Next mission is the concept evaluation, Jihoon and Daniel are in different groups with Daniel having a hard time due to his controversies regarding the choice of song. At first, Jihoon worried Daniel couldn’t handle this well. Rumours were spreading like disease that Daniel might be kicked out of the show. Having one strong contestant out of the game means 1 less rival but Jihoon can’t be happy about that. But seeing Daniel still all smiling, giggling, and joke around whenever they met, Jihoon thinks maybe Daniel is in better condition than he thought. Little did he know that Daniel is on the verge of crying but it’s his nature not to show his weakness to people especially those he cared about.

Turns out, Daniel’s punishment had become a stepping stone for Daniel and claim the 1st spot for the first time. To say that Jihoon is surprised is an understatement. Jihoon couldn’t help but feel a little jealousy at Daniel’s sudden rise in popularity. During the speech, when Daniel smile at him and show sincere words that he didn’t see Jihoon as a rival, Jihoon couldn’t return his sincere smile and put up a forced smile instead. He hated himself for that.

Daniel seems to see that and couldn’t help but feel guilty for the position he had. Suddenly, being first is not that exciting for Daniel anymore. Sure, he is extremely thankful to national producers despite the childish act of his, they still support him unconditionally. But seeing the sadness in Jihoon’s eyes, Daniel could give up anything for that sadness to disappear.

Things get awkward since then that the conversation between Daniel and Jihoon are limited to “hello”, “how are you”, “goodbye”. Whenever Daniel tries to have longer conversation with Jihoon, Jihoon would busied himself with something or get someone else to talk to. Since they are preparing for the debut evaluation and finals, Daniel couldn’t find the time to approach Jihoon and stopped trying to talk to the younger after being ignored for the nth time.

On the other hand, it’s not like Jihoon hated Daniel or anything. However, seeing Daniel remind him of getting so close to 1st place and then lose it. He worked so hard for that yet he couldn’t reach it. It’s so close yet so far. It doesn’t mean Daniel didn’t work hard, he knew more than anyone that Daniel struggled the most. But Jihoon just can’t get that uneasy feeling out of his chest so he opted to ignore Daniel until he can sort out his feelings. He realized that Daniel also had stopped trying to talk to him after trying for a while and Jihoon thought that Daniel had grown tired of being ignored. He’ll settle things out after the finals, Jihoon thought to himself. For now, he will focus on the finals, and sort out his feelings.

In the blink of eyes, finals had past and the final line up had been announced, with Daniel keeping his number 1 spot and Jihoon o