#he's so cheetah lee

[loevhyuck]

[daydreamingyuta]

Sweet Kisses | Mark Lee

summary: fluff, drabble, sweet kisses from bf!mark on a picnic date wc: 714

You finish the last strawberry and set down the stem in the little bag Mark brought for the trash. He had set up a picnic date in a private part of the park that you both found by chance a few weeks prior. It doesn't have a view of the pond that you always liked to visit, but there was nobody around which offered some peace and quiet. 

Thinking of how serene this date was made you realize that Mark hasn’t said anything in a minute. You look over at him and he’s very clearly basking in the sun, with his eyes closed. “You look like a cat.” His eyes flutter open at your words and he looks at you, smiling. “You always compare me to a cat.” 

You nod your head in agreement, “You’re a very cat-like man.”

He scrunches his nose at the comparison, “Cheetah.” He says, matter-of-factly. Usually you would pretend to argue with him, but since he took you on this beautiful picnic date, you were feeling nice so you let him have this one. “Ok, you’re a cheetah who very cutely basks in the sun.”

“See, was that so hard to admit?” He asks as he scoots closer to you, making the space in between you two nonexistent. You hum in response and he tilts his head, looking at you with the most loving eyes, and playing with the hem of your dress. “You know, you wore my favorite dress.” His words were unexpected and made you blush slightly. You had only worn it around him a few times, but each time ended with his lips inseparable from yours, proving that he very much did like this dress on you. “I didn’t think you noticed I was wearing it.”

“Of course I did, baby.” He leans in to you and gives you the softest kiss, just barely brushing against your lips. He pulls back slightly, looking into your eyes for a moment before his hand meets your cheek. “You know, I think I’m like kinda obsessed with you right now, y/n.” He says, before kissing you again with more intensity. “…I mean I’m always obsessed with you, but you just-” His hands bury themselves more into your hair as he cuts himself off mid sentence giving you more kisses, “-just look so good.” His attention shifts slightly from your lips as he travels down to your neck, peppering you with a million more kisses. “and you smell so good.” 

He pulls away from the kiss and strokes your cheek, still looking at you with so much love in his eyes. “You always blush when I compliment you, baby.” He whispers to you, making the same face he always does when he’s teasing you. 

“Of course I do, you make me feel all… pretty and stuff.” You say, slightly out of breath. Your words set him off again, clearly not ready to let his lips part from yours. In this moment, you’re both in heaven. Nothing matters except the two of you, so in love that your minds are incapable of thinking of anything else.

The moment is interrupted though, when you hear a clanging noise. Mark was insistent on getting as close to you as possible, which caused the perfectly placed blanket under you to get bunched up, which then caused his water bottle to fall over. He breaks apart from you and looks over at it, making sure it was nothing important. 

You both wanted nothing more than to go back to the moment before, but the reality of what you were doing sets in, causing you both to laugh. Making out in a public park was a tad bit scandalous, especially because anyone could come into sight at any point.

You both wordlessly agree to try and contain yourselves as Mark rests his head on your shoulder. “Really though, you started it. You know I love that dress on you.”

You try to deny his words, but you knew what you were doing when you put it on this morning. There was just something in the way that Mark kissed you that was so addicting, you couldn’t help but want more, and he always gave you what you wanted, being just as addicted as you are.

[jwirecs]

RECOMMENDED NCT FICS OF AUGUST 2023💖

hello, hello! here are my nct recs of august! hopefully these beautiful stories get more recognition as well as the writers 💝

** anything in parentheses and bolded are my thoughts that can be disregarded if needed **

��smut || 💔angst || 💕fluff || ✅completed || 🔄ongoing || 💯favorite

Drunk In You || @hyuckiefluff💕✅

↳ was Mark Lee’s new haircut really the drop that would tip the glass over and make you spill how you really feel about him?… Well, the haircut and also the alcohol.

Flustered || @daydreamingyuta💕✅💯

↳ Prompt: 17 “Please help me pick out an outfit.”

Listen To Me || @daydreamingyuta💕✅

↳ Prompts: #1 “I couldn’t be more in love with you.” and #11 “It’s two in the morning, why are you here?”

Live A Little || @writemekpop💕✅

↳ You knew that a holiday with your best friend Ten would be wild… you just didn’t expect to fall in love with him.

It's Raining, It's Pouring || @elix8r🔞💔✅💯

↳ Hating Mark could almost be considered your part-time job ever since Taeyong adopted him. But on one fateful night, a raging storm strikes, and with Taeyong nowhere to be found, you find yourself seeking an unlikely source of comfort - your annoying cheetah roommate.

Sorry, Who Is Mark Lee? || @dropsofletters💕💔✅

↳ she swore up and down on the night of her graduation as a doctor that she would never work with dr. mark lee. not under any setting. after all, she’s not here for people who get everything served on a silver platter just for being…nice? however, years after their graduation, mark comes back into her life not brushing his hair and talking about a new project that they are supposedly going to be working on for the next three weeks, and all hopes of not working with him die down when she realizes…maybe, she had not truly known who he was. sorry, but who the hell is mark lee?

Anon Request || @yeow6n💕✅💯💯

↳ Anon Req: have you seen the tiktok of a girl who made her boyfriend a little sprout to put on his gaming headset ??? its so cute and reminded me of hyuck 🤏🏻

Concert Tickets || @onyourhyuck💕✅💯

↳ Your boyfriend Donghyuck is a massive Bruno Mar’s fan, so you bought two concert tickets.

I'd Give Up Forever To Touch You || @martiniblues💕✅

↳ while mark is away on tour, you find yourself looking back at old memories of you two. you have grown used to spending these moments alone while mark is gone, but little do you know he is doing the same thing miles and miles away.

Love On Me || @neocitybooty🔞✅

↳ You have to choose between fulfilling the needs of your lovable boyfriend or finishing your work for the day. 

Stolen Kisses || @writemekpop🔞💕✅

↳ Sneaking off to have sex is tough with a kid in the house.

Surprise Visit || @mingyuonthemoon🔞💕✅

↳ mark pays you a surprise visit after not seeing each other for awhile

Taking Care Of My Baby || @onyourhyuck💕✅

↳ Your boyfriend Jaemin takes care of you while you’re bed ridden with a fever flu.

Two Makes A Team || @sxcret-garden🔞💕✅

↳ When both your boyfriends distract you by asking you for kisses, one thing leads to another and what you had planned to be some alone time with a good book turns into something even better…

Where Were You || @onyourhyuck🔞💕💔✅

↳ Your sweet loving boyfriend is always by your side during your bad days. What if one day, he can't be there for one of your worst?

Your Red Lipstick || @ihaechans💕✅

↳ Kisses, kisses, kisses. That’s all your boyfriend wants. When you refuse to give him the one thing he craves, he won’t leave you alone, begging and begging until you give in.

Worth A Lie || @ruwriteshour💕💔✅💯💯💯

↳ Always wallowing yourself in self-pity, you start to doubt yourself and you think it's time to end your relationship with Mark with a lie. He'll have no choice but to move on from you. It will work... right?

His Karma || @onyourhyuck🔞💕💔🔄

↳ (no summary, but really do give this one a read!)

Adult Time || @nctsplug02🔞💕✅

↳ Anon Req: hihi i'm not sure if requests are open but can you write more of milf reader with jaemin + sungchan as the kids? ♡

Bruises and Ballet Shoes || @luvyeni🔞💕✅💯

↳ jeno gets into a fight and almost misses your preformance

Close The Door Behind You || @jadeobvi🔞✅

↳ Jeno is your strict older brother who has banded Jaemin from dating you, let alone looking at you. But one night you both can’t take it anymore. All the tension has finally exploded, but you have to be careful. God forbid Jeno hears.

Fever Pitch || @nctsworld🔞💕✅💯💯💯

↳ your world is shaken up (literally) when you meet the handsome man guilty of the accidental baseball smack to your head. after a comforting meet-cute and realization that he’s the city’s ace pitcher, you two go on a date. and by the end of the night, mark thinks he’s falling for you faster than any pitch he’s thrown before.

Forget Me Too || @yutaholic🔞💕💔✅💯💯

↳ Back home after years away, you just want to fulfill your obligations as your best friend’s maid of honor and split. You don’t want to see Johnny, though you are guaranteed to run into him at some point. You broke his heart not too long ago and the last thing he ever said to you was that he hated you. And you don’t blame him.

New Religion || @suhnnyupsidedown🔞✅💯💯

↳ something along the lines of Taeyong being a married professor and him ending up sleeping with one of his students? who also happens to be sleeping with Johnny?

Racer || @smileysuh🔞💕✅💯

↳ You feel like a chew toy caught between two rottweilers, and it kills you to give Jaehyun one last look before turning your back on him, following your brother to his car. Jaehyun is watching you as you get in, and when you close the door, you let out a deep breath you hadn’t realized you were holding. “I know, what a killer race,” Johnny grins, starting his engine. “Could have been better though, he could have actually died.”

Sin & Obsession || @onyourhyuck🔞✅💯 (pt 2)

↳ You’re a faithful good girl. You attend church and you stay out of trouble. Mark is a guy that attends your church and what you don’t know is that he’s been obsessed with you for a while…

Two For One || @goldyeokki🔞💕✅

↳ you come home after a long day to your two boyfriends in skimpy maid outfits. while they fussed over you, you had completely forgotten that it was your birthday. good thing that they had something special prepared for you on your day.

Volleyball For Dummies (In Love Edition) || @jaeminvore💕✅

↳ Mark Lee has been called many things. Dedicated was one of them and that dedication lead him into joining NeoTech College's well coveted Women's Volleyball team, the NeoTech Tigers, as their manager in hopes of winning the infamous setter, Y/N's heart. But there was one problem, being academically inclined did not come with the extensive knowledge of anything related to the sport and to put it simply, Mark Lee doesn't know shit about Volleyball.

Boyfriend Material || @mochidoie💕💔✅

↳ Although you and Jaehyun had never spoken a word to each other before this class project, he asks you to be in a fake relationship in order to prove to his longtime crush that he is boyfriend material.

Getting Even || @ofjunemoment🔞💕💔🔄

↳ Haechan is notorious for his pranks. Who can forget about the one time the campus fountain was bleeding red? You were weary of never getting on his wrong side, but when you get to know him better, it seems like behind all that front he's a sweet and caring guy. That is until you get a bucket of water dunked on you straight after he promised he wouldn't pull something on you. You're not only pissed that he had fooled you like this, but that he chose such a simple prank.

Just Friends || @lonelyharmonies💕✅

↳ what happens when you wake up in someone else’s bed after getting drunk in a party?

What The Puck || @choerrypuffs💕💔✅

↳ you hit the university’s star hockey player with your car. shenanigans (and maybe even a little romance) ensue. 

Mark Texts || @justalildumbpling💕✅

↳ (just some cute ol mark texts)

NCT 127 Texts || @12926💕✅💯

↳ sending a nude & saying "it wasn't for u"

NCT Dream Texts || @ohmygs-blog💕✅💯

↳ “last night was amazing. oops wrong person”

NCT Dream Texts || @ohmygs-blog💕✅

↳ “sorry can’t hangout w you this month, haven’t gotten paid yet!!!”

