Son Seungwan - Nova Entertainment
April 2018 - Acting Evaluation
Scene: Four-Way Call from Mean Girls
With @rkhyunakim @rkmin @bambamrk
When Wendy was tossing around ideas what she can do for the evaluation, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. She originally wanted to do a scene from either Sailor Moon or some foreign-language musical. However, she realized that trying to master both another language and her acting was more work than she’d like. It could end up blowing up in her face rather than being rewarded for the risks she’d be taking. The perfect idea had come to her when she heard of Mean Girls the musical. It hasn’t been performed outside of USA, but she had managed to get hold of bootleg copies.
Nothing in the musical caught her attention, to her disappointment, so she had turned to the original movie to draw some inspiration. One scene caught her attention more than the others. Of course, it helped that at the end was an iconic line she still likes saying even today. Honestly, she hopes that the coaches don’t murder her for choosing to do a scene that involves the use of foul language. Oh well, too late for regrets. But either way, she thinks this evaluation will be interesting.
Her next problem was getting people to do the scene with her. After all, she needed three other people to pull it off with her. To her luck, Hyuna unni, Min sunbaenim, and Bambam oppa had all been interested to work with her for this evaluation. It also helped that most of them also spoke English, making the work and distribution of roles easier.
Despite being in the same company and having worked together several times, Wendy feels as if there’s still a bit of a wall set up between her and the rest of them. She gets along great with Hyuna unni, but a small part of her still approaches both Min sunbaenim and Bambam oppa with caution. As much as she’s fine with working with them both in a professional setting, she isn’t sure where she lies with them both. It’s not that she’s scared of them, but she sometimes feels like there’s a wall between them that she can’t break through.
With these feelings in mind, Wendy chuckles at the irony of the scene they’re doing. People revealing how they truly feel about each other. Despite having these feelings, they worked hard enough to make things perfect. It was much easier to practice since they’re all under the same company. As the evaluations approach, Wendy feels a little bit more confident coming into this evaluation now that she’s gotten some help from master actress Chaeyoung. She also prays that her chemistry with Hyuna unni, Min sunbaenim, and Bambam oppa has improved with all the times they practiced together.
Wendy plays Gretchen Weiners, the recently betrayed friend of queen bee Regina George. Her task is to enter Gretchen’s mind and bring out the emotions and thoughts the rich heiress is feeling as she hears her so-called friends say mean things about her.
“Hold on,” she says after hearing everything she just did. Regina just called her ugly and unfit for Spring Fling Queen. What kind of friend does that? And holy shit… Did she just call Karen a slut? She lets out a soft sob, as she saw Gretchen do in the movie. She’s barely holding it together as she calls Karen.
Wendy had studied and listened to footage of herself speaking while crying back when she was still skating competitively. There’s also the help she got from Chaeyoung to make her acting seem more natural and less character-like. She has to look like she’s just barely keeping it together, and she has to sound like it too.
Min sunbaenim as Karen barely gets to say hello, when she launches into the heart of the matter at once. “If someone said something bad about you, you’d want me to tell you, right?”
Wendy casts aside any notion of having to be more respectful toward Min sunbaenim. She pretends that she’s not older and a senior to be respected. In this scene, they are the same aged friends who have just been insulted behind their backs. They aren’t Wendy and Min sunbaenim right now, she tells herself. They are Gretchen Weiners and Karen Smith talking about Regina George.
Karen clearly doesn’t see the urgency of the situation. “What if it was someone you thought was your friend?”
After being brushed off, she makes a face. Clearly she’s not the priority here. Ugh. “I’m not taking this anymore,” she whispers to herself.
At Cady’s encouragement, she nods to herself. At least someone appreciates her worth as a human being.
Karen comes back, saying that Regina invited her to hang out without Gretchen.
“Do not hang out with her,” Wendy as Gretchen all but commands. She attempts to keep her face neutral, opting to convey the urgency in her voice.
Why?
Poor Karen. She deserves to know, but at the same time, Gretchen isn’t sure she should tell… She settles for “You don’t want me to tell you,” with a sigh.
