#rkssojin

[moonbokrk]

TRC Triple Threat Challenge Date: 21st April 2019 Location: Yongsan-gu Performance: Boy in Love - BTS (00:00-01:44) Outfit: x

‘Mediocre.’

When Tiger JK had called him that during the MGA’s wildcard round, Moonbok had taken it as a personal insult. A slight against the skills he’d (thought he’d) honed since he was a child. He’d left the studio even more bitter and dejected than when he was first eliminated.

Now he realizes the older man was right. And that mediocre hadn’t been meant as an insult. Rather, it was probably meant as a challenge to Moonbok, to not be so complacent and to focus.

Which is why he finds himself in Yongsan-gu at TRC’s Triple Threat Challenge. Not because Moonbok feels as though he's a triple threat, but to show Tiger JK that he finally understood what the man had told him. That he’d taken heed of his words and tried to improve himself and his skills.

He’d chosen Boy in Luv for two reasons. One, because he’d finally learned the dance off, thanks to Jiyeon’s relentless training and his own stubbornness. Two, it was a BTS song, which incorporated dancing, singing and rapping together within the first 90 seconds in a tight routine. It was one of their signature songs for a reason.

Pinning back his hair tightly, Moonbok bounces slightly on the balls of his feet, craning his head to try and get a decent look at the stage, which is (unsurprisingly) not a success. Instead, he looks around the crowd with plenty of familiar faces from the MGAs, eyes widening slightly as he spots Sohn Eric with the boy he’d been with at the Jung Community Center. For a moment Moonbok’s eyebrows furrow as he racks his brains to try and remember if the young boy had done any rapping during the MGAs before coming up blank.

“Jang Moonbok!”

At the call of his name, Moonbok feels his stomach drop slightly as he yells back an acknowledgement and makes his way towards the stage. This time, he’s careful as to how he presents himself to the audience and the judges as he climbs onto the stage; not to appear as overconfident as he’d done in the MGAs and which had been part of his reason for his elimination, but also to not look meek and self-conscious either.

Standing on the marked part of the stage, he bows lowly to the judges before straightening up and speaking with a small smile.

“I’m Jang Moonbok, living in Yongsan-gu.” The judges faces remain impassive and Moonbok looks directly at Tiger JK. Not in the confrontational way he’d stared at Hyun Bin during the wildcard round, but in a way he hopes conveys this thoughts to the TRC CEO.

‘I’ve learned. I know what you meant now.’

“I’ll be performing Boy in Luv by BTS. I hope you’ll enjoy.”

Nodding firmly as he finished speaking, Moonbok turns and takes a few steps away from the judges to give himself space to dance, hands on his hips and willing himself not to bounce on his feet. He closes eyes, breathes deep and counts down from three.

And then the music starts.

되고파 너의 오빠 너의 사랑이 난 너무 고파 되고파 너의 오빠 널 갖고 말 거야 두고 봐

He strides forward with purpose, mentally running over everything Jiyeon had told him. Instead of a cocky smirk like in the MV, though, Moonbok wears a more serious expression. (Though part of that can be blamed on nerves) During the second half of the opening verse he moves into the actual dance, making sure his movements hit the beat of the song. Then he leaps into the air as the signature chant begins.

왜 내 맘을 흔드는 건데? 왜 내 맘을 흔드는 건데? 왜 내 맘을 흔드는 건데? 흔드는 건데 흔드는 건데

It takes plenty of concentration to keep his movements in sync along with singing and making sure he’s paying enough concentration on the judges. But he hasn’t been practicing this for so long for nothing. At least the dance is good for helping him release this nervous energy and his expression morphs into a more confident and relaxed one as the song continues.   

