, though. thank you !! i’m hopeful that i won’t fall flat on my face, but now that i’ve met you, i know there’s at least one person that’d help me up if i did. ” he teases, nibbling down on his lip.

when he’s told to stick near mason and he’ll be alright, he believes him and plans on doing just that. whether mason knows it or not, he’s found a shadow for the rest of the class. “ oh, i know a.maze !! they’re actually in a company that i really like, so i’m relieved. ” he sighs, then grins at the fact that mason’s a huge lightspeed fan. “ i don’t blame you for liking lightspeed, too. sadly i don’t know a ton of their music, but i love yunoh. he’s sooo hot… ” when the words leave him, he’s totally unsure if that was an okay thing to say, so before mason dwells on it for too long, sarang changes the subject. “ what’s your favorite lightspeed song ?? have you all learned one of their choreographies in here before ?? if so, i’m sure you had a blast with that !! ”

Another nudge. Wow, they must be getting along great! Mason’s autism led him to not being great with social queues, so he hoped he was right and the two of them were becoming fast friends. “Yeah, that makes sense,” he said with a slightly awkward laugh. “Can you tell I don’t have any clubbing experience?” He then nodded aggressively, closing his eyes. “I definitely would help you up, but I also don’t think you’ll fall down. We don’t do that difficult of choreography.” He then blinked as he thought about it for a moment. “Unless we’re doing ‘Voodoo Doll’, but like we’d never do the opening, right? That’d be insanely ambitious.” He shook his head, figuring he was just letting his imagination run wild; not the time, Mason. “So yeah, I doubt you’ll fall!”

“Oh, you’re an SR fan?” he inquired, glad he could talk kpop a little more in depth with someone; Mason was tired of the glazed over look in people’s eyes when he discussed the more intricate parts of the art form. At the Yunoh admission, Mason blinked once, processed, then nodded. He was surprised by the admission since they had just met, but Mason had no problems or qualms about it; he was from America, sexualities didn’t really affect him at all even if his own was still a bit of a weird subject for him. “You’re valid, I don’t think I’ve met anyone into guys who isn’t into Yunoh. Chanhee is my bias, but it’s because he’s like one of if not the best dancer in gen 2.”

At Sarang’s questions, Mason’s eyes and smile light up the room. “Oh my god, how do I pick?” he started, throwing his head back in a bit of a groan before laughing and saying “I think maybe Bad? No, The Eye! No wait, what am I thinking? The Chaser! The build up throughout the song, the choreography, the lyrics, it’s a fucking masterpiece! But like, all their songs are great. Okay, wait, maybe not all of them, since Nothing’sOver isn’t my favorite, but none of their songs are bad, you know? Well, except for Bad, obviously! But Bad is great!” He laughed again. “Actually, it’s kind of funny, teacher told us we were going to be learning Destiny, but I already knew it, so I got to play assistant teacher for the day. But I got to fine tune my angles and the details so I could do it better, and it was definitely my favorite month of lessons so far!” He then reached up to rub the back of his neck and shook his head. “Sorry I went off there. I blame the autism.”He laughed, but he figured Sarang had shared something about himself with Mason, Mason could do the same.

bejoomi​:

* ♪ – something new

oh, okay, so mason does want to hear his music. is that what he was getting at to begin with? maybe so. he hesitates. “you can just come to one of our shows?” joomi suggests, because somehow that feels less personal than being put on the spot to share his music here, one on one. well, not his music– the band’s music, that nobody but the band knows is his music. “then you can hear lots of our music. we have one…uhh…” he checks the calendar on his laptop quickly. “next friday?”

he kind of has a feeling that won’t cut it, though. he’s already running through the songs he could potentially play for mason in his head, just in case he still asks. nothing about his last relationship, unless it’s one of their generic angry ones. nothing too dark and edgy. something in the middle? maybe not too loud…yeah, he has something in mind if mason insists.

