Tension was at an all time with Minhyuk. He was so tightly wound that he could potentially break down and explode in moments. There were many reasons as to why Minhyuk was so tightly wound. He had just come off a holiday week with his parents and his extended family and all of their professional friends . God how he hated being reminded of what an absolute mess that he was. Your rapping career will go nowhere, your looks will fade, why aren’t you using your good looks, you should be more kind to people... .blah blah blah the same bullshit that he heard weekly. He was so annoyed that his annoyed mood carried over into the new year and going back to practice was irritating. All he wanted to do was just to flop down and not do anything and just happily drink his coffees.
But oh, god bless his luck or maybe a curse from satan, he was herded into a room with a few others on the first day of the month and was told that they were going to be an experimental group. Here at this moment, his annoyance turned to irritation and mild frustration. They were sent off back to practice and it was easy to avoid taemin for the first few days of the month, but of course, minhyuk couldn’t avoid him forever, and it all came to a crash when they were all practicing for the eval.
minhyuk was not a dancer. that wasn’t his major talent and if he had to be honest, dancing was his weakest, but he was pretty charismatic and could command a stage but of course, his lack of talents was enough to set it off. “i don’t like this eval. dancing is hard and i’m not having a good time.” he said, sighing. He had been over the choreo for the past several hours and he was making mistakes, but this was frustrating. He would have preferred a vocal group or even a more vocal song. he wanted to rap, he didn’t want to dance.
Being called out like that at the beginning of the month was not a good feeling. He knew that he had been the worst. He knew that. Minhyuk knew that he was a failure and mediocre. Hearing a coach say that though....especially someone like Yoon Joonki who was supposed to be grooming them for debut was painful. But the biggest insult to him was that Yoon Joonki told him that if they wanted they could name Jongdae a rapper and everyone would eat it up. Minhyuk had sent a glance towards Jongdae, but kept calm at the time. Oh hell no. He wasn’t about to be insulted like this. He was a rapper through and through. He may not write his own raps, but he was still a rapper and rapping other people’s lyrics didn’t make him any less a rapper. But he would also take this whole month and work on his dancing as well.
So then they were divided into groups. Minhyuk internally groaned. Stuck with two people who hated him and would love to see him fail. He wasn’t about to go down without a fight. The frustration and embaressment from being ripped to shreds in public though took it’s toll on minhyuk and he didn’t wanna be around people for a few days. For the first few days of February (probably like two days after being shredded like that), he avoided his group to just gather his thoughts and rethink on where he’s supposed to be at. It had been a tough tough decision and even though he was still frustrated with everything, he decided to take the criticism. This evaluation around, he was going to prove that he wasn’t about to go down without a fight at all. His rapping skills were solid. His English skills were solid. He was an lte/speed rapper with a side of freestyle.
However, it had come to light that Minhyuk was probably the most useless person in the group. He didn’t write his own raps, he didn’t compose...sure when he had offered up that he could freestyle something since he was, you know, good at that. But of course, that wasn’t enough and taemin had offered to write minhyuk’s rap for him. Minhyuk wanted to decline, maybe say that he could freestyle, but a voice in his head said no, accept the help. He did so and of course that had led to some frustrations from Sungho, but honestly minhyuk no longer cared what everyone else thought of him. He wanted to be over all those petty rivalries. He didn’t think that the fact that he didn’t write his own raps was a downside, since most likely when they debuted their songs would be chosen and written by the company staff. He was still an speed/lte rapper more so than actual writing raps. After all, he had made it into the company after rapping Tiger JK’s song Reset and then at the camp before that contest, he had done Eminem’s Lose Yourself and Sucker for Pain from Suicide Squad. Even during prior evaluations, he had rapped other people’s songs like Auditory Hallucination that he had done with Minhee. There was quite a few songs that he done so he didn’t think that him not writing his own raps was a big downside.
The practices this month were a bit calmer and going into the practices, minhyuk didn’t dread them as much. The choreography was simple enough for the chorus dance and it was a girl group song (which minhyuk could definitely hold his own in girl group choreo because he just liked how adaptable for tall people it was) originally which meant that he could perfect the simple moves with ease with some practice. The little wiggle and pointing was easy enough and even the original girl group choreo was easy enough for him since he was a pro at girl group dances and Bad Boy or more like Bad Girl was something well within his skills.
The rest of the month went by quietly. Minhyuk still dealt with the low-key hatred from his group but he made the effort to be better at the skills he had. It was a bit tough seeing the occasional looks of frustration and annoyance, but that was fine. He had dealt with way worse from his own family. Minhyuk however did try and learn his dances and his rap. By the end of the month, he was pretty ready to show that he was talented and worthy of staying in the group. He didm’t want this to be over so fast. He knew that he had the charisma to pull off the rap that taemin (so kindly) had written for him. Mental note: thank taemin for the help. Well deserved and well heeded. When they were called in, minhyuk felt the nerves for a few moments but he was ready to get this going.
