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Karina ♡ Whiplash Music Bank 241101

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KARINA ● IG REEL

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danbi had lost track of how many times she'd asked han to record a tiktok with her. each and every time he conveniently had something else to do and she accepted it...until today. she refused to take 'no' for an answer. but knowing this would be the one and only time he'd ever record any content with her, she had to make the most of it.

the girl sets up her phone against a wall and makes sure they have good enough lighting before stepping back. content that they could both be seen well enough in the frame she turns to him with an innocent. of course he was already suspicious. she never believed he'd be easily fooled so she had to whip out her acting chops. "it's for fun. we get to hype each other up." she explained. "then you go and i'll cheer for you. don't overthink it- but i understand if you don't get it since you probably only like millennial humor."

haneul didn't know how the hell danbi convinced him to do this. actually, that was a lie. he knew exactly how. all she had to do was throw a pout with those sad puppy eyes and the bodyguard was compelled to give her whatever she wanted. it was a weakness that she exploited often, much like any younger sister would with their older brother. and that was pretty much what she was in every sense of the word. after failing his own brother so miserably during their youth, the man was secretly more determined than ever to make things right with the new youngins in his life.

so that was how, despite his disdain for cameras, haneul found himself in front of one. danbi had been dying to film a tiktok with him for a while. han finally agreed along with the condition that he didn't have to dance. he did that once with somi and that was more than enough for a lifetime. " wait, so. . . all i have to do is clap when you say 'give me my money' ? " the bodyguard clarified with furrowed eyebrow. this didn't make any sense to him but hell, if it made her happy. " . . . why ? "

꒰ ♡ ꒱ — @dxnbii !

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"i dont know." danbi sniffled. "i think i heard them saying something about a new trend but i hadn't seen anything on instagram or tiktok so i have no idea what they're talking about." and as someone as chronically online as she is that's saying something. danbi's lower lip begins to quiver again hearing his reassuring words. "you're supposed to say that. you're my friend." she mumbles, but it still did make her feel better. she shrugs in response to jaemin's question. she'd honestly lost track of how many times she'd complained and she felt bad constantly asking other's to step in to defend her. it was futile. "no. please don't." danbi says, grabbing a hold of his sleeve to clean her nose as well before he could lower his hand. "thanks, minnie." she says with a sigh and goes back towards the mirror. "well- would you like to do the honors?" she asks, grabbing a pair of scissors and offering them up to him.

the dancer waited patiently for her to get the sobs out as he offered his comfort in the wordless form of rubbing her arms. he didn’t want to rush her to calm down but he still wanted danbi to know he was still there. “oh.” he hummed as he took in the lack of eyebrows on her face with a pouty frown. it seemed to be recent with the pinky flush the area had too so the emotional wound she was experiencing was fresh. “why’d they do that?” jaemin asked incredulously. he’d heard from his friend about how troublesome the tidal stylists could be towards her in particular so they already had a bad rep with him. “hey~ don’t start that. you still look really pretty.” he told her, holding back a smile. “how many complaints have you made about them? do i need to do it this time?” he sighed and wiped her tears with his sleeve.

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the blonde immediately recognizes his voice and is comforted to know that at least it was jaemin who'd walked in to see her breaking down...and thus she's able to cry harder. she sobs got louder knowing he wouldn't judge her for ugly crying in front of him. she allows him to guide her but she refuses to move her hands away from her face. she listened closely to his words and tries to follow his instructions. the bassists breathes in from her nose and exhales slowly from her mouth until she was able to do it without an ugly noise coming out as well. only when she was sure she wouldn't break down again is she able to speak. "look at what they did to me, minnie!" she lowers her hands to reveal that her eyebrows had been waxed off. only the pink hue of the after burn remained to indicated it's loss. "i can hear frollo now. 'you are deformed...and you are ugly.'" danbi sang meekly.

jaemin blinked as he took in the hallway of similar doors that only had the difference of their specified number. he forgot what room he��d left his jacket in and he was ready to give up but. . he really liked that one. what if someone took it? but infinite wouldn’t hire anyone who would take something so carelessly. or what if they did? guess he’ll have to check one by one, he sighed internally. the first was uneventful and so what the second followed by the third. however the fourth contained something he wasn’t expecting. it was occupied yes but he couldn’t predict the emotional atmosphere. “noona?” he asked as soon as he registered just who was so forlorn. closing the door behind him, minnie made his way over to his friend in haste. “just take a deep breath, okay? what’s going on?” he cooed while gently guiding her away from the mirror to face him.

