The boys all walked in the practice room to find TJ and Jinho waiting there. They immediately got the evaluations going but not one of the 10 boys were worried. Taeyang went up first and he performed it all almost perfectly with you still being able to notice his clunky movements and his bad singing still being visible but you could tell he improved and was trying his hardest. When he was done Jinho was the first to speak "Your movements were stiffer than a board and you can barely carry a tune." Taeyangs face dropped until Jinho said " But… you have obviously improved a tremendous amount and your facial expressions are remarkable, is that due to you being from an acting company?" Jibeom looked at him with shock until he realized his stats made a lot more sense that way and that he never really asked any questions. Taeyang then quickly answered with a short yes and TJ started to speak "I see great potential in you and I believe you can keep improving to a solid level and that is why we are ranking you up to B". Taeyang says thank you as 5 other boys went up. Li Zhuo goes up and gets a bunch of critism and is also told he improved but he did not improve as much as Taeyang. Two Japanese trainees and another Korean trainee went up with the Japanese trainees staying the same and the Korean trainee going down in rank. Kade goes next and performs the dance perfectly but his vocals and erformance while improving were still subpar. The two mentors noted his solid dancing but also his pretty bad skills in everything else. It was finally Jibeom's turn and he goes up in front the trainers and begins his performance. He does everything perfectly with very few mistakes with him hitting every note and hitting every dance step really well. He polished everything he didn't know and made sure to practice his expressions with Taeyang whenever he could. The trainers both looked at him with a unreadable expression until TJ speaks first " a lot of the other people in the other ranks stopped focusing on vocals once they heard that Taeggeon was going to be the main vocalist of the signal song but I am happy to see that you and the others all still practiced your singing". Jibeom put on a small smile until Jinho also started to speak "It was a very solid performance and I think you will go far in this show but what really interest me is your vocal tone, you have an exceptional vocal color that I really think elevates your vocals even tho you might not be the most skilled vocalist". Jibeom again puts on a small smile until they are all sat in a line and their results are explained. TJ begins speaking and gives his verdict "Jibeom and Taeyang are the only 2 who ranked up today, the rest of you have improved immensely but those are the two who elevated their performance the most so they are now in B rank. The other trainees celebrated with them but Jibeom noticed a sad expression on Kade's faces but he still celebrates with everyone. They all go back to their dorms to relax and there he sees Grisha and Taegeon again and they seem to be doing Korean lessons and Jibeom is suprised to see Taegeon speaking in mandarin and he sound quite good too. Grisha is listening attentively and paying attention as he was writing notes on almost everything Taegeon was speaking on. They both stop after about 15 minutes and finally notice that Jibeom entered the room and they all greet each other with a more friendly vibe then their other meetings. Taegeon and Jibeom start to speak as Grisha puts on his earbuds with Jibeom hearing that a lot of the songs are ReJoy songs and a small smile slips onto his face. While they were talking Grisha started to slowly tug on Taegeon's sleeve while saying "Hyung I'm hungry". Taegeon almost immediately tells Grisha "put on your jacket, were gonna go get some ramyun from the convenience store". Grisha almost immediately grabbed his jacket with the biggest smile Jibeom has ever seen him have since meeting him. Taegeon comes back with a hoodie on while holding 2 masks and a cap and a beanie before asking "Jibeom hyung would you like to come?". Jibeom also hadn't eaten yet and decides to tag along and they happen to meet Taeyang in the hallway and he decides to also come along. They all walk to the closest convenience with Jibeom having a little confusion on why Taegeon and Grisha were completely masked up and wearing so much with Taegeon quickly answered by saying "Our company is going to debut a new boy group soon and there often people who randomly video trainees to try to figure out who is in the group, there is also the fact that our profiles were probably released by now so I'm still trying to remain incognito" he says with his eyes smiling. The one who was harder to hide was the very tall Grisha who when Jibeom looked at just his eyes looked quite scary. He snaps himself out of it though as they all arrive at the convenience store and each pick out their food and drinks with Taegeon saying he would pay for everything while pulling out a card but the cashier looked suprised to see it for some reason. Taegeon takes his card back and tells everyone to garb their food as they sit down at the tables and kinda just talk with each other. They all just kinda have small conversation and just kinda relax after the long week they had. While they were all eating they actually learned quite a lot about about each other like Taeyang was originally going to be an actor but the company told him to be an idol instead because he is handsome but he is still short. Grisha is a quarter Russian, Taegeon was going to be in the debut lineup of the group he talked about earlier but came to support Grisha, and just overall having a good time just laughing. They all clean up their trash and get up and leave until the saw a women recording them withbhere phone outside the store which she put away almost immediately as they saw her. They were not suprised but what was suprising was her coming up and saying "Are you guys that boy group ReJoy. They quickly said no and she looked disappointed until she looked at Grisha and said "He looked like one of the members so I thought it was