From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 103: Swan (3)

"We’ve done the basic intro, so let’s start by dividing the song parts since we have quite a lot to do." Benjamin stood at the front of the room, holding the whiteboard, which displayed the positions written on it.

The song he had selected was the BTZ song called Dash which was a fast-paced, rap-heavy song that suited his tastes.

Thankfully, BTZ had nine members, so there were enough parts to split evenly among the nine team members.

"Before we start, I’ll just confirm that I’m the leader, yeah." The British boy said as he passed out the lyric sheets.

Most of the boys in the room nodded in agreement, but a little peeved, William Forbes quickly spoke up, interrupting Benjamin’s following words.

"Why do you get to be the leader? Shouldn’t we vote on it? It’s a democracy after all, and everyone who wants to try for the position should be able to make their case."

"Sorry mate, not this time around," Benjamin said with an easy smile as he continued writing his name on the board in the leader position.

"Why not?" William stubbornly continued, trying to bait the other boy into an argument.

Currently, Benjamin was one of the most popular contestants after his performance video went number one and his ’Meet the Boys’ segment briefly trended for him, having the most rizz.

In person, he was quite charming and got along with most contestants, the production staff, and even the regular workers, such as the custodians and food servers.

Although William had received good airtime and editing during the episode 1 viewing and the "Meet the Boys" prequel, he felt that his portions compared to others were not as interesting as some of the others and could even be considered boring.

Despite the PDs giving him lots of screen time, he had been completely overshadowed by the narratives of many other contestants, and online comments said that it was completely skippable.

Additionally, while his performance video did well, it was nothing compared to Benjamin’s team, the support the Korean, Japanese, and Chinese members got on their videos, or the hate-fueled virality of that mime-faced boy with the girly name whom he instinctively disliked.

And since his team hadn’t won, he had to wait to be chosen by people his age, which he had never had to deal with in his life.

Upset that he had to basically beg to be selected, like an unwanted student during gym classes in grade school, William had to live with the fact that Benjamin had chosen other people before him, and even had the audacity to compare him to that mime-faced contestant who was constantly rude to him.

Tired of the insults and being disregarded, William wanted to become the team leader and showcase his skills and increase his popularity with this team full of talented contestants that Benjamin had selected.

But naturally, he didn’t want to look like a bad person getting that role, meaning he had to come up with a way to depose the British boy in front of him while looking like the innocent party.

Making his expression blank, William looked at Benjamin once more as he joked around with a C-class Chinese contestant whose name he couldn’t be bothered to remember.

Although the British boy was usually laid back and had a fun-loving personality, everyone had a breaking point, including him.

If he could get bait Benjamin into acting angrily and abusing his power, he was sure he could sway the other teammates, who looked docile, to be on his side when he placed his bid to take over.

Raising his hand, William spoke as innocently as he could, "I think you should give everyone a chance to run for leader to make things fair."

"I’m afraid that’s another no, mate. When you win a challenge and choose your own group mates, you can do as you please, yeah? For now, let’s stop chatting ’bout minor details and figure out how to deliver the best performance since the other teams are probably gunning for our necks. Heard them whispering that we’re the Avengers innit. Not sure about you, but I want to live up to the name and remain in the number one spot."

At Benjamin’s friendly but firm refusal while subtly igniting the group’s sense of rivalry against others, William Forbes gritted his teeth, but stayed silent as the atmosphere in the room shifted.

He would take his time, poking and prodding him, until Benjamin snapped.

Seeing that everything was calm, the tall British boy smiled before speaking as he held up the papers in his hand.

"I asked the production team to color block the lyrics by parts and to print us some stills of the original song, so let’s listen to the song a couple of times before having a mini audition between us boys. Eyes closed, honest voting for who performed the parts best. If I think you’re being biased or it gets tied, we revote, or I break it. Afterwards, we’ll hash out all the details on costumes, lyric changes, etc., and submit it to production by tomorrow morning so that they can prepare our things early and we can use them in practice and fine-tune things, yeah?"

As everyone nodded, Benjamin continued, "Brilliant. The next couple of days are packed, so everyone can focus on prepping the signal song. After lessons, we’ll meet for two hours a day to practice the choreography, and you’re all responsible for having your vocal or rap parts memorized within two days. Let’s revisit the center and main dancer positions right before the mid-way check-in with the trainers."

Benjamin paused to take a breath as he looked around before continuing, "Questions, comments, concerns?"

"Why can’t we decide those things now? We’re gathered, so we should decide the center and main dancer today." William raised his hand.

"Because it’s not an immediate priority, and because people learn choreography at different paces. A couple of self and group practices do wonders, and we can see how well people do with their parts before deciding on it later." Benjamin replied calmly.

"Aren’t you doubting the skills of everyone here? We’re the Avengers, right? I’m sure everyone can memorize the song and dance today, and if they can’t, maybe they shouldn’t be interested in those roles." William insisted.

"I hear you, but no. More practice is always better, and giving people grace usually produces better results."

As William opened his mouth once more, Benjamin sighed before putting on a tight smile, "I’m deading this conversation, mate. Let’s get started."

To avoid going back and forth, Benjamin quickly played the song, bobbing along to the beat as the fast-paced rap portion sounded out.

He mouthed the words while staring around the room as the song continued playing, painting a picture of what he wanted for each part that came up.

This high-pitched vocal highlight should go to Carlos; the slightly lower-toned chorus should belong to William, even though he would have preferred Ari’s slightly husky yet clear tone.

The breathy ad-libs could go to In-su, who had a breathy voice, while Haruto could perform the dance break after he got the second rap verse.

Chen could handle the middle harmony with Silas, while Hao and Nile took the other rap sections.

Those four would need coaching on proper pronunciation, but between the trainers, Carlos, and himself, Benjamin thought he had it handled.

His setup was basically perfect.

As he had picked his team members, Benjamin first selected those with high vocal, dance, or rap grades and, within those grades, tried to choose individuals with milder, more team-oriented personalities.

Some of that happened because those contestants spoke less English, but as long as their skills were good, Benjamin figured it would work out.

His only concern was William Forbes, who seemed to be quite individualistic, and he had waffled over it, but the boy’s high vocal grade and high dance grade were too good to pass up.

Seeing William focus on the lyrics on his paper, it seemed that the blonde boy had calmed after his initial barrage of probing questions.

In fact, it was probably in his imagination that he found them probing.

Thinking that everything was fine, Benjamin began the inter-team audition process for the positions.

And 30 minutes later...

"Everything I ask or propose is always a no, no, no! You’re discriminating against me and clearly hate me, so I don’t even know why you chose me for this team if you can’t even consider my words! Until you apologize to me, I won’t be coming back." William Forbes announced while slamming the door of the practice room open and dashing away.

"Has this brother gone completely mad?" Benjamin looked furious as William Forbes ran out while the rest of the team looked shocked.

Ari, who was walking by the practice room on his way to get water, was almost knocked over by William, who shoulder-checked him as he left.

As Ari turned to look back at the blonde boy who was running away, the angry Benjamin standing in the practice room doorway with Carlos and other team members faces poking out behind the British boy, and a camera man running out of another practice room in excitement at the noise, he made a complete U-turn and went back to his own teams practice room.

Suddenly, he wasn’t thirsty anymore.