After watching the Quiz on Block episode, which randomly had Ari and Jamie as the only foreigners for the whole episode, Grace was performing her usual internet monitoring while pulling up the Pop Star Academy episode with a peaceful mind.
For once, she could rest because Ari had done unbelievably well on the surprise variety show.
Despite knowing that this was straight from a 15-hour flight, he looked extrely handso, was dressed fashionably, and showed that he was charming, a little childish, and intelligent all throughout the episode.
He even ended the episode by singing beautifully and promoting Pop Star Academy.
From a PR standpoint, it was a 10/10, and she couldn’t have scripted it better herself while marveling that his luck was really insane, as he kept eting random celebrities everywhere.
The online reception was pretty good too, with both Korean viewers and foreign viewers really enjoying the episode, and those on the Pop Star Academy communities welcoming the influx of people.
While there were the usual negative comnts here and there, for the most part, it was drowned out, and there was a positive atmosphere.
Once again, she said a prayer of thanks to Ari’s birth parents for making him handso because it was clear that all things were possible when sobody had an immaculate face card that looked so good, even his haters had a hard ti criticizing it, even with the plastic surgery allegations going around.
Additionally, because of Ari’s appearance with Jamie, and their very visibly good relationship, Jamie’s fans, who were called the Cowgirls, were in a temporary truce with Ari’s Angels FC(fanclub) and battling down the naysayers together, who were angry at the unfair promotion happening because of Quiz on the Block.
"The community is growing, the community is growing~."
Humming happily at the increasing number of followers who wanted to learn more about Ari and knowing that Ari had recovered from heatstroke and was fine, Grace prepared to watch a semi-fun field day episode.
Instead, the first thing her eyes had to see was a torturous ranking scene that she had utterly forgotten about because she knew Ari and Jamie were safe in Korea and didn’t get eliminated.
As she watched, Grace couldn’t believe what her eyes were seeing.
William being ranked first?
To be honest, she thought that was impossible.
While William had his hardcore fans who were obnoxious, in terms of numbers, he was barely in the top 10 for community accounts with the most followers.
He tried to play the princely leader and the victim simultaneously, always securing good edits and a bit more extra screen ti than other contestants, but the fact of the matter was that he ca across as boring and inauthentic, and was unrelatable, despite being joined by other contestants from wealthy, well-connected families.
Even soone like Levi, who had a permanent scowl and never said more than 3 words unless he had to, was more enjoyable to watch than William was.
But here he was in 4k HD, taking up precious minutes of the episode to give a speech that she didn’t care about.
Grace watched with complete disgust as William gave a speech reaffirming his commitnt to the fans to beco number one, before attempting to highlight his close relationship with the other contestants.
It just sounded so fake to her, like he was just saying the words he thought would sound good to other people.
While she usually didn’t care if he rambled, the real issue was-
"Why would they edit it this way? Even if Ari doesn’t like him and his face expresses how he feels, he’s never this obvious about it unless soone does sothing bad to him first. What the hell was going on that he looked like that?"
The editing, to put it mildly, was the pinnacle of evil editing, with the victim this ti being Ari.
Anyone who has watched Korean idol survival shows can recognize it.
Each ti William called out a contestant’s na to highlight his closeness with them, the screen would split into three parts, showing William, Ari, and the called-out contestant’s na.
William called out to Benjamin, Levi, Rex, and Carlos, and each ti he did, Ari made a face.
As soone whose judgntal eyes had beco a staple gif in many people’s libraries, even outside of the Pop Star Academy communities, Grace knew this one would go triple platinum.
She had never seen Ari’s eyes so cold and disdainful when looking at soone, yet she was seeing multiple angles of him staring directly at the stage when William spoke.
Even when William called him directly by na and asked for ’ bygones to be bygones’, the hatred that was briefly visible in Ari’s eyes before he began fake coughing was so apparent that all Grace could do was scream.
This was bad.
This was really bad.
No matter what William had done to Ari and the tension between them, it should never be displayed like this.
Things had only just cald down after Ari made the accusation about William injuring his hand.
Unfortunately, the situation got worse because Ari stopped coughing as soon as William sat down, making it clear that he was faking it completely.
"Ari. What did you do to the production team? They were editing you so nicely before! What happened?"
