"Can we listen to the songs you’ve made first before making a decision?" Rei asked curiously.

He was already used to Ari working hard, so the fact that he was apparently doing extra work on the back end wasn’t a surprise.

Instead, he really wanted to see what Jamie and Ari had been working on together since what they had created individually was so good.

"Oh yeah, I want to listen!" Justin added excitedly.

"No way." Ari immediately shut everybody down.

When they gave him a sad look, he explained.

"I don’t want you to be influenced. Since it’s our final team performance, it would be good if everyone’s opinion is reflected in the song, even if Jamie does have to make something from scratch."

"But you and Jamie seemed really excited to plan something. All of your performances have been good so far, so wouldn’t it be better to just choose what you guys want? If we do that, then we cut out a lot of work and can spend more time practicing." Justin

At Justin’s argument, Ari immediately shook his head.

No way! Absolutely not!

Had everyone forgotten what happened to William’s team so quickly?

Apart from the scandal of his stealing a song, one of the issues that got buried was that nobody on William’s team got to do anything.

The song and performance were written by William, choreographed by William, and basically performed by William with 9 backup dancers who were supposed to be his teammates.

Ari had no intention and no interest in getting himself into a similar position.

Whether they liked it or not, each person would be contributing at least one thing to the song, one way or another.

"No. Everyone has to contribute something. Besides, the specific song isn’t what we’re aiming for, although it would be convenient. Rather, it’s the method of performing the song that’s important."

"You’re being pretty vague, so can you just clarify what you mean by that?" Vishal asked as he raised his hand.

Slide-

"Yes, what do you mean by that, contestant Ariel? Ah, I hope I’m not interrupting the planning session? Do you mind us listening in?" Hearing Wilford’s voice as he slid the door open and entered the room along with PD Emily.

Ari glanced at the two of them before exchanging a glance with Jamie, who subtly shook his head.

The rest of his teammates did the same, as if they all tacitly agreed not to discuss what they wanted to talk about.

"No, it’s fine. It’s not like I can stop you from barging in. Come on in and make yourself at home." Ari said dryly

Or take the hint and leave.

"Thank you. Now, what were you boys talking about? Planning your performance? You’re known for your performances, aren’t you, contestant Ariel? Bing Yongsun brings it up all the time. I’d like to know what you have planned for the finals. I’m sure it will be amazing," Wilford said, looking at the contestants who had clammed up and were avoiding eye contact with him.

As Wilford Forbes met Jamie, whose eyes began sparkling mischievously as he looked between Wilford and PD Emily, he immediately had a bad feeling.

And as expected-

"PD Emily, isn’t it a conflict of interest for Mr. Forbes to be here? After all, his nephew is on the other team and has a history of stealing songs and others’ work, then trying to credit them as his own. What if he helps William steal our song and our ideas and then covers it up later if we say something about it?" Jamie said with a completely innocent smile as if he were just talking about the weather outside.

"I assure you that such a thing won’t happen, James. I have professional integrity and standards that I follow and would never put one contestant over another."

"Oh. So, since you have so much professional integrity, you’re kicking William out of the program? Right?" Jamie asked as he widened his eyes innocently.

"..."

"Right?" Jamie doubled down since Wilford Forbes just stayed silent before turning to the PD.

"PD Emily? I don’t feel comfortable having him here. It’s making me nervous." Jamie complained as he hugged his laptop to his chest as if someone was threatening to take it away from him.

Who the hell would believe that you’re nervous?

Wipe that smug smile from your face before lying so blatantly like that!

And you, green-eyed annoyance, standing next to him! I can see and hear you withholding a laugh! Stop it.

Wilford Forbes wanted to scream and shake Jamie for saying nonsense with a straight face and throw Ari out for the continued disrespect, but had to settle for a pointed glare at PD Emily to resolve the situation.

PD Emily quickly snickered before covering her smile when Wilford glared at her.

