CHAPTER 317: BOYCOTT POP STAR ACADEMY (3)

In a beautifully decorated lobby, a pure white grand piano sat off to the side, playing melancholy melodies as a handsome young boy dressed in white pressed the keys with an elegant motion.

The people waiting in the lobby and the bar enjoyed the free classical music while enjoying the free eyecandy before a brave young woman went to request a song and chat with the musician, who gave her a smile that lit up his whole face while changing the song.

And before long, in front of the piano was a long line of women, recording him with their phones, giggling, and waiting their turn to speak and flirt with the handsome musician in the guise of asking for a song request.

"Are you taking requests? Do you know this song. Can you play this?" a blonde woman dressed in a tight body con dress shoved her phone into the pianist’s face as she leaned on the piano.

Glancing quickly at the haphazard Google search that said ’romantic piano song that goes la la la la’, Ari held back a sigh and returned gently while looking at the sheet music in front of him.

"I can try, but I don’t have the sheet music, so you have to print it in the media room. Also, do you mind not leaning on the piano, too? I don’t want the concierge to be upset with you."

"Awww, of course. I’ll go print it out right away. In the meantime, what are your plans later? Would you like to have dinner together?" The woman got off the piano and sidled next to Ari on the bench, her strong perfume scent filling the air.

"Ah, sorry, I have plans with family tonight that are really important."

His only plans were to get a final swim in and sleep, but as he learned in the past couple of hours, a general refusal didn’t work; he had to explain his concrete plans that gave them no gap.

"Then would you like to exchange phone numbers? We can link up later. Maybe tomorrow?"

"Ah, sorry. I don’t have a phone right now. I’m on a work trip, so my schedule is fully packed. This is my only free time." Ari politely declined.

"It’s okay! What’s your social media? You must have one, right? I’m from the US, but I travel a lot. I’m actually going to France in a couple of months with friends, so we could meet up there if you want."

I don’t want!

Please take the hint and print your sheet music, and leave me alone!

And for the rest of you, please stop recording. This is literally just practice.

Holding back another sigh, Ari tried to change the subject.

"Ah, do you still want me to play your song request? I think the concierge is waving to help you with printing the sheet music."

"Oh, you’re right. I’ll be right back, tee hee. Wait for me, cutie." Despite his leaning away, a kiss was forcibly placed on his cheek, and for a second, Ari was about to leave.

[Hey!]

[This is all part of being attractive and famous!]

[Next time, you should wear a mask if you don’t want people harassing you.]

They shouldn’t harass me regardless.

What happened to respecting people’s personal space?

Restraining the urge to wipe his face from the unwanted contact, Ari just smiled, all the while cursing NOVA internally.

The reward for this had better be amazing!

Otherwise, I’ll make you regret it.

The next couple of hours passed in an interesting yet annoying manner.

Due to the line of people putting in requests, he could no longer play what he wanted, which was fine since he got to practice a variety of songs.

The annoying part was that people used this as an opportunity to take pictures and videos of him, kiss his cheeks because he was French, and hug him despite his clear refusal, and attempt to play the piano with him.

Completely uncomfortable with how things were going, he was counting down the time limit until he could leave when a soft voice interrupted him.

"Uhm...excuse me? Do you mind if I play with you?"

"Ah, I’m sorry. I don’t do duets on the piano-"

Automatically refusing while still playing, Ari glanced up to see an Asian girl who looked to be about his age, standing there awkwardly holding a violin case, while a man dressed in a suit was standing behind her holding two thumbs up.

Seeing that she genuinely wanted to play, Ari shrugged.

"Oh, you have a violin. Sure. I am not a professional and am just practicing, so I might not be any good. Is that okay with you?"

"Yes!" the girl smiled brightly, even though she still looked quite nervous.

"Then do you have a song request? As long as I have the sheet music, anything works as long as it’s not too hard. If it’s basics, I have that memorized," Ari replied calmly as he stopped to stretch his fingers and arms, which were hurting quite a bit.

"Uhm, have you ever tried Beethoven’s Opus 49 1 and 2. It’s a violin and piano duet." The girl began speaking softly once again, and Ari scooted closer to hear her, causing her to back away and almost fall over.

Ari: "....?"

Am I that scary?

"Opus 49?"

"Yes."

