identity

The episode doesn't begin with Jongwoon, but instead starts in the wings of the JTBC theater, where both groups are waiting, clearly nervous.

The women are clad in short silver dresses, and are holding their mic stands while trying to keep their balance in incredibly high heels. Jinyoo in particular looks incredibly uncomfortable with the outfit and it regularly trying to tug the end lower and the neckline higher.

The men are much more colorful, in a mix of rainbow and black. Each is holding a hand held microphone, including Hanhae who looks almost awkward as he fiddles with his earpiece.

"Are you nervous?" Jinyi teases him lightly. "I never thought I'd see the day."

"Nah, not nervous. How could I be when there's distracting beauty like yours around?" He fires back flirtatiously without missing a beat and Jinyi grins.

Akihiro rolls his eyes, but remains silent, insted opting to try and peek into the audience without being seen himself.

Eunchan isn't even trying to hide, instead popping his whole head out from behind the curtains to wave at the audience.

"Eunchan don't do that. It's unprofessional." Leeteuk approaches the men from the wings, accompanied by Taeyeon who herds the women aside to give them their own pep talk.

"You five are up first, and from our last go through I know you're capable of doing well. Just stay focused and you'll do fine." She smiles at the group. "You've all come a long was in just a month. You should be proud of what you've accomplished, and remember what you're capable of in the future. It's been wonderful working with you all this week."

The women all return the smile before a stagehand calls for them to get into position to start. Giri lingers behind the others for a moment and holds out a hand to Taeyeon, who looks surprised for a moment, but then gives her a firm handshake.

"Thank you." Giri smiles one last time before hurrying after the rest of the group.

The scene shifts to show the women arranging their micstands and taking their opening pose, looking as confident and comfortable as real idols as their music begins.

The performance goes smootly overall, despite a few missteps here and there. Jisoo nearly trips over the mic stands during two of the formation changes, and Jinyoo cracks her high note and cuts off early in clear embarassment, but the rest look quite calm and confident. Even Myunghwa, who hadn't looked very comfortable in the outfit to start, is grinning throughout the performance.

She elborates on her thoughts in a cut away to an interview segment. "It was... amazing. There's no other way to describe it. I love being on stage and singing for people, and seeing the audience was just..." She drifts off, smiling so brightly her eyes are nearly closed from how high her cheeks have travelled.

The scene returns to the men, who are standing in a circle with Leeteuk just before their own performance.

"Alright troops. We've had a pretty decent week. You have room to improve, but there's always room to improve. Keep working hard and I know you'll all do well." He tosses a glance towards Hadon. "Even you kid."

Hadon rolls his eyes good naturedly and Hanhae elbows him lightly as Leeteuk looks to the rest of the group.

"You'll all be fine in the coming month. That much I'm sure of after spending this week with you. Remember that, because I think for some of you it's going to be harder than for others." His eyes briefly linger on Woojin before he claps his hands. "And with that, you better get ready, it sounds like the ladies are just about done."

Again there's a cut away to show the stage as the women exit to resounding applause. After a moment, the men enter and fall quickly into position for their own performance.

The song goes smoothly, though Eunchan cracks on a few of his notes and Akihiro looks like he has no idea what to do with himself during the free dance section at the end, resulting in him nearly running into the others multiple times and nearly forgetting the few choregraphed moves in the section.

Of the group Woojin is easily the most on point, seamlessly running his sections and effortlessly interacting with the screaming fans in the front row. Hanhae follows a close second, utilizing all his charm to keep himself in focus despite his lack of any lines or time up front in the dance.

"It not having any lines." He admits to Gikwang. "It was exhillerating being up there, but I had to work twice as hard as the others to get any attention since I wasn't saying anything." He pauses, and then grins. "The outfits were amazing though. Can I keep the pants?"

The two groups reconvene in the backstage area, where Jongwoon and Gikwang are waiting to take them back to the dorms.

"You have the rest of the day off to do as you please." The host informs them. "Don't make a mess or stay out too late as you have early workout tomorrow. Any questions?"

There aren't any, and so the groups head off.

The next shot is time stamped for the start of the new week, at three in the morning.

There's already a light on in the groups' dorm, and a zoom in through the window reveals that all ten are already up and hurrying around the rooms, dressed in their workout clothes and attempting to have some breakfast before starting the day.