NCT Dream Texts || @hugs2doie💕✅

↳ nct dream when you hit them up with a “we need to talk”

NCT Dream Texts || @hugs2doie💕✅

↳ “i was talking to my other boyfriend” prank on the dreamies

Do check out all of the other NCT Fics that i have reblogged as well!!

** if there is any fics that you guys would like to recommend, please do! i am slowly running out of fics to read **

[jovenshires]

the official iwks lore dump post

okay this is long-overdue but basically both @spencersagnew and @hoohoobeanie asked me to do a little lore dump for if we keep score and here it is!! this is not everything by far (some of what's missing will be covered in future fics and some im simply forgetting) but this is the basics for all the stuff i felt like i couldn't include but i had in my brain - ages, mascots for different schools, etc

THE AGES OF THE MAIN CAST:

st charles:

SENIORS: spencer, damien, shayne, brennan

JUNIORS: alex t, jeremy, patrick, ify

SOPHOMORES: rock and tim

FRESHMAN: marcus

our lady of perpetual sorrow:

SENIORS: tommy, keith, garrett

JUNIORS: alex a, luke, duran

SOPHOMORES: andre and greg

FRESHMEN: chanse, josh, peter

THE AGES OF THE MINOR CAST:

holy trinity (based on the try guys and second try):

SENIORS: zach (captain), keith (vc), kwesi, nick

JUNIORS: johnny, hughie, alex, jared

SOPHOMORES: miles and jonathan

FRESHMEN: jack

aquinas academy (based on dropout tv):

SENIORS: sam (captain), brennan (vc), josh, murph

JUNIORS: zac, grant, trapp

SOPHOMORES: raph and tao

FRESHMEN: lou and jacob

st. george's (based on mythical):

SENIORS: josh (captain), david hill (vc), carney, jordan, lucas

JUNIORS: chase, davin, matt lieb, pasley, zack

SOPHOMORES: trevor

MASCOTS:

st charles: cheetahs (chosen because it alliteratively went with st charles)

our lady of perpetual sorrow: pirates (chosen because it alliteratively went with perpetual)

holy trinity: triceratops (i meannn. when they have a mascot already i simply must)

aquinas: spoonbills (lil inside joke for brennan lee mulligan's love of birds and that one game changer ep where sam tortured brennan with birds)

st. george's: roosters (once again i feel like i had to. i almost went with 'beasts' but i think roosters makes more sense)

MOTTOS:

st charles: Dirige Nos In Fide - Guide Us In Faith. (i knew this one from the very start because i had the speech ian gives him in my head. where spencer has faith in his team and that's why ian chose him to lead them. guide us in faith!!!)

our lady of perpetual sorrow: Est Gaudium in Dolore - There is Joy in Pain. (honestly this is tommy bowe's personal motto to me. no but i picked it bc tommy persevered despite all that he suffered

holy trinity: Conare Iterum Conare - Try Try Again. (this one is pretty on the nose BUT they're all about giving it their best shot even when they're the underdogs!! when they get knocked down they get up again! ain't nothing gonna bring us down!)

aquinas: Virtus in Culpa - Strength in Fault (their students are really, really intelligent and like. the best of the best. but that's because aquinas, though it's a school for academic excellence, is very relaxed with consequences for failure. like there's a lot of support for students who are struggling academically or behaviorally. we are only as strong as our faults!!)

st. george's: Esto Tuus Optimus - Be Your Best Self (once again they had it right there. be your mythical best!)

WHY I CHOSE THE SCHOOL NAMES:

(ive posted this before but im making this comprehensive!)

st. charles’ academy for boys: this is entirely based on spencer’s first name actually being charles LNDKNFLKNK like i knew i wanted to go with an all-boys school (as opposed to olops which is actually a co-ed school!) and i thought. “this is kinda funny.” and it was!

our lady of perpetual sorrow: this is actually - and i Did Not Know This - the catholic school from suite life of zack and cody SDFGHJK which means one of two things: 1. either i heard it there and it stuck in my brain and i didn’t realize OR 2. i just have the same brain cell as the suite life writers. i have no idea. but i chose that name bc, growing up in catholic school, i heard So Many ‘our lady of ___’ school names and i thought tommy, known Mental Illness actor, would enjoy 'perpetual sorrow’ as a nod to that knfkfnfk

holy trinity preparatory school: ah the easiest one tbh!! holy trinity because TRI. TRI bc there’s three of them and also it sounds like TRY. try guys! no more thought to it than that tbh.

aquinas academy: i went into it in more detail here, but basically st. thomas aquinas is the patron saint of college students - thus college humor, thus dropout!!

st. george: this one was a little more deep-cut!! i almost went with st. martha, the patron saint of the culinary arts, but i wanted their patron to encapsulate more of the crew rather than just the kitchen. even if it was josh’s world and we were all living in it. but basically, st. george is the patron saint of knights, cavalry, and armourers. he’s frequently depicted as slaying dragons and was often compared to many mythic heroes. therefore, you can consider st. george your official patron saint of mythicality!

SOME FUN FACTS THAT DIDN'T MAKE THE CUT:

damien is in the st. charles' choir which is why spencer plays guitar for them; he also does the school plays. he's a busy boy!

patrick is an altar boy and that's how he stole the communion wine

patrick and jeremy almost kissed when they got drunk off the communion wine and have NEVER talked about it

shayne is in the running to be valedictorian

chanse has a crush on tommy (and who can blame him.)

jackie does not do soccer and although she was at most of the games in iwks did NOT know what was going on

jackie also goes to public school bc i love her so she gets to win <3

i've mentioned this before but yes amanda and angela were on the same team in high school and were best friends (and..... you know. a little more than that maybe.)

tim is rock's calc tutor and it's not going well

if spencer had any input he would push for jeremy to be the next vc because he just has a soft spot for the guy and he thinks it would do him some good. but jeremy would rather die than be in charge of anything so <3

alex's hello kitty bandaids have nothing to do with like a ravenous love of hello kitty or anything - frankly they bought them because he thought they were cute and pink and sparkly. he didn't even realize they were hello kitty but that just makes them even better. they make All the players wear them when they can.

literally no one has told marcus who ian is so when he shows up at that one party he's just like. haha! who tf is this guy :) just smiling and nodding as if he knows what's going on but EXTREMELY confused by the stranger in jeremy's house

ify and patrick were buds before either of them met jeremy

brennan took four years of latin as we know, but what you don't know is that tommy took four years of french and damien took four years of german! (spencer took the minimum requirement of spanish and that's it LKDNKNFLFKN)

a lot of the team member's relationship with religion fluctuates but ian specifically is like. agnostic-christian. where he's like "idk what's out there but the Idea of christianity is comforting." he's not sure what he thinks about god but he's cool with praying does this make sense

tommy has spencer in his phone as "charles" forever and ever bc he said so. what is spencer gonna do. stop him?

despite the ban on interactions between the two teams damien and keith have been buds/texting each other for years. they are buds to ME.

chanse is like. en route to play professionally. he's being scouted like right now. he wanted to go to like a Specialized sports high school but his parents insisted on keeping him in catholic school

aaand trevor is putting in a transfer request as we speak LKSNDLK

okay i think that's it for now as far as lore goes. i hope you all enjoy!!

[sehunniepotwrites]

my christmas wish come true

SYNOPSIS. Mark Lee has been a staple in your life for the past six years and you haven’t even met him in person yet. You say yet because you’re steps away from the arrival gate of the airport and he’s there waiting for you on the other side. Nerves out of control, you wonder if coming to him for the holidays is a mistake but it’s way too late to turn back now. The only thing you can do is move forward and hope for the best. 

PAIRING. penpal!Mark Lee x fem!reader GENRE. Christmas!AU, Holiday!AU, Penpal!AU, College!AU, Friends-to-Lovers!AU, Fluff WORD COUNT. 1.4k+ WARNINGS. mark calls her “puppy” (?), tooth-rotting fluff, mark is so cute here, profanity

DISCLAIMER. This is work of fiction. I do not own the people/characters and concepts I have written about. You cannot translate or copy my work.

Looking around the crowded area, you double check that you have everything with you. Hands patting your shoulders, you feel the heavy weight of your travel backpack. Your fingers reach down to grip onto the handlebars of your carry-on and matching check-in luggage. Everything is within your grasp, so why are you so unbelievably nervous? Maybe it’s because once you pass the arrival gate, the moment you’ve been waiting for will finally arrive.

You’re stalling. 

You’re definitely stalling but of course you have to buy yourself some more time to kick all the nerves away. 

You’re not nervous because you’re traveling by yourself. You’re not nervous about visiting a new place. You’re nervous because this trip was six years in the making—four years of exchanging letters throughout your high school career and two college years continuing on the tradition while also adding on phone and FaceTime calls into the mix. 

You’re nervous because you’re meeting your penpal—your best friend—in person for the first time. You really shouldn’t be because it’s Mark Lee you’re talking about. He knows the ins and outs of you. Despite never meeting you in real life, he knows how you drink your coffee in the morning, all the movies and shows you watch when you’re having a rough day, and the things you need to hear when you’re feeling down. Mark knows that your favorite color switches depending on your mood, how you relieve your stress by screaming into a karaoke microphone for hours, and that you like to use an old hoodie of his (one that he sent to you via care package) when you’re looking for a comfortable fit. The English literature major probably knows you more than you know yourself but you can’t help but feel this way. 

You can’t help but let the butterflies in your stomach fester and float and fly while your heart does backflips inside your chest. You can’t help but heat up at the thought of finally being able to hug him after years of thinking about what it would feel like to be in his arms. Lastly, you can’t help but like Mark Lee when he has been nothing but sweet to you. So sweet that he invited you to spend time with his family for the holidays when your parents decided to go on vacation without you. 

In fact, the feelings you carry for Mark surpassed the word like. You think they’re closer to the word love instead. And sure, some may call you crazy for falling for a person you’ve never met but they never saw the letters you exchanged, how deeply you dove into different topics, or how much Mark cared for you. They had no say in your relationship because they didn’t know him or the playlists he created just for you. They didn’t know about the countless songs he uploaded on SoundCloud that were all written about you. They knew nothing. But you and him, you knew everything.

Your phone begins to vibrate erratically in your pocket. Pulling it out, you see that it’s just Mark, your sweet, handsome boy, endearingly spamming your message thread with text after text. You can practically hear his excitement through the capitalized words and extensive use of punctuation and emojis. 

Baby Cheetah: [1 attachment] Baby Cheetah: waiting right here besides this huge ass Christmas tree!! It’s so tall, dude, like wtf?? It even makes Johnny look small! Baby Cheetah: If you can’t see me through the crowd, that’s okay!! That’s why I brought Johnny with me!! Baby Cheetah: PUPPYYYYYYYYY Baby Cheetah: PUP PUP Baby Cheetah: Did you get your bags yet?? AH I’M SO EXCITED Baby Cheetah: Johnny keeps telling me to calm down but I can’t because you’re HERE! In Toronto with me! How fucking crazy is that?? Baby Cheetah: Oh my gOD I’M GOING TO GIVE YOU THE BIGGEST HUG YOU BETTER GET HERE FAST! Baby Cheetah: People are coming out of the gate, where are youuuuuu? Don’t chicken out on me!!!! 

