* bus to busan ,

@rkxjongsuk

honestly. he hadn’t been all that surprised when it turned out they had won the trip to busan after the may evaluations. it’s not that he had been overly confident about it considering his apprehensions about performing well during the harmonies during the bridge, but he thought they had worked pretty well as a cohesive unit, and the song and arrangement in itself were really good.

ever since the night before, the beach had been calling out to him, reminding him of where he’d grown up, in and around the beautiful beaches of california. but because they had arrived so late since they’d left right after training, he has to leave it to the next day. after lunch feels like a perfectly good time to hit the sandy shores, so he throws on his swim trunks, slathers on some sunblock, and grabs a beach towel and a small cooler, calling out into their living space for the weekend. “i’m going to the beach!” he exclaims, legs spread shoulder-width apart, hands on his waist. “whoever wants to come with, get your ass over here!”

despite making it sound as if he’d be fine going alone, he actually wanders off to find someone to drag along, spotting jongsuk shortly after. “hey, wanna hit the beach?”

『 Distraction 』 ⇢ KT Evals June 2k20 | +3 S ; +2 DB ; +1 Wk Harmonizing ⇢ Jeon Jeongguk keeping himself and his mind busy performing [ Delicious & Yesterday ]

“ Keeping his mind busy worked until things weren’t busy anymore. ”

So there it was: debut month for the first batch of his pals. Debut month for Jimin. Jeongguk of course was aware that things were going anything but peachy during debut preparations and hearing how his friends were treated, it gives him one more reason to rip his contract to shreds and cuss out KT on his way out. 

Instead he remains where he is and he holds on. He does his best to hold Jimin and calm him down, supporting him where he can. He tries to put a smile on Namjoon’s lips with his silly antics, tries to make Johnny smile- he just tries to be there for them no matter how it makes him feel. None of this is their fault and they don’t deserve him being a party pooper, no matter how hurt he was about being left behind.

At the end of the day however they all go back to their dorm and Jeongguk is left in his bed, alone, a puppy sleeping on his chest because it can sense his loneliness. It keeps him awake at night. Are they crying together? Are they laughing together? Are they sitting down, trying to talk things out together?

He finds himself sleepless for several nights, working himself to the bone to hope that the exhaustion would eventually make him pass out instead. Signing up for not one but two projects for the eval helps. Both songs having strong performances and different vibes helps too. He has to focus his brain on jumping from one concept to the next, from rap to singing and from a duo to a group. 

This time he gives input where he’s allowed to, not minding the senior trainees, who got him roped into their projects. He’s grown fond of Jongsuk as much as the elder male seemed to have grown fond of him. While he liked performing Yesterday with Sungyeol and the others, it was definitely Delicious which would be his highlight for this month. The cheery vibe helped him ignore his own tilt and dark thoughts for a while. 

With people talking and speculating about what happened about the debut of NSG U and Jeongguk knowing what went on behind the scenes but never being part of it left him torn and helpless. When he performed like this however, at least he could forget for just a few minutes the mess he’d have to go back to tomorrow. He’d be just right back to figuring out what the next eval would bring that could help him distract his restless brain from resigning and getting out of this god forsaken company.

Maybe if he picked up 3 projects next month he’d get a few more hours of sleep.

❝ chat up

@rkxjongsuk

even tho hyuna was going to debut sooner than she thought she would, she still always made time to get to know the trainees. trc was probably the only company that she didn’t really have a lot of people she knew. at one point, she had one of her closest friends bobby there, but that was long ago. she still had yeeun there, and she knew doyeon but that was about it. so the fact that she still had time during their breaks to sit with the trainees made her feel happy.

today’s victim was jongsuk, which, hyuna had seen around seocho maybe. she’s not exactly sure, she wasn’t really that talkative when in nova, considering they threw her in a survival show almost as soon as she joined. but she shakes that thought away.

