TRIOS PERFORMANCE PART I : PERFORMANCE

MGA5 contestant #5042 Sohn Youngjae MASTER KEY Performing Blooming Day - EXO-CBX { 00:02-00:50 & 01:07-03:17 } Partner: Yoo Taeyang { @rktaeyang } & Kim Hyojin { @hyojinrk } Outfit: White shirt & Jeans

“ Strength does not come from winning ; your struggles develop your strength ”

Another week had come to pass, and with it he still managed to survive in this hell hole of stress, watching every word you said and the competitive aura that resided amongst people. From duos to trios there were now even more people to keep track of and coorperate with and while that in and of itself was no big problem for Eric it also meant having to pay attention to even more needs. It was in this that he came across the biggest struggle in the means of his assigned partners. Eric was a dancer by heart. Granted, a girl group cover artist, but he had expanded his repertoire for the sake of the competition. Yes, he could sing -- he could even rap by now if he really wanted to but that was not where his true strength lay.

Some time back he had stated that he just wanted to make it further this year than he had last year, but now that that was true, now that he had gone from being in the midst of one hundred talented individuals to only the last thirty remaining ones, there was no doubt about it. He wanted to see how far he could go from here on out. And darned be if he didn’t want to end up getting signed from this thing. Dowoon had jumped ahead of him already, and Eric couldn’t let that be as it was. There was no time for dillydally -- young he may be, but he was a boy of great plans and a future he was desperately intending to pursue.

Naturally this all meant that by now he only wanted to show the best of his capabilities. Being paired with Yugyeom last week had been a blessing in that sense, for he got to show something that best enhanced his skill level. When Taeyang had introduced himself as a dance teacher, Eric had been thrilled to say the least: someone who was good enough to teach others had to be an amazing partner for this kind of thing, and he was already plotting out their stage of grandeur when Hyojin had pointed out a very trying obstacle: the fact that he wasn’t a very good dancer.

At once Eric could feel his plans crashing to the ground, and while he assured the guy that it was okay, that they were going to figure it out somehow, he still couldn’t help but feel uncertain. Even worse did it get when they started looking at song choices -- “you think you’d be able to do something like this?” ; “if we make the choreo easier, maybe this one?” -- and Hyojin’s very expression had been enough to tell that he didn’t believe in himself as much as the rest of them tried to in this particular matter. Big trouble had come about.

By no means was the song they eventually had decided upon an easy one, and Eric had a feeling they all knew that much, but he left training Hyojin to Taeyang: that was, after all, his job wasn’t it? He himself was just some random teenager who had only just started high school, he knew nothing about teaching and helping others like that. He had tried to, once, when Taeyang had gone for a break leaving only him and Hyojin and Eric had very confidently stated that “you go into the chorus with a bang! and then, like, swoosh, and and you get the feeling of pow!” to which it seemed like his sudden student didn’t understand a word of.

More than once, Eric had found himself staring longingly at the other group where Yugyeom was practicing in and sighed to himself. “Man I wish we could have got one more dancer...” Not necessarily the same person he had worked with before, but just someone, someone who knew the steps more easily, someone who could perform a more fluid dance performance. Instead he was left feeling bad for putting someone in a zone where they didn’t feel comfortable, but at the same time Eric had to consider the fact that he couldn’t disregard himself for someone else, not if he wanted to make it further. Which was why he was slightly upset with the fact that they had to change the choreography, but instead of being vocal about it, he simply mulled over that on his own.

Come the day of the filming, Eric was nervous to say the least -- a strange feeling he didn’t often feel, and one that he didn’t enjoy very much. It was simple enough to do something on his own, but putting his fate in the hands of other people was so much different. Eric was a person who could do anything he wanted as long as he himself believed he could: that was how the world worked to the teenage boy. So the fact that something could so easily influence the outcome of this performance was kind of terrifying and overwhelming.

There was nothing else to do now but hope. Hope that Taeyang had managed to work well enough with Hyojin; hope that their choreography wasn’t too simple; hope that they made no obvious mistakes while on stage. For the first time Eric felt as though he couldn’t focus on his peers at all, his entire train of thought being on the performance, and he was wearing a complex expression on his face until it finally became their turn after what felt like an eternity. Suddenly the rush of adrenaline hit him and Eric had to tell himself to remember the smile -- the perfect smile that showed nothing of the emotions that lay beneath. He wasn’t very good at lying, but instead of focusing too much about it, he tried to pay attention to the fact that he would go on stage again soon, that he would do something he absolutely enjoyed soon, and that made it much easier to feel genuine happiness.

As he stood there side by side with his seniors in life, Eric joined in on their shared introduction, sappy and corny as ever, but he found amusement in those kinds of things. “Unlocking your hearts, we are the Master Key!” If there was one thing he was good at it was thinking up bad catchphrases for these groups it seemed, but that was half the fun. And to make it even better, they continued with a move that had been popular some years back. “We’ll store all the national viewers in our hearts!” He was going to play the fact that he was the youngest remaining participant as far as he could and score those cheap cute points. Honestly he didn’t find the whole thing the slightest bit embarrassing, and that was possibly one of his strengths: performing cutesy acts without the slightest bit of hesitation.

With Hyojin and Taeyang taking their spots on the chairs they had brought along to the middle of the stage, Eric took his position to the side, ready to slide in once his lines came up. Taeyang had done his best in rearranging the choreography and simplifying it while still keeping its original intention somewhat intact and catering to the individual person’s skill. In a sense Eric thought the guy was absolutely amazing. For a long while he didn’t have to sit down, and he much appreciated that: although the intention was noble, cutting off the majority of the legwork by including chairs was harsh on the boy who just wanted to show his very best. Instead he danced as hard as he possibly could on the parts that didn’t include a chair.

The chorus was kind of corny, and as Eric sang to the audience “can I be your boyfriend can I?” he thought it kind of amusing. The way he saw it they all represented a different boyfriend image. Eric was the innocent, youthful puppy love kind of boyfriend. Hyojin was a more mature person but gave off a sweet vibe to him while Taeyang somehow seemed like a wild and sexy type of guy. It felt weird to admit it, but that was definitely how he saw his partners. He thought the song fit them well despite the fact that he himself had never been someone’s boyfriend, but he couldn’t say that he wasn’t starting to feel curious about that whole love scenario.

As the song came to a close, Eric felt a bit more relieved than he had done before the performance started. With Hyojin being the better vocalist of them all he had been in charge of line distribution and figuring out whose voice colour best fit in which part, and although he was kind of sad about their third member because he didn’t get to dance properly, Eric also had to admit that there was no way he could have done stuff like that on his own. He just sang because he liked singing over rapping: he didn’t actually know much of the technical stuff behind it. Running back to his seat with bubbly steps Eric only realised too late that his ‘seat’ was still on the stage, and with a loud “whoops!” he quickly ran back to get it before sitting down again and waiting for the show to be over.