You laugh, quickly typing a reply that you’re about to walk through the gate. The text you sent raises and you see the three little dots at the bottom of your screen appear, disappear, and reappear again. Waiting for his answer only prolongs your time apart so you swiftly lock your phone, inhale deeply, and take your first step through past the point of no return, or as the airport calls it, the arrival gate. Five steps later and you’re descending on the world’s longest escalator, standing on your tippy toes while scanning the waiting crowd below. Like Mark said, there is a large sea of people, which is expected for the holiday season, so you narrow your search by looking around the large Christmas tree you saw in Mark’s photo.

It doesn’t take you long to find Mark, or rather, Mark’s friend, Johnny. The man stands tall right next to the tree with a wide, teasing grin. His large arm is wrapped around a shorter boy’s shoulder. Mark doesn’t spot you right away, too busy bouncing on his heels while keeping his eyes glued to the escalator, but Johnny does. Despite never meeting you in person either, he’s gotten to know you as well through your FaceTime calls with Mark. Johnny’s smile widens as you wave at him, which is all the confirmation he needs. The guy nudges Mark’s side and points straight towards you. 

You catch Mark’s face beaming, his thin lips forming into the world’s biggest smile with his cheeks squishing against his sparkling eyes, as he makes his way through the tough crowd to meet you in the middle. The look on his face is practically fluorescent, the way it shines brighter than his Smurf blue hair that you can’t help but adore.

The second you’re getting off the ramp, you rush towards him, your bags tangling behind you in a weird sort of mess you don’t pay any attention to. He does the same, his sneakers squeaking against the floor tiles until he’s right in front of you. The anticipation leading up to this moment is so much that you disregard the luggage you packed and jump straight into Mark’s arms. He catches you with a little groan that turns into a jingle of laughter that is music to your ears. 

You snuggle into his neck and you can feel the warmth radiating through his clothes from his body and he’s here. Mark’s here with you. You’re not looking at him through a screen or a printed photo or talking to him through written stationery that gets beaten up along the way. He’s right here with you, touching you, hugging you. Mark’s arms are around your body and your legs are warped around his legs. The breath from his low chuckles are hitting your neck and his cheek is pressed into your shoulder. You feel him nuzzling into the fluffy sherpa material of your jacket and hear his satisfied sigh as his hold tightens. 

“Hi there, Cheetah Lee,” you say fondly as you push yourself back to really take him in. 

The giggle that you’ve only heard over the phone blesses you as his cheeks are tickled with red. “Hey there, Puppy,” Mark replies before pulling you back in for another long hug. 

“This is so weird,” you whisper while sinking into his warmth once again. 

“I know, man, like I can’t believe it. You’re here—”

“I’m here in Toronto!”

“—with me.” Mark reaches out to touch your hair and it slips through his fingers. The unique scent of your shampoo fills his being and it causes him to draw you even closer in his arms. His eyes search yours and the white fluorescent airport lights seem to cast a halo around his pretty face.  “My god, you’re real. Like, you actually exist.”

“And if I didn’t, who could have possibly written you those letters, hmm?” you can’t help but tease back. Does he feel you shaking in his hold? You’re trying to play it off but you’re so happy, your knees could give out any second now. 

“I don’t know but I’m just...” he seems so into this moment and it causes you to fall into it too. You ignore the phone camera aimed your way—you can always greet his best friend Johnny later—because all you could think about, all you can focus on, is the sweet boy in front of you. “I’m just so glad you came. My Christmas wish came true.”

You bump your forehead into his and the hand resting against your back finds its way up to keep your head in place. The courage you have been building up takes advantage of this precious moment and urges you to press a lingering kiss on his soft cheek. Your lips brush against his skin as you whisper, “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.” 

AUTHOR’S NOTE. This had been sitting in my drafts for a while so I made a few little changes to fit the Christmas season and tadah! Here we are. I believe this was based on a Tiktok I saw awhile back (I don’t have it saved) and I thought it was so cute, I had to write something on it. But yes, here’s my little contribution for the holidays! I hope everyone has a safe celebration, no matter what or how you are celebrating this special time! 

taglist. (tagging my general + people i think would enjoy this <3) @keemburley @johtenrecs @bat-shark-repellant @kaepop-trash @bebsky @donutswithjaminthemiddle @suhnnyskhies @baekhyuns-lipchain @emmybyeakitty @moonctzeny @sokkigarden @inlovergirlsworld @iwishiwasthemoontonight @stvrrynight @loeycity @itsapapisongo @tyong-blr @jenosuh​

networks. @czennienet @neowritingsnet @ankathi-a 

© sehunniepotwrites, 2022 — all rights reserved. reposting, editing/modifying, translating of any piece of work (fic, original writing) posted on this blog is not allowed. 

[cretaceous-if]

Welcome! Your post introductory is amazing!!

Care to share some facts about the ROs?

Aw thank you! I was inspired by @forsakensword-if to add all the stats and stuff to make it easier to people to access, so kudos to Rea!

I’m literally terrible at thinking up facts, so forgive that i’ve reused the fav animal/dino one.

G:

-> While they don’t have much time for it these days, G is a total bookworm (historical romances are their guilty pleasure even if the smut scenes do make them giggle).

-> their favourite animal is a wolf and their favourite dinosaur is an ankylosaurus (because it kind of reminds them of a dog).

Lee:

-> If asked, xe would tell you that whiskey is xyr favourite drink, but in reality, hot chocolate with whipped cream and mini marshmallows is xyr favourite.

-> Xyr favourite animal is a red panda and xyr favourite dinosaur is a parasaurolophus.

Niko:

-> He can play the piano and sing, but he’s rather shy about it so he rarely shows off his musical talent. He will quietly sing to mc though when it’s just the two of them.

-> His favourite animal is an elephant and his favourite dinosaur is a velociraptor (his lil turkey sized menaces).

Cierra:

-> She was a champion gymnast in her early twenties, now while she doesn’t compete anymore, she’s still very active and extremely flexible.

-> Her favourite animal is a bearded vulture and her favourite dinosaur is a gigantoraptor.

Aija:

-> If they’re given flowers, they will be extremely flattered. They’ll press the flowers into special books and write little notes about the meaning of the flowers and who gave them to them.

-> Their favourite animal is a cheetah and their favourite dinosaur is a T-Rex (they get really excited when you bring your babies to see them).

[spicyseonghwas]

jealous ; ten lee

pairing :: ten chittaphon x male reader genres/au's :: angst, fluff, romance viewer rating :: 13+ (pt.2 WILL contain sexual content) content warnings :: light cursing, crying, kissing, light makeout session, reader calls ten "cheetah" which is a reference to part of the pronunciation of ten's legal first name word count :: 1,646 (1,482 words originally) network tag :: @preciousillusions-net

pt.1 ; pt.2

ten had never had to live without you, not even before he knew there was a heart as pure as yours out there in the world. you had been right there by his side for so long, forgiven so many of his mistakes, that the idea of you not there next to him was excruciating to think about. he couldn't bear it. the thought and sound of your name was beginning to burn a hole in his heart.

you had been in love with ten for years and years now, but you were still absolutely terrified to tell anyone, especially him. he was perfect, you had always known it. he had always treated you like a king, and you had always tried your hardest to treat him the same way in return for his efforts. but it was starting to hurt now, you were starting to feel sort of lonely. and you didn't know who else to go to, because you couldn't just CONFESS TO TEN…

so you went to johnny.

"i… i just don't know what to do, johnny," you whimpered, tightening your arms around johnny's chest and hiding your face with a tiny whimper. "it… it hurts so fucking much…"

"i know it hurts, m/n," he whispered softly back to you, "trust me. i know firsthand how bad love can bite." he tangled his fingers carefully int the baby hairs on the base of the back of your neck, rubbing soft, firm little circles into the muscles in your neck.

"what the hell am i supposed to do, johnny??" you cried into his chest, "i can't keep this from him forever, he's my bet fucking friend! he has a right to know!"

"yeah, but how exactly are you gonna go about telling him this after all the shit you've pulled him through with the rest of the relationships he's tried to commit to?"

"i-i dunno. i guess i'll just have to tell him… he's gotta know." you said quietly, burying your face in johnny's neck. "i'm scared though…"

"i'll be right here the whole time, m/n." johnny whispered into your ear, hugging you tight. "you just tell me when you're ready."

~+~

you inhaled as deeply as you could without hurting yourself, lifting a shaking hand and knocking softly on johnny's door.

"johnny?"

"i'm here." johnny's soft, husky morning voice floated through the material of the door, followed by soft footsteps coming up to the door on the other side. then the door cracked open and johnny's face peeked out.

"what's up?" he asked, peeking around the door and smiling when he saw that it was you on the other side. he opened the door a bit more to hear you better.

"i… i'm ready." you nearly whispered as you tried your best to steady your voice.

"yeah?" he replied, "you're sure?"

you nodded.

"yeah." you said softly, taking deep breaths to try to control your heartbeat a bit.

johnny smiled reassuringly, silently telling you that everything was going to be okay.

"let's go, then."

~+~

"ten?" johnny called softly, knocking on the thai boy's door for the third time. "ten, you there?"

"y-shit, yeah, i'm here." you heard from what sounded like ten's bed, "i'm coming, hang on- DAMN IT, LEO- FUCK-"

"NEVER HAVE CHILDREN, JOHNNY!" ten burst out the second he'd opened the door enough to see johnny.

"ten- ten, you don't have any children…" johnny's voice trailed off and floated away as he looked up and down ten's arms at the fresh cat scratches that adorned them.

"having cats sucks. cats count as children, johnny."

after a long moment of awkward silence and a lingering, slightly worried look between you and johnny, ten finally realized there was a reason he had guests at his room at ten at night.

"what's up, guys?" ten finally asked, "is there something i should know?"

"...yeah," johnny said after a moment of stunned silence, "we need to- m/n-" he corrected himself as he looked at you- "needs to talk to you about something. it's something that's really important to him."

"sure! what's going on, m/n?" ten asked, looking over at you as he backed up to let you into the room.

johnny waved to you, giving you a soft, reassuring smile and a gentle squeeze on your shoulder. you waited till he left before following ten into his room. you followed his gestures for you to sit on the bed next to him.

"so what's up, bestie?"

"i... ten, i'm just gonna say this bluntly to preserve my sanity..." you said, taking a deep breath.

"i love you."

"i'm aware of that, m/n."

"what..." your voice trailed off into stunned silence. "n-no-no, ten, i love you. i'm in love with you." you repeated, looking blankly at ten, who simply blinked back at you in silence.

"m/n, we are best friends, i can feel your emotions." ten stated, "i basically live in your fucking walls. i can tell when you're hungry, that's how close we are."

"...ten, that was me confessing my love for you."

"i am completely aware of that, and you seem to be having some trouble accepting this information."

"i-what-TEN, SHUT UP-" you started. but you weren't able to finish your sentence, as your aggravated yelling was cut off and your wrist- the one you now found to have made it halfway towards ten's shoulder with a balled up fist- was suddenly in a tight grip. you felt the weight of ten's whole body press into your own as he pushed you backward onto the bed. your heart raced up into your throat as you felt your back hit the covers.