“have you gotten used to the trc schedule? sometimes the day’s seem to never end.” she asks, taking a sip from her water. in reality, hyuna never had issues with how long the days were, her sleeping schedule was already bad, and staying till late in trc always seemed like a blessing to her.

// see you again

@rkxjongsuk

he mustered the tall instructor assistant from afar, while he waited for his turn to be given a few tips. gray was aware, that he wasn't the best singer, although he had the chance to earn some experience on that expertise before. but who would let the opportunity slip to see wendy, his favorite female singer in the world, when she was so busy these days? it made him happy to see his friend being so passionate about teaching others about what she was definitely top at. and it was always great to meet up with her, even if it was just for a short workshop and even if he had to share her with others.

but for now, while wendy was away and distracted by questions of workshop participants, he looked at the assistants, wondering if the male one remembered him. gray, for his part, still remembered jongsuk who had left quite the impression on him, years ago. and it still bugged him how the other had basically disappeared from the surface, just like him. when the other approached him in order to give out tips, he shot the other a smile and offered his hand. "hello, jongsuk. i don't know if you remember me, but we've participated at the third season of the mgas back then... it's great to see you again. i hope to learn a lot from you today!"

chocolate

@rkxjongsuk

he’s not the biggest fan of snacks during training. at least, not unless it’s a fruit, but there’s just some days. some days where he feels the need overwhelm him, beating out logic, and somehow he ends up finding himself with a packet of some random snack in hand, offering it to the closest trainee once there’s no staff or coaches in sight. today, it happens to be jongsuk and the snack happens to be one of his latest obsessions. it’s a childhood favorite that’s found its way back into the pantry at home, a small packet taken out and stolen away from the secret stash whenever he craves chocolate.

at first, he’d been laying on his stomach on the practice room floor, bag next to him before he rolls over, onto his back, packet held up high to reach jongsuk as he grins, “want some? if you’re not a fan of chocolate, i’ll take note of it for next time but i can tell ya that even people who don’t like chocolate seem to like pocky. so what do ya say?” though if the answer is no, hey, more for him. 

Wrong Order

@rkxjongsuk

Chaeryeong didn't drink coffee every day, but every now and then was nice... if only the lines weren't always this long. The person in front of her looked oddly familiar, but she couldn't recognise someone only by the back of their head. When her drink was finally done, she lifted it to her lips, but it smelled off, not like her usual order. She smelled it again, just to make sure and it was definitely wrong.

The girl started walking through the café, looking at everyone present, to see if she could recognise the person from earlier. She thought she'd gotten the right person, so she walked around them, hoping it really was the person from earlier.

“Excuse me,” she said and bowed, “I think we confused our orders,” she continued and held up her mug. He looked still familiar and it took her a surprisingly long moment to realise that he was a fellow trc trainee and her neutral expression turned into a politer smile.

♆ I... MISSED YOU ♆

ft. @rkxjongsuk

If there were anyone in the world that Sungmin could choose to be his first, well, everything, he would still choose Lee Jongsuk. No matter how much time passed, whenever he was with the older male, he was a teenager again who had fallen in love for the first time. While their breakup had been mutual, part of him still missed Jongsuk.

Of course, working with him on their latest evaluation had only stirred up feelings he had thought he’d buried. It had been hard to work with Jongsuk and not show any emotion when all he had wanted to do was... what would he have done anyway? There wasn’t much that he could have done since they were never alone.

Until now.

Staring at Jongsuk brought him back to when he was a teenager. He had secretly followed Jongsuk from afar. The older male had somehow captivated him and before he knew it he was in love. Jongsuk had been his first boyfriend, his first kiss, his first time. He had even been his first break up.

❝ Hi.. H-Hyung, ❞ was all he could seem to manage to say. There were so many things he wanted to say but he just couldn’t. He tried to smile as he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. He had always been an awkward mess around Jongsuk, even now. 

