EPISODE 3

The camera pans over a modest studio with a live audience. It shows many a fangirl flashing the names on their phones.and even some Pandora lightsticks. Some fans with Alex and James signs are also shown though most of them don't yet have any banners or signs.

Yeonhee comes on stage dressed in a smart dress and welcomed by thunderous applause and screams. "Welcome to Do or Die's first live show! I bet most of the contestants are shaking with nerves behind the stage right now. They worked so hard on the performance they're about to show you."

There are more cheers from the crowd and Yeonhee's smile widened. "Ahh you must be very excited to see them! And of course our judges are present as well. Carver, I would like to know who of the contestants you are most looking forward to seeing in action." 

The judges are seated behind the same red and grey styled desk as before. "Yeonin and Jaemin of course," Carver says without hesitation. "They're the best vocalists on the show. I wonder which of the two will impress me the most this time."

"Aah yes their vocals are no joke," Yeonhee agrees. "What about you Kangho, who do you look forward to seeing?"

"Alex and Daebak are the best dancers we have," Kangho says. "But I'm keeping my eyes on James as well, he might yet turn out to be a wildcard. He could end up surprising us all."

"Ah yes, James is a seasoned performer who has already been an idol before, I'm sure he's one to watch. What about you Cipher?"

"I'm really excited to see how Hugo will do," Cipher says with a grin before a look from Carver once again stops him. "But most of all I'm looking forward to seeing Hanjin's rap. I know he won't let me down."

"Seona, is there anyone who stood out for you during the audition round?"

"Song Haneul is an experienced idol, I think that I'm joined by many of our viewers in looking forward to his team's performance," Seona says.

"Of course! He's so handsome isn't he? I look forward to finding out what his team has created for us," Yeonhee nods. So this week, and every week after that, our contestants will be put into groups and tasked with created unforgettable performances! But first we have a special opening performance, choreographed by our very own Jeon Kangho!

Daebak (JHope / red sweater); Alex (Jimin / camo hoody); Inho (RM / sunglasses and ok at best dancing); Ted (Jungkook / american hoody); Hanjin (Yoongi / bandana under hat. y tho); Hugo (Jin / hockey jersey); Geomi (V / white red and black sweater);

James (N / awful asymmetrical bowlcut); Jaemin (Leo / brown hair and expressionless face); Haneul (Hyuk / lightish brown hair?); Changui (Ken / dark hair); Hyuk (Ravi / sunglasses); Inshik (Hongbin / reddish hair?)

Yoonshik (Jun.K / furry coat); Yeonin (Changsung) / idek y'all are on your own here); Bomseok (Wooyoung); Kyungtaek (Nichkhun); Jeongha (Taecyeon); Seowoo (Junho)

The boys all pant as they hold their pose and the audience cheers. Most of them are grinning from ear to ear, even those who have performed before like Geomi and Haneul can't control how excited they are to perform again. Yeonin, Kyungtaek, and Seowoo are the only ones holding it together. 

"Wasn't that just incredible?"The camera shifts back to Yeonhee who claps enthusiastically, looking proud. "Now, I do wonder how our contestants faired on their first day on the job, shall we find out?"

         

It's raining hard by the time the bus pulls in front of a big building with Do or Die posters plastered all over it. The contestants all end up running into the building to avoid getting absolutely soaked, except for Ted who doesn't seem to mind the rain.

They all seem excited to see the dorms and where they'll be sleeping. The camera pans over three adjoining rooms, each labelled either vocalists, dancers, or rappers. The contestants all filter in to explore their own rooms.

Changui is the first to enter the vocalist room. "I call bottom bunk," he says immediately, tossing his bag onto the first bottom bunk within reach.

Jaemin frowns. "Shouldn't the oldest choose first?"

"Oh. Right." Changui takes his bag down from the bed quickly, looking emberassed for the mess-up. He then stands by and watches as one after the other Kyungtaek, Yeonin, and Yoonshik come in and put their things on the bottom bunks. Haneul looks over the remaining spots and decides on a bottom bunk as well, leaving Changui looking rather disappointed.

Inshik and Geomi look at each other, as the youngest contestants one of them is going to have to take the mattress on the floor. "I'll take it," Geomi volunteers. Inshik lets out a breath of relief and tosses his things on the last available top bunk.
 
An interview segment shows Changui. "We don't really have an age system in Europe," Changui admits. "At least not as ridgid as in Korea. I forgot that this is how it works here."

Things are a lot simpler in the dancer room. "I take the mattress," Daebak says upon entering the room. 

"Are you sure?" Hyuk asks. "You don't have to do that you're the oldest."

"No it okay," Daebak shakes his head. "I like."
 
