From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 90: Traffic Song Boy (2)

Justine gave the performance on her living room TV her full attention, not even daring to breathe as the dark screen brightened up to show 11 boys in a triangle formation.

As the intense bass sound rang out, the boy with the double zero shirt that said Ari posed as he said his lines with a smirk before sharply sliding to the back as a handsome Indian boy with a shirt that said Vishal and had a number 7 on it slid to the front and began rapping.

What’s your aim

When we play this game

We want to make it

Straight to the top right now

What’s your pain

Fighting doubters who don’t believe

Trying hard to achieve

My dreams

The beginning of Vishal’s rap showed his nervousness, but as he progressed, it seemed that he took the lyrics to heart and became more confident.

What’s your gain

Everything is golden

I sit on the top of the hill, yeah

Don’t believe

I will achieve

Cause I’m a G

You can’t stop me

With neat, controlled movements, Vishal danced with large steps and wide arm swings, as if a mock fight was happening, before rotating and facing the audience once more.

Watch this!

As Vishal and everyone yelled and jumped to the same height while before landing at the same time to a satisfying thump sound, Ari stepped forward and began singing with a clear voice with a hint of raspiness that caught the ear and made you want to listen more.

Ari’s green eyes were focused straight ahead, as if he were staring deep into the viewer’s soul.

Although his voice wavered a bit as he jumped and completed complex footwork as he dropped to the ground and popped up, Justine couldn’t stop listening to his singing and the ad-libs from a member she didn’t know.

She scooted even closer to the TV so she wouldn’t miss a single moment and could capture every detail with her eyeballs.

Once Ari’s turn was done, he immediately dashed backward without breaking eye contact, and the entire V-formation changed as 10 people took equal measured steps as they crossed each other while clapping, high-fiving, and patting each other’s backs.

Fully expecting a collision, Justine gasped as the 10 boys cleanly passed each other without a single mistake.

In the new formation, Ari was toward the back while Jacob moved forward to sing the first chorus.

In the brief seconds that Ari was hidden while everybody shuffled places, he pulled out a whistle from his pocket, placing it in his mouth in preparation for the ad-lib coming after the chorus while doing the choreography in time with everybody.

Jacob sang the chorus, and once he finished, the formation shifted so that all the boys surrounded Sachi while pretending to fight each other.

The beat intensified and then grew quiet for a moment as the boys froze as if their strings had been cut.

When Ari blew the first whistle, they all collapsed in half like dominoes as Sachi began his part.

Digidigidum digidigidum

They’re aiming for you so

Get down

Whistle!

Ari blew his whistle sharply, punctuating the hard beat and Sachi’s words.

Whenever the whistle sounded, everybody bent over and swung their arms against the floor like zombies, kicking and stomping at a uniform angle, creating a loud, unified thumping sound.

GetGetGetGet Get down (what?)

Whistle!

Get down

Whistle!

Get down

Whistle!

Wow wow wow wow wow

Once the first chorus was done, Sachi rotated out of the way, allowing Caleb to come in with his verse, followed by Diego’s rapping portion, Michael’s ad-lib, and Junho’s rap with Ari’s ad-lib backing him.

Throughout the performance, a subtle backing vocal could be heard, keeping the melody and blending seamlessly with the other singers and rappers.

Once the second verse was completed, Michael became the new center.

They performed the chorus choreography once more, and Ari blew the whistle in time while they performed the low kicks while bent over.

Whistle!

When the final whistle sounded out, Michael held the extended note, and the boys around him ran in a circle before they got into a single-file line, with only Ari visible as he stood at the front.

With a faint smirk on his face, he blew the whistle one last time before flinging it aside as he waited for the beat that indicated a dance break to start.

Beneath his feet, where nobody could see, the dark ground was quickly filling up with ice-cold water that almost submerged his shoes.

Right before the beat dropped, Ari widened his stance, dropped his head face down, and rested his hands on his knees as he waited.

