Losing a week to practice for his center performance meant that Yuta had to make the time they did have count, a slight sweat built up on his skin when he suggested that they take a break for a bit. His feet already taking him towards where he’d left his water, emptying out half the bottle as he tugged at his shirt, trying to cool off his skin. The choreography was intense, especially for some of them and he needed to keep everyone up with one another -- so no one would stick out badly or get hurt.
His gaze was running over the group he’d collected up, each of them doing their own thing, cooling off, taking a break, talking, or looking far more intense than Yuta expected. A furrow crinkled in his brow as he studied Yubin for second, wondering if there was something that wasn’t working for her. Fingers combing through his hair as he approached her, tilting his head to the side as the strands fell back into place. “Everything good?” He asked, trying to remember if she was struggling with the rap she had or the dance section; he didn’t think either of them.
She had been a trainee for years, this should have been a piece of cake for her.
“i mean...” she starts. smile curving at the corner of her mouth. she looks at their reflection, her legs stretched out; she hums, glancing down at her phone that she’s monitoring their practice with. tongue poking against the inside of her cheek, she sucks air between her teeth. “we’re not too bad? i mean...it’s a little more difficult than the original...but at least you’re not rubbing up against the ground and stuff for most of it?” she turns to the other male, a sheepish grin on her face. pausing the video, she shoves her phone closer to the mirror and pushes herself up to stand. “let’s go through another run? we can focus on the...uh, chorus part? and work our way from there...”
she rolls her eyes upwards in thought, head lolling to the side as she thinks, before she bobs her head quickly. dropping her gaze back to the other male, she offers her hand out to help him up. “sound good with you? or should we take another five?”
she’s fairly thrilled to have been given this chance to perform for as much as she likes. handling three performances in one day may feel a little excessive, but it’s a short number compared to what all the other trainees have. joy think she’s being reasonable -- she can’t handle any more than the standard three even if the choreography for most of them are easy enough. she’s mostly just worried about her singing voice because she’s perfectly aware that she’s not the best out there and performing with a group of people for the first time definitely adds to her jitters.
not to say she’s not happy with the groups she ended up with for she’s more than glad to be able to share a stage with them all.
“unnie,” joy starts, approaching the other female and the starring member of this performance. “what other performances are you doing besides yours? i’m curious.” she’s looking forward to the day when they can all come together to watch the performances with her thinking how cool it would be to watch how everyone else fared. “i’ve heard a lot of people are going all out but i wasn’t sure.” she laughs a little, shaking her head. “i’m sorry if i’m talking your ear off, this is how i’m like when i’m nervous.” came her confession with a sheepish smile.
Song: B.A.P - One Shot
Positions: Yongguk @rkgray, Himchan @rkgray, Daehyun @rkxjongsuk, Youngjae NPC, Jongup NPC, Zelo @yubinrk
usually gray wandered around kt as the nice, friendly uncle from next door, always peaceful and quiet, carrying a little poet in his heart and willing to be friends with everyone as long as they wanted to. he didn't disliked his image, as he was just like this, despite that just being one part of him. there was another, darker part of the male, a man who was strong like a force of the nature. people would often underestimate him, even forget about him, but he would come back with impact. that was exactly the kind of intention gray had, when he choose b.a.p's one shot for this month's evaluation. a powerful, warring song, bursting with manliness and strength. just like his stagename implied, there was a palette of shades of grey he carried within his personality.
when he began the dance routine at the beginning of the month, he had that thrilling feeling, as he knew the key dance would be harder than any other dance he had learned before. but gray was ok with that, as he liked to exercise and keep his body fit. And compared to the military service this was nothing.
with the others supporting his back, he entered the room, giving a polite bow to the trainers and told them what song he had chosen for the evaluation. their expression was the same pokerface as ever, so as soon as everyone settled down at their position, gray gave a signal for the music to kick in. everyone else was crouching, while he remained standing in the center of all attention as he recited his first lines, intense black eyes staring at the front, a hardened expression on his face. flicking both arms behind him, the two fellow trainees rose themselves, spinning along the beat. gray walked forward, signalling the others to stand up as well and they followed.
One shot,
Let me tell you something that you already know.
You just get the rock to me.
You na mean?
gray didn’t had a dark voice like the original rapper, and the expressed anger and strength in his voice was different from him as well, but this song is just all the other songs he had covered during evaluations or auditions. he made them into his songs, into his interpretations flowing with his offbeat rap. the male lifted his hand to a fist, bopped his body to the beat after the introduction was done. stretching both arms away from his body which was overflowing with hip hop swag, fitting the song image, gray tried to forget about everything around him and just do his thing.
