ePISODE oNE

Part Three

"...Here's a rundown of what will happen; Two team captains will be chosen by picking rocks- Eleven will be white, two will be blue. The two with blue rocks will each be team captains. They'll come up and pick the name of their teams. Once they do, we'll bring up a group of girls based on what their best skill it. The captains will play rock paper scissors and whoever wins gets to chose who they want. Since all but one round will be with pairs, the loser gets the leftover. In the case of the three girls, the winner will decide whether or not she wants the last contestant. You can't look at your rock unitl you're told. Eunji-ssi, if you could please bring up the bag and have everyone choose? Thank you!" Minji sat on the judges table instead of her chair, waiting.

"No looking!" Eunji warned humorously, grinning at Suji who was the first on the left. She want down the line, Minyoung being the last to have a rock. As soon as she returned to her seat, Kyung Il spoke.

"Please open your hand and show your rock."

Thirteen girls opened their palms face up, and two were surprised to find a robin egg's blue rock in their hands. Coincidentally both dancers, Bonnie and Lily found each other's eyes in disbelief. Minji was clearly pleased with the results, her own smile wide.

"Bonnie and Lily are our team leaders! That makes things much easier. Come on, girls, and decide your team names," Eunji urged, "Whisper them to me!'

Lily had her name ready by the time she got there, whispering it excitedly into her sunbae's ear. Eunji nodded and she waited for Bonnie, who after a few more moments of thinking whispered as well. Eunji wrote the two team names down and handded them to Kyung Il.

"Lily's team had been dubbed Team Vanilla! This name will stick with Team A for the duration of the competition. The same can be said for Team B, currently lead by Bonnie, which has been named Team Sunshine!" Kyung Il could barely hold in his own laughter, the audience not bothering. The two seemed almost embarassed now.

"Alright, let's get this show on the road. Seoyun, Sophia, come on up here," Minji ordered. The strongest vocalists of the competion stood side by side, both looking straight ahead, "We'll be playing rock paper scissors, best two out of three. Bonnie can start."

"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" Bonnie gave paper and Lily rock.

"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot," Lily said more camly. She stuck with rock, crushing Bonnie's scissors.

"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" Bonnie turned away in frustration as her paper was cut, taking a deep breath. Lily smiled to herself, eyeing her options. Both were certainly talented, but only one choice was right for her team.

"Seoyun," She said. The vocalist moved to her side, leaving Sophia to stand behind Bonnie.

"Suji and Minyoung!" Minji called up. The leaders went again, Lily gaining another win on her side.

"Suji, please."

"Nabi and Iris, if you'd please," Bonnie snagged her first win, choosing Iris without hesitation. Nabi went shamelessly to Lily's side, eyeing the next two- Phoenix and Daily. Lily won easily, choosing Phoenix. The final three were Stacy, Seul, and Taeha. Lily won the final round, choosing Seul. Almost defiantly, Bonnie chose Stacy, leaving Taeha left. Lily thought about it- The girl probably was loving and hating it at the same time, which disgusted her. However, she wanted the best chance possible, and Taeha was good.

"I'd like Taeha, thank you," Lily nodded to Minji.

Suji, Seoyun, Nabi, Phoenix, Taeha, Lily, and Seul vs. Iris, Daily, Stacy, Bonnie, Sophia, and Minyoung! Who could possibly win?

Now all sat with their respective teams, the girls appraised each other carefully, some gleeful to be on the same team, others dreading working together. The captains had made the difficult choice of winning over loyalty, and it certainly was a tough one. Despite everything, every girl seemed perfectly okay even if they weren't. That was just showbiz, after all.

"This is, obviously, going to be a team battle. As we all know, no matter who has a higher score, anyone can get voted out because today, we're having a fan vote. You're being given three weeks to choose a song, memorize the lyrics, make your own choreography, and film a music video. The concept is cute-y. You'll perform it live on the twenty-sixth, the day RUSH airs. As soon as you start performing, voting will open. To give everyone more of an equal chance, both teams will work with the same composer, lyricist, and producer to make the MV. You will be left on your own to choreograph, to make it a little easier on you," Her voice was sarcastic and she continued with a smirk, "I wish you all luck, you'll need it, considering the loser's punishment. Break!"

The camera cut to the interview room with Seoyun inside.

Q. How did you feel about a team project so soon? Especially one of such scale?

"I was excited! Seriously, how cool is this?! And we get to work with so many important people! I worry a bit about the choreography, but we have some great dancers so I'm certain they'll pull us though," Seoyun smiled.

