#kouxbe

[beyuwol]

› the day you first gave me your paw … ☽

yuwol's day is usually packed. a barrage of classes, followed by hours of practice. before he knew it, the night greets him with the appearance of the moon, unassuming but always watching from the corner of his eyes. he had long since become acquainted with the night, finding most of his freedom from his restraining schedule once day breaks. he could wander anywhere, no one would question a thing—as long as he returns home to complete tomorrow's tasks once dawn arrives.

tonight, he decided on a cat cafe. and while the company of feline creatures is more than enough to soothe him, he's not here for them, as cute as they are. as a cat lies across his lap while he's taking a sip of his coffee, what he's looking at is his friend ( @kouxbe ). if the cafe was packed, he wouldn't have been the only one, considering what kou is wearing on his head ( he had to blink twice to make sure what he's seeing is real; cat ears ). it's not too surprising though, kou always had the flair for comedy.

so, as a good friend, yuwol decided to complete the look.

after beckoning kou closer ( funny, how easily kou comes, naive and unsuspecting ), he produces a pen from the pocket of his shirt. "you trust me, don't you?" he asks, but leaves no room for kou to answer properly. instead, he approaches kou's face with his pen, a rare glimmer of mischief in his eyes. yuwol fails to contain his laughter as he draws cat whiskers across kou's cheeks.

it's simple, doesn't need too much effort. yuwol doesn't require any artistic talent for this, but the result is still hilarious. "now, you're really a cat," he states, like that would explain his whims. "maybe your allergies will magically disappear."

he doesn't wonder why kou stayed still enough to let yuwol do whatever he wanted. kou is an enigma, after all—it's better not to try and comprehend what he's thinking.

[srmedia]

— COMPANY NOTICE

SATO KOU has joined sr media as of NOVEMBER 1, 2023.

he is on a probationary contract which expires FEBRUARY 1, 2024.

[beyuji]

a starter for @kouxbe ( paranormal )

yuji doesn’t know what compels her to bring it up. maybe it’s the whispers in the hallway from other trainees– too many late nights and conspiracy theories talking about ghosts or weird happenings in the halls of the company late at night. yuji’s heard no such thing of an sr media ghost– nor has she happened upon anything paranormal or supernatural herself. but she won’t stop anyone’s fun. it shakes things up a little, gives yuji something else to think about other than the stagnant days and the fleeting idea of debut. 

she taps her pen on the edge of script they’re looking at for their acting lessons, yuji’s attention turning to kou for a moment as she considers. a mix of both curiosity and boredom, she decides to just ask. 

“have you heard the rumors?” her eyes narrow, observing kou’s expression carefully. she cups her chin in her palm, resting her elbow on the table. “there’s apparently something freaky going on outside the dance practice rooms at night.” it sounds silly when she says it outloud, and she can’t help the quirk of her mouth. yuji fights back a giggle. “they think it could be a ghost.”

[betouma]

barking.

to touma, this is peace: being surrounded by dogs at the park, having been entrusted with them because his reputation as an experienced dog walker is only becoming stronger the more he does it. honestly, he thinks this is the best job ever, other than working at a dog cafe that is. unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to control the hours there, so he decided on this instead: walking dogs. it's a freelance job, so he can choose his own hours. besides, he only needs enough so that he can eat and drink and pay his rent; luckily he managed to get himself a scholarship.

he's grateful that the dogs he's assigned to behave well and aren't troublesome. obviously they have their moments, but it's never anything outside of touma's control. he also makes sure to learn each one's likes and dislikes, their favourites snacks, everything that'll make taking care of them easier. he's fortunate that even if he lets go of their leashes, they won't wander off too far. they seem to like touma as well, accepting touma as their own. does he really give off that much puppy energies? he's been told that he does.

happy barks can be heard throughout the park, which isn't that crowded for once. then again, do people go to parks these days? maybe not as often anymore, aside from kids walking their first few steps. some of them are approaching the dogs, and even though they're friendly touma has to step in and make sure nothing bad actually happens. even more so when he starts hearing more... agitated barking from a few of the dogs. that catches touma's attention.

diverting his attention to the source of the barks, he realizes that it's because of @kouxbe; touma is no longer surprised. he had forgotten kou was coming, or did touma tell kou that he was going to be at this park and kou just decided to tag along without saying—either way, kou's presence will only make his job harder.