“thirst comments…?” he repeats in disbelief, and he laughs a little belatedly. well, that’s definitely creative. “yeah, i’d really like that, though,” and he would. he really does want to learn more english. he’s happy to have the opportunity to talk about more music he likes, too. “it’s kind of weird, because my band goes really hard, but when i listen to music it’s a bit chiller? like, i really like coldplay, and bastille, and one republic. then, they aren’t bands; they’re soloists, but i like sara bareilles and regina spektor a lot too. i think i just like music that utilizes the piano well.”

“Next Friday!” he repeated, getting out his phone to put it into his calendar. “Could you text me the address? I’ll definitely be there! But also, if you need anyone to listen to stuff to workshop it or whatever, you know where to find me!” Mason was ready to be the most avid fan of Joomi’s band, already planning on getting there early so he could get a front row seat.

“Yeah, it started as a joke, but then he actually was learning the english, and he says its probably more useful than the stuff he would learn in a textbook, so we kept going,” he explained with a laugh. “But yeah! Whenever you feel like it, hit me up!” He nodded along to Joomi’s interests before asking “Have you heard of a guy named Elton John?” Mason wasn’t actually sure how big he was in Korea, since when Mason moved here, he found out more people knew who Justin Bieber was than the Beatles. 

LiME Entertainment Audition

Audition song: ( 2:31- 3:27 )

Mason had never been more stressed in his entire life.

He had sent in audition tapes to LiME before, but never heard anything back. He had said for years that if he could just get his foot in the door, he could become a trainee and take a step closer to his dream. Now, his foot was basically in the door, but he had to prove he was worthy of entering the room.

So, he was practicing every chance he had. He signed up to use dance rooms in his studios whenever he wasn’t at work, practicing until he was exhausted, going home, sleeping, working, then practicing again. This was the closest he had come to his dream, and he wanted to be able to do this audition in his sleep.

When the day of reckoning came around, Mason was up a half hour before his alarm was going to go off, and he had planned on hitting the snooze button a few times for good measure. He had breakfast, warmed himself up, ran as much of his audition as he could in his limited space before leaving and heading for the LIME entertainment building.

Before he entered, he shook out as many of the nerves as he could. As soon as he walked into the building, he would have to be on his best behavior, looking like the best possible trainee they could hope to have. With one more puff out of his cheeks, he reached out to open the door.

There were others there, like he expected, but he was a little concerned at how good looking some of his competition was. He hoped he could out dance the guys in the room. He wasn’t too worried about the girls, seeing as he didn’t think they would be fighting for the same slots, but still. His nerves were going crazy.

He approached the front desk, gave his name, signed in, then went towards the stretchers. He joined in the others stretching and tried to make conversation, but no one seemed very interested in small talk with their competition. So, he focused on himself, trying to ignore the awkwardness he felt.

When his number was called, he took a deep breath and joined four others in the room. The judges at the table barely looked up when they walked in, which only added to Mason’s stress. But he had practiced harder than he ever had. He knew this song better than he knew his name at this point. He could do this.

He tried not to watch the others as they auditioned, trying to keep from psyching himself out by seeing the other talent. When his number was called, he bowed and ran over to give the USB to the assistant. He thanked her, then ran into the center. He was ready.

Anyone not familiar with Lightspeed’s songs would think that Mason had picked something easy for his audition, since yes, the first ten seconds did seem pretty basic, with the repetitive melody and simple steps. Then, the second part of the chorus hit and Mason went off. His feet were flying, kicking and placing them in the precise spots they needed to be in for the complicated choreography. He needed to stand out among the others there, and he felt like he was very brave for choosing this part of this song. He had to show the judges that he was main dancer material. Sure, his rapping was probably average, and his singing was definitely not, but maybe that was his problem when he auditioned before; he needed to focus on his strength, not his weaker points.

He had just finished the movement of his popping up after dropping to the floor in the last ten seconds of his audition piece when one of the judges put their hand up to stop the song. They thanked him and instructed him to leave.

