Only one day left until d-day and the anticipation and nerves were slowly building up within him. Being nervous was not a new feeling to Jinwoo -- he had experienced it practically every single time before a dance competition except for that one time he had been so sick he could barely function but too stubborn to stay home -- but this time was something entirely different. This was the real deal and also the very first time he’d actually showcase himself in such a way, even though he wasn’t the one that was supposed to be in focus. Of course this also meant that there was one person who had to be even more affected by everything than he was, and for that one person he could set aside his nerves for the time being. Closing in on the guy who seemed deeply lost in his own thoughts, Jinwoo pressed the cold surface of a refrigerated water bottle against the back of Sunwoo’s neck and greeted him with a weak smile before handing him the bottle. “Here. You gotta remember to stay hydrated. Can’t have you fainting before the real deal.”
It was dark outside, the scent of the ocean washing in over everything and Yuta’s fingers straightened out the hood over his head of pink hair. He’d told the other boys in the room that he was heading out to clear his head, but his mind was only recounting where he’d seen the closest store and mentally crossing his fingers that what he was needing would be there. As time drew closer to the performance, all Yuta felt was restless and out of balance; a definitive and resound ‘off’, that he couldn’t shake. The last thing he wanted was one of the other boys tagging along with him, and so he’d left as quickly as possible, and he’d kept his head down on the way out, not wanting to catch the attention of any of the coaches or staff. Yuta focused on his breathing, the uneven huffs on his lips and the determined sound of his steps as he made his way to the glass doors of the store. His gaze ran over the inside quickly, and he went straight for the where most stores kept the one thing he shouldn’t have been looking for -- alcohol.
With both hands inside his pockets, he went around the back and peered down every aisle, trying to check if any others he knew were around and then paused in front of the rows of alcohol. There were cans, something he inched forward for first and then his gaze landed on something stronger. Yuta’s hand was clutched around the neck of the bottle before he could second guess himself. In his mind, he had talked himself into this already, he’d convinced himself that it didn’t matter, he’d accepted the results of his actions -- if he were to get caught. And if he lingered, there was more chance of that. The bottle soon placed on the counter, meeting the gaze of the mid-thirties man who was serving him and then lifting up to the line of cigarettes that filled the places behind him. “And one of those too,” Yuta asked, motioning to the usually packet he went for and as the man moved to get it, the trainee lowered his head and shuffled through his pockets to find his wallet and checking his cash before going for his card.
After an intense, long year, December returns once again. The delay news of any sort of evaluation brought inumerous gossip about what would exactly happen, but the more time that passed, the further away did people throw their guesses at.
In early January, Samsung will hold a special new year special show with all of its best artists in a way to start the year with good fortune and joy. The stage is rumored to be as big as any famous year-end show, and, following the most recent scandalous (and unfortunate) incident regarding the Convex members suffering injuries on-stage, Samsung has made sure to include in their announcement that the stage will be properly covered to avoid any accidents and provide a better performance.
Convex, Luxe and Eclipse will all have their presence publicly confirmed for the event, but all the trainees from the five companies will be secretly invited as well. The show will happen on January 12th, Saturday, starting at 2:00pm. All idols and trainees should start packing their bags and notifying their parents and guardians because they’ll all take up flight to Jeju Island on January 10th. While Jeju is a known vacation spot, all involved are reminded that this will be a work trip and appearances must be kept with Samsung’s reputation in mind. Trainees are also told not to share any information about the show itself as their presence there is not of public knowledge.
Travel and accommodations will all be paid by Samsung, but any other spending will be of the person’s responsibility. Trainees will take the 06:49am flight, and idols will take the 11:30am flight (all leaving from Gimpo Airport) to avoid interactions and possible rumors or scandals. Rooming will be arranged with 4 beds per room for trainees and 2 for idols (except for Convex, which, due to the number of members, will be given 4 beds per room as well). A more extremely extensive and detailed list will be available at the end of this post.
January 10th will be meant to spent settling after arrival and event organizing on the staff side. All will still be encouraged to continue practicing in their free time but the coaches present will have more important things to do than to keep an eye on trainees. Idols, on the other hand, must notify their managers whenever they plan on leaving their room. In case they need to leave the hotel, their manager will have to follow them there.
