"we'll Talk More In April."

PUBLIC ENEMY # 1 (KIDS: 1, LILI: 0). lili hates kids, that is fact, lili is stuck in a pile of stuffed animals because of her public enemy number one (kids), that is also fact — @lgcasami

just when lili was starting to think she had done enough volunteering to grant her an all-exclusive ticket to heaven, she’s implored to do more — and this time it was with her least favorite type of person: a child.

now, lili was no child-eating heathen a la hansel and gretel but she — for lack of better words — had an aversion to them; much like an allergy. the mere sight and/or thought of them seemed to prickle her skin in the same way a rash would. not only were they gross, saliva-slobbering cretins — they just annoyed the fuck out of her.

( unless they were the ones who showered her in unnecessary compliments then maybe she would give them a pass but it still didn’t stop them from swiping their snot-ridden noses across their stubby fingers and dressing her cashmere sweaters in boogers — all from experience, all that she experienced that very day )

call her heartless — sure, she could be — but despite her smiles and her laughter, falling into a pile of plushies was not how lili wanted to spend her saturday; especially when after being pushed into said pile of plushies, she found herself adept from getting out of this germ-infested pool of stuffed animals. 

a groan escapes her, ready to accept her fate — perhaps, she’ll die here in this engorged display of fluffy opulence and they’ll name a wall after her — choosing to lay in the pit with a hand sticking out as she weakly yelps, “can anyone help me?”

thank god it’s not the ugly burger outfits she had seen during the briefing. it was the least they could do — hitting rock bottom in terms of stage outfits shouldn’t be a given, not when they were already putting their vocal chords on the line with the atrocitious catallena screech.

( honestly the sound alone had begun to haunt her in her sleep )

she steps towards the selections, cycling through the arrangements with a pursed lip — fingers flipping through the outfits with an discerning eye, noticing that the names had, in fact, been hung alongside the attires. oh, it was as bad as she had feared. 

“i hate to be the bearer of bad news.” she didn’t, it was probably one of her favorite things to do — but this was maylin, and lili couldn’t help but have a soft spot for the girl. so, she chooses to ease her into the burn — if one could call it that. “but — alright,” turning away from where she had spotted their name tags alongside the outfits, she takes maylin by the hand and corners her attentions.

“would you rather be a tuna nigiri or a salmon maki?”

 not that it would matter, but wasn’t it more fun to build the suspense?

the silence came rolling in, along with the carts of hats that stared back at the girls. maylin could have sworn she saw sparkles for a split second. while the others were giddy and filled with excitement to wear such clothes and perform on a stage that would be broadcast to the public, maylin could feel her blood temperature drop for a second.

talk about the digital footprint.

the brunette's arms dropped to her side in sudden disbelief. she figured this round of costumes would be a bit more unique and different, though, this was as unique as it got and with how significant it was for the actual song - there was no avoiding her fate. "i truly can't believe i will have to talk about this exact moment when we all debut. we'll never live this down." dramatically, yes, but every word that came out was true.

"do you think we get to pick out which outfit we want? that would at least allow me to not feel so burned."

lili’s face immediately morphs into one of disagreement, head shaking as her thoughts disappear from the task at hand. she was too pretty to be thinking so hard for whatever reason, “to you — maybe. you’ve got the type of face that could suit any hair color.” an unexpected compliment, but a truthful one nonetheless.

“like i can understand a member or two but a whole group is insane, especially with how nosy people can be.” there was a far chance that news of the changed birthdays wouldn’t have broken by morning, especially in today’s digital age. “that’s so weird though, birth years? that’s just asking for creeps to take advantage —“ she shudders, “i don’t even want to think about it, how gross.” 

Kyoka shrugs it off, her thoughts already elsewhere. She doesn't remember seeing anyone around with green hair so she guesses they're probably in another training group outside of the languages, where she's too focused on squinting at the material to notice the other people around anyways. "Green is a nice color," she adds, rather unhelpfully.

