From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 162: The Three Buske-teers (10)

"Ben. Mic."

"I’m having my mic drop moment."

Ari: ಠ_ಠ

Have your moment some other time, and please pick it up!

I can feel somebody’s gaze boring into the side of my head.

Ari quickly glanced down at the microphone, then sideways toward PD Emily, hoping Benjamin would get the hint.

The British boy simply laughed before picking up the microphone, flipping it casually before tucking it in his pocket.

Pretending that everything was fine, Ari turned to look at PD Emily, hoping that she would give him some direction since their little competition just ended, but she just arched her brow at him.

"What? So far, you’ve been running it as you pleased without my approval. Just pretend I’m not here and carry on."

But I can feel your eyes staring at me!

Don’t you have other teams to monitor?

Please stand somewhere else!

But of course, PD Emily just stood there staring at him silently.

Seeing that she really didn’t plan on saying anything, Ari grabbed his microphone to speak.

"Well, it looks like our little cypher is over, so please give a round of applause to our team’s Main Rapper, Benjamin, for winning not just one but two rap battles."

- Woooooo

As the crowd clapped while Benjamin bowed with exaggerated flair and began to disperse, since they thought the show was over, Ari quickly continued to speak.

"The prize for winning the battle was retaining our busking spot, so why don’t we show you what our team can really do? We’ll start by performing our show’s signal song and go through a prepared medley, but feel free to put in a song request, and we’ll do our best to perform it. Let’s gather up?"

At his words, all of his teammates, including William, who forced his way into the center, formed a loose triangle formation as Ari played the upbeat electro pop signal song instrumental after passing his microphone to Carlos.

When you walked into the room

Pick me, love me, choose me

Couldn’t help myself, couldn’t look away

Pick me, love me, choose me

Shining like a firework, a firework

Lighting up my heart and soul, heart and soul

Pick me, love me, choose me

As the 7 boys sang and danced the choreography in formation while Ari sang and danced at his little station, the crowd looked at them in surprise, especially when they heard Carlos’ pure, clear voice, easily hitting all the high notes.

It was a complete 180 from the style of music before, and seeing the unified choreography combined with the young, handsome faces, those who were leaving turned back to watch them perform.

- Wow, their voices are so pretty

- The dancing looks so good.

- They’re all so handsome, my heart.

- How did he turn from a mean gangster into a cutie patootie?

- Maybe I should sign up to vote. What did they say their names were?

- But is anyone curious about what the masked guy looks like?

Once they finished performing the signal song, they split into smaller groups of twos and threes, performing the previous rounds’ songs with Mathew acting as the dance center while Carlos and Ari covered the vocal gaps.

As the audience began requesting things, the prepared set had turned into a random performance, where the focus shifted to having fun, doing silly dances, and convincing the watchers to sign up to vote as well as purchase tickets.

At some point, after Benjamin led some of the crowd to dance in a conga line, Ari, Benjamin, and Carlos (after being convinced?), had climbed onto the table, arms around each other’s shoulders, singing their hearts out while Benjamin added random adlibs.

"We are the champions, my friends (and awesome people we met today)

And we’ll keep on fighting ’til the end (I’m always ready for a rap battle)

We are the champions (Please sign up for Pop Star Academy voting)

We are the champions (Please scan the QR code to buy tickets to the secret performance that we don’t know about)

’Cause we are the champions of the world."

Rather than a busking performance, it became a mini party with the boys running wild and having fun with the crowd.

Even the quieter members of the team got into.

The only person not having fun was William.

Since he hadn’t bothered to prepare with their team and didn’t particularly enjoy the activities going on, especially with the group making fools of themselves rather than acting professionally, William stoically stood by the laptop, replacing Ari and playing the requested songs while trying not to look disdainful.

He refused to participate in such foolishness and bring down his dignity and image, but when he went to the bathroom and checked online, all William saw were the trending faces of his teammates being praised for their weird mix of talent and silliness, especially Benjamin, who went from literally bashing somebody in a rap battle to singing and dancing while chatting up members of the crowd.

Even the stupid mask-wearing weirdo who was always blocking him seemed to be getting some good PR with his MC skills while he was getting ignored.

It pissed him off.

He needed to do something about it so he could feel better.

***********

"Everyone, we have to leave soon. Thank you so much for joining us today. We all had so much fun, right?" Ari spoke to the much smaller crowd to wrap up his team’s busking experience.

Even though he had thoroughly enjoyed himself, he was exhausted and wanted a break, especially after talking and moving around so much.

Although he wasn’t sweaty, he was ready to take a long nap on the long bus ride back to the dorms.

