CHAPTER 309: FIRE AND ASH FAMILIA (5)

"There’s going to be so many people, and everyone’s performance looks so good. I think I’m going to vomit." Jamie groaned nervously as he clutched his stomach.

"Hold it in or go far away."

"As my team leader, you’re supposed to be sympathetic and comfort me," Jamie grumbled while looking offended.

"There, there?" Ari used the cane to pat Jamie’s back from a distance before continuing in an unsympathetic voice, "Please throw up in a trash can far, far away from me and make sure it doesn’t get on your clothes or your hair."

"Mean! Harsh!"

"Life is harsh. This fur coat is expensive, and I’m too young to get killed by that drunk, angry woman for getting vomit on it."

"Still. That’s harsh."

"You two, back there! Stop fooling around!"

"Sorry."

"Sorry."

Ari immediately apologized to the staff member who had given him a dirty look.

They had just finished a brief rehearsal among the Pop Star Academy contestants, watched some of the other teams’ rehearsals as well, and were receiving their final instructions before taking their seats in the assigned audience area.

"As I was saying, please pay attention to the time even while you’re at your seats. We’re trying to stay on schedule, and everyone needs to move quickly. Remember, everything is being broadcast live, so watch your behavior and words since the camera could pan to you at any moment. Pay attention to the performance order and slip out the back at the designated time. Got it?"

- yesss

- sure

- ughhhh

"Good. Please head to your seats. We’ll be getting started shortly."

"Team SNU, let’s move."

They exited the room in a single file line, which ended up being a jumbled mess in the hallways as they met other groups also leaving their meeting rooms to head to their seats.

Ari focused on clearing the way so Justin could walk without being jostled too much, but as he moved around, he swore people kept staring at him and then avoiding eye contact when he looked at them.

Maybe they had seen the episode and thought he was a psycho who beat people up for fun, or maybe they recognized Chloé’s coat and didn’t want to mess it up?

Not taking it to heart, especially because things would be corrected sooner rather than later, he and the team made their way through a side door before all six of them collapsed onto their seats, which were thankfully several rows deep and off to the side, so they could avoid being in the direct line of sight of the audience members who were openly recording and taking photos.

The crowd was packed and noisy, but even with all the people, Ari thought he spotted a figure dressed in bright pink in the corner, but when he looked over, the flash of pink had disappeared.

Was he seeing things?

"There are so many people. And the wait until we perform going to take forever," Justin groaned as he sat down and stretched his leg out as best as he could.

Despite the cast on his foot and using the cane to walk, his leg was hurting quite a lot after the rehearsal, and he was feeling a bit nervous.

To put his mind off things, he turned to stare at Ari, who was as calm as usual, digging into the pockets of the fur coat he had randomly shown up with and was now hitting Jamie with an ornate foldable fan that said Chloé.

"Ari, why did we choose this performance slot again? 2 groups are performing earlier except for us, William, and Benjamin’s team." Aware of the cameras, Justin covered his mouth and whispered.

Snap!

Ari snapped the fan open, used it to fan himself, and then responded while it covered his mouth.

"There’s something called the midday meeting slump, and we’re trying to avoid that while taking advantage of recency bias."

At Justin’s still confused expression, Ari explained.

"This is a really long performance, with over 30 different groups, and people are sure to get bored at some point, so Ben and I got the preliminary performance order and list of songs to figure out the vibe and where to place our teams. Basically, the openers are pretty energetic, the middle is full of a bunch of slow ballads, and the ending is a weird mix. Ben’s team’s song is high-energy, and since it’s a BTZ song, it’s good as an opener or closer. He ended up choosing the ending spot so it would leave an impact on people. While our song is not slow, it’s not super upbeat either, so it can get lost in the mix of performances if we’re not careful. I don’t want to go first since the judging will be more brutal and strict. I also don’t want to be compared to teams whose songs have the same vibe as ours, especially teams that debuted because their fans will be extremely biased. I don’t want us to bring the mood down after an energetic performance, and I don’t want to perform too late either, so... I had to choose a spot that will make us stand out. We’ll be performing in the middle of the 3rd quarter, toward the end of the ballads section. That way, people will be back from bathroom breaks, will have woken up from their naps, and they’ll want to hear something fresh after listening to ballads. Since it will be nearing the end, they’ll actually want to start filling up the top ranks, so we have a chance to do well when compared to those in Pop Star Academy. As for William, don’t know, don’t care, don’t mention him around me."

