CHAPTER 218: WHO DID THIS (4)

As everyone silently stared at her in shock, Jelissa coughed before speaking out once more.

"Am I talking to myself here? William, step forward. You’re the one who made the arrangements for the team, correct?"

"...yes, that’s right," William replied sullenly.

"And who decided on the arrangement direction?"

"...we all decided together. As a team. I just implemented it."

At the blatant lie, not only Ari, but the rest of their teammates’ heads snapped to stare at William incredulously.

In theory, what he was saying was correct.

The arrangement incorporated concepts that the team had discussed and agreed upon, but the final version, which they were currently practicing with, sounded as if it had been created by a preschooler randomly pressing buttons to add effects.

It was so bad that nobody believed that a vocal trainer had signed off on it, but the production team assured them that it had been.

Jelissa glanced at their reaction, especially a particular green-eyed person whose eyes looked like they wanted to shoot out lasers before he looked down, and then glanced at William.

From that look alone and having been William’s vocal instructor up until now, she could somewhat guess what had happened between William’s ego and Larry Jackson’s laziness.

"Rex, as the leader, are his words correct? Was this a team choice?"

Rex took a deep breath before responding, even though it was clear he didn’t fully agree with his own words.

"....Yes."

Jelissa turned to one of the two people who never bothered to hold their tongue so she could get an honest response.

"Levi?"

Sharp blue eyes turned to stare at William before focusing back on her, while the owner spoke in the sharp tone that he was known for.

"We discussed it as a team, but this is a loose interpretation of what we wanted at best, and has a lot of things that we didn’t want. Most of us agree that it sounds like trash."

"Hey!"

"Got it."

Rather than let the kids continue to say something that the production team would edit in a stranger light, Jelissa softened her approach.

"Okay. Thank you for your honesty. William, don’t look so upset; this isn’t entirely your fault, and I apologize for calling this rubbish. I was a bit upset and took it out on you."

Seeing their shocked expressions at her calm tone, she chuckled.

"Seriously. I think that it’s great that you and your team wanted to experiment with a particular sound, and I don’t want to discourage you from doing that. Curiosity in music is what drives the creation of many great songs and techniques, and I’m glad to see you trying something new and even trying to add your own flair."

Seeing that William was starting to smile, Jelissa sharpened her tone, "However, the issue here is that there’s a time and place for experimenting, and this is absolutely not it. Putting it kindly, it sounds amateurish, and if I were to be blunt, it sounds bad. There’s a reason you’re grouped up as a team, and adding things not discussed with the team is a bad look."

"But others get to do it and they get praised for it." William interrupted stubbornly, and Jelissa thought of a polite way to put what she wanted to say.

"Everyone has different talents when it comes to music, and some people are not as blessed as others. But as I said, this is not completely your fault, and I don’t want you to think I’m blaming you. The final product should never have been released because the expert meant to guide and aid you in this process should have stopped you from releasing it, spent time correcting your decisions, and explained why certain things would never work. The fault lies with that person."

"Are you talking about me?" Larry Jackson asked with a disgruntled expression.

"Who else would I be talking about, cough?" Jelissa arched her brow as she glanced over at Larry Jackson, "Unless you’re trying to tell me that this sounds good and that they should perform like this in front of an audience?"

"Well, I gave him free rein to do what he wanted, and it didn’t sound like this when I heard it. Honestly, it’s not that bad. It’s kitschy and brings a different vibe."

"Then it’s still your fault for not following up on the final copy and signing off without hearing it. Would you appreciate a cover of your own song sounding like this? Having a kitschy vibe? Especially with the talent and budget available on the show? Or would you think the contestants were mocking you?"

As Larry Jackson’s neck slowly turned red at Jelissa’s scolding, she coughed hard before sighing.

This was a useless conversation, and the point was getting derailed.

Even if she wanted to scold him even more for being lazy, she really couldn’t because she knew how he acted when his pride was hurt.

There were still many weeks of working together to go, and she couldn’t damage a relationship over one incident with a group of contestants who might not even debut.

And even though she could tell that William had done this without his team’s approval, she would be easy on him as well.

Hopefully, he would take this opportunity to learn the lesson that she was trying to teach him.

"William, all I’ll say is communicate with your team and ask for help from those with a bit more know-how instead of making solo decisions. If they all said that they didn’t like it, your authority doesn’t overshadow theirs."

As William frowned and opened his mouth to argue back, Heliisa sighed before quickly continuing, "Let’s end the conversation here since it’s a bigger mistake on our side that will be remedied as soon as possible by Larry. This applies to other teams as well. He’ll redo all the arrangements within the next two days and bring them up to an acceptable standard that reflects his talent and skill as a musician."

"I am?" Larry asked in surprise. His plans for the next few days were to party and enjoy himself with his high-profile friends before he came back to judge on the day of the showcase.

"You are."

"By myself? Aren’t you going to help me?"

"Cough, why would I help you? I’m sick and plan on taking a thorough break after this. The only thing I’ll be doing is listening to the finalized copy of the arrangement that will be sent to me and making sure it’s at an acceptable standard. I’ll make sure PD Emily sends me the final MP3 as soon as you say it’s done, so don’t be lazy about it this time."

