The cameras focuses in on the main practice room, just as TJ and Noheul walk in. TJ seems to be recovered from his shock, though he does still look a bit pale. Noheul hovers nearby as Koda grabs TJ and clings to him.

TJ laughs breathlessly. "Dude I was immune this round, what's with the clinginess?"

Koda steps back and grins as well. "Oh right, I totally forgot about that! I was so worried you might have been eliminated and we haven't even gotten to do anything together yet!"

Noheul watches the cheerful interaction suspiciously, but the moment is cut short when the door swings open and four new figures walk in.

The new arrivals are easily recognizable: 2PM's Nichkhun leads the group, followed by Wonder Girls' Yeeun. Behind them are Jackson from Got7 and Momo from TWICE. The four make their way a little to the right of the door, and eighteen sets of eyes follow them silently.

Yeeun clears , though it's uneeded as the room is already dead silent. "Well then, I guess we'll start by announcing that the winning group from last night's performances were the dancers. Koda, Jihyun, KimQ, Ash, and Seongjun, you five will have immunity next round."

Jihyun grins. "Two for two, not bad."

Ignoring the annoyed looks some of the other contestants are giving the dancer, Yeeun continues speaking. "Second and most importantly, we have your next challenge."

That brings attention right back to the group. Nichkhun picks up the expanation once all eyes are back on the four.

"The next challenge is to improve your confidence and stage presence. Each of us will be selecting a team and working for the next few days to overcome this challenge in different ways. Does anyone have any questions?"

When the silence remains Nichkhun nods.

"Alright then I'll start. Little J, you're with me."

Jude grins wryly at the nickname. Yeeun waits a moment, and then clears .

"Ant you'll be with me." She looks to Jackson, who quickly makes his pick.

"I claim Hongsol!"

Momo takes a lot longer to choose, chewing her lip uncertainly before finally speaking when Jackson nudges her. "Um, Koda."

Nichkhun doesn't hesitate. "Reito."

The relay is fast-forwarded from here, each time Momo hesitates before each of her choices, while the other three seem to know exactly who they want. It slows down just as Yeeun smiles at Noheul.

"And looks like you'll be with us. Alright guys, Momo's team is using this room but the rest of you get over here so we can head out and start brainstorming!"

After a minute of scrambling, the room is suddenly very empty. Momo stands awkwardly near the door, staring at Koda, Danny, Doc, and Xaris, all who stare back.

After a moment of silence that feels much longer, Koda claps his hands.

"Okay! What are we doing?"

Momo seems relieved for the tension breaker. "Um, I thought since it's about confidence onstage, doing a girl group dance would be good!"

All four men in the room look distinctly unimpressed. Xaris speaks first.

"Um, no offence Momo, but we're guys. Real guys. If you wanted someone to do a bunch of cutsey girly dances you should have asked Byunjae or Jihyun, they thrive on that stuff."

Momo frowns sadly. "Oh, but I thought, since this is supposed to be about confidence-"

"We could do cool dances, or y dances! That's confident!" Koda suggests brightly.

Doc rolls his eyes. "I'm not dancing. I don't dance."

Momo tries to get the attention back. "But guys-"

But the group has completely dissolved now.

Xaris is nodding at Doc's anti-dance proclamations while Koda loudly whines about the awesomeness of dancing, and Danny snaps back at him unintelligebly.

Momo looks around desperately, before taking in a deep breath and all but screaming, "QUIET!"

The four boys stared at the tiny girl in shock, falling silent immediately.

Momo quickly speaks, her tone firm but high. "Okay, so I'm in charge of this group and our task is going to be doing a girl group dance. You can help or you can sit around complaining, but one of those two options will probably get you eliminated so pick carefully."

The boys stare for a long moment before Xaris sighs in resignation.

"Fine boss lady. What song are we doing?"

Meanwhile, Yeeun's group pulls up to the theatre from the previous day's performance in one of the company vans.

Ant, TJ, Seongjun, Byunjae, and Noheul all file out of the van behind Yeeun and stare at the building.

