Idol

Mika is practicing the song, ‘Tongue Tied’ by her favorite group, QW1KS4ND. Mika loved to dance; she also loved to sing. It was her favorite pastime. She hoped one day she could become an Idol, like all her favorites. Mika practiced every day and stayed healthy for three years. She’s 17 now and has an audition in a couple of days. She and her mom are flying out tomorrow. Mika is auditioning for a survival show called To Be Honest. That’s the show that produced QW1KS4ND. This season, they are making a girl group.

On To Be Honest, the hosts are allowed to say whatever they want. They could give you the best praise or the worst criticism. Mikas’ audition video was her dance cover of ‘Tongue Tied,’ then they picked her to go onto the show as a contestant. Getting to the venue was easy, but gaining the confidence to do it was hard. She was given a tag with her name, number, and country: Mika Lee 273 America. This was the biggest number of contestants this show has ever had, but they always cut out about half.

There were 300 girls but only 10 could make it to the final round. Mika knew this was going to be very difficult but she was determined. This season was packed with people from all around the world, it was exciting.

300 girls from many different countries, and many opportunities to make new friends. Mika was seated in her seat, she knew it was hers because it had her number. She is sitting next to a girl from Japan, she looks about 15. She was pretty and also cute at the same time. Mika was nervous to talk to her because she didn’t know if she could speak English but she tried anyway.

“Hi, I’m Mika,” Mika spoke softly. Ayaka stared at her, confused. “Ah,” Mika thought for a second, she pointed to herself and said, “Mika.” the girl gave a small ‘ah’, pointed to herself, and said, “Ayaka.” Ayaka gave a sweet smile and giggled softly. Mika and Ayaka tried to talk to each other for a while; until the hosts were announced. Mika and Ayaka were surprised to see Kim Minseong, the all-rounder, from QW1KS4ND. They both fangirled before regaining their composure.

Minseong explained that in this episode over half of the girls would be sent home, and that they would only take 100 girls to start the show. 100 sounds like a lot, but Mikas’ number was 273, if this was their current rank she’d have to move up more than 100 spots. He also explained that everyone would show off their skills over a number of days so they can fix everyone’s ranks.

Mika felt more nervous as he continued to speak. What if she didn’t make the cut-off? Even worse, what if she placed 101?! In the front of the big room, there was a screen, and on that screen was every number from 1 to 300, and it would pick a number randomly.

“278” Minseong announced. The girl a couple seats down from Mika stood up and walked to the small stage and performed in front of everyone, Mikas’ anxiety grew as she knew she’d have to do that as well.

“You were very sloppy, it was aggravating to watch,” Minseong commented, “it was like watching a baby giraffe learn how to walk.” he scoffed, “You could have and should have done better, especially if you want to move forward.” The girl’s head was held low as she started to feel disappointed in her performance. “Go back to your seat.” Minseong was so cold to her, nobody knew he could sound so rude. It’s true what they say never meet your heroes.

After a girl performed her number was removed from the list so there would be no repeats, the last number called for the day was 273. Mikas’ number. She walked to the stage and stood in the middle. “Hello, I’m Mika.” Her voice shook. “What will you be performing Mika?” Minseong said. Mika felt dumb for saying this, “Tongue Tied by QW1KS4ND.” Minseong looked surprised, “Did you know I wrote, produced, and choreographed that song?” Mika nodded, “So you know I’ll be a lot harsher on you than others, right?” Mika nodded again, and he sighed, “Okay, start whenever you’re ready.” Minseong puts down his microphone and observes Mika.

Mika took a deep breath and nodded, then the music started. She changed into a whole new person when she was on the stage. It was as if her anxiety didn’t exist, but this performance was pure adrenaline. In the end she didn’t remember what happened, but she did remember that Minseong didn’t look disgusted. He nodded, “It was okay, your moves were sharp and clean. Your pronunciation was okay, though you’re definitely not fluent. You can definitely improve, but other than that it wasn’t completely horrible.” He leaned back in his chair, “You can go back to your seat.”

Mika bowed, “Thank you.” She said as she hurried off to her seat. The second she sat down she started silently crying, Ayaka looked at her with a concerned face, “That was so scary.” Mika said through her cry. She continued to silently cry until they were able to leave. Because Mika and Ayaka were one number apart they were able to room together, which let them try to get to know one another. The next day, was the day the other half of the girls, including Ayaka, were supposed to perform. Ayaka didn’t seem nervous at all, and Mika found out why. When Ayaka performed it was as if she was watching a professional concert, Ayaka could match any type of song and she could do everything.