Q. How do you feel about your team?

"I'm really happy overall. I think we've got a great mix and we'll go really well!"

It was then Nabi's turn. She waited patiently for the PD to speak.

Q. How nervous are you about the mysterious "loser's punishment?"

"I'm just looking on the bright side. I know that we'll all work as hard as we can because we're all determined to make a good impression," She answered truthfully.

Q. Have you seen the nicknames the public gave you already?

Nabi burst out in surprised laughter, "I have, acutally. I'm apparently the "Pretty Rapstar." I'm glad I got such a nice one."

What a lovely interview, Nabi!

The camera panned in on Daily in the black room.

Q. Are you actually prepared for the hardships the show will bring?

"Yes, I've been prepared for it ever since I left home. At this point, I'll do anything I can to win this," The brunette spoke confidently, nothing in her body language giving any anything to say otherwise.

Q. What are your plans for the future if you get eliminated?

"Ah, that's always a possibility," She laughed, now a bit more nervous,"Well, I'll have to train harder. I can't go home unless I've debuted. If I'm eliminated, I clearly didn't work as hard as I could've, so I'll work on improving that. I can't go home until...Until I feel like I've given 110% of me to debut."

Q. Do you have any famous friends that inspire you?

Daily seemed a bit reluctant to answer, but nodded anyway, "Well, you know them as The8 and Jun of Seventeen. I've known Jun since a long time ago, out hometowns were near, and I met The8 a while after. I apparently tend to mother them..."

"Hey, guys, you know who Suji Unnie is related to?" Taeha asked suddenly. The team of seven were relaxing for a few minutes in a practice room in Plan A while waiting for the composer to arrive. A few eyes looked at her curiously and Suji hid her face, "SHINee's Key! Like, the best fashionista-triple-threat to ever walk the Earth!"

"Wait, seriously?" Lily asked in surprise. The eldest seemed surprised that the dancer has spoken to her, but nodded, "Prove it."

"...What?"

"Prove it! I want to know for sure you're relatioed to him," Lily wasn't letting go of this now, she was too single-minded for that. She would definitely get her proof. Suji warily pulled out her phone, scrolling through her pictures.

"I took this with him around the New Year? Back when I was blonde?" She showed the picture to the other six, but Nari shook her head.

"You could have been a fan that spotted him on the street," At this point, the rest of the girls seemed pretty offput, but Suji took a deep breath.

"Do you want me to call him?"

"Yes."

"Okay, you could have just said so, Lily-ssi," Suji laughed it off, dialing her cousin's number, "He may be busy so do- Hi Kibummie!"

"SuSu, why are you calling me?" He groaned, "I thought you said you weren't talking to me after I criticized your ph-"

"Oppaaa, we're filming! It's okay to call a temporary truce when you must prove things. So, Kibummie, how are we related?" The rapper held the phone close to herself, albeit uncomfortably as the other six leaned closer. Key's voice was unmistakable, any pretty much all of them were starstuck to a degree.

"I...Don't even want to know, do I SuSu? We're cousins, on our mom's side. That's why we were close, you visited out grandmother a lot and I lived with her. I'm actually about to go on stage, so I've gotta go," Kibum spoke hurridly, and the buzz of people in the background nearly drowned him out. Suji pouted.

"Oppa, stop working! I mean, don't actually. Alright, I love you Kibummie! I'll talk to you when I'm done being mad!"

"Love you too, Suji. Later!" She hung up and smiled at Lily kindly.

"I hope that was good enough."

"Hey guys! My name is Moon Jinsoon and I'll be your composer for this round," The composer seemed fairly young, and undeniably attractive to most of the girls. Before anyone could introduce themselves, he pulled out lyric sheets and a flashdrive, "I was informed of this project a few months ago and was given all the time until now to compose songs for your guys. I either made or already had about three songs for every possibilty for every group possibly out of the thirteen of you. Please look over these four while I get the music ready. They're already instrumentals at the moment, though they could change to fit your voices and all."

"Thank you," Bonnie said gratefully, though a bit offput by the seemingly hurried disposition. They'd just barely all gotten a look at the first song when Jinsoon called for their attention.

"This already has about five different sets of lyrics for it. I've worked with the lyricist you'll be meeting for years, so just listen to this," He played the first one, giving them a few moments to take it in before stopping it partway through, "You can tell where the rap would go, obviously. Not all of them have intended rap spots, yet."

He played the second one, making a face as though he didn't like it- Not many of the girls did, either. Perhaps it was the instruments used, but it didn't seem to suit them at all. After all of them agreed it wasn't going to work, Jinsoon played the third.

