EPISODE 7

After a brief reminder of the previous week's performances, Do or Die returns to the where it left off. It is once again elimination time. 

"Welcome back to Do or Die," Yeonhee says as usual, with the groups behind her. "Last week the contestants split up into one big team and two small ones. One team will be immune, while two will lose a member. That's right, it is unfortunately time to say goodbye to two of our contestants tonight."

Yeonhee turns towards the contestants. "I will now announce who of each team will be up for elimination."

There are solemn nods and clutched hands among the contestants as they wait to hear who will likely be eliminated. Inho has an arm slung around Hanjin and the two look at ease, while Seowoo's nerves are clear as day. Haneul, Ted, and Bomseok look nothing like a team, each standing a little apart, not acknowledging one another. The big team is faring a little better but there's a clear division among them. 

"From team Dash," Yeonhee starts. "Inshik, please step forward."

Inshik looks terrified as he steps forward, but he managed to keep it dry so far.

He looks defeated in his interview section. "Two of us are going home," he says. "There is a 2 in 3 chance I'm not going to make it." He sighs. 

"From team Very Good," Yeonhee continues. "Bomseok, I'm sorry, please step forward."

Bomseok steps forward without any fuss to take his place. He looks defeated, like he's already been eliminated even without the announcement of immunity.

"And team Comfortable, Seowoo please step forward."

Seowoo's taken te step before Yeonhee even finished speaking. He seemed to have expected it and he's keeping his gaze steadily forward. Daring the camera to eliminated him.

"Two of you will be going home tonight," Yeonhee says. "And one of you will be saved. Who did the voters award immunity to?" She opens her envelope. "Ah, Seowoo you can return to your team, Comfortable has been voted the best performance of the show."

Seowoo lets out a breath and quickly rejoins his team. Bomseok just nods, but it takes Inshik a moment to realize what has happened. His eyes widen and he stares from Bomseok to Yeonhee. Bomseok quickly squeezes his hand. "Come on," Bomseok says, and leads Inshik off stage.

"I knew I was getting eliminated the momeny she called my name," Bomseok says in his interview. "Our performance was a mess, if we would have gotten immunity then we would not have deserved this. We messed up and I'm paying the price. Ah well, it is how it is."

"I escape the noose once more," Seowoo says in his own interview section. "At this point it's a bit of a joke isn't it?" He laughs bitterly. "Will you ever manage to actually send me home?"

"That is it for this evening," Yeonhee says to the remaining contestants. "Return to the dorm and a good night's sleep, tomorrow will be quite a day for you."

 

       
When the show returns from its first commercial break there is a striking change of scenery. Instead of in the practice room as usual, the contestants are gathered outside in normal clothing, some looking more... normal than others. Hugo is wearing something fairly simple for his doing, ripped jeans and a Bastion shirt, along with his signature toothy mask of course. Changui is decked out in a pattern shirt and a patterned scarf, and while in a fair universe the two patterns would definitely not mix, for some reason here they do. Inho is wearing a leather jacket and a big black floppy hat much too big for his own good, and showing not an ounce of shame. Jeongha is wearing a tank top with a loud mattern on it, even though he's not matching the energy of the shirt. Meanwile Yeonin looks nothing short of smart casual with a blazer and slacks and Jaemin looks ready to hit a dance class in his track pants. They make a mismatched bunch, the contestants.

Yeonhee stands outside of the entrance of what looks like a sports hall. Many of the contestants look rather confused.

"They didn't tell us what we were doing here," Yoonshik says in his interview segment. "We're s confused as you are right now, viewers."

"You're probably wondering what we're doing here," Yeonhee says with a gentle smile, and she's met with several nods of affirmation. "Today you will be having your first fansign event as Do or Die."

That gets a mixture of results from the contestants. Hyuk looks worried, James looks confident, and Daebak looks excited.

"But, of course, it won't be an ordinary fansign," Yeonhee continues. "There will be 300 fans coming for the fansign. Each of the fans is only allowed to get a signature from one of you. Those of you with the most fans will get an advantage this week." She then steps aside and the contestants excitedly enter the building.

There's a monstage of fans entering the sports hall where a long row of tables has been set up for the contestants, much like any fansign. In front of the tables lines have been drawn up for the fans to queue. One by one the 200 fans enter the hall, pick up one of the prepared portrait photos, and queue up in front of their contestant of choice. It's soon apparent that everyone's popularity is far from equally divided.

