from a couple of people who were afraid they’d never see each other again, seungjoon and yongguk seemed to be meeting each time more often. he wasn’t complaining. in fact, he was far from it. the younger had always been a great company, and getting to invite people who weren’t his sister to go places together was a rather awesome feeling.
of course, he’d still need to go there with his sister later on. they always had that silent pact of going to any special or limited events together. sometimes he wasn’t sure if it was purely for his company or because he could drive.
“you know, for a bubbles festival, i was really expecting bubble drinks.” the summer spirit was as alive as ever, even if it felt like autumn was just around the corner. seungjoon holds his juice pouch close to his mouth so he could take sips out of it periodically. “this is just regular juice but in a pouch.” technology was truly incredible sometimes. his eyes sway to their right and smile just as bright as his lips once they meet yongguk. it had been hard controlling those lately. “do you want some?”
rkmxrk replied to your photoset: RW ▲ —@ro_wooni if you’re working late like me,...
cdndreamr: hyung you can do it!!! 호아팅!!!
ro_wooni: (@cdndreamr) mark! ㅋㅋ you’re working harder than i am though~~ ㅠㅠ hyung will watch you win tomorrow! okay? ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 호아팅~~
longguork replied to your photoset: RW ▲ —@ro_wooni if you’re working late like me,...
yunggukkies: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ ….. hyung looks handsome, how come we don’t hang out more … ~ ��
ro_wooni: (@yunggukkies) ㅋㅋㅋ because you don’t like when i call you cute? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ we should hang out next weekend. ill make free time! ㅋ pokemon go with me?
most of his week is free time, though the days that he does go to work are solely separated for that. he needs to sleep until late after a long shift and then go to sleep early before another one starts. on thursdays, however, he gets to simply relax; no rules to follow.
the fact waking up at eight in the morning felt like an act of rebellion to him was probably a bit ridiculous. as boring as some days were, doing things freely was most certainly necessary when he knows what would come only a couple of days later. so seungjoon lays down on his stomach on top of his couch while playing a game on his phone. whoever said subway surfers were out of style was actually completely right and the man simply wasn’t able to follow the trends.
when the doorbell rings he doesn’t even flinch. his eyes are set on the screen in front of him as the level gets tougher and tougher. “yes~?” but seungjoon is a good homeowner and neighbor, and leaving people waiting was never nice. so he tries standing up. he wobbles for a bit but his score remains intact. that was the product of leaving such a man with so much free time to waste. “who is it?”
MGA season 4, ep. 5 - Mashups
Team C - Café Latte
#4005 ( Jin Longguo ) #4009 ( Kim Bora ) #4042 ( Hwang Hyunjin )
#4033 Lee Luda, vocals
Blackpink / BTS - Stay / Coffee
Keeping herself busy, Luda didn't get a lot of sleep the previous night. She was tired as she took the bus to KT's building and she hadn't been able to eat in the morning, worrying how things would go this week. Especially the thought of her teammates not accepting her, after the groups she was in placed last twice in a row, made her worry. So many things could go wrong – not being accepted or the team not getting along only being the tip of the iceberg.
She'd packed snacks for everyone again, focusing on healthier options that would give them more energy, a pillow and all the notes she'd made vocal and dance techniques and anything that could help with a good performance.
The first surprise happened when she arrived – there were four boxes with each of the team members' name on one of them – except one. One girl – Yerim – had decided to drop out of the show and left them care packages and a note, her words surrounded by hearts. Luda isn't sure how to feel, while many thoughts run through her mind. Without thinking, she walks over to the closest camera, her box in hands.
“Dear Yerim, whatever the reason for your decision, I hope things will go well for you. Thank you very much for these,” she says as she lifts the box up once. “Don't worry too much about leaving us with one less team member and I hope you're doing well, that nothing serious happened. Again, thank you,” she felt her eyes tear up a little, even though she didn't know the girl personally. But it must have been a difficult choice – it was possible something really bad happened and she could only hope that wasn't the case. Quickly, she blinked the threatening tears away and continued, trying to smile, “and good luck!”
She walked back to where she'd taken the box from and inspected all the snacks and water they now had, including what she'd brought. At least the chances of having to run out and buy something were pretty slim for now.
She sat down and looked around the room. It was a bright room, nicely lit and she liked it. It felt comfortable somehow. She remembered back to the prior two weeks and could already imagine the smell of their effort, not to say sweat.
