With a resigned sigh, Ari briefly went to grab the food he originally planned on getting before making his way to the stairwell that led to the rooftop.

He had often met Levi there, so he figured he might as well start his search here, and if Levi wasn’t there, he could search somewhere else.

Seeing the blocked-off signs and police tape put up by the production team, Ari decisively climbed over them, reached the top, and shoved the roof door open before stepping outside.

And as expected, the person everyone was searching for was leaning against a tall vent, on his phone with headphones over his ears, and sunglasses over his eyes as if he were taking a little break instead of missing for multiple days.

"Got you, you little punk."

Walking over until he was in front of Levi, Ari tapped his foot impatiently while staring down at him until Levi lifted off his headphones.

Levi: ಠ_ಠ

"What?"

Ari: ಠ_ಠ

"What do you mean, what? You think it’s funny to ignore my text messages, you little punk?"

[Is that really what’s important right now?]

"You kept texting me about hair dye. I figured it wasn’t important." Levi grumbled as he looked away.

[Hair dye?]

[That’s what you were worried about while his team is panicking?]

[Hair dye? Hahaha]

You just shut up.

Swatting away the blue screen filling his vision, Ari focused solely on Levi.

"If it wasn’t important, why would I bother texting you about it? I’d just wait until I saw you in person."

"There are other people you can ask about hair dye."

"Yeah, but I trust you the most, which is why I texted. And called. Repeatedly." Ari retorted before sitting down.

Although asking about hair dye was just a front to get Levi to respond, truthfully, Ari was sick of seeing William look like him.

From the hairstyle and color to the clothing style, each time he saw William, it was like looking into a slightly off mirror, and he hated it and planned to change it as soon as possible.

And the easiest thing for him to change was his hair. He quite liked the haircut he had now, so the only thing he could mess with was the color.

And sure, there were others with dyed hair, but even if he had a buzzcut, Levi was still the contestant who colored his hair the most out of everyone, so he definitely had more knowledge about hair dyes.

Looking at the plate of food that he had to force down, Ari sighed sadly before beginning to force it down his throat. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Sigh.

The things he did to add weight.

It was silent for several minutes, the only sound being the ambient noise of the city, wind, and Ari’s chewing, before Levi spoke up again.

"...are you here to yell at me?"

"Why would I yell at you? I’m not your parent. Clearly, I’m taking a lunch break, and you just happened to be here." Ari replied before taking another bite.

Dry chicken breast, dry bread, dry vegetables. Yum.

"If anything, aren’t you the one who’s mad at me?"

"What do you think?" Levi glared as he remembered one of the reasons he was angry.

"Well, I distinctly recall you calling me a traitor, so I’m assuming the answer is yes. Why? What did I do? Be straight with me."

"...why didn’t you pick me for your team? You chose Benjamin first. Why?"

Still?

Are you still mad about that?

Why???

At this point, what was done was done; teams were decided, and there was no way to change it.

But seeing that Levi was truly waiting for an answer while glaring, Ari explained, even though he didn’t get why it was still a big deal 1 week later.

"Of course, I chose Benjamin first. I had to. Do you know how to beatbox? In any capacity?"

"...no. But I can learn." Levi said mulishly.

"Within two weeks to perfectly replicate the sound of drums and bass to replace a song’s instrumental track on stage?"

Ari asked as he took another bite.

Levi stayed silent.

"I thought so. Jamie envisioned a particular performance. I knew which contestant had the skill to fulfill that vision, and that’s the only reason I chose Benjamin first. We need him for the performance we’re planning. And if William hadn’t chosen you, I would have snagged you on the next round since you’re kind of a Swiss army knife who’s good at everything and great to have on a team. I thought that was obvious."

"...really."

"Yes, really. Plus..." Ari paused.

"Plus what?"

Well, the main reason is that I don’t want anybody on that weirdo’s team, especially my friends, because all he does is steal their stats and make them perform poorly, but I can’t come out and say that, can I?

"Plus, I don’t want you on Williams team. I want him to do badly and for him to suffer." Ari decided to gloss over the reasoning like that.

"Mm."

"Plus, if you maintain your ranking, and I maintain mine, won’t we end up debuting and performing together for the rest of our lives? Not being on the same team once isn’t a big deal. Right?"

"...fine."

He continued eating in silence, and seeing that Levi looked calmer, Ari asked him the real question.

"So. Why did you run away?"

"I didn’t run."

