kt may evaluation, ice cream cake by red velvet
( seungmi as joy )
“i scream, you scream, gimme that gimme that ice cream.”
kt’s holy trinity is not to be messed with.
despite being the youngest trainees under the company, they all can pack a punch or two when it comes to performances. a collab is long overdue, and the evaluation gives them the perfect excuse to prepare something of their own.
when they first got the lyrics printed, yeri and yul both giggled fervently. due to what, the oldest is not sure, but if she can comment on the lyrics, she’d say they were shallow. a sigh was one of her first responses, not only because of the lyrics, but also because of the fact that it is yet another dance related track. barely any korean pop songs are lacking of dances really, but this particular one they chose even has a dance break halfway through the song.
if anything can kill her, it’ll be this stage.
countless session after session, she grasps most of the english pronunciation, even if her thick accent still coats the words like gravy. but most importantly, she gets more and more familiar with the dance. although in the end she doesn’t really get to impress as much as she would, she’s still glad that she didn’t fall once.
of course, some moves she execute awkwardly, and some others she just completely messes up. but she makes up for it with her expressions and lack of shame. if she suddenly jumped, so what? make it look intentional and everything’s alright.
after the song ends, she bows to the panel and thanks her friends. there’s only one reason she’s doing all this, and the reason is that she enjoys sharing the stage with her the other kids. so she smiles, through the struggles and through the pain, but mostly, through the joy.
kt may evaluation, cheer up! by twice
( seungmi as chaeyoung/tzuyu )
“a girl shouldn’t give her heart so easily.”
being asked to join the all-kt-girls eval performance is an honor. it feels like home, the air suddenly changing around her when she finally realizes that she’s accepted in the company for who she is. even with the bad dancer and bad singer title stuck on her, no one thought of kicking her out of the group and excluding her from the set. in fact, the others even tried to help her become better instead of leaving her to fend for herself in front of the panel.
at first, she felt bad for the others. both yulhee and her were the worst dancers of the batch, and it didn’t help that they were both quite new compared to the other trainees. her growth is rapid, she has to admit, but it wasn’t quite enough just yet. she still struggled, a lot, and sometimes extra effort is needed for her to be able to get the whole choreography right. if it wasn’t her not knowing what to do with her foot, it’s her forgetting where she’s supposed to be within the formation.
it gets repetitive after some time though, and she slowly learned the whole dance. it gets easier, she thinks, and it shows through her movements that are a bit more relaxed. definition, maybe not, but she’ll get to it one day. so with pertinence and dogged determination, the rapper does it.
of course, no girl group is ever without its conflicts, even if they weren’t an official group. hyeri and tiffany’s endless squabbles breaks the silence of the room, and the maknae line is always together in one corner, laughing over something completely random. piper slays, and taeyeon slays as well, both in dancing and singing respectively. and while people like sunyoung struggle with charms, yul is overflowing with it. every single person has their own specialties, and she’s proud to say that she’s okay with not being the best at everything.
after all, one can only get so far depending on their strength alone.
MAY EVALUATIONS //
feat. aron & taemin ; shinhwa, perfect man (band ver) ;;
this month had been absolutely stressful—with nonstop training with evaluations around every corner. which was, of course—entirely woohyun’s fault, as the male had the inability to say no for his own sanity. but here he was, seated with aron and taemin, shifting nervously as they begin their stage. he lets out a soft breath, a small smile on his face so he doesn’t look so tense and haggard—head nodding to the beat as it starts. he’s heard it time and time again, over practicing with the other guys, as well as his own interest in shinhwa as he was growing up. it’s easy to get back into the groove of things, lose himself to the music with a smile that’s slowly widening.
he’s thankful for having taemin and aron at his sides as they perform—and while performing with the girls had been fun, woohyun is pleased to know he can be just as comfortable among the few boys at kt. he scuffs his feet against the ground as his eyes fall shut, hand readjusting his grip around the microphone as he brings it up to sing, hearing taemin’s voice fade off gently.
it’ll be hard sometimes. there is always a perfect love next to you.
many things that i can’t give you.
you probably have the whole world.
aron’s rapping is something to hear. woohyun has always wondered how easy it is to have the words spill from your lips so harshly but still have it sound melodious all in the same go. it’s mind boggling to him, so he can’t help but staring at aron for a long moment before he turns his attention back forward, expression faltering and straightening .
once the instrumentals slow, he begins to move—unfolding himself to stand. he winces at his joints cracking fro, sitting, but otherwise doesn’t let his expression change. this had been the most of which he had been nervous about—dancing wasn’t his best although it certainly wasn’t his worst.
the formation had been a bit hard for woohyun to grasp, aron and taemin both miles ahead of him in the dancing department. stepped toes and apologies spent in the practice room turn into woohyun aiming to eagerly pinpoint each dance more perfectly and perfect it, if anything to showcase how to never underestimate someone. arms move and feet step forward and slide—the feels himself slipping and jerking too hard when he should have been loose.
the cymbals note the end of the song to which woohyun stills in his place, scared to breathe in order to not mess up the perfect formation everyone had accomplished. he glances at his fellow teammates as they come to a close, shoulders drooping forward as he catches his breath. he bows to the mentors in front of them—a happy chirp of goodbye leaving him.
