This time, with one more guy from team YG leaving the show because of huge pressure, the number of boys was downed to 31.
After discussing with the other two main judges, the three of them came to an agreement on dividing the contestants into three seven-member groups, three duos, and one soloist for each gender. Then, there's one mixed-duo and a four-member mixed group.
Once again Yuju ended up in a duo, except that it isn't a mixed duo. YG surprised everyone as he let Yuju team up with Hong Euijin who everyone thinks she's the best female in the batch.
The surprise end there.
He further announced the other duo in the male division will be none other than Jun and Daniel, for one is considered the best vocalist, and the other is considered as one of the best performers who could sing and dance very well.
Forming two powerful duos, even YG was looking forward to seeing what kind of performance they will give.
After sorting out the teams, he then said, "For the past four weeks, you guys worked hard very much but by now, some of you must have already realized the difference between yourself and others."
Everyone became serious as they couldn't help but agree with it.
YG continued, "However, in this Entertainment world, talent means nothing if you couldn't make use of it despite getting a chance over and over again. We will prefer the one who delivers more results over the one with talent. And of course, we will also keep in mind the advantage that former trainees have over the rookies.
So, the former trainees must work harder than before.
Anyway, this is the elimination week where only half of the contestants who make the cut will move on to the next phase. For this week, you won't be given any song in advance. You have until dinner time.
Discuss with your teammates and mentor, come up with a song and submit it at the third floor's reception.
Even if you can't come up with one, then, no worries. Just don't submit in time, then, tomorrow, you will be assigned a random song chosen by me.
And lastly, the training rooms will be open until midnight. Each seven-member group and one duo will share a room. The mixed groups will share one room and the remaining empty room will be occupied by me.
For this week, I'm going to shift my office to this floor. You can stop by at any time for suggestions, and at the end of every day, I will personally see how much effort you are putting in your practice."
After a while, Jun and Daniel who formed a duo stepped inside the allotted room 407 along with a seven-member group.
Both of them sat in a corner.
Daniel appeared to be excited as he kept smiling. He was probably happier to form a team with Jun.
Jun was also satisfied with YG's grouping this time. After all, he wasn't more comfortable with Daniel than any other person present in the building.
"Hyung, do you have any song in your mind?" He first asked Jun's opinion as the latter was elder than him.
Jun let out a sigh in response, "There are many but I prefer extreme vocals with live singing and you prefer a powerful dance performance with lip sync. So, it is going to be a challenge if we want to give our best performance with both of our interests to be balanced at the same time. Moreover, the judges will have high expectations. There's that too…"
"Hmm, indeed." Daniel nodded in agreement upon realizing the reality. His expression turned serious, "For a balanced act, we can only go for a live performance that didn't have too many heavy moves but still have a few striking ones."
"Hyung, you brought your PC-Tablet right?" he suddenly asked Jun, to which the latter nodded and take it out from his bag.
After hesitating for a couple of seconds, Daniel then said, "Actually, I have a song in my mind. It's Lee Tae-min's, released last year."
"Shinee's Taemin?" Jun wondered what kind of songs this second-generation Kpop group produced in this world. It also reminded him of one of his favorite songs of all time that was written by Jonghyun in his past life.
While Jun was wondering whether to buy that song, Daniel played the video.
The song started with a piano melody for a few seconds as the video zoomed in to see Taemin was lying on top of a cliff.
As soon as the song started, Jun was taken aback. "This… It's Japanese?"
He continued to watch in silence until the end.
As the video ended, Daniel looked at him and asked, "How is it?"
Jun responded with a question instead, "Are we trying this song in Korean version?"
Daniel shook his head, "no, there's already a Korean version too. I'm just showing this whether you are comfortable with singing this. There are no extreme vocals but as you listened, a few parts have high notes. Let me show you the choreography."
He then typed Hit the stage Taemin and clicked on the video where he was dancing with a female choreographer.
As Jun watched it intently, Daniel explained, "If it's this one, I already know its choreography. So, it's easy to work it out."
"Okay." Jun gave a quick approval as he was very much hooked on it. At the same time, he also got a strange idea in his mind. "We don't need to see other videos. Let's go with this one. I like it."
"Really?" Daniel looked at him in surprise. He actually has more songs in his mind but didn't expect he lucked out. This was a song he practiced many times in the past year.
Just when he thought he could use this time for something else, Jun then said, "I have a suggestion regarding the choreography."
"Hmm?"
Three days later, 10:50 p.m.;
On the fourth floor, a seven-member group was practicing as hard as they can. Shonwu is elected as the leader.
"nanana nanana,
Quick, hurry, avoid it, right Cherry Bomb
nanana nanana
Quick, hurry, avoid it, right Cherry Bomb
I'm the biggest hit
I'm the biggest hit on this stage."
As the song ended in the background, everyone was collapsed on the spot feeling very tired from all the practice. "Let's stop it here. We can continue tomorrow." Shonwu said while lying on the floor.
The group of boys left the room to go back to the dormitory and sleep. However, just as they were about to pass their next room, they heard the music playing.
"It looks like those two are still at it." One of them commented and proceeds to slightly open the door.
As Shonwu curiously peeked into the room, he saw the two of them are dancing around with blindfolds on their eyes.
Shonwu couldn't help but sigh, "Geniuses who work hard are really scary."