SIXTEEN Part 2

"Where the heck have you been?" PD-nim asked as I went inside the room.

I just came back from Big Hit Entertainment's main building and they were about to shoot for SIXTEEN's next episode. The remaining contestants for SIXTEEN were inside the studio talking with one another. We were supposed to start shooting hours ago but because of the miscommunication, we had to move production.

"I wasn't informed that today was the shoot, PD-nim. I had business over at Big Hit Entertainment." I replied.

He pinched his nose bridge. "I'll talk to the managers later on. Can we begin now junmoo-nim?"

The director nodded. "Of course. I'll give the signal inside."

He then talked to the camera men to start rolling and inform everyone that they were on red (meaning recording). After a minute, JYP PD-nim entered the room and started the shoot.

The manager then approached me. "You'll enter the studio after JYP PD-nim calls your name."

"Alright, junmoo-nim. I'm sorry again for being late. Let me treat the staff over a meal soon." I told them.

He smiled and accepted the offer. He already knew who I was and how much I respect my job and the people working with me. After that he told me to change in to a more stylish outfit and I did.

SIXTEEN is already at its mid part of the competition so I think it's already THAT episode. I hope they wouldn't be too sad about it. This round was really intense for me.

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"Hi guys, today I will judge you through the 1:1 battle. It won't be just me. There will be two other judges." JYP PD-nim.

(AN: This were the exact words that he mentioned in SIXTEEN.)

I prepped myself and quickly checked the mirror if I was already all good to go.

Hair…

Teeth…

Clothes…

Good. Guess I'm ready to go.

"I can't believe that we're going to be the judging together for today, JayB-ah." Ji-Eun hugged me from behind.

I chuckled. "Yeah. It was a surprise too. I thought that I would just be talking to the contestants, but it turns out that I'd be judge for today."

PD-nim then called out to us. "Please come out."

IU and I greeted the staff, PD-nim and the contestants as we entered. They were surprised to see us being the judge for today. Nayeon was pretty much excited when she saw IU. We sat down on the judge's table and started getting in character. I already knew the outcome still I was nervous for them.

This episode was about the minor team members challenging someone from the major team members to take their spot. And at the end of this episode, they would eliminate the person with the poorest performance.

Nayeon was up first. She smiled at us. Especially, at IU who was her idol. She was then asked to choose who she wanted to challenge from the major team which she chose Tzuyu as her opponent.

"Ooh…" I couldn't help but react. It's going exactly like the previous world. This was just brutal.

Nayeon has a very solid vocal background. Though it wasn't perfect. It was a very good performance overall. Although there were flats, she continued her performance. But it was as if it was a little scripted and planned out. It was predictable.

After she finished singing, Tzuyu went up on stage to perform an jazzy song which surprised us, but compared to Nayeon, she was still unstable in terms of vocals. But visual wise, she knows that she was already beautiful and that's why she was using it to her advantage. She was captivating the judges with it.

PD-nim then called them both on stage again to tell them our evaluations. We started with Nayeon. IU and I pretty much agreed on the comment that her gestures looked too rehearsed. It showed her confidence slowly going away. She looked really nervous.

On the other hand, Tzuyu looked more confident with her gestures but it was obvious that her vocals seemed a bit uncooked yet. The judges agreed on this one as well. In the end, Nayeon went to major and Tzuyu went to minor. Seeing her pull Tzuyu's necklace really broke our hearts. Even IU had to stand up and come to me and embrace me from behind because she felt a little guilty.

Next was Jiwon who was challenging Jeongyeon. She went up first and showed her strength which was her vocals. Based on her singing, she was obviously nervous. She had flats as well. Her voice showed her under confidence but she actually pulled it off. Even I had chills.

Then Jeongyeon came up with her 'psycho' concept which surprised the judges. This was terrifyingly amazing. It was a different side of Jeongyeon which made us smile. Her concept was really strong which brought out her charm in a weird and powerful way. I'm excited what the other judges had to say. The final outcome was obvious and it made Jeongyeon go to the major and Jiwon to the minor.

Chaeryoung, who was a member of ITZY in the near future, was next. She chose Sana as her opponent for this round. It was an odd battle because Sana had the charm and vocals skills while Chaeryoung had her charm and dancing skills. Surprisingly, Dahyun came up to challenge Sana as well.

"Oh boy… This is going to be fun." I said.

It was hard for me because I personally knew these people. Sana's a friend of mine in this world. Chaeryoung was a fan of mine in the previous world. While Dahyun is also someone I know very well. Her charms and rapping skills were really good.

So it was dancing versus vocals versus rapping.

Dahyun was up first but she didn't rap. Instead, she danced which was really shocking on my part. Wow! She really dances well. This was an obvious self-choreography but it really looked good. She looked really confident. Dahyun does it again with her charm.

I guess Chaeryoung has someone she needs to worry about because she was next. But she showed us why she deserves to be in this competition. Although she was still very raw in this competition, she proved years later that she was going to make it big. She gave away a very mature performance in this round which destroyed my image of her as an innocent baby.

Finally, it was Sana's turn. She was also dancing. Now, I guess I was wrong. This turned out to be a dance battle. Sana was obviously taking the lead with her charms and her body rolls. I could feel IU pinching my side as she saw my reaction. I smiled at her. We then focused our attention on the performance which was very alluring.

I chose Dahyun to win this round. I guess we had a difference in opinion because IU chose Sana to win this round. Now JYP was the only one who needed to break the tie and choose the winner for this round, but he chose Chaeryoung which tied the three of them.

Is this going to be a rematch?

