WELCOME

[Song Jisun]

Jisun was in one of the rehearsal studios and, for once, the place was practically deserted. It was the middle of the day, and most of the people at the company were breaking for lunch. Jisun, on the other hand, had woken up late (for the first time in what seemed like forever!) and had had a late breakfast, so she wasn't hungry.

She was at the piano, working through the song that she was hoping to record as a solo single. It was a lot slower and more mature than the music she usually put out with POProcks, and Jisun was really looking forward to it. Of course, she still had to make a demo version of it and have it approved before she could take it to the recording studio, but she was almost ready to do that. She just wanted to make sure that her voice wasn't disappearing on her. Again. Her throat had been a bit sore when she'd woken up, so she was a bit worried.

Jisun got to the part of the song where she was supposed to hit one of the big, high notes that she was known for, but as she switched gears in order to hit it something in her throat scratched and made her cough. It was almost like a ripping feeling, though she knew from past experience that it wasn't that. Jisun made a face and rubbed her neck absently, trying to clear her throat so she could try again. This was the second time since the promotions for POProcks' full album that this has happened, and Jisun was getting annoyed. The girls' manager kept telling her to hold back a bit to preserve her voice, but that just went against her principles.

Jisun cleared her throat and started again, but when she reached that point in the song, her throat did the exact same thing. Jisun made a loud noise of frustration and turned to sit sideways on the piano seat. Breathe, she told herself, closing her eyes to focus on calming her cough. She'd have to dig her notebook and colourful supply of pens out of the depths of the dorm. Wonderful. Jisun heard rather than saw the other person enter the room, as her back was turned to the door. "Annyonghaseyo," she greeted automatically, her voice a bit hoarse.

Jisun's outfit

[Son Daehan]

These days, Daehan was busy with both Etcetera work and his own work for the cover of ‘Come back to me’, but it was a good thing that he was so busy because it let him concentrate on music instead of other things. One of those other things was that he’d found out Chaekyung’d left. And it hadn’t been recent either, over a month ago, although he’d only found out this month.

That bothered Daehan more than the way Chaekyung’d left Epika, because Daehan didn’t think everyone had to become an idol or an artist or even a musician. So if Chaekyung decided that it wasn’t for her anymore, then he didn’t think there was anything wrong with leaving Epika. But that he hadn’t known about it for so long was a real surprise.

Daehan’d never been outgoing and growing up he’d always spent more time around adults – other musician friends of his dad, usually – than kids his own age. His first close friend had been Chaekyung, and even to date, he had only a handful of close friends/hyungs – Saejin, who ranked highest of the members of Etcetera, the other Etcetera hyungs, and Yang Jeha, who was also technically a hyung to him but who Daehan called by name and used informal talk with because when they’d met Daehan’d thought that they were the same age and it hadn’t been until several meetings later that he’d found out otherwise. It was true that ever since Etcetera and his debut, Daehan hadn’t been spending much time with Chaekyung, but he hadn’t thought that they’d grown apart during the time, so realizing that was tough on him. But Daehan was never emotionally expressive – except when singing – so he kept most of that reaction to himself and went on with thing he needed to do in his life.

Daehan’d already made several test recordings for his cover of ‘Come back to me’, but he’d had a new idea last night and had made edits to his most recent version of the music sheets. To try out the edits, he came down to the rehearsal studios after an early lunch, expecting the rooms to be free because of the lunch hour. But the first room was taken by someone – he could hear the music from the other side of the door before he even opened it. So he tried the second one, but opening the door he saw that it was taken too.

Daehan wasn’t close to most of the other idols, even the ones within Epika, so the most he’d said to Jisun in their acquaintance was passing greetings, but Daehan was never shy around people and he was in one of his determined moods, as he got when he was stuck on something music-related that he wanted to do. So instead of apologizing for the interruption and leaving, Daehan stepped inside the room with a wave. “Annyeong nuna.” Daehan had a habit of being informal with pretty much anyone after the first meeting, so he didn’t use formal speech to most people, both seonbaes and older hubae idols. “Do you think you’ll be done soon?” Daehan was direct.

[Song Jisun]

Jisun turned back around so that she could see who was at the door. "Ah, annyeong Daehan," she greeted pleasantly, though the slight hoarseness to her voice still hinted that her throat was causing her problems. She'd never had much to do with Etcetera's maknae, but he'd become much more visible in the company since his debut, and they'd gotten along well enough whenever they did have reason to talk to each other. Jisun had always had the impression that Daehan wasn't one to beat around the bush, a theory he confirmed once again with his rather straightforward question.

Jisun cleared her throat, fighting the sudden urge to cough, and took a drink from the bottle of now luke-warm water that she'd set down nearby. She hated it when water was anything warmer than ice cold, but at the moment she didn't have a choice. Her throat needed the moisture. "Yeah, I can't exactly practice very well with an uncooperative voice," she replied, her tone a bit bitter. She'd really wanted to get that initial recording done today so that she could start really working on getting that solo single. Unfortunately, her choice of song required her voice to be in top-notch shape; it started off soft, requiring a lot of control, but crescendoed throughout the song to the big notes that her voice had cracked on just a few moments ago near the end of it.

