From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel
Chapter 199: Exoneration (4)

Chapter 199: Exoneration (4)

Finding himself wrapped uncomfortably in Jamie’s arms in a completely unwanted hug, Ari held still for a full two seconds before he began sharply elbowing him in the side.

"Get off of me."

"No."

"I said, get off."

"Never."

"I will pour an entire freezer of ice down your shirt while you sleep if you don’t let me go."

"...I’m not afraid of you."

Despite flinching at the threat, Jamie continued to hug Ari tightly, almost squeezing the air out of him.

Ari gave him another 2 seconds to reconsider his actions before bringing out his final threats.

"And burn your cowboy hats. Starting with your favorite white one."

Gasp!

Jamie immediately leaped away, looking comically shocked, as he gripped the white cowboy hat on his head.

"You wouldn’t dare!"

Fixing his crumpled clothing, Ari sighed before asking the most important question, "Don’t tempt me. Anyway, what are you doing here?"

"You weren’t at the dorms, the staff refused to tell us anything, and you didn’t answer your phone. They didn’t really take you to jail, did they?"

"Nope," Ari replied calmly as he turned around, finally noticing the other 4 boys walking at a fast pace towards him.

It was Vishal, Carlos, Mathew, and Benjamin.

"Oh, you didn’t come alone? What are you all doing here?" Ari asked them as they got closer.

"Do you hear this brudda? We saw them slam you in those cuffs and say they were going to throw you in the pen. Production refused to speak up, you weren’t answering your phone, so of course, we were worried. Luckily, we saw some news interview posted on the community and figured you’d be back from school around now, innit." Benjamin replied immediately, slinging his arm around Ari’s shoulders and messing up his hair.

"Oh. Yeah, I was at school, sorry, I forgot to turn my phone on."

"Are you okay? Are you injured anywhere? I brought you some ointment." Carlos held out a small pharmaceutical bag as he looked over Ari’s face while Benjamin began aggressively patting his body and spinning him around.

"I’m fine."

"Are you sure? No hidden bruises? Your ankle is not sprained? Did you get beaten up in jail? I’ve heard people get career-ending injuries in there sometimes." Mathew chimed in, taking over from Benjamin and squeezing his arms, and then squatting to squeeze his legs.

"No. I didn’t go to jail. My career is hopefully not over. I’m fine." Ari repeated calmly as he was manhandled left and right.

"Oooh, this looks fun, I want to join in."

As Jamie joined in spinning Ari around and messing his hair and clothes up, Vishal waved from the side.

"I just tagged along. Glad you’re okay, Ari."

"You’re looking extra scruffy today, innit? You sure you’re alright, mate? Usually, you would have blown up by now."

"How’s your ankle? Does it feel weaker than usual?"

"Your lip looks a bit swollen. I also brought muscle relaxers, Tylenol, ibuprofen, and Aleve to give you options."

"Spin! Spin!"

"Enough!"

As Ari shoved them all away, Benjamin slid to the side and clapped enthusiastically, "There we go! The evil in his body exploded. He’s back to normal."

Click! Click!

Benjamin turned to the side, glancing at Grace, who was shamelessly taking a photo of them, before giving her his classic, charming smile.

As her dark eyes met Benjamin’s, the other boys froze, and Grace smiled before taking another photo.

"No, no, please continue. This is for my blog and will help boost your stock on the show, I promise."

"Hullo there, I’m Benjamin, one of Ari’s friends. Pleasure to meet you. Are you his girlfriend or-"

At the word girlfriend, Grace’s entire face shriveled into an expression of disgust as if she had eaten garbage.

"Please don’t ever say such horrible words ever again; otherwise, I will investigate your deepest, darkest secrets, write the most scathing article you’ve ever seen, and publish it on all seven continents, including Antarctica."

At the harsh refusal, Benjamin blinked before laughing.

"Ah, I can see. Siblings. Got it. The bad mouth runs in the family. My apologies. I meant no offense."

"Much better. Hello, I’m Grace Choi, a reporter, pr firm owner, and the best employee at the restaurant. Here’s my business card. If you visit my website, you can see my rates for the different services I offer, and additionally, my grandparents run the best Korean bathhouse in Los Angeles and also serve the best authentic Korean food ever." Giving them a bright business-like smile and talking at her usual fast pace, Grace quickly handed out more business cards while they were still frozen.

"I will tell my grandmother that you’re all coming to eat, so I expect to see you all inside. Ari, you’re their server since some of us are working hard and actually have to study!"

"Yeah, yeah. See you later and thanks again."

"And remember what I said, uni-"

"Stop nagging. I got it."

"Hmph!"

"Hmph, back at you."

With a final wave that looked suspiciously as if she were flipping him off, Grace ran off, while Ari led them toward the restaurant.

"Is she always like that?" Benjamin asked while glancing around curiously, since he had never been on this side of town.

"No, she’s usually worse. But she’s a good person, like her whole family, the food is good, and I can treat you guys since you came to see me anyway."

As the 6 tall boys, dressed in entirely different manners, walked into the restaurant, a few people glanced at them, then did a double-take after realizing that they were all better than average-looking.

Ari led them to a seating area near the back, having grabbed menus, and began giving general recommendations as they read through them, before they all got variations of the same thing.

