Her next problem was getting people to do the scene with her. After all, she needed three other people to pull it off with her. To her luck, Hyuna unni, Min sunbaenim, and Bambam oppa had all been interested to work with her for this evaluation. It also helped that most of them also spoke English, making the work and distribution of roles easier.

Despite being in the same company and having worked together several times, Wendy feels as if there’s still a bit of a wall set up between her and the rest of them. She gets along great with Hyuna unni, but a small part of her still approaches both Min sunbaenim and Bambam oppa with caution. As much as she’s fine with working with them both in a professional setting, she isn’t sure where she lies with them both. It’s not that she’s scared of them, but she sometimes feels like there’s a wall between them that she can’t break through.

With these feelings in mind, Wendy chuckles at the irony of the scene they’re doing. People revealing how they truly feel about each other. Despite having these feelings, they worked hard enough to make things perfect. It was much easier to practice since they’re all under the same company. As the evaluations approach, Wendy feels a little bit more confident coming into this evaluation now that she’s gotten some help from master actress Chaeyoung. She also prays that her chemistry with Hyuna unni, Min sunbaenim, and Bambam oppa has improved with all the times they practiced together.

Wendy plays Gretchen Weiners, the recently betrayed friend of queen bee Regina George. Her task is to enter Gretchen’s mind and bring out the emotions and thoughts the rich heiress is feeling as she hears her so-called friends say mean things about her.

“Hold on,” she says after hearing everything she just did. Regina just called her ugly and unfit for Spring Fling Queen. What kind of friend does that? And holy shit… Did she just call Karen a slut? She lets out a soft sob, as she saw Gretchen do in the movie. She’s barely holding it together as she calls Karen.

Wendy had studied and listened to footage of herself speaking while crying back when she was still skating competitively. There’s also the help she got from Chaeyoung to make her acting seem more natural and less character-like. She has to look like she’s just barely keeping it together, and she has to sound like it too.

Min sunbaenim as Karen barely gets to say hello, when she launches into the heart of the matter at once. “If someone said something bad about you, you’d want me to tell you, right?”

Wendy casts aside any notion of having to be more respectful toward Min sunbaenim. She pretends that she’s not older and a senior to be respected. In this scene, they are the same aged friends who have just been insulted behind their backs. They aren’t Wendy and Min sunbaenim right now, she tells herself. They are Gretchen Weiners and Karen Smith talking about Regina George.

Karen clearly doesn’t see the urgency of the situation. “What if it was someone you thought was your friend?”

After being brushed off, she makes a face. Clearly she’s not the priority here. Ugh. “I’m not taking this anymore,” she whispers to herself.

At Cady’s encouragement, she nods to herself. At least someone appreciates her worth as a human being.

Karen comes back, saying that Regina invited her to hang out without Gretchen.

“Do not hang out with her,” Wendy as Gretchen all but commands. She attempts to keep her face neutral, opting to convey the urgency in her voice.

Why?

Poor Karen. She deserves to know, but at the same time, Gretchen isn’t sure she should tell… She settles for “You don’t want me to tell you,” with a sigh.

Despite the assurance that she can tell Karen, Gretchen still has reservations. She makes a face when Karen clicks away.

Oh my God. She’s so annoying.

Wendy widens her eyes a little bit, to convey a mix of confusion and suspicion. Was this even supposed to be for her? “Who is?” she asks.

Who’s this?

“Gretchen…” she says slowly, trying to hide the suspicion and confusion from her voice.

Right, hold on…

While waiting for Karen to come back, Wendy moves over to the mirror to study her face. When that gets boring, she opts to tap her fingers against her legs. At this rate, she wouldn’t be surprised if Karen and Regina were talking about her behind her back. What is this betrayal? That’s it. She’s telling Karen.

Wendy makes sure to shift her eyes around her imaginary room, before settling on a random coach and nodding to herself, as if she had just made an important decision.

