EPISODE 10

 

After a flash of the logo and a quick reminder of the last week's performances, the show returns to the familiar studio with the contestants lined up. Yeonhee stands before them, cue cards ready to drop the last two bombs.

Yeonhee gives a warm smile to the camera. "Good evening once again and welcome back to Do or Die. It is time for the final set of eliminations.Time to find out which 10 contestants will vie for a spot in the final group. The audience has cast their votes once more, let us find out their results."

The camera pans over the contestants and for once they're not separated according to team. They're all in one big lineup, all twelve of them. Hugo throws a grin at Hyuk who squirms a little bit, not entirely comfortable with the masked one's attention, but cautiously nods back. Even Ted and Halli stand united and hell might have just frozen over. 

"There will be no immunity this round," Yeonhee says, as she gets the cue card ready. "And no teams. Whoever gets the lowest votes will be out regardless of what team they were in."

Everyone seems grave in the studio, not even Cipher is goofing off. Everyone seems to know that this elimination is serious. The last one before the final leg of the competition.

"I think it would hurt the most to be eliminated now," Yoonshik says in his interview. "So close to the end. It's insult to injury isn't it?"

Back on the stag eYeonhee opens her envelope and gives a sad sigh. "The first contestant who is eliminated is," she starts, drawing things out a little for effect. "Seowoo. I'm sorry, you will not be advancing to the finale with the others."

Seowoo actually looks surprised before an expression of defeat replaces it. He steps forward as is instructed, fighting to keep his expression neutral in the face of his disappointment. 

"I should have seen it coming I suppose," he says in his interview. "I started to hope, after I wasn't called out last week, that maybe the voters had come around, but I should have seen it coming."

"And the second contestant to be eliminated is-" Yeonhee opens her second envelope. "Changui. I'm sorry Changui, please join Seowoo."

Hugo puts his hand on Changui's shoulder before he can step forward and gives him a solemn nod. Changui returns it with a small smile and steps forward. 

"I figured it was about time," Changui says in his own interview, looking at peace. "It's okay, I never thought I'd make it very far to begin with. This has been an incredible exprience, it has been much more than I thought it would be. I might even call it life changing. Now it's time to look at my next steps, but whatever I do I'll be cheering this guys on from the sidelines for sure!"

Both Seowoo and Changui bow to the judges and file out of the change. Changui waves to the other contestants and Hugo waves back with a proud smile. Some of them look sad with their departure, Ted especially looks quite troubled, while some just look relieved it wasn't them.

"I... wasn't sure if I'd make it through this one," Hanjin says in his interview, and for once he's having trouble with expressing himself. "With everything that.. well.... happened last week.... I was sure I wouldn't. I'm thankful to still be here."

"As you all know well this will be the last episode," Yeonhee says to the remaining contestants. "As such things will be a little different. You will have two weeks to create two performances in two groups of five, and apt number since the final group will also have five people in it."

There is a moment of shock amongst the contestants.

"I thought there would be 7 at least!" Jaemin squeaks in his interview. He wipes his sweaty palms onto his jeans. "That's so few," he says softly after, the microphones only barely pick it up. "Why is it so few?"

"Who even debuts a 5 member group nowadays?" Seowoo says in his interview. 

"You're not in the running anymore though," the interviewer reminds him.

"I know but I'm annoyed for them!" Seowoo says.

"That's not a lot of people," Hyuk says in his own interview, and he looks quite upset. "So many of us won't make it!"

Back on the stage Yeonhee quickly shushes the hushed whispers amongst the contestants. "That was it for this evening. Go back to the dorms, get some sleep, you will be sorted into your teams in the morning."

 

       
  There is both excitement and apprehension to be found among the contestants when they reconvene that following morning for the judging. There seems to be a slight change among the contestants. Hugo is actually sitting with Daebak and Hyuk and Jaemin now and they seem to be discussing anime while Yoonshik is in a discussion about western hip hop with Inho, Jeongha, Ted, and Halli. Hanjin is the only one who isn't sitting in a group, he looks a little dejected off to the side.

