From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 121: Second Performance Evaluation (2)

"Thank you to the team, Leo. Judges, do you have any feedback for the boys?" MC Ryan stepped up after giving the panting boys a high five.

"So, I just have one question. Did any of you actually practice together? In the same room? Even once?" the cold question came from Selena, who was dressed in a black pant suit with gold rimmed glasses perched on her nose.

The dance trainers’ usually kind tone and expression were nowhere to be found as she looked at all of them in disappointment.

"I’m not your vocal trainers, so I won’t touch on that part of your performance, but everything from the dance, parts, timing, and concept is a mess. It’s clear that you all have never practiced this song as a group even once. If we were looking for solo artists, we wouldn’t be asking you to work together in a group, right? So why did you think this was okay?"

As the boys blankly stared at her, Selena continued speaking with her brows furrowed.

"I’m aware that this is a song from a girl group, and maybe you find the pink ballerina concept off-putting, but dancing half-heartedly, skipping moves you don’t want to perform, or dancing in a way that ruins the concept and feelings that the original singers wished to convey is completely unacceptable! Especially when you don’t even have a good replacement concept. I can tell you all haphazardly decided, ’let’s just dance in a manly, aggressive way that’s opposite of the pink girly concept, and avoid the moves we don’t like,’ and called it a day, right? You probably think that since you sang the words and rapped fine, it should be okay on stage, right?"

Not a single member of the team said anything because that was how the conversation went.

Selena glared once more, and seeing that almost everybody was avoiding her eyes with a hint of guilt, she got even angrier.

"Have you listened to the lyrics of the song you’re actually singing and dancing to? Have you thought about why the choreography is the way it is? What about rising up from the dirt and struggle to become a graceful, beautiful swan screams ’manly and aggressive’ huh? If you have no intentions of coming up with changes to the concept, then the least you can do is respect the original artist’s intention and do your best to replicate the original song without insult!"

"...."

"Leader of the group, step forward," Selena said, staring at Leo with fire in her eyes.

With a loud gulp, Leo took a deep breath as he moved slightly in front of everybody else.

"What have you and the rest of your team been doing the past couple of days? Lounging around? Giggling and having a good time? Saying I hate the pink concept every 5 seconds?"

At Selena’s sarcastic words, Leo responded in a low voice, "No ma’am."

"Have you all even practiced this song as a group?"

"...no ma’am."

"So what have you all been doing? I assume you’ve been meeting as a group to at least discuss? Come up with changes, costumes, something?"

"..."

At Leo’s silence, Selena laughed incredulously while looking at all of their faces.

"As a leader, what have you been doing? Do you think that just because you did well on your performance video and didn’t get eliminated, you could just coast by this week?"

As Selena berated him, Leo felt completely wronged.

It wasn’t entirely his fault, but he knew if he tried to refute it, it would just look bad.

Seeing that he stayed silent, Selena sighed before putting down her microphone.

"Thank you, Selena, for the feedback. I’m sure that the team will work harder to show a better result on the day of the performance. Jelissa, Larry, X-ponent? Do you have anything to add?" The MC attempted to smooth things over, as none of the boys could refute anything.

Larry Jackson picked up his microphone, laughing sarcastically as he looked them over one by one.

"First of all, that performance was a mess. Complete rubbish. Selena has touched on it, but if I were the original singer, I would be ashamed if this were the cover of a song I had worked hard to create. All of you, especially the leader, should be very ashamed of yourselves. It seems that you all got comfortable since everybody on this team did decently well on their performance video?"

"..."

"Now, I’m not one to give vague advice to the whole group, so step forward when I call your name. Starting with you, Ah-ri-el."

At Larry Jackson insisting on calling him that strange version of his name, it took all of Ari’s strength not to roll his eyes as he limped forward.

Larry Jackson looked him up and down, focusing on his ankle brace, before smirking, "That strange face paint of yours notwithstanding, I thought after your experience last week, you would have learned to take care of yourself. Yet here you are once again, lacking and injured, probably from fooling around instead of practicing."

"I was injured when somebody fainted and knocked me down a platform while we were filming the signal song yesterday," Ari explained in a calm tone while somebody hiccupped in the background.

He knew he shouldn’t argue, but he was not willing to take on the title of fooling around while getting injured.

Larry Jackson blinked in surprise at the context, which was verified by PD Emily nodding before smirking at Ari once more.

"What does your injury have to do with the fact that you’re the worst dancer on your team, who noticeably sticks out and made extremely noticeable mistakes today. Do you think that your vocals will save you? There are plenty of other good singers here, and now you’re injured. What do you plan to do about it?"

"I plan on practicing hard," Ari replied.

"Are you saying that you’re not practicing hard? I notice that everybody on your team is panting and sweating hard, yet you’re as cool as a cucumber. Don’t tell me that you plan on using your injury as an excuse to drag everybody down?"

It’s not my fault that I’m not sweating, it’s literally because of this otterly adorable tracksuit, you bastard!

And of course, my mistakes were noticeable, I literally have an ankle brace for my sprained ankle!

Biting back the words that he really wanted to say, Ari took a deep breath, "I’m practicing hard, but plan to put in my best effort to not disappoint myself, my team, the judges, and the audience."

"Well, we’ll see about that. Moving on, Alfonso, step forward."

Ari took a step back as Larry Jackson went down the line one by one to berate everybody for their faults.

Although he criticized people, the only person he went extremely hard on was Ari, who shrugged it off since he was used to the man’s dislike.

When Larry finally criticized Leo and put his microphone down, Bing Yongsun picked up his microphone and said, "That was extremely disappointing. I hope I don’t see such a poor performance again."

Although the Korean exec was speaking to his whole group, Ari felt that somehow the dark eyes were staring at him with disappointment.

Feeling like he had done something wrong, he limped back to his seat with the rest of his teammates, while Benjamin’s team went to the center of the stage.

Leaning forward and giving them his full attention, Ari focused on watching the interaction between Benjamin’s team, noticing that there was still a distance between William and Benjamin. At the same time, Carlos hovered quietly in the back.

Benjamin, standing at the front with every slight step behind him, smiled wildly before counting off in his crisp British accent,

"One two three"

"Team Run Club, running straight into your hearts, let’s go!"

At the mini cheer, each person on the team pulled out purple bandanas and tied them around their heads before winking and making finger hearts at the judges.

"Cue the music."