Despite the assurance that she can tell Karen, Gretchen still has reservations. She makes a face when Karen clicks away.
Oh my God. She’s so annoying.
Wendy widens her eyes a little bit, to convey a mix of confusion and suspicion. Was this even supposed to be for her? “Who is?” she asks.
Who’s this?
“Gretchen…” she says slowly, trying to hide the suspicion and confusion from her voice.
Right, hold on…
While waiting for Karen to come back, Wendy moves over to the mirror to study her face. When that gets boring, she opts to tap her fingers against her legs. At this rate, she wouldn’t be surprised if Karen and Regina were talking about her behind her back. What is this betrayal? That’s it. She’s telling Karen.
Wendy makes sure to shift her eyes around her imaginary room, before settling on a random coach and nodding to herself, as if she had just made an important decision.
Ok, what is it?
“Regina says everyone hates you because you’re such a slut,” she says as quickly as she can. She whispered for fear someone else would overhear. She has to say it fast before she has second thoughts. Karen deserves to know the truth. She deserves to know who the real snake is around here.
She said that?
Gretchen almost feels bad, but she owes Karen the truth. Wendy makes sure to show that in her face by looking to the side and keeping her mouth set in a firm line. “You didn’t hear it from me.”
She waits for Karen to put the phone down. Now they’re even. She puts on her best ‘sorry not sorry face’ when Cady points out that she was a little harsh.
She lets out a soft scoff. “Ugh, whatever, she has a right to know.”
She puts the phone down, now that her part is done.
After Hyuna unni says “Boo you, whore,” Wendy lets out a sigh of relief as they all bow. This was one of the more fun evaluations she had done, but she also hopes that this helps improve her relationship with the more senior trainees in the company. It’s been two years, and she hopes that this helps bring them a little closer.
december twenty-fourth. 12월 evaluation ✦ merry christmas, seoul !
the twenty-fourth comes quicker than she realizes, and her performance repertoire is as ingrained into her muscle-memory as what she had for last night’s dinner, a memorable meal considering it happened to be the most she’s eaten due to her busy schedule. it passes, the appetite, a common notion she’s begun to appeal to when the constant overwhelming workload includes practices, formation changes and line distributions; an endless cycle that’s been a familiar friend in her life for the past four months. and as horrible as it did sound, jihyun didn’t quite mind.
she liked keeping busy, she liked watching people come together in time for the holiday season; actually was enthralled with the late nights and the small conversations she’s held with everyone at their most vulnerable moments. where exhaustion exists and formalities are dropped because of it. then again, also knowing it was a possibility it would be her last evaluation as a trainee seemed to sweeten the deal : made her work harder, want to spend a little bit more time with those she knew she’ll miss in the new year.
the day goes by and night soon falls; seven pm sharp do metaphorical curtains rise and everyone is in position. the first stage begins and it’s the song that has jihyun rushing from where she stood among the other trainees, pushing past others to sneak a peek from the wings. watching with warm hearts and a proud smile as jongin and minyoung sang on stage. their voices mingling together in a way jihyun could only remember so fondly. days of their time in new york coming back to her as they sang, tales of obnoxious karaoke and sleepy carols had nothing on what the two were performing on stage.
it all comes back to her and as warm as it makes her feel, revisiting fond memories; she’s sad she can’t join them -- retreats before they can see her. her regrets left on the back burner as she’s back to reciting the lyrics of her own performances. when it ends, she spots them in the crowd so easily ; a hand rising in acknowledgement as she waves to them from where she stands in the crowd, amidst the rest of the trainees going here and there, to and from the stage -- trying to keep their nerves under wraps as the concert continued. because at the end of the day, it was still an evaluation and as much as she wanted to wrap her friends in her arms and congratulate them on how well they sounded -- it was best to leave such wishes for the end.
they all still had a show to put on. and jihyun knew better than anyone that putting a half-assed performance for the crowd would be her own undoing. so, she does as she’s told ; instructed by staff to stand where they need her to. waits for her turn to enter the stage, microphone attached to the silk of her cheek by clear tape.