A glint in her eyes appear as Kyoka recognizes a fellow forum scavenger. "I've heard about that," she said with an impression of a blasé attitude. (It probably isn't very convincing.) "We used to hide our birth years, but it was easier to hide without social media. People were still able to guess, though, I wonder how that worked with the whole group.".

tongue in cheek, lili couldn’t help but feel the amused grin tug at her lips — albeit ruining the forced frustration she was trying to portray. her gaze remains passive, flickering from the coach who stood warily at the side, trying to appear busy despite obviously listening in on a conversation he could not understand, to the girl before her.

“you could call it that.”

so, this truly was their plan b — the girl all but confirms it to herself as she places her yogurt cup down and leans back against the mirrored wall where she was currently ‘resting’. finger tapping against her knee before making up her mind, “fun?" her eyes dance mischeviously at the word, "what did you have in mind?”

There were times when Amelia just didn't want to do anything. She was just... existing. Sometimes she was tired, drained, and just didn't care. Sometimes the upbeat and bubbly girl just needed a break. She needed to recharge too. It wasn't easy always being happy and upbeat. Some days Amelia felt like she didn't care.

Today was not one of those days.

Amelia was incredibly happy today and for some reason felt mischievous. She was currently looking for her brother when she was pulled aside by one of the coaches who asked if she could translate. Amelia nodded and followed the staff member.

Upon hearing her native language, Amelia's eyebrow cocked. Perhaps this could be her fun. She smiled and pretended as if everything was ok. ❛ Let me guess. You're not feeling it and they keep pushing you? ❜ She inquired in Mandarin. ❛ Would you like to have some fun? ❜

super late plot call for the trainee mission ! if anyone still needs a prep & activities thread, lili is free to take up a couple ! please like or reply and i’ll hop into your messages ♡

HOW TO SAY I’M BORED BUT LIKE REALLY, REALLY BORED? lili knows english but apparently not the english that matters — @lgcasami

strangely enough, despite living in america — namely the palm-tree lined yards of bel air — for nine years, lili still considers english her second language; even if she confuses her mandarin more than her los angeles-accented english, she stills tells herself that she’s far more fluent in her mother-tongue than any other language she learns after the fact. and perhaps that is why she’s now stuck here, in english class, relearning grammar structures and how english really makes no fucking sense but here they are — still learning it for the sake of western advancement.

( a part of her wonders why she didn’t just take japanese lessons again, at least she’d be learning something worth her while )

it is with these thoughts that she looks to asami. good ol’ asami, always there to take her mind of the boring present and the relentlessly annoying english grammar system that makes no sense whatsoever. “so, did you learn anything new today?” she asks, actually curious if anyone else had listened to the lesson and had not dazed off like she had. “or are you regretting taking english and wished you took korean instead?”

FLY WITH ME. wanna fly with you in my arms ; hangang citizen’s park, seoul — @lgcminkyu

lili hadn’t thought much about the date lottery when the option had been placed on the table. it had been more or less a throw-away decision, sign her up there, hear about it later — sort of thing. 

however, when news came of her actually participating — and worse, having to be the one to plan the whole date — lili had her reservations. 

she had never been one to care about such things but what if her date sucked? and what if her date hated what she planned — what if netizens thought it was boring? ugh, this was the type of stress that imprinted permanent wrinkles to the forehead.

said wrinkles are ironed out as she eases herself into a sense of zen ; rolling her mystery date’s hint between her fingertips —  an adorable kuromi plushie that makes her wish she had chosen a my melody counterpart rather than the jellycat snake she had been eyeing for ages — as she waits at the corner of the entrance of hangang citizen’s park. all the cherry blossoms had finally departed from their blooms and all was left were their fallen petals, skirting around her heels.

she tries hard to keep her face from falling into a look of anxiousness as she pretends the camera currently zooming into her face from several steps away isn’t there, nor is the producer whispering into his headset isn’t inducing an annoying buzz in her ears. from afar, she can already spy the dozen or so kites taking flight ; vibrant colors painting the afternoon sky in their illustrious rainbow. "i hope they like it," she whispers to herself, taking another breath to calm herself.

other than a keratin treatment, lili would be aghast to have a lick of bleach touch her virgin hair. her fingers reach for her unsplit ends with a testing eye before flicking the hair over her shoulder, “i would,” kyoka was right, lili would look good in pink — as she looks good in anything — her ego was showing. “but i’d rather not, i love being brunette.” 

it would probably lili’s only boring flaw — the fact that she had never wanted nor ever would want to dye her hair another color. 

