From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 347: Vacation (9)

It all started after they visited the Cheonggyecheon stream.

After taking their mandatory pictures, they found the staff member, received the next couple of riddles, and figured out the locations of the other riddles, including Blue House, Seoul Tower, another palace, Han Bridge, and a war memorial.

By this time, William, who was tired of walking and of Ari sneakily making them take the bus and train, then pretending he didn’t do anything, began complaining that he was hungry, and the only place he wanted to eat out was a restaurant in downtown Seoul. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Since he was truly in the wrong and had successfully minimized the money wasted on taxis, he agreed to eat at William’s choice.

Besides, he needed time to figure out the last riddle because he was truly confused.

They went in, got seated, and Ari took one look at the menu, one look at William, who was happily ordering multiple things for the table without a care in the world, and simply said:

"We can’t afford to eat here."

A simple bread, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar appetizer was listed on the menu for 50,000 won, and outside of the appetizer, nothing else had a price.

What kind of nonsense was that???

His entire convenience store order was filled with multiple extra pre-packaged dinners, lots of snacks, lots of candy, lots of drinks, and ice cream, and it barely came to 60,000 won.

If it were a Michelin-star type restaurant or even somewhere more upscale, Ari would understand, but it wasn’t.

This was a cafe in the downtown part of a city.

Sure, the decorations were nice, and the atmosphere was good, but there was nothing about the place that should make things cost that much.

And to make matters worse, the only people Ari could see eating inside were other foreigners like them.

The only Koreans were the workers.

This place was clearly a tourist trap meant to scam people out of their money.

And he didn’t plan to fall for it.

Despite Ari’s words, William continued ordering so many dishes that the cafe owner even came to greet them happily, with a huge smile on his face.

The food came out; they ate (the food was okay, it just looked extremely fancy).

Their waiter brought a receipt with a ridiculous amount of zeros, William brought out the card given to them by the production team, and the payment...

Was!

Rejected!

Again and again and again.

No matter how many times William tried, whether he swiped, inserted the card, or tapped it on top of the machine, the very embarrassing loud beep of a failed transaction.

And to make matters worse, William, who was now turning a bright shade of red, slammed the card down on the table and refused to even look at the waiter or say anything.

He just shut down and pretended nobody was here.

[How annoyingly childish.]

Ari couldn’t agree more.

Are you a child with no object permanence?

Do you think that if you ignore the situation, it just magically goes away, or somebody will handle it for you?

You got us into this situation, so open your mouth and fix it.

"William," Ari called him quietly, but the blond boy ignored him.

Ari: ಠ_ಠ

You think you can just ignore me?

I’m an only child, and I can confidently say that my specialty is annoying people until they give me a response!

"William. William. William. Will. Willie. Will. Will. William. Will. Will I Am. Will I Was. Would I Was. Will I Would. Would I Will. Will I Will. Would I Would."

By the time Ari finished conjugating William’s name in all the ways he could think of, the blonde boy finally snapped.

"Enough! What?!?"

"You can’t just pretend it’s not happening. What are we going to do? You’re the team leader who got us into this mess."

"....I don’t know," William mumbled quietly as he glared at him, but Ari didn’t let it go.

"What was that? I didn’t hear you. Can you repeat it for the camera, Captain?"

"....."

"Come up with a solution instead of looking away."

"Can you give us a moment? It seems we forgot to let our bank know that we traveled. We’ll fix it in a moment." Vishal asked the waiter politely.

"Sure. Take your time."

Their waiter gave them a strange look before speed walking to the cafe owner, who was staring at them from the host podium.

The two began to whisper, pointing at their table, and everyone craned their ears to hear better before turning to Daniel for a translation.

"Uhm, they’re saying something about us not being able to pay. They’ve had a lot of foreigners dine and dash these past couple of days. Uh, apparently, some popular streamer did it, and his fans have been doing it too. They think maybe it would be best to call the police just in case hic."

Daniel hiccuped with fear as he stared between the cafe staff who were speaking on the phone and his group mates who were staring at each other blankly.

What had started as a fun day exploring the city had now taken a turn for the worse.

He had never dined and dashed, he had never gotten in trouble with the cops, and now there was a chance that he might go to jail?

Was his life over?

Was this the end of his career?

What would his family say? What would the netizens say?

As everyone began thinking about the worst-case scenario, Ari tapped the table to get their attention.

