CHAPTER 207: LET’S DO SOME HOMEWORK (3)

As Ari continued talking without sound, a banner flashed across the screen, asking Rachel to donate to keep his stream going, warning that it would end in 8 minutes if not enough donations were made.

Thinking that there was enough time, she watched the screen carefully until she saw Ari turn back with a cheeky smile while making scissors with his uninjured hand.

"Ah, the team said I need to watch what I’m saying, so please pretend you didn’t hear that. Oh, apparently I’m not supposed to say that either? Cut cut."

Still curious, Rachel quickly typed a clarification question along with others in the chat, asking for more details about what happened to his arm, but Ari did not seem to see it; instead, he read out another question.

[SufferingHighSchoolStudent is asking if I can help them solve their homework problem? Maybe? I used to be a tutor at my school, you know? Oh, a physics problem. Let’s do it. It’s a problem to derive how fast and far sound travels through the air at a certain temperature and humidity. You don’t understand it? Hmmmm. Okay, imagine you’re at a festival in Chicago, trying to reach the main stage just as your favorite singer (which is me, obviously)" Ari stopped to wink before continuing, "You want to get to the main stage before the first note is sung and need to know how fast to move to arrive so your eyes see this amazing singer before you hear the first note, so using fluid mechanics, law of thermodynamics, calculate soundwave compression and decompression......"

As he was explaining the problem, Rachel watched as Ari quickly sketched out a stick figure representation of the problem, held it up to the camera, and began pointing along with extra notes.

[This is you looking like the most beautiful fan in the world. This is the stage, and that’s me singing on it. The squiggles are air. If you wanted to set eyes on your favorite singer before you heard their voice, since the sound would be traveling to you at about 331 meters per second, you would have to become the Flash and somehow move faster than that. And for the next part of the problem? Let me rephrase it this way: let’s say your weight is 64.5 kg, your lightstick is .5 kg, your goodie bag is 5 kg, the headwind is 6 m per second, and you are 1200 m from the stage. How fast can you get there if you put all your energy into it?]

[ICUP says BTZ is their favorite singer, not me, and they can teleport to the stage because of the amount of love they have for BTZ. Wow. I’m jealous. Unfortunately, the rest of humanity hasn’t unlocked teleportion, so we have to run, so if we add the mass, calculate windspeed, utilize the constants we wrote earlier...]

More scribbles and pictures were drawn, and Rachel found herself nodding along as she slowly understood the explanation.

[And for the next part, you need to calculate the speed and how to reduce air resistance? Okay, so imagine your lightstick is in a tear drop shape, I think the group Dozen has those and it’s held at an 87-degree angle with the point facing forward, and you’re running at full force behind the lightstick, using the formula we derived earlier, let’s both calculate and see if we get the same answer?]

Somehow, Rachel found herself pulling out her notebook, writing down the formulas, and solving the problem along with Ari as he explained it in terms that made sense to her.

[Let’s show each other our answer on 3. 1. 2. 3!]

And after wracking her brain and using her phone calculator, when Ari held his paper up to the camera, she did the same, while others typed their response in the comments.

"Wow! Look! We all got the same answer! Good job! You guys are so smart!"

Ari smiled brightly, holding both thumbs up, and Rachel thought she had finally seen the light, as she now understood the problem in a real-life situation she might experience.

Handsome and smart!

Why couldn’t her teachers teach like this?

She would definitely pay attention in class if they did!

And it was clear that the chat, which had previously only had a few comments, began to fill up with other comments of people asking for help on their homework, while others questioned what was going on and why they were doing math problems.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the person they were messaging did not see it as a single message, as an alarm went off, and he began beaming happily.

"Ah, unfortunately, it seems our time is up, and I have to go. I am so sad. Thank you for doing homework with me. Good luck to you all, and please go support the stream of the other contestants. byeeeee~"

Despite claiming to be sad, Ari looked quite thrilled and even began humming as he stacked his papers together, while his comment section began looking crazy.

- wait

- NO

- Don’t go! I’m donating, I’m donating!

- waiiiiiiitt!!

- chat Admin? What are you guys doing?

- Please! Help me with my homework!

With no hesitation, Rachel immediately brought out her wallet and donated, receiving a banner across the top of Ari’s video as the minimum donation amount was reached.

It seemed like a staff member came into Ari’s room because it temporarily brightened, and he suddenly turned to the side once more and tapped his chest area.

Unfortunately, it seemed that he missed the microphone, and the chat heard everything.

[...I have to continue? Why? There are a lot of viewers here? Since when? They like watching me do homework?....why? I’m sure the other contestants are more entertaining. But I don’t want the prize?....the PD says I can’t leave? Advertise the PPL? But I’m using the pen and paper from the CostCompany. Oh, I can’t say PPL? You want me to take off my headband? But I like it, it matches my tracksuit and adds to my visual cuteness. Wait. What do you mean, people are paying to comment? Do I get a cut of the payment? No? I don’t think that’s fair. My microphone is still on? Oops. Cut it, cut it.]

Ari quickly turned to the camera, making scissors sign with his fingers while quickly clicking the microphone on his chest.

As the sound finally cut off, and the conversation continued, Rachel snickered as she watched Ari go through the five stages of grief from whatever he was being told.

From hope to sadness, to despair, a brief showing of hope, before a reluctant acceptance came as he took a cat ears headband from a disembodied hand that briefly entered the screen and put it on his head.

