#k.arma:febeval

[rkjxy]

─ are you ready?

@rksejeong

it didn’t feel real when she was told she’d be a part of the official lineup and it still doesn’t feel real now. despite the fact that they’re already complete and with a debut song at the tip of fingers, joy feels as though she’s still a million moons away. perhaps this is just what it feels like knowing that she’s dreamt of this moment for the longest time. to be slated for debut after waiting is like living in a constant state of euphoria.

although she knows her little bubble of happiness and dreamlike state is not meant to last without a few showers of reality. their first task as a group puts her a little on edge due in part to the ‘whole singing in front of a superior vocal coach from the company’. sure, no pressure. she would not feel too nervous if it’s their whole group singing together but because they had to do it alone, she’s somewhat overwhelmed. still, she believes firmly that it’s  something she can survive with all the necessary practice. it would help immensely if she were to approach the right people to guide her along the way.

“sejeong unnie,” she reaches for the other, closing a hand on her arm to get her attention. she smiles brightly when she faces her, enthusiasm evident despite her initial worries. “is it okay if i practice with you? i think i might need some help making sure i sound good enough singing our song.” our song, it feels wonderful rolling from her tongue. it’s surreal how this is their reality now.

[yyubrk]

move in / ky & ks & sm

y@rksejeong​ -> @rksxna

 [ order - yubin - sejeong - sana ] 

packing had come easier than expected, she knew she would have to do her best to pack light. so on her own, she elimated a few piles of clothing. now she had one fairly large one and with the help of doyeon and her mom, she finally narrowed it down. now she had arrived at their dorm and before she got settled in, she waited for sejeong and sana to show up. dorm rooms affairs had settled pretty quickly. still, she didn’t want to settle into the room without waiting for the other two. 

yubin also knew that she was a bit early for the move in. why not have a look around? it still didn’t feel too real, the fac that they were moving into dorms. this was really it. in a short while, depending on how long it took to get their debut ready, they’d really be k.arma. finally, she heard the sound of someone coming in and left the room she was in to find out who it was. 

[trcent]

// ( ♔ ) K.ARMA FEBRUARY DEVELOPMENT

Early in the morning, the seven girls of K.ARMA are approached by someone, although this time it isn’t the usual face of Yumi. One of the gym instructors tells them to head over to a particular room where they’ll meet Park Inyoung, one of the superior vocal instructors from TRC who was also part of the TRC/G Project council. The members are excused from training and head over to one of the singing studios in the building.

She greets them with a serious expression. Her face is fair and pretty, but her sharp eyes give her a bit of an intimidating aura. “Good morning. This is the first time we’ve officially met, but I’m certain you all know who I am, and you all know that I know who you are.” The woman has a stack of paper on top of her lap which she hands to the leader, Siyeon, without much of a scene. Her expressions do most of the explaining as she points at the other members with her chin, telling Siyeon to pass the sheets around. “I’ve received your debut song some time ago and, as I followed your progress with the Project, I tried making the most appropriate preparations to make this the best debut of the new era.”

The sheets of paper contain the title of the chosen song on the top along with which K.ARMA member it is supposed to go to, and then the lyrics written below it. Along with this, a lot of different annotations and color-coding can be seen for each different member. “I am only half of the work, however. I’d like to hear you all attempting different parts of the song so we can end up with the best final project.”

This month, K.ARMA members will be focused on practicing for their debut song, “News.” Members were given different parts of the song to learn and perfect, but it does not mean they’ll get to sing it on the final product. On February 27th, two weeks from the date of their assignment, the members will meet again with Park Inyoung to sing all of their parts live. The members will go one at a time, but they’ll all be in the same room. Inyoung has the right to tell the girls to repeat their attempts if she feels like she needs a second listen, and will then write down her thoughts onto her journal. Once every member went through their lines, she’ll give out her final thoughts. “Make sure you’ll be at your best when we meet again because this will very well dictate your entire future.”

The sections to practice are as seen below:

Kim Yubin: 0:06 - 0:23 (Lee Sem), 0:54 - 1:09 (Chorus), 1:09 - 1:25 (Euaerin), 1:57 - 2:12 (Lee Sem), 2:42 - 2:59 (Euaerin);

Lee Siyeon: 0:31 - 0:38 (Sera), 0:39 - 0:47 (Kyungri), 0:54 - 1:09 (Chorus), 1:26 - 1:33 (Sera), 2:05 - 2:12 (Adlibs - Sera), 2:13 - 2:17 (Adlibs - Hyemi), 2:19 - 2:24 (Adlibs - Sera);

