WITCHING HOUR.

a blooming woman will always remain open.
she will learn to water herself.
she will learn to lean into the spaces that shine the most light on her.
her resilience will be her saving grace.just when you thought you crushed her,
she will grow from the ruins.

LAST UPDATED: jul 11 2023

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NOTE: triggering themes will be approached on this muse, such as sexual assault, rape, bullying, mental illness, physical abuse, and emotional abuse. if encountering such topics will affect you negatively, i strongly advise that you do not read this carrd, and do not follow or interact with my muse. stay safe!

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PROFILE.

TRIVIA.

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TIMELINE.

1995: born in joam-ri to seo byungho and im jisook. she has one sister, hyebin, older than her by eight years.
1998: her parents divorce, and jisook leaves for seoul. byungho loses control of his gambling habit, and eventually hyesoo and hyebin move in with their paternal grandparents.
2002: hyesoo becomes aware of her abilities after accidentally setting a bale of hay on fire, in an attempt to get neighborhood bullies to leave her alone. her grandmother kyunghee begins to train her.
2006: hyesoo and hyebin move to seoul. the sisters are scouted by muchmusic entertainment at a shopping mall.
2008: hyebin’s contract is terminated. hyesoo is taken under han jiyoung’s wing, helping to further her rap abilities. she learns to write and produce music, and starts releasing tracks under the alias babyh.
2010: hyesoo’s contract is terminated after a physical altercation between her and several other members of a project girl group. she auditions for ymj entertainment and begins to train there by the end of the year.
2012: after a traumatic encounter with a ymj executive, she attempts to report him and leave the company. her complaints are ignored, and he continues to harass her.
2013: after major evaluations, hyesoo and one other trainee are added to the lineup of spiced to replace the departed members. she begins to go by harlowe. she deals with her first attitude scandal when she appears disgusted by being hugged by minni, and fans call for her removal.
2014: once her first tattoo is photographed, rumors begin to spread about hyesoo being a former iljin. it’s rehashed later in the year when she’s removed from a show for firing back after being insulted by a sunbae.
2015: receives praise for her role in her first drama, day and night.
2017: spiced decides to not renew their contract under ymj, and instead signs to dominant music records. when yoo minjoon accuses one of the members of using a sponsor, hyesoo retaliates by revealing the years of harassment she faced from a ymj executive. this is the start of her being blacklisted in the industry, and the growth of her base of antis.
2018: after a contentious court case, yoo sungjoon is sentenced to just three years in prison. hyesoo releases a mixtape and her first full album. however, any positive reputation she earned soon disappears once dispatch reveals her relationship with a dmrec producer.
2019: when the hate turns into death threats, dmrec presses charges against online commenters. hyesoo wins a ₩2.5 billion defamation lawsuit against yoo minjoon, which she donates to charity. when antis begin to boycott her musical catalogue, she takes up the producing alias RUNES.
2020: hyesoo participates in MBC show don’t be jealous with her boyfriend slade, stars in blockbuster film interrogation room, and participates in MNET show good girl, which starts to soften the public’s reception of her. by november she releases her second full album, emergence, which receives critical praise both in korea and internationally. in december she joins show me the money 9 as a judge.
2021: her participation on smtm9 leads to her joining goblin gang in january. in april she releases her third full album, supreme, though bans prevent her from promoting it. after a year of secret elopement, she and sukwon hold a wedding in late october on her grandparent’s farm.

