#(please feel free to mention this dolt in any of your own solos)

[rkhyeon-blog]

contestant #5029 - lee hohyeon duo performance with @rkxsnh zico ft. crush + dean - bermuda triangle (1:31-3:30) + choreography (1:04-1:25) line distribution

hohyeon was really starting to get into a routine now the longer that this whole competition went on. though it was starting to feel as though it was just more of the same. once again the same person was named as the best and hyeon wasn’t even vaguely surprised about it. of course the guy was going to be the favourite and hohyeon wouldn’t even be surprised if he ended up winning the whole season. and of course that was incredibly unfair considering anything, but he still stood there and clapped along when it was announced. there was no reason to look like a bad sport in front of everyone. 

but of course he was still a little surprised that he was still in this competition and hadn’t been sent off. of course, he was confident that he had put on some good stages and he had impressed, it was still surprising to make it through another week when so many other talented people hadn’t made it through. and it was a little worrisome to think that he hadn’t been named in the top three yet, so if that lasted, how far in this competition could he actually make it? how long before he was one of the ones being set home? 

hohyeon simply didn’t want to be thinking about something like that, all he wanted to focus on now was the week ahead of him and what he was going to have to overcome this time. but when it was announced, hohyeon couldn’t help the small groan which came from his mouth. another duo assignment instead of something different and a little more interesting. 

when the name of the person he was performing with was announced, she was not someone he recognized personally and he was pretty sure they had never met before. but he remembered watching her stages and he could vaguely remember that she was a pretty good rapper. so yeah, he was pretty confident that they could make this work. at least this time he had been paired up with another rapper and not a vocalist. of course, all his apprehension about performing with a vocalist had changed after the performance with yuri, but he was slightly grateful that he could share the stage with another talented rapper. 

the teenager headed into the week with positivism, and that hadn’t really dwindled one bit as they practised together around their school schedules. he didn’t think that anything bad could really happen, he was glad to be working with hyejoo, and while it had taken some time and some back and forth, they had eventually decided on a pretty popular song they could do. and it was one that hohyeon was pretty familiar with already. how could he not be when it was a song performed by one of his favourite rappers in the whole industry? 

while he considered that it might be a good idea to challenge himself, he did eventually decided that doing something he was familiar with would be better. this was a competition and if he wanted to make it all the way to the final, then he wanted to show the best side of himself to the ceos. and while a challenge might make him feel more elated if he managed to pull it off, he really couldn’t afford to be making mistakes on the stage and end up getting sent home. not now that he had already made it this far in the competition and a contract was only a couple of episodes away - he could feel it. 

no, after all was said and done he was sure that he was going to thank himself for staying in his comfort zone and not pushing himself out there too much. not that he would say their song choice was an easy one, it was a pretty challenging song for two rappers to try and pull off, but the boy was nothing but confident. the two of them were talented and he was quite sure they could get through this one with very little issues. even with the small amount of original choreography he had managed to come up with. once again he had managed be paired up with someone who was not a dancer, and really, it was starting to get a bit annoying now. 

hohyeon was pretty desperate to prove to people that he was someone who could rap and dance, but he wasn’t really getting much opportunity to actually do that. when it was just him performing he could showcase now, but this was the second week with someone who very limited dancing skills and he was having to work around it. and he was managing, of course he was, but he wished he could do something a little more challenging and not something that someone who was not a great dancer could actually keep up with. 

this was a team game for the moment, he didn’t want to end up completely outshining his partner because he doubted that would go down well with anyone. he was just going to have to try and play nice and come up with something where they could both show off and be on the same footing. so at least he could manage to just put in a very little bit of dancing. (and no doubt he would find himself grooving slightly the side while oliva was rapping and he didn’t have anything else to be doing anyway). 

the closer they got to the performance day, the more hohyeon found all the bad thoughts in his head starting to pop up. what if they really messed up? what if he sang the wrong lyric? what if he forgot they had made it a clean version and actually said bitches out loud? he really couldn’t afford to be thinking these sorts of things, but he really couldn’t help it. so he started just throwing himself into the practice as much as possible, trying to think of nothing but the next week and the week after that. he was going to make it thought this without messing up. his dream was so close and he wasn’t about to let it go without a fight. this was the week that everyone was going to see he was worthy of being in the top three. worthy of winning. worthy of standing on that stage with everyone else. 

on the day of the recording, the teenager felt strangely... nervous. 

