chapter 007.   Episode 3 of Making Mystique (Part 1)

“Your task to prevent elimination is to do the other aspect of becoming an idol, and that is to sing. Each of you will be on your own for this task. You may choose whatever song you’d like to sing, however long you want. If you would like to rap instead, then you are also welcome to do so."
 

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“We will give you a minute to decide what to sing, then we will be hearing your performance,” at this piece of information, all the girls looked towards the judges with wide, surprised eyes.

“Any questions?” Jiyool inquired, looking at the four girls.

At the shaking of their heads, the singing instructor smiled and nodded in satisfaction. With small hand gesture from Jiyool, the girls immediately racked their brains and seemed to be in deep thought.

At this moment, Eunkwang ushered the safe groups off the stage, with the girls giving messages of motivation, as they made their way past the girls. Although they were relieved to be safe, they couldn’t help but feel growing concern for their fellow trainees.

A few of the girls in Group seemed to be reciting their lyrics calmly, while one seemed to be in deep panic, frozen in thought.

At the end of their minute, Eunkwang brought their attention back to the judges. “Is there anyone who’s confident to go first?”

Aria, being the eldest of the girls, took a quick glance at the others to see their hesitation. With a big gulp, she took a step forward to volunteer, raising her hand.

“I’ll go first,” she announced whilst concealing her growing concern.

The judges smiled reassuringly at the girl, whilst Rap Dragon only gave a simple thumbs-up of approval.

“Whenever you’re ready, dear,” Jiyool prompted.

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Breathing in deeply then exhaling out slowly, she made her way to the centre of the stage. She had made up her mind to sing IU’s Good Day, the moment she heard the mission for their elimination round. She thought that if she were able to sing the high notes at the end of the song, she would definitely reserve herself a spot in safety.

She sang the chorus of the song, and as she was building up towards the high notes, her nerves slowly swelled along with it. She pushed through and sang the lyrics in one breath, hoping she inhaled enough air to release. Unfortunately, she finished the note too quickly, but she was happy enough that her voice didn’t falter at the important point of the song.

Aria bowed then stepped back after she was done, joining the rest of the three girls in a horizontal line.

It was hard to tell what the judges were thinking at this point, as they were keeping a stone-faced expression. Shortly after Aria’s performance, they turned their attention to the next girl, Soeun, who made her way to Aria’s previous position.

Soeun, who wasn’t so nervous when this all started, nodded once, a few bit of nerves now starting to inch up her spine. Inhaling and exhaling deeply, she stepped forward and decided to rap something she had written earlier during her training period, acapella. After hearing the critique given to Group D, she thought it would be a wise decision to deliver something she wrote herself.  

Having self-written these lyrics and practising it for countless hours, it was evident that she was slowly becoming more confident as the performance went on. During her stage, she made sure to showcase in her own style of rapping to give a sense of individuality.

Once she was done, she stepped back to join the rest of the girls in the elimination round. Again, the judges refused to give any indication of how their performance went and waited for the next performance to ensue.

Up next was Tana. Since she was trained mostly in vocals, similar to Aria, she also decided to sing. She stepped up nervously, trying to smile confidently at the judges, as an attempt to slow her rapidly beating heart.

After one final inhale and exhale to calm her nerves, she started to sing Seohyun’s line, starting at the bridge of Girls’ Generation’s Into the New World. She had practiced this song many times during her vocal lessons, and although she had not yet mastered it, she did not want to hold anything back, as it was an elimination round.

Due to nervousness quickly building up inside her, her voice cracked while trying to reach Taeyeon’s high note. At her mistake, she abruptly stopped singing for a second to compose herself, before refocusing on completing her song, shutting her eyes tight and trying to mask that her mistake ever happened. Unfortunately, it couldn’t be missed by the judges.

To Tana, the deafening silence that followed after her small performance was nerve-wracking to her. She bit her lip as she stepped back, eyeing each of the judges’ expressions. However, their expressions were, again, unreadable.

YiA was the final girl to perform her vocal talents. Stepping forward, she smiled then closed her eyes to give herself a few seconds to compose herself and get into the mood of the song she chose to sing. Once she was in her zone, she flickered her eyes open and began to sing Yoo Sung Eun’s Jasmine Flower, from the first verse until the end of the chorus. Her voice flowed with emotion as she sang, and she poured out feelings into her expressions and body language as well.

The other members of her group couldn’t help but gasp in awe as she finished, envious of her basically flawless performance. She quickly filed back in line with the girls.

Since the last trainee of the group was done, the trainers gave a quick thank you to the trainees for their compliance and efforts. They quickly gathered, before engaging in a heated discussion. Surprisingly, Rap Dragon was passionately defending for one of the girls; however, the discussion was basically inaudible to the girls and Eunkwang, patiently waited for the results on stage.

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After finally coming to a mutual agreement, the instructors sat back on their seats, with the exception of Jiyool, who sat forward to retrieve the microphone to speak first.

“Amazing job, girls,” she praised the group with a small smile, “Well done.”

The girls in question dipped into a bow and gave a brief thank you.

“The judges and I have discussed briefly, with a few disagreements about who will be leaving us after this first challenge. We would like to stress once again that you all did an amazing job and it does not mean that it’s the end of the road for you, if you are indeed, eliminated.”

“I will now start off with you, Yia,” Jiyool’s gaze fell upon the said trainee, who immediately beamed upon her nickname being called, “You delivered a beautiful, heart-wrenching, short performance of Yoo Sung Eun’s Jasmine Flower. Emotions and feelings poured out of your voice as you sang. I couldn’t be more proud.”

