#ok donghun AND woong in this together???

[boysplanetrecaps]

Build Up Ep 8, Part 2: 💖Guilty 💖

Hello and welcome to another Build Up recap in the series! In the previous one we saw a team rock out! In this one, we’ll see a team get sexxxy. I have a lot to say! Let’s do this! 

We start off with the team coming out on stage as usual and greeting everyone. They joke that Donghun and Jeup are the parents and that Woong and Bain are their sons #1 and #2. 

Left to right: Bain (Just B), Donghun (A.C.E.), Jeup (IMFACT), Woong (AB6IX)

Their name is transliterated Dongupjadur, I think? It’s written in a really stylized way and my hangul reading skills aren’t quite up to it. 

As they’re coming out, the other teams backstage wonder out loud if the guys will be showing their abs -- specifically, if Jeup will be showing his abs. When I was watching this episode for the first time, I didn’t know that Jeup showing his abs was that a thing that could happen. I was like… What? Jeup? Abs? Tell me more!  

Ohhh.

등 부시러 갑니다 = “I’m going to break my back.”

So you’re telling me that he just looked like that? Under his s w e a t e r s? THE WHOLE TIME?

Anyway, the team is going to… perform? A song? Something like that. What? Yeah, a song. This is a singing competition. I remember now. 

The judges say that the combination is unexpected, and yeah, it kind of is. They’re all good, but aside from Donghun and Jeup singing one song together, no one in this group has performed with anyone else from this group so far on this show. So… what is the unifying concept? Why did Jeup pick them? You guys. YOU GUYS. I have so much to say. More on this soon. 

We flash back to them meeting… on a… I don’t know, staircase. A big wide staircase. 

Just like, a good staircase to have a meeting on, you know? We’ve all had meetings on big indoor staircases, why am I even explaining this?

Woong asks Jeup why he chose Bain and himself. 

s w e a t e r

Jeup basically answers that Bain and Woong are good singers and he wanted to work with them and make a team that can do anything. Hmmm. 

On a first watch, I wondered if maybe the real reason was that he wanted a group full of debuted idols? Bain is from Just B, Woong is from AB6IX, Jeup is from IMFACT, and Donghun is from A.C.E. But that just doesn’t seem convincing, does it? Ok, like I said, more on this soon. 

The guys do a little skit where they pretend to be choosing a song together, but it seems obvious when you watch it that they already know what they’re doing, and what they’ll be doing is Guilty, the song by Taemin. That’s a ballsy choice! A choice full of balls! 

Ok, a little bit about Taemin, in case you don’t know him well. He’s a member of SHINee, the same group that was once home to Jonghyeon who we talked about a lot during the 2x2 round. Taemin was only 13 when he debuted, and at the time, he basically couldn’t sing. At all. Like, at all at all. He was there to dance -- and boy can this guy dance -- and to be a cute maknae.

Over the years, a combination of a lot of hard work and some really good vocal training has made him a quite good vocalist. He also absolutely, positively drips with charisma -- both as in the sense of “star quality” and in the sense of “sexiness”. If you have never listened to Move or Want, you’ve been missing out, so rectify that ASAP. 

Guilty came out in October of ‘23, shortly after Taemin came back from military service. He’s said in interviews that he drew inspiration for the album from a book called Erotisicm by a philsopher named George Bataille. A summary of the book: “Bataille challenges any single discourse on the erotic. … Investigating desire prior to and extending beyond the realm of sexuality, he argues that eroticism is ‘a psychological quest not alien to death.’” Well, ok then! So that’s the book that inspired him. What about the song itself? Well, the lyrics could be summarized: You know you want me, baby! 

In other words, my friends, the song is a fuck song. And boy, do fuck songs do well on shows like this. Consider Boys Planet, if you will. Songs like Love Killa were always going to beat songs like Home. Team Over Me was always going to place ahead of Switch. 

In addition to being a fuck song, Guilty is a good song, but I don’t know if it’s fucking good, if you feel me? Something about it -- I don’t know, I didn’t fall in love with it the way I did with Move and Want. In fact, the day I first watched the episode, I had actually skipped Guilty  when it came up in my shuffle. Twice. Don’t get mad at me sometimes I have to hear some EXO or I’ll die okay? 