Mason was a little stiff in his thanking of them and bowing, but he made his way out of the room. Now, his brain was going into overthinking mode. Was his audition terrible and they didn’t want to endure it anymore? Or was it good he got cut off, like maybe they were so impressed that they didn’t need to see any more? There was only like ten seconds left, and he had made it past the impressive part of the choreography, so maybe they knew they wanted him but just wanted to save some time to get to the others? He wasn’t sure. What he was sure about is that he was going to be overthinking this until he heard back from anyone at the company.

Once he was out of the building, he collapsed, putting his hands on his knees as he breathed heavily. He did it. He had definitely earned a blue lemonade on the way home.

eunbyeolbe​:

eunbyeol was sitting with her legs in a v, her head practically touching her knee as she stretched while watching people slowly filter in for the class in the mirror. from the interaction between them, it seemed as if it were a fairly regular crowd. that didn’t matter though, she wasn’t here to make friends. 

her eyes locked on the boy before he had even started making his way over to her, the trace of a smile appearing on her lips as she watched the realization suddenly hit him in the face. there were very few things that eunbyeol loved more than attention and it seemed as if she had come to the perfect place to get it. 

eunbyeol wasn’t always the nicest person to cross paths with. but, it was the boys lucky day. she would never be mean to a fan. “mhm.” she murmured softly, moving to stretch to the other side before looking up at him. “it’s nova now, though. or maybe eunbyeol if we’re friends.” she sat up straight, drawing her legs in to her chest as she nodded to the floor space beside her. “are you going to join me?” 

~

“I knew it!” he cheered before seeing that he was drawing the attention of some of his classmates, so he did his best to calm down. “Nova, okay, I can do that,” he said, nodding seriously as he tried to commit that to memory. He was still a bit in disbelief that she had come to this class, with him, in the same room. It was crazy to even think about. “Though it’d be really cool if we became friends, like that would make my year.”

At her invitation, he smiled wide and nodded once. “Yeah, for sure!” He quickly sat down next to her, but giving her plenty of room to stretch herself. He began his own stretching before his curiosity and blunt nature got the better of him; the excitement of meeting Noe-Nova (he mentally corrected himself) was causing his already pretty non-existent filter to be worse. “So what’re you doing here?” He then realized that was a potentially rude question, so he backed up. “I-I mean, like... you’re an idol, did you just hear about this class online? The teacher’s great, you’ll really like her, but like... I just never expected you to be here!”

bejoomi​:

* ♪ – something new

mason really does have a whole plan. he has a list too? he really came prepared. joomi’s both surprised and not; mason is pretty passionate about kpop, after all. “noted,” he says with a small smile. truthfully, if he finds he’s interested in lightspeed after all of this, he’ll probably investigate them some on his own. it’s nice to have an expert on standby as a resource though.

he smiles again, a little wider, at mason’s small celebration. to his credit, joomi is pretty sure those are the only kpop songs he has on his playlist– if not, definitely the group he has the most songs from, so mason is right, he guesses. “okay,” he agrees, because joomi is curious what they sound like now that he’s forgotten, too.

boca. “alright,” he acknowledges, looking it up. he finds it, but pauses the video before it plays as mason speaks. mason is open to all music, huh? that’s kind of opening a can of worms. not in a bad way, though, just in a joomi-listens-to-a-shit-ton-of-music-mason-might-not-like way. “yeah? i listen to a lot of…rock, and then there’s the stuff my band plays.” maybe he should play one of his songs for mason? no, that’s…pretty personal, not that he’d admit he’s the one that wrote the song for the band. “i listen to a lot of stuff in english, too, which is part of why i want to learn english better. there are translations out there and stuff, but it’s not the same as actually knowing? but i guess i’d have to be really good to actually understand.”

~

Mason was already checking his list, trying to decide what he would show Joomi next when he mentioned his band’s music and Mason dropped his list and put his hands in front of his chest in a begging position. “Can I please hear your music, Joomi? Please please please?” He did his best puppy dog pout and big doe eyes. Mason knew Joomi was a bit protective of his work, but how was Mason supposed to compliment him on how good he was if he never got to actually hear it? He knew he would love it, he just needed to have the opportunity to.

