From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 341: Vacation (3)

Vishal stared at the blazing green eyes glaring at him like a laser that wanted to evaporate him before looking down.

It wasn’t that he was afraid; it was just that Ari looked quite intimidating right now.

These weren’t the eyes of a fellow contestant who gave people judgmental looks; these were the eyes of Captain Crashout in full force.

He had seen a bit of it whenever Ari spoke to William or the PD, but right now, Ari genuinely looked crazy.

His green eyes were narrowed into slits, his nostrils flared with each breath, a cold smile was on his lips, and his fingers tapped his crossed arms impatiently.

"Well. What’s the issue? Spit it out, or does a cat have your tongue?" Ari asked again.

What was the issue?

It was something Vishal had been struggling with.

Why was he so angry and frustrated when dealing with Ari?

When did this all begin?

Was it from the beginning?

No, it couldn’t be.

Honestly, Vishal liked Ari.

He reminded him of a spoiled younger cousin with a prickly attitude who always wanted things to go his way.

His personality was bold and a bit rude, and he could be very unfriendly.

He liked what he liked and disliked what he disliked, said what he wanted, broke the rules he didn’t agree with, and he didn’t care if that offended anyone.

If he was angry or upset, he wouldn’t bother hiding those feelings, and he bossed people around to get his way. Without any shame or fear of repercussions.

Truly, in the beginning, Vishal thought that a person with such an extreme personality would be the first to get eliminated.

But he didn’t.

Yet despite his faults, Ari not only got along with most people, but he also seemed to be thriving.

People felt drawn to him; they babied him and took his side, and even when he went to extremes, they thought it admirable and encouraged him from the sidelines.

It was weird. It was strange. And Vishal couldn’t fully understand it.

It was like Ari had some type of mysterious charm that dragged people into his whirlpool and made them want to be close to him, or at least be on his side.

Even the PD who didn’t seem to like anybody actually liked him and often secretly commented that Ari was her favorite contestant that she looked forward to seeing every day.

Watching somebody who had nothing, no special backing, no special privileges, no secretly powerful parents, yet living so freely was something Vishal secretly admired.

That type of person was the complete opposite of Vishal, who was naturally quiet and had to force himself to be social and friendly.

He was someone who tried to follow the rules down to the letter, and just quietly sucked things up even if he thought it was unfair.

He had always been told that if you were good, if you followed the rules with your head down, then you would get rewarded.

And for Vishal, who made straight A’s, got into a good college, got a good internship, and was following the career and life path set out by his parents, joining an idol survival show and trying to pursue his faint childhood dream of being a singer was the single craziest thing he had ever done in his life.

It was something he was always told was ridiculous, but he wanted to try it out at least once.

Much to his surprise, he had made it farther than he ever expected, and while he was originally excited, as the end came near, with pressure mounting and incidents continuing, he found himself getting angrier and angrier, with most of it directed at Ari.

Why?

Maybe when he ended up being punished with a bad group assigned to a terrible song because of Ari.

If Ari had just kept his head down and mouth shut and let things go, he wouldn’t be in trouble.

And although their group was successful, why did they have to deal with fan backlash and cruel words?

It never should have happened in the first place, and he should not have been punished because of someone else’s actions. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Or maybe it was when Ari rose up in the ranks, and he didn’t even though they were often on the same team?

Or maybe it was when Ari would break the rules but still got support from the PD and the fans?

Maybe it was when people began comparing the two of them online?

After all, they both started in F class dance, and Ari had quickly moved up the ranks in everything while Vishal was struggling to find a way to force his two left feet to move smoothly through the choreography.

Maybe when he was fighting with William, and the blonde boy took his anger out on the rest of them instead of Ari?

Or when Ari continued to act crazily, but somehow was safe.

Ari would say and do things, and he would just get a tap on the wrist.

The supposed consequences never happened.

He had a loyal fanbase, and people always defended him, including other high-ranking contestants.

If he got edited badly, he would still find a way to complain, and fans would support him.

No matter how bad things looked, things always worked out in his favour.

Or maybe it all went back to the beginning, where a kid wearing crazy face paint was allowed to be on the show without showing his face.

Maybe it started then.

It was something Vishal was trying to understand.

Why? Why you?

Why do you get special treatment and are rewarded for doing everything wrong when I’m doing everything right and not seeing the same result?

That’s not how it’s supposed to work.

Especially in an idol survival show.

