“okay, a birthday message? i do that all the time.” taking a piece of paper from one of the camp staff, he smiles confidently and surely. he never knew the birth dates of any of the CEOs, but hearing that there’s an event for tiger jk adds a bit of spice to the camp.
with wonwoo, the main problem probably lies on the fact that he is not creative. he can barely make a four bar music sample that sounded interesting during high school. writing should be easier, but nothing new really regulates in his mind as he starts to think of things to write for the senior.
after what seems like hours, he finally comes up with a joke to tell. in bitter truth, it was horrible, but old men tend to like puns. especially fathers, right?
on which day do tigers eat people? chewsday!
was that funny enough for you sunbaenim? anyways, happy birthday and i hope you’ll have even greater things in your life. thank you for letting trc part of this camp and i hope you’re having as much fun as we are here. once again happy birthday and have a great day.
gazing at his masterpiece proudly, the dancer walks over to the nearest staff and submits his slip without hesitation. “tell tiger jk i said hi.” turning back, he starts to walk away, forgetting that he didn’t write his name on the scrap of paper.
Though it was probably no secret that Dawon didn’t know all that much about the big bad of TRC himself, in no way whatsoever did that mean she’d be sitting this one out; birthdays only came around once a year, after all. In regards to the (arguably) living legend himself, the young vocalist couldn’t wait to write up whatever ridiculous (yet (arguably) hilarious) thought happened to cross her mind. Despite this, however, she ultimately had no intentions to make this message into a diss. As much as she would absolutely love to all out roast the guy on his birthday based off of rumors alone, Dawon couldn’t help but fear that this could potentially interfere with whatever chances (no matter how slim) she had of joining the ‘great’ TRC Ent. later down the road.
Alas, after clicking the ballpoint pen, Dawon took in a deep breath as she braced herself for what was soon to come. Sure, it could be argued that no matter what, there was always the option to leave it anonymous... but honestly, the girl had no intentions of going through with this while leaving her anonymity intact. No, she wasn’t thinking for the short term... she was more of a thinker towards the long term goals. It didn’t matter how small of a difference this would make, or even if it’d make a difference at all. Dawon only valued one thing at the moment; if, by some miraculous chance, Tiger JK actually remembered the girl’s name and the birthday message that had come along with it, then maybe, just maybe, she’d have a higher chance of actually making it into the company. That’s what the dream’s all about anyways, right?
‘Hey there, Tony! When was it that you first graced us with your presence again? 1951? Okay, not gonna lie, I used Google for that one. Which makes you about, what? Sixty-something? Wow, talk about respecting your elders. You’re getting old... yet luckily enough for you, you’re aging just like the finest of wines!! Welp, I’ll admit... that that one was kind of uncalled for. Yikes. Anyways, happy birthday!! I really hope today is grrrrreat!! I’ll do my best to show my stripes today in your honor. Yours truly, Nam Dawon.’
everyone who knows seungmi knows by default of her unhealthy obsession with rap music. be it the mainstream ones they play on repeat on the radios on tv, or the underground ones that require a bit of digging and eventually spontaneous involvement. one of her earliest memories of ever wanting to be a rapper was seeing outsider perform on a music show in mid 2000s, and t aka yoon mirae rocking the stage and fighting all of those sexist female stereotypes. so technically, when august rolls around and tiger jk’s birthday peeks right around the corner, she can’t not give him something to brighten up his day.
as a rapper who is aspiring to be the next big thing, she looks up to senior rappers like a pubescent girl would basically worship their boy bands. actually having a channel to deliver her message to the legend directly makes her so happy, especially after knowing that her ceo is the one behind this mini-event that’s getting everyone, including her, hyped. admittedly, she wished she would’ve been able to write a whole essay for the birthday man, but all that she’s provided with is a small strip of paper. immediately the gears start to shift in her head and of course, she has to come up with the wittiest joke of 2016 and impress him. maybe, just maybe, she’d get to produce under trc even though she’s a kt trainee (which is improbable but a girl can dream).