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danbi had been staring at herself in the mirror for a good while now. despite looking right at herself, she still couldnt believe what they'd done to her. the smudged eye makeup and mascara tear stains running down her cheeks were evidence of how much she'd cried. she was proud of herself for calming down...but the more she stared at herself the sadder she got. oh! here they come again. cue the waterworks. danbi starts to cry into her hands once again until she hears the door open. she bite down on her lower lip to choke back her sobbing but there was no way she'd get out of this room unnoticed. @uhjaemin

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"excuse you! i'll have you know that this is the best the dollar store has to offer. only the best for my babygirl." she says with a grin, happily taking the pink ring once jian had taken the purple one. "the point is to trick you into a false sense of control." danbi says, not placing the ring on her finger but rather fiddling with it. "besides this ring would never fit you and your chubby little fingers." she teased before leaning over to get a better look at his hands. "or maybe it would. you do have very dainty hands. i dont think i've ever noticed that." she teased...mostly. she kind of understood why she'd come across a jian hands fan account that one time. he hands were very pretty. "and also im saving this one for someone else." if her veil wasn't covering her face, her blushing cheeks would be very visible.

jian sighed fondly and let his shoulders relax. he’d been talking to strangers all day — fans, yes. he treasured them, he’s grateful for their support and presence in phoenix’s journey however there were times where they overstep the boundaries he wasn’t allowed to verbally set. having his best friend in front of him was a breath of fresh air. “weirdo.” he chuckled, doing his part to hide that something’s amiss from the few remaining fans that were there by signing the album in front of him. he scrunched his nose as he saw the rings, another hearty laugh leaving his lips. “not if i push you down first.” he cooed as he capped his marker then examined the rings. “couldn’t have gotten bigger gems? kinda lame if you ask me.” the vocalist teased, picking up the purple one as he fixed her a look. “what’s the point of telling me to choose if you take the only other option? what if i wanted the pink one?” he bickered and tried the ring on each of his fingers.

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“Oh.” It was only one word and yet you can hear the utter disappointment in her voice. She was just starting to enjoy the idea of Jian actually dating. Moreover she was excited to know who’d broken through to him. She didnt think jooha was all that bad to look at. It occurs to her that a maybe she should ask her friends costar out…but the thought of rejection make her cringe. She leans back onto the excessive amount of pillows on her bed. It’s only now that’s she getting truly comfortable that she starts to crave sour patch kids. “Right? And if I’m actually just reading into things then they should really think about a rewrite. They have an extreme amount of homoerotic undertones to just be friends if you ask me.” She says before pausing to think. “Now that you mention it…neither have I. I always have to ask Eden to get the little spiders I find at the dorm. He actually catches them and releases them outside now instead of killing them. I think he's tired of hearing me cry when he kills them." she says with a shrug. "But yeah i think if you ask Ren he'd be happy to have you come along. I'm sure he'll be happy to show off to someone new." she giggles.

jian paused for a moment. how the hell should he answer that? couldn’t just outright tell her how things had shifted and he suddenly didn’t think her bandmate wasn’t all that bad after hanging out at coachella — granted, she had more than one bandmate however there was just one he didn’t get along with so it would be obvious. “literally anyone but him.” he huffed instead, clearly evading the question as he dropped his gaze down to the fluff he was running his fingers over. he was glad the topic flipped back onto ren as his attention was piqued. “that would make sense. friends to enemies to lovers is a classic. they would be stupid not to use it." he mused. "you think he'll let me watch his fight practices? i've never seen ren hyung fight before. . or get rid of a bug. it would be for scientific purposes, of course."

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"such as?" danbi asks with genuine curiosity. could it be jian had his eyes on someone? could it be someone had finally lived up to his picky standards? most people seemed so 'blah' to him. she wondered if it was possible to actually grab his attention or if he'd die alone with no one to hold but the anakin skywalker body pillow she'd bought him for his birthday. "he sure is!" she says with a nod. "you bet your ass i read it without his permission. on the surface it might be your average action movie but it's so much more than that. you have to read between the lines, jian. who willingly gets their ass beat to defend someone who is horrible to them on the regular and smiles when that person decides to finally let him in the back seat with him after years of pining? someone who is down bad that's who."

jian was excited to finally watch the third season. they already had him waiting for it to come out but he had to delay further so he could watch it with his best friend. not that he minded however it was difficult to avoid spoilers. “i’ve seen better.” he sulked and grabbed a handful of popcorn for himself. that was the second time he said that this week but was he wrong? no, never. he has seen better and he can easily point them out. “he is?” the vocalist asked with confusion laced in his tone. “not surprising but i thought he said it was an action movie.” he frowned as he questioned his memory. "did you read his script or something?"

