chapter 004.   Episode 2 of Making Mystique (Part 1)

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“Hello everyone! Welcome to Making Mystique; I’m your host from here on out, Eunkwang from BtoB! It’s a pleasure to be here today,” he chimed before dipping into a ninety degree bow.

“In the last 48 hours, we saw our fourteen potential candidates for Cube’s new group, Mystique, prepare for a short vocal or dance stage. Their time is officially over and we will now see what they have prepared for us!"

“But before that, I ask for all of the girls to come up onto the stage to greet our audience,” he beamed, motioning towards the side of the stage and cueing for the trainees to come up.

The fourteen trainees filed in; some waved at the camera, whilst some only smiled. Once all the girls made their way onto the stage, their host proceeded to speak.

“Wow, I’m already getting excited to see what you all have prepared!” he sang, eyeing the girls, before continuing, “Are you girls curious about who will be judging your performance?”

The girls nodded and shouted out ‘yes’ enthusiastically at his question.

He grinned at their responses. “Okay, I will now proceed to introduce our judges for today, some familiar faces to our trainees but perhaps not so familiar to our audience.

“First up, we have our wonderful vocal instructor, Ahn Jiyool, who has worked with basically all the vocalists we have in Cube.” Jiyool walked in confidently, waving at the girls, before taking the furthest seat from the door. Cheers could be heard from the fourteen girls, who were glad to see a familiar face walk in.

“Secondly, we have the daring dance trainer, Park Junyoung. He is known for creating most of Beast sunbaenim’s dances and he has even choreographed a song for us, BtoB!” Eunkwang broke into a dance, earning laughter from the girls. Junyoung walked in, sending a thumbs up of approval to his previous student, Eunkwang. He greeted the girls before taking a seat next to Jiyool.

“Lastly, we have our radiant rap trainer, Rap Dragon! AYO MIC CHECK 1, 2, 1, 2!” Eunkwang exclaimed. The girls hid away in embarrassment, though bowed respectfully to the instructor when he made his way to his spot next to Junyoung. Rap Dragon shook his head at Eunkwang’s display but couldn’t hide his smile.

“With all the judges here, I have an important note to add, before I send you all back to your respective waiting rooms. The team which performs the worst will be sent to an elimination round. This will be decided by the judges before you - they will also decide what you need to do for the elimination round,” Eunkwang stated with a serious tone, keeping eye contact with the girls.

“Please do your best to avoid the elimination round. Good luck girls!”

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Group D

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After the girls made their way off the stage, one of the groups of four split up; two stayed in the corridor whilst the other two went inside the waiting room.

“What were you doing, Hyejin?” a stern female’s voice could be heard, as a camera quickly shuffled into position to capture the drama.

Hyejin appeared timid, different from how she usually exhibited herself. She looked away from the girl, clearly disappointed in herself as well.

“Why were you late?” she continued questioning Hyejin, unwilling to drop the subject. Hyejin exhaled softly, before allowing herself to meet the other’s eyes.

“I was practicing until sunrise, unnie. I wasn’t satisfied with where we left off last night and I wanted to get my parts down perfect,” she explained, “I guess I fell asleep, and before I knew it, I had to make my way here.”

The older girl’s expression immediately softened and she broke out into laughter, “I thought something actually happened to you. I was really worried about you - Sora and Dami, too.”

Hyejin smiled sheepishly, expressing relief that their response wasn’t negative. “I’ll do my best during the performance!”

Sora and Dami peeked out of the waiting room to see the two girls hugging in the corridor. They laughed, expressing their relief as well. They ran out and joined the two older girls, wrapping their arms around them.

Before they knew it, it was their turn to go onto the stage. With one final cheer, they made their way onto the pitch black stage, standing in a row. However, Dami moved one step further to the piano. Once they were in their respective positions, the lights focused on the girls ahead, giving a cue the youngest to start the performance.

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Part distribution

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Eunkwang made his way back onto the stage, as the girls assembled in a line in the middle of the stage. He made a sad face, as he glanced over at the girls.

“Now I’m feeling all emotional! Please pass me a tissue girls because Niagara Falls is on its way!” he exclaimed frantically The girls couldn’t help but laugh at his antics, though it didn’t help much to shake off their nerves.

“Although you girls undeniably captured my heart with that performance, let’s see what our judges have to say.”

Junyoung picked up the microphone first to send his praises. “I’ll just keep this short since I’m no expert on either of the categories, but I really enjoyed listening to your performance girls. Good job, I look forward to seeing what you have to offer in the future, particularly, dance!”

The girls bowed and thanked the first instructor for his comments, anxiously awaited for their critiques from the more experienced instructors.

Junyoung passed the microphone to the male beside him with a slight nod of the head. Rap Dragon returned his nod and stared at the girls for five seconds. This was to either, gather his thoughts or to just add to the dramatic effect; the intention was not entirely clear.

“Hyejin, Sora, I listened to your raps well,” Rap Dragon started off unexpectedly positively.

“You both have really great tones and flow. Nice work.”

With a slight pause, he continued, “I’d like to see how you’d both do with writing your own raps though. I felt like it was slightly disconnected from your true selves because it wasn’t written personally. I hope you both get a chance to showcase your true skills soon.”

