CHAPTER 225: PIRATE KING (3)

Even though the temperature of the studio was becoming warmer as the number of performances continued, the atmosphere between two fandoms was becoming colder and colder as MC Ryan Leary announced which concept won from the audience vote, and two particular contestants were nowhere to be found.

"The! Winning Concept! Is! Athletic!"

"The! Winning Concept! Is! Sci-fi!"

"The! Winning Concept! Is! Military!"

Each time the MC announced the concept that won and the contestants came out, Rachel felt as if she were having a mini heart attack.

"God. Please! Let Ari not be on the same team as William!" Rachel had her hands clasped together as she fervently muttered her wish as the production staff fixed the sound issue.

"We’re the ones who should be saying that. It’s clear that your criminal thug of a contestant is doing everything to leech off of poor William’s popularity while throwing mud on his name."

A girl wearing a tiara who was sitting at a lower level turned around to glare up at Rachel while lowering the banner she had been intentionally using to block her vision.

She was a William fan, part of the Royal Family who called themselves princesses and wore tiaras everywhere.

Not one to take an insult lightly, Rachel immediately fired back.

"Aren’t you the one supporting an abusive criminal thug? How can a person squeeze somebody’s hand so hard it’s still bruised after two weeks, and he still can’t put weight on it?"

"Stop making accusations that you can’t prove! Your contestant is a liar who got arrested. He probably got into a fight like before that bruised his ugly face. Or maybe it was the plastic surgery he got to look like that. After all, he was the reason his school had an anti-bullying campaign! Other contestants have said that he’s a bully; we’ve seen literal evidence of him being a crazy crashout."

"He was detained, not arrested! And Ari has never gotten plastic surgery, but thank you for thinking that he’s so pretty that he looks like he has! And he’s never been in a fight, and his school said he had nothing to do with that campaign, and in fact, he’s an exemplary student who has never gotten into an issue with anyone. He’s such a good student that he is the VALEDICTORIAN! That means he’s the smartest one in his grade. Your fave can’t say the same! Didn’t he get his rich parents to pay for him to attend a private school that doesn’t have real grades or real classes? Holistic learning, my ass!"

"Why are you flexing another person’s education? It’s not William’s fault that his parents are rich and can afford nice things for him! His parents love him. Your fave’s foster mother doesn’t even like him!" another girl wearing a tiara as well chimed in to defend William, causing Justine to turn on her.

"You mean the foster mother, who’s facing jail time for financial fraud and child abuse? The same foster mother who had all of her children taken away by CPS and spent a weekend in jail! Ha! Why would Ari want that kind of person to like him? Would you want William to be liked by that kind of person?"

At Justine’s valid point, the girl was stumped for a while before she began arguing again.

"Well, at least my contestant wasn’t voted as the person nobody wanted to debut with."

Another girl with a tiara turned to face them and argue, prompting a fan dressed in black punk rock clothes and white face paint to join in the argument.

"Sure. Sure. It’s a fact, Ari received the least amount of votes for people wanting to debut with him, but every contestant said they wanted to be included in all of his previous performances, ranked him top 5 vocally and production-wise, and said he’s one of the hardest workers who practices the longest. He got praised and a job offer from Bing Yongsun, and he was the favorite student of Grammy-winning trainer Jelissa! Where’s your favorite prince? Certainly not in practice, and certainly not Jelissa’s favorite, no matter how much the production team tries to hide it with editing!"

"But-"

"And another thing! 3 of the top 7 contestants said that they wanted to debut with Ari, while only one person in the top 7 wanted to debut with William, who just goes around burning bridges and has no friends! So you tell me, which one is more valuable!" While the girl with the punk rock clothes took a breath, a girl who was a fan of Benjamin took the opportunity to chime in and bash William since she still hadn’t forgiven William for helping start a hate train against Benjamin.

"Well, at least our prince is ranked second; his original teammate is ranked first. Where’s your popular British rapper? Below the two of them. And Ari? Near the bottom where he started. He’s out here being cocky for no reason and is just coasting on his plastic surgery face."

"Well, actually, he’s currently top 20 and aiming for the top, just watch him!"

"Puahaha, what a joke. I hope for your sake he’s not on William’s team so that he doesn’t get embarrassed after he’s eaten up. They might be competing for the same position, but you’ll soon see who’s a swan and who’s a frog."

"They were on the same team before, and it certainly wasn’t Ari who got eaten up by a lipsyncer-"

"William has never lip-synced a day in his life. His vocals are just that stable. Your fave had to use his face to distract from his breathy singing."

"Once again, thank you for calling him pretty. And don’t you ever insult Ari’s singing again. It’s more stable than your life."

"It’s only stable cause he can’t dance! Infant shark du du du du"

"You-"

"Rachel. Justine. Just let it go. It looks like they fixed the sound. We should just support Ari without arguing with crazy people." Grace tried to interject when it looked like the two groups of people would really begin fighting.

"Better listen to your friend. You Angels are the crazy ones who need to change your names to demons! Hmph!" the first girl spun around angrily, but Rachel refused to let her have the last word.

"Hmph yourself, you crazy Royal Family member!"

Seeing Rachel unintentionally mimic Ari’s mannerisms, Grace couldn’t help but laugh to herself.

While she didn’t join in on the argument because she preferred to argue online, where you could paste irrefutable facts or just block them when people were being silly, Grace agreed with everything Justine and Rachel said.

She secretly hoped Ari wasn’t on William’s team so he could avoid comparisons.

It wasn’t that she didn’t believe in Ari’s skills, but if she were to rank them honestly, Ari had the edge, both visually and vocally.