❛ back on the grind

@rkxjongsuk

once again, jordan had managed to find himself in taeyang’s group and once again it was a pretty choreography heavy song. not that he was finding himself struggling so much with his dancing compared to how he did a couple of months ago after weeks of hard work on his dace. now while he felt it was at a pretty acceptable level, he still found himself struggling just a little with this evaluation. but luckily for him he was surrounded by familiar faces, with the exception of one of the nova girls he had never met before. 

he found it a rather good thing he knew the song off by heart lyrics wise, however, so when learning the dance he found it easy to keep it in his head as he hummed the lyrics under his breath. not that it wasn’t hard to learn, but it was easier than having to dance to a song you had never heard before in your life. though he still couldn’t do it without some help, laughing as he straightened up, pushing sweaty hair out of his face as he looked towards jongsuk, a grin on his lips. “ah, this much dancing is really making me regret ever signing that contract,” he said the words though it was mostly a joke. 

he would, somehow, manage. 

S-POP 1st Recording - Idol Cafe w/ @rkxjongsuk

Prep Solo

jongsuk was nice.

there was that at least. not only was he nice, he won her over. ( because she couldn't say no to a chocolate bar. a part of her wondered if taeyeon mentioned her love of sweets to him. ) though it helped her a lot. he had the same energy as taeyeon and he probably liked a gig like this. ( and if she had to chose herself, it would've been the dance how too. dancing was comfortable. ) so, she had to remind herself to do her best.

because she was still shocked that she gotten chosen and now they were at the recording, she was even more shocked that it was real. it felt that way even as they told her where she would be and gave more of a run down on the show. and for the most of it, jihyo was silent, simply nodding her head along.

soon enough, they'd be able to meet the idols.

then it was off to hair and jihyo wondered how they would chose to style her. in the end, it wasn't anything too far off from her normal look. her hair was the same, just touched up a little and there was very light make up. there wasn't much of an obvious change. she had a nice chat with jongsuk before she had been whisked away to get ready and hopefully, he was a little more easy going with the idols than her.

it wasn't the fact that were idols by themselves but the fact that she had to be super respectful or it could blow up in her face. that was the point that made her stress a little. she couldn't even enjoy being friendly without giving some serious thoughts about how it would come off on camera, to the people watching. but it was a challenge she felt ( sort of. ) ready to take on and soon she was back at jongsuk's side, ready to really get the ball rolling.

watanabe haruto’s march ‘20 eval best concept: vixx shangri-la w/ @rkdongmin & @chrxsrk worst concept: b1a4 beautiful target w/ @jkookrk, @rksungmin​ & @rkxjongsuk​

the sooner this month was over and done with, the better. 

having to worry about just one performance was usually enough to stress him out completely, but having to think about two in one month? it was surprising that he didn’t just have a complete mental breakdown the moment he heard the news, somehow managing to hold himself together for long enough to actually worry about what he was going to do. the dream concept was easy enough, just something he pulled up from his memory from dancing a bit of it back during the mags. 

it was the worst concept which was the problem and in the end, jeongguk ended up dragging him into his group with some other trainees to do a cute concept. at least it was something he could agree with - cute was really not something he was very good at. while a lot of people seemed to think he was a cute person, haruto really didn’t like that notion. he also never acted cute, so at least the group and song choice would actually work out being a concept he really didn’t want to be performing. 

the whole month was spent completely focusing on his two groups and trying to get everything to an acceptable level to perform. so, when performance day finally rolled around, haruto was at least confident enough that he wouldn’t end up putting a foot wrong. though he could never completely get rid of his nerves, the wriggling feeling of eels in his stomach as he thought about every little thing that could possibly go wrong. not to mention how he had been roped into being a rapper again for his worst concept. 

