From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 327: Producer (6)

"Ate? Showered?" Ari whispered to Daniel as the Korean boy just stood awkwardly in the middle of the room while Jamie and Levi stared at him before heading to their beds.

"Yes."

"Still don’t want to tell me about your status and why you’re here?"

"...No."

"Does it have to do with our last conversation?"

Daniel met his eyes and nodded slowly.

"Got it. Then you can sleep in my bed. I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere." Ari told him, his eyes flickering over the transparent blue screen that appeared in his vision.

[Daniel Kim]

[Vocals: C+ (B-)]

[Dance: C (S+)]

[Visual: B+ (S)]

[Rap: C+ (S+)]

[Charm: B+ (S)]

[Break Dancing: C- (S+)]

[Acrobatics: C- (A)]

A quick glance showed that William was at the scene of the crime, and Daniel’s highest stats — dance and rap — had dropped from A to C level, while his vocals remained the same.

Thankful that it hadn’t dropped even lower, Ari realized he was a bit lax in his thinking.

Since William generally stole stats from people on his own team, he hadn’t considered the fact that he might mess with others, especially people who usually got along with him, like Daniel.

During teammate selection, he had made sure to grab Carlos, and since Jamie, Benjamin, and Mathew were on the same team and always avoided William, he figured that would usually be fine during the day.

The issue right now was sleeping arrangements.

Due to the shuffling after the elimination last time, thankfully, Carlos was in a separate room, but Daniel, Benjamin, and Mathew were rooming with William, which was far from ideal.

That would have to change.

Realizing that he hadn’t checked their stats in a while, Ari walked over to Benjamin’s room.

He tried the handle, which was locked, and then tried Carlos’s room handle to the same effect.

Clicking his tongue, Ari decided to go harass the one person who could change some rules for him and isolate William from those he might hurt.

Knock knock!

"What now? Who is it?!" PD Emily’s hoarse voice sounded out.

"It’s Ariel."

"...."

"I said it’s Ariel. Ariel Matisse. I know you’re in there. Can I come in? It’s urgent."

There was a long silence before Ari heard a loud sigh.

"Come in." 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Ari stepped into her office, noting the multiple cups of coffee and papers spread on every available surface, dark eye bags that would put a raccoon to shame, and messy hair pulled back into a rough bun.

"Yes? What do you want now? Or should I say, what trouble have you gotten into now? You only come to me when it’s one of those two." PD Emily asked him in an irritated voice.

Since she didn’t bother offering him a seat, Ari just leaned against the door while giving her a cheeky smile.

"I don’t always come to you when I want something or I’m in trouble."

"Lie again."

"Water isn’t wet. Grass is blue. I’m your favorite contestant."

"Sigh...what do you want, Ariel. It’s 2 o’clock in the morning. I’m busy, tired, and not in the mood."

Since she actually looked pretty tired, Ari decided to stop messing around.

"Can you change our room assignments so teammates can room together?"

"Why? What happened now? Or what are you plotting?"

"I’m innocent. They say time is money, and I want to save time since I will be wasting the money in other ways."

"The rooms are in the same hallway. How much time will you really save when you’re all crammed into one room? Rejected. Get out."

"Before I go, can I get 10 sleeping bags then?"

"Why?"

"For my team’s performance."

"You’ve submitted your performance documents already, and nowhere on there was there anything that warranted a sleeping bag. What’s the real reason?"

"To put in the practice room so teammates can sleep there. It will save

time."

Time again?

PD Emily: ಠ_ಠ

Ari: ^_^

"If I say no, what’s your next step?"

"Dragging the mattresses from the bedroom into the practice rooms and having teammates sleep there, convincing people to move bedrooms every day, I can get creative if I need to, and will come bother you every hour on the hour. But it will be less work for you, me, and the staff if you just order a move. Plus, I think it’s a pretty reasonable request, no?"

"You do realize that if we change the room setup like you want, contestant William and his teammates will all be stuffed into one room. Is that what you want? 10 people in one room?"

"Don’t pretend to care now. When the show first started, you crammed 10 of us into the F dorm room, and I didn’t even get a bed; I had to sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor. You can just do the same now or split them into two rooms. I just need my team to be sleeping in one room, Benjamin’s in one room, and I really will come bother you every hour until you agree." Ari shot back, not fazed by the PD’s nonsense concerns.

If he had learned anything on this show, it was that none of them had a heart or really cared.

They just wanted to make their lives easier.

PD Emily: ಠ_ಠ

At the threat of having to see this annoying face more than 12 times a day, especially when she was so overworked and exhausted, PD Emily immediately caved in.

