📁 ◠◠◠◠◠ * ༘༘ CYBERPUNKZ TRAINEE TIME. 

[...]

Months passed by quicker than the girls had imagined, between the hard days reserved only for intense dance practices until their muscles hurt, the physical education classes and activities to gain 'brownie points' such as language learning and modeling practices. They didn't have the best time of their life to be honest, but don't dreams come with some sacrifices and hard effort? It was worth it, they repeated in their heads every time they felt like leaving. And believe me, they weren't few.

The agency wasn't bad at all —in words of more experienced trainees such as Kyungah — their dorms were actually small but kind of pretty and the six girls didn't take long to become closer, sharing tips about their best skills to the others or sneaking in Yvonne's room to have sleepovers and eat some extra snacks at midnight. For some moments just a group of young girls becoming friends in unexpected circumstances.

Some days were harder than others, but they managed to keep going, motivating themselves at hard times. Tying bonds. Sharing experiences. Each one with their own goals in mind tho.

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—C'omon Luna, we need to get to the practice room —said Kyungah, fully dressed for the day and thinking seriously about throwing the sleepy girl off her bed. She shook the other girl's shoulder again, fortunately it was enough for her to finally wake up. Luna stretched her neck and with a not so kind face and raspy voice asked:

—What time is it? You better not be taking me off my sleep if-

—It's 7:45, you have like 15 minutes to get ready and go get some breakfast —Kyungah answered quickly as she saw the younger one trying to get up, messing with the blankets and swearing a little while walking to the bathroom with some clothes. Luna was a little rough in the mornings but the older didn't mind at all.She laughed a little by the image of her roomie and then the sound of the shower appeared —. I can make your bed if you want.

—Please, I need to wash my hair and don't think I could do so without being late —said Luna from the bathroom. You know, that Wednesday was an important day or at least that was what the staff woman said to the girls last evening, so it was clear that no one in their sane mind wanted to risk having to plank for three minutes as a punishment for arriving late to the evaluations.

—Ok I'm gonna get us breakfast, hurry up!

Kyungah made the bed quickly and went off the room, then sprinted to the cafeteria and grabbed some food for her and for her roomie.

—Hi unnie! —Serim, who was sitting alone while eating the last bite of a chicken salad sandwich, greeted. The older one sat next to her and said hi while running her hand through the other's hair as if she was a puppy, the little girl was so cute so who could blame her?

—Where are the others? —the older asked while eating her own sandwich and taking a sip of coffee.

—Uh... I think Mary and Bella went to the bathroom and Yvonne unnie maybe is already in the practice room —she said softly — I am a little slow to eat so I told them to just go, what about Luna?

—She was just getting ready, I had to wake her up because she was sleeping too hard —she laughed a bit, taking her phone and seeing a new message from Luna. I'm at the same table as always, got you breakfast, hurry up. She replied.

—What do you think will happen today, unnie? The staff members have been acting weird these days, like I know today there are monthly evaluations but it seems like something more... Like a surprise —said Seri.

—I'm not sure, but let's hope for it to be good news —Kyungah answered with a little smile trying to finish her meal and then saw Luna with her hair not fully dry coming through the door and looking for them. — Here she is, my goodness...

—Unnie, your hair is not dry, you'll catch a cold —Seri said. Luna smiled and saluted her before taking a seat in front of them.

—I know but if I did so I wouldn't have time to eat before the evaluations, and I'm actually kind of nervous right now...

—Not to be bad but you have to be quick, there's only five minutes left —Kyungah stated looking at her phone.

—Shut up —Luna almost shouted and proceeded to eat her sandwich as fast as she could. Hopefully she wouldn't end with a stomachache during the presentation.

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—Ok... You need to work on coordination. Vocals are good. Not the best one today but a solid performance overall. Thank you! —said one of the judges, holding her tablet and writing some things on it while the others discussed something between them —Group C, please get up, it's your turn now!

A group of six girls —not our main characters for now— went to the center of the room while the other trainees looked at them expecting for the music to start. Months evaluations were part of their routine but this day still managed to scare some of the trainees, they were 70 in total, 40 girls and 30 boys. Not a bad number for an agency that opened just six months ago. Between them and the staff, the performance room (which was the biggest in the building) was almost crowded. Trainees were seated on the floor while the judges and the CEO were over an improvised desk, with their papers and pens.

Love dive by IVE sounded and the six girls began with their performance, with clean vocals and good facial expressions, to which the judges nodded in approval.

—They're great —mumbled Isabella — I bet they are all getting the A+ grade —the girls nodded as they saw the group performing with anxiety.

—Woah, look at that dance break —said Yvonne.