Ok, what is it? “Regina says everyone hates you because you’re such a slut,” she says as quickly as she can. She whispered for fear someone else would overhear. She has to say it fast before she has second thoughts. Karen deserves to know the truth. She deserves to know who the real snake is around here.

She said that?

Gretchen almost feels bad, but she owes Karen the truth. Wendy makes sure to show that in her face by looking to the side and keeping her mouth set in a firm line. “You didn’t hear it from me.”

She waits for Karen to put the phone down. Now they’re even. She puts on her best ‘sorry not sorry face’ when Cady points out that she was a little harsh.

She lets out a soft scoff. “Ugh, whatever, she has a right to know.”

She puts the phone down, now that her part is done.

when she was choosing which scene to work on, she was thinking along the lines of her almost forgotten experience. a teen romantic comedy film is probably not what her coaches would expect from the three year trainee but she doesn’t have the skill necessary to pull out the big guns. had she known that they would be asked to act even for at least one evaluation, she would have made the effort to teach herself how to act on cue. 

although she prepared as best as she can. she memorised all her lines in front of the mirror and not once did she stop until she was able to recite everything with minimal pauses. she also practiced emotions; rewatched the scene almost a hundred times hoping that she would be able to emulate how anne hathaway was acting as best as she can. the challenge was to make the shift from an awkward scene to an empowered scene as seamless as possible. joy wants to be able to make it work and despite numerous practices, at the end of the month she feels that she’s still a little short.

she’s buzzing with nerves as she stands in front of the coaches. her mind kept one thought  running-- please don’t look like a fool by don’t forget your lines. but when she was given the cue to start, she tries to embody mia thermopolis as best as she can.

“hi-- uh, hello. i’m mia, um.. it stopped raining.” she starts awkwardly, exactly how the scene was supposed to be portrayed. “i’m really no good at speech making. normally i get so nervous that i faint or run away; or sometimes i even get sick.” she looks embarrassed afterwards, as if a bunch of people collectively exclaimed their disgust at her oversharing. “but you really didn't need to know that. um, but, i'm not say afraid anymore... no. my father helped me.” 

she looked straight on. “earlier this evening, i had every intention of giving up my claim to the throne. and my mother helped me by telling me that it was ok, and by supporting me like she has my entire life.” she imagines seeing her own mom, who was every bit of her support system as the character’s mom was to hers.

“but, then I wondered how i'd feel after abdicating my role as princess of genovia. would i feel relieved? or would i feel sad? and then i realized how many stupid times a day i used the word "i". in fact, probably all i ever do is think about myself. and how lame is that when there's, like, 7 billion other people out there on the planet and when--” she casts a glance to the side. “oh, sorry. sorry. i’m going too fast.” she pauses for a second longer than necessary to gather her wits before saying the next slew of lines.

“but then I thought, if i cared about the other 7 billion out there instead of just me, that's probably a much better use of my time. see, if i were princess of genovia then my thoughts and the thoughts of people smarter than me would be much better heard, and just maybe those thoughts could be turned into actions.” she smiles.

“so this morning when i woke up, i was mia thermopolis.” she glances to the side again, this time with a determined look as she speaks the last line. “but now, i choose to be forevermore, amelia mignonette thermopolis renaldi: princess of genovia.”

jisoo still stands over the line of skepticism. just because they were given this one evaluation to explore their acting abilities does not mean her feelings about being in an idol company has changed overnight. this was only one out of the hundreds that they have probably already done when it comes to singing, dancing and rapping. she should never keep her hopes up high. 

still, having this opportunity to showcase her most treasured skill motivated her to work better. this is perhaps a once a year occurrence thus, she had to make it count. she had to make them remember her and her impressionable prowess when it comes to acting. if that means choosing to do another emotionally driven scene, then so be it. this is admittedly her forte and nothing impresses more than letting the waterworks flow.