Choi Yujin: 0:31 - 0:38 (Sera), 0:39 - 0:47 (Kyungri), 0:54 - 1:09 (Chorus), 1:26 - 1:33 (Sera), 2:05 - 2:12 (Adlibs - Sera), 2:13 - 2:17 (Adlibs - Hyemi), 2:19 - 2:24 (Adlibs - Sera);

Kim Sejeong: 0:54 - 1:09 (Chorus), 1:09 - 1:25 (Euaerin), 0:39 - 0:47 (Kyungri), 0:47 - 0:53 (Hyuna), 1:57 - 2:12 (Lee Sem), 2:05 - 2:12 (Adlibs - Sera), 2:19 - 2:24 (Adlibs - Sera);

Park Sooyoung: 0:23 - 0:30 (Hyemi), 0:54 - 1:09 (Chorus), 1:34 - 1:40 (Kyungri), 1:57 - 2:12 (Lee Sem), 2:13 - 2:27 (Minha);

Minatozaki Sana: 0:47 - 0:53 (Hyuna), 0:54 - 1:09 (Chorus), 1:34 - 1:40 (Kyungri), 1:57 - 2:12 (Lee Sem), 2:13 - 2:27 (Minha);

Kim Doyeon: 0:23 - 0:30 (Hyemi), 0:47 - 0:53 (Hyuna), 0:54 - 1:09 (Chorus), 1:26 - 1:33 (Sera), 1:57 - 2:12 (Lee Sem), 2:05 - 2:12 (Adlibs - Sera), 2:19 - 2:24 (Adlibs - Sera), 2:13 - 2:27 (Minha).

Before the girls leave, Inyoung informs them that they’ll have to move into their new dorms this month to keep themselves focused and strengthen their bond, although the last part feels a bit scripted coming out of her mouth. The members will have between February 18th and February 20th to complete their moving process. More information about their dorm can be found on this page.

Write one four post thread or one 300+ words solo about your time spent learning the debut song either on your own or with your group members for +3 POINTS TO DISTRIBUTE AS YOU WISH and +2 DEBUT POINTS.

Write one four post thread or one 300+ words solo about the day spent singing for Inyoung for +3 POINTS TO DISTRIBUTE AS YOU WISH, +1WK RELEVANT ACHIEVEMENT and +2 DEBUT POINTS.

The tag for this evaluation will be #k.arma:febeval and posts should be up by midnight EST at the end of February 28th. K.ARMA members are told not to share the information given to anyone outside of TRC or else they’ll risk losing their place on the debut team.

K.ARMA FEBRUARY EVALUATION (for the Mar 6 verification form)

PREPARATION

PROOF OF ACTIVITY: [ x ] +3 ___ POINTS +2 DEBUT POINTS NEW DEBUT POINTS TOTAL:

SINGING THE SONG

PROOF OF ACTIVITY: [ x ] +3 ___ POINTS +1WK RELEVANT ACHIEVEMENT (NUMBER OF TIMES TAKEN + CURRENT LEVEL) +2 DEBUT POINTS NEW DEBUT POINTS TOTAL:

[rkness]

news,

@rksejeong

she’s glancing over the line distributions, looking over her parts and designated practice points and noting them, before looking over everyone else’s for memory. she tilts her head to the side, narrowing her gaze before she clears her throat and tries a part of it-- moving into an adlib that doesn’t sound quite right. and if it doesn’t sound right to her, she knows it won’t sound right to inyoung. 

after a moment, she sighs, shaking her head. she flops down onto the ground with a groan, staring up at the ceiling for a moment before shifting her gaze to the side. reaching out lazily, she grabs for sejeong’s leg, sitting next to her. she smacks at it softly, before wrapping her fingers around the limb lazily with a hum. “kim sejeong, k.arma’s official girlfriend,” she calls out formally, cracking a smile at the younger girl. “how are you feeling about this song? i really like it. actually, i like this whole...feel we’re going for. my kinda concept, y’know.” 

[rksohee]

first things first ;

from the packet they received with rough line distributions, sohee noticed immediately that she and vanessa were competing for the same lines. whomever between the two of them did better in certain places would end up with that part. it made her feel nervous because once again, she and ness were pitted up against one another in some way. although that’s to be expected, of course, when they’re both main vocalists.

on the flip side she noticed that she and doyeon had a lot of complimentary parts. doyeon’s potential lines were either right before or right after sohee’s or they overlapped in a way. it got sohee thinking that maybe practising with doyeon would establish this rhythm so they’d have a good flow. of course sohee knew she wasn’t going to get every single line listed but there were a few that she hoped she did get.