Realizing he had touched a sore spot by mentioning William, Justin quickly changed the subject.

"Is that why you took the Nebu1a team’s spot. They were glaring at you earlier."

"Ah, them?" Ari remembered the rainbow-colored team that he had met back in LA, who were talking nonsense about him in Korean before laughing, "That was a coincidence. I didn’t even know it was their slot. They just happened to have the perfect spot between two slow songs that I wanted, so I took it." Ari looked up to wave happily at the Nebu1a team members who were seated in the section over.

After a moment, they waved back, although they didn’t seem enthused about it, but since there were cameras around, there was nothing they could do.

"You seemed pretty happy about it when you found out. You had a huge smile on your face."

"I can’t have an innocent, smiling feeling?"

"..."

I wouldn’t call that smile innocent.

Not when I can hear you laughing under your breath.

As a matter of fact, you’ve been laughing ever since you came back.

You only laugh like that when you’re angry and are about to say something crazy!

Who are you planning on messing with now?

Please let our performance go smoothly.

Contrary to Justin’s thoughts, Ari had no intention of messing with anyone or getting into trouble today.

He planned to perform to the best of his abilities, return safely to his seat to enjoy the rest of the show, and then spend Chloé’s money on a nice dinner and force her to buy snacks for everyone.

As for now, it was time to enjoy the show.

Since it was his first time being in an such a big audience like this, he watched curiously as the rest of the seats filled up, the judges, some of whom he recognized, took their seats right in front of the stage, and finally, Areum from Red Lace and another Korean man he didn’t recognize appeared on stage wearing a sparkly silver gown.

With a beautiful smile on her face, Areum began speaking, and Ari could feel Jamie and Justin on either side of him stiffen.

After listening for several seconds, he finally understood what the issue was.

"Oh...it’s completely in Korean. I guess they’re not giving us an English translator?"

Usually, the production staff and everyone they had met spoke to them in English, so this was the first time they were actually in a position of needing a translator and not having one.

"Uhhhh, guess not." Justin quietly groaned before forcing a smile on his face as he saw the camera swiveling and the screen above the stage showing images of the audience, contestants, trainees, and different groups that would be on stage later.

The two MCs continued talking in Korean, and after thinking about it for several seconds, Ari decided that he would be a good person today to help balance out the karma of William being screwed later.

"Want me to translate? You know I’ve been practicing my Korean, right? I’ll provide the service free of charge."

********

"Hello, I’m Areum from Red Lace, one of your MCs for today. Welcome all of you to the Greatest Hits Performance that will be performed by the top-ranking trainees among many agencies, some newly debuted groups, and our special guests who are participating in the survival show, Pop Star Academy."

As Areum paused, the screen behind her panned to areas where the performers were sitting, and cheers rose as the audience spotted idols, trainees, and contestants that they all knew.

With a proud smile, the man standing next to Areum continued speaking.

"I’m Park Woojoo, your other MC. These friends will be performing covers of hit songs, and both the audience and judges will vote to decide how well they did. Today, on our judging panel, we have Kim Young-woo, the expert choreographer of many of the songs we love today."

The camera panned to the choreographer, who was wearing a formal suit that gave him a neat, polite impression instead of his usual suave, cool style.

After a quick wave that elicited plenty of screams from the primarily female audience, Kim Young-woo nodded at Areum, who continued.

"We have Aimee, who was once considered the voice of the nation."

