Watching William confidently get on stage, it wasn’t only Ari truly couldn’t believe his eyes.

The other contestants were murmuring low enough that the microphones wouldn’t pick it up while making sure their mouths were covered by the camera.

And the judges were the same way as well.

Selena had a stern face. Kim Young-woo shook his head in disappointment. Jaywalks looked pissed, and Jelissa-

Ari had never seen Jelissa look so genuinely upset when staring at somebody.

Her gently smiling expression was gone, and she looked like she wanted to scold somebody.

And for once, Larry Jackson wasn’t smiling at William. It made sense since he was the one who had taken a lot of heat for being the mentor who was supposed to guide William in producing a song.

Originally, he had been getting praised for ending up with a musical genius, but since the backlash over William’s stolen song, he had been on severe damage control within the means of his contract.

The only person who seemed calm was the MC Ryan Leary, who gestured to William to speak into the microphone stand.

"Contestant William, welcome back. You’ve come in 14th place. Would you like to give a speech, or would you like to directly take a seat in your spot?"

"Of course, I’ll give a speech," William said confidently as he took the microphone.

Ahem-

Just as William was about to speak, the blonde man who accompanied him cleared his throat repeatedly. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

And after glancing at the man, William’s previously confident expression immediately turned contrite as he brought the microphone to his lips and began speaking in a slow, halting manner.

"Before anything else, firstly, I would like to give a sincere apology to my previous teammates. You all made me your leader, you all trusted me to create a great song for our team, and instead of living up to or even surpassing your expectations, we were all brought down by a mistake. Now, this is not an excuse, but I wanted you all to see my point of view as well. During this time, there was a lot of pressure from all sides, especially when going against a talent like Jamie. Pressure can cause people to cave into an impulse, and ultimately, that’s what happened. We let the pressure get to us. But let’s leave the past in the past. We shouldn’t be defined by our mistakes, and we should use the opportunity to grow and learn from them."

Ari: ಠ_ಠ

Huh?

Leave the past in the past?

You didn’t even take responsibility for your past actions.

What kind of stupid apology speech is this?

We? People? Us?

The word you’re looking for is ’I’! First-person singular personal pronoun!

’I’ messed up!

’I’ cheated!

’I’ caved into pressure!

Why do you keep saying this ’We’ nonsense like it’s a group project? You were the one who stole a song!!!

And what? You think you’re the only one under pressure? Welcome to the real world!

Additionally, you still haven’t apologized. You just said the words that ’you would like to give them an apology’, and then said a bunch of bullsh*t without actually apologizing.

And to make matters worse, you didn’t even address the issue of literally giving each person one line to sing and then hogging the rest for yourself, so it became a one-man show.

This is actually nonsense!

Also, go and change your hair color and hairstyle. I hate the fact that people are comparing the two of us.

Listening to William’s words, Ari could actively feel his blood pressure rising.

If he were one of the people on William’s team who had their entire performance wiped from the internet after suffering under William’s dictatorial rule, and then had to listen to this nonsense apology with a smile on his face because of the cameras that were sure to be pointed in his direction, he would probably flip a table or two from sheer rage, then leap up on stage and punch him in the face.

[Whoa there, big fella. Let’s calm down.]

Truly, Ari had to give them props because they were among the world’s strongest soldiers.

As if he really didn’t care how people took it, William continued his nonsense apology while wiping away non-existent tears.

"Anyways, I’d like to thank the executives and production team for bringing me back. And most importantly, I’d like to thank my fans for voting for me and for their continued support. I hope to only show you my good sides from now on and make it up to you all in the future."

You can make up for it by quitting and never showing your face again!

Ari wanted to scream. Instead, he just smiled politely while hoping that William would finally leave his sight.

Forever.

"Thank you, contestant William. Please go have a seat in the back next to contestant Jerome."

"...in the back? I thought I was third?" William looked completely confused as he stared between the MC and the seats.

"Well, no. I said thirteen, not third. You’re in 13th place, and Jerome is in 14th place? Did you mishear me? Is that a problem? "

"...no." Although William answered that way, he kept staring at the man he came with, who gestured for him to sit down quickly.

It certainly looked like a problem. What was that about?

"Please go and sit down. Once again, thank you, contestant William."