Jisun stood up from the piano seat, gesturing that it was free for Daehan's use. "Are you working on your father's song?" She asked, curious. She'd read the article in the news, just like everybody else in Seoul who cared about pop music. "Do you mind if I listen in for a bit?"

[Son Daehan]

Not to be taken the wrong way, but Daehan smiled when Jisun said that she couldn’t practice with an uncooperative voice. When it came to music, Daehan was unrelentingly fixed in his ways, and when he wanted to do something now, he needed to do that right now, and by right now he really meant right now.

And not that Daehan really noticed other people’s conditions normally – or thought to comment on them even when people told him about their conditions directly, as Jisun’d just done – but in these music-focused moods, he was even more unperceptive than usual. After Jisun confirmed that she was done, Daehan pretty much expected her to pack up and leave and let him have his music fun, and with that expectation, he walked up to the equipment to set up for himself – it didn’t really occur to him that doing that was rude.

And similarly, Daehan didn’t notice until Jisun spoke that she’d moved off the piano seat. He shook his head to gesture to the keyboards sitting next to the computer connected to the recording equipment. “Eung, I’m doing an electronic dance cover.” That was a far split from the song’s original trot music, but Daehan liked his decision – he didn’t like trot anyway and he didn’t think a cover had to be too similar, especially not since he was the one that’d written the original song’s music. “You can stay if you want.”

[Song Jisun]

Jisun pursed her lips, slightly disapproving. She knew he was direct, but not saying anything? Wasn't that a bit rude? She wasn't a stickler for politeness herself, but really now, did it not occur to him to something remotely sympathetic? Or even just something, considering she'd just related her bad throat conditions to him? They were both their groups' vocals, after all. She at least felt some sense of kinship with the vocals of other groups for just that reason. Maybe Daehan didn't, but that didn't mean he couldn't common on her condition. Rude.

When he shook his head, already at the keyboards, Jisun got interested enough to shake her annoyance off. "Electronic dance cover? She repeated curiously, sitting back down at the piano bench. That was completely different from the angle she was aiming for with the solo she wanted, she mused. It should be interesting. She decoided not to say anything about choosing to stay and listen; she could be just as straightforward as he was if she wanted, especially since he had said she could stay. Jisun took another swig of water from her brother and swung her feet up onto the bench to get a bit comfier on the wood. "What does your dad think of that?" There was an amused undertone to her voice. She knew Daehan had composed it to begin with, but making the song jump from trot to electronic could get some interesting reactions.

[Son Daehan]

Daehan didn’t notice any annoyance from Jisun, or anything else, but since she did ask a question, he answered. “He thinks I should do a music video for it. But I’m only going to do a song.”

His dad wanted him to do a music video too because his dad wanted him to become more well-rounded, and take an interest dancing. His dad always encouraged his music first and foremost, but he also said that Daehan needed to be better integrated with the rest of his group, since he was performing in an idol group and not alone. Getting more involved with dancing would get him to be more social and do more things outside of music and with other people, especially if he chose to do a music video, since then he’d need to get help from other people.

But Daehan wasn’t interested in doing a music video, not even one that’d have only some dancing. It wasn’t even that Daehan just didn’t want to practice his dancing – he was spending some extra time practicing the choreography for Etcetera lately because of pressure from Riot – but Daehan just didn’t care much for music videos at all. He thought all that work and money could be spent elsewhere, especially for something like a cover single like he was doing for ‘Come back to me’.

The song would be released as a digital single, which’d been Daehan’s decision too. He’d agreed to do the single because he thought it’d be fun and there’d been a lot of fan requests for it, causing Epika to ask him if he wanted to do one, but ultimately Daehan wanted his first single album to be an original song, not a cover. There was something special about a first single album, and though Daehan didn’t get emotionally invested in lots of things that other idols considered important, or at least cared about – like music ranks or popularity – Daehan did care about what his first album would be. It was music, and everything music-related mattered to Daehan.

[Song Jisun]

Jisun nodded her head off to one side, considering the idea of a music video. Her immediate mental image was one of flashy techno lights and strangely dressed back-up dancers. It sort of reminded of her of something POProcks would be willing to pull. “I can picture a music video,” she mused aloud. “You could make it really funky. It could be be fun.”

Jisun shrugged. It didn’t really matter to her whether he ended up doing a video or not, but she could see at least one potential reason why it would be good to make. Idols were so highly visible, it was a part of their lifestyle, and the more exposure the better. She knew the fame and recognition for her voice was what she personally strived for, but the image went along with that. Of course, so music video would force people to focus on the song instead of having Etcetera fans squeal over their Hero. Jisun leaned back on her hands and nodded at him. “Let’s hear it then.” There was no point in staying if he didn’t actually practice while she was there, after all.