one breath, two -- eyes face the wall behind them, backs to the crowd. the voices from behind already buzzing in her ears before the music begins. the excitement that sinks into her veins, energizing her -- reinventing the thoughts that had clouded her in misery earlier. the smile she dons when she turns, choreography mended into her very bones, becomes more genuine as the song continues -- to the very last bow, it brings the festive holiday spirit back into her eyes.
it continues throughout the concert; ( a sensation that jihyun thanks when it all ends ) from one performance to another. as be my baby comes, she’s rather thrilled for the performance. and unlike her performances at royal survival, save for a few, she feels a liveliness in her -- one she can say isn’t specified as competitiveness or desperation. this one keeps her happy, smile growing wider as she dances around the stage; each movement made to mirror another trainees from beside her. it lacks the christmas-time spirit, unfortunately, but they make it work.
jihyun was sure she could supply enough christmas spirit for the performance if they needed it.
first day on the job, so to speak, and hugo figured he’d be dreading this, but so far things have proven to be rather fun instead. mostly due to the fact that he had spent his time so far going around and trying to meet all the other trainees. there didn’t seem to be a lot of them - nova must be pretty elite, all the more reason to feel absolutely awesome about himself - so meeting everyone wasn’t proving to be too difficult, at least not with number count. the real difficulty was that... well...
everyone walked around like they had massive wedgies up their butts!
and broomsticks shoved up there too, with a side of not having pooped in a few weeks. everything was so tense and he didn’t like that. hugo was the opposite of tense. he was fun! there was no way he could let nova continue being the wedgie capital of seoul. for christmas he’d buy everyone loose fitting underwear so this wouldn’t happen again.
for now, he had to be his goofball self to the max, and so when he spotted a very cute woman sitting off to the side of some rehearsal studio, he decided to let himself into the room, diving right into a somersault to get over to her. except that the roll only took him halfway there, to which he looked up at her and gave a sheepish smile. “one moment my lady!” with that he tried to do his best split which was really just his legs bent up, and he took hold of his ankle, folded over, before beginning to roll over his side and towards her, sounds of discomfort groaning out of him before he finally made it over to her. he was out of breath by the time he got there, but he made it, getting onto one knee and framing his face with his hand, panting out a few breaths before wiggling his fingers and giving a tired yet goofy smile. “tada~! i’m hugo, you’re new companion on the nova journey to greatness and wonderment. my skills include rolling around, being a cinnamon roll, and rollin’ up to the club. i hope you’ll join me in all of those activities.” and he topped it off with a little wink, for effect of course.
any trainees you know that aren't on royal survival, but that you wish would've been?
oh honey, where do i begin?
i really like the ‘confident’ sorta girl. not to put us down as girls, but i don’t feel like we have that edge this year. so i was sad not to see @rksunyoung this competition. she’s sassy and is hella pretty. her time in the mgas shows she has skill and she’s super quirky!! it’s hella charming to watch. too bad we don’t have too many girls like that this year.
i also wish @rkluna was on the show for the same reason. how can you not say confidence without luna? that girl is a firecracker. she can clearly compose groups and lead them well, but she’s also a natural born performer. y’know when you add too much spice to ya donburi? that’s her. seems tasty at first but bam! explosion of flavours that you enjoy. she’s also sphere’s golden child so i dunno if they’d let her go.. probably not.
theres also a charmin’ unnie called @rktiffxny . girl has vocal chords that would leave the whole damn room shivering. i’m rly disappointed in her the most because she could have won this thing if she went on. she has the most adorable smile too— y’see that eye smile durin’ the mgas? i swooned.
oh! oh! how could i forget @rkhyeri ? lil’ charming girl. sure, we have cute girls (i mean have y’all seen soohyun and dawon? cute as heck!) but this girl could give jieun-ssi a run for her money when it comes to dancing.