"It's a great song," Minyoung said, "But I don't see how we can fit y into it, even with choreography or lyrics. I don't think it works. The first doesn't either, we can't fit anything cute in there."

"This is your last option," Jinsoon shrugged, unconcerned. A mere few seconds in, the girls knew it was the right song for them, "Alright then, Imma send you to Geun Sohyun, she'll be working on lyrics with you!"

Team Sunshine was shooed out of the room, and Team Vanilla entered. As leader, Lily stepped up and introduced everyone one by one.

"I'm Moon Jinsoon. I'm a composer, every song I have for you has many variations of lyrics, so I'm sure you'll find something good. I've actually only got two that I really feel like showing you, the third one doesn't fit your visual at all," He studied them a moment before handing over music sheets. One played, and Jinsoon could only sit back as he watched it unfold.

"The song is perfect," Lily decided, 'We don't need to hear the other one."

"No way, we need to hear more first!" Seul exlaimed. The maknae was honestly worried about the type of choreography that could go with that kind of song. It seemed limiting, and she had to show her best side.

"It's find," Nabi spoke up, "I'm sure the song will work out if we try hard enough."

"I think Seul is right..." Phoenix was quiet. Though not the kind to speak up, she wanted to do her best and she couldn't do that without listening to all of her options.

"Nah, this song is perfectly fine!" Taeha grinned with a bit of nervousness, looking at how the sides were dividng.

Fighting already? What will Team Vanilla do?

"Look, this is a team exercise. Just listen to the other song and choose," Jinsoon commented with a tinge of annoyance. The seven looked at him, seemingly surprised that he had spoken, "It was my job to compose for you guys, I'm not going to waste all those hours I spent because you can't get along. Learn how to, otherwise you'll make enemies from the public. Now, let's continue."

Thank you Jinsoon Oppa!

"There's a lot of "babes" in this song..." Daily voiced in amusement, looking over the lyrics they'd chosen, "I'm still a girl? Who's gonna take that line?"

"I think Bonnie should," Iris looked over at their team leader for confirmation, "I think if she takes that whole section, Minyoung can take the next and then back to Bonnie again. Doesn't that sound good?"

"I'm not that strong of a vocalist, though," The blonde countered easily, "Shouldn't someone like Daily take those?"

"No, actually, I think it fits your voice well!" Sophia encouraged, "I don't think it's that you're not a strong vocalist, nothing fits your unique voice well. So this song can try to showcase your voice."

"What do you think, Stacy?" Stacy seemed surprised to be addressed, shrugging at Minyoung's question.

"Seems fine."

"Alright then, I think we have this all figured out!" Sohyun clapped her hands cheerfully, "I think the song really fits you six, so you just need to work hard on the choreography. You have two weeks to perfect it, as you'll be filimg the MV exactly fifteen days from now. Thank you for your hard work!"

The RUSH girls are going to work really hard from now on!

And so the race began.

"No, Seul, I can't just stop dancing so you can get to the front before your line- Suji, make her find a different way!" Taeha threw her towl down in frustration. Seul bit her upper lip to distract herself from the yelling, feeling nothing but embarassed when Suji told her it didn't work that way. They had to take a break after that.

The scene changed to Team Sunshine. They seemed to be fairing no better, Songeun with her head in her hands. She leaned against the wall trying to straighten her expression. Her teeth grit in frustration.

"Can someone just tell me what Daily's saying? I don't understand!" She shouted. Daily stood awkwardly in the middle, face friously red with embarassment, "Can't you speak Mandarin, Sophia? Just teach her some more Korean or translate!"

"I'm not that good," Sophia swallowed thickly, "We need a translator or something."

"It's not like I can't speak Kore-"

"But you can't say what we need you too!"

"Phoenix, you need to start speaking up," Seoyun ran a hand through her hair, out of breath from attempting their choreography for the eighth time in a row. It still wasn't good enough.

"I'm sorry."

"Look, I found a solution!" Minyoung clapped, drawing her team's attention, "If we just have Bonnie Unnie and Iris Unnie switch their spots here and transition with a simple side-step sintead, wouldn't it be fine?"

"But it looks too plain, it takes away part of the point dance,"  Bonnie shook her head, a few murmurs of agreement following.

"Not if we add the step-step part here," Minyoung stood in her spot, showing what it would look like, "If we make it a little more like a swing, doesn't it look good?"

"It actually does," Stacy nodded.