“people can be such antis,” and in their line of work there were many of those. not that lili was a good person, herself, but she was far from a 일진 of the likes that were constantly getting thrown around in media these days. “try not to hang around those bad apples, okay?” 

her chopsticks tap her silver tray, glancing at what she had leftover on it ; "do you want my potatoes?"

She tucks a strand of her hair behind at the unexpected compliment. "If I have the money one day," Kyoka solemnly begins, "I want to dye my hair pink and green, like a strawberry." And then she promptly hides her face behind her hands at that declaration, mumbling something about pineapples again. Once she's recovered from her own words, Kyoka adds, "But I bet you'd look super super pretty in pink too!"

Nodding along to Lili's words, Kyoka takes the time to finish off the rest of her plate. "One person in your school who hates you and-" she collides her fists together into an explosion to illustrate her point.

"Yup! Everyone had stage names too, so that technically our real identities are private." She shrugs. "But the entrance exams are all posted anyways and people can guess age orders based off stories so it's not that helpful." Besides, all the academy girls knew each other, so really, everything was an open secret.

lili sighs, letting another resigned hand run through her hair. “no, nothing’s hurt.” just my ego — she thinks while trying not to glare at the little boy standing right behind asami who was currently giving her the evil eye. the second asami turns her head, lili throws a stuck-out tongue his way before sidling back up to asami’s side.

“please don’t leave me with them, who knows what else i’ll be subjected to — they’re ….” chaotic, life-sucking, evil gremlins. “unpredictable.” she says instead of all the things she wished she could — but who knows whose ears were listening in and wasn’t it a thing for kids to parrot back everything they hear?

that would not be a good thing.

( especially for lili and her very unrefined filter-less speech )

crossing her arms, she allows asami to gather the kids in front of them; unexpectedly she stands a step behind asami — as if hiding behind her in case of, well, just in case — as the other girl gets the kids to somehow apologize for their wrongdoings.

and lili — despite not wanting to — has to be the bigger person, she was the adult here, right?

right?

once their apologies are given — though, lili thinks they sound a little forced — she nods, sighing, “it’s okay, i forgive you.” a hand reaches out to shake each of their sticky hands without grimacing — +1 for lili! “let’s shake on it.”

Asami does the best she can to pull Lili up as gracefully as she can. Asami isn't necessarily strong, but Lili is light as a feather, so even though her moral wasn't doing well right now, Asami thinks there was no dignity lost in the process.

Asami doesn't miss the way she addresses the kids, either. And even though she doesn't really agree with the terms of endearment, Asami can't stop the little smile from forming on her lips. The kids, indeed could be a little way too much. "But you're okay right? Nothing hurts?" she asks Lili instead as she brushes the older's hair off her shoulder.

Asami is genuinely ready to leave Lili give the kids a earful given the circumstances they've put her on. They are volunteers and not punching bags after all, but before that happens Asami shakes her head when she notices Lili slightly panicking. "No, no, don't worry. It's just that kids can leave lollipops in the weirdest places, but you're alright," and to prove her point she stretches her neck to get a full 360º looking for any damage and could find none. "You're just slightly disheveled, but you're still pretty," she tries to ease her worries before turning to the kids. "Now kids, I hope you understand you weren't really nice to Lili noona. She didn't want to play this game, and when we play we should all want to participate, isn't that what we agreed on?" and she receives a few reluctant nods, "what do we say when we do something wrong, then?" and they obediently turn to Lili to offer her their apologies.

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬

graceful? she’s as stiff as a board, no charisma whatsoever !!! so lifeless

she’s so pretty, it’s a shame it doesn’t translate into her dancing ㅋㅋ

getting a lili reveal wasn’t on my 2024 bingo card but she’s already captured my heart ♡ 

i love the way she dances! this is truly one of my favorite videos i've seen from legacy in quite a while tbh!!

^ you must have been watching a totally different video than i was... i wanted to see her do more than dancing because in this industry, you need to be multitalented and this video makes me assume that she can only do one thing and that's dancing....... ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

▷ 𝐋𝐨𝐚𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