while it might be a normal reaction for someone to have when walking into a competition, it was not normal for him. every week he had been as cool as a cucumber, not worried in the slightest. and while he was still very confident that they were going to walk out there and smash this performance, he was still anxious about the results. more and more of them were going to be sent home and it was still a little unnerving to have to rely on someone you barely knew to help get you through. but yes, he trusted the slightly older girl standing next to him and he hoped that she trued him as well. they were not going to be sent home, not now. 

though he was nervous, he did find himself in an almost funny mood, a hand over his mouth as he walked towards his seat as he beatboxed, “ay, ay, we here. fanxy in the house.” he was grinning the whole time as he spun on one foot just before he got to his chair before lazily throwing himself into it. at least he could say he was having some fun with this instead of being all boring and serious. because what was the point of any of this if it wasn’t to have a little bit of fun? 

and with how their intro was going to go, you should know that they were there to have some fun and weren’t taking this 100% seriously. serious enough that they were not going to look like total idiots and actually put on a good stage, but enough so they were still allowed to have some fun. maybe get some ironic laughs or eye rolls. hohyeon almost couldn’t wait to see the reaction to the intro they were about to bust out. it had started off as mostly a joke, but now they were doing it and he did hope that hyejoo wasn’t just messing around with him and he ended up being the only one embarrassing himself. because he would never forgive the girl if she did manage to prank him like that on national television. 

when it was finally their turn to get on stage a perform, hohyeon too just a moment to sit in his seat, get his breathing under control before jumping up to his feet. there was a large grin on his face as the two of them made their way up to the stage, hohyeon swinging his arms the whole time before they finally came to a stop in the middle and faced the judges. 

now to embarrass themselves. 

“la da da dah, it’s the one and only h.y.e joo,” he started off by introducing the girl next to him, a stupid grin on his face the whole time. honestly he couldn’t quite believe that they were even doing this in the first place. rapping snoop dogg and dr. dre lyrics as an intro was honestly one of the weirdest things he had ever done in his life. but hey, he supposed it was funny and he guessed people would at least get the reference. and if they didn’t, he supposed that the intro still worked. and he was rather pleased that olivia did at least play the game and do the return lyrics with his own name and didn’t end up doing something a lot more normal and not completely barmy. though he was now finding it very hard not to start laughing at loud, somehow managing to hold back the giggling as he straightened, gripping the microphone just a little bit tighter to stop himself from just doubling over in uncontrollable laughter. 

after that, hohyeon was honestly finding it hard not to laugh, somehow managing to hold it back as he lifted his head again, awkwardly bowing to the ceos. “i’m lee hohyeon, the cool one, obviously,” he introduced himself properly this time, still trying not to snigger into the microphone as he stood up properly, “please make sure to listen to us well. we’re prepared something really cool for you.” and all he could really do was hope that it came out looking cool and not a complete and utter mess. but of course they would, they had practised this and lee hohyeon was sure he was incapable of looking like a fool for anything. 

as soon as the music for their selected song started, hohyeon easily slipped into ‘cool rapper’ mode and not ‘giggling teenager’ mode. because he could hardly put on a good and powerful rap performance if he was busy laughing the whole time. 

usually, hohyeon didn’t like just jumping in the middle of song and preferred to go from the beginning, but it had just worked out best this way. from where they started  to the end just worked out at under 2 minutes, which was all the time they had to try and showcase their skills. and it still sounded pretty good just going from over a minute into the song. so you didn’t find him complaining about it. just so long as they pulled off all the lyrics smoothly, but hohyeon had full confidence that they would and it sounded good from what he was hearing. but his opinion was invalid, she was his partner and of course he would say she did well. this was all down to what the ceo’s thought, so he did want to try and impress them as well.

he didn’t have to worry about rapping first, olivia got to be the first voice people heard, hohyeon taking a step to the side to let the girl have the main stage as she rapped with the beat. though the teenager did his best to hype her up from the side, bouncing slightly on his feet as he tried to get the crowd engaged with what they were doing, even bringing his own mic to his mouth to rap with some of the single words of the verse, mixing in well with the own voice of the slightly older female rapper. this was a duo performance, after all, and he wanted to show that they were a team and they were both in this together. it wasn’t just two solo artists who happened to be rapping the same song one after the other. 

as the girl went on, hohyeon even found himself moving along to the music, coming up with some of his own choreo on the spot and dancing along to it as he hyped the girl up during her portion. though it wasn’t any ‘full on’ well practised choreography, just a couple of steps to move to the beat instead of him just standing there awkwardly for four whole verses with nothing to do. and he was also making sure all the attention was still on his partner as she rapped, he didn’t want to distract anyone with some ‘club’ type dancing. 

but it was now getting towards his first line after olivia’s strong start. now it was down to him to continue it. so, hohyeon started to move towards the middle of the stage again, standing besides the girl as she finished off her last lyrics. and that’s when he started, bringing his mouth to the mic and easily moving into his own choreography for this single verse at the same time. and while it wasn’t a lot of movement, it was still effort to keep his voice steady into the mic as he moved the rest of his body in a well oiled and practised motion. he was a dancer and a rapper and now he was about to prove it as well, even if it was just twenty odd seconds of some self made choreography. 