( ♥ ) ent may evaluation: teamwork challenge edition!
name: hwang ❝ tiffany ❞ miyoung
➥ kt’s aurora, brighter than the sky
song: troublemaker ft. hyunjae / towel sunbae
“are you sure you still want to?”
“you need someone to work with, don’t you?”
“way to make me feel better. you know i can ask someone else.”
but tiffany knows just as well as he does that there is no one else he could ask, not for this song, not for this level of intimacy in a dance, not unless he wants to be bright red for the duration of the eval performance.
excuses are easy to find, easy to dismiss with these two.
“you’ll be tired” and “i’ll be tired anyway.”
“i could go back to acting—” and “you said you wanted to try out something different.”
ultimately, it’s “don’t you want to make up for the last time we danced together” that wins hyunjae over and he knows there’s no fighting that one. by now, he was more than over fighting with her— they’d fought too much then for him to let it fall apart again, or so he thought, so he hoped.
good things never last.
‘it’s difficult’ would be putting it lightly, because tiffany is the one with more experience this time around and it’s odd. they’d learnt the choreography together before, struggled together, but it’s a song she’s performed before with a different trainee who’d also been one of her best friends within company walls and most definitely outside of them.
even away in china, she considers him one of her best friends because keeping any secrets from him is easier to avoid than with hyunjae but it’s harder for her to deliberately lie to him, to not want to tell him in the first place. but one thing tiffany knows best about hyunjae is that he performs best in the clutch— and so he does this time, he exceeds even her own high expectations of him and it’s almost distracting. he owns the song and there’s a stroke of guilt when she thinks, “even then, people are never satisfied” and she knows she’s projecting remnant feelings about the mgas onto him. or was it the other way around?
because, the truth is, she always wanted the best for him, whether it be a what or who.
( ♥ ) ent may evaluation: teamwork challenge edition!
name: hwang ❝ tiffany ❞ miyoung
➥ kt’s aurora, brighter than the sky
song: baekhyun and suzy’s dream ft. nam woohyun
a song for a first love— that’s what it felt like and the title couldn’t be more fitting. because that’s how tiffany saw her first love, that’s how she thought of it then. even now, she thinks was it really more than just a dream?
she writes it off as a sweet dream that became a nightmare with the significant loss— a child that has to say goodbye first and first love becomes bittersweet. she’s changed since then, views and feels love oh-so-differently but when she looks at woohyun, she knows he’s still there.
he’s still there and she’s a little envious. because, yes, she’s seen woohyun sing before and for anyone to think the guy doesn’t sing with his heart and soul, head to toe especially his facial expression, would be a erroneous assumption.
if it wasn’t enough that tiffany already admired his voice from the moment she first heard it, it’s his technique and how much he commits to a song that infatuates her more— only singing-wise, of course. it reminds her of herself when she first joined kt, the title of an emotional singer following her as she started training only to quickly become both a weakness and a strength, balance yet to be achieved yet he nearly perfected it in her eyes. a control over his voice that she strives for.
there’s no denying her smile as the melody plays, seats already taken and her jacket from the last performance tossed to the side for a softer look, a more feminine look, because it’s exactly what the song calls for, what the innocence of first love calls for and feels like.
i had really sweet dreams yesterday
i don’t wanna tell you now
because i’m too shy — and also it’s known
not very good to tell someone this kind of thing
they play roles so effortlessly ( save with the occasional stare from woohyun but she thinks he’s zoning out, thinking of whoever it is that has him charmed and she knows it must be as sweet as the song ) and practiced harmonization fills the room, sweet tones to match and she wonders when the last time she sung a love song was ever this tender— she wonders when she stopped choosing songs as affectionate and gentle as this one for ones that spoke of lost love and strife, of a struggle to even love anymore. she wonders when she started thinking of love as mostly a lie outside of her family.
mmm, you’re telling a lie
with the look full of confidence
but that’s so sweet to hear
that is
dream, that i can never have again
that was really sweet
i think you are just like the dream
more reasons she remembers her first love as a dream, she can’t keep facts straight. details blur and fade and she recalls bitterly calling him a liar. it was her who often lied.
i’m okay, her favorite lie.
the sweet dream that became a nightmare was her.
well, i don’t care
even if you’re a sweet liar
there’s a silver lining though and it grows, spirals, overwhelms whenever she looks to woohyun for inspiration and strength. her voice builds and falls with his, chasing and leading, a push and pull of vocals and she hopes the song is what’s true for him. that his love story remains like this, as such a sweet dream.
dream, when you look
at me just like that
i feel like you’re so mine
dream, that makes me want to
fall asleep again — such a sweet dream
that’s you
This month had passed in a haze at the company. To be fair a lot of things were going on in Hakyeon’s personal life and somewhere in the back of his mind, that told him that he was doing something wrong. The company didn’t want to become the background, the company wanted his work to be his whole life. They’d made that clear from day one.
