Song: Whistle by BLACKPINK ;; Acapella version by SoulstaR
With @rkshua @rkxminah & @rkleedongminie || Line distribution
In hindsight he supposed it was kind of funny. That the small singing line he had in this song harmonising with everyone else wasn’t what had caused him the most stress for once, but rather what would have appeared to be a very innocent whistling melody in the very beginning. At least Jinwoo could whistle, but he had never once imagined how hard it was to produce a small melody with this skill. No big deal he had thought at first, but eventually it had proven a much bigger hurdle than first anticipated.
At the time it had caused him a lot of stress as he wanted to do perfectly for once, to not let down his group mates, but now it seemed almost laughable that such a puny matter could cause such an amount of conflict. If he told Joshua about it, surely it would become another laughing matter between the two, but for now the hours he had spent alone at home after practice driving Chewie nuts with the repetitive whistling was his little secret. Maybe it could become a fun little memory eventually.
Admittedly the fact that he had to start the song was nerve wracking. But while this evaluation had made him very nervous eventually, both Minah and Joshua had done their best to incorporate a rap into the acapella version they had eventually decided upon, a thing that was probably weird for the genre, but in this area where Jinwoo had to be in focus himself and couldn’t just hide behind others or through a melodic rap, he had practically felt his spirit leave his body at the thought. And admittedly he wanted to salvage his image a bit towards the youngest of the group as it had been kind of a jab on his pride to have to ask for singing lessons from someone younger. But if he wasn’t ever evolving, what was the point of even trying his way around this industry? He couldn’t get anywhere if the only thing he knew how to do was dance. This evaluation proved that much very well.
Now was the time to do or die, and although it was a lot less intimidating to sit before a few individuals rather than last month’s crowd, he found there was just something nerve wrecking about the evaluations no matter what the situation was. Even if he was allowed to only dance, he doubted it would be any easier, for the memory of his audition was still fresh in mind now three months later. Had it already been three months? That was wild to think about. Perhaps it would become easier in time, perhaps not, but for now he just had to take it one day at a time, and in the silence of the room that didn’t play any backup music for their performance, Jinwoo initiated the song with the whistle he had practiced to perfection.
Hearing the others harmonise without him made him feel relief -- no matter how bad he himself was at it, he had three capable singers by his side who would definitely be able to pull up this performance, and for that he was happy. Letting his body ease up from the anxiety, he started moving along to the others’ voices, the dancer in him finding it impossible to sit still when music filled the room -- even if it was simple song there was still a rhythm to be found and that was enough. Then his rap part came up and perhaps because he was just so relieved that it wasn’t a singing part, for once he didn’t feel nervous about having to rap in front of others.
Every guy checks me out every day
They all think they can get me
I don’t want a lot of things
I want your heart
Cut out your heart and show me
Confidently, sometimes chic, chic
The song itself fit into Jinwoo’s taste in music, and although he didn’t know it by heart, he had heard it a couple of times before. The original had a cool beat that would have been great to dance to, but he had to admit that it felt slightly weird rapping a female part if only lyrics wise. The rap itself was pretty straightforward and fortunately already in a deeper female key so it hadn’t been too hard to make it fit to his own key of voice. Immediately afterwards Joshua took over, bringing the melody back to song, soon followed by Dongmin and a short part by Minah before all of them had to sing together. Jinwoo took extra caution to make sure his voice was smaller than the rest of them so he wouldn’t be heard if he messed up.
(My heart is) beating so fast
You can hear it closer and closer
Being a rapper had proven difficult so far, but this time Jinwoo was just glad that his group had tried to be mindful of it. He knew he couldn’t keep on going with special treatment, and he didn’t hold Aron and Johnny in spite for a moment for having made him sing last month (after all Kris had been in the exact same position as him so he had no right to complain about anything) but this was much more comfortable for him. Hearing the rest of his group near the end of their song, Jinwoo prepared himself to yet again let his voice simply be a barely noticeable background sound as they reached the climax and the final lines of the song.
Make’ em whistle like
A missile bomb, bomb
Every time I show up, blow up uh
Make’ em whistle like
A missile bomb, bomb
Every time I show up, blow up
Thus their performance was done, and after a moment of not breathing, Jinwoo let out a sharp exhale of relief. He hadn’t messed up. Not this time. At least not noticeably. The teachers would probably find something to comment on anyway, but the redhead himself believed that this had actually been a performance he could be satisfied with. He quickly bowed his head to the rest of his group members in thanks.
at times, when he got bored or was lacking inspiration to compose or to write lyrics, gary often watched random videos on youtube, read articles or blogs. sometimes he would stumble over things he had never seen or heard of before, like skateboarding, and kind of become obsessed over these newly discovered passions. but in all honesty it was hard to stick to those hobbies, as it took most of his time and consumed the space he always tried to keep for music.
so nowadays he just reads, trying to ignore the new trends popping up on his social media, when he finds a blog called “themusicanon” who seemed to be observing the five big companies and their products. noticing a newly uploaded post regarding kt rookies, he feels a stab in his heart, only to start reading. everyone who had the chance to join kt rookies were still his comrades and he wouldn’t dare to have ill thoughts against them, even when there of course was a tiny inch of envy. being envious was a human trait after all.
gary sits up straight and reads throughouly, before calling out to kris who had been with him in the room. they have started to become closer after finding out about not being choosen for the big kt project and felt connected over the fact of being rappers since that day. “hey dude, look what I just found!” he grinned, losing his calm and leisure composure he usually had and turned the laptop around for his buddy to see.
