after her recent feedback from the judges, she’s aware this will be her greatest challenge yet. she doesn’t mind being scary. as far as nayoung is concerned, she says what’s necessary and what others are too nervous to say. could she be nicer about it? sure, but the industry isn’t nice, and some people don’t get it if you don’t put matters bluntly.
she needs to get along with everyone, though, especially her teammates for this round.
her teammates: hyejin and eunkyung, both of whom she had the...opportunity to encounter during her practice last round. as far as she’s concerned, hyejin needs to mind her own business and eunkyung needs to take the competition more seriously, and it seems the judges at least agree with her on hyejin. on eunkyung...they have vastly differing opinions. they called eunkyung center material. she doesn’t understand that at all, and isn’t looking forward to working with her. she’s trying to be optimistic about it, though: if the judges like eunkyung, maybe she’ll be an asset to their performance. or maybe the judges will suddenly see her the way nayoung does this round, and they’ll lose. maybe then, eunkyung will get eliminated instead of she or hyejin.
she realizes there’s no real point in thinking about that now, though. all that matters for now is putting on the best performance possible, and. practicing as smoothly as possible.
nayoung isn’t one to waste time. the first day they have available to work together, she gets started on the line distribution, and it’s nayoung, so her poor team has no real choice but to endure her taking charge. she listens to any requests the others have as far as lines go, then listens to the song, and watches their guide video–– over and over and over, and draws up the rest of the line distribution herself. she tries her best to be fair, but above all else keeps the quality of the performance in mind.
she and hyejin have more experience and rap skill than eunkyung, so it makes sense for them to start and end off the song; the audience will likely remember those parts the best, so they need to make sure they’re as high quality as possible. then, she tries to assign the parts that seem the hardest to either herself or hyejin, and leave the simplest ones to eunkyung. it should be easier for her to learn those and perfect them than any of the others.
once she’s done, she gathers the other two girls and sits on the practice room floor with them, and hands them lyric sheets outlining the parts she assigned for them.
“okay. this is what i settled on. does this look good to you guys?” she honestly is open to suggestions. sure, she thinks she knows best, but it is a teamwork evaluation, and even she knows it’s important this at least looks like a team decision.
♡ Next Gen - rap mission : hyejin performs witch with nayoung and eunkyung ♡
hyejin didn’t know what she expected when she got her team since even if she had bitter feelings, she always wanted to be a team player and show she could get along with anyone even if it meant she might need to put up a guise of sorts. she at a brief moment with nayoung last episode since she didn’t want her to overwork herself at all. she knew from the other’s past before that it wouldn’t end well if that happened. with eunkyung though, this was her first time interacting with the girl and honestly there was something about her that hyejin likes a lot even just from watching her from afar.
she did her best to make sure that there wasn’t any issue at all but she was impressed with the way things were handled without an argument occurring. sure she saw herself as the mediator but she was glad she didn’t have to step in and hold the peace at all. she knew the judges would see the bit of conflict between her teammates but she hopes that doesn’t affect anything when the judges are critiquing them. maybe that will be pushed away with how they perform together as a team.
once they are called to the stage, she gives a polite bow to all the judges as her hands grip onto the microphone in her hands. she’s more than ready to rap and show off that skill. she always practicing rapping and hope that this skill shines especially with how much practice she’s done with her lines and making sure she sounds good with her team. she knows the line distribution was changed slightly but she still kept the lines she had before. not that she wouldn’t have gave any away but now that everything is in agreement, her heart can rest easy.
hearing nayoung starting off the song, hyejin fully gets into the zone, ready to belt out the line and show off what she learned as a trainee as well as what she learned from j-yoon. this time she made sure to get in more time to practice instead of spreading herself thin like she did before. hopefully it pays off for this mission. she doesn’t wanna disappoint the judges. as soon as it’s her turn, she flows into the line as she keeps up with the rhythm like her life depends on it. rapping is one skill she was always proud of especially getting to flow in english as naturally as korean. the song felt like it became a part of her as she not only made sure she got her timing and enunciation as precise as she could but kept her eyes on how her teammates were doing.
it sounded well to her with the way their voices flowed together. that tension she felt a bit at times when they were discussing wasn’t there at all. she knew they all wanted to succeed with this and not fall in anyway especially with elimination being a possibility. she hopes that they all show that they can shine on stage together without too many hiccups since it seemed bound to happen even to a professional.
everything else seems to fly by as she hears eunkyung finishing off the rap. her breath feels like it was taken away with how much she tried to convey the emotion as well as make sure that her lines were delivered as well as she could muster. the part of her didn’t wanna fail again and prove to the judges that she did better this time. that was the one thought always in her mind and even here after the performance had finished.
giving another polite bow, she does the same to her teammates before leaving to calm herself. was it better than her performance of my turn? did she prove that now with taking the critiques seriously? practicing all the time even outside of the coaching surely helped. her voice felt a bit tired now after that and she knew that it was time to rest it again. she just hopes this all goes well and that she doesn’t fall lower in the ranks at all. hopefully this is a redemption from the last mission but she’ll only know after seeing what the judges say.