“Joomi I can teach you some more English if you want!” he offered, thinking maybe it would be a fair exchange; Mason got Joomi’s music, Joomi got to learn English. Sounded perfect to him. “I’ll try to make it fun! I have a friend who I teach through thirst comments on my TikToks.” He laughed before asking “What bands do you like in English? I doubt it, but maybe I know them? I did have a bit of an emo phase in middle school before kpop overtook my entire life.”

bejinyoung​:

“you sure?” jinyoung’s smile grows a little darker, just slightly devious. he wonders how far he could push mason out of his comfort zone. it’s his idea after all, he can’t complain if jinyoung gives him choreography that he doesn’t feel super confident in. that’s the point of this exercise anyway. “i could probably choreograph something for you. are you sure you’re up to it?” he pretends to size mason up, as if he’s not sure that the guy can handle it. jinyoung’s being dramatic, of course, but it’s still fun to tease.

he’s not afraid of acting cute. he’s just not sure how well he’d be able to pull it off. he’s not exactly built for that; his features are a little sharper, his limbs a little on the lanky side. it makes long, fluid movements more of his strong suit, not the short, rapid quirks that he associates with cuteness. jinyoung considers the proposition for a moment. “deal,” he finally agrees, “how long do we have to prepare?”

~

Well, he was sure until Jinyoung asked him that and the look on his face changed. “Um... yeah?” he said before chuckling nervously. “Though you’re looking at me like some sort of supervillain, like I walked into your trap.” He laughed a bit more genuinely. What did he really have to worry about? Mason could totally be sexy... right?

Mason brought up his hand for Jinyoung to shake. “Deal,” he repeated before looking up to think about the timeframe. “Does a week work? You can have more time if you want, I’m not sure if I’m going to choreograph something or just find the cutest dance on the internet, but a week is long enough for me to do either.” He understood if Jinyoung had other things to do, but Mason didn’t really, since dance was basically his main use of time.

Mason was not a morning person, but he loved this teacher, so he always made it a point to get out of his bed and come dance. He yawned as he entered the studio, greeting the front desk woman and giving his credit card. He spent more on dance classes than he did in rent, and that was something his parents didn’t understand, but Mason knew it would be worth it (eventually).

He apparently got here a bit earlier than usual, which was out of character for Mason. Maybe he was maturing. He hoped so, at least, only took him twenty years. It was impossible for him not to notice the pink haired new girl stretching in the center. Great! He loved having new people in the class, more potential for new friends. He put down his bag and started to approach her when he saw her face in the mirror and his eyes went wide.

That... was Noelle. That was Noelle!

Mason usually wasn’t a big fan of “cute” concepts when he listened to kpop (performing them was a different story), but that was just a testament to how good Holiday was that he loved their songs. He remembered had Wee Woo stuck in his head when he had a biology test the week it was released. And the main vocal and center of Holiday was in this class? What?

He realized he was standing there for a moment too long before he shook his head to get out of his stupor and actually greet her.

“Hi! Wow, um... this might be a weird question, but... are you Noelle?” he asked. This was just a formality, he never forgot the face of a kpop star. Forgetting to wash the dishes? Yes, all the time. The face of the center for a group that disbanded years ago? Never.