"We're working here?" Seongjun is the first to ask as they walk towards the main doors.

Yeeun nods briskly. "It has the best acoustics of all JYP's buildings, and we're going to be singing. So yes, we're working here."

Ant and TJ exchange a look. "Singing? Ma'am, I'm, I mean what if someone might not exactly be very good at singing?" TJ pipes up.

Yeeun smiles. "Don't worry, everyone will have a part they're capable of, but this entire challenge is about doing things you're not necessarily comfortable with. And so, beyond just singing, we're going to be singing accapella!" As she finishes talking she pushes open the doors to the main stage.

The five boys following her share a look before entering the theatre.

Seongjun speaks first. "So do you already have a song chosen noona?"

Yeeun nods as she ushers all of them up onto the stage. "Yep, and I have your parts too. Noheul."

He perks up at his name. "Neh noona?"

"You're a fast learner, right?"

He nods eagerly and she smiles. "Great. You have the next few days to learn how to beat box!"

Noheul's face falls bit and he worries at his lower lip with his teeth as he nods, accepting the assignment.

Yeeun smiles, "Great! Now Byunjae and TJ, you two will be doing the harmonies - Byunjae on the low part TJ on the high. Seongjun you'll mostly be harmonizing as well but you'll get some time on the melody around the end when our main singer Ant is doing the adlibs."

Seongjun and Ant both start to protest but Yeeun waves them down. "Now I wouldn't give you those roles if I didn't think you could handle them. They key will be to get your courage up and do your best. Now let's get started!"

Jackson seems to have as much energy as Yeeun as he parades his group of four into their own dorms.

Hongsol, Do Sanghyun, KimQ, and Kangjoo look around in confusion.

"What are we doing here? If you don't mind my asking?" Kangjoo asks, continuing to eye the familiar room warily.

Jackson grins innocently. "Well, I was thinking about the challenge, and decided we're gong to be focusing on the 'presence' part of it, since so far you four have been preeeetty quiet. I figured if we practiced somewhere you were comfortable with, you'd be more open to doing some things you wouldn't normally."

The four continue to watch him uncertainly.

"Like what, exactly?" Kangjoo continues to be the spokesperson for the group, and Jackson grins.

"Like variety! Variety shows are an idol's life blood, and the louder you are the better it is! And you four need to work on your volume."

"You don't have to scream to still be heard." KimQ offers softly, and Jackson's grin seems to get even wider.

"And you'd know that well Kyu, wouldn't you? But it's time for you, for all of you, to get some credit for your actions! And so I come to our main topic of what we're actually going to be doing. And for that I turn to my lovely assisant!"

"Excuse you pretty boy, you'd be lucky to assist my foot. I think we both know who's wearing the pants in this partnership." The voice comes from the direction of the main hall, and the four boys look over in surprise while Jackson just laughs and waves.

"Hey Amber, good to see you too!"

The one and only Amber Liu is standing in the hall, and she laughs at the contestants as they continue to gawk.

"I see you're not giving me much to start with Jackie. You owe me big time. Alright you lot, who's ready for some good old-fashioned comedy boot camp?"

The scene appears to be an office. Nichkhun, Yeeun, Jackson, and Momo are all standing in front of JYP, who sits in a chair behind a desk.

"Status report. How are your teams doing?"

Nichkhun speaks first. "Well sir, my team is ready to start filming. Since we're doing something a bit more unconventional, I'd appreciate if the next few days could be exclusively footage of my team. I did warn them we wouldn't win this round, but I'd still like to give them a fighting chance."

JYP nods and looks to Yeeun, who clears lightly before begining.

"My team was hesitant at first, but they're all mostly good friends so they've been great about encouraging each other, and of course Noheul is giving Ant and TJ especially some great vocal pointers. TJ is being particularly loud, but I'd say he's likely just a bit shook up from almost being cut last round. They'll be ready to perform by week's end, I have no doubts."

Again JYP nods and turns to Jackson, who grins.

