June 2017 Evaluation ♥ KT Entertainment Team: Kwak Youngmin, Lee Jihoon, Nam Woohyun, Park Jimin, Kang Heegun
Song: Sayyes - Time is Up
A band concept isn‘t exactly what Gary thought about, when he imagined to debut someday. Which didn‘t meant that he wasn‘t considering it, he played the keyboard and taught himself to play the guitar. The song choice was a different thing though. It was a little rock mixed with pop including dance moves which underlined the lyrics. His team consisted of five members, even though the line contribution for the was only setted up for two people, which made things harder to failry split up between everyone. He wasn’t exactly the type to decide everyone’s role, he didn’t wanted to play the leader just because he was the oldest. It kind of made himself shut up, when it came to organie things. While the others discussed how some of them should take on the instrumental and the rest on the vocal parts, he hesistated to join in and take the rap part for himself. The feeling of guilt would have eaten him up, would have made him feel like some stupid egoist. But Gary was lucky, his team was considerate, they were sweet and loving and so he learned the rap and the dance moves easily and fastly.
As the time went by and the day of the evaluation came, they were brought into a single training room in which the trainees from the other company and the instructors had taken a seat. It was a strange experience to have to perform in front of Royal trainees, since they had the same training status just like them and were not rally obligated to rate them in any way. But Gary didn‘t really minded. He was okay with additional audience, more people to show his worth and his skill he had earned after years of suffering.
He felt honoured to do the introduction of the song, as he stood in the front, Woohyun and Jimin just behind him and Aron and Jihoon at the guitar and the drums. He lifted his arms and pointed towards the instructors as if the songs was directed at them, as he calmly rapped the first lines. Despite the strong beat, he tried to stay true to his own rapping style, slightly adapted to the songs mood.
Come to me, there’s no time to wait
What I want is you, you
Come to me, there’s no time for hesitation
What I want is you, you
Gary‘s gestures weren‘t as strong as the originals, but the went smooth with the music flow. He tilted his head, directed his fingers at the audience again and lifted the fist up in the air. The key move was pointing at the imaginary armwrist.
OK I’m standing in front of you now,
Yes go on and do it
From now on,
I will only listen to you –
But if it’s an obvious excuse, I won’t
Don’t go here and there and
Switch up the front and the end
What do you wanna say?
Hold on, I don’t have the time
Finally his first part was done, so he was able to move to the back and let the vocals shine. Before the chorus began, he looked at the guitarist and the drummer and grinned at them. The next move was their very favorite, the one step they had done over and over again, just to make sure, they had got it right. Throwing their heads into a perfect sychroized headbang, they enjoyed the performance to the fullest. The chorus moved on and Gary got ready to jump high into another headbang. He slowly started to like this rock genre.
Did you think I’ll chase after you?
Was that what you expected? Please!
If you’re going to hesitate like this,
I’ll just turn around and go on my way
So tell me, what more do you need to worry about,
Just talk to me how you used to
Hold on, I don’t have the time
Then he came to the last part of his rap lines, and Gary turned back into his more serious face to not mess up, just because he had fun. This was a evaluation, this was training. They needed to learn as much as possible, before the time was up for them.
KT TEAM // coach taeyeon !
#3009 Kwon Yuri ; #3010 kim jongin ; #3017 kim jiyeon ; #3026 kim seokjin ; #3012 kang heegun !
Writing a letter to the audience and the CEOs just using 150 words was a hard and surprising last mission for the grand finale, he actually welcomed with open arms since he had the feeling he had insomnia the last few weeks practicing and working everyday. Since Gary was a songwriter and a rapper who used to freestyle in his underground past often, he didn’t had that much trouble to find the right words. He knew how to play with words, creating a flow that kept the audience listening and that experience he used to support his team one last time.
Inspiration was something he wanted to express with the words they carefully carried together, each of them put their hearts into this short, yet powerful letter, speaking from the bottom of their souls. They definitely were grateful for all this time, for the experiences, for the teammates that have grown close to each of them, for the music they were able to do together. He had fun, when he talked to them about what to add, it was a task that gave the whole competition a beautiful finishing touch.
Hearing the words they chosen together coming out from coach Taeyeon’s mouth with her beautiful voice, made him shivering. His whole body shoke as he heard her reading out more, underlining single expressions gently, yet strong, looking like a leader had to look. While she stood up there, reading line for line, Gary moved his lips, speaking out the words himself without making any sound. In front of his inner eye the whole audition process replayed once more:
He remembered him rapping an own song, giving an interview, showing off his Taekwondo skills, dancing his heart out and telling a handcamera about his past and how he came to rap. He remembered the excitement, when they called him one more time to perform, so that the judges could decide which team he would be on. The interview for the Day of Family made him thinking about his parents and wanting to visit them. When he stood on stage together with his team for the first time, it was intoxicating. A great harmony between the members were a given for good teamwork, and they definitely had both. Even when they had to decide on a Korean song that debuted before 2010, a ballad song and last but not least a debut song. Gary remembered to be chosen as an MVP, he still felt uncomfortable about that kind of position.