pen on one hand and head on the other, she taps on her lips repeatedly. the rapper is obviously taking this too seriously and she can’t help but turn down one idea after another because they all sounded too normal. scribbling on a paper after a few dire attempts, she starts to lean back on her chair and sigh loudly. “i hate thiiiiiis…” and to hear seungmi say that is pretty unusual because she loves drowning in challenges and self-assigned obligations.
it took her a couple more minutes before the greatest idea finally crossed her head. there’s no need to make puns because she loathes that type of stuff unless they’re used ironically, and she wants to be as sincere as possible while writing the senior’s birthday message. with that in mind, she just writes as she would on a normal day and let all the technicalities follow later.
happy birthday tiger jk ahjussi,
one day i’ll one-up you in your own game and steal all the top positions in the charts. the name’s byeon seungmi. better remember that because i’m the lioness that’s gonna outrun you. haha, catch you when i get there!
smiling nervously, she excitedly holds up the piece of paper. looking at it at a somewhat satisfied expression, she lets a long withheld sigh slip past her lips. folding it neatly, she hands it over to one of the staffs with a bright smile. before actually handing over, she sighs again, happily this time,
how is she supposed to write everything that she wants to say under a small slip of paper? it feels oddly unsatisfactory to her and she almost wants to go out to the nearest convenience stop and pull out an envelope and a pad of paper just to be able to write everything down. obviously that is not something that she can't do so she settles for the paper with a small sigh under her breath.
she stares at the paper for almost two minutes, trying to think of what she wants to say. she cannot afford to waste the minuscule piece of material for a mistake in writing. after a minute more of deep contemplation and as the lady behind the desk looks at her with skeptical curiosity, she finally writes down her birthday greeting. no disses because lord knows she sucks at it.
happy birthday sajangnim~
words still can’t describe how thankful i am to be under your company. it still amazes me to think that over all the number of people who auditioned alongside me on hongdaefest last year, you chose me and trusted the talent that i showed you. i hope that a year later from that day, you’re not regretful of your decisions. i am so proud to be apart of your kingdom! and i can’t wait to see what good things you have in store for us. here’s to more birthdays and more successes! ♡
- park sooyoung a.k.a trc’s joy
her cramped writing looks too small as it fitted the entirety of the paper. with a triumphant smile, she folds the thing in half before slipping it on the box where it belongs. hopefully the box gets a stellar place in tiger jk’s office and she gets to see it one of these days.
She heard about Tiger JK's birthday messages as she arrived for check in. They handed her a slip of paper in case she wished to participate, which she did but didn't at the same time. It just felt weird to be writing a joke or a diss to a man she basically let down by leaving. Not that he probably noticed or cared about her absence, especially when a whole year had already passed since. She never regretted her decision though it was done on an impulse - as usual -. If she stayed at TRC, she probably would have failed her school year. She didn't care then, but now that she was majoring in something she was passionate about, Eunae was thankful she did. Still, Tiger JK never did anything to disappoint her and she was grateful the company scouted her in the first place. It just wasn’t a good fit... she just liked dancing and rapping, but didn’t plan to become a professional rapper of any sort. Which was what many trainees at TRC seemed to aspire to. It just wasn’t her thing. An idol was what she wanted to be first and foremost.
She was excited to explore her room and the camping grounds and didn't feel like wasting time thinking of a message to write, even one meant for a well respected CEO she had once trained under. She was the type of person to just buy a card with a pre written message inside for birthdays and sign her name at the bottom.
After about 30 seconds she was slipping her piece of paper in the box and running towards her friends.
"Lions are better than tigers. Happy birthday! - Bekah Tuan"
Although he was currently staying in China for one of his security jobs, his bros had informed him about a little surprise organized by Katie Lee prepared for Tiger JKs birthday. He kinda liked the idea of writing a little message to his role model, even though they were asked to write jokes or disses about that man. Well, hip hop had rap battles which were often used to badmouthing your opponent with sarcastic comments about appearance and co. He knew about these kind of rap battles, they were part of the scene and Gary had participated in a few, but he didn’t actually liked to diss another person, especially if they were complete strangers to him.