Everyone behind him did the same with staggered timing until only he was visible.

Then it began.

THUD!

When the loud sound of a drum rang out, Ari performed a large stomp, which sent a huge splash of water into the air.

THUD! THUD!

THUD! THUD!

With each thud, his stomps got wilder and more exaggerated, creating larger and larger splashes of water that soaked his shirt, face, and hair while he smirked.

Suddenly, a unified shout was heard, and when Ari stomped again, two more people suddenly appeared beside him, having slid out in one slick motion, while his other eight teammates were hidden behind them, completely mirroring every move.

They continued stomping, jumping, and clapping in unison, and at each interval, more and more people appeared seamlessly until all 11 boys were visible on the screen, each wearing the white shirts with their names and numbers clinging to their bodies.

As they performed the dance break, clapping, jumping, shouting, and stomping, everything was in complete unison.

The water splashed at the exact same height, their arms swung at the exact same angle, and when they pivoted and jumped, the only sounds that could be heard were the unified thump as they landed at the exact same time.

THUD!

CLAP CLAP

THUD

CLAP CLAP

THUD THUD THUD

As they shuffled once more, the water kicked up and soaked their white T-shirts until they were transparent.

The intense dance break then continued in reverse as the boys went from 11 boys to 9 to 7 to 5 to 3 until finally, all that could be seen was the arms moving behind him as Ari moved back to the front.

His shirt and hair were completely soaked while droplets of water clung to his white-painted face and red lips.

Giving the camera another smirk as if he were truly enjoying himself despite water soaking every inch of his body, Ari, along with everybody behind him, collapsed to the ground, rolling to the side as the person at the center sang their hearts out before jumping up.

Each person flicked their wet hair back in unison before continuing the rest of the song, while kicking up water, which added extra impact and flair to all of their moves as the glistening droplets caught the light.

By the time Justine finished watching the video, not only did she know the names of all of the contestants on this team, but the portion of the performance where they began the unified dance with water splashing everywhere was stuck in her mind.

And it wasn’t because of the sudden reveal of the boys’ toned bodies, as their baggy white shirts turned a bit transparent and clung to their bodies while they danced powerfully.

And it definitely wasn’t because she was straining her eyes to gain X-ray vision, see through the wet clothing, and count the number of abs visible on all of the boys.

No! Not at all!

She was just somebody who enjoyed admiring the human physique!

Trying to convince herself mentally, Justine grabbed the remote and rewound it back right before the dance break, carefully watching it again and again.

Although it wasn’t as flashy as some other performances she had watched, and these boys weren’t the best dancers, she just couldn’t look away.

There was something about their energy and how synchronized they were that made it so appealing to watch!

She couldn’t help but wonder how much practicing they had done to make the water jump up to the same height each time they stomped or jumped on it.

Additionally, even though there were objectively handsome people on the team, Justine found her eyes constantly drawn to the boy with the fully painted face.

Maybe it was the lazy, cat-like air when he danced, or the intense eye contact of his green eyes, or his lipstick red lips that had smudged a bit because of the water, but Justine always found her eyes following him, whether he was at the front or the back.

And when she looked closer, she noticed that the eyes of his teammates were the same.

They all subtly glanced at him at some point, even though Ari was always looking straight ahead, which made her like him even more, want to see his face, and know everything about him.

As she replayed the dance break once more, her dad, who had abandoned her to watch another TV, poked his head into the living room to see what was going on as Justine began screaming again.

Seeing some teenage boys dancing on water while singing, her father tried to fill a 30-year age gap and bond with his daughter.

"Oh, you know what this reminds me of? There’s an old dance movie where the main character, named after an animal, did the same thing. You can watch it together with your old man. It’s pretty cooool~"

"Whatever, Dad," Justine muttered without paying attention to her father’s words as she pulled up the comments to read them.

She wanted to know what others were saying about the performance, and if they liked the same people she liked.