Next up is Daebak for his interview in front of the Do or Die logo. "I'm too tall for Korean beds." he says. Thankfully Korean shows have captions or following along through his accent would be a challenge. "I don't mind the mattress. I can stick out," he says with a cheerful smile.
 
James is every bit as decisive, claiming one of the bottom bunks as soon as he gets inside. 

Hyuk looks at Alex. "What do you-"

"I'll take top bunk if you don't mind." 

Hyuk squirms a little in Hugo's gaze. Thankfully Hugo just makes his way to one of the top bunks and claims it, leaving Hyuk with the last remaining bottom bunk under Alex's bed and looking very relieved.

"Big brother is watching us," Hugo points lazily at the camera mounted in the corner of the ceiling.

In the rapper room Hanjin immediately claims one of the bottom bunks. "Yo Inho, take the one above me." Inho shrugs and wordlessly claims the top bunk above Hanjin's as instructed.

The other beds are divided a lot more democratically, with the ancient old decision making system called rock, paper, scissors and Jeongha ends up left with the mattress. 

"I'm the center!" Jeongha says in his interview with a doofy grin, looking way too excited about getting the mattress.

Back in the dancer room it's Alex who first discovered the outfits prepared on the table. The shirts are red while the pants are simply black, with a big D for dance on the back and a smaller one on the front. The camera shows the vocalists figuring it out as well, with Changui holding up one of the shirts with a V. Eventually Alex pops into the rapper room where the rappers have been too busy chilling to notice their own R-shirts.
  Next the contestants filter into one of the practice rooms where they're greeted with Yeonhee standing in front of a board with magnetic portrait of themselves on it, each labeled with a D/V/R according to their main talents.   "Good evening," Yeonhee says brightly. "Look at all of you together, so colourful! It's time to determine your first groups and get your first challenge."

"There's going to be three groups this challenge, and the leaders will be Kyungtaek, Yeonin, and James." Yeonhee indicates the board where the three portraits were already at the top. The three leaders step forward, Kyungtaek and James looking fairly confident but Yeonin's face briefly falls with worry.

After a quick round of rock, paper, scissors, the leaders take turns selecting their group members. Yeonin, who is first, takes his time as he regards the portraits on the board, and ends up selecting the portrait of Jeongha and putting it under his own.

James takes no time deciding at all. "Haneul," he picks immediately, moving the very handsome portrait to his side. 

Kyungtaek looks over the board for a moment. "Hanjin," he announces.

After several more rounds of choosing it is determined that the first group will contain Yeonin, Jeongha, Geomi, Alex, Changui, Bomseok, and Inshik, in that order. The second group is James, Haneul, Jaemin, Seowoo, Ted, and Hyuk. The third group is Kyungtaek, Hanjin, Inho, Daebak, Yoonshik, and Hugo. 

Yeonhee claps her hands. "Now that the groups have been chosen I can tell you the theme of the challenge! You are hereby tasked to cover your sunbaes, the choice of which is all yours. You may work in any of the rooms in the building at any time that nothing else has been scheduled. At the end of the week you will perform for a live audience!"

"Of course," Yeonhee continues. "At the end of this round one of you will have to be eliminated." 

Some of the guys look at each other nervously.

"The audience at the live show will vote for their favourites. Whoever gets the lowest amount of votes will be eliminated, so make sure you stand out and put down your best performance."            

"It's already time for our first performance," Yeonhee says back on the stage. "Team Kyungtaek, please come onto the stage."

Kyungtaek, Hanjin, Inho, Hugo, Yoonshik, and Daebak come onto the stage, dressed in matching leather pants, blazers, and striped shirts. Hugo is still wearing a mask but this time it's a plain black one to match their clothes.

"Look at you!" Yeonhee says with a big smile. "You look very handsome in those outfits. Now I heard that preparing your performance has not all been smooth sailing," Yeonhee says. "Especially not for you Inho."

Inho grimances. "It wasn't easy for me to get used to dancing."

"Why don't we have a look at how you all did."

The scene shifts to the group sitting around a laptop in one of the practice rooms. "We have the best rappers in the show," Hanjin says. "We should do a hip hop song to show off our strengths."

"We should do something from a popular boy group," Yoonshik contributes.

"Put popular and hip hop in one equation and you get but one answer," Hugo says, leaning against the mirror a little away from the laptop. He's wearing a plain white facemask now, one that's a bit more breathable than the thick leather one he wore before. "Those boyscouts who happen to be bulletproof."

"Why would boyscouts have to be bulletproof?" Daebak wonders. 

"Don't they have complex dances?" Inho asks, looking concerned. 

"So which of their songs should we do?" Kyungtaek asks. 
 

The scene cuts to Inho sitting for his interview, though it's apparently that he'd rather be doing anything else. "BTS have really challenging dances," he says.
 

He doesn't say anything else and the interviewer has to prompt him. "Does that concern you?" the voice off-camera asks.

