the results to the second month was unexpected and gut wrenching. sunmi was pretty sure colour drained from all of their faces considering all of the longest trained trainees (save for two: the golden boy and the mga attention grabber) were tossed into the danger zone. maybe it was done for dramatics and ratings or maybe they all deserved it (sunmi highly doubts the latter but she digresses). either way, it seemed very clear that the end of the nova project wasn’t so certain to be pleasant for a few of them.
sunmi has kept her composure for the most part since she had to switch vests. others around her seemed as though they needed her support more so that’s what she’s mainly been providing. though she can’t lie: she’s happy to take off the stupid red vest at the end of the night and drift off to sleep.
before calling it a night and heading back up to the dorms, sunmi makes one final check to see who was still up and around. she was surprised to find hyuna in one of the rooms. “hey i’m just about to head up. want to come with?” she asks softly from the doorway. she leans onto the doorframe. she has no intention of walking in. she was just waiting to get out of this stupid ass vest. “our beds are calling us.”
it’s the final month. somehow he’s gotten this far, and he’s not about to let himself slip. as tiring as the survival is, haknyeon can almost see the finish line. they haven’t been allowed to actually properly go out these last few months, and haknyeon doesn’t exactly feel the need to. especially not when they’ve got something to show and work on almost everyday.
he walks through the hallways, trying to find an empty practice room when he accidentally walks in on one that’s already taken. he spots yongsun there dancing and he watches silently as she does so until it’s over. when she’s done, he finally claps his hands, eyes bright and smile wide.
“noona!” he beams, “that was great!” he walks over to her and his words are sincere. he’s watched her since the mgas and now she’s gotten this far as well; it has him feeling slightly warm.
< an sn month 3, week 1 thread: 4/28 to 5/5 @rkyngsun >
solji stared at the paper in her hands, trying to get the lyrics down. her eyes felt heavy as she read the words. for once, she almost wished she were dancing. at least that kept her awake. reading all these characters on the page just made her eyes want to cross. “have you ever sung an original song before, yongsun?” she looked to the other, wondering if she had. she herself had been lucky enough to have had the opportunity a few times in the last few years, and she was quite thrilled that they had the chance to do this seeing as it was going to allow them to make this song the group’s own.
“this is so exciting!” she cried, trying to use her own words to wake her up. “i can’t wait until we get to go to the recording studio to record this,” she pointed out to the other. a happy giggle sounded from her lips as she tilted her head back on the couch. “do you want to take a listen to the guide again so we can figure out how these parts go exactly?” she asked, thinking that it’d be good for them to start getting their parts down.
sunmi has noticed it here and there. wendy took being put in the danger zone hard but as the first week went by, sunmi was noticing just how hard she took it.
as per usual to sunmi’s own (nonexistent) sleep schedule, she’d be in the studios until late and go to bed only when she was starting to feel tired. she’s been noticing that sometimes wendy isn’t even in bed when she is. not to mention the near absence of wendy in general at meals. it raised alarms very quickly considering this wasn’t the first time a nova trainee had done this.
sunmi waits until around the time the girls should be eating to even approach wendy. she tells the younger in a firm voice that she needed to speak to her and to come to their room. no one was in there now (most were either eating or using the time to have a genuine break) so they’d have some privacy for the most part.
she kept her arms crossed, waiting for wendy to arrive. if the younger couldn’t tell by her tone of voice, she would know immediately upon entering the room that she was in trouble.
he’s wearing blue. it’s a different colour from the vest he’d been wearing the month before –– just days ago. he enters the room and bows to the camera before he takes a seat. by now he’s used to this, the interview, the talking, expressing himself.
“congratulations on being safe.”
haknyeon smiles a little sheepishly. “thank you,” he replies.
“how do you feel now that you’re in the safe zone?”
safe. he looks down at the blue vest and holds onto it, as though desperate. and he is, he’s desperate to stay safe. to debut. “i don’t know if you could call it safe,” he says. “i’m still scared... i’ve been in danger once and i can’t mess up anymore.” there’s a pause before he continues, “it feels nice, to be moved up from danger to safe, but at the same time, the responsibility is all the same. i have to do well and prove it to everyone. to the viewers, the other trainees, sajangnim, myself.”
he doesn’t let go of the grip he has on the blue vest. “huidong hyung and hugo hyung are in the danger zone,” he says after a moment. “huidong hyung...” his voice trails off. huidong. haknyeon had always looked up to him. “he’s so selfless and he’s very talented. he’s like my nova dad, always looking out for everyone,” and just the thought of that alone has him smiling briefly. “if huidong hyung’s in danger zone... then nobody is really safe,” he adds.
“it’s the last month of the project. how are you feeling?”
haknyeon smiles. “it feels unreal. it still does,” he replies. “it’s been very intensive, every week we had to show something new and we only had one week to prepare. but... there’s a part of me that might miss this,” he says. “i hope that it’ll become a happy memory.”
they’re on the same team. it’s nice to be on the same team as jungwoo, to be able to perform with him. haknyeon’s a guy with a lot of friends, but it’s not always that you find someone you can truly click with regardless of age.
just like before, haknyeon stands in front of jungwoo by the mirror, watching the older male as he danced. they’d just received the choreography for the song and it’s understandable that everyone wants to perfect it. sure it’s a survival but they could quite possible be a team and haknyeon loves the sound of that.
his eyes are like a hawk, watching jungwoo’s every movement. he’d called the older boy out before on his lack of precision and inability to get the moves right. but as jungwoo danced, a surge of something warm overcomes him and he finds himself smiling. the song comes to an end and haknyeon stops it before it can replay.
he nods his head slowly, and hums under his breath. “hyung,” he begins, and as much as he wants to act scary for the sake of teasing jungwoo, he can’t. not when he’s so proud of his friend. “how do you think you did?” he asks, but there’s already a smile on his lips.