"ten, what-" you started, but again never finished as you felt ten's lips connect with yours. your face heated up like the air in malaysia, and your eyes fluttered clsosed as your whole body have in to ten's surprise advances.

your face was still hot and your heart was still racing when ten finally broke the kiss, looking as always as though he had never broken a sweat in all of his 27 glorious years of life. ten smiled happily, one hand slipping into yours and the other underneath you as you felt his nose nuzzle your neck. he and you were silent for a while, just relishing in each other's presence, and the event that had just transpired.

but ten wasn't only thinking about the kiss... it was actually starting to slip from his mind.

no...

ten was thinking about johnny.

he was thinking about how much more often you had been hanging around johnny lately, and how much less you seemed to want to spend your time with him, your best friend. it was making his heart hurt, he was scared you were growing away from him.

"you're not really in love with me, are you?" he blurted, not registering that the words had even come out of his mouth until it was already far too late.

"what?" you snapped, sitting up in a panic. "what? ten, i jusst confessed my undying love for you. i just fucking kissed you! what the hell makes you think i'm not in love with you?? who the hell told you that??"

"no one, i just... you've been hanging out with me so much less nowadays, it's making me think you're growing on me a little too much. i'm starting to think you don't enjoy being around me anymore..." ten's voice trailed away, cracking a little as he turned away to shield from your eyes that one single tear that had rolled down his cheek.

"ten, i've been spending time with johnny because i'm a 127 member. we're in the middle of promotions, i have to spend time with him. i have to spend time with my group mates sometimes too! i spend half my life on a stage with them..." you said softly, scooting over and wrapping your arms carefully around ten's slim waist. "just because i'm hanging out with my friends doesn't mean i don't like spending time with you, ten, i love you. my heart aches for you every time you're not there. i. love. you, ten."

ten shook for a moment in your arms, sniffling a bit as he wiped tears from his and eventually turned to look at you.

"y-you promise?" he whispered, looking into your eyes with his own teary ones and nearly breaking your heart in the process. you smiled softly, nodding and moving your hand up to wipe the tears gently off his face.

"yes, ten, i promise." you responded quietly but also a little aggressively. "you're my cheetah, no one else gets to have you."

ten finally smiled, leaning in for another kiss. you obliged, closing the distance and letting your lips mould with his as your arms moved up and wrapped around his shoulders. you didn't remember crawling onto ten's lap, but suddenly you were there, and his hands were snaking carefully under the brim of your shirt. you tilted your head slightly to the side, letting your lips and his mesh together more ffectively, smiling and opening your mouth once when he licked your bottom lip, obviously asking for entrance.

"hmmm, such a bold boy," you hummed, tugging ever-so-lightly on ten's hair. you broke away and grinned like a devil when you felt and heard the other boy frowl quietly into your mouth. he pouted when you pulled back, crawling off his lap and pulling him with you by the hand as you moved backward onto your knees toward the head of the bed.

"c'mere, pretty boy," you growled playfully, grabbing him by the waist and latching back onto his mouth. "fuck me like you want me too..." ten grinned evilly, evidently having somehow managed to remove both your and his shirts without you noticing.

"gladly, darling," he purred, shoving you back into the pillows.

© seonghwas-lighter 2023-2024.

[cruesuffix]

Crue always had great fits and no one can deny that but what are the worse outfits in your opinion

i’m SO happy you asked this anon!!

now there aren’t many group photos where all of them look busted, but there are a few where one of them looks so ridiculous it almost ruins the photo completely, here are some examples:

vince looks ridiculous but everyone else is kinda slaying (that top is so ugly what was he thinking fr) (no wait i lied i don’t think nikki’s outfit is a serve either)

the hat…peepaw i expected better from you :/ like he looks like an emo cowboy about to sing a really homoerotic sad gay song about his ex lover (think brokeback mountain if they were goth) ALSO nikki’s hat makes his head look small…so he also ruins the photo for me

the coat mick is wearing makes him look two apples tall…it’s actually so funny it throws off the rest of the picture (like they all look good but because that coat makes mick look so small i hate it/j)

but sometimes they individually have terrible looks

for me it’s this suit worn by tommy lee circa probs ‘85 (maybe ‘86) this shit looks terrible frfr…i know cheetah print was his fav (it’s actually mines too) but this is just excessive he looks like a gay guy who owns a secret underground gay club and he’s revered by all the gays in la…either that or a pimp. love the man but he looks ridiculous here it’s so bad

OK DONT KILL ME!! i just feel like mick could have used more variety during this era. he literally refused to take off this damn top during this entire era and i hate it. i would have much rather he wore the one from the smokin in the boys room mv, the red looks so much better on him. in other words: BORING!!

other times they just pull something like this:

they look terrible (positive) like absolutely astounding how terrible they look. vince and his resistance to wearing shoes is amazing. i wish i didn’t have to see it though.

i will say, the hardest part of doing these is ranking micks outfits because all he does is wear black. sometimes i think he’s an outfit repeater (there’s definitely evidence of that) which makes it worse since that’s the worst fashion crime you can commit! either way i think their most interesting era was theatre of pain because the things they wore…like who told tommy to wear those pants. this photoshoot was definitely their most boring one, no one’s really wearing anything really flashy.

ANYWAYS…these are just a few of my least favourite outfits (aka the ones i think sucked the most). anon, you’re right about them always having the best fits, because i definitely struggled picking a few of these out! i loved doing this though, and there’s probably even worse ones out there that i haven’t found yet!

[giggly-squiggily]

GIGGLES! May I please humbly request Lee Shigure and ler Alamein from fruits basket? 🥹 I haven't finished the show yet, but those two are so 'fruity' together they're so cute! 🥰 Perhaps they are talking about their school days again and bring up the topic of the fights they'd have?

No pressure! Ily you're amazing! 🥰💙🩵💙🩵💙

Oh, you're sweet, Raichi! Thank you :3 And oh my god YES! Ayame and Shigure are so- kjarekjakjjkearjej XD I've gotcha covered!

Cloud 9 (Taglist peeps):

@baby-tickles2022 @cupcake-spice13 @sarahmaystock5578 @sevenincubistolemyheart @riisada

“Oh my…would you look at this?” At Ayame’s fond sigh, Shigure looked over at the velvety cheetah print coat. “My student council uniform! Doesn’t it bring back such fond memories?”

“It does- and it’s well cared for.” Shigure scooted over, feeling the fabric with careful fingers. They were cleaning out Hatori’s attic for him while he was busy at the main house- mainly because most if not everything up there was theirs. It was both a busy task and a walk down memory lane. “Not a thinned thread in sight.”

“It is! Say, do you think Yuki would like this? Oh, it’d bring out his eyes!”

 Shigure didn’t have the heart to tell him his brother would likely burn it. Instead, he reached into the box, pulling out a framed photo of them in highschool. “Hey hey, check out these handsome devils. This is when we all moved into that little apartment together.”

Folding the coat, Ayame leaned into his shoulder to get a better look, eyes softening as he took in their young, smiling faces. “How lovely. Those days were some of my favorites- the three of us staying up late watching movies, planning our trips for the weekends to come.”

“Burning breakfast, getting into silly fights over this and that.” Despite the wording, Shigure spoke of these events with great fondness, laughing to himself at one particular. “Those were good times all around.”

“I agree…say, do you recall the time you borrowed my favorite suit?” Ayame asked, something of a secret smile playing on his lips. Shigure hummed in thought, rubbing his chin.

“Hm…no, I don’t recall. Care to enlighten me?”

“It was dawn- a cold winter morning. The student council were planning the mid-season ball, and you know how I love a good party..” Ayame wrapped an arm around Shigure’s waist, tugging him close as he spoke. “However- when I went to my closet, it was missing! In its place was a single piece of paper- folded into the shape of a dog.”

The hand on Shigure's waist curled some, making the other haired man stiffen. “You don’t sahahy?”

“A classic calling card if I do say so myself. I knew immediately who took my precious suit! I went to your room that day and found you faking a sleep.” There was a gentle press to his lower ribs, earning a huff of laughter from the dog. “You were in bed for once- a sight uncommon given how often you stay up to write.”

“Cahahhahn’t let the gihihihihirl’s dohohohwn! Yoohohohu know how muhuhuch they lhoohohve my wohohohork!” Shigure giggled through his words, squirming some against Ayame’s hand. “Whahahat hahahappened nehehehxt?”

“Hm…you know- I think it’s one of those things you just need to experience.” With that, Ayame attacked full on, pressing his nails into the soft spots along Shigure’s rib cage while his other hand grabbed his thigh. The dark haired man let out a howl of laughter as he fell back, writhing on the floor as his friend attacked his tickle spots. “I must say, your reactions are quite lovely.! Come on, tell me what you remember now?”

“Aheahhahahahhahahaha! I cahhahhahn’t seeheheheheem to rehehehehehcall! Cohoohohohuld you explahhhahhain furuhuhuhurther?”

“So greedy~” Ayame cooed as he climbed on Shigure’s hips, keeping his touch light as he scribbled into the various sensitive parts along his torso. “I did this, you see? I climbed on top of you and started tickling like there was no tomorrow! You were mighty ticklish back then.” Shigure snickered at the yipping sound Shigure made when his fingers touched the tips of his hip bones. “Seems that hasn’t changed at all.”

“Aheahhahhha! Sohohohoohho it sehehehehe-EHEHEMS!” Shigure arched with a proper laugh as Ayame kneaded the terrible spot, hair a mess and robe starting to come undone, the fabric spreading like water across the floor. His cheeks were rosy, warm and lovely to match the smile on his lips. “AHAHAHHAYA, PLEHAHAHAHAHSE!”

“Hehe, okay okay.” He moved his hands up back to his ribs, easing Shigure’s hysterics back down to a softer giggle fit. “Where was I? Oh- yes. I asked you where my research was, and you insisted you didn’t know! Unfortunately for you, I can smell a dirty liar when I know one!”

“Whohohohoho are yoohooohohu cahahhahalling diihihihihirty?”

“Just at the time, love. No one smells fresh during a early morning.” Ayame planted a kiss on his forehead before moving up to Shigure’s highest ribs, earning another proper yip sound. “I had to go for the big spots if I wanted you to confess. Your hips were a good place, but if I knew him, I’d go for…here!”

“AHAHAHHAYAME!” Shigure all but shrieked when his armpits were suddenly attacked, throwing his head back and kicking his feet against the wooden floor. “OHOOHOHKAY OHOHOHOHKAY I REMEHEHEHHEEMBER!”

“Oh, do you? You sure?” Ayame cooed, laughing when Shigure nodded frantically. “Hehe, okay- I believe you.” He pulled his hands back, climbing off his friend before resuming his tale. “Eventually, you confessed to it all. I found my suit hanging in your closet! Silly thing, weren’t you?”

“Hehehe..hehehehe..stihihihll am I suhuhupose.” Shigure pushed his hair back from his face, blinking up at the old familiar walls around him. “I don’t think I went to the ball that year. Was it fun?”

“Oh darling, it was amazing! Though it would have been much more special with you.” Ayame smiled as he pulled out an old notebook, flipping  through the pages of his companion’s old handwriting. “Look here- I found your old work! Care to read it?”

“Hmm..later. Right now- I want something else.” Shigure  didn’t give him a second to react, pushing Ayame over and going right for the ribs. “I want revenge!”

The attic would be cleaned later.

Thanks for reading!

[loevhyuck]

[nelyastudies]

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who reblogged something from you! get to know your mutuals and followers (ू•‧̫•ू⑅)♡

1. i registered as a blood donor today!! i almost didnt fulfill the minimum weight requirement but thank god neurology made me stress eat lately. as long as they dont weigh me next time i will remain in the list i think.

