[COVER] Twenty-Five Twenty-One cover by YURIM

even after the release of 25, yurim couldn’t shake off the feeling of what the age meant to her. she still can’t put a finger on why it makes her feel the way it does, but she felt like she needed to express it in some kind of way. she recalls practicing twenty-five twenty-one back when she was a trainee (since it was such an iconic song), but she also knows that she probably sounded off back then. it wasn’t a song she could relate to, and she knows her mom and dad would laugh if they heard her right now, thinking she could relate to it at her young age, but it didn’t matter what they would think. 

what mattered was that the song felt right to her at the moment. 

so when she humors yuseong with the idea of a cover video, she also says no to all the extravagant ideas they seem to have for her. nothing of that sort please is what she puts her foot down on so they compromise on a simple, natural video. a compromise because all she really wanted was to sit in a studio and record herself singing the song.

the day of filming isn’t too hot, but the skies look like it’ll rain pretty soon so the staff members are pushing for a quick recording. yurim thinks that none of them would have to go through any of this if yuseong had listened to her request, but she pushes those words down her throat. none of the staff members on set need to listen to her complaints. 

nevertheless, they really seem to mean it when they say they wanted a quick shoot. they take a few inserts of her gazing off into the sky. the location they’ve picked out is beautiful, and she thinks that if she had the time, she’d spend more time simply looking out at the scene in front of her. but she doesn’t have that right now so she’s quickly pushed into a few lip sync scenes as well. 

before she knows it, the filming is over. it’s a little too much for a cover video, but she also can’t deny that professionals seem to know what they’re doing. when she receives the final video, it’s on par with the sort of vibe she wanted. all she wants now is for fans to enjoy it and for her to finally get over her little mid-life crisis regarding her age.

WORD COUNT: 316

SUMMARY: yurim has doubts about whether she could pull off red flavor or not

NOTE(S): n/a

looking back, yurim can’t recall the last time she’s performed a song that sounds so... fresh for the lack of a better term. 

she loved red flavor when it first got released, but she could never imagine herself performing it. out of etoile’s title tracks she thinks perhaps holiday, or if she’s stretching it dazzle dazzle, shares the same vibes but even then, she thinks etoile has a more mature sound to them. nevertheless, she’s both excited and a little nervous to be covering the song. 

mostly nervous because she wasn’t sure how well she could pull it off. 

something about the dandelion girls was cuter than her. she thinks it mostly has to do with the fact that they are indeed younger, but she also thinks it’s because they’re rookies. rookies had that special spunk about them that she’s certain etoile initially had as well. however, after five years, the sparkle sort of died out. even if she thought she was being the cutest, most dazzling person, the audience may think differently. 

plus, the outfits are of a different vibe altogether as well. she looks down at her own colorful, fruit-inspired outfit before letting out a chuckle. her fans may get a good laugh out of this one because, again, she thinks the last time she was dressed in such vivid colors was holiday and that felt like eons ago already. 

but that was the whole point of these joint events, yurim thinks. getting these different groups together and having them cover each other’s songs. it gives something new for fans and also gives the artists a different experience. when else would yurim ever have the opportunity to perform red flavor? 

the time spent practicing was a little tight which meant that yurim didn’t feel completely certain about her ability to pull it off. however, she would try her best and hopefully that’ll be enough.

wshayan​:

why was he here. that seemed to be the question that haunted him, the one he couldn’t bring himself to answer — even to himself. the road he’d taken to get here had been a strange one, and he still found himself stumbling along without any real type of direction. select! seemed like just another thing he’d stumbled into, unlike the other trainees he shared a dorm with, who had all fought tooth and nail to get where they were.

“i didn’t say i didn’t care.” he signed, unsure of how to explain the complex mix of emotion and decisions that had led him here. “i wasn’t tricked, just … strongly encouraged. i’m recognizable, pretty — even if i don’t make it through at the end, it’ll be good PR for angelfish, as long as i put on a minimum amount of effort.”  he explained, looking at anything but yurim. “plus, i kinda owe it to the company.”

“i’m not worried, because there’s no bad ending here. i either make it which, great, i get to be an idol — or i don’t, and the company gets a boost and i go back home. i was originally only coming to korea for a three week vacation, and now i’ve been here for over two years. not such a bad end to my little trip, if you ask me.”

yurim can sense the slight shift in the mood when she asks him the million dollar question. there’s a twitch to his face that she can’t exactly read but when he begins explaining, she gets it. kind of. she’d never fully understand since she wasn’t him, and she barely even knew his company, but almost everybody in this industry had some kind of story. 

she can’t help but snort at the pretty part though she nods in agreement. she learned early on that being pretty could help a lot in this line of work. “well then, don’t you think you owe it to them to at least give it your best? you know, the bare minimum you can do is not get kicked out of the select dorms for misconduct,” she tells him with a lighter chuckle. 