when she chose to work on this scene, she thought of how her skills would manifest through tonya’s desperation and regret. and after she has practiced it a few times, she was happy with how it turned out. scene choosing does not just simply rely on what showcases her skill best, but also depends primarily on how well she connects with it. in a lot of ways, she feels a sort underlying kinship with what the scene she was trying to convey. this is an aspect of acting that is just as important to her as anything -- for an actress who tries to connect and understand the complex character that they are about to play, stays true to their art and is capable of capturing their audience more than any other fanciful acting method could ever do.

she stands in front of her panel, cool and composed with hardly any nervous tick coursing through her body. she’s well prepared; made sure everything was perfect before she had the gall to step foot inside this room so she’s got nothing to worry about. when she was given the signal to start, she wastes no time. standing in the center of the room, she pretends that her environment has shifted and that instead of being in royal, she’s now transported in 1994 at a courtroom in oregon. that instead of the familiar royal coaches, she’s surrounded by the judge, a lawyer, the press, and a handful of people standing witness to her persecution.

her features morph into confusion as she pretends the judge has spoken her penalties, then a crestfallen face as everything comes crashing down on her. 

“no... all i did was hindering prosecution.” her chin trembles, as she looks to the side as if glancing at her lawyer. “what? you’re never gonna let me skate again? i’d rather do the jail time, please.” she continues, her voice cracking. “they only got 18 months. they got 18 months, i’ll do that.”

taking quick breaths, she tries to compose herself as she pleads her case. this is where the character’s desperation further kicks in; the evident begging for her to salvage her career despite knowing that it will hardly do any convincing. “your honor, i don’t have an education. all i know is skating. that’s all i know.” her eyes are burning as she keeps the tears from falling off, throat closing in as she continues to speak. “and i-i’m no one if i can’t-if i can’t ska-.” she’s taking bigger breaths now, face crumpling as if she’s on the verge of panic and as her tears prepares to fall. “i mean i’m not some monster. i’m just trying to do best with what i know how to --. it’s like you’re giving me a life sentence if you do that. you can’t do that.” 

she wipes away the tears that have fallen as she speaks the line. as she heaves, her face contorts into a mixture of desperation and determination -- tears continually flowing as she tries to plead for herself one last time.

“please! just send me to jail so i can still skate. just send me to jail so i can still skate.”

the firmness in her voice is apparent, and as if the judge speaks his final decision, her features resorted to that of defeat. wiping her tears, she looks lost as she takes in breaths to control her emotions. the scene is already over but she did not stop portraying her role until all the tears have been wiped away by her hands. 

but it’s different now. this is a trainee evaluation and she can’t afford to just wing it anymore, especially since she’s partnered up with dongmin; dragging him down with her is just unfair to him. he works too hard, gives too much of himself for her to ruin the entire skit due to laziness.

it’s safe to say that they watch the movie a good ten times, at least, in the month of april. growing up, the shrek movies had always been meiqi’s favourite despite the atrocious-looking characters. her and viian would reenact scenes (mostly ones involving the muffin man) so the script wasn’t new to her. maybe that’s what made it so easy to learn.

when they step up for the performance, it takes everything in meiqi to not cackle at the shrek-themed makeup she’s so diligently painted onto dongmin’s face. though, from the selfie she’d taken just before the evaluation, meiqi’s donkey-inspired look isn’t much better.

   “Let me get this straight. You're gonna                        go fight a dragon and rescue a princess                        just so Farquaad will give you back                        a swamp which you only don't have because                        he filled it full of freaks in the first                        place. Is that about right?”

she regrets her enthusiastic pleads to play the role of shrek. it would be easier to pull off the annoyance that the ogre portrays, and he has less lines too. but this whole evaluation reminds her of junior high and makes her slightly homesick. instead of dwelling on the nostalgia, she channels her emotions into overly-cheerful, considerably annoying chatter (and tries not to cry when faced with their prop—the onion).

   “For your information, there's a lot                        more to ogres than people think.”

meiqi sniffs the onion, blinking away the tears pooling in her eyes. don’t let it ruin your perfect makeup, she scolds herself. “They stink?”

