"Everyone ready?" Ari asked as he glanced around the practice room.

They had just spent the morning lightly rehearsing what they were going to present to judges and were about to head there now.

"Yawn~ as ready as we can be, yeah? Let’s get going, otherwise I’m melding with the floor and knocking out like Dani." Benjamin yawned as he stood up with a groan before tapping a dozing Daniel with his foot.

Truthfully, everyone was tired, both mentally and physically; they were extremely sore as well from having to learn three new songs while practicing new dance formations for the old ones, they had to deal with Wilford Forbes constant interference and surveillance, and with the end so close, emotions were all over the place.

Even Ari, the paragon of putting in long hours and mental strength, was exhausted and couldn’t wait for everything to be over.

In fact, their team had enacted a social media ban, under which no one was supposed to monitor what people were saying online.

Personally, Ari didn’t know if the others were upholding it, but as someone who already had enough on his plate, he wouldn’t be searching for trouble.

Especially because the elimination episode was being aired tonight.

After doing a team huddle, they all dragged themselves out of the room.

As they walked through the halls, heading to the evaluation location, one of the staff members called out.

"Excuse me, contestant Ariel?"

"Yes?"

Ari glanced at Katie, the staff member with the horrible driving skills, who was giving him an apologetic smile from a tired-looking face while holding a pile of clothing and sneakers.

"Just a moment, please."

"Sure. Guys, go ahead. I’ll be right there."

Waving his teammates ahead, with a resigned sigh, Ari headed over to Kate.

"Do you mind changing your clothes into this and putting your hat back on?"

"Is there a problem with what I’m wearing?"

Ari glanced down at his outfit - he was taking a break from his Otterly Adorable tracksuit and was wearing large black shorts and a long-sleeve shirt he had borrowed from Jamie, his worn black dance sneakers that really needed to be replaced. Although everything ended up being a bit oversized, it was comfortable and neat enough to appear on camera, which was the end goal. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

His hair was still damp and held back by his Otterly Adorable headband, which he started wearing in preparation for dying his hair, but it wasn’t messy enough to ask him to put his hat back on, was it?

"Ah, no, I think you look great! This wearing your boyfriend’s oversized clothing after a sleepover outfit looks very chic on you. 10/10 no notes. Please wear it more often!" Kate replied excitedly, her tiredness briefly disappearing as her hand twitched for a camera that wasn’t on her.

Ari: ಠ_ಠ

.....

I think I heard something weird in there?

Care to explain that, Katie?

Feeling the full force of the green judgmental eyes, Kate cleared her throat before getting back on topic.

"Ahem, like I said, love your outfit. But uh...the director is requesting that you change into this. Please." Katie replied with an awkward smile.

"Again?"

Ari couldn’t help but be annoyed.

This was the fourth time Wilford Forbes had asked him to change his clothes.

The first time was fine, since everyone had changed to record promotional content with the PD, but the two times, he would just barge in, order Ari to change into the clothes he brought, and only leave after he did so.

While he often saw William wearing something similar, Ari simply couldn’t understand what Wilford’s end goal was.

Was Wilford Forbes giving him bugged clothing so he could eavesdrop?

Was he trying to trigger an allergic reaction so that he would be sent to the hospital and not be able to perform?

Was he hoping people would think he and William had made up and decided to be twins, or did he think people would think Ari was the one copying William, not the other way around?

No matter the reason, it was just annoying to Ari, especially when he kept being singled out like this.

Of course, he wanted to refuse, but looking at Kate’s pleading expression, Ari sighed.

"I’ll change into the clothes, but no hat. It’s dirty and currently in the washer, so I’m not wearing it. And my hair is wet, so if I don’t wear this hair band, it bleeds red, and it looks like somebody stabbed me in the head. Sorry."

More importantly, he needed to protect his hairline from chemical damage.

"No, thank you for cooperating. Are you sure you really can’t do the hat? He was really, really insistent on it-"

"Just tell the PD what I said. And if the director has a complaint, he can say it to my face, and he can explain to everyone why a grown man like him keeps dictating what I wear, sending only me clothing to change into, and then coming to look me over like a weirdo."

"Well...when you put it like that, it does sound a bit weird."