“hmm, if i were you, i think i’d find it kind of a waste if i didn’t get more out of it after two years.” yurim only trained for one year and even that was pretty straining on her so she can’t imaging extending that for another. “don’t you sort of want something in return for all that hard work you invested?” there’s another furrow in her brows as she looks upon him with a gentler look this time since she sees where he’s coming from. “look, i’m not going to nag you like a mother or anything, but i just think there’s value in putting in more effort.”

yu._.rim: thank you for five years, bonbons! hope you’re all enjoying dumhdurum as much as i am!

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ETOILE ( 에퇄 )  -  Dumhdurum

[ EP ] LOOK ㅡ RELEASE:  05.15.2022 ㅡ MV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqzTRK5GPWQ ㅡ SPOTIFY: https://spoti.fi/076LooK ㅡ LYRIC BOOKLET

Ⓒ All Rights Reserved Yuseong Entertainment Inc.

Etoile  -  Dumhdurum  ( MV )

Artist : Etoile (에퇄) Release : 2022.05.15

Ⓒ All Rights Reserved Yuseong Entertainment

xoxo, @wssuji

when yurim had received the dance demo for naughty, she was certain that she wouldn’t be able to do it. vogueing was a new dance genre to her and for someone who’s only done typical idol choreographies up to this point, she knew she was in for a lot of practice. while she wasn’t a bad dancer at all, learning something new was always a challenge. 

her only hope at this point was that suji would get it down faster than she would and then give her some pointers. sitting down on the floor of the practice room, she replayed the dance demo once more before looking at the arcana member besides her. “have you tried this style before?” a part of her is praying that she says yes or it looks like they’ll both be her all day. this was definitely an upgrade from the cover song they had to perform a few episodes back. 

“getting the technique down is probably going to take up most of her time, huh?” she lets out a chuckle before reaching up to tie her hair into a ponytail. with the angles and precision that’s seemingly being required, it felt like a good idea to get a good view of her shoulders too.

yu._.rim: saying hello to spring by going on a nice walk with my new ride!

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haneulws​:

han had been in the idol industry for a long time, long before blue.m’s debut less than a year ago. thinking of phoenix always brought some strange feelings — he hadn’t been the youngest in the group, but he had had plenty of hyungs to watch over him. in blue.m, he was the eldest, the leader, the one people looked to in stressful situations. even if he thought he was doing a decent job most of the time, he often felt like an imposter in his position, like a child wearing their parents clothes and pretending to be them.

thinking of his own feelings on the situation, he could only imagine how yurim felt — within yuseong, etoile was a senior group and all the members, by default, were also considered senior idols. he knew that yurim was one of the younger members ( he could thank minho for how much information he knew about etoile ), but he hadn’t realized up until now that they were the exact same age. 

“being 25 isn’t supposed to be old but in this industry, it feels like we’re dinosaurs.” he laughs softly, although it doesn’t sound quite right, even to his own ears. “i know we aren’t supposed to compare ourselves, but watching all these kids debut … i know what you mean. it’s hard to think about the future, sometimes.” he’d had these thoughts before, though he rarely spoke them out loud, not wanting to worry his members with his pessimism. 

as the years go by, yurim can’t stop thinking about how etoile’s future will continue to look. there’s no denying that they’re still the nation’s girl group, and she believes that the momentum hasn’t stopped just yet, but the trends in this industry changed so fast. one moment everybody’s making comebacks with a retro song and the next moment it’s girl crush. 

she loves what etoile is currently doing with their concept and the direction they’ve taken, but she can’t help but think about what will come next. there’s been lots of groups to debut after them, and there’s a few fans that she’s spotted in the crowd for other groups. no sense of betrayal but what happens when they all disappear one day?

she chuckles and nods at haneul’s words. “when kids are debuting at 15, 25 feels way too old,” she comments. it was a weird phenomenon that happened in this world and as much as she doesn’t want to be affected by it, she was only human. the way people spoke about her eventually got to her. “it’s like the more i try not to think about it, the more it overtakes my thoughts.” with a click of her tongue, she looks at haneul’s leg. “guess you’ll have to work hard on physical therapy so you aren’t falling behind either. i’ll cheer you on from the sidelines. gotta show these young kids that we still have it in us, right?”

