Run for a cause! Known for giving back to charity, Sphere announced through the companyâs representatives earlier this month that they would be joining forces with different Korean institutions responsible for raising awareness to a variety of topics regarding environmental concerns.
The first Sphereâs Green Ribbon Running & Busking Festival will be held on the afternoon of September 22nd at Ttukseom Han River Park in Seoul with MC Jang Haejin. Stars such as Convex Hyun, Sheâz Lee Taeyeon and the CEO herself, Baek Jiyoung, will participate in the opening ceremony to explain the meaning of the event and cheer the competitors.
Different courses will be available so people with skill levels can join, from beginners to veteran runners. The options are: 10km, 5km, 10km couple run, 5km family run, and those who desire to participate have to register through the eventâs official website and pay fees that go from 15,000 won to 30,000 won depending on their chosen course. Couples and families (or groups with 5 people) have good discounts. Regardless of the selected option, all participants will be given the official Green Ribbon t-shirt, racer bib, water, and fruits. Finisher medals will be distributed to finishers at the conclusion of their race. Anyone over 15 years-old is more than welcome to participate and everyone should be ready to run at 3:00 p.m.
After the race, the stage prepared will receive exciting performances from Sphere stars. Names confirmed to perform are Sheâz Kim Jiyoung with her brand new single âDonât Make Me Laughâ, Convex performing âVery Niceâ and âMansaeâ and other two surprise performances in-between that are still kept a secret from the public. The busking festival follows, giving the opportunity for independent artists and hopefuls to perform at the main stage. To sign up for the busking festival, participants should register on their official website and, while the event will provide all the equipment necessary, songs, outfits, and other details are the buskerâs responsibility. Grab your best sneakers and instruments and come support the cause! Dare to test your limits?
To earn +2 POINTS TO DISTRIBUTE AS YOU WISH, write a four post thread or a 250+ words solo about your muse participating in one of the activities during the festival. For extra +2 POINTS IN A PERFORMANCE SKILL, write a 300+ words solo about your muse busking experience. Please tag all your posts related to the event with #rkgreenribbon and have them up by midnight EST at the end of October 2nd, Wednesday. Threads may be continued after the deadline, but after October 2nd points can no longer be collected. Have fun!
myungsoo wasnât much of a dancer, but he couldnât resist the opportunity to participate in a flashmob at the green ribbon running and busking festival. he hadnât expected to hear from anybody that he had interacted with at the mgas because of the fact that he exited the program so early. thatâs why he couldnât help a grin from spreading across his face when he realized that the girl he had interviewed at the convention all of those months ago, yuzu, had texted him and asked if he wanted to be involved in a flashmob.Â
âare you really sure if me and my two left feet participate??? ă ă ă â myungsoo remembers typing out as he was forwarded binnieâs instagram contact information in order to get signed up and be sent the youtube link in order to begin practicing on his own before meeting up with everybody.
every practice felt too short to myungsoo, just barely getting through the steps without falling on his face. it was as if he blinked his eyes and then the day of the event had already arrived. as he made his way through the park, he managed to see yuzu mixed in with the crowd. myungsoo sprinted up to her, tapping her on the shoulder with a wide smile, âyuzu! iâm happy i found you even though there are so many people! iâm so nervous~âÂ
They lived in a small world. Kyungsoo hadnât expected to see a familiar face on the running course but hey, it would be rude to not say hello.
âHey,â he greeted, short and simple as always. They were in the second half of the 10k and he suspected the only reason he saw Tzuyu just now was because the girl was quite a bit ahead of him for the first half of the run. Maybe she decided to slow down and conserve energy, or maybe she just wanted to take her time. Either way, it didnât matter. âYou look like you are holding up well.â Kyungsoo gave her a quick once over to assess her situation and indeed, she looked great - glowing, in fact.
âNever knew you were a runner,â he commented. Look at him, being all social and actually making conversations.
Sphere trainees stage
Choi Youngjae performing CHAOS - Plz Donât Be Sad
It was almost a year since Youngjae had started out as a trainee now. Time seemed to pass much quicker than he thought it did, and he couldnât believe that now, ten months later, he was still amongst the trainee roster of Sphere Entertainment. Honestly speaking it was a miracle that they hadnât kicked him yet, for as far as Youngjae was concerned he wasnât exactly the typical idol material, and to this day he still didnât know what they saw in him. Perhaps that was also why he disliked training so much.
