#had such a fun time wit kpop and finding all these great songs and artists

[applepidotcom]

taemin is such a whore i love it

[idolizerp]

LOADING INFORMATION ON XLNC’S BASSIST, LEAD VOCAL, MAIN RAP MIN HANEUL...

IDOL DETAILS

STAGENAME: n/a CURRENT AGE: 20 DEBUT AGE: 18 TRAINEE SINCE AGE: 15 COMPANY: Koala.T Music SECONDARY SKILL: n/a

IDOL PROFILE

NICKNAME(S): God-given-visuals, something often used to brand him but is never really said as more than a joke between band members. Ha-choo, a fun play on the fact that he tends to sneeze a lot. Not often used amongst fans, but a staple between friends.  INSPIRATION: Growing up with an musician mom and singer dad exposed him early to music and art, and he’s always been in love with it. Becoming an idol only helped him find a way to channel his passion and make something great. SPECIAL TALENTS:

aegyo

freestyle rap

did taekwondo for a while, able to ‘show off’

NOTABLE FACTS:

currently studying a music major in university

knows how to play the piano

is allergic to dogs

has a small following from his brief days in modelling and as an underground rapper 

IDOL GOALS

SHORT-TERM GOALS:

Haneul had always wanted more of the ‘idol’ side compared to the band side of things, and the company’s lack of promotion and exposure for the group is something he wants to fix. He aims to slowly bring XLNC into the public spotlight, either through their songs or something else entirely. He also wants to fix their unprofessional image, and he wants it done quick- preferably in time to show a new side of the band when their next comeback rolls around.

LONG-TERM GOALS:

Despite being unable to go solo, Haneul wants to make it big- even if he has to drag the rest of the band along. He hopes that XLNC can be the ones to change the scene of kpop and make it big, bringing back the popularity that bands once had. Instead of Nitro and Nightmare being the breadwinners, and despite knowing that it will probably never happen, he aims for XLNC to be at the top of their company and be the most respected ones.

For himself, Haneul wants to expand his talents as an artist. He wants more of his input in their songs, their music, and how they play, the whole works. His goal is to become more or less the de facto leader of the band, and become well known for his songwriting ability, not just his pretty face.

IDOL IMAGE

Despite the so called versatility and freedom that Koala T was supposed to give them, the image presented for Haneul is a fairly stereotypical one. He starts off as the flower boy- the pretty one, the icon of a bubbly rookie but not the one meant to be saying very much, doing very much, more or less just there as a placeholder, a space filler. After that it’s the story of how he grows. A showcase of rare moments of genius, then hard hard work and a few emotional breakdowns here and there, and finally bam, real talent and the fans were the ones who helped him do it. In contrast to his more rough-around-the-edges (and dare we say it, raw and real) bandmates, Haneul is expected to be the perfect one, the good boy, a mary sue story with just enough heartbreak in it for the fans to buy into.

Of course, like any good story, it has just a tiny bit of truth in it. Haneul’s always been fairly friendly, mostly calm, and a good boy when he wants to be. His smile is too pretty to be considered fake and of course that plays into both his and the company’s advantage- despite being almost entirely written up on a piece of paper during a company meeting, his facade fits perfectly. Haneul can be the perfect statue: there’s no need to talk too much about a song he didn’t write, think up new details to stories that didn’t really happen, get frustrated over things he knows he can’t change only to expose even more vulnerabilities for the knets to latch onto like vultures. That’s everyone else’s job. It’s all too easy to play innocent and shy and docile, the rest of his personality just comes as a ‘pleasant surprise’ when he does show it.

That’s what makes the ploy real, of course. Haneul’s usually playful, plenty clingy, just enough mischievous and even the slightest bit of a playboy. Or what’s what the watered down version that KTM presents to the public. In truth he is all of those things and far more, a charming player with too much wit and too much ambition for his own good. But even he knows that it’s not in his favour to be this bold- perhaps if he was in a typical idol group, but not with XLNC. Instead, all the ambition and rebellion is written off as being passionate and free spirited, falling into the funnel of whatever they deemed as ‘emo’. On stage, he is expected to be cool and charming- or depressed, or angry, whatever the song calls for, he acts it out. And yet off stage Haneul has to play nice, like the stage was just for performance and well- both of them are, really.

