As William Forbes blocked his way out and held out his hands for a handshake, Ari froze.
"You don't want to shake my hand? I would love for us to be friends. You seem so talented, especially with the song you wrote." William asked again, basically shoving it in Ari's face.
Almost instinctively, Ari leaned back and blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
"Je ne comprends pas l'anglais."
As William blinked in confusion, Ari quickly swerved around him and dashed out the door at a fast pace.
He immediately felt embarrassed as he realized the nonsense he had just said.
Of course, NOVA also had to mock him.
[You don't understand English?]
[Since when?]
[Smooth.]
[Very smooth lie.]
[So believable after you just SANG and did an entire interview in English.]
At the mocking words, Ari rolled his eyes before whispering.
"You shut up! If you hadn't told me that I shouldn't let him touch me last minute, I would have come up with something else."
[Excuses.]
[Pathetic Excuses.]
"Aren't you the pathetic one for not being able to protect me from the possible system of another person stealing my stats?"
[…..]
"Oh, so it is a system? Good to know."
[…..]
Ari smiled to himself as he rejoined the rest of the chatting group of boys, standing by Jamie, while glancing around.
"Where'd you go?" Jamie asked him with a tired expression. It seemed he was done speaking with people, and his social battery was drained.
"Bathroom. Aren't they supposed to announce something?"
"Yeah, the staff member said they're bringing the producers to talk to us."
"Hmmm."
Since the wait seemed to be long, Ari sat in one of the chairs in the front row.
He wasn't in a rush to get to know any contestants just yet and was mainly just tired.
As Jamie sat beside him with a yawn, Levi Temple, the blond guy with a buzz cut who had rapped in Williams' group sat by him while yawning.
They both nodded at each other at the same time, then proceeded to pretend the other didn't exist.
Perfect.
"Your royal sea-ness."
"Yes, J squared?"
"Let's go eat out to celebrate," Jamie asked with a pleading expression.
"I'm broke. And busy."
Plus, he had made plans to eat dinner at the bath house restaurant with Grandma Kim and Grandma Lisa to celebrate him making or not making it onto the show.
Since he hadn't seen them in a while, Ari was quite excited.
"Busy doing what? All you do is work, compose, and go home. If it's a money thing, I'll pay for it. I really think we should celebrate the good job we both did. Please!!!!" Jamie began pleading.
Ari looked at Jamie in deep thought.
Although it was good to celebrate, he felt like there was something deeper here.
"3 seconds to say the real reason, or I'm ignoring you. We can celebrate another day."
"I'm trying to avoid my dad right now. He's going to be very upset, and I want to celebrate the results of the hard work that I put in." Jamie immediately told the truth with a downtrodden impression.
Ahh, there it was.
Since Jamie had been cooped up in the studio and shuttling to and from the filming location, he was rarely home at a decent time and got to avoid his dad.
"Hmmm… I'm having a get-together with my grannies at my workplace. If you promise not to be weird, you can come. The food is good."
"Can I? You always make me drop you off at a church instead of at work, which is so weird. Almost as weird as your alien mask you wear all the time."
I work and sleep there, you little punk! And the mask is for my beauty!!!My beautiful visuals that are currently ranked F
Ari gave Jamie a sharp look and cracked his knuckles.
"I've been too lenient on you, it seems. Come here."
After mashing Jamie's cowboy hat down so it covered his face and then losing back-to-back arm wrestling contests against Jamie, Ari sat there sulking while Jamie laughed happily while teasing him.
"I told you to hit the weight room with me."
Their current record was 10-2, with Ari unfortunately being the 2.
"You're just happy you can finally beat somebody after your brothers beat you all your childhood."
"Yep!"
As they were playing around like that, two people entered the stage area.
One was a short, slightly chubby Korean man with circular glasses who was wearing a black T-shirt, a navy suit jacket, and white sneakers.
The other was a rail-thin woman with slicked-back short blond hair and fierce hazel eyes. She was wearing a black T-shirt and straight light-wash jeans.
As the two of them walked toward the chairs, the group of 97 boys immediately quieted down and parted like the Red Sea as they all turned to stare at them.
"All of you, go take a seat right now."
The woman's cold voice sounded out, and everybody began scrambling to sit down in the chairs.
Since they were already seated, Ari, Jamie, and Levi, the buzzcut rapper, didn't move.
"You're in my seat."
Suzuki Rei, the Japanese boy with a red and black two-block haircut, looked down at Ari with an arrogant expression.
Ari looked to his left and right, wondering why out of the three of them, he was the one who was picked on.
Did he look easy or something?
Then he looked closer at the person on his left, realizing that Levi Temple was quite tall and his sharp features and buzz cut made him look a bit fierce.
On his right, Jamie was also quite tall and muscular, and when he wasn't smiling like he was now, he looked a bit stern.
Although Ari wasn't short by any means, he was shorter than these two abnormally tall people, and because he was quite lean, he looked small.
Slightly upset at the fact that he was being looked down on, especially by a kid whose status said he was 17, Ari narrowed his eyes and bluntly replied before Jamie could say anything.
"No. Go get another seat."
"I said, move last place loser. You're in my seat!" Suzuki Rei yelled loudly, drawing the attention of those nearby.
Huh?
Is this what we're doing now?
Calling people by their placement?
Ari could feel one of his eyes twitch.
Before Ari could say anything, the blond woman's cold voice rang out, "Kid with the red and black hair. We don't have time for this. Go and sit down in any available seat. Unlike some of you, I'm busy."
As he was scolded by someone who was clearly important, the Japanese boy glared at Ari with a red face before stomping to the back, where the remaining empty seats were.
Shrugging, Ari turned his eyes to focus on the two people standing in front. Once everyone was seated, they immediately started talking.
"I'm PD Emily Raleigh, and this is PD Park Ji-ho. You may call me PD Emily from now on." PD Emily introduced herself in a harsh tone while making eye contact with the contestants.
At the confused expressions on some of the contestants' faces, PD Emily smiled, but rather than looking friendly, she looked scary.
"For those who don't know what a PD is, it's pretty simple. As long as you're on this program. We are your gods, and you are our little minions who do our bidding. Understand?"
Ari: "..."
Jamie: "..."
Levi: "...."
The rest of the contestants: "..."
Was this woman crazy?
Who says things like that in this day and age?
As PD Emily looked around again, this time making eye contact with Ari, he quickly looked away before catching her attention.
Thankfully, she stopped there, and PD Park Ji-ho stepped up.
Ari was hopeful that his words would be much more reasonable than PD Emily's, but…
"You may call me PD Park or PD Park Ji-ho. As PD Emily said, we are your gods while you're on this program. When we say run, you ask how far. When we say jump, you ask how high. When we say roll, you immediately drop to the ground and start rolling. Understood?"
Speaking crystal clear English with a slight Korean accent, the words were even crazier than what PD Emily said.
Ari: "...?"
He slowly turned to glance at Jamie, who looked even more bewildered than he felt.
Am I in a military camp, or am I in an idol survival show?
Ari was briefly confused about the type of show he signed up for before PD Park Ji-ho started talking.