"I have thought a lot about the type of challenge, and I decided that I want to be surprised by you. So your challenge would be to sing one of your original songs."

When Steven said that, Aiden couldn't help but feel nervous, yet he knew that this challenge was in his zone. Just in the last round, his composing skill had increased.

"Would you be able to perform it well? I know that telling you to sing an original is a big task."

Steven said, trying to make Aiden a bit comfortable. They were currently in one of the lounges set up for the judges, and a cameraman was shooting their interaction from a distance.

"I have a few originals prepared. Though they are not fleshed out, I believe that I would be able to satisfy you."

"Good. I give you a week to flesh it out. The original doesn't need to be perfect, but I want it to have an essence of its own. That's my only requirement."

"I won't disappoint you."

Steven nodded, and Aiden left the lounge.

'It's not going to be easy, but it's better than I expected.'

When he had first heard that the judge who would be giving him a challenge would be Steven, he was scared. Steven was infamous for scaring contestants with his harsh tones and judgments.

He had thought that the challenge he would give would be something way harder. But it was well within Aiden's zone.

"Hey, can I take a short interview if you are free?"

As he walked towards his room to prepare for the third round, he suddenly heard Marlo's voice from behind him. Turning around, he saw the latter standing with a mic in his hand and the cameraman whom Aiden had already gotten familiar with.

"Yeah, sure."

"So, how does it feel to be famous? Are you checking your phone every now and then to see what people are saying about you?"

Marlo looked at him. The comments about Aiden on social media were plenty. He and Rachel had gotten the most attention out of anyone else.

"Not really. I checked my phone for a bit after the broadcast. But currently, I am trying to not focus on it."

Although he said that, he knew that his social media accounts had been getting a lot of followers after the broadcast.

"You just got your third round challenge from Steven. Are you confident?"

Aiden nodded, "Yeah, I am confident. It won't be easy, but I think in a week, I can pull off a song that can qualify me for the Star Week."

"You got a lot of attention after the first broadcast. Do you think the other contestants have started to see you as a threat because of this factor?"

Aiden shook his head a bit before replying.

"Well, it's a competition, and everyone is wary of each other. It doesn't matter if I had more screen time in the broadcast. At the end of the day, it's more about our own skills than the skills of others."

"Do you have a song already made that you will perform in front of Steven?"

One song did come to Aiden's mind. It was a song that he had tried to compose three years ago before he came to the United States. Although it was only a half-finished product, he had a melody in mind.

"Not exactly. I have something nice to show, but it isn't complete, so I need to work on it first."

Marlo didn't pry further and ended the conversation. This much footage was enough for now. After all, they just needed to show 5-second footage before Aiden's performance.

"Good luck with your performance. I genuinely hope you make it to Star Week."

"Thank you."

Aiden smiled and made his way to his room. As he only had a week, he needed to perfect the song running in his mind.

**

"So, is the preparation going well? We will move to L.A. as soon as the third round ends and start the shooting for Star Week. I want everything to be perfect."

Gary Benjamin, the producer of X-Star, said to the staff sitting in front of him. They were currently in the meeting room, going over the result of the first round and planning for the next few weeks of shooting.

Music director, Creative writers, P.R. team head – Every central person of the behind-the-scenes team was present here. Marlo was also sitting right next to Gary.

"Most of the things are smooth. Even the ratings were pretty good, and with how things are going on, I believe the graph will rise in the coming days. We just need to know who will advance to Star Week to plan further."

Gary's assistant said while passing over the rating charts and some other files to everyone.

"Didn't we already have an idea who we would advance to Star week?"

One of the creative writers nodded.

"More or less, but it's still on the judges."

"I know, but we need to promote more popular candidates to ensure that we get good ratings," Gary said while looking over a chart when he suddenly noticed something. "Alex will sing 'The Other side' as his third round challenge? Can he successfully sing it?"

Alex was one of the few contestants that Gary thought was very marketable. With his boyish charms and good looking face, he could undoubtedly get a lot of core fans.

"The Other Side is a hard song to sing, even for famous singers. I don't think he will be able to do it."

The Music director replied honestly. It was an old song that had become a classic because of how difficult it is to sing it. Gary frowned, thinking that it was a waste of an opportunity if he was eliminated so soon.

"Who's the judge assigned to him?"

"Andrew."

"Ask him to change the challenge so Alex can pass." At his words which were akin to order, no one answered. Marlo was the only one who let out a sigh.

"We can't do that. It would be the same as going in the exact direction as Pop Star."

Pop Star was the singing reality show that used to air five years ago. It was the most popular show of its time, but there were scandals about how the show was primarily fake and everything was pre-decided.

It was to the point where reports came out that the show's producers had taken a lot of money to fix the winner and runner up spots for certain contestants.

These scandals forced the show's cancellation, and X-Star was the new alternative that Panther Network came out with. And this time, the network wanted to ensure that at least the results were genuine.

"Just telling Andrew to change his challenge doesn't mean we control the results. In the end, it's on the skill."

"We would still be interfering."

Marlo was stubborn in his stand, and noticing that the atmosphere was becoming awkward, Gary gave up.

"Okay, if Alex is any good, he would pass the round on his own." The atmosphere cooled a little as he ended the argument, "Now, let's go over the other challenges."

**

In his room, Aiden was blankly staring at the piece of paper in front of him. He already had the tune figured out and just needed to write lyrics to go with it.

But that was the hard part about this song.

Lyrics were going to be the soul of it. Aiden just wanted to make the music on the white canvas and paint it with beautiful lyrics.

The theme of his song was Life, and it was titled 'Life is a story.' Aiden had gotten the idea to write this when he had watched a movie with the iconic line 'Life is a box full of chocolates.'

That inspired him to write a song about the happiness, and sadness one goes through in life. But he found it incredibly hard to start the song because whenever he got to it, he would end up with a blank slate even after hours of brainstorming.

After all, Life was not about one thing. It was incredibly complicated yet simple at times. Describing it in one song almost seemed impossible.

'I need to think of Life. The good parts. The bad. Even The frustrating bits.'

After visualising his own life experiences, he started to write some words. Minutes turned into hours as he scribbled some words down and then erased them. This cycle continued for hours as Aiden worked hard to write a song to describe Life.