To her luck, the team seemed to get along very well. On the opposite side, she'd been voted leader. Saying she was unhappy with it, would be an understatement. She wasn't sure she could live up to the responsibility and was scared of the possible consequences following bad leadership. She could only do her best and was glad the others would help her where she lacked. Helping with the choreography, for example, wasn't an option seeing her skills. But she would do everything she could to always keep a good mood, to be open to everyone's worries, make sure everyone had everything they needed – also concerning snacks and water – and remind everyone to not slack off if needed. It was a “takes a deep breath and face your fears” kind of situation to her. It would surely help her grow, but she didn't know that yet.
Planning and throwing ideas around seemed to be going well and everyone had a few nice choices in mind, until they eventually decided on a mash-up of Stay and Coffee, by Blackpink and BTS which she found to be a very pleasing choice. It was a calm song, but not boring. It had a lightweight feel to it, seasoned with nostalgia and melancholic memories. She'd never dated anyone, never really been with anyone, so she couldn't speak from experience. But she did know the feeling of being left behind by someone dear to her very well and it would always be a part of her. The kind of part that jumped on your shoulders and weighed you down heavily. She blinked to shoo the tears away that gathered in her eyes and led her thoughts back to their performance.
Trying to think positively and not let her past consume her, she focused on this weeks concept. So far she'd only done strong concepts for the team battles and this would just suit her SO MUCH better, it made her very excited. That aside she loved coffee and thinking about coffee themed anything had her mind on overdrive. She wasn't good with the bitter ones, but she loved all the different sweet ones. Inspired by her affection for coffee and her teammates ideas, she had different ones going through her mind, though she didn't voice a good part, feeling like some of them were a bit too much.
“If we go with the theme of 'cafe latte' we could each choose a type of coffee for ourselves, for introductions, after introducing the team together?” she threw in the mix of options, excited about that idea and leaning towards a sweet macchiato caramel or cappuccino for herself. To her joy, the idea was accepted.
She admired Sua and Hyunjin for coming up with an amazing choreo in this short amount of time, though she felt rather flustered at a few parts. At the same time she was glad that they decided on pairing the stronger dancers with the less strong ones when they weren't all dancing together. The idea of couple dances seemed very cute to her and she had a feeling that they would do very well this time. She didn't know why, but it felt like this time things were just... right.
Her positive thoughts made her stomach feel a little sick sometimes and she ended up practising even when she originally planned to take a break. She was scared of thinking anything she did was good enough and throughout the week, she continued to push her limits.
Practising lines went pretty well in her opinion, also thanks to the additional knowledge from her little anger fuelled research after last weeks results. She had a better idea on how to sing certain parts – also thanks to a few (video) analyses of stay that she watched – and improved her breathing technique to be able to sing stabler when dancing. She was also really impressed with Longguo's singing and voice.
Dancing on the other hand was still more problematic and didn't go as well right from the start. Add to that the flustered feeling some of the dance moves evoked and there you have a reason for Luda to be worried again, even if things actually went well. But with determination to do her best and the help of her team she managed to jump over that hurdle as well.
One of the most worrying days was probably Tuesday. She was still surprised by Hyunjin approaching her and worried if everything really was okay again during the days after. She had no idea what the reason could have been, but also wasn't going to ask about it. Competitions like these were difficult to handle for anyone and shouldn't be underestimated. Breaking down could happen easily and she wasn't sure herself, how she'd managed to not have a strong breakdown yet, being an emotional person and all.
Luda found especially interesting that the whole team seemed to often sleep at the practise room, to the point where the term “team sleepover” came up and it felt like there was always someone around. It was motivating, but also calming, knowing that she wasn't alone, even if she happened to be the only one awake. She could probably have made it home every now and then, but she wanted to stay as much as possible to practise as much as possible and didn't want to waste any time.
The week passed by way too fast and she was earnestly sad that their time together was as good as over. At the same time, she hoped they'd do really well and wouldn't place last.
As they waited for their turn – luckily they would be up soon, as the third team to perform – Luda was just as nervous as before the two previous performances. While she thought they would do a lot better, exactly that was what made her worry – what if not? What if she'd messed up as a leader? But because she was the leader after all, she tried to conceal her nerves and to look confident.
When they were told to standby, she quickly turned to the other three and smiled.
“I know I was a bit lacking as a leader, but thank you all for helping me, wherever I needed help,“ she started, thinking especially of the choreography. “I really had fun preparing for this performance, even if it wasn't always easy. I know we'll do well!” At the end of her little speech, if it could be called that, she felt more confident than just seconds ago. She remembered the long hours of practise and how tired she'd been a lot of the time but also how much she'd enjoyed preparing nonetheless.
They walked up on the stage and introduced the team together.
“Café Latte: a team with a unique flavour that will stay with you and warm your heart with a rich and mature message like espresso, and lighter and heart-fluttering vocals like milk foam!” and when it was her turn, she smiled her sweetest smile and introduced herself.
