Very direct inspiration taken from Lee Hyori's Miss Korea, besides the quote in the prompt. cw for mentions of diets/body image.
Ahyoung is forty minutes late to lunch with Sojin because she is late to wake, late to rush to the shop to get her hair done and late because she needs her manager to take some cursory pictures to be floated on her Instagram on a dry day.
The plan was to meet for lunch at Sangam-dong, near the set where Ahyoung was filming her new drama for JTBC. But her schedule had been moved around and Ahyoung didn’t really want to eat in public anyway—or eat at all, for that matter.
When she lands up at the coffee shop, there is a light post-lunch rush picking up and she’s glad to have changed to her better heels before leaving home.
Never mind that it has been a long, long time since she was recognised en masse in a public place.
Sojin is in sweatpants. It’s 3 pm on a Friday, in a café in the middle of Gangnam and Sojin is in sweatpants.
Ahyoung is so stunned she just plops down on the seat across Sojin—no hug, no hello.
“Unnie,” She starts but finds no words to put across her astonishment. She waves her hands up and down at Sojin and blurts out, “What?”
Sojin rolls her eyes. “Do I need to go to the shop when meeting you, Ahyoung-ah? Like you don’t know what my face looks like.”
“You do—you did.”
“Yeah. When I was in my early 20s and we had just debuted. Now…well. It’s not like I’ll get the roles I want if I dress well on my free time, will I?”
Ahyoung isn’t sure the same holds true for her—stumbling onto a semi-respectable second lead role only through dropping several sizes and a screen test that had been more of a profile-check than any scene-read she had been expecting. Also:
“Is it a post-engagement thing? He doesn’t care about those things anymore?”
“No.” Sojin frowns. “Well, yes. But that has nothing to do with this—yah, when will you guys stop teasing him?”
“Never.” Ahyoung says solemnly. “What is it then?”
Sojin’s frown deepens. She throws back a question of her own. “Is presenting yourself in that way still so important to you?”
Ahyoung scratches at an imaginary piece of lint on the sleeve of her cardigan. “When we were promoting…actually, when I first joined the company, I used to think I’ll be able to do anything I wanted if I became pretty. I know it’s silly—and scary, once people’s eyes actually turned to us after we debuted. Scarier, too, ‘cause it was like holding on to something that I knew would never last. Their attention, us…me.” She smiles ruefully. “But I really believed it."
It’s a testament to how much growing they have all done thanks to Sojin that she doesn’t laugh outright. Though she would, were this said with the inflection of a joke. If it was all four of them, three bottles of soju down and the twinkly lights strung up on Minah’s living room wall behind them. She would have.
“And did you?”
“Hmm?”
“Get everything you want?”
Ahyoung exhales. She doesn’t know how to say she, too, wonders if she simply never became pretty enough to deserve everything.
Sojin gets it, perhaps.
Or maybe she just doesn’t care and uses the special privilege that people have by virtue of being by your side for more than half your life—to be blunt and barrel ahead with her opinion.
“Ahyoung-ah, have you considered getting acting lessons again? I have a coach I can put you in touch with.”
Ahyoung blinks and tables the thought. "Have you spoken to Hyeri recently? I think she's moving out for good?"
Sojin watches her and takes a sip of her coffee, leaning back in her chair when she's done. "Yeah. It's a pity but...I guess it has been coming for a while."
"Hmm. Well. It'll be fine. She's young. She has time."
and none of it matters and none of it ends – girl's day ahyoung (yura) & sojin – canon
Ahyoung is forty minutes late to lunch with Sojin because she is late to wake, late to rush to the shop to get her hair done and late because she needs her manager to take some cursory pictures to be floated on her Instagram on a dry day.
The plan was to meet for lunch at Sangam-dong, near the set where Ahyoung was filming her new drama for JTBC. But her schedule had been moved around and Ahyoung didn’t really want to eat in public anyway—or eat at all, for that matter.
When she lands up at the coffee shop, there is a light post-lunch rush picking up and she’s glad to have changed to her better heels before leaving home.
Never mind that it has been a long, long time since she was recognised en masse in a public place.
Sojin is in sweatpants. It’s 3 pm on a Friday, in a café in the middle of Gangnam and Sojin is in sweatpants.
Ahyoung is so stunned she just plops down on the seat across Sojin—no hug, no hello.
“Unnie,” She starts but finds no words to put across her astonishment. She waves her hands up and down at Sojin and blurts out, “What?”
Sojin rolls her eyes. “Do I need to go to the shop when meeting you, Ahyoung-ah? Like you don’t know what my face looks like.”
“You do—you did.”
“Yeah. When I was in my early 20s and we had just debuted. Now…well. It’s not like I’ll get the roles I want if I dress well on my free time, will I?”
Ahyoung isn’t sure the same holds true for her—stumbling onto a semi-respectable second lead role only through dropping several sizes and a screen test that had been more of a profile-check than any scene-read she had been expecting. Also:
“Is it a post-engagement thing? He doesn’t care about those things anymore?”
“No.” Sojin frowns. “Well, yes. But that has nothing to do with this—yah, when will you guys stop teasing him?”
“Never.” Ahyoung says solemnly. “What is it then?”
Sojin’s frown deepens. She throws back a question of her own. “Is presenting yourself in that way still so important to you?”
Ahyoung scratches at an imaginary piece of lint on the sleeve of her cardigan. “When we were promoting…actually, when I first joined the company, I used to think I’ll be able to do anything I wanted if I became pretty. I know it’s silly—and scary, once people’s eyes actually turned to us after we debuted. Scarier, too, ‘cause it was like holding on to something that I knew would never last. Their attention, us…me.” She smiles ruefully. “But I really believed it."
It’s a testament to how much growing they have all done thanks to Sojin that she doesn’t laugh outright. Though she would, were this said with the inflection of a joke. If it was all four of them, three bottles of soju down and the twinkly lights strung up on Minah’s living room wall behind them. She would have.
“And did you?”
“Hmm?”
“Get everything you want?”
Ahyoung exhales. She doesn’t know how to say she, too, wonders if she simply never became pretty enough to deserve everything.
Sojin gets it, perhaps.
Or maybe she just doesn’t care and uses the special privilege that people have by virtue of being by your side for more than half your life—to be blunt and barrel ahead with her opinion.
“Ahyoung-ah, have you considered getting acting lessons again? I have a coach I can put you in touch with.”
Ahyoung blinks and tables the thought. "Have you spoken to Hyeri recently? I think she's moving out for good?"
Sojin watches her and takes a sip of her coffee, leaning back in her chair when she's done. "Yeah. It's a pity but...I guess it has been coming for a while."
"Hmm. Well. It'll be fine. She's young. She has time."