But even that was a lie to himself, wasnât it?
Yes, certainly he could have been without the intense dance practice that he felt like he was butchering anyway, but singing? Although he would never willingly admit it, he had become so fond of using his vocal chords that it almost scared him -- he had always been so certain of his future as an artist. That joining Sphere had just been a means towards an end. But somehow -- just somehow -- this whole being a singer thing didnât seem as bad as it initially had.
And furthermore getting his parts for this stage had made him so strangely happy.
When they had first announced the special stage right in the middle of evaluations, Youngjae hadnât been fond of them to say the least, but receiving the lyrics distribution and comparing it to the original singers, he had immediately noticed one very particular thing: they had given him the spot equal to the main vocalist. He had to double check, but there was no doubt about it. And somehow that recognisation of his skills made him so immensely proud. Main vocal Choi Youngjae. It had a nice ring to it, didnât it? If anything it was at least a goal he could try to work towards. A goal that was far into the future but still something he supposed.
Greatly putting his focus on his singing aside for the month, for once Youngjae actually wanted to do good on stage, and to do that he needed to put focus on one very particular point: his dancing skills. He was surprisingly determined he found, to prove to the public that he was not the same Choi Youngjae from last yearâs MGAs, and that he was not the same from the yearâs end stage if anyone at all had even been able to recognise him from that. If he couldnât do at least that much then he truly would be a failure and not deserving at all of such an important role. The dance wasnât complex by any means, but it still required him to focus more than he liked, and no matter how good his vocals were, if he couldnât do the basic dancing he was just going to stick out like a sore thumb wasnât he?
Come D-day Youngjae had practically lived in the practice room, often opting to even skip his classes for the sake of this stage. Had his hard work paid off? He certainly hoped so, because it would be an absolute bitch to have spent so much time on something only to fail it. He couldnât say that his movements were as fluid as their dancersâ were, but who the fuck could even dare to request that of him? He wasnât a dancer and he probably never would be one.
It had been a while since Youngjae had stood on stage, and there was a completely different feeling within him compared to last time. Last time it had been something he just had to get over and done with no matter how much he fucked it up, but this time he actually had expectations of himself and the outcome, and thus the nerves also caused a turmoil within his body.
And when it finally became their turn, Youngjae had to swallow hard to get his mind to settle.
It was a strange feeling being so nervous. But stepping onto the stage with his fellow male Sphere trainees he could feel so many pairs of eyes rest upon him, upon them, expecting, anticipating. And that was when the reality of it all suddenly hit him. Struggling with what expression to maintain, Youngjae tried to force a nowadays rarely used smile but honestly he had no idea if he was successful or not. And whether he liked it or not the music started as Mark began the performance with his small introduction. Quite literally every other person on stage sang before it was finally his turn, and he began with a voice that was much smoother than what he had expected from his nerves.
His pitch rose during the last line, and he had to admit that the note ended up quite high, but not to a degree where it proved troublesome to him. That was the thing: the vocals were never the problem, and that was why he hadnât put as much attention into mastering them, simply into memorising them.
The chorus began, and in between focusing on getting the dance right and not letting his expression drop or show how focused he actually was, Youngjae barely had time to think about anything else, especially not the nerves which had been long forgotten. In charge of the iconic part, Youngjae let his hands raise while swaying from side to side as he backed up the movement with rhythmical âoohâs. Rinse and repeat, and thus the second verse began with Hojungâs vocals. Before the second chorus he had the same part as earlier -- although his role spoke main vocal the lyrics were pretty much the same parts, which had only made it all the easier to remember in the end. Only in the bridge did he take over with yet another high note, this time going even higher than before.
As the last chorus began Youngjae felt himself loosening up much more than he had anticipated. He had done it, he hadnât made any big and noticeable mistakes and he hadnât flubbed the high notes either which would probably have been the most embarrassing part considering that his vocal talent was all he really had going for him in this line of business. He even dared say to himself that it was kind of fun. How the fuck could that happen? He didnât know. But he did have fun and that was a fact that he couldnât deny. And for once he didnât feel guilty about it, didnât feel like he didnât deserve it.
So that was what it felt like being a normal person, was it?
