Rise To Stardom

(A few minutes ago…)

"Well this was certainly unexpected!" Howard, Creative Producer spoke aloud in the production room with widened eyes as he watched Kyle's emotional performance.

Even the other staffs in the room were visibly surprised by it.

A few contestants had actually made them feel like this over the past two days since the second auditions began but this was truly among one of the best.

It was also an original song to boot!

However, something else entirely was what was running through the chubby-looking man's mind.

'The ratings! The ratings of the show will soar with this types of performances!'

Howard could already picture it in his mind, branding Kyle as the underdog that everyone would want to root for.

Even just releasing a clip of his performance on ViewTube by the time the show finally began to air would guarantee a few million views if they promoted it well-enough.

He had already planned to do the same with Lily, Steven and Katie's monster-like performances but this was clearly just an added cherry on top.

Swiftly, he walked out of the production room to meet Chris who was near the foyer of the stage but still hidden away from the audiences' view.

"Chris!" he called out and immediately, the host turned around to respond.

"You must get an interview with him this time no matter what. Get him to tell you everything about himself if you can" Howard quickly said and Chris just shook his head in resignation.

Although he understood why Howard was behaving like this since he was the one heralding the main production, he couldn't help but be concerned about how the Creative Producer only had figurative dollar bills running through his head.

"I'll try my best but you know we can't push contestants if they're unwilling to share anything regarding their personal matters. It's in our policy" Chris calmly explained.

"Screw the policy. At the very least, just make sure to get an interview with him!" Howard swiftly replied, all of Chris's words flowing through one ear and immediately out the other.

"Alright…" the host reluctantly sighed and agreed.

* * *

'What the hell did I just witness?!' Oliver thought to himself as he watched Kyle walk off the stage after his performance was done.

That was the one singular question that kept ringing inside his head.

As the question kept surfacing in his mind, he continuously also felt chills run down the entire length of his spine.

This was the same busker he had seen just three weeks and a few days ago!

A busker he had told would improve in due time if he kept practicing!

He had never expected said busker to improve so much in just a span of mere weeks though!

'Was he holding back then?!' Oliver couldn't help but question himself.

'No! That doesn't make sense. His voice wasn't as refined as it sounded just now!' he quickly answered his own question.

Thinking to himself for a few more minutes, Oliver finally began to feel like he had found whom he had been searching for throughout the past few weeks!

'Kyle Kestis… I want to be his agent!' the man inwardly declared!

* * *

-Ding!

| You have performed another original song and impressed everyone |

| As a bonus for your first performance using the skill [Resonance], extra exp. points will be awarded! |

'That's nice' Kyle thought to himself upon reading that line.

He was already quite happy that he had been able to pull out the best performance he possibly could at his level with his tribute song, but this made him even happier.

| You have obtained a huge amount of exp. points! |

| 1000 exp. points have been awarded! |

| 500 bonus exp. points have been awarded! |

| Total exp. points available (1596) |

| Keep singing to improve your skills! |

'Guess the system wasn't kidding when it said level advancements will be much harder from now on' he mused to himself as he kept walking off the stage and into the waiting room.

"Surely you wouldn't mind an interview this time?" Chris walked up to Kyle and asked with a light smile.

"Yeah. Sure" Kyle replied in kind, understanding how the friendly host was hinting at him not taking the very first interview with him during the preliminaries.

Making their way over to a corner of the production room which had been designed specifically to take interviews, a giant poster of the Rising Voices logo behind, Kyle comfortably sat on the leathered stool in front of it.

Chris then began the interview, the camerapersons situated on the side zooming the camera in on their faces.

"So, I hope you have no in-course assessments anytime soon?"

"I hope not" Kyle replied, lightly smiling at the host's words as he continued;

"And even if I do, I did drop a leave of absence after all"

"That's good then" Chris replied and then spoke again.

"In the first round, you also wrote an original song too. [Spark] if I remember correctly?"

"Yeah"

"How exactly do you do it? You know, making a great song? Because that's two great songs in a row now" the host questioned with a thin smile.

"Well. I wouldn't call it great… It's good, maybe… but definitely not great" Kyle replied, his answers genuine.

This was especially even more obvious with the way his sapphire-colored eyes, despite being quite obscured by his glasses and raven hair, conveyed his genuine thoughts.

Chris nodded at that, happy that his words didn't get to Kyle's head like it would to most contestants.

"But I will say that I put a lot of thought into every song I write. That's really all I can say" the young man completed his thoughts on the matter.

"Clearly, it's obvious that you do" the host nodded his head and then asked another question.

"Do you have any plans to sing any other original songs on the show?"

"I might" Kyle vaguely replied, a small smile on his lips.

"Interesting…" Chris nodded his head in slight curiosity and then continued;

"So, [Embers]. I presume you wrote it with someone in mind?"

"You mind giving a bit more detail on that?" he added questioningly.

Having a pretty strong idea of where the production crew was probably going with this, the raven-haired chap just uttered a few words while giving a thin, mysterious smile.

"No comment"

Kyle really didn't want a sob story for himself. He wanted to be judged solely for his performances.

Chris, a bit surprised by Kyle's shrewd understanding of what they were planning to use that information for, trickily tried to ask the question again in different formats as the interview went on.

However, whenever he did, Kyle would just give him the same secretive smile without saying a thing.

Eventually, the host gave up on trying to get the answers out of him and focused on just asking about a few other questions.

"You used a guitar in the first round and now a piano for this round?"

"Yes. I've always liked the piano more but I figured there was also no harm in learning how to play the guitar too" Kyle truthfully replied.

"I see. Well then, I hope you make it to the very end. I'm rooting for you" Chris then offered a handshake to which Kyle replied while answering with a light smile.

"I feel like you say that to everyone but I still appreciate it nonetheless"

Chuckling at his words, the host watched as the young man left the room, while thinking to himself;

'What a breath of fresh air. Very mature for his age…'

Kyle on the other hand, who was now back in the waiting room, decided to take a seat at the very end while planning to watch the rest of the auditions for the day.

Although he was feeling the very intense glares that was directed towards him from the other contestants, all of whom had successfully made it to the next rounds, he ignored it.

Since they would all still be transported back to the hotel, losses or wins, most of the contestants were still in the waiting room.

The only exceptions were the people who had already been eliminated and could leave the set as they pleased after signing out at the lobby.

One of such contestants was Mike who had already stormed off the set angrily the moment he lost to Kyle.

However, just as Kyle took his seat, he watched as Jeremy quickly walked over and profusely began to thank him, much to his confusion and bewilderment.

The man then explained how he had lost his wife just recently and he had decided to just try his hand at singing again because she had always told him he could be a musician.

He had decided to fulfil her dreams as a sort of a coping mechanism for himself but after hearing Kyle's song, despite not winning, he was grateful he gave it a shot.

This was because hearing Kyle's song had given him the strength to move on from her but at the same time, made him realize that he could still pursue singing without the tag of just a coping mechanism on it.

Happy that his song had inspired someone because this was what he had always wanted, the young man then gently wished Jeremy the best in all of his future endeavours.

Watching as Jeremy walked out the waiting room with a light smile and a short wave, Kyle then proceeded to sit back down into his chair.

"He was right you know. Your song truly was a lovely one" the lady who was sitting just in front of him turned her head over and said.

"Thank you Katie" Kyle replied, and then the black-haired lady spoke again.

"After all this is over, you should make time to join the theatre club if you can. It'll be fun… granted there's only a few months left till graduation though"

"I'll think about it" the young man responded with a meaningful smile.