"who told you to come here? if it was me, i don't remember." touma walks over to grab the barking dog's leash, to make sure it doesn't suddenly jump onto kou or something dangerous like that. "what did you do to her... she's barking so much at you. did you anger her?"

maybe kou doesn't even need to do anything to piss off a dog. "can you behave? this is my job, you know." since it's kou, touma will accuse kou before kou could defend himself. because why not?

[bexsua]

elegant entrance. feat. @kouxbe

sua yawns, hand slapping over her mouth as she speed walks down the sidewalk. checking her phone for the time, she grimaces, increasing her speed a bit. she’s a little late, her shift having to run over a little longer because of last minute schedule changes. she sends a quick message to kou with the words almost there sry before she shoves her phone in her pocket and continues forward.

once she arrives, sua’s eyes are darting over the restaurant for kou– perking up when she takes sight of him. beelining right for him, sua’s already slipping her bag off her shoulder so it can hang in the crook of her elbow instead. once close enough, she drops her hands on his shoulders suddenly, a cheeky little boo! leaving her with a laugh as she crashes down into the seat across for him. “hi, sorry.” sua’s smile is more of a smirk, getting herself comfortable in the seat. “work ran over late. did you order without me?” her eyes do a quick sweep over the table, then back to kou. there’s not a plethora of food, so maybe she isn’t as late as she thought. or they haven’t come yet and she’s about to be in for a rude awakening.

[noelxbe]

i'm not google translate

perhaps noel would like to learn songwriting one day, but not today. noel was busy during trainee time, he was working hard in a hope that his contract would get renewed, but he didn’t really feel like how well he did songwriting would have any say in that. would they renew his contract if he became a great songwriter? maybe, but he’d have to become quite good, and he hadn’t ever tried it before this songwriting camp began. he felt like his chances of contract renewal lied in his dance, singing and rap skills. 

he sits next to kou ( @kouxbe ), who’s a foreigner too, though his korean skills don’t seem as good as noel’s. he wanted to be nice, help the other translate and write lyrics, he’d however assumed kou would be good at english, which well… he was not. “good morning” noel says in japanese, it’s not morning, but noel doesn’t know how to say good evening in japanese. “how is writing lyrics coming along?” he asks in korean, half-awkward.

[bechaerin]

✦ * · ˚ @kouxbe

there was so much chaerin never imagined would be related to songwriting. the only thing she had in mind was instruments and lyrics, but upon hearing that there was going to be a lesson on trends and social media influence, she couldn't help but become curious.

it's why she's asked kou to come to this session with her. when she found out he had become a trainee too, she couldn't be more than delighted to have another friendly face join her. despite being about for close to a year now, she still felt a distance with some of the trainees and really only stuck around the people she has become friends with.

"i should have paid more attention to all the biggest kpop groups back when i was in school," chaerin confesses with a scrunch of her nose. it was no secret that she was very behind when it came to trends and whatnot, so she imagined this close might be hard to follow. "but trends change so quickly. they're hard to keep up with."

[bejoomi]

* ♪ – rigged

the halloween festivities around seoul are fun, and he's glad the dead calm boys got together to enjoy them, despite joomi's newly-packed schedule. there are all kinds of booths full of halloween themed wares, and then of course there are the carnival games.

they're fun, but joomi also knows that most of the time, they're rigged. who probably doesn't know? kou, and probably kian by extension, since the 'k' boys of dead calm seem to share a single braincell half the time.

kou is the one that joomi catches falling victim to one of the carnival games this time: throw a ball and try to knock down milk bottles in a pyramid. easy enough, right? just throw the ball right. joomi has no idea how good of a throwing arm kou has, but he's heard that sometimes the bottom bottles on the pyramid have weights in them to prevent them from getting knocked down at all. he feels like he should probably inform kou of this for the sake of his wallet.

he watches him fail at the game one time first, then asks, "how many times have you played this now?" a little afraid of the answer. hopefully not too many.