"So, since we don’t have the money to pay, I guess we’re calling the production team and giving up?"

"I’m not giving up."

"Do we really have to give up? We’re on the last one. Maybe we can come up with money some how?" Vishal muttered as he began mentally reviewing the rules the producition team had shared.

"You don’t have any ideas? You always have ideas," Daniel turned to Ari with teary eyes.

"I do have an idea. If we don’t want to give up, we have 3 options."

"I knew it! What are they?"

"Option 1 which is also the easiest. Let’s Cheat."

Ari said simply.

As the three of them blinked at him, he explained, "He’s rich, and it’s his fault, so just turn off the camera, make him pay, and no one has to know. We can fess up after we receive our prize." Ari pointed to William.

As the other three turned to stare at him, William suddenly became flustered.

Usually, he didn’t mind paying, but the PD specifically said not to use their personal money or phones, so he left his wallet behind.

"I don’t have any money! The production team said to leave our wallets behind!"

"And you listened? You should have snuck it on you. Why didn’t you?" Ari asked incredulously.

"They patted us down before we left!"

"So?"

Hide your card in your shoe like a normal person!

"What do you mean so? I don’t have money! Anyway why am I getting criticized? What about the three of you!"

The other two shook their heads.

They didn’t bring their wallet, but even if they did, nobody wanted to be responsible for such a crazy bill.

On the other hand, Ari couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

"None of you brought your card. Not a single one?"

You all trust the production team that much?

Wow.

Seeing as they all shook their head, he moved on.

"Option 1 is temporarily tabled. Option 2. Two of you go sell Williams’ clothes and jewelry at a thrift shop or a pawn shop. Bring the money back so we can pay."

"....isn’t that still cheating?" Daniel asked carefully.

"No. The rules say we couldn’t bring any money. It doesn’t say we couldn’t earn any money on the scavenger hunt. So Vishal should take William to sell his things. Or I’ll take him."

"Hey! Why are we selling my clothes?" William complained while glaring at ari.

"They’re expensive and probably name brand. Am I wrong?"

"...."

William stayed silent because that was true.

His stuff was all name brand and very expensive.

"Exactly. So go sell them. And somebody has to go with you to make sure you come back and don’t try to escape with the money."

"You don’t trust me?" William replied rudely

"What do you think?" Ari replied just as rudely.

Why the hell would I trust a slimy snake like you?

"I’m not a money grubber like you."

"Maybe you should be. That way we wouldn’t be in this situation."

William: ಠ_ಠ

Ari: ಠ_ಠ

"I don’t want to sell my clothes or my jewelry. They’re custom. Why don’t we sell yours since they’re expensive too? I saw those clothes on the runway and if we pawn off those earrings of yours we can make the money back immediately." William pointed to the diamond earrings in Ari’s ears.

[Absolutely not!]

[If you sell those earrings, you’re in big trouble!]

I know.

So stop yelling!

Ari careless waved the blue screen infront of his vision away.

"Usually, I don’t care about clothes but this was a gift and you’re not touching my earrings. And honestly, where are you getting the audacity to say no? I think the person who got us into this mess should be less nitpicky and put in more work to get us out of this mess. But that’s just me."

"...I’m not selling or pawning off my things and I’d rather quit than do so, so let’s move on. What’s option 3."

"Oh option 3? You wanna know? You really want to know?"

Ari gave William a mischievous smile, and the other boy shuddered before speaking.

"What?"

"Option 3 is easy. I’ll personally solve the issue, but in return. You have to be my dog for the next 7 days."

"Your what?" William asked as his face turned red from anger and humiliation.

He couldn’t believe a little kid, younger than him was speaking to him this way.

How dare you!

He wanted to shout but Ari continued on like he didn’t care at all.

"Dog. You know woof woof. Arf arf? Ouaf ouaf? Usually, I’m more of a cat person but I’ll compromise just this once."

"Are you crazy?"

"Not at all. Think of it like a fun, servant contract. You obey me for 7 days of my choosing and I’ll easily solve this issue. Don’t worry, I’m actually a nice person so I won’t tell you to do anything crazy. If you don’t want to, let’s cleanly give up. I’m sure the prize is something stupid anyway. What do you say? Want to try being a dog?" smiling cheekily, Ari grabbed a napkin, scribbled on quick contract on it with a pen, and slid it over for William to sign.