The rest of the judges nodded in agreement at Jiyool’s words.

“And because of your wonderful performance, you are safe. You may step back,” Jiyool smiled as she witnessed YiA bow then hug her groupmates and whisper reassuring words before stepping back.

“It was truly a great performance, YiA!” Eunkwang spoke as he tried to clap for the trainee in praise.

Yia bowed at her sunbae in thanks, before, crossing her fingers for the other members of her group.

Jiyool then passed the microphone over to the rap instructor, Rap Dragon, who accepted it with a firm nod. He averted his gaze over to the three remaining girls, each one anxiously waiting for their results. His gaze then stopped at Soeun, who straightened up a little bit.

“Soeun, you decided to rap, which was quite unique as your other group mates have decided to sing,” Rap Dragon spoke, shifting his right leg to rest on the other leg, “Please let me know if you’d like to collaborate one day.”

He lifted his arms above his head, forming the shape of a heart, which was an experience similar to culture shock to his fellow instructors. A small chuckle could be heard from the girl in question, as she returned his heart.

Junyoung shook his head, with a slight smile on his face, before grabbing the mic from the Soeun-fanboy to continue with the show.

“Rap Dragon aside, you’ve shown us a truly breath-taking and unique rap. As such, our judges have decided that you are also safe,” he finally smiled, “Please step back to join YiA.”

Beaming brightly, Soeun bowed in thanks and smiled to the remaining two in reassurance, before joining YiA.

“Congratulations, Soeun!” Eunkwang clapped, smiling towards the said girl, who bowed again as thanks.

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“Tana, you chose to perform Girls’ Generation’s Into the New World. Although it was a good performance, there seemed to be a little problem towards the end…” Jiyool trailed off, building tension in the room.

“It was clear that you had trouble in reaching a note,” Junyoung commented. “However, we judges agreed that it wasn’t biggest problem. Rather, it was your inability to recover after making a mistake.”

“We believe that this can pose as a problem, particularly if you want to stay in the running for a spot in Mystique.” Rap Dragon nodded firmly at Junyoung’s words, agreeing with the other judge.

Tana pursed her lips, nodding as she soaked in the trainer’s words. She closed her eyes to calm herself, very much hoping and praying a miracle would happen and she wouldn’t be the one leaving the show.

The judges then moved their attention to Aria, who tensed a little.

“As for you, Aria, you chose to sing IU’s Good Day. Your voice was sweet and delicate, much like IU’s,” Junyoung recalled.

“However…” Jiyool cut in, “The string of high notes wasn’t really enough. In fact, it seemed too short. I have a feeling that the problem relates to your breathing technique. However, is that all that is needed to ultimately get you eliminated?”

Aria bit her lip in worry, hoping within herself that she wouldn’t be eliminated, or it would all be over for her.

“But, Aria… The judges and I believe that you have in you to improve on these techniques, and also have a quality that Mystique may need. Therefore, we have decided that you are safe,” Jiyool announced then turned her attention to Tana, “That means, Tana, I’m sorry, but you are out of the running for Cube’s new girl group, Mystique.

“As I said earlier, this is not the end for you. Since you are the youngest amongst the girls, we believe that there is still a lot you can improve on, with more training and guidance. That is not to say that we do not believe in you, but the judges and I feel that you need a few more years of experience before you are ready for debut,” Jiyool explained further, “For now, say goodbye to your friends and we hope for the best to come your way in the future.”

Tana nodded, tears sliding down her cheeks. She hastily wiped them away and hugged Aria, the girl closest to her. “Don’t worry, Tana,” Aria soothed in a whisper to the other’s ear, “You’ll have another chance.”

“Thank you, unnie,” Tana sobbed quietly, but smiled.

The rest of the trainees came back onto the stage to join the quartet, equally hugging the eliminated trainee and giving her their support, despite only a select handful of them actually knowing her.

“Thank you for having me,” Tana bowed in respect to the judges with a sad smile, then she waved as she stepped off the stage towards the back to exit.

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“And then, there were thirteen,” Jiyool smirked slightly as she eyed the rest of the thirteen trainees who were left.

“Well done, girls. You are all safe for now, so rest up and prepare for tomorrow. We’ll be having an early start,” she hinted.

The trainees whispered amongst themselves briefly about their vocal instructors words, but were soon prompted to keep quiet.

“Congratulations! You are all now one step closer to making it into Cube’s new girl group!” he acknowledged, before receiving a series of claps and ‘woos’ from the trainees.

“Thank you to the judges for giving their helpful advice and taking the time out of their schedules to join us today!” Eunkwang clapped as the judges waved to the camera and bowed their heads in acknowledgement.

The trainees gave their thanks at the same time as their host, waving at the camera one final time.

“And thank you, audience, for joining us! This has been Eunkwang,” he spoke to the camera with a bright smile, “Signing off!”

Authors' note:

Greetings! Thank you for your patience, as we have been busy with personal things and therefore, were not able to post the previous week. I hope that we have delivered this chapter well! What are you guys expecting in the next challenge? ^^ Please comment below! I would like to thank Jewel_ELF for applying in the story! We hope you enjoyed your character's appearance in the story and, don't worry, there is a chance for her to appear again somewhere in future chapters! Thanks again! -the-badguy-or-hero-

Hello! I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter, despite it being an elimination round. Again thank you to Jewel_ELF for applying! We really appreciate your participation in our apply fic; we hope we portayed your character well! Thank you to our loyal readers for sticking around and those who are new. Until next time o/ Forever-Beast