Haneul sits down, obviously expecting to be overrun by fans, but his queue is one of the shorter ones. There's maybe 20 people in this queue and Haneul looks visibly surprised. Still he gathers himself quikcly and starts the familiar process of greeting fans and takes the time to chat with them.

It's Hyuk's line that's the one to fill in first, the prepared queue isn't long enough to hold everyone who wants his signature. The camera zooms in on Hyuk as he realized what is happening, and he looks so surprised and even worried. Talking to people doesn't come easy for him, and the staff is hurrying his much faster than he'd like. 

Next the camera focuses on Hugo and Yeonin who each have quite a few fans themselves and both of them also seem very surprised with their popularity. Hugo looks highly amused at this development and seems in his element chatting with whomever wanted his signature. Yeonin is a lot more awkward, to the point where he actually looks uncomfortable with the fansign, and it's obvious he'd rather be anywhere but here right now. Still he soldiers on and mostly lets the fans do the talking as he nods and sometimes mutters single word responses. It's almost painful to watch.

Next up are Hanjin and Inho, who seem to be about as popular. Inho is quite slow at the signatures, he's taking his time to exchange words with whoemever comes for him. He's a little awkward, but he's doing his best. Hanjin is more efficient and charming, he has no problem talking to the fans and exhanging jokes and his line goes a lot faster. Hanjin finishes his line quite some time before Inho does, but it's hard to tell with the editing if that is because he's faster at signing or because he had less fans than Inho.

In contrast, Changui's line is laughably small, he only has about a dozen fans, but he's enjoying his time with each and every one of them. His line goes show as Changui engages in conversation which everyone who approaches him, showing actual interest in all of them. Daebak has about the same number, but next to Changui he stands out like a sore thumb, having none of that easy charisma. Still he tries, and he all but beams up at every fan who comes by.

Seowoo has even less, there are only 5 people in his line and he's not the most charismatic either. He signs, exchanges some polite words, and sends them on his way. Soon Seowoo has nothing to do anymore and looks bored out of his mind.

Jeongha doesn't have a whole lot of fans either, and he spends his time talking to the ones that did chose him and sending them his signature grin, but much of the energy it used to have is missing. Still, he tries, and the fans who walk away fromhim look content if a little confused.

James' queue is quite full, though nowhere near that of Hyuk or even Hugo. He seems content and professional as he greets and signs. Yoonshik, who's sitting next to him, is having less luck. His queue has more in common with Changui's. Still he's professional about it and doesn't let his disappointment show too much.

Jaemin is doing fairly well for himself and seems to really enjoy interacting with the fans. Not the most chatty, he is polite and kind and those who leave his queue look content with their choice. Lastly there's Ted next to Jaemin, who doesn't talk much with the fans. He doesn't seem to really know what to do with the attention, but simpy signs the photos and passes it back with hardly any talk. 

There is another fast-forward as even the last fan leaves with her signature from Hyuk and the venue empties out. 

"I never thought I'd ever be able to do a fansign," Hyuk says in his interview section, and he genuinely looks happy. "Let alone be one of the most popular guys! I mean I know I was always working towards debuting, but I never thought I'd actually get to, you know? But now it feels so real. There are people out there who want my signature. I have fans." he looks absolutely giddy.
         

The contestants are shown returning to the dorms, entering the main training room together where Yeonhee is already waiting for them. A timestamp shows it is later that afternoon on the same day, after the fanmeet has ended.

"Welcome back," she says cheerfully. "You all did very well, and I'm sure having some idea of your own popularity was very enlightening. Some of you might be feeling relieved, while others might be feeling the pressure." Glances among the contestants confirm that. Hyuk is still glowing. "As a congratulations on your first succesful fansign here at Do or Die, your next one will likely be as a full group, if you make it into the lineup! To celebrate today's succesful event we have decided to treat you to some delicious food!"

Some of the staff come in with trays of plastic containers with delicious food, a far cry from their usual salad and chicken . This lightens the mood of even the sulkiest contestant. Even Seowoo is smiling as they array the food among them. There's  tteokbokki, kimbab, sundae, even some corndogs and more, all spread out between the contestants as everyone picks and chooses what they want to eat. 

Yeonhee watches with pride on her face as the contestants are wolfing down their food before exiting the room.

"Oh man I thought I'd be eating chicken forever," Jeongha says inbetween bites of kimbab, sitting with Daebak, Changui, and Haneul.

