Although we had all heard the song not too long ago, the absurdly fast choreography paired with vocals that catered to a higher range was beyond our skill levels to execute. Eunho and I who were weak in dancing were out of breathe not even halfway through the song, Eunho unable to even sing the notes with his subpar vocal abilities.
We had forgotten to take into account that the signal song usually had very small amounts of rap and were too focused on our first performance. I cursed my lack of insight as I couldn't do anything to help Eunho at this moment.
I glanced to my side and the 4-stars were mostly flawless, they were in sync despite still being a large group, unlike my section who were struggling to even copy the moves that were being displayed.
After the song had finished playing out, dance mentor Aki then showed us the choreography once again, however, he then told us that we'd have to memorize what we'd seen in just 10 minutes. "Are you serious? How can we memorize something if we can't see it again..." I wondered about the feasibility of this challenge.
Although this was the same format as the previous seasons, experiencing it firsthand was a different kind of hell. I could only grasp bits and pieces of the choreography by watching the 4-stars who were leaps ahead of the 2-star group that couldn't copy the moves, let alone memorize them.
I was just reaching the point of exhaustion when suddenly, I heard the sound of a bell in my head. "...?" I had recognized this sound from completing my second mission, it seemed like I had silently received a new mission from the system. I quickly opened my status window and there indeed a reward to collect as well as another mission to do.
[MISSIONS]
Gain 1000 fans(Complete!)
Reward: 1 Skill Point [press to claim reward]
Receive the mentors' approval and rank up during the signal song evaluation(In Progress)
Reward: 1 Skill Point, 1 Roulette Spin
I was taken aback that I had suddenly gained 1000 fans but I remembered my Instakg account I had made. Then, a reward I hadn't seen before caught my attention.
"Roulette spin?" I murmured, i thought for a second what it could be but the sound of mentor Aki's voice interrupted my train of thought. The dance practice was finally over, I quickly put the skill point i had just gotten into my dance skill as a last ditch effort to not get roasted and looked up at the stage.
"Hello trainees, I hope you have managed to memorize the choreography. Now, it is time to do a choreography check. Everyone except the first row of each group sit down."
"Ah..." I could hear Eunho's heavy sigh in front of me, I had convinced him that being in front would help us improve but right now I felt like it had done nothing but heighten our nerves. Once again, we ended up having to perform first.
"Good luck!" I grabbed Eunho's shoulders to cheer him up before sitting down.
I could visibly see Eunho's hands shaking but I trusted that he could shake off the nerves and do his best. Then, with Aki's cue, the cheerful signal song started to play once again.
I was shocked, Eunho was keeping up with the dance, I'd say he was even killing it. I grew curious so I quickly checked his status window to see that he had grown his dance to a B grade, it looked like he had also gained a skill point earlier.
Although Eunho hesitated at moments, he managed to execute every move on beat to the fast paced music. His sudden jump in skill was definitely noticed by the people around him, as he'd been struggling to even keep up just a few minutes ago.
As the music came to an end, a short moment of silence spread throughout the hall, followed by loud cheers. Despite the large difference in skills, no one could say that anyone in the first group of trainees had embarrassed themselves.
"Oh~ These trainees are quite good? I'm quite impressed that you all managed to stay somewhat in sync, even the low star trainees did quite well." Mentor Aki said while clapping.
"Especially you.. Trainee Junwoo, I noticed you weren't doing too well earlier, I'm quite surprised at your speed of growth. I noticed that you tend to hesitate quite often, I think if you'll work on that you'll improve tremendously. Keep it up." he continued, giving his comments to each of the trainees personally one after another.
Shortly after, the second row of trainees were called up to dance. Eunho put his hands up and mouthed "Fighting!" to me as he passed me to sit down.
As I stood a few meters away from the mentors, I decided to not look at them or I'd get too nervous again and focused on my memory of the choreography.
As the music started playing, I calmly moved my arms according to the choreography, which formed a star shape.
I managed to not make any big mistakes in my performance, only having small missteps or occasionally going offbeat.
I took a deep breath as the music faded out and the sound of the other trainees cheering had entered my ears. It seemed like nobody had done too badly this round either.
So, I looked up at the stage and saw Mentor Aki frowning. I felt my breath get stuck in my throat as he briefly glanced at me. However, as he pointed the microphone to his mouth, someone else's name had come out.
"Trainee Kim Hajun, are you taking this seriously? You did so well yesterday so why are you suddenly stopping dancing?"
Everyone instantly turned their heads to look at him, Mentor Aki only had good things to say so this was unexpected as Kim Hajun was a golden trainee.
"You better get your head on straight, I wouldn't rate you 3 stars right now let alone 4 stars. Even the 1 star trainees didn't give up when they couldn't remember the dance so why can't you?"
He gave one final displeased look at Kim Hajun before curtly moving onto the next trainees, none of whom had only negative comments to hear.
Until finally, my name was called out.
"Hm... Trainee Sunwoo, I'd say that my comments for Junwoo also applies to you, other than that, good job."
I closed my eyes in relief, I didn't know what I'd do if I was flamed as hard as Hajun was.
Speaking of Hajun, when I turned to look at him, he was staring at the ground while balling up his fists.
I raised my eyebrows at him, after watching previous seasons, I knew it wasn't wise to show your unhappiness on camera, the shows always milked dramatic scenarios like this. I looked just past him and indeed, it looked like a camera was filming him.
It wasn't any of my business anyway so I just turned my head back and waited for this round of evaluations to end.
After the last two groups of trainees had received their comments from Mentor Aki, we were all given a lyric sheet as it was time to practice our vocals.
Most of us had given up at dancing while singing previously, but I had some confidence that I'd be able to at least sing while standing. My thoughts were proven true as I was able to sing through the whole song without a hiccup.
Although I was doing well, I started to get worried for Eunho again, he had only managed to get his vocal grade to D, and while his vocal range was relatively high, he didn't have the skill to pull off the numerous high notes that were placed in the song.
Since I felt confident enough in my vocals, I decided to help Eunho to the best of my abilities for the last few minutes we had left. I had mostly grown my vocal skills through the system, but I could vaguely tell the reasons that Eunho felt strained even though the song was within his range.
Like that, the final 5 minutes of vocal practice had ended, mentor Jung Suri announcing the start of the trainee evaluations, this time groups of 5 were formed randomly to be evaluated.
I could feel another long session awaiting us as a whole 20 groups were made.