Naturally, she took a screenshot and shared it in her group chat.

With a resigned face, he turned his microphone back on and began speaking as he adjusted the black cat ears that blended into his hair.

[Hi, guys, c’est moi, Ari, please don’t donate to comment to keep my livestream going, just watch if you want because I’m not getting a single cent, and I don’t think that’s fair.]

He was immediately muted mid-sentence.

Rachel watched as Ari’s mouth continued moving with no sound, and he turned to the side before sighing and speaking at the camera again.

[Oh, apparently I can’t say that either. Then please donate lots and message the production team so we, the contestants, can get a cut for our hard work. Can you believe the reward is only-]

Ari’s microphone was immediately muted again, and his camera was completely turned off.

While people were spamming the chat, wondering what was happening, a minute passed before Ari appeared once more.

[Hi guys, c’est moi, Ari! Let’s do our homework together, featuring CostCompany Pens, CostCompany Paper, CostCompany animal headbands, and a SungSam webcam! Since it seems that I can’t escape, bring on the homework questions. I’ll do my best to help you all today or die trying.]

Staring at the forced smile on Ari’s face while his eyes were spitting absolute fire as he redid the intro while clearly being forced to advertise the products, Rachel burst out laughing.

He was incredibly funny as a person, and it made her quite happy to see that even when forced to do something, he made sure to get the last word in and express himself to the fullest extent.

Although many people thought it was bratty and childish, for her, it made her happy that he acted like a real person, not a robot.

And in the Ari’s Angels community, which operated like a military group, clips were being created to be shared across various online spaces, from academic ones to entertainment ones, with headlines that confused people enough to click on and watch what was going on.

[IDOLS, Lightsticks, and Physics - come watch the unlikely combination on stream.]

[Who says nerds can’t be attractive! Valedictorian idol student doing homework on stream.]

[Who says idols can’t be smart! Valedictorian idol helping you do your homework on LiveTwitch.]

[Please come watch a hottie French idol help you with your physics and math homework.]

[Are you suffering from doing homework alone? Come do your homework with an idol, and if you’re lucky, he’ll do your homework problem along with you.]

Even Rachel, who was about to get in trouble with her parents for not doing her school work, got a pass when her mom listened to Ari working through a tough problem and gave out the right answer and saw Rachel following along.

And the originally small livestream began trending.

Not in the entertainment section of LiveTwitch where it was originally position, but in the education section, as casual viewers attracted by the pretty face and parents looking for so

*******

"...uh, should we stop him?"

PD Emily, who was watching the live stream of the remaining contestants, let out a defeated sigh as she stared at the person who was earnestly doing homework and dissuading viewers from spending money and watching him instead of advertising himself and promoting the show and products like he was supposed to, all because he wasn’t interested in the prize that was offered and was upset that he wouldn’t be getting a cut of the donations.

Rather than a contestant on an idol show, she wondered for a second if Ari thought he was having an online tutoring session and if he had been a money-grubbing salesman in his past life.

Truly, PD Emily really wanted to crack Ari’s head open and see what was going on inside, because it wasn’t like he didn’t have a filter; he just insisted on getting his complaints out every time he was upset and seeing how much he could get away with, which was clearly a lot.

He acted as if he had never been told the word no before.

Once again, she wondered what type of parents had raised a child like this and thought that he should really thank them for giving him a face that people liked enough to get on board with his antics.

For now, she was just glad that he was cooperating rather than letting his complaints slip through each time his microphone was unmuted.

PD Emily took a glance at Ari’s comments, which were more carefully moderated than those of other contestants.

Half of his comments focused on his appearance or school work, while the other half consisted of horribly intrusive questions about his life, family, and hate from fans of other contestants, whom he had spoken out against.

PD Emily could only sigh and rub her head as a headache formed because she really couldn’t do anything about him right now.

He had already said the things that shouldn’t be said, and now all she could do was damage control and prevent any more slip-ups.

"PD, should we just shut him down?" the staff member asked, pointing to Ari, who was now spinning chaotically around the room, attempting to walk on his hands to help him think through a tough problem, and crashing to the ground.

Clearly, he had forgotten about his injured hand because he began cursing in French, and his assigned staff member muted his microphone with a resigned sigh.

"Look at the number of viewers and the donations flying. Of course, we can’t take his video down. He’s behaving now, so just leave him alone and continue to filter his comments out more carefully. Since the translator is not working very well, block anything that comes in French; there are some things that he really shouldn’t be seeing. And if it continues, just raise the price to comment."

PD Emily paused for a moment before continuing, "And when it’s done, ask him to separate the papers he used for his homework from the papers he used to answer viewer questions. We’re getting a lot of requests for it, so let’s save it and see if we can get some money from it somehow."

"...Is that even legal?"

PD Emily gave the staff member a rare smile.

"Of course. Once you sign the legal documents, we essentially own you down to your very soul. And we never have enough budget, so shouldn’t we make some money where we can?"

********

After spending a chaotic 2 hours and even an extra hour doing the PR livestream, Ari finally had a moment to himself as he sat on the toilet seat while holding his throbbing hand.

And of course, accompanying him for the first time in a while was the ever-judgemental NOVA.

[Flipping around like a monkey after they explicitly told you to keep your weight off of it.]

[It seems you’ve gotten stupider while I was gone?]

Since he didn’t really have a rebuttal, Ari just rolled his eyes and whispered.

"Where have you been?"