Jinyi has elected herself in charge of the coffee machine and is passing out mugs to anyone interested while continually refilling her own each time she empties it.

"It's really quite interesting what the human body is capable of adjusting to." Giri notes in her interview. "By day four last week most of us were beating Gikwang's alarm, and we wake up anyone who doesn't since no one wants to hear that at three in the morning."

The next shot is notably later as the sun has risen. Jongwoon is sitting in what appears to be a classroom, with his hands folded neatly on the desk in front of him as he grins to the camera.

"Hello hello, and welcome back! With one month gone we only have one month left to get our teams into proper idol shape! Now our teams know what goes into live performances, and so this week we're shifting gears entirely."

He spins in his chair to face another camera. "Being onstage is only one half of idol life. Now it's time to see how our teams do while onscreen!"

A pan down an adjacent hallway reveals that the ten participants are in the same building as Jongwoon. All ten look freshly showered and have applied their usual makeup.

Jisoo is attempting to fix her hair when their mentors for the week approach, and Jinyi's eyes visibly widen and her lips part slightly when she sees who they are.

Yook Sungjae grins over at the men, while Ahn Heehyeon smiles brightly at the women.

"Hey guys! Great performance yesterday!" Sungjae wastes no time in lauching straight to the point. "Hani and I got to watch and you're really doing well all things considered."

Hani nods in agreement. "And don't worry if you weren't totally satisfied with your performance, you'll still be working on dance in the afternoons." She smiles. "But you're stuck with us in the mornings! This morning will be a bit short since you had workout first, but generally we'll be together for five to seven hours a day."

"Working on what?" Akihiro partially raises his hand to draw attention to his question.

Sungjae just grins. "You'll see! Guys with me, we only have a few hours and a lot to cover!" He happily marches off, leaving the men with nothing to do but follow after.

Hani waves the women down another hallway, and the shot cuts to a view of the women in one of the classrooms with Hani standing up front.

"So who can tell me the most important part of being an idol?"

Jisoo's hand shoots straight into the air and Hani laughs slightly, nodding for her to speak.

"Good stage presence!" Jisoo sounds incredibly confident with her answer.

Hani tilts her head thougthfully. "That's a part of it, but not quite the right answer. Anyone else?"

Jisoo slumps in her seat, clearly dissapointed.

In the men's room, Akihiro has his own idea. "Perhaps it has to do with the fans? Getting along with them and such?"

Sungjae grins. "Very close! The most important part of being an idol is how you present yourself in every day situations. Your idol identity, if you would."

"How is that different from stage presence?" In the womens' room Jisoo is still clearly put out by her incorrect answer.

Hani smiles lightly. "Stage presence is more exclusive to stage performances. Identity is your general attitude and what you present in front of any camera. Mostly it's used on shows."

Jinyoo looks slightly nervous. "Like variety?"

Hani either doesn't pick up on the older woman's clear worry about the subject, or otherwise simply ignores it as she smiles encouragingly. "Exactly! So, first things first you need to decide what you'll be like on camera."

"What we'll be like?" Woojin questions, frowning faintly. "Is it not just the way we are now?"

Sungjae grins. "It's close, but it's an idealized version. If an idol were caught on camera walking out of a rehearsal they'd suffer heavy critisism for it. It's simply a matter of keeping scandal free."

"Says one of the loudest people in KPop." Hanhae points out wryly.

"You know him?" Eunchan sounds genuinely curious, and Hanhae looks over at the other boy in obvious disbelief.

"Yeah. BtoB maknae? I know they aren't the biggest group but they're pretty popular."

Eunchan shrugs. "I don't actually listen to KPop." He admits cheerfully. "I just wanted to get off the island!"

Hanhae shakes his head. "Why audition for a show about KPop if you don't know anything about KPop?" He says it mostly to himself, but Akihiro responds.

"Sarang thought it would be fun to do this together."

Woojin glances over. "I was dragged in by a friend as well, though I do know your songs." He adds to Sungjae. "You release good stuff."

Sungjae smiles. "Thanks! I like it too. Anyway, back on track."

The scene switches back to the women.

"Now you don't have to change how you act all that much, but it can be useful to have an idea of what sort of attitude you want to portray to the world so you can use that as a gauge for how to respond to things." Hani explains briskly.