Then the judges come into the room and everyone snaps to attention. "Good morning!" Kangho says brightly as they get in and close the door behind them. "I hope you are all ready for the final stretch."

"You're so close now," Cipher grins. 

"And yet so far," Hugo says though it's amusement in his voice. Hyuk frowns but Hugo just sincerely smiles at him. 

"This will be your last ranking," Carver says and he's wearing a proud smile. "Each of you has come so far throughout the show and I am proud of each and every one of you."

"You mean all 2 that are left from your team?" Cipher asks.

Carver laughs. "I mean all of them, but yes especially my two." He takes the first of his two pins. "Yoonshik, you have come far in the show in terms of broadening your performance horizons. These last few weeks I have seen you tackle anything from your comfort zone mature sound to the bright and happy songs that strayed far, far from that zone. You've shown yourself to be a versatile performer who can tackle many different styles, you deserve this #2 pin."

"It's one of two," Yoonshik pointed out, and then laughed and bowed. "Thank you."

"Jaemin," Carver turns to him, taking the next pin in hand. "You have improved so much. It has been a steep road for you, but I am ever so glad you find the way to the top. You have worked hard to be here and better yourself and there is no one else I would give this #1 pin to. Congratulations you have earned it."

Jaemin is all but glowing when he gets the pin. "Thank you so much," he says as he bows to receive it and Yoonshik nudges him with a congratulations when he sits back down and pins it on.

Next up is Kangho. "Hugo, you know this pin is yours," he says, handing out the #4 pin. Hugo had already gotten up to receive it. "While you have always been the least skilled dancer in your team, you have always shown nothing short of hard work to keep up and create a good performance. I'm always surprised by how well you manage to keep up with the others and that is entirely thanks to your work ethic. When you first auditioned I wanted to eliminate you right away but I am ashamed to say that I was wrong and I'm glad I didn't."

"I'm glad you didn't either," Hugo says, and there's not a hint of mockery in it. "Thank you."

Hyuk is up next and he knows it. "This pin is yours, as always," Kangho says. When Hyuk moves to take the pin Kangho puts a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "Hyuk, you have impressed me so much too. When you first started you were a shadow in the background, someone who just faded and was content not to stand out. I have watched you slowly come into your own, to the point where you were confident enough to lend your skill to choreographers like Daebak and Yoonshik and become of vital importance to your team. You might not be the best dancer but you have vision and creativity and it has been a pleasure to watch you grow."

Hyuk looks so surprised and touched, he opens and closes his mouth a few times thinking of what to say to all of that. In the end he just bows and quickly retreats back to his friends, blushing slightly but smiling. 

"The #2 pin is for Daebak," Kangho says. "You are a highly skilled and impressive dancer and shown us time and time again that you have talent in choreography as well. It was a pleasure having you on the show."

"Thank you," Daebak says as he accepts his pin, sharing proud grins with Hyuk as he pins it on.

"Halli," Kangho says. "You haven't been around since the beginning but nobody can deny you've brough some spice to the show." There's some laughs throughout the room, one of the loudest belonging to Cipher. "You're a formidable dancer, and I suspect you'll go far in life through sheer force of will. You deserve this #1 rank, though, really, you and Daebak both deserve to share it. If it were up to me I'd break it in half and give each a piece."

After handing Daebak the ranking Kangho turns to all of them. "I couldn't have asked for a better team," Kangho says. "All of you have made me so proud. Inho when you came on this show you couldn't dance at all, remember how long you took before you learned the intro dance?"

Inho grimaces. "Vividly."

"It still doesn't come easy to you, but you've improved and that's what matters. Yoonshik you're as good a dancer as you are a singer and I would have gladly had you in my team. I've had the pleasure of instructing each of you and I'm proud of your achievements. Good luck these next to weeks and give them hell."

Cipher is next and he's grinning even before he's said anything. "I'm not one for sappy speeches, you gotta go that that softie for that," he says, gesturing to Kangho. "But you guys did good. All of you. Even you Ted you didn't disappoint this time! Ah I'm not good at this whole positive thing. Ted you did good, you actually gave a convincing performance even if the subject matter wasn't to your liking. You get #4 mostly because the others were better, but I'm impressed with you and expect great things now that you guys get to choose your own performances- ah oops spoilers."