2. i watched an indonesian comedy called "gampang cuan", where 2 eldest children of a poor family are coming to the capital, seeking money to pay off their late father's debt. it was SO funny and so touching. idk if it was to be released internationally or not, but i wish it is because i think the movie is THAT good. i think this is my new favorite movie after EEAAO, LOTR, and Dangal!

3. i installed plant ves zombies games on my ipad and i just finished PvZ 1 and now im doing PvZ 2!! this game is so exciting. i need to be less chronically offline. i need to be more like the ipad babies. i think i will be happier

4. i just found out that there's a new indomie flavor!! it's spicy rawon and its sooooo fucking ggoooooddddd i think we should put indomie chefs to the national heroes list. i genuinely think when them chefs die we should put our flag into their caskets

5. lee onew jinki is back (YAPPING INCOMING)

*with tears in my eyes*

my fcuking GODDD, i though he was going off to the mountains and never to be seen again for real. now that he came back from the 1 year long health hiatus, it seems ridiculous. one year is not even that long, dear god. i think half of it is the fanbase's (me included) fault for assuming the Absolute Worst everytime something goes against expectation but the thing is the last time we saw him, he really looked sick. he has never been that skinny the entire 15 years i've seen him, you know? i was working in the cancer wards at the time of the hiatus announcement and i admit i DID cry my eyes out thinking he has Every cancer.

ANYWAY. he's back now, he's under his own company he founded with his tesla stock money, he has an asia tour next month, hes cooking his next album (he said he is listening to by candy drip by lucky daye lately, and damn the next album is gonna be crazy), he has three (3) waterbombs incoming (does he even know how waterbombs stages usually is like?? i dont even know whats he gonna do there. he gonna spray holy water and show ankle, i think).

anyway (2) i think the state of shinee's fanbase nowadays is like that post about cheetahs. yk how cheetah are anxious creatures that took social cues from another cheetah, who are also anxious and they made a devil's circle of escalating anxiety? that's how the fanbase is like. lol. the zoo gives the cheetah puppy friends to get them to calm down. AND now im here following 0 shawol blogs. i gotta get myself less of these cheetahs and more puppies, yk. im following carat blogs now. and aespa.

anyway stream lee onew jinki's billboard 2023 #1 album of the year (or whatever the kids say)

^ if u listen to gospel. this is good. if ur indonesian and listen to chrisye, i would say that circle is badai pasti berlalu's little sister.

[wuxiaphoenix]

Worldbuilding: Consequences of Cultivation

Every so often, when I’m building a new story ‘verse, I try to take a step back and consider consequences. Along the lines of, okay, I’m making it a Thing that X is real in the world of the story. And then what?

This had interesting knock-on effects in Tell No Tales, for one. In that story the ability to consciously do magic and the ability to gather and channel magical power are, in fact, two different genes. They’re close enough together in the genome that they’re usually inherited together - but “usually” is not “always”. Genetic recombination happens. And the results of such rare exceptions led to death, disaster, and later murder.

In Colors of Another Sky, the ability to manipulate the laws of physics - “magic” - is real. In East Asia including the Korean Peninsula, cultivation is one of the most common and organized ways to do it. But not the only one. Shamans, onmyouji, odd Buddhist and Daoist practices - there are a lot of ways to get similar results. And other lands have their own methods. For now I’ll just drop the hints that prayer and meditation are often closely related, Judeo-Christian religions tend to approve of self-defense, and Badass Bookworms appear to be a universal human phenomenon.

So. Cultivation, and cultivators. What are some consequences?

Well, for one, a cultivator may have a certain amount of trouble passing for a normal person. Cultivation improves general health; assuming they start young enough, cultivators will tend to be taller and stronger than the average run of the population. Chae, for example, can and does disguise herself as a man because she’s tall enough to pass as a short-to-average common guy. Lee Cheong, OTOH, has about as much chance of passing himself off as a commoner as a cheetah would impersonating a housecat. Half his family is yangban, the other half has a history of cultivation, and he stands significantly over six feet tall. Blending in is not an option.

(If you’ve seen any of Netflix’s Kingdom, note the Prince standing a head above most other characters. Yeah. Like that.)

So if you’re an average person in a setting like this, and you see someone tall and healthy, you’re going to keep an eye on them. They might be nobles, able to mess you up physically, socially, and legally. Or they might be cultivators, in which case having every bone in your body broken might be just the start of your problems.

Humans being human, anyone who can’t cultivate, or doesn’t want to (think serious athlete/martial artist/scholar level of time investment) is going to be looking for an equalizer. Guns are a good equalizer.

Nobles, therefore, are going to have guns. They are going to train with guns, and other explosive things, even more than they did historically. Swords are good, swords are elegant, swords are expected for formal dueling. But actual “I consider you my enemy, so I shall do unto you before you can do unto me”? Yeah. Guns.

Of course, there are a lot of other factors involved in whether or not said guns are effective. And there will be some cultivators who use guns, too!

Cultivation, of course, will have plenty of other knock-on effects, especially given arrays exist. And some of them don’t need a cultivator to activate them. Going to chew on those for another day!

[boysplanetrecaps]

Produce 48 Recaps: Auditions Begin (episode 1)

When we left off in my probably-unnecessary-but-still-necessary Rewatch Recap of Produce 48, the 96 girls had made their entrance into the huge studio, and the judges were just about to reveal themselves. Let's get to it!

The judges come out!

First, it’s Lee Hong Ki, a powerful vocalist, here to teach them to sing. He’s from FT Island, and amazingly, was in the *second* K-drama I ever watched, You’re Beautiful, which was fun at the time, but which I cannot actually recommend. I will say that Hong-ki is the best part of it despite his, let’s say, broad acting choices. 

The character he played on You’re Beautiful was named Jeremy, and I can’t help but think of him as Jeremy. So just understand that I will be calling him Jeremy for the duration of these recaps. Thank you. 

Here he is as Jeremy. He’s ACTING! 

Next, it’s Soyou, from Sistar. She was overshadowed by Hyolyn but is an excellent vocalist in her own right. She’s here to be the other vocal trainer. 

It wouldn’t be an MNET show without this asshole:

I don’t want to learn his name but he’s that choreographer/dance teacher/ sociopath who always makes sure that all of the trainees’ mental health is hanging on by the merest of threads. I’m going to call him Psychopath. Seriously, fuck this guy. I’ll note that he comes across as sweet and loveable in this episode but I can’t forgive him for the shit he pulled during Boys Planet. Nope. Never. He has earned my undying hatred. To be clear, I do not support sending him hate messages or harming him in any way. I will just quietly, and personally, hate him on my Tumblr which gets maybe 5 or 10 readers. 

And then there’s her:

Bae Yoon Jung! She’s also pretty intense, and I know she’s mean to them on the first day, but she has the capacity for normal human empathy, as I recall. I’m going to call her Dance Bae. That doesn’t mean that I co-sign on her casual cruelty. It’s just that it’s literally her name and it’s easy to remember.

I don’t remember this lady:

Her name is May J Lee and she’s also a dance trainer. She’s cute. Here’s to hoping she understands that the trainees are human beings!

It’s Cheetah, here to be the rap trainer! God, I love her song Villain so damn much. The video is great, too, but trigger warning for violence. “I could fix you, but I won’t.” HECK yeah. 

And special one-day trainer, Kahi, who was the dance trainer for PD101 Season 2.

Kahi was in After School, then “graduated” in June 2012, right around the same time that Gaeun joined. They undoubtedly have spent time together, so it’ll be interesting to see if they interact much in this episode. (Maybe Gaeun being on the show this season meant that Kahi couldn’t really be the judge for the whole time?) 

The judges glare holes into the trainees while explaining that they’ll be sorting them into groups -- A, B, C, D, and F -- based on skill level, with the ultimate goal of bringing them all up to A-grade. And now it’s time for these would-be performers to perform, and of course, they don’t want to actually perform. 

41:50 The Auditions Begin

The girls are nervous. Yoon Hae Sol (윤해솔), 20, former member of Aqua, lets out a gusty breath. And this girl is nervous too, whoever the heck she is. 

Kim Chaewon, it says on her nametag. Well, she’s cute. Meanwhile I’m fascinated by the shoe behind her. WHOSE SHOE IS THAT? WHAT IS THIS SHOE? 

The AKB-48 girls are even more nervous. Oda Erina, 21, in a stylish bob and a blue, yellow and white jacket is intimidated by the Korean girls. Mogi Shinobu, also 21, a living meme with blue furry sleeves, is so nervous she looks like she might cry. We love you, Shinobu.

Time for the first audition! Or at least, the audition that the editors have moved to the beginning of the episode, even though it was probably not the first one to happen in real time! Because they wanted to front-load excellent Korean auditions to emphasize the skill gap between the Korean and Japanese contestants! 

Audition 1: Yuehua

Kim Si Hyeon (김시현), age 18, in the long sleeved shirt, now a member of Everglow. 

Choi Ye Na (최예나), age 18, with her hair in a ponytail.

Wang Yi Ren (왕이런), age 17, pink shirt with black edges. She’s Chinese and is now a member of Everglow. 

We see a clip of the Yuehua girls back stage, where Choi Yena accidentally draws on the camera with red marker and then apologizes profusely. AND SHE NEVER WORKED IN KPOP AGAIN!!

Then we get a flashback of Gross Guy personally watching the auditions of all 96 girls prior to the filming of the first episode. He’s so gross. Ugh. He makes JYP seem like a sweet, safe guy. Anyway we find out that after Choi Yena performed her song, she asked to do an extra performance. She begins speaking in what sounds like decent Japanese and does a little miming routine with sound effects. She’s pretty charming, actually. 

Cut back to audition day. The Woolim girls are backstage waiting for their turn when they recognize Sihyeon from her time on PD101, Season 1. Sihyeon interviews that she’s embarrassed when she looks back at herself on PD101 and that she’s gotten a lot better since then. In fact, as we find out later, she got an F in that season. 

Link to full audition on Youtube

Song: Move by Little Mix 

My Thoughts: They do great, in my opinion. Siyheon has a great clear, strong voice and her English pronunciation is mostly pretty good. Yena and Yiren don’t sing as clearly, but their dancing is great and they have a lot of presence. God, Yiren sparkles so much! I feel like she’s getting bad advice from whoever is around her now, because in more recent Everglow performances she always seems so muted. Seeing this, I can see she’s capable of great stage presence -- I hope she finds her way back to this. I dig Everglow and just want them to keep living up to their potential. I would have given Siyheon an A and the other two Bs, I think, though it’s hard without seeing the other trainees to compare. 

The MNET Edit: The editing emphasizes Yiren and Yena more, but overall the editing is kind to all three. We see some of the Japanese girls saying “why is everyone so good”, almost as if this ISN’T the first team to go up. (Also, we see that other girls are already wearing their grade name tag, though they’re blurred out.) The judges give Yena an A and the other two get Bs, which I guess reminds us that as long as you *kind* of sing while you also dance a lot and are very charming, then…. you get an A. Anyway, A and B are fine.

The editors really want us to know that the Japanese girls are very worried about their auditions. It is true that they generally don’t have the training the Korean girls have -- I’m not commenting on their inherent worthiness, just their preparation. But the show really, really focuses on that. I’m sure at least some of the Korean girls were nervous too, but we don’t seem to be seeing clips of that on the show.

