An older man sits by your side before the closing ceremony starts, and for a while he says nothing, instead checking e-mails on his phone. Once there isn’t anybody close enough to listen, however, he turns to face you fully, and offers a warm smile and a handshake. “Hello. I’m a casting agent for Sphere Entertainment. We’ve been watching you for a while, and we think we can help you make your dreams come true. Please do give us a call sometime after this camp is over and schedule an audition with us. We’ll be waiting!” He hands you a card with all the information you need, then stands up and strolls off, humming in content.
—
[ OOC: Congratulations on being scouted! You will have to undergo a private audition in the presence of several staff members and the CEO of the company you are auditioning for. It is recommended that you choose one area of expertise, but you can choose more than one skill that you’re confident in to show the judges. Naturally, you would want to try for the one you have the most skill points in. IC, the audition can take place any day between August 15 and August 27. Your muse has 90 seconds to showcase their talents, and your solo should be at least 250 words long. Make sure to include a link to the audition song/video reference in your post, and remember that first impressions are very important! Please post your audition solo with the tag #rkscaudition before the end of August 27 EST. Good luck! ]
she sits alone as she waits for hyeri to come back from the restroom before the closing ceremony starts, taking a look around at everyone there. it had been short two weekends, but it was a fun experience; she thinks she’ll remember this for a long while, where she got to be with her friends while doing things they love that can bring them closer to their dreams. some of them were already trainees, too busy with their training to meet with mijoo anymore, so getting to spend time with them through the summer camp was wonderful.
when the elder male sits next to her, she looks and gives him a smile, bowing her head a little to be polite before turning back to look everyone again. she wonders if the stranger will leave before hyeri comes back; she saved that seat for hyeri, after all…
mijoo turns to look at him again when he speaks, blinking as she takes the offered hand. “hello,” she greets back, smiling brightly. her gaze drops down to his hand as he offers a card this time, speaking words that make her feel a strange case of déjà vu. the letters written across the card are also familiar, and she takes it with a small gasp. sphere.
lots of things come flooding back to her as she stares down at the card, one that’s not too different from the one she received last year and now keeps at home on her desk. she’s reminded of how things had turned out last time, but quickly pushes away the thoughts with new ones; she’s been given a second chance.
she turns to look at the man as he stands, and she rises with him, bowing her head. “thank you… i will definitely come by.” she watches him walk off, staring at his back for a short moment before glancing down at the card in her hand. her second chance.
“hyeri-jjing!!!” she shouts when she finally spots her friend, bouncing up and down excitedly. “hurry, hurry! i have something to show you!!!”
You receive a call from an unknown number several days after the summer camp. When you answer, a masculine voice on the other line introduces himself. “Hello. I’m from NOVA Entertainment, and I have seen you on TV. I think we can make something great if you become a part of our company. Would you be interested in auditioning for us?”
SUNDAY 160731 | there are rumors floating around during the closing ceremony, of friends-of-friends-of-roommates who’d been invited to private company auditions, and of expensive business cards sneaking their way into the possession of a few talent show standouts. the rumors come as a complete surprise to jinwook, who hadn’t expected ceos to be recruiting at something like this. had it occurred to him, he might have performed something more vocally challenging, or worked a little harder in saturday’s harmonization workshop. maybe jinwook is just caught off guard because lately, he hasn’t put much thought into company auditionsat all. but between being back on stage and hearing recruitment rumors this morning, his dreams are waking up with a cautious, fairy-tale optimism that he hasn’t really allowed himself to entertain since the mgas.
jinwook watches so jiseob speak on stage during the closing ceremony and tries to remember if they’d made eye contact during the talent show. it’s a long shot, since his performance hadn’t been much; only a work in progress that, sentiment aside, is likely b-side at best. still, maybe the royal ceo had remembered jinwook from the mgas and regretted the decision to cut him. at checkout jinwook lingers in the lobby, keeping an ear out for company reps—but he makes it all the way to the airport without being stopped, and jinwook shelves his pipe dreams for a little while longer.
WEDNESDAY 160803 | tuesday nights are not usually drinking nights, but since jinwook’s birthday otherwise passes without fanfare, his friends declare an exception for the special occasion. in america, they assure him, turning twenty-fun is a big deal.
it feels more like a big mistake the next morning. jinwook is rudely awoken by a phone call, his cell phone blaring a girl group single that he’s sick of but hasn’t gotten around to changing. it’s likely his mother asking about groceries, and he would let it go to voicemail if it weren’t so loud, impossible to sit through for thirty more seconds, the tinny audio only amplified by the beginnings of a killer headache. the sunlight burns jinwook’s eyes when he opens them to locate the phone, and he answers without even glancing at the screen. “hello?” his voice scratches, groggy, and he clears his throat.
i’m from nova entertainment, a man answers, and jinwook jolts into awareness, immediately pulling the device away from his ear to check the caller id. he frowns to himself. blocked numbers are common on prank calls, but this one is simply unknown, and local to seoul. maybe someone had borrowed a friend’s phone to play a joke on him? jinwook may have confessed something incriminating about his idol aspirations at the bars last night, but he doesn’t remember for sure—and he certainly didn’t mention nova. there’s no way this is happening right now.