⭐️ — sn project: month three, week four — ⭐️
now playing: hush and omona (line distribution)
performance one || outfit one
performance two || outfit two
this is it.
three whole months have built up to this moment. all the tears, the sweat, the sleepless nights. meiqi can’t think of a better way to wrap everything up, though, aside from maybe debuting all of them in two separate groups at the same time—a possibility that wouldn’t seem too unlikely if it were any other ceo but hyun bin. still, it’s the best they’re going to get. even if there’s a 0.5% chance that meiqi can debut from this three-month hell, she’s going to give it a shot.
she didn’t like the songs. she didn’t like their choreographies. she didn’t like the parts she was given. and yet, none of that stopped meiqi from working her hardest. nothing will stop her from achieving her dream.
and it’s because of that, that meiqi practiced until her bones ached and her eyes threatened to fall shut. with the amount of times she had run through each song, it comes as no surprise to meiqi that she’s suddenly developed… some positive feelings for hush and omona. these songs were made for her and no one but the nova trainees. this could very well be the last two performances she does for a while, and so she feels the need to like the songs. but it’s also the reason that she naturally begins to adore the songs for all that they represent: the good and the bad experiences while trapped in confinement, the friendships that she’s forged along the way, and so much more.
meiqi cries before they go on stage.
she does it privately, though she’s sure that some camera somewhere has captured the moment. meiqi doesn’t understand the tears, whether they’re happy or from sadness. are they even either of those?
stop it, she scolds herself as she dabs at the moisture on her cheeks with a tissue. meiqi gets her makeup touched up quickly to fix anything that had gone awry by the tears, and then stands with the rest of the girls by the stage. yongsun offers her a hug and a few words of encouragement that force any qualms to the back of her mind (the other girl seems to have that effect on her).
and then they go out.
it’s hard not to be energetic when there’s a crowd cheering and a camera panning across the stage, not to mention the remixed beats that are paired with the girls’ introductory dance stage. the choreography she worked on is nothing less than stellar, if she may say so herself.
the stage where both the boys team and the girls team come together is fun, a more relaxed atmosphere that allows them to interact a little more with the camera and each other. both stages are over within the blink of an eye, before meiqi gets into line for self introductions. to appeal to the audience, meiqi sings one of her lines from hush: “this is my kingdom, peekaboo!” as she says the last word, she hides her face behind her two hands and then tilts her head to the side to unhide herself. “hi everyone! this meiqi flower has bloomed thanks to your love and support. please watch the stages well that we’ve all prepared for you!” meiqi finishes with a bow and blows a kiss to the crowd.
the rest of the concert continues with a blur. the trainees go backstage to get into their stage outfits for the first concept. when it’s the girl’s turn to take the stage, meiqi takes her place.
she feels confident, thanks to all of the practice, the blue vest she had been wearing the past three weeks, and her team’s support. both concepts are done well not only by her, but by everyone. meiqi can’t help but feel content with how they’ve executed each performance. everyone has grown so much, that much is evident.
“i love you guys,” meiqi confesses once they’ve returned backstage after both performances. “let’s debut together. i believe in us!”
the thought is bittersweet. there’s no denying that the sn project has been the most trying three months of her life. everything has come easy to meiqi ever since she was young; what she wanted, she got. praise was all she ever received, and when it wasn’t, she could just brush it off. there were never any repercussions for her actions, or at least, not that she knew of because someone else would handle them (her aunt or uncle or cousin, all solved with massive amounts of money). becoming a trainee challenged some of that, but the sn project literally threw her under the bus.
she’s missed her friends. meiqi misses coming home to the perfect roommate, her best friend, and the sporadic acts of affection that they would exhibit for each other (some of which were inappropriate, but happened to be meiqi’s favourites). she misses scrolling through her instagram before she sleeps, leaving silly comments on friends posts and watching stupid videos. she misses the fresh air, the freedom, being able to never repeat the same outfit—all the little things she never knew were so important to her until now.
but would meiqi have passed up on this chance? if she went back in time, would she do it again? in a heartbeat.
“don’t make me cry, coach!”
meiqi has found solace in these one-on-one sessions, in her coach who comforts her when she cries, and who cheers with her for every little victory.
minsoo chuckles before asking his next question. “how do you feel, knowing the project is coming to an end?”
“scared. excited. lots of things.” meiqi sighs. “in a way, i’m kind of attached to the routine of the sn project. and i’ll definitely miss performing so frequently—especially if i don’t debut. i can’t imagine going back to the regular trainee life after this. but i also want to see the blue sky again, feel the sun kissing my skin, spend some time with the people who i hold dearest to me. it’s a very confusing time for me, so i just want to close off my thoughts and focus on perfecting everything that i’ve prepared for the concert.”
“what has been the best part of the sn project?”
meiqi doesn’t let a second pass before answering. “getting closer to all the nova girls. i’ve never been on bad terms with any of them, but it was nice to work with people who i’ve never worked with before. i think we have a special bond now that can’t easily be broken. it’s what makes our team so much stronger than when we had first started the project.”
looking directly at the camera, meiqi arches her arms over her head to form a heart. “yongsun, wendy, sunmi, chaeyoung, solji, kaeun, hyuna! i love you!”