Auditions 2 and 3: Woolim and WM Entertainment

Next, the MNET editors decided to further confuse anyone who has previously confused WM Entertainment with Woolim Entertainment by overlapping these two agency’s auditions, same as they did when the girls entered the auditorium. Thanks, MNET editors! Thmeditors. We learn that Woolim manages Lovelyz, while WM manages Oh My Girl (their rivals), though now in 2023 I think we all know that Oh My Girl kind of won that particular fight. Apparently the girls view each other as rivals? ...? But do they, though?

Woolim is up first. They take a moment finding their places, and we learn that Eunbi is their leader/mom who brought them medicine and Japanese phrase books. What a good unnie! 

Left to right: Suyun, Eunbi, Sohee, Chaewon

Kim Chae Won (김채원), age 17   now: Le Sserafim   wearing a short sleeved white top, tie Kim So Hee (김소희), age 14  now: Rocket Punch  wearing pigtails Kim Su Yun (김수윤), age 17  now: Rocket Punch   wearing short sleeved black top Kwon Eun Bi (권은비), age 22   now: soloist wearing a tie, cardigan

Link to full audition on Youtube

Song: Ah-Choo by Lovelyz / Bad by Infinite

My thoughts: It’s always awkward when you have one member who’s 14 (and looks 12) and one who is 22 (and looks 25) -- they’re always going to sort of make one another look bad. But overall, this is actually a really good audition.  I watched it multiple times and didn’t pick up on any mistakes or bad moments. All four of them had kpop acceptable vocals that didn’t stand out as fantastic or terrible. Chaewon’s a tiny bit shaky on the high notes, but they are really high notes. Little Sohee’s dancing was less powerful than the others’, even during Ah-Choo, but that’s fine considering she’s so much younger. I did think they looked a tiny bit silly doing that super powerful choreography to Bad while still dressed to perform Ah-Choo, but the goal was to display different skills and they did that. Knowing how deep the hole can go, I think I would have given all these girls As or Bs, maybe a C for little Sohee. It’s hard to know for sure since it’s not always clear what is live singing and what’s the backup track. 

The MNET Edit is fair. The rest of the trainees appreciate their performance. 

Backstage, Lee Chaeyeon says Eun Bi caught her eye the most. I actually noticed Suyun a lot too, but her time will come later. 

The judges compliment their synchronization and ask to see them perform something else. They launch into a second performance, which seems equally well rehearsed. I don’t recognize the song off hand (if any of you do, feel free to let me know!) but they do a great job with it. Dance Bae says, in an almost irritated way, “why haven’t you debuted yet? You seem ready to me.” I think she’s speaking mainly to Eunbi, who smiles wide at the compliment. We won’t hear their grades until later, but I’ll tell you their grades now, because I just love subverting the MNET editing monkeys. Kwon Eun Bi gets an A, ChaeWon gets a B, and the other two get Cs. Maybe I’m just biased toward Suyun from knowing her now? It’s hard to say. But I still think a B would have been fairer for her. 

Next, WM Entertainment. The girls come out on stage and the judges immediately tell Chaeyeon she looks familiar. She acknowledges having been on Sixteen with Somi (2015) and on Kpop Star 3 (2013). She says that this time she really wants to show us what she’s got. The other girls are excited to see her dance.

Trainees: 

Lee Seung Hyeon (이승현), 17 now known as Riina in H1-Key, in the black shirt Lee Chae Yeon (이채연), 18, currently a soloist, in the pink shirt  Cho Yeong In (조영인), 16, in the white Link to full audition on Youtube

Song: Shower, originally by Becky G

My thoughts: All three of them do well dancing wise. It’s not surprise that Chaeyeon would dance well, and she certainly outshines the other two, but Seunghyeon holds her own and Yeongin doesn’t look bad. I think vocally, Seunghyeon does the best job, but Chae’s belted note sounded good. Yeongin’s vocals were noticeably shaky compared to the other two’s. I think I would have given Yeongin a B or C, Chae would get an A, and Seunghyeon an A or a B depending on what the dance teachers said. Overall though it was a good audition. 

The MNET edit is again pretty kind. Everyone focuses on Chaeyeon, of course. When they’re done, the judges ask her to freestyle to Instruction by Jax Jones featuring Demi Lovato, and she dances in a style that’s really appropriate to the song. Everyone’s impressed. The judges announces the grades. Chaeyeon gets an A, which seems completely correct. The other two get Bs, which is ok. 

The editing is setting Kwon Eun Bi and Lee Chaeyeon up to be rivals. Surely, they must hate each other, if they’re both good dancers and their agencies are on the same street in Seoul! 

In the audience, Kojima Mako says to her friend, “It’s so amazing that I’m not even nervous anymore. Our friend Juri says to Shinozaki Ayana,  “I feel like I’m just watching a TV show.” Me too, Juri! We stan a relatable queen. But yeah, it’s more of the whole “the terrible, silly, weak Japanese girls are in awe of the mighty, powerful Korean girls” narrative that MNET’s editing monkeys keep pushing. 

Auditions 4 and 5: The Very Pretty Girls

Next, we have the introduction of two Very Pretty Girls:  Kim Min Ju (김민주), age 17 from Urban Works, in her colorful striped shirt, and Kang Hye Won (강혜원), age 18,  from 8D Creative in a blue mini dress with a big pink and white collar. The other trainees think that these two girls look like actresses, so maybe it’s no surprise that now (2023), they are in fact both actresses. I renew my complaint from earlier that I don’t understand why certain girls are considered prettier than the others, and remind you that this isn’t an insult to them, as they are certainly very pretty, but more of a compliment to the others, who I view as equally pretty. Isn’t Kwon Eun Bi just as pretty? Is she not? I don’t understand. I will be saying that a lot in these recaps so I guess I’ll just call it my Particularly Pretty Problem (PPP) and leave it at that. 

Agency:  8D Creative

Trainee: Kang Hye Won

In a pre-show interview, they ask her such questions as “were you always pretty?” and she says that yes, she is. This is the part of kpop I like least. She says that the position she wants is 청정 or purity. I guess I understand that -- there is usually a sexy member of a given group (see: Kai in Exo, Hyunjin in SKZ, Joy in Red Velvet, Soojin in G-Idle) and there’s usually a funny or approachable one (see: Chanyeol, Changbin, Wendy, Yuqi), so I could see there being a sort of pure or extra cute one. It’s not as crazy as it might sound.

Link to full audition on Youtube

Song: You and I by IU (2011)

My Thoughts: Well, that was pretty terrible. There’s room at the bottom, but she barely dances and she only kind of sings. The singing is breathy, faint, and pitchy. The dancing is half hearted and my grandma could have done this choreo even after her stroke. She has negative stage presence. Also, to me, she always looks confused. There’s something about either her facial features or her expression that make her look bewildered. I’m sorry if she’s your favorite. She may have charming personality traits that I don’t know about yet. She’s just not particularly skilled in either singing or dancing. She should get an F. 

If you can’t handle me saying that about this audition, then I really suggest that you just not read any more of my recaps because I’m going to say stuff like this about bad auditions. I don’t care if she’s “pretty”. I don’t care if she has gone on to be successful. Other people -- Eun Bi, for example -- are pretty and they can also sing and dance. I believe that if you make your living as a singer and/or dancer, you should be able to sing and/or dance. 

The MNET edit:They don’t do her any favors, zooming in on her non-dancing and focusing on the judges’ reactions to her shaky high notes and nearly stationary body. When she’s done, she stands there with this look on her face, which is the way I always remember this girl looking and how I recognize her in her more recent endeavors. 

Dance Bae says, “Purity is all you have. F.”  Done and done. 

Agency:  Urban Works

Trainee:  Kim Min Ju 

Link to full audition on Youtube

Song:  No Matter What by BoA

My Thoughts: This was so much better than Hyewon’s audition. For one thing, she actually danced. She showed a variety of different actual dance steps, including legs, body, arms, head, face. She danced! The singing was extremely faint and I think a lot of it was the backing track, but this was leagues ahead. Without being able to clearly discern her singing, it’s so hard to tell, but I think I’d put her in C territory. 

The MNET edit:They show the judges adjusting their ear buds and looking bored or put off, and focused on a part where she dropped into a squat and looked a little awkward. But that was just the dance move! This was originally done as a partner dance and it was adapted for a single person (I think? Unless it was just made new, whole cloth?), so maybe they should have just cut that squatting part out -- it’s not her fault. They also show a girl in the audience looking bored (maybe cut in from a totally different performance). It’s not kind. Minju, you deserved better. 

They give her a D. I don’t know. Seems like they’re punishing her for being pretty. But maybe the singing was worse than I thought. 

I’m not going to comment on it every single time it happens, but just assume that after every performance there will be a reaction/voice over from a Japanese girl saying, “If that didn’t get an A, I’m going to get an F for sure” or “the Korean girls are so much better than me” or something like that. It’s constant. 

Auditions 6 and 7: The Punching Bags

These next two auditions are shown mainly to mock these trainees. Neither of them do a stellar job, but both deserved a little better than what they got.

We see a scrap of  the audition from Shin Su Hyun (신수현), a 22 year old represented by FAVE Entertainment. 

She’s performing Playing with Fire by Blackpink. I watched her full audition, but we only see a little bit of it in the actual show. She started off with rapping, which the edit doesn’t show; I think she’s going for a rap position, not a singing one, which helps excuse why her singing was weak. The dancing wasn’t great -- she was a beat or two ahead of the choreography (something I only noticed because I know the song so well). But I thought she at least had charisma. I think a C wouldn’t have been out of line, but I don’t know the rubric. The edit replays a part where she sort of does a chicken-dance wiggle during the chorus when that’s not quite what the choreo is like, but I had to go back and rewatch the original to see that the original choreo is different. The PWF choreography is kind of weird -- I’ve always thought so. What’s with the dogpaddling in the chorus, or that weird “drawing a line with your finger” at the end? Anyway, my point is that the edit makes her look even worse than she actually did. 

They intersperse her audition with the audition of Cube’s Han Cho Won -- she’s only 15 here, but you may now know her as one of the most popular members of Cube’s youngest girl group,  Lightsum. The edit here make her look like a complete idiot. If you watch her full audition, you’ll see that, yeah, it’s not great, but there are some extenuating circumstances.

The biggest problem is that the song was a poor choice. Red by Hyuna is a HYUNA song. Like a third of the lyrics are “red is Hyuna”, and there’s a whole 10 second segment where Hyuna just sits on the ground and flirts with the camera. It’s all about being sexy and having a nice body, specifically a nice butt, and the choreography is very core/waist/butt centered. It seems that Chowon just can’t quite move her body that way, and at 15, maybe just isn’t up the task of embodying the universal sex symbol that is a full-grown Hyuna. I don’t know who is! 

Anyway, I think Chowon should have done Pepe by CLC, assuming she was going to stick to a song by a Cube artist. The song has a fun retro feel and it would have been more appropriate for a 15 year old who doesn’t know how to twerk yet. Or maybe Pretty Pretty by Pentagon -- I bet Hui would have helped her remix something for the show if the agency had asked him to -- he's a good sunbae -- and the song has quirky, funny choreography that might have made the judges smile. Sigh. 