With every memory that returned to him, that few weeks seemed much longer to him. Together with his team mates he had overcome so many obstacles, always standing steadfast, defending the team against every storm and now they were finally here. And as the letter reading of Taeyeon ended, Gary turned around to the others and hugged each of them.Whatever the result would be, they could be proud of themselves for coming this far.
This time his team didn’t get a high place, but nonetheless they were still the only team that was left unripped. He was quite surprised for coming that far, but didn’t dare to even dream of winning. One after another is leaving, eliminated from the competition, ousted from a chance of getting closer to a contract offering. Actually Gary thought the whole audition thing was a dream or a joke, it was impossible for him to be a finalist. How many times did he went to castings and auditions, send in his own songs or did several street performances in hope of being discovered. But everytime his face seemed in the way. Especially even after reading a netizens review the odd feeling of being a part of outerspace because of his looks and different rap style, was getting stronger. He knew he was different, hiphop was his passion, but nonetheless he wasn’t a gangster rapper. The male’s style and way of forming words was hard to describe, he knew it himself, and yet, he didn’t want to give up on that. The countless fails had turned into pieces of a path which had been built over years. And now he was close enough for his dream to come to, he wasn’t able to realize and comprehend.
The big brother of Taeyeon’s team smiled at his younger siblings. He was proud of them, actually he had realized how far they have come, but he still saw himself in a stranger’s position. Gary felt like a teammember, he did his best for the team’s performance and nonetheless, he wasn’t too sure if it was a good idea to compete with the partly much younger and much more talented contestants. Was he worth to be on the grand finale?
“Fly, FLY HIGH! With sweat, blood and tears! With those shining wings, leave everything- everything behind and- Just fly! Fly on high... to the farthest reaches of your future!” -Burnout Syndrome >>Fly High<<
A stable second place satiesfied him for the moment. The more he had worked with this team, he had understood that they were capable to strive even higher. Now that they were close the grand finale, he wanted his teammates to rise even higher, to aim the very best and challenge himself. Somehow Hee Gun felt of himself more as a supporter rather than a competitor. He was a realist, knowing that there was the possibility that not everyone in his team would get a contract offer or the chance for receiving the big prize. They were rivals after all, even though he wished they would stay together and win this competition as a complete team. There were still other teams who were as strong as them or possibly stronger.
He was grateful to see none of his team had to leave, they were still together, had the chance to win. Even so, a sudden fear climbed up his back, didn't the mc said last time the ballad challenge would be the last they would get to do with that kind of team division? He as the big brother who had watch the others grow with each others support and who had grown to be of use for the others since he was the oldest in the competition, felt suffocated as he heard Seokjin had to change team.
Gary was relieved the younger was still able to move on to the next round, yet still he didn't want the team harmonization to get disturbed. It was still sad to let a teammember move over to a rival's team. It wasn't like he didn't wanted to welcome another, a new face, and he would never let the "newcomer" to fall behind since they were similar to strangers to Taeyeon's team, but still- A strange feeling filled him, not wanting the happy, successful time within Team Taeyeon to be gone now. And yet, he won't stop until they would have reached the very top.
They were finally to relax a little, after these past exhausting days. Though Gary enjoyed to be on stage, and he believed everyone else in his team did the same, it was a relief to not having to practice a song and a performance within just 3 days. That was the reason why every one of them was quite grateful to had the possiblity open to choose to hand out flyers instead of doing a little street performance to attract people. Of course, they wanted to give out flyers, what would be more fun to interact with people who might be their fans?
Althought Heegun knew he couldn’t participate in that event, since he had to a different schedule due to the mvp performance, he didn’t want to fail his team, so he quietly sat down next to the others, listened to their suggestions. The ideas went up and down, back and forward, but they decided pretty quickly how to design their flyers. A cool background, their names, a few informations about the MGAs to gather more viewers and the teamname. Gary was quite satisfied, especially when thinking about the less time they would have in that kind of team formation. It saddened him to see the others grow with every single day, they spent together, influence each other positively, with the knowledge they would get separated really soon and had to go their own paths from then on.
At some kind of point, somebody asked to give out candies beside the flyers, so they would gain more attention. Honestly Heegun didn’t know who actually had suggested that idea, but it didn’t matter at all. He wanted to just listen to them, enjoy their teamwork a little longer. They agreed pretty well in things like that, and the past performances, they had planned quickly without any disagreement between the teammates. Since they didn’t know if they would get support from KT, they decided to buy the candies themselves. The male didn’t mind at all, and after deciding what candies to buy, he told them to get into his car to go shopping as soon as possible. They had a sweet promotion to run.