"You guys should take a walk," Suji suggested, eying Seul and Nabi warily, "Lily, would you mind taking Nabi out? Seoyun, you should do the same with Seul. The rest of us will work on something else."

"No problem!" Seoyun smiled brightly, grabbing Seul's hand and walking out quickly. Nabi and Lily walked out just a few moments later, and the tension in the room left with them, and the rapper could only breath a sight of relief. She turned to Phoenix and Taeha, sitting down cross-legged.

"Guys, listen, we need to stop fighting and criticising each other. Neither of you have caused many problems, but we need to work together, you know? For the sake of everyone, let's try to get along. We may not all like each other that much, but it's how it is. Let's just make a good song and try to diffuse any arguments before they start. Give constructive criticism, not harsh criticism," She asked gently. Phoenix nodded slowly, and the eldest looked towards Taeha.

"Of course, Unnie! I hope we can all get along better from now on."

"We're fliming the MV today, this is our last practice before we get this thing done!" Bonnie grinned from ear to ear, the girls huddling together, "Let's make it the best MV they'll ever see!"

"We've done a lot of hard work and we've got a great guy with us to act out the MV with," Lily encouraged, "We can all really have a great time with this, let's enjoy the filming. Team Vanilla fighting!"

The crowed "Ooh-ed" at the end of the clips, and the camera swung towards Minji. She was styled beautifully, y but still very chic. Eunji looked to be enjoying herself in her simply and comfy clothes, while Kyung Il seemed as full of charisma as always.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the live portion of SBS's survival show, RUSH! Are you pumped to see what the girls have prepared?" Minji held the mic out to the crowd, laughing at the reaction, "Alright guys. Just now we saw some of the struggles the girls went through while preparing for their performances and filming for their MVs. To see the music videos, please go onto RUSH's official site!"

"As of now, the real competition is about to begin. Please welcome out Team Sunshine!" Eunji clapped, and the camera switched to the six contestants, stood in a line.

"Hana, deul, annyeonghaseyo! We're Team Sunshine!" The girls framed their faces cutely.

"On our team we have me, Bonnie, Stacy, Iris, Daily, Sophia, and our maknae Minyoung. Today we've prepared a song for you entitled Mr. Bang Bang," Bonnie looked towards Iris who began her part.

"Mr. Bang bang is a bright melody created to be easy for anyone to sing along. With snyth and electric sounds, it's a bit of a throwback to '90s European pop. I hope you enjoy!" The lights went off, muttering filling the crowd.

(See here. Serri- Bonnie, Ahyoung- Daily, Jiyul- Stacy, Woohee- Minyoung, Kaeun- Iris, Subin- Sophia)

What a lovely stage! What do the judges have to say?

The audience was deafening, and the girls breathed heavily, looking towards the judges. Eunji was clapping enthusiastically, while Kyung Il and Minji were a bit more polite than excited. The other seven where whispering among themselves from backstage, staring at the screen.  Once everything quieted down, Minji cleared and was the first to speak.

"First off, I'd like to thank you all for putting so much effort into your first teem performance. However, I'm not feeling you guys on the stage at all. Where is your stage presence? Didn't you want to be on stage together? Your teamwork actually felt good but your stage presence was so lackluster that I couldn't even enjoy your unique voices. Are you unhappy on the stage? Tired because of training? Well, put it away while on stafe, your audience cannot feel that exhaustion or they'll leave you soon. Your voices are unique, all of them, so instead of hiding behind a lackluster dance and a lacking performance, you definitely need to step it up. Iris, you were definitely the most alive on stage and kudos for that. Keep up your energy level and you'll go far. Thank you," Iris tried to hide her smile at the praise, aware that the rest of her team hadn't quite gotten much of it.

"What happened with your choreography?" Eunji asked rhetorically, "That was the part you did yourselves and one of the main categories where you'd be judged. It was boring to a degree, and there didn't seem to be a point dance which is essential. However, the song was very enjoyable as a whole. You do feel like a good-working team, but you need to oil up and use your expressions to your advantage. Always be active on stage, even when it's not your line. Thanks guys!"

"Honestly, I'm wondering what happened to your rap. You have two rappers but no rap lines, just some English? I'm disappointed, you have some worthy rappers on your team. In fact, I expected Minyoung to spit some fire after the advice she got with her individual performance. Why didn't you?" Kyung Il asked seriously. Minyoung held the mic to her lips, hand shaking a bit but face strong.

"It simply didn't fit in with the rest of the song. There was no place for it so I just sang instead," She answered maturely, not seeming to be phased.