“even if it’s hard i’m always the unnie” mentioned: @behyejin @eunkyungxbe
nayoung gets two things out of her feedback for this round: stabilize her vocals and play nice.
both of those will be easier said than done. she personally doesn’t think she’s not getting along with anyone. is she harsh? sure. does she hate anyone here, or want to hurt them? no, even if it is a competition. okay, maybe she wants haein in particular to fail, but it’s not like she’s fighting anyone. if anything, she’s helped people here, even if her methods aren’t as coddling as many others. some of the people here just need to get better, and need to be told the truth plainly. she’s sure bom would agree, and maybe that’s why nayoung could’ve sworn she smiled at her. scarier than bom, people are saying. honestly, she takees that as a compliment. she doesn’t mind being feared, especially if it gets the job done.
now, she just needs to find a balance between playing nice and getting the job done for this upcoming team challenge. she doesn’t doubt her ability to play nice at all, given she did it for years before this competition, emphasis on the play. she used to fake friendly, helpful and kind, but now that her real personality was broadcasted nationwide for everyone to see, flipping the switch entirely doesn’t seem like a good idea. they’ll know she’s faking it, and she suspects it won’t be as well-received this time as it was on her previous shows.
she figures she’ll just have to be herself, but hold back and remain more...diplomatic. she thinks she can do that. her patience runs thin easily, but she can still stretch it out for as long as needed. she can fake that much and make it look convincing, surely. she’ll still be strict and honest, but try not to make anyone cry this round. she can go a little easier on her team.
her team: hyejin and eunkyung.
hyejin, at least, seems competent in her skills, even if her performances aren’t incredibly exciting, as far as nayoung is concerned. eunkyung, on the other hand...well, they already had problems last episode. nayoung hopes she’s taking the competition seriously now, because if she didn’t stand for it during practice for “my turn,” she certainly won’t when they’re on a team together.
she doesn’t understand why the judges called eunkyung center material. sure, she’s cute, and a good dancer, but...her vocals and rap are lackluster at best, and surely that will show through this round when they’re meant to focus on their rapping.
eunkyung apparently intends to make nayoung’s job being a team player as hard as possible, because she challenges her on the line distribution. nayoung, once again, tries to handle matters as diplomatically as possible, and she thinks she does well enough. the producers and judges will decide in the end, but she hopes, if they lose this challenge (likely due to eunkyung), that the judges find the other girl’s behavior immature and eliminate her.
the first priority is to put on a good performance, though, and ultimately hope they’re the winning team. she’ll do whatever it takes to achieve that goal.
including helping eunkyung where she’ll accept it. there is still tension, but it doesn’t bother nayoung too much; she’s honestly used to that. as long as she cooperates enough in practice, they’ll get along fine, and she does, even if she’s still a little too light-hearted for nayoung’s liking. she doesn’t scold her for it this time, aside from (mostly) politely asking her to focus when she thinks it’s necessary.
nayoung, strangely, still doesn’t feel confident. she’s kept her eye on the rest of the competition throughout the show, and she knows their opponents are all strong rappers. she thinks it’s a little unfair to put a group of girls who don’t specialize in rap against men that do, especially considering they’re saddled with eunkyung, but as always, she’ll do her best. there’s a voice in the back of her head that reminds her she was eliminated on the finale during her first survival show right after she had a rap challenge. back then, she was far less experienced than she is now; that failure inspired her to keep working on her rap, and she knows she’s better, but is she better enough?
when they stand backstage preparing to perform, she knows better than to doubt herself now. nayoung isn’t an emotional person, so she sometimes has problems connecting emotionally to songs; she’s good enough at faking it, but witch isn’t an emotional song, really. it’s a little angry, maybe, which nayoung doesn’t have a problem channeling. it’s essentially a clapback at receiving criticism and being painted as the villian, at least as far as nayoung understands.
she would love to say ohhhhh, the haters are so wrong about me, i’m human too, please don’t be mean, but the thing is–– she is a bad witch. nayoung can accept it, so the whole performance is a little ironic for her. she thinks she can still bring a little of her bad witch attitude to the table, though, and pull this off well. she just needs to approach it with boldness and fire. she has plenty of that.
they receive their cue to head out to stage, and they do.
that all too familiar instrumental plays: their hip hop beat, and nayoung starts the song, so she’s the first performer to appear among the fog on the stage.