On the following day, the 11th, all involved will have to be present at the event location for rehearsal all to be done on regular clothes. The first round starts at 9:00am with a general run-through of the show. The second round starts at 5:00pm with a small number of media allowed in for a brief time to help generate hype. All are expected to stay in the area until the end of each rehearsal and then be back in time for the next.
Finally, on the day of the event, both idols and trainees will get their makeup done and then immediately head over to the event location. A list of performances and trainee involvement will be available at the end of this post. Other artists will be performing as well, even if not listed. Once the show ends, everybody will be taken back to the hotel to get ready for their flight back to Seoul on the following day, the 13th. Trainees will leave at 7:00am and idols at 10:25am. Starting on Monday, the 14th, all schedules should return to normal.
This evaluation will count for both December and January, meaning that all requirements will be merged into one form to be submitted in February. This also means that all deadlines will be at the end of January instead of the end of December. This way, hopefully, everyone will get the chance to enjoy and participate in this big event without the interference of festivities or holidays. We wish all a precipitated happy new year and great fun!
For +3 DEBUT POINTS and +3 POINTS TO DISTRIBUTE AS YOU WISH, write a four-post thread with another trainee or a 200+ words solo about regarding their preparation for this evaluation.
For +3 DEBUT POINTS and +3 CHARISMA POINTS, write a four-post thread with another trainee or a 200+ words solo about their time in Jeju.
For +4 DEBUT POINTS, +3 DISPLAYED SKILL POINTS and +1WK OF A RELEVANT ACHIEVEMENT, write a 200+ words solo your muse’s performance on the special stage.
Please tag all your posts as #rk18to19eval and have them up by midnight EST at the end of Thursday, January 31st.
DECEMBER&JANUARY EVALUATION (for the FEBRUARY 6 verification form)
[link to thread or solo about preparation]
+3 DEBUT POINTS
+3 ___ POINTS
NEW DEBUT POINTS TOTAL:
[link to thread or solo about jeju]
+3 DEBUT POINTS
+3 CHARISMA POINTS
NEW DEBUT POINTS TOTAL:
[link to solo about performance]
+4 DEBUT POINTS
+3 ___ POINTS
+1WK ___ ACHIEVEMENT (number of times taken + current level)
NEW DEBUT POINTS TOTAL:
Below you may find a list of performances in chronological order.
[UNAMED ARTISTS]
SPECIAL STAGE
‘So Hot’ by LUXE
— Line distribution
‘Gee’ by ECLIPSE
— Line distribution
‘Mr. Chu’ by CONVEX
— Line distribution
ECLIPSE PLAYLIST
‘Love Whisper’
‘One-Half’
‘White’
‘Gone With the Wind’
LUXE PLAYLIST
‘I Feel Good’
‘Luv Me’
‘Still Falls the Rain’
‘Dangerous’
CONVEX PLAYLIST
‘Mansae’
‘20’
‘Ah Yeah’
‘Jam Jam’
[UNAMED ARTISTS]
SPECIAL STAGE
DUET STAGE
‘The Blue Night Of Jeju Island’ by CONVEX’s Royal and ECLIPSE’s Haseul
SPECIAL STAGE **
SPHERE TRAINEES SPECIAL PERFORMANCE
SHE’Z STAGE ‘I’M SO SICK’
NOVA TRAINEES SPECIAL PERFORMANCE
MYNAME STAGE ‘TELL ME’
ROYAL TRAINEES SPECIAL PERFORMANCE
HYONI STAGE ‘THANK YOU SOOO MUCH’
TRC TRAINEES SPECIAL PERFORMANCE
ANDAMIRO STAGE ‘DRESSROOM’
KT TRAINEES SPECIAL PERFORMANCE
OH!ChiChi STAGE ‘LIL’ TOUCH’
**Details about each trainee performance will come on a separate post on their company blog.
Coming out of the bathroom having just brushed her teeth and put on her pajamas, Seulgi was getting ready for bed, but she wasn’t quite ready to sleep yet. She had been nervous all week about everything they were in Jeju for. She knew she shouldn’t be, she had been on stage in front of a lot of people before, during the MGA’s, but this was a bit different. She was going to be out on stage as Sphere’s Kang Seulgi, having a special solo part with one of the male trainees during Sphere’s performance.
