open event: street performance; singing 9원12일 by Rain
{streets of hongdae} {2017-09-12}
The streets of Hongdae in the evening were a fantastic view to everyone who was looking for undiscovered talent in Seoul. Not only could one see the most fashionable teenagers with their pretty faces looking for some new clothes to add to their chic wardrobe but if the timing was right unknown singers and dancers – most of them doing it for a hobby or in hopes to be discovered by a street agent one day – giving their best to entertain the audience stopping by.
Especially those small groups of dancers were something familiar to Soonyoung so he spend his free days every now and then there to see how they were doing. He didn’t know anyone personally but whenever he couldn’t hold still anymore he’d joke around with them and end up doing a performance or two. He never really gave his best, it was all just fun to him and entertaining the viewers with some funny actions was so much more joyful than showing off his dancing without any interaction.
But this time he would have to take it serious. Because dancing might be all fun and games but singing was another level. Soonyoung never sang seriously in front of many people but after hearing there were some scouts going around the area to cast new trainees he couldn’t let that chance pass by. Trainees had to know how to sing as well so he’d need to show this off every now and then as well.
Never in his life the blonde has been so nervous about a performance. He was standing at the side of the booth and watching how some of the other guys were setting up their location as the leader finally grabbed the mic and announced they’d start in a couple of minutes. Although she was the smallest of them all, the girl surely knew how to grab the attention of other people and so she made some jokes, telling them how to anticipate what was waiting for them. Especially since they’d have a special guest with them this night. And with that she introduced Soonyoung as an upcoming trainee and encouraging everyone to give him a round of applause because he will open the stage on his own.
It was a lie that he would be a trainee but the second she said it some girls of the audience were all ears and looked for their phones to film whatever he was going to do. If possible Soonyoung got even more nervous as he stepped up to the small leader and took the microphone from her. With a shy smile he bowed to the audience and took a deep breath to introduce himself. But before he could get a word out the music started to play and he blinked a few times. It only started and wasn’t following his plan. But looking at the people facing him and seeing their anticipating glares and joyful sighs when recognizing the melody he smiled faintly and forgot about his plan. It didn’t matter if everything worked according to plan as long as he’d get through it somehow.
And so he started to sing and put his all into it. Barely he has been so serious about anything but singing this song was something he wouldn’t joke about. And the clapping of the audience after he wrapped it up was a sure sign that he did well. Or at least he didn’t make a complete fool out of himself.
“Thanks a lot” he bowed his head and put on his most charming smile, “I hope you enjoyed it and that you’ll look out for me. But now let’s start with the real thing, alright? You surely know Blackpink, right? The guys prepared something fun for you~” With this he stepped back and smiled brighter than ever before. Dancing a bit now was definitely what he’d need after such a performance.
Yeah: It’s been one of the first songs Soonyoung danced hip-hop to. He had never heard many English up until that point and even nowadays he doesn’t understand the song completely (like most English songs tbh) but he still got it in his favorite playlists because it’s an amazing track to dance to.
Ring Dong Dong: The song responsible for his decision to become an idol. He’s the biggest fanboy of Key J-Hyo and tried to imitate him ever since this era. Soonyoung knows everything about his favorite idol and will never get tired of dancing to RDD.
Happy: This should go without much words as it describes Soonyoung perfectly. He’s a happy child, grinning or laughing all the time and barely being upset at all. And he will try his best to make everyone around him feel the same.
Lush Life: I had this song on his blog earlier already but I had to include it here. Soonyoung himself doesn’t know the song very well - he maybe heard it once or twice and thought it’s got a nice beat but didn’t pay too much attention to it yet. But the lyrics describe his life pretty well. He’s living to his fullest and doesn’t like to make compromises when it comes to things he loves. And right now that’s dancing, it’s his ‘crush’.
TT: Another song in his ‘most favorite songs’ playlist. Soonyoung might not be a huge fan of Twice but he cherishes their songs. He’s got quite a lot of aegyo and although not often he might use it to get what he wants as most people will cringe and try to make him stop. TT-aegyo is one of his favorites at the moment.
Shining Diamond: Though I tried to not include any songs by Seventeen this one couldn’t be left out when describing Hoshi (yes, Hoshi, not Soonyoung!). Soonyoung is always happy and cheerful and might seem carefree and quite dumb but he’s working harder than people might think. In the back of his mind there’s always the thought of getting better and reaching his goals. He’s a diamond in the rough and will do whatever it takes to achieve his dreams.
open event: dance-off; freestyle to love more (chris brown)
{time square mall, yeongdeungpo-gu} {2017-07-14}
– video reference only for soonyoung’s dancing, his opponent is not jihoon!
Sweat was dripping down his temple as he watched the other contestant on the stage. The past weeks he had practiced so much to come up with a nice choreography for a local dance contest at the mall just to be thrown into a 1:1 freestyle battle with another guy. He couldn’t understand how they ended up with the exact same amount of points after overall 2 and a half hours of performances but there they were. The song was playing and they were supposed to do some freestyle in order to convince the jury. And that’s where Soonyoung was definitely in favor: No matter how great his performance has been, his opponent didn’t seem to be good at freestyle. But Soonyoung was.
In the first round the audience had cheered equally for the both of them, making it hard to decide who would be on top but watching the other male Soonyoung noticed that he felt uncomfortable. This wasn’t what he was normally doing and although he tried to cover it up the blonde was able to see those small pauses when he wondered what he should do next. Soonyoung got always told that the best freestyler don’t think about what they should do next, it just happens. They’re just following the music, their body is doing everything by itself. And although Soonyoung himself wasn’t good at this method either he had found something else that was making it a lot easier on him: storytelling. If he’d make up a story while dancing there wouldn’t be any weird breaks, moments he’d have to think about what’s up next.