But it was.

For Vishal, it didn’t make sense.

So maybe he was a little bit jealous.

Just a little bit.

But there was nothing Vishal could do; after all, Ari was the opposite of him.

He had an inner strength that would make him argue for what he believed in, no matter who it was against, from the PD to celebrities.

And it always worked out.

It was almost admirable.

A poor but handsome orphan with no family, who used to be homeless.

He had no backing, no training, a harsh personality that wasn’t very idol-like, and still made it to the top.

Although it felt bitter to see someone who started at the same level do better, even if they had a worse attitude, that was the pill Vishal had to swallow.

That some people were just naturally like that.

Then things began to change.

First, it was Ari slowly distancing himself after their hard conversation.

He noticed they weren’t as close as before, and the fans commented on it as well, beginning to speculate on what happened.

Prior to that, Vishal had already dealt with vitriol and racism online, but because of his distance from Ari, Ari’s fans began being terrible to him and his fans, and Ari never bothered to check on him or even ask if he was okay, like he had before.

He just pretended he didn’t see it, and it had nothing to do with him.

Then it was that French woman who came to curse the PD out and clearly came to support Ari.

And suspiciously right after, videos of PD Ji-ho supporting William’s tyranny leaked, and PD Ji-ho got let go.

And PD Emily came back and was extremely nice to Ari.

That was when Vishal realized that the person he thought Ari was was just a lie he used to get people comfortable.

This wasn’t a regular person with a strong personality that wouldn’t bend or break despite what life threw at him.

This was another rich, nepo baby like William, who was used to having his way and having everyone bend to his will.

From the pictures the French woman posted, the internet had dug up everything it could find from those clues.

From the expensive private academy he attended in Paris, which cost more than Vishal’s entire university tuition per year, to the fact that he was basically the nephew of a big name in the fashion world, to speculation about his unknown parents being secret French royalty or fashion designers for luxury brands, the internet was doing its best to figure him out.

Everything he knew about Ari was a lie, and other things began to make sense.

Ari’s common sense was strange.

Bad with computers except for what he learned for music and school; didn’t use his phone; no social media; no license, etc.

What kind of 18-year-old was that?

It sounded made up.

Who knew if he was really homeless or what the truth was about his foster parents?

Maybe they shipped him to America to have "hard times" to fix his personality?

It made Vishal mad that he had admired such a person, who might be purposefully creating scandals and then had a PR team boosting their image publicly to rise in the ranks.

What did that mean for the rest of them who tried hard or got dragged into such a thing?

When he gave his ranking speech, his frustration poured out, and that was the moment things went south.

He had never encountered such cruel things online, and it was all spearheaded by Ari fans.

They slandered his name, called his entire family racist things, messaged his parents’ jobs, and even harassed his little sister into deleting all of her social media.

If he looked himself up, it was just sick and disgusting.

It was all because he dared to say something that Ari would say and get praised for.

The double standard was crazy.

And instead of addressing it or asking how he was, all he got from Ari was silence.

Now, he and Ari weren’t talking, and the other boy would ignore him when we walked past, pretend he didn’t hear him, or avoid the food table if Vishal was sitting there.

Due to the tension, the other boys in their friend group began distancing themselves as well, and he just felt alone.

Even if he had given Ari a cold shoulder before, did he deserve this?

Nobody would take his side or hear his side of the story.

They all just defended Ari blindly, even though Vishal was going through the worst period of his life.

NO!

Now, he had been dragged here, ganged up on, and had Ari glaring at him as if he truly wanted to eat him alive.

Seeing it, Vishal really wanted to list out everything and have a proper shouting match about it.

Instead, Vishal grit his teeth, bowed his head, and did what he had been taught to do when fighting with someone with more power and influence.

Apologize.

"I’m sorry."

"For what?" Ari asked coldly.

"For all of this," Vishal replied while bowing his head even lower so that Ari wouldn’t see his face.

He was angry. Truly so angry. But the best way to resolve this was to make peace first.

Once he did, then things would be fine.

He would be okay.

It would all stop.

*****

"Are you crazy? That’s not what I’m asking you about. Why are you apologizing instead of telling me what you think I did wrong?"

Ari couldn’t help but look at Vishal like he was crazy.

Why the hell are you apologizing?

I brought you to a soundproof room so we could yell and scream at each other and figure things out.

Since you go around talking to everybody else, start talking now!