"Right?"

As he and Kate let out simultaneous sighs, Ari just rolled his eyes and went to change into the plain black tracksuit and shoes that were uncomfortable on his skin before soaking his hair underneath the faucet.

After he finished, he quickly walked to the evaluation room, keeping the annoyance off his face.

There was already a lot going on, tensions were high all around, and truly, he didn’t need to give the PD fuel for bad edits.

As he entered the room, Ari quickly scanned it, quickly ignoring the cameras that he had gotten used to.

As always, the judges’ table was positioned on one side of the room, with Jelissa, Larry Jackson, Kim Young-woo, and Jaywalks sitting and chatting.

Unfortunately, Selena wasn’t there, but there was an extra guest who took it upon himself to make up for her absence.

Naturally, it was Wilford Forbes, and when he spotted Ari coming in, his smug smile grew before fading as he looked at Ari’s hair.

Disgusting.

As Wilford got up from his seat, heading straight for the PD, Ari turned away and glanced at the opposite wall where the remaining 14 contestants sat.

His team had everyone loosely paired around Benjamin and Jamie as they chatted quietly.

On the other hand, William’s team reminded him of being in class with an extremely strict teacher.

Carlos sat squarely in the middle, acting as a buffer between William, Jerome, and Choi In-su on one side, and Rex and Mathew on the other.

Levi sat a distance away from them with his headphones over his ears, and even from where he stood, Ari could sense the tension.

Ooof.

Glancing at William, who just so happened to be wearing an identical black tracksuit and fur hat like the one he usually wore, Ari just rolled his eyes and took his seat next to Jamie, who gave him a strange look before looking at William, then at Wilford Forbes, who was passionately exchanging words with PD Emily, who was rolling her eyes in annoyance.

"Changing again?"

"Yep."

"Why?"

"Dunno."

"Weird."

"Yep."

Ari watched the exchange between the two people absentmindedly, betting a dollar against himself to win the confrontation.

His money was on PD Emily, and seeing Wilford Forbes stomp back to his seat and snatch, Ari moved the money into his winning bets pile.

"You."

As Wilford Forbes pointed at him, Ari arched his brow and replied just as rudely, "What?"

"Where’s your hat?"

"It’s dirty," Ari replied simply, waiting to see what Wilford Forbes would do.

"Take off that headband. We don’t allow other branding on the show."

"It’s not branded. It was a custom gift."

"It’s distracting."

Ari: ಠ_ಠ

You’re distracted by an animal face headband with ears that I’ve been wearing for months.

And you think this is more distracting than my giant fur hat that has never been complained about before.

What kind of nonsense is this?

"More distracting than a fur hat that he’s wearing?" as Ari pointed to William, Wilford let out a smile.

"You’re right. They’re both distracting. Both of you take them off."

"...are you sure?" Ari asked with an innocent expression.

"Of course. Don’t make me repeat myself."

"Oohkay. If you insist."

As he grabbed the soaked headband and lifted it off-

SPLAT!

Ari’s soaked hair, held back by the headband, fell into his face, and then, slowly, the stained water, which looked like blood, started dripping from his head, down his face, and into his neck, making him look as if

Slowly turning his head toward Jamie, as if he were a monster in a horror movie, Ari lunged at him while shaking his head like a wet dog and barking wildly.

"Arf arf arf arfffff!"

"Aghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gosh dar-"

As the blonde boy screamed while retreating across the room at an unbelievable pace, while red water splashed everywhere, the area around Ari soon looked like a crime scene, with several of his teammates who had been splashed on their faces having expressions that were between amusement and wanting to strangle Ari.

And Ari was completely apologetic.

Really.

Staring Wilford Forbes in the eye with a deadpan expression, he apologized with all the sincerity he could muster, "Oops. Sorry. I don’t know what came over me."

Now, are you going to keep wasting everyone’s time by forcing me to change, or can we just do what we set out to do in the first place?

There was a moment of silence before Jelissa who was laughing quietly to the side picked up her microphone.

"We don’t have a lot of time to waste, so why don’t we take a quick 5 to clean up and collect ourselves and get to the real meat of the program instead of harping on what contestants are wearing. Okay?"