아빠, 아빤 대체 어떻게 엄마��테 고백한 건지 편지라도 써야 될런지 뭔지, 니 앞에서 난 먼지 괜히 틱틱대고 씩씩대고 징징대게 돼 나는 진지한데 찌질하게 시비나 걸게 돼 뭔데 신경 쓰여 다 큰 날 애로 만들어 거꾸로 뒤집을껴, 인연을 연인으로

When he’d first started learning this song during the winter, he couldn’t relate much to the message in it. If anything, his thoughts were usually along the lines of ‘shut up, and just ask her out already.’ But since he’d met with Soojin, it resonated with him a lot more. Through without all of the anger and complaining in the song. And that helps guide his movements and voice, wondering if she’d made it to the audition after all.

He hopes he’s making her proud, if she’s here. Even if their relationship is still a work in progress, he hopes she can see how much he’s improved since the MGAs.

대학까지도 너랑 간다면 참 잘 갈 것 같아 가나다라마바사아 하쿠나마타타! 똑같은 프로필 사진 왜 자꾸 확인할까 그렇다고 착각하지마 쉬운 남자 아냐

This was the rapping part that everyone remembered, it’s iconic. And it’s the part Moonbok as worked so hard on to make sure he can dance and enunciate himself properly. He wants to do this part so much justice, he wants to show Tiger JK that, while his rapping can still be improved, it has moved beyond the mediocre. Luckily, for the first half, the dancing is pretty simply, though he adds as much a personal flair as he can before carrying out the big leap forward at the face-paced nonsensical part.

안달 났어 나 안달 났어 니가 뭔데? 너만 잘났어? 왜 나를 자꾸 놀려 놀려 너 이제 그만 hol’ up hol’ up

He’s experimented with this particular dance move a few times, what with it being a little more complicated without other dancers to help your timing. Moonbok uses both the tempo of the lyrics and the background beat to carry out the iconic robot like movements, occasionally having to incorporate brushing his hair out of his face into the the dance. (He had at least, factored this in when practicing)

꽉 잡아 날 덮치기 전에 내 맘이 널 놓치기 전에 Say what you want Say what you want 니가 진짜로 원하는 게 뭐야 꽉 잡아 날 덮치기 전에 내 맘이 널 놓치기 전에 Say what you want Say what you want 니가 진짜로 원하는 게 뭐야

Instead of the stepping movements used in the original dance, Moonbok swivels his hips as coyly as he dares, hand resting on his thigh, rather than his crotch. (That was just embarrassing, plus it was usually the part of the song where he’d manage to kick himself.) His voice rings out clearly, almost as pining sounding as in the original version. What is it that Soojin really wants? And is someone like him really capable of giving it to her? Moonbok prays he is, drowns out the voice of doubt as best he can through singing and dancing.

왜 내 맘을 흔드는 건데 왜 내 맘을 흔드는 건데 왜 내 맘을 흔드는 건데 흔드는 건데 흔드는 건데

Returning to the dance moves he’d used when this part had played at the beginning, he slows down his movements slightly as the music fades, finishing with his hand in the air once again and breathing heavily. If he made mistakes, they didn’t register with him, all that he can think of now was that he didn’t cause a catastrophe like he did during Team Dream’s performance. He sang, rapped and danced and came out of it feeling happy. 

He’s redeemed himself in his own eyes. 

Smiling and bowing to the judges and Tiger JK once more, he speaks, glad his voice isn’t too hoarse sounding given the fast paced rapping and exertion from dancing.

“Thank you for watching me. It was my pleasure to perform in front of you.”

