A failed bouquet
After finishing his business with Somi, Jun returned to the training center and continued the practice at the 14th floor's private cabin until midnight. Heeding Chiyeul's advice, the other two teammates also joined him.
22nd November, 2017;
The next day, everyone arrived at the KBS studio once again for the recording and evaluations.
The host of the program, stepped onto the stage with the cue cards after everyone settled and the cameras started to roll.
"Welcome to Treasure Campus."
"Hello, I'm your host, Ro Jongsu. Today is the second evaluation where the contestants will be evaluated based on group performances. Before that, let me introduce our top 21 contestants from the last week."
He went on introducing the member sat in number 21 to number 20, then, so, on and finally, Jun.
After introductions are over, he then spoke of the rule change. In the earlier week, they introduced a rule that a contestant can challenge a specific person on a numbered seat and replace them if his/her score is higher.
Now, they scrapped the rule as the judges felt a lot of contestants that scored higher weren't able to occupy the top 21 seats due to a wrong choice. They felt it is unfair for them.
In addition to that, the host informed everyone about the new rule regarding the score. As they will be performing in teams, first, the judges and the mentors will give a team score. After that, they will give an individual score where the bonus or penalty points will be taken into consideration.
The rankings will be decided at the end after calculating the overall scores by adding the team score and individual score.
After informing the rules and everything, Jongsu proceeded to call the first contestant, Team-A Boys of YG where Kang Daniel is the leader.
They were given BigBang's Bang Bang Bang as the challenge for dance. In the end, the team scored 326 overall and Daniel received an individual score of 378, which put his total score at 704.
After that, several groups performed. Some did great, some were filled with mistakes, and some were a complete mess. Out of them, Shonwu managed to get a score of 695; Yuju scored 712; Chaeyoung scored 698; Jung Jinwoo scored an astonishing 748; A lot of others also scored above 600.
Finally, Jun's turn came.
****
"I will sing this song
And I will return to you
If I can see
Your beautiful self again
I will listen to this song with you
And dance for the last time
Remember this moment
Forever if you must
Just one last dance" – Han SungJun
"Yesterday night when I
Held hands with you and danced
With your radiantly glowing and
Beautiful one last smile
Red orange
Yellow green
An ecstasy I can't know it doesn't go with the world
That I used to see and feel" – All
"Yesterday night when I
Held hands with you and danced
With your radiantly glowing and
Beautiful one last smile
Red orange
Yellow green
An ecstasy I can't know it doesn't go with the world
That I used to see and feel" – All
***
"Gamsahabnida…" The three of them bowed to the audience upon finishing their performance.
While the two fifteen-year-olds looked anxious as they looked at the judges, Jun appeared relaxed. He knew there wasn't a single mistake and in the last part, where they sang together, he felt they were completely in sync.
In his view, overall, it was a perfect performance.
As for the individual scores, he wasn't worried that he would get a low score. However, like their mentor said, he wondered whether the other two might receive a lesser score as their parts are shadowed by him.
YG was the first to speak. "You managed to finish the performance without any issues. What I like is the outro which was originally sung by Seung-Hyun where the three of you sang together in sync. That was done brilliantly. It was changed at the last minute, right?"
Jun answered with a nod, "Yes. It was originally Seong Min's part but we changed it, last night after discussing together."
YG smiled, "good." He then looked at G-dragon and said, "It's your group's special. Tell us what you think."
G-dragon spoke, "As I told before, Sungjun-ssi is one of the contestants that I kept my eye on and looked forward to their performances. If Young Bae (Taeyang) is here, I'm sure he would say that you sang better than him, especially where you hit the high notes…
And you two also sang great without any mistakes but need practice in terms of technique. There are parts that would sound a lot better if you put the mic a bit far.
His positive comment brought smiles to Jun. Kim Seong Min and In Jihae bowed and thanked him.
JYP's the next one to pick up the mic. His face was calm on the outside. So, Jun wasn't able to tell what's going on in his mind.
"Well…" As JYP paused for a few seconds, suddenly, Jun felt that it wasn't going to be good. "Sungjun-ssi, your voice quality, pronunciation, the pitch, the technique, nothing can be better than this."
"Thank you…" Jun sighed in relief. Just when he thought he was worried for nothing, JYP continued, "However, that very perfection brought disaster to this performance."
"Eh?" Not only Jun but everyone is also taken aback by JYP's remark even including YG and the other judges.
"I understand that the both of them are rookies and don't have much experience compared to Sungjun-ssi but the beauty of an idol group is its harmony like a bouquet.
If one flower stands out too much than the others, then, the whole bouquet will not look good. Your team is like that failed bouquet, right now.
Your vocals stood out so much that the other parts appeared a lot worse.
However, we can't do anything about the gap between Sungjun-ssi and the other two. And probably, if there are more members performing this song, it might have been a lot better. So, I can only say that it's an unfortunate situation…"
After hearing two positive comments, as they heard the harsh comments from JYP, SeongMin and Jihae thought it was unfair. If they had made a mistake and got scolded, it would be fine.
But, they did good and still get criticized because their leader is too awesome. How were they supposed to react to it…
Meanwhile, Jun was calm as he already anticipated it from the moment Chiyeul told them, a day ago. He knew that JYP is someone who will always be on point.
"Okay, let's proceed with the team score, please." YG pressed the button and gave 23 out of 25. JYP only gave 15. Bravebrothers gave a 20. G-dragon and IU, on the other hand, gave a full score of 25.
Followed by them, the thirty mentors also started to give the scores.
The screen behind them displayed 344. It was lower than Jun expected. So, he became a little bit low.
Looking at it, everyone thought he had no chance of getting to sit in the first seat.
Soon, the individual scores were also given out.
Jun's score displayed -5 on the screen. Everyone wondered what rules did this guy have broken. Only YG, Jun, and Yuju knew of it.
However, in the next couple of seconds, everyone gasped in shock to see the number.
"401"
The score was after he received the negative score. That means, his actual score is 406, which is even higher than the last week.
In the end, a total score of 745 was displayed.
"Damn it..." Jun gripped his fist in frustration as he wasn't able to retain his position for this week and fell to 2nd rank... He realized that those five marks of penalty costed him...