The camera then panned to a slightly older yet still beautiful woman who was dressed in a modest top and long skirt. Her caramel brown hair was tied into an elegant top knot, and as she waved, even more cheers rang out since even the younger generation knew who she was due to her parents playing her music in their childhood.

"We also have two of the top idols in K-pop. Shin Ji-Young, the renowned leader of BTZ, the most successful K-pop group in the history of South Korea, and JM, the leader of Golden Generation, a group that has broken many records."

At Areum’s announcement, cheers incomparable to the earlier ones filled the entire venue as the audience lost their minds seeing the two handsome idols on the screen.

For almost 5 minutes, the cheers went on consistently, and Areum was grateful for the in-ears that were helping mute some of the sound.

When things finally quieted down, she smiled at the audience and gave the final set of instructions.

"You all know the drill: after each performance, please vote for what rank you think each team deserves. The results will be announced at the end. Without further ado, let’s have the first team come up, which is composed of Han Daesung, Kah Kyung, Tan Suk, and Park Hansaem, who are trainees from Azure Entertainment, performing ’Ice Cream’ by Mist3ry."

As the two MCs left the stage and the lights dimmed, the audience grew silent as pink stage lights suddenly lit up and 4 boys dressed in white outfits came out rapping.

I wanna lick lick lick lick it

from the head down to the cone

And I wanna eat all the flavours

From each corner of the world,

Brain freeze got me going ah ah

But it’s so good, like you won’t believe,

I scream, you scream, lick lick lick

An ice cream fantasy

At the slightly explicit lyrics, the girls in the audience began screaming, especially when seeing the dance that involved body rolls and hip thrusts.

As the cameramen on stage did their best to capture the perfect angles, both the people in the audience and those at home enjoyed the sight.

********

After 10 songs interspersed with MC commentary and audience feedback, Ari, who had quickly given up being a translator when his mouth got dry, felt himself getting sleepy, especially with the fur coat keeping him warm and toasty.

Despite pinching himself several times, he still found himself dozing off.

"I’m going to use the bathroom really quickly. I’ll be right back."

Letting Jamie and Justin know where he was going, Ari quickly walked to a bathroom that was further away so that he didn’t have to see anyone, especially people taking photos and videos.

He desperately wanted to splash water on his face and stick his head under the faucet to fully wake up, but remembering how much time the stylist had spent admiring her handiwork and scolding him not to touch it, he settled for running cold water over his hands.

Creak-

The stall behind him opened up, and Ari met the eyes of a familiar boy with fading orange hair.

Daniel Kim immediately began looking around nervously while edging toward the door, and Ari laughed.

"We really need to stop meeting in the bathroom like this. What, are you planning on running away again? Don’t bother. I won’t chase you around anymore, so wash your hands in peace. "

Less than 15 minutes remained on the surprise mission, which correlated with the timing of his team’s performance, so there was really no point.

Hearing his words, Daniel froze before cautiously asking.

"You won’t?"

"Nope."

"...Why not? You hunted me down this whole week."

Daniel poked his lips out in a pout, and Ari wanted to laugh again since it reminded him of Jamie’s depressed sulking.

"Hunted? That’s harsh. I prefer the term strategically searching until I find you in unexpected places. But it doesn’t really matter anymore."

"You don’t care about my relationship with...him? Isn’t that what you wanted to know?"

"No, I do. But it’s useless to me now so rest easily."

Because the time limit was almost up, he wouldn’t get the reward from NOVA.

It seemed that the answer wasn’t satisfactory, because Daniel walked closer with a frown.

"Why is it useless?"

"Why are you asking me all these questions? Weren’t you the one running away each time you saw me? And letting William drag you away?"

"Because...because...I can’t say," Daniel paused before looking down, his lips moving as if he wanted to say something, but then stopping.

With a sigh, Ari went to lock the bathroom door, then checked to make sure all the bathroom stalls were empty, before turning on all the faucets so the water was running.

