#❪ ﹡* HAPPY럭스DAY › 1 YEAR ❫

[rkcheri]

﹡   V-LIVE: ON AIR WITH LUXE ✌️   ━━    ◆   럭스 ∙ JULY 31ST !  ❪ ﹡ ❫

“oh my goddess! hello, we are 럭스!”

a whole year has flown by and honestly, mijoo doesn’t know how they did it. 

the voicemail from her cousin, hyunjoon, the other day had definitely put her in a better mood, despite all the what ifs that carried her doubts. the stress, while still there, is lessened by the mood -- the uplifted demeanors on their faces as they descend the place they’ll have their v-live at. and it’s kind of bittersweet, seeing the five of them when there could have easily been seven, instead. she sees where jiwon and dawon could have fit into their little niche and it has her biting her lip when she’s ushered to get changed. 

a lot has changed in the past year, some bad -- a lot more good. 

she’s dressed down, arguably by her standards, but that’s fine -- it’s comfortable and cute and mijoo doesn’t see herself fussing with it as much as she would have if she had been dressed up in a nice dress and heels. the outfit is one mijoo doesn’t fight the stylist on and instead dresses with ease before jumping into play. sneakers tied twice at her ankles beforehand, knowing games were in store mijoo did not want to be the one who had to pause because of untied shoelaces.

the v-live is different than the ones they’ve had before. the flow is continuous, with frequent questions being thrown around here and there and memories ( ones that have been approved by both the company and rehearsed with the manager ) are spoken candidly. they’re on a schedule -- a casual one -- but a schedule nonetheless, adhered by the staff that watches them from behind the phone capturing their moments and their words. 

nothing is to be spoiled for their upcoming comeback, this they’ve been told, but there was something in mijoo that just wanted to give them a little slice of what they were to be expecting ( not consciously, of course; but it was there, that want, that built up anticipation for what’s to come ).

the schedule is stacked and when the questions begin to slow down -- an oversaturation of ‘say hello to ( insert country )’, ‘i love you, ( insert member name )’, and ‘when’s the next comeback?’ has them tying their lips quick and on to the next on the agenda. 

it’s been ages since mijoo has played any of these games, company retreats a thing of the past, her life full of idol schedules -- games like these were reserved for times like these. it also doesn’t help that mijoo isn’t the best at games, anyways. especially when it comes to the whisper challenge -- even after watching countless videos online, mijoo still proves to be useless when it comes to having both ear plugs and headphones blasting eclipse’s chase me into her ears ( she’s sure that she’ll have ear damage by the time this game is over and she’ll happily text her thanks to haseul, ahyoung and ariel after ).  

“WHAT?” comes up a lot during the game and when it’s mijoo’s turn, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. because as much as she wants to guess the words coming from the other’s words, her eyes zero in on the lips and try as she might to read what is being said, whether or not it was the right word -- the surprise in the other’s face is marked because mijoo says what she thinks, after five tries, that is, and not before long, she’s being forced around to relay whatever has been said -- did nayoung say fart?

“FART -- F -- AH -- RTTTT!”

                                           ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━      

when they’re shown their audition tapes from royal survival, mijoo wants to crawl into a hole and perhaps bring that video along with her. burn it, bury it -- do something so that it did not resurface. while it was a nice performance, she remembers so jisub’s words all too well -- stale. predictable, he had said. and she remembers them to this day, because how could she forget -- it was a performance like that that had landed her in the minor team when each of her other members had been in major from the start.

it had been the worst feeling in the world and to this day, mijoo laments on it.

but what was worse than that was when so jisub had replaced dabin with her -- exchanging her spot for mijoo to claim in the major team. that had made mijoo sick to her stomach and she vocally expresses this when they’re asked about the times they remember the most, “if i could, i would have given it right back to you. but -- in the end, we’re both here,” she smiles, reaching over to squeeze dabin’s hand. “and that’s what matters.”

the other’s performances do awe mijoo, from their audition videos to the live snippets of each performance, mijoo knows they’ve improved but seeing it individually, and quite impromptu, like this makes her realize just how much they have. dabin’s version of holla holla could arguably trounce the original, while it’s clear why seolhyun was given the goddess of grace role from her performance of janet jackson’s burn it up. nayoung definitely doesn’t disappoint, her dance to scars to your beautiful almost has mijoo tearing up and she’s clapping quite loudly by the end of it. and despite what seoyoung says, mijoo believes despite the cute performance she had done covering she’z ‘no no no’, so jisub couldn’t have picked a better girl to carry them over from sexy to cute. 

it’s only when it comes to her turn, to sing bts’s 버터플라이 that she wonders if she’s let go of the pain that show has brought her. while overall, an amazing growth on her part -- it had trampled over her dreams in the worst way possible. she had always wanted to become a singer, known for her voice -- emotionality and being found in the way she expressed her tone and timbre. but to be called predictable, it had hurt and thrown whatever pride she had left away. 

for now, she’s better -- she’s learned from her mistakes. she was here, wasn’t she?

she had finally been able to fly, even if so jisub had clipped her wings once. 

