Why I rolled with a K-pop idol in a dystopian survival series
Yui’s a K-pop idol with a touch of punk rock and metal running through her veins. She couldn’t be anything but a famous singer. Here’s why I made that choice.
“A sharp-tongued K-pop idol with a secret past and everything to lose” is how I describe Yui Kikuchi, a girl who’s already proven her worth from surviving years of a rough, tough life that trainees over in East Asia go through just for a chance to make it.
Sure, you can find a strong female co-protagonist anywhere, especially one who survives a “Red Dawn” type of event. But with someone who spent years living on pure motivation thanks to the fact she’d be body shamed if she even gained an ounce? That says a lot of what I could do with someone like Yui.
Many K-pop idols, especially females, go through:
- Frequent weigh-ins
- Strict diets
- Intense dance and training programs
- Extreme media and presentation training
If the West Coast Offense in football — an ultra-precise system where every move is scripted — forces players to act robotically, that’s the K-pop industry for you. Or, at least that’s the case in an idol’s pre-debut and early career.
They’re subjected to near-complete control from agencies they’ve signed with, and liberty, especially for an idol Yui’s age, is tough to come by.
A K-pop idol was the perfect opportunity
Yui’s subservience came before her trainee days. With a mass follow-the-leader mentality a staple in so many East Asian cultures, pairing her up with a rugged (yet clean-shaven and lean) anarcho-capitalist obsessed with Germanic Paganism in Quinn Cozens gave me the perfect combo.
Quinn also knows the terrain, while Yui can’t even point out the state she’s in on a map. So even if she clashes with Quinn, he’s her lifeline.
Not to mention the fact they boast strong personalities. Yui’s unapologetic about her conformist ways, and Quinn’s too passionate about his insistence on revisionist history. Something that he sees a golden opportunity with since Yui’s from Japan and Quinn’s never bought into the take that America had to drop atom bombs to win World War II.
Since Beyond the Lost Horizon’s a quick, 37,000-word sprint featuring primarily Quinn and Yui as the cast, it’s not long before tension escalates to a standstill.
An idol and a radical libertarian: What could go wrong?
It’s the ultimate ‘what-if’ scenario. What if you got stuck in a death-defying situation with someone whose personality’s not much different from yours, but their worldview’s a complete 180?
That’s what I shot for here. Two people with irreconcilable worldviews forced to work together while the country burns.
With so much tension between Quinn and Yui so early, and with domestic and foreign enemies lurking all over the place, these two have got to find a way to get along, or their time on the run will be short-lived.
If you want to see what happens when an idol and a radical libertarian have to outrun the end of the world, grab Beyond the Lost Horizon.
