chapter one
〈 ♞ 〉NIGHT CIRCUS08 NOVEMBER 2014
8:03 AM
8:03 AM
THE FIRST CHAPTER
“After much deliberation, all of the staff, meaning your three coaches and both of your CEOs, have decided to use one of Baek Hyemi’s self-written songs for your debut,” Jiho bluntly states, looking to each member of the group, “Since each of us has a copy of the draft, we are going to sing or rap one by one with the music our CEO has provided for us. We will then determine whose part is whose and then the idiot will further finalize his choreography in his head for you.”
“You’d think I’d get tired of that,” Minseok drawls out from his lazy position on the couch next to Jiwool and Min.
Jiho ignores him as he looks to Minkyung who immediately starts the background music for the song. “Listen to this once. What Hyemi had in mind was a rapper going first, meaning either her or Min. You can see how Hyemi has grouped each part to be rapped or sung by one person at a time or as a group. Min, you go first and rap the beginning–” At the sudden announcement of her name, Min looks up at him surprised only to get small quirk of the eyebrow from her mentor. She frowns as she looks back down to the lyrics and listens to the tune more to try and get a feel for it. “–Then after everybody says something, we’ll figure out the order.”
“Hyemi has also marked which part should be sung or rapped. Take note in that, and remember – you are Night Circus. There should be this certain feel to it. Make yourselves sound like you are part of a circus.”
“Enough,” Jiho suddenly states, cutting off Minkyung who glares at him for interrupting her. He ignores her as well before looking to Min. “Go.”
Min frowns at the impromptu English lyrics, having to insert her own name in place of the blanks shown to them.
“Night Circus
Yeah A-yo
Star Shimin with the am I music
KB Company
Are N – I – G – H – T Circus
Listen peeps
And listen ladies and gentlemen
Put put put your hands up
Ha Ha Ha Showtime–”
Hyemi nods in approval at the lyrics, looking up to see Min concentrating hard at reading the Korean Hangeul in front of her after the English introduction.
“Hyemi, next.”
Hyemi immediately looks back down at her lyrics at the command of her mentor, rapping along with the music until Jiho calls out another member to sing the next part.
“Jiwool.”
Jiwool looks up shocked at her name before quickly verbalizing the lyrics, trying to put a little more flair to match the theme of the song.
“Suhwan.”
At the call of his name, Suhwan immediately opens his mouth to sing the next part. His voice is by no means strong at this point being suddenly at the center of attention, but he hears an encouraging “that’s it, Suhwan” from Minkyung and it makes him want to keep singing. He immediately closes his mouth at the same speed he first opened it when another name is called instead.
“Sookhyun.”
“Geureom naega neol!”
“Jaesun.”
Jaesun quickly says his part, getting a feel of the tune with his words before trying to accommodate to make the two fit together better. He frowns slightly when he gets cut off.
“Min.”
After hearing her friend say his lines, she simply imitates his tone of voice seeing the lines are pretty much the same.
“Better,” Jiho comments before moving onto the last member. “Seungheon.”
Seungheon nods as he immediately says the next part, dancing a bit in his seat as he tries to catch the beats of the song. Jaesun briefly looks at the man’s actions amused before he has to repeat his lines again in the chorus.
In no time, they’ve run through the song once, Minkyung stopping the song as silence fills the room, and they all look up to see an interesting look on Jiho’s face. It makes sense though. If all seven members had to agree on one thing, the whole song sounds completely foreign on their tongue. Hyemi didn’t expect the song to sound like it did, but if their concept always had to include circus themes, she figures she really has to get used to it.
“That was interesting,” Minseok comments as he looks to his coworkers, “Run through it again?”
“Put more conviction in your singing,” Minkyung simply says before looking to Min, “Work on your pronunciations. I know you have a hard time reading Korean, but you need to pull it together.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Min immediately answers back, feeling Jiwool put her hand on her knee to provide a little bit of comfort.