"For example swearing isn't really accepted from women, so having politeness be a part of your idol identity is generally a good idea."

Jinyi nervously raises her hand. "Um, aren't there some exceptions to that though?" She notes, smiling at Hani when their mentor turns to her despite blushing faintly.

Hani smiles back. "There are some, but we're not going to do anything too complicated with this since you all only have a month to make sure it's solid. And with that out of the way, let's start putting together your personas!"

"I thought you called it an identity." Hadon points out dryly. It's clear he isn't thrilled with the new goal by his slouched position in his seat and his tone of voice.

Sungjae brushes him off smoothly. "Same thing. Persona, identity, one just sounds prettier. Alright, I'll give a rundown of the classic persona types, if you would, and then we'll tweak them to fit you all." He winks striaght to the camera. "Ready? Break!"

The show returns to the late afternoon, still on the first day.

The groups are back in their practice rooms, sweating as they go through their routines.

The women are wearing low heels, and Jisoo is struggling slightly to keep up with the others, though none of them are very wel balanced.

"After the heels we had in the performance you think it would get easier. But it really doesn't." Jinyi notes in her interview. "Even the Princess of Dance is having trouble. Each heel height has a different weight distribution and it throws you off all over again."

The song in the women's room comes to an end then, and the five immediately stumble over to their water bottles.

The teacher smiles wryly. "That's the end of class for today, so you can go ahead and pull off your shoes." He's barely finished speaking when all five women eagerly do so, tossing the heels aside in favor of their abandoned sneakers lined up against the wall.

"So what now? According to this we shoud still have two more hours of practice." Myunghwa asks, peering over her schedule as she drinks.

Jinyi peeks over her shoulder and hums. "That is weird. Free practice maybe?"

The teacher smiles to himself as he packs up his things and leaves, though the women don't notice as they continue debating what the extra time could be.

A minute or so later, the door swings open again to admit the five male contestants.

"Hey, do you guys have extra time as well?" Hanhae heads straight to Jinyi and sits beside her, though the question is directed to the group as a whole.

Myunghwa nods as she scooches over to make room for Eunchan to sit next to her. "Did your dance teacher tell you anything about it?" She asks hopefully as the youngest contestant begins playing happily with her hair.

"I assume someone will be along to tell us shortly, and if not we can just do some free practice. We certainly know enough to handle a few hours on our own time." Akihiro observes. He's settled next to Jinyoo, who looks both awkward and thankful at being included in the circle.

Hadon shrugs. "I say take the time to sleep. I don't know about you guys, but the constant early mornings are really starting to get to me." He yawns just then, emphasizing his point and triggering yawns in several of the other participants.

The door chooses then to swing open once again, revealing Jongwoon carrying an armful of papers.

Jinyoo jumps up to help relieve the man of some of the pages, and he grins thankfully over at her before looking to the rest of the groups.

"Alright guys, you're probably all wondering what th extra practice time is for. Well," He pauses dramatically, grinning, "This week you're going to begin working on your original songs!"

He doesn't wait for the groups to process the new information before he begins to hand out the paper, now seen to be sheet music, to the participants.

"Unfortunately we don't have the recording studio available until tomorrow, so tonight you'll have to make do with Myunghwa's guitar." Jongwoon breifly reaches back into the hallway to grab the instrument and hand it to Myunghwa, who looks nervous at the pressure being put on her. "I'd reccomend doing run throughs and seeing which lines sound best coming from who. Of course you'll have a professional to help make those calls tomorrow, but see how you do on your own tonight." And with that the host heads back out.

Myunghwa still seems nervous in her interview. "It wa hard. For one things the music wasn't written for guitar so there was a lot of trial and error on my part. And then only Akihiro and Hadon of all people actually knew how to read music, apart from me, so most of the time was just slowly walking the others through the notes instead of actually singing." She sighs. "It was a stressful two hours."

The next shot finds the groups back in the classrooms with their mentors.

"Today, since we have more time, we'll be going a bit more in depth on your personas using classic acting techniques!" Sungjae attempts to sound dramatic but ruins it when he grins at his own tone.

Woojin grimaces slightly, clearly anticipating the mentor's announcement before he makes it.