Cipher ignores a look from Carver as he tosses Ted the pin.

"Catch!" Cipher throws the #3 rank at Hanjin. "You're a great rapper. You know this. I know this. Skill wise you haven't really improved, you've steadily remained great, but the others have steady improvement behind their name too."

Hanjin pins the pin to his shirt, but unlike last week he doesn't look bothered by it.

"Inho you get #2 this time," Cipher tosses him the pin too. "But don't go seeing that as inferior. You did good on this show and I'm proud f your achievements. You've gone from Show Me the Money reject to a versatile rapper in your own right. You clawed your way out of the box you'd penned yourself in and that's commendable. You did good."

"Thanks!" Inho says with a grin. 

"So that means #1 is for you again," Cipher says, throwing the pin at Jeongha. "No real reason for it aside from the fac tthat I like you and have seen you work hard to get over your issues, which is a cool thiing I guess. I'm biased what can I say? The four of you did great to represent the rapper team, and I think we can all agree our team is objectively the best one," he grins at them all. "Seriously. You've all been great, so much better than I expected from some idol show and I'm really super duper proud of all of you s and how hard you have all worked-" 

"Are you crying?" Kangho asked, overjoyed.

"Why I think he's a little misty eyed," Carver says.

"Who knew he had a heart?" Kangho wondered. 

"I'm not!" Cipher says and turned around. The camera distinctly captures him rubbing his eyes before he turns back around. "I'm fine."

"As you know in the next two weeks you will have to deliver two performances," Carver says, professionalism back on. "The first mission is a cover performance. No dancing, just singing and rapping. We want you to show off your ablilities. The second set of performances, however, must be original songs. You must each create the song from scratch with your teams. The teams will be chosen for you so that the voters can see how you work together with various teams of people."

"There has also been a change in the voting," Kangho says. "Next show will be a live broadcast where anyone in Korea can send in their votes on who they want to see in the final group. When the voting is over you will reconvene and the results will be announced."

"Good luck," Cipher says jovially. "And don't it up."

 
         

The first team has met up in their practice room and they're already talking excitedly about potential songs. Inho, Jaemin, Hyuk, Hugo, and Halli are together sitting on the floor with the laptop, itunes library open.

"We have to od a vocal cover this time so we could totally do an indie song!" Jaemin says excitedly. "We wouldn't be punished for it this time right?"

"Nah we still shouldn't hyung," Halli says. "We need to audience to connect with our song and I'm pretty sure there's more teenage girls then middle aged women."

Hugo laughed. "I wouldn't be too sure what with Yeonin hyung bringing in the fans."

"Alright come on let's get some actual suggestions going," Inho says.

"Sir yes sir," Halli says slightly sarcastic but he's grinning as he leans over Inho's shoulder to check out the music.

"I was appointed leader of this team," Inho says in his interview section. "We didn't have choice of leaders this time." He thinks about it for a moment. "I don't... really mind." he says finally. "Leading is something I can do."

"Why don't we do an acoustic cover?" Jaemin proposes. "I can play the guitar for us. It'd be cool to take something that's more pop and turn it into an acoustic thing. We can show how far all of us have come vocally and with raps and also that we have artistic vision."

"That sounds like an excellent idea," Inho says. "Anyone have any ideas for a song?"

Not long after they each have lyrics and Jaemin is trying out  the song on an acoustic guitar. "So we should just put in a rap section for Inho and divide the rest of the lyrics right?" he says. "Then we should harmonize for the final chorus to really know what we're capable of as vocalists."

"Actually," Inho says. "I thought Hyuk might want to try rapping."

Hyuk's eyes grow big. "What? Me? Why?"

"Didn't you say once that you prefer rapping over singing?" 

"W-well yes," Hyuk stammers a little. "But there are so many great rappers how can I compare?"

"I'll help you," Inho says. "We can work on your rap together. I'll help you write it and make sure your intonation is right. We can show Cipher that you really belong in our team."

"O-okay," Hyuk nods. "Yeah. I'd like that."