Once Jongdae had kicked them off, Minhyuk took the center with a smirk, almost transforming from the everyday chaebol to the rapper that he really was. “Yeah, it’s the remix babyniga gunggeumhae honeyWho dat who dat who dat girl,” he began rapping, his english skills evident and his ease with the wordplay. He kept rapping, hitting the notes with some swag and style. “sumaneun saram sok gunggeumhae geumhae Brand new level Bae how u do that do that do that What’s your name.” At the how u do that and the what’s your name part, he sent a wink towards the coaches and casually slipped in a bit of that seductive charisma (as his mom called it). He kept rapping with ease slipping from Korean to english and back. After all this was what he was known for. what he had been signed for. Besides the song was a fun song, right up his alley, so it was easy to swing into the easy rap style. He then hit the english with even more ease, bringing in a bit of that lte/speed rapping style that he was known for. “Like Russian Roulette Yeah roulettes Keep turnin’ turnin’ In this game I’m the best rookie rookie,” Minhyuk winked at the best rookie rookie. He knew that his standout talent was his rapping and his charisma. He finished off his part with a cute wink and a smirk. “Peekaboo, my boo eopseo nagateun bad boy.” He thought that he had done pretty well.
The rest of the song he did the appropriate dance moves during the chorus, with a some pointing and a bit of a body wave (easy enough, but he had been taking lessons and actually committing to this). Everything else had gone accordingly or so he thought and he thought they had done well.
He had found out who he was rooming with when they had arrived to the resort. Of all the people to room with this whole trip, for a whole weekend, it was two of the people he hated (or more like disliked because he couldn’t understand their beef with him). Aron being one of the three made him a bit happy but the other two dear god. He had managed to squish his beef with Taemin with some difficulty to the back of his mind. But Sungho was a curious type to Minhyuk. They had spoken only very briefly during evals and even then their interactions were extremely limited. Minhyuk just saw the other as an annoyance but apparently from what he had heard the other had resented him from the beginning.
He wanted to ask as to why but never actually wanted to interact with the other rapper, but now they had to socialize since they were roommates and it was a bonding trip. He set his LV suitcase on a chair in the room and sat down on the bed. This was an exhausting trip already. He settled on the bed and looked at his phone. Seeing someone walk in out of the corner of his eyes, he couldnt help a groan escape his lips. “Well look at what the cat dragged in.” he said.
Minhyuk had taken up baking again. Well more like attempted baking again. It wasn’t his strong suit but he often made an effort to follow a recipe and bake. So he was often in grocery stores shopping for ingredients after practice. He had made some things from cake mixes which tasted good, but they didn’t look too good. Miss you was going to attempt yet another recipe after practice but he needed a mix from the store since he was not a natural baker at all.
So after practice he made his way to the store to get a brownie mix as he was going to make brownies. He wasn’t very good at it but he was going to try. I mean it couldn’t have tasted worse than his chocolate cake debacle of last month where he accidentally put dish water In the dough. He just needed to find a willing participant to try his attempts at baking. He gazed on the boxes upon boxes of brownie mix in the baking aisle at the grocery store debating which one was the better option. He didn’t really see anything that caught his attention but maybe someone could give him an idea as to what brownie mix was better.
Seeing someone else in the aisle, he decided to ask them. “What brownie mix is better in your opinion? I am trying to attempt making something sweet for everyone in the company a.k.a. my fellow trainees because they deserve sugar.”
Kard - Oh Na Na (w/ Gray, Somi, Soojin, and Minhee) (lyrics)
When the evaluation was announced, Minhyuk wanted to work with Gray again, since they were the rapper duo of KT. The ignored duo of the company but it was fine. Minhyuk had decided that any attention that he got was great. The SSKT cf was the last straw for him since as an actor with years of expereince and not being chosen for that, minhyuk was angrier than anything else. So, he decided that if he wasn’t allowed to show off his acting chops, he’d show off his rapping chops. It was nice working with Gray again and they even got some of the girls into their team, Somi, Soojin and Minhee. It was great seeing his friends again, and Minhyuk had fun during this whole evaluation.
Minhee and him had managed to play a prank on Gray (convince him that they were dating hahaha. ah good times). Minhyuk liked that and then obviously Soojin and Somi who were good as well. He could see why the girls were signed from the mgas. Like they both had some raw talent. When the performance day came it was easy to dance and rap. The dance was fairly easy and his skills were enough to pull it off. Of course, they were surrounded by seven expensive cameras, so Minhyuk felt right at home. He loved being surrounded by spotlights and cameras. It was just that whole feeling.