  “Yes — No!”

   “They make you cry?”

   “No!”

    “You leave them in the sun, they get                        all brown, start sproutin' little white                        hairs. “

sometimes, meiqi wonders what goes through her and dongmin’s heads, but their friends for a reason: their shitty sense of humour.

the smart phones are placed down atop of the table by the other trainee, both being juyeon and baekhyun’s respectively. this signifies the beginning of their performance. they’re slid towards them, juyeon reaches for both of the phones with wide eyes. “i want this chic black one, i like it.” juyeon exclaims cooly, studying it as grim reaper did in the drama. she holds baekhyun’s phone, waving it about. “you take the blue one. do you like it?” she discards it gently, unlike the drama where the phone is put down rather forcefully, putting it back on the table before fixating on her phone again, fully, looking at it with great detail.

it’s baekhyun’s turn. juyeon tunes out for a moment, playing the part of the grim reaper who seems to be trying to remember a number or something like that. she closes her eyes, only to then hear her cue from baekhyun to speak again. she turns, looking at him with narrowed brows. turning to the other trainee, juyeon nods. “he’s right. you can just explain it to me.” juyeon says, being very straightforward. straightforward and slightly naive, the role fitted juyeon perfectly.

juyeon likes being able to sit back and listen to baekhyun and the other trainee waffle on to eachother for a little bit, before her role as the grim reaper permits her opportunity to butt into their conversation, lacking an apology. “on tv dramas, people were talking to eachother’s faces.” baekhyun snaps at her in character and juyeon scoffs as the other trainee more or less rolls their eyes at the quarrels constantly going on between grim reaper and goblin. the other trainee then mentions that they can learn about that later and that for now, they can start by going to the app store. “right now?” juyeon asks, raising a brow as baekhyun gets to his feet, looking rather puzzled. their cue to end that scene comes and momentarily, they shift into the next scene which starts with a simple call on facetime. what an evaluation, hey?

the next scene begins with juyeon sitting cross legged, staring at her phone which sits before her with, once again, a rather puzzled look. grim reaper always looks like he’s trying to work something out. naturally, when the phone begins to vibrate on the surface it’s on, juyeon is startled, much like grim reaper in the scene. a natural reaction slips but for once it works. she shys away from the phone momentarily before quickly scooping it up in her hands. grim reaper had managed to answer the call, although unaware of the fact that they were facetiming, juyeon plays the role of her character well, putting the phone to her ear.

“i know.” juyeon says in response to baekhyun whom she can hear in her ear and also across the way. juyeon then begins to wave her hand around in front of her face. “i don’t see your face.” she says, surprised. baekhyun gives her an instruction and naturally, playing the part, she acts confused, narrowing her brows “move what away?” she asks, cocking her head to the side slightly. still confused, even with baekhyun’s instructions, juyeon struggles to stiffle her laughter. “m-my arm?” she mutters, scrunching up her face, speaking loud enough for the coaches to hear her. “okay.” juyeon then moves the phone, still holding it side on, just very far away from her face. “like this?” she asks. 

sim cheong showed no reaction to any of this, not looking the least bit impressed. “these are tears. what are you doing?” mermaids’ tears were in fact pearls, which down in the ocean had no value. but on land... “these count as money here.” he explained very seriously. if the mermaid didn’t look impressed before, now she seemed surprised by this discovery. “money? why?” she asked. that was jeonghoon’s cue to turn into teacher mode, as he had more experience on land than she did. “if you don’t know, just remember it. these count as money here. and when you start to tear up...” he put the handles of the bag around his ears to hold it steady against his face. “just do this and collect all of them.” he looked all too serious despite the ridiculousness of the situation. sim cheong nodded, too. “this helped me so much.” he said.