♡closed starter for @bemason♡

the only thing that eunbyeol lacked in her life was time. if it weren’t for the already packed schedule that she lived by she would be packing her life even more full of every type of lesson possible. it was always so rewarding to become the best in a class. that was why there was no hesitation of her behalf as she swiped her dad’s credit card and waltzed her way into the early morning dance class that she stumbled across online. 

sure, eunbyeol had spent the better part of her life classically training in dance, but maybe there was something that the class could teach her. and if there wasn’t, at least she’d be able to grow her ego by excelling compared to the other students in the class. 

she tossed her bag into the far corner of the room before making her way to the centre, tying her pretty pink hair back loosely and setting to work on stretching before the class began. 

bejoomi​:

* ♪ – something new

mason is so excited. it makes joomi smile a little, because he finds it endearing, even if it might be a tad overwhelming for someone as mellow as joomi sometimes. he thinks, ultimately, he needs friends like mason. his therapist would probably say so, too.

they’re off to a good start, though: one for one on joomi liking mason’s suggestions. he’ll have to consider whether to add the chaser to any of his playlists after his mason’s intro to kpop class is finished. “only one?” joomi teases, though he genuinely is surprised. he knows how much mason loves the group, so he’s pretty impressed by his self control and ability to resist showing him a dozen more lightspeed videos since joomi liked the first one.

mason has whole ass notes for this, joomi notices, which is funny, but understandable, he supposes. wonderland is the next group on the table, though, and joomi pauses to think. “the name is familiar,” he answers, but he doesn’t know if that’s because he’s heard their music or he’s just heard the name. it isn’t like he’s completely oblivious to kpop. he thinks it’s difficult for any korean into music to avoid it entirely. “hold on,” he says, and he pulls out his phone to search his largest playlist for the name wonderland.

“oh, yeah, actually,” he says, admittedly a little surprised. oh, they must be the rock girl group he liked? “deja vu…you and i…and there was no one left…lights up? honestly, i don’t remember what any of these sound like.”

~

“Ha ha, very funny,” he said with an eye roll, though he was still smiling. “I knew I didn’t want to overwhelm you with just Lightspeed. Plus, I do have a list specific to what I think you’ll like, this isn’t a list for me.” He was quiet for a moment before adding “But if you ever do feel like going down the Lightspeed rabbit hole, you know where to find me.” He laughed at his own digression.

“Okay, so I was right that you’d like them, two points to Mason,” he said, pumping his fist. “Okay, so your homework is to listen to those and fall in love with them again, but the first one I had on my list was Boca.”

While Joomi looked it up, Mason decided to try being something he never had been in his entire life; subtle. “So... you know how much I love kpop, but like... I’m open to all music, not just ones with dances. So... if you ever wanted to show me anything, you know I’d love to hear it, right?” Okay, maybe not that subtle.

bejinyoung​:

“oh, so it’s like…” he decides not to finish that thought when he looks at mason. he has such an innocent aura around him that even jinyoung would kinda feel bad about being too lewd in front of him. funny, considering how he is with pretty much everyone else, but he’s also supposedly a professional in this building. he’s a teacher after all, even if he’s not on duty right now. “i do look hot there,” jinyoung agrees, happy to take that distraction away from how he was just about to explicitly explain just what exactly his tongue for good for… other than saying a lot of shit. he grins instead; mason’s right: “these lessons are certainly memorable, that’s for sure. i feel like i’m learning the most important parts of the english language,” he laughs.

“go for it,” jinyoung encourages mason honestly, openly. suddenly he’s a little different, a little more serious. teacher-mode is coming on, and he gives advice unsolicited: “it’s good to challenge yourself like that anyway. you don’t know what kinds of opportunities you’ll have in the future, so it’s always best to be versatile, you know? i probably need to work on… doing things that aren’t just sexy.” he laughs again, mostly because he tries to imagine himself doing some cutesy girl group-style choreography. don’t get him wrong, jinyoung would absolutely kill it, but it would just be so out of his norm. “sorry, the dance teacher just jumped out. i don’t get paid enough to give free lessons,” he jokes.

~

Mason looked at Jinyoung, expecting him to continue, but when he didn’t, Mason shrugged. His attention was brought back to the video as he smiled and shook his head. “I wish I had your confidence, Jinnie,” he sighed. Mason was confident in certain areas of his life, like his dancing and his ability to choreograph and pick up choreographies quickly, but his appearance? Definitely not, especially under Korea’s strict beauty standards. It was one of the things he missed about the US; there was more room for personal preference there.