Alright, back the episode. Where were we? Oh yeah, the guys were pretending that this was the moment that they chose the song. The show reminds us that Guilty, with its attention grabbing choreography, is a popular “challenge” right now, for idols and just anyone who thinks their belly is flat enough. (Hwang Soyeon, where are you?) 

Woong points out that they really have to do the up-the-shirt-neck-grab move -- and he’s right, I mean imagine doing Gashina and not doing the finger guns? Some choreography is so connected to the song that you can’t take it away without missing it a lot. They also know, though, that they have to prioritize good vocals. 

Next question -- should they all show their abs? The immediate answer is yes, but -- and this is really interesting to me -- Donghun gestures to his ab area and says “I’m going to wear Heattech in here.” I did some research and can’t find anything on singers traditionally keeping their abdomen warm in order to sing better, though it doesn’t seem completely crazy. I have a chronic illness (endometriosis) and I know that heat is really great therapy for a lot of things, but I just have never heard of singers doing this. 

Plus, go with me on this -- even though in their little skit Donghun is the one who appears to suggest Guilty as their song, he apparently hadn’t thought through the necessary ab exposure or he wouldn’t be bringing this up now as a possible issue. See what I mean about it just being a skit? I’m pretty sure that Jeup had already picked out the song when he put the group together and then for some reason had to make it look like someone else was suggesting it when they filmed this scene. 

And poor Bain is like, um, guys, I don’t *have* abs. Bain isn’t skin stretched over muscles like most kpop idols, it seems. That’s ok, Bain, I still love ya! I sure as hell don’t have visible abs. He says he thinks he needs to work out, as if it’s possible to go from not having abs to having abs in like, two weeks. Sorry, dude, that is not happening, or at least, not without doing something super dangerous for your health.  

Anyway, luckily for the team, they have a leader who can also lead them in personal training.

The show gives us some good shots of Jeup’s bod, and in the interest of thoroughly covering this topic, I’ll take a screen shot.

What can I say -- I’m a hard worker. (That’s what he said!)

Then the guys go work out with Jeup and he does fucking leglifts hanging from a bar the way you’d lift a single finger.

“It’s easy,” he says. “Just hang on. And just put your legs up.” Sure. Just do that. Just. Do. That.

They all take a turn doing this incredibly difficult advanced move. Woong asks Jeup to hold him up from behind and says “I feel like I’m going to die,” but he can do it. He has abs already, anyway.

Donghun also needs Jeup to hold him up, but he can also basically do the move. 

It turns out that Bain absolutely cannot do the move -- he can’t hang there and he can’t lift up his legs. So the whole team helps him.

I think it’s supposed to be funny? It’s a weird combination of horrible (because Bain is the butt of the joke) and oddly wholesome (because they’re all approaching it with kindness), but it’s also kind of wrong, because “abs start in the kitchen,” meaning, that it’s much more about whether you have abdominal fat than whether you have abdominal muscles. So all this work will not actually give him visible ads unless he, IDK, does this for two hours a day and also doesn’t eat, which is a bad thing to do. 

They also do some rehearsing at BR N  W MUSIC, whatever that might be! 

And that brings us to performance day! Right before they perform, Yeo One backstage says that Donghun drew his abs on with a marker. Hey, man, don’t blow up his spot like that. 

It’s time to perform, which means it’s also time for a commercial! 

Full version without reactions

Alright, I want to talk about the performance itself and believe me I will but first, get your tinfoil hat ready because I think I know why Jeup picked out this group. It became clear to me as I watched the performance and did some thinking.

It’s because

Jeup is very smart

Jeup knows what a mostly-female survival-show audience loves best is sparkles in their pants

Jeup selected the other three guys on the show that can pull off a sexy concept most easily. 

Look, I am not saying that I find any of these guys besides Jeup particularly sexy when they’re just goofing around. But they’re all sexy when they perform! Or rather, I should say, they create a sexy mood. Let me explain.