There’s only one chance as you walk on this dark path
Shine the light like Martin Luther King
Get your mind out fo’ the gutter
It’s too early for failure, you’re still young
One shot, one chance
There’s no second chance, don’t lose it get ready now
Hell yeh, challenge yourself,
Spread your small self out, just do it
the manly vibes the song emitted wasn’t the only reason of why he had chosen it, as the chance occured. those who knew a little about gray, knew about his affinity to deep meanings, and this song of course meant a lot to him. It was kind of reflecting what had moved him to join kt after receiving the contract, giving up had been never a option and as he had finally received an offer, he couldn’t let the opportunity go down the well. it didn’t mattered if he still had doubts about himself, but not trying to reach the top with kt entertainment’s help would be something he might regret.
One shot!
Are you gonna give in?
Are you gonna be caught by the surrounding traps?
Only one shot!
Don’t run away,
Turn around and face your faces
he glared at the trainers, showing his thumbs down, pretending to aim at them with his imaginary gun. the anger slowly started to boil inside of him, as he let the words getting to his heart. there had been several occassions to just stop, to live a peaceful life away from music, but gray couldn’t give up on the passion that carried his soul. people had looked down on him, and at times he even felt the disapproving looks of the trainers and maybe other trainees who didn’t liked him, the old man to be there with them, the bunch of beautiful and young talents. they underestimated him, they’ve forgotten about him, but he wouldn’t lie still, rotting in the dark, undiscovered. gray wanted to fight.
Only one shot only one shot
Bite down hard and go against them, one shot
Only one shot only one shot
Throw yourself at the world, one shot
Only one shot only one shot
Bite down hard and go against them, one shot
Only one shot only one shot
You only have one chance u know?
even if the whole world was against him, he wouldn’t go down without giving a proper fight. the male laid down on his back, lifting his hips from the ground, hammering his hands against the floor. Then he swayed from one side to the others, alongside his fellow trainees, never breaking the eye contact with the trainers in front. for the chorus he returned to the center of the group, effortless following the dance steps. as the chorus began, everyone flopped down to earth, starting to push their bodies up and down, slamming a fist at the ground before lifting the upper body up and shooting at the audience with imaginary weapons.
One shot!
Are you going to be a victim?
Are you going to get lost, looking for any easy way out?
Only one shot!
Turn your face
To the rough world and clash and fight.
the male watched yubin, his old rival, doing the turning dance move, and listened to her fierce rap performance. he was glad she helped him out, as he needed a strong rapper to be in contrast to his own. Only with rivals to beat they would grow. and this way, he could prove that he was still the center of this performance after all. gray crouched down again, while jongsuk hit the high notes without problems. just a little longer and it would be his time to shine again. he would make them never forget him again.
One of the most important jobs in a group performance is the center. The lucky idol with this position gets to be in the middle of the stage more often than the rest, and the cameras always know where to find them. Being the center of your group is an almost guarantee of success - though, of course, if you were to make a mistake as the center, the hit to your reputation would be ten times worse.
For this month’s evaluation, every trainee will get to experience being the center. You are to group up with other trainees (from your own company or elsewhere) and prepare two stage performances, one where you will be the center and one where another trainee will take the spot. Whether the song is a dance cover or an original ballad is entirely up to you - the only rules are that there must be a clear center position and that each trainee must take part in a stage where they aren’t the center as well.
Trainees will be taking the stage all day on Friday, August 31st, starting at 10am. Performances will be in alphabetical order by the name of the designated center. All stages will be evaluated by a panel of coaches at the time, and recorded by three professional cameramen with emphasis on the center’s ending pose. On Sunday, September 2nd, after the lunch break at the Seocho facility, trainees will have a viewing party separated by company, where all recordings of their evaluations will be shown.
Trainees are encouraged to team up with other companies for this. Members currently gearing up for debut will not partake in these stages. At least 80% of all vocals must be done entirely live.
For +2 DEBUT POINTS, +3 CHARISMA and +2 DISPLAYED SKILL, write one four-post thread or one 200+ words solo about your muse’s center stage. For +2 DEBUT POINTS, +1 CHARISMA and +2 DISPLAYED SKILL, write another four-post thread or 150+ words solo about your trainee’s second stage where they aren’t the center. If you complete both threads/solos and have them up by midnight EST at the end of Friday, August 31st, you may also add +1WK LIVE SINGING achievement to your forms. Please tag all your posts as #rkaug18eval.