"Amber is being a handful, but the contestants are actually really open to working with our ideas, and Kangjoo especially is big on offering his own. KimQ is coming out of his shell too - yesterday he made a suggestion without it being subtle and unnoticable!"

JYP smiles faintly and looks to the final person in the room.

Momo doesn't look nearly as content as her three sunbaes. "It's a mess sir. Koda is at least learning the dance, though he complains about it being a girl dance at least three times a day. Xaris is... he's doing something. He's been extremely distracted and I have no idea what's wrong with him. Danny I think is trying, but he's just a bad dancer. And Doc isn't even pretending to care! I can't work in these conditions sir."

JYP frowns when she mentions Doc, but he waves his hand dissmissively to her final concerns. "Then learn. Your performance is due in three days and you've had three days already to work on it. It's your team, you figure it out. Thank you for the updates and you're all dismissed."

The scene dissolves to a cafeteria, where the eighteen remaining contestants mill around, eating and chatting as they wait for their team leaders to return.

Danny and his group, including Ash for once, are sitting at one of the center tables.

"He's seriously not causing arguments?" Na Sanghyun looks at Byunjae in flat shock as the other chews on his lunch.

Byunjae shrugs. "I think it's just Doc who pisses him off, Noheul is actually really nice, if kind of protective. It's been fun working with them!"

Danny frowns. "Protective how?"

Byunjae shrugs and takes another bite of his sandwich. "Like, he's always checking on TJ, it's weird. TJ's obviousy fine, he's being loud and crazy as always but Noheul seems convinced he's not okay. But our piece is really coming together well! How about you guys, how are your groups?"

Danny grimaces. "Mine's a piece of work. I think you might be right about Doc just rubbing people the wrong way, he's pissing me off. It's like he doesn't even want to be here! And then Xaris is obviously out of it but I can't fault him. Soul and him were inseperable for as long as I can remember, it's got to be a serious gut-punch to lose him in the first round."

The table falls silent at the indirect mention of the eliminations. Ash in particular looks pained.

After a moment the dancer speaks, softly. "It's not fair. If Collin had just gotten a few more votes he would have been completely safe this round. He was part of the winning group, but instead he was kicked out. I mean, I don't think anyone else should have been eliminated either it's just..." He trails off, and everyone nods quietly.

"It ." Reito sums up, and the group looks over at him in surprise.

He shrugs awkwardly. "We work on language. I learn some tricks from hyung." He says by way of explanation.

Nearby Jude is explaining the same thing to Hongsol and his group of friends, along with, oddly enough, Ant and Noheul, both of whom are watching the conversation unfold as if from an audience.

"Nichkhun was like Reito when he first debuted, so he's mastered the art of figuring out sentence meanings from just a few words and facial expressions. So he's been teaching us, since we'll be meeting plenty of foregin fans if we debut."

Do Sanghyun tilts his head. "What part of the challenge does it fall under?"

"Confidence mostly. Plus, being able to communicate with most fans is definitely useful as well."

TJ nods thoughtfully. "True enough, you'll have to teach us those tricks when you're done!"

Jude grins and ruffles his hair idly. "Sure thing kid."

TJ sticks his tongue out before laughing. Koda giggles as well before ruffling TJ's hair jokingly, earning a whine and a swatted hand for his troubles.

Xaris watches the group mess around from a few tables down. He sighs and continues idly poking at his own untouched food. He's so absorbed in staring at nothing he doesn't see KimQ walking up until the other sits down next to him at the table.

"Want to talk about it?"

Xaris jumps, then settles again when he sees who the intruder is. "Not really. But I'll have to eventually, won't I?"

KimQ doesn't say anything, simply tilting his head in response.

Xaris sighs. "You're weird Kyu, you know that? Really weird. But... you're right. I should talk about it. I'm not doing my best for this challenge and it's not fair to my team. It's just, he told me he was worried about possibly being eliminated because of his group's atmosphere right before that show. And I told him there was no way. No way someone with his talents could get cut. And yet." He sighs and pushes his tray away, grimacing. "It makes you realize no one is safe. Haesol consistently ranks at the top of our monthly evaluations. If this wasn't a survival show there's no way he wouldn't be debuting. But now he'll have to keep waiting while kids like TJ and Na Sanghyun who don't have half his skill keep going." His hand is in a fist on the table but he doesn't seem to notice.