Clearing her throat, she quickly offered a middle ground.

"While I understand your concerns, Jamie, the director is just curious about your working process and will only be here for a few minutes, and will give some pointers and constraints on the budget for the final performance. After I leave with the director and the cameraman, you guys can have your proper team meeting, and if you’re worried about your idea being stolen, have contestant Ariel take out the memory card when you’re done. He’s had a lot of experience doing so, even when he shouldn’t, and he can submit it directly to me along with your paperwork. I’ll keep it safe. You know my only concern is to make a good show, right?"

"Mmmm. Well. If you insist. I’ll trust you just this once, PD, even though you also do sketchy things. Secretary. Carry on." Looking very reluctant, Jamie kept giving Wilford Forbes suspicious looks as he hugged his laptop to his chest.

Snickering at Wilford Forbes’ face that was twitching angrily, Ari continued speaking.

"For now, I think we should everyone should go around and list what they envision the song and final performance to be. From the style of music to the costumes, stage props, and choreography, let’s list everything and start trimming things down. Okay? Who wants to go first?"

"Me. Pyrotechnics are a must, innit? I quite like the stage lift your team used in Korea as well. Also, I’d like the mandem to wear matching suits regardless of the song. That clean cut look is a must." Benjamin raised his hand and quickly began listing everything he wanted while Ari wrote it on the whiteboard.

"Pyrotechnics, lift, suits. Solid, and for the song vibe?"

"I’m not picky. As long as there’s a rap section, I’m fine with anything. I just want it to be big and extravagant, so it really feels like the finals, innit? I like how you incorporated live instruments in your Korean performance. Any chance we can do something like that? Can we get a live band?"

"I like the live band idea, let’s note that down. Who all plays instruments?"

Almost everyone raised their hands.

"Nice, call out what you play, and I’ll write it on the board."

"Guitar."

"Piano."

"Drums."

"Recorder."

"Xylophone."

"Rahhh? Dani, did you say xylophone?" Benjamin looked at Daniel in shock while the Korean boy smiled proudly.

"Yes, I learned in middle school."

"Wow. Korean middle schools are a bare different, innit?"

"I like the ideas, so keep them coming. What else?"

"Helicopter."

"Let’s add it."

"Motorcycle."

"It’s your world, and I’m living in it. Added."

Without a care in the world, Ari happily wrote down everything his teammates wanted to do for their finals performance while Wilford Forbes continually looked frustrated to the side.

When Ari finally ran out of room on the whiteboard, William Forbes found an opportunity to speak and quickly shoot down all the ridiculousness he was hearing.

"We’re not doing any of that. Scrap that entire board."

His job was to save money, not encourage foolish spending for an event that would only last a couple of hours.

Whether the final show was extravagant or not, the venue was almost sold out, and people would vote regardless, so there was no need to waste money, especially on a team full of top-ranked contestants like this one.

He might have to go all out on the performances that included all of the contestants, but the rest of the money would be better spent propping up Williams’ team, among other things.

"Why do we have to scrap the whole board?" Ari asked back.

Naturally, he knew not everything on the list would happen, but cutting it all down immediately was strange.

Especially because there were some feasible ideas that had been used before.

"Do you hear yourselves? Helicopter? Motorcycle? Stage lifts? Do you think we live in a fantasy land where all your dreams come true? None of that is within the budget. Be realistic and change these childish ideas into something realistic." Wilford added on.

"Then what is the exact budget amount? We’re not being childish. A lot of the things we mentioned have been used in previous performances, so what’s the big deal? Usually, we get a financial limit so we can work within it, yeah? But today, you lot are giving vague answers and saying "later, later" and "don’t worry about it." It’s a bit weird, innit?" Benjamin chimed in, not intimidated by Wilford.

While the production team was always crooked in one way or another, the contestants knew how to handle them for the most part after months of working together.