him". She then realized something else after looking at Taeyang "Wait, are you on that survival show, whats the name … Aether!". Taeyang put on a suprised expression and then he put on a smile and said yes which she then went on a rant "I saw there was a new show releasing and since I like idols I was going to watch it and the profiles came out then I was scrolling through them and then I saw yours and I thought you were handsome so I decided to vote for you then..". The girl was rambling quite a long time without stopping to breathe at all. She finally said "I'm sorry I'm keeping you here, I have a tendency to ramble". She quickly asked for some pictures which they provided and said she would vote for them and she would tell her friends to vote for them too. The boys all left quite happy as they went back to the dorm smiling ear to ear especially Taegeon as he had his first real fan in a way. As they arrived back at the dorm, and Taegeon went back to his, they got ready for bed as tomorrow would be the street performance. The boys all awoke on a bright and sunny day as they all were given a specific outfit that all the trainees would wear during the performance. They wear all put in a sort of white suit with a black shirt and a golden tie to sort of emphasize the idol paradise feel of this survival show. They all ride busses to a place that the show was allowed to use for filming and they put all the trainees in their places with all the low rank trainees being in the back and all the higher rank trainees being in the front with the A having a camera in front of them for the fan cam that they would be provided for their skills. A crowd of people gathered to try and figure out what was happening and some people following the show saw that the performance would happen from their social media. The boys were all put in their places as the performance for "Paradise with you" began. The performance was put together extremely well with a catchy chorus, a fun choreo, and all the vocals coming together quite well but with standout vocals soaring above like Taegeon, Xulan, and a couple other notable trainees which led to a remarkable performance overall. Lee Yejin is a girl in her last year of college who was quit and didn't have much going on. She loved idol groups like ReJoy and Genesis but she had kinda grown out of it with how much she was occupied with at college. She kinda fell out of it with things like toxic fan culture, burn out, and just not having the time to indulge in the groups she loved like she used too. She was walking down the street and scrolling through her social media until she saw a bunch of handsome men all grouped together in a large sort of triangle formation in a square that was known for its large size. She instinctively looked around until she saw Jibeom laughing an incredible amount while joking around with Ryunwoo and Taeyang before the performance started. She looked at the 3 for a solid time until they were all told to go to their places for the performance. Jibeom was walking until he saw Yejin staring at him in which he gave her a wave and a smile. The girl was mesmerized as he turned around and went to his place in the performance. She watched the whole thing beginning to end with her phone videoing him the whole time not even thinking about any of the other trainees while everyone else seemed to be mesmerized by the center Koki and how he moved and performed with everyone loving the performance overall. The girl quickly went to their profiles to find out who the boy was and discovered his name "So Jibeom" she said under her breath. She quickly went to a old fansite she used to frequent when she was a super fan and would post his fancam on their with the hashtag #Jibeom_Debut and that began Yejin journey back into kpop. The boys all went back on the busses after signing some autographs from the tables the staff set up and they all sighed in relief from how well everything went. Because of how they got on the bus, Jibeom ended up sitting with Ryunwoo and Taeyang with Grisha. Jibeom and Ryunwoo made small conversations with Jibeom cracking small jokes that Ryunwoo would do his signature deep belly laugh too. Taeyang would look at Grisha who was watching Taegeon's fancam in awe with a focused expression on his face. Taeyang broke his concentration when he said "You really respect Taegeon huh" in which Grisha would answer by nodding his head a bunch still watching the fresh fancam. Taeyang then asked how they met then he asked another question that was interesting when he said "Why do you want to be an idol?". Grisha stopped for a second and gave a simple answer "So that I can make more friends." Taeyang looked at the boy confused but he just let the answer go by as he of all people should know everyone has their own reasons. The boys are all rushed to the giant room with the chairs where it was announced that episode 1 would air tomorrow that would be mission 1 which would be the song battle round. Seoyoon then scurried on stage as the cameras started to air and she would take out her cards on go on a long rant about the next mission "The trainees would all pick a song out of a hat and whatever song you get is the song you will have in the 10 member group. This will also be the first elimination round that the boys would need to face. This will also be the first round where voting would matter as they were going to perform on a live stage with people being able to vote which team won with the app. Each vote is a point for the winning team. Two random teams will be chosen to battle for the crowds love and the winning team will get the benefit of points added to their votes with the other team getting no points and will need to rely on votes alone". She finally breathes after her long speech and finally with a charming smile says "good luck trainees" as she walks off stage and they are all dismissed to go off stage.
End of chapter 6
P.S: Sorry this took so long
P.SS: I was going to use A.I to kind of put a face to the characters but I don't know if you guys would want that or fan art from you guys could work too. Thanks for reading!