From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel

Ari watched the performance with critical eyes, and his only thought was that…

It was…unimpressive

He didn't mean to be rude, but compared to what he was used to seeing from the Pop Star Academy Contestants, even when it was just practice, he felt that it was sloppy and lackluster.

For some reason, he expected more from a team that had debuted, but it was clear that his expectations had been skewed too much by the sense of desperation a lot of the Pop Star Academy participants had when they performed.

For a brief moment, he was curious to see what their stats were, but he would hold off until the next day when his throat was more recovered.

For now, since he didn't think he could learn anything from them, midway through the Nebu1a team's sound check, he went to a staff member to get a spare chair and stood beside Jamie as he waited for his team to be called.

When Nebu1a finally finished their sound check, they slowly came off the stage, smiling and waving at the camera held by their team and assistants.

While Ari was mentally urging them to hurry up and leave, the boy with the blue outfit who had rapped during their performance came to stand in front of Ari and smirked, "What do you think? You're impressed by my performance, right?"

Ari considered being honest before deciding to be generous for once.

It wouldn't be good to make more enemies.

[Moyen]

The boy's face wrinkled as he stared at the written words in confusion.

"Moyen? What does that mean? And why aren't you talking?"

"Oh! I know that one! He's been teaching me French for when we go to France together! It means so/so or not bad, right? " Jamie proudly translated, and Ari gave him a thumbs up, thinking it would end there, but Jamie was apparently excited to talk to them and kept on going.

"The single that was released last year was much better than this one, and you're not as good a rapper as the guy in purple, even though he's a better singer than you. His melodies were really good this time!"

"So-so? You think our performance was so-so?" The boy focused on Ari's words instead of Jamie, who was pouring oil on the fire, and Ari couldn't help but restrain a sigh.

[My opinion.]

"Heh. I'd like to see you do better. You haven't even debuted yet, and you think you're so great, don't you?"

Ari tapped what he wrote to emphasize it.

[My opinion.]

"I'll be watching to see you perform. I hope it's amazing."

[JUST MY OPINION.]

Ari underlined what he had written earlier, but the boy was quite offended.

Thankfully, it was finally time for their team to perform, so he didn't have to deal with nonsense anymore.

"Team TV Off, it's your turn, everyone grab your microphones and in-ears. Let's get this done quickly!"

Just as they had previously discussed, Ari got his microphone and stood on a chair, facing the stage, with his tablet, as everyone took their position on the stage.

As they planned, their first practice round would simply involve everyone marking their spots and ensuring there was enough space to move around while Ari recorded it for later review.

Their second round was when they would go all out.

Dun dun dun dun dun~

Dun dun dun dun dun~

As the intro sounded out, Levi sat off to the side and began counting off the beat as everyone strode onto the stage before separating into 2 groups. Red vs Blue.

From Minjun to Mathew, Leo to Vishal, they each marked their positions and roughly rehearsed the choreography while Levi counted off everything and calmly narrated in a formal voice that was very opposite of his usual rap style.

After the first round of practice, Ari went to join them on stage, quickly scribbling the requested changes and getting Vishal to pass them on to the staff before handing his tablet over to Jamie so he could record their second round of practice, which went fine.

Naturally, he didn't speak, but moved around as he would if he were actually performing, to make sure he didn't miss anything.

"Thank you, Team TV Off. Team Rainfall, you're up!"

Once they were done, he saw that Team Nebu1a was still waiting off to the side instead of leaving.

With the blue member smirking as he caught Ari's eyes.

"And you think that's better than what we did? What were you there for? Just being the visual? You didn't even rap."

[MY OPINION.]

[Focus on yourself.]

Ari flashed his whiteboard at them before taking the tablet from Jamie and recording the other teams, who suddenly decided to imitate their sound check method.

Time passed, and they finally boarded the bus to take them back to the dorms, and once again Ari marveled at how much the numbers had reduced.

From needing two buses that were filled to the brim to only taking one, and even having extra seats.

Lots of things had changed.

Once they returned to their practice room, after a light review session of 3 hours, everyone was released to get an early night's rest for tomorrow.

And just like he planned, Ari moved his pillow and blanket to an empty practice room, locked the door, and began burning the candle so that he could get some expedited rest.

Right now, it was a race against the clock to recover his voice.

*********

"How's your voice? I heard you lost it?"

"Better," Ari replied in a husky tone that was much deeper than his usual voice.

At the twinge in his throat, he immediately popped a cough drop and snapped his mouth shut.

"Is it weird to say that I like your voice sounding like that? It gives the French accent a certain je ne sais quoi. Did I say that right?"

Ari gave the blushing stylist a strange look before nodding.

The accent was terrible but understandable.

She ran her fingers through his hair, spraying all sorts of concoctions before applying makeup to his face.

"The person who dyed your hair has magic hands. Even with this bright color, your curls are still intact, and your stylist? Chef's kiss. You look good in everything, but they need to dress you more often."

"I did it."

"Really? You did great. It looks very chic."

He wore slightly baggy jeans with red highlights, black boots, a black tank top, and an oversized red and black jacket with silver chains. After covering up his still-healing black eye with makeup, he had glued red sunglasses to his nose to tie the whole look together.

Naturally, it wasn't his own clothes; he had just assembled clothes that fit the color scheme of his team from the suitcase of clothing he had taken from the photoshoot with Fat Boi.

He still planned on selling them later.

The rest of his team was dressed in a similar manner that was a cross between streetwear and a hip hop style, with the only difference being whether they wore red or blue.

"Your whole team looks good, actually. Especially Levi. He looks so professional."

The stylist whispered as she stared at Levi, who was dressed in a navy suit and tie, with matching glasses that softened his sharp expression into that of a working professional, even with his blue hair.

Even the atmosphere around him seemed less harsh than usual.

"That's the goal."

Ari thanked the stylist before getting up.

It was time to go.

Before they loaded up on the bus, Ari handed each person on his team a flash drive.

"What's this?"

"Just in case they load up the wrong song. One of you, preferably Levi, since everyone is scared of him, go to the sound system and get them to use this version."

Levi: ಠ_ಠ

"Are they that unprofessional? I would think they would have the right music down. That's the bare minimum. It's not like production is trying to sabotage us." Minjun asked skeptically, and Ari snorted.

It was nice that he lived in an innocent world where such things never happened.

"Is the sky blue? Hopefully, we don't need it, but just in case. Got it?"

"…I guess?"

Reluctant agreement was still agreement, and once everyone nodded, Ari let them go as he got onto the bus and took another nap.

His hope was that today would run as smoothly as possible.

But of course, it seemed his wishes would never come to pass because somehow, Ari found himself on stage with his teammates in front of a booing crowd.

The MC for the event had a light fall on top of them, then fell off the stage, and had to be rushed to the hospital.

The backup MC was over 2 hours away.

The sound system was down for some reason, with only the microphones and speakers functioning. No music was available.

And since they were the first people to perform, his teammates had been thrown on stage and told to entertain the crowd, which had just found out that several acts they expected to see later in the day were not going to appear at all.

Ari glanced back at the staff members who were running around the back like headless chickens before sighing and forcing a smile on his face.

"Guess that skill has to be used, huh?"

"What?"

"Nothing. Team TV off, huddle up, let's entertain the crowd."