#* workshop 24q4

[beyeseul]

faraway stage ♬⋆.˚ starter for @bexstevie

yeseul pulls on the strings on her hoodie, fidgeting with them. it’s been difficult to adapt to the training routine, and now she’s here at some… workshop, for the stage. it’s nauseating, for someone who’s always preferred to hide her face away. was accepting the contract a bad move after all? she’s not going to make it at this rate! if she had a mask on, maybe she would have been a bit more confident… but yeseul wanted to try taking baby steps, come out of her shell and try out something completely new to her.

she knows she’s somewhat expressive with her hands, and that her emotions shows on her face a lot. but that simply isn’t enough to capture the audience’s attention. the other trainees in the workshop seems to have a good idea of what’s going on, and that gets to her. “… no good,” yeseul mumbles softly to herself as she watches the demonstrations, feeling defeated and then sighing. she glances at her ipad every now and then, her mind getting distracted from the contents of the workshop.

[lucielxbe]

leading ♰⸝⸝ starter for @besiwoo

of course, workshops again on top of project green, halloween stuff, and his university studies. briefly, luciel considers taking another break from the semester. he didn’t think he would feel this exhausted, it’s a first for him in a long time. so at some point during the training, he spaces out. it’s rare for him to space out for a while during training. fortunately he wasn’t caught for it, it’ll be humiliating otherwise. so he nudges siwoo, whispering softly, “i missed out on what they were talking about earlier, refresh me for a bit there? was it anything important?”

apart from university projects, luciel hasn’t quite displayed any form of leadership skills. he usually prefers to be on the sidelines, supporting the leader in the shadows. that’s what he does best. though, it’s still useful to curate and develop skills in the long run, so he gave this workshop a try. “project green made you realise you like this kind of thing?” he asks the boy, noticing this fact ever since their second mission. “that’s nice, you found something.” it’s a genuine comment coming from luciel.

[beyiran]

action! 𓏲 ๋࣭ ࣪ ˖ starter for @sarangbe

yiran still has many conflicting emotions being in sr media, and especially, an acting workshop. it’s bringing him back memories of his younger times when he was a child actor, it certainly isn’t the best feeling out there. it took him a lot of courage to step through the doors, only to find out that everyone is just doing their own thing. what was he expecting, really? that someone may recognise him? hopefully not!

this time though, he came here willingly, instead of getting dragged to acting lessons. it’s a strange feeling. at the back of his head, he wonders if his mother is happy about it, that her son has once again stepped into the world of acting with his own feet. he doesn’t knows how far he’ll pursue acting, so for now, he’s only honing the skill, maybe it’ll come in handy one day.

“this scene … is from a romance drama, right?” yiran squints his eyes. romance. a genre that’s absolutely not for him, but if he has to do it, then he will ensure that it comes out perfect. “we have to act this out together? are you comfortable with that?” he confirms with sarang, first. the latter would probably agree, but a confirmation doesn’t hurts.

the most ‘romantic’ yiran has ever gotten was plainly, fanservice in cosplay. if he thinks about it in this way, isn’t this going to be… professional fanservice? or is he crazy to think that way? “this is… BL…” yiran mumbles, extremely softly with his eyes still squinting. he knows what is BL, but sometimes, he pretends he doesn't. thinking about it, this would be sarang’s first time watching him act after those few years of friendship. “… alright, i can do this.”

[lucielxbe]

scene ♰⸝⸝ starter @bejiayi

another acting workshop, something luciel isn’t unfamiliar with. they mentioned that it’s a more acting intensive workshop than the camp held a few months ago, which caught his interest. he laments a little that he has lesser time to spend on his usual training routine, but honing another skill would be useful, especially on stage.

he gets paired up with a girl that he hasn’t spoken to before, though he remembers seeing her around once or twice. there’s always that initial awkwardness, to be abruptly lumped together with someone you don’t know for groupwork of the sorts. though luciel is used to this kind of thing, since it always happens in university.

“i’m luciel, do you have any acting experience?” he holds out his hand for a handshake with a small smile, to break the ice.

