BLANK SPACES. Lili Hates To Bother (she Doesn't, In Reality, She Is The Bother) But Desperate Times Call

໒꒱ . TRAINEE MISSION # 17 _ NOSTALGIA REVIEW、

it is to no one surprise that lili’s least favorite week was week 5 and no we will not elaborate because lili’s headache throughout rehearsals should be enough of an explanation.

she was rather pouty and mouthy ( to any ear that listened ) about the song choices but when it came time to actually performing, like the hypocrite she is, she smiled and sang like she hadn’t just bad-mouthed each song the week prior to performing it.

funnily enough, lili’s favorite week was probably week 6 because she enjoyed ’tt’ the most. not only was it the most vocally challenging of the songs they had to perform during this stint, she found herself having fun performing it as well — understanding just why people liked it, in the end. 

she probably got a little too into character during the performance with her pouts.

one thing lili knows how to do is be charming and she thinks ( SHE THINKS ) her charm was shown the best during week 6’s performance.

from rehearsals to their subsequent performance, lili finds herself craving the stage more than she usually does. maybe it has something to do with the fact that they were building up for something — maybe it was the fact that with each week came a new performance and that only sparked a new sense of fulfillment in her; whatever it was, by the end of the program, lili finds herself a little sad that it had ended so soon despite her many ( many ) complaints.

she, surely, complained a bit too much to chaekyung and is still sore that chaekyung did not bring her to the nurse when she said her headache was life or death.

while lili prizes herself as an all-rounder performer, she’s realizing that being an all-rounder also means being able to cover for her peers when they fall short and not only does lili fail in that regard, she loses sight when she puts rapping and similiar low-toned range performances on the back-burner. another that she finds herself shirking is the way she portrays herself in her performances as a performer, being away from the stage had set in her a precedent of comfortability that she needs to ease off of — she needs to want it again, to not be okay with being comfortable, she needs to succeed in its light rather than just be on stage. she wants to shine. 

she turns around to gag, the overwhelming smell of chicken shit may  have gotten to her. this was absolute torture — she had no idea how yoomi was doing that, eyes taking in the way the other drops the last remains of dirt into a bin; nearly jumping out of her skin when she sees some of it scatter into the air from the abrupt collapse of weight into such a compact place. 

lili tries to wipe the grimace from her face but she fears it only further enhances the look of wariness that rides along a chagrin smile. she was convinced their management hated them — why else would they drop them into the middle of nowhere doing manual labor when there were far more appropriate ski resorts, zen retreats and water parks to otherwise spend more engaging and family-friendly variety time at? 

farming was so boomer.

“hm.” is lili’s only response, lest she say something she knows she shouldn’t.  from today, lili did not have hopes for tomorrow. picking up a nearby rag by the tip of her forefinger and thumb to place it in the bin they were to wash later that day.

“anything would be better than this.” she returns, trying to swallow another gag as she stands to yoomi’s left. god, when they said they were going to get some fresh air — lili did not think getting poisoned by a chicken’s excrements would be a part of that definition. "i wonder if my career as an idol doesn't work out, i guess i could moonlight as a farmer." she tries to joke, even though, deep down lili knows the last place anyone would ever find her would be on a farm.

⇢ ˗ˏˋ bock bock b***. ࿐ྂ

@lgclili

being forever the optimist, losing wasn't something that ever really bothered yoomi. now, they didn't technically lose anything, but it felt like her team had gotten the more strenuous of two tasks as she cleaned out the chicken coops with the rest of her fellow trainees.

sure, yoomi would've much more preferred to pick fruit from tree than be scooping up chicken poop right now, but she was simply grateful that this wasn't her daily life and that once this show was over, everyone could go back to their chicken poop free lives.

she and lili had finished taking out all the old bedding, all they needed to do was clean out the poop, sprinkle the powder they were given to ward off pests and put in fresh new bedding. "c'mon lili, we can do this! we're almost halfway done. after this we'll never have to think clean another chicken coop in our life!" yoomi flashes her friend a bright smile, trying to keep her spirits up as she swept up all the dirt and poop they had discovered under the bedding.