wsrieon​:

yurim seems to be the type that’s more introspective; at least that’s what rieon’s able to deduce from first impressions. there’s an intriguing difference between their energies, one she’s trying her best to decipher so she could figure out how to properly approach conversations from now on. is her senior the type that prefers to sit back and listen ? would she get flustered by queries being thrown her direction one after the other ? continuing to calculate her approach, she’s glad that her invitation is responded to positively — it lets her know that she’s done something right up until this point, at least. ❝ awesome ! if you do have to head out at some point, though, no worries — i’m sure your schedule is far more 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒗𝒆 than mine. ❞ training regiments are no joke, but she’s positive that being a débuted idol is even more complicated and complex than what she’s dealing with right now. turning towards the empty table near the window, she starts to amble towards the sunlight and listens to her new comrade all the while; tuning into her as she speaks, providing undivided attention, and maintaining a careful gaze. ❝ when i was a kid, i didn’t have many friends, so i used to draw, like, little comic book strips of what i wanted my life to be like in the future… ❞ she begins, licking over her lips.

❝ i know that sounds super sad and all, but it kind of lit a fire underneath me to make it all happen, and well, i guess here i am. ❞

with that, she motions towards one of the chairs at the table and pulls it out for the older, then takes her own seat — immediately making herself comfortable. ❝ i still sort of draw people and stories now, though, whenever i have the time. i’ve been trying to broaden my horizons with it all, but it’s hard whenever you spend most of your time training. ❞ she muses, bringing her drink up to her lips to take a long sip; 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈 at the flavor. ❝ what about you, hmm ? what do you like to draw ? ❞

yurim’s met her fair number of people during her time as a trainee and in the industry. one thing she learned pretty quickly was that a lot of times the people she interacted with had multiple personas. she understood why seeing that this job could be so exhausting and staying true to yourself could do more harm than good, but it also meant that she found it hard to figure out when someone was being genuine or not. so there’s still a level of caution in her mind as she continues to speak to rieon, but she doesn’t think it’d be fair to judge her so early on. “i’m kind of busy,” she explains with a chuckle. etoile had a comeback soon, but this was one of the days she gave herself off. a few hours of her not working on her vocals wasn’t going to destroy her. “i feel like the trainee life is busier though, no? i remember how intense those training schedules were.” she had only spent a little over a year as a trainee but she doesn’t think she would return if she were given the choice. 

“sounds like the case for a lot of people who like drawing. i just like it because it keeps my mind at peace,” she confesses with a slight shrug. she takes a seat at the table that rieon gestures towards, putting down her own sketchbook. it was on the smaller side because she only had her pencil with her today. back in the dorm, she had some bigger ones meant for her landscape portraits. “i usually like to draw objects and mostly landscapes. something about having a lot of green on my paper gives me peace i guess.”

wshayan​:

even though angel was an absolute headache to his company since the moment he’d joined, he wasn’t so blind to think that he was special. idol trainees, pretty face — they were a dime a dozen, and he knew he was easily replaceable, if it came down to it. yet that thought didn’t worry him in the slightest; only making him wonder how far he could push those boundaries until angelfish had enough of him and kicked him to the streets, left to deal with all the trainee debt he’d accumulated in his short months

at yurim’s question, angel couldn’t help but laugh. sure, he made looked and dressed like a trust fund baby, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. he’d grown up solidly middle class his whole life, and his time in south korea was funded mostly by whatever odd job he could find, along with the small amount of money his birth mother sent him every once in a while. still, it was entertaining to think about.

“what’s the point of worrying? if i don’t make it, then i don’t make it. no points in giving myself wrinkles on top of it all.” though his words made him appear nonchalant about the whole thing, it was just another lie. the truth was, angel had no plan if he didn’t make it through the show. select! really was his last ditch effort to give himself a reason not to return stateside with his tail between his legs, returning to his parents home in defeat.

there was a lot that had to be given up for this job. yurim learned that the hard way when she ended up stumbling into yuseong and then stumbling into a position within etoile. being the nation’s top girl group definitely had its perks, but she couldn’t deny that sometimes she just missed being a regular person. so if that’s not what angel was up for with his life, all the respect to him. 

but then she thought back to his position and how there were people so desperate to be where he was now. getting into a company itself was like picking a star from the sky so to see him brush it off had her a little annoyed. nevertheless, it wasn’t her life, and she had her own issues to deal with so she kept her mouth shut on the topic.