last but certainly not least, i wish we saw @rkmin. something sparkling ‘bout that girl. she’s had a bit of scandals but remember her on that inkigayo stage? hella cute. not to mention she has a stage presence that nova isn’t looking after.. ~nova isn’t looking after.. ~hella cute. not to mention she has a stage presence that nova isn’t looking after.. ~nova isn’t looking after.. ~
lets hope we have a round where failed auditions could be plucked into rounds.. wouldn’t that be exciting??? i wouldn’t doubt that oppa has a similar idea. great minds think alike after all! ^^;
an august evaluation
the last leaf
feat. joo minhee & lee minyoung
after writing and composing a complete song, slipping on stage under the rain, and all the other evaluations cheng xiao had gone through, that one was certainly climbing up towards the top difficulty ranks. its main objective was nothing too hard. finding a group of people she had never performed with before was an easy task, but she hadn’t expected the two other girls choosing such a tough performance.
of course that at the heat of the moment xiao fell into the trap and agreed with it without second thoughts. the song was good enough to stick in your head, the dancing was powerful, and the entire performance had to be done with extreme charisma. it sounded like the perfect plan - and maybe it was, but the girl had completely taken practice out of the equation.
the first verse was hers for the taking, and being the opening act didn’t sound like a very fun thing when singing was far from being your best skill. while the dancing was hanging towards the tougher part she was a quick learner (or at least when it came to choreographies), so she didn’t have much of that in mind. the rap wouldn’t be a bother either. the chorus was also filled with vocals, all of which xiao wasn’t sure she had the skills for.
minhee helped keep her sane with the power of food, something that always seemed to bring the girl back to her senses. it was particularly nice whenever the younger had spent too long practicing her singing and the other provided a nice drink to help her throat keep going. min’s dancing skills were also incredibly superior, so it made learning the choreography a pleasing task.
after working on her voice enough times to often even lose it, xiao stood in the room as ready to perform as she got to be.
쉿 just just watch it
she was in charge of the very first line which she did with no worries. each girl delivered theirs, and in no time xiao stood in the center, having to sing as well as she had ever done. she tried not forcing it too much. there were no high notes to sing or anything too challenging, so her voice was kept simple, only wanting to get her part done to move on with the song. it was kept stable, but she was also singing softly - like how you would when everybody else was sleeping but you still wanted to sing your heart out. it was good enough in her books.
어제도 오늘도
그라 믿는 오늘 밤
오늘도 내일도
너를 기다려 매일 밤
모든 게 끝인걸
알면서도 그렇게
the song went on and xiao decided to focus on her dancing and expressions. charisma was definitely something she had never had to worry about, and hopefully, it showed during that performance. their team was filled with charisma-heavy people, and while standing out wasn’t of much importance, the girl still hoped there were times her gaze of powerful movements got more attention than the others.
don't worry
I'm so fine
as the song drew close to its end it was time for her to deliver the rap part. it was her main focus as a skill, so the skill on her tongue was nothing to be surprised of. though it was nothing too hard for her to worry about. the way it was built was fairly easy to follow along, with enough breaks to not require a lot of skill. with a pose she slowly walked away after she was done, letting the other trainees walk back to the front.
너와의 추억들 모두 감사해
생각해봤어 가만히
이젠 널 보내야할것만 같아
ha I'll just let it go
행복했던 시간
이젠 모두 다 잊고
시간이 약이야
that's what they say but
걱정하지마
cuz we're say A wut
the dance break was one of the things she was looking forward to the most. it was a good way to end the performance, building up excitement just leave people wanting for more. she followed along to the movements as they were meant to be done before hiding herself further away from the others. xiao had practiced the ending probably almost as much as her singing, not wanting to get it wrong and end up getting hurt, or even hurting someone else.
with a somersault, she landed in front of the other two girls, right in the middle, and all with the perfect splits. her face showcased a smirk, trying to leave as much impact as she could. while she was proud of the performance, and her soul was beginning her for more, the girl still hoped the next evaluation wouldn’t be as consuming.
Time to bring fire to the performance, completely different from the one before. In all honesty, this one maybe more physical harder but yet it certainly more fun to do instead bleeding her heart out. It was certainly different kind of performance, it involved singing, dancing and even rapping. This is the combo what nova, sphere & trc created. Each person in this team was special in their own way and have on thing in common, the girls ooze charisma together.
