SABOTAGE | Aiden Yamazaki | -queenofinfires

SABOTAGE


❝ VERY GOOD ❞

— full name: Yamazaki Takeshi

— other names: Aiden Yamazaki

— nicknames:

 ° Warrior > his mother and father > his Japanese name means “fierce/warrior”

— stage name: Aiden

— birthday: 15 October 1997

— age: 19 y/o (internationally)

— blood type: O negative

— height: 180 cm (5’ 10”)

— weight: 61.5 kg (135 lbs)

— sexuality: heterosexual

— face claim: Taeyong (NCT 127)

— backup face claim: Sejun (Viction) (If you choose my character, and want to go with the less overrated fc, that’s fine with me. I like both of them.)


❝ SYNCHRONIZED 100% ❞

— birthplace: Tokyo, Japan

— hometown: Tokyo, Japan ; Seoul, South Korea (as trainee, not with family)

— nationality: Japanese

— ethnicity: Japanese

— languages:

 ° Japanese: Fluent ; 1st language

    ° Korean: mostly fluent ; still gets confused over sayings, metaphors, slang terms, etc. > he knew some Korean before going to Korea from helping his father compose for SK artists, but he didn’t know much

    ° English: conversational ; learned from his parents + the fact that he grew up in an international entertainment company

— family: name / relation / age / occupation / level of closeness 1-10 (10 = highest)

 Yamazaki Aiko || father || 42 || composer + producer || 10

 Yamazaki Chiyo || mother || 44 || dance instructor + choreographer || 8

— background: Because his parents were in the entertainment industry, Aiden spent his childhood at Avex Group Entertainment instead of daycare. If his parents ever needed someone to watch him, they would just stick him with one of the instructors or composers. They would always teach him some little dance or help him “write” a song to show his parents when they got back, so, needless to say, Aiden has grown up with the industry.

 By the time he was around eleven, he wanted to start taking dance lessons, which was quite an easy thing to arrange. At thirteen, he had fallen in love with rap, and started to join in on the rap lessons taught at the company. All of the staff (including CEOs) loved him, found him adorable, and saw potential in him (and also his parents worked quite hard for the company, like free overtime, so…), so they really didn’t mind him getting these lessons for free.

    When he twelve when his mother started showing signs of illness. She would stumble a lot more while dancing and would drop things more often than usual. It wasn’t until she tripped, and needed stitches for a gash in her head that they decided she should get checked out. After looking through her family’s medical records and Aiden’s mother’s symptoms, they decided to run a few tests. She had a mild ataxia, which typically causes impaired coordination. Her father would have had it, but he died in a car crash when she was five, so she didn’t know about it. Aiden was tested as well, because his mother had the genetic condition, but he tested negative.

	When Aiden was fourteen, his mother was going through a rough part of her disorder. She would spend half of her week in, because she would get extreme vertigo from simply standing up on the bad days. Aiden began doing more around the house, at this age. And he was also able to help her during her dance instructions, because he knew what to do, and he knew that she wanted to keep working as much as possible.

    By the time he was fifteen, he was teaching half of his mother’s dance lessons on his own and would help out his father with producing songs  (although, he wasn’t that good yet) so that he could take care of her and get housework done. He was also feeling like he had been given too much. Sure, he had worked pretty damn hard to be where he was, but, had his parents not have been who they were, he wouldn’t have had the same opportunities. This had been a good year for his mother, and she was able to take her full-time job back, and was only going to physical therapy every other week, and his parents could tell he was getting restless. They sat down and spoke about it as a family, and came to the conclusion that he should go and spend some time training somewhere else. His father had worked with some South Korean companies before, SK was closer than the US, and his last name would be known at the Japanese entertainment companies, so Aiden decided to send an audition video in to some South Korean companies.

