"Shit, shit, fucking shit, why didn't those idiots vote for me?! I'm much better looking, much more charismatic, I sing much better, and I have thousands of times more fans than that piece of shit!"
At that moment Theo was in the dressing room, packing his things to leave for home while he heard Miguel's hysterical shouts of rage in the dressing room next door.
"Don't worry, Miguel, even if you can't continue in the competition, we've already secured a contract with RV Media, and with their support, it'll only be a matter of time before your popularity triples in size." His agent tried to calm him down.
Hearing this, Miguel apparently became calmer, as Theo could no longer hear the conversation on the other side, but he didn't care.
Suddenly, the door to his dressing room opened and in walked Eliza, typing something on her tablet.
"Black, the first phase of the program was focused only on the musical part, because we still didn't know if all the Seeds participants would have already gone through Bloom. Now, in the second phase, the focus will be on your development as Idols... and that includes combat. As you're the only participant without an agency, we're going to assign you a retired Idol to give you fencing lessons. Is that all right with you?" she asked as she continued to click on something on her tablet screen.
Theo was surprised by this, but answered quickly. "It's fine with me, thanks for your help."
Eliza looked at him for a second and nodded before turning to leave. "So until next week, if anything important happens, you have my number, just give me a call or send me a message."
"Okay." Theo nodded.
But before she left the dressing room, she stopped at the door and turned around again, speaking in a serious tone. "And no surprises for the rest of the competition, okay? Everything worked out this time, but I put my neck on the line to help you perform."
Hearing this, Theo reassured her and watched her leave after giving a grateful nod.
Having finished packing the few things he had, Theo, still dressed in the clothes he had worn on the show, left the studio and went to the parking lot.
There, a silver Chevy Malibu with a taxi light on the roof was parked in a secluded corner. Leaning against the car was a tall man of 1.95 m (6' 5"), slightly muscular, with thinning black hair on his head and a thick moustache on his face, smoking a cigarette.
Looking at that man, Theo froze.
'Shit... I didn't think I'd see him again...' Theo thought in shock.
Seeing that someone had left the studio, the man took a drag on his cigarette and looked at the person curiously. Recognizing Theo, the man smiled and waved at him slightly.
The smile on the man's face made Theo's nose sting, but he controlled himself and didn't let the tears that threatened to leak from the corners of his eyes as he slowly walked towards the man.
The man didn't wait for Theo's slow steps and walked up to him while opening his arms and giving Theo a big hug.
Theo didn't know how to react, freezing even more at the feel of those thick hands around him.
"You did great Theo, the song you sang was so good that I don't even know how to react! I recorded it on my cell phone and listened to it the whole time, even telling the passenger who was in the car when you were singing that it was my son who was singing!" Thomas, Theo's father, said excitedly as he hugged his son tightly.
The hug alone was already giving Theo a hard time, but when he heard his father say that he had done well, something inside Theo broke, the tears he had tried so hard to control began to flow, and Theo cried.
Thomas was surprised by Theo's reaction, but not knowing how to react, he just kept hugging Theo as he spoke: "It's okay, Theo, I didn't even know you were going through so many difficult things, I'm sorry I couldn't help you..."
Hearing this, Theo cried even more.
Even though he had the soul of a man almost 40 years old, Theo felt like a little child happy to hear his father's praise.
In his previous world, his parents died without ever seeing him do a show, and that was both his biggest regret and the biggest motivation that made him keep trying even though he was practically banned from the industry.
Hearing from his father that he heard the song he wrote, and that he loved it, opened a wound that had been trying to heal for decades in his chest.
It took 10 minutes of crying for Theo to pull himself together and return his father's embrace and stop crying.
Seeing that Theo was feeling better, Thomas asked a little uncertainly. "Are you better? Is it okay to go home now?"
Theo nodded and released himself from his father's embrace, opening the back door of the car and putting his backpack in the back seat before sitting down in the front seat next to his father, as he did when he was young.
'It's surprising that even in a parallel world, my father is still a taxi driver. Theo thought in surprise.
On the way back, his father kept asking excited questions.
"Boy... I almost crashed the car when you started singing. What a thump on the chest that was, huh?" he said proudly.
Theo smiled when he heard this and replied. "I just sang what I felt I wanted to say."
This answer left Thomas quiet for a few seconds, before he asked uncertainly. "Is everything okay? Do you need my help with anything? Even though your performance on stage was very good, I was worried about what I heard you singing..."
Theo thought for a moment, and replied confidently. "I don't think I've ever been better."
This answer made Thomas smile. "Good, I'm also feeling that you're much better than you've been in years."