As William sat down with a slightly bitter expression, Ryan Leary turned back to face them with a smile.

"Shall we continue? The contestant in 12th place and the third person to be safe is Choi In-su. Please come to the stage."

"The contestant in 11th place and the fourth person to be safe is Taeri Jang, or as we all know him, Rex. Please come to the stage."

"The contestant in 10th place and the fifth person to be safe is Vishal Agarwal. Please come to the stage."

As Vishal walked past onto the stage, Ari clapped just as enthusiastically as he had for everyone else.

When he stood by the MC, Vishal actually looked a bit teary-eyed behind his glasses as he grabbed the microphone and began speaking while sniffing.

"I’d like to thank all of my fans for voting and pushing me up this high, and my teammates for being such amazing people to work with. Thank you so much for this, you don’t know how much it means to me after going through everything that we did last week. So many things happened beyond my control, but somehow I made it through, thanks to you all. I hope to continue to show you my best side, perform my hardest, and be the best person that I can be sniff. Thank you all! "

As Vishal broke down on the stage, Ari clapped politely.

"There, there, you should be proud of your hard work, contestant Vishal. Please go take a seat and dry your tears. You’re safe." Ryan Leary patted his back, and still sniffling, Vishal went to sit down.

As the Indian boy sat down, Ryan Leary continued calling out the ranks.

"The contestant in 9th place and the sixth person to be safe is Justin Cavendish. Please come to the stage."

"The contestant in 8th place and the seventh person to be safe is Mathew Bennett. Please come to the stage."

"Good job, mate!"

As Mathew ran to the stage and also gave a teary-eyed speech, Ari sat up straight.

8 people left.

7 spots remaining.

This was do or die.

"Contestants, I will now be announcing those who fall into the debut ranks. As you all know, the purpose of the show is to debut a 7-member group, which means that the top 7 are who’s going to debut. Now, of course, today is not the final elimination challenge; it’s just to inform everyone of the current rankings. There’s still time for fans to vote and for your ranking to move up, especially with several promotional pushes leading up to the final performance. Now, with that being said, I’ll get started. The contestant in seventh place and the first person to fall within debut ranks is Suzuki Rei. You had a fantastic performance in Korea and a fabulous one at the showcase. Congratulations, young man."

Clap clap clap.

As claps filled the studio, Suzuki Rei ran up the stage and quickly hugged Ryan Leary before bowing deeply to each of the judges.

When he finally took the microphone, he began delivering a heartfelt speech in both English and Japanese while wiping his teary eyes.

To Ari, he thought it was a bit cute that the Japanese boy, who had a slightly fierce appearance (especially with the reinserted lip piercing), who was super arrogant in the beginning, and who he had almost fought with in the beginning, had softened up so much that he was now a pleasure to be around and a good person to have on your team.

As Rei switched back to English, Ari had his hands ready to clap when he suddenly froze when he heard his name.

"And very importantly, I’d like to thank my team leader in Korea, Ariel."

Huh?

Why the hell are you mentioning me?

Focus on thanking the fans! They’re the ones voting for you, not me!

Besides, have you seen my reputation in public? Do you want to get slandered with me?

Do you want people to say that I forced you to thank me?

Let’s stop here.

Ari quickly made eye contact with Rei and began making neck-slicing motions with his hands, but it seemed that the other boy wouldn’t be deterred.

"Thank you for letting me have a very enjoyable performance where I got to shine, have my opinion reflected, and show a different side of me to the judges and the fans. I hope that we can continue to work together in the future, and I hope that we debut together."

After giving Ari a deep bow, Rei handed the microphone over to the MC and went to sit down on one of the fancy front seats.

"Wow! Thank you, Suzuki Rei, for that heartfelt speech of thanks. Let’s move on. The contestant in sixth place and the second person to fall within debut ranks is Kim Daniel. Please come to the stage."

Although Ari was a bit surprised that Daniel had dropped so low, he still clapped enthusiastically for him.

And as a Korean Boy with fluffy orange hair climbed to the stage while staring directly at Ari with a bright smile, Ari began crossing his fingers.

Please, Daniel.

For once in your life, let’s keep the nonsense to a minimum today.

Pretend you don’t know me, don’t mention my name, just thank your fans and go sit down.