"Your entire team is looking for you cause you haven’t been to practice in a week. You haven’t answered anybody’s messages, and it got so bad that they came to ask me to find you. That’s running and hiding. Why? I heard you got in a fight with William?"

"Who told you?"

"No one told me, it’s easy to guess. But why run after fighting him? That’s not like you. Is it because you punched him in the face? No, you couldn’t have, his face looked fine when I saw him. Or did you punch him somewhere else? If you did, good job. I hope it was off camera."

At Ari’s excited smile, Levi almost smiled back before frowning again.

"It’s none of your business."

"Fair enough. So what’s the point of all of this? Are you protesting the bringing back of William? His uncle’s involvement? Do you not want to work on a team with him? What’s the end goal? You can’t just hide up here forever. Or did you plan on doing that? You know tomorrow’s the midterm evaluation. If you don’t rejoin your team, they’ll petition to have you removed. Do you want that? Are you trying to quit? After working so hard for the past several months?"

At the barrage of questions, Levi was silent for a moment before muttering.

"No. I’m not quitting."

"Phew. Good. Then what’s the problem, or what’s your side of the story? You might as well tell me because I’m not on your team. I don’t care if you fought, and if you want to badmouth anyone, I won’t say a word to them about it."

Levi was silent as he rested his head on his knees and eventually spoke.

"William wants to copy your performance ideas. And they all agreed to it."

"So?" Ari replied honestly as he continued forcing the food down.

Seeing Levi stare at him in disbelief, he explained.

"I don’t care. I don’t think I’ve done anything particularly revolutionary in my performances that’s worth copying for the final performance, except for maybe in Korea, and that was a team effort. If William or your team copies the ideas, good for them, I guess? It’s not like there’s anything I can do about it."

"They’re doing it in hopes of beating you at your own game for the finals. I don’t agree with that, and you shouldn’t either." Levi explained, trying to get Ari to see his point of view.

Anyone should be angry that someone was planning on copying their work in an attempt to beat them.

Unfortunately-

"I don’t care. I definitely expected William to try something like that. He can have it, after all, I also got some of these ideas from the internet. And if he thinks using my past performance ideas will beat me because he thinks I’ll do the same thing in the finals, it doesn’t matter to me. My team is actively hiding our real idea from everyone except the PD and Jelissa, and it has nothing to do with what I’ve done in the past. Wait, is that why you fought with him? Or why you ran away."

"I didn’t run away."

"Sure. Sure. Well..." Ari was silent for a moment before continuing, "Thanks. For defending my honor, I guess? I appreciate it. But if that’s the reason you’ve been hiding away, I can’t support it. The rest of your teammates are having a hard time because you’re not there, and you know they’re not really happy about the William situation. You being gone is like extra punishment, and without you there, they can’t even fight back against him because they’re afraid. Plus, I don’t want the PD to punish you with a bad edit. So go back. Got it?"

"...."

Levi turned his head away.

"Oi. Answer me. Are you going back, or do I have to drag you back?"

"You can’t drag me."

"...fine. Don’t go back. I’m going to tell the PD that you’ve been up here this whole time, so she’ll really block it off. Or better yet, I’ll bring everybody up here for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We can get some air, eat some food, and be as loud as we want."

"You wouldn’t dare."

"Are you going back, or is everyone taking a field trip to come see your secret hangout spot on the roof?"

Levi: ಠ_ಠ

Ari: ಠ_ಠ

"Tsk."

Levi clicked his teeth and stood up.

"Tsk right back. Make sure you apologize to everyone on your team. Even if you want to protest and punish William, they don’t deserve punishment either. Got it? Say sorry to everyone."

"Tsk."

Despite looking angry, Levi diligently put his headphones back on and went inside.

And once he was out of sight, Ari sighed and shook his head.

Somehow, he had become the human GPS to find Levi, and now a therapist, which was a bit funny.

[Wow.]

[It seems that you actually know how to give sensible advice, even though your nickname is Captain Crashout and you never act sensibly.]

[Truly a surprising turn of events.]

[+.5 Leadership Stat Point]

"Oh, that’s the new stat you added, right? I’ve been meaning to use up my stat points, so this is perfect. Also, you’re so stingy, why don’t you give me a whole stat point?"

[No.]

[Now finish eating and get back to work.]

"...fine."

It wasn’t like he had a choice.

With a tired sigh, Ari went back to forcing the dry sandwich down before heading to the practice room.

It was time to get back to work.