Thinking about it, Theo realized that in the last two years, when the Theo of this world discovered that he had a Seed in him, the focus of his life had been music, unfortunately with the low talent and little knowledge he had, he never managed to make this dream go ahead, causing him to slowly sink into depression.
Compared to him, the current Theo gave off a much more confident and satisfied feeling, which made Thomas happier.
"You know your mother watched every episode of the show, right?" Thomas asked laughing.
Hearing this, Theo remembered that one of the reasons he was so depressed was that his mother wasn't at all supportive of his dream of becoming an Idol.
Both because of how uncertain this life was, and because she knew how dangerous this profession was.
The mortality rate for low-ranking Idols was extremely high, and as a mother, she preferred her son to choose a safer and more stable job than this.
This caused a lot of fighting in the Black family, to the point where Theo and Elena stopped speaking to each other for a few months.
Thomas tried to remedy the situation between the two, but neither was willing to give in, making the atmosphere at home very complicated.
But for this Theo, who had seen his mother die in the next world while living far away and keeping his distance, pride was worthless compared to the happiness of being able to see his mother again.
So happy, he smiled and replied to his father, "That doesn't surprise me... I hope she liked my music too."
Thomas laughed when he heard this. "I'm sure she liked it."
"You'll go far. I know that. But look... if these people want to make a fool of you, remember that your old man here is always around. Just give me a call and I'll show up with the car and the club in the trunk." He said with a half-smile, trying to look tough.
Theo laughed at this and nodded, feeling warmed by his father's care.
In the other world, his father died early in a car accident while working, which caused his mother to fall into depression and also die a few months later.
Even though Theo knew that his father enjoyed this work, he still wanted to get enough money to retire his father and prevent that tragic future.
After all, his father was still young. At only fifty years old and considering the medical level of this world, living well into his hundred's was not an impossible dream, as long as he could have a more peaceful life. And so Theo decided that this would be one of his top priorities from then on.
As it was late at night and there was hardly any traffic on the streets, it only took them a few minutes to get home.
Opening the door, Theo saw his mother sitting on the sofa reading a magazine while the TV was off.
But he noticed that she was sitting in the most comfortable place to watch TV, and with his father's comment, it was even clearer that she had watched the show.
"Hi mom, I'm back." Theo said in a weak voice, not only because his throat was tired from pushing himself too hard on the show, but also because he was happy to see his mother alive again.
Elena was surprised to see Theo talking to her, since they hadn't spoken for a few months, so she looked at him startled for a second, before turning her gaze back to the magazine and replying. "Welcome."
When she saw that he was voiceless on the show, she was worried, but hearing Theo's hoarse, flawed voice in person made her worry even more, so she commented, trying not to sound like she didn't know. "I bought some honey this week, you can have some if you want."
Smiling, Theo nodded and went into the kitchen, noticing that not only was there a jar of honey on the table, but also some freshly baked cookies.
Considering that all the cookies were on the tray, not even his brother had eaten yet.
In Theo's family, apart from Thomas and Elena, there was also his younger brother Liam, a 14-year-old who idolized him when he was younger, only to drift away after Theo started focusing solely on music.
Thinking about Liam's tragic fate in the other world, losing his parents just after turning 18, and having to make ends meet on his own because his older brother was irresponsible, Theo felt bad for the boy.
In the other world, Liam got a stable job, found a good wife and even got married.
When Theo received the invitation to his brother's wedding, he felt so ashamed of being a failure that he didn't even have the courage to go to the boy's wedding, with the result that the two brothers never spoke to each other again.
This was another great guilt that Theo carried from the other world, something he wasn't willing to let repeat itself in this world.
After taking two spoonfuls of honey and eating some cookies, Theo went to his room and finally lay down alone.
That was the craziest day he'd had in his life, transmigrating into the body of a younger version of himself in a parallel reality, singing Hope to an audience of hundreds of people in person and thousands of people online on a music reality show, receiving the approval of several people, unlocking magical powers because of his music, seeing his parents again after so many years...
There were so many things that Theo didn't even know how to react.
Now finally alone in his room, he lay down with his head on the pillow and closed his eyes, processing everything that had happened and starting to make plans for what he would do in the future in a world with so many possibilities!
Apart from his family's priorities, his second biggest priority now was his career.
Of all the participants on the show, he was the only one who didn't yet have a public presence and a fanbase to support, so thinking about the social media tactics he'd seen in the other world, he felt it would be a good idea to start using this advanced knowledge in this world that was still beginning to realize the usefulness of social media!