Mason loved when Jinyoung went into teacher mode, even for a minute or two; it was like a free mini lesson, and Mason needed all the help he could get. “Why don’t we challenge each other, then?” he asked, his smile growing as the idea formed in his head. “I do something sexy that you pick out, and I’ll pick out something cutesy for you! Then we post them and see how we did! It’ll be fun!” Mason already had ideas for what he was going to choose if Jinyoung said yes, and the thought of Jinyoung doing something cute getting Mason excited for the potential of seeing it.

beyuji​:

~

smiling fondly, she studies mason for a moment, lips twitching with the urge to go so cute. instead, she nods her head towards him, showing understanding. “some people just don’t…get it, i guess.” there are many ways to show love and care to others– people are so diverse and different, with so many other factors affecting them. especially to get nitpicky over people having interests in things.

“the silences are awkward.” nothing feels the more stilted than the conversation dying out after a few words. “i mean…i care about the weather. it’s dreadful. waaay too hot.” yuji lets out a groan. “though i’ll just complain until it’s cold again. that’s not really small talk.” it’s a lot of talk– from yuji.

“ah! i see.” she plucks a bag of candy from an aisle and holds it loosely in her hand. “i’ve never been to the states but that’s…on the east coast, right?” she can’t remember anything about new jersey honestly. not even in passing. “that’s so far. do you miss it?” it’s a bit silly of a question, but yuji’s distracted momentarily, darting forward to grab a carton of strawberry milk. “want one?” she gestures to it, twisting to look at him with a small grin. “also, you can call me nosy. it’s okay. i kinda am.” 

~

“But you do,” he said with a big smile. They hadn’t been speaking long, but Mason was already starting to consider Yuji a friend. He then shook his head. “I usually never have to deal with silences. It’s hard for me to shut up, to be honest, so people have to tell me if they want quiet.” He laughed and nodded. “Yeah, I don’t like the cold or the hot, so I’m kind of screwed half the year.”

“Yeah! It’s basically next door to New York,” he explained, figuring that would be a better landmark for reference than his hometown. He tilted his head back and forth at her question. “I do and I don’t,” he explained. “I miss some things about it. I miss going to see broadway shows with my family, and I miss my friends from middle school, and I miss the whole personal-preference-over-set-beauty-standards thing, but I do love it here. I’m in the country of kpop and the best food in the world. My mom was happy about the better schools, but like... I’m not that smart, so it was actually pretty hard for me to catch up when I first got here. But I guess I turned out okay, since I did finish.”

He then reached up to rub the back of his neck. “Sorry, that was probably TMI, right? Told you I can’t shut up.” He chuckled nervously before smiling at her offer. “Sure! Thanks!” He picked up his own strawberry milk and shook it a little. “I don’t think I will. Honestly, I’m an open book.”

bexsoyi​:

“should you talk about your followers like that?” soyi raised a brow, even if she couldn’t stop the laughter that left her mouth. “i understand if they’re overcome by my beauty though. you’ll loose fans and i’ll have to take over your stream, until i slowly become mason. i just have to learn english first.” it was a weird run-on tangent but nothing mason hadn’t seen from her before. 

she did become a little bit more serious when her attention turned towards the food she had brought. “i’d put rather prefer to be a sinner, they have way more fun.” that sounded true at least but she nodded her head. “that works for me, this will be fun. i’ve never been on a live before, it’s different than simply uploading dance videos or my music. will i have my first scandal before i even debut? who knows.”

~

Mason looked around frantically as a joke as he said “Shit, can they hear me?” He then laughed at his own joke before shaking his head. “It’s a small percentage of my tiny fanbase, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there.” He then shrugged, definitely not going to argue with her about her beauty; he wasn’t blind. “I could teach you more English if you’d like, but not if it means you’re going to take over my identity.”