It was lovely to work with Min once more as only got a chance speak briefly on the samsung advert shooting and to get know the girl who was in chun li costume on Halloween. Minhee was oldest out of the three yet Min has been doing the longest out of them all. She took upon herself to make sure everyone was looking after themselves by giving them packed lunch and extra water during their rehearsals together while Min help guides them when comes routine. Finally, Xiao giving extra hints to Minhee on how to improve her dancing skill. The eldest spent time late night practicing so she wouldn’t let down the team down this day.
The girls weren’t wearing fancy clothes just simple trainee clothes and got in position for the show to begin. Minhee personally loves the soundtrack it had nice rock sound to it than usually bubble gum pop music, it was a nice change from the usual. Hopefully more refreshing for the trainers to watch and make them stand out more than others. That was the plan who knows if it would work or not. Let’s just pray everything runs smoothly.
Minhee placed her hands on her hands on the hips, getting into confident character with a slight smirk playing on the lips while inside was rattling with nerves, thinking about on what things could go wrong and prays no one will get hurt in this routine. The female release her inner vixen doing variety sensual poses to the music with her eyes straight forward before strutting like a model into a line behind xiao and minyoung behind her. The choreography was very military and nothing can do wrong or it wouldn’t work. Thankful it was quite a simple nothing fantastic.
The auburn haired female took command stretching her arms out then telling the trainers to “shh, just watch it” after xiao doing it first before sliding off to reveal min to do her thing and her lines while we go into next position. Xiao started to sing even though wasn’t confident in that skill, minhee believes and it only one verse she did alone in the song so she just had get that part out of the way. The eldest woman couldn’t help but smile a little as the others look amazing despite being average clothes while doing such kick ass performance and how on time they were with the simple movements. It only started but it gave Minhee so much confidence and felt she should be able to do this without no fear.
It was Minyoung turn to be in limelight to show her amazing skills and Minhee chance to sing along with her in sweet harmony to give the song extra push while the ladies smoothly dance. Leading start to all their voices coming together as one for the chorus while showing off her body shape by running her hands down her body in a sensual manner before posing and kicking their leg in the air in a circle to promote they all are bendy once again in an elegant manner before falling down to the floor. This choreography has everything from different levels and voguing, it was certainly a challenge to put together, mainly keeping her breath stable yet her vocals was little shaking during the harmonizing.
The performer was relieved they had male dancers to help with this routine as they make it little more special and feel like it was a real deal dress rehearsal in the practice room. Minhee did not have much time to catch her breath while sensual thrusting her hips in briefly and felt relieved it was Min doing the vocals for this transition as she thought she would sound terrible about right now. The gentleman helped them off the floor like the ladies they were and went on their performance. Luckily, the girl’s breath return to do the next harmony part with all of them before it was her chance to shine in the spotlight and this part was the thing was surprisingly looking forward to as spent hours upon hours to master her part in it.
A sweet smile painted her lips as softly do the movements while her voice sang the notes in sweet tone to match the smile on her lips. Minhee gave it her all as she did not want to let down the team letting herself go and not being afraid of messing up. After swift hair flip, she felt proud of herself not letting the nerves and worries beat her which tend to do a lot of. The training has made her more confident in her abilities making her average all rounder performer.
The last harmony together comes in making her feel somewhat sad that this performance is nearing to the end yet the girls had a trick waiting up the sleeves but for now. It was time for Xiao to shine as she gets to let loose and release her inner rap god. Once she slays everyone with that amazing rap skill, minyoung & minhee prepare for the second part and comes out of the shadows to give them little something more to end the performance.
Xiao joins the ranks slowly coming together as the music builds up to explosive drop which starts a chain reaction of the girls dancing in sync. It felt very much like janet jackson dance in this part even though minhee wasn’t strongest she gave it her best shot to be on the same level of xiao and minyoung who were incredible dancers. The dance went on and xiao went into the shadows of the male dancers while Minhee did her best vogue poses at the end leaving a gap between her and min ready for the last final part as Xiao somersault pass both of them and lays into a split to finish in an epic final pose as the music stop.
