"Sastry Mahesha, you crazy son of a gun!"
"What? It'll look good on you, I promise!"
That's right. It all started because Dojun needed to go to the bathroom. I told Mahesha about my performance, and he decided on his own that my outfit needed more...personality.
I mean, I can't disagree with that; I don't even have makeup on. Still, what dude just brings black lacy stockings that look like it'll rip if he tries to wear it.
"Why do you even have something like that in your suitcase?" Even Dojun was curious.
"Honestly? I don't know. I think I just threw everything from my closet without much care. And just now, I remember putting that in," Mahesha explained it straightforwardly while pushing me into a bathroom stall.
"I didn't say I'd wear it!"
"Come on, dude. I went through the effort of searching through my luggage!"
"I do want to see Chan wear it, though..."
What.
"Why?"
Dojun shrugged at my question.
"See? How about this: you wear the stockings and heels, and I put makeup on you. You said you were worried about that, right?"
Oh, so now you have heels, too!?
Now I regret telling Mahesha anything. Though, I can think enough to know that it's weird to appear on stage with a bare face for my concept.
"I didn't say that for you to make me do this..."
"Come on, it'll be fine! He doesn't look like much, but Daniel actually did my makeup! Just use his shade and you're good to go!"
"I don't look like much..?"
.
Yep. That is precisely how I ended up like this. I have to say, Daniel actually did a good job on me. Mahesha's heels were definitely his size, but his feet are surprisingly small and I just needed to stuff some tissues so they don't fall off.
And now I'm in full glam, right in front of 63 people focused on me.
I'm barely smiling through the shame.
"Yes, hehe. This is for my performance. I promise you'll understand once I start!"
So shut your mouth now and let me fucking do my job.
WIN chuckled at that and actually shut up. "Looking forward to it! The stage is yours, Chan."
Finally, everyone went quiet again. I can see sharp stares coming from the other participants but paid them no mind.
It's time to get my pay.
The music started—a familiar beat to most, especially Koreans, and one I'd practiced over and over again.
I got into position and started moving once I heard that same borderline annoying tune.
- Hey, hey, hey, AAA
Hey, hey, hey
GNet, drop it -
As soon as I opened my mouth, the crowd of other participants looked surprised, some confused, others cheering. Though the judges were for sure pleasantly surprised.
If you still don't get it, I'm currently covering a Korean girl-group's song, Microskirt - AAA. This song was made in the year 2015. It blew up then, but the chorus part is starting to get popular again these days.
I chose it because it helped settle my persona in this show and wouldn't get me judged too hard, as it is an English male cover of the song. Also, plenty of people, Koreans aside, know this song too.
Just as expected, I sang live with the original choreography with no issue, as it was pretty easy to follow even for someone inexperienced like me.
- I look so pretty
No matter what I would wear
And I look so sexy
Even if I don't show skin -
Gods, if it isn't embarrassing. Multiple thoughts were running through my head as I sang and did the chorus, then started rapping.
Indeed, this maybe a sensual song with a somewhat catchy beat, but it has a long rap part, too. It's pretty easy to follow after a few times of practice, though.
Then came the twist. After the rap, which was also the second verse, I entered the pre-chorus like before. Instead of following the chorus of the original song, there was instead a dramatic pause and the lights—as I had requested prior to this—turned off, letting me catch my breath quietly and drag the chair I put aside to the center of the stage.
In my interpretation, if this song, Microskirt, was an actual person or based off one, that person should be someone who easily gets praise for their looks.
The lyrics explain an attractive person that just couldn't catch the attention of the one person the take interest in—this is roughly how I would put it without fully pulling my inner nerd out.
In simple words, the lyrics seem to slowly turn more and more obsessive as the song progresses. I felt that the performance could be more twisted to make this impact more visible, and this part is exactly the reason why I needed to hire a song producer.
A sensual, catchy song turned thrilling and tense, with a sprinkle of madness to top it off.
The initial song already had a bridge and a high belt-note. It was uncommon for idol songs to have such a note in K-pop, that's how it was in the year Microskirt was created. It's part of the reason why it blew up so much.
But now, I'm adding my own seasonings to the spice.
I changed my tone lower as I dragged the chair.
- I'm getting more and more tired
Even of your eyes that look at me -
The beat slightly glitched back to the catchy tune, just to make the contrast more audible, before going back. In this part, I crossed my legs on the chair and zipped up the jacket I wore, revealing my bare abdomen.
- With risky high heels
My black stockings
How are you to take your eyes off of me? -
There was a short pause, and I took this chance to brace myself for the belting note. Either I succeed or fail—those are the only results I could produce after only weeks of asking Dojun for help with my practice.
- Wae geuri chagaunji? Moreugesseo, oh -[1]
Perhaps because I was tense, I ended up singing the Korean lyrics instead. It's not how I practiced it, but they were at least the correct according to the parts.
Anyway, here comes.
- Ije byeonhal geoya, oh, oh, yeah -[2]
Oh yeah!
This note—which I could only call the "yeah" part—lasted ten seconds, by the way. Judging by the judges' expressions right now, I think it went pretty well, even if I could barely even hear myself just now.
The catchy back-sound was summoned back along that, and I finished the post-chorus with nearly zero thoughts left in my head.
- I'm a confident girl
But why are you making me struggle?
You only ignore me -
I was feeling confident and ended up adding another high note in the end. It was probably from relief that I could wrap things up well.
"...I don't know where I'll bounce off to."
With that—at least to me—comes the end of the first round in the first episode.
[1] EN: I don't know why they're so cold, oh
[2] EN: But they'll change now, oh, oh, yeah