I am a Pioneer

A Very Interesting Challenge

February 4th 2013:

We are gathered in the Living room of our dorm. The lights have dimmed and changed to a deep pink colour. EVE is issuing our next challenge. The TV screen has just turned on. What happens next makes us think. I very quickly realise what our challenge is. I giggle a little. This should be fun. Various videos pop up on the screen. Miss A, Wonder Girls, SNSD, EXID, Sistar, AOA, Hello Venus, Nine Muses, Apink, After School, Orange Caramel, Brown Eyed Girls, KARA, 2NE1, T-ARA, Girl's Day, Brave Girls, and many more girl groups appeared on the screen performing. EVE then reveals our next challenge. "Your next challenge is as follows: You are to form 3 teams of 3 and select two girl group songs that you will practice and perform as covers. You will be given backup dancers to bring the numbers up to the correct number for each group that you perform too, however, only the three trainees will sing and take centre. Following the group performances, you must then sing a cover of a Female Soloist. You may do this on your own or in a group of two, it is up to you. This time around you will receive votes from the public and trainees at the company. Be prepared to perform to your best abilities." With that EVE shut off, leaving us alone in the room again. "Shall we form our teams then?" Ra Chan-wook asked. He had ended up beating Ho Jung in the Last Stand by a fair margin. He had performed a very well-done cover of G-Dragons Coup d'etat to soundly send Ho Jung off. Ho Jung had performed Demon by Jay Park. It hadn't gone very well for him, however. His performance was just that much worse than Ra Chan-wook's and was sent home.

Very soon, we had made our performance groups. Myself, Hyun-Shik and Youngjae were grouped, DongBang, Kyu-Bong and Seol Young were together, while Akira, Hayashi and Chan-wook were the last of the groups to form. We then split up to figure out which songs we would perform. That would be the biggest decision for us, as I'm pretty sure all of us thought along the same lines. We wanted to pick songs, that were well-liked, that would provide entertainment for people to watch, but at the same time, didn't want it to be too embarrassing for us to perform. With that decision, we chose to perform Run Devil Run by Girl's Generation, but then Hyun-Shik made a shocking comment. "Maybe we should go with one of the songs with a little racy choreography. I feel as though the other groups will also try to refrain. So by choosing the opposite we would stand out a little more. It will also show that we aren't afraid to perform those songs if we have to." His thoughts were sound, but we were still a little hesitant. We talked over it some more before we finally agreed with him. So we chose our second song to be Hush by Miss A. This was going to be interesting for all parties involved I thought.

About a week later we were busy practising our dances to the songs we were covering. We had finished recording our voices over the original backing track and just had to work on our dance and singing at the same time. Hush was particularly funny to practice. Every time we did it, we couldn't help but laugh at each other. Even the backup dancers that were there for Run Devil Run enjoyed watching us practice, as we only needed one of the backup dancers for this song.

"So, how is your solo performance practice coming along Jin-Ho?" Hyun-Shik asked me. He and Younjae had decided to team up for the second part of the challenge, while I opted to go solo. I had already chosen the song that I was going to perform. I wanted to keep it a surprise for everyone, so refused to practice with others present, or tell them anything. It was enjoyable seeing them try to guess and get nowhere near. The song I had chosen was one they wouldn't think of for a couple of reasons. 1. It was a song far out of the normal range of a male. Second, I had said I would sing it in its original key, meaning, It would have to be a song with a lower register. However, this was not the case. I had been busy over the last year practising my vocals just so I could hit this note. I had finally been able to hit this note last month, and couldn't wait to finally reveal it. I'm sure it would shock JYP and guarantee a victory. I had to move up the popularity rankings this time or I might be in trouble. They currently looked like this:

8th: Ra Chan-wook

7th: Sim Kyu-Bong

6th: Chu Jin-Ho

5th: Sim Hyun-Shik

4th: Nam Younjae

3rd: DongBang Kyong

2nd: Seol Young

1st: Hayashi Roh

I wanted to at least get into the top 4 before the next challenge. So I was hoping this song might change it up a bit. The practices continued for another 4 weeks. I was very happy with how our two team songs had progressed. We were almost perfect. Just a couple of things to Iron out. But my solo performance still needed a little more work. The choreography was simple, so I had it down. But I was still struggling to hit the high note while moving. I had decided to slightly alter the choreography. After doing so I could hit the high note, and hold it perfectly. I had finally managed to be able to reach the note and maintain some depth in my voice. I could probably reach about three semitones higher, but it would be a very thin note if I did that. About one more week passed before I was very satisfied with my solo performance. We still had three days until the challenge day, but I was ready, and so were the others. This was going to be exciting, fun, interesting and shocking for everyone involved. I looked forward to it.