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Danbi finally lets out the laughter she’d been holding in. It was the good kind. The type of laughter that makes your stomach hurt a little. She was glad she'd shown up. Once she’s able to catch her breath, she nearly raises the veil to get a better look at her friend but she stops herself just in time. That’d be a recipe for disaster if fans spotted her here. They’d never hear the end of dating rumors. She'd just have to keep playing the weird fan a little longer. Though she could admit Jian's acting was getting a lot better. She barely saw a difference between his real smile and the smile he gave her when he thought she was just a crazy fan. The only thing missing was the sparkle in his eyes. “A little crazy never hurt anybody.” She shrugs before raising a hand and leaning over, holding her index finger. “And that’s Mrs.Yao to you.” She giggles letting her hand drop. “For the next couple of minutes I want the full fan experience. I even brought these.” She digs into her dress pocket and pulls out two fake jewel rings. “We have to make this official of course. How else will I be able to collect life insurance after your untimely death where I push you down the stairs.” She joked before placing both rings on the table. “I’ll even let you pick which one you want….but not the pink one. That one's mine.”

jian liked fansigns, more specifically the in person ones. he liked talking face to face rather than to a screen where connection problems always arose. despite acting like he hated the cute headbands and other accessories, he actually quite enjoyed them. he could admit that while the aching wrist was worth it by the end of it he also felt a little drained when it came to his energy. being one of the more eccentric members certainly took a lot out of him. he was started to mellow out but the event was nearing its end and he still had to hold out. he’d turned in his chair to grab another marker so he didn’t get to see much of the bride walking towards him and fuck, he didn’t have the motivation to deal with that. he plastered on a fake smile though as he faced the girl in front of him and uncapped the newly equipped marker before he paused. “danbi?” he asked as he made out her features through the veil as well as the sound of her laughter before he too burst out into giggles. “what the hell? are you crazy, what are you doing?”

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Danbi fixes her veil to make sure her face can’t be seen. She’d spent the last few days talking to jian about how outrageous some fans can be sometimes. They laughed coming up with some of the funniest scenarios they could think of. Well what if one of them actually came to life. She got dressed in her fanciest white dress and brought some flowers along with her to one of phoenix's fansign events. She’s sure if jian saw her waiting in line even with the veil down he’d immediately know it was her…so she asks their mangers to work something out so she could go near the end of the fan meet. It worked out best that way. She didn’t want to waste their fans time anyway. Danbi waited for her cue, hiding behind a large sign to the side. When Jian's manager called her up, Danbi begins making her way towards the table, taking long strides like a bride walking down an aisle until she got to her seat in front of jian. She stays quiet to see if he’d speak up first but it’s hard stifling her laughter. She was mostly interested to see if he’d catch on or not. @jianlol

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danbi's eyes are glued to the screen as she shoves a handful of popcorn into her mouth. she was happy that at least this season wasn't starting with the image of someone's ass within the first 30 seconds. shes just about to shove another handful of popcorn in her mouth when jian finally speaks up. her interest is piqued. jian should know better than to ask such a feat from her. if your best friend cant laugh at you then who can? "no promises." danbi states, turning slightly to face him. "oohh~" shes immediately excited for him upon hearing the good news. she's even more excited when she hears what kind of content they'd be making together. "thats fun." she giggles. "and he's cute." she adds on before gasping. "you know this is must be a very popular genre. ren is working on a bl too."

ever since his best friend had stepped foot back into the tidal dorm, jian was right behind her. he hadn’t been here in a while but it was so easy to fall back into old habits. in this case it was overstaying his welcome and acting like he lived here too. “i know you can.” he replied lazily, opening his eyes from their rest and taking his soda from her hand. the vocalist pressed play at her instruction before hugging one of danbi’s plushies closer. the feeling of normalcy sank in and it brought a comfort he’d been missing for weeks. “hm —“ jian paused for a moment to think before a deep sigh left his lips. “promise not to laugh?” he asked but that was useless. she was definitely going to. “i finally got an acting gig. . but it’s with jooha, you know from dumb indigo? it’s a uh- bl drama.” he sighed as he explained.

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danbi was excited for this new project of hers. up until now she'd only been cast in a series of light hearted films and dramas. this was an opportunity to show the fans she had a wider range and she was going to make the most of it. it's why she was taking everything so seriously. she was reading her lines every spare second she had and was even forcing eden and ren to practice with her when they weren't busy with their own things. however she'd yet to run lines with willow simply because their schedules hadn't allowed it until today. they had the rest of the day to share tips and get to know each other better to deliver a great performance. you could say she'd been looking forward to this all week.

entering the practice room they'd agreed to meet in, danbi is surprised to see willow is already there waiting, however it seemed the other girl had yet to notice her. using her rolled up script, danbi gently pokes the other girls side. "hey you." she says with a smile. "sorry to keep you waiting." @salicaceaes