it seemed he was ending up more and more in groups that needed a rapper and he was the only one to fill that spot. not that he supposed he was really complaining about it, but he could almost see himself completely becoming a rapper more than a vocalist. ideally, he would still want to do both, but there were far fewer rappers out there then there were vocalists and groups were always going to need a rapper. at least he wasn’t going to have to do it by himself and he had sungmin to be a second rapper. because having to do all the rapping by himself would just be a little more than overwhelming. 

the best concept was up first to perform and haruto was as relaxed as he could be about the whole thing. he trusted dongmin and chris to do a good job as well and it was rather comforting to be performing in a group instead of solo. that meant everyone wouldn’t just be staring right at him the whole time, which did sort of help with the niggling stage fright and nerves eating away at him from the inside out. they had practiced hard for this performance, going over it over and over again and practicing the steps and the positioning until they were all aching and sweaty. 

all in all, he did have to say it went pretty well, every step was careful, making sure that he didn’t accidentally trip over or slap someone in the face with his fan. and while his vocals could have probably been a little better and no doubt he was going to get critiqued on it later, the only thing he really cared about was the fact he had managed to say all the right words in the right order. and now he could worry about the second performance. 

at least there were more people for him to hide behind this time. in his opinion, the more people in the performance with him the better off he was going to be about the whole thing. and while the song and the concept were all still completely horrible to even think about performing, he knew they had practiced this and at least they were all in the same boat. not one of them actually liked this concept and they were all struggling through it together.  and haruto liked to think that bond they shared helped things run a little smoother. 

they were no major slip-ups on his part and he was sure the others had given it their very all as well. no doubt the coaches carefully watching them would have something to complain about (they always did), haruto still felt pretty happy about what he had just done. at least now he knew he could actually manage to learn and perform two different songs with wildly different concepts in only a month. 

bye bye baby  ( ♥ )

@rkxjongsuk

The news about her moving out to group dorm made her heart sank the most since this means it would be time to leave Jongsuk & Jaehwan goodbye who was like her little brothers and always took care of them since she would never be able to leave in a fancy apartment without their help. On 2nd April once she got home she summoned a family meeting in the living room to announce she’ll be moving out of the apartment, Taeyeon couldn’t tell them too much only that it was Sphere request for her to move into a dorm and ask them nicely not to ask too many questions. Hopefully, the boys would understand the reasons for her secretive behaviour as she wasn’t allowed to reveal any details about this project. The girl put a big smile for them then squishing them both in a big hug before heading into her room to start packing her belongings in labelled boxes organizing them so she wouldn’t leave anything behind, as she started to pack her belongings tears started running down her face as it dawn on her that would be alone in a big empty dorm for an entire month. Taeyeon never lived on her own before so this terrified more than anything, she will miss Jongsuk so much since he was always her roommate from the beginning when she first left her family home and he became her new family. 

Everything felt so bittersweet, she knew this would happen but she thought Jongsuk would debut first so she can wave him off like a proud mom going to school yet who would think it was going to be her. Taeyeon kept sobbing as packed her things away feeling her bedroom door open so it would be easier to move out the boxes once she was finished. How can everything be so scary yet exciting all at once? She knew being the first girl will be harder than most but at least she’ll be there to welcome and help the other girls who end up in Heartz since they’ll be her new family hopefully her friends make it into the final line-up. Is this really the world she lives in now?? This is too surreal and so emotional for Taeyeon to handle on her own, she wiped her face before shouting for Jongsuk, “Come help me pack please!” she pleaded to summon for her roommate help in this unusual situation yet not surprised at all. 

