Fall 2008

Yongguk was pursuing his passion for music. Over his frequent visits to some clubs, he got new friends from some of the musicians and performers and now he has joined one of the hip-hop groups called Soul Connection. They got to perform in many places and he really enjoyed his new life as a rapper. He learnt to write rap lyrics and perfected his rapping skill from his hyungs.  They sold a pretty good amount of albums and he loved every moments of their on stage performances. He even got himself a nice girlfriend but their relationship did not last long. She left him for another older guy who worked in a government office. Tch, talking about a life!

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Summer 2009

It was Maslo’s (one of his hyungs in Soul Connection) idea to introduce Yongguk to an entertainment agency, after their first ever successful performance in M-net. It was really a rare occasion that an underground hip-hop group was given a chance to perform on a national television show.

He encouraged Yongguk to sign up with an agency, considering Yongguk’s young age and the potential he got.

“You will have more opportunity to improve yourself. The agency provides trainings for their artists, they have more money that you can imagine and you can take it as a chance to become better, or even the best rapper in the country. Heck, if you succeed to become an idol, you can even show that ex-girlfriend of yours what she has been missing a lot. Sounds like a great deal, eh?” Maslo blabbed about it one evening after their performance in a club in Hongdae.

After considering it for week, Yongguk decided to take that opportunity. He took an audition of one entertainment agency, and after a long wait of 2 months, he finally got a positive response. He was officially accepted as a trainee.

26 August 2009 was his first official training day in TS Entertainment. Standing in front of the big building, reminded him of the girl in the park whom he did not know her face or name. Did she get accepted? If she did, did she feel the same excitement like this on her first training day? he wondered.

Yongguk took his training days very seriously. He cut his hair short, because the agency said his hairstyle was ridiculous). He even challenged himself to be able to dance, as that was the compulsory skill that an idol must have these days, even though the dance he initially knew was the chicken dance. Actually, the agency did not expect him to be able to dance, being a rapper like he was. Nevertheless, he took it as challenge, just like in high school when he was challenged to be the best student. He wanted to prove that no one had the right to judge him incapable of doing something, before they really saw him trying out his best.

During the year, he met another trainee, whose aged about his. His name was Kim Himchan. They shared a common like in hip-hop music, although Himchan was more into the singing part. The agency often paired them up together to perform in several music events and clubs, and that was how Yongguk’s friendship with Himchan started. He also got to know another female rapper, Jung Hana, from the same company. Different from Yongguk and Himchan who were still trainees, Hana was already debuted with a girl group. But sometimes, she would also joined Yongguk and Himchan doing live performances in clubs.