~ a week later ~

the monthly evaluation day had arrived; the boys were all prepared from the hard-working nights of practice.

after arriving at the warehouse, they first saw the other group. no camera crew came to film them yet, so a conversation between the two slipped.

"so, how were your hangovers?" gunhee asked, joking at the same time.

"i threw up a lot." minhyuk replied. "we all felt sick to the bone."

"same here; we had a pretty good lunch, though." minkyun popped in, smiling.

"down to drink again?" yoonho joked, causing everyone to laugh.

"maybe soon." changkyun said, winking at him.

"so i guess we're on good terms?" shownu asked.

"i guess so." kwangji replied, nodding and sticking his hand out for shownu to shake. the two leaders shook hands and exchanged smiles, which was a relief for everyone else.

the two groups entered the warehouse together with smiles on their faces. they were greeted by hyungwon as always, with a camera in their face. the camera crane was also there, filming the front of the stage the trainees were about to perform on.

the trainees walked onto the stage, then hyungwon started to summarize what he had assigned them to do the last time he saw them. "group a shall start first!" he finished.

"fighting!" group b whispered to group a. group a gave them a thumbs up, as they then walked to their positions to start.

after the groups performed their performances and he critiqued them, they were all sent home.

"i wonder what he'll assign us to do tomorrow." jooheon said, as the group got into their van.

"remember those compact missions you mentioned before?" kihyun asked. "what if we get those tomorrow?"

"hmm, that's true." jooheon replied. "whatever it is, it's good now i guess. we're on good terms with the other team so, it won't be so much of a problem."

all of the boys got a message from y/n, which was from the group chat they all created before.

: how was today?

: it was pretty good

your dad said that we're slowly making progress

: that's good to hear!

: but, you guys have the compact missions tomorrow though

: you said we were going to have our first one last month >:(

: well, that's what i thought. they changed plans last minute

: don't worry, he's just joking.

: am i?

"stop it!" minhyuk joked, slapping changkyun's shoulder.

: yikes.

: talk to you all later. see you guys on monday!

: bye y/n!

~ the next day ~

all of the trainees arrived at the company's practice room, where the compact mission was. the cameras started filming right away, and hyungwon began to assign the two groups their evaluation for this month. after giving them their assignments, he began to explain what the compact mission was.

"as the words 'compact mission' sound a bit mean in a way, it really isn't." he explained. "these little missions will improve your teamwork and are meant to be fun despite everything that's going on."

"your first compact mission is a game. you will be going to the other practice room, where there is a game. it shouldn't be hard; it's supposed to be fun. good luck, trainees!" he finished. the trainees bowed, and they all walked to the other practice room not far from where they were.

kwangji opened the door, and hyungwon was right; a little game was there for the trainees. however, baking pans were hanging from the ceiling.

minhyuk, who has a love for games, immediately went to sit down. the producers who were responsible for the compact mission made all of the trainees separate from their groups, the whole order messing up.

"in this game, you will be listening to a song once." the producer started to explain the game. "then, you will have to sing the song line by line, one by one in this order that you are sitting in."

"what are these pans for?" seokwan asked.

"if you get your line wrong, this happens." the producer replied, loosening her grip from a string that she was holding. it didn't take long for the trainees to start groaning from pain as the pans hit their heads pretty hard.

"ready?" the producer asked them. they nodded, then started to listen to the song that they played for them.

when the song finished, the producer pointed to gunhee, who was the one to sing the first line.

it took a while for the trainees to get used to the game, but they eventually started getting the hang of it. after remixing the order and getting the lines wrong, they finally succeeded.

later, they got asked to say a few words to the viewers watching the show. one by one, each trainee started to say how the viewers should enjoy watching the future episodes of the program. some of them, however, cringed from the words that were coming out of their mouths.

"and...finished! thank you, you all did a good job!" the producer told the trainees. they all stood up and bowed to the camera crew. they then walked out of the practice room and the building together, complaining about the pain from the pans.

"they shouldn't have hung the pans so high." kihyun complained. "if they lowered it a little, then it wouldn't hurt so bad."

"stop whining, the game was fun!" minhyuk scolded him.

"if the compact missions are like these, then this will probably be my favorite on the show." yoonho said, smiling. "playing with you guys are fun."

"of course it's fun for the younger ones." gunhee mumbled. the groups then said their farewells and hopped into their vans, heading home.