the mermaid came to a sudden realization. “ah... i cried a couple times. i should’ve collected them...” the confessed. time on land hadn’t been easy for her so far. jeonghoon put the bag away before giving further explanations. “the bigger they are [the tears] the more valuable. so instead of uselessly crying small tears, just hold them in and cry thick tears. oil.” he then listed the different color shades of tears and their value. sim cheong listened closely and once he mentioned pink colored tears as being the most valuable, couldn’t help but comment. “the pink-tinted pearls? the ones that come out when you cry of happiness?” he nodded. “that’s right. but as you live here, happy moments that make you tear up don’t come often. i cried that kind of tear just once.” although jeonghoon remained vague, there was obviously more to his story. “then i should cry a lot and give all my tears to heo joonjae.” sim cheong was smiling, with sparkles in her eyes that made it clear what type of feelings she held for the man. “who is heo joonjae?”

sim cheong described the man she loved a bit, before declaring: “i like him. he’s a cool person.” this didn’t impress the merman whatsoever. he looked dumbfounded. “wait, you didn’t come up here to see the light? you came up here because of a guy you like?” she nodded, which had jeonghoon in even more disbelief. “wow, you really don’t know anything... how long has it been since you got here?” the way he spoke sent a hint that there might be something sim cheong wasn’t aware of, but in all her naivety, she didn’t catch it. “one month.” she responded. the merman looked a bit worried. “the guy you like... is it one side or both sides?” there was no response from her, so he thought maybe she didn’t understand well. “do you like him by yourself or is it mutual?” she seemed  a bit disappointed when she replied. “it’s just me right now.” jeonghoon sighed. “you really didn’t calculate anything! you should think before coming up here!” he was annoyed at how impulsive her move was. she didn’t think it through and now was in a lot of trouble. “this is why i lived here, talking to the fishes. i told them to call the mermaids. ‘don’t ever follow a person here!’ you never heard that?” sim cheong was at a loss now. “no...” jeonghoon mumbled annoyedly, but this didn’t answer the mermaid questions. “why can’t i? why can’t i follow a person here?”

jeonghoon now looked very solemn, looking straight into her eyes. “listen carefully. you have a time limit.” although sim cheong didn’t say anything, she played with her fingers nervously, visibly shaken by the news. “the moment a mermaid leaves the water for land,” he continued, “her heart starts to harden. even if your legs don’t, your heart has a time limit.” that was the part that lisa nailed so well. the mermaid’s eyes filled with water as the realization dawned upon her. she didn’t cry, but one could feel all the emotions pouring out. “there is only one way you can continue to breathe, and keep your heart beating on land. it’s only possible when the person that you love, loves you back.”

jinyoung himself felt such pity for her character. the poor mermaid’s innocence led her to believe she could learn to live just fine out of water, but was now facing the consequences of her impulsive actions. “it isn’t too late to return to the ocean, you idiot.” he sounded annoyed, but it was jeonghoon’s awkward way of trying to hide how bad he felt for her. “so why did you come here without calculating?” he looked away for a few seconds, unable to sustain her gaze any longer. sim cheong did the same. “that guy said something to you, right?” indeed, he did, because the mermaid replied with hesitation: “he told me to come to seoul.” of course. “right... what did he say? did he ask you to date? to marry?” if only that had been the case. “he told me to go to specialty restaurants.” what in the world? “that’s it?” the mermand could barely believe what he was hearing. “he also told me to come see the fireworks...”

now that was too much.

“fireworks?!” jeonghoon rubbed the back of his neck. “i see... so you’re an easy girl. can you decide so easily to love with specialty restaurants and fireworks?” he scoffed. poor sim cheong... “did you have some kind of serious romance for one month?” he already knew the answer, but when the mermaid shook her head, he couldn’t bring himself not to do something about it. he leaned over, serious look on his face. “should i help you?” sim cheong asked how, and jeonghoon then told her that the key was to make him jealous. “jealousy?” he nodded. “if you don’t know, remember.” he repeated from before. “jealousy is the fastest path to love.” he got up, as if readying himself for the plan he was coming up with. “i think it would be good if we started with a makeover. should we try to get some money for shopping?”