“hey doyeonnie!” sohee greets with a smile. she’s been a bit chipper since the news dropped and it didn’t seem like a fake out. she really was in the group and despite the jab at her dancing still, sohee had a spot. there was nothing more that hayoon could do to break her spirits. since then sohee has felt lighter and happier. it’s definitely shown on her face and how she carries herself. “want to practise the song together? i saw that we have a lot of parts right after one another so maybe it’ll give us a good flow before we officially record!”

@rkdoyexn

[rksejeong]

Fighting

Kim Sejeong - K.arma vocal testing - News

Soon it was Sejeong’s turn to sing in front of the other members of K.arma and Inyoung.  She had put a lot of work in over the past few weeks learning her parts well, hoping that she’d get the chance to actually have them when the time came.  She was up against stiff competition though, with Sohee and Vanessa.  Even though she had her doubts that Inyoung would give her these lines over the other two, she was not going to let that sway her.  They said she was a lead singer and not main material, but she was going to try her best to show that she could hang with them if given the chance. 

She felt that TRC had tried to break her confidence with their constant jabs at her dancing and she had improved.  They had tried to break her confidence in her singing by saying that she was just another singer, but she was still there, still singing.  They were not getting it, if they were truly trying to break her, they wouldn’t.  If there was one thing that Sejeong had, it was confidence that was unwavering.  She would go out there and do her best to sing her heart out and make them see that she wanted it badly. 

Taking a deep breath just as the music started, she pushed any nerves away as she stood in front of everyone, mic in hand to sing the parts that had been assigned to her.  They were all parts that she enjoyed, though if she were going to be honest with herself and everyone else, she loved performing the ad libs the most.  Her voice was solid and strong as it came out, and in a flash, everything was over.  She hoped that it would be enough to convince Inyoung to give her a shot in maybe a couple places that she might not normally, but in the end run, it was the higher up’s decision, but she was determined to give it her best shot.

[yyubrk]

leader-nim / ness & yubin

“hey!” she had been looking for the girl earlier, but it had been a little hard to find her. and she understood, a big change was coming and they needed to prepare for it. so, she relaxed a bit knowing she would see the girl at some point, and finally she did. yubin had been working on the lines given and stopped for a break. and just as she left out, she saw ness walking by. quickly, she called the other over and closed the door behind her new group member. 

“i had been trying to track you down. i wanted to talk for a second. it’ll be quick, remember when you checked up one during our evaluations a while ago.” she smiled at the memory, someone checking on her own mental well being. something she often ignored, if given the chance. yubin took a step closer to cupped vanessa cheek’s in her hand, squishing them a little. “congratulates leader-nim.” she continued to give ness a large smile, a real one before she dropped one hand and fixed the other girls air with other. “because of that, i can fully put my trust in you. i know you’ll lead us well.” 

[rksohee]

♔ K.ARMA DEBUT PROJECT

♕ Month: February ♘ Song: News - 9muse K.ARMA ♙ (Tentative) Line Distribution

meeting someone else was nerve wracking. sohee’s defences were up the moment they were pulled to the side, simply because she was expecting hayoon once more. though she was glad it wasn’t the woman who put her through hell these last few months, it was someone else entirely. the unknown sparked a new fear into yujin almost immediately. she didn’t know who this woman was and something told her that even hayoon would bow down to her.

inyoung-ssi was straight to the point and seemed like a no-nonsense woman. she’s sure that if they were allowed to talk about it, her name was probably infamous amongst trc trainees for being a singing coach. she wasn’t sure how old inyoung was (and she certainly wasn’t going to ask) but global icon’s eunji wasn’t the most polished singer, she was still talented. was inyoung around to give the okay for that? because a few people would argue her judgement then.

they’re dismissed before sohee could find herself more intimidated by the woman than need be. ultimately the other was fine with going over her lines on her own. though when going over it with an instructor, she found that she had been singing just off the key set for the song itself. (thank god it was caught then or else that would have been a disaster when singing in front of inyoung). she’s fine with the lines she’s gotten to practise. she knows she won’t get all of them - especially not when they’re practically the exact same lines vanessa is potentially getting as well. the thought of competing with vanessa again scare her. although that’s to be expected as both of them being main vocalists of the group.

the real issue she had were the “adlibs”. not that they were hard to perform. the vocalisations were always easy. it was just trying to find a rhythm to the song in order for her to sing properly against it. when you hear “adlib”, people usually think of impressive high notes and great, stable vocal runs. the ones sohee needed to be doing weren’t anything to run home about. just the average vocalisations at the end of any song. sohee had spent part of the month thinking it was one of those impressive adlibs at the end. turned out she was wrong (and was really off compared to the song).

