#mkpreidol

eunah was still tense around jackson, having never received a complete answer about the most recent rumor centered around him, but she knew he was good at what he did and she needed all the help she needed. checking her appearance in the camera app on her phone, she ruffed her ponytail to make it appear less uniform before skipping through the doorway to see the other. what did she want to work on tonight, though? oh ! the talent he was known for: rapping; except then she was at risk of embarrassing herself

“i’m so tired.” those are the first words that fall from her lips as she shuts the door behind her, letting her bag slip off her shoulder and hit the ground. they probably weren’t the best to start with but it was true and she was always truthful around the elder.. usually. “how did you get through your trainee years? it seems never ending.”

“where do you see yourself in five years, eunah?”

she’s quick to stop what she’d been working on, reaching up to wipe the sweat off her brow and look at her trainer in confusion. where had this come from? switching the conversation from tightening her motions to something far more deep and uncomfortable wasn’t like the other to do, but then again, this week had been full of surprises. 

but really, where did she see herself in five years? acting, she hoped. eunah wouldn’t ever be satisfied with herself until she had been a main role in a decent film multiple times; she wanted to be the angelina jolie of south korea. praised with good looks, good parenting and great acting–– of course, the faithful husband who was just as talented wasn’t a negative either. then again, she didn’t know what jolie’s life was like behind closed doors... hopefully eunah’s would be perfect. whatever the case, she knew would take what she would get. that’s how she was: she would dream big but accept the small things.  oh well. 

"hopefully on the big screens.” her gaze dropped back to the script in her hands, reading over the next few lines before continuing the scene. she didn’t want to delve into the topic of her future. clearing her throat, she let her happy facade drop to fulfill the characters cold exterior, her shoulders slumping and arms crossed loosely against her chest. her trainer seemed to respond immediately, lighting up at her students drive to improve. 

“are you stalking me?” her brow raised as she waited for the next line, her words cold and sharp. she loved adventuring into different personalities like this, it was almost like playing house as a kid. her trainer was supposed to play the lovesick boy with eyes only for her, a script she didn’t particularly like due to the amount of skinship, but it was fun to have someones attention. 

“technically.. yes. but you–– you did great in there and since you seemed so interested––” eunah performed the scripted scoff as he spoke, rolling her eyes. “i was thinking we could go out sometime to see them play?”

“let me think about it.. no.” turning on her heel to walk away, her trainer grabs ahold of her hand to keep her there. here came the skinship she despised. skinship was fine with her, but only with people she liked it coming from, of which there were only a few people. doing scenes like this with trainers, especially male trainers, felt almost awkward to her. it was like she was giving all of her intimacy away to these scenes, something she was used to, considering she lost her first kiss in a improv scene. “let go.”

she knew how this scene worked; he’s turn her around into his arms, beg her not to leave and then the ice princess would melt into his affections. it was gross and completely cliche. any minute, she’d be spun and pressed against the older males chest. a simple turn and– oh, there she went, spinning directly into his wide arms, a grimace held on her lips. at least, she could act uncomfortable since it was in character. 

“baby~,” her mind goes elsewhere, deep brown hues locked with his, pretending to pay attention. his lips were moving as his character confessed his deepest attraction. her lips slowly switch from a frown to a shy smile, fluttering her eyelashes and acting as if all of her supposed years of pain had just washed away. 

         --- Taegun was so happy. Chae wasn’t sure she had ever seen him without a smile on his face. He was happy and smiley and positive and just a great person to have around; she really liked hanging with him. He had also been a member of Eclipse, and while Jewoo would always be her favourite, he was also a very skilled dancer from whom she could learn. And he was happy to help.

He was fun to train with. She didn’t learn as much as she did with Slash, but she had a lot more fun. He was goofy and silly, and she could let out her playful, childish side when she was training with him. Heck, his version of training was plugging in the wii and hooking up some dance games. While he set it up, she rolled her eyes at him. She took it back; she wasn’t childish. Not compared to Tae, anyway.

While he crouched beside the TV, she brought over a couple water bottles, shrugging out of her hoodie and throwing it on his couch. “How the heck is playing video games training?” she asked skeptically, glancing at him before falling back on the sofa. “I get that it’s fun, and I know you’re all about that, but I asked you to help me prepare for pre-idols. Not to kidnap me and force me to act like an idiot with you. We can happily act like idiots once the announcement is over and I see if I made it or not.”

            --- If Chaeneul had to summarize Eliza Kim in one word, that word would be insane. Sure, that was exaggerating a little; Eliza was sound of mind. But she had wild and crazy ideas, and not a lot of restraint when she was with the dance trainee. Dance practices turned into choreographing weird moves to What Does the Fox Say, and meal times turned into contests to see who could eat the most. Chae made a lot of questionable choices with Lize. Not bad choices necessarily, but not good ones. Ones that Chae would never have made on her own time, at least.

Even though most of their relationship was weird sequences of events, Chae still knew she could rely on Eliza to help her out when she needed it. And she needed it; she had asked Jitae for help with rapping, but now she was asking Eliza. She knew Eliza better, and Lize was really good too. She knew Lize would be able to give her some tips.