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and perhaps her unconscious has caught up to her. because not before long, as they’re switching up parts for the last segment of their v-live, a performance of confused: mijoo is left dazed, unable to concentrate and adapt to being center -- not when she’s always been pushed to the back ( a place that she had grown quite comfortable in; in the back no one could see if she made tiny mistakes or forgot the choreography mid-way through ) but here, front and center, mijoo -- whose head is full of a handful of different choreographies at a time does her best.

and not surprising, her best at dance is obviously not good enough because instead of the confused choreo at a certain point in time -- her hand reaches for her thigh, fingers pinched into a familiar formation, a movement much like one that jaekyung had just taught them weeks ago for their new single, mini skirt, and she unzips air all while confused plays in the background and it’s only after dabin and seolhyun give her a second look that she realizes what she does and she immediately laughs it off, despite the sudden rush of adrenaline shooting up into her system, before quickly and chaotically trying to find her mind and the correct dance moves all while trying to get back into their prompted formation. 

oh no, she can already feel the daggers aimed for her heart from behind the camera.

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the chaoticness of their v-live ends, and she can still feel her ears ringing from the horrible high notes dabin had just delivered but that’s to be expected. her stomach aches from laughing and despite the onslaught of consequences to be at her head; mijoo can’t say she regrets it, not now at least. 

when they’re bidding their farewells, mijoo had promised herself that she wasn’t going to cry; and this is tried and true as she holds onto seoyoung’s hand for support as she makes her parting words. 

“thank you so much for all the support and love you’ve given us this year. this year, to put it honestly, was definitely hard. while our debut was amazing, the end of last year, hit us with quite some unfortunate news but we were able to overcome it. with new members, whom we love, and our beautiful fandom, our olympias. we can only do better from here on out, to meet your expectations of us and continue to deserve the love you give us so unconditionally. we’ve still got a bit more time until the end of the year so please look upon us expectantly and keep us in your hearts! please enjoy the rest of your day and be safe!” she smiles, taking a deep breath as she bows low to the camera before rising; another brighter smile replacing the last. 

“until next time, olympias, this has been 럭스! bye ~”

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𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐃   ∙    @rkxayah, @rkella, @rkyena, @rkxzoe, @rkceline , @rksona , @haseulrk , @rkxblue , @rkariel​ , @rkhyunjoon​

[rkcheri]

                                                                                                         ﹡     𝐇𝐘𝐔𝐍𝐉𝐎𝐎𝐍 . 

[ new voice message ;

“noona! hi~” hyunjoons voice comes in, followed by a meow and the muffled sound of him trying to get a cat off of him. “joonjoon says hi too, I think he sensed I was calling you.” he laughs a little. “oh!! Noona! Congratulations reaching one year with luxe! it’s been really really amazing watching everything for luxe this year and I’m really proud to call you my cousin. you’re doing a great job as leader! I guess I should start calling you my inspiration now.” he laughs more. “call me when you’re free, okay? I miss you, noona…” he trails off as the voice mail comes to an end. ]

[ new voice message ;

“oops! I spoke to much! Anyway noona, I’ll keep working hard to meet you on stage one day! Okay? Don’t think I won’t! Luxe fighting!! Cheri noona fighting!! Bye bye!”

; end of voice message ]

the voicemail comes to no surprise to mijoo when she finds her phone hours after their vlive broadcast. while she had originally thought it had been for their timely call of the week, mijoo is stunned as she listens on and finds herself humbly surprised; albeit, amused at the other’s ramblings. she loved her cousin and the fact that he found time out of his own busy schedule at trc to leave her such a voicemail as well as keep up with the current events of her group made her feel all the more loved. 

his words warmed her heart, soothing whatever ache she seemingly always carried with her. it were these words that have her immediately calling him back, a gentle reminder to not chide him too much for spending time leaving voicemails instead of practicing and instead allowing the remainder of their call include her somehow communicating in ‘cat’ speech to her little kitty back at hyunjoon’s home.