But as he started the second round Soonyoung noticed how difficult it was to tell a story when he didn’t understand a word the song was about. They didn’t even tell them the title before the song started so he had nothing to reach out for. Instead he just followed his instincts. During the last week he had done some freestyle so often in order to find some fitting steps for his routine that he still had it all in his mind. Step 1, step 2, move a, move b – it all came so naturally it had to look like he had studied it all along. Maybe he was just lucky, maybe he was discovering what people meant when they were talking about ‘the body doing all the work by itself’. He didn’t know and there was actually no time to think about it. There was so much more on Soonyoung’s mind, it was a pity to let the other male take the center of the stage again.
And then it happened. Soonyoung couldn’t hold back bouncing on the side of the stage and doing some random dance moves. His opponent had wasted the time until the beat drop and Soonyoung wished he could still be dancing at this moment. He didn’t want to steal the show but seeing the insecurity of the other male while the beat was making it so easy felt so wrong. Soonyoung knew he had won and so did the other. Giving up after just a few seconds he walked off to the side to make some space for Soonyoung. And he didn’t hesitate for a mere second to take his spot and dance like there was no tomorrow. He felt so much joy that a smile couldn’t be held back for too long.
The audience was screaming, the jury nodding to the beat, he was dancing as if it would be the most natural thing. The only person who didn’t seem to enjoy it was the other contestant. And no matter how happy Soonyoung was at this moment he couldn’t get around feeling bad for the boy. Nobody had asked them to do freestyle when they signed up for the contest and being confronted with it in some kind of finale wasn’t fair. The blonde boy would feel exactly the same if he would be in his skin so he wanted to cheer him up. Looking at him he waved him closer and hoped he would understand what he was trying to do.
Even in competitions Soonyoung wasn’t cruel towards his opponents, after all it was way more fun to do things together and be happy together than just fighting alone. To wrap up the performance they both stand next to each other and danced the same move – together in sync. Soonyoung let out a chuckle as it worked perfectly fine and went to the other to hug him. In the end it should be a fun experience for everyone.
open event: vlog {went online november 25th, 2016}
A nervous chuckle leaves his lips as the loading bar shows the video is fully uploaded and ready to be posted. Soonyoung has done many stupid things – and more than enough are public to the whole world – but he never regretted something like he was about to regret this. Posting this video was probably the worst idea he has ever had, but he had no choice.
On the other side of the desk his roommate was laughing about his reaction and telling him to finally hit the button. He wanted to watch this video. And although it was hard Soonyoung did like he was told, after all he lost a bet and had to post it anyways. Before he could even react the other boy was coming closer and clicking on the link to the upload, starting the video immediately. Soonyoung was screwed…
The screen faded from black to a light room, though the room itself was barely visible at the moment as Soonyoung stood just inches away from the lens and grinned widely while checking that the camera was working properly. “Hiii~” he greeted the viewers in a sing-sang voice and took a few steps back, finally showing off he was in a dance studio, the wall to his left completely covered with a mirror. “My name’s Hoshi and I will deliver the greatest performance of PPAP you ever saw!” A short giggle is falling from his lips before he run off to the mirrored wall in order to get a coat – a fuzzy, furry coat reaching down to his ankles – and a pair of sunglasses. Putting those clothes on the boy looks ridiculous but he doesn’t even seem to care while running out of the picture. It takes a few moments before he comes back and music starts to play in the background. And even without him mentioned beforehand what he was about to do the first seconds of the song playing would be enough it guess it. His head turns to look into the camera and he mouthes the first words of the song.
‘PPAP’
As soon as the music is on, he’s starting to move – stepping from one side to the other and moving his head forward like a pigeon while doing so before going on to do the macarena, or actually trying to since he has to stop as the actual lyrics start.
‘I have a pen, I have a apple. Apple-pen.’
This time Soonyoung’s singing along almost loud enough to cover the music playing and grins widely while doing so. Especially after he’s reaching into the pockets of the oversized coat to get out not only a pen but a red apple as well, he seems to be pretty satisfied with himself. Not even the juice running down his hand is bothering him while performing.
‘I have a pen, I have pineapple. Pineapple-pen.’
Letting the apple slip into his right pocket as quickly as possible he’s getting out another pen and a second apple from his left pocket. This time it’s a yellow one and walking closer to the camera he shows off the word ‘pine’ written on it before stabbing the apple with the pen. Again he’s ignoring any inconveniences and going on to dance and sing like a pro.
Bringing the first apple back to light Soonyoung’s so focused on both dancing and smashing those apples together he’s singing the lyrics wrong. But he doesn’t even care about it while holding the first pen on one side and the ‘pineapple’ on the other, he’s glad enough he didn’t fail in this step. So throwing them over his head he’s starting to dance again. The running man, the robot, even gangnam style. He’s using all kind of cliché dance moves before looking dead serious into the camera.
‘Pen-pineapple-apple pen.’
And that’s it. A kick towards the camera and Soonyoung turns around, the picture slowly fading back to black.
He shakes his head as he’s getting up. Not even listening to the laughing of his roommate he’s turning away from the computer, heading to the kitchen to get something to drink. “I’m gonna claim I was drunk if someone asks...” This would definitely be the most embarrassing performance he’d never get rid of.