"I thought I will become chicken ," Daebak jokes through a mouthfull of corndog. 

Haneul just shakes his head with a smile while Changui actually bursts out laughing. "Never change, Daebak," he says. 

Inho and Hanjin are sitting together of course, animatedly talking about the fansign but also the competition while neither holds back on the food.

James is the only one who doesn't seem to be eating much. He takes a bit of kimbab and that's it. He seems deep in his own thoughts and they don't appear to be good ones.

When the guys are done eating, the three judges enter the room. "It is time for your new rankings," Carver says. 

Carver looks mildly annoyed. "Alright. As you wish, I'll start with the vocalists. Last rank is for Changui, while you did sing this time, you had no parts to show off and no standout role in the team. Mind that I'm glad you stopped rapping for now, and I hope you can show something better this week."

Changui accepts the ranking without fuss and sits back down. 

"#5 goes to Haneul, while you're a good singer, your teamwork was abysmal," Carver continues, and for once Haneul doesn't look surprised or annoyed. He just bows humbly and accepts the ranking. "Seowoo you get #4, you did a good job with your team. Next up for #3 is Jaemin." 

"Our teamwork was a disgrace last week," Haneul says in his interview section. "I deserve this rank."

Jaemin looks up, surprised that he has such a high ranking this time. He bows deeply to Carver before accepting his pin.

"You managed to finally show some of those vocals I saw in the audition round. It wasn't enough, but it matters. Keep going like this and you might eventually end up #1. Next up is #2, which goes to Yeonin this week for another excellent vocal performance."

Behind Yeonin, Yoonshik looks surprised again for being singled out as #1. After handing the pin to Yeonin, Carver turns to him. "Yoonshik, you get #1 pin not especially for your vocal performance, but your integral part in crafting the performance along with James. You impressed me with your versatility and leadership, and I do look forward to seeing more of that."

Cipher is up next, and he immediately tosses the #4 pin at Jeongha. "You actually rapped this time but it's still not good enough," Cipher says. "You need to show me what you're made of or you might as well just go home."

Jeongha looks a little defeated as he receives his pin, and averts eye contact with anyway. Inho and Hugo are the only ones who seem to notice, and Inho frowns.

"Next up is Ted, my man. You're still not at the level I want you to be, are you even trying? I need you to get some actual feelings across instead of keep hiding behind your hype songs. Very Good? Really? That was your solution? You need to do better." Cipher is scalding as ever with his critique.

And then he turns to Inho and Hanjin. "You two put together the most interesting performance of the night by far," Cipher says. "And I'm glad the voters agreed. Catch." Cipher tosses the two pins at both of them.

Inho frowns as he looks at his pin. "Are you sure you gave me the right one?" he asks. 

"Inho. Oh Inho," Cipher starts. "I'm proud of you, really, I am. The first few episodes you were so stagnant, stuck in your little pit of aggression and making no attempts to work on your weaknesses. And here we are now. You wrote a calm, quiet, and introspective song with not a speck of aggression and showed me you are capable of more than that little Show Me the Money pen you'd boxed yourself into. More of this please!"

Inho has a small proud smile as he pins the #1 badge onto his shirt. Jeongha nudges him and sends him a genuine proud grin, which makes Inho's smile widen. Hanjiin also throws a congratulatory arm over Inho's shoulders, but his grin is more mutered. More strained.

"He got #1!" Jeongha says excitedly in his interview. "I'm so happy for it, if anyone deserves it it's him."

"Aight, that was me," Cipher says. "Take it away hyung."

Kangho steps forwards and hands the same old rankings to Hugo and Hyuk, no fruther explanation needed. "The next rank goes to Daebak this week," Kangho says. "You didn't contribute much in the way of  choreography this week, but your energy on stage was a joy to watch anyway."

Hugo pins on his #5 with little surprise, but Hyuk frowns at his #4 pin. He leans foward to take a look at Hugo's pin, before turning to Kangho. "Aren't there supposed to be only 4 rankings for us now?" he asks, a little uncertainly. 

Kangho nods. "You have a keen eye, Hyuk." He nods at the door. "Everyone, this is Lee Halli."

The door opens to reveal someone entirely new. He looks quite young, especially compared to the average age of the contestants that are left.

"Hello everyone," the guy addresses the contestants. "I am Lee Halli, 20 years old, and I'm a dancer."