Have you ever listened to a sad song that makes you tear up a little, even though you’re not actually sad about anything in real life? Or maybe a song kind of makes you feel inspired and lifted up? Into the New World by SNSD does that for me. Or maybe a song makes you feel snarky and sarcastic, like Wife by G-Idle. It’s like that, but with sexiness. You get to live in a sexy world for a few minutes, without it being focused at anyone or anything in particular.  

To put it differently: it’s like they emit the smell of baking cookies, only instead of baking cookies, it’s sex. You breathe it in instead of actually… having it. 

Woong, Bain, and Donghun can all do the sexy concept. Not everyone can do sexy. In EXO, for example, I’d argue that Xiumin and D.O. struggle with sex appeal in performances, despite their beautiful faces; that’s part of why a comeback like Obsession was only possible when those two were away in the military. Suho can kind of do sexy on stage, but that’s helped by the fact that to me he seems the sexiest off stage. I don’t know, I guess it’s all subjective of course, but “doing sexy” is different from “being sexy” and both are different from actual sex.

So yeah, Bain can do sexy, abs or no abs. That’s why his whispering “like a river!” in River worked. 

Woong can do sexy, as you can tell if you watch AB6IX perform. 

And Donghun can do sexy, despite being kind of not sexy at all in real life. 

Jeup knows that he’s a Kai/Hyunjin/Kang Daniel/Baekho/Wyatt type, and he knows that he has to give the ladies sparkles in their pants. That’s why he had to ditch Suhwan, despite Suhwan’s strong vocals. He needed a group that could be his backup sexies as he hit us full bore with the force of his sexiness. 

And boy can this boy do sexy. I actually learned how to make gifs in order to make this one:

Just Park Jeup stroking his mic stand lightly all the way down, while Donghun hits a high note. Jeup is a fucking genius, and yes, I mean that. He knows exactly what he’s doing. It's funny because I later on noticed that all of them are doing the microphone stand stroke, but Jeup is the one who the editors decided to highlight, and I mean, come on. Yes. He does it best. 

The ab reveal was fine. I think Jeup is sexier just staring into the camera, but that’s just me. Here are some gifs to delight you:

Did Woong tear his shirt?

As to the song and the performance itself. 

I am now the world’s foremost expert on this song as I have listened to it approximately one million times in the past few days.  I listen to it the way I listen to an EXO song -- noticing each new voice (“ooh, that’s Jeup! Ooh that’s Bain!”) and enjoying it. 

And in my expert opinion, this was PERFECT -- the perfect choice of song, the perfect group, the perfect performance. There were high notes for Jeup to croon, whispered parts for Bain to whisper, emotional parts for Donghun to emote, and sassy parts for Woong to sass. And they all did their jobs. 

I almost don’t even want to analyze their various vocals because I just love this so much, but I also do want to because they were so good. First off, if you listen to the studio version that was released and compare it to the live version, the live version is actually better. Seriously. There isn’t a note out of place here. 

GOD but my Bain is SO GOOD. I am so proud of myself for picking him out at the start of the show as my main pick. He’s so good. His voice is just perfect. His adlib at 3:16 in to the Youtube version is so gorgeous. His technique is so clean, with no closed throat sounds or a feeling of being out of control of pitch or anything like that, ever. No nasality that I notice. Just the perfect amount of vibrato. It’s just perfect overall. His vocals are my favorite on this team. 

Woong’s vocals are obviously not powerful and perfect like the other three’s but he adds this sassy contrast to the others. I wouldn’t swap him out for anyone else. He slightly reminds me of Woongki from Boys Planet -- offstage, not sexy at all, in fact kind of feminine seeming. And then give him the right concept (Supercharger for Woongki) and you see what he’s capable of. 

Jeup is an absolutely top tier vocalist in addition to being a gorgeous man. I don’t know if I have anything more to say than that. It’s just like, yeah. Did you hear it? You heard it, right? I’m getting used to his vocal color and liking it more and more.

Donghun does a great job here too, obviously, especially in providing harmonies with the lightest touch imaginable. That’s a real talent. In fact, I think my favorite part is from :39 to :47, when Jeup and Donghun climb up that lazy scale together. It’s like a hand moving up your leg to your thigh. It’s really something. 

