Now that we’ve been re-graded, it’s time for our first evaluation: the group battle. Basically, we have to cover a boy group song, try to get more votes from the audience than the other team covering the same song, and hope we won’t get eliminated right off the bat.

              “Alyssa!” Minhyun’s voice calls me, waking me from my daze.

              “Um… yes?”

              “I drew your name from the box, you have to pick your teammates now.”

              “Oh… okay.” There are so many people who could become good teammates that I have to ponder for a good two minutes before finalizing my choices.

              “I will pick… Kim Yongjin.” I wanted to get to know Yongjin a bit better after our encounter on the first day. “Uhh… Jo Sungwook.” I’d watched everyone’s self-introduction videos and Sungwook’s spider imitation stood out the most to me. “Kim Chanyul, Choi Hadon.” Those two are from JJCC, so hopefully that would bring more awareness to our group, plus JJCC needed to be promoted as well as, say, NU’EST on the show. “And finally, this is gonna be an obvious one. Paek Eunbi.” Hey, having the only other girl on my team wouldn’t be bad.

              The remaining boys waiting to be picked gasp, wondering why I would pick such a team. Besides Eunbi and myself, everyone else on my team is in F class. But I don’t regret my choice at all.

              After a brief discussion with my team, we decide that the best song choice for the team with two girls is Mansae by Seventeen. There’s one small problem though: as the team leader, I need to run to get the song that we want, and there’s only one copy of each song available. Thus, I’m forced to race fifteen guys, all taller and probably faster than me, in order to grab the Mansae sign.

              To stay safe, I situate myself at the end of the line, next to a short, lanky pink-haired boy with braces from A class. It looks like his eyes are on Mansae as well. He doesn't look that dangerous - I have a chance at beating him. 

              Once BoA blows the whistle, we sprint towards the wall. I realize I can’t beat anyone by playing fair, and notice a few of the boys pushing each other out of the way. I come up next to the pink-haired boy and bump him, enough to push him further from the Mansae sign. Once he notices me, he returns the favour – I guess he doesn’t mind competing with a girl like me. This fuels my competitive desire even more, and I trip him to the ground.

              Ultimately, we’re the last two to return to the starting line, and the boy reaches the Mansae sign first by a few seconds. Now that the race is over, I try to make sense of my opponent, reading his nametag: Woo. Jin. Young. We talk a bit more, and I find out that he's a year older than me. 

              “Aww man, you stole the song I wanted,” I pout disappointedly, punching him lightly on the arm. “What other boy group songs would be good for a team with two girls?!”

              Woo Jinyoung grins deviously. “You know what, since you were so close, I’m gonna do you a favour. Let’s be opponents and both do Mansae, how does that sound?”

              I nod, returning his determined smile and grabbing his hand. “Sounds good. May the best team win.”

so Woo Jinyoung isn't even on my bias list but he's gonna play a huge role in this story just wait

Also Mansae team 2 ftw