First Monthly Evaluation (4)

"Faster, faster!"

"Hyung, this hat got swapped with mine!"

"Let's run this one more time. Three, four—."

Miro's third floor had been hectic from the morning on. Trainees darted around helping each other with their outfits, the corners of the mirror alive with choreo run-throughs and vocal warm-ups.

"Alright, everyone gather up now—!"

The New Talent Development team manager overseeing the trainees called the scattered kids together. Every face was drawn tight with nerves as they gathered in one place. Once each group was seated in its own row, the door opened and the judges walked in, each with a folder in hand. They took the chairs set up along one side and prepared to judge in their own ways.

"Ah, sorry. Am I the only one late?"

And a beat later, the practice room door opened once more and Seo Taeil, in sunglasses, walked in. Bundled up in a coat and scarf, he had the same folder tucked under his arm.

"Taeil-ssi, please sit over here."

"Yes, thank you."

The arrival of Seo Taeil — the reason half the trainees in this room had signed with Miro in the first place — sent another ripple through it. With his sunglasses pushed up behind his ears, Taeil silently ran through the trainees' names in the folder, one by one, in his head.

"……"

And on the one name that hit hardest, he drew a private underline, then looked over at the one it belonged to.

At the very back of the room, having handed the front row over to groupmates making a fuss about Seo Taeil showing up, sitting in the last row doing nothing but neck stretches — Kang Hajin.

"Alright, then."

Ji Suho, seated in the middle, closed his folder. Every eye turned in one direction.

"Shall we get started? Everyone prepped hard, right?"

"Yes!"

At last, Hajin's first month-end evaluation began.

---

'Everyone put in the work.'

That was my overall read watching the other teams perform. Month-end running order was drawn from lots, and thanks to Gong Seok pulling the very last slot for us, I got to watch the other kids' stages in peace. (In peace — maybe only from my side.)

First up was Group B, with Ju Eunchan and Seo Taehyun.

The lineup itself made it obvious they'd be going performance-heavy, and they'd picked a hip-hop track that had been a big hit around last year. Old-school look — easy to dance in and playing right into the vibe — with rich-kid Ju Eunchan's spread of coordinated accessories as the accent.

'Nice, being rich.'

Matching bandana prints, similar styles on their wristbands and armbands — even inside an old-school look where each guy's taste ran different, they read clearly as one team. And to really lean into showing off their dance chops, they went around trading solos.

"Whoa!"

"Ah…."

There were slips, sure. Lee Yugeon, the special class's go-to center by reputation, launched into a b-boy move on his solo and blew it.

'……? What kind of reaction is this.'

And right then, the vibe among the trainees went a little strange. Turned cold, maybe. I was trying to feel out the undercurrent when a Ju Eunchan krump-dance turn came through right after and had everyone jaws-open clapping, and the moment slipped past.

'The heck? Am I imagining it?'

While I was chewing on the odd mood, Group B's performance wrapped. I watched the kids catch their ragged breath and take their feedback in turn, and before long the next groups were rolling through.

Group C, with Dan Haru and Jung Siwoo, went with an acapella-based ballad showcasing vocal power, exactly as I'd predicted.

Dressed in floaty white shirts and knits, Jung Siwoo and Dan Haru faced each other and stacked harmonies, and a few guys actually let out audible sounds of awe.

'See? They're good.'

The image of Dan Haru — who'd spent his nights grabbing me by the collar and rolling around whining that he couldn't do this — flashed up, and I barely swallowed a flash of irritation.

Two more groups after this, and we were up for real. Sneaking a glance at the groupmates beside me, I could see each of them locked in his own way, eyes on the evaluation.

'Well… they don't seem too rattled, at least.'

I'd been about to look away rather than break their concentration by saying anything, when Kim Wonho — apparently catching my glance in that brief moment — tapped my arm carefully.

"What?"

"Hyung, uh."

"Yeah."

"…Why'd you put it on me? This choreo."

Where's this coming from — I turned to look at him, and his face was surprisingly serious. I'd been thinking about pulling up a few other kids' stats, but his eyes were too earnest for me to brush him off, so I looked at Kim Wonho slowly and gave him a straight answer.

"You looked like you could do it."

"……"

"I watched all your practice videos. You looked like you could. I don't bet on things that don't work."

Even after that, something in Kim Wonho's face said he still had a lot on his mind. I was about to say something in case he messed up later because of it, but — he wasn't Seo Taehyun or Yoon Taehee. Somehow it felt like it'd be fine, so I let him be.

"Alright, next. Group A, come on up."

"Ha… kids, do this right. Seriously."

"Wait, this is the group that got wrecked at the midpoint check, right?"

Our turn had come around fast. Every eye in the room turned on us. I tapped Kim Wonho — still lost in thought — on the shoulder and stood.

Time for the real thing.

---

Ji Suho was, to be blunt, a little worried.

