"Good morning, contestants!"

"What's so good about this morning?" Ari muttered in a bad mood as he stared at the PD before Jamie elbowed him in the side.

For the sake of continuity, they were back in the hot, uncomfortable track suits and were waiting for the Red Lace members to arrive for announcements.

After standing and waiting for what felt like forever, Areum finally arrived to a resounding round of applause and cheers.

"Oh wow. Good morning, contestants! Thank you for the kind greeting. I hope you all had an amazing rest and recovered well after yesterday."

- Yessss

- Nooooo

Since the responses were mixed and she did not know what to say, Areum bowed her head politely at them before standing up straight.

"Well. Let's get right to business, first, by announcing the major winners of yesterday's field day. The red team came in third place, the blue team came in second place, and the overall first-place winner was the yellow team. Congrats once again to all three teams!"

Clap clap clap

"Now, apart from the food rewards and cash prize that I'm sure the production team has provided you-"

Since the production team hadn't provided a single thing apart from stock meals, the all-you-can-eat beef was still just a pie in the sky that would never be delivered.

As for the cash prize, it was better to pretend that he hadn't heard about it.

Since the beginning of the show, not once had the production team coughed up the money that they promised they would.

At this point, Ari assumed that he would never see the cash he was owed.

Not knowing that this was the case, Areum continued speaking.

"In case you couldn't guess, the members that you chose for your field day team will be the people you're performing with! And the grand reward is the ability to choose the order in which you'll perform! Isn't that great! This is a huge opportunity for you all and a really good reward, I assure you!"

As the contestants stared at her blankly, not understanding why it was so great, especially when the production team often switched the performance order around on the episodes, regardless of who performed first during filming, Areum cleared her throat before explaining from the beginning.

"I'm not sure if you all have checked the news, but there will be a greatest hits concert in two weeks featuring trainees across various agencies, newly debuted groups, and of course, you contestants. It will be broadcast live separately from the weekly episodes of Pop Star Academy. All groups will perform covers of some of the greatest hits created by groups, including BTZ and Golden Generation, and will be evaluated by a judging panel of industry experts. They will evaluate your overall execution of the song and decide, along with the audience, which teams performed the best and stayed true to the spirit of the original song performance. Making modifications to the performance is highly discouraged. Naturally, you will be ranked against contestants that are part of Pop Star Academy, but if you do well against other agency trainees and newly debuted groups, there will be a special bonus prize for you. Although the songs are already preselected, I can assure you that none of you will be disappointed by the choices. Being able to select the order of your performance is an extremely important benefit, as there are over 30 teams performing. Now, shall we take a look at the songs?"

- Yessss

With a mixture of nervousness and excitement, the contestants agreed and focused on the screen that lit up behind Areum.

"The winning team, led by Benjamin, will receive the song Juice by BTZ, it's a bragadocious song that did well not only on Korean charts and music shows, but internationally as well. The song is characterized by its high tempo, hip-hop beats, and sharp choreography that's full of swagger, and it was fully composed and produced by Shin Ji-yong nim for BTZ. You'll be learning all the original choreography and, naturally, you'll be able to receive some pointers from the leader of BTZ himself, Shin Ji-yong nim."

After giving the brief explanation, Areum let the performance video play, and Ari watched as the 7 members of BTZ, led by Shin Ji-yong, sang, danced, and rapped like the experts that they were.

Everywhere we go,

You know we got the juice, yeah

I think you like me,

I think you like me,

I think you likeeee me

But even among the group of talented individuals, one person stood out the most, and the eyes couldn't help but be drawn to him when he was on screen.

Seeing the familiar, handsome idol whose hair was red and black in the video wink charmingly, before dancing in a smooth way that made him look like he had no bones while singing stably, Ari nodded.

As evidenced by those crazy stats, Shin Ji-yong was really a talented monster.

It was a great song, the melody and rap flowed well, and it seemed fun to watch and experience live.

Thankfully, he wasn't going to be the one who had to perform it.

Just the thought of doing the high-energy choreography with intricate footwork while belting out those high notes already gave Ari a headache, especially when one of his team members had a cast on their leg.

And he absolutely wanted to avoid being compared to him because, no matter how he saw it, there was no way to perform better than the original with only two weeks of practice.

Ari wished Benjamin and his team good luck before refocusing on Areum.

"The team that came in second place, led by Jamie, will perform 'Standing Next to You by Golden Generation.' It's a song that was quite beloved, especially abroad. The song is characterized by its disco-style funk pop influence, and as you soon see from the outfits and choreography, it was truly inspired by the 80s and 90s and remains one of the most popular performances ever. Just like the previous teams, you will all receive some pointers from the members of the Golden Generation, so look forward to it. As a side note, the Golden Generation members have stated that they want no changes made to their choreography and would like it sung in the original key. They want it performed as is to retain the charm of the song and performance."

As Areum announced the name of the song, Ari glanced over at Justin, who was sitting down with a thick cast on his leg, then back at Areum with dead fisheyes.

The doctors explicitly instructed Justin to stay off his leg as much as possible while keeping it elevated whenever he could.

He had to roll around in a scooter, and the production team thought it was appropriate to assign them a song with that title?

Was this some type of sick, ironic joke played by the universe?

As Areum met his eyes, it seemed even she got the irony because she coughed before looking away.

"Ahem, shall we watch the video?"

As the video began playing, Ari watched the familiar faces of the boys that he and Jamie had seen being rushed by fans at the airport wearing sparkly bell-bottom disco-style outfits.

The sound of a bass and trumpets broke out before the boys began singing and dancing enthusiastically.

With an intentionally blank expression, Ari watched the entire performance without blinking.

It was a good performance, excellent in fact.

The song itself was nice and catchy, with a melody pleasing to the ear.

But the performance?

Ari could only sigh.

He watched them do the splits, moonwalk in unison, kick flip a mic stand, catch it seamlessly, perform a jazz split before continuing the performance.

All the while maintaining great vocal stability.

Ari closed and reopened his eyes, hoping that this was a bad dream, but the performance video continued onto the intense dance break, which looked even harder than before.

Withholding a sigh, he turned to stare at Justin's leg in a boot and then back at the performance video.

Back to Justin's leg.

Back to the performance video.

By telling them that modifications were highly discouraged and would be frowned upon, wasn't this just telling his team, in particular, that they were screwed?

How the heck was somebody who was in a cast supposed to perform those moves?

And discounting Justin, how were the rest of them supposed to maintain the high notes while performing these moves?!

Was anyone on the team even flexible enough to do the splits?

Was the production team on drugs?

They had no choice but to ask for modifications!

Even if he wanted to ignore the choreography, the vocals were also a problem.

Half of his team consisted of rappers who sang with a lower register.

Wouldn't he and Jamie have to sacrifice their voices to maintain the original key?

Since he had no one to complain to, even if he wanted to, Ari just kept his mouth shut as Areum continued presenting the other songs.

Just as he suspected, it really wasn't a good morning.

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