–– @kouxbe

[bexrisa]

to write the right -- @kouxbe

when the words songwriting and camp fall from the trainer's lips, risa is beyond excited to have been signed when she was. what could be considered a lifetime opportunity, and the option to shirk the regular training to attend it, has just fallen in her lap.

in the days that come, her excitement is palpable, and the morning of the official start, risa has already found kou and excitedly thrusts her phone towards him. "look! look what we get to do!" she beams, "oh kou this is so cool! did you see who's lecturing? some of the songwriters for my favorite groups."

she pulls him to the cafeteria, continuing to prattle on. "i have so many ideas already and the timing of this is just so good. it's a chance to be recognized for creative talent, it's perfect."

[namube]

a noraebang in seoul. with @kouxbe.

karaoke is something that namu has always loved; something that was always special, in some regard. he never really had to be serious, though a lot of the time he was a bit serious about his karaoke - treating it like it was vocal practice, rather than anything else. but, he would do the fun songs too, ones that he wasn't actually treating as vocal practice. he tried not to make it so serious, especially whenever he was with friends. but, today, namu had seemingly just decided to go by himself, simply because he didn't want to bother anyone with wanting to go. so, it just made sense for him to do something on his own, right? it was something he's sort of gotten used to from time to time. but, it didn't really matter, because namu really, really loved going to karaoke, having another excuse to sing.

it seemingly was always interesting though, with it being namu and his coca-colas against the world during karaoke. he's not a drinker, especially due to his alcohol allergy, and he's also not a night on the town type of person. but, namu would always go to a noraebang or an arcade as some type of thing like that; that was his version of a night out, considering he's not a partier or clubber. nonetheless, he had gotten himself the karaoke room - leaving the door open just a bit because he didn't really want to lock himself in a room by himself. he was there, with the rather large remote, going through his options. that was when he picked an all-time favorite - i wanna dance with somebody (who loves me) by whitney houston.

he's in his own little world, singing along to one of his favorite songs, and dancing along. it was probably quite the sight, but that was just park namu for you - full of energy, all excited, and having fun. generally, he wouldn't even notice if anyone had crossed the path and seen him there or even notice him. he's just a happy boy right now, hitting his whitney houston high notes.

[belucy]

nice receive ;

@kouxbe

lucy walks into the familiar gym, then spins on her heels to face kou and gestures with a flourish at the several courts full of running bodies and flying balls. "welcome to volleyball club!" she says. "my team isn't technically practicing today, but there's some matches later that should be fun to watch. and until then, i can show you around!"

she starts walking around the triple court, absentmindedly stretching her arm across her chest as she does. she may not be planning on doing a full practice or match today, but she knows herself well enough to understand that she'll probably end up playing a bit while she's here, and she knows better than to do that without stretching first. usually she does a few laps jogging around the court as a warm-up before she stretches, but she knows most people aren't as athletic as she is, and she didn't exactly give kou much heads up before dragging him here after he got off his shift at the cat cafe. to be kind to him, she settles for just jumping in place as she stops in a corner, nodding to the nearest court.

"look, the teams are doing their warm-ups before the matches," she says, watching as the spikers run up one at a time from a line to do a spike before returning to the back of the line. meanwhile, a couple other players serve balls from the back line, while a few more on the other side of the court focus on receiving the serves. "pretty cool, right?" she asks kou with a grin, still bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet.

(lucy knows she can get a little crazy about volleyball. it doesn't really bother her, but she hopes she doesn't freak kou out with her excitement. he's funny, and nice, and she likes hanging out with him, so she's eager to show him this part of her life. she can only hope that he doesn't think she's weird or too intense.)