    [The “Bingle Bingle” section has more about his time as a trainee] He was accepted into FNC when he was sixteen and spent several months there before his contract ended and he decided to leave. There was a week he was staying in a hotel, paid for by his parents, where he didn’t know what he was going to do. He didn’t want to return to Japan after only nine months because he made the decision to leave. By the end of the week, on the day he was getting ready to ask him parents to buy him a plane ticket home, he was street casted by an agent for SM entertainment. Ten months of being there, and his father called to tell him that Aiden’s mother was going through another rough time. Aiden, who had already been wanting to leave SM, decided to fly home (he parents paid a settlement to get him out of his contract), and spend some time there, for a while. It was less than a week before his birthday, and he hadn’t seen his parents in a year and a half, so it was nice to be able to go home for a bit.

    His mother had gotten past her bad patch after only a few months. Aiden was nineteen and ready to go back to South Korea. His parents encouraged him to send in audition tapes for YG entertainment, because they had spent the most time working with them. (At the time, YG wasn’t accepting auditions, but his parents managed to pull some strings to get them to look at his audition. Aiden got in because of his skill, but he would have even had the chance to get in, had it not been for his parents. Aiden doesn’t know this. He wants to work as a trainee, and hopefully, idol, fairly, without having any bonuses because of his parents.) Aiden was accepted, and moved back to Korea by January 2016.


❝ MOVIE'S OVER ❞

— personality: Aiden is an active person. He needs to keep going and keep his mind busy, otherwise he drives himself insane by sitting around letting himself think too much about life.

    Aiden possesses a lot of leaderly qualities, which he adopted from growing up in an entertainment company and mentally maturing quite quickly. He’s capable of maintaining a professional demeanor, even when he’s pissed. It takes quite a lot to piss him off because he has a lot of patience, but when he’s angry, it’s best to leave and quickly. Aiden is a meticulous planner, and likes to have things scheduled down to the minute in his mind, so he can keep the insane workload he tries to pull off manageable. He’s kind of a control freak, in this way. He likes to know everything that’s going on all of the time, and he doesn’t like it when things suddenly change, although he can typically handle it.

    As much of his time as a trainee will tell you, Aiden is quite the independent person. He works hard at whatever he does, and is used to doing all of that work on his own. He doesn’t complete any project half-assed. He works as hard as he can, because he knows that he could have had a disorder that wouldn’t let him. Also, he wants to keep working because his mother can’t half of the time. But, he doesn’t know when to stop himself. He needs someone to remind him that taking breaks is okay.

    Honestly, being away from his family, especial when his mother is sick, and overworking himself take a toll on his mental health. He’s pretty strong, but every few months or so, it all catches up to him, the stress, the lack of sleep, the worry. He withdraws, keeps doing his work, but doesn’t talk to anyone. If anything, he works himself even harder during that period. It takes his parents calling him or another trainee approaching him about it for him to let it all out and get over it (ft. lots and lots of tears). But, after that crying session, he’s back up on his feet, and working again, except in a much better state of mind.

    He’s not an extroverted person, but he’s not introverted, either. It doesn’t cross his mind that sometimes it’s good to not be constantly working and to have some human connection every once in awhile, but, if someone comes up and starts talking to him, sure, he’ll keep up a conversation and enjoy doing it, but he’s not the type to initiate one. Before people actually approach him, and realized he was a nice person, just one that makes himself quite busy, all of the trainees considered him this “odd guy who keeps to himself” because he was so separated from everyone else.

— likes:

° Exercising > he likes the “runner’s high” he gets when his blood is pumping from a hard workout

° Modern/hip hop style dance > his favorite dance style includes lots of sharp, concise movements

° Dragons > because they’re freaking dragons (will fanboy if mentioned)

° Horror and action movies

° Ripped skinny jeans > he just finds them quite comfortable

° Writing songs for any genre, even if he can’t sing them > he likes to challenge himself by changing up his writing style

° Cherry flavored anything

° Salads > he doesn't like salads because they're “healthy” or “good for diets”, he legitimately enjoys the taste

° Lollipops > he's not a fan of sweet things, but he has an addiction to lollipops


— dislikes:

° People who don’t appreciate good music or good lyrics

° Not doing anything productive or active > he like a puppy, in that sense. you have to keep him entertained, or else he’ll pee on the carpet--I mean annoy the hell out of you (blame AJ for forcing me to make that joke xD). he has patience, but only when there’s something he can be doing (i.e. writing lyrics)