Poor Chowon -- it wasn’t a great audition, but I blame whoever either told her to do this song, or allowed her to do it if it was her choice. The whole point of having management is to get smart people to help you make decisions like this, especially when you’re fifteen. But that’s asking too much from Cube, I guess. Kahi even says that she had been at Cube briefly and that they don’t teach you anything, which checks out. Cube is just the WORST. 

Both Chowon and Suhyun get a lecture on needing to learn (or review) the basics and both get a D. It’s not totally unfair -- it’s just that I know that there is so much worse to come. 

More discussion about how the Japanese girls aren’t really given any training and just learn to perform by watching their sempai/sunbae/seniors. Dance Bae says it’ll be fun to watch them grow. 

And now it’s time to see the AKB48 girls perform. We see that they’ve changed out of their entrance outfits -- those plaid monstrosities -- into different outfits, most of which are also monstrosities. 

Audition 8: Get You!

See, it's a play on words because the song is called Get You and also MNET wants to get them

Agency:  AKB48

Trainees: Oda Erina 21, and Nakano Ikumi 17

Erina, left, with the shorter hair and Ikumi, right, in the blue shorts.

The judges comment that Erina is known for her singing and Ikumi for her dancing. 

Link to full audition on Youtube

Song: Get You! by Morning Musume (a different J-pop idol group)

My Thoughts: Well, this wasn’t terrible. They do sort of take turns either singing or dancing, and rarely do both at the same time. The choreography they do is mostly extremely simple and not super well synced, but they do throw themselves into it. They have a lot of energy, which I know is important in J-pop. If you asked me, “which of these is the singer and which of these is the dancer?” I wouldn’t be able to tell you. But neither of them assaulted my ears. Judged by J-pop standards, this was great. By K-pop standards, not great. I’d give them a C and see how they do learning the choreography for the signal song.

The MNET edit: The edit makes it seem much worse than it really was. Honestly, it wasn’t that horrific. They were more fun to watch than Kang Hye Won for sure. 

The judges ask Ikumi to freestyle dance, which she agrees to with an English “Yes!” They play “Look What You Made Me Do” by Taylor Swift. She tries to do a sort of interpretive dance thing, and I appreciate that she at least tried. She has lovely body lines and seems to understand rhythm and tone, anyway. They keep showing her trip a little on her platform sneakers. God, those things look hard to dance in. After a bit she seems to give up, pulling her hair over her face, and the judges call it. Her AKB-mates are impressed, but the judges aren’t. 

Dance Bae compliments her on her energy, but says she seems to not know what to do with it. “I’m not sure that the fact that you danced to the beat warrants you having won first place in a large competition,” Dance Bae scolds. “If you keep continuing like this, you won’t ever be able to perform on stage.” 

Ikumi gets a D, and Erina gets a C. We don’t actually see that, though -- I had to look it up. It’s not part of the narrative to see that neither of them got an F, I guess.

Next, we have a mini montage of various girls, especially Japanese girls, saying that Dance Bae is the scariest judge, known for her terrifying line: “You really want to be a singer?!?” Which I think is a fair question! So many people get into the Idol Biz because they want to be actors or tv hosts -- I wish there was a pipeline to celebrity for people like that that didn’t involve them humiliating themselves on a show like this. 

Auditions 9 and 10: What’s Your Name and Knock Knock

We cut to another audition, in progress, with a caption that seems to imply that this is just a preview (“Coming up…”) but no, this is the actual audition, as much of it as we’re going to see.

AKB: What’s Your Name?

Here’s the original song being performed by 4Minute. Things were different in 2013 -- this was before Catch Me If You Can by SNSD came out so nobody yet knew that women were actually able to do intense choreo, I guess. But even for 2013 standards, What’s Your Name has easy choreo. I mean, it barely has choreo aside from just sort of bending over and displaying your butt. Also, the lyrics are three quarters “what’s your name/ ireumi mwoyeyo?” So it’s a really good choice for a rookie group!

Here’s their audition.

Left to right: Manami, Ayana, Chiyori, Miho, Shinobu

Ichikawa Manami, 18, in the blue top, red skirt Shinozaki Ayana, 22, in the light blue skirt Nakanishi Chiyori, 23, in the pink fluffy skirt Miyazaki Miho, 24, in the sparkly top, navy skirt Mogi Shinobu, 21, in the turquoise skirt, fluffy blue sleeves

We just met Shinobu earlier, when she was talking about how scary Dance Bae is, got her name wrong, an apologized profusely. She's our living meme and we love her. We also almost met Miho; she was the one who knows how to write in Korean.

My thoughts: Oh no. There’s something so incongruous about someone in a sparkly cupcake skirt and Mary Jane shoes doing a pelvic thrust. These outfits look like… Ok maybe this is a deep cut but do you know those fashion plate toys? I had my cousin’s old one and I was obsessed. It was like stencils, but you had a head and a top part and a bottom part, and you’d choose one of each and then stencil over it to make a picture you could color.

That’s what these outfits look like. Like someone went nuts with a fashion plate and glitter glue and then just brought it to life.

Left to right: Shinobu, Chiyori, Ayana, Manami, Miho

It’s so hard to pay attention to their performance in those outfits. And the shoes! Those shoes I noticed behind Chaewon earlier are Shonbu's! And I’m obsessed with Ayana’s red-shoe-and-patterned-socks combo.

Also Miho’s and Shinobu’s… furry… peplums? And the quilted skirts? And how none of the tops seem to go with any of the bottoms, even though they appear to be dresses? Question Mark? It’s so bizarre to me. What. Is. Happening. Each dress is awful alone, they’re worse together, they're even worse with the shoes, and they’re the worst in the context of this particular song, which is meant to be sort of swaggy hiphop. 

When I try to focus on the actual singing and dancing, there isn’t much there to judge. The song itself is kind of a nothing-burger tune wise and there’s hardly any choreo to speak of. They have energy, I’ll give them that. No one strikes an obviously horrendously bad note or falls over. They manage to do what they’re doing in some reasonably high heeled shoes, and they’re singing a song that is at least mostly in Korean. It’s clearly not up to the standard expected from debuted Kpop artists. I feel like I’d have to see them in normal clothes to be able to really judge. None of them stands out as better or worse than the rest. I give them an E for effort and I’d probably give them all Ds. They were still better than Hyewon. 

Dance Bae gives Chiyori and Miho both Ds, and the rest get Fs. (We hear Dance Bae saying that they all get Ds, but the on screen caption says otherwise, and my internet sleuthing agrees with the on screen caption.) I think, watching it back, that Chiyori and Miho got Ds for just taking on a big role in the performance and trying that little bit harder. Miho seemed to be the main vocal, sort of, and Chiyori was the center. 

Ok, let’s take a peek at some of the youngest -48 girls, singing the Japanese version of Knock Knock by Twice.

Asai Yuka is 14 and from SKE48.  We met her earlier when she walked in with Jurina. Umeyama Cocona is also 14 and is from NMB48. 

Left to right: Cocona with the big bow, Yuka with the blue ribbon

My thoughts: Aww, they just little babies! They probably practiced by themselves in a hallway or something for a few hours with no help. There’s not much to judge here. They’re obviously underskilled for this show and would have to be given Fs but it’s not their fault. I’m not going to make fun of a couple of 14 year olds who signed up for an adventure, not knowing how hard it would be. I sense tears in the future. 

I wrote that, and then watched Dance Bae give them both Fs and say, at a pre-show meeting, “I think these girls will cry a lot while they’re here.” Perhaps she’d be pleased to know that poor Cocona withdrew from the show before the second evaluation even took place! There's also some potential back story here. Per reddit:

From what I’ve heard (and I’m not sure how credible it is), Jurina and Yuuka planned to perform together for the first evaluation, but the producers wanted Jurina to do a solo, so Cocona got pulled from the NMB group [that performs Funny People] and her and Yuuka did this. That may explain why they did…particularly bad, to the point where it looks like they don’t even know the song.

That does sound like something MNET would do, and it also would explain how these two girls ended up in a performance together despite being in different groups (SKE48 and NMB48), giving it the ring of truth. So I'm going to be even more sparing of my criticism of the girls. They do come across as unprepared, but I think that's just because.... well, they were, through no fault of their own.

In any case, Cocona is one of the Japanese trainees who withdraws early in the process. It's probably for the reasons we'd imagine -- flying back and forth from Japan is taxing, and she's young enough to need to go to school still. She probably just wanted to go through so much stress just to get insulted and yelled at. Can't blame her!

Since we’re not going to see much of Cocona again, let’s find out what happened to her after she withdrew from the show. She went back to NMB48 and continued performing with them for a few more years, graduating at a special concert on March 26, 2022. She did some modeling for magazines in 2020, so she might still be pursuing that. Here’s her instagram -- she has 95,000 followers and seems to post influencer-esque content with lots of hashtags.

 Ganbatte, Cocona! Happy trails and much success to you!

10 auditions down, about 30 to go! Thanks for reading so far -- feel free to do all the things: like, reblog, comment, share, blah blah blah. Tune in next time when we continue the auditions, and stay warm, my friends!

[itzynabi]

produce 48 episode 9

word count: 0.6k

warnings: none that i can think of

an: words in bold are japanese. feedback and reblogs are much appreciated 💐

eve’s masterlist // produce 48

The girls sat in the classroom, separated into rows depending on their team.

“Unnie, it’s just you and me,” Eve said to Miho, who was sitting behind her. The two girls were the only ones from their team to survive the latest ranking announcement.

“We’re the only ones,” Miho said.

Eve reached back to hold her hand.

A video from Seunggi played. He told the trainees that the number of trainees allowed in each song is five and that they were going to rearrange the groups so that the groups with extra members would vote out members to be added to groups with not enough members.

The trainees went to their different practice rooms. Miho and Eve sat in silence.

“Who do you want to join the group?” Miho asked.

Eve hummed as she thought. “Goeun-chan would be nice. She’s a good vocalist and I think she’d fit the concept.”

Miho nodded. “Right. Sakura-chan would also be nice. Or Chaewon-chan.”

Eve agreed. “There’s many people that could come. We just have to wait and see who they’ll be.”

The girls stood up when there was a knock on the door, gasping when they saw which trainees had been kicked out of their groups.

“1 000% is a great song, you know?” Miho comforted the trainees.

“It’s very fun and refreshing,” Eve added. “We even have a nice colour!”

The teams were in the middle of practice when a trainee told them that Seunggi had arrived. They all ran to the practice room he was in, sitting down with the other trainees. He gave the trainees some advice before announcing that there would be a surprise evaluation. The trainees entered the room with the trainers and producers all standing stiffly. They went to the side as other groups performed.

In their practice room, the 1 000% team went over the song.

“Shall we pick the centre?” Chaeyeon asked. Eve raised her hand along with Moe and Miu.

Eve ended up getting the centre position with both Miho and Chaeyeon agreeing that her facial expressions fit the song the most. When they were practising, Eve and Chaeyeon led the dance practice and helped everyone learn the choreography.

“Next, let’s see 1 000%,” Seunggi said as the girls walked to the centre of the room. “After the ranking announcement, everyone except Miho and Nabi changed. But you all recorded the song in such a short time.”

The girls first sang the song, doing the dance after.

“I don’t want to compare,” Cheetah said, “but they only had one day to practise. They memorised everything well. They’re energetic and well-balanced.

“I think Nabi did a good job,” May J Lee complimented. “You go well with this song.”

