"The Unit" Contestants Joke About Dating Ban

Nov 19, 2017

On the November 18 episode of KBS 2TV’s “The Unit,” the 126 contestants moved into the dorms and officially began competing for their second chance at the spotlight.

The contestants were informed of the dorm rules including a strict dating ban amongst the contestants, since both female and male trainees were living in the same building.

Boys Republic’s OneJunn said, “The most memorable and absurd rule was the dating ban amongst contestants.”

Female contestants stayed on the third floor, while male trainees were on the second floor. Also, the show arranged different times for male and female trainees to eat and practice so they wouldn’t be in the same space together.

In one-on-one interviews, the contestants reacted to the dating ban and its strict enforcement. A.C.E.’s Jun asked, “Is it even possible to date here?” while MVP’s Rayoon commented, “Dating is difficult out in society, so I don’t think it would go well in the dorms either.”

When the male and female contestants ran into each other in the hallways outside of the practice rooms, the male contestants looked down and quickly walked by to not look in the direction of the female contestants.

MelodyDay’s Chahee joked, “I think the short-haired people who passed by us were men, but [it was hard to tell] since they walked by so quickly.”

In one clip, a group of male contestants was enjoying a pizza break in their practice room when BIGSTAR’s Feeldog asked his teammates about the dating ban. Kanto replied, “We need to at least look at each other’s eyes [in order to date],” and a clip showed of him looking at the floor the entire time while walking by the female contestants.

Feeldog stated, ‘They don’t even let us run into each other. If our eyes meet when we’re walking, we turn into rocks,” and reenacted this with his teammates.

“[The staff] told us we’ll be in big trouble if we look at each other and that it’s all for our benefit. With the strict enforcement, it would be harder to not follow the rules,” said Kanto.