Jiho looks at the bunch before he sighs, looking to Minkyung to restart the song. “More confidence,” he says before calling out Min again a beat before she starts to rap. He stares at each member as he calls them out again to remind them of their parts, watching as they slowly become more and more comfortable with the lyrics and the tune. He expects the song to repeat again to see how far they’re willing to go until the song suddenly stops when it hits Hyemi’s first part. He looks over to the side sharply to see Minkyung’s finger an inch away from the device. “Minkyung,” he states, wondering why she just did that. She waves her hand dismissively at him and he frowns.
“Switch it up,” she simply states before looking to Minseok who looks bored, “Minseok.”
“Yeah?” he instantly answers back, looking up at her.
“You have the base of the choreography done, right?”
“Yeah?”
Minkyung rolls her eyes at the lone response before looking to the rest of the group. “Hyemi, switch parts with Min since she’s more of a vocalist than you are,” she says before looking to Seungheon, “Fix your tone of voice a bit. I know you can.” She watches as they nod before looking to Sookhyun. “Strengthen your voice. You’re the main vocalist. Prove it. And Suhwan?” she questions as she looks to the man who’s looking up at her curiously. “Strengthen your voice some as well. Become more comfortable with the lyrics. You’ll be fine.”
“I can see who the favorite is,” Minseok mumbles under his breath as he gives his partner a wink, “Obviously–”
“It’s true,” Minkyung honestly says as she ignores the wink before looking to Jiho, “How many more times?”
Jiho shrugs, leaning back against the small desk in the room, “Until they have their current parts memorized.”
“And then,” Minseok says with a creepy smile, scaring Suhwan and Sookhyun into backing away the furthest they can go, “You’re all mine for the rest of the day.”
“Hyung,” Sookhyun calls out four hours later as they all move from the recording room to the largest room next door, which was the dance practice room, to take a fifteen-minute break, “Let’s go over our parts again.” He follows after his friend, both of them the youngest in the group and the vocalists, before he frowns when the other goes straight to the lone couch in the practice room and sits down to read over the lyrics again. “Suhwan-hyung,” he says again, finally catching the attention of the other.
“Yes, Sookhyun?”
“Let’s practice our parts again?” he questions back, going over to sit next to him before looking back at the lyrics, “We may not have a lot of parts, but that’s okay.”
“Yeah,” Suhwan quietly says, nodding and looking back down to his parts, “I’ll start?”
Sookhyun smiles as he nods, giving his friend an encouraging smile and listening to him sing his part. His voice sounds gentle, just like his personality, and it makes him smile more before he goes on to sing his part.
They repeat the lines a couple more times before the comments from Minkyung earlier enter Sookhyun’s mind, telling him he needs to strengthen his voice more since he’s the main vocalist of the group. The sudden distraction has him missing a beat and Suhwan looks over at him curiously before looking away just as fast when Sookhyun looks at him in return with wide eyes.
“Do you want to sing H.O.T’s Candy?” Suhwan quietly asks after two minutes of silence between them.
It takes a while for Sookhyun to process the question before a small smile makes its way onto his face remembering the times they would stay late on Fridays before just to sing random songs already sung by well-known idols. That’s how they relaxed and had fun even though they already spent all day singing their lungs out.
“Yeah,” Sookhyun softly says back, grabbing Suhwan’s hand to swing it in the air between them and start singing automatically. It brings a smile and a blush to Suhwan’s face as well, singing along with his friend.
In the center of the room, Min watches as Jiwool and Jaesun practice old moves to a choreography they learned months ago. She’s standing behind them, watching their every move, and makes a sound of acknowledgment when they switch up their moves at the same time but still have it flow together wonderfully.
“You should join us, Min,” Jaesun says in between moves, using the time to warm up his body before Minseok goes crazy on them, “If I know the order of my playlist, you’ll know the dance to the next song.”
Jiwool and Min look to their friend curiously, both of them waiting for the next song even though the former is still dancing along to the current one. Another minute passes by, but when the next song comes on, Jaesun watches carefully as both of his partners’ eyes dull considerably at the sounds coming out of the system. “Jaesun-oppa,” Jiwool warns softly, watching as Jaesun just gives her a look in return.
He moves to shift into a new position and waits for a frowning Jiwool to do the same, watching as Min hesitantly falls into step with them. He has to admit, it might not be his best choice at the moment, but none of them knows what happened when Min went home to Beijing. They don’t know what her thought process is about becoming an idol now after everything that has come and gone. “Go front and center, Min,” he offers, backing up so he’s behind her and Jiwool is doing the same.