Seeing Larry Jackson grumble with a disgruntled expression, Ari let out a small smile, but it seemed the man had X-ray vision because he immediately began targeting Ari.

"I don’t understand why you’re laughing, contestant Ah-ri-el. I thought you would have become a better dancer by now, but I was wrong. Not only did you mess up the choreography repeatedly, but you also ran into your teammates while half-heartedly doing the choreography. You think it’s okay to be the only person standing when others are on the ground?"

"I wasn’t being half-hearted; my hand is injured, so some of the choreography was modified for me." Ari held up his bandaged hand, but Larry simply snorted.

"Always an excuse with you, isn’t there?"

Ari: "....."

Why do you think it’s an excuse?

My hand is literally bandaged up and swollen, and I’m not allowed to put weight on it.

If you don’t believe me, go and ask the medical professional!!

"Since you’re such a smarty-pants and always have something to say, what’s your excuse for freezing up and messing up the choreography?"

Because I think it’s embarrassing and I don’t want to do it.

Since he couldn’t say that without sounding childish, Ari bowed his head and gave a PC reply, "I’ll try to do better in the future."

"Heh, sure you will. And pigs will fly."

"Enough. None of the criticism you’re giving him is constructive." Selena cut in, causing Larry Jackson to snort disdainfully.

"Contestant Ariel."

"Yes?"

Ari turned to face Kim Young-woo, whose expression was sterner than usual.

"I can see that you’re quite embarrassed when performing those moves, which is something you need to get over on the stage. If you plan on being an idol, there are certain concepts that you have to perform even if you don’t like them. You can’t ruin the experience of those watching and your teammates’ hard work by freezing up because you don’t want to do the choreography. It’s completely unprofessional. Do you understand that?"

"Yes, I am trying my hardest to get over it," Ari replied honestly.

"Get over what exactly? Put it into words. It’s clear you’re having some type of mental block. You’re our least shy contestant here. I’ve never seen you freeze like that, even when you weren’t nailing the choreography in other performances." Selena asked in a slightly worried tone.

It was actually very out of character for Ari to act like that, and she wondered what the issue was.

Ari thought it over before slowly replying, "For me, this concept is quite embarrassing and out of my comfort zone. Trying to be sexy, exposing my body, or moving in that way is not something I’ve ever thought about or done, so it’s quite difficult for me. Whenever I’m performing the choreography and start thinking about what I’m doing with my body, I automatically freeze because it just feels...strange. I’m not sure if that makes sense to you."

"Well, that makes sense. You’re quite young after all, and I remember you saying you’ve never done anything in the entertainment industry before. This is a concept that will continue throughout your career if you make it, so you need to get on board sooner rather than later. Otherwise, it’s a disgrace to the team, the choreographer, and the audience."

"Understood."

"A recommendation that you could try is imagining yourself as someone else, like an alter ego or an avatar. Many entertainers have a persona that helps them separate the person they are on stage from the person they are in real life. Even I created one when I first went solo to help me gain confidence on stage or to get through things that I found embarrassing," Selena added as she felt bad for Ari.

She hoped that sharing her personal story would make things a bit easier for him and help bring him some clarity on how to tackle the issue.

And it seemed to work because he gave her a bright smile.

"I’ll take that under consideration. Thank you very much for the advice and for sharing your story." Ari gave Selena a grateful smile, and she smiled in turn before turning to another contestant and sighing as Kim Young-woo began speaking.

"Now, Rex...what the heck is going on with you today? Your singing was bad, the dancing was worse, and you were, without a doubt, the worst performer on the team today, even though you have the most experience. I’m very disappointed in you. What happened?"

At Kim Young-woo’s words, Rex’s face reddened, and he looked as if he were about to cry.

He also didn’t know what was happening to him because he was doing everything the same as usual. It was only his body that was failing him.

"Great things are expected from you, not only as the leader of the team, but as one of the top contestants. I hope you tighten up."

Ari snuck a glance at William, noting that the blonde boy looked completely unbothered, even though he was the reason that Rex was getting scolded like this.

In fact, he even had a small smile, and his face was likely pleased that his scolding had been cut short due to Jelissa blaming Larry Jackson instead of blaming him.

What a freaking psychopath.

Ari just listened silently as the rest of the team received scoldings wrapped around a bit of praise.

The only person who basically got off scotch free was-

"Benjamin. Really nice work here on the lyrics."

"Oh? So you rate it?" Benjamin asked with a cheeky smile.

"Yeah, it feels smooth and natural—the cadence, the meaning, the syllable count, and the flow. Everything works. I would have never guessed it wasn’t originally in English. Alright, calm down. I can see your head blowing up. Good job to Levi and Jerome as well. But yes, good job to you, Benjamin." X-ponent wasn’t shy with his praise, causing Benjamin to laugh.

"Rahhh. I made the mandem squeeze their brains to make things work, so I’m glad the effort shows."

Once they were allowed to sit down, Ari just watched the rest of the performances silently, noting who did well and who did poorly.

Overall, while the quality of the performances was decent, most teams had to get their arrangement redone, and seeing Larry Jackson’s neck and arms get progressively redder, Ari smiled to himself.

That’s what he deserved.

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