The show cuts to the group sitting around Jaemin. "Halli, have you ever harmonized before?" he asks.

"A little bit," he says. "But like. Tiny bit. Marginally. No not really."

"Consider this lesson number two then. Inho, you too."

"Me?" Inho asks, eyes wide. "I've never sung before!"

"We will need everyone's voices to fill out these harmonies," Jaemin says. "And as the only other baritone we need your lower range. Don't worry I'll help you. I'll help all of you."

"You're really stepping up Jaemin," Hugo says with pride. "You've come a long way."

"I've had a good teacher." Jaemin smiles fondly for a moment before getting back to business and strumming his guitar. "Alright let's get some harmonies going, everyone have their parts ready? Inho and Hyuk you guys are low, Hugo and Halli you two are high, and I'll cover the middle on my own."

"Are you sure you can do that?" Halli asks. "I mean just a few weeks ago you could hardly croak out a single line in a song."

"Halli what did we say about being rude?" Jaemin said.

"Ah sorry hyung!" 

Jaemin laughs. "I'm still working on the swearing. Yes I'm sure. I have a thick heavy voice, I can fill out the middle harmony on my own no problem without standing out. I've learned. As I said, I had a good teacher."

"And you've become one too," Hugo adds.

Jaemin smiles. "Yes. Yes I suppose I have."

There is a montage of the group working hard on their song. Sessions with Jaemin surrounding the guitar are juxtaposed with Inho helping Hyuk with his rapping. Then the montage stops at a point where Inho is working with Hyuk in an empty room, trying to coach him on pronunciation. The timestamp identifies it as day 4 of the challenge. 

In the middle of the rap lesson there's a knock on the door and Hanjin looks in. Both Inho and Hyuk look up startled. "Hey," Hanjin says. "Inho, can we talk?"

Inho nods. “Okay. Yeah.”

“I'm just going to go check up on the others,” Hyuk quickly gets up and leaves the room.

Hanjin hesitates for a while until Inho has to prompt him. “Yeah?” 

Hanjin seems to snap out of his thoughts. “So. About the fight. There's some things I'm sorry about, and some things I'm not.”

“Yeah. Me  too.”

“We need to talk about both of them,” Hanjin says, looking very awkward but determined.

“We do,” Inho says. He taps the ground in front of him. “Come on then. Let's talk.”

"We did a lot of talking," Inho says in his interview section. "Private talking. It was good. It went well."

And then it is the night of the performance and all of them are standing backstage. Hyuk peeks out of the curtains, this is obviously just before the show starts. "Woah!" he says, sounding both in awe and very nervous. "There's so many of them!" 

There's a shot of the studio and it is in fact a much larger crowd than before. The show pulled out all the stops and the full studio is packed. Hugo peeks out behind him, easily seeing over his head considering the height difference. "That's a lot aren't there? Makes me a little nervous."

"You? Nervous?" 

Hugo laughs, fidgeting with his soft white facemask. "I get nervous too! Just because my pants are brown doesn't mean there isn't in them. That's a lot of people, this is one of our last performances on the show, and I've never harmonized before. I'm plenty nervous."

"Your pants are black," Hyuk points out.

"Not the point my wholesome friend." 

"Jaemin?" Inho asks around backstage, fiddling with his fuzzy sweater. "Jaemin what's my note again?" He looks nervous too. "For the harmony?"

"Hyung you're going to be okay," Jaemin says and for once he's the calm one. "We've practiced this. We perfected it. You're going to do okay."

"Yes but what if I forget the note when I'm out there?" Inho looks distressed in that low key way of his. All frowns and quiet distress. "I've never sung in front of an audience before. It's different from rapper."

Jaemin puts a hand on his shoulder. "Listen to me hyung. We're going to do great. But just to calm your nerves, this is your first note." Jaemin sang the note and Inho parroted it. "As long as you get the first one right the rest will follow."

"I liked it better when you were only teaching me," Halli pouts. 

"Hush you. I don't have time for that," Jaemin says. He seems to sincerely be enjoying himself. "Are all of you ready?"