* super seniors ,

@rkxjongsuk

among all of the trainees in total, he and jongsuk are among the most senior, having been there for longer than most of the other trainees. despite this, he can count the number of evaluations they’ve done together on one hand---at least, of those he can remember. this doesn’t include, of course, company wide evaluations, but even if those were included, he still doesn’t think it would be that much. it’s a sad thought to think about, all things considered, but he’s glad that he’s getting the chance to do this one with him, especially since it gives them a chance to see how they’d be if they were to be put into once cohesive unit.

jongsuk is, by far, a better singer than chanyeol is, and he knows it isn’t saying much when he says that considering chanyeol isn’t all that great a singer, but jongsuk is light years ahead of him as far as he’s concerned. it’s all the more reason he can’t help but be amused by how competitive jongsuk is being about the whole thing, even if they’re just practiing. it makes him, who doesn’t have a competitive bone in his body, want to win, if only to see how much more enthusiastic jongsuk can get if they actually won. “you must be excited to take a two-day trip to busan with the lot of us, ey?” he asks during a break, uncapping a bottle to take a generous swig of water. he grins cheekily. “how long’ve you fantasized about such a thing?”

⟨ ━━ - ̗̀  thoughts ⟩

a starter for @rkxjongsuk

how long had she been in trc now? for a little over two months and she still found herself finding people that she didn't know-- there were so many trc trainees. in the past two months, she hadn't really gotten around to get to know the others. not because she didn't want to but because life had thrown the female a curveball and she honestly, hadn't caught it completely yet.

while in her own thoughts she hit something... more like someone, she threw a look up and her eyes widened as her eyes landed on a familiar face-- but not one she had gotten to know just yet.

her mind ran 100 miles an hour, trying to remember if she had greeted the older male before and if she knew his name.

"i'm sorry, i didn't see where i was going."

she uttered and quickly bowed her head in apology at the male.

&&* (low) iq

@rkxjongsuk

this is part of the idol life, right? seungjoon couldn’t calculate the percentage of yes, this is very idol, and no, this isn’t idol at all, of his current situation. before, during, and after getting signed, the man had never quite considered this aspect of the idol life. many didn’t stick to taking part in shows simply as guests, but also got the chance to host some—or music shows, too. maybe he’d get to do that. it doesn’t sound too far from his own personality.

“oh, who is it? is there anyone coming in?” they were given scripts, but not quite much instruction on how these things work. his eyes look over to the side where jongsuk is standing—his partner for the scene. seungjoon still acts surprised. “wait a minute! you have to enlighten the mood as you come in!” and so he throws the prompt over to the other man. he wouldn’t mind playing either part now that he stops to think about it. enlighten the mood is already something that he (supposedly) does.

TRIPLE CROWN ENTERTAINMENT, or TRC for short, was founded by the former composer and rap artist, TIGER JK. originally created on nothing, Tiger JK's ambition to have his trainees carry on his legacy became an avant garde sensation in the States, Japan and Korea. Currently, TRC Entertainment remains the hardest company to enter. The training period for TRC Ent. is brutal and only a few trainees ever get to see the limelight of the stage. Only the most talented artists can survive TRC's rigorous training and see the shining end to their efforts.

CURRENT MALE TRAINEES: @rkpcy, @rkxtae, @rkseungjoon, @changminxrk, @rkxsicheng, @rkxjongsuk, @rkhyunjoon, @rkwoong, @rkyoungjae, @rkdongmin, @yutark

‧ ₊ ˚ ♡ CATCHING A BREAK.

     for all the work she’d made herself put in when it comes to her dancing, the improvements she’s made and the strength she’s managed to build in terms of stamina, heejin still can’t help the way she seems to wheeze anytime she tries pushing herself farther than what she’s truly ready for. performances that relied on the body were a vice more than anything, but she tries— damn does she try. but, no matter her persistence, there are still times she needs to break away and catch herself.

     so, as she and the other girls call for a break in practicing for evaluation at the end of the month, heejin finds herself wandering out of the room for some cool, fresher air than the warmth the practice room has accumulated. that’s when she takes notice of him, going about his own business, and she decides to approach. “jongsuk oppa—” the word still felt strange on her tongue, honorifics something she tended not to use for a simple lack of connection, but he was her senior and he was pretty cool. “taking a break out here yourself?”

                                                         ———— for you, @rkxjongsuk​ ♡