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please note that this page contains references to sexual assault (of a minor). read with caution.she’s born into the first few minutes of 1995, the youngest daughter of two and the first infant of the year born in joam-ri. though there’s plenty of anticipation for her birth, the period of excitement quickly disappears once other stresses hit the family. hyesoo’s father owes money to loan sharks, so he works day in and day out to pay them back. the stress of living in debt hits hyesoo’s mother hard, and when hyesoo is three years old, her mother leaves the family to run off with her lover. from then on out, hyesoo and her sister live with their grandparents, focusing on school and working on their grandfather’s farm. they hear back from their father very rarely– before he would call once a month, then it would be a few letters every few months, until it eventually dwindled down to nothing. their mother isn’t nearly as kind, and has removed them from her life completely. though nearly ten years apart in age, hyesoo and hyebin are attached at the hip. they care for each other, though the roles are often reversed from what others would expect– it’s actually hyesoo that does most of the work, acting as the conscience and decision maker for the two of them, while hyebin does the cooking and earns money for them to treat themselves, all the things that hyesoo can’t do simply because she isn’t old enough to.they’re complete opposites to a tee, but hyesoo and hyebin learn to stick together over the years. neither of them are very well liked in joam-ri, for various reasons– hyebin is considered too loud, dramatic, too wrapped up in drama and trouble and boys for her age, while hyesoo’s quiet nature and heavy interest in the occult makes her an easy target for ridicule from her peers. it’s hard for them to make friends in the village, so they find friendship among themselves, a bond that can’t be severed even when hyebin decides that she’s done with the village life and wants to make a name for herself. hyesoo is unable to convince her otherwise, and instead she leaves with her sister for seoul in 2006, worried sick about what might happen if she lets her sister out into the scary real world without her brain to guide her. for the first few months, things are hard. hyebin has to work oddball jobs all over the city just to keep a roof over their head and food on the table, no matter how little it actually amounts to. their jeolla satoori and young age makes them victims to scams and tricks, but a sunny afternoon in august changes everything for them. naturally hyesoo thinks it’s yet another scam, but hyebin’s dangerously hopeful outlook on life wins over, and suddenly they’re whisked away to headquarters to sign papers.before the end of their first year in seoul, hyesoo and hyebin are signed under the underground label megamusic, with hyebin focusing on modeling while hyesoo focuses on her vocals and rap. their same arrangement continues, with her looking after her older sister and keeping her out of bad health and troublesome situations. for once, hyebin does relatively well– she’s finally getting what she wants, realizes the consequences that’ll come from her impulsive actions, so she tries to keep it together for her sake and hyesoo’s as well.despite her efforts, all it takes is a year and a half for hyebin to go back to her old ways. even years later, hyesoo still blames herself for letting her guard down, assuming her older sister would act older for once in their lives. insults thrown between the elder rookie and one of mega’s singers, over a boy at that, leads to a fight, and the fight leads to the singer getting stitches in the hospital and hyebin being dropped from the company. all their lives they’ve been side by side, but for once, hyesoo chooses to do what she wants. training has become a part of her life that she can’t picture herself without, so she stays while her sister goes.young and alone, hyesoo is taken under the wing of one of megamusic’s top producers and rappers, han jiyoung. jiyoung is everything that hyesoo’s ever dreamed of in a sibling figure– smart, responsible, goal oriented, and as she feeds hyesoo and makes sure that she stays well, she also takes the time to show her the ropes of producing. by the time she’s fourteen, she’s co-producing tracks with her, and even manages to have a few features on her tracks, along with a few other musicians under the label. around this time she starts to release her own rap tracks on cyworld, youtube and other sites under the pen name ‘BABYH’. she’s isn’t a technical debut, but as time progresses she becomes part of the family, just as much of an integral part of the team as even those that have been around since day one.when megamusic merges with a larger entertainment company in 2010, all of that changes. hyesoo’s potential debut in a group comes to a screeching halt after a violent encounter between her and the other girls, and after being booted from the company, she auditions and is accepted into ymj entertainment. again, she’s juggling it all: training, attending a specialized school for advanced students, her additional hagwon, tutoring fellow classmates, plus her underground career. sneaking into clubs has become her speciality, not for the same troublemaking reasons as her sister, but to perform and expose her music to the masses. in the end, her efforts pay off, or so she thinks-- an executive under ymj takes notice of her skill and invites seventeen year old hyesoo out, but the offer to perform for the night ends with a half-drunk hyesoo walking home in the cold, bruised along her thighs and scarred within.by the next week, she’s skipping practices, staying away from the company building altogether and instead focusing her energy on school. she tries to alert her higher-ups, to withdraw from the company completely, but they turn her away. two members leave a senior group under ymj, and the first trainee chosen to fill their shoes happens to be hyesoo, despite her vocal protests. in december of 2013, hyesoo is added to the lineup of SPICED as the main rapper and new maknae. she drops the performing name of BABYH and instead goes with HARLOWE, now labeled as the group’s “witty spice” due to her intellect and quick, sarcastic quips.it’s supposed to be a moment of celebration, but instead she withdraws from everyone around her. calls from hyebin go ignored, and hyesoo makes no attempt to get to know her new group mates, fearing a repeat of her first group experience. fans are quick to label her as disrespectful and rally for her removal from the group, but their cries go ignored by the company. the question remains in her head, how much of her fame is actually due to her hard-earned work, rather than being considered a prize won by the entitled? the executive continues his infatuation with hyesoo, using every opportunity possible to be alone with her for his own benefit. when she’s nice, when she’s cooperative, things look good for her-- her first year and a half in the group is spent with no solo schedules as she focuses on school, but in 2015 she has her acting debut and receives praise for her portrayal. on the other hand, when things go bad and she starts to fight back, she quickly finds herself with nothing to do while her group mates soar, with the press tearing her to shreds over baseless rumors while ymj’s ceo turns a blind eye to it all.by late 2016, when SPICED’s contract is close to renewal time, she decides that she’s not subjecting herself to the torment any longer. luckily for her, SPICED’s four other members were in agreement for their own various reasons, and at the start of 2017 the group was able to leave ymj entertainment for dm records, founded by hyesoo’s previous mentor han jiyoung. hyesoo tries to find refuge under her new company, picking up acting roles and producing opportunities to keep herself busy and make up for her chances lost under her previous company’s blacklisting. however, she can only stay quiet for so long.in july of 2017, she details her abuse faced under ymj entertainment in an instagram post, shocking and enraging fans, and sending her into an emotional whirlwind as she now finds herself cast aside, removed from shows and now truly blacklisted from aspects in the industry. her fansites close, red hots turn against her, and though the ymj executive is sentenced to three years in prison for his crimes, she’s still accused of lying and holding a vendetta against ymj. nearly two years later, the backlash has yet to fade-- in fact, it seems to have worsened, with the rapper facing threats of violence in the rare moments that she decides to be public. the stubborn, unbreakable woman is nowhere to be found in these times, as she instead locks herself away, staying hidden within the comfort of her home, unable to work past her crippling anxiety to leave the house. groceries are delivered to the doorstep, and others have to jump through hoops simply to meet with her.it isn’t until 2020 that there’s a glimmer of hope for her. one show appearance leads to another, followed by a movie role, and next thing she knows, she’s back on the track to redemption. although most of her energy is spent on producing music under the alias RUNES, she releases her second full album, solidifying her decision to stay involved in the music industry.