This made her breathless & exhausted beyond belief...
june was finally coming to a close, and dawon was determined to end it on a positive note.
while it could easily be considered the worst month she’s had in years, given just how low she’s felt from start to finish, dawon didn’t want to abandon hope. hope is what’s gotten her this far, and hope is the only reason that she continued to persevere. the hope that, one day, she’d make it through this, even if that felt like a far and distant future.
preparations for the evals had gone smoothly, or at least, they’d gone smoothly for dawon. she’d taken a backseat while a few of the other trainees had been hard at work, deciding how the entire performance was going to go. wendy was in charge of line distribution, and she’d taken it upon herself to make dawon the main vocalist. it was ideal, though a part of dawon had felt apprehensive. was she even capable of being the main vocalist right now? after all, she’s been an emotional wreck for the majority of the month—but her newfound determination to not let the team down would have to get her through.
almost all of her free time was dedicated to familiarizing herself with the choreography. she had needed a bit of help learning it at first—help which, to dawon’s relief, min was eager to provide. from there, it had taken hardly any time at all for dawon to get the idea of things—the choreography wasn’t especially difficult to learn, and the training she's received at nova thus far should help to execute it decently. while it was obvious that she wouldn’t be the most impressive dancer on the stage, she could only hope that she wouldn’t be the worst, either.
the music begins as she’s crouched on the ground, and it almost feels like the calm before the storm. could something go wrong? she has no time for doubt, however, not now—now was the time for action, and she’s determined to make it through this month’s evaluation without any problems like she’d faced last month. the fact that she’d actually gotten to practice this time around served to ease her nerves somewhat, but not entirely.
함께 떠나요 시원한 바람 속에
오늘은 다 잊고 그때 우리처럼
when it’s finally her time to sing, dawon tries to ignore the audience, hoping that she’ll manage to let go and live in the moment. she’s reminiscing about a happier time in her life—a time when she sang because it was fun—because it was something that she enjoyed—because it was something that she loved to do rather than something she felt obligated to do. things were so much simpler then, and she wasn’t burdened with even half of the fears that she faced now. if only those times hadn’t ended what felt like an eternity ago.
시간이 멈춰진 듯이 언제나 바랬듯이
REMEMBER REMEMBER REMEMBER
for the first time in a quite some time, her lips manage to form a genuine smile throughout the entirety of the performance. she’s not entirely sure where this new optimism stems from, but she’ll be the last one to complain. maybe she’s starting to realize that she was actually capable of making it through this chapter of her life, no matter how difficult it had proved to be up to this point. while her struggles may be far from over, somehow, things were beginning to feel a little easier to bear.
함께 떠나요 시원한 바람 속에
오늘은 다 잊고 그때 우리처럼
was it even possible to return to the way things used to be? before yoo jiae—before taeha—before the accident—before the loss of her grandfather? would she ever be able to perform freely, unburdened by the sins of her past, again? only time will tell, but, for now, she has to believe that it’s possible. she has to believe that things will get easier. she’s tired of being driven by tragedy. she’s tired of allowing it to define everything that she is. she’s tired of feeling like she’s nothing more than what her past has forced her to be.
시간이 멈춰진 듯이 언제나 바랬듯이
REMEMBER REMEMBER REMEMBER
if i can live through this, i can do anything. it’s something that junyeong recently said to her, a lyric from a song that he enjoys. junyeong’s seemed rather persistent in helping dawon forgive herself for her past lately, and with good reason; every low mood can ultimately be linked to her past rather than her present or future. but was it possible for dawon to forgive herself for something so terrible that she felt she was responsible for? in her mind, she had ruined junyeong’s life—so why was he still trying so hard to improve hers?
우리 더 늦기 전에
she wants nothing more than to keep moving forward, so why has she always felt the need to look back? was there something in her past that was preventing her from moving on? her past is what made her who she is, she knows—she doesn’t want to forget it, she just wishes that she could make peace with it. while the solution wasn’t going to come overnight, she finds herself yearning to move on—yearning to find that same happiness that had helped her to discover her dream of becoming a singer in the first place, before it’s too late.