"...Fine. I’ll let everyone know tomorrow morning. Is that all?"

"Can we also get room keys to lock the door? Remember when my stuff got messed up and you didn’t do anything about it? Or remember when Caleb constantly locked me out, and you also didn’t do anything?"

As Ari repeatedly brought up old grievances, PD Emily rolled her eyes.

"Sure, keys, whatever. Anything else? If not, get out."

"Oh! One more thing! Are you sure it’s a no to the helicopter? I actually found a great deal! It comes to $4500 USD per hour, and I found a Groupon for a buy-one-get-one-free experience. We only need it for 30 minutes, so someone else can enjoy the rest of the time. And you can gift the second trip or keep it for yourself."

PD Emily looked at her watch, which said it was closer to 3 than 2 am, then at the energetic, smiling young man before her, before slamming her sleep-deprived head on her messy desk.

"Get out."

"But-"

"Out! Before I change my mind!"

"Yes, ma’am. Sleep well."

Laughing to himself as he gave her a sloppy salute, Ari left her office, immediately losing his smile.

This was just a temporary measure, and there was nothing to be done about Daniel’s stats, but it reinforced the fact that William was really a problem.

Why couldn’t he just mind his own business without messing with anyone else?

The premise was pretty simple.

Just produce a song, work with your team, and don’t touch anybody else.

And yet William refused to do that and was messing around and bullying people.

"Are you sure you can’t fix the stats of other people?" Ari muttered quietly to NOVA.

[No.]

"Then can you take whatever is allowing him to steal stats?"

[I wonder.]

Then, can you wonder while confirming or denying?

[Instead of pestering me with questions, get to sleep.]

[And make sure to warn your friends to stay away from blondie.]

[It would be a shame if all your hard work for this performance is wasted because everyone can’t do their part.]

"Right."

He could think about the next steps and pester Daniel with questions tomorrow...well, today.

Rubbing his eyes, Ari made his way back into the room.

On his bed, Daniel had wrapped himself like a burrito and squeezed as close to the wall as possible.

Laughing at the funny image, Ari lay down next to him and promptly fell asleep.

Later on, when he felt something trying to move past him, his eyes snapped open as he sat up, causing Daniel to let out a muffled scream as he jumped up, slamming his head into the bunk bed above before falling to the ground.

"Oh. Oops. Sorry."

Ari watched him writhe in pain before settling down, then asked the pressing question.

"Where are you going?"

"....my room." Daniel sniffled, still clutching his head.

"No, you’re not. From now on, you’re my sidekick. You don’t go anywhere without me. And we’re switching rooms, so you’re moving in here."

Hearing that, Daniel’s face, which was barely visible in the dim lighting, immediately brightened up.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Really, really?" the excited voice filled the room.

"Can you both shut up or have this discussion outside?" Levi’s annoyed voice came from an upper bunk

"Sorry, sorry. Anyway, go back to sleep or don’t. As long as you don’t leave, I don’t care," Ari told him before shutting his eyes.

He had about 45 more minutes to sleep before his day needed to start, and he planned on using all of it.

******

At breakfast, after telling his teammates, Benjamin, Jamie, and Mathew, to really avoid William and not touch him, Ari ate peacefully while keeping his eyes on the blonde boy.

At some point, a sloppily dressed PD Emily arrived to give the announcement that teammates would be rooming together and to hand out the correct keys to each contestant, with a warning not to lose them, before staggering out with a loud yawn.

Seeing her exhausted state, Ari almost felt bad for her.

Almost.

As William turned to glare at him, he blinked innocently before he continued forcing himself to eat the double serving in an effort to add weight.

What was going on had nothing to do with him at all.

And even if William found out that it did, so what?

Was it a crime to want teammates in the same room?

Last time he checked, it wasn’t.

As Ari was getting ready to clear his plate, William sauntered over, staring at Daniel, who was following Ari like a little duckling.

"Daniel. Come with me."

"He can’t." Before Daniel could even respond, Ari cut in.

"I don’t recall talking to you, fish boy."

"Okay. Let’s get going, Daniel. We’re on a tight schedule, and you haven’t finished the choreography like I wanted. Chop chop."

"Do you even have a song for him to choreograph yet, fish boy?"

"Do you?" Ari retorted.

"Of course! I already finished everything that needed to be done. Concept, music production, choreography, and stage design. And I did it without any help! It will be much better than whatever an amateur like you who recycles old concepts and tries to live off your past accomplishments." William replied smugly.