"The song is good, it really is, but I don't think you guys played into everyone's talents just right. You seemed to gloss over everyone's, particularly your dancers and rappers. Thank you," Kyung Il finished. Team Sunshine exited and Team Vanilla came onto stage.

"Hana, deul, set, annyeonghaseyo we're your sweet ice cream, Vanilla!" They introduced, leaning in close to each other, as though they were about to take a picture together.

"On the team we have our leader Lily, oldest Suji, myself, Phoenix, Taeha, Nabi, and the sweetest maknae Seul!" Seoyun's words sparked applause in the crowd."

"We've prepared a song called I Like U Too Much," Lily began.

"It's a song with beats and lyrics that pop!" Suji grinned, "I Like U Too Much is a sweet song about a girl who's unashmed to admit that she's far too in love. Please enjoy!"

(See here. Sumin- Lily, Minjae- Phoenix, D.ana- Nabi, Nahyun- Seul, Eunjin- Taeha, High.D- Seoyun, Newsun- Suji)

A cute, catchy song! Capturing the audiences' hearts!

The crowd did its usual freak-out, screaming names and just screaming in general. The judges clapped and gathered their thoughts, and yet again Minji spoke first.

"Did your mics not work for the first part of the song? I could barely hear your voices, more power, girls. Nobody gets famous if the audience can't hear you sing. Work on that- All of you," The blonde spoke with a hard voice and didn't seem to react to the crowd or the girls, "I feel like you're lacking teamwork; your performance was mostly carried by Seoyun and Phoenix. The thing about teamwork is that you guys need to shine equally and you didn't here. Do better next time, who knows, the girl your wiyth today may just be the one you'll be spending all your time with for the next five to seven years.

"You need to deliver a performance even though you're competing, can't step on your teammates, that'll bring the whole team down. That being said, Seoyun and Phoenix did well, your voices were powerful though could still be worked on. You're definitely going in the right direction. Phoenix- Your ad-libs are defintiely worth working on, there's potential. As for Nabi and Suji, you did your parts well. Although short, you delivered your raps well and brought forth the cute feeling in the rap so well done on that. Thank you."

"The raps fit surprisingly well into the song," Kyung Il agreed, "I was wondering if you'd skip out on rapping as well, but you delivered something pretty good. The song was upbeat and easy to follow, and you did great with the choreography aspect, I saw some good moves in there. Lily in particular, your dancing was great. I think Minji hit the points that really had to be fixed, but I really enjoyed your performance as a whole."

"Seoyun, you rocked our high notes, I'm not gonna lie. I was pleasantly surprised at how well you did too, Phoenix. You solo showed a more emotional type of singing, but here you took a different take and performed the song beautifully. While you had some voice cracks, you still did a better job than anticipated. Seul, I was glad to see some cheer in your dancing this time! The performance was definitely a success and I enjoyed it," Eunji gave a round of applause. After commercial, the thirteen girls were standing, seperated by teams, in front of the judges. Kyung Il took center stage.

"Today, all thirteen of you showed a lot of talent and hardwork. Some did better than other in their intros, and one team was better than the other during team battles. Eunji-ssi will share our final thoughts and choice."

"Team Sunshine, you took a very unique approach with your concept and were able to, according to some judges, show a good mix of y and cuteness. Your unique voices were hidden with a lack of confidence and unfortunately your choreography lacked greatly. There waqs nothing exciting, or important about it Because of this, you've been a score of eighty-five out of one hundred. Overall the performance and song were good, but you were unable to show your best with one of our major categories," Eunji sent them a gentle smile.

"Thank you," Bonnie bowed and her team stepped back.

"Team Vanilla, you had a really cute intro. Your song was very fitting for the cute concept, however the y really didn't quite make it there. While ther were hints, it didn't seem to qualify as cute and y. However, your choreography fit the song and everyone did very well, almost like real idols. The vocals were quiet at first but you got used to the stage quickly. Your rappers had no flaws but you didn't distribute the lines properly. So while everyone did good individually, as a group you didn't do as well. Your final score is..." Eunji took a deep breath, the camera shooting between contestants, "Seventy-nine points. Congratulations to Team Sunshine!"

Sophia immediately dissolved into tears, turning around to hide her crying face. You could hear her sobs through the microphone as she held her arm across her eyes. Team Vanilla clapped along with the judges and viewers, Seoyun as excited about their win as them. Minyoung made her way over to the elder, acccepting the warm hug happily. Before things could get too celebretory, however, Eunji spoke again.

"Next to be revealed is the individual contestant who has been voted out of the competition."