#* next gen

she spends most of her classes the next day thinking through what she should do instead of paying attention. she should definitely rap. she knows she's not the most talented, at least as far as traditional idol skills go, so she'll have to play up something else. she should probably do something original, right? she could write her own rap and make her own beat, and that would probably be interesting enough to at least make her memorable. she isn't really sure what kind of rap to write for a survival show audition, though. probably something clean and rated pg to make her seem palatable and like a good girl, right? eugh. boring.

she goes straight to her room when she gets home, and hops on her laptop. she rewatches the first episode of next gen just to get some ideas on what auditions got people to the next round in the first season. she's doing far too much research on this, she thinks vaguely – putting way too much effort in for something she doesn't care about that much. that's the main reason she decides to ditch the "original rap" idea. she can perform a kpop idol's rap or something. but just that sounds soooo boring, and ahyoung will not have anyone think she's boring.

she should probably do a remix, then. make her own beat, do some iconic kpop rap over it. does she want to do a girl group rap or a boy group rap? girl group, maybe. she kind of wants to play up the feminine and powerful vibe. as far as kpop goes, she thinks quartz is probably the best group in that lane right now, and their music is super recognizable.

then it just comes down to what quartz rap she wants to do, and she needs to fill 60 seconds, so...she should just combine a bunch of quartz raps over the same beat in 60 seconds. that'll work, right?

she listens to a bunch of "most iconic quartz raps" videos, makes note of the ones she likes best, and bookmarks the videos. she isn't sure whether to try to build a beat around the raps or just make a beat she likes and try to fit the raps into it. maybe she can use some of the original songs' instrumentals and incorporate it into a new beat. that should make everything fit in a little easier, right?

that's what she tries. it ultimately takes her several days of hyperfixation outside of her other responsibilities to get two options: two beats, two different combinations of raps. she just wasn't satisfied with the first one she made, so she decided she'd try starting over to see what she could do.

the first one follows a more traditional rap beat. she borrows heavily from "the baddest" by k/da, which katy of quartz features in. she likes the lyrics, but she ultimately decides that version isn't dynamic enough, and that she can show off more of her own composition skills in the instrumental.

so she settles on her second creation, which still has some of quartz's instrumentals as influence, but is largely self-composed. it starts out quite calm, then quickly ramps up into something more akin to an edm song than a rap song. she thinks it's unique, though, and it'll be more memorable.

despite ahyoung's tendency to be lazy, she actually spends a lot of time practicing. if she's going to be on tv, she wants to make sure she kills it. she doesn't care that much if she makes it to the second round, even though it would be cool; she just wants to make sure she puts the best performance out there that she can.

AUDITION DAY

all of the cameras everywhere are a little unnerving, even though she works with a camera herself basically every day. she feels like she has to behave in from of them, which is a pretty unfamiliar feeling for her. gross. she refuses to be anyone other than herself, even on this show, but maybe she can tone it down a little.

the video in the gymnasium is cool. seeing the judges on screen, "talking to them directly," really makes it set in that she's actually, probably, maybe, going to be on a huge survival show. even if she doesn't make it past this round, they'll probably show part of her audition and her flopping, right? maybe?

it doesn't really matter. what matters is the new revelations the judges lead them with: a rapid fire question portion, and a special talent section. ahyoung honestly thinks it's pretty cruel that they didn't tell them about the special talent portion in advance, because all of her special talents require a camera or computer or something. she would've brought her bass, at the very least. she just has to pull something out of her ass. she looks through her purse to see what she actually brought with her for any ideas. she has makeup, but she doesn't know how to show any of her talents with that. maybe she could borrow a staff member?

she has nail polish too. she looks down at her nails, which she already painted for the occasion, but they're just painted. they don't have any designs or anything. she could do nail art? would that work? she figures they probably won't give her more than a minute to show off whatever talent she has. makeup would probably be more interesting, right? but she can probably do nail art more quickly. her eyebrows furrow together as she thinks. she thinks so much about it that she doesn't even practice her performance anymore.