“Hello! I'm team Café Lattes Caramel Macchiato and leader Lee Luda!”, she winked at the audience. “With refreshing and sweet vocals, like bitter espresso and sweet caramel, I hope you will be enticed by my voice and enjoy our performance. Please support us!” She ended her intro with finger hearts.
After they all said their intros, they got into position.
The lights dimmed and Luda sat on a chair alone, lights focusing on her. Beginning and being alone in the spotlight was very nerve wrecking during their practise. Since she was sitting, she'd have to focus all emotion on her expression, body language and especially her voice. Practising to put emotion into her voice had been both fun and difficult and she quite liked doing this. It just gave her singing that little extra thing which was quite nice.
So easily, with harsh words
You put scars in my heart
Without even saying sorry
Again, I’m comforting myself
Always nervous
If you’re gonna leave me
I just want you to stay
She started singing softly, portraying the songs sadness in her voice and looking into the camera with the worry of someone leaving, that she knew all too well. Her part came to an end and she lowered her arm onto her lap, looking down. The other members walked past her, so she could seamlessly blend in at the back, as Hyunjin rapped. The melancholic but not too heavy expression the song asked for was surprisingly easy for her and might surprise anyone who only knew her happy smiles.
This sad melody resembles you
It makes me cry, eh eh
Your scent is a sweet felony
I hate you so much but I love you, yeah
Before the dark night traps me in
Don’t leave me
The two different songs blended together well and she easily felt the right mood for the performance. Her voice was clear and suited the song well. She was completely immersed in the performance and the dance seemed more naturally than during her previous stages. She ad-libbed the yeah prettily and looked directly at the camera again.
After she'd had two big parts at the beginning, she wouldn't have to sing much for a while that seemed a lot shorter than it was and she concentrated on the dance. Even though the song was a bit slower, they didn't opt for standing in front of microphones or a super easy dance and kept a high standard, to show all of their skills and their will to move on to the next round.
As Hyunjin rapped his next lines, she concentrated on getting the dance right, down to the smallest details, but was also glad that the audience would focus on him. Body rolls weren't her speciality and it made her feel embarrassed at first but during practise she'd learned to get over herself and give all parts her best. She still felt insecure with the flustering parts – the one coming up now being a back hug – but she'd learned to keep her expression straight and hold eye-contact when needed instead of immediately looking away.
Before the dark night traps me in
Don’t leave me
Do you still love me? If you feel the same
Don’t leave today
She sang her parts clearly and honestly, relating to the lyrics more than she would like to admit and hoped her voice shined as much as she felt it did. Except for a few more “stay with me” that was her last part and she continued to focus on dance and expression. As she looked to the audience, she felt a rush go through her body and she knew this was why she wanted to stand on stage. This was why she'd barely slept the whole week and did her best during dances she found embarrassing.
She kept her breath steady and mentally prepared for the next part, which she'd feared most. She had to be very careful of not getting into Hyunjin's space. Being twirled around and then having to twirl once more after getting back on the ground had ended with her falling flat on the floor during her first practise of the song. She lost balance a few more times during practise, but the more she'd tried, the better she got so that now, she could pull it off on stage.
Another back-hug, she broke free from, and then the 2nd part she was very worried about. She'd be slowly let down on the ground and had to keep torso and legs in one straight line. She did well and before she knew it, her most feared part came. It wasn't the most difficult, but the most embarrassing. The girl let herself glide lower into splits, while moving her hand backwards through her hair and glancing into the camera for a moment before looking back at Hyunjin. She bent her knees a little and let herself fall forward, where Hyunjin caught her, ending the performance in a hug.
She did her best to not break the ending pose too quickly as she felt flustered. But soon the audiences cheers felt like a rush going through her veins and while she was out of breath, she was happy. It was as though she fell in love with standing on stage, like she slowly became addicted to it.
Contestant #4026 Choi Youngjae
Performing My Flower by JBJ { Line distribution }
Team D - The Flower Rangers { @longguork @rkjeon @rksxna @haknyeonrk }
Outfit
It had reached a point by now where Youngjae had stopped caring about trying to complain and simply just started to accept his fate as it was, no matter how troublesome. He was getting publicity and recognition albeit not in the way he had imagined, and he was darned sure that if anyone was going to come for his head they would have done so by now. The likelihood of anyone from back home watching some random Korean auditioning programme anyway was very slim, but his paranoia was still lurking in the back of his mind, causing many scenarios of ‘what if’. Not only that, if Mnet knew of his actual past, they would be more than likely to toss him straight out. Even if he was clean nowadays and had no spots on his attest it was a tough background to run away from and greatly frowned upon.
