Wilford Forbes.

A relatively tall man, with a slim build, dressed in an expensive tailored suit with a gleaming watch on his left hand. A moderately handsome face, well-styled blonde hair, and a charming smile.

He looked like an executive from a Fortune 500 company, and Ari hated his guts at first sight.

This was the man who had been making his and every other contestant’s life miserable because of his support and sheer bias for his nephew, William.

And supposedly, this was the man covering up all of the other crimes William had committed, including killing Ari and that old man several months ago.

Ari briefly wondered if he knew about the system or if William had told him he had it before shaking his head.

Those thoughts could be figured out later, right now, he needed to understand what the hell he was doing here.

When he saw that all of the contestants had stiffened up, Wilford Forbes smiled gently before continuing to speak.

"Ah, there’s no need for you all to get serious or nervous. I’m not trying to interfere with what you all are doing, and I’m not here to be a biased party, even though I am related to one of the contestants. I’m just planning on observing and trying to get to know each and every one of you from now on, all the way to the finals, while giving some pointers here and there, so we can deliver the best product and result to the fans. You can just treat me as a background character or air. I don’t mind at all, haha~."

As the contestants around him fake-laughed, Ari just stared quietly, even though he was raging in his mind.

What kind of nonsense are you saying? Don’t get serious or nervous after you said you’ll be in charge of the group in the future.

You’re not here to be a biased party? Bullsh*t!

If you wanted to be treated like air, then you shouldn’t have come!

We have enough air as it is!

"Now that my boring intro is done, I think we can begin moving on to the fun stuff, which is telling you all about everything we have planned for your next 2-3 weeks. This is the final stretch, so our planning and production team has been putting in long hours to make sure that everything is perfect. But before we move on, is there anything any of you wants to ask me? Anything at all? It can be about past decisions the team has made or details on the future. Feel free."

As Wilford glanced around, especially at the number one troublemaker sitting in the front, he, like the other contestant, was silent.

Good.

Just as he was about to move on, a completely unexpected person raised their hand.

"Yes? You’re the James Jones boy, right? I’ve met your father. Good man." Wilford replied calmly, trying to build rapport and soften the serious atmosphere.

"I go by Jamie, and I would appreciate it if you would call me that," Jamie spoke in a surprisingly cold voice, with his hand held up.

As several other contestants stared at him in shock, Jamie continued in the same cold tone, "As for my question to you, firstly, I hope you’ll answer it honestly instead of giving a PR answer that the production team gives us. I think you have a bit more authority than them, right?"

"That is correct. I do have more authority than the production team and can provide clarity that they can’t. I promise to do my best to answer your question, Jamie. Go ahead." Wilford replied calmly, since, to him, this was just a contestant speaking respectfully rather than out of character.

"What’s going to be done about William, and why is he back here?" Jamie asked coldly.

"I beg your pardon?" Wilford’s face immediately stiffened.

Before Wilford could get another word out, Jamie continued, "This is a show where you’re trying to make a music group. Music is at the core of everything we do, yet you brought back a contestant who plagiarized others’ work and lied about it. In school, if you do such a thing, you’re immediately expelled. In other industries, you’re fired. To me, what William did is like a slap in the face to musicians all over the world, and I’m trying to understand why you would bring back someone who doesn’t respect the art, the effort, and the passion it takes to make music. Can you please explain that? Are you condoning his disrespect to music producers, are you..."

As Jamie continued going on and on about William’s actions, while several contestants stared at Jamie with open-mouthed shock, Benjamin snickered quietly because this was what he kept trying to explain to Ari and to other people: that behind that bright and happy smile Jamie always had was somebody who could be extremely harsh and strict when he was very passionate about something.

And Jamie was very, very passionate about music.

Almost to the point of obsession.

What William did, and what the production team condoned, was one of the worst things for him to tolerate, and this anger had been bubbling under the surface for a while.

When Jamie finally finished his barrage of statements, Wilford Forbes seemed frozen in place for several seconds before letting out a practiced, placating smile.

"Wow. That was quite a lot of questions packed into one. Since we’re so short on time, why don’t you meet with me privately, James, so that I can make sure that I address all of your concerns without missing a single one?"

"Really? I can condense my question into one basic one: why was William brought back after violating the morals and ethical boundaries that no musician should cross in a competition about proving your musical skills and talent, so you could make it into the debut group?" Jamie doubled down, his southern accent getting stronger as he focused angrily on Wilford Forbes.

"As I said earlier, Jamie, there are lots of things that go into a decision like this. And there’s definitely been a misunderstanding. If you want to meet privately after this, I’d be more than happy to answer the question and clear things up."

"So you don’t plan on answering the question, even though you owe every contestant here an answer as to why they have to continue to work with somebody who stole somebody’s music, tarnished the name of a few people, broke the trust of his teammates, and is still successfully here? Wow, amazing." Jamie added coldly before Ari elbowed him in the side.

"It’s not that I’m not answering it; we’re a bit short on time, so why don’t we meet privately and resolve this conversation there. I can make time to meet with each and every contestant and answer any concerns they may have as well."

"Jamie. Enough. Let it go for now." Ari elbowed Jamie harder in the side, and Jamie took a deep breath.

"Noted. I won’t say another word." Smiling a dead fish eye smile that looked extremely similar to the one the green-eyed boy next to him had, Jamie leaned back in his seat while waving for Wilford to continue what he was saying.

"As I said earlier, let’s have a private meeting, Jamie. I’ll answer anything you want answered. But since we are short on time, let’s move on." Wilford spoke into the tense silence.

"I know that you’re all excited about the finals, so let’s begin with that. Firstly, you all would be split into two teams of 7. The leader of those teams would be chosen by the top two producers who came in first place from the audience votes-"

Before Wilford Forbes could continue his statement, Jamie’s hand shot up again.

"...yes, James?" Wilford responded with a tired sigh.

Hadn’t he just said that he wouldn’t say another word?

Why did that resolve only last for 1 minute?

"Since William technically didn’t produce the song for his team, does the win for his team still count. I’m just trying to clarify if you plan to reward or continue to encourage cheating and stealing music from others while claiming it for your own." Jamie asked with that sunny smile back on his face.

"Pardon?"

"I’m just wondering if you’re going to penalize the other two producers who actually struggled to make their own songs from scratch, while rewarding the person who stole a song from somebody else." Jamie doubled down while ignoring the sharp elbow Ari kept digging into his side.

Today, since the production team and the person in charge of the group dared to support someone like William, who stole music and didn’t even see what he did wrong, Jamie planned on being an absolute nuisance to make it known that he refused to tolerate such behavior, and he would never work with him unless forced.

What did Ari call it before?

Malicious compliance?

Yeah, today was the debut of Jamie’s malicious compliance journey.