“Hey! Unni!” Chae called, dropping her stuff at the door and walking into the studio where Eliza had been hiding out. She had been messing around with Yao before--something about a solo album--and when Chae had texted her, this is where she had wanted to meet. “Help me rap. Let’s have a freestyle battle that you will definitely win or something.” She grinned. It didn’t really matter that Lize was older than her; their relationship felt like one between siblings. And if anyone could help her rap, it was Liza.

how long had it been since her last full night of sleep? she couldn’t remember. all eunah understood at the moment was that she was horrible at this dance and these past couple hours had done nothing but make her worse. she’d thought about calling someone to come help her but she didn’t want to disturb anyone– especially when it was so late at night. taking a deep breath, her lids fluttered shut as she tried to regain her focus– she needed to be on pre-idols, she NEEDED to prove (to herself) that spending these last few years away from home had meant something. she didn’t want to end up just another washed away failed trainee, scoffing whenever kpop was mentioned and being rude to people. it wasn’t who she was or who she wanted to be. 

waiting for the music to start over, she locked eyes with her reflection, cocking her head to the side slightly as if questioning herself. her parents had been infinitely proud of the drama reveal but it seemed it still wasn’t enough, at least to the young brunette. she didn’t know who she was trying to prove herself to but anything she did never felt like enough. she just had to keep going– keep going until she knew she had done everything she could. 

hearing the beat that signified the beginning of the music, she immediately stood up straight, still keeping her eyes on her reflection. one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight; again and again and again, her body moving with each number that echoed in her head. it felt suffocating but she continued, ignoring the protest of her thighs. she just had to keep going, keep going until she collapsed. the door was locked, anyways, so if she were to fall asleep there, no one would know. 

sighing in exhaustion once the song ended and began to replay, eunah slowly lowered herself to the ground, wincing in pain. she should take a break, she knew she should, but she couldn’t. she was just going to take a short breather, let her muscles relax a bit before going over the dance again. 

was this really all worth it though? the late nights, the aching muscles–– the time away from family... was this worth the fame that might come her way one day? many of the idols she knew still weren’t happy, even now, even after achieving their dreams. and really, eunah would rather reach her stardom through acting, not singing or dancing. she’d rather see her name on movie posters and fall into fictional personalities than perform live in front of thousands and be perfect. you could make mistakes as an actress– they’d just reset and film the scene again. 

            --- She heard the door open, and her head snapped up as she pulled her headphones from her ear. She smiled at Eunah, giving her a nod. “Hey! I tried to grab one of the first studios, but they were all occupied; I hope this one is okay.” Chae got to her feet and stretched out her arms, going to get a drink of water and giving Eunah time to stretch too.

Walking into the MK building, Chae took her headphones out of her ears and stashed her phone in her pocket as she made her way to the locker room. She had promised to meet Eunah in one of the studios; both were dance trainees and both worked in a lot of the same sessions, so they had agreed to meet on their own time to practice. Chaeneul was happy with that; anything to get some extra work in. Plus, Eunah wasn’t bad company; Chae just didn’t know her all that well.

Once she was changed into some shorts and a tank top, Chae went to go find a vacant studio, and lucky enough, one of her favourite ones was open. Eunah wasn’t there yet, but Chase wasn’t surprised; she had gotten there quite early, as she was bored of just sitting around her dorm. She sat down in the middle of the hardwood floor and started stretching out her limbs while waiting for her partner for the day to arrive. Her headphones were back in and she was listening to some ACE tracks (their choreography was some of her favourite to dance to), getting in the right mindset and pushing all her worries aside. Now was time to focus on training, on work. Not family troubles or worries about the future. Work.

            --- While for the most part, Chae did any out-of-session training alone, she had decided to shake things up a bit and train with Haewon instead. She saw herself as a bit of a lone wolf most days, but having a dance partner had benefits; maybe Haewon would notice something in her technique that she didn’t, and they could build off of that. They could give each other constructive criticism and help each other grow. And really, dancing with another person was a whole lot less lonely. If she was being honest, Chae got lonely in the studio quite often.

Scrolling through the songs on her phone, Chae sighed. “Why don’t we come up with something new?” she suggested to Haewon, glancing across the studio. “We know the routines down pat, right? Why don’t we try our hand at choreography and make something new? That could be fun…” In fact, Chae could see herself as a choreographer one day, maybe after her life as an idol decided to wind down, if she ended up debuting. And if she never debuted, hey, a choreographer was a great job. She’d get to work with a lot of really great talent, and her work would be recognized in the industry. Plus, if she stayed at MK, she could work alongside Jewoo and Talia, and that sounded nice to her. She liked working with both of them.

Choosing a song and beginning to stretch and warm up, Chase looked over at Haewon expectantly. If the other girl wanted to run routines, that was fine with Chae; she was just itching to try something new.

        --- The pre-idol announcement had spooked Chae. Not because she didn’t think she was ready, but because it was so close; had she shown her worth in the time that she was there? Had she proved that she belonged at MK? Had she improved as much as she should have? She sighed. She’d find out soon enough whether CEO Kim thought so; she decided to make the time until the announcement worth her while. She wanted to debut, and this was one step closer. This could be her shot.

She couldn’t decide if the announcement had been bad timing or good; she was still fighting with her cousins, and it was taking a toll on her, but this gave her reason to spend even more time in the studio. To throw her heart and soul into her work, and to prove to her family that she belonged here, whether they disowned her or not. That her choice to stay meant something. Because, while she really only had one or two friends at the company, they were more of a family than hers had ever been.

She knew he’d be there. Really, it was his studio; did Jewoo ever leave? That was a question for another day. She was glad that it made him so easy to reach and approach. The light that was on reassured her hunch, and she went to the door, knocking on the frame. He seemed to be taking a break, but she still didn’t want to interrupt. But he was in the know; he’d know about the pre-idol thing. He’d know why she was there. “Jewoo oppa…” she began, taking and awkward step in and trying to catch his attention. “Can you help me? Practice, I mean? You’re the best, and I want to be the best.” It wasn’t flattery. She believed it, she had admired him ever since she was fourteen and he was sixteen and he debuted with Galaxy. He and Tae both, but Jewoo was the coach and choreographer. And she knew him better anyway.