[beyuwol]

yuwol had no plans to show up as a performer for open mic, really. and yet here he is, waiting for his turn; an impulsive decision that can easily turn sour should the opportunity arises.

but that's just life.

he is no stranger to an audience, nor is he unfamiliar with the concept of performing on a stage. in fact, he's used to much larger, fancier and lavish events, pressing onto the strings of his violin like it's his lifeline, drowning in a sea of eyes; his parents holding the sharpest ones. it's different this time, the instrument yuwol had grown unhealthily attached to is left at his apartment tucked away in its case.

in this moment, yuwol steps out with nothing but himself—no guitar to hide behind, just a music track that he asked the staff to play; a remix of his own making to go along with the holiday theme. yuwol doesn't think he has what it takes to compose a full piece just yet, despite what he's studying in university. so he settles with this, and relies on his voice. for once.

his introduction is short: his given name, and the song he'll be singing. it's been a while since he had to speak for himself before a performance, but he figures the people watching don't care about who he is, more so how he'll keep them entertained ( all except for one person, maybe, who he believes is watching too ). so he starts the song.

funny, how the universe works—yuwol parts his lips as the music starts, and his eyes doesn't have to search before he finds an overgrown cat in the audience ( a smile might have graced his face at the sight, but that isn't here nor there ). the music flows in a jingle, more festive and upbeat than in its original version. the lyrics remain the same.

while walking through the cracks of my universe we both make an eye contact

( and yuwol wonders whether kou realizes that his sunlight had pierced through the cracks of his bleak universe, allowing hints of life to blossom once more. knowing the man, probably not. )

his voice is more airy than usual, with a softer touch he didn't know he was capable of. is it because he knows who is watching? yuwol can't tell, it's probably wise to try not to think about it when he's supposed to perform, but—he's never been good at keeping his thoughts at bay.

regardless, the song comes to a close and his grip on the mic loosens. he didn't realize he had been holding on that tight.

( maybe he's holding on a little too tight onto things that he should be letting go. )

[bexstevie]

progress report.

< w. @kouxbe >

stevie’s not the best at schooling– but lately, it hasn’t been that bad for him. they’re at least doing something now, a lot more practices and performances and showcases going on lately. he’s kept up so busy in that department that the bookwork doesn’t bother him too much. they do give him opportunities and more than enough encouragement in the things he’d want to apply all this for in the future. 

they’ve never pushed for like, being an idol though. working for idols, sure-- but not...being an idol in itself. maybe mentioned it in passing as an idea. among an array of other things– so he gapes at kou as he recounts what his professor asked of him.

“they want you…to audition? for…research? why?” he can’t wrap his mind around it. he’s confused. it sounds…silly. it sounds like they rolled a random set of dice on the random board and this won out. “like, i get it– school sucks but also…” like what if you make it in? what if you land a spot? then you’d have to just toss university away, right? it gets shoved on the back burner for sure. doesn’t that defeat the purpose? is that the point?  “that’s crazy.” stevie whistles, leaning back as he thinks about it. “so like…what are you even gonna do?”

[beyuji]

a starter for @kouxbe !! ( closure )

it almost feels like she can sense it. the moment something shifts in the air. yuji wakes up feeling off, and it's not until much further into her morning of training does she figure out why.

there's new people. when you see the same faces everyday, the new ones stick out like a sore thumb. especially when they spark recognition in her. it takes her a bit of time to place it, and when she does, it gives her a bit of motivation to approach the other.

it's free practice-- groups of trainees are in different spots, going through different runs. yuji's taking a break, and her focus is one of the newest trainees. she snooped before hand, unable to remember a name to the face, but some of the other trainees provided it to her without much push.

"hi." yuji greets, going to plop next to the other. there's a free water bottle in her hands, and she extends it forward, apart of her greeting. "welcome to the club." the corner of her mouth twitches into a ghost of a smile. "you're kou, right?" yuji's head lilts to the side a bit. "don't you play in a band? like...a local one?"