at least until they call her into the audition room. then she runs through the performance in her head over and over. she's confident, for the most part, but seeing all of the staff that will be judging the performances actually makes her a little nervous. what a weird and unfamiliar feeling.

it's her turn before she knows it. she takes to the center of the room, grins, and introduces herself with a quick well-mannered and uncharacteristic bow.

then, she focuses. she knows the lyrics to this audition are basically muscle memory now. she knew all the raps before she even merged them together for one audition. her music plays, and she launches into the rap right away. only 60 seconds – no time to waste.

she's pretty sure, from the first several seconds, that no one can anticipate where the instrumental will be going. the rap is almost mellow at first, but after 15 seconds, it starts building. she still raps along, trying to mirror the instrumental as she does: start out lowkey, build momentum, and then when the "drop" in the instrumental comes, she tries to shift into something more powerful and energetic.

her audition ends off with quartz's iconic look at you, now look at me, and ahyoung smiles. she doesn't quite do the choreo for the original song, but she vibes, and moves her body, and before she knows it it's over.

the performance is, anyway. next comes questions. right. five seconds to answer each. that's pretty dangerous for a person like her, but she decides she won't try to filter herself, aside from like...swear words.

her first question comes: "what is the most interesting place that you have been to wearing the shoes that you’re wearing now?”

ahyoung looks down at her feet, and almost laughs. she's had these shoes for a long time. "detention at marina high school in california," she says with a cheeky smile. maybe that's a little too honest. whatever. ahyoung doesn't plan on lying. she doesn't care if it makes her look bad to The Public™.

"what’s your favorite useless fact?” they ask her next, and she almost says oh shit, because she wasn't prepared for this. "i've never known anything ever," she jokes to buy herself some time, and so she at least has some kind of answer if she can't think of a fact. surely there' something in her small little brain, right? "oh! opossums can give birth to like, 25 babies at one time sometimes. and they're like, tiny as––" fuck. tiny as fuck. she manages to stop herself, and saves herself by finishing with, "bumblebees." it's true.

“why do you want to become a kpop idol?” oof. of course they'd ask her a kpop idol question. she only takes a couple seconds, and then shrugs, and answers honestly, "i just think it would be fun." that's good enough.

they tell her they have one more question for her. “what can you bring to the table that we won’t see in any other contestant?” damn. they really want her to drag her fellow contestants like that? well – no, she doesn't have to, especially because she knows plenty of these people are more traditionally talented than she is. "nobody else is park ahyoung, you know? and i'm just, super cool," she grins again.

that's the end of the question portion. next comes her special talent, and ahyoung takes a deep breath.

"i just want you guys to know i would've brought my bass if i knew you were going to do this to me," she jokes. "but i guess – can i do someone's makeup? does somebody here not have makeup on, or like, light makeup on? i can totally make one of you men look like a kpop idol too, if you want."

eventually, it is one of the men that steps forward and volunteers. "wow, you are awesome, thank you for being such a good sport," ahyoung says with a genuinely grateful smile, and then she digs the necessary makeup out of her bag.

"okay, this would be better if i had more time, but you're still going to look amazing. just not as amazing as you would if i had like, at least 15 minutes. let me speedrun this." she applies makeup to his face quickly, and comments, "you have really nice skin. your skincare routine must be amazing. you have better skin than half of the girls whose makeup i've done before, for real."

she finishes before long, and steps away to assess her job. she nods in approval. good enough for a speedrun. she steps to the side to reveal the staff member to the rest of the staff and the cameras, and motions to him like that will smith motioning to his wife meme.

"hold on, this lighting is not the best, do you guys have a different light or something?" no. she quickly takes her phone out of her bag, turns the flashight on, and then shines it from the angle that she knows will show off the makeup the best, without blinding her model. perks of being a "professional" photographer: she knows a lot about angles and lighting.

"oh, you need to see yourself too!" she exclaims, and quickly changes her phone to a frontfacing camera so the staff member can see his own makeup. he doesn't give much of a reaction. he just nods. everyone is unreadable, and it's a little unnerving. they still say, "thank you, ahyoung, that's all."