Soon enough, Min is singing along to Lu Han’s parts in History, and it makes Jaesun and Jiwool smile as a similar look threatens to bloom out on her face.
When the song ends, they all turn around and smile to each other, Jiwool rushing over to her to engulf her in a hug. “We’ll make history, okay?”
Min laughs at her punny statement, hugging her back before looking over to Jaesun as well. They share a similar, sympathetic look. “Yeah. We will. Thanks.”
“You know,” Jaesun answers back, letting GD and Taeyang’s song play on in the background, “You’re not as crappy as a dancer once you figure out the moves.”
The jibe at her dancing makes Min lose the smile on her face, Jiwool glaring at their friend before she comes up with a comeback. “Yeah. Thanks, English boy.”
The nickname has Jaesun frowning as well before looking over to where Suhwan and Sookhyun are still singing their own songs, both of them into it as Sookhyun tries not to cling onto his friend in fear of scaring him off. He sighs as Sookhyun suddenly flops onto his friend who lets out a squeak at the sudden weight before looking back to his friends. “How about let’s try practicing our lines again. The others should almost be done doing whatever they’re doing in the next room.”
Jiho watches as Hyemi practices her lines again, Seungheon in the room with them, Minkyung, and Minseok, and sighs when she finishes her part. He looks absolutely bored when she looks at him, and he knows it. Everybody else looks to him except Minkyung and they flinch when he speaks.
“I don’t know whether to let you keep all the main parts or give it back to Min.”
Hyemi frowns at the comment but lets him keep speaking.
“Your voice is too high. Min’s range works better with this song. Unless you can somehow work your tone into this composition, maybe you’ll be able to keep the parts.” He then looks to Seungheon next. “Go through your lines.”
Seungheon nods as he goes through them again, already memorizing the lines but looking down to the sheet so he won’t accidentally mess up. He and Hyemi decided to stay behind to check up on their parts, especially with Hyemi thinking the song’s lyrics is nowhere near perfect for her, but now he doesn’t know if he should’ve stayed behind for this or joined the others in the next room, stretching and taking the time to briefly relax before dance practice today.
This time, Minkyung scrunches her nose when he finishes. “Lower,” she voices out, “You’re childish but also the second eldest in this group. Use that to your advantage.”
Seungheon frowns but nods at her, going at it again, before Minseok suddenly gets up, his cell phone alarm going off telling him it’s his time now for the new group. Seungheon doesn’t let the distraction get him but sees as Hyemi’s feet follow after their choreographer out of the corners of his eyes. He looks up when he finishes.
“Work on it,” Minkyung says before waving him off, “Go before Minseok goes crazy with not having everyone there.”
Seungheon nods again before quickly leaving the room to go over to the next one, watching as everyone is already in the center of the room with Minseok eyeing each and every one of them at the front with his hands casually in his pockets. He drops his piece of paper on top of his bag in the corner before joining the group, watching as Minseok eyes him before giving them all a smirk.
“Now, let’s see what we can do.”
“You’d think I’d get tired of that,” Minseok drawls out from his lazy position on the couch next to Jiwool and Min.
Jiho ignores him as he looks to Minkyung who immediately starts the background music for the song. “Listen to this once. What Hyemi had in mind was a rapper going first, meaning either her or Min. You can see how Hyemi has grouped each part to be rapped or sung by one person at a time or as a group. Min, you go first and rap the beginning–” At the sudden announcement of her name, Min looks up at him surprised only to get small quirk of the eyebrow from her mentor. She frowns as she looks back down to the lyrics and listens to the tune more to try and get a feel for it. “–Then after everybody says something, we’ll figure out the order.”
“Hyemi has also marked which part should be sung or rapped. Take note in that, and remember – you are Night Circus. There should be this certain feel to it. Make yourselves sound like you are part of a circus.”
“Enough,” Jiho suddenly states, cutting off Minkyung who glares at him for interrupting her. He ignores her as well before looking to Min. “Go.”
Min frowns at the impromptu English lyrics, having to insert her own name in place of the blanks shown to them.
