Rachel Smith was getting tired and wanted to go home.
What had been fun at first was now turning into a real snooze fest.
As a huge boy group fan who loved all genres of pop music, including K-pop, J-pop, American pop, Rock-pop, and more, she was very excited when she found out that the two biggest entertainment companies in Korea and America along with five smaller ones were joining together to create a survival idol show and make a global boy group that would merge the positives of the eastern and western pop worlds.
As someone who was a veteran survival idol show watcher, she immediately got her tickets for the public viewing of the second round, in which an unbelievable 200 contestants would perform and 100 of them would be eliminated.
This was an opportunity of a lifetime for her and she absolutely could not miss it!
Firstly, it was to get a good look at the contestants who had made it past the first screening.
She fully expected to see popular up-and-coming musicians, dancers, and, of course, trainees from other countries give her a live performance that she usually wouldn't be able to see. Especially in LA. The thrill of being close enough to touch the people who might be her favorites in th future made her feel like passing out.
But secondly, she loved to support an underdog.
She wanted to be one of the first fans to invest and help select the members of a group that she was sure would succeed and make the type of music that she really enjoyed. She wanted to be the one to discover the hidden ugly duckling that everybody looked over and be one of the earliest supporters when that ugly duckling turned into a white swan.
So she confidently went to the showcase by herself despite her friends refusing to go with her.
And at first, she had not been disappointed.
The first performer, William Forbes and his boys, had been phenomenal. His teammates had the facial variety she craved in a global boy group and the skills to back it up and she immediately voted for them to be within the top 10 as their skills looked the most complete.
She even liked his confident attitude as he sat in the number one spot.
The following six groups also had impressive members and performance, but nothing that really shone like that first performance. Her rankings changed and although the top 7 stayed stable, there was movement in the lower 20s and 30s.
A few other contests caught her eye, like the boy in a cowboy hat who composed his own song, the extremely handsome British boy whose accent made her want to faint from love, and a tall, darkly handsome man who sang like an angel descended on earth.
She quickly voted for them to be within the top 30s as they didn't demonstrate any choreography but still stood out amazingly.
Then came the snooze fest.
A lot of the contestants toward the middle were a bit disappointing. Some had okay looks, some sang badly, some messed up their rap verses, and some just looked nervous and had stage presence.
But she couldn't really find any particular underdog she wanted to latch onto and support.
Then, she saw the strangest-looking contestant coming out.
She was only able to identify him as a contestant because he was wearing the same gray uniform as the other contestant, but in a very unique way.
He wore a black turtleneck underneath his unbuttoned white shirt, his tie was loosely tied around his neck, and he wore black leather gloves so no skin was exposed.
On his feet were rugged boots that made a slight clomping sound as he strode casually toward the MC, and in his hand was...a trumpet?
Around his face was wild, curly black hair, and his face...
His face was painted a ghostly white. One of his eyes had a black star painted over it, with three smaller stars colored red, yellow, and green around it. He also had red lipstick around his lips.
Those red lips were curled up in an amused smile as he took in the open-mouthed MC, the disapproving looks from the judges, and the gasping audience that looked from his appearance, to the name and matching photo that appeared on the screen.
"What the heck is on his face?"
"Is he actually a contestant?"
"He looks kind of...ugly."
Harsh whispered comments could be heard from the audience, but the boy continued smiling and Rachel could only stare at him as she was completely entranced.
He stood there for a while, but seeing the MC staring at him in shock, he grabbed the mic off the stand and introduced himself.
"Hello everyone, I'm Ariel Matisse, but I go by Ari. As previously discussed with Judges Selena and Larry King, I will be performing my own composition today."
A laid-back voice with a hint of a French accent sounded out as the boy continued speaking.
"The song I wrote about is something we all experience the moment we step out of our houses. Traffic. The chorus of my song has the lyrics, Traffic really sucks, two hours of being stuck, often late or in a rush, because traffic really sucks. The chorus happens after I play these notes on this bad boy." The boy held up the golden trumpet, quickly placed it to his lips, and played five simple notes.
The trumpet, which sounded like car horns, seemed to wake the MC and the audience up.
"So please feel free to sing along later." Ari finished neatly and stared at the MC, whose face paled at the fact that he had been silent for over a minute.
"Wow! What a bold contestant! Ari, you said? You introduce yourself so well that I don't need to say anything! Apologies for freezing up earlier. My brain was buffering." Ryan Leary laughed before fake whispering, "When you get to my age, it happens all of the time."
"Can I tell you a secret? It happens to me, too." Ari fake whispered back, and Ryan Leary laughed while patting his back.
"You are too funny! Well, let me get out of your way so that I can hear this amazing song about Traffic."
As Ryan Leary quickly moved away, Ari began tapping his feet as an upbeat country pop beat began playing in the background before the drums kicked in.
Then, clutching the pole of the mic stand, he brought his red lips up to it and began to sing.
And as she heard the first note come out of his mouth, Rachel's eyes lit up brightly.
This was her underdog!