Chapter 274: Meeting BTZ (2)
Shin Ji-yong briefly met Ari’s eyes before turning to look at the other contestants with a doting smile.
"Ah, I recognize quite a few kids who are trainees. Taeri, ah, no, you like to go by Rex, right? You’ve danced for us before?"
"I’m honored that you remember me." Rex bowed his head low with a touched expression.
As someone who was just a backup dancer, one of many, to be remembered by name by someone he looked up to was amazing.
"Of course. You always led the kids well, and Kim Daniel, right? I remember seeing you a while back before you got injured. It’s good to see that you’re doing well, and I hope your family is okay."
"Yes, they’re good! Thank you for remembering me." Daniel Kim replied cheerfully, his cute dimples showing in his cheeks.
"Ah, how could I forget, the dance genius with the cute face and the deep voice who won a national dance competition?"
Like the friendly neighborhood big brother, Shin Ji-yong spoke to each contestant, mentioning something nice about them either from real life or from Pop Star Academy, and when he got to Ari, he gave him a slightly colder smile as he talked to him.
"You’re Ariel, right. I saw you whispering something and staring earlier. Something on my face?"
"Handsomeness and talent," Ari replied calmly, not sure why the mood seemed to have shifted.
"Ahhh, the most handsome contestant calling me handsome. I feel quite honored." Ji-yong held his hand to his heart as if he were really touched while letting out a slightly warmer smile.
"I don’t think I’m the most handsome contestant, but thank you." Ari quickly rebutted.
He could only imagine what people would say if he claimed that very useless title.
Plus, he could feel the gazes of the other contestants prickling his skin despite the polite smiles they had for the camera.
"Are you sure? Ever since you revealed your face, you’ve been at the top of the polls in all the communities for most handsome contestant. Some even refer to you as the visual. And I distinctly remember seeing a clip of you saying you had the best visual in a song you just did?"
"Ah..."
Ari blinked as he remembered the Team TV Off performance where he was saying whatever he wanted due to frustration and anger.
Well, since it was already out there, might as well roll with it.
"It was a joke. A joke. You know, when you rap, you have to exaggerate a little bit. That’s all I was doing. But..." Turning to give the camera a cheeky smile, Ari winked before continuing. "Although beauty is subjective, thank you to the people who think my face is handsome. Please continue to support me in the future as well, even if my face becomes less handsome than it is right now."
Ari hoped that Shin Ji-yong would let it pass and move on to someone else, but unfortunately-
He seemed to want to get a rise out of Ari and continued pressing him.
"Ohhh, you even know how to do fan service. How cute. But is it true? You really didn’t know you were at the top of the most handsome contestant list? I thought you said those words because you checked it and knew how people feel about you."
Wouldn’t that be a little narcissistic?
"Ah, no. I rarely check about myself online, but I really do appreciate those who voted for me in those polls. They’re quite kind." Ari replied, tired of the conversation and hoping it would end.
"Ohhhh, acting like a celebrity already? ’I rarely check about myself online.’ Such a cool line. I wish I were that cool and confident when I was your age. Wow, kids these days are really grown. I’m getting old. Then...if you refuse to claim the most handsome title, who among the contestants do you think it is? I refused to hear an answer that everyone is equally handsome."
"...then can I not answer?"
"Nope. I am intentionally putting you on the spot because I’m quite curious what the handsome person who has been winning votes has to say. Don’t worry about the PD, I’ll have them cut this out. This is strictly my curiousity. Plus, you are French, which is the style and fashion capital of the world. If anyone knows handsomeness, it should be you. So let me have your pick. Who’s the most handsome contestant?" Shin Ji-yong gave him a bright smile, and Ari had to do his best not to roll his eyes.
"If I had to pick, it’s either Benjamin, Carlos, or probably Jamie. I think they have the kind of handsomeness you often see in movies or described in books. But then again, everyone here is quite handsome, so it just depends on what you like, because beauty is, once again, subjective. What is attractive to you might not be attractive to PD Ji-ho. Beauty standards are different everywhere." Ari replied honestly.
He completely meant his words.
Beauty was a subjective topic.
Even among people with the same visual stats, people had different features that made them attractive in different ways.
While Ari knew he was quite attractive, he also knew that his features were on the angular yet slightly delicate side, giving him more of a softer, feline appearance, with his eyes and eye color doing a lot of the heavy lifting.
That kind of look might not be to everyone’s taste, which was fine, but it didn’t mean he was ugly and unattractive.
There are plenty of people who prefer stronger features or a different skin tone, eye color, or whatever.
Literally, it was just whatever a person liked.
"You speak pretty nicely for someone put on the spot. But I think people are quite right in marking you as the visual of the show. If only you were a few years older and I had you on my team, I could only imagine the sponsorship deals we would get."
As Shin Ji-yong looked him over, as if he were a piece of meat in a butcher shop, Ari held his eyes, blinked, and accepted the strange compliment.
"Thanks."
Hopefully, they were done with this weird conversation.
Unfortunately, as Shin Ji-yong grabbed his chin and shifted it from left to right, Ari had to hold back the urge to punch him.
"You’re welcome. And this eye color is real? Completely natural? Not contacts?"
"I’ve had them since I was a baby, so I assume so."