"So, in total, no pork for Benjamin, no beef for Vishal, brown rice and nothing marinated for Mathew, and extra spicy for Carlos, right?"

"Si."

"Yep."

"Yessir."

"Ya."

"Hey, what about me?" Jamie began complaining, and Ari used his clipboard to smack the back of his head.

"What about you? You’ve been here before, so I know what you like to eat."

"Well, I still want to be asked."

"What do you want to eat?"

"What I got the last time."

Then why did I have to ask you?

Ari: ಠ_ಠ

"...I’ll be back."

After placing their orders, the six of them chatted while waiting for the food to be done.

They told him about the remainder of the culture festival and the outing that the production team had taken them on, while Ari gave them a general gist of who Analise Crouch was and what had happened when the police officers had taken him away.

Despite being asked constantly, he didn’t make a comment on whether he would be back on Pop Star Academy or if he was eliminated, and the rest of their meal, they just spoke about other light-hearted topics until it was time for them to go home.

Carlos left first on his motorcycle while Vishal took Benjamin and Mathew in his car, leaving Jamie, who kept hanging around while looking as if he wanted to say something.

Since he wasn’t sure what the issue was, Ari just sipped his water while staring impatiently.

"Your royal sea-ness."

"Hmmm?"

"What’s with you and William?"

"I hate him to death," Ari replied honestly.

Jamie stared at him silently for a while before pulling his hat down over his eyes.

"Keep your phone on from now on, or at least send a text, since you refuse to get on the app. I was actually very worried because nobody had heard from you. And it was a really scary situation with no one telling us anything."

"Okay. My bad."

"Bad response. Try again."

At Jamie’s surprisingly firm tone, Ari blinked before responding accordingly.

"I will send a message once I am able if I end up in a situation like that again. Sorry for worrying you."

"Okay. And you should get a better phone so you can get the app. You can even share your location with me."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Sounds bothersome."

"Boooo."

"Even if you sulk, it means nothing to me. Go home. I have school tomorrow."

"What if you win a new cell phone in a competition?"

"I would sell it for money," Ari replied immediately.

"What if you got one as a gift?"

"I’d use it, I guess?"

"Really? Good! See you tomorrow."

"No?"

Without waiting for Ari to say anything, Jamie ran out of the restaurant.

Ari: ".....what a weirdo."

Still, he was pretty happy that he had gotten to see his friends.

Things seemed to be going on track for once.

****

And while Ari was enjoying his evening, another person was throwing a tantrum in a fancy office, sending all sorts of office equipment flying at two men who had no choice but to stoically take it.

"You guys are useless! Useless! You can even do one thing right! Arghhhhhhh!"

William sent a stapler flying toward the two men dressed in police officer uniforms, pausing to smile in satisfaction before continuing to throw everything on the large oak desk onto the floor, as he caused as big a mess as possible.

His blue eyes were bloodshot, while his usual perfectly coiffed hair was disheveled.

"You mean to tell me that that strange green mask-wearing weirdo was the one with the old man from several weeks ago?"

"....yes."

"I could have sworn I asked you to get rid of him, along with that old man. So please explain to me how he’s still alive." As if he had never screamed, a deceptively calm voice came from Williams’ mouth, even though his nostrils kept flaring as his pupils dilated from sheer anger.

John Doe licked his lips nervously before responding, "I thought I did. It wa-"

"I thought I did-." William interrupted, while mockingly repeating his words, "Do I pay you to think? No! I pay you to follow my orders, and apparently, you’re too stupid to do that! Not only did you fail to get rid of him the first time, but you were lazy on the investigation I asked you to do, and when I finally gave you the perfect setup, the perfect reason to arrest him, drag him to the station, and interrogate him, you messed it up, leaving him free to go! And you want to convince me that you’re not useless????"

"But it was hard to investigate. He doesn’t really have a digital footprint, and he doesn’t have any social media presence at all, and-"

"Excuses! Excuses! All I hear is excuses! Now you’re telling me that you can’t arrest him because he’s in the public spotlight? Do I look like I care about some rubbish local news channel interview? Huh??? Answer me!!"

Knowing better than to answer, both Joe Smith and John Doe stood there silently, hoping that their boss would finally calm down instead of acting like a maniac.

William continued pacing around while muttering to himself.

Sometimes he would go and pound the floor to the ceiling window; other times, he would kick at the broken objects on the ground, sending them flying.

"And now he has it. That thing that I need. No wonder. No wonder he’s always been blocking my way. Blocking others. Refusing to touch me. Increasing his rubbish skills at a fast pace. He knew. He knew! And was laughing in my face because he has a fully functional one while I have this broken garbage that hardly works and is driving me crazy!! Argh!!!!! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Hah! Hah!"

As William began shouting again while clutching his head, the two officers glanced at each other before taking a step back.

The screaming lasted for several minutes before William calmed down and took a seat on the only clean chair in the room.

He looked as if he had made an important decision.

"It’s fine. It’s fine. Let’s get him kicked out properly. You might have failed, but others won’t. After all, those directors care a bout their image and don’t want a scandal to bring down this money sink of a program. I’ll just call my uncle and get him to handle it. In the meantime, continue the investigation on him and find somebody to follow him everywhere, and if possible, snatch him up discreetly and bring him to me."

Joe Smith and John Doe glanced at each other before replying politely.

"Yes, Boss."