Still he found himself taking a back seat with this evaluation. Figuring it was his last one, Hakyeon didn’t feel like putting his heart into it like before. Like one last shot to Seo Jisub- you spent all of this money on me, watch me be mediocre.
It was watching the others in his group that made him give a shit. Yien had grown more into a company man than expected. He only knew the other two in passing, Minsoo because of work, Key because of an long ago trip to a haunted house, but he could see what Royal saw in them. Even with the draining day to day schedule all of the boys had, the other three had- and Hakyeon was never one to describe anything this way, they had heart.
Their personalities would have maybe crashed with his own in another life when he wasn’t drained of his reason to be at the company, but now, he’d mellowed. He wasn’t really here anymore, or so he thought.
The day of the evaluations came not so long after his contract re-signing. HE thought the boys would have to struggle through without him, but here he was, standing side by side, in full uniform, a simple suit, with a tie, ready to step out.
For his teammates, for Seo Jisub, for his former labelmates, for his sister, for his family, for his wife, for himself, he gave it his all. 2 years of training and he was still standing on that stage. He’d gone farther than any of his friends. He was going to beat this game.
The tension in the room was unbearable. For a few days, she felt like she’s made a grave mistake over choosing Jiwon and Yubin for this evaluation. She needed a team. She needed someone to work with her and those were the two immediate people to jump into her mind. But seeing the annoyance that buzzed in the room, Sohee felt like she sparked a fire that had been waiting to be lit.
For the most part, she attempted to remain neutral. Sohee simply refused to address the elephant in the room no matter how noticeable it was. On Jiwon and Yubin’s end, they seemed to not want to address it either. But the tension was still there. Jiwon seemed like she wanted to do anything else but be in the room. Negativity wasn’t going to help them get this over with.
Yubin was left in charge of the outfits while Sohee and Jiwon were left to their own devices to divide up the lyrics a bit more. Considering the distribution, Jiwon would get a good majority of the song, leaving Sohee with a verse and Yubin with even less (which was usually the case with rappers). They came to a decision to harmonise mostly, since it was easier than sitting there and trying to make things more even. Sohee agreed. It sounded like a sufficient plan for now.
Any time the three of them were in the same room, Sohee felt like slinking in the background, feeling too aware of the silent tension that still seemed to be there. It was hard to focus on anything else but how two important people in her life seemed to hate each other. Though they did nothing to make her feel trapped, she still felt like the middle man. The neutral zone of the war.
(It didn’t help that they didn’t speak really to each other.)
They made enough small talk to choose outfits. A conversation, she felt, was mostly carried by her, as opinions and ideas would be heard by all but doled out to her directly. But she could feel that as they exchanged and spoke, it was a bit easier. They all settled with something uniform but individual. Jiwon couldn’t help but smirk at Sohee’s expense, as the girl clearly wasn’t comfortable wearing anything portrayed as “sexy”.
Come their evaluation, she was waiting with Jiwon, clutching at the other’s hand in a nervous gesture. The younger already scolded her (playfully) for being so nervous over something that wasn’t that serious. They were already picked from the crop as the best individuals: eye candy with siren-song voices enough to capture attention for just about four minutes. There was no need for Sohee to be so nervous.
Even as the music began to play, her nerves were still there. She played it off, entrusting herself to get into character of the performance. She may not have the visual capabilities of Jiwon and Yubin, two women who obviously would easily be sexy icons but she was well aware of her own advantages. If being cute could really help her stand out here, so be it. Regardless, Sohee stayed off to the side, waiting to join the other in singing the chorus to really let her voice be heard.
Their voices were well matched together. She had always known that harmonising would never be a real issue for them and it made her all the more grateful that she chose Jiwon to be her partner for the eval. Had she had the time to, her mind would wonder to other things, like future songs together because their voices just went well together. It made her jittery with anticipation for the future, for moments she’d hopefully get to spend with Jiwon, whom she was grateful to call a friend and a sunbae.
She holds back her smile, tossed directly at the other as they finish up the chorus. She presses forward, taking point as centre as she sings. Her vocals are stable, finding no difficulty with the notes with a performance with little dance movements (they had agreed that there was no real choreography to add to it). She winked, shaking her hips in more of a cute way than a sexy one, knowing that her cuteness was her main advantage at this point to catch any eyes.
She let herself lower to the floor, looking over her shoulder as she finished the lyric before the next chorus picked up. Sohee rose again, letting herself breathe as Jiwon took over the first lyric of the chorus. She joined in, alternating with the other in singing backup and main vocals. They both moved off to the side to let Yubin enter with her rap. Rather than stand off to the side awkwardly, Sohee playfully danced with Yubin as she rapped just as she would as they practised. Rather than join Jiwon for the high note of the song, she let her sing it alone, despite the times in practise she would sing along side her.
An inhale, and exhale of lyrics, and they were thrust into one final chorus. It wasn’t until the song reached it’s conclusion that she realised that she was panting and beaming proudly. She looked between the two of them, knowing that a group hug was definitely out of the question. So she settled with two quick separate hugs, holding both of their hands with both of hers. “I want food now,” she whispered to them both, promptly tugged the two females to get snacks the minute they were available (together with her, whether they wanted to or not).