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although she spent five years as an underground rapper under the name of BABYH, harlowe made her official debut as a soloist in august of 2016, and was the last SPICED member to do so. her lack of popularity in SPICED contributes to her lack of popularity as a soloist, along with various scandals that have taken a hit to her public reputation. her solo releases are mostly for her own benefit and as a gift to fans, and she very rarely has the opportunity to go on music shows since her releases are usually banned from broadcasting for profanity. since 2017, she primarily focused on features or writing and producing for other artists under the secret alias runes, but in 2020 she returned to music through her second full album emergence. since joining goblin gang in 2021, she's started to experiment with her vocals, and new releases come few and far between.

• DISCOGRAPHY
• FANSITE
• SPICED

VOCALS: 7/10. could easily be a lead vocalist in another group, and has performed in gia’s place during spektrum’s winter wonderland promos. praised for her unique, raspy vocals, though she struggles with high notes and nasality at times. in recent years she's taken to singing more, especially after taking vocal lessons once spiced moved to dominant music records.
RAP: 9.5/10. often regarded as one of the top tier idol rappers due to her years of experience. known for her fast delivery, sharp lyrics, and freestyle skill. feeling that she no longer has anything to prove, she's relaxed on her technique a bit in order to experiment with her music style.
DANCE: 4/10. gets the job done, without much praise. very few blunders when it comes time to perform, it just takes her a while to get the routines down. at this point, she only dances for the sake of her idol group, as her solo releases rarely involve choreography.
CREATIVITY: 9/10. plays guitar, violin, piano, bass guitar, and drums. writes and composes music, primarily for herself, spiced, and close friends. dabbles in photography in her free time, and has stepped up to filmography, as seen through her co-directing of spiced’s video for is this love?
CHARISMA: 3/10. interacts awkwardly online and on shows. some fans love it, the rest are pretty weirded out by it. seems to constantly say the wrong thing in the few times that she does speak, leading to public criticism or even hate and threats.
POPULARITY: 6/10. recent variety appearances have kept her in the public eye. she had a rocky introduction into the group and a lack of solo schedules/social media usage, leaving her mostly disliked or merely tolerated by the spiced fandom. most wouldn't consider her to be a household name, but among kpop and khiphop fans, she's well known— but not necessarily well liked.
REPUTATION: 4/10. fans consider her a musical genius, eccentric but lovable. others think she's disrespectful, creepy, and damaging to spiced’s reputation. her open feminist ideology has left her a target for hatred from anti-feminists since her debut, and spiced's fandom tends to turn the other way due to their own disdain towards her for other reasons. as the #metoo movement has expanded to korea, harlowe started to gain more public sympathy for speaking out, but the reveal of her relationship in august of 2018 has led to her getting more hate that did not die out until dmrec filed a lawsuit over the malicious comments. at this time she’s respected as an artist, but disliked as an idol. read more here.
VOICECLAIMS: yezi, katie kim, jinsil, lim kim, kassy, bibi, leebada, chloe devita, kilo kish, bobae
RAP CLAIMS: yezi, dilli jinn, rimi, tymee, jenyer, yunhway, bryn, lee youngji, rei ami

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MAGICAE.

