#rkjune19eval

rkxtae‌: 

with how much is said about trc being the most strict company and how hard it is to get into, taehyung never expected to play games for an evaluation. maybe he should’ve, with how much he idolizes tiger jk and his casual attitude for many things. and honestly, taehyung appreciates it. he needs some lighthearted fun after the last month he’s had to endure.

maybe he’s a little too loud as he bounds down the hallways, giggling and shoes slapping on the hard floors. he’s pulled a grand total of zero name tags, and has done mostly a lot of running away ( just because he’s fast ) and trying to psyche out other trainees. he wants to win, he really does, but he can’t stop giggling long enough to pull a name tag.

and right now is no different really. he’s grinning ear to ear as he peeks out from behind a corner, left hand tucked behind his own back so he could hold his own name tag to protect it. there are shouts and other clamoring in the distance, but taehyung doesn’t see anyone. he looks back behind him to make sure he’s only, before spotting jei way too close. the boy yelps and jumps in shock, turning on his heels to face her and spluttering.

“h-how did you sneak up on me like that? you weren’t going to take my name tag were you, noona?” he feigns a pout, but his smile is quick to return, the boy bouncing on his feet to act like he’s light and fast.

she’s not really sure why taehyung is trying to be so damn loud in a game that obviously requires stealth and skill.  either that, or a good group of teammates but jei knows better than to trust anyone.  a game like this leads to the inevitable pitting of one against the other, and she’d rather not take the time to feel guilty if it ends up being her against a squad member.

taehyung obviously doesn’t seem to care about anything, though.  laughing like an idiot, shoes slapping on the floors, it’s like he’s lapsed back into being a child rather than taking this seriously.  it takes her a minute to realize that maybe she’s the weird one for taking a game seriously.  then again, this is an evaluation and that makes it part of work.  no matter how excitable the other trainees get about it, they’re still going to be graded on their skill level.

that makes her way of thinking right in her eyes.  but that doesn’t mean that she’s right in the slightest.

her lips purse when taehyung catches her sneaking up on him and she backs away quickly so that he can’t reach out to grab her own tag, clicking her tongue.  “ because you’re running around like an idiot and can’t hear anything going on around you.” she says blandly, shaking her hair out of her eyes.  “ or maybe i’m just good at stealth games.  you’ll probably never know.”

changminxrk‌: 

his eyes are positively glowing when jei agrees to his request, and it’s clear that changmin is even more excited now that his proposition has been accepted. he’s always looked up to jei as a role-model like figure, with her impressive dance skills and powerful charisma. keeping her in mind as a sort of benchmark for what was considered idol material along with yuta, he had continued working hard to improve as best as he could. if she considered what he had to show good, then it was for sure good.

“hm… i don’t think that’s true, though?” tilting his head, he quickly supports his comment, realizing that it could come off as a blind assumption, saying, “people who aren’t outwardly as goofy or funny aren’t always bad at variety! not that i’m suggesting that you’re unfunny, noona, but i think that you could do really well if you put your mind to it! you’re good at a lot of things, after all.”

beaming at his own answer, he nods, backing up a little bit to make some space between them. with a sharp exhale, he makes a show of stretching his arms and joints briefly with a determined expression, shouting a little ‘fighting’ to shake off whatever nerves had crept up on him while talking to jei about his special ability.

“it’s like… this!” bending over backwards, he lands in a bridge position, staying there for a few seconds before lifting himself over in a graceful moment, completing the motion and turning it into a backwards walkover. brushing the dust off his hands, he turns to look at jei. “what do you think?”

sometimes, she wonders what she’s done to deserve changmin’s obvious admiration.  though it’s true that there are those who look to her as a leader type figure, but sometimes it’s hard to believe that someone she barely knew admired her so much right off the bat upon first meeting.  since then, changmin’s only grown more attached, more interested in trying to grow closer.  jei is still wary of her situation, but she can’t let him down.  she doesn’t want to let him down.

that’s why whenever she sees that look in his eye, she automatically lets down her guard.  jei can’t do anything but give in to whatever it is that he wants.  (  maybe, in this way, she just wants to protect changmin from herself.  after all, jei knows just how cruel she can be.  )

“ didn’t you watch the mgas last year?” she scoffs quietly, rolling her eyes.  " every time i turned around, someone else was saying that they were wishing i was gone just because i wasn’t funny enough.  like that should have even mattered ….“  not everyone is good at everything.  but this is still something that haunts jei to this day, still bothers her when she thinks about it.  ” we’ll see, though.  won’t the coaches be the judge of whether or not i’m good at this?“

she doesn’t say much more than that, but simply sits back to watch his show of talent.  sometimes, she wonders just how simple things have to be in variety  -  the talents that taehyung, and now changmin have showed her have all seemed easy enough in her eyes.  not that it’s a bad thing, because sometimes even the most simple maneuvers in one’s eyes are still hard in someone else’s.  still, maybe she’s not sure she’s understanding variety well enough.

it’s probably just a side effect of not ever being interested enough to watch it.