"We're going to be doing improv!"

Myunghwa frowns in the women's classroom. "Improv?" She sounds quite worried. "But we haven't settled on personas yet."

Hani smiles sympathetically towards the other woman. "We have rough outlines for each of you. You'll be fully developing your onscreen selves during our excercises. So, who wants to go first?"

Jinyi's hand shoots into the air. "Are you going to be our partner? Because I'd love to volunteer if so."

Hani laughs brightly. "If you like. Our first game is quite simple. We call it "yes, and", which is a good technique to use in conversations in general."

"It's quite simple," The scene switches to Sungjae, who has pulled Woojin up to the front of the room with himself. "Woojin I assume you know the game?"

Woojin nods shortly, and Sungjae grins.

"Excellent, then we'll simply give a demonstration!" He clears his throat and straightens his posture.

"I dare say this is a lovely spot for our drama shoot!" He pitches his voice up in an attempt to sound feminine, and Eunchan giggles in his seat.

Woojin clears is throat. "Yes, and it was quite nice for the director to fly us all out here on the company's budget."

Sungjae nods. "Oh yes, and thank goodness he did, getting tickets to New Zealand this late is quite pricey!"

Woojin shakes his head. "Yes, and heaven forbid you spend money on travel when there are new fashion lines coming out."

Sungjae's eyes twinkle at the deadpan snark coming from his partner. "Yes and aren't they wonderful? You know, you could stand to dress up a bit more yourself."

Before Woojin can fire a retort Sungjae spins back to their four person audience. "And that's how it's done! Now why don't you all pair up and try it yourself?"

In the women's room they've already split. Myunghwa is with Jinyoo, and both women are incredibly awkward.

"Um, did you want to start?" Myunghwa offers.

Jinyoo shrugs, equally nervous. "I mean if you want to that's fine..." Her voice is soft as ever while her hands fidget away.

The two end up standing is awkward silence until Hani notices and pauses her enthusiastic back and forth with Jinyi to check on them.

"Are you two doing alright?"

Myunghwa blushes. "Y-yes! We're doing well!"

Hanie arches an eyebrow. "What's your setting then?"

Myunghwa looks to Jinyoo, who stares back wide-eyed, and Hani laughs.

"Don't worry about it. Jinyi, come here a sec."

Jinyi happily bounces over. "You called?"

Hani grins at her. "Would you mind partnering with Myunghwa for a bit?"

Jinyi deflates slightly, but nods and pulls the other woman off to begin a new round.

Hani turns to Jinyoo with a smile. "Alright, I'll start. My, what wonderful weather we're having here on the ranch!" She nods to Jinyoo encouragingly.

The woman hesitates for a long moment, clearly thinking hard, before quietly replying. "Yes, and it's especially nice after those big rainstorms last week?"

Hani nods again. "Yes! And thank goodness for those, the crops are blossoming!"

Again Jinyoo pauses to think through her response, and Hani waves to get her attention. "Jinyoo, don't think so much! This excercise is about feeling. Just say yes and then go with your gut!"

Jinyoo nods uncertainly, and it cuts to her interview moments later.

"I really didn't do well in improv class today." She sounds sad, though she's fidgeting away as usual. "I just get so worried about doing it wrong! At least in the second half I didn't have to participate."

"Alright, I think you all have the hang of it!" Sungjae looks quite pleased as he waves for the men to finish their warm ups.

"Yes and is so much fun!" Eunchan announces happily in a quick cut away his interview. "Sungjae says we're going to do it every morning to warm up! I like improv."

"For the rest of today we'll be doing group work in a game I like to call Freeze." The shot retuns to Sungjae and the men as they drag a few of the desks into a wide circle at the front of the room. "It's quite simple. Two peope will begin acting out a scene. Then if someone in the group has an idea, they call Freeze and the two in the middle freeze exactly in their current positions. The person who spoke then takes the place of one of the people in the center and begins an entirely new scene. Make sense?"

"I hate that game." Woojin sighs. "Improv in general isn't as fun as putting on actual performances, but that game so often stops good scenes in the middle of their action which is really frustrating."

"So who wants to start?" Hani smiles hopefully around the circle, and looks surprised when Myunghwa's hand uncertainly wanders upwards. "Wonderful!"