° Bright colors > it’s not his style and they hurt his eyes

° Sleeping in complete darkness > it reminds him of how dark his parents’ bedroom is because bright light makes his mother’s headaches worse. he prefers to leave a reading light on or sleep next to a window because he can't sleep if he's worrying about how his parents are doing

° People who think they can rap, but can’t > **coughs SM coughs** (I’m just gonna blame this one on AJ, too)

° People who get bonuses or opportunities just because they have connections they were born with > you need to work hard to earn your place

° Artificial Grape Flavoring > it makes him feel sick

° Lunch + Breakfast > he doesn't like eating a lot of food during the day, because that makes him feel heavier and like it's harder to dance. sometimes he'll remember to eat an apple or something if another trainee makes him, but he usually just skips them

° Autotune > if you can't sing, then don't be a singer

° Electronic voices in songs > you can't tell whether or not they can actually sing, and it's just not his style

° Rap with an excessive amount of swearing > he finds it untasteful

° Overly sugary things > he doesn’t have a sweet tooth and feels sick if he eats something that’s too sweet


— talents: (all taught to Aiden by his father)

° Knows how to play acoustic guitar (7/10 skill) (2 yrs of actual teaching, 6 yrs total of practice - started playing when he was 13)

° Knows how to play bass guitar (6/10 skill) ( 1 yr of actual teaching, 4 yrs total of practice - started playing at 15)

° Knows how to play electric guitar (8/10 skill) (4 yrs of actual teaching, 7 yrs total of practice - started playing at 12)


— hobbies:

° Composing + choreographing > learned from parents

° Cooking > Aiden was taught how to cook by his mother, and loves to do it because it reminds him of her. also, when she was having bad days, he was the only person in the house who could cook without poisoning anyone, so he's had a lot of practice


— trivia:

° If he was to dye his hair, he would only want to dye it lighter, neutral colors, like blonde, white, silver

° He wakes up at 5:30 every morning to go for a half-hour run, no matter the weather > it helps him to clear his mind, and mentally prepare himself for the day

° Prefers to be called “Aiden” > he doesn’t mind his Japanese name, but he likes the name Aiden better

° Aiden is a king at multitasking > he can write a new rap, do his math homework and cook a meal at the same time and be fine

° He donates blood every year

° He’s good with money > he learned how to help his dad balance the checkbooks and figure out what bills, including his mother’s hospital bills, should be paid first and when

° He swears a lot in Japanese > not like the type of swears you add onto a noun (i.e. “that damn thing”), but like the type that you say when you trip or something didn’t work out right

° He has a habit where he picks at/chews on his bottom lip a lot. It’s to the point where it starts bleeding often, especially when he laughs too much

° He always fully reads every single contract and tries to get promises relationed to his training or his works in writing > he started being more diligent about this after he didn’t receive credit for two of his songs

° Twitter: AWarrior97 > A : Aiden ; Warrior : his Japanese name means fierce/warrior ; 97 : birth year

° Licks his lips before he starts rapping > every. single. Time.

° When he starts rapping, he is kind of still, but his movements and gestures get bigger and bigger as he gets into his rap

° His style of rap is paced well and has lots of dynamics > like a combination of Rap Monster and J-Hope from BTS

° Aiden has contributed in the composing process for some Kpop songs with his father + some choreography with his mother

° Has three ring piercings in the cartilage of his left ear and plugs in both > he got the plugs when be was 16 in Japan, two of the cartilage piercings on each of the birthday’s he spent in Korea, and the last one for his birthday in Japan (he’s done with piercings now lol)

° Has his license > he had to get his in Japan, because it made things easier if he could drive, and he decided that he should get his in Korea, too, just to have

° He eats a lot of food for dinner, but he barely eats the rest of the day > someone typically has to remind him to eat during the day, because it just slips his mind, bu, by dinner, he has burned off so many calories that he can’t help but notice it

° Seems to always know exactly what someone needs when they aren’t feeling well > he’s had practice because of his mother

° Named his first guitar (an electric one) Arata (it means “fresh/new” ; he named her that because he wants the music he produces to be fresh and new) and if anyone touches her, it’s in their best interest to run away quickly, and erase any evidence of them even breathing near her > Arata was also the only guitar he brought over to South Korea