first, she sings to open them up:
Everybody’s got some face name of poker
The cold air here is making me stiffen up
I won’t get carried away
I see that right now it’s time for me to rock
she walks to the side stage, unveiling hyejin and eunkyung sitting at a table in the back, and hyejin takes over with her own fiery rap. eunkyung follows with her rap that she originally complained about because it will be censored, which she is right about, but nayoung thinks it’s better that people hear fewer of the words she sings and raps anyway. to eunkyung’s credit, she has improved.
nayoung takes a seat at the table in the back in time for her to go into her first real rap. she knows that what she lacks in rap technique, she should be able to make up for with attitude;
So tell
Who’s your enemy
Made it all up
And curse at me or whatever, I don’t give a fuck
she says fuck with her whole chest, knowing it’ll be censored on tv anyway, and that part, she does relate to. she doesn’t care what anyone says about her. she doesn’t really check people’s comments about her online anymore, anyway. she already knows they’ll be negative, so what’s the point? it’s not like any of the people with shit to say about her have the skill she does, so they can criticize as much as they want.
I don’t care about what’s going on over there
We ain’t do it face-to-face
It’s not cute enough to just let it go
I’m in dat position, I’m no witch
Good girls gone bad
Yo who’d dat be
eunkyung goes next, sing-rapping, and god, nayoung hopes it goes over well enough with the judges. hyejin goes next, introducing the chorus for the first time. it’s actually hyejin and eunkyung going back and forth for a while, since nayoung so generously gave up some of her lines to eunkyung. they’ll see whether that ends up helping or hurting them in the end.
the verse hyejin specifically requested comes up eventually, and she performs it well, at least in nayoung’s opinion. she made that part suit her. nayoung starts the chorus next, and leaves the second half of it to eunkyung.
next comes her second (and favorite) rap, the beat switching to something easier to rap along to. this is her last chance to stand out, so she’ll grab it by the horns and attack it with everything she has.
Umm umm
You know I keep it one hunnit
Even if it’s hard I’m always the unnie
she wanted this verse in particular because of the unnie line. it would be stupid for one of the younger girls to take it, and she likes it because it feels like she can hone her older age into a weapon. she’ll be 23 this year; older than most of the contestants in the competition; all of the girls, if she remembers right, which means she really is always the unnie.
her next lines are fun too, though:
Wherever I go I’m the dopest
Why is it hot in here suddenly
In this case I shall take off my jacket
she gets the chance to be a little sexy too, and with these lines, slides her jacket off to reveal her almost-bare shoulders for a few seconds. she offers the camera a sly smile as she finishes out her rap:
I don’t want this to be happen
We’ll find and uncover whatever’s sealed, the trails of the criminal
Wait me
then comes a brief, simple choreography sequence, which is fun, and eunkyung actually does objectively well at. too bad that’s not the purpose of the performance.
they all alternate lines in the final chorus in a finale that nayoung thought was only fitting, and then hyejin finishes the song off with the same verse nayoung did as she and eunkyung turn their backs to the cameras–– just quieter.
then it’s over.
honestly, regardless of the result, it was fun. every time she’s on stage, it reminds nayoung that she doesn’t feel better anywhere else in the world.
she doesn’t know if it’ll be good enough for them to win, but at least she got to show a new side of herself that is well improved over the first time the public saw her rap.
{ `❁ }
“this looks great to me honestly. i’m pretty content with the lines i got.” it’s the lines she asked for but talking about it amongst each other is best since they are a team for this round. she wonders what eunkyung thinks about it all.
@eunkyungxbe
center material.
it had taken everything in eunkyung to keep her face calm and level, so as not to offend the judges’ evaluation of her performance with her own display of shock and disbelief. in just a handful of days, she’d gone from submitting to a television on a whim, odds narrowed against her, who had never even considered being a performer herself, to being placed in the top five on an idol survival show out of countless auditioning hopefuls.
she has her own tags now, on all the socials she’d perused to get to know her fellow contestants. thank goodness she got that root touch up before the first episode.
of course, scrolling through her own mentions on social media, a notably risky hobby for anyone known to the public, she can’t avoid the instances that her name appears alongside nayoung’s. how quickly eunkyung’s feeds had gone from old nayoung-centered clips to trivial debates about which female contestant was in the wrong, which was prettier, which was more talented. initially, eunkyung had brushed it all off as petty internet drama, faceless strangers hiding behind pixels just to pit women against each other. nayoung had a point, one that had been reiterated by one of the show’s top professionals. perhaps, the way she’d gone about it had been a bit tactless and proud, but it wasn’t anything eunkyung had taken personally. not at the time.