"yummy." yoomi sarcastically thought as she emptied the last of the dirt into a nearby bin. "okay i think that was the worst of it, let's change all the bedding now and pray that we get a better task tomorrow." she nods, laughing softly as she swiped sweat that was building up on her forehead.

໒꒱ . TRAINEE MISSION # 15 、REFLECT

this is stupid, she thinks. 

it’s a waste of time, is another thought that boulders by, when she’s saddled with the sash that cinches her waist and nearly ceases the blood flowing along her thigh. when fingers curl into said sash, she feels her veins pop and her body tense against impact. it wasn’t that lili couldn’t play the game — she could if she really, reallytried to — it’s that she would rather be doing something that wouldn’t ruin her hair that she had spent all morning straightening out and give her blotchy bruises that would take weeks to go away. something like kite flying or throwing those sticks around.

what was it called again? yut … something …

yutnori, was it?

it was harmless — throwing around sticks until one or the other gets mal and is back to the beginning.

yeah, that was easy — that was fun. lili had enjoyed that. would probably go as far as to say it was one of her favorite games in the last few weeks. because that wouldn’t result in bodily injuries being subjected under the guise of friendly competition.

yeah — that. lili would much prefer doing that instead of being thrown about like a rag doll in the eyes of some murderous trainee who lili had probably fucked over sometime this year. ( not a joke, also not funny — and lastly, ow )

thrown onto her back — she cries foul! 

that time she really must have dislocated something, her shoulder? her neck — her entire left buttock, perhaps? something to excuse her from the ordeal of basically being pretzeled minus the salt. the round lasts for less than a minute, a flash dance of limbs leaving her breathless and finally she’s removed from the ring, left to nurse her ‘wounds’ by the side with a horrifying grimace upon her lips. the aching at her hip was sure to leave one of those nasty bruises she was hoping she wouldn’t be getting. 

but alas, said murderous trainee just had to throw in some type of special taekwondo move into the mix. 

once more, the thought crosses as she hisses at the pain now echoing from her pelvic bone: 

stupid, stupid, stupid.

🥺 💗

୨୧     W     :     FINDING YOUR INNER VARIETY STAR   _   2

WHAT DID YOU CONSIDER THE EASIEST & HARDEST PART OF THE WORKSHOP?

“to be funny.” lili wasn’t funny at least when she tried to be — funny had to be an instinctive trait, one that came easy for them, but lili wasn’t like that. “don’t get me wrong, i’m funny, but not when i want to be — at least that’s what people say.” people tell her she’s funny but lili didn’t think so, if anything, she believed she was a far cry from it.

HOW WOULD YOU RATE YOUR OVERALL SATISFACTION WITH THE WORKSHOP?

“out of ten?” lili thinks on it, pausing for a moment before, nodding her head, satisfied with what she’s come up with, “i’d say ten. astrid 선배님 had a lot to share and tried her best to make us comfortable.” and when lili said she tried, she really did try — but it wasn’t enough for lili to cross her boundaries and her ego, unfortunately. at the ripe age of twenty-four, lili was already set in stone and could not (rather, would not) compromise herself in the name of variety. and maybe that had been her downfall from the beginning.

WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED IN A FOLLOW-UP WORKSHOP ON THE SAME TOPIC?

should she be honest — would it look bad on her if she was? or should she lie? she was good at that — through her teeth, tongue to cheek, a gentle, slow breath before she says what’s exactly on her mind: “no, i think i’m just not suited for variety, at least, if i were to go by myself. i feel like i’m a go with the flow, rely on people i know type of variety person but if i was just the individual guest? i don’t think i’m funny enough for that — or i suppose, it just depends on the type of variety. gags and the like, please refrain from recommending me.” was that a bit much? maybe but lili had to draw the line somewhere. this workshop had proved that this was not the line of work she wanted to be associated with.

apparently, lili wasn’t anti-love.

she was more … love … adverse, if one really had to put it into words. it wasn’t that she didn’t care for it — it was that she didn’t exactly believe in it. time and time again, she’s been proven that love was a wasted effort, no good would come from it, that love was not worth the tears and the stress-related skin afflictions. 

but what could be done when minseo looked so adorably cute and hell-bent to prove her wrong. 

watching her friend set up her faux-presentation, ipad and persuasive tone included,  lili was convinced to give it a try — if only to humor the younger girl. who was lili to crush her hopes and dreams of finding lili’s one true love — actually, it was more accurate of lili to be that said person but she was feeling nice today.

( a rare occurrence and she wonders if it’s because of her new increase of caffeine intake ) 

watching the other swipe across her screen, she nods along to the facts — tall, good looking, athletic; they were all good traits. things lili never really considered when it came to her ‘type’ — did she even have one at this point when all the boys she’d seen up to this point had either been vetted by her grandmother or some backstage mishap that never saw the light of day? 

( lili doesn’t know which is worse )

“it’s not seojin is it — wait, never mind, he’s not 183 cm …” her eyes glance passively over her nails — god, she needed a manicure — before she takes in the headshot shown to her. suddenly interested, her fingers tap along the screen to inspect the blurry image, trying to zoom in; but to no avail, she pouts. “can’t you just show me his face, what if i go on a date with an axe murderer who has the same hair?” unlikely but true crime podcasts would beg to differ.

“oh yea?” a brow is raised, chin settled into her palm when her sights turn to minseo, “so, why haven’t you tried to date him yet? not your type — or do you have someone else in mind?” 

MINSEO'S MATCHMAKING SERVICES

If Cupid's arrows weren't meant for her, she was more than willing to commit theft in broad daylight and steal the bow and arrow from her most recent enemy. This February, she would happily play the role of matchmaker for two of her friends. She should have known better than to meddle, but when the opportunity arose, she had to seize the inspiration and commit to the bit. There was no way that she saw her brilliant idea of matching two of her friends ending horribly. Had she even asked her friends if the two of them were single and ready to mingle?

Nope.

It was her first experience trying to set up a blind date. She figures that too much information wasn't ideal, but at least she could ease their worries that she had thought this through. She had good intentions, relinquishing some apprehension and trusting her would be necessary. She pulls out her iPad from her bag, opening up the presentation she had set up for Lili. "Obviously, I can't show you his face, but he's tall —183 cm!— and looks like he came out of a shōnen manga..." She reveals a headshot picture, blurring most of Byeongkwan's face to her best of her ability, but if she was being honest with herself...

It was clearly BK. He was one of the few trainees that had a specific look, which had been added to the pro section towards the end. She had done this on her iPad in like twenty-minutes. A survey would not be given by the end of her presentation. "He works out, has a way with words, which can be a pro and a con— but we're working on it! He'll make you laugh a lot, your stomach will hurt by the end of it, which is probably the biggest reason you should say yes to the blind date. "

@lgclili

her thumb slides from the capture button to the left — engaging her camera’s burst mode as she immediately steps back at the sight of seunghyun’s hands, trying to angle her phone to the best of her ability in every which way to get the best possible picture of seunghyun in all his purple glory.

oh, and a glory it was to see.

clad in his purple get-up as a character lili can vaguely recall, she finds it absolutely horrendous and it only makes it all the more hilarious — doubled-down by his horror to get his picture taken from the current circumstance, lili had thought today’s party would be a bore.

boy, was she wrong.

the moment he lunges forward, lili dodges to her right, side stepping the toppled over snacks in her need to escape. “in your dreams, seunghyunie ~” she nearly cackles, “this is the perfect early christmas gift to me,” and with that she makes a dash for it — immediately beelining it out of his clutches. 