Spotting Minhee getting one out herself, Seulgi went over to her things and pulled out a face mask, joining the older trainee on her bed. “Unnie,” she said, trying to be a little cute as she opened up the package. Minhee had a center position for the performance as well, so she thought she might have some insight on everything. “Are you feeling nervous at all? I’m feeling a bit nervous and I don’t know why...”
the cold winters are her favourite time of the year as soojung's grown most of her life around europe with piles and piles of snow. the christmas and holidays don't compare to the ones back home, so much that she misses sniffing warm bread in the morning and eating the puffy pastries instantly with some hot cocoa. even now, she still gets reminded of lingering memories that can never be replaced but she’s found a home in seoul now.
somewhere in the center of sphere, she’s found people to call friends and can look out for. much like soojin who appears to be in fragile conditions. as a concerned ice princess, she worries for her friend and wants to be reassured that she’ll make it through the concert just fine as they prepare for the big day coming up soon enough! “do you need any warm water with lemon to soothe your voice as you sing? need me to get anything for you, soojin-ah?” she has a small smile on the ends of her lips.
when they had been told encouraged to change their hair to exuberantly loud hues, jiwon was skeptical. she had never attempted such a daring color before, nor had she ever, ever, ever touched her hair to such a damaging chemical before. and now, all of a sudden, it was part of her job to look the part and obviously plain, natural dark brown hair wasn’t of that repertoire. oh, man, why hadn’t she been scouted by a more rational company. a company that didn’t require their trainees to do something as drastic?
she was practically having heart palpitations as she walked into chan’s grandmother’s salon; having gone to the only person she knew, and somewhat trusted, to do anything about her hair without it going horribly wrong. ( which was a possibility if jiwon had taken matters into her own hands ) now, if she relied on chan and his beloved grandmother, at least, if needed -- jiwon knew where to partially place blame ( not that she would ... really blame grandmother chichi ).
labored breathings, back hunched, sweat trickling down the sides of her cheek and she’s so sure she’s about seconds away from combusting. despite what it looks like, she’s actually not trying to die. it is not her fault that barely twenty four hours after that horrendous trip to the hospital, the company has already asked for her presence and demanded she continue her practice -- her fragile physical state be damned.
she sits down for a moment, catching her breath before they soon ask her to find her way back to her place. it’s a momentary reprieve but one she desperately needs for she’d rather not hook herself up to something again. while she’s never been afraid of the hospital, she’d much prefer staying away from all that trouble especially when there’s something of bigger importance at hand. her dancing needs a lot of work and if she wants to show up on that stage with as much as grace as possible, she ought to do what they say and continue practicing diligently. in the name of public appearance, she cannot slack off.
“if i die by the end of this, can you please let the mortician know that i would like to wear chanel’s rouge coco on my lips?” she says dramatically to the younger girl beside her, probably horrifying her along the way. her level of being unbearably terrible rises tenfold when she’s exhausted and quite frankly, a little cranky. “i’m exhausted, i don’t think i can do this anymore.” grabbing a tissue, she wipes on her forehead, hating how much she’s sweated since the preparations for this whole project began. “how are you holding up, though?” she at least has this decency to ask about jiwoo; maybe she’s not at all that terrible yet.
even though he checked the hotel out more or less fully in a moment of free time that he spent on his own, even asked someone from the staff for help in finding a space outside of his own room that would ensure him some moments of privacy with a friend, baekhyun feels nervous on his way to the room the employee showed and told him about -- an empty meeting room used for conferences that will be unoccupied in the evening.
it’s reasonable to be a little scared, right? to feel nervous and a little nauseous even.
it’s a hotel filled with idols and every trainee that’s under samsung. there’s staff here too, managers, coaches. it feels so risky to meet up in the first place but it’s also the best chance to see each other and baekhyun really wants to see seolhyun. he wants to see her so bad, be with her. even if it’s only for ten minutes. baekhyun’s fingers curl tighter around the strings of the bag he’s carrying with him; the gift he couldn’t give seolhyun until now. ( while she can just send him packages home, he can’t do the same. can’t just send something to her dorm. )
he can see the room at the end of the hall and giddiness starts to combine with his nerves, it’s a wracking feeling, making him check left and right if someone’s around once he reaches the door before he knocks, just in case, and opens it, slipping inside quickly. seolhyun’s already there, baekhyun’s eyes catching her immediately and it makes his lips curl into a smile. “seollie,” he says softly in greeting, placing the bag on the ground, forgotten for a moment, before walking over to her.