Sphereâs Green Ribbon Running & Busking FestivalÂ
kim yugyeom & adachi yuto ( @ayutork )Â
performing ;; exo tempo and the eve (blueish green shirt)
the songs yugyeom choose for them to do were specifically picked as oneâs that he himself could do in his sleep at this point. which means they would allow him to properly teach the dances to yuto without worrying about his own parts to much. and boy did yuto really need the help.Â
he had really only decided to do this because hyunggu both wanted him there ( and getting to see his long time and closest friend on stage like that was amazing ) as well as because he all but threatened yugyeom to busk. he understood why, the exposure would be good and just the sheer fact that yugyeom needs to keep up with dancing even without dynamite made sense. he might not like solo busking as much but he supposes it wouldnât hurt to keep at it.Â
plus, preparing for this had been fun.Â
sure, yuto is a mess of a dancer and the whole time he had been embarrassed learning the eve because itâs a sexy dance. but the end result had been good--ish. and fun! the main thing about it was that yugyeom had a lost of fun teaching the dance and performing with yuto.
the day of the event came and they both ran in one of the marathons, then stayed to watch hyunggu perform. he was surprised when he saw his friend on stage. hyunggu did so well though and looks so alive that it almost made yugyeom feel jealous. proud, yes, but jealous.Â
then their time to shine came. the two of them made their way up to the busking area and introduced themselves before getting going.Â
it was like a switch had been hit on yugyeom when the music started. he really seemed to come to life as he stared dancing, smiling and laughing as he caugh yuto in the corner of his eye. the younger dancing well but not nearly as smoothly as yugyeom does. more awkward in a way. but they got their timing down pretty well.Â
he was having so much fun with tempo, and even when the song changed to the eve and he knew he needed to be more sexy he couldnât help the smile on his face as they danced. his body moving so smoothly through the motions of the dance as if he was really made for it. watching the audience as much as he watched his partner as well.Â
the eve eventually came close to an end and yugyeom ended up stepping back for yuto to take the lime light. unable to stop laughin as his friend danced an awkwardly sexy solo performance. even doing some of the dance in smaller motions behind his friend before eventually getting up to help finish it off. posing beside him with a smirk that didnât last long. descending into a smile.Â
â GREEN RIBBON BUSKING STAGE
                    * IF IT MEANS A LOT TO YOU with @rkjiveon
itâs been a while since daniel and jiyeon have done anything fun together. the mgas mightâve counted, had they not ended up a total disaster for both of them, so they do not, thank you very much. jiyeonâs spent more time recovering from her injury, then time away from seoul to celebrate, and danielâs spent time mourning his band and trying to figure out where to go with his life from now on, question still unanswered after a month.
heâs been getting by. heâs grateful that empty enigma didnât go down a secret, and that music isnât something he has to hide anymore. instead, he can throw himself into it anytime he has a spare moment to himself, lyrics in a notebook he takes everywhere with him, guitar almost just as attached to his hip. the overflow of emotion has been good for his songwriting, if nothing else, and good for planning and arranging covers. heâs spent the past month with his newly opened youtube channel, releasing covers for now, original music once his new songs are more polished and less embarrassing for him to bare for the public.
heâs used the past month for more collaborations now too, drawing upon his newly made mga friends, or bonds deepened through the mgas, to work together and make cool music in all of its shapes and forms. strangely, though, he hasnât collaborated with jiyeon in a long time-- has he ever, officially? probably not in public-- nothing on stages or in videos, so when he heard about the busking part of the green ribbon festival, he saw it as the perfect opportunity.
well, first, he saw it as a chance to play one of his original songs in front of an audience again. his heart has ached for the stage again since the mgas and empty enigmaâs collapse, and he still doesnât know when his life became that-- when it started to matter so much. even so, the busking wasnât the thing that drew him to this event, but convex and his overwhelming determination to support jinwook (and jinki) did. even woojinâs insistence that the event was going to be dumb didnât stop him.
he was just glad he didnât have to go alone, and once jiyeon officially expressed her interesting in going with him, it seemed wrong to take to the stage without giving the world a proper collaboration between them. (theyâve talked about doing this more together, too-- about starting even before the busking festival, so he took it as a sign.
even after seeing woojin on stage-- understanding why he wanted him and the rest of the guys to stay home --and even after the inescapable wondering of what couldâve been if their team came in first on the mgas. even after that impenetrable guilt of not following woojin to sphere returned, along with all of the what-ifs, heâs still excited for his performance with jiyeon.