“Night Circus
Yeah A-yo
Star Shimin with the am I music
KB Company
Are N – I – G – H – T Circus
Listen peeps
And listen ladies and gentlemen
Put put put your hands up
Ha Ha Ha Showtime–”
Hyemi nods in approval at the lyrics, looking up to see Min concentrating hard at reading the Korean Hangeul in front of her after the English introduction.
“Hyemi, next.”
Hyemi immediately looks back down at her lyrics at the command of her mentor, rapping along with the music until Jiho calls out another member to sing the next part.
“Jiwool.”
Jiwool looks up shocked at her name before quickly verbalizing the lyrics, trying to put a little more flair to match the theme of the song.
“Suhwan.”
At the call of his name, Suhwan immediately opens his mouth to sing the next part. His voice is by no means strong at this point being suddenly at the center of attention, but he hears an encouraging “that’s it, Suhwan” from Minkyung and it makes him want to keep singing. He immediately closes his mouth at the same speed he first opened it when another name is called instead.
“Sookhyun.”
“Geureom naega neol!”
“Jaesun.”
Jaesun quickly says his part, getting a feel of the tune with his words before trying to accommodate to make the two fit together better. He frowns slightly when he gets cut off.
“Min.”
After hearing her friend say his lines, she simply imitates his tone of voice seeing the lines are pretty much the same.
“Better,” Jiho comments before moving onto the last member. “Seungheon.”
Seungheon nods as he immediately says the next part, dancing a bit in his seat as he tries to catch the beats of the song. Jaesun briefly looks at the man’s actions amused before he has to repeat his lines again in the chorus.
In no time, they’ve run through the song once, Minkyung stopping the song as silence fills the room, and they all look up to see an interesting look on Jiho’s face. It makes sense though. If all seven members had to agree on one thing, the whole song sounds completely foreign on their tongue. Hyemi didn’t expect the song to sound like it did, but if their concept always had to include circus themes, she figures she really has to get used to it.
“That was interesting,” Minseok comments as he looks to his coworkers, “Run through it again?”
“Put more conviction in your singing,” Minkyung simply says before looking to Min, “Work on your pronunciations. I know you have a hard time reading Korean, but you need to pull it together.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Min immediately answers back, feeling Jiwool put her hand on her knee to provide a little bit of comfort.
Jiho looks at the bunch before he sighs, looking to Minkyung to restart the song. “More confidence,” he says before calling out Min again a beat before she starts to rap. He stares at each member as he calls them out again to remind them of their parts, watching as they slowly become more and more comfortable with the lyrics and the tune. He expects the song to repeat again to see how far they’re willing to go until the song suddenly stops when it hits Hyemi’s first part. He looks over to the side sharply to see Minkyung’s finger an inch away from the device. “Minkyung,” he states, wondering why she just did that. She waves her hand dismissively at him and he frowns.
“Switch it up,” she simply states before looking to Minseok who looks bored, “Minseok.”
“Yeah?” he instantly answers back, looking up at her.
“You have the base of the choreography done, right?”
“Yeah?”
Minkyung rolls her eyes at the lone response before looking to the rest of the group. “Hyemi, switch parts with Min since she’s more of a vocalist than you are,” she says before looking to Seungheon, “Fix your tone of voice a bit. I know you can.” She watches as they nod before looking to Sookhyun. “Strengthen your voice. You’re the main vocalist. Prove it. And Suhwan?” she questions as she looks to the man who’s looking up at her curiously. “Strengthen your voice some as well. Become more comfortable with the lyrics. You’ll be fine.”
“I can see who the favorite is,” Minseok mumbles under his breath as he gives his partner a wink, “Obviously–”
“It’s true,” Minkyung honestly says as she ignores the wink before looking to Jiho, “How many more times?”
Jiho shrugs, leaning back against the small desk in the room, “Until they have their current parts memorized.”
“And then,” Minseok says with a creepy smile, scaring Suhwan and Sookhyun into backing away the furthest they can go, “You’re all mine for the rest of the day.”
