CHAPTER 215: WHO DID THIS (1)

"Why the hell are you so inflexible?" Mathew complained as he used his body weight to force Ari’s back to stretch and bend into a position it had never been stretched into in his life, while ignoring the inhuman shriek of pain that came out of Ari’s mouth.

After all, it wasn’t the first scream, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last.

"Owwwwwww, it hurts."

"Stop being dramatic. This is the basics of flexibility for any dancer. I can’t believe you’ve been dancing with such inflexible limbs. When the stretches become easy, you need to push yourself further, not slack off."

"I think my spine just snapped. I see the light. Maman, Papa, your son is coming to join you."

"You’re such a baby, geez."

Mathew gave Ari a brief 10-second break before forcing him to bend forward slowly while he pushed hard on his lower waist area.

"You feel this section?"

"...unfortunately."

"That’s what you need to relax and tense for the body rolls. Try to focus on that when you do the dance next time and practice the isolations."

"And the other part?" Ari asked as he lay panting on the floor.

Who knew stretching could be more strenuous than dancing for hours?

"My recommendation is to get out of your head and get over yourself." Mathew replied honestly, "As an entertainer, the customer is usually right. People are paying money to see you, and if they requested a sexy concept, give them a sexy concept, even if you don’t personally agree with it or feel it’s embarrassing. Anyway, I have to go check my blood sugar and do my own practice."

"Thanks for the dance lesson and torture session."

"It’s fine, you promised to help our team with our song arrangement, so it works for me. Make sure you drink some water and see you at breakfast."

"D’acc."

Bumping the offered fist, Ari took a deep breath before standing up to practice once more.

This time, without using the JukeBox ability since he had wasted several hours’ worth of tokens on repeated failures.

What had originally seemed like a bounty had quickly dwindled, and he had to rack up 30 more hours of practice to have an A rank dance token to use for both the performance and the midterm evaluation.

Staring at himself in the mirror, Ari tried to pretend that he was somebody else while working through the dance moves.

The first part of the song passed successfully, but when it came to the...sexy moves, he began to freeze.

When he felt his body begin to tense up again, Ari closed his eyes so he couldn’t see himself or anything around him.

Just the sensation of light beneath his closed eyelids and air brushing past him as he moved.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh~~~~

Heavy breathing rang through the speakers, and Ari slowly got to his feet.

Eh-oh-eh-oh-eh-oh

Humming the tune as the beat slowed down, Ari leaned his head back in a relaxed motion, focusing on moving his chest, waist, and then hips in a repeated languid snake-like motion as his hand reached up for his throat from underneath his jacket.

Eh-oh-eh-oh-eh-oh

Moving one finger at a time, he gripped his throat with his uninjured hand while rolling his head in a circle before slowly doing the same to his hips.

Slam, thud!

As the door slammed open, Ari immediately froze, opening his eyes and untangling his hands from his clothing while staring at the door with a slightly red face.

It was Jaywalks dressed in practice clothing with headphones over his head.

He seemed quite surprised to see Ari as he blinked before looking around the room as if expecting to see other people.

"Oh, you’re practicing? So early? Alone?"

Obviously.

What kind of stupid question was that?

Since that would be rude to say, Ari just gave a simple answer as he walked over to turn the music off on the tablet.

"Yes. I’ll let you have the room."

He had come to one of the smaller practice rooms to avoid interruptions and hadn’t expected to see the dance trainer.

His plan was to leave but Jaywalk seemed to be in a chatty mood today.

"Oh. I didn’t mean to interrupt you. You were actually doing a good job just now. Do you often practice early in the morning?"

"Not really. I prefer to stay up late practicing rather than wake up early to practice, but Mathew was helping me earlier, and he prefers mornings to late nights." Ari explained.

"Oh, I see. How unexpected. Well, you can stay and continue. Don’t let me disturb you."

It’s already too late for that.

"No, I’m good, thank you. I’ll just head out and leave you to it." Ari replied politely.

He knew that the trainer didn’t particularly like him, and empty compliments aside, he wasn’t in the mood to get nagged before he had eaten anything.

Especially since he was interrupted just as he was finally getting the hang of the dance moves.

"Oh...well... is that so. I thought you would like some company. Then never mind. Feel free to go."

"Thank you. Have a good day."

Although the trainer looked and sounded a little down and maybe like he wanted to talk to somebody, Ari bowed his head politely and left him behind.

He had too much to do and too little time to play therapist with an adult.

*****

"William says he’s finished the arrangement, so let’s decide roles and song parts today," Rex announced while rubbing his throat as if he were uncomfortable.

"I want to be the main vocalist, and regarding the dance break, I want to be the center for that as well. I’m open to doing any adlibs that are available."

As William began listing the roles he wanted and Rex wrote them down on the whiteboard, Ari hid his mouth and whispered status while staring at the blonde boy.

[William Arthur Forbes]

[Age: 19]

[Vocals: D- (currently A+)]

[Dance: C- (currently A)]

[Leadership: F- (Currently D+)

[.......]

The overcrowded status came up, making it clear that somebody had been targeted. William turned to glare at Ari.

[Oh?]

[Felt that?]

[How sensitive.]

"Stop that!"

"I didn’t do anything?"

Ari blinked innocently at him as if he hadn’t done anything before turning to look at Rex, who looked as if he was getting sick, and whispered Status.

