As we stepped out, a the studio sounded in cheers, as the first contestants to perform, everyone's expectations were at their highest. I wanted to crawl into a corner and hide from the world at this moment, I knew that we were gonna disappoint as we were average at best even after we put our 100% into training for a week.
As we stepped onto the center of the stage, we bowed to the mentors, when the vocal mentor suddenly picked up his microphone and asked us, "I see that you two are senior high school students, with your CSAT coming up, what made you decide to come onto this show?" I was taken aback, but thankfully we had expected a question like this to come up as it was certainly strange to join a show like this when we had no history of idol training as well.
"Hmm... Well, I'd say the main reason I'm here today is due to my best friend over here Junwoo, he's always been rooting for me and pushed me to audition for Stella Planet with him." Of course it was made up but it was reasonably believable.
Eunho gave me a bashful look while saying, "Although it is true that I encouraged Sunwoo hyung to join this show with me, he's also worked really hard on his own! I hope our performance will show that." Eunho smoothly resolved the question as the judges smiled at his cute voice and nodded.
"Well then trainees, you may start whenever you feel ready."
We quickly got into our starting positions as I mentally got myself together. Then, music slowly started playing. A catchy bass played as we started our choreography, sliding sideways as Eunho started his rap solo.
Time's running but that's all the reason to keep partying
Life without a little fun is just a run to death
Tick tock goes the clock, but hip hop's all i got.
I'm running the marathon of life, but the end to mine's a paradise.
I grinned at Eunho successfully making it through his rap as it was my turn to sign the pre-chorus.
I don't give enough care bout' my life
But life is nothing without light
I don't give enough care bout' my life
Cause my life's bout' living for joy
The chorus rolled in and it was a dance battle between Eunho and I, grooving to the beat, which ends in my lost. The song continues to the end as it switches between rap and vocal with a lively mood and beat.
With our performance finally ending, we do an ending fairy for the cameras while panting heavily, I could feel my toes curling up from embarrassment but I threw a peace sign to the camera in front of me. Eunho similarly puffed his cheeks and did a cat pose. "Damn. Respect" I said in my head as Eunho gave his all in acting cute.
When I focused my vision and looked at the mentors, they looked quite pleased. I breathed a sigh of relief internally as Eunho and I stood back on the center stage to receive our evaluations.
Mentor JP picked up his microphone and said to us, "Hmm... Honestly, I was quite impressed. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much as you guys have no training prior to this but you rapped quite well with groove", gesturing at Eunho.
"Thank you!" Eunho excitedly said while bowing repeatedly. Mentor JP chuckled and put down his microphone.
Then, vocal mentor Jung Suri took her turn and told us, "I agree with JP, you guys' had a complete performance, obviously it wasn't perfect but I could tell you worked hard to do this performance." She smiled as she put down her microphone.
I felt proud of us, we had gotten the praise of two of the mentors so far so I had a positive expectation when Mentor Aki picked up his microphone.
However, instead of praise, criticism came out of his mouth, "Your dance was way too lacking, I've seen dozens of newbie trainees with better dancing skills than you two, it was obvious you tried to hide your lack of skills with this simple dance but it still stuck out like a sore thumb. I hope you take dancing more seriously." Mentor Aki deadpanned as he put down his microphone.
I suddenly felt cold. When did it get so chilly in here? After the positive statements from the vocal and rap mentors, he shot us down with the hard truth that we sucked at dancing. I bit my lip to stop myself from crying. "I know our dance wasn't the best but did he have to ruin the mood like that?" I thought in my head.
After his statement, the studio went dead silent. Nevertheless, the show continued as the mentors discussed amongst themselves about our evaluation grade. I held Eunho's hand in anticipation as they finally separated and looked at us. Vocal mentor Suri then picked up her microphone and stated "Trainees Junwoo and Sunwoo, you both get 2 stars"
I looked down at the ground while biting my lips. This was below my expectations, I thought that we'd at least get an average 3 stars but it seemed like Aki's gripes with us made us fare worse. I held back my tears and bowed with Eunho, thanking the mentors before we speedily made our way offstage. Back in the preparation room, Eunho broke down crying. I comforted him while biting back my tears.
I patted his back as he cried without saying anything. However, he suddenly stood up and told me,
"Hyung! Let's work even harder from now one so we don't disappoint our efforts!" My mouth dropped at his sudden change in mood but I nodded anyway and high fived him. Wiping off his tears, he walked out of the room to head back to the seats. I shook my head at his sudden enthusiasm and walked after him.
As we sat down on our seats the next contestant was called out, displaying "Jung Daeho" who was sitting beside me. I gave him an encouragement of good luck and he thanked me as he stepped down to make his way backstage. Shortly after he gave an explosive dance performance. He had no singing parts in his performance but his dance spoke for itself, sharp, deadly movements and his intense gaze tied his stage together into a captivating package.
The only thing I could do was admire him, dance mentor Aki who had just roasted us minutes before, was singing praises for Daeho who rightfully deserved it. Unlike our stage which left an awkward air of silence in the studio after we had ended, he was met with applause as he left the stage. Moments later, he sat back down next to us with 4 stars on his chest from his previous 2 he had placed. "Your performance was really good!" I told him. He smiled back at me and nodded as a thanks.
After this, it felt like the day wouldn't end. I hadn't realized that watching dozens of performances would be so tiring. I also realized that me and Eunho were really small fish in a big pond on this show as well. Most of the contestants were absurdly capable, it seemed like everyone except us excelled in dancing and even in vocal or rap. I was expecting there to be a lot more people at our level after watching the past seasons but it seemed like the cast this season was stacked with talent.
Though there were definitely exceptions. There were even two people who had performed the same songs and had similar clothing that had messed up at the same parts, they would definitely be the comedic contestants. My worries didn't cease though, I had estimated that we were in the bottom 30% of the contestants with our skill levels and the 2-star rating we had received started to feel like it was too high.
And like that, numerous exhausting hours of reacting and feeling inadequate flew by. It was finally the last performance, and once again, it was Kim Hajun, the most anticipated trainee so far.
As he stepped onto the stage, he gave off an aura of confidence, I really wished I could see his status window now but of course the system didn't give us that ability. He greeted the mentors and started his performance right away. As soon as the music started to play, the contestants seemed to get riled up. I was confused as I didn't recognize the song, but Eunho kindly explained to me, "This song is famous for being really hard to execute as the movements are easy to make look stupid so it's unexpected that a mere trainee would choose this song." I nodded in understanding as I paid attention to the stage once again.
Throughout the performance, I tried my best to pick out flaws, however, there weren't any. Kim Hajun's performance was annoyingly perfect, he pulled off the sensual movements and sexy concept perfectly, his vocals were on point and his dancing was graceful yet precise.
The mentors seemed to agree with my thoughts as they had no negative criticism to give him and gave him 4 stars.
Shortly after he sat down, all of the mentors stood on the center stage, with mentor Jung Suri holding a microphone before speaking.
"With that, the star evaluation stages of the 100 trainees today has ended, thank you all for your hard work."
After that, we filmed a group shot of the show's slogan before we were lead to the building we would be staying in for the next few months.