어제처럼 느껴지는 순간
she’s spent so much time wanting to succeed for others that she’s forgotten what it’s like to want to succeed for herself. it’s not that she wants to stop drawing strength from others, but more so that she wants to remember what it’s like to believe in herself, too. maybe that’s something that she could work on and eventually learn to do with time; after all, anything is possible, and it felt like a goal that was worth achieving.
시간이 멈춰진 듯이 언제나 바랬듯이
REMEMBER REMEMBER REMEMBER
she’s wanted this for so long, yet somehow dawon had lost sight of her dream as she became obsessed with the idea of redeeming herself for her past actions. she had forgotten that this was something that she wanted to do rather than something that she had to do. but, now, dawon was beginning to realize all of the hard work that she’s put forth to get where she is now, and she knows that her younger self would be proud of just how far she’s managed to come.
and, for the first time in a long time, dawon felt like things might be okay.
Son Seungwan - Nova Ent
December 2017 Evaluation
Line Distribution: Nova Girls Stages | Santa’s Coming For Us | Do You Want to Build a Snowman
Wendy’s not going to lie. She has been dependent on ginger tea and lots of vitamin C to keep her voice intact with all the singing she’ll be doing tonight. She’s flattered that the coaches trust her and her skills enough to include her in special stages besides the performances with her unnies at Nova. She likes to think that maybe she has grown and improved in the year and a half she’s been with the company. She isn’t certain how much growing she has done and still has to do, but she wants to keep doing well to earn the coaches faith in her to do more.
It’s always fun performing with Kaeun unni, Hyuna unni, and Min sunbaenim. This also marks the first performance with Suji unni. Wendy may have been more of a “loop The Nutcracker Suite in lieu of Christmas carols” type of girl, but she had developed a soft spot for the first song she’s performing for the night. Ariana Grande’s “Santa Tell Me” is relatable, in a way that she hopes that a person she’d have a crush on would still be around next year. She can’t get anyone to stay, case and point: Toshi and Minhyun oppa. (To be fair, Minhyun oppa did shoot her down on Day 1, but he was always there as an older brother slash handsome friend to her).
There’s also the unspoken pressure that she has to do well to represent Nova in the joint collaboration with the girls from other companies. It’s an honor to share the stage with three MGA season three coaches from different companies. Rumor had it that the girls she was performing with were the among the best trainee vocalists in their respective companies. She had heard three of them sing back at the MGAs, and she had even shared a stage with Taeyeon sunbaenim. However, it still doesn’t stop her from being impressed whenever she hears them sing in practice, and every day she wonders what she did in her past life to be worthy of standing and singing on the same stage with some respected senior trainees.
There seems to be an unspoken agreement among the females of Nova that they would all rather die than do aegyo. However, when push came to shove and their backs were against the wall, there was a surprising reveal of aegyo skills. Min sunbaenim was a revelation of sorts to Wendy, that she found herself taking notes on how to pull it off as naturally as Min sunbaenim did. If she respected Min sunbaenim before, then Wendy’s respect grew even more. It takes talent to pull off aegyo and be cute without being cringe-worthy. Wendy hopes and prays that her cutesy acting and smiling onstage didn’t come across as laughable. It took her hours to practice e expressions in front of the mirror between study breaks.
Finally, there was the final stage. It’s been long since she got to share a stage with Yeri, one of her long-time best friends. She also recognizes the two boys: one of them is the one with Soojung a lot while the other was one of those attractive faces she accepted a Royal flyer from. During practice, they realized that they who got solo lines were the youngest trainees of their respective companies. Wendy almost wants to laugh at the irony of it all, yet it also makes sense. The program ends with a Disney song... and that they youngest kids lead it. As much Wendy has professed to banning anyone within her vicinity from singing this song when the movie first came out, it has grown on her. Oh... if her other friends could see her now. (She bets Seulgi and Joy are giggling somewhere as they remember her screams of agony when she got sick of the song). They’d probably be laughing at her for singing the song she once loathed.
As she and Dongmin sing the last line, Wendy lets out a sigh of relief. It’s over... They did well enough to entertain the people at the plaza. Maybe... just maybe... she’s on the right track in this whole idol thing after all.
