Behind the Scenes

3. Evaluations

     It was the day for progress evaluations.  (Name) rarely attended stuff like this normally, but it seemed today was something special.  They asked to sit in, and were welcomed by the CEO. It was just (Name), the CEO, the recruitment head, marketing head, acting manager, Aru, and DG.  No trainees had arrived yet.

     "So (Name), what made you want to sit in on evaluations?  You never do that" the CEO asked.  

     The recruitment head was sweating bullets.  He was sure (Name) was here to keep good on their promise that Daniel had to be great.  Duke too, but he had long overlooked and forgotten that.  

     Of course (Name) never cared about that and was only messing with the man.  "I just feel like something important might happen Mr. Jang" they said coyly.  Not every thought needs to be shared after all.

     "Really now?  I suppose we're all lucky today then.  You've always had a keen eye for that kind of stuff.  Are you sure you're not psychic?"  He joked.

     (Name) just shifted the conversation in response.  "How are you doing DG?  It's been a while since you've sat in on an evaluation.  Aren't you usually too busy for something like this?"

     "I'm here to see someone."  A vague response. (Name) should have guessed.  DG's not a liar but not trustworthy either, and he didn't bother with things that weren't important.  They just wished they knew who he was looking for. 

     "(Name), it's been a while since we talked too!  You're holed up editing videos every-time I come by" Aru said "you should make more time for me".  

     Before (Name) could reply the trainees finally started to arrive.

     Classes B and A went by smoothly.  They were good from what (Name) could tell.  Average for the type of talent the company normally produced.  

     Lasol and Oliver went on after the other classes.  As expected they were well above the other talents' skill levels.  Former leaders of class A.

     "Hmf! They're nothing special.  Isn't that right?" Aru dismissed them, and was agreed with immediately.  (Name) let out a huff of disagreement, but this was ultimately not their call to make.  They'd tried before but the CEO was adamant that the company should side with Aru, something about her being a cash cow later. 

     Joy was up next.  Her dancing was cute, but not really anything a professional would do.  The recruitment and marketing heads seemed to like her though.  She had a marketable image. She's genuinely cute, but she's a model already so it's unlikely she'll want to be an idol long-term. In the end she's not serious enough.

     Duke followed after Joy.  It was easy to see his performance was from the heart.  The best he could do.  His dancing wasn't good, but his rapping was something special.  (Name) actually hadn't heard him before, and for an add-on to Daniel's recruitment he was surprisingly skilled.  The recruitment and marketing head clearly disagreed though.  They really dared to say they weren't a charity while he was still performing. 

     "I don't know how you could evaluate his rap when you can't stop talking over it" (Name) whispered harshly.  

     "Now, now (Name) no need to get fired up," the CEO said.  He didn't seem to care much about any of the evaluations.  "Every trainee gets the same training and fair evaluation" he promised trying to appease (Name).  

     I know that's not true  (Name) thought.  Once again there was nothing they could really do.  They'd only asked to sit in and watch.  It wasn't their job, or even within their ability, to  judge talent.

     Last to go was Daniel.  He did unbelievably well for only a month of training in Class C.  All the evaluators noticed too.  They were very interested in him.  The acting manager even gave him a script to perform, unprompted.  According to the trainees it was a difficult script, yet Daniel's performance of it really wowed the crowd.  All except (Name).  All it did for them was reminded them why they weren't a recruiter.  Daniel's performance just looked like a bunch of weird squirming on the ground.

     It looked like Daniel would be the next big star of PTJ Entertainment.