The only thing that the company allows, that he allows himself, are brief moments of weakness. Briefly lapses in his golden personality, shows of the vulnerable teen inside who can still cry, still scream. And yet for the sake of a good show, these moments have become just as manufactured as the next. Sometimes Haneul can’t tell what he’s really feeling anymore, but as long as the fans gobble it up, that’s fine, right?

IDOL HISTORY

Haneul’s life was one of the things that Koala T like to dig out and show off over and over again, and yet it was not nearly as glorious as they made it out to be. Yes, he was born to a family of artists, but they had never been celebrities, they never lived in fancy houses, never were the musical geniuses people thought about. No they were rather plain, some third rate singer that had enough time on his hands to pursue a full time job on top of occasional gigs and a classical musician that, despite never being home, made just enough to keep up their modest apartment. Being born into his household meant that from young, he had no misguided dreams about what it was like to pursue the path of an entertainer. The starving artist trope was all too real and, as time went on, music just existed to be less and less of something that was enjoyed and more as a burdened tool that could not perform well enough to grant them the life they wanted to lead.

He was never encouraged to go down the same path his parents did- quite far from it, all Haneul’s parents wanted from him were good enough grades, a solid university, and some boring office job that could coast him (and them) comfortably through the rest of their lives. And for much of his childhood that’s what he had followed. A free spirit hammered down to a neat and tidy uniform, a lopsided smirk straightened to the perfect schoolboy’s smile, at least 16 teeth showing in every school photo. Perhaps that was when he got so good at acting, so good at pretending. If it made his parents happy and in turn benefited him, then it was okay to keep at it for a little while longer. And then when he grew up, he dreamed, he’d be the biggest superstar, far better than his parents would have ever dreamed of. And for a while he had almost thought this would come true.

The boy’s pretty face garnered attention from youth and soon, Haneul had been scouted away to film a commercial. Yet his doll like features were truly as empty as a doll’s, completely lacking the spark of energy the producers had wanted. That plus the strong opposition from his father soon had the boy dropped out of the program, and that was meant to be the end of the story. The whole ordeal fizzled to a lackluster end and life went back to normal, falling into the monotone best that it had been all along and which he was probably doomed to listening for the rest of his life. At that thought, whatever was left of Haneul’s wild dreams gave one last lurch. If his parents had thought he was still the goody two shoes he had been before, then they would soon be proven wrong with the twisted streak of rebellion growing inside.

Middle school found the teen packed away to some mildly prestigious boarding school half a city away. Middle school also found him… never where he was supposed to be. Yes, he went to most of his classes, yes, his average was at that rocky 90%, but what his parents never knew was that the rest of his time went to busking on the streets, in cafes or around Hongdae at night, wherever he could get his hands on and wouldn’t get kicked out of just because he was a lanky kid with a half broken mic and some soundcloud mix of beats. But he had never been the type to do things without a goal. Oh yes, Haneul knew exactly what he was doing. There had always been star scouts regularly in every spot he went to and he knew if he could make any sort of impression then… his chance came. It was KTM that extended to him the olive branch, the alluring words- the chance to be the next big thing. And of course he said yes.

That’s how Haneul left, left the boring life he had behind. It had taken a few angry phone calls, perhaps, a trip home where more than one curse was thrown around and furniture with it and Haneul couldn’t even quite remember how he did it but- he went back with signatures scrawled unwittingly across some paperwork. The then 16 year old was filled with no, not dreams, but ambition and plans to prove himself to the world and most importantly, as better than his parents. And like always it was too late when reality caught up. The company had been interested in his appearance, that was all. Nothing else was expected of him, no chance given to even prove himself. Despite the days laboring away in lessons and training until the wee hours he was, until the end, just a pretty face to stuff wherever they needed one. And when the managers settled upon an idol band concept but conveniently had one last open spot with nobody particularly suitable, then it was time to show his worth- to mold himself into the band player they needed. Make yourself useful, they told him.

Debut a year later was underwhelming. Even though his teammates were so talented, even though he himself had at the last minute found talent in playing the bass and was deemed acceptable, even though he was supposed to make a splash in the world- Haneul’s appearance on the scene had hardly dented the water. And it was in this- mediocre fashion that they continued, never really good but never really bad either. They had minor struggles, minor successes, and that was it. It wasn’t going his way at all. And the scary thought that slowly surfaced was: maybe he would have been better off just as a typical accountant or salesman? Haneul would not let that happen. He had so much potential, so much to prove…. and he was so afraid of failing.