“a blogger seems to remember us! here, read yourself! >>I know one is pretty short and looks like he can kick ass, while the other is a tall, princely dude who won that KT and Royal contest.<< he is most definitely talking about us, don’t you think?”
christmas time is a treasure trove of memories for her: reminders of when she’d first joined kt and the cast of dream high to deliver shoeboxes to charity, and then the previous year when they’d all decorated the large company tree together as a show of seasonal solidarity. would this year be any less magical...? no, not with ktrookies under her belt and the realization that this christmas might be the most special one of all. that’s why, when she hands over a present to a waiting child, the smile on hyeri’s face is the brightest and most sincere she’s ever felt. it feels so good to give when she’s been given so much.
later, with now-empty hands, hyeri approaches the lunch table and pilfers one of the neatly-decorated cupcakes from a plate. she peels off the green and red decorated wrapper and sidles over to kris who’s nearby. “have you ever had a mint-flavored cupcake?” she asks curiously, and examines the pale green-colored cake beneath the red frosting. “i wonder if the kids made it.”
Although Jinwoo didn’t really enjoy swearing or stood up for it, there could only be one way to explain how he had felt when he had stepped upon the KT grounds for the first time, not as a random aspirant but actually able to call himself a trainee: nervous as hell. He had thought that the hard part was over, but he hadn’t thought that it might only just have begun. The lessons aside, what if he didn’t find anyone else in there that he could relate to or get along with? As far as he gathered he was the most recent addition, so surely there were tons of people in there who were so much better than him. That was what he thought at least.
Fortunately he had managed to stumble across at least one person he could easily strike up a conversation with. How it had started he wasn’t even sure by now, but somehow along the line their random chatter had come across the topic of pets, and Jinwoo had mentioned Chewie who was waiting for him back in his apartment. It was as though the other male’s, Kris’, face lit up upon realising that Jinwoo had a dog, and before he even knew it, he stood back in his apartment in Mapo-gu preparing to play host despite the late hour it had become after practise was over. Chewie already knew before the doorbell even rang -- he had a special ability to pick up when guests were coming over -- and was already standing ready at the door when a hustle could be heard from outside, and Jinwoo made it over to let in his visitor. Although Chewie was not one to bite strangers, he still grabbed his collar as he opened up.
“Sunbaenim,” he greeted the other male politely with a bow of his upper body. “I hope it wasn’t too hard to find--” As he rose his head he actually got a proper look at Kris in the doorway and suddenly confusion filled him. “I’m sorry, is that a fish?”
Song: Because Of You by After School ;; As performed by Nu’est
With @aronrk @rkjohnny & @rkkris ;; Line distribution
He was not in any form or way a singer. If asked, he would say that he was barely even a rapper, but when it came to singing he was simply and unarguably just bad. It was his biggest shame, and by god did Jinwoo wish that he could just never have to let out a tune in anything even remotely resembling a song. Every so often his mother’s words when he had made the announcement that he had been accepted as a trainee would play before his ears -- “but Jinwoo, you can’t even sing!” -- and he would feel her confusion as if a plug on whatever confidence he had built up over the past two months had been pulled.
Trainee life had fuelled one thing within him -- as ugly as the word sounded to him, even considered a deadly sin, he could only agree to greed having gained root in him. Throughout his entire life he had believed that he was nothing special, and yet here he was, Park Jinwoo, trainee at one of the biggest companies of Korea. Some part of him still believed there had been some kind of mistake, but they had singled him out not just once amongst all the random applicants, but once more during the callback auditions. Was it too far fetched to maybe start believing that he too possessed talent, if only a little? He wanted the acknowledgement that he was actually worth something so bad now that he had got a small taste of it.
At first this evaluation had caused him nothing but stress and he was anxious if he would ever be able to complete it, but those emotions had been calmed down when he had miraculously been able to join forces with some sunbaes at KT. Other than Kris hyung with whom he had previously had an encounter, Jinwoo couldn’t say that he really knew either of the others which was rather intimidating in the beginning to say the least. It wasn’t an understatement to say that with at least two of them he had to look up to them -- way up as both Kris hyung and Johnny hyung were towering above him, and although they had seemed like nice people whenever he had encountered them previously, in his moment of distress such a silly thing only served to intimidate him further. Aron sunbaenim was way different in that aspect although he didn’t dare to utter this thought out loud. But that wasn’t everything: all of them without fail were so talented and felt so far ahead than him that he could only feel like he was being a dead weight.