See, Jeup is a genius. Everyone else kind of leans forward, like Donghun on the left. But Jeup keep his head up and just looks to the side, while leaning back slightly and tilting his pelvis up. He GETS it. How can someone look as tasty as Kai while also singing as well as Chen and not like, be the most famous person in Korea? I don’t get it. 

I think I’m going to be cheering for Partners at this point. I just want this team to release a whole cover album with them singing like, IDK, Taemin’s entire catalog. I want this team to manifest. Just more singing like this. 

EDIT: I just showed this performance to My Fella and he said, "So that won, right? That had to win. That made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up." My Fella is the best, isn't he?

Counter offer: I don’t really have one. This was the right song. Hoo boy. But if they had to pick out a song for next week (and I don’t think they do, based on what I think its next), I’d recommend Touch by NCT. There are lots of kinds of sexy, and they’ve already done the vaguely menacing kind of overt sexy, so next is the “boyfriend in jeans” sexy level to conquer. Alternatively maybe they could do Playboy by EXO (another song written by Jonghyun). It’s overtly sexy but in a jazzy flirty way instead of in an aggressive dangerous way. 

Ok, so in the MNET edit the focus seems to be mostly on the shirt lift moment. There was a cute bit where Jeup the Genius gently strokes his collar bone area, as if to remind everyone of what’s under his shirt, and backstage, Wumuti is like, “hey! I was promised abs!!” 

Wendy is impressed with Bain’s vocals

Jaehwan needs an adult!

So when they’re done, of course the audience goes batshit while the judges applaud. Jaehwan stands up and Wendy gives a thumbs up. 

Backstage, the other guys have mixed reviews. They seem to think that this was pandering to the audience, but I think that’s unfair. I have been *listening* to this performance for days. Just on repeat while I’m on the plane or driving my stupid rental car around. If I could listen without watching or watch without listening, I’d much rather listen. I love this performance vocally, truly, I do. I respect the sexy cloud they generated, too. That’s not easy to do. 

VCG compliments Woong and he lets out the cutest, goofiest grin. 

The judges vote, and the highest score is revealed: It’s a 95 from VCG. 

Seems like they’re pretty surprised by that. 

Backstage, Haram says to his teammates that he’s not surprised by that high score. “You can’t ignore the sense of presence,” he explains. That’s the name of my next Jeup x reader fanfic -- “The Sense of Presence.” 

VCG explains his grade. “I felt that the skills of reading the song for singers who have been on stage was different.” He also says that Donghun really understands the stage and how to change up his voice based on the flow of the performance. 

Eunkwang says that the team had good teamwork -- that they divided the parts properly and worked well together. 

Solar praises Woong, and he grins again. 

Wendy asks about the killing part -- “Did you all work out together?” Ha ha! 

VCG asks how they feel the ab reveal went -- did they get the response they were hoping for? I mean, if they were hoping from high pitched squeals from all the women -- and most of the men -- in the audience, then yes. Hilariously, Jeup can’t help but be honest and say that they had difficulties with that in rehearsal because their abs weren’t being revealed properly. They had to really work at it. I find the idea of them conscientiously making sure that their abs showed when they lifted up their shirts to be so funny. It’s this sensual move, and here they are like, “Is my shirt lifting properly? Let me adjust the angle. Hmm, I might need a different shirt. I think cotton slides more easily than poly blends.”

Solar’s like “it showed really well, don’t worry.” I mean, we know she was looking.

”Hey Solar, I know you do a bit of pole dancing. I do that too, on the side. It’s great for the abs. Want to hang out and work on our abs together? I know a lot of cool moves that will improve your balance and control. And abs. We can do ab lifts and drink supplement smoothies and then take pictures of each other for Instagram.” -- Jeup, probably 

Backstage, Soomin wonders if his team should also show their abs, and Seohyung continues to be everyone’s favorite when he says:

“It’s kind of weird to reveal abs while saying MILKY UP.” 

Dude, it’s kind of weird to do anything while saying MILKY UP. In fact, it’s weird to just say MILKY UP. I hate it. 

And with that, we reach the end of this segment! We didn’t hear a single word of praise for Bain or Jeup’s vocals. Fuck that shit, man. 