Who wanted to live an entire life in the shadows watching every step you took though? When he had first come here the artist thought it was such a life he desired, but as he was progressively getting better through the therapy and medication he also came to realise that such an existence would be terribly dull. No one was created to be alone, not even Youngjae. Even he wanted to live within people’s memories.
Even more importantly, he could actually look at this with a feeling of fondness. It sucked, it was tiresome and bothersome and whatnot, but at the end of it, it was also kind of fun. An emotion he hadn’t felt for a long time. When it came to the long hours in the practice room with Jeongguk and Haknyeon trying their best to bring a change to the hopelessness that was Choi Youngjae’s dancing skills, of chatting to Yongguk and discussing the vocals, and of realising that Sana was from Japan as well and spending the time talking to her in his mother tongue, none of them truly felt bothersome. He might insist otherwise but he did have trouble being true to himself on more occasions than just this.
The early morning after Friday’s filming started in the practice room where two familiar faces and two he had only seen as fellow contestants met him. Despite already being familiar with half of the people present, introductions were still in order, a ritual that felt kind of silly with the circumstances. They might be working together as a group and thus should be creating a sense of unity, but in the end, each and every one of these people was a rival. It was just foolish to knit tight bonds here of all places.
Much like last time, the topic immediately fell on the matter at hand: picking a song and leader. Yet again Youngjae made it clear that he didn’t have the skills to carry the team in such a way, although he refrained from stating the true reason that it was too much of a pain in the ass to deal with on top of everything else. Again it was a matter of two people for leader, and although he felt a bit for Sana due to her heritage, perhaps he was simply too biased towards Jeongguk from the past round. It was with little hesitation that he voted him leader. Unlike last time picking the song went fairly easy much to his relief as Youngjae wasn’t sure he would be able to stay neutral to yet another hour upon hour of trying to find ‘the perfect song’. To him it was pointless anyway. It wasn’t about finding a song that fit, it was about making the song fit.
Training hours were long and tough, for Youngjae knew that he had to train harder than anyone else on his team if he wanted to make it. Until now he hadn’t thought he wanted such a thing, but now it was different. If there was one thing he could be happy about it was that he exercised regularly to keep up with his martial arts and hence had a decent stamina everything considered, for if he didn’t he might have died already. Still on multiple occasions he had felt his legs shake so much under him that he could barely stand. It was awful. He couldn’t deny the fact that he had wanted to punch either Haknyeon or Jeongguk in the face multiple times for being stressed to continue when he simply wanted to lie down in a pit and let his soul leave his body. Dancing was so much different from karate.
Thinking about giving up was very tempting, but a certain encounter last week stopped any such thoughts immediately. Hadn’t he been the one who called Daniel out for whining about everything being too hard and him not having the skills to do it? He would just be a fucking hypocrite if he didn’t try his own darnest after giving that speech. Or he could also just kill Daniel in the dead of the night and hide his body where no one would ever find him. Then no evidence would be left behind of his hypocrisy. That was also a tempting thought. He was, of course, kidding. At least mostly.
And even then Dancing was only part of it. He couldn’t slack on his vocal training either. Whenever he wasn’t practicing dancing it wasn’t strange to hear Youngjae do various exercises for his vocal chords to keep them warm and active as well as preparing himself for the adlibs and lines he had to do this time. Some of the pitches were pretty high, and he had to make sure that he could pull them off while dancing. Even sometimes while dancing his voice was still audible, often in between sharp breaths. If their practise time was a song of its own, Youngjae’s vocal training might very well have been the adlibs.
Friday had arrived and with it the nerves. That was another first. Actually feeling nervous about the result after today’s show. He was worried he was going to screw up badly with the choreography being way more intense than last week. Take a misstep, sing a false note, or who knew, knowing his skills he might even take a tumble right there on stage and destroy the entire performance. This wasn’t his world and he should never have tried to venture into it, not even for a free meal.
Getting his hair and makeup done, Youngjae could only think that whoever knew him outside of the competition was going to have the time of their life after this. His outfit was sickeningly cutesy he thought and although he had been the one to spill the idea of the whole thing, he was starting to regret the result. The song carried a refreshing image, so linking it to clothes like this wasn’t too far fetched. It was just so far from anything he would ever willingly put on. Who had brought up the idea of the different colours he couldn’t remember by now, but it had been a passing remark that had made Youngjae make an off comments. “That sounds like power rangers. With the different colours and stuff.”