In an instant what had seemed like an easy and comfortable way out became terrifying, especially when he realised that he would be expected to sing during this ordeal. The harmonies in the chorus were fine he supposed, he could always make his voice weaker and hide behind everyone else, but what was he supposed to do for the solo parts? He couldn’t hit a note to save a life and he pretty much started the thing!
But that was then and this was now. It would be a lie to say that he wasn’t nervous when their turn came up and he got into formation. The words ‘you’re going to mess this up’ were playing on repeat inside of his mind, but Jinwoo could only swallow hard to try rid himself of that thought once the music started playing and his hyungs initiated the song, Kris with a short narration and the other two with a harmony. He didn’t even have time to take a deep breath to calm down his nerves before his part had already come up.
When he had shared his worries about his singing, both Aron and Johnny had helped him out a lot. The latter as well claimed to be a bad vocalist (although Jinwoo knew himself to be the worst singer amongst them without a doubt) and talked about this book he had been reading to improve himself and even been kind enough to lend it while the former had guided him through the vocals with his guitar. Eventually once the suggestion to simply try turning it into a melodic rap instead of outright singing, Jinwoo could finally feel as though he had gained a grasp of his lines.
헤어진 지 벌써 몇 년이 지났는 지 몰라
그대 생각만 하면 자꾸 눈물만 흘러
It was far from perfect, and he hadn’t anticipated for it to be, but at least he didn’t feel the need to crawl into a hole and disappear like he usually did when having to sing in front of others. Naturally it was very embarrassing to have many people behold him in his less admirable state, but he had to come to terms with the fact that a person didn’t just change over the span of a single month like that. He had other means with which to impress, hopefully, one which was his first rap part coming up pretty much immediately after, as well as his dancing throughout the entire song. Jinwoo didn’t like to admit it himself, but with the amount of time he had spent trying to ensure that no incidents happened during the actual execution of the choreography, no one colliding or ending up slapping each other or stepping on each other on accident, he felt as though he could claim to at least be the most confident dancer in their group.
If there was one regret he had, it was that he couldn’t control the shiver in his voice from having to dance and rap at the same time, but he hoped it wasn’t too noticeable. The choreography was simple enough to mostly maintain his breath, but gained a bit in intensity in the pre-chorus and chorus once the beat picked up. Jinwoo for one was very glad to have both the MR and his hyungs to drown out his actual voice a bit in the harmonies.
For the next part of the song he would simply fade into the background and let the others take care of the vocal performance as Kris took care of the main rap verse in the second verse with Jinwoo only supporting briefly, but what he truly feared was his second singing line right after the next harmony. The slight rise in tune hadn’t been sitting well with him, and as he feared, at the first 해 his voice cracked trying to adjust to the change. Pulling through with the rest of the line, only when Aron took over and Jinwoo returned to dancing did he let a wince appear on his face. As expected he shouldn’t have tried singing.
His last two solo lines finished off the latter better than the former and the melody fading out, the redhead could only let out an “it’s over...” in between draws of breath, almost as if he was surprised that they had completed it. Of course they had though. Johnny, Kris and Aron were all amazing, more than enough to make up for how weak he still was in his presence and skills. But despite the regrets he had, Jinwoo was also feeling a sense of enjoyment -- as nervous as he had been, he also felt excitement at actually having performed in front of others, not just the teachers, not just the judges of the callback audition, not just his friend’s family during a Christmas party. It probably shouldn’t affect him so much, but somehow this was a really amazing and kind of overwhelming feeling at the same time. At Johnny’s words, Jinwoo was pulled back to reality, and he bowed his head in thanks. “No, it was all thanks to you hyungs! Thank you very much for how much you’ve helped me with this. You all are really amazing.”
The more that Taeyeon was getting out of her self-imposed exile of her training room, the more she realized that KT was just running rampant with extremely tall guys. She had met Johnny not that long ago, who towered over her and now she was coming, well not face-to-face, but face-to-chest with another one of the KT Boys, yet another that she didn’t know that well, but had seen around before.
“Hi there... you’re... Kris, right?” she asked, her usual meek self trying hard to make up for lost time with the fact that she knew he had been around for a long time and she had never actually spoken to him before this moment. “I’m Taeyeon... um... “ she reached a hand up to play with the ends of her hair a bit nervously. “What is it you’re practicing?” it was lame, she knew that, but when you spend the majority of your time, both work and free, at work, it was likely the first thing on your mind to bring up in conversation. She really didn’t have much going on in her personal life to chit chat about anyway.