It gave him a little headache when he seriously tackled that issue, thinking hard about what to write since they had just a little piece of paper to fill. Whenever he had some freetime or a little break, he started to take notes, the male somehow ended in filling whole pages that slowly assembled kind of a lose novel about his respect towards his senior. He mentioned how he had tried to imitate the elder, trying to get even a little closer to his role model, he wanted to tell about his thankfullness and how Tiger JK had changed his life. But how the hell, should he compress all these words into a few sentences?
The male scrunched his nose, to draw a short message was much harder than to scribble down whole pages of lyrics. Especially when he wanted to stand out from the mass of paper slips Tiger JK would apparently receive. Dissing... Rap battle... Free style... Somehow Gary’s thoughts grew farther from the original intention, an idea was formed. After completing the job in China, he would have to work on that idea, his friends would surely help him out. As he was suddenly inspired by his own mental leaps, his hand moved on its own and he was surprised about the 4 verses that satisfied him. It wouldn’t be a shame to send an email like this, he thought.
The tiger had reigned for the longest time,
thank you, but the dog will take over.
Ending what the old king began,
so that Korea will experience THE MOVEMENT!
Kang Gaerie aka Gary
He didn’t mind to leave his name, and to be honest he didn’t really believed Tiger JK would remember him, even though he had participated in the MGAs. Since he probably just knew about his birth name, it was alright. Someday he would met him personally and would greet him properly.
A birthday message for Tiger JK? Taeyeon obviously thought that it was a nice idea, everyone loves getting little reminders that people care on their birthday, and she assumed the CEO was no different. The long-haired man had been a staple in the entertainment industry for years, and from everything she had seen of him, was a devoted family man and seemed like a genuinely nice person, which was not exactly easy to say about everyone in the business. Slip of paper in hand, Taeyeon stuck the tip of her pen in her mouth, trying to think what it was that she could write. She wasn’t great with her own words, as exemplified by the debacle that was lyrics writing at the last summer camp the companies put on. She knew it was kind of lame, but she it was really the only thing she could think of...a joke from when she was a kid.
A policeman in the big city stops a man in a car with a tiger in the front seat. "What are you doing with that tiger?" He exclaimed, "You should take it to the zoo." The following week, the same policeman sees the same man with the tiger again in the front seat, with both of them wearing sunglasses. The policeman pulls him over. "I thought you were going to take that tiger to the zoo!" The man replied, "I did. We had such a good time we are going to the beach this weekend!" = (You and Bizzy!!!)
while he respects him and thinks of him as an amazing person—woohyun isn’t very up to date on tiger jk—as of all the company ceo’s, woohyun’s primary focus and knowledge goes mostly towards katie lee, even before being signed to kt. so he’s sad to say he doesn’t know very much about him—but of course, when presented with paper and a pen at check in for the second weekend of camp, he’s momentarily stumped.
what should he even say?
write a joke, give him a diss—or a small note of encouragement. it seems simple enough but woohyun has always been a person of meaning, of impressions and the like and he can’t fathom what to do that would be considered proper to him.
so when he checks in, he nods his head and murmurs thanks, taking the piece of paper with him as he steps to the side to allow others room, staring down at the slip with minor confusion. he wracks his head for something—he certainly doesn’t want to do a diss, (he can only imagine how horrible he’d feel even seeing the male if he did that), and there’s not enough room on the paper for him to give something honest and meaningful like he would want to.
so he wracks his mind for a joke, tongue poking out of his mouth in concentration as he scribbles the first one that comes to mind down—snorting with laughter as he finished it.
what do auditioning for an acting role and playing sports have in common?
if you break a leg, you get cast!
a smile twitches at his lips in accomplishment, folding the paper carefully as he returns the pen to the receptionist and drops his paper in the box provided.