JYP decided that we would talk about it for a minute and decide who we wanted to move forward. As we faced the contestants again, Sana was giving the look as if she was a puppy begging for me to pick her. So I called her out which made everyone laugh. IU pinched my side again which made me jerk a little. In the end, we were able to come into an accord. Chaeryoung won this round.

Next was Minyoung and she chose to challenge Somi. I knew that Minyoung was losing this round because even though she had a powerful voice, she lacked the confidence to show it especially when she sees her opponent performing. Although Somi doesn't have a solid voice, she beat Minyoung with her confidence. She sang and rapped, which made it a one-sided round. So Somi gets to stay in the major.

Now we were about to end the shoot and Eunsuh was coming up next. She chose to challenge Mina. So it was a battle of dancers for this round again. They both have a background as a ballerina so this would be interesting.

Mina started her performance. I thought she was going to do something ballet related instead she started to get drunk with the music and did the sexiest dance I've ever seen her do. This was so seductive that IU was starting to stare daggers at me from time to time. I'm going to die by her hands after this episode is finished. Mina really knows how to use her charm and body to the fullest which made this an amazing performance. Although there were parts that felt awkward, she still did really well.

I wonder how Eunsuh would do in this round. She started her performance and it was a modern type of a sexy dance. She really did well but she forgot her choreography in the middle of her dance which made it so obvious. I snapped my fingers and thought what a shame it was. She was doing really well up to that point.

After the performance, JYP PD-nim asked Eunsuh how she's feeling about her performance. She said that she feels sorry to the judges. I told her that I feel sorry for her as well. But I told her that she has to remember how she felt so that she won't make the same mistake in the future. The judge's decision came up and we decided that Mina would win this round and that she gets to keep her position as a major.

Jihyo was up next. She was feared by most of the contestants here. Her 10-year experience here as a trainee was no joke. Jihyo chose to challenge Chaeyoung.

Really now?

This was a battle between a Main Vocal and the Main Rapper. I really wanted to see how this would turn out.

As the challenger, Jihyo was the first one up. She showed her strong side and showed her 10-year experience on stage. This was one of the best performances I've seen her do on this show. We were bobbing our heads and were enjoying the performance. For a minute there, we forgot that this was a competition. She nailed it.

It was Chaeyoung's turn to defend her spot as a major and she did one of JYP's songs which I produced. Instead of singing, she made lyrics to it and turned it into a rap. She sang the chorus which made it as fun as Jihyo's performance. She looked so groovy and I was impressed with her performance.

This was going to be tough for us judges. One was so good with vocals while the other one danced, sang and rapped at the same time which made it a well-rounded package. It was indeed tough to choose but someone has to win this round and it was Jihyo. So they had to switch spots.

As they were leaving the stage, I accidentally said something out loud. "Jihyo would really make a good leader."

PD-nim turned to look at me and glared. He knew that she was my pick for the leader in the group but it was still kept private. But it doesn't matter it would be as if I was just saying an opinion of my own.

Momo was called up on stage and challenged Natty to a dance battle. Finally! I was looking forward to this battle because as a fellow dancer, these two were battling for the crown as the Main Dancer for this upcoming group. Both are excellent dancers AND are excellent choreographers.

It was Momo who was going up first and showed the crowd what she could do. No questions asked she delivered it with a bang. She got so much swag in this performance and so many styles were incorporated in this dance that it was obviously clear who the winner was.

That was until Natty danced to a sad song. This was really crazy. Their performances were polar opposites which was an emotional roller coaster for me. Her expressions were good too. It made me tear up actually. It was so surprising. For me it was a tie but I have to come up with a winner for this round.

They both really did well, but for this round, the winner is actually surprisingly Natty. I guess PD-nim and I shared the same insight in this situation. She really did too well that she just surpassed Momo by a small margin.

The battle rounds were finally over and someone has to be eliminated.

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"I can't believe that PD-nim would do this to those girls." IU complained.

Our part of the show ended and we left PD-nim to decide who she will be eliminating in this challenge. It was really a heartbreaking moment so I left the studio with IU. We were walking towards the exit. I was planning to head home while she was heading to the studio to rehearse for her comeback.

"I'm actually part of the people who said yes to this show. So I'd like to apologize to you for it." I told her the truth.

She stopped and turn to look at me. "Why in the world would you agree on something like that? Weren't you also in a survival show when you started off? You should know better how these girls would feel."

She started ranting at me.

"I know how you feel about it and I know what these girls are feeling right now, but this show would help them catapult into stardom when they debut." I explained.

She scoffed. "Why do you care so much about that? You have your own group to think about too. Why? Are you going to become their PD when they debut or is SHE part of that group?"

I just stayed silent which confirmed her questions.

She scoffed again. "You know what, JayB-ah? I thought you were different."

She started walking away and I started calling out to her. I wanted to run after her but the director for High School 2015 started calling me.

"Yes, junmoo-nim." I answered.

"Is this a bad time to call?" He asked.

I put the phone away from me and sighed. "No, not at all. Can I help you with something?"

He then chuckled. "I just wanted to give you a heads up that we'll start filming next week for the drama. Is your schedule free then?"

"Yes, junmoo-nim. Our schedules for next week are still not tight yet so we can squeeze it in." I replied.

He then told me about the details to where the shoot would be. That's when I heard Ji-Eun scream. I immediately ran towards where the screams were coming from.

When I arrived to where she was. Two men were loading her on the back of a white van. She was asking for help. I ran towards her to try and save her.

But…

One of the guys shot me and hit me in the arm.

I fell down on the floor from the impact of the bullet hitting me. I watched as the van drove away.

No…

This can't be happening…

"Lee… Ji… Eun…"

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