“if you don’t care about any of it, why are you even here?” this time, the question comes from genuine curiosity. was her bored? did he not have a solid dream? maybe he couldn’t get into college. whatever the reason was, she couldn’t see why anybody would want to throw themselves onto a competition show without a real good reason. again, there was simply too much to lose out on. “did someone trick you into appearing on this show?”

yu._.rim: thank you for the birthday wishes, bonbons! it’s been another happy year with all of you!!

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YURIM ;

[ LOOK ] Duhmdurum 05.15.2022

haneulws​:

“upsetting just about covers it, i think.” in truth, upsetting barely described how much han’s injury was affecting him, but he tried to play it off as he had with his own members, not wanting to burden anyone with his own issues. he’d missed a sizeable chunk of blue.m’s promotion, but he’d get over it. eventually.

oh. the question comes as a bit of a surprise and han hesitates on how to answer. he doesn’t necessarily hate it, but it’s not his favourite thing either. most of the time, it feels like only moments ago he was joining yuseong and going through the phoenix survival show, and now he was getting called old by not only by some of his members, but the public. though the nickname ‘hag’ was usually said affectionately, it would be a lie to say it didn’t get under his skin from time to time.

“i don’t know, honestly. i don’t feel that old, but so many people tell me that i am, so i feel like i should? i had a late debut, there’s already talks of when i’ll do my military service — yet i feel like i’ve barely seen half the world, if that makes sense?” he thinks out loud, toying with his cane before glancing over to yurim. “what about you?”

she nods at his words as they throw her into an even deeper thought bubble than she initially had. while she didn’t have to worry about military service, she knows that most girl groups didn’t have half the life span of successful boy groups. it really didn’t matter that etoile was doing so well now, what really mattered was how well they would be able to last among the pool of much younger, fresher groups debuting now. 

“about the same. without the military part, of course.” yurim doubts she has to clarify that, but she’s hoping that it lightens up the mood just a bit. not even for haneul but for herself. “i guess i grew up hearing all these things about society looking down on women the moment they turn 25 so it’s brought a lot of thoughts to my head.” usually, she’s not too concerned about what people have to say about her. she knows who she is, she doesn’t need the judgment of others to help determine that, but this line of business has had her having to hear one too many comments from people she doesn’t even know.

yurim lets out a quick sigh before giving him a shrug. “i don’t even know how to describe it. like i know i’m young, but then i see sixteen year-old’s debuting and it gets me wondering how much longer my career will last,” she confesses. a little more raw than her previous thoughts, but it feels better once it’s actually out of her mouth.

yu._.rim: LOOK at me

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wshayan​:

angel very rarely thought before he spoke, even less before he acted. it got him in trouble constantly through his childhood, and it truly was a miracle that he didn’t get in trouble more often with his own company. he was an absolute nightmare to manage, his next move always unpredictable as he continuously chose to cause chaos not only in his own life, but in everyone elses.

still, he listens to yurim’s words and can’t help the slight pout of his lips. she has a point — but, at the same time, angel didn’t even really want to be on select. angelfish had been the ones to push for it, and angel had agreed practically out of boredom.

“yeah, well, there’s probably a good reason they didn’t make it on the show.” he refused to feel bad for any of them, even if his own spot had only been acquired because of his looks. being pretty was an advantage, after all. “but you have a point. at this point, i’m probably one decision away from getting kicked out of angelfish, anyway.”

despite her short trainee period, being a part of yuseong’s roster meant that she ended up training with a lot of different types of trainees. the extra competitive ones that had daggers coming out of their eyes at every moment, the laid back ones that seemed like they had other plans if the idol life didn’t come true, and then the ones in the middle, like herself, who just seemed to be there for the ride. 

that’s all to say that she’s seen people like angel before. he wasn’t a rare type. what was rare about individuals like him were them ever making it to a debut lineup. companies liked loyal, well behaved idols. not the ones that look like they could take a run at any moment which is how he’d been reading to yurim ever since she met him.

nevertheless, his words are true. there must exist a reason why angel got the spot over some more desperate idol wannabe. while she wasn’t sure what that reason was just yet, she thinks he’ll be able to show it when he makes it on the show. if he makes it until their air date. “and that doesn’t worry you? what, do you have a trust fund waiting for you even if you don’t debut?” it sounds a little harsh when it comes out of her lips, but his attitude makes her raise a brow. “you just seem overly composed is all,” she explains.

💜🖤💜