[beseojun]

✰ Next Gen - vocal mission: seojun performs spark with haneul, joomi, and kou ✰

fidgeting with his in-ear to make sure it’s in correctly and didn’t randomly fall out, seojun could feel his hands getting clammy on the microphone that he felt like he was gripping onto for dear life. his nerves were shot again but this he knew was due to the fact that he wasn’t sure how he’d do. being a part of a vocal unit for this next mission was different but he should’ve expected it. they knew he was a dancer at this point and from the judges comments before, they wanted him to work on his vocals so getting to just sing for this would help him improve in his singing. at least he hopes so.

at first he thought his awkwardness would get in the way of things but it was the opposite plus having haneul there to help him from making a fool of himself in front of joomi and kou. they easily got along pretty well and he enjoys getting to work with every single person in his team. the line distribution was agreed on easily and outside the help they got from bom, he found himself getting a lot of help from haneul. his best friend easily helped him out with his pitch and a few other technical issues that he was forever grateful for. his singing would have been nothing if he didn’t take all the help and practice he could get. though he supposed that sterns from the fact that he didn’t wanna bring his group down in any way.

his heart is pounding in his chest as he recounts that he did make sure to warm up before they had to be on stage. he didn’t want to destroy his voice and let himself rest instead of straining. everything is going to be fine, he doesn’t need to get into his head about any of this. he tried perfecting what he could though at least and hopes it is enough and that the judges see that his singing improved this time compared to when he performed my turn in front of them.

once their time to perform together comes, seojun wipes away the nervousness he has as soon as he steps on stage. he’s a performer and knows being on stage is where his confidence shines the most. it’s how he is when busking and even when doing things for university as well. he was going to take advantage of the feeling he gets on stage to make this the best performance he can and not let his group down at all.

as he listens to hanuel starting off the song, he easily flows into his lines next as he shows everything he had learned before this performance. he’s putting his all into every line he has to sing and hopes it flows well with the others. honestly, the fears he had before were long gone as he enjoys himself as he sings along with his team. he almost feels like the chemistry can be shown easily from anyone watching them. for himself, he wants his confidence to shine through and be seen by the judges as well. hopefully his pitch and technical issues have improved with how much he’s put into making sure they were to practice his vocals.

in a flash their performance is over. this usually seemed to happen whenever he was fully into performing and a part of him didn’t want it to end almost. his mind can’t help but recount hearing how well joomi did the line at the end. it sounded amazing and he felt pretty confident that they’re performance together would go over well.

as he’s leaving the stage after their performance, he can’t help but flash a smile to his team as well giving them all praises which is easier for him than receiving them. the adrenaline that he feels all of a sudden slowly calms down as he starts re-evaluating his own performance since his mind can’t help itself it seems.

did he really improve with his vocals in the short time he had? he felt he did but only the judges would know and be able to see how hard he tried whether with the coaches or his team. sure his mind would reel with this constantly but he could only hope that things turned out alright and that he did spark justice alongside everyone else.

[bexsua]

ghouliday. feat. @kouxbe

everytime she heads down to the market to enjoy the festivities, sua always attempts to throw something together for a costume. makeup’s beginning to be easier these days, and finding an outfit is always a fun excursion; she goes for ease today– throws together an outfit she doesn’t mind dirtying up and cutting up to look a little ragged. a little bit of paint here and there, and some mess of bloody makeup across her face. messes up her hair a bit and tacks on a cheap pair of wolf ears and pops in a set of fake fangs. it’s not the best outfit, but she tacks it on with colored contacts to really seal the deal. the only flaw to that is that she can’t really see through them; so she just keeps one in, and calls it a day. 

perusing the market is always fun. looking at other people’s costumes are nice– some get a good laugh out of her, some she feels envious of. some of the vendors for the stalls are also dressed up, which sua notes with a cute little noise of surprise. as she takes her gaze off of a collection of halloween figurines, she trails her eyes around– pausing in her tracks at the familiar form of someone she knows. squinting towards them, she takes quiet, careful steps towards them– slowly leaning around them so she can ensure she knows who it is. a side glimpse of their profile notes that it’s kou, and a slow smile spreads on her face as she inches forward. 

ensuring she’s quiet, she holds her breath until sua can inch up behind him. holding back the little laugh that wants to break out of her, she darts around to his side and pops into his view– then proceeds to imitate the sound of a very convincing dog snarling. she barely makes it through it, cutting herself off with a choked laugh as she steps further into his view so he can see who it is.