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Chapter 18
Prove Rookies and the [RE:Prove] videos drew a bigger response than expected.
There were a few reasons for that.
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[Seeing the Daylight girls makes me curious what the DGP trainees are up to now]
Yeah, I see Daylight around a lot these days so it reminds me of DGP lol. There were some trainees who were a real waste. Anyone know what they’re doing now?
Personally I was sure Ko Hyunseo would actually debut, what’s she doing these days… If you pick the best 30 seconds of DGP, I’d pick Hyunseo’s dance break in Bad Problem…
I’m not saying I dislike Daylight
I’m not saying the DGP debut group is lame
I’m not putting Daylight down
I’m not saying anyone should be swapped out
I just want to know what the DGP trainees are up to
I’m just saying Hyunseo was so amazing in Bad Problem that I thought she’d debut
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- Cushion words, fucking lol
- OP’s way of blocking trolls with cushion words, you’ve clearly been picked on more than once
- Ahh the cushion words are hilarious lol. Hyunseo went to Music Prove! There was barely any news until recently, and then she showed up in MuP’s trainee reveal not long ago
└ OP) Whoa, thanks, I never even thought of MuP, I only just found out they revealed trainees;; - OP, what are you doing, go to Prove Rookies’ YouTube right now and watch Hyunseo’s full Bad Problem cover
www.etube……
【[RE:Prove] Bad Problem (oneN:D) – Cover by Hyunseo】
└ OP) Omg going to watch right now
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First, Daylight, who had recently debuted from Dream Girls Project, was on the rise, which had gotten K-pop veterans and overseas fans talking about what the DGP trainees were up to now.
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[Prove Rookies’ lineup is seriously wild (p)]
DGP’s Ko Hyunseo
PN Youth’s Hyun Jaei
Former figure skating national team member Joo Hyerin
Honestly even just this much, I’m like wow, these girls are on the same team lol
And on top of that, the Kingorithm-famous Optimist vocalist from the Hanbit Foreign Language High School band club, plus the girl who won both Seojeong and Donghwa in practical music and got 500k views on her admission video, all on one team
Honestly I love girl group singers who can really sing so I’m super excited for Prove Rookies’ debut lol. The last member sings well too
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- Ikr lol. Sua and Jion’s vocals are so good, a rookie group tightening up the loose K-pop vocal standards
- Seo Jion really sings well. I thought her high school festival video was great, but when I heard the new Optimist cover on the Prove Rookies account my jaw dropped. What did she do in those two? three? years
└ Fr. The first time I heard her Optimist from Hanbit days I thought she was already a finished vocalist, but the new one is really different… - Not to rain on the parade but honestly I’m a bit worried ㅠ Kang Sua’s vocals stand out so much that she doesn’t feel like an idol group member…
- I love Hanbyul’s vocals, her tone is insane
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Second, there was more demand than expected for a “skilled new girl group.”
Especially among people who had grown used to the refreshing, belting main vocalists of the second and third generations.
Positive reviews of the vocalists spread through K-pop fandoms, starting with veterans who’d been rebelling against the shortage of traditional main vocalists as position distinctions shrank, crying “This is the collapse of K-pop culture!” And once that happens, anyone gets curious. That was how Prove Rookies carved out a small place of their own in the war that is the K-pop scene.
On top of that.
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[Wait, Sua and Jion from Prove Rookies both went to Seojeong Arts???]
Really? Kang Sua has an admission video but what about Seo Jion
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- Seo Jion’s major isn’t vocals, it’s composition
└ Wait really?? But how did she end up an idol
└ I’m genuinely curious. Hanbit Foreign Language High School to Seojeong Arts composition to idol, how does that tech tree even happen
[Prove Rookies’ Jion, did she graduate Hanbit FLHS and go to Seojeong for practical music?]