[beyeseul]

it feels like déjà vu, being approached like this by a friendly stranger when she’s looking somewhat… distressed? yeseul tries to count how many times this has happened to her, it’s likely more than one hand, she thinks in her head. the girl ends up blinking at the other boy, almost forgetting to say something. “ah—!” she quickly bows her head in a hurry, it could be rude if she continued staring at him like that. “i-i’m okay!! um…” yeseul stammers, making glances at her ipad again. the habit of translating her thoughts in paper (or in this case, digital) strikes her, but she’s been trying to… improve her stuttering, so less of her usual style of communication.

yeseul breathes in. “hard… it’s hard…” she tries to slowly pronounce her words. “ex.. expressing, charisma… all that, it’s hard…?” the girl continues as she squints her eyes. “i don’t know.. if i’ll be doing it right.” okay, that’s a good start?! she turns to look at his face and— oh, why does he looks familiar for some reason? she could have sworn she saw him on nextgen season two? unconsciously, yeseul widens her eyes at him in confusion to ponder about the thought. when she’s not doing it on purpose, her facial expressions usually, tells the other person everything about what she’s thinking.

the coaches saying stuff to him like there's always room for improvement has led him to this point, taking another workshop on something that stevie doesn't fully understand. how can you teach...star power, charisma, whatever its called?

stevie scratches his head. maybe he's been blessed with his extrovertedness, his eagerness to befriend always making people grow fond of him (usually). it feels obvious enough to him in that regard. just be yourself! have fun, but remember you're performing! make the crowd like you! how do you teach people that?

he gives a small sigh of his own, but another person's sigh drags his attention over to them. it's yeseul, and stevie doesn't know her too well, but even he can notice when someone looks pretty...down in the dumps.

"hey, you okay?" stevie asks before he can think about it, leaning forward a bit to peer at her better. he glances forward, blinking at the demonstration, then back to her.

[lucielxbe]

luciel takes a moment to look at the expressions on siwoo’s face and—holds back a laugh. his lips are already curled up, but they’re pressed to avoid a chuckle from coming out. he doesn’t knows why he feels the need to do so, maybe it’s the honesty that finds adorable. it wakes him up a little as he takes those notes. “i’m not being biased, but i also liked it when you were a leader. it suits you,” he comments as he looks through those notes. it’s not entirely unfamiliar to him, it’s something he has come across before when he took business management in university some time ago. “say we end up debuting together, i’d feel rest assured if you officially took up that position,” he adds on.

then he hums softly, “there’s no need to thank me. you can always ask if you wish to participate in something together.” it’s a little strange sounding like… an older sibling, as someone who’s supposed to be the younger sibling. then again, luciel doesn’t exactly knows how’s it like to be doted on like one. “self-management is important too, that’s right. no matter how well you can manage people, at the end of the day there’s always a limit for that,” he flips through the notes once again. “but some people are meant to follow the lead, and that’s not a bad thing. they can lose their sense of direction, and it’s not their fault. they just need another pair of eyes, someone to guide them back on the right path.”

siwoo's life feels as though it's going at lte speed. it really, truly feels like he hasn't been given a break these last few months – which is kind of crazy. next gen had been something he'd gone on on a whim and out of spite. and if someone had told siwoo months ago, that he'd one day care his future in music, and perhaps even... enjoy having the role of leadership outside school projects – well.

he leans back into his chair, and furrows his brows. being a leader, albeit only for one month, had been nothing short of well... tiring. and yet he'd enjoyed it. if anything, it seemed to be something that luciel had caught on too as well. "uhm," he begins, a little awkwardly. vulnerability isn't exactly something siwoo's great in. "honestly, yeah. it was nice, having that sort of responsibility," he confesses.

"thanks for joining me by the way, hyung." he doesn't forget to thank luciel and slides over his notes to the older boy. "something about people management, and how leaders are good at that. but people should manage themselves," he mumbles the last part a little quietly.

[beyiran]

sarang is a nice friend. he’s weird sometimes, like how he tries to tease him or get close to him, but he isn’t a bad person at the end of the day. yiran is simply glad that he has a friend in this workshop now. putting aside his conflicting feelings for acting, the most important thing for him to do now is, to act.

yiran glances at the other boy, raising an eyebrow. “and i hope it’s not BL, sarang…” he tells him sharply. it isn’t that he’s looking down on the genre, it’s just… in this industry, if they’re cast in a BL series… doesn’t that means they aren’t getting enough jobs?! that’ll be a very bad scenario. of course, he thinks sarang would ace it— but what kind of a friend wouldn’t wish the for the other to have successful future? “i prefer to be known for performances, though. not dramas…” he mumbles on. honestly, some part of him wished he was in some sort of choreography workshop. and yet it seems that all roads leads back to acting.

might as well do an excellent job at it, since he’s here. moping about it would be a waste of time.