” your form is good.“ she praises quietly, nodding her head with her comment.  ” is variety always like this, though? doing small little tricks to get people to like you?“

rkxtae‌: 

it’s been four months since taehyung was offered his contract to trc. it’s been a month and a half since he got into trouble and had to take workshops and a stern lecture to correct him. that and the details surrounding his contract offer have made for a hard time for taehyung, but he wants to do better. he wants so desperately to prove himself, putting his all into his evaluations from then on. 

but alas, he’s still a kid at heart.

“oh, noona! i have a really good one i think,” taehyung grins, eyes shining. he likes being able to interact with jei without thinking too much about the past, and finds himself in good company when he’s with her and able to ignore everything else. “one of them will be dancing in heels, but…”

taehyung slips off his jacket on one side, leaving his right arm bare besides the tshirt that came just to his bicep. “see these two moles?” the boy asks, pointing to them on his arm. “i can make an elephant with them! isn’t that cute?” he’s laughing a bit as he pinches the skin between the moles, creating a ‘trunk’ so that the moles looked like eyes. “right?”

it’s interesting to see the way that taehyung brightens up in comparison to the way he was when she first met him.  it wasn’t hard to spot him when she first signed to trc, and it definitely wasn’t hard to recognize him.  everything she’s suffered has been so far engrained into her memory that it was easy to find him in the crowd, even if he didn’t have blue hair at the time.  back then, he was a hesitant and quiet boy who couldn’t remember her name.

today, he calls her noona with a smile.  it’s almost amazing what a little time can do.  she wishes that she could recover in a few months, that she could change this much in a few months.  but this isn’t something that matters at the moment.  it’s not something that jei needs to focus on.

what matters right now is the evaluation, and how excited taehyung is to show her his little talent.  even if it does make jei stare at him blankly, unable to process what she’s just seen.  " did you just … pinch your skin? to make the elephant?“ the words that hang in the air are truly that’s it?? but she doesn’t say them aloud.  inwardly, she’s thinking to herself: is this really what variety is about? even the tiniest things can be seen as a talent?

if this was always the case, maybe variety wouldn’t be so hard for her to suffer through after all.  ” it’s cute.  i just wasn’t expecting something like that, i guess -“

rkwoong‌: 

this month’s evaluation is a nightmare.

ithas to be. but as days go by and he doesn’t wake up, woong is forced to accept that variety month is a reality. he knows how to make his friends laugh and his sisters think he’s hilarious, but neither of them count in his eyes. entertaining an audience of strangers – that is the tricky part. but as much as he dislikes the idea, he supposes this, too, is part of being an idol.

( does he even want to be an idol? he still isn’t sure. )

woong isn’t expecting any company, especially not that of the one person in trc who makes him the most nervous. his eyes widen in surprise when she sits with him and starts a conversation. he blinks, once, then twice. it’s not like he wants to be afraid of her. and it’s not her fault, either. he’s easily intimidated by everyone he meets, though their first encounter hadn’t done much to help. but if he wants to stop being so nervous around her, he should at least try and talk to her.

it would be a step in the right direction, for sure.

“honestly? i’m not sure,” he admits, a nervous chuckle falling from his lips. “i don’t think i’m very funny or interesting. but i guess i’m flexible, so that’s better than nothing.” the corners of his mouth curl up into a small smile, fingers curling into the fabric of his pants. woong doesn’t know why he’s telling her that, why his heart spills his doubts to someone he barely knows. maybe he’s finally had enough. the dancer stays silent for a moment before asking, “what about you?”

this month’s evaluation isn’t something that she enjoys whatsoever.  she knows all too well what people think of her, knows for certain that variety isn’t something she’ll be good at since she’s not even the slightest bit funny.  perhaps jei shouldn’t keep dwelling on the past and everything that people said about her during the mgas, but now that she’s in trc, it’s too hard not to let the voices of the past haunt her.  because every time she turns around, there’s another memory and another reminder.

this was a venture to make her stop thinking, though.  a venture to stave off the lonely moments and the quiet times when her head swims with too much thought, and jei supposes that trc is doing that job well enough.  right now, all that she can think about is getting this month over with.  maybe next month will be something better, something different  -  

but there’s a part of her that doesn’t mind the challenge.  that part is one that jei keeps to herself.

she knows all too well that he’s scared of her.  it’s written in his eyes, and the subtle body language whenever he catches a glimpse.  jei can’t be sorry for it, though.  not when their first encounter actually got both him and dongmin through the doors of trc on their first day.  honestly, jei still isn’t so sure they would even be seen around the building if she hadn’t pushed them inside that day.  maybe that’s something they won’t ever really know.

either way, they’re both trying today.  they don’t really have a choice since they’re both grouped together.