they take to the stage, each with their own guitars in hand, and daniel canât help but smile from the start. he looks over at jiyeon, nods along to a count inside their heads, and then they play, two acoustic guitars over one another. daniel plays the lead guitar part, while jiyeon plays the faithful backing guitar. itâs a song they both love, and a song daniel probably couldnât cover with anyone else in the country considering its relative obscurity. itâs an english song, popular in their kind of band circles overseas, but not here.Â
heâs glad he gets to cover it with her, and he starts out the song-- gets to sing most of it.
hey darling, i hope you're good tonight
and i know you don't feel right when i'm leaving
yeah, i want it but no, i don't need it
tell me something sweet to get me by
he tries not to think too much about it-- to just enjoy performing the song with one of the most important people in his life, but daniel is nothing if not a man that overthinks. when he thinks too much about the songâs content, it makes him a little uncomfortable-- a little guilty. he can relate it to too many things; in the end, it comes back to both jiyeon and sungwoon, and even if his heart made its decision on this matter, the song still makes him think of them both.
all three of them have such a tendency to leave. daniel for vancouver, jiyeon for st petersburg, sungwoon for okinawa (and his hometown after their first mgas together; daniel will never be able to forget that one.)
in the end, for daniel, itâs a song about coming and going and holding on and letting go. daniel is better at parts of that than others.
'cause i can't come back home 'til they're singin'
la, la la la, la la la
'til everyone is singin'
he knows its original intent is a song about touring, and being away from the people you love while on the road-- at least this is what he assumes. daniel wonders if heâll ever be able to relate to it on that end. he wouldâve liked to as empty enigma, and it still doesnât feel right to want to as an idol yet, but maybe if itâs with kenta or woojin. maybe if he can take a shard of that first dream with him into the second, idol life might be for him, or he could be for it.
the go into the heart of the chorus, jiyeon harmonizing with him and echoing him.
if you can wait 'til i get home (i get home)
then i swear to you that we can make this last
(la la la)
if you can wait 'til i get home (i get home)
then i swear come tomorrow, this will all be in our past
it might be for the best
then itâs jiyeonâs turn to sing.
and hey sweetie, but i need you here tonight
and i know that you don't wanna be leaving
yeah, you want it but i can't help it
i just feel complete when you're by my side
maybe he relates to jiyeonâs lines more, as the one so often left in recent history. thereâs a part of him that wonders, when she sings it, if she thinks of him moving all of those years ago, when their hands were tiny and danielâs courage was even smaller than it is today. she always saw it the most from him.
if it were daniel singing, though, it would be about sungwoon, and his trip to japan. it was only a week; danielâs already written a song about it and itâs all embarrassing, but itâs all true. he tries not to think about his feelings for sungwoon and how distressing him leaving always is, lest he be humiliated on stage, and instead takes over the singing, answering jiyeonâs âla la laâsâ with his own.
he sings another chorus, jiyeonâs vocals supplementing his own once again, and then they go into the bridge-- the climax, and daniel dreads it just a little, if only because he dreads it ever happening in his own life.
you know you can't give me what i need
and even though you mean so much to me
i canât wait through everything
jiyeon sings, and daniel answers, the original songâs building electric guitar replaced with a more dynamic build of their acoustics:
is this really happening?
i swear i'll never be happy again
and don't you dare say we can just be friends
i'm not some boy that you can sway
itâs the culmination of the rest of the song, the result of all of the leaving: the relationship fracturing. he sees glimpses of him and sungwoon in this, too, and he tries not to dwell on that fact. it terrifies him.
we knew it'd happen eventually
they the line together, and daniel blacks out any of the thoughts of this relating to his life-- instead, focuses outward, on the crowd, and the feeling of the stage, and jiyeon beside him, and lets himself bask in the joy of it.