there was something a lot harder with getting used to a song that she’s never heard before. unlike covering a song, she has to work with coaches to find the right sound. this song will eventually have her voice in it. so if she couldn’t find the right tempo then the song won’t exist. (or more realistically will exist just without her lines.) it wasn’t like she had much beyond the guide track to help her. besides they didn’t always end up sounding the same as the guide track in the end.

the experience was kind of nerve wracking. she felt a little unprepared but with the help of the guide track, sohee nipped her bad habits with the song and tried to follow closer to how they wanted the song to end up playing out. she always had to remind herself to bring back the power in her vocals because this song was not meant to have that kind of sound. it only sounds out of place if she tries (and it actually comes off as sounding like she’s trying too hard when she really isn’t). so practise and practise she had to do to ensure that she wasn’t singing in the end in a way where it sounded disjointed.

the worst part? when they were brought in front of inyoung herself. sohee was scared that this was meant something bad. when inyoung instructed they would be singing in front of her, she knew it was so much worse. she was nervous, then worried that it would impact how she sounds singing live to inyoung but considering she wasn’t the one to start the song (yubin was) it gave sohee a chance to see how things would go. inyoung did nothing more than write in her pad. if she wanted to hear something again she’d say so curtly and quickly. you were expected to start over immediately. sohee knew this would fluster her a bit but she had to steel herself.

the other thing that made her feel weird was knowing that she and vanessa would be singing the same lines. so inyoung would be, quite literally, comparing their voices right then and there. the thought made her voice waver a bit when she sang her third section of the song, which was the chorus. she immediately anticipated it when inyoung said “again!” because she had caught her own mistake. so she started from the beginning of the chorus, focusing to remain stable and not think about the literal competition against her friend (and roommate).

sohee grew a bit fidgety towards the end, unable to sit still and see how she would divide the parts. 7 members is a larger group (though not as big as convex, obviously). splitting a song 7 ways, knowing it’s most likely not going to be even means there’s a high chance that at least one or two members would get a lot less lines than everyone else. that was just the fact of it. sohee wasn’t greedy but she would feel bummed out if for their debut song she was singing a lot less when her position is main vocalist.

she just hoped inyoung was far more forgiving than hayoon.

[rkness]

settle,

@rksxna

ever since the announcement of the official, final lineup for k.arma, they’ve been pushed to focus on preparing for debut. they’ve got lines to focus on, to practice and see where they’ll fit into, and moving into the dorms. they’re living together, preparing for debut and it’s all so surreal; for vanessa, it’s familiar, but she knows it isn’t the same for everyone else. and sana, especially, she’s worried for. she knows that sana worked hard to be placed in the lineup-- but she knows that maybe that isn’t the case for everyone else. 

“ah, sana!” she raises her hand up and waves the girl over as they’re taking a break, offering a small smile to the girl. “i’ve got a question for you. do you mind if i take a few seconds of your time? i promise i won’t bite.” she bares her teeth in a cute little grin, hoping to ease any tension at the sudden call of her attention. she doesn’t want to make it a big deal, but she does want to know how sana’s handling everything.

[rkjxy]

                            ⁎   k.arma february evaluation   ⁎                                                        NEWS ✰ for park inyoung ! 

in comparison to everything they have done so far, this evaluation seems more subdued. after all, the only task required would be for them to sing their own parts in the song. no fancy costumes, no creative choreography, and no performance stage required. it should have been easy.

key words: should have been.

maybe its the nerves. the fact that she would be singing alone and her own parts at that causes a ripple of anxiety within her. throughout the last couple of months, its her singing that has been constantly criticised —told time and time again that it’s her singing she should improve on. and while she’s confident that she has already improved incredibly so after all this time, there is still this part of herself that worries too much when it comes to vocal focused evaluations. joy supposes it would always be like this. that no matter how much she’s grown, she’d always be that girl whose far too worried about how she would sound like.

still, she’s grateful for everything. when she hears the demo for the song, she finds herself tearing up a little because it’s that nice. it’s right up her alley in terms of the charismatic vibe it was giving off and she enjoys that it’s challenging but compelling at the same time. practicing it with the vocal coaches for the very first time had been an otherworldly experience to say the least and despite having this be the focus of her training days for the last two weeks, the feeling of overwhelming happiness didn’t abate by one bit. if anything, she feels even more drawn into their debut song with each day that passes by.

as she stands in front of inyoung, her hands clasped tightly in front of her, she takes big breaths in her obvious attempt to calm herself down. mentally, she’s reminding herself that this doesn’t have to be one hundred percent perfect because it’s not like this would be the final thing. she just has to show that she’s capable of holding herself, that she’s worked hard enough to be given a considerable amount of lines in their song, and that she would not mess this up no matter how much her mind thinks she would.

