Claps and cheers came from outside the hallway as the two presenters walked onto the stage.

Meanwhile, the two sound technicians continued to wire the girls' microphones. Once they finished, one of the crew members told us to be ready to go out in two minutes.

Aya stepped aside, then the girls and I lined up behind the corner that led onto the stage. To be honest, my chest did get a little tight when I realized how much the situation resembled a concert. I didn't belong in front of the cameras, but I had to follow the plan.

"There are two reasons Fame Gain is popular," said Tomokazu to Aya, the girls, and me. "They are one of the few TV programs that don't follow a script, so people like its unpredictability. However, the most important reason is that they go for the interviewee's throat as soon as the interview gets boring, but they are smart about it. You have to be attentive all the time to be able to counterattack fast, that's why we'll go through some possible scenarios now."

The girls seemed completely fine, except for Astra. She wouldn't stop fiddling with her fingers and zoning out while looking at the floor.

About to place my hand on her shoulder to comfort her, Umi did it first. She gently shook Astra. Realizing she wasn't reacting much, Umi shook her aggressively. Astra looked up at Umi and giggled, and Umi returned the smile to her. She then caught me staring at them and snapped her away.

Before we realized it, it was time.

"Go, go," one of the crew members instructed.

Sanae walked around the corner first, followed by Risa, Aki, Umi, Astra, and me. The audience cheered just as much as when the presenters walked onto the stage.

The girls naturally smiled and waved at the audience, while I merely walked behind them. I didn't know what to do with my hands and face. It wasn't the first time I had felt self-conscious, but seeing a dozen cameras and more than a hundred people in front of me only worsened the feeling. The blinding spotlights aiming at us didn't help either.

There were several screens around the studio, most of them showing a script of what the presenters had just said, but some others showed a number: one hundred and two thousand, five hundred and seven.

Is that the current viewer count?

Strangely, the fact that Ceruty's first interview with me reached a higher number of viewers distracted me ever so slightly.

That's funny.

The girls continued to wave as they sat on the sofa in the middle of the stage. Panic hastily began to overpower the girls and me when we saw there was no space left for me. Luckily, my brain was smart enough to make me look behind the sofa, where a stool stood. I walked around the couch and sat down on it.

It already started, huh?

"Give Blostars another round of applause!" the rude presenter shouted at the audience, who quickly complied.

Once the clapping ceased, the polite presenter asked, "We're sure most people know you already, but please introduce yourselves to the people who don't."

"Sure," replied Sanae. "Hi everyone, I'm Sanae."

"I'm Risa."

"I'm Aki."

"Umi."

"And I'm Astra."

The audience clapped, then the rude presenter continued, "Wonderful! You might've noticed we have a special guest behind the sofa. I wonder who he is."

I raised my hand to wave at the audience and introduced myself, "I'm Kaito Miyahara, Blostars' manager."

Expecting the audience to clap again, they didn't. Instead, the rude presenter kept talking.

"Interesting. We didn't plan to have six people here today, but the group kept insisting that we bring their manager along. It definitely will give us some intriguing points of view."

So this is how it's going to go. Alright.

"You're completely right!" added the polite presenter. "Why don't we start by talking about your latest work, AURAS?"

Excerpts of the songs from AURAS played in the studio in rapid succession, accompanied by their music videos on the giant screen behind us.

At the same time, the polite presenter asked, "Astra, tell us a bit about the album. What does AURAS mean?"

"Yes!" she responded. "AURAS is an acronym created with all our names' first letters."

"Ohh!" the two presenters uttered in awe, then the audience did the same.

Astra continued, "It alludes to the theme of the album, which is ourselves. We each have two songs, one about our past and another one about our present, plus the title track with the five of us featuring the amazing Aeryx."

"She's amazing indeed," the polite presenter said. "Not only have you collaborated on songs, but you also went on tour with her! I wonder how you even contacted Aeryx in the first place. Speaking of tours, Blostars are about to go on their first tour through the country, everyone! Make sure to check that out after today's show."

The audience clapped, then the rude presenter continued, "Before changing the topic; Astra, the song about your past talks about how you come from another planet, right?"

Astra nodded, "Yes."

"It is very captivating, I have to say. And the music video is beautiful."

"Thank you."

"Then, the song about your present, whose title is your name, illustrates how kind people helped you after your arrival on Earth, but you shortly mention that there were evil people as well. Is there a reason why you barely talk about it?"

"There are two reasons, actually," answered Astra. "Since the first song was already sad, we wanted to contrast it with something more upbeat. The other reason is that there wasn't much to say anyway."

The two presenters frowned at each other.

"Could you please elaborate?" the polite presenter asked.

Astra nodded. "The evil people were bullies, but their intimidation didn't last long after I realized that they were just scared of me." She opened her mouth to continue talking, but she took a long pause.

"They will ask Astra about her past since it's the most incredible one," said Tomokazu. "That she's from another planet is well known already, so they will attack from another angle. Is there something she has talked about very little?"

Umi answered, "The bullies in her school? She barely touches upon the topic in her song."

Tomokazu smirked, "That's it. Astra, what could you answer to counterattack?"

"Eh? Do I have to?" frowned Astra.

Finally, Astra gathered the courage to say, "H-However, the bullies I hate the most are the ones that molested other people just to gain popularity. If anyone in the audience is like this, please stop. I'm sure you're talented enough to gain popularity on your own."

The whole studio remained silent for awkwardly long, indicating the success of the plan.

Nice.

The polite presenter rushed to fix the mood, "Very well said, Astra! We could talk about everyone's songs, but we have many topics to talk about, one of them being Blossom Stars, your first album. Umi, please tell us what it is about."

"Sure," replied Umi. "Blossom Stars doesn't follow a story, yet it still has an emotional progression that defines Blostars' style."

"Ohh!" the presenters and the audience uttered in awe.

"Why doesn't it have a story?" the rude presenter wondered. "I'd say it's a crucial aspect of practically every creative work."

"They hate repetitiveness, so they won't ask about Umi's past," explained Tomokazu. "Knowing that the most common complaint about the first album is the lack of story, they will ask Umi about it instead to mock her songwriting skills."

Umi frowned, "What do they know about writing songs?"

"Not much, I'm sure, but they will try to anger you with it. So, what you have to do is simple."

To my surprise, Umi didn't hesitate to answer at all.

"If I'm honest, the real reason is that I wasn't experienced in writing songs with continuity. It didn't even cross my mind."

The rude presenter opened her mouth to speak, but Umi kept talking. The presenter had no other choice but to let her continue.

"I explain this in Rain In Heart, the song about my past. I used to work on music commissions in order to be able to live like a normal human being, and I never came across commissions for songs that had story continuity."

"Didn't you study… something related to music?" the polite presenter asked.

"Music Production, but they focus on making music sound good and catchy; they barely have a grasp on songwriting."

The rude presenter smirked, "If you're a producer, then why were you replaced as a producer for the second album?"

"Because I'm inexperienced. We got enough money to hire a professional and experienced producer, so I'm learning from him. In fact, I'm still a producer on the second album, just not the first one on the list."

"I see…," the rude presenter laughed nervously.

I couldn't help but smirk.

The polite presenter rushed to change the topic. "Those were some very interesting facts! Again, there are many things to discuss, so why don't we talk about the incident that affected the entire country? The Blostars hacking."