Everyone loved Ong Seongwoo. He was one of those people who no one could ever hold grudges against. He was impassioned and persistent about his dreams, but even though everyone recognized that competitive spark in his eyes, no one could ever hate him. He was too funny to hate.

He was like the clown of Produce 101 Season 2. All the boys loved having him around, loved hanging out with him; he just made everybody laugh with his mere presence.

Ong was mature yet hilarious, and Minhyun immediately took a liking to him from the moment they first talked after filming episode one. Especially among the masses of young boys who were competitors on this show, Minhyun found it nice to have someone around the same age, who was obviously smart but fun at the same time.

It was for this reason that Minhyun chose him for his so-called “Justice League” group in the second episode. Minhyun simply liked the guy and wanted to get closer to him; plus, it was dead obvious that he had both skills and wit. He was a unique character, and Minhyun caught on to that immediately.

As for the other members of his team, Minhyun chose Jaehwan and Daniel because of their skills. Hyunbin was just a friend that seemed to expect Minhyun to choose him. As for Jonghyun… well, Minhyun simply couldn’t imagine doing anything without him.

Of course, Minhyun also wanted Minki and Dongho to be in his group too, but he made all necessary calculations ahead of time: if NU’EST members huddled together all the time, the other contestants would not be able grow close to them and they would not be liked and Minhyun knew very well that if was going to succeed on this show, he had to be liked. And to be liked, he had to reach out to others, appear friendly and build strong relations. He had to branch out of the comfort zone of his NU’EST members and truly stand out as an individual.

He was not the only one who made such calculations. Ong, too, took the same line of reasoning. He was funny not for the sake of being funny, but for the sake of being appealing. He was a clown not because it was in his nature, but because he knew the clown would be a national favorite. He knew what to say to get his screentime, to make people like him, to lull the trainees into the false impression that he did not see them as competition.

But Ong came in seeing everyone as competition. Everyone there was a threat to his success, and so his goal had always been to defeat every single one of them. When he first heard that NU’EST would participate on Produce 101, he was actually very angry. It was unfair, he thought; they had an unfair advantage. He cursed at them a lot in his head and tried to think up strategies to subtly sabotage them. And when they were assessed and given low grades in the first episode, he was actually very happy. Serves them right, he thought.

If the national producers knew about the thoughts that were in his head, he would have probably been the most hated trainee on the program…

He came in with the intention to win. He had the greed for first place, and that greed made him averse to making friends in his competition. Friendship is weakness. If he came to like the trainees on this show, it would make him less determined to prevail over them.

But at the same time, he had to be liked– so all he had to do was pretend. Pretend to be friendly. Pretend to be funny. Pretend to love them all and befriend them all. He planned to pretend to befriend the popular ones especially, because the popular ones would get him more screentime.

NU’EST was probably the most popular. Them and that long-haired rapper, Moon-book or whatever.

It’s for that reason that Ong had made sure to talk to NU’EST, pretend to be all friendly, telling them how much he loved their music, and that Minhyun guy had fallen for it.

It turned out that this was the best move Ong had made that day, because being friendly with NU’EST put him on Minhyun’s good side, and led Minhyun to choose him for the legendary Justice League.

As the time with his Justice League members passed, however, Ong realized that he was starting to become weak; he realized that he actually liked his Sorry Sorry Team 2 members.

At first it was hard for him to accept, and he tried to talk himself out of it. Stop it, Seongwoo, Ong told himself, these are all competition. They’re enemies. STOP LIKING THEM.

But he couldn’t help it. Daniel was like a puppy. Jaehwan was hilarious. Hyunbin was lazy but impossible to hate. Jonghyun was like the nicest person on the planet. And Minhyun… well… Minhyun was something else to Ong altogether.

After their time together in Sorry Sorry Team 2, Minhyun and Ong grew close. It just happened that Ong stopped viewing him as competition and started viewing him as a friend. But it didn’t end there; Ong Seongwoo eventually realized that he had a massive crush on Hwang Minhyun.

From resenting him and wanting to sabotage him, to feeling soft and enamored whenever he saw him, Ong Seongwoo’s feelings for Hwang Minhyun had transformed completely.

Suddenly, Ong’s goal on the show changed from getting first place, to getting into the top 11 with Minhyun.

Ong hated it. He hated that his crush on Minhyun was dulling his determination, and he also hated how smitten it was making him. It was like suddenly, the whole world revolved around that tall, elegant, princely NU’EST guy with the dorky laugh.

Ong couldn’t help but feel jealous of Minhyun closeness with Jonghyun and the rest of s. He could tell that the four of them shared a special bond that Ong would probably never have with him, and it frustrated him a lot.

Minhyun was just so… perfect. In every way. He was smart, and he was kind, and he was talented… not to mention god-damn attractive.

It came to the point where Ong didn’t even vote for himself. He was safe, he thought. But Minhyun wasn’t. And so Ong voted for Minhyun in the last week of Produce 101. He asked his family and friends to vote for Minhyun too. He just really wanted to debut with Minhyun.

And he was happier the moment he heard “Pledis Hwang Minhyun” being called up onto the final 11 stage than he was when he heard his own name…

Ong Seongwoo got to debut with Hwang Minhyun, and he couldn’t be happier.