"They’re so pretty and clear like a mirror. It’s as if someone poured a bit of the sea right into your eyes. Since my eyes can’t look like that, it makes me want to pluck them out and put them in a jar so I can look at them every day."
Ari: ಠ_ಠ
Without saying anything, Ari immediately took two steps back, completely weirded out.
Jamie moved in front of him while Shin Ji-yong began to snicker.
"Ahaha, there it is. That look of judgment that you’re quite famous for. I wanted to see it in real life, so I took the joke a little bit too far. Forgive me? You will forgive me right?"
Who the hell says that kind of thing to another person as a joke?
Did he have a couple of screws loose because he was super talented, or was that just how he was?
Not getting the response he expected, Shin Ji-yong quickly grabbed Ari’s arm and pulled him back with a grip that was stronger than it looked.
"If my manager were here, he would tell me to stop causing trouble and be on my best behavior, ahaha. Seriously, forgive me? Okay?"
Do I even have a choice here?
Aware of the camera, Ari forced a smile and gave the only response he was allowed.
"Sure."
So please, stop touching me, you freaking weirdo!
"Thank you. Ah, well, let me stop joking around. I should go, but since you’re all here, can I make the announcement? You can keep the footage free of charge."
Shin Ji-yong finally released Ari and glanced over at PD Ji-ho, who nodded in excitement.
"Well, the reason you came today was to tour, but also to film dance challenges. I’m sure lots of you browse TokTik and see lots of your favorite groups doing challenges, right? You might have even done some yourself, after all, it’s a good way to promote each group’s songs, gain followers, and go viral if it goes well. To support the show, as the leader of BTZ, I’ve generously decided to let you all use our practice rooms to film. One of your dance trainers, Jaywalks, I believe, will come teach you the choreography of about 15 to 20 songs, and then you’ll all have the chance to film a challenge to whatever song choreography you’ve learned. You can film for as many or as few challenges as you want, but the catch is that only the challenges with no dance mistakes will be posted, and you only have two tries to film them, so learn according to your skill. The top 3 people who successfully record the most challenges will get to record a challenge with me and have it posted on the BTZ official account as well as my own personal account. Sounds like a fun prize and a good way to get more votes from the public, right?"
- yes!!
- Oh my gosh, it would be such an honor
Seeing the contestant’s enthusiasm, Shin Ji-yong nodded in approval.
"Good. I wish good luck to you all, especially to you, Mr. Visual. You’re quite the vocalist, but you’re pretty new to dancing, right?"
"Yes."
"I thought so—a word of advice from a senior. Rather than trying to force yourself to be an all-rounder with your weak dancing and rap skills, you should just focus on being a vocal visual, okay? Just learn one to two dances and make sure you execute them well while looking good, okay? That’s your strong point."
".... Sure?"
What was that supposed to mean?
Despite Ari giving him a strange look, after saying cryptic words, Shin Ji-yong waved once more before leaving, while PD Ji-ho and the rest of the contestants bowed politely to him.
Once he was gone, PD Ji-ho then turned to them.
"Alright, all of you begin stretching and getting warmed up. Trainer Jaywalks will be here soon, and he’ll begin teaching the choreography."
At the instructions, the contestants naturally spread out and began doing their own warm-ups.
Sitting on the ground, Ari began thoroughly stretching his body in an effort to loosen everything up properly.
Due to Mathews’ torturous (?) help, he was now more limber than he was a couple of months ago, which was nice.
Though still not as flexible as Mathew was.
Ari watched with a horrified expression as the tall boy almost folded himself into a pretzel from excitement.
After all, anything that had to do with dance was right in his wheelhouse.
"Ari, how many choreographies are you going to try to learn. I want to learn all of them, so I can get that post and look for good in front of Jaywalks too. How about you?"
"Me? I plan on learning all of them, too." Ari replied with a grim smile.
He didn’t know what prompted Shin Ji-yong to begin giving him unsolicited advice about all-arounders and vocals and whatnot, but honestly, that was his problem and had nothing to do with Ari.
His job was to execute his task well, whether it be singing, dancing, or even rapping, and in this task, Ari was very, very confident.
"Really?" Mathew looked a bit surprised since he knew Ari’s method of learning choreography was to slow it down and learn each move piece by piece, before memorizing the whole thing.
While he eventually learned it, compared to people who had been taking dance classes since they were younger, it was an unbearably slow method, even if it produced good results at the end.
"Yep," Ari replied confidently.
Mathew might be good at memorizing choreography as a dance skill, but Ari literally had a cheat skill that allowed him to replicate something he had learned by using the tokens he earned from practicing.
He could turn his brain entirely off, and as long as there were tokens, his body would still move.
And right now, one thing he didn’t suffer from was a lack of tokens.
And as all the contestants who had been on his team knew, he was a certified practice bug who believed grinding was the best way to improve and to stop people from acting foolishly.
You have the energy to argue and fight? Go practice until you pass out.
Your throat hurts? Go practice dance.
Your limbs are sore? Go and sing.
Lying on the floor while groaning? Your body still has enough energy to keep you from passing out, so stand up and practice.
Anything and everything, including rebellion, could be solved by making people practice until they wanted to die.
So, whether it was the choreography of 10, 20, or even 30 songs.
It didn’t matter.
Ari would pop in the tokens earned from practice and spit out the perfect dance.
It was finally time to put the Jukebox skill to good use.