'If they turn into a hot potato this early, first month-end evaluation and all….'

Lee Doha on dance break, Kim Wonho's original choreography, Gong Seok as main vocal — the performance was riding on far too many untested pieces. The other trainees had accumulated performance data to score against, but Hajin?

'He needs to leave a real impression this time. What is he even thinking.'

He watched the group take its practiced position at the center of the room. Ripped black jeans and black tops with small accent pieces here and there — Group A snapped into formation.

Doha stood at the center, surrounded, each member wrapped around the next, and the song started.

Ooh—, Woah—

The group chant Hajin had sung alone on the guide had, on the recorded track, become all of Group A singing it together.

At the same moment the song hit, Doha — at center, hand and gaze stretched upward together — turned his head, and the bodies of the groupmates wrapped around him bloomed outward like a flower.

A short group sequence followed to the accelerating intro rhythm. The four of them moved as if being conducted by the Doha at center.

The song opening on a thudding drum drop.

Here we go — our brilliant scenario

Knight tearing through the night, all who longed for a new dawn, out onto the streets

Kicking out and driving to center, Hajin took the first line. Wearing a fully confident face as if leading an uprising, Hajin held live vocals standing through the middle, and on the 'Knight tearing through the night' lyric he snapped back into formation with the groupmates.

Across the red horizon — MAKE NEW WAVE!

Light the fire in your chest

The small ember they trampled flat

Hajin peeled back and Taehee and Wonho's tightly-traded parts came in. A harmony between the team's highest and lowest voices.

'…Their live's leveled up?'

Delivering a fairly demanding pair choreography, neither one showed the ragged breath or shaky pitch they used to.

label: Gong Seok (Affiliation: Miro) Appeal points: 'Teacher, I have a question!' — Studiousness, drive to learn label: Kim Wonho (Affiliation: Miro) Appeal points: 'A TO Z' — Fast learner label: Yoon Taehee (Affiliation: Miro) Appeal points: 'Steel heart' — Delivery, on-stage adaptability, performance actualization (91%)

—Just — could you look after Taehee's and Wonho's vocals for me, hyung? I'll be flat out keeping up with the performance timing.

—Huh? Yeah. That's no trouble…. Thanks, Hajin. I'll give it my best.

—Yeah. Fighting, hyung.

The result of Hajin — who'd known these stats from the start — deliberately putting Gong Seok on Taehee and Wonho. After the two of them's rapid trade came Doha's brief rap.

Watching, Ji Suho caught something and let out a startled laugh.

'The choreography's fundamentally not that hard. Mostly simple moves….'

Simple moves — but precisely because they were simple, the detail of each move was easier to lock in. Thanks to Hajin's drills that had hammered on 'angles' and 'lines' the whole way through practice, even Doha was now hitting a razor-sharp group choreo dead on every beat.

'Whoever has a part just does free gestures, so on Doha's part you can push the choreo harder.'

Ooh—, Woah—

The instant Doha's rap ended, every instrument dropped out and the group chant surged in again. The moves all slowed together in step.

Ride it — we're the New WAVE!

The vocal trainer sitting beside Ji Suho let out an audible sound at main vocal Gong Seok's high note. Did his range even go that high? There wasn't time to sit with the thought — the next part came in hard on top. Hajin's workaround, on his read that no single member had the range to carry a lot of parts.

Watch me — grip Victory tight in my hand

The Melody that'll raise the fallen walls again

I'll drag out the you even you don't know and hold you there

If you can see the end of this beginning

Ride it — we're the New WAVE!

The second chorus flew by in an instant, and after Wonho's solo-danced bridge—

At last, the dance break section, the sticking point. Alongside Gong Seok and Hajin's harmonized high-note ad-lib, Doha and Taehee took formation.

Wonho, having safely finished his own part, spun back and rejoined the flow — and looked at Doha, now blocking the way in front of him.

One in ten. An absurd success rate.

Doha's dance break, that he'd asked Hajin over and over whether it was really the right call.

Hajin's answer, every time, had been the same.

—You can do it.

—……

—All he needs is one. He just needs to nail it one time.

—What the hell does that even mean. Isn't the one time the hard part?

—Watch your mouth, kid, I told you. Anyway — trust me. Get him to land it once, and the odds go to 80%.

—I really don't get what you're thinking.

Wonho still didn't know what the words meant and couldn't understand them, but he'd decided to just trust Doha. Doha had said he'd do it right. Had thanked him for entrusting the choreo he'd built to him, and said he'd definitely land it.

And there was one thing Wonho didn't know and Ji Suho didn't know and even Lee Doha himself didn't know — a thing only Hajin knew.

label: Lee Doha (Affiliation: Miro) Appeal points: 'Steel heart' — Delivery, on-stage adaptability, performance actualization (80%)

Once he landed it a single time, Lee Doha was the kind of person who was guaranteed to succeed on stage.

Guaranteed.