And thus their group name had also come to be. When it was finally the time for team D to claim their spot upon the stage, he joined the others in a unified introduction. “We are the Flower Rangers!” he spoke with feigned enthusiasm, although he wondered if anyone would even notice if he didn’t speak as eagerly as everyone else. He had after all barely got any screen time thus far, and he was surprised if anyone watching the show even cared about him. After an individual introduction everyone got into position and the lights dimmed.
The moment the music started playing Sana sang, her voice in stark contrast to the original deep vocal of the song. For this segment as well as for most of the song Youngjae was placed in the back, hidden away so his mistakes wouldn’t be as obvious. Which was just why he couldn’t afford to mess up on the parts that were actually his. For the entire first verse he had nothing to do vocals wise, but the moment the chorus hit, Youngjae stepped up to cover Sana who had just been singing right before him.
You’re my flower
You’re my spring
Because you keep blooming
I can’t handle it, what do I do?
What had caused him the greatest worry was the jump after the first line of the chorus. In training it had taken ages before he had managed to make it look even decent, only thanks to Haknyeon’s coaching him. In the end he could do it mostly every time, but pulling it off on stage had worried him a lot. So it pleased him when he managed to perform it just as practised. The next half of the chorus was a bit of a high pitch, but that didn’t worry Youngjae. High notes were one of the things his singing teacher had practised with him and he had been training his vocal range. And just as he expected there were also no problems pulling it off.
Now I’m here
I’ll embrace you
Ever since we first met, you’re--
Taking over, Jeongguk stepped into the centre and pushed Youngjae further back before continuing the song with the killing part. For now his moment of spotlight was over, and he went back to hide behind everyone else. They were slightly tied down by only having one rapper in the group considering the song had three relatively filling rap parts, and as Haknyeon stepped up for the second time, and he would once more after the second chorus, this time carried by Sana, Youngjae just hoped that no one would think that the younger got too many parts compared to the rest and thereby outshone everyone else. There was only so much they could do with what they had. And Youngjae still had something he could do, for as the second chorus finished and went straight into the next rap part, it was surprisingly enough his turn.
I want you, I can’t express this all with words
My lips won’t move how I want
Instead of rapping, however, Youngjae opted to sing the lines. After learning that Moonbok who had already been eliminated from the competition was a music theory major, he had chosen to seek out the person with the most fabulous hair in the entire MGAs. It had been easy to lure him in -- “I’ll let you play with my dog if you help me” -- and thus the two had met up in Youngjae’s apartment to come up with a good vocal part instead. Youngjae had a creative mind, but he lacked the actual theory behind rearranging a rap into song, but he was greatly satisfied with the result. Then as the chorus hit for the last time, the dance calmed down to allow for the artist to pour his heart into the adlibs to create flavour to Yongguk’s singing in this part. He liked to believe that their voices fit well together, not only as the two best vocalists on the team but also with their vocal colours. Or perhaps he was just biased towards Yongguk after the interest he had taken in the other male.
Another two words sung in addition to the other vocalist’s performance as well as a dance break led by Jeongguk later, the performance was over, and as Youngjae prepared for the very last step of the dance, he took off the flower that had been fastened to his chest pocket. To match his outfit and the power rangers theme they had going, his flower was one with black petals. Together with everyone else, he then held it out to the audience, as if telling everyone that the song applied to them. A corny and cheesy as fuck move, but hey, if it worked it worked. And with that finishing touch the performance was over.
It was fun. That was the best way Youngjae could describe it. The way Yongguk had taken him so seriously when he had said a mere joke had caused a spark of interest in the other that hadn’t been there thus far other than in the guy’s skills as a vocalist and a kindred spirit in lack of dancing skills. Was he trying to flirt? Not now. Maybe some day, but it hadn’t been more than a joke with misunderstood intentions. He had to admit though, the other was cute, but there was just so much else on his mind right now to even think about trying to see if he had a chance.
But the fact remained that Yongguk had managed to cause his interest to rise, and it wasn’t that often that happened. Perhaps that was the main reason. A change for the better in an otherwise very bothersome existence, especially now that he had got himself stuck in this shit. Perhaps the interest would pass as suddenly as it had appeared, but for now he wanted to peek further in. Maybe even find a reason to attempt to continue down this road if only to waste away his summer vacation in a manner different from simply getting piss drunk every day.
At this moment it was just the two in the practice room. They all practically lived there by now, but it was still possible to find quiet moments like this. Youngjae had found his stamina lacking and a break in order, and instead he simply sat against the wall, water bottle in hand and eyes fixated on the moves of the other vocalist. “I never thought I’d be working this hard on dancing of all things,” he muttered with a low voice into the room. “At least the look makes it worth it.”