Jisoo's hand follows close behind, and the two girs stand in the center of the cirlce.

"Whenever you're ready." Hanie prompts gently.

Myunghwa clears and then looks over at Jisoo. "Good afternoon ma'am, and welcome to the DMV. How can we help you today?"

Jisoo's eyes light up and she promptly leans down to rest her hands on her knees, like she's exhausted. "Yes hello. Someone just stole my car!"

Myunghwa blinks. "Um, ma'am, shouldn't you go to the police for that?" She points out, starting to look a little awkward.

Jisoo shakes her head. "Oh no, it was a piece of crap! But I need to fill out my insurance information to make sure I get money back!"

Giri laughs slightly, just as Jisoo starts to stand up. The dancer is still slightly hunched when Jinyi abrubly shouts "FREEZE!"

Jinyoo winces slightly at Jinyi's tone, but the rapper doesn't notice through her excitment. She quickly taps Jisoo and shoos her to the side before taking on her position.

"A penny for a poor old woman my dear?" She toddles over to Myunghwa, who momentarily looks terrified and unsure of what to do. Luckily, Jinyi covers for her.

"Oh I promise this isn't dirt on my hands, your lovely petticoats won't get dirty love."

Now given a character, Myunghwa joins back in. "Ergh, you would say that you filthy peasant!" She adopts a snooty tone and turns up her nose, earning a laugh from Jisoo.

"It was... surprisingly fun." Myunghwa smiles. "I mean, it was really unnerving at first when Jinyi didn't tap me out, but I think working with her for the warm ups made it less awkward. I didn't go back in when Giri tapped me out later, but I think tomorrow, if we do it again, I might try my hand at calling Freeze."

"Freeze!" The men are playing as well, and Hadon is surprisingly into it. he bounds up to tap out Woojin, who looks vaguely annoyed, and takes his position pointing at Eunchan.

"And I said, I said to him, I said, you know what I said boy?" Hadon stumbles comically, clearly playing a drunkard.

Eunchan quickly catches on, and though he's grinning broadly he jumps to action, running over to pretend to support Hadon.

"Freeze!" Akihiro switches out with Hadon, who looks upset that his spot was taken so soon.

"It's a really fast paced game!" The beatboxer says cheerfully to Giwang in his interview. "One second you're on a boat, then someone yells freeze and you're pretending to be a zoo monkey! Even Akihiro had some good ideas, though Eunchan was the funniest. He turned all his scenes into comedies." He laughs at the memory. "I really hope we get to keep doing this for the rest of the week!"

The show returns to a shot of the recording studio on day seven of the week. The two groups are warming up independently while staff members take turns ushering them into the sound room to record.

The rappers are sitting together against one wall, critiquing each other's sections.

"Hadon, you could maybe put a bit more speaking into your rap, I think it would sound good with the song." Jinyi suggests.

Hadon tilts his head and makes the note on his sheet music. "Sure, I can try. We all get thirty minute to record, right? We can definitely get a few takes."

"Do you have any notes for me?" Giri asks hopefully, looking over at Jinyi and Hadon.

Hadon shrugs and Jinyi thinks a moment before shrugging as well.

"You're doing well Giri. Just stay on rythm and you'll do well."

Giri looks a bit dissapointed at the lack of critique, but she nods and moments later is called over for her recording.

"It was weird." She decides in her interview. "I only had to do two takes, but I really felt like I could have done more. I feel like everyone has been walking on glass around me since my break down last week." She sighs. "I mean, I get that, but I'm also more commited than ever to seeing this through, even if that does mean messing up sometimes." She looks down at her lap. "With everyone sort of tiptoeing around me... I feel kind of lonely."

The next shot shows Hanhae and Myunghwa sitting together in what appears to be the hallway of the recording studio. Myunghwa has her guitar and is playing through Hanhae's sections.

"Are you sure it's alright for you to change your rap section into a vocal one? We won't get in trouble?" Myunghwa seems nervous, even as she tests a run of notes against the backup music.

Hanhae shrugs. "I don't want to rap. I didn't like it much when I was actually part of the performance, but after watching Hadon and Woojin, I realised I'd rather be singing. And so I'm going to sing. If they don't like it, I'll switch back, but I've been working really hard with my vocal coach this week and I'm feeling confident."