He rapped his part, exuding his usual style and swag that he had. it was a fun time, that was the main goal of this eval: just have fun. they were all friends andminhyuk was on a perfomance high casually seducing each camera when he was ithe front while rapping.
You lookin’ for a man that’s realer
날 만나기 전에 맘껏 즐겨
Insta에 자꾸 목적이 뻔한
남자들의 dm 알림은 다 무시해
Girl 딱 한 번에 꽂혀
너로 맞춰진 내 관심의 초점
All day, All night baby 365
헌신하며 절대 떠나지 않을게 your side
Then the girls took their spots and then Gray. Minhyuk always had such a blast watching Gray rap because he had a certain swag that minhyuk couldn’t even hold a candle to even match. it was just all good fun for him. after the hell anger that was most of March, minhyuk was kind of happy now. After Minhee sang a bit, they finished their perfomance and they were told to stay while everyone left.
Here everything came crashing down. Literally. One by one the cameras fell as the door closed and Minhyuk, kind of already low patience, just took a deep breath to calm himself down. The level of annoyance. He reached into his pocket and as the trainers came back in yelling about the destruction of expensive equipment and how they were going to pay, minhyuk simply pulled out the checkbook. “how much?” he asked, slightly annoyed that he had to deal with this at the end of the day. obviously, mr.chaebol would pay. Like, seven cameras (probably about a 100K or less), that was just pocket change to how much the corporation made in a month.
honestly this was so upsetting and of course, they were getting punished but they were ;ed into an auditorium and minhyuk sat there arms crossed, already annoyed. but a few moments later, it was revaled that it was all a prank. minhyuk took another deep breath and walked out. “i’m gonna need a hard drink after this,” he said.
A cheesecake isn’t Minhyuk’s favorite dessert ever, but he loves a new-york style cherry cheesecake. the cherry jam dripping from the set cheesecake form, the beautiful sweet crumb on the sides and the bottom. just eveyrthing that minhyuk loved. so, when a favorite cafe announced that they were getting new york cherry cheesecake in their lineup within the next couple of days, minhyuk needed to find a victim to drag to said cafe and eat cheesecake with him. he decided to ask jinwoo. he was sure that the younger would accept.
he approached the other boy after practice before the lunch breaks. “so, a favorite cafe of mine is releasing a new york cherry cheesecake and i was wondering if you’d like to join me on an expedition to taste said cheesecake?”he asked, very curious. “hyung will pay for everything so it will be my treat!”
Minhyuk wasn't really a fan of matcha tea or matcha powder. The only thing he really enjoyed that was matcha flavoured was ice cream and in the very least, he preffered just one scoop usually. He was more of a coffee flavored ice cream like a cappucino gelato, or tiramisu flavours but it was really hard to find good gelato in korea and it was a pain to fly to italy for actual gelato. So that was his quest for one afternoon, when he had finished training earlier on the weekend. he was gonna go search for a good ice cream place. dorpping his bag off at home, he went on an expedition for ice cream.
seeing a ice cream parlor on his trek of exploration, he walks in and seeing someone in front of him, minhyuk decides to ask. "excuse me, do you know if there's gelato here?" he asked, curious. hopefully, this would be the successful parlor that he was searching for. He’d been looking for a while now, and hopefully here would be the ideal new spot for him to hang out.
The new organic cafe opened at Royal’s new building and Minhyuk found himself intrigued. It was a nice summer day and he had gone to the new Royal building after training one day, deciding to check it out. He waltzed inside after parking his car in the garage and simply took in how big the whole thing was. The new building was gorgeous and Minhyuk was really into this whole appeal. He then headed to the cafe, deciding that he needs an ice coffee before he goes on to take the whole building in fully.
The organic cafe however, was a bit of a disappointment in general. He didn’t know what he was expecting but he had been expecting more than what there was. It was just a regular every day cafe with some tables, a few chairs and a part of minhyuk was super disappointed. He ordered an ice coffee and went to sit down at a table. He was kind of annoyed at this cafe. It was cute but like it wasn’t too special.
He drank his coffee briefly while checking his phone. He messaged Soyi telling her that this cafe sucked and that he regretted the whole decision. She then replied by telling him that he should go see the rest. He headed off, glancing at the merch quickly. Minhyuk didn’t really hold much interest towards Royal idols, so he didn’t really care much for the merch. He then headed off into the rest of the building.
Overall, it was quite nice. Aside from the fact that the cafe was a bit of a disappointment, Minhyuk really liked the rest of building. It was all nice and shiny and new and Minhyuk could understand why So Jisub would move the company here
