CHAPTER 209: THE WORST TEAM EVER (1)

- Yess

Benjamin leaned over and whispered in his ear once PD Emily finally looked away.

"What did you do, mate? She’s heated. Steam escaping out of the ears."

"I’m innocent. I think she’s actually glaring at you." Ari whispered back now that the coast was clear.

Benjamin snickered before whispering again, "Why do I feel like you’re lying? Those words are very pointed. Very specific."

"I’ve never lied a day in my life. Maybe she had a bad dream, and the person in her dream looked like me?"

[Liar.]

"Sure, sure. I deep it. I’m innocent too and am actually an alien. First time visiting Earth, innit? How am I blending in?"

"Perfectly. Perfectly. I really couldn’t tell."

"Would the two of you like to share with the rest of us what you’re talking about? Or can I move on?"

At PD Emily’s glare, he and Benjamin met each other’s eyes, and quickly looked away before they burst out laughing.

Ari had a feeling that if they laughed, laser beams might actually fly out of PD Emily’s eyes and burn him to ashes.

"Moving on. Previously, we had you all take a survey and shared some of the results with you. Since it’s social media week, we had the fans take one as well. Using those results, we’ve grouped you all together in fan-selected ideal teams, along with fan-selected concepts you’ll all perform for our fan showcase. You have 10 days to prepare for the performance, along with what you’ll do for the fans. PD Ji-ho will come along with the details for the showcase and your performances. Look forward to it. You’re dismissed."

Seeing PD Emily’s cold smile, Ari did not, in fact, look forward to it.

Having gone back to his room to change into his otterly adorable tracksuit in preparation for the strenuous exercise that was sure to come, Ari ended up being the last member of his team to enter the practice room that had a small envelope with his name on it.

After grabbing it, as he walked in, Ari glanced around the deadly silent room before closing his eyes and wishing that he could teleport himself to literally anywhere else, or that this was a bad dream.

Unfortunately, when he opened his eyes, the scenery was still the same.

[Ah?]

[Is this supposed to be an ideal team?]

[You’re screwed.]

[Lol.]

Ari had to agree.

These teammates must have been randomly selected, as it didn’t make sense otherwise.

Boom.

To the left, Benjamin.

Boom.

To the right, Levi.

Boom.

Standing farther into the room, Rex.

Boom.

A couple of feet away, William.

Boom.

In the far corner of the room, Justin.

Boom.

And leaning in another corner, Jerome Tyler.

Ari looked at each of their faces, which all had cold smiles hiding their true feelings, glanced at the cameraman who was panning his camera to each person, before turning to the writer Kate, who was standing awkwardly at the front of the room with a stack of papers.

"Kate?"

"Ye-yes?"

"I know it’s a strange question, but can I ask what the PD meant by crafting an ideal team? Because no matter how I look at this group, I can’t see why the fans would vote for us to be together." Ari tried to word the question as nicely as he could, but what he meant was that what bonds could there possibly be between the people in this room?

William had Jerome Tyler on his side, but had argued with over half of the people in the room.

He didn’t think Levi liked or hated anyone.

Benjamin and William were on terrible terms.

He himself liked one person, and hated one person, and felt indifferent about the rest, especially when they all most likely voted for him as the person they would least like to debut with.

What sense did it make to group them together?

"Oh, I can answer that. The general consensus was that you all seem to have powerful personalities, have had good performances, and there’s clearly some tension between you all. The fans thought that it might be fun to group you all together and see what would happen."

Ari: ಠ_ಠ

It would be fun?

He didn’t want to be mean to the fans who were supporting them, but what kind of dumb reasoning was this?

This is the worst thing ever.

**********

"Hahaha, this is the best thing ever!" PD Ji-ho cackled as he walked from practice room to practice room, chatting with the contestants and gauging the temperature of the rooms, which was ice cold at best.

It made sense because everyone was grouped with people they didn’t usually get along with.

After all, most of the contestants had gotten used to being edited in a spicy manner, and now were very aware of the camera so when they chose teammates, they tended to choose those they could get along with which was quite boring for the production team and boring for the audience seeing the same group of people team up constantly.

Sure, people were there to watch performances, but they also wanted drama to liven things up.

Usually there were still one or two groups that had enough entertaining drama to make the episode fun for viewers, but the show had experienced quite the drop in viewership and rise in complaints when Ari’s team was missing and then seen the subsequent spike when his team’s full appearance from their busking street battle to their intense performance as an opener.

Needing to bring back the excitement that wouldn’t depend on just a few people, the production staff began racking their brains before deciding to use the fans who would spend hours making edits and analyzing footage.

They sent out several joke-like surveys, urging fans to vote for which contestants they thought were close, which contestants they wanted to see team up, which contestants they thought had tension with each other, which contestants’ personalities they thought matched and didn’t match, what concepts they would like the boys to perform, and which contestants should never be grouped together.

And fans thinking that the production team wanted to create the ideal group for the upcoming fan showcase, filled the survey out honestly, and with full detail.

Then, using the results, rather than making a perfect team, using data from the fan survey as well as the survey they made contestants take about each other, the production team grouped together those who had issues with each other, gave them concepts according to the fan vote, prepared to see something fun happen, and provided the fans with fan service for their upcoming showcase.

As PD Ji-ho walked into the most anticipated and problematic room, which would either blow the fans out of the water with an amazing performance or bomb badly because they couldn’t get along, he saw 7 pairs of multi-colored eyes turn to stare at him with a look of complete betrayal.

He glanced over at the writer, who had an apologetic expression, before dashing out of the room.

Ah.

It seemed that she had told them some of the truth.

Oh well.

Putting a wide smile on his face, PD Ji-ho slid to the side so the cameraman could clearly capture the contestants’ expressions and the clear sense of distance between them.

"Well? How’s your meeting going, team Avengers? Ah, that’s a nickname that the production staff chose for you since there’s really no weak point among you. Have you chosen a leader yet? Are you ready to hear your concept?"

"Do we have a choice?" Hearing the green-eyed troublemaker of the show mumble while looking as if he had given up hope, PD Ji-ho answered the rhetorical question with a small laugh.

"No, no, you don’t."