The ‘94 Line: War Stories

Almost a year later…

Mijoo. I have to hand it to Mijoo. Seulgi couldn’t get it done, nor Youngji or Hyojung. Well, they did so partially. As covered last time, Seulgi hosted Youngji and Mijoo on her Hi Seulgi YouTube channel, but Hyojung couldn’t make it. Since then, Youngji had Seulgi and Hyojung on her channel but no Mijoo (and no subtitles). At some point, Hyojung managed to gather everyone, but barely filmed it. Now, believe me, I understand. These are highly in-demand people, and the whole thing here is their friendship. When I hang out with my friends (let’s say I have them), I’m not gonna think to record it. Perhaps it takes a special occasion, like a birthday, and who else’s but Mijoo’s? As it turns out, she was responsible for the entire ‘94 Line to begin with. As Youngji puts it in the resulting video on Mijoo’s channel, linked above, she was too lazy to keep meeting up with everyone individually, and had them all get together as a group. And this includes Moonbyul now, as they rechristen the group: 9294*, with the asterisk a reference to “byul” which means “star.” How lovely!

One of the things I like about this group is that they come from such different backgrounds within the same field. Hyojung is a leader, Youngji is a maknae; Mamamoo and Oh My Girl exhibit wildly distinct artistry; everyone except Youngji is third-gen and so on. In this gathering, they talk about their idol careers and the early days, with the refrain of how different things are for the fourth and possibly fifth generations. And not surprisingly, some of these stories are horrifying. My general understanding of Mamamoo was that it was a small-market idol group which eventually competed with the big dogs on talent alone, but apparently, their agency was as strict as everyone else. They’d installed CCTV cameras in the front of the dorm and in the kitchen, in case anyone wanted to sneak out or sneak a midnight snack. Moonbyul describes how she and the girls circumnavigated the surveillance, sometimes with play-acting. And Hyojung talks about how she couldn’t even go to the bathroom without asking permission, and they wouldn’t be allowed to go alone. In fact, they had to hold hands. Seulgi recalls witnessing that once, and how weird she found it.

To my surprise, they also talk about how difficult Queendom was, a competition series back in 2019 – cohosted by Lee Da-hee – where among others, Oh My Girl, Mamamoo, and Lovelyz competed. Music, and art generally, is not competitive by nature, but the producers needed the drama, and would interview the idols for as long as it took to get a good sound bite. Mijoo, of course, relished giving them what they wanted and, apparently, so did (G)I-dle. But not everyone is comfortable playing the game. Seulgi describes the initial challenge of variety shows, saying that she felt an urge to really play it up (ostrich run) and then, as soon as the cameras stopped rolling, she’d be like, “What am I doing?!” The crazy thing is, I never would’ve guessed. All the Red Velvet members were really good on variety shows, and Seulgi’s so naturally charming that I’d never considered her potential insecurities behind the scenes. And it’s not major stuff they’re talking about here (it helps that there was no alcohol), but just enough of a window to remind that these people are very human, and they’re doing a job.

I need an oil painting of this

This was a note I wish they’d expanded on: the difference between a friend group – even a famous one like 9294* – and their respective idol groups. They’re prompted by one of Mijoo’s producers who asks if this five would ever debut as a musical act, to which Youngji notes that while it’s possible, there’d probably be a lot of jockeying for position. Lord knows, they’ve all wanted to be the visual center. Right, guys? Oh, no. Only her and Mijoo! Seulgi wonders if they’d end up fighting, and Moonbyul concurs, adding “No, if you really work together, you can’t be close. It might sound like this, but it’s not that there’s discord in the team, but when you work together, there are times when you get upset with each other, so I don’t think you can be friends.” The dialogue continues:

HYOJUNG: You become more polite, and you become more considerate of each other.
MOONBYUL: Because a boundary is also created.
HYOJUNG: To friends, you can say, “Hey, what’s with your face?” and joke around like that, but honestly, among members, that kind of…
MOONBYUL: [Exceptions exist].
HYOJUNG/MIJOO: [Tend to be careful within the team].
YOUNGJI: But that’s exactly what’s good. Being too close is actually not good, I think.

The bracketed lines are instances where there isn’t a direct translation, but a summary. Lots of issues with audio overlap in this one, but as transcribing audio is part of my profession, I take exception to that. True to her word, Hyojung is different here than what I’ve seen of her in the copious amount of behind-the-scenes footage of Oh My Girl courtesy of the long-running “Sketchbook” videos. She’s just as goofy as Seunghee and Mimi and the rest, but usually lets them gang up on her. Here, I can see that she’d be able to dish it out, too, teasing Mijoo for her bangs, tiny stomach, and complaints about height. It’s surprising all the same, especially coming from her and Moonbyul. I mean, the only thing that separates Moonbyul and Solar is a crowbar, and Oh My Girl has the best team chemistry I’ve ever seen. Those girls love each other. But I can definitely see how Hyojung might be modifying her behavior around them, no matter how loose and fun she always seems.

The only one who had no input during this exchange was Seulgi. She listened and nodded along but didn’t contribute, and I don’t know if it’s because she loves her unnie or because Red Velvet probably did have difficulties over their eleven-year run. I never got the impression that Wendy and Yeri liked each other very much, and I’m convinced that Irene and Joy had issues up until a few years ago. No evidence, of course, just reading too much into body language. But now that I’ve seen Kara and Mamamoo and Oh My Girl, I know what it looks like when idol coworkers do like each other. Youngji always talks about how she texts with Jiyoung and Gyuri. Moonbyul and Solar are, again, as comfortable with each other as a married couple. Just watch any behind-the-scenes of Oh My Girl, and you’ll see it instantly. She engages with everyone (and the results are usually hilarious).