KimQ touches his arm softly, carefully. "What happened isn't something we had control of. Lingering on it will only hurt you and the peple around you. Focus on now. When the show is done there will be time for anger."

Xaris barks out a laugh. "You sound like frigging Yoda. But yeah. I'll try." He looks over almost reluctantly. "And thanks."

KimQ shrugs and smiles. "Of course."

Nichkhun is standing in what appears to be a classroom, facing his group.

With him are several recongizable faces, including Mark from Got7, Sana and Tzuyu from TWICE, as well as Lay from EXO for some reason.

Nichkhun notices the contestants eyeing Lay with confusion, and he laughs lightly before explaining. "He's on loan from a friend in SM, so be nice to him guys."

"I promise I don't bite." Lay adds cheerfully, and the atmosphere relaxes.

Nichkhun takes the attention back as he announces what exactly they're doing. "Alright, so for the past few days you've been studying the basics of several languages as well as body language. Today we're going to see how much you've picked up from these studies. If you pass, you'll have the next few days to rest and relax. Or go bother the other teams I suppose, no one would stop you." He smiles cheekily before continuing. "Each idol up here is in charge of a language, including myself. Mark will of course cover English, Sana will be Japanese, Tzuyu will speak in Mandarin and Lay has agreed to represent Cantonese for us. I'll be speaking in Thai, and for Reito I'll do some Korean as well. Everyone understand?"

While he's been speaking, Sana has been repeating everything he says in Japanese for Reito, who's eyes blaze with determination as he nods.

Nichkhun gives the youngest competitor a smile before nodding. "Alright then, here are the rules. One person here will point to one of you and shout something. You have ten seconds to respond appropriately either with your limited vocabulary or a physical response. Clear?"

"Clear!" The group choruses, and they all laugh while the guest helpers look confused.

"It's an inside joke from earlier, and it'll take too long to explain." Nichkhun says. "Now then, let's begin! Lay, as the invader you may start."

Lay rolls his eyes good-naturedly at the jab as he points to Jihyun, who grins and leans back in his chair.

Korean translations appear along the bottom of the screen as Lay speaks, so the audience knows what he's saying. "I loved your performace yesterday! How did you do it in just two days?"

Jihyun's brow furrows before he blurts out. "Thank you, we work hard!" It's heavily accented, but Nichkhun approves the answer with a nod and Jihyun nods confidently, earning mostly amused eye rolls from his teammates.

Sana wastes no time taking the next turn as she points to Jude. "Oppa you're so cute, I'm a huge fan! I'll definitely support you to your debut!"

Jude focuses carefully through the sentence, and when Sana finishes he smiles, and then stands up to pull her into a hug. "Thank you very much!"

Sana is bright red and grinning hugely when Jude steps back and reclaims his seat.

Nichkhun is barely containing his laughter. "Well played Little J, you're quite the charmer there. Definitely pass."

Mark takes the next turn and points at Reito, who in a breath and furrows his brow in concentration before Mark has even begun to speak.

"You're pretty talented for a kid." Mark seems to contemplate adding something, but he takes pity on the tense boy and leaves the sentence quite simple.

Reito takes a shallow breath before smiling brightly up at Mark, nearly lighting up the room with happiness.

Nichkhun nods. "I'll take it, it's a solid response to a compliment."

Reito visibly deflates in relief, his smile now smaller but just as bright.

Tzuyu looks over at Nichkhun, who nods for her to go ahead. She smiles shyly at Ash, who returns it with a supportive one.

"I really like your dancing, and I think you're pretty handsome."

Ash looks slightly surprised when 'handsome' is said, and his pink cheeks and shy smile, accompanied by a slightly mispronounced "you're very pretty." are given a pass and a bit of teasing from the group leader which has both Ash and Tzuyu blushing.