To add even more tension, the MC continued calling the safe contestants up, and even though she knew he was safe, Grace couldn’t stop nervously tapping her desk.
Why wasn’t Ari called up yet?
By her calculations, even if he dropped a bit, he should have been within the top 10 at the very least.
His fandom continued to grow despite everything that was happening, so even if he dropped, he should still be within the top 20.
Yet Ari hadn’t been called, and most notably, Levi, who had stayed stably within the top 7, hadn’t been called yet as well, even by the ti the twentieth contestant went up to the stage.
Although she knew Levi was safe as well, Grace’s worry turned to anger, especially when she noticed that the MC wasn’t actually calling out their rank; he was just saying the total number of contestants that were safe so far.
"No way! Don’t tell that they were trying to make them feel that they were eliminated? Are they punishing him after he and Levi spoke out? What happened to your vow to protect the contestants and care for their physical and ntal well-being? It seems that because the protest wasn’t spicy enough the last ti, you stupid production team, because you’ve clearly lost your damn mind. I hope sobody leaks your whole entire life!"
Each ti another contestant was called, Grace’s heart pounded hard because it seed that her hypothesis was true.
They were really punishing the two of them for complaining in their rap verses.
Since Levi was the 29th contestant that was safe, that ant...
The cara panned to Ariel sitting by himself with no one beside him, and the other contestants huddled together, holding hands while holding back tears.
It was a depressingly isolating picture, and for a second, Grace’s heart hurt.
Ari just seed really tired.
Unlike the mischievous face, cocky smile, or judgntal look of disgust that he usually had, his face was blank.
It was empty and soulless.
She knew he had friends and that he had survived the vote, but seeing his blank stare as he waited for his na to be called, his thin build seed even thinner than usual, especially as he sat alone without the usual giant boys who were usually surrounding him.
Even the usual confidence that was always bursting through his eyes seed a bit resigned to her.
As if he knew he was being punished for speaking up and thought that people had turned against him.
Even when Ari’s na was called and he walked up to the stage, his atmosphere was more subdued than usual, and his speech was cut short by an ad break advertising so stupid tracksuit.
When the episode resud, it had transitioned to a montage of the boys traveling on the plane, touring the Soundwave Music building, and being startled awake in the middle of the night to head to the location of the field day, but Grace couldn’t be happy.
Even the sight of Red Lace mbers, which she loved dearly, couldn’t cheer her up.
She couldn’t smile; all she could see was Ari’s blank stare as he sat there alone, waiting to be called with resigned eyes.
"Production team, you think doing sothing like this is protecting this kid’s ntal health or showing that you care about him. Count your fucking days. I’ll rip you a new one for making him sad. Grrrr."
Thinking that the worst was over and she could at least expect so field day shenanigans and fun sports failures, she spent the next 20 minutes of the episode trying to get a glimpse of Ari.
She felt like she was playing Where’s Waldo.
She didn’t see a single glimpse of him during the Ssireum, track race, and cavalry battle.
Rembering that he said he fainted, she wondered if he had fainted at the beginning of the field day and missed everything, before she finally saw Ari appear on the screen with a tennis racket in his hands.
"That’s random. Does he know how to play tennis?"
Her question was quickly answered, as with a surprisingly elegant form that made it clear that he knew what he was doing, Ari won against his first two opponents without losing a single point.
His jump serve was highlighted multiple tis, especially the way it spun away from the opponent, and by instinct, Grace began clipping the video for sharing later.
It would be beneficial to highlight Ari’s athletic abilities, and she could attract so sports fans to support him as well.
"He’s really good, whoa. Expert level, good, and ambidextrous to boot. I wonder why he didn’t join his school tenn- ah...never mind."
Shaking her head as she rembered Ari’s ho situation, Grace watched as William similarly dominated his matches with long rallies and powerful smashes.
Ultimately, it was the finals with two people she really didn’t want to et, especially after the first half of the episode, where the production team had made it clear that Ari had a problem with William.
Praying that it would be a good, clean match, the first thing that Grace saw was Ari serving the ball, and unlike all of his previous serves, the ball bounced directly toward Williams’ face, leaving a thin red slice from his eye area to his cheek.
"No way! How?"