"I haven’t, but I can try. Let me go print it out." As he was going to get up, his way was blocked.

"I-It’s actually not Opus 49. It’s a self-composed piece of similar difficulty. Uhm- I have the sheet music. Here!"

The girl immediately squatted down, opening a zip on the violin case and bringing out tattered, brown-stained sheet music, before shoving it at him.

Ari grabbed it, looked at her very expectant expression, and didn’t say anything.

He just flipped through it while doing his best not to let his expression change.

She had heard him say that the music couldn’t be too hard, right?

So what the hell was he looking at right now?

8 minutes of high intensity playing for a song he had never seen or heard before.

And he was supposed to coordinate it with a violin?

Was she crazy?

At best, he was an intermediate piano player.

At best! And that was simply because he was good at memorizing things and had great hand-eye coordination.

What the hell was this???

Immediately wanting to refuse, Ari looked at her still shy yet expectant face before looking at the man who was glaring at him and mouthing, ’DO IT! DO IT!

"Or what?"

"Pardon?"

As the girl looked confused, Ari nodded at the man, who looked innocent when the girl turned around, then went back to glaring at him when she looked back at Ari.

"Uhm, if you don’t want to, then it’s fine. I’m sure you think it’s a terrible composition. I was foolish to even ask. Sorry for wasting your time."

Her shoulders slumped down sadly, and recognizing Jamie’s depressed posture, Ari began feeling a bit bad.

"You know what, why not? Let’s play. If I mess up, I apologize in advance for my poor skill."

"So you’ll play?"

"That’s what I said, right? Get your violin out, let’s try it."

"Yes!"

As she brought out her violin and began to rosin her bow, Ari began flipping through the sheet music again to get a general trend of where things would go.

Then, trying to arrange the sheet music on the stand in front of him, he held the remaining sheets, wondering how he was going to fit them all on there and change pages while playing.

[I’ll handle that.]

Suddenly, the usual blue screen that he saw when he was looking at people’s stats or speaking with NOVA transformed into sheet music that scrolled as his eyes moved down.

So, you could have done that this whole time instead of making me run back and forth to the printer?

Count your days, NOVA!

"Are you ready?"

Holding back the words of complaints that he wanted to shout at NOVA, Ari just smiled at the girl whose name he still didn’t know and nodded.

"Let’s do it."

********

After suffering through 8 minutes of torture on his arms, Ari played a couple other songs with the girl before saying goodbye and going back to his room.

Forget going for a swim, he was going straight to bed after showering.

The only thing he needed now was his reward.

"Oi NOVA. Where’s my reward?"

[Ding!]

[Reward: N/A]

"There’s no reward?"

[The reward was exercising your arms. They were looking a bit thin.]

Ari: ಠ_ಠ

So you made me work for nothing?

"Drop dead."

[I would say you first, but you already did, remember?]

Ari: ಠ_ಠ

[Either way, go to sleep; tomorrow will probably be a busy day.]

[You’re going back, right?]

[You’ll need your energy.]

Realizing that NOVA was right, Ari glared at the screen only he could see before going to sleep.

When he woke up the next day, he checked out and took the train back to the Pop Star Academy building.

While it felt refreshing to laze around, he had to admit that it was a bit boring.

As he entered the building, a staff member took one look at him and ran off before he could say anything.

And seconds later, standing in front of him was PD Emily with dark shadows under her eyes and a scarily wide smile on her face.

"Ari, my boy, long time no see. Glad to see you’re finally back. Feeling refreshed after your mental health break?"

"I guess?" Ari replied a bit creeped out by her extremely jovial tone.

This wasn’t the PD Emily he knew and disliked.

It felt like a strange clone.

"Good, because we need to talk about how we’re going to fix the current situation. Come with me."

"No, thank you."

Ari told the PD politely.

As she stared at him, shocked, Ari reiterated his position.

"I’m good. I don’t have anything to talk to you about."

"Hey, hey, hey! I can see that you’re a bit upset, but this is serious-"

"I’m not upset. I actually feel pretty good especially after the break, but I don’t have a single thing to say to you or anybody on the production staff. I’ve been compliant and held up my end of the bargain. You guys, on the other hand, can’t be trusted to uphold a single deal. I don’t understand why you want to talk to me when you’ll end up doing what you want anyway. Isn’t it a waste of both our time?"