- Yess

"I can’t hear you!!!!" Benjamin shouted, still full of energy, and the crowd gave him a much louder response.

-YESSSSS

- It was good

- Good job boys

As Ari waited for the rest of his teammates to give their closing statements so he could give his, he felt an unfamiliar arm wrap around his shoulder and cinch around his neck, almost choking him as somebody pulled him close to them

"Who the fuc-?"

"Ahem. Before we leave, aren’t you going to take off your mask? The people want to see it, and you promised me you’d take it off after busking." William’s voice sounded out right by his ear, and Ari felt a chill run down his spine.

Why was this murderous weirdo talking to him and acting close?

Read the room and understand that I hate your guts and don’t want you any where near me or my stats!

"No, I didn’t." Ari immediately denied it, trying to free himself in a way that didn’t look like he was fighting William, even though he wanted to punch him and throw him as far as he was physically capable.

"You did. Maybe you don’t remember since we’ve been practicing so hard."

No, I think I would remember you freaking weirdo now unhand me!

I don’t want you touching me or taking my stats.

"It’s the biggest secret you know, and nobody has ever seen his face. Everyone’s curious, right? Since we did so well and we agreed to it, shouldn’t he take it off?" William insisted as he asked the crowd, whose curiosity was now ignited.

They had wondered why only one contestant had a weird mask, but had just assumed it was a gimmick. freёnovelkiss-com

But hearing that no one had ever seen his face....

They were very curious, and several people, including a group of girls and the camera crew that was almost packed up, whipped their cameras out once more.

If there was truly an unveiling, they couldn’t miss it.

"Yo, what are you doing? Stop fooling around and let him go." Benjamin began stepping toward Ari and William with a small frown on his face.

He wanted to make a bigger deal of it, but he was aware of the cameras recording them.

"Yeah, release him, he’s clearly uncomfortable." Carlos chimed in, clearly reading the annoyance and dislike in Ari’s eyes and the stiffness of his body.

He somehow felt that if they weren’t in public and being recorded, Ari would have blown up and tried to beat William up.

"How is he uncomfortable? We’re all teammates and close to each other. He and I are the royals, you know. You all are acting like I’m being mean to him when I just wanted him to show the fans his face. You all want to see it, right?" William playfully tugged at Ari’s mask, still refusing to let him go.

- Yeah!

- Take it off

- Take it off

- Take it off

As the crowd began chanting loudly for him to take off his mask, Ari clutched it tightly.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to show his face; after all, it was basically back to normal and he planned on exposing it from now on once the performance was done.

His issue was the fact that he was being forced to show it because of William.

He absolutely hated that!

"I’m not taking it off."

"Fine. Fine. Since you really don’t want to do it, I’ll let you off this time. But really, you need to stop disappointing the fans."

With a sigh, as if he were resigned, William tried to pull away, but somehow, his sleeves got stuck in the horns of Ari’s mask, and as he tried to free himself, Ari’s curly hair got stuck to the button of Williams sleeve.

The two began to struggle to separate themselves as Ari released the mask to prevent a patch of hair being ripped straight from his scalp.

He was too young to have a bald spot!

When Ari was finally separated from William, his mask was somehow in William’s hands with several strands of hair attached to it, and his face was bare.

"Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. Here let me help you put it back on." William reached out to help put the mask back on Ari but once again, Ari’s hair somehow got stuck in the button on his sleeve again and they began struggling.

"Ow ow ow, let me go!"

"Sorry. Stay still, it’s stuck in your hair. I’ll help you put the mask back on." William said in a contrite tone, although to Ari’s ears, it sounded mocking as he felt another chunk of his hair being ripped off.

"Stop touching me and just let me go!" Ari growled, ripping Williams hands out of his hair and shoving him hard.

Although he painfully lost several more strands of hair, it was better than William continually touching him.

CRACK-

As William flew backward with the mask still in his hand, he fell on the ground with a hard thump and put on a pained expression as he stared up at Ari.

"I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen. Are you okay?"

As the blonde boy smirked internally, ready to see Ari embarrassed because his face would either be bare and unattractive or have makeup smeared everywhere due to the intense heat, he was surprised to see smooth, pale skin without a hint of sweat.

And when he examined the features, instead of the ugly features he was expecting from the picture that was clearly taken from the bathroom, instead he saw a surprisingly delicate face with well-defined features framed by the unruly curly black hair.

"Well, this is awkward," Ari commented lightly, as the hot sun beat down on his suddenly bare face.

Outwardly, he was trying to keep calm, but inwardly, he was panicking.

Were his stats okay?

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