“Refreshing concepts is where she shines,” Youngjun added.

“Her movements when she dances are very big,” Seunghee, the choreographer of 1 000%, noted. “She doesn’t cut the moves off early so that she can move to the next one, she uses as much time as possible for each move and makes sure to put emphasis on the important ones.”

After complimenting everyone, Yoonjung looked at Eve. “Yah, you.”

“Yes,” Eve answered, smiling sweetly at her trainer.

“What’s your question?”

Eve stared at Yoonjung in confusion before gasping. “I didn’t think of one. This was a surprise evaluation, so I didn’t have time to think of one,” she whined.

Seunggi looked around in confusion. “What’s going on?”

“Nabi always asks us random questions during classes,” Hoonggi answered, gesturing at the girl who had her eyes squeezed shut as she thought.

Thinking of a question, Eve opened her eyes, clapping her hands. “If you were an animal, would you rather be a hippo or a bear?”

“They both seem horrible, though,” Cheetah complained, thinking about her answer.

“I’d be a hippo,” Soyou answered. “I’d always get to be in the water.”

“I choose bear so I can sleep in winter,” May J Lee said.

Youngjun laughed. “We take these questions so seriously,” he commented.

“It’s because she asks them with so much sincerity,” Cheetah told him. “If we don’t take them seriously, I fear she’ll be sad.”

outfit

tagging: @seolboba // @ateezivy // @ateezjuliet // @cafemilk-tea // @smh-anon // @alixnsuperstxr // @cosmicwintr // @girlzwfun // @txt-yaomi // @ctrluvz

©️ kim nabi

[merakicharm]

(Takes place after the attack on Mr Choi Gang-u by Lee Yeong Ho in place of Kim Min Joon in episode 16)

"But why did Lee Yeong Ho have Ko Jin Cheol's cellphone with him in the first place?" Ha-ri wondered aloud.

"I think... he was planning on finishing me and turning himself in, saying Joo Hyeongi instigated him to do it" Kim Min Joon rose from his seat with a sombre expression.

Ha-ri's heart stuttered at that.

"Is he insane?" she thundered, springing up from her own chair, startling, Nu-ri, Cheetah and Kim Min Joon himself. "Is he so loyal to Chairman Cha?? Even if that man tells him to kill himself he'll do that also? Arghhh!! This is so annoying!"

The three men around her looked at each other and then back at her. Kim Min Joon cleared his throat, and Nu-ri and Cheetahsshi gave each other sly glances. But Ha-ri was too worked up to notice either of them. Striding forward with clenched fists, she threw a punch at the wall, scrunching her eyes shut and expecting the grating pain and ready to welcome it. Pain could distract her from this crazy guy and his even more crazy plans. And perhaps the rush of some other emotions she felt too.

But the hit didn't cause even the remotest feeling of pain. Instead, she felt something soft around her hand. Opening her eyes, she found her fist trapped within Kim Min Joon's larger gentler hand. Cheetahsshi and Nu-ri were staring at the sight with barely suppressed grins.

"That's enough Ha-ri-ssi. I thought I told you not to hurt yourself?" Kim Min Joon was staring into her eyes, eyebrows quirked. She scowled at him. "Yahh! Let go of my hand!"

"Not unless you promise me you won't hurt yourself again"

She scowled even more harshly at that, trying to stare him down. He stared right back at her, unflinching. It was probably when they exceeded more than a minute of staring at each other that Cheetahssi spoke up.

"Uhhh Pentium-ssi, I am exhausted after all that action and drama. I think I'll crash. What about you, Pentium-ssi?"

"Ahh, yes yes, me too. Cheetahsshi, I think I'll sleep too. It's been a long day for me. Not resting won't do my wounds any good either"

In her peripheral vision, she saw them slinking out of the room, quiet and subtle. But really, she was more focused on the man in front of her than the two leaving.

In a very low voice that oozed threat and danger, she enunciated each word.

"Kim Min Joon. Let go of my hand. Right now."

Kim Min Joon simply stared down at her. And that infuriated her too. He was so tall and handsome with lips that looked so kissable and eyes which held so many promises. They were staring at her right now. Ha-ri saw love and worry in them. His eyes were always worried when they found her in a tough or vulnerable position.

Finally relenting, "It won't hurt me all that much", she said in a softer tone. Kim Min Joon had not moved or spoken yet. He was eyeing her silently, hand still clasped within his. Ha-ri stepped closer and closer, watching him for any reaction. His eyes simply followed her. She came right up to him, the tip of her nose almost touching his chin.

"Min Joonah," she whispered.

He inhaled sharply at that.

Now that she was so near him, Ha-ri felt that undeniable urge to touch him, hug him, pat him, anything which allowed her to be ensured of his physical presence and most of all, safety.

Self control Ha-ri, self control. Self-control Ha-ri, self-control, self-control, self-control she chanted in her head.

"Min Joonah" she whispered even more softly if possible. Kim Min Joon gulped, bringing her attention to his Adam's apple bobbing up and down. Some primal thirst in her flared and she ended up gulping herself. Kim Min Joon looked down at the movement and then raised his eyes to her eyes and then back down to her lips. He slowly loosened his grip on her hand, letting go altogether. Ha-ri rested her hand on his waist.

"Ha-ri"

There was warning in his voice.

"That sounds nicer" she observed.

"You like it when I call you by your name? Without any honorifics?" he questioned her.

"Ah ahh," Ha-ri gaped. She hadn't realised she was talking aloud. Pursing her lips, she stared mutely at him. A smirk was fast making its way onto his face.

"It's not like that! Yahh!"

"Ha-ri. Ha-ri. Ha-ri."

"Kim Min Joon!!" she huffed.

"Ha-ri. Ha-ri. Ha-ri. Ha-ri. Ha-"

Min Joon's chanting was abruptly brought to an end when Ha-ri with both her hands pulled at his collar, dragged him to her level and pressed her lips against his plush ones. For a few moments, there was really no response from Min Joon.

"Min Joonah, if you didn't like that, I am sorry" she apologized rapidly, stepping back and away from him. All along, she had thought this whole thing was mutual and for all his flirting, Min Joon was just as invested in them as she was. She didn't even know if the kiss had been the problem. Maybe he hadn't come around to trusting even her when it came too close to his liking. As ten thousand thousand and more thoughts rushed into her head, she felt Kim Min Joon's eyes on her. It made her feel sad and anxious now, after his blatant refusal of her.

Just as she was about to turn away, a pair of strong hands grabbed her waist and pulled her to Kim Min Joon. Startled, she stared up at him. He was breathing deeply, eyes fixed on her alone.

"Ha-ri"

The teasing was gone. In its place was barely concealed urgency.

"Min Joon?" she sounded unsure.

Hands still clutching her waist, he held her impossibly close to him. Bending down, he laid his forehead on hers.

"Ha-ri"

"Min Joon" she whispered back.

"Ha-ri" he raised his head and stared at her lips.

"Can I?" he stared into her eyes. She nodded. Very slowly, Min Joon closed the distance between them, until he was an inch away from her lips.

"Ha-ri-ah" he murmured and then they were kissing.

To be kissed by Kim Min Joon made her feel as if she was in the seventh heaven of delight. Fireworks went off and off in the back of her head. Ha-ri closed her eyes tightly, and grabbed at the hem of his shirt, fisting it hard. The way he did it so flawlessly, so perfectly irked her.

Am I not the first woman he's dated? she thought angrily to herself. The thought made her nip harshly at Min Joon's bottom lip, causing him to pull away and stare at her, confused.

"What's wrong?"

Apparently, her face practically announced that she was angry.

"Nothing" She was still clutching at his hem but looked away in embarrassment. One hand still on her hips, Kim Min Joon used his other hand to guide her face back to him

"Tell me what's wrong" Kim Min Joon's voice was soft and gentle. That made her even more embarrassed. She kept mum.

"Please?" he whined softly, palm flat against her cheek now.

"This was not your first time, was it?" she asked, somewhat petulantly.

Whatever Kim Min Joon had been expecting, this definitely had not been it.

"Huh?"

"What?" she shot back. Min Joon's eyes widened at her tone.

"Ok ok, I did have a girlfriend or two back in Germany, but never a serious relationship with any of them, alright? I didn't love them"

It was on the tip of Ha-ri's tongue to ask her whether they were pretty. Prettier than her. But Min Joon beat her to it.

"And before you even think about it, they were nowhere near as beautiful as you" he smiled at her

"As if!" she scoffed.

Min Joon laughed softly. That irritated Ha-ri. She lunged for his lips a second time, kissing him so fiercely he almost lost his balance and stumbled. Once again, she nipped at his lips.

Min Joon broke off laughing loud and like bells chiming.

"You really are a fierce lady Jang Hari-ssi!"

Ha-ri smiled an annoyed smile at him and then wrapped her arms around him, embracing him softly. His gentle arms wrapped around her slim built in a minute, pulling her closer. She rested her head against his chiselled chest, comforted and comfortable.

[darugodream]

Ed, Edd, n' Eddy as Furries

Another "I don't know who needs to see this" situation, just a list of animals I attributed to the EdEddEddy characters when rewatching the series with my partner. I've had it on a notepad for the longest and as I clean out some of my tabs today I figured I'll throw it up here instead and let tumblr do with it what it do, or not. Idk/c Ed is a Badger of some kind. They strong, stocky, and stinky. At least from my 2 seconds of research, that's Ed to a D. I also thought Bear because of how incredibly strong he is, and I guess stinky doesn't have to be an inherent trait, but, eh~

Edd is a Otter because... uhh. Dang, I dun forgot. I guess cause they're clever? But also kind of adorable and loyal. Yeah, that makes sense.

Eddy is a Stoat/Weasel because come on, look at him. He just is.

Kevin is a Dog (unspecific) is literally how I wrote it down. I guess he kinda defends the cul-de-sac from the Eds' scams, so maybe one that is typical good at defending people. But he's also a dick for no reason at times, so, chihuahua mix haha.

Nazz is a Wolf cus she cool and outdoorsy. She doesn't really have a character? So it's also haha, Wolves generic Furries blah blah idk. Wolf.

Sarah is a Cheetah and not the same as Ed because christ she's a menace. And also they play a big cat noise whenever she's going into feral brat mode so it'd be diegetic haha.

Jimmy is a Bunny because he's soft, whimpy, his fluffy hair, and it makes it all the more funny that Sarah keeps him so close or when he outscams Eddy.

Johnny is a Beaver Literally watch any scene with this boy.

Plank is a Wood why did i write this in my notes. this isn't funny.

Rolf is a Goat because he just *sounds* like a goat. Just as powerful and temperamental as one too.

Lee Kanker is a Fox. Orange hair, orange fur. I can see the mess of hair translating to an equally curly messy tail. Also they're natural predators to Weasels soooo.

Marie Kanker is a Shark cus cool and edgy and *checks google* Okay so sharks aren't exactly predators to Otters, they will mistake them for Seals but won't consume them on purpose. That being said, their bites can be lethal regardless, so whatever.

May Kanker is a Komodo Dragon because I don't remember. I guess cus they're strong and intimidating but they don't even live near badgers so I guess it's just to keep the cool/predator factor going for the sisters.

Anyway that's that. Make fan art of it, idk. I thought about drawing it up but I don't have the desire anymore. :0