she paid attention at first to the other evaluations until she found herself zoning out. there weren't any real thoughts floating through her head. not any she could remember at least when she realized it was over and hurriedly follow the other trainee's in leaving the room. she was one of the last few out the door and had managed to make it half-way down the hall when she realized her book bag wasn't on her shoulder.
she could only hope it was left alone and still next to where she had been sitting. by the time she made it back someone had just walked out and there was one trainee left. it took a few seconds but the girs name to her. "jessica right? did you see a black and white book bag in here?"
>> um?
>> we have to talk
>> bc wtf is ktrookies
>> UR LOOKIN SO GREAT IN THAT VIDEO GIRL THAT’S MY BITHCHCHCH
>> LOOK AT YOU !!!! I’M !!!
>> i’m so PROUD i’m like a mom i showed noel
>> we’re ur biggest fans sorry to anyone else ktrookie’s tiffany is our GIRL
( outgoing » sicachu 😘💋 )
✦* if you’re asking for the birds and the bees talk, it’s kinda too late for the both of us, don’t you think?
✦* oh okay different talk
✦* well u see .. .….… .
✦* YA GIRL IS WORLDWIDE
✦* well jk but i mean lowkey kt is worldwide
✦* but i’ve always been worldwide 😏
✦* OKAY RLY THIS TIME JK BUT KFJHWJEHJF
✦* DID IT LOOK GOOD? BE HONEST WITH ME
✦* DON’T JUST BE MY BIASED AF COUSIN EVEN IF ILU FOR IT V MUCH
✦* WHAT DID NOEL SAY? LBR HE’S THE MOST SAVAGE OF US ALL AFTER CASSIE
✦* well and u tbh
✦* heh, i mean, love u cuz 😘
[ tw in the first paragraph: corporal punishment ]
After all the TRC trainees are done with their evaluation performances, they are called into the gym for an important announcement. Upon arrival, they are instructed to remain standing because the notice won’t take too long. Two specific trainees are taken from the crowd as soon as they arrived, Ahn Sohee and Jung Sooyeon, and were told to kneel down and keep their arms up in front of everyone without being given any explanation as to why. If there was any sort of complaint or restraint to follow orders a coach was positioned behind them with a rolled up magazine ready to hit them on the back of their knees until they're ready to obey.
A senior coach known by everyone calls for everyone’s attention once the time limit for arrival was met. Whoever didn’t make it in time would get a tougher punishment later on. “As you people should know, you are not allowed to share any sort of company information with anyone, much less the internet. We really thought that was the most obvious rule of your contract, yet here we are!” He takes a few steps back to put the two girls as the center of attention, still suffering their punishment. “These two decided to share how they love seeing each other at work even if one of them is a public trainee and the other isn’t. You really think people can’t put two and two together? The public is always smarter than you; they’ll overthink every time. That’s why there’s always fake scandals going around.”
His big feet dressed in boots start walking behind the girls, stopping in between them. “What’s next? Are you going to accidentally slip comebacks? Debut plans? Who are the newest trainees?” And so he lowers his torso, getting closer to their ears so only the two could hear him. “Which trainees were kicked out?” Soon after he returns to his menacing posture, circling back to his initial position. “If you think they’re the only one getting punished then you’re all wrong. Every other trainee will need to do 15 laps around the gym while these two watch you with their hands up. If I see anyone slack or complain they’ll be getting 5 more laps. Do you hear me?”
He repeats his question two more times until he gets a reply loud enough for his taste. “And you’re also banned from social media until everyone takes another SNS management class, since you clearly need a review.” And just like that the man dove into the sea of surprised ‘what?’s, blowing his whistle to both tell everybody to shut up and to start running. The group was only free to go after every trainee had finished their laps - even the additional ones. Ahn Sohee and Jung Sooyeon had to stay behind to get scolded on their sense of responsibility before getting freed as well.