But today, they were acting extra strange and shifty, and even Benjamin, who was friendly with almost all of the staff members, hadn’t been able to get a straight answer out of anybody.

It was very odd, and the only difference was Wilford Forbes’s presence.

"The financial details are none of your business, just cut it out and go back to the drawing board and come up with a reasonable performance," Wilford announced as if it were the final decision, and the conversation was over.

Before Ari could protest, Vishal raised his hand.

"Excuse me, sir. Can I ask if you’re the one who will be reviewing our performance proposals? I just want to know if you have a particular standard you want us to follow when writing it and when you would want it by."

At the only contestant who had spoken to him politely and considerately, Wilford’s tone softened, and he actually smiled kindly at Vishal.

"The PD and I will work together to approve it. As long as you submit it as soon as possible with things listed out neatly, any format is fine. Thank you for asking, Vishna."

"It’s Vishal, not Vishna. Then, will we be able to see an itemized proposal of each team, or will that be kept a secret as well? I’m just asking to make sure that we’re not going to get shorted financially by the other team and that things will be fair. Because right now, we’re not getting the clarity we usually get from the production team about our financial limit, so we’re a bit worried. I’m sure you understand our concern, right?" Vishal added in that same polite and unassuming tone.

At the poignant words that stabbed directly into the heart of the situation, Wilford’s smile froze for several seconds.

Taking a deep breath, he decided to stop faking pleasantness to this bunch of childish children who didn’t understand how the world worked.

"I don’t like repeating myself, so make sure I don’t see any of this ridiculousness on the proposal. Got it?"

Bang!

Before anyone could say anything, Wilford Forbes stomped out and slammed the door.

The room was silent for a moment before Ari turned to look at PD Emily with a raised brow.

"So. That happened. Are you going to tell us to behave?"

For once, PD Emily actually let out a genuine smile.

"Not at all. He’s a thorn in my side, too, so keep pressuring him. On my end, I’ll keep Bing Yongsun informed about the situation. As for the budget, it’s a bit less than a quarter of what you spent in Korea, but we have an overall pyrotechnics budget, so just subtract that from your proposal and submit it to me first. And as for your performance idea or song..."

PD Emily paused before shrugging, "It really might get stolen and co-opted by that side, so be careful. I’ll do my part on the backend and try to keep you both separated, but you do your part on the front end too."

"...you’re being surprisingly helpful," Ari commented, his eyes full of suspicion.

As someone who had been burned one too many times by the production team, he always felt wary when PD Emily was a bit too friendly and helpful, since it didn’t bode well for him.

There was always a stick waiting behind whatever carrot she offered.

"You think I want to be nice and helpful? No! This was my time to give you guys the carrot before giving you the stick later. But now he’s ruined everything with his meddling, and I have to be the good person! Ugh! I have to go now to make sure he doesn’t mess anything else up."

So you truly did plan on hitting us with the stick later!

Truly, Ari didn’t know whether or not he should be thankful to Wilford Forbes for becoming a greater evil than PD Emily, or sad that he could now predict her behavioral patterns with such accuracy.

Either way, he truly couldn’t wait for this show to be over.

When the room finally regained its calm, everyone sighed in relief before Benjamin spoke up first after he walked to the door and checked that nobody was listening outside of it.

"So what did you really want to say about the performance? What’s your big secret that you don’t want the dark side to find out about?"

"Mr. Jones. The floor is yours."

Ari pretended to bow before stepping out of the way.

Standing up with his blue eyes sparkling brightly, Jamie took the marker from Ari and began scribbling a diagram on the mirror.

"Guys, it’s not really a secret, but it’s something I really want to do! Regardless of the song we make, let’s create the song instrumental on stage while interacting with the crowd and then performing to it!"

"Huh?" 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"What?"

"You can do that?"

As his teammates stared at him in shock, Jamie nodded in excitement.

"Yes! We can! Through a method called looping! Let me explain!"

****

And in another practice room

"I know exactly what they’re going to do."