Wow, crazy. I’m curious how she even thought of going into practical music, and how she decided to become an idol
Hanbit FLHS is where the really good students go, and Seojeong Arts practical music has no grade-based track, it’s all talent-based admissions, so she got in on talent, how did she do it
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- Her path is so strange, study-music-idol lol
- But looking at her face, I get why she’s an idol. She’s the type that people who go crazy for cold beauties would love
└ Ah fr, she looks really cold and clean
[I went to the same high school as Jion from Prove Rookies]
(Photo of graduation album cover) (Photo of school building)
Same class year, and since I’m outside I only have photos on my phone to prove it, sorry. But it’s not a big story
Different department though, Seo Jion was in the French department
But really it’s not a big story
She was the first student in school history to get into an arts program through a performance specialty track, and she consistently scored really high on mock exams…? I heard this from a French department friend too, but at her best she got all grade 1s on a mock exam lol. Maybe the June mock exam of senior year? A French department friend cursed her out, saying “that bastard is a monster” (basically a compliment), so I remember
But really, how did she end up an idol, I’m so curious too
Maybe I should ask the French department friend, I’m really curious
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- The funniest part is that even a high school classmate doesn’t know why she wants to be an idol. Did she never talk about idols back in school?
└ OP) I don’t know either, sorry. We weren’t close - I wish Prove Rookies would do a live, I really want to ask… This feels like one of K-pop’s N great mysteries
- When I heard she went to an arts college I assumed she’d let her studies go in high school, but all grade 1s on the June mock of senior year…??? And then she took the practical exam and got into Seojeong composition????? There’s nothing about this that isn’t amazing
└ And she’s about to debut as an idol, that’s honestly the final amazing thing, the finishing touch
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The intense Korean interest in unusually high academic credentials also played a part.
The topic was “Why is this person trying to be an idol?” and the subject was an unreleased trainee, a fascinating subject nobody would push back on whether they said good things or bad. The internet crowd burned with interest, simply because it was fun!
Why would someone who’s good at studying go into music?
If she’s doing music, why would she also become an idol?
Why bother?
There were also plenty of sarcastic posts, mockery, and posts treating her like a fool, but they raised the team’s recognition anyway. As in, “that team with the girl with the weird academic background.”
Seo Jion’s feelings about this stopped at “Damn credentialism…”
Of course, if someone asked “Why are you an idol?” she’d have no answer…
What was she supposed to say?
“I’m an idol because I have something to do as an idol”…?
It wasn’t completely nonsense, but it would sound like nonsense, wouldn’t it?
Still, it wasn’t as if she had nothing to defend herself with.
Because:
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【[RE:Prove] Dear Optimist (Sour Peach) – Cover by Jion】
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- Wow, a crazy (p) rookie who brings tension to loose idol-scene vocals. A touching true story of bringing the taste of amazing 2nd and 3rd gen main vocalists to the 5th gen
- Insane, Jion, if you sing this well I’m all yours ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
- Everyone failed to capture the cool yet wistful vocal of Optimist so much that it’s a must-play song for band clubs that rejects any vocalist lol. And she does it so well, wow
- First time seeing someone sing Optimist this well since Kim Kyungyoon
└ Who’s Kim Kyungyoon??
└ Sour Peach’s vocalist - 3:21 here is seriously insane… crazy refreshing vocals
- Everything else is great too, but from 3:07 the bridge is the real deal. Emotional line, pitch, volume, nothing lacking
- It’s so nice that singing it as a high schooler in the summer feels different from singing it as an adult in winter, yet similar! If the old one felt like giving it everything, this one feels like she has room to breathe
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She was good.
Good enough that nobody could pick a fight about why she was an idol.
In fact, from Jion’s side, this was somewhat natural.
She’d lived until twenty-five doing nothing but making and singing songs, so if she hadn’t improved since eighteen, she’d die of embarrassment!
By now, Seo Jion had nearly succeeded in recovering the vocal stats she had before regression.
It was thanks to practicing like crazy with the thought that she had to sing Dear Optimist at least better than she had at the festival at eighteen.
The human body is a seriously, disgustingly fussy mystery.
Do you know the self-loathing of knowing everything in your head, but the sound coming out of your mouth isn’t it?
Some days Seo Jion sulked and holed up in the vocal room for so long that she nearly got whacked on the back by Kang Sua, telling her to take it easy. Kang Sua, of all people!
Until mid-November, Seo Jion was truly busy.
It wasn’t even that a new quest had popped up, she was just so, so busy!