[Son Daehan]

“Aniya, it’s not really my thing.” If Daehan knew what Jisun’s picture of a possible music video had been, he’d thought it was even less his thing. But Daehan had no telepathic mental powers that gave him that kind of insight, so that saved the conversation from getting more awkward.

And longer, which Daehan was all for not having, since he was really in the music zone right now and wanted to get to it. As Jisun told him to get started, Daehan was hooking up his flash drive to the computer to get his saved song project running on the editing program, checking the keyboard to make sure it was connected. The keyboard didn’t play a central role in the song, but a part of the edits he wanted to make included changes to the keyboard sound, so he was starting there.

Daehan hadn’t started recording the vocals yet, still not completely satisfied with the music, and because he hadn’t finished writing the small rap portion that would be newly added to the song. So when he started the song, listening to the unedited version first to check it, there were no words to the song yet, only the music without lyrics. Daehan let the whole song run once before stopping it – and someone else might’ve asked what Jisun thought after that, but Daehan’d already half-forgotten she was there by then – going to the section he wanted to edit and getting right down to it, starting to record a new segment, playing the changes on the keyboard. He then replaced the old section with the successful recording, playing the song again from just before the edits to check.

[Song Jisun]

Jisun made a little non-committed noise to his response. It really didn’t affect her at all, so she didn’t care either way if he ended up making a music video or not. She took another swig of water from her water bottle and tapped out a random little rhythm with her shoes while he finished setting up, something she stopped once the unfinished song started playing so as not to distract from the sound of it.

Jisun nodded along to the beat. It had been changed up quite dramatically, but she could still recognize it. If she was completely honest with herself, this was the sort of thing she wanted to be able to do – compose and rearrange music, that is. For all that she could play the piano and the alto sax on top of being able to the crap out of most songs, she’d never quite been good at arranging. She knew when things sounded bad, and she knew how to fix them, but to take a song and change it up completely? Despite a total of six years with Epika, that was still beyond her reach.

As he played the song through a second time to listen to the edits, Jisun decided to pipe up. ”Sounds good,” she said, loudly enough that it would be heard above the music. She had the funny feeling that Daehan would deny it being ‘good’ until he was done with it, though.

[Son Daehan]

As he played the song the second time, Daehan’d gotten out his notebook with that portion of the music – some parts of the song were also on two other notebooks because Daehan wrote on whatever he had in hand or was carrying that day. He was listening to the music, focused on it, when Jisun spoke up, and it was a needed reminder that she was still there.

“Eung. But it’s not done.” Though Daehan didn’t know what Jisun was thinking, it was true that Daehan didn’t think the song – or any song – was completely good until it was finished. But Daehan also knew that it would be good when it was completed, so he didn’t object to the process being called good – Daehan was quiet, but he wasn’t shy and he wasn’t really humble about his talents either.

Daehan flipped to the next page on his notebook just after his response to Jisun, but distracted by both the music and the conversation, he didn’t take care in flipping the pages. The paper – surprisingly crisp still despite the words written on it because it was a new notebook that Daehan’d started only a few days ago – stood on edge and caught the first groove of his middle finger on his right hand. “Aissi,” Daehan complained to the paper in a sullen tone, blaming it and not his distractedness – the paper had cut into the skin and blood swelled up immediately, already getting a little on his notebook. That annoyed Daehan more than the cut because he liked to keep his notebooks neat – there was an order to the chaos of his notes, even if only Daehan could see that order.

[Song Jisun]

Mm, she’d figured he’d say as much. The song was sounding good, but Jisun was starting to get bored. There was only so much fun a person could have sitting listening to somebody else work. And the fact that she herself couldn’t practice only made her more irritable.

Jisun raised her eyebrows slightly when Daehan cursed at the paper. Ahh, paper cuts. Those things hurt. She was sure she would have the pleasure of enjoying several over the course of the next week. But first she had to actually find her notebook. And her colourful supply of pens. Jisun shared a room with POProcks’ maknae, and for the most part their room looked like a tornado had hit. Finding her notebook and pens was going to be a fun task indeed.

Standing up from the piano bench, Jisun gathered up the sheet music she’d brought with her for the piano part and nodded at Daehan. ”I’m going,” she informed him. ”Sugohaseyo, Daehan.”

((I figured I’d wrap it up since Jisun was getting bored? If Daehan wasn’t so into the music she’d have stayed longer. ))

[Son Daehan]

Daehan reached for a tissue from the box that was sitting by the equipment. He pulled out a few, taking them to wipe off the blood, first on his hand then on the notebook – though that smeared what blood was on the paper, creating a stain, which Daehan frowned at.

Daehan was in the middle of that clean up when Jisun announced that she was leaving, so he looked over to her and nodded. “Eo, jalga nuna.” Sometimes Daehan had an audience when he was editing music, but that was usually someone that had a vested interest in what he was doing, so it came as little surprise that Jisun was going, since there wasn’t much entertainment to be had watching someone else work.

[OOC: Yeah, we can leave it here.]