But in terms of dance skill and overall individual performance, she would give it to William, since he knew how to work the audience and give them the angles and looks that they wanted, while Ari sometimes looked like he was forced to be here and wasn’t enjoying himself at all.

Additionally, when she thought about the remaining contestants who hadn’t performed, she wished with all of her heart that the production team hadn’t done what she thought they did.

Focusing her gaze on the MC, Grace hoped that he would announce the concept she wanted and that the striking face that she was looking for would appear on stage with no William in sight.

"I’m so sorry for the delay, but we are back in business. Your votes have been tallied. And the Winning Concept! Is! Summer!"

Unfortunately, no matter how she searched for that striking face, it was nowhere to be found on the stage.

Which meant that not only was Ari performing in a sexy concept, but he was also in the most controversial grouping of contestants.

When she thought about the relationship map of the group members, Grace could feel her head throbbing.

It was apparent that Ari didn’t like William, and that feeling might be mutual between them, hence the tension between their fandoms.

It is evident that Benjamin didn’t like William, and William, at some point, felt negatively about Benjamin.

Rex and William had previous tensions with each other.

Justin and William had a similar experience as well.

Levi was an island, lacking close relationships with anyone.

The only person she could say was genuinely close to William was Jerome Tyler, who was his close friend.

Apart from Jerome, he was on a team with people who, at the very least, disliked him.

Which meant that production was trying to push the narrative of William being a victim surrounded by haters, but pushing through to deliver an excellent performance.

With a resigned sigh at the bad editing she knew was going to come Ari’s way, Grace watched the performance, secretly taking clips when she could while preparing to hold her banner up for when Ari would come onto the stage.

The least she could do was to let him know that there were supporters of him here and to get great clips of him to grow his popularity.

"Last but not least, we’re going to have team Sexy Pirates come on stage. Here they come!"

At the MC’s words, seven boys dressed in dark knee-length pants with bold gold belts, lots of chain jewelry, and lace-up boots.

Some of them had loose white button-up shirts that had a couple of buttons undone, some had only vests that showed off their toned arms and hints of their chest, while others wore a combination of the two.

Each person wore either the classic triangular hats of various colors that pirates were known for, or a scarf tied on their heads with their headsets being over or under it.

The only commonality was that a skin was being shown, and with the stage floor being wet, it was only a matter of time before those white shirts became see-through and started clinging to each person’s body.

Grace had to give it up for the stylist who clearly nailed the sexy concept.

Grace’s gaze immediately zeroed in on Ari, taking in his outfit.

His striking green eyes, visible even at a distance, stood out even more due to the smudged dark red and black makeup around them.

At the same time, his lips were redder than usual, providing a stark contrast to his previously neutral, bare-faced appearance he had earlier.

With a bright red scarf tied around his head like a headband, barely holding back the long jet-black curls, and another tied around his waist like a sash, the thin white shirt and blue vest stood out more because of the contrasting colors.

Unlike his teammates, Ari didn’t have a single piece of jewelry. The only gold on his body was the gold threading throughout his clothing that caught the light when he moved.

Then she looked at William, who had the largest hat and the most luxurious-looking clothes and jewelry.

He had gleaming stacks of necklaces, rings, and bangles, which brought out the golden color of his hair as well.

"Well, argh me matey, don’t you all look dashing. Now, before you start the performance, Team Sexy Pirates, just one question: how did you come up with that name?" Ryan Leary held the microphone

Rex, his face slightly flushed, grabbed the microphone, speaking with a hint of embarrassment, "Well, we were assigned the sexy concept, and since Ariel came up with the pirate idea, we just combined the two words together."

"So, what you’re saying is that the name is contestant Ariel’s fault? Contestant Ariel? Are you going to defend yourself?"

Ari quickly grabbed the microphone from the MC before shamelessly pointing at two people.

"Firstly, I want to proclaim my innocence and pass the blame to Benjamin and Justin for putting those two words together. My only crime here was dreaming about pirates and bringing up the idea." Laughing to himself as he quickly moved to the side as Benjamin and Justin pretended to attack him, Ari paused before speaking in a slightly embarrassed tone, "Secondly...this performance..."

Seeing Ari pause and take a deep breath, Grace wondered what he wanted to say because he usually didn’t appear nervous at all.

"I’m Number one, so make sure you pay attention to me! I’ll make sure to give you a show that you can’t look away from. Believe it."

At the sudden shout, there was a pause before the audience began screaming!

- Boooooooooooo

- Woooooooooooooooo

Although the boos were quickly drowned out by the audience’s cheering, they could still be heard, and Grace stared at Ari with worry.

Thankfully, the green eyes had regained their calm and even looked a bit excited as he simply laughed and held the microphone to his lips once more.

There was a pause as the audience waited to hear what he was going to say, but all Ari did was whisper, "Watch this," before handing the microphone back over to the MC.

"Unusually confident words from contestant Ari, who doesn’t usually speak much! I guess he’s quite excited to show you what you can do after his long break from the stage. Let me get out of the way and let Team Sexy Pirate get to it."

As the MC left the stage, all 7 boys left with him as well, while the staff hurriedly set up a black backdrop.

As the audience watched, a white fog suddenly began filling the stage as the backdrop began glowing with a red X, slowly gobbling it up.

- What is going on?

- What’s happening?

- a fire?

While the audience was muttering to themselves, a haunting mix of voices filled the air, punctuated by a heavy drumbeat.

Thump!

On my-my way, traveling down an uncertain road.

Thump!

On my-my way, this is how the story goes.

Thump!

On my-my way, will I find my death or gold?

Thump!

On my-my way, listen to my tale unfold.

Then, in the center of the white smoke, red smoke began spreading, making a brief X before dissipating.

"What the heck? How?" Grace heard Rachel whisper, and she had to agree.