The entire company is under an SNS ban. Sohee and Sooyeon must take two weeks of SNS Management classes before they can have SNS back while the rest of the trainees are only required to take one. This class can NOT count toward an SNS Management achievement, but trainees still must put it on their workshop forms in order to get SNS privileges back. This particular class will deal with how trainees and idols should conduct themselves on the internet so as not to make TRC look bad. All trainees are reminded that they are to never publicly address any inner workings of TRC without express permission from the company.
overall, sungho finds himself very satisfied with this month’s evaluation group. maybe he’s not too thrilled about the task itself, but the company almost makes it bearable. he has rose, whom he considers more and more like a sister the more time he gets to spend with her; and sohee, who may as well be family with how often he had seen her along with his cousins growing up. a few strangers, some more tolerable than others, but as a whole, not bad.
except for one.
this girl is a blight on the agreeable mood of the majority of the group, and quite hypocritically sungho can’t stand it. she’s surly, disagreeable, and just generally not a great person to be around. and sungho isn’t having any of it.
perhaps its the very reflection of his own self that makes him hate it so much, that drives him to action. its when they call for a break, when a few of them scatter to refill water bottles or find snacks, that he pulls the girl aside. his eyes are cold, his expression stony.
“the fuck is up with your attitude?” he growls, voice low. despite his irritation, he has enough sense to not cause a whole scene. “either suck it up and get over it or find another group, because i’m not putting up with it.”
Sejeong would be lying if she said she hadn’t been staring at her. This mysterious, beautiful sunbae had caught her attention since the very first time she had laid eyes on her and ever since then, she would steal glances, but more and more they were becoming obvious, to the point where Sejeong would sometimes have to shake her head back and forth to try and snap out of it. Sejeong was comfortable enough with herself to know she liked girls just as much as guys, but if she hadn’t known, this girl, no, this woman, would have made her question it.
She was ever the bold one and saying enough is enough, she finally approached the other trainee, tucking some of her long dark hair behind her ear as she did so. “Sunbae, I’ve come to introduce myself! Kim Sejeong at your service! If you don’t mind me saying so, you look kind of familiar... are you a model or something? Such a pretty face and figure! Wow! You must be, right? A model, doing this on the side?” she really did think the other looked familiar, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
for most of her life, she’s been told that the spirit of christmas lives on through the heart of giving. that christmas stands strong despite the throes of capitalism because of charitable actions and of giving happiness however you can. to find out that this month’s evaluation practically revolves around the concept of giving means a lot to her. it makes her work twice as hard and put an even bigger smile on her face during her performances the day before because she knew it was meant for something good -- something much bigger than herself and her initial jealousy.
the christmas party with the foundation was the cherry on top of it all. celebrating such a fundamental holiday with children was definitely a hundred times better than having to spend it inside company walls for a whole day.
she likes children and her obvious excitement is clear testament to this fact. "unnie, come with me! let’s talk with the children.” she turns to the older, a huge smile on her features. what better way to spread christmas cheer than to corral one of her fellow trainees to do it with her, right? “we can sing christmas carols for them and just get to know them for a little while.”
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.
sic’s rushing– okay, maybe she’s running a little bit, but only because she’s on a time limit because free sessions are ending soon and she really has to find xiao before it hits midnight. it’s like cinderella, in some weird and strange way in sic’s mind. she has to find her before midnight– but xiao isn’t a princess from rags to riches, and sic’s not prince charming. but it is xiao’s birthday and sic will be damned if she doesn’t greet her once on the actual day.
she yelps as she nearly runs into another trainee, spinning around on her heel as she bows and shovels out apologies. she’s crossing practice rooms and practice rooms until she catches one, and practically knocks the door down in her haste to get inside.
she chances one glance around, seeing for any other person, before a wide grin crosses her features, eyes falling on the girl in front of her.
“yah, yah. cheng xiao~” she sings, edging closer, and closer. “happy birthday, you little punk!” and then she’s pouncing, hands wrapping around the girl and tugging her close so she can place a big, sloppy kiss on the girl’s head. “how old are you now? twelve?”
her birthday was very close to coming to an end and she had spent approximately 79.2% of it inside trc’s building ( she had done the math ). while trainees were told to spend their last couple of hours practicing xiao had found herself staring at her phone’s screen, watching the minutes pass by. while a lot of people had remembered it early in the morning there was always the ones who left it for the last second.
a notification popped up on the screen and xiao was quick to click on it, already typing a thank you message. she wouldn’t have noticed the arrival if it hadn’t been so extravagant. she looked back just in time to be attacked by an older woman, a screech managing to escape from her lips.
“thank you?!” the kiss gave her face a whiny look. of course, jessica wouldn’t have forgotten - it was the perfect moment to make fun of someone. xiao was surprised there was no ugly montage up somewhere yet. “it’s thirteen!” her arms turned into noddles, not wanting to fight the not so comfortable hug. “it’s easy to know: just subtract fifty from your age.”