“I mean, you’re not wrong,” he agreed, covering his mouth so she wouldn’t see his food. He then shook his head. “I doubt you’ll say anything that would cause a scandal on a minecraft stream. I’ve said a lot of stupid shit on stream, and somehow, I still feel like I’d be okay to debut tomorrow.” He took another couple bites before starting to set up his webcam and overlay. “You ready?”

bejoomi​:

* ♪ – something new

“yeah, big shock,” joomi chuckles. even joomi knows some things about lightspeed from osmosis thanks to mason. granted, it’s not much; they’re some of the best dancers in kpop, apparently, which is a high accomplishment but one joomi honestly doesn’t care about much. don’t get him wrong; good for them, he’s just not a dancer. he’s a guy that plays keyboard in a rock band and writes songs but doesn’t tell anyone, so naturally, it’s just not his priority.

“one of the best kpop songs of all time, huh?” he’s had the misfortune of witnessing fanwars on twitter, and he’s sure someone would have something to say about that. he understands mason is biased though, which is fair enough, and he trusts mason’s taste well enough. if he thinks it’s one of the best, then it’ll be good, right? maybe it’s better not to have high expectations though, just in case.

still, as he looks up the video as instructed, he does have pretty high expectations. he’s actually kind fo excited. as the video plays, he watches and listens closely. the first thing he notices is the odd squeaking sound at the very beginning; it isn’t unpleasant, just unique. then comes a hint of bass guitar and electric guitar, though it isn’t incredibly present. a squeaky synth continues in the background, but it wasn’t the one from the beginning; he assumes that’ll come back later. it this song is as iconic as mason claims, he figures that motif probably has something to do with it.

the build up is impressive, with the chorus appropriately dramatic to follow. the bass and guitar are more present in the rap verse, as is the squeaky synth from the beginning, and joomi nods in approval, especially with the small guitar riff at the end of the second rap. the next chorus is interesting, too: the horns don’t come in, leaving the back track to sound a lot more empty, yet still building. he wonders when the full chorus will hit– and then it does, and it’s satisfying. what joomi can only assume is the bridge comes next, introducing some new interesting synths, and then another new synth in the pre-chorus, and joomi can’t help but wonder how they can top the dramatics of the previous chorus. ah yes; a key change. he should’ve seen it coming. he thinks this is successful too, and they pile on even more instruments to make such a full sounding chorus.

he just sits there for a few seconds after the song is over, processing what he just heard. “that was super dramatic for a kpop song,” he observes. “not in a bad way,” he’s quick to add. “i liked it; i just didn’t expect it. i honestly didn’t pay attention to the lyrics or the dance. there was a lot to pay attention to in the instrumental by itself.”

Mason gripped his face to make sure no sound or movements could get out. He loved this song, he loved this group, he loved showing them to his friends, he was just in a state of pure love at this moment. But, he knew different tastes existed. Not everyone could like the same things, otherwise, life would be boring. Still, he would be lying if he said he didn’t want Joomi to at least like the song. Mason would not only be surprised, but he would be worried at this point if he didn’t, because that meant he didn’t know Joomi’s taste as well as he thought he did, and that was scary. Mason prided himself on being a good friend.

He was watching Joomi’s face like a hawk. He didn’t need to watch the music video for the thousandth time; he wanted to see his friend’s reactions to it instead. Joomi was hard to read, but Mason thought he saw a hint of a smile and a slight nod of his head to the beat. When he finally spoke, he chuckled, since Joomi was right; it was pretty dramatic. “Definitely dramatic.” Mason was thinking about describing it as ‘that bitch’ in English, but he would save that for a different time; this wasn’t English lessons, this was an exploration of kpop.