Of course, it could also be that Seulgi can’t get a word in edgewise. She gives voice to something that was practically the theme of her video with Youngji and Mijoo, which is that she’s “slow to load.” She watches, helpless, as everyone jumps from topic to topic, ultimately making for a collective stream of consciousness. It’s clear by now that Seulgi, in addition to being naturally quiet, is also a thoughtful person who likely prefers to chew on an idea. She’s come to think of that as being “slow,” like her namesakes “Sluggy” and “Slowgi,” but I really think it’s just having a different kind of brain. In addition to being a musical artist, she’s an artist, too, with a talent for illustration and an impeccable taste in fashion. She probably speaks the least in this video, though to be fair, if there’s food in front of Seulgi, everything else is secondary.

It’s probably between Seulgi and Moonbyul, which would make sense for the relative newcomer. It actually takes a while for Moonbyul’s true, troll nature to emerge, but very gratifying once it does. It means she’s comfortable! She’s a very blunt person, and stands out even in the rowdy company of Youngji and Mijoo. When they’re talking about how third-gen concepts were a lot more cutesy than modern idol aesthetics, she notes that Mamamoo never did that stuff. And if she were made to do something like the styles of Oh My Girl and Lovelyz, she would’ve just quit. It’s a really interesting point, and it makes me feel a little guilty for being so whipped for the third generation (in the lingua franca) and generally indifferent to modern K-pop. I will say that I never got too into the kind of cheerleading inflections of the second generation, but I don’t generally care for the Western-feeling, post-Blackpink/Twice “cool” vibe, either. With exceptions, of course. I really liked WJSN Dayoung’s recent award-winning song “Body,” and that’s exactly what I’m describing.

But shouldn’t I like “cool” more than “cute”? Part of the project of With Eyes East, however subconsciously it emerged, is to promote the image of powerful Asian women, mostly in action movies. The infantilization of idols is a hot-button topic among fans, whether it’s the ultimate doing of management, the idols themselves, or weirdos like me. I mean, I kind of think the aegyo thing is funny. But I don’t want to make the mistake that because the fourth-gen is edgier, that its idols are necessarily more in control. Maybe a little bit? I have to imagine the industry is making incremental progress each year, especially with increasing international scrutiny. This is why it’s important to hear the stories of veterans like 9294*. They’ve all had their difficulties, their ups and downs, but they’ve emerged on the other side remembering these things while not being defined by them.

This is a 37-minute video, which is extremely generous, so my thanks again to Mijoo. She also knew to sit as far from Youngji as possible, lest they spend the entire time hitting each other, but they still get into it plenty of times. Recently, they appeared on Knowing Bros together, and were able to demonstrate their peculiar dynamic for everyone to see. They’re all so great together, and the addition of Moonbyul to the larger group was long-awaited. I was seriously so happy when Mijoo’s channel teased this video, and ended up watching half of it before it was subtitled (I’ve had lots of K-drama to watch lately). This is the Korean pop idol – a secretive, guarded representative of a brand – at her most natural (in front of a camera) but sharing in the same group dynamic that’s so compelling.

For other recent videos from the 9294* members, I’d recommend…

This was host/birthday girl Mijoo’s previous video, where her staff invades her new home to throw a product placement party. It’s very funny, and I can tell that Mijoo would be a fun boss to work for. I love when they’re like, “You can’t have a housewarming party without kimchi jeon, right?” and she screams, “Please just go away!”

Here’s the clip of Mijoo and Youngji’s appearance on Knowing Bros, where Youngji tells the story of how a Kara fan tore her photo card in front of her. She had it rough early on. They also mention another ‘94-liner, Jieun, who I’m not familiar with. But most of this video is the two girls bickering. “I think she has something she wants to say, but can you please be quiet?” absolutely killed me. And they tell the infamous Youngji shower story again.

This is another great one. I didn’t know the backstory, but it’s explained pretty well. Basically, on a variety show long ago, Jiyoung mentioned that she was a passionate fan of BigBang’s Daesung, and even acquired his phone number and sent him a text. Youngji brings her onto Daesung’s channel to confront him on why he never replied after 16 years. The answer, predictably, is that she was underage at the time. Youngji had appeared on this channel before, and already has such great chemistry with Daesung. It’s so funny watching her twist the knife at every opportunity. And there’s a lot of great anecdotes about Kara back in the day.

Sadly, Oh My Girl contracted this year to four: Hyojung, Mimi, Seunghee, and Yubin. I never thought Arin would go, but she’s in a ton of dramas. Even without the maknae’s crazy energy, this four is still extremely chaotic. On Mimi’s channel, we have an ongoing series (two so far) of their wild gatherings, which the automated subtitles can’t keep up with.

I really liked Seulgi’s recent video about Cheonggyecheon, but it’s got to be the one with orange-haired Joy (promoting the excellent “Love Splash”), where they take on the challenge of styling each other. Obviously, Seulgi makes Joy look amazing, but Joy just does not grasp Seulgi’s aesthetics at all. One of the things I like about this duo is how Joy’s always loved being Seulgi’s little sister, and it’s cute how Seulgi calls her “Soo-young.”

At the end of this one, Seulgi asks Joy how it was to appear on her YouTube channel (she’s been slow-rolling RV member appearances), and Joy pretty much sums up my feelings about this whole thing. Unlike on TV shows, with their ostrich runs, she’s more comfortable here. This is Seulgi’s space, and it was Mijoo’s space and Youngji’s and so on. They’ve reached a point in their careers where they make the rules for this sort of content, and I find the results to be a lot more entertaining.