누울 자릴 제대로 보고 누워야지 ya’ll fake haters tryna act like me 앉아서 멍만 때려도 내 소파 위에 (쏟아지는) mula mula we gon pour up murder murder 숨을 죽여 상쾌해 네 머리 위에 공기 nobody can’t come over here

at least he remembered to do the clean version, one of the fears he had about this whole performance easily passing. and he had even made it through the choreography cleanly as well. and he was confident that olivia had as well, though she was slightly behind him as they had danced and was acting more of a back-up dancer than a main dancer. but it was okay, she had been comfortable with that arrangement not being a dancer in the first place and she was happy to let hohyeon have a moment to shine. but he didn’t have time to think about that, only having a small moment to collect his breath before barrelling into his own prolonged part. 

don’t test us 증명은 안중에도 없어 not interested 에이에이 get your casket 넌 참 재수 없는 삼각관계에 얽혔어

he tried to rap through his body as well as his mouth, moving around the stage with vigour as he gestured with his hand. keeping his voice steady and strong in the mic as he locked eyes with where the ceo’s were sitting. he wasn’t even worried as he headed towards a slightly faster part of the song. he had requested he do this part, fast rapping his preferred method and it was an opportunity to show off his skills as well. now he just had to kill it like he knew he could. 

there’s no exit 사실 이 바다는 너의 샘이 넘쳐 만들어진 셈 재밌어 보인다고 뛰어들다 dead 세 개의 큰 획 그어 직직직 삐뚤어진 의식 잠재워 네 머리 위에 띄워 zzz

so far so good and he only have one more verse to worry about on his own before olivia came back in.  the only thing the boy was thinking about was putting on a strong performance that he could be proud of later. channelling his inner zico as he rapped, not standing still even for a second as he rapped. the music was flowing through him and he didn’t think he ever could just get through one performance while standing still like a statue. he needed to move, needed to flap his hands around in gestures to accentuate the words coming from his mouth. he needed to do these things just as much as he needed to breathe. 

mula mula we gon pour up murder murder 숨을 죽여 넌 발 빼고 손 씻어 그럼 mission clear who’s more gorgeous new world order that’s we are

that was the last of his solo performance, throwing his head back with the last word as he stared up at the ceiling for just a moment, letting olivia take the first line of the shared verse they planned on. though he lowered his eyes again, steadily getting back into the last of it, moving a little closer to his partner for this round as they rapped together, both their voices echoing with the music.  

손목에 rolex 이젠 boring 길거릴 도배해 우리 노랜 놀이라 보기엔 이건 범죄 don’t let’em in let’em in get out my zone

but he was still moving as he looked towards olivia, smiling from the corner of his mouth through his rap at her for just a moment. they really had gone out there and done their best, and he didn’t really think they could have done anything else or changed anything. the whole week of long practices had paid off and that was all that really mattered in the long run. and while they could very possibly be sent home at the end of all this, and he would hate that, he could at least be satisfied with how they had done. 

we we we never know we we we never talk we we we criminal don’t let’em in let’em in get out my zone

he tried to finish off as strong as possible, putting his whole heart and soul into the last couple of lines. not that he hadn’t been doing that all performance, but he was desperate that this was not going to be his last performance. he was going to make it through this round and have to face whatever came next. they both would. he was confident with that, the smile which mirrored how he felt on his face as he stood right next to the girl, almost leaning on her as he smiled at the judges, ignoring the sweat making his hair stick to his forehead. just a sign of how hard the two of them had worked. 

only after taking a moment to control his breathing again did hohyeon bow, “thank you.” though he still sounded a little breathless after that performance he wasn’t going to let it show how worn out he actually was. just grinning before he turned towards olivia again, smiling just a little wider at the girl before easily throwing up a hand for a high-five. they had done well and now all they could really do was see if anyone else agreed with that.