"It does," Inho says, and again doesn't offer anything more.
 

"How about something else instead? EXO maybe? Or Beast?" Yoonshik suggest. At another time he says "We're just decided like that? What if I don't agree with it? BTS don't have a very impressive vocal line."

"BTS is a good idea," Kyungtaek says. "It plays to our strengths. Yours too, you're a great dancer Yoonshik, now you can show that off."

The scene cuts back to the group sitting in a circle around printouts of their lyrics. They chose I Need U and Run.

"I can mix them no problem," Hugo says, looking at the two separate lyric sheets. "I've mixed them together before, they're quite similar. We can take the first verse and chorus of each song, those are the most recognizeable."

"Inho why don't you take these rap parts," Hanjin circles some on Inho's paper after playing the songs on their laptop. "For these parts you don't have to dance while rapping. I can take the other rap parts, they require more movement."

"Thanks," Inho says, highlighting the rap breaks Hanjin suggested.

"You'll do the first lines of the song though you have to make an impact," Yoonshik warns, still looking unhappy.

"Oh if there's one thing he can do it's make an impact," Hanjin says with a laugh. 

 

"Inho and I?" Hanjin says in his interview. "Oh we go way back. We've been friends for almost a decade now, starting out in the underground scene around the same time. Am I concerned about his lacking dance skill? Of course, but I'm here to help him every step of the way."
 

The scene shifts to the team practing their dancing in the big communcal dance room, not their own small practice room. It's not going great. Inho keeps messing up, having trouble finding his place in the formation and remembering all the moves, nevermind actually executing them. To everyone's surprise Hugo is doing fine. His movements aren't as sharp and precise as Daebak's or Yoonshik's but he has a neck for memorising the moves.

"Hyung watch it," Hugo says almost lazily while Inho messed up his part in the formation and almost smacks him in the face. Kyungtaek takes his step backwards and bumps into Inho, losing his balance and falling onto the ground, dragging Inho along with him. 

Hanjin and Daebak help the two up while Yoonshik looks extremely frustrated, raking a hand through his bleached hair. "We're being evaluated in an hour," he says. "Come on Inho shape up." 

Then it's time for the evaluations. Kangho, Carver, and Cipher enter the room. Yoonshik is visibly sweating. alas they must show what they've been practicing.  Kyungtaek, Hugo, and Daebak's singing is a  weak, they're obviously out of breath from the intense dancing, causing Carver look sharp and scribble on his clipboard. Only Yoonshik and Hanjin are flawless. Inho raps well, but his dancing is sloppy and weak and at several points he is entirely in the wrong place, glancing with panic at the others to see what he's supposed to be doing.

"So,"Kangho starts. "That was a mess. I know this is the first performance but I expected better. The only positive thing I can say is that Hugo did better than expected" Not even Cipher is laughing at this point, the atmosphere is completely serious. "Yoonshik, you're a good dancer but you're far too individualistic and standing out isn't the goal here. Kyungtaek, there's no charisma in what you're doing at all. And Inho. I don't even want to comment on what you were doing. Whatever it was it wasn't dancing."

Inho frowns a bit but keeps his head high. Kyungtaek nods solemnly, taking the criticism.

"The singing was also a mess," Carver takes over. "Yoonshik was the only one I could hear. Kyungtaek and Daebak disappeared completely. And even when there was singing coming out of Daebak, it's a mystery what he was even trying to sing. You need to work on your pronounciation before you can attempt anything like this."

Cipher shrugs. "Hanjin's rapping was on point as always." He then turns toward Inho and his face shows his annoyance. "Inho, we told you to tone down the aggression in your rap yet here we are. This is a love song but I was the girl I'd be calling 119. I'm not just here for nothing, I mean it would be great if I were paid to stand around and look pretty but we've already got Yeonhee for that.It would be great if you could follow that advice so I'm not talking to a wall. I've got better things to do than babysit you after all, like, oh right, work on my own succesful career."

Inho opens his mouth to counter but Carver cuts him off. "I wouldn't be surprised if the elimination ends up being one of you if you don't get your act together." That sobers the group up real fast. Even Yoonshik and Hanjin look ashamed, but Inho just keeps his head high and stares right back at Cipher, daring him to say something else.

"Thank you for your advice, we'll work hard to improve." Kyungtaek bows to the judges,glancing nervously at Inho's insubordination.

There is a sped up montage of the group practicing, sometimes with all of them, sometimes with just Inho and Hanjin going over the choreography again and again and again. 

 

Daebak (Jungkook/intro dancer); Inho (Yoongi / minty fresh);  Hanjin (JHope / dark brown + choker); Hugo (Jin / light brown + choker); Kyungtaek (V / dark brown no choker); Yoonshik (Jimin / orange)

The camera returns to the stage where Yoonshik play