i waved my hand, gave you a goodbye kiss and tasted a single tear

she sang her first parts in the song as stably as possible. it helps that the note wasn’t difficult at all to reach and is something along her vocal calibre. meaning, she was able to start off without much trouble and doing so helped raise her confidence significantly. by the time she was asked to sing the chorus which is a part that she shares with the rest of the girls, she’s evidently challenged. the chorus has parts wherein it would go up at first and then down in just a few seconds which makes it challenging for her to sing alone. when she sings the part “you pretend you’re so much better till the end”, her struggle shows with the way she crumples her hands into fists as she tries to reach the note. it paves well in the end for she was able to reach it. moving forward, the next few lines were definitely easier for her to sing and so she did without any struggle.

you ask if I’m okay – well what do you think? well – are you really asking because you don’t know?

her next part was similar to her first one which makes singing it pass by easily because she already got the hang of it. the only difference was that she added a little curl as she sings the last word to give it a little more character.

pretend to have it all, pretend to be nice, pretend to be cool each moment, each time, it’s lies, lies so unbelievable, so unbelievable hey give me my great goods give me my great goods

this part was one where she struggles to sing the most. it just appeared more rap-like in style and she couldn’t quite match the feeling that it was going for. even while she was practicing for it, it was the part she couldn’t quite perfect no matter how much she wants to. still, she tried to give it her best — spins it through her own version and hopefully manages not to damage ears as she does so.

you ask if I’m okay, you pretend not to know and ask again do you even think that makes any sense? you ask if I’m okay – well what do you think? well – are you really asking because you don’t know?

considering how the last part given to her was the chorus, she was able to breeze through singing it. she gives it a little more strength though and more emotion as it was the climax of the song. other than that, she’s not really vocally creative enough to try something different. when she wraps up her singing, she gives a shy nod of her head, waiting to see if she would be asked to sing again. when inyoung-ssi lets her go, she bows and rushes off — grateful enough that she wouldn’t have to go through everything again the second time.

[rkness]

again & again,

practice makes perfect, practice makes perfect-- a mantra she’s heard for years. the more you do it, the more you get better at it. it’s advice given for most things that require training, that require improvement. vanessa knows it’s true for the most part-- the more you try it, the better you will do; so she’s expecting a constant string of do it again, try it again, when she steps into the recording room with inyoung.

and inyoung is certainly intimidating. everything about her makes vanessa stand on edge, limbs stiffs and eyes sharp-- ears open to anything the woman says; because she’s damned if she’s gotten this far to throw it all aside now. if inyoung wants vanessa to do something she will-- she’ll bend her back until it breaks if that’s what inyoung wants.

her fingers tap against her arm as she glances over the distribution, the highlighted parts she’s supposed to sing. her gaze glances up at the woman watching and waiting as the guiding track begins. she shuts her eyes and breathes through her nose evenly-- voice warmups done preemptively in an attempt to make this easier to go through. and the first time she opens her mouth for her assigned portion, she knows it sounds off. it’s the first try, and vanessa isn’t so confident to expect inyoung to like it the first try. one glance at her expression that doesn’t move can tell her that, and when the music stops, she hears the expected again, spoken. she swallows back and nods her head, tries it another time-- and is hit with the same, and again. 

it’s an endless cycle. one that’s tiring, one that’s sure to leave her drained at the end. during a mark around 2:11 she hears her voice crack, and very visibly grimaces. as soon as the part finishes she’s immediately calling out, “i’m sorry, i’ll try it again,” and inyoung is unresponsive, watchful. listening and intent on ensuring it sounds perfect to her ears; vanessa understands it, doesn’t offer a single word of complaint-- even though she can feel the prickling pinpoints of irritation, her skin tingling. 

she knows she’ll try again and again and again if that’s what expected of her. because she hasn’t come this far to give up now.

[yyubrk]

one last / yubin & sohee

she had set everything up before she left to go get sohee. at least then they would be able to fully relax and not worry about anything. “as you can see, i’m almost finished packing. doyeon came to help me...followed my mother.” she grinned and did a small spin in the living room before taking off her coat. “i already the drinks ready.” yubin toss her coat on the chair next to her and walked over to the coffee table in front of her couch. 

“our last drink as trainee’s my mandu.” she motioned for sohee to get relaxed and picked up the bottle of wine. “i got the sweet, bubbly stuff.” grabbing the glass that would become sohee’s she shook the empty glass a bit. “just let me know how much you want, to start off at least.”