“i’ll be counting on you, sarang,” yiran nods his head as he very intently studies the mise-en-scène of the what they’re supposed to act out. “i’m… happy, that you’re my partner,” he adds on, softly. it’s much easier to act with a friend than a stranger, after all. sarang is oozing with confidence, something yiran doesn’t thinks he has. he’s a bit envious about that.

in this scene, jaeyoung is one of those typical, confident and attractive man trying to chase for the other person — who is sangwoo, drunk and hesitant, someone who tries to run away from the other man.

realistically, it’s easier for yiran to pick up the role of sangwoo, while sarang takes on jaeyoung. but would that be too obvious? he thinks hard about it. like what sarang mentioned, size doesn’t matters that much. “if we go with the size, i don’t mind it too,” yiran says after a while of considering, “it’ll be good experience to portray another version of ourselves.” he’s sure that the latter would understand what he means, to act out roles that isn’t like their original personalities. “if… you’re fine with that, of course.”

despite generally feeling rather grim at axis labels, sarang lightens up whenever the workshops being offered to him are ones that are more geared toward his personal strengths. honestly speaking, he doesn't think that his company puts nearly as much effort into assisting the trainees with branding themselves, or letting them explore areas of celebrity culture that aren't solely music-based. sr media is known for high concept performances and strong visuals, but for some reason, he finds that most of the instruction revolves around musical talents.

sure, that's important as an idol, too, but frankly, at least in sarang's opinion, it's almost the least important part. now, he isn't trying to demean or degrade the musically-gifted artists who get cast for their honed skill-sets, but realistically speaking, fans seldom care about whether their favorite idol is a proficient singer or trained dancer. no, most of the time, what wins them over is visual presentation; charm.

that's where he, and a handful of others, come in. they help not only attract potential 'stans' with charisma, but they help with outreach. they appear in magazines, cfs, runways, dramas... it's more than just giving their all on-stage, they're marketers. they bring the audience, then the audience appreciates the music; the talents of the rest. it's an integral role that, truthfully, sarang feels deserves more respect.

so, when another acting workshop rolled along, he knew he needed to take part. if he's not going to be the member belting high notes or killing dance-breaks, he's going to be the marketer, and what better way to market than making fans' hearts flutter in a television series?

"mmhm, it is..." sarang replies, endeared by yiran's evolving reaction to the scene they'll be performing. "of course i'm comfortable. look at me, yiran—if i ever get cast in a drama after we début, it'll definitely be something BL." a playful laugh escapes him, and he crosses one leg over the other. "looking at you, too, i could also see you in BL, but i don't know. you're so tall, and so handsome, casting directors would likely think you'd look great standing beside a beautiful leading lady."

there's a part of him that's envious that yiran has a broader range in that way, but at the same time, it's not that important to him. he's content with who he is, as is. "you can do this, and it'll be especially easy because i'm your partner..." it's a teasing remark, but he stands behind it. he knows he's adorable.

"based on the character descriptions, i'm not sure who should play who... if i'm remembering right, i think jaeyoung is the taller of them, and sangwoo is smaller. i don't think that matters here, though, we can really spin it however we wanted to. what do you think?"

[lucielxbe]

luciel widens his eyes slightly, showing an expression of surprise. jiayi. right, she was on nextgen too but never had the opportunity to interact with her on the show. “ahh, you were on nextgen too. i remember you now. it was pretty rough, right?” he chuckles softly. “being thrown into the acting camp right after the show ended… it was a lot. that’s the extent of my acting skills as well. although, i did joined a film class before. but it was mostly theories and basics.”

the last time he acted out something was in a group of three, and it was… an interesting memory, playing the role of some immortal unfamiliar with technology. he wonders what exactly they’ll be acting out this time with a partner. maybe they’ll experiment with various kinds of characters too rather than just a single role. “i wonder what kind of script we’ll get… i’ll try my best, jiayi-ssi.”

jiayi wonders to herself why she was drawn to this workshop out of all the others. something about 'learning how to improve your facial expressions,' must have really caught her eye. or maybe it was because her first delve into acting didn't go so great, being thrown into sr media's acting bootcamp on the tail end of next gen didn't give her enough time to really soak in the lessons.

she's all smiles with her new partner. it's someone she doesn't know, but that doesn't mean much to jiayi. she's always been an extrovert, willing to make connections and friends despite the language barrier.

"i'm jiayi, it's nice to meet you," she says, tone chipper as she shakes his hand. "and nope! well, not really," the dancer laughs. "were you here when they had the acting bootcamp? that's pretty much it when it comes to my skills. always ready and willing to learn, though," she nods her head.

"what about you?"