[Word count: 1,145] Lryrics translation: ccl

[hyunarkarchive]

stage; mashup, by team bangchi ( @rkwon @rkjhyun @rkssoojin @rksxna​ ) outfit; x x stats; drop out song; bts x chichi - you think i need you ( line distribution )

in all honesty, hyuna just wanted to leave the show and it wasn’t because of her ankle, it was because she knew a place she wasn’t wanted in a blink of an eye.

as soon as she walked into the practice room, a removable plastic cast on her ankle, she knew things weren’t going to go well. but she smiled through it, that smile that would not reach her eyes. she should have expected it, sooner or later, that people would not be happy to have her in her team. first it was other rappers in her group being intimidated, now it was everyone. it wasn’t hard to feel isolated.

however, she got to work and got through most of it. she went online to see if she could find anything anyone liked, after the third try, she managed to get a few yes answers and a no. the no was from soojin, but eventually, it was down to the majority of votes and they got down to work.

unfortunately for her, she had to sit out on the first few days of dancing. instead she just watched quietly from the side, as won and jonghyun were going over their dance mash up. it seemed like soojin was going to focus on singing, which was okay. hyuna was okay with everything.

it wasn’t until the third day of rehearsal that she finally involved herself with learning the dance. she was in pain, quite a few requests of breaks, some limping, but she wasn’t going to stop. she wasn’t going to be brought down like this. 

however, she had her limit. there were already extreme amounts of expectations from her, an image to keep up, royal’s image. it would always be attached to her name, even after years. two time a finalist, not once a winner. maybe she just wasn’t destined to be a winner. maybe she should just give up.

but she didn’t cry inside the practice room. she refused to, because there were too many times that she cried on tv. even when she had been laying down on the ground for over an hour, in the middle of the night, alone in the practice room, she pushed herself up and through teary eyes she continued to go over the dance.

over, and over, and over again.

hyuna was way too hard headed to let go of her stupid dream of one day doing music. so with the tears in her eyes, she did practice till early in the morning, till the other’s came.

she spend most of her time with jonghyun when it came to the group, because they were both rappers and he had the patience to deal with her ankle. the cast, she threw away the third day, she should be okay when it came to walking without it, but still, it was a fresh injury. she still had moment when she limped around the room, around the corridor in front of their training room, trying to calm her nerves and emotions because she was a mess.

yet, the day just came quicker. it was insane, how quickly time passed. before she even knew it, they were on stage, laying down and ready for their performance.

hyuna was doing the opening verse of the song, which was somewhat stressful. she didn’t remember ever doing this, being the first one to move on stage, the first one to sing. when did a rapper ever get to do that? especially in girl groups. yet. she sat up on the floor, body following the original movements.

떨어지네 너 땜에 나 이렇게 망가져 그만할래 이제 너 안 가져 못하겠어 뭣 같아서 제발 핑계 같은 건 삼가줘

it was funny, to her at least, how easy it was to mimic the emotions of the lyrics. the two songs very contrasting, yet hyuna managed to relate to the boy song more. she was happy tho, she got to rap to a very good rap as well, finally being able to show her abilities rather than sing of focusing on her dance, it was all worth it.

as the song progressed, so did the pain in he ankle but she held up her front, expressions matching with the song, her gestures and dance moves confident.

she might had not landed a good team in terms of developing friendships, but it was all for character build. it was in her own best development. she was going to be victorious on this show. she came here to win, and a few people wouldn’t stop her. after all, not even so jiseob couldn’t stop her. she just had to go with it and it would all be okay.

hard work always paid off. sweat and tears paid off. it had to pay off.

she thought as she got into the position of her final verse.

니가 멋대로 막 써 내려간 가십 속의 bad girl 괜찮아 뭐 결국엔 다 네게 return 똑똑히 좀 들어 내가 한 선택 후회할 맘 더는 없어 go away

she was confident in the concept she had to pull of, hand running through her hair as he gave the camera a cocky look, tongue poking at the inside of the cheek before tipping her head to the side in a confrontational manner before moving to their final formation.

and before she knew it the music had stopped and for the first time ever, she was out of breath and it was because she was in pain. yet, hyuna waited quietly until they were asked to leave the stage. without a second thought she walked off, confidence evident in the way she carried herself off the stage, but as soon as she got down the steps, the limping was once again evident. the adrenaline had covered it up well, while on stage, maybe she messed up without realizing it. but it was too late to dwell on it.

she was too stubborn to be brought down by anyone.