mare serenitatis (commentary)

[unsospiro]

mare serenitatis commentary
Kim Yooyeon/Park Sohyun, 1.6k, G

they say “write what you know” so i ended up writing a struggling college student lol... this wasn’t initially intended to be a transparent display of my personal frustrations but looking back on it, i suppose it was inevitable i would end up here.

i had been wanting to write for Yooyeon for a while after thinking about how much her college choices has influenced her career as an idol. i find it incredibly ironic that her notoriety as the “Goddess of Ewha University” has generated significant momentum behind her career as an idol (interviews, variety opportunities) but this popularity is the very thing that hinders her ability to complete college. this little paradox is so strange and compelling to me, especially with what she has said recently about feeling frustrated due to this exact problem.

this fic was also heavily inspired by her mother being a pharmacist, her father being a physician, and her grandfather being a painter. i liked the idea of her being born into a family of medical careers but feeling closer to her artistic grandfather. this original premise ultimately transformed over the course of writing but still heavily influenced how i thought about it.

when i think about the way the members talk about Sohyun, the number one thing that comes to mind is a complete sense of faith. from their end of year signal live,

Yooyeon: Make a title track.
Sohyun: Title track...
Yooyeon: OT24 title track.
Sohyun: Me?

i think this sense of trust in her abilities and Sohyun’s general air of quiet maturity makes her a compelling complement to any member written to be Going Through It. this fic is also of course inspired by Cameo Love. as Yooyeon said (I can’t remember where she said it), Sohyun absolutely belongs in the moon subunit. honestly, i think all of the msnz combinations were inspired choices, so yay for democracy (!?) i also really wanted Sohyun’s sense of consideration and tendency to take care of others to come through. this happened to align really well with the legend of the Moon Rabbit.

additionally, from the same end of year signal:

Sohyun: Next year, with group activities and all, we'll each have a lot more to do. You're really exhausted, not sleeping, not resting...
Yooyeon: It feels like I'm getting criticized
Sohyun: Sleep well, and take care of your health for a long time. Please don't get sick. Anyway, you've been doing great and staying healthy all this time. Just keep doing as well as you are now.

this fic was also very inspired by Nina MacLaughlin’s column, The Moon in Full. they are all fantastic reads, i highly recommend it. just like Yooyeon in this fic, i took an astronomy class in my freshman year. it was, in some ways, life changing. fun fact: all of the lunar maria are either named after sea/water features (ex. Mare Vaporum) or “states of mind” (ex. Mare Serenitatis). however, Mare Moscoviense (Sea of Moscow) was accepted after it was argued that Moscow is a state of mind.

despite this being my first completed fic (yay!!) this is also one of the shortest things i've written. i was aiming for something short and completely vibes based so i'm glad i accomplished that. i tend to write with a very cerebral approach; i want things to make logical sense and fit perfectly. i think i needed to write something without a plot in order to quiet the academic writer in me that wants to make everything Make Sense and to instead write with more energy and feeling. i am hoping to write something at least slightly longer in the future though...

thanks for reading. lets all get more obsessed with the moon and 514 this year!