#rkmar19eval

Yuta was a dancer, he was a rapper, he was a performer -- he had zero intentions of taking this stupid evaluation seriously and his song choice was one made out of childish impulsiveness and the intention to catch them off guard. He had done what was asked, pick an instrument, practice on it, show them a song. Were they going to scold him for doing what he was told?

With one more lick over his bottom lip, Yuta situated his hand at the bottom and started with the first buttons in the bottom corner, announcing the song without hesitation. ‘Baby Shark’, happily coming from the speakers of the laptop and Yuta bringing his left hand in to start with the beat. Every dart of his fingertips to a button elicited the joyous beginning of the children’s song. He hoped they’d be stuck with it in their heads all day like he was. Waking up at 3am in cold sweats, murmuring the lyrics to themselves and sitting in quiet rooms, bobbing their heads along with the beat. Yuta had had to suffer through it while learning the song, and having his niece accompany it with the dance moves and the rest of the lyrics. If Yuta had to suffer through this evaluation, the coaches could suffer through getting this song out of their heads for the next day.

A smile tugging on Yuta’s lip as the beat paused for a second, knowing the next part was his favourite, where the children’s song got a bit of a remake. The singular ‘baby shark’ coming, then there was the slowly increase of the pace and then a deeper beat brought in. Yuta nodding his head along, teeth sinking into his bottom lip as he denied his enjoyment to himself. This was his revolt at having to suffer through a month where they forced him to learn about music theory -- he was supposed to enjoy the childish amusement and not the song. Still, as the short song came to an end, Yuta forced himself to furrow his brow and wear a serious expression, only lifting his head when he inched half a step back from the desk and tucked his hands behind him. 

for years, he’s been wanting to learn to play the happy-looking instrument but never had the time or motivation to actually go out and do it. finally, he’s given the opportunity to do so. what he didn’t expect was it to be so hard. it’s so different from the strings of a guitar or the keys of a keyboard, and it’s damn near impossible to stay on pitch. still, he is nothing if not resilient, and just like with any other monthly evaluation, he puts in his very best efforts to master it: practicing as he walks between lessons, eating his meals quickly to get back to the instrument, even uses some of the free practice hours to try and figure the thing out.

it’s not until he does some research that he finds a valuable tip. with a strip of tape, he labels each note on the otamatone so that he remembers where each key is, and from there, it isn’t exactly easy going, but it’s much more fluid and in tune than when he’d been going in blind.

the deadline for the evaluations quickly approaches, and while he’s not one hundred percent confident in the performance he’s about to put on, he hopes that it will still show how much work and dedication he’d put into it. the silence that takes over the room as he takes a seat with his chosen instrument gives him no hint of whether or not they’ll even take him seriously. but even if they don’t, he’s going to treat it as another regular performance and give it his all.

it doesn’t start off well. by the third or fourth note, he’s already hit a sour one, grimacing at the fact but still continuing on, recovering quickly. unfortunately, that recovery doesn’t last long as he goes off tune again and again, frustrations building. he finally hits his stride midway through the song, playing the rest of it with only one or two bad notes, and that makes him content with his performance, but not exactly satisfied.

this months eval was one of great excitement for seonho as he loves any and all excuses to learn a new instrument.  he grew up learning piano and will always love the piano, and then in the last year he had taken some time to learn the guitar. so when his hyungs and him had come together to try and figure out a plan for this eval, the idea for doing the drums had really just stuck with seonho. he wanted so bad to learn the drums. even if the song wasn’t really something he would typically do, the drums would be so much fun.

and he had been so right.

learning the drums through out the month of march had been great. he loved jamming away to them aimlessly and then also with aim. mainly though he’s been banging at them without a care in the world. he’d even gone and bought a drum set to put in his personal studio ( which he’s very glad that the studio hadn’t been under his moms name and that his dad doesn’t care enough to check because it means the studio was still his private place ). the drum set looked super awesome in his studio and he would spent a lot of time banging away and doing different combinations. 

then there is the fact that this eval is once again with two of his favorite hyungs. jaehyun and minseok hyung are always so much fun to do evals with. their cool group of royal jsm which is kind of like a parody of the popular cbx ( and theyve covered a good handful of cbx already ) was a fun thing for them to put together. he always really does enjoy working with his hyungs. 

the jonas brothers song--while not his favorite--is a good one. he’s jammed out to sos a few times before when he was strolling american song charts. and now he’s covering a a song of theirs. it feels so throw back but also really awesome! 

and he’s playing the drums.

balancing the drums with vocals was kind of odd at first. seonho struggles with dancing and singing--which is why he tends to end up not dancing when its hit part unless its a whole group sings at once thing--but playing the drums was a whole new ball game for him. a challenge he was enjoying a whole lost. and his victims for testing were his poor hyungs and the poor instructors. all of which probably had ringing in their ears for a while. 

seonho also had ringing in his ears for a while ( a month ) but he really had a blast with it! and he supposes thats what matters. so what he missed a few cue’s for his parts so the beat would start just slightly off, he was smiling the whole time. luckily his vocals stayed fairly steady. given, he’s worked his ass off for two years now and if his vocals aren’t steady when he’s spent so much time working only on those--he’d just have to give up and be a rapper.

So as she stood there, nervous for her first monthly evaluations, she looks around her. She allows the tension to seep through her veins as she received encouraging smiles from her precious friends, Sunwoo and Johnny. As well as Aron, who though she had just recently met, was one of the sweetest and kindest people that she's ever come across. It made the whole experience a lot more enjoyable and comfortable.

There was a part of her that genuinely did not know where this anxiety and nerves were coming from. For someone who has been exposed to this sort of attention countless times before, she did not like where nor is she aware of where these hesitations were coming from. Despite this, Naeun tries to focus her thoughts on the people beside her.