#inhobe

there's some tension on her team for the finale. she feels like that's an understatement, too. for one, ren hates two members of the team. he's managed to keep it together, but nayoung knows him and knows he's barely holding it together. siwoo and jay also seem to be good friends whose powers combined may lead to disaster if not handled properly. she's pretty sure luciel and siwoo still have some sort of beef, too. all in all, it's a mess, and it shows in their performance. it's a total lack of synergy, and nayoung has little patience for it all. so she does what she usually does: tries to solve the problem as soon as possible.

nayoung knows it won't be easy, and doesn't expect her idea to fix everything. she just hopes it helps. she knows there's a possibility that it'll backfire, but nayoung is also aware that sometimes confrontation is necessary to work through any negative feelings toward one another. if this activity ends up starting a fight, it's probably a fight that needs to happen to clear the air and let the group as a whole move on and focus more effectively.

naturally, not everyone was happy about the exercise, but they ended up relenting and agreeing to participate. she had them draw pieces of paper numbered 1-7 to determine the order they sit in in the circle.

fate would have it be that some of the team members with the biggest problems with each other are seated together. luciel is seated on her left, and siwoo next to him, followed by inho. next is jay, then ren, and seira rounds out their circle, seated on nayoung's right.

"okay, let's go left in the circle. say something nice about the person to your left, and share something you're proud of yourself for related to next gen," she reminds everyone. "i'll start."

"i'm proud that i was able to help two teams take first place this season," she says, and she hopes it doesn't sound like she's bragging, or taking all the credit for it. "and of the team members, of course," she adds for good measure.

next, she has to say something nice about luciel - or jihyun, as she should probably call him. "i like that jihyun is good at handling criticism and applying it quickly, even if it's hard to hear." she's talking about her calling him forgettable. he certainly took what she said to heart, and earned praise from the judges last episode.

"okay, your turn," she smiles at him, and it might actually be uncharacteristically warm.

never did chaerin imagine she'd ever be sitting on the floor, in front of a flower shop, waiting for the closing time. of course, there were a lot of things she's already done that she never thought she would when it comes to inho. she can't even remember how long she's been doing this—actually, she can; it's been eighteen days—but she'll do it for as long as she has to. chaerin's tried walking into the store herself and speaking to him, but she quickly learned that he wouldn't talk back to her.

letting out a sigh, she got up from her spot on the ground to sneak another peek at inho through the store window before ducking down once she thought he'd look over at her direction. there's no way he doesn't know she's here. surely, some customer has told him about the poor girl who's sitting in front of the shop, though they probably think she's loitering or something.

chaerin's running a hand through her hair in frustration when she hears a loud boom. before she can even realize it's the sound of thunder, the rain starts pouring down, and she does everything she can not to curse out loud. she should have listened to her dad earlier today when he told her that it might rain because now she was going to have to sit around with the rain falling down on her.

all she can think now is that she deserves it after all she's done to inho. chaerin never intended to string him along or anything. especially since she did like him a lot, but her last relationship had ended up with her heart being broken with how deep she fell. she just didn't want a repeat of that situation, and she knew in her mind that inho would never do that to her, but something about making things official brought up that fear.

it's almost pathetic, really. the fact that she had to lose him to realize everything, but she was ready to make things right again. of course, only if inho was willing to listen to her, but she came here determined to have him listen, even if it means having to stand in front of him and block him from heading home. grabbing her bag, she placed it on top of her head, hoping that she can at least save her hair a little, but it's already been pouring for so long that it was absolutely no help.

a jar.

in the middle of the practice room sits a fucking jar. usually siwoo would question this, probably pick up the jar and place it outside because the sight of it makes his eyes look sore. but there's a reason it's there, placed in the practice room.

and the reason is well ... siwoo can't help but think that he may be part of the reason for it. the no filter jar. siwoo's gotten a lot better at not swearing in front of the cameras, still he's having trouble filtering out his thoughts.

( 'i sound like a dying goat.' 'who came up with the name next gen?' )

but he can't help it. he sighs as he walks towards the jar and pulls out his wallet. maybe he'll place 10,000 won in advance. the rule is to put money after you've said something out of place, but siwoo thinks it's a waste to walk back and forth in the middle of practice.

“you sing well, inho,” luciel throws in a compliment after they had a round of practice together one time. “i’m glad i got the opportunity to sing with you in this team, i thought you sang well in the performance for adrenaline.” he’s also noting down the way inho sings and how he incorporates his style into the song. chemistry is important after all. whenever he takes over or vice versa, it has to appear seamless. the rest of the team seems to be in a bit of the mess (even he himself had something with siwoo too…) otherwise, so he’s thankful that this time it isn’t all too bad with inho.

jay's eyes are particularly focused on a certain jar, intricately placed in the middle of the practice room. he knows what it's for, he also knows who put it there. at first, he didn't think it would happen for real, just a vague suggestion. maybe even a metaphorical one. but, no. apparently not.

there really is a swear jar right in front of them.

"i didn't think she'd actually do it," jay says to @inhobe, who might be as puzzled as jay is. he should've known, nayoung did look serious when she was talking about administering the swear jar. "i mean, i don't really swear as much as you and siwoo probably do. but it's also a filter jar? i have no idea how that's supposed to work."

this was a song seira felt confident in, unlike with puzzle, bang was in seira’s comfort zone. seira had landed in the bottom again, luckily this time, she felt comfortable and confident with the song. she got to show off her rap, her strongest skill, and it was a dance she could keep up with. she continued working hard like she did with puzzle, come in early, stay late, practice at home. seira was thankful to have made it so far, but she was still in the bottom, she needed to work as hard as she could.

practicing rap by herself is easy, she feels confident in her rap, and though she wouldn’t say it out loud, she thinks she’s the best rapper in the team. she doesn’t struggle with the dance, it’s easy to learn, but though seira is confident in her dance skills, it’s still nice to practice along with someone else, sometimes it’s easier to see if something doesn’t look right when you’re with someone else. "you wanna go over the chorus dance part with me?" she asks a fellow teammember.

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here they were again, getting ready for another performance that would determine whether they got to move on to the next episode, or have them leaving with a big failure. at least, that's how kaito saw it anyway. he knows it's wrong to think this way, but he can't help it now, especially when he's already witnessed three others being eliminated from the show.

thankfully @inhobe is a familiar face from one of the previous episodes, the other actually leaving a rather great impression on kaito, enough to have him remembering the other and even hoping that he hadn't been one of the three kicked out. he approaches the other, smiling warmly as he does so, and stops once he's reached inho. "so, do you think you're ready to go up there and show how 'nerdy' we can be?" he jokingly asks, motioning to both of their attires they had picked out for their concept.

< w. @inhobe >

stevie likes his lines. to be honest, they’re pretty simple– most of them are the same, and in english to boot. stevie’s got those in the bag! but there are singing lines, and with vocals being the most obvious of his skills he lacks at, he seeks out someone he thinks he has a little more experience with it.

he bounds over to inho, an easy smile pulling over his face– and maybe a skip to his step. stevie won’t lie, he’s been really happy these last few episodes. it feels like a vastly different experience than last time, much more enjoyable, or rather he’s looking at it in a more enjoyable way. it’s been fun, educational. the grind not as bad as he thought it would be.