Myunghwa nods uncertainly and continues to play.

"I was surprised when Hanhae approached me asking for my help with writing in some music for his raps." The singer admits to Giwang. "Writing music isn't really my forte, plus I haven't really talked with him very much. We were partnered a few times during the joint improv classes this week, but it was still kind of... weird, I guess?" She frowns. "Maybe not weird, that sounds negative. Let's stick with surprising."

The next transition returns to the groups with their mentors. However, instead of being separate, the ten participants are all in one room. They've moved the desks and chairs to the side and are sitting in a circle on the floor.

"So for our final day, Hani and I decided to work together on a special sort of game. But first, warm ups!"

Eunchan immediately scooches over to Jisoo, clearly hoping to partner with her despite her inching away indicating she isn't quite so keen on that arrangement.

However, Sungjae isn't done speaking. "I know we've been doing 'Yes, and' all week, but today we decided to play a game we call Hitchhiker before we get to the main attraction." He nods to Hani to explain.

"The game is simple enough. One person will play a driver, who then picks up a hitchhiker. The newcomer has a specific quirk that the driver then has to take on. Another person will then join, and a fourth, and each time the driver takes on the quirk of the new charcter. When a fifth person is picked up, the driver needs to make an excuse to leave, and everyone moves down a seat."

Several of the participants still look confused after Hani's explanation, and she grins. "Don't worry, Sungjae and I will start. Whenever you want to join in, just hop up and make like a hitchhiker!"

They pull four chairs together and Sungjae hops into the "driver's seat". He whistles BtoB's newest release for a moment before Hani steps next to the car and tosses out her thumb.

"Hey handsome, mind taking a poor girl a few miles up the road?" Her voice is sultry, and Sungjae immediately swtiches gears, mirroring her attitude.

"Absolutely miss. You just tell me whatever you need."

The two flirt back and forth or a minute before Eunchan pops up and excitedly pretends to wave the car down.

"Well howdy pardners!"

The scenes goes on, and Giri is the next to step up and join the group. With four people now squished in and talking over each other it's nearly impossible to really make out what's happening. Then Jinyi gets up, fixes her hair, and throws herself in front of the car.

Sungjae, who's currently mimicing Giri's absolute panic, makes a big show of slamming the breaks and screaming "Oh god they found me!" before diving out of the car and running off.

He circles back around to join the group watching ont he sides, grinning, as Jinyi gets into the car.

Hani shifts over to become the driver, and Eunchan takes time to mime getting out of the car and walking around it to the passenger seat.

"Hello hello hello! May I interest you in buying a light up pen?" Jinyi immediately gets into Giri's face, and, staying in character, Giri freaks out.

Everyone is in stiches as Jinyi proceeds to attempt to sell increasingly ridicuous things to the other passengers. Hani ends up diving out of the car to avoid being pitched a pair of sauna pants, and Eunchan dramatically dives to keep the car on the road. Giri eagerly climbs into the front seat to try and escape Jinyi's attempted sales.

Hadon and Hanhae team up to play a huntsman and his dog. Giri breaks character by laughing when Hadon literally shoves Eunchan out of the car to make room for Hanhae, and then again when she realizes she has to pretend to be a dog while driving the car.

"It was utter chaos, but it was so much fun." She's grining brightly in her interview. "Much better than the first half of the day. I never thought I coud do improv, but this week really has been a blast."

The rest of the group jumps in soon after. Myunghwa plays a woman who cries at the drop of a hat, while Akihiro spins a character who literally throws money at things to make them go away. Jisoo jumps in as an acrobat who repeatedly tries to climb on top of the car, only to be thwarted by Woojin's overly saftey cautious old woman. Soon only Jinyoo hasn't gone, and she hesitates for a long time before Sungjae waves for the driver to be kicked out to push her to move.

"I really haven't been very comfortabe with any of this." Jinyoo sighs in her interview. "I just worry that I'll do things wrong."

"You mentioned that at the start of the week as well. But the whole point of improv and thsi week in general is to let go and trust your instincts." Gikwang points out.

Jinyoo just stares at her lap, hands oddly motionless for once, and the scene fades back to the lesson.

The game of hitchhiker seems to have come to a close, and the 'car' stands empty while the group members sit against the wall facing their mentors.

