Boy's Planet added contestant: Bae Sangwon

Performance part 2 and allocating benefits

its so much filler but also necessary so idk how to make it interesting

_____________________________________

Love me right was the next to perform. Both teams were formidable opponents; each team's members being the ones who were chosen first as well as many all star trainees.

"It'll be a close match this time." Sangwon commented to Yuseop who was next to him.

After introductions, G group went up to perform first. Frankly speaking, Sangwon was very impressed. The vocals came easily, especially to Jay, Haruto's rap had the perfect tone and swag and they were pretty strong dancers. He knew K group was scared.

"I don't want to be Jay's opponent I'll tell you that." Sangwon said out loud, earning nods and hums of agreement from everyone.

He also heard from the grapevine that K group had a rougher start than G group did and main vocalist Hoetaek caught the flu going around. Sangwon was nervous about their performance.

Fortunately for him and everyone in K group's  room, K team did so well too. Even though Sangwon thought Hoetaek's high note was noticeably very strained. Sangwon knew he was capable of more.

When the scores came in Sangwon was shocked and confused. With similar skill levels you'd think their points would be similar too right? Wrong. K group won by a landslide. Yes Sangwon was happy about another victory, but could he truly relish in the glory of winning if the people determining the victor were biased?

Burn It Up went on stage after an impromptu performance by the Star Master. Sangwon didn't want to be rude but he wasn't expecting to see them again. He knew they worked so so hard but there simply wasn't enough time for them to excel or prove their talents to the voters to survive to the next round of the competition.

K group won this one. Celebrating with the tearful winning team who went through so much hardship, Sangwon realised that everyone on this show had difficulties that sometimes no one else could understand.

Sangwon had never been happier to have secure debut plans.

The other teams he doesn't expect to see next round was Danger. Like Burn It Up, their skill and popularity levels weren't high, maybe with a couple exceptions in Takuto and Seunghwan. He also heard that both groups had fought quite a bit.

Despite the difficulties and lack of general support, both teams delivered solid performances; albeit the occasional voice crack showed up and sometimes they were off beat.

K group won this round. Seunghwan's landslide victory definitely helped them.

Back Door was next and K group's room was very excited, for good reason. All the members were very skilled and fit the song so well. Their teamwork as well was something to envy. Sangwon felt that they and Kill This Love G group had the highest chance of going to Mcountdown.

K group started off the performances this time. They destroyed the stage and Sangwon was sure the audience was captivated. The performance was practically perfect, especially for trainees in a survival show.

Throughout the performance K group's room was absolutely hyped up. Sangwon couldn't help but join in the antics. Shouting cheers with the others, acting shook as Jiwoong showed his abs. He had to admit it was fun.

G group did well but compared to K group everyone knew who would win. Really the most surprising thing was Jiwoong getting 259 points with 5 seconds of lines. It made everyone surprised and Sangwon's eyes widened comically.

After K group's victory, Hot Sauce teams were the last to perform. Really all Sangwon could think about was Parkbin's military training that everyone clowned him on. He suppressed a chuckle.

All he knew about G group was that Ollie had a big part in their progress and him and Hanbin became friends. Sangwon was proud of the younger trainee.

G group did quite well other than some off tune notes and timing issues, especially since they had so little stars. The energy was there and the dancing was clean.

Thanks to the military training, K group did very well. They were incredibly in sync while dancing, most of the notes were on tune and their energy was high. Park Hanbin and Park Jihoo especially stood out in the performance, though Sangwon did wonder what compelled Hanbin to raise his shirt.

The last win went to K group which Sangwon was very pleased about. Truth be told Sangwon thought G group should've gotten a couple more wins but there was nothing he could do about it.

The audience cleared out and the trainees were gathered for the results. They met Star Master Minhyun who presented the results. Sangwon's team lost to G group 335 to 586. Sangwon was disappointed but not surprised. Thankfully the combined score allowed all of K group's members to take 10 thousand points.

The team that won the chance to perform again was K group's Back Door team. Sangwon turned around to congratulate them after Jiwoong gave a speech as leader.

Minhyun revealed that only 53 out of the 94 trainees would proceed to the next round. It made everyone nervous. Sangwon didn't want to be selfish and take a spot from someone but he didn't want to disappoint his company by getting eliminated so early.

The trainees were dismissed and boarded the buses to go back to the dorms. Half of them were already falling asleep in the bus. Gunwook kept looking at his fiddling hands and biting his lip. Sangwon assumed he felt guilty that they lost.

_____________________________________

A few trainees were called to be interviewed, Gunwook included in the bunch. Both Hwanhee and Sangwon knew something was wrong when he didn't look up at them. Hwanhee took the lead and asked Gunwook what was wrong.

"I'm really upset that we lost, I feel like it's my fault..." Gunwook said softly as he cried. Hwanhee rushed to hug and reassure him while Sangwon went to Keonhee, Yeojun and Yuseop's dorm to get them to help reassure Gunwook too. Soon the room was filled with reassurance that them losing wasn't a single person's fault or they all did well.

"Gunwook, you were instrumental in making sure our performance was even as good as it was. Let us support you now okay?" Sangwon said while patting his head. It seems like a new round of tears were released as Gunwook buried his face in Sangwon's neck.

As time went by Gunwook steadily calmed down. The 3 visitors returned to their rooms and the remaining residents got ready for bed. As Sangwon turned the lights off, he heard a quiet voice say "thank you hyungs."

Sangwon went to sleep with a smile.

_____________________________________

and that's the end of mission 1!! i'll probably combine the break and elimination episode into one chapter so look out for that next

btw please comment your thoughts about sangwon here im using them in the next chapter (you're like a boys planet viewer)

word count: 1100 ish

published: 4 September 2023

thank you so much for reading and loving sangwon 🩷