“Hyung,” Sookhyun calls out four hours later as they all move from the recording room to the largest room next door, which was the dance practice room, to take a fifteen-minute break, “Let’s go over our parts again.” He follows after his friend, both of them the youngest in the group and the vocalists, before he frowns when the other goes straight to the lone couch in the practice room and sits down to read over the lyrics again. “Suhwan-hyung,” he says again, finally catching the attention of the other.
“Yes, Sookhyun?”
“Let’s practice our parts again?” he questions back, going over to sit next to him before looking back at the lyrics, “We may not have a lot of parts, but that’s okay.”
“Yeah,” Suhwan quietly says, nodding and looking back down to his parts, “I’ll start?”
Sookhyun smiles as he nods, giving his friend an encouraging smile and listening to him sing his part. His voice sounds gentle, just like his personality, and it makes him smile more before he goes on to sing his part.
They repeat the lines a couple more times before the comments from Minkyung earlier enter Sookhyun’s mind, telling him he needs to strengthen his voice more since he’s the main vocalist of the group. The sudden distraction has him missing a beat and Suhwan looks over at him curiously before looking away just as fast when Sookhyun looks at him in return with wide eyes.
“Do you want to sing H.O.T’s Candy?” Suhwan quietly asks after two minutes of silence between them.
It takes a while for Sookhyun to process the question before a small smile makes its way onto his face remembering the times they would stay late on Fridays before just to sing random songs already sung by well-known idols. That’s how they relaxed and had fun even though they already spent all day singing their lungs out.
“Yeah,” Sookhyun softly says back, grabbing Suhwan’s hand to swing it in the air between them and start singing automatically. It brings a smile and a blush to Suhwan’s face as well, singing along with his friend.
In the center of the room, Min watches as Jiwool and Jaesun practice old moves to a choreography they learned months ago. She’s standing behind them, watching their every move, and makes a sound of acknowledgment when they switch up their moves at the same time but still have it flow together wonderfully.
“You should join us, Min,” Jaesun says in between moves, using the time to warm up his body before Minseok goes crazy on them, “If I know the order of my playlist, you’ll know the dance to the next song.”
Jiwool and Min look to their friend curiously, both of them waiting for the next song even though the former is still dancing along to the current one. Another minute passes by, but when the next song comes on, Jaesun watches carefully as both of his partners’ eyes dull considerably at the sounds coming out of the system. “Jaesun-oppa,” Jiwool warns softly, watching as Jaesun just gives her a look in return.
He moves to shift into a new position and waits for a frowning Jiwool to do the same, watching as Min hesitantly falls into step with them. He has to admit, it might not be his best choice at the moment, but none of them knows what happened when Min went home to Beijing. They don’t know what her thought process is about becoming an idol now after everything that has come and gone. “Go front and center, Min,” he offers, backing up so he’s behind her and Jiwool is doing the same.
Soon enough, Min is singing along to Lu Han’s parts in History, and it makes Jaesun and Jiwool smile as a similar look threatens to bloom out on her face.
When the song ends, they all turn around and smile to each other, Jiwool rushing over to her to engulf her in a hug. “We’ll make history, okay?”
Min laughs at her punny statement, hugging her back before looking over to Jaesun as well. They share a similar, sympathetic look. “Yeah. We will. Thanks.”
“You know,” Jaesun answers back, letting GD and Taeyang’s song play on in the background, “You’re not as crappy as a dancer once you figure out the moves.”
The jibe at her dancing makes Min lose the smile on her face, Jiwool glaring at their friend before she comes up with a comeback. “Yeah. Thanks, English boy.”
The nickname has Jaesun frowning as well before looking over to where Suhwan and Sookhyun are still singing their own songs, both of them into it as Sookhyun tries not to cling onto his friend in fear of scaring him off. He sighs as Sookhyun suddenly flops onto his friend who lets out a squeak at the sudden weight before looking back to his friends. “How about let’s try practicing our lines again. The others should almost be done doing whatever they’re doing in the next room.”
Jiho watches as Hyemi practices her lines again, Seungheon in the room with them, Minkyung, and Minseok, and sighs when she finishes her part. He looks absolutely bored when she looks at him, and he knows it. Everybody else looks to him except Minkyung and they flinch when he speaks.
“I don’t know whether to let you keep all the main parts or give it back to Min.”
