ATEEZ 9th Member AU

Backlash

Nari gets some hate for her new outfits

This comeback was going really well for the group. They were working harder than ever and on top of also filming for Kingdom, they were exhausted. But a good exhausted. Even with the pandemic in the world showing no signs of disappearing soon, she was grateful for them to be as busy as they are.

However, today's stage Nari was wearing her most favorite outfit. Sarcasm intended. She did not like the little brassier outfit at all, but Hongjoong was right. It was too late to change anything about the comeback. She was going to suck it up and put a smile on her face. She honestly could care less about the clothes, she just liked to be on stage performing.

She was quite aware that her outfit was definitely going to drop some mouths today and not in a good way. She wanted nothing more than to keep the oversized zip-up she was wearing on the whole time. There was no way the stylist would allow that though. The staff seemed to really like her outfit and she was grateful that they were doing their best to make her feel more comfortable in it.

She had even overheard one of the stylists talking to another staff about how even they had tried to get permission to change the outfit just a little bit. She was grateful that they had tried and that they weren't offended by her not being exactly in love with the outfit. In all transparency, Nari did love all of her stage outfits.

The stylist always made sure they accentuated her features, but to the point where she—and everyone else—was still comfortable. Plus, she was always up for trying new things but showing this much skin wasn't something she was necessarily comfortable with. It was time for them to go on stage and Nari could only hope that everything stayed in the proper place while she performed.

The next day they had a rare day off for the most part. She was happy to say that there were not clothing accidents and everything went smoothly. She decided to go on Twitter and see what ATINY's were saying about the comeback. She was happy to see that they loved the new songs and the concept. She enjoyed reading about their theories on everything too.

Then she started to see the comments some were making about the outfit choice. Some were just a little in shock that she showed so much skin and surprised by it. Some other comments were. . .not so nice. She felt her heart rate speed up as she read a few that called her some choice names in them. This was not good.

They had so many things happening now and in the near future she didn't want to ruin that. However, it seemed the outfit choice was quickly becoming a topic of discussion among multiple fandoms. Some were rooting and cheering her on, inspired by her confidence to wear something like that. Others were not so supportive, saying she was bringing a negative light on to the group.

A lot of what she was seeing how she was portraying the wrong image, especially to young girls. That she was basically saying it's okay for them to go out half-dressed and it would be okay. That girls younger than her were okay to dress like that because she was dressed like that. The wrong message was being sent when there wasn't even supposed to be a message at all. It was just an outfit.

Doesn't she know how impressionable young girls are?

I can't believe they let her wear something like that

So disappointed in her

She looks like a sex worker

She looks like she works the street corner

She shut her phone off, tossing it to the side and trying to calm herself down. This is exactly what she was afraid of happening and now it was happening. She was always conscious of how she portrayed herself because she knew it was still delicate with her being the only female in the group.

Her worst fears seemed to be coming true. She was bringing a negative light into the group because she was a girl. Because of an outfit that she had no say over. An outfit that multiple people had tried to work around changing a little but it couldn't happen. Maybe it would be best for her to step out of the spotlight now and wait for things to die down. She didn't want to do anything to compromise the group on Kingdom or any music shows.

Her phone rang and she jumped at the noise, answering it without looking at the screen. "You seem to be the hot topic today," the voice said on the other line and she sighed. She really missed Mingi. She was happy he was taking care of him and coming back soon, but in moments like these she missed him being there to joke around and cheer her up. The others did that too, but Mingi just seemed to know what to say.

"Don't remind me," she muttered and he chuckled. "You looked great, Nar. I'm sure Seonghwa hyung had a heart attack with that outfit." Nari let a small smile grace her face as she hummed. "He was definitely not a happy camper." Mingi laughed and the two talked for a while. She felt much better after they hung up, praying that he would come back sooner than he was anticipating.

She finally decided to get out of bed and face the day ahead of her. Whatever that may bring, she wasn't sure. But at least she could call Mingi and he could make her smile.