Nichkhun locks eyes with the one remaining member of the team: Na Sanghyun. The teen looks extremely uncomfortable as Nichkhun opens his mouth to begin.

"So are you and Byunjae really best friends, or is that just a show for the cameras?"

Sanghyun stares wide-eyed at the leader. "Byun..." He trails off, clearly not understanding the question.

"That's ten seconds. Sorry Sanghyun, I know Thai was really tough for you, it you got it first." Nichkhun doesn't look very sorry though as he goes back to addressing the rest of the contestants. "Alright then, you've done one language, but you still have four more!"

The scene fastforwards, showing the boys responding - or in some cases awkwardly stumbling into a failed answer. A scoreboard fades into view on the screen, showing each contestant's name and how many passes they recieve for each language.

A time stamp notes that three hours go by, and by the end a total of 100 rounds has been played - 4 tries for each language, for each contestant.

Ash ranks the highest, with a perfect score for Mandarin, two out of four for both Japanese and English, and a one in Thai and Cantonese.

Jude comes in a bit below him with a two out of four in everything but Thai, which he only has a one in.

Na Sanghyun comes in third despite having nothing for either Thai or Cantonese, as he scored perfectly in English, three out of four on Mandarin, and one for Japanese.

Reito pulls in fourth with a three out of four for Korean, and a one in the other categories.

Jihyun managed a two out of four in English, but only received a one for the other languages. When the scene refocuses on the five as they exit the room, he's complaining loudly.

"I know Japanese really well, that was rigged! I'm serious!"

The others just laugh.

"Whatever you say Jihyun." Ash seems to be on a high from his victory as he nearly floats down the hall. "Gosh I can't believe I figured out Sana was saying 'dance steps' in that last round, you would have had me otherwise, you were doing crazy well." He adds to Jude with a wide smile.

Jude returns the look. "Nah, I messed up. I know the Thai word for support and I still blanked on that second round with Nichkhun. It'll just take practice."

"That was so muc fun though!" Despite his middle standing Sanghyun seems quite pumped up as he practically bounds down the hallway. "I actually knew stuff! I mean, I've studied some English but it's not like I'm actually good at it or anything!"

"Oh la-di-da for you." Jihyun grumbles, clearly still sore over his loss.

Reito pats his arm reassuringly but Jihyun just storms away.

The others shrug at the youngest, who smiles back. Jude then reaches into his pocket and pulls out a wallet.

"So I have some spare cash. Anyone up for celebratory ice cream?"

The four head off, chatting loudly and excitedly. The scene then fast forwards through the lobby, showing poeple coming and going, until three days have passed.

The scene changes to show the JYP theatre. The four group leaders are standing in front of JYP himself, who's sitting in the theatre which is crowded with fans. The front section is blocked off for the contestants to sit in, and several security guards keep the fans from getting too close to the front.

"Are you all ready to present?"

The four group leaders nod, some with more certainty than others.

"Alright then. I believe Jackson's group filmed a skit, so we'll be showing that first."

A screen rolls down over the curtains, and the theatre goes dark. The fans quickly fall silent as the skit being to play.

(Hongsol:Brown Robe       Kangjoo:Suit       Do Sanghyun:The Guy who talks the most       KimQ:Bowl Cut)

Once the laughter has died down the screeen rolls back up and JYP nods to Momo, who nervously signals to the sound technicians.

(Koda:Longer Brown Hair       Danny:Short Hair       Doc:Blonde       Xaris:Red Hair)

The applause goes down again after a few minutes, and Yeeun smiles as her group walks out onto the stage. and take their positions in the spotlights.

(TJ:Blond       Ant:Main Singer       Noheul:Beatboxing       Seongjun:Sings the ending part       Byunjae:Low Voice)

The five climb off the stage and are greeted by the other contestants. Everyone is congratulating each other in excitement as JYP himself stands up and takes the mic.

"Attention please! Now, we thank you for coming to this informal event. The episode with these performances will be in tomorrow's episode of Twenty-One along with several scenes showing all the hard work that went into them, so we hope you'll watch and vote! Thank you everyone and goodnight!"