It was almost as if when Seunghyun woke up this morning the clouds rolled back, and a higher power bellowed from the heavens and said - Get wrecked.

He can name a solid 137 ( 138 if you include the model manager he'd been avoiding after hearing word of a group Agency photo ) people he'd rather see on the Halloween of his discontent and unfortunately Lili did not even make the short list.

"Don't - !" The first step out of a stolen box is always a doozy. For a moment it looks as if Seunghyun's head is about to pop right through one side - Though he manages to catch himself and awkwardly roll from beneath it. "Don't you dare!"

Alas, the deed is done. His eye twitches with each subsequent flash, holding up a hand to shield as much of his face as possible. The costume was egregious enough without someone bearing witness to photographic evidence of his horribly drawn on mustache.

"Delete them. All of them." A bit difficult to be intimidating in a Waluigi costume of all things. Even on his feet towering over the trainee now, it's rather comedic. "Right now! Give me that -" he lunges forward, making a grab for it only to stumble a bit and jostle the table to their left, sending a few Nintendo themed finger foods onto the floor.

“who’s that again? show me a picture.” lili was nothing but a visual learner — it also kept her mind off of trying to figure out how to shove herself into those unseemly nintendo characters. 

maybe she should have taken a page out of minseo’s book and browsed the extensive animal crossing critter catalogue — there was amany of those, the possibilities endless; but she had already dressed as a sexy fox last year; this year she wanted to do something different.

“more of a nerd than the one who came up with this quasi-alice in wonderland treasure hunt? what’s with these cards?” though fun to find, she was wondering what the point of these were. and yet again, another ‘eat me’ falls into her hands.

Halloween never gets old for maylin. every year brought something new and exciting for the dancer to try out. planning her costumes a month in advance was the way to go, but with this new theme, she could never use it unless she was lucky next year. to say she wasn't pissed off is an understatement.

there was no way in hell she could come up with something cool on such short notice and her disappointment showed in her expression, bottom lip jutted out into a pout as she ventured out into the decorated halls of lgc. whoever created this theme would get some words from her (anonymously, of course).

"whoever picked this year's theme is a nerd... who wants to dress up as Nintendo characters? what are we, five?" maylin grumbled, eyes scanning the halls for any sign of some kind of card they had to retrieve. she had already found the 'drink me' card stuck inside the beverage machines. why she participated in these things, she doesn't know. but it was a good excuse to be at lili's side while they chatted. "after doing a lot of research on who even belonged to the franchise, I did find those bayonetta characters. they are the sexiest characters I could find."

and possibly the only fun characters that ranged between any mario or animal crossing game that seemed to be their most popular creations to date.

“was that so hard?” lili was no professional but she wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with the game. she had to do something on those thirteen hour flights from los angeles. sure, lili was probably being a little too forceful in her approach but what better way to show the gameplay than to test out each and every action extended to them. “how many did you end up collecting? i have a couple in my pockets, i think we can make you a flimsy net like the one i have!”

cycling through the equipment in her pockets, each one showing up with a flourish until she settles on the flimsy net that she wanted to show him. “like this one! and if we find a stone we can make an axe!”

the novelty of the game had died on her long ago but for someone like hyuk, it might be interesting since it appeared he had never played this game before.  

“this still looks so shady”, hyuk replied, eyes focused on how lili was playing and she looked skilled enough with her console, while he looked super awkward. he also didn’t know why he acted so defensive about it - it was just a game! - and people watching them would probably enjoy them being like that. “but okay, i will trust you”

in the next few moments, he pressed the controls like lil instructed, shaking a few trees around, but unlike her, he didn’t get a leaf, only fruits and branches. that game looked innocent enough and he was starting to like it.

“now what we do with all of this?”, he asked, his character collecting a branch, then returning to some random point on the screen.

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