° Knows the janitors well > he spends so much time in the practice rooms that they are the ones who usually have to kick him out. He occasionally has conversations with them, and they tell him all of the dirt they hear around the company because they’re gossipy little hoes > sometimes they bring him food or lollipops, because they know he needs the energy

° Always over-thanks the stylist noonas > he gets really bad eye bags, and he knows they struggle to cover them up most of the time

° Accidentally uses Japanese honorifics when he’s tired > (o-: makes the phrase respectful ; -san: formal honorific, like Mr./Ms. ; -chan: informal, towards female ; -kun: informal, towards male) [where I got my information: http://takelessons.com/blog/japanese-honorifics-z05]

° Sarcastically uses the Japanese -sama (royal) honorific all of the time (ex: when a manager or trainer pisses him off) > no one realizes he’s being sarcastic, because they just think it’s a regular, respectful Japanese honorific that he accidentally used instead of a Korean one

° Carries a songwriting notebook everywhere he goes


❝ BINGLE BINGLE ❞

— position: lead dancer, lead rapper

— audition song and/or dance:

° Rap: Mr. Doctor by Epik High [ I couldn’t find a cover for this ]

° Dance: Ringa Linga by Taeyang [ https://youtu.be/Z0O5RZmVvAI - Aiden is on the left ]

— why did you audition?: YG was the first company Aiden auditioned for when he came back to South Korea. His parents ecommended YG because that is the SK company they work the most with.

— what company did you originally audition for?:

° Age 16: Starship entertainment, J. Tune Camp, FNC Entertainment (he sent in audition tapes to all of these at once)

° Age 17: SM Entertainment

— did you get into the company you originally auditioned for?:

° He was accepted into FNC (he spent nine months there - April 2014-December 2014)

° SM street cast him a week after leaving FNC, and he passed through the auditions quickly. (he spent ten months there - December 2014 - October 2015)

— why did you leave your company?:

° FNC: Right before his trainee contract was over, the managers were considering putting him in a band. If it was a dual dancing/instrument playing band, he wouldn’t have minded, but he cares too much about dancing to limit himself to playing bass (+ he can’t sing, and there wasn’t much of a rapping role). He also isn’t the biggest fan of the bass, yet he was the only trainee who had experience with it. He was debating whether or not he should leave or join the band, when one of the other trainees who was being considered as a drummer for the band failed three evaluations in a row. Because they didn’t have another drummer, the idea of debuting a new band fell through, and Aiden decided not to renew his contract.

° SM: He didn’t like how, to him, the atmosphere felt like one of of desperation on the trainees’ part and the apathy on the trainers’ part. Also, twice the trainers took one of his composed songs, and used them for a debuted group, without giving him any credit. He was planning to leave, but wanted to have another company to go to before then, because he remembered his worry the week he was between companies. His decision was decided for him when his mother started to get worse. So, his father paid a settlement to get Aiden out of his contract so he could come home to help take care of his mother.

— how long have you been at yg?: Since January 2016, so like 10 or 11 months? Depending on when you start the story.

— how long have you been a trainee altogether?: At South Korean entertainment companies, he’s been a trainee for around 29-30 months (2 ½ years), but he’s been learning rap and dancing since he was little from various Japanese trainers.

— have they ever experienced abuse from trainers?: He left SM entertainment because of the trainers taking advantage of his composing skill. This has made him quite hesitant to show his songs to any other trainer or manager. Although, he’ll show them to other trainees, but only the ones he’s close with.

— have they ever experienced abuse from other trainees?: Not that he can remember. And, if he has, he would have just rolled his eyes, and walked away. He’s not the type to let that bother him, because he has better things he can be doing. Although he left SM entertainment because he didn’t like the attitude of most of the trainees (they didn’t seem to get that close to each other until they were put into groups), that wasn’t abuse towards him.