but then eunkyung had watched the episode, felt something inside of her spasm at the sight nayoung, rattling off the flaws of faceless contestants in a harsh, unforgiving tone, one after the other. and if there had been enough content for that small montage of degradation, how much more was there on the cutting room floor? she didn’t care about her own critiques–she’d faced far worse than nayoung in her lifetime–but the way nayoung spoke to others, as if they were all beneath her, as if she had any authority to hurt people for the sake of, what, throwing her weight around? it was far too reminiscent of the girls from school, the ones who made a regular pastime of making their classmates feel small.
eunkyung tries to remain civil and polite when they first meet up as a team, for hyejin’s sake, and for the sake of their performance. but there is a lingering disdain there, just behind her eyes, whenever she glances at nayoung, and a glint of daring, as if challenging her to step out of line again.
then there’s the line distribution, which is a blatant indication of just how little nayoung thinks of her. normally, it wouldn’t bother eunkyung, who has yet to become too emotionally invested in this process or its outcome; yes, the stakes are a little higher for her, now that she’s been told she might have a shot at this, but it’s not enough for her to let a bully off scot-free. sorry hyejin.
she can’t help the drawn out, disappointed scoff that passes through her soft palette as she scans the page again, tilting her head to the side and squinting her eyes.
“this is…” she begins, trying to formulate her impassioned thoughts into words suitable for network television. another scoff, this one through an ironic, sardonic smile.
“nayoung-ssi…” she finally addresses the elephant in the room head on, looking up to look their self-designated leader in the eye, “do you really think so low of me?”
she’s smiling even more now, as if she finds the whole thing bitterly amusing, holding up her copy of the distribution in one hand, “most of my part would be censored like this. do you want me to disappear that badly?”
nayoung flashes hyejin a smile. “okay, great!” she replies, perhaps a little more chipper than typical of her true nature. sure, she’s playing up the enthusiasm, but she is genuinely excited to get a chance to rap properly for the show. granted, it was a rap performance that sent her out on her first survival show, but back then she was incredibly inexperienced. in her time training after that point, she made sure she was able to rap competently too, just in case the company called on her to do so. next gen isn’t her company, but she’s being called on to do it regardless, and she’s thankful she put the work in that she did.
that excitement ebbs a bit when eunkyung speaks up. nayoung honestly doesn’t expect eunkyung to fight her on this. the eunkyung she last encountered was lighthearted and, as she pinned her herself, not taking the competition seriously enough for nayoung’s liking.
to eunkyung’s credit, that seems to be different now. either that or she’s just being difficult to give nayoung a hard time. at first, it’s incredibly irritating. nayoung can’t help the brief moment her face betrays that feeling, before she evens it out, because honestly, this is good for her. eunkyung is testing her. she doesn’t know if that’s the other girl’s entire intention, or she’s genuinely more ambitious than nayoung gave her credit for, but this is a test she intends to pass, and really, she can use this moment in her favor. she had a feeling any test of teamwork wouldn’t go swimmingly for her, but what a perfect opportunity to make eunkyung look like the most unreasonable of the group.
surely, if eunkyung did look up her history on past survival shows, she should know of nayoung’s ability to save face. she hasn’t been trying it this time, opting to show her true colors in favor of spending that energy focusing on her skills instead of being someone she’s not, but she has faith in her ability to turn on politeness and a good nature, however fake it may be. it’s for the sake of the team, after all, and the judges asked her to play nice. she’s just implementing their feedback.
“i do think you have less experience than hyejin and i,” she admits honestly, albeit as level-headedly as she can. that much is true. the rest of the truth is that she doesn’t think eunkyung is very talented outside of her dancing. she doesn’t know what the judges see in her at all, but fine, if eunkyung isn’t satisfied, nayoung will cooperate. maybe how much the judges love eunkyung will help them if she has more lines, or maybe she’ll do a piss poor job, they’ll end up in the bottom group, and then eunkyung will get eliminated for her lack of talent and lack of cooperation. of course, nayoung never wants to lose, but that’s not a terrible outcome.
“but i don’t want you to disappear.” she sort of does, but in the case of their performance, that would be incredibly unprofessional, and that wasn’t even her intention in creating the distribution. “i thought the line distribution was fair, but if you have any suggestions,” nayoung looks down at the sheet of their lines again. she takes her pen and circles two parts–– one of hyejin’s parts, near the middle, including the line i don’t wanna be caught on fire. the other is near the end, with the lines even if it’s hard i’m always the unnie. then, she slides her own lyric sheet toward eunkyung. “the only parts that need to stay the same are these two. hyejin specifically wanted the part that’s circled, and i’m the oldest in the group, so i think it makes sense for me to have this part.” she points to her own part with her pen. “i’m open to changing any other parts. you too, hyejin?” she turns to the other member of the group, because it’s important they have her approval as well, if only for the cameras.