As she was hoping that what she saw was a freak accident, Grace heard Ari’s voice speaking in a mocking tone after being cautioned by Areum, who was acting as the umpire.
[Contestant Ariel, please be careful about your aim.]
[Oh. Oops. I’ll try to do better, but he should just get out of the way next ti. He has eyes, doesn’t he?]
The cara panned to William kneeling on the ground while clutching his cheek, and then to Ari’s mocking expression, which showed no remorse.
Hearing his words, Grace just closed her eyes and banged her head against her desk in frustration.
She couldn’t even scream.
It was well and truly over.
"My client....even if my client is being evil edited, why would those words co out of your mouth after you injured sobody in the face? Ariel please! We can’t co back from this. How am I supposed to defend you?"
The episode continued even after William got his face treated, Ari continued to toy around with William while making slick comnts here and there.
And even after he won, when asked about how he felt, with the most refreshed smile on his face, he said the most vicious words.
"I feel great! I can’t wait for contestant William to quit."
Banging her head on her desk once more, Grace watched as the ga switched to football and Ariel’s team faced William’s once more.
Once again, he injured William by kicking the ball at his face while William was lying on the ground.
And adding salt to the wound, Ari decided to drop another unsympathetic sound bite.
"You should get that checked out. Looks rough."
Grace began banging her head on the ground once more.
With glazed eyes, Grace watched the rest of the episode, barely noticing that Benjamin’s team won or that dense text filled the screen, conveying the new voting rules to the viewers.
Her brain was completely panicking as she ntally yelled at Ari.
All you told is that you fainted!
When did you have ti to faint when you were out here playing Mortal Kombat with William’s face and dropping villainous soundbites?
"This....this is going to start a war between their fans, isn’t it?"
With tears in her eyes and her hand shaking from the fear of what she was about to see, Grace opened the community the see what the people were saying.
After scanning it briefly, Grace only had 3 words to describe it.
Hell on Earth.
*******
"This is what you brought here to see? You vilifying a kid for no reason. I know there’s no way Ariel would say those words without a reason." Jelissa’s cold voice filled the office as she glared at PD Emily after watching the full Popstar Academy episode.
"I wouldn’t use the term villify. It’s more like, hmm.... selectively taking things out of context to push a narrative? It’s not like I forced him to say those things. As he said before, he’s honest. We’re just conveying his honesty to the public in a way that suits the show. The people crave drama, and everyone loves a good villain."
Hearing the sophistry, Jelissa couldn’t even muster the energy to argue.
"I don’t have ti to play word gas with you, Emily. Why did you want to talk to ?"
"I wanted to extend an offer for you to co back as a judge and vocal coach on the show."
"You’ve clearly lost your mind." Jelissa gathered her coat and began to get up before Emily’s words interrupted her.
"Maybe. But your favorite contestant is probably going through hell right now with nobody to back him up after this episode. Are you sure you don’t want to co back? The kids miss you."
"As I said, Emily, you’ve lost your mind. After watching the way you operate, I’m disgusted. You don’t get to whip the contestants as you please before offering like a carrot to soothe them and make them compliant. Especially after what you did to ."
"To be fair, the editing direction of this episode wasn’t my doing. I have a deal with your favorite contestant that hasn’t quite run out yet, and all things considered, I am a woman of my word. As for you being let go...well, let’s move on from that, shall we? You got a fat severance check and a lovely break, so think of it as a forced mini vacation and just co back. Otherwise, with the rule changes and this episode, won’t your favorite contestant get eliminated just like that? You’re the judge who always speaks up for him." PD Emily tried cajoling Jelissa, but seeing that she still didn’t say anything, shrugged.
"I don’t care either way, I just thought I would extend the offer to you. But do as you please. I will say, though, that kid seems really tired these days. You know he’s young and he’s, and this industry isn’t very kind. He might just blow up and do sothing crazy."
Thinking of sothing, PD Emily’s smile widened, looking more like a shark than a smiling human.
"Or his backer might finally step up and do sothing to protect him. Either way, it should be fun, don’t you think?"
*********
"I’m not going to do anything crazy. I just want to talk to him." Ari replied calmly despite the fact that both Benjamin and Jamie were sitting on him to pin him to the ground and stop him from moving.
"Mate. Unclench your fist first, yeah?"
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