Mika was in genuine shock about this performance, and at the end of it, it looked like Ayaka didn’t even break a sweat. She had a sweet look on her face with steady breathing. Minseong and the other judges gave their feedback and she came to sit back down next to Mika, and Mika just stared at her for a while. Ayaka looks at her with a confused expression and Mika flailed her arms around, showing her shock and Ayaka just laughed and turned her head back to the stage.

At the end of the day the final ranks were announced. 100 girls stay and 200 girls go home. Mika was too scared to look at the rankings, she just stood at the crowd that were frantic to find out their rankings. Suddenly, Ayaka jumped on her with an ecstatic expression, she pointed to herself and held up a 2 and a 3 with her hands. Ayaka was moving on. Mika smiled at her and gave her a hug, Ayaka points at her with a confused expression and Mika shrugs, Ayaka gives a playfully angry face, points to the board, then pushes Mika to see her rank, mostly everyone left so she had space to check. 1... 2... 5... 7... 10... 11... wait... 10...

Number 10: Mika Lee

She was moving on. Mika was moving on. She turned to Ayaka and hugged her tightly. Both Mika and Ayaka jumped up and down excited for each other. Just then, Minseong and the other judges walked by, Minseong looked at Mika and nodded, she nodded back and smiled. Mika looked back to Ayaka and makes an eating motion with her hands and Ayaka nods rapidly in response, Mika wraps an arm around her shoulder as they find somewhere to go eat.

The point of To Be Honest is to see if you can grow and improve your skills within a small amount of time, this show only takes a month to record because everything goes so fast. Only the most dedicated, and the most talented make it to the end of this show.

We’d have to prepare a new song for the next performance, but the challenge was that the contestants only got to practice for a day and a day alone. This test was to see if the contestants could work well under pressure and a heavy deadline. Mika got a song called Crazy by a soloist named X1, she had never heard this song before so she stood in her practice room and listened for a while, she then watched a slowed-down version of the dance practice and tried to mimic it.

Another part of this show is that they don’t use trainers, this show is based on raw talent and ambition, so Mika had to save herself in this dance because if she didn’t she’d be sent home. After learning the dance and beats to the song she dedicated the other 25% of her time to learning the words. Once she did that she put everything together until 3 AM, the performance was in 4 hours so she decided to just stay up until then. She had breakfast and did a quick workout to keep herself awake.

Ayaka was a girl who needed every ounce of sleep to function properly, if she didn’t get her 8 hours, all hell would break loose. instead of 20 hours of practice like Mika did, she only did 12 hours of practice. She was confident in her ability to perform with the amount of practice she had and she was confident She and Mika would pass this round too.

Mika and Ayaka weren’t sat together this time because their ranks were further away than the first time. Mika sat in her anxiety, she turned and found Ayaka a couple of rows above her, Ayaka saw her and smiled, this calmed Mika and she definitely felt better. Mika turned back to the front and took a couple of deep breaths so she could be completely calm when she performed. Waiting for her turn, Mika chugged 6 water bottles. When her turn arrived she felt sick, not from the nerves, but from all the water.

She performed with all of her faux confidence, she was then commented on by Minseong, “It was better than last time, but I don’t think you understand the meaning of the song,” he sighed, “You’re not very good with your facial expressions, you need to fix that.” Mika nodded, “You can go back to your seat.” Mika thanked him and walked off the stage, when nobody could see her she ran to the bathroom to throw up. She threw up pure water for about 20 minutes. Mika walked out of the stall and leaned on the sink, she was breathing heavily with her head in her hands, she then rinsed out her mouth, and went back out to her seat just in time for Ayaka to perform her song.

Mika wasn’t surprised when Ayaka absolutely destroyed her song, she watched in awe knowing Ayaka didn’t put all her time into practicing. Mika wanted to be that, she wanted to be so talented she didn’t need 20 hours to practice, she didn’t want to waste her time practicing and practicing, she didn’t want that to become her whole life. Mika began to rethink her choice about coming onto this show. Instead of being scared of going home, she was now scared of being chosen. If she got picked would this be her whole life? A life of no rest? Mika really needed to think about this.