Chapter 53
On the MeTube account of Grey, which had more than 5 million subscribers, the engagement had risen significantly in the past few days due to the release of his new song ‘Lonely’.
The music video featured a TV actor acting like a middle-aged man with a routine lifestyle that he doesn’t enjoy. Throughout the music video, he gets increasingly worn out, and the final bits of it just show him punching his boss and running on the streets with a smile on his face like he was finally free.
It was a very well-thought-out music video, and until now, it had already gotten 19 million views with over 500k likes and only 23k dislikes.
The fans actively chatted in the comments section.
[Lewd electric rat: The music video is so good. I could watch it every day.]
[Knife in my eyes: I love this song. Why does it have so few views? It should be over 100 million at the least when songs about girls’ private parts get billions.]
[You can’t see me: This is so bad of a song. Ugh, I’m not too fond of it. Grey is way past his prime, and who is even Aiden? Anyone could become a singer these days. Dislike! Dislike! Dislike!]
[What Glitters is gold: Grey is back finally! Was waiting for it for a long time. Great song.]
[Please like and subscribe: Can you please check out my channel. I work so hard and only want 100 subscribers.]
[Ugly guitar dude: This song makes me wanna punch my boss and run out but then my wife gonna punch me back to my office.]
[Mitron: The song is really different from Grey’s previous songs. He’s finally evolving his music, it seems.]
[Where are cute guys: Can you all give me the Skygram of this Aiden? I saw some photos, and he seems cute enough to check out his profile.]
[America’s ass: The song dope af.]
[Hormonal: I love this song so much. Hearing it on a loop these days. I really hope Grey holds a concert soon.].
The response to the song was outstanding according to the estimate, but it was still lacking compared to Forever by Rachel.
Though, it didn’t matter to Aiden.
He was already over the thought of beating Rachel and focused more on taking slow, small steps and enjoying his success.
Compared to the start of the year, he was already miles ahead.
It was vital for him to focus on himself, and after Wade had made him realise that he was subconsciously not appreciating himself, he immediately changed his attitude.
***
Aiden’s streak of performing with Grey ended as the promotions for Lonely were soon going to end.
Grey was going to go to Canada and the UK for more shows while Aiden wasn’t going to accompany him. He would return to New York.
But before that, they needed to perform together on the show ‘Song night’.
Song night was a show on Alphabet Network, one of the top three channels in America, so its impact was pretty significant, and this was the final push in their promotions.
“You are second on the show after the band ‘Caged animals’. When we give the signal, you need to start your performance. Just do the same as the rehearsals.”
Currently, a staff member was explaining about the show to Aiden. They were backstage, and it was a pretty busy atmosphere, with people running around here and there.
In the distance, he could even see some famous singers and bands. One of them was even flirting with a production employee.
“I understand.” Aiden nodded to the tired-looking staff member.
“Where’s your partner Grey?”
“He went off somewhere, saying he would catch up with a boy group that he hadn’t seen in a while. He would probably be in one of the waiting rooms.”
The staff member frowned, rubbed his forehead, and left to find Grey to clarify the schedule to him.
‘The job must be very stressful.’
He thought, feeling a pity of pity. The job of an employee in the production of any show was very hard, especially on a show like Song night with many celebrities involved.
“I should also look for Wade.”
Aiden muttered, glancing around. He was just going to enter the hallways to look for Wade when his eyes suddenly noticed a familiar face.
‘What is she doing here?’
He thought, suddenly feeling a bit stiff.
It was Rachel and as to what she was doing here. That was pretty self-explanatory, but he had no idea she would participate in Song night. She hadn’t even appeared in the rehearsals.
As he was looking at her, she suddenly noticed him.
Her face showed some surprise, and suddenly, she walked toward him.
“I didn’t expect to see you here.”
It was after a few months that they saw each other, so the atmosphere was a bit awkward, especially because of the rivalry between the two of them.
“Yeah, congratulations on winning X-Star.” Aiden smiled, trying to act normal. “Your song is doing pretty well too.”
“It’s just hectic. Going from one show to another, giving interviews where they will ask you the same kind of question. It’s kinda annoying.”
She said while frowning. Her words were a bit blunt, but Aiden understood where she was coming from. She was under a lot of pressure from Cyco media.
Then, she suddenly stared at him.
“Aren’t you doing good by yourself? Viral songs and then a collaboration with a famous singer like Grey.”
“I am, and I’m pretty happy about it.” Aiden smiled, but it seemed like Rachel wasn’t expecting him to give that answer.
“Still, I won. Your song is still behind mine.”
She said, in a bit highfalutin tone, surprising Aiden. He knew that she had a lot of pride, but it seemed like she was not hiding it anymore. Not knowing whether it was good or bad, he shook his head.
“Yeah, but it already exceeded my expectations. I’m not really taking the online fan war as something important. I’m happy with where it is right now–”
“Aiden!”
As he spoke, Wade suddenly walked out of a door connecting the hallway to the backstage. He was panting a bit, looking exhausted.
His sudden entry startled both Rachel and Aiden.
“What happened? Is there anything wrong?” Aiden asked, walking towards him, but Wade just showed him his phone.
“Lonely is #3 in Melody’s charts! Ahead of Forever! Even the views on MeTube are increasing a lot faster now.”
“What?”
His words made Aiden’s eyes widen. But rather than him, the expression of Rachel standing beside him was something truly indescribable.
She looked pale as shock appeared all over her face.
***
In the next few days, Lonely left Forever behind on the charts and reached new heights.
On Melody’s New Top 50 singles chart, it stayed in the 2nd position for a long time. Other than that, it was going places in other charts too.
On the Chartbuster website, it was the 5th, while on Musicbox, it was the 4th. Musicbox, a music magazine, even did a whole article on Lonely, saying how it was the song of the second quarter of the year which truly connected with the people.
It made people recommend the song to their friends, which was essential in its growth, which was pretty slow at the start.
On MeTube, it got 47 million views in just a month, and it was estimated to reach more than 100 million by the end of the year. It was doing way better than Forever, whose growth had stagnated at around 44 million views.
The results were more or less similar in Melody and other streaming apps.
Its popularity of it was clearly seen in Aiden’s social media numbers. They had already reached 200k after Hold on to me had gone viral, and with Lonely, he was now sitting at 700k followers on Skygram.
On Sparrow, the number was 550k, and his unofficial fan group was slowly getting more and more members daily. It now stood at more than 2500 people.
[Skyneves: Let’s party! Aiden beat Rachel in their second clash. I knew he would beat her.]
[Girl boss: Yeah, although I was scared because Cyco promoted her too hard. I was only seeing her on every single app.]
[April on the roof: That’s just their aggressive marketing. But word of mouth spread quickly about Lonely.]
[You are welcome: Even my dad was recommending the song to me today. Apparently, both of my dads were.]
[Pups are power: @You are welcome, I feel like something is wrong with your family.]
[Cats are supreme leaders: I’m so happy for Aiden. It shows just winning the show isn’t enough. Even if Aiden was not even in the top 5, he’s doing way better than Rachel or Cameron.]
[Rifana: I am so disappointed that I didn’t get any tickets to his shows. Does anyone know if he will have more shows in LA or other cities?]
[All about that bass: I don’t think he has any. According to the Neu entertainment website, Grey is going to have shows in other countries, but it doesn’t mention Aiden at all. Maybe, he doesn’t have any more shows in his contract.]
[Hollywood Insider: He will surely start auditioning for other movies. Still waiting for [Shadow of War]. #Aidenfan]
[Ara Ara: @Hollywood Insider Why do you always tweet like you know Aiden’s next gig?]
…
//DreamNote//
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