—You better close your mouth, Vonne —Kyungah laughed subtly at the impressed face of the other girl.

—You're right —Yvonne returned to her normal face then —. Come on girls, we can do even better, I mean we have amazing vocalists, our facial expressions queen —she pointed at Isabella — two goddess of rap and of course your national dance machine —then she pointed at herself with not much of humility, wich made the younger ones relax a little.

—Thats right, let's do our best —agreed the older one, with a soft smile.

Some seconds later, the performance ended and group C bowed out to the judges while most of the trainees applauded them. This time it was the CEO who took the microphone.

—Thanks for your presentation! It was really good, I can see you all put effort here, the technical elements were solid and the vibe you put into the song was also great, you're getting an A grade from me, girls —she smiled as the girls bowed for the second time, almost crying — Let's continue with the hard work, you can go and rest now.

The group went to their place sitting on the ground, while the rap judge called the next group.
—Group D! Please come here.

It was their turn. The six looked at each other excited for performing the song they practiced for almost two weeks, but also a little scared. Kyungah made them join hands in a circle and then say "victory" hoping to help them to cut out their nerves. Each one took a mic.

They went to their positions and waited for the music to start playing. La di da by Everglow started and they all went immediately into performance mood, almost working with muscle memory from the amount of times they practiced the choreography that month. As expected Yvonne led the dance, with a gorgeous presence, Seri and Mary nailing the vocal parts, Isabella as the center with her killing facial expressions and Luna and Kyungah rapping almost as a duo. For some minutes nothing more than the music and they enjoying their own performance sounded in the room and then after a dance break and a high note and the last chorus, the music stopped. The girls, shaking a little bit for the challenging choreography raised and bowed to the judges. The applause was almost louder than the previous one and that made them realize it was good.

The mentors looked at themselves and as they wrote some things in their papers, Bell took the microphone again after asking the others.

—Thank you so much to you too! Girls I want to say that you did amazing... This song isn't an easy one to perform and even if there were some parts that I would improve, the overall performance was all right but most of all the synchronization and the way you embodied this concept was the best of it, I can see you are a good team —she did a little pause while talking to the vocal judges, then nodded at something and continued —. So this time you are all getting an A+ grade.

—Thank you so much!

—Oh my god —said Mary softly. They all bowed to the CEO, with no more than pure happiness into their hearts. The other trainees applauded once again and this time the CEO did too, with a side smile.

—Good job, girls. Keep the hard work in —said Bell. The six girls returned to their place completely excited and then they called the next group while the girls started talking low.

—I still can't believe it —Seri was impressed.

—I told you we will do fine —said Yvonne, but truth to be told, she was also shaking a little bit from the emotion. Luna smiled and agreed, feeling better almost instantly. The bad feeling in her gut almost disappeared, was it because of the nerves or how fast she ate and the combination of the sandwich and coffee? We will never know I guess.

—We are great as a team —added Isabella, the others nodded.

—How many time will we have to wait? —asked Mary.

—Hmmm... The next groups have seven and nine members each one so I guess they are the last female teams —Kyungah looked around —. Then we have the male ones, but they are less so I think we have at least one hour and half.

—I want to know what's the important thing that the CEO will announce, you know I don't like surprises that much... —she started to play with her hair, a little bored and sleepy.

—And I want to go to the bathroom —said Yvonne.

—Knowing them, I bet they are going to wait till the end to say it —Kyungah mumbled.

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She was no less than right, groups passed on and one hour and 35 minutes later the evaluations came to an ending.

—Guys, please don't go away yet —Suryeon, the beautiful secretary was the one who talked — We still have a important news as many of you already know so please wait a little.

The whispers became louder, as the creative director and the CEO stood up and took a microphone each one.

—First of all I want to congratulate all of you for your efforts, these month evaluations went really well —the man took the word, smiling at the multitude of trainees in front of him —. And as Suryeon already said, we have news. We have been working in some projects alongside our CEO, projects that will open multiple opportunities to all of you —he laughed as he saw the woman next to him fidgeting a little — as you can see she is really excited to tell you, so I'll let her go on...

—Our agency is giving the first steps to become bigger, we have two project groups —she said, walking in front of the trainees — in which we are going to select the best trainees to form part of them, and they will debut soon. There is one for girls, a six to seven member group with a futuristic concept and another one for boys, a strictly five member one with a special concept that will be revealed soon. We will be doing auditions and activities for the interested in both of the groups. So basically those are the news, I see so much potential in all of you so please keep in the work and be ready for what comes next.

The whole room was full of applause.

—Are you thinking the same as me? —asked Yvonne.

—Yes —they all answered.

Are you ready for it? ☆