"Right now, it’s me, you, and the bathroom water. Spit it out or don’t. You may have already performed, but I have things to do. And you have...less than 10 minutes of my time. What’s the deal with blondie? You’ve given me warnings before."

"...You wouldn’t believe me if I told you."

"I would believe you if you told me William beat up a toddler, or killed somebody in front of you, or that he’s an alien from another universe, or a demon in human skin," Ari told him honestly, and Daniel glanced up in surprise.

"Really?"

"Yep. In case you couldn’t tell, I despise him and will never, ever, ever get along with him. Ever. Whatever you tell me about him, I will believe without a doubt, and will never tell a human soul that I got the information from you."

As for telling NOVA?

Well, they were technically in one body and NOVA wasn’t human so...

"...If I said... he made somebody die...on purpose...you would believe it? You won’t think I’m lying or made it up or was talking nonsense or was drunk?"

"Of course."

After all, why wouldn’t he believe him that William killed somebody?

Ari himself was a victim.

"But what does that have to do with you? Oh, if you plan on talking, please speak quickly. You have 8 minutes, 32 seconds to spill the beans. Oh, and pass on whatever evidence you have."

"You believe me?"

As Daniel stared at him with teary eyes, Ari instinctively began squeezing his Justin, like he did to Mathew.

"Hey, look at me. No crying. No tears. None of that. 7 minutes remaining. Start talking."

"But-"

Squeeze.

"Talk."

"Sniff sniff. Okay."

The next 6 minutes passed quickly with Daniel sniffling tearfully while sharing how he met William and what their relationship was like.

After hearing it, Ari, who thought his opinion of William couldn’t get any lower, found out that he truly underestimated him once again and realized that, from the top to the bottom, the people who were running Pop Star Academy were all just scumbags with different agendas.

Even if he debuted, especially with William, it was most likely going to be an uphill battle.

No wonder NOVA wanted him to quit.

Since he couldn’t process it all right now, especially with time ticking down, he just shook his head.

"This...let’s talk about this much later and...continue acting scared of me like usual. I have to think about this a bit. The money thing...I’ll think about that too."

"But-"

[Time’s up.]

[Your team is backstage already.]

[T-1 minute.]

"No buts. I have to go."

Quickly turning off the faucets, Ari ran out of the bathroom and rushed to the backstage area, where staff were milling about.

His teammates were glaring at him with Jamie patting his chest with a pale face, and Ari was quite embarrassed.

He was, quite frankly, a terrible leader.

"You’re late!" Justin whispered harshly even as he handed the in-ears over.

"I’m sorry! I’m sorry!"

"Jamie vomited."

"I’m sorry!"

Quickly apologizing to everyone, Ari put in the in-ears and got into position while waiting to be cued in.

"Please welcome the team from Pop Star Academy, composed of Alfonso, Ariel, James, Justin, and Levi, who will be performing Standing Next To You by Golden Generation."

As Areum’s voice faded away and the stage went dark, Ari patted his pounding heart.

He was unexpectedly a bit nervous today, maybe because of everything that had happened so far, or because he had seen Chloé and knew that she would be watching, or because of his conversation with Daniel.

His mind was running a thousand miles a minute, but he knew he couldn’t let that affect his performance.

Right now, he had to kill it.

Especially because his team had done the complete opposite of what the Golden Generation Team members wanted, which was a complete replica of their original performance.

If he wanted to get a good review and do well, everything had to be flawless.

The story they were trying to convey in the lyrics must be represented well, and they had to make sure that there was no room for criticism.

As the music began sounding out, and the lights went on, Ari took a final deep breath before slowly walking onto the stage.

His head nodded to keep time, and the cane slammed into the ground to punctuate each beat until he was standing at the very center of the stage.

During the pause of the intro, he struck a pose before spinning around and whipping the fur coat off to the side before sliding his hand up the mic stand with a gentle caress, smoothly adjusting the height and tilting the microphone up to reach his mouth.

Then, staring directly at the camera in front of him, he parted his lips and began to sing.