— any other hardships as a trainee: At the beginning, language was a major struggle for Aiden. He spoke very limited Korean, so he brushed up on his English, which was conversational by the time he left Japan, because that was more common than Japanese. It took him a while to learn Korean, and he couldn’t have a complete conversation without at least one thing getting lost in translation or the other person having to repeat what they said until he had been in Korea for six months. Going to a Korean school in the fall of 2014 helped him with his Korean (he was taking online Japanese classes during the first few months he spent in SK).

    Because of language barrier and the fact that he had gotten used to dealing with things on his own, even after his Korean improved, he didn’t really talk to anyone. He wasn’t able to make friends he could fall back on if he had a hard day or that he could ask for help if he was struggling with a dance or a rap. He felt quite alone during his training at FNC and SM. Although, he has tried to connect more with the trainees at YG, now that his Korean is better (but he was a bit rusty the first few months, because of his break in Japan).

    Aiden also tends to work himself too hard, which can impact the quality of his work. There have been numerous occasions where he has collapsed because he had gotten a total of six hours of sleep in the past three days. He knows that it’s not good for him to be constantly working himself, whether it’s getting up early to practice or staying up late to finish writing a song, because that’s the only time he gets to write, he can’t help himself. He feels a need to keep working and keep doing the most that he can, and if he has to collapse once a month, then so be it.

— biggest struggle as a trainee (talent wise): Aden has struggled the most with vocals. He has a deeper voice, and it just doesn’t flow well or cooperate with him when he tries to sing. It’s quite frustrating to Aiden, and he has developed a minor hatred for singing.

— best moment as a trainee: When the SM trainers decided to use his song for an idol group (ya know, before they screwed him over, and all).

— why do they want to be on sabotage?: He wants to be on Sabotage for the same reason he’s in South Korea in general: he wants to work hard at being an entertainer and not just take the easy way out. Sure, if he had stayed at the company his father works for, he would put just as much effort into his training and his work, but he would also feel like he didn’t deserve it. Even if he doesn’t make it as a kpop star and has to go back to his father’s company to be an idol, he would still feel like he earned it because he has spent years training at companies where the trainers and CEO’s haven’t seen him in diapers.


❝ DIME GIRL ❞

— idol relations:

° His father writes songs and his mother choreographs internationally, and has written a couple for YG

° Because of ^^ he met a couple of SK idols when he was younger, including some YG idols

— who is their idol?: Aiden looks up to his father. His father was the one who taught him how to love music, and inspires Aiden by being so strong and hard working, even when things get tough.

— ideal type: Aiden wants a girlfriend who can take care of herself, and doesn’t put up with anyone’s shit, including his own. He wants a relationship that’s equal, and not like only one person taking care of the other. He doesn’t really care what she looks like, but she has to love exercising and listening to his songs and raps.

— fan service:

° Smirking + winking + biting/licking lip (the lip thing is really just a habit) when performing

° Sharing lyrics he writes on his twitter account

° Speaking in English and Japanese

— requested scenes:

° Getting yelled at by the other trainees because “no one in their right mind would be playing guitar at three in the morning”

° Aiden collapsing in the middle of a practice or after a stage because he hasn’t slept in days.

° Aiden losing his song writing notebook and losing his shit (it fell under his bed or somewhere like that)

° Aiden getting a call from his father that his mother has had to take a leave of absence from working, because it’s another bad month, and Aiden getting angry because he can’t go and help. Ft. pushing everything off of a table, punching a wall, and then sliding to the floor and crying

° Aiden getting to rap a song he composed for his mother, and crying as he performs

° Aiden accidentally swearing in Japanese on camera, and the other Japanese trainees (if any) gasping and yelling at him (or doing whatever their personality fits)

° Aiden finding out that the only reason his audition tape was looked at was his parents pulling strings at YG, and him not leaving the practice room (he feels like he cheated to get there, and has to work even harder to earn his place there) until the other trainees have to physically drag him out and assure him that he wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for his talent and hard work

° Aiden finding out something about Sabotage because the janitor tells him one day


❝ U HOO HOO ❞

— anything else?: n/a

— note to mom: your Wonho covers give me hope because they remind me that he’s an adorable, squishy thing, and isn’t just a winning hoe (won-ho) all of the time

— password: me like yuh (it took me a 1 am dance practice video binge to realize what this password was...)