In the next post, we’ll visit with Waterfire, Wumuti’s team, who are doing a cover of Aespa’s Drama. See you then! 

[boysplanetrecaps]

Build Up Episode 9 Recap Part 1: Flower and Guide for a Subtitle Lite Environment

Hey team! Thanks for coming back to my Build Up recap series. In the last one, we finished Ep 8 and in this one we’ll be going on to Ep 9. 

So if you’ve been watching Build Up, you may have noticed that sometimes the subtitles punk out a bit here and there. But for Ep 9, the subtitles punk out a lot. I’m going to write a fairly detailed recap of the beginning of Ep 9 to help you understand what’s going on in the absence of subtitles. I’ll do my best with google translate and my vague knowledge of Korean. I’ll have to take more screenshots than usual to help you connect what’s going on on-screen to the recap, so this will take up two posts (I’m only allowed to use 30 images per post). Anyway, enjoy!

I’m using this video link if you need one.

It’s the morning of the performance, and fans -- nearly all women -- are lining up. 

Since I can read hangul, I’ll try to help you get a sense of what the signs say. Can’t promise to read every single one, but I’ll do a flyover. 

That one girl in the gray jacket and black pants is holding up a sign for Suhwan. 

There’s a man holding up a hand lettered sign for Wumuti in yellow letters, and his friend has a sign for Park Jeup in pink letters. 

Then two girls (both with coffees and great hair!) holding up signs for Park Jeup and Lee Donghun -- ah, best friends! A girl with a sign for Woong. A group of young women, many of whom don’t look Korean, holding up signs for Donghun. More signs for Jeup and Wumuti and Suhwan, and of course a sign for Jay. So many signs for Donghun! A group of fans of Waterfire -- one for Hayoon, one for Wumuti, one for Suhwan. Some Milky Up fans, holding up signs for Geonu and the team as a whole. 

Now the guys are arriving in black vans. They are excited for the show and want to win, of course.

I love them so much

They make their way to their green rooms. Jay’s team still has the one with the horrible yellow smudges all over the walls. 

What IS that? Ewww. 

Also, it doesn’t look like anyone gets to use the big nice room that DoReMiFa had last week. 

Anyway, the teams are all greeted with notes stuck to the mirror.

The note says, “The cue sheet for the semi-final contest was written by the fourth round 1st place team: Milky Up. The Team With No Name.”  

So, we flash back to The Team With No Name choosing the order. 

Geonu is in a s w e a t e r! Yes, Geonu, come back toward the cozy side! And Seohyung is wearing his American flag sweatshirt again. I like to see people wear the same clothing item more than once. It reminds me that they’re just people, you know?

They’re given a note and they pretend to be absolutely astounded by its contents. The show doesn’t translate the note, so….

Here’s how Google Translate translated the note. 

The guys discuss strategy and choose a running order -- they seem most worried about Jay’s team and Jeup’s team -- but we don’t get to hear their final order yet. 

Flash back to performance day. We pan over the audience and see signs that say “I love you Eunkwang!” and “I love you Kim Yong Sun” (Solar’s real name). 

Let’s check in with the judges. 

Baekho has decided to wear a big weird shirt that’s loose enough to fit his muscles in. Must be tough to shop when you are built like him! He and Jeup can go shopping together, after they work out together. 

I got some of these screenshots from later in the episode -- just some point when we could see them clearly. Here’s Solar. 

She’s staying with the denim pants as a top thing. This time, the pants’ waistband is around her neck and the zipper is along her collarbone. You’re the best, Solar. 

So, Wendy looks gorgeous as usual. But um, ok. So, I feel like every time I see Wendy on this show, I have to tell myself, “That’s Wendy from Red Velvet.” When I see Solar or Baekho or Vocal Coach Guy, I just recognize them. But with Wendy, I don’t. I don’t know what’s going on with her, but I can’t pretend I don’t notice it any more. I’m not saying she looks bad; she was pretty before and she’s pretty now. But she doesn’t look like herself. She looks like just any random woman signed to SM Entertainment. Sigh. 