“uh, is this serious?” he waits for the tell, chatter in the background or a huff of contained laughter, but it doesn’t come. the silence is deafening and jinwook sits up too fast, head spinning as he immediately apologizes and corrects himself with more formal language. “i’m so sorry for the confusion, sir,” he says. “thank you for calling, i—” he’s not just confused and stunned, he’s hesitant too. he hesitates. it’s quick, but it’s an audible pause. you’ve seen me on tv?, he thinks. why didn’t they say something back then? jinwook makes a brief attempt to count the months between the mgas and today but quickly abandons it (that’s generally a finger-counting task on a good day, and this morning is not). he’d be a fool to keep the man waiting more than a second when he’d already spectacularly butchered that first impression.
“yes,” jinwook answers quickly. he rubs at his eyes, realizing that he had slept with his contacts in and now they are probably are glued there forever. “yes, of course! I would definitely be interested in the opportunity.” august 27 deadline? it’s at least a week before he’s set to return to seoul. jinwook’s head hurts and he’s reeling, and he will have to consider his options, but interested is the right word. for the moment, he heaves himself out of bed, scrambling and tripping now as he hunts for something to write with. his stomach tumbles unhappily with the turbulence. “sorry sir. could you repeat that phone number again?”
he reads it back to the man to verify the digits. NOVA ENT?? is scrawled underneath, an excessive amount of question marks and underlines filled in as jinwook bids goodbye to the caller. “thank you very much, sir. I will be in touch.”
another opportunity to prove himself, arriving by chance, much sooner than jinwook had anticipated it would. there’s a strange mix of adrenaline, giddiness, and a huge wave of dread, but maybe the hangover is partly responsible for that. he clings onto the adrenaline rush, saving the not-so-nice feelings to pick apart later, likely with the help of his grandmother.
jinwook hardly makes sure the call is ended before he throws on a clean t-shirt and begins to deliver the news: head pounding, heart pounding, feet would be pounding across the hardwood flooring if all the sudden movement didn’t make him feel so nauseous. he abandons the initial impulse to do a victory lap, collapsing back into bed instead. he yells out to his little sister in the next room over: “minseo-ah! come here! come now!!”
minseo laughs at jinwook’s terrible bedhead when she appears in the doorway. he grins right back. “you’ll never believe who i just got off the phone with.”
As people begin to file out from the hall where the talent show was held, an agent from NOVA quickly approaches you with a formal handshake. “Hello there. I’m from NOVA Entertainment. I can’t help but notice your great potential during the harmonization workshops this morning.” The woman flashes a hint of a smile as she plucks out a calling card from her purse. “Call our front desk any time you’re up for an audition, will you?”
You know those nights where something so impacting occurs seemingly out of the blue, and you just know that you’ll remember it forever? Well, for Dawon, tonight was that night, and to say it had been eventful would be one big understatement. It was the last full day of summer camp, and the vocalist had found herself determined to turn it one hell of a memory. She’d succeeded, of course, and as she made her way off of the stage, she was certain of this. At this point, she could only pray that she’d made as good of an impression as it had felt.
It had been a memorable performance — or it had been in her eyes, at least. In a way, it was hard for Dawon to believe that it was truly over; this was her first time performing in front of an actual audience outside of the theater, and in a way, it felt all too surreal. Her heart was still racing as she watched the performance that followed — it was a soothing enough song, and it certainly helped to ease Dawon’s nerves a little. The fact that it was none other than Kim Jinwook onstage did well to help even further — he was someone in which Dawon was proud to call a friend.
Whereas such a meaningful performance should have been the most notable thing of the night by a landslide, what came afterward certainly comes close to the title. As everyone began to exit the hall now that the talent show had finally reached its end, Dawon was stopped rather abruptly by a woman offering a hand. Dawon didn’t know her — yet somehow, it felt as though the woman certainly knew of her. In no way did it matter that she hadn’t referred to Dawon by name — she was grateful to have been recognized at all. In return, Dawon hesitantly reaches out her hand, accepting the handshake.
With each passing moment as the woman spoke, Dawon found herself growing more and more hesitant to believe her own ears. A representative from NOVA Entertainment actually asking her — of all people — to come in for an audition? Possibly they’d asked the wrong person by mistake — weren’t the trainees from NOVA known for their abilities in dance? Despite her best efforts as of late to improve, Dawon still felt as though she displayed no potential when it came to dancing. That’s why this had to be a mistake. Just why would a company like NOVA approach a girl like Nam Dawon?
‘Great potential during the harmonization workshops’ — right, it only made sense that they’d noticed her for her voice. In no way whatsoever did this make Dawon feel bad about herself, however, as she was grateful to have been approached for any reason at all. She was a vocalist, and she certainly loved doing the thing in which she did best. Now that she’d managed to assess the situation for what it was, feelings of confusion and doubt gave way to those of accomplishment and joy. Something about her vocals and harmonization had actually managed to garner the attention of a NOVA representative… cool.
“NOVA?” she asked, glancing down at the calling card that now rested in her hands. At this point, it was almost impossible for Dawon to resist the urge to clap from excitement — though somehow she managed; after all, she wouldn’t want to ruin her opportunity with NOVA the very moment in which it had been gifted to her. “Thank you,” she began, giving a quick bow in the representative’s direction. Goodness gracious — she couldn’t wait to tell Yoo Jiae about this. Though she may have been getting ahead of herself, Dawon was already working through ideas for just what song she’d use for her audition. “I will,” she promised.
