21st of May, 2022
Krieau
"So, the criteria is Stage Presence, Expression and Synchronization."
Leon read off of the K-POP world festival's judging criteria list.
"We should have those down well enough I guess.." Dejan replied.
"I don't know. We need at least one more practice I'd say." Leon said in a kind of unsure tone.
"Two. At least two more." Raffy budged in.
It was a rather nice day out. Not many people were at krieau, but it was enough to make the place seem alive. The sun was shining, but our 4 boys were all kind of disheveled and dazed by a sudden wave of sickness that had hit them a few days before. They just finished learning the steps to the song they would be auditioning with, "Do It Like This" by P1HARMONY.
"Well." Leon stood up. "Raffys right. We need another one to get the steps down and one to film. Please bring your outfits to the audition filming. And no smoking beforehand. We need a clear head."
Dejan did a kind of joking eye roll. "Oh no." He said in a sarcastic tone. "Let's finish up practice for today and then get ready for next week." Dejan decided.
Everyone agreed and got up as they finished their session for the day.
The next week went by with nerves rising and the members going over the dance a few more times on their own.
28th of May, 2022
Krieau
Their nerves were rather high considering it was only the filming for their audition. The TL;DR boys had their outfits on and the spirits were high.
"Okay boys, ready?" Leon asks into the round. They nodded and did their handshake. "T, L, D, R. WOOOAHHHHEY." It was goofy, but they still did it.
They singled to the cameraman to start filming as they stood in a line.
"Hello we are," Leon started off.
"TL;DR!" Everyone cheered their name in excitement.
"And this, is our audition for the K-POP World Festival 2022."
"LET'S GOOOO!!!" Everyone screamed closing out the clip.
And cut.
"Wow, we did that on the first take?" Raffy asked.
"No, the Leon writing this fan-fiction just couldn't bother to include all the times we broke out and laughed into the story." Thai replied.
"Huh, weird." Raffy looked around.
And so, they were on to the dance part of their audition. Everyone prepared and drank from their shared bottle of water before getting ready for the video.
"You guys ready?" Leon asked.
The boys nodded and stood still in their positions. The song began and the boys put all they had learned to the test at full power.
At the end of their routine, everyone was exhausted but hopeful of the final product. They looked at the video and celebrated upon seeing their dance; it was powerful and expressive, just how they wanted it.
"This...is..." Dejan started.
"Alright." Raffy finished the sentence.
"Yeah, it'll do I think." Dejan nodded and agreed.
"Well, alright boys. Now all that's left to do is send it in and hope for the best." Leon said.
And so, their filming day was over. It was a nice experience, but now all that was left was to wait and pray. Leon edited and sent the video in on the same day.
3rd of June
TL;DR Group Chat
"Yo guys
WAKE UP AND LOOK AT THE KWF GROUP LIST" ~L
"I can't be bothered to look at Instagram just send in a screenshot pls" ~R
Leon sent in a screenshot of the K-POP World Festival list of groups that made the cut. Amongst a few other names they recognized, there it was, "TL;DR" written in a cool font.
"We actually made it in?" ~T
"Yeah, insane.. boys when's the next practice?" ~L
The boys had made it into the Competition, but their work was only halfway done. Now the practices for the actual performance began. The next few weeks flew by as expected; every week one practice at least and although the days were hard and long, they still got the work done.
26th of June 2022
K-POP World Festival
The time had come, the festival was finally here. Our four boys were there and nervous as all hell. Leon was zoning out a few times, Thai and Dejan were going over their moves while Raffy was acting like he wasn't nervous at all. (He definitely was.)
They met a few of their friends backstage and had a bit of banter and after getting good feedback on their performance from the other performers, their nerves sank a little for the actual thing.
Sooner or later, it was time. The crowd was there, a bit over one thousand people. The boys were awestruck by the amount of people. Dejan was freaking out. "Guys, I don't know if I can do this." He said in a very nervous tone.
The other three were quick to calm him down. "Come on man. We came this far and we got here together. Let's finish it together." Leon told Dejan. Dejan took their words to heart and calmed down a bit. This all transpired soon before they were called up on stage to perform. They all took in one last deep breath and did their handshake once more. "T, L, D, R. WOOOAHHHHEY!" They cheered before stepping onto the massive stage. The audience watched closely as our boys stepped into their beginning position. Leon gave the thumbs up to the audio crew, signaling the beginning of their performance.
"Yo!" The song played as Leon popped into the first dance part of the song. All of the boys moved with full power and technique, not forgetting a single thing and not missing a single step.
"Gotta do it like THIS!" A whole three and something minutes later, it was over. The four boys stood on the stage, powerful as ever. They bowed to the clapping and cheering crowd as they stepped off the stage. All of them basically collapsed backstage after their strong performance. They were congratulated by everyone for their strong showing. Spirits were high and smiles were bright.
TL;DR spent the next two hours or so drinking, eating and conversing with the other competitors before everyone was called into the main hall once more.
"We are now gonna have the winner's ceremony." Everyone was in their seats and awaiting the announcement.
The announcer called the 3rd place and 2nd place. The Boys didn't really expect winning and 2nd and 3rd place were their best bets, so they accepted not being ranked and clapped along with the crowd as they cheered on the winners.
"And for the grand first place!" Everyone held their breath except for Leon, Dejan, Raffy and Thai.
"TL;DR!" The audience and competitors cheered and clapped loudly. Our boys were dazzled and confused. "What?" Thai asked. "Are we first place?" He asked into the round as the four stood up. The announcer called them up onto the stage as the four slowly realized that they actually.. won.