But that said, she does look gorgeous. The dress is maybe not quite the right color on her…? But it’s a pretty color and the cut is flattering. I liked her tousled hair last week, but this smooth style goes better with the neckline of the dress. I’m always happy to see everyone styled correctly. But stylist unnie, please look into color theory. Wendy is a winter (in my opinion) and you’re dressing her in spring colors. 

And as usual, the men sort of rolled over and found a blazer on the floor and put it on with a shirt that didn’t seem too dirty and were like, great, I’m good. 

As for Dahee…

What a goddamned QUEEN. In the far shots we can see she’s wearing black semi-opaque textured stockings. I’m not sure yet if the combat boots have made a comeback, but I’m obsessed with these too-big-for-her gloves. I think she might have topped up her cheek fillers. It’s all good. Dahee, let’s go get froyo! Wear literally anything you want. 

Dahee welcomes everyone to the semi-final. Tonight, the four teams will be performing brand new songs written just for them, and assigned by MNET production monkeys who want to make me unhappy. I assume.

The four teams come out to say hi, each accompanied by their song from last week and wild applause and cheering.  The judges seem happy to see each one, and sort of dance to the music as it plays.

The Team With No Name

Left to right: Geonu, Haram, Seohyung, Soomin

Clothing courtesy of the Bedroom Chair line of fashion, whose motto is Non sordida est; Ego tantum semel utebatur.

Waterfire

Left to right: Hayoon, Sunyoul, Wumuti, Suhwan

Oh no! A terrible incident involving a time machine and a garment steamer took place and now Sunyoul looks like this! There’s nothing that can be done. You just have to wait it out when that happens. 

Partners

You’re going to have to make your peace with the bias that I have toward this team. 

Donghun has a glove on one hand! 

Left to right: Bain, Donghun, Jeup, Woong. (One second later, Donghun has no glove!)

Ooo-oooo-oooh, you got me I-N-T-O I-T. 

This is how I went them styled. This is the best Bain has looked -- the combination of the vest and rolled up sleeves give the impression of broader shoulders and a narrower waist. Woong’s silky suit emphasizes his feminine aspects, which are an asset on a team with masculine members. Instead of trying to outdo them on the masculine theme, he’s leaning into his softer appeal. I love it. And then you have Donghun and Jeup, both looking generally perfect. I feel like it is not impossible that Jeup’s blazer will come off. A girl can hope. A girl named me. Me. I hope that. 

Donghun has really grown on me. Look how cute he is! But stylist unnie, that pearl necklace has really gotta go. 

Jaehwan says to Irene Wendy, “They all look like actors!” Wendy agrees they look great together. Yes, and they sound even better. 

Hunmunjaybit

Left to right: Minseo, Bitsaeon, Jay, Sunghun

I assume the all-white outfits and weird strings hanging from their sleeves will look good when they’re dancing. It takes a good looking guy to pull off all-white, and these are good looking guys and they definitely pull it off. 

Ok, here’s about where the subtitles cut out, so I’ll do my best here. 

Jaehwan says to Taeyeon Wendy, “This gives me goosebumps.” Imagine if you had a BMI of 15 and had bare shoulders, Jaehwan! Imagine the goosebumps you’d feel then!

Dahee says it’s the semi-final and explains that the method of evaluation is:

Judge points - 600

On site evaluation - 300

Online voting - 100 (and additional benefits)

“The online voting scores held from March 9th to March 11th will be awarded to each team as a bonus benefit by converting the number of team votes into a percentage.”

The on-site evaluators can only vote for one team, which means that they’ll vote for their pre-established bias and it’s already a done deal which team will win. Great plan! Grr. I don’t know why I’m surprised. MNET shows are just like this. Deep breaths. 

Dahee asks the first team to come up to the stage

Backstage, Wumuti says, “What will be, will be.” 

Backstage, Woong says, “Wow, I’m nervous already.” 

Up first is Jay’s team -- Hunminjaybit. 

Baekho says, “Oh, they’re going first again, just like last time.”

Eunkwang says it must be because this team makes everyone nervous. 

Karina Wendy voice-overs, “They’ll do well. Every one of them does well, no exception.”

The team comes out and of course everyone goes nuts. 

Backstage with the Team With No Name, Seohyung is like “I wonder why that team is up first!” And Haram is like, ah, we did that! 