Hyemi frowns at the comment but lets him keep speaking.
“Your voice is too high. Min’s range works better with this song. Unless you can somehow work your tone into this composition, maybe you’ll be able to keep the parts.” He then looks to Seungheon next. “Go through your lines.”
Seungheon nods as he goes through them again, already memorizing the lines but looking down to the sheet so he won’t accidentally mess up. He and Hyemi decided to stay behind to check up on their parts, especially with Hyemi thinking the song’s lyrics is nowhere near perfect for her, but now he doesn’t know if he should’ve stayed behind for this or joined the others in the next room, stretching and taking the time to briefly relax before dance practice today.
This time, Minkyung scrunches her nose when he finishes. “Lower,” she voices out, “You’re childish but also the second eldest in this group. Use that to your advantage.”
Seungheon frowns but nods at her, going at it again, before Minseok suddenly gets up, his cell phone alarm going off telling him it’s his time now for the new group. Seungheon doesn’t let the distraction get him but sees as Hyemi’s feet follow after their choreographer out of the corners of his eyes. He looks up when he finishes.
“Work on it,” Minkyung says before waving him off, “Go before Minseok goes crazy with not having everyone there.”
Seungheon nods again before quickly leaving the room to go over to the next one, watching as everyone is already in the center of the room with Minseok eyeing each and every one of them at the front with his hands casually in his pockets. He drops his piece of paper on top of his bag in the corner before joining the group, watching as Minseok eyes him before giving them all a smirk.
“Now, let’s see what we can do.”
co-author's note: hi there! here is the awaited first chapter! i hope it doesn't disappoint ;u; you're going to see their journey to the idol life starting from this point in time, so hopefully you will see some character developments and falls and see what it takes for them to debut ( omg, i hope i can deliver what i'm wanting to convey ;;; ). you'll also see how they choose which member sings what part, etc. there is also no clear leader as of this point -- that will be answered later. it also won't just be focusing on these seven. i'll bring in all their outside friendships and their relations with the three coaches and other trainees as well. ( scroll down )
speaking of, i hope infires doesn't mind, but i'm going to maybe start doing her thing like in her wonderful story past, present, future when it's appropriate ;;
i have a question for all those still with this story -- now that you know who the main characters are and have a glimpse of each coach and ceo, which persons would your own character be closest to? who would they be awkward with or even hate and not really have much to talk about ( for example, kihyun and shownu from the beginning of no.mercy )? please answer and maybe say what type of relationship they have in the comments below when you can so i can get started on the second chapter. either that, or add onto your friends/acquaintances sections in your application. you can add onto that section any time during the course of this story, i will continually check each of your applications to make sure i'm conveying each of your characters correctly. each main character's application is linked to their stage name on their card.
other than this, i think this is it? this is so long, i'm so sorry ;; i just want to make sure i'm capturing each of your characters amazingly so it's all a joyful experience ;u; ( please keep your eyes out on the newsfeed too in case since i have an upcoming hand surgery in two weeks ;; )
updated: february 18, 2015
HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR ;u;
speaking of, i hope infires doesn't mind, but i'm going to maybe start doing her thing like in her wonderful story past, present, future when it's appropriate ;;
i have a question for all those still with this story -- now that you know who the main characters are and have a glimpse of each coach and ceo, which persons would your own character be closest to? who would they be awkward with or even hate and not really have much to talk about ( for example, kihyun and shownu from the beginning of no.mercy )? please answer and maybe say what type of relationship they have in the comments below when you can so i can get started on the second chapter. either that, or add onto your friends/acquaintances sections in your application. you can add onto that section any time during the course of this story, i will continually check each of your applications to make sure i'm conveying each of your characters correctly. each main character's application is linked to their stage name on their card.
other than this, i think this is it? this is so long, i'm so sorry ;; i just want to make sure i'm capturing each of your characters amazingly so it's all a joyful experience ;u; ( please keep your eyes out on the newsfeed too in case since i have an upcoming hand surgery in two weeks ;; )
updated: february 18, 2015
HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR ;u;
created by -catalyst
〈 ♞ 〉i swear i'm going to spam this entire story with new chapters by september/october! ( 1 aug 2017 )
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