If you have any questions, please send them into the rkevent’s inbox!
AUGUST EVALUATION (for the SEPTEMBER 4 verification form)
[link to thread or solo about your muse as center]
YOO SEONHO CENTER STAGE.
ROYAL JSJ - JAE SEON JI
PERFORMING... HEY MAMA ! - CBX
( baekhyun part )
this, of all his stages for this eval was by far the easiest for him.
well apart from the whole center thing which he was still iffy about because he doesn’t see himself as center material. the learning of the performance wasn’t too hard. mostly due to the fact that the self named maknae trio of royal jsj has been working on cbx songs for a while. they only focused on the one, but there was a lot of watching other performances and cbx songs. and seonho had taken it upon himself to learn parts of the song already because it was such a popular song anyway.
and its fun.
so it meant that getting the rest of the song down wouldnt be as hard as some of his other stages that he didn’t already know the dances too.
practice for his center stage was really just them making sure they knew how to move around each other, as well as tweaking it just enough so seonho had the center with the choruses. and also a lot of seonho doubting his ability to be center and whining at his hyungs about not wanting to let them down.
jihoon of course was a great comfort for him.
their stage happened after the love like oxgyen stage he’s in. and he was still rather torn up about how he messed up a bit of the dance in that stage. his eyes still wet as he quickly got ready to go for his own center stage. giving watery smiles to his hyungs when they brought it up but waving them off because he didn’t want to worry them.
hey mama, like the one, is another upbeat song and dance. and seonho really does enjoy performing these songs. they get into place and he pushes all his worries aside. falling once more into his stage feeling--the one where he just does his best and if he makes a mistake well, he’ll worry about it off stage.
this song really works for his center stage as he also starts the song off. a little nerve wracking but the moment the music started, the teen was focused. he wouldn’t worry about how he’s a bit breathy sounding due to the live singing with this dance. or that four prior stages before this have his body aching as he forces himself to hit every motion as perfect as he can.
he pours himself into this dance and this performance and prays it shows.
온종일 몰아친 너무 바쁜 일
걸음걸이까지 내 게 아닌데
What you think about that
What you think about that that
모두 잊고 여기 모여 봐
지금 바로 놀라게 해 봐 날
밤을 딛고 별에 올라 봐
지금 네게 뛰어드는 날 봐
넌 뭘 입어도 사실 Hot해
계획 짜고 그래 봤자 뻔해
여유 부릴 틈이 없잖아
해가 짧아지고 있다고
they get through the first half of the song and seonho feels good about it. feels comfortable as they carry on. he hasn’t missed any beats, or any lyrics. his voice wobbled a little near the end of his longer part, but he didt let himself thing on it to long.
the rest of the song he felt he was fairly even. even throwing at his so called killer part at the bridge of the song. he was having fun, though seonho knows he’s going to collapse right after this from how tired he already feels.
good at playing the game, his expressions never slipped up once.
and he is having fun.
Hey Mama 특별할 것 없는 밤
Let’s make a night (Woo oh woo oh)
Just you and I (Woo oh woo oh)
Ah yeah, are you ready? (That’s right)
Everybody put your hands up
Now 1 2 3
AUGUST EVALUATION — CENTER PERFORMANCE !
now playing: runaway by pentagon || line distribution
╰ ft. @rkhoon, @rkjimin, @rkkangjoon, @rkxjongsuk, @hyojongrk, @rkkmh, @bambamrk, npc #1, npc #2
when she had first heard about the month’s evaluations, the concept should have excited her. taking on the role as a center in a performance of her choice—for someone who thrives off of attention, this should have been meiqi’s priority for the next 31 days. but life, she hates to say it, worked in callous, unjust ways no matter how hard she tried to rewire her brain to think otherwise. she can’t change facts.
the thought of even going to the nova building didn’t dare cross her mind for the first three days of august. meiqi found temporary purchase in a hospital chair by her cousin’s side, and only when he woke from the coma did she bother to remember that she’s a trainee with responsibilities, and she had disregarded them all without as much as a notice. so, after promising yukhei that she would visit with every chance she had, meiqi took off towards the nova building before any of the staff members noticed (she figured they already had, but were being lenient due to her recent model behaviour).