the second that she’s born, her family knows exactly what she is. it’s nothing detectable by the plain eye, or even diagnosed by doctors, but the seo family knows. with the way that her mother’s exhaustion eventually turns into indifference, yet her father and grandparents’ thrill towards the new baby seems to double, there’s no denying it. just like her father, and grandparents, and many generations before her, seo hyesoo is a witch.jisook’s indifference towards her youngest child never seems to disappear. rumors in the village say it’s the result of her reckless teenage lifestyle catching up to her, doctors say that it’s postpartum depression, but the reality is that the romantic thrill of her marriage is starting to disappear as she realizes that she isn’t equipped for this sort of life. raising her spontaneous eight year old is a breeze compared to the newborn, whose unusual behavior is brushed off by the rest of the family. hyesoo is oddly quiet as an infant, and oddly advanced for her age. while the seos praise her for hitting milestones early, jisook starts to wonder whether the child is even human or not. this obviously puts a wedge in her relationship with byungho, and it takes about three years for her to throw in the towel and desert her family in the middle of the night.his wife’s abandonment is yet another example of byungho getting in over his head. enamored with the idea of magic, he grew up often ignoring his family’s advice to be cautious with his abilities. if there was a spell or enchantment that he could use to get his way, he probably was using it, and if one wasn’t known to him, he was figuring out a way to make things work in his favor anyway. it’s how he, the scraggly farm boy, managed to win over the it-girl from the next town over. one could say that they were head over heels with each other almost instantly, but their romance was anything but organic. it took years for the spell to fade, but jisook felt trapped by the marriage and their first child hyebin, leading her to try to make things work regardless. the birth of hyesoo, and the weird occurrences and brushes with danger that soon followed, lead her to come to her senses and put her own interests and sanity over the family that she felt was forced on her.mourning the betrayal by his trophy wife, byungho pushes himself deeper into his gambling habit. even though he no longer has the motivation of bringing his winnings home to his wife, he still makes use of his enchanted dices and various charms of luck and fortune. when things are good, he’s able to bring home toys for his daughters, but when things are bad, he disappears for days or weeks on end without a single word. he often returns looking bruised and discouraged, until the day that he doesn’t return again, with only a letter sent in the mail to indicate that he’s still alive. he was a modern day icarus, where his pride and greed left him blind to the fact that regulars were starting to notice that his frequent winnings just weren’t normal. conning the wrong person led to gangs putting a target on his head, and when faced with choosing between his own life or his family, he opted to disappear without a trace.with both parents gone, seo ilsung and kim kyunghee take their grandchildren in to their home, with kyunghee taking the young witch hyesoo under her wing to attempt to steer her in the right direction. by the time she’s five, hyesoo is learning to read from her grandmother’s old spellbooks, and as soon as she’s old enough to work outside on the farm, she’s learning of the healing properties of various plants. when the bullying that she faces at school gets too harsh, kyunghee opts to homeschool the young girl, doing her damn best to teach her everything that she needs to know and remind her of how loved she is. when both grandchildren announce that they’ll be moving to seoul at age nineteen and twelve, it’s hyebin that the seo elders worry about and not hyesoo. despite her young age, they’re confident that she’ll survive just fine without kyunghee’s guidance.as her life grows more unpredictable, hyesoo finds comfort in her grandmother’s teaching. equipped with some of the woman’s older books, she continues to self-teach, though the time spent practicing and honing her skills starts to decrease as her involvement in the music industry intensifies. it’s not an area of shame, but a side of her kept private and only revealed to those she considers to be deserving of the knowledge. when people make jokes about her being a witch, all she can do is smirk and deflect. if only they knew.

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WANTED PLOTS.

IMPORTANT CONNECTIONS.

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after getting her first tattoo in 2014, harlowe faced heavy criticism from netizens, along with false accusations of her being a school iljin. despite this being proven to be untrue, she is still judged heavily with each tattoo that she gets. due to some of her more visible tattoos, her stage outfits for music show performances have been altered, usually restricting her from wearing tank tops or short skirts/dresses. one shoulder tops are used to cover her shoulder tattoo, and bands/garters around her thigh tattoos are used when she isn’t wearing full pants. outside of music show performances, she has no problem with showing off her tattoos, even with the criticism she faces for it.

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SCANDALS & CONTROVERSIES.

a.k.a “damn elli, won’t you give this bitch a break?”, and the answer is no ♥. red hots are the most toxic fandom out there and harlowe is their go-to scapegoat. they will contradict anything and everything they’ve previously said if it means they can find a reason to blame her for something. listed below are just the major events, but at any moment you can assume that someone out there is finding a problem with something she’s said or not said or done. some of these are naturally occuring, and some have been fueled by ymj entertainment, or even ignored and left to fester until harlowe and the rest of spiced spoke up in her defense. while we’re at it, ignore the many faceclaims that i’ve cycled through over the years.
please note that this page contains references to sexual assault (of a minor). read with caution.

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