[Taeri Jang]

[Age: 20]

[Vocals: C- (S-)]

[Dance: C- (S-)]

[Visual: B (A+)]

[Rap: D- (A-)]

[Charm: B- (S)]

[Leadership: C+]

It was clear who had suffered for Williams’ stats to increase.

Not only had Rex’s vocals gone down, his dance stat, which was usually a B+, had dropped to basically the same level as Ari’s, while his leadership, charm, and rap stats had also dropped to a lower level.

He had become somebody whose average stats had gone from a B average to a C average.

"You are something else." Ari shook his head at William with a look of disappointment.

"You have something to say to me?"

"Not at all."

"Then mind your own business and stop messing with me!"

"I didn’t do anything to you?"

"You know exactly what you did. Staring at me with those filthy eyes."

"I can’t use my eyes? They’re filthy now? Wow. First, you injure my hand, now this?"

"Ariel. Enough. Ahem."

Seeing Rex call him out instead of William, who was clearly escalating the situation, Ari ignored the clear bias and changed the subject.

"I’d also like to be the main vocalist. I’d like to put my name in to try out for the dance break center as well."

"Pretty bold for somebody who can’t even get through the choreography without messing it up." William sneered, and Ari ignored him, staring at Rex until he wrote his name in his requested sections.

"Fine. That’s two people. Anyone else?"

"I want to be the main vocalist as well, but I can skip the dance break center. Just stick me wherever I fit." Justin raised his hand.

"Three for the main vocalist position. I would put myself in for both, but ahem, ahem, my throat feels a bit sore and my body is quite achy today. Maybe I’m coming down with something."

Rex added Justin’s name as he rubbed his throat once more before turning to Benjamin, "What about the rappers?"

This was what he was most concerned about since all 3 of them were in A-grade rappers with strong, but surprisingly, that had already been resolved.

"The three of us have already decided our positions and parts. I’m the main rapper. Levi’s the lead rapper. And Jerome is the sub rapper. The lyric sheet I gave you should have our names beside our chosen sections."

"Did the three of them agree?"

"They didn’t have much of a choice, innit? I just gave them the parts that suited their voices, and after translating and rewriting those verses, wouldn’t it be strange to rap other parts?" Benjamin answered with a cheeky smile.

Rex glanced over at Jerome and Levi, who seemed unbothered by Benjamin’s words.

"Got it. Thank you. Ahem. Ahem. Then, shall we get started choosing parts? Each person will sing a verse, and we’ll vote on who does it best. Afterward, we can listen to William’s arrangement."

And after a very tense audition, which he failed to get the parts he wanted, Ari could only sigh while sipping a juice box as his whole body whipped from side to side as he was shaken within an inch of his life.

The sun was burning his face, but his heart was burning even more.

"Is this what they call losing both the battle and the war?"

"Please pay attention to me! Should I really cut my hair?"

"Am I really a worse singer than him?"

"I’m going to do it. I really am! I’ve been growing it out for 3 years, but I guess I should cut it all off!"

"What could I have done differently. Maybe I should have insisted that we sing instead of dancing first?"

"Your royal sea-ness, my hair! Can you believe the fans want me to be bald?"

"Ah, I’m suffering. Suffering while being tortured by blonde people."

"I don’t want to be bald!"

"Can you both shut up?"

Ari glanced across the rooftop to see a familiar buzzed blonde head with headphones standing up from behind one of the large vents on the roof.

"Eep." Jamie gulped seeing Levi’s angry glare while Ari blinked before giving him a one-word response.

"No."

Levi: ಠ_ಠ

Ari: ಠ_ಠ

The two of them stared at each other for several seconds, and knowing how Levi usually talked when he was truly angry versus when he just didn’t want to say any extra words, Ari caved first.

"If you have a request or a valid complaint, speak like a normal person."

Levi looked up at the sky and spoke in a slightly less sharp tone.

"I was here first, and I am trying to enjoy my lunch break in peace, quiet, and solitude. If you don’t plan on leaving, can you lower your voice and stop screaming? You’re giving me a headache."

"Sure. My bad."

Ari turned to Jamie, whose head was whipping back and forth, and began speaking in a much lower voice, "Go ahead, I’m listening."

"My hair-"

"Don’t cut it. I promise your charm would drop to the negatives. From B straight to F."

"But the fans message-"

"Pretend you didn’t see it. Whoever asked you to cut your hair is balding and jealous."

"But the PD said I should-"

"Pretend you didn’t hear them. PD Ji-ho is balding, and PD Emily is a jealous blonde who may be secretly balding from her tight ponytail. You shouldn’t have to change your appearance based on an arbitrary poll. That’s irresponsible."

"But-"

"No buts. Leave your hair alone. Anything else? Team complaints? Anybody I need to beat up?"

Jamie thought it over for a second before shaking his head.

"It’s manageable, and I don’t think you can actually beat anyone up."

"Oi. Respect me." Ari cut in, causing Jamie to laugh

"Seriously. I’m fine. What about your team? You said you didn’t get the vocal position you wanted. What about the arrangement? Did that work out well?"

"Ah, that? Haha, it’s ass. Absolute ass. I can’t wait for the midterm evaluation." Ari replied honestly.

"Me too."

Hearing Levi’s sharp voice mutter in agreement from across the roof, Ari couldn’t help but laugh even though he actually wanted to cry.

And just like that, 2 days passed, and it was time for the midterm evaluation.