Sungjae waits until he's sure he has everyone's attention before he begins speaking. "Alright we only have a few hours left! All week we've had you working through several improvisational excercises, and you may be wondering what that has to do with your onscreen identity."

Myungwa nods quietly though the other give no indication if they'd also had similar concerns.

"It actually has a lot to do with it. This week was about loosening up and rolling with the punches, which you'll have to be able to do without thinking when you're in front of a camera a lot." Hani explains cheerfully. "Now that you're a bit more confident, we're going to start throwing some real life idol situations at you and you'll need to respond without causing a scandal."

"I'll be the judge of entertainment level!" Sungjae grins, pulling up one of the chairs so he can observe from the sidelines.

Hani waves everyone to their feet. "Alright we'll be using a classic talk show style, so let's set up some chairs. You'll be divided into your groups, so whoever is on the sidelines can help Sungjae with entertainment analysis."

Jinyi quickly slides to sit next to Hani. "I volunteer the girls to go first!"

The other four look less assured than Jinyi, but they all slowly agree, save for Jinyoo who remains nervously silent even as she pulls up a chair.

Once the girls are settled in, Hani begins as if she's really a radio host.

She goes around the circle and has each girl introduce herself. Jisoo and Jinyi are confident, and Giri and Myunghwa both manage to get through theirs with minimal nervousness. However when it's Jinyoo's turn to give her introduction, she can barely stutter out her name, nonetheless anything about herself.

The interview continues in that way, and with time both Giri and Myunghwa become more relaxed. Myunghwa even makes an unsolicited quip about Jinyoo kicking her out of the bed some nights, which gets the group laughing, sav for Jinyoo herself.

Eventually Hani gives up on trying to get Jinyoo engaged and simply bounces topics off the other four for the remaining thirty minutes of the 'interview'.

When it finishes, Sungjae gives his analysis. "Jinyi, you were born to be onstage. That flirting with Giri was ratings gold! And on that note Giri, you did a really good job adjuting to that. Myunghwa I liked that you brought in some personal stories, it gives the audience more of a personal connection to you." He pauses, and then adds witha grin, "Your brother sounds like a riot. And Jisoo, you were appropriately adorable for a maknae, though I would have liked to hear a bit more from you."

Jisoo nods, looking slightly put out at her review being less glowing than the other three.

Sungjae then sighs and looks to Jinyoo. "Jinyoo. You've been having trouble all week, and I think you're going to continue to until you face whatever it is that's stopping you from relaxing with everyone."

Jinyoo bows her head silently, and the groups switch positions shortly afterwards.

"I wasn't surprised." Jinyoo mumbles in her interview. "I'm not good at this. I barely talk at all during my regular life, so all this has been really overwhelming."

Gikwang looks sympathetic. "Well that's why you're not alone. Have you talked to your teammates or any of the mentors about this?"

Jinyoo just shakes her head, eyes cast stubbornly downwards.

The men all manage to remain somewhat engaged in the mock interview, though Hanhae and Eunchan are definite standouts, while Akihiro tends to fall a bit flat at times and Woojin only speaks when spoken to. Hadon falls into a happy medium between the two, though he often steers the conversation off course when he starts talking about beatboxing.

Sungjae gives them their notes, and then the two mentors bid the groups goodbye and good luck before Jongwoon and Gikwang arrive to drive them back to their dorms.

"The week went pretty well all things considered. There were bumps at the start, but most of them adapted well. Woojin was surprisigly reluctant to participate sometimes considering his acting background, but otherwise the guys are on the road to success as far as I'm concerned." Sungjae sounds proud of his team as he gives a final analysis of their prgress.

Hani is slightly less enthused. "Most of the girls did well. Beyond expectations even - Myunghwa ns Giri are really coming along. But Jinyoo..." She hesitates, and then sighs. "I'm not sure she'll be able to fiure this out."

Next week on SuperStar Boot Camp...

"Being an idol isn't all fun and games."

For once Jongwoon almost sounds serious as the usual monatge plays, showing shots of both teams struggling through new dances. A few interspersed shots show the groups back in the improv classrooms, appearing to be shouting over each other. The final image shows a flash of someone walking out the front door of the dorms, bag in hand.

"This week, the kid gloves come off."