"You'd almost think you're the leader," Inho says with a laugh and gathered his ducklings. "We have put together a great performance," he says. "We could not have done better. We'll show them exactly how much all of us have improved sicne the start. We were all embarrassing then. I know they've been calling me Show Me the Money leftovers for a while but back then that was definitely tre. I still don't know what possessed me to perform that terrible diss rap on the first episode," he laughed a little in embarrassment.

"You all know my improvement well enough," Jaemin says with a laugh. "I was incapable of moderating my voice and unwilling to admit that I had a problem. If it weren't for Yeonin hyung I'd probably still be that way, I owe him so much. Now I can sing without being held back by my old habits and 'm ready to show the audience exactly how much I've improved."

"My rapping and singing have both improved a lot," Hyuk says. "Thank you Inho for helping me, and Cipher too last week."

"More than that, I think your confidence is what improved the most," Hugo points out. "Remember what I told you earlier."

Hyuk nods. "I remember."

"I guess my singing got better," Halli says. "But my dancing is still pretty bomb honestly. Still, thank you hyung for teaching me."

"You've been teaching me how to teach," Jaemin says. "We both profited there."

Hugo laughed. "I'm sure my rendition from Pick Me will have improved after this show."

"Hey, you've improved a lot too," Hyuk is quick to tell him. "And you've worked so hard to keep up with everyone else even though have have very little experience with dancing or singing. I've rarely seen anyone who works so hard without complaint."

"Thank you Hyuk," Hugo says.

"We've all improved," Inho says. "We've all become better artists through this show. Better people maybe too. We've developed thanks to each other and I think that in and of itself is cause for pride and I am proud. Let's give them hell."

"Fighting!"
 

 

Inho (Mino / leftmost fluffy sweater boy); Hugo (Jinwoo / secondleft visual boy); Jaemin (Seungyoon / guitar boy);  Halli (Taehyun / secondright sad face boy); Hyuk (Seunghoon / rightmost turtleneck boy [take with a grain of salt pls but not too much salt we don't want to accidentally summon James])

  With just an an acoustic guitar for accompaniment the performance is mellow but the vocals are excellent. Hyuk's rap is careful and rehearsed but he runs through it without making a mistake and he looks so proud of himself afterwards.Then the harmonies come in and it goes perfectly, with Jaemin's voice only standing out a little at the end of it. There is loud applause when the song finishes, including one ear-piercing scream from a particularly excited facemasked fangirl.

"Wow that was certainly a treat for the ears!" Yeonhee says as the team makes it offstage. "I don't know about you but I could listen to those harmonies forever."

"I certainly could," Carver says proudly.

"As you can see there won't be judging this time around," Yeonhee says, indicating the absence of the team. There will be just performances this evening, but what performances are they! This being the last live show there is no more critique the judges have for our contestants. They've grown as much as they will grow on the show and our judges can now lean back with pride at their accomplishments. That being said, why don't we see how the second team has been doing?"
         

The second group convenes in their practice room on the first day of the challenge and there is a bit of tension in the air. An awkwardness permeates the room as Yoonshik, Jeongha, Hanjin, Ted, and Daebak face each other. 

"So," Ted says, obviously uncomfortable. "I'm the leader huh."

Jeongha glances at him uncertainly. Yoonshik just stares at him, weighing his options. "So you are," Yoonshik says. 

"Right. So. Any ideas about what we should do?" Hanjin asks.

"Aren't you usually the idea man?" Ted asks, eyebrows raised. "That's how it was for Born Hater anyway. I'm leader but that's never stopped you."

"And the BTS medley," Yoonshik adds. 

"Guys," Jeongha says. "Come on, let's not. That's not our fight to fight guys-"

"No it's okay," Hanjin says. "I deserve that. I've had my head stuck up my and I'm sorry. Jeongha and Ted I should have listened to you more when we were preparing Born Hater. Bomseok too. I was so caught up in what I thought would be a good performance and presenting myself in the best way that I forgot to made sure you guys had an equal say too. That's on me and I'm sorry."

"Oh," Jeongha looks surprised at the turn of events. "I guess it's all good. It's in the past anyway."

Ted nod