the lecture she got upon arrival had grated on her nerves. rather than punish her for her sudden disappearance, they wanted to reprimand meiqi for posting a god damn song. there was no “hello, meiqi, how have you been?” or “gee, you look like shit. did something happen?” at that point, she would have preferred to get yelled at for acting rashly so that she could unleash all of the emotions about her cousin that weighed on her shoulders. she hadn’t talked to anyone about it except her aunt, so a few sobs might have gotten her off the hook.
but no. nova didn’t care about anything except the possible profits they could lose off of a mere upload onto soundcloud. despite the staff member being semi-kind, meiqi couldn’t control how… insignificant she felt, and so of course, she had to make it worse.
“i’m not sorry for it.”
she had ranted about it to yukhei that evening, without knowing what else was to come. in a desperate attempt to get her to stop complaining, her cousin offered to help her choose her song for the evaluation (she ended up picking another, but she didn’t tell him that).
in the morning, meiqi had dashed around the seocho complex to find groups to join. initially, she had wanted only one other performance so that she could work on it quickly and then return to the hospital before visiting hours were over. somewhere along the way, after images of yukhei wrapped in bandages kept appearing behind her eyelids every time she blinked, meiqi had joined three other groups so that her mind could constantly be occupied; if she gave it no free time, then maybe she wouldn’t have to think about the fact that she almost lost her cousin the same way she lost her father.
and then those assholes had to make everything worsen, tenfold.
was hyun bin really stooping so low? meiqi couldn’t help but wonder if katie lee would treat her trainees in a similar way, or if she’d be much warmer. she liked to believe the latter, and for once since joining nova, she wished it had been another company.
for the next week, she had to deal with being monitored at a two-to-one ratio from lunch to dinner. the instructors were not kind, but maybe that was because meiqi refused to abide by their rules for the first two days. by day three, she decided to just grit her teeth and smile contemptuously. they had learned that running laps was no hindrance to meiqi, but push ups were; there was no way she was going to get down on that filthy floor, nor was she going to deal with the ache in her arms that followed.
though her afternoons were ruined, meiqi still tried to put her all into practicing each and every performance. rather than going to the hospital as soon as training ended, like she had promised, meiqi stayed until the early hours of the morning. whether it was to practice with other trainees, or to go through the motions of choreography herself, or memorize lines, almost every night consisted of only 3 hours of sleep at most, with the floor as her bed and her jacket as a pillow.
when august 11th came around, it got easier. she didn’t have to worry about the snobbish ladies whose sole job was to torture meiqi. from the texts her aunt sent her, yukhei was also doing much better and would be discharged soon. two of her biggest stressors were gone, and that was the first night meiqi returned back to her apartment and slept in her own bed, for a good 6 hours (she slept like a baby in chungha’s arms). the experience had her feeling refreshed, bringing back her positive attitude so that she could collaborate with her teams to the best of her abilities.
by the time evaluations rolled around, the colour had returned to meiqi’s face and the dark circles under her eyes had almost completely faded away. though her frame looked thinner from the intense weeks prior, most of her energy had returned, and her body was tingling in excitement to finally perform as a center.
she introduces her team and the song she will be performing: runaway by pentagon, and eagerly urges everyone to get in their places.
when the music starts, meiqi steps out into the front. she had practiced her facial expressions in front of a mirror whenever she visited the restroom, and had cycled through many before settling on the perfect one for the opening beats. she found that the best faces were the most natural-seeming ones, especially when it came to being sultry. being in a group of all boys, she had shown them each of her flirtatious expressions to find the best one to showcase; she does so, effortlessly, and hopes that when everyone rewatches these performances in september, they’ll collectively cheer in acknowledgement.
she delivers her first lines easily, what with the lack of movement so far, and they come out loud and smooth as if they were pre-recorded. meiqi comes to the front of the stage, her hand trailing across her neck as she sings: “just leave me alone. you can’t stop me” and then, along with jihoon and another trainee, she drops to her knees.
meiqi’s glad her performance is only the second out of all the groups she’s a part of. she’s not harbouring much prior fatigue from having already taken the stage one too many times, and she doesn’t have to worry as much about carefully pacing herself, since at this point, she has lots to give. the only performance she has done so far is kangjoon’s and it served as more of a warmup-slash-rehearsal for hers.
when meiqi takes center again, this time for the killing part in the chorus, her movements are fluid and concise. she doesn’t hesitate to bite her lower lip at the slow part, before replacing her alluring gaze with an intensely focused one as the choreography gets harder.
while watching the choreography of the song at the beginning of the month, meiqi was most eager to do the part where she could have the spotlight solely on her, to showcase her skills without anyone else moving. it just so happened that, following that split second, meiqi had to get close with one of the trainees.