they sing together again:
la, la la la, la la la
now everybody's singin'
la, la la la, la la la
now everybody's singin'
la, la la la, la la laÂ
if you can wait 'til I get home
now everybody's singin'
la, la la la, la la la
then i swear we can make this last
they sing different parts now, daniel with the main melody of the chorus over jiyeonâs continuing of this new spin on the prechorus, they stop playing their guitars, and their voices join for an acapella ending:
if you can wait âtil i get home
then i swear we can make this last
bae jinyoungâs green ribbon busking performance
performing old town road (remix ukulele version) - lil nas x & billy ray cyrus (0:00-2:13)
after this, people were either going to love him or hate him.Â
there was a large and stupid grin on his face as he rolled up to the stage, his signature sunglasses settled on his nose and a cowboy hat on his head and ukulele hanging from the strap over his shoulders. he had tried to find some cowboy boots as well to really complete the look, but he couldnât find any at short notice, so a pair of air jordans was just going to have to do. though, he doubted anyone would be looking at his feet during this performance. they were more going to be staring at him in confusion. after all the really good performances which had come before him, they were going to listen to this.Â
âhey all, iâm the ukulele guy from youtube, this is old town road, letâs get it,â he used both of his hands to throw up a quick peace sign, the grin still on his face as he basically swung his ukulele around into the correct position. this crowd simply werenât ready to hear this utter masterpiece. while it had not been in the least bit difficult to work out the tabs, and it was hardly very difficult to play, jordan was still excited. that meant he could focus less on his playing and more on his performance.Â
you did not want to know how long it took him to try and perfect the accent for this song. his english was already thick with a good old boston accent, so it was a bit of a struggle to get rid of that enough to try and do something a bit more texan. because letâs face it, this song with a boston accent was not going to sound as great.Â
as soon as his fingers started to move across the strings in a very well practised and repetitive manner he was already grinning from ear to ear. and as he started to sing the very familiar lyrics he was starting to sway from side to side. he wasnât worried about doing this completely perfectly, while he might want to impress the crowd, he didnât think it were possible with his song and outfit choices. he was just here to have a good time like he always was. life was simply more fun if you relaxed and tried to have fun with everything. he could have done some super serious song cover if he had wanted to, but that just wasnât very him, it would break character.Â
so the memes it was.Â
he really was trying to sell this, lowering his voice to try and match the song as putting on the best gravelly accent he could possibly muster as his hands continued to strum at his ukulele. maybe this would be a little less weird if he were actually doing a proper guitar cover, but no, he had to turn everything in a ukulele cover. he was the ukulele guy, after all, and he was simply determined to get more people to appreciate the instrument and stop thinking it as some easy joke. it still took skill to play to a high level and he had not put this much effort into playing it for so many years just for no one to appropriate it properly.Â
come to think of it, maybe he could have brought a toothpick to chew on, make the performance even better, but he hadnât thought of that. the sunglasses and the cowboy hat were just going to do, and he liked to think they were having a positive effect on people and it was helping people enjoy the performance more than if he were just standing there completely normal. without the ukulele and the slouch as he played and the complete and utter casualness to his performance.Â
his foot was aimlessly tapping along as he started knocking his ukulele with one hand as he simply kept going, head starting to bop a little like it usually did. it was actually a surprise he hadnât started headbanging like all his videos usually ended up with him doing, but he supposed this wasnât the right song for that. but he was having fun with the whole thing, feeling the music and feeling his playing and feeling the crowd starting to groove along with him instead of just standing there completely confused like they had been at the beginning.Â
as he finally played the last notes, he did one last big strum, vibrating his fingers against the strings to try and draw the note out for as long as possible before finally falling still.Â
âthank you!â he bowed rather dramatically, catching his ukulele before he hit himself with it as he dipped forward, one hand on his chest before he stood up again. âyouâve been a great crowd. well no, you were alright... iâm kidding. you were great.â he didnât know why he was bothering to pull jokes at this point just laughing loudly before waving one last time. âfind me on youtube if you want more.âÂ
running the 10 kilometers for a charity purpose wouldn't be a big deal, but as kikwang was curious about other's busking performances (and wanted to prepare himself for his own stage as well), he decided to just go with the 5km run. as he was doing several sports his stamina wasn't too bad, so he did not think of the run as a problem, but nonetheless he couldn't afford to get hurt or injured in any way, so he started to warm himself up. he was excited of the event, not only did it serve a good purpose and the spreading of awareness for environmental issues, but also meant a welcome change in his daily life. kikwang liked the excitement of the activity and he was happy to know about the upcoming stage of convex that would serve as reward afterwards.
with deep breaths the male continued to warm himself up, carefully stretched his upper body and his waist, before he moved over to his legs. he bended over with ease and touched one feet, while stepping away with the other leg. unfortunately another person stood behind him, which was why he bummed his behind right into the other, when bending forward. blinking, kikwang raised himself and turned his head. "i- i'm sorry! i was warming myself up and didn't see you...!" with flushed cheeks, kikwang bowed at the other male. was there any event that went on without him embarrassing himself?