Wendy sympathizes with the guys for having to go twice, two rounds in a row. It’s not fair!

The guys introduce themselves, but there’s not really any theme to it. The best part is when Jay pretends not to remember his name and the audience shouts it out for him. 

“Yeah that’s right, baby, I am Jay. That’s me. Jay. You know my name and you know my game. I’m here to win, no time for gin. I’m here to slay, get out my way. I’m Jay I’m Jay I’m Jay I’m Jay.” -- Jay, probably. 

His hair is actually black now, which might be his natural shade for all I know, but I’ve never seen him with it. It makes his Filipino side come out, to me. 

The crowd cheers, they’re handsome, it’s fine. 

s w e a t e r

Suhwan notices that they’re all dressed in white, and Woong, whose team is dressed in black, is like, “oh, we’re opposites.” 

Solar notices that Jay dyed his hair, and we get a before and after. 

I think this is the first time on the show that they’ve remarked on a hair color change. Seunhwan went blonde, and a bunch others changed color a lot -- Wumuti, Yeo One, and Geonu spring to mind. But no one commented on any of those changes. 

Anyway, Jay asks Solar how it looks, and she stutters that it looks good. 

Everyone laughs, but I don’t totally know why. I have a few theories, but the captions just say “Sea of laughter” and “So funny” and stuff, so, I’ll let you decide for yourself. Solar gives him the thumbs up, and he seems genuinely happy to be praised. (That’s what the Korean captions say, too.)

The subtitles tease us that they’re coming back, but they’re not, so we continue. 

VCG asks them how they feel about going first again,and Jay says, in what I think is carefully rehearsed Korean, that he’s going to make Milky Up regret it for putting them first. (Backstage, Haram is like “It’s ok!”) The captions say the judges’ anticipation for the battle is rising.

Dahee asks Minseo to introduce the new song. He says, “Our new song is called Flower, and to sum it up, it’s ‘fatally sexy.’” Oh, so it’s going to win. That’s how these things work.

Backstage, Bain is like, “oh, so they were inspired by watching our performance of Guilty?” Not really. They were gifted this song by a production team who must want them to win. I’m not opposed to Jay’s team winning exactly. It’s just that I want Jeup’s team to keep singing together forever and ever. I already know, without having seen any performances from this round, that I want Partners to do a cover performance of Flower. 

Jaehwan asks if there’s a special highlight of the song, and Seunghun says the vocals are the key point. The audience will enjoy the flavor of both the sounds and the sights. He says originally the song was just filled with vocals, but for the first time in his life, to add dynamics, they had a rap-making challenge. (IDK, guys, just doing my best with these captions.) 

Backstage, Wumuti and Sunyoul are like, what, is Seunghun here to “build up” as a rapper? Suhwan is like, “I guess rapping is in his blood now.” 

VCG says that he’ll be checking on how focused Seunghun is with the rapmaking. Something like that. Seunghun is like I’m going to do my best!

“I will bboom bboom!” - literally what the captions say, IDK

The on-screen caption asks, “What will Hunminjaybit’s stage be like?”We cut back to a few minutes after the results were announced at the end of episode 8, right when this team found out they survived due to the audience vote.

The paint behind him is peeling? MNET, you can’t even afford to repaint these rooms? What is happening? 

Jay is like, “We only survived because we’re popular.” Well, yes, but you’re popular because you’re very, very good. So there’s that. 

Bitsaeon says something that google translates as, “This is the first time I have seen such an unglorious result.” (“Unglorious Result” is the name I’m going to give my next cat.) 

We’re reminded that they came in last in judges’ scores, third in on-site audience vote, and first in online voting. (The only voting did almost nothing -- what saved them was the audience vote.)

Bitsaeon says he’s ashamed that the judges ranked them last, and feels bad that they survived when maybe they didn’t deserve to. Not true, my friend. You guys sang really well and that’s why the audience voted for you. The judges were straight up wrong. 

He says he was embarrassed to come in third.  “The next round will have to be do-or-die.”

Ok, I’m out of room for more pictures so I’ll cut off the post here. But you can go right on to the next one! See you soon!