Hyejin and Sora turned to look at each other, smiling ear to ear, before turning back to the three instructors at the front. The other two girls smiled proudly at them. In unison, they thanked him for his kind words.

“I have to agree with Rap Dragon. You both did well in the rap aspect,” she commented, allowing the corner of lips to rise slightly, however, with a pause she continued, “You both might need to work more on your vocals. Although, I can understand because you’re both mainly rappers.”

“Sing more confidently, Hyejin-ah, I know you have it in you! Sora too!” she stressed before moving onto the next pair.

“Yoonji and Dami, I can really tell you’re the vocalists in the group. Your ad-libs and harmonisation towards the end were truly flawless.”

“I do have one critique for Dami. Despite your technique being very good, I had some trouble feeling your emotions when you were singing. Perhaps it’s because of your age and the fact that you haven’t experienced heartache before?” Jiyool noted thoughtfully. “I have no doubt that you’ll improve with a few more years of experience up your sleeve!”

“That’s all I have to say. Thank you Group D.”

The girls gave one final ‘thank you’, followed by a respectful bow before shuffling off the stage.

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Group C

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The four girls of Group C were standing off on their own, except for Aria and Yigyeong who’re sitting close together, waiting for their turn to perform. Some of them silently listened in to the judges’ comments for Group D, while the rest were trying to keep their breathing and nerves steady.

One girl, however, looked pretty relaxed and calm. The backstage camera focused on her and, upon noticing the attention her way, Soeun smiled towards the lens.

“Aren’t you nervous?” one of the cameramen asked her from behind the camera. Soeun seemed unfazed by the question, shaking her head with a confident smile playing on her lips.

Yigyeong was sitting quietly next to Aria, as the said girl twirled a few strands of hair with her finger.

The former wasn’t as nervous as the rest of her teammates -- only by a tiny bit -- but this was quite different to what she used to do in the past. Although this was similar to the vibe of the theatre -- being on stage and singing -- it was still a different feeling. Aside from that, Yigyeong wasn’t singing in their upcoming performance but, rather, dancing, which she was okay with but it still wasn’t her strong point just yet.

Tana walked over to the two girls, towering over them, not only because she was quite tall, but also because Yigyeong and Aria were seated. She smiled at them upon notice then asked, “Nervous?”

“Just a tiny bit,” Aria replied in a mumble, still twirling her hair around.

“We’ll be okay, right?” she asked, worry laced with her words. At this point, Soeun walked into view, responding cheerfully, “Of course, we will!”

“We’ll be fine, don’t worry,” Yigyeong smiled a gentle smile, nodding towards her teammates just as Eunkwang called them to the stage. With final deep breaths, the girls filed out onto the stage from the back, plastering smiles on their faces as they walked into position.

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Yia as Nayeon | Tana as Mina | Soeun as Chaeryung | Aria as Jungyeon

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Finally, their performance finished and the girls were ecstatic that they made no mistake to jeopardize it. Being the most nervous one before the performance, Aria was all-smiles as she knew she made no mistake whatsoever. She felt especially accomplished.

“That was amazing, girls!” Eunkwang acknowledged as he stepped over to join the lined-up girls. He sent a smile towards them before facing the judges.

“What are your thoughts, instructors?” he asked.

Junyoung clapped his hands once, looking proud at the girls before him, and especially confident since the performance was to his expertise. Picking up the mic, he spoke, “That was amazing, indeed! I enjoyed the performance very much; it was fun and a refreshing dance. I could see you girls were enjoying yourselves,” at this comment, the girls smiled brightly, bowing in acknowledgement.

“However,” at this word, the girls’ expressions faltered slightly as Junyoung looked at each girl as he paused before continuing, “Tana… I noticed that you were a tad expressionless whenever it’s not your turn to take the stage.”

“Yes, she did seem a bit off,” Jiyool commented while she leaned forward and turned her head towards the dance instructor.

“Also, compared to everyone else in your group, your moves didn’t appear to be as powerful. I need that ‘Wow!’ factor,” Junyoung continued then smiled towards the tall girl, “But don’t fret. You’ll improve, I’m sure of it.”

“Any other comments?” Eunkwang inquired when they fell into a short silence.

Rap Dragon leaned forwards, picking up the mic from Junyoung. “I liked the kkap dance move at the end. Very entertaining,” he nodded in confirmation then leant back on his seat, giving the mic back to his fellow instructor.

“Alright, sounds like you did a wonderful job, girls! You can all head backstage and wait for the results,” Eunkwang informed the four, flashing a quick smile and shooing them off towards the back. Smiling, the girls filed out backstage, waving and bowing their thanks towards the judges.

Authors' note:

Good day, everyone! We've finally posted another chapter after a long wait, so thank you all for your patience! We've been busy but we sure hope the update was well worth the wait! What do you think of the performances so far? How about the host and judges? Please comment on your thoughts! ♥ -the-badguy-or-hero-

Hello! The second episode has begun, and so has the first performances. I hope the wait was worth it! Stay tuned for the final two performances. (:  Forever-Beast