"Halli will be joining the show as a contestant in the dance team," Kangho says. "Please welcome him onto the show."

A shot of the contestants shows everyone's face falling. There's anger in some of them. Disbelief in others. Even Hugo isn't smiling, instead he's staring intently at the newcomer.

"At first I thought he would just be someone to work with. A producer or choreographer or something," Hyuk says in his interview. He sounds defeated. "I didn't expect there to be a new contestant at all. Even though he was wearing our uniform, I guess I just didn't want to believe it." 

"As if we're not stressed enough, they pull something like this," Seowoo says in his interview. He sounds more than pissed. "Were we not good enough that you have to add someone else? Did we not bring in enough ratings?"

Daebak looks very distraught in his interview section. "Why would they add a dancer?" he asks. "Am I not good enough? Is James not good enough?" He looks unhappy but nods to himself. "I will work harder from now on."

Jaemin is fidgeting in his interview, looking a mix of nervous and angry. "W-we've worked so hard so far," he stammers, casting nervous looks at the camera. "I felt like he was freeloading on the work we've put into this."

"I do not envy the dance team right now," Yoonshik says. "Adding another player in so late? That's basically being told you're not good enough. The company must have been concerned about the dancers and their suitibility for the final group, or their commitment. Either way, they will be tested."

He holds up the #1 pin. "I can't hand this one out yet, because I don't know who deserves it. James, you impressed me with your teamwork and your choreography, a duty you shared with Yoonshik, but Halli is an excellent dancer himself. We thought it fair if we allowed him to challenge the best dancer for the rank."

The camera zooms in on James, who looks very unhappy. It's easy to see that he's angry, and that he's not able to totally control that anger.

Halli, meanwhile, looks nothing short of excited. He's got a big smile on his face that he's only halfheartedly trying to suppress while taking in all of the contestants in front of him.

"Halli, do you wish to challenge James for his position in the ranking?" Kangho asks.

"I do," Halli says immediately.

"In that case your challenge will be to create a dance performance together, to be used as the opening of the show. You have 16 hours to create this performance, when I will judge it and award the top rank to whomever impressed me the most."

Halli nods, not bothered by the slightest, while James looks very reluctant.

"Did I think it was unfair for Halli to challenge me?" James repeats the question of the interviewer. "Yes. Absolutely. All of us have worked so hard to get where we are, and to show off our skills over the last 5 episodes, and now someone who hasn't participated in this program at all should be allowed to take my ranking away from me based on a single performance? That doesn't seem fair to me."

"I understand that many of them won't accept me right now," Halli says in his own interview. "I did come in late after all, even if it wasn't by choice. I understand why they don't like me, I do. But I share their dream, and I will grab every opportunity to debut. Hopefully they'll be able to see that, in the end, we are not so different."
  .
         

Back on the stage there is Yeonhee ready as always. "Welcome back to Do or Die," she says with a charming smile. "We have another evening of spectacular performances ready for you, and the opening one is sure to set the bar high."

There is a cheer from the audience, and the camera catches a set of fans with big X2 banners all the way from 2012 raised high. 

"Two incredibly dancers have worked on a performance to earn that coveted #1 ranking. One you know very well, and one you hardly know at all. That's right, we have a newcomer in our midst, and one eager to show what he is made of."

The camera catches a shot of Halli and James in the wings, and Halli waves cheerfully at the camera.

"Their challenge was to create the opening performance for the show in only 16 hours, isn't that right?" Yeonhee asks, turning toward the judges table.

Kangho nods. "We already judged their performance on that day, and I am sure it will be as spectacular now as it was then."

"Let's not keep the audience waiting any longer then," Yeonhee says.      

James  (Lee Joo Sung / all black); Halli (Nam Jin Hyun / all white)

The applause when they're done is defeaning. A closeup of the judges table reveals that all of them are in awe, even Cipher who is grinning from ear to ear.

Both Halli and James look exhausted by the end of it, but proud as well, as they join Yeonhee for an unusual judging.

"It's a fight," Cipher says. "Clever."

Kangho laughs. "Eloquent as always, Cipher."

"I do try."

Kangho turns back to Yeonhee and the two dancers. "I will tell you, and the audience, what I told you when I judged you. You are both excellent dancers, and this was a fascinating routine. The way the both of you overcame your conflict, and turned that conflcit into a dance, is a work of art. Whoever became #2 should wear that pin with pride."

