"Just try to be yourself in the broadcast. Most of the questions are already briefed to you. You just need to talk about your journeys to this point. The only unexpected part would be the Q/A session with listeners sending questions"

A female assistant briefed Aiden about what was going to happen in the show. It was done to avoid any accidents or mishaps from happening as the program was going to start in ten minutes.

Like the assistant said, most of the questions were just going to be related to the singer's past, how they had achieved so much and what were their future plans. This was the format of the show.

Sitting next to Aiden was a girl who had her hair tied up in a ponytail. She was wearing a simple, black dress that suited her body, but she wasn't listening to the female assistant.

Instead, she was browsing through her phone.

"Ms Hales, did you understand?"

The assistant asked awkwardly, and the girl raised her head a bit and nodded.

"Yeah. I just need to talk about my story and other stuff. I already know all that. Just leave it to me and don't disturb me."

Andrew said in a rude tone like she was telling the assistant to get out of her sight. The assistant who was just doing her job gave an awkward smile but looked used to it and left.

'She's really like how I thought she would be.'

Aiden thought, glancing at Andrea. Until now, they had only exchanged some pleasantries, and after that, she had gotten busy on her phone.

She already seemed like she didn't want to be here but had no other choice.

"Hey, your name is Aiden Silver, right? Which label are you from?"

When she saw Aiden glancing at her, Andrea put away her phone and looked at him.

"Aiden Silvereye and no label. I'm an indie singer."

"Oh, I did feel like I had seen you before." She said, and by her words, it was clear that her manager had not told her anything about him. "Yes, I remember now. You are the guy who got stabbed."

She suddenly said, her face becoming one of realisation. Her eyes naturally darted at Aiden's chest, where he had gotten stabbed, as he chuckled.

Even after his songs got millions of views, he was still known because of being stabbed on stage.

It was understandable as these things don't happen every day to artists. At this point, Aiden had fixed a performance spot in videos like 'Ten horrible incidents that happened with musicians'.

"Yeah, I'm that guy."

"I watched your viral video and how you suddenly beat Imagine Giants because of that. There was a lot of talk about it in the industry. Actually, there's been a lot of talk about you for a while. Did you actually pay for it?"

"What?"

Aiden made a shocked expression as he tried to comprehend what Andrea was saying. It sounded ridiculous no matter how he tried to process it.

He even wondered if she was trying to spite him.

"I mean, there were a lot of conspiracy theories about it. People found it weird how security was breached, and many said that you orchestrated it yourself to get fame. At least that's what I know from the parties I attended. In the past, a record label made a singer cut her wrist to get scars to pull off a depressed girl image. The industry has all sorts of weird incidents."

"I don't know what type of things people are talking about me at parties, but I won't get stabbed to get fame. I could have died. I'm not that crazy, and as for security breaching, those things happen because one doesn't expect something like this in a show. The security staff was acting lazy."

Aiden explained his part, but it seemed like Andrea was not satisfied. Thinking about something, she again opened her mouth.

"There's also that rumour that you deliberately left X-Star because you and another female contestant broke up. How you weren't able to handle rejection."

"Bullshit."

Aiden muttered. That was even more ridiculous than the stab conspiracy theory, but the longer Andrea spoke about these rumours, the weirder he felt.

'Why does she know all these weird rumours about me when she didn't even know my name properly before? I don't even know these rumours about me. She clearly is trying to make me angry.'

He said and glanced at her. She seemed to be smirking at his reaction. His doubts were not for nothing. She was clearly just an immature girl who was trying to spite him for no reason.

'If I don't say anything, she's probably going to continue.'

Thinking that Aiden thought back to the information he had searched about her. It was not only her who knew weird rumours.

"You know I have heard a rumour too. Actually, there is a lot about you." Aiden said, and before Andrea could say anything, he continued. "How your family paid for bot accounts on social media that used the algorithm to make you go viral and how you once nearly injured someone badly in Germany after a show because you were drunk driving while not even having a driver's licence."

Aiden had picked all this up from a special account in a celebrity forum. There was no proof of all this but going by Andrea's frozen face, he knew these rumours weren't too off the mark.

"One more thing is how you regularly visit a doctor who's very proficient in plastic"

"Stop!"

Andrea said hurriedly, waving her hands. She just wanted to annoy Aiden a bit because she was feeling bored.

His reaction was fun to see for her, but she never thought he would talk back to her like this.

Most of the other people won't say anything because of her family and record label. But Aiden had really dared to do it and he was even smirking at her.

"I'm not saying these are true. They are obviously rumours. I'm just saying that there are a lot of strange rumours about celebrities everyday on social media and at parties. You shouldn't trust just anything."

***

"We are going live in 54321. Go!"

As the signal came, the opening music started the program. Hector smiled and started talking. In front of him, both Aiden and Andrea were sitting, headphones fixed on their heads.

"Hello, I'm Hector Burn and welcome to our show 'What's new in Music?'. The show where we discuss everything new going on in the music scene in America and even abroad. Today, I have two special guests with me here that a lot of you must have heard of. I would let them introduce themselves."

At those words, Andrea was the first one to give her introduction. She just repeated the lines that were given to her.

"Hello, I'm Andrea Hales, and I'm a singer. I'm very honoured to be in such a special show."

After the short introduction, it was Aiden's turn.

"Hi, I'm Aiden Silvereye, and I'm a singer and an actor. I don't know if any of you know me, but I hope you like me through the show."

As soon as the introductions were over, Hector quickly started asking questions to both of them. It was the first time they were attending the show, and the whole point of it was just to tell their stories to the listeners.

"Aiden, from what I know, you first got famous after X-Star. Tell us a bit about how you got there."

Hector asked in a tone that seemed like he was very interested in hearing about his past.

"Well, I was very desperate back then. My life was not going anywhere, and I was basically trying to grab onto anything I could find. X-Star came then. I always liked to make songs, and music was never my first love, but it was always something dear to me, so I gave it a try."

"That's very interesting. You got pretty famous in the last season, but you were suddenly eliminated. How did you pull yourself from it? One of your songs got viral shortly after you left the show."

Hector asked, and even Andrea glanced at him.

"It was very tough when I was eliminated. I remember just sitting backstage for hours, and the feeling that it was over was really bothering me a lot. I think it was like that for two days before I finally picked myself up."

"What happened suddenly?"

"Nothing. It was just a feeling that time was ticking away, and if I can't get over one failure, I will never be something. X-Star was important but not the end. Thankfully, it worked out well in the end."

Hector nodded his head, hearing that, and glanced at the comments coming through. Most of them were pretty positive.

After that, he moved to Andrea, who talked about how she used to sing covers of songs before one day it suddenly blew up. She was trending on social media, and record labels were contacting her.

Listening to her story, Aiden felt like her team had prepared her well. He knew that a lot of celebrities were taught what to and what not to say or how to say things, and he was sure that Andrea was one of them.

She very subtly presented how she regarded it as a lucky success, and it got harder for her as she moved forward in her career.

'She's pretty good in interviews'

Aiden thought as the interview progressed.

...