“That’s totally fair! It’s a lot to take in!” he agreed. “And I know dancing isn’t really your thing, which is why I only had one Lightspeed song on this list, even though they do have other songs with cool instrumentation and shit. But I’m really glad you liked it!” He looked down at his list before his legs moved a bit , excited. “Ooh! Have you heard any Wonderland? I feel like you’d really love their recent stuff.”

beyuji​:

~

she almost snorts when he points at her, but she covers it up quickly with a cough, fighting back an amused laugh. nodding in agreement with his words. he makes all good, valid points. looking at it from the bigger picture, it really doesn’t make sense to want to dictate other’s people’s status as a fan. it’s a waste of time. “there’s nothing like the feeling of showing something you like to someone and having them like it too. you want to enjoy things with other people; it’s no fun keeping it to yourself.” it’s greed and yuji recognizes it.

yuji waves off his apology, shaking her head at him as they slowly come up to the convenience store. “no need to be sorry,” she says, reaching out to open the door for him. propping it up so he can enter, she calls out a greeting to the staff as she follows him inside. “it’s okay to be frustrated with things. some times, things suck.” she’s blunt about it, shoving her hands into her pockets as she peruses the aisles. she’s so hungry. “it’s better than the boring small talk i was going to give you,” yuji muses, cracking a smile. “speaking of. since you said foreigner…where are you from?” she can’t remember if he mentioned it off-handedly in a stream or not, doesn’t know if that’s case sensitive information that probably shouldn’t be displayed on the internet. “not to be weird, of course. just being nosy.” 

~

He placed a hand over his heart and closed his eyes with a sigh before nodding and looking at her with a smile. “You get me. Showing people the stuff I love is like my biggest love language. It’s a tell tale sign I care about you if I’m like ‘hey check out this thing I think you’ll like!’” Mason thought for a moment about telling her about his autism and why it meant so much to him to share his love of kpop with others, but his practically nonexistent filter did work for a moment and had him hold that part back; they had just met.

He smiled and bowed a little in thanks as she opened the door for him, though he did feel like he should’ve done it for her first; his manners were always a little spotty. He then laughed, nodding enthusiastically. “Yeah, I hate small talk. I don’t care about the weather or just asking ‘how are you’ and expecting someone to just say ‘I’m good’ and that being it.” He then shook his head. “Not nosy at all! I was the one who brought it up. I grew up in the United States. New Jersey to be specific. My family moved here when I was thirteen.”

bejinyoung​:

jinyoung focuses again, looking at the comment mason points out and sounding out the words carefully yet again. knowing it’s a thirst comment, he can get an idea of what the poster was trying to say, but jinyoung knows enough from his high school english lessons to know that the grammar is… off. it’s enough to make him doubt that he knows the meaning of it, so he has to ask mason. and maybe he wants to fluster him a little bit again too. “what does that mean? what that tongue do?” he knows his pronunciation isn’t perfect, but mason knows what the comment says anyway.

“i’m just hot,” jinyoung asserts, his boundless confidence once again springing up. “but yeah, i mean, maybe. are your viewers not usually like this? maybe you should post more sexy content, mason,” jinyoung half-jokes; he knows the phrase sex sells is based in reality. and obviously it applies to tiktok too if mason gets a better engagement rate when jinyoung’s in the video dancing like the rent is due. which it is, but jinyoung doesn’t do that sort of dancing. at least not yet. “desensitize them or something.”

~

“Yeah, this one’s tricky, that’s my bad,” he admitted. “Grammatically it should be...” He explained in English ‘what does that tongue do’ then went back to Korean. “...but you got it pretty close! So it’s like... asking what your tongue can do, I think because you stuck out your tongue at some point.” The video was playing behind the comments and Mason could see the exact moment he does, right on queue. “Oh, right there!” He couldn’t help but laugh again. “These kinds of English lessons are fucking hilarious, it’s always a trip and a blast.”

Mason thought about Jinyoung’s advice, pursing his lips and looking up as he considered it. “I mean, I think I have the duality to pull that off? It’s just not what I naturally go for.” He turned to Jinyoung with a shrug. “I guess it just comes more naturally to some, right?” He nudged Jinyoungs shoulder before chuckling. “But I’ll think about it. Maybe I’ll try something sexier for my next solo challenge, see how thirsty I can get the comments.”