First, she had to finish <Awesome>, and she had to keep catching up on her still-lacking dance. She had to practice vocals while pushing back RE:Prove filming as long as possible, and on top of that deal with school assignments and exams.
Plus the debut album title, Prove Rookies content planning, practice and more practice… There was too much to do.
The one blessing in her busy schedule was that Team Lead Lee Subin had set up a personal studio for her on the 4th floor of the company.
The other artists had long since set up their own studios outside and gone independent, so Jion got the best studio of the ones the company kept, and for the first time she felt an advantage of the company called Music Prove.
It had almost all the equipment needed for songwriting. A bit old, but quite good gear.
There was also company-owned shared electric guitar and bass she was allowed to use freely while working.
“Huh. Unnie, did you pull another all-nighter at the company?”
“…Yeah, it ended up that way.”
“It’s Saturday, though?”
“I’m here because it’s Saturday. On a weekday I’d be at school at this hour…”
So naturally she’d ended up spending nights at the company, taking short naps in the studio, leaving the dorm as a formality. These days Seo Jion’s room was practically the studio.
Early… Today it’s Hyun Jaei.
Occasionally she’d run into Ko Hyunseo or Hyun Jaei coming in during the morning, and it would get a bit awkward. Two-thirds into November, it was now a fairly familiar sight.
“Unnie, you’re really going to die like this. Isn’t there anything you can skip? You haven’t been able to go work out with Hyunseo unnie lately either.”
“Right? It’s like a horror movie that there’s nothing to quit. But after RE:Prove filming I’ve gotten a bit of breathing room.”
“The face I’m looking at right now doesn’t look like someone with breathing room…”
Jaei often acted cheeky like this, as if testing Jion’s patience. When her bouncing steps and unwavering stare wouldn’t let up, Seo Jion sighed and lightly pinched Jaei’s cheek.
“You’re getting cheeky, seriously.”
“Eek, why do that to your pretty dongsaeng who’s worried about you!”
“I’m an only child. I have no dongsaeng.”
“Wow, so mean… To Jion unnie we’re total strangers…?”
“…How did the conversation go there?”
“So fellow-member dongsaengs aren’t dongsaengs…?”
“No, that’s not, what…”
“A worried pretty dongsaeng… isn’t even a dongsaeng…?!”
“…Yes, Jaei, you’re really pretty. Yeah.”
“Put a little more sincerity into it.”
“You want to do this to someone who pulled an all-nighter?”
“Then just don’t pull all-nighters!”
“You’re so mean, not knowing how I feel, so mean…”
Humming a song while acting cheeky, Jaei read the room and slowly disappeared from Seo Jion’s sight.
Having lived together only a few months, Jaei could already read Seo Jion’s irritation level fairly accurately.
If she was grumbling out loud but smiling or soft-faced, Jaei could keep acting up a little more. It meant there was still room to indulge her.
“Jaei, do you want coffee? I’m about to run to the cafe in front.”
“…No, I’m totally fine!!!”
Conversely, even if her voice tone was gentle, if the slight smile she consciously wore usually was gone, it meant that no matter the reason there was no room for indulgence, so Jaei needed to stop acting up immediately and keep her head down quietly.
…Like right now!
That unnie isn’t mean or anything, but her blank face is so scary… I’ve never actually seen her get angry, but I feel like I really shouldn’t keep acting up.
It was practically survival instinct.
The moment their eyes met she’d get scared on reflex and lose the urge to act up, you could say…
How could such a pretty face give off such a deadly vibe? Even today, instead of giving up on acting up, Hyun Jaei calculated the maximum cheekiness Seo Jion could tolerate.
“Huh? Jaei unnie, why are you like this in the lobby? Hyunseo unnie went to work out with Sua unnie and Lee Hanbyul and said she’ll be back soon.”
“Hyerin, come here. Unnie is feeling a little sad right now…”
“Why is she like this, seriously… Didn’t you say we’d film a video today? Get up, quick. Let’s practice a bit before Hyunseo unnie gets back.”
“Hnnng…”
Mom, the world is picking on me today…
A Saturday at 10 AM in late November.
For some reason, Hyun Jaei suddenly missed her mom back home in Ulsan.