"However," he continues. "There had to be a #1 for this week's challenge, and for me, Halli rose a hair above James in this performance. So Lee Halli, you earned your #1 rank that day, and you earn it again today."

The reaction from the crowd isn't positive. There's a few claps, but also a few boos ring out, something that has James perk up a little.

Halli nods proudly and the two of them are ushered off stage, but not before Halli can send a heart into the crowd, seemingly unphased by the crowd's hostility towards him.

         

The scene returns to the entrance hall of the building where Yeonhee is standing in front of the contestants, including Halli. A timestammp identifies it as day 2 of the week.

"It is time for your next challenge," Yeonhee says. "Those who were ranked #1, please come forward."

Yoonshik and Halli step forward immediately. Inho glances at Hanjin before the latter nudges him and he seems to remember that he is #1 this time. 

"You three will each be the leader of  a team this week," Yeonhee says. "And each of you will blindly choose a theme and wait in one of the smaller practice rooms."

A staffmember steps forward with a little tin of colourful rolled up pieces of paper and each one grabs one and leaves the room.

Yeonhee turns back to the contestants left in the room. "One by one each of you will choose one of the practice rooms, and join the group of whomever is inside. Once you open that door you have to join that group."

"Do we know which leader is where?" Seowoo asks.

"You will not. You will be choosing the rooms blindly."

The camera focuses on Yoonshik in the largest practice room. He's pacing from one end of the room to the other, obviously restless.

The door opens, and James looks in. As soon as Yoonshik and James lock eyes a look of irritation crosses both of their faces. "James," Yoonshik says without any enthusiasm at all.

"Yoonshik hyung," James returns in much the same way. James takes a seat with his back against the mirror and arms crossed, looking none too happy.

The door opens with a flourish. "Hellooo," Hanjin says dramatically, and then pauses as he sees who's in the room. "Just yo two?"

"Just us two so far," Yoonshik answers.

They wait a while longer, each anxiously staring at the door, hoping for someone else to come in and liberate them from this trio, but the door remains closed.

Yoonshik sighs. "Nobody else is coming," he says. He grabs the bright green piece of paper he'd chosen. "Time to see what our theme is." He unrolled and read it, grimaced, and turned it towards the camera. 'Soloist' it simply read.

"So I guess we can't make something original this time then," Hanjin says, obviously disappointed.

The three contestants glance at each other, each of them looks like they want to start talking first but is holding back. "Fine, I'll start," Yoonshik says. "i'm the leader after all." he gives James a pointed stare. First thing I think of when I think of soloists is Jay Park, or maybe Cheetah."

"Doing a Cheetah song would be dope, not gonna lie," Hanjin says. "Coma 07 was lit."

"Of course you'd say that, it's mostly rap," James says lazily. "That's not going to happen. Jay Park, however, is a good suggestion."

"He's got a very peculiar style," Hanjin says. "But we can adapt that into a style that suits us more. That way we can still show our creativity. All we gotta do is find a song that lends itself well to a reinterpretation."

Next shot is of the three of them in a production booth while Hanjin rearranging the song. Yoonshik looks over Hanjin's shoulder, keeping an eye on what he's doing while making a suggestion or two. James is the one left out, he glances at the editing software once and immedaitely loses interest.

"How's this?" Hanjin asks, and a faster and more pop version of the backing of Jay Parks' Joah starts playing.

Yoonshik nods. "Yes that's good. Sped up it will be much better to dance to and then we can put in a sizeable rap part for you." He turns to James, trying hard to hide the note of contempt in his voice. "What are you going to contribute? Are you rapping too?"

"Oh no," James says immedaitely. "I've been working very hard with Carver on my singing. I think it's about time to debut that."

"I know that my skill do not compare to the fantastic rappers in the rap team," James says in his interview section. "So I asked Carver if he might have time to give me some lessons. I've had to miss a few practice sessions, but in the end it will benefit the final group for me to improve my singing."

Back in the practice room, surprisingly, the choreography seems to be going fairly smoothly. Yoonshik and James seem to have divided pars of the song between them and are figuring out how to get them to flow smoothly while Hanjin is in the corner writing his rap. 

"Okay so your dancebreak will flow over into my chorus," Yoonshik says, blocking out the moves in front of the mirror. "Do you think we could get backup dancers?"

James shrugs. "I don't see why not. It'll enhance our performance. Let me talk to-" he pauses an