Clap.

Clap.

Clap.

The driest round of applause sounded out, causing people to look over.

"Oh. Wow. Congrats. Amazing. You did it. What a genius. Yay. Let’s go." After praising William with all the sincerity he could muster, Ari grabbed Daniel by the hood and dragged him away.

If William wanted to toot his own horn and stupidly brag that he got everything done in one day when experts in the industry weren’t even capable of that, then he should do it in front of someone else.

Ari really had no time to spare for nonsense right now.

After a quick team meeting and a presentation by each person on what they accomplished the previous day, Ari went back to composing with Daniel and Carlos tagging along.

Although the two of them looked confused, Ari tossed Carlos several stacks of papers with annotated lyrics and notes and pointed to Daniel.

"Teach him how to sing these, please. Start at around here." Ari quickly sang a line in the pitch he wanted, "and make him sing as low as he can go while still sounding good and stable. Work on harmonization with each other as well, since the beginning will belong to the two of you."

"Got it."

"Wait, aren’t I supposed to be working on the choreography?" Daniel asked in a small voice.

"You said your body is stiff and you can’t do all the moves you choreographed yesterday, right?"

Ari recalled the struggling performance that Daniel had demonstrated in the morning

Unlike his usual limber and easy movements, his body seemed to be very heavy and had lost a lot of the flexibility and control he usually had.

Thankfully, he had recorded himself yesterday, but Ari planned to scrap and simplify a lot of it.

As someone who wanted a more vocal-heavy performance, an overly complicated choreography was not ideal.

That could be saved for the dance break.

"Maybe I’m getting sick? Or is it because I slept in a weird place?" Daniel replied in confusion.

His body felt heavy and unresponsive for some reason, and no matter how much he warmed up and moved around, it still felt like chains were wrapped around his body and constricting him.

"Slept in a weird place? So, you’re blaming my bed after I shared it with you? You’re getting bold, Kim Daniel."

"No! I didn’t mean it like that!"

As Daniel gasped, wide-eyed, Ari laughed.

"I’m kidding. After learning to sing the part from Carlos, take this opportunity to simplify the choreography. You remember the storyboard right, for the kind of song I’m making, I prefer simpler, impactful choreography that tells a story and that we can execute cleanly, rather than fast-paced, very complicated choreography that can get sloppy or that only a few people can execute. Use Carlos as your guinea pig. If it’s hard for him to pick up, then it needs to be changed. Sound good?"

"Yes."

"Bon. Remember, don’t leave the room without me. Even to use the bathroom or to get water. If you do, everyone will suffer with extra practice."

Seeing Daniel shiver, Ari smiled in a heartwarming (?) way.

Putting on his headphones, Ari began working on song composition again, utilizing everything he had learned from Jamie, Jelissa, and the internet to try to craft the sound he was imagining in his head.

And slowly but surely, as 5 jam-packed days filled with dragging Carlos and Daniel to meetings with Jelissa to revise, song creation camp at the local karaoke spot, lyric writing, storyboarding, and practicing preliminary choreography with the rest of the team, and recording guide vocals with Carlos, the first demo of the song was finally done.

And when he played it for his teammates, it was Levi of all people who commented first.

"Forget trying the angel part; this just sounds like a demon seducing people to join him in hell."

"Seriously. When you said you were adding church hymns and wanted an angel concept too, I thought that there was no way it would fit a villain concept, but this...." Suzuki Rei trailed off before shaking his head.

Why was he a little bit scared but also a little excited to perform this song?

Especially when combined with the plans Levi and Ari had been cooking up.

He really wanted to crack Ari’s head open to see how things worked in there.

Levi, too, because he was surprisingly artistic despite his sharp expression.

"So, you don’t like it? What do you want me to change?"

Meeting Ari’s eyes, Levi let out a rare smile that showed off his sharp canines.

"I like this quite a lot. It’s a proper villainous anthem. You said you wanted our performance to look like a music video? I’m quite inspired now. Let’s change a few things."

"Oh? I’m down for that, but unfortunately, inspiration has to wait. Tomorrow is our midterm evaluation and we are...."

*****

"Woefully unprepared. What the hell has your group been doing the past week? Twiddling your thumbs, drawing pictures, and coloring them in? Are you in kindergarten?" Larry Jackson yelled while waving a stack of colored papers.

At the question, Ari sighed before stepping forward.

Since he was the team leader, he had one job.

Take the blame.

"It’s my fault."

"Of course it is. Go ahead, Ah-ri-el! Explain why your team sounds like a garbled mess."