“i’m being colored gray more and more
with a frustrated heart, i close my eyes again
oh yeah”
she doesn’t mind physical contact at all. jihoon was another case, but they had practiced enough for her to not dwell on the what-if’s regarding his failure, and just do it. meiqi trusts the boy, and she knows that he’s worked hard to improve and not let his timidity get in the way. when his hand passes down her arm confidently, meiqi has to suppress the proud smile that threatens to ruin her performance. instead, once he grabs her hand, she gives it a quick squeeze, as if to say “good job, you did great” before spinning around and crouching to the floor.
her cousin viian had asked, during one of their routine skype calls, why meiqi had chosen a boy group song instead of a girl group because it would have been easier to balance dancing, expressions, and singing live. meiqi had snorted at the idea. she wanted to display how much she’s improved in the 8 months between her audition and now, but also, why would she ever take the easy way out? meiqi loves the difficult choreography and the sort of elegant vibe that “runaway” has. no girl group song out there right now could take runaway’s place, or even had a chance at doing so.
“take me out, please hold me”
following meiqi’s last line, she can finally throw caution to the wind regarding breath control. she can give her all, knowing that she’s done incredible. in some twisted way, she wants to thank those trainers that pushed her for that first week, because the amount of extra exercise she had done, had done wonders for her stamina. meiqi, despite dancing like she’s never danced before, feels like she could do it a million times more (perhaps that’s good, considering she has two more non-center performances coming up).
the final chorus has meiqi placed in the center, and it feels like she belongs there. ever since she was a kid, she had a feeling that she was born to be in the spotlight, but this performance just solidified the thought. it feels like she’s actually an idol, performing on a music show stage, with cameras capturing her every smirk. she loves it. she wants to feel it again soon.
the song ends with every trainee holding one arm in the air, their heads tilted backwards to stare at their fist. seconds pass before meiqi drops the pose and cracks a smile. she bows a full 90 degrees in the direction of the panel of coaches, hoping they know that she’s being sincere right now rather than how she had been acting two weeks ago, before thanking all of the trainees that had helped let meiqi shine. she hugs each and every one of them, and even if all of their skin is sticky with sweat and they’re still panting to catch their breath, meiqi’s smile doesn’t fade.
centre stage: hobgobiln, clc
position: yeeun, main rapper
groupmates: @rksejeong, @rkrose, @bambamrk, @rkrachel, @rkhuidong, @rksowon
hugo wasn’t exactly sure what possessed him to pick this song for his centre stage. perhaps it was his weakness for the girl crush concept, perhaps it was for the chance to rap, or maybe it was just so he could see his hyung do a concept meant for a girl and chuckle to himself about it later when he was alone. either way, hugo had picked a pretty bombastic song for his stage. it was hard to find songs where the rapper was the centre, and while he was a decent singer, he’d rather flaunt his rapping skills. that was why nova had signed him in the first place, and he had his heart set on being the main rapper of his future group when he debuted, so it was important that he showed his progress with his rapping whenever he was given the chance. it was also important to show how crucial and impactful a rapper such as himself would be in a performance. nova needed him, and that’s what he would show the coaches.
he had a big group with a lot of talented people in it, which would be a challenge for him in that he’d have to outshine them all. with his rapping skills it should be no problem. the thing he struggled with was the dance, since he was, of course, the worst dancer in nova by far. he had made some improvement over his months in nova’s halls, but it wasn’t much. he could eventually follow along to whatever choreography was being taught and sort of execute it to some degree... ish. the dance was definitely what he spent the most time on during his month to prepare though. hopefully the coaches would ignore how much he lacked in dancing and just appreciate his superior rapping skills.
even if the dance had been a pain and a half to practice, hugo had fun with the performance. it was rare that he got to do a fun concept like this, usually he was either doing heavy hip hop or conforming to a senior group’s boyish concept. this way he was really able to let loose and enjoy his own performance, and the ending pose had some extra sass thrown in. he hoped no one thought he was being a goof by the end of this, he had done two girl crush concepts with some twerking thrown in. he didn’t want to get kicked out of nova.