“ i don’t think we have to be funny for this.  i’m pretty sure everyone in the world knows i’m not funny by now.” jei says flatly, tucking hair back behind her ear.  " it’s a circus, but we don’t have to act like clowns.“  she trails off, brow furrowing with a frown on her lips.  ” we can dance, though.  what if we pretended we were on a trapeze or something?“

changminxrk:

@rkjei

with the live singing evaluation officially under his belt, changmin finds himself a lot more excited about the upcoming topic for this month – variety and special skills. this was the kind of thing he specialized in, after all – other than dancing, he had a long list of rather useless but fascinating party tricks up his sleeve.

before going straight into the plate balancing and animal impressions, however, changmin decides to try out something a bit more practical at first so it didn’t look like he was just fooling around to the coaches. fortunately for him, he runs into jei in one of the practice studios after writing down a list of things he could show off, flexibility being one of them.

although he’s been taking good care of his splits every day when he stretched, changmin’s unsure of the wow factor it had, considering that a lot of the other dancer-based trainees – like jei – were quite flexible, too. with this in mind, he greets her in the same cheerful manner he usually had, this time posing the question that had been burning in the back of his mind for quite some time now. 

“oh, noona! hope i’m not interrupting, but – would you like to see a skill of mine? i haven’t done it in a while, but can you tell me what you think? i heard that you’re really good at this kind of thing!”

this month’s evaluation is hardly one that excites her by any means.  jei knows all too well what people have thought about her in the past: the constant berating about her lack of amusement or the fact that she isn’t too funny constantly haunts her after the mgas and to this day.  it’s not something that she talks about, nor something that she wants to talk about either.  but the people who are close to her probably know that this evaluation in particular will be hard for her.

there’s no one that she’s really close to in trc.  not anymore.  trc took that person away.

changmin is a boy that always tries to get closer, though.  and with each passing day, jei finds him just as sweet as the first day she met him.  maybe one day, he’ll be close enough to understand that this evaluation in and of itself is something that makes her uncomfortable, but that day isn’t today.  today, he comes in with his smiles and his eagerness and jei isn’t able to tell him to leave her alone because she’s not funny.

she wants to lift him up just as much as he wants to do well.  there’s surprise in her eyes though, when he says that she’s good at some kind of skill that he wants to show  -  it leads to a raise of her brow, lips pursing before she nods.  " not sure what you could mean.  this kind of evaluation is definitely not my thing.“ she shrugs her shoulders, pushing back her hair from her eyes.  ” but go ahead.  i’ll watch you, whatever it is.“

honestly? running around and playing games was not on jei’s list of things to do today, but schedules at trc can be surprising.  running man had never really interested her, and it was hardly on her top things to watch whenever she had the chance to watch television.  but considering the topic of evaluations of the month, perhaps it was inevitable that one of the most popular variety shows would end up a hot topic of one of their focused weeks.  she should have known better than to think otherwise.

the thing about jei is though, that once she starts something  (  or in this case, when she’s forced into it  )  she does her best at it.  perhaps it’s her stubborn nature, or maybe jei is just really competitive at heart and likes to win after a life of losing things she didn’t want to.  so she’s already managed to grab two name tags by sneaking around on quiet feet.  her eyes catch taehyung, already bouncing around like the oddly excitable pup he is and she shakes her head.  this would be too easy.

that means she should go for it, doesn’t it?

˟ ▀  &.@rkxtae

even though their first interaction was admittedly a little awkward, slowly things have been getting better with time.  jei can’t do anything but blame their situation after all  -  the mgas were horrible for them both.  of course they’d be awkward remembering everything whenever they looked at each other.  

but as time went on and they managed to see each other more as time passed, that feeling slowly dissipated  -  for jei, at least.  she’d like to think it’s starting to pass for taehyung too, because it’s already tiring enough being in trc without having to remember all the things that happened to them both in a situation they had no control over.  she makes attempts to talk every so often and it’s becoming easier and easier.  this is one of those times.

“ so … you wanna tell me what your special skill is? for this variety thing.” jei waves a hand, then rests her chin in her palm as she looks at taehyung.  “ i’m sure you must have somethingby now.”

˟ ▀  &.@rkxtae

variety is hardly a skill that suits her.

jei knows all too well what people think of her: that she isn’t funny, that she brings people down, that she’s got ice in her veins.  none of these things are something that she inherently considers a problem, but after the mgas, not being funny has become a bit of a trauma for her.  as if being a leader wasn’t hard enough, on top of everything else, apparently she had to go above and beyond to make jokes, too.  people really know nothing about what it takes to stand up and really lead.

but this month’s evaluation is probably going to be her worst nightmare.  so much comedy is tied into variety; it’s almost expected that idols are meant to make people laugh nowadays.  there are other shows with roles that she thinks she’d perhaps be better suited to.  at the very least, the role she was given to act out for this evaluation itself was easy enough.

after all, circus performers are fairly flexible, are they not?  (  well.  at least some of them.  )

as much as she may not want to considering his obvious fear of her  -  which is funny in and of itself considering she saved his ass from getting kicked out of trc on the first day for not showing up  -  jei approaches woong and sits in front of him, tilting her head without much of an expression on her face.  " so? what are you showing off? you know … for the circus.“

˟ ▀  &.@rkwoong