Versatile Superstar Rise In Hollywood

by Stayrr

"To be a star is to own the world and all the people in it." ... Two years ago, Aiden came to the United States to experience the American Dream. But after sleepless nights of struggle, just when he was on the verge of giving up, a translucent screen flashed in front of him - it was a System! A System that would make him embark on a journey to Hollywood. And today, he takes his fir

4. 97

Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood #Chapter 097 - Read Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood Chapter 097 Online - All Page - FREEWN

As [Black Saints] trailer released, those who liked the trailer weren't able to stop talking about it. There were obviously people who ignored it, thinking it was not as good but the majority liked it.

Especially the fans of actors involved in the project.

Ray Hardy's fans were mostly teenage and young girls and they were literally going crazy over his rugged cop avatar. He had started his career from rom coms, so most of his core fans were girls.

Another fan group who was going crazy over the movie was Aiden's. To be honest, rather than the movie, they were actively discussing if Aiden was the guy who was revealed in the last scene.

There was literally no end to the discussion as everyone presented different views and opinions.

[Aiden's wife: I'm telling you all that is Aiden. I know how he looks from every corner. There's no way I won't recognise him. Even if I just see his eyes, I can tell it's Aiden. There's no way I won't recognise how he looks from behind. I have a whole collection of it.]

[Fur Real: @Aiden's wife You do know that you are not his real wife right? What the hell do you mean you have a collection?]

[Hailee Minefield: I don't think that's Aiden. The whistle was in a baritone voice and Aiden has more of a high pitch. It just didn't seem like him.]

[Elfish Presley: I don't care if it's Aiden or not. The trailer already made me excited enough. It would be good if that character is Aiden but I don't mind even if it's some other actor.]

[Yes you suck: Why is there no confirmation from Granite films or the distributors? There's already a lot of people who want more images of the character at the end of the trailer.]

[Hollywood Insider: They are never going to give what people want. It's a common tactic. The studio wants people to go to the theatre to know more about the character. Even in interviews, Ray Hardy or other actors aren't talking about the last shot. Going by how much importance they are giving the character, he must be very important. #I know everything.].

[Moaning Frodo: I'm betting that he is Aiden. It just feels like him and we all know he's in the movie but didn't even get a single shot? It's strange as he shot for a lot of days in Chicago. Not like he was working as a spot boy on the set for all those days.]

[Eagle on the ground: @Moaning Frodo That's a very interesting argument. I'm feeling more and more like his role won't be simple.]

[Druids are sexy: You all are arguing here for his role and here, I'm waiting for the movie to come on a streaming service. It's better than going to the cinema in my eyes.]

As they were discussing Aiden and his role in [Black Saints, the leader of the fan group, Skyneves suddenly came up with very exciting news.

[Skyneves: Did any of you check the Sparrow account of 'The Rory Chamber's show'? They just confirmed that Aiden is going to appear on their show next week!]

Hearing that, the fan group erupted with a lot of comments. The Rory Chamber's show was a very popular talk show and a lot of celebrities would appear on it.

No one had expected Aiden to appear on it so soon.

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[Yellow Marshmallow: Is he really going to appear on it? That's a huge thing.]

[My little sister: I just checked. It seems like he's not going there to be interviewed but has a five minute segment in the show. Probably to promote [Black Saints].]

[Aiden's second wife: @My little sister It's still a very big thing. Even a 5 minute segment will help him at this point.]

[Aiden's wife: Yeah true and fuck off, don't take my name. What second wife? He's not getting a digital harem.]

"It looks like you love your new car a lot."

Wade said, looking at Aiden who was smiling while driving his new car. He nodded his head.

"Yeah, when I came to America, everyone I met had some kind of car. Even my roomate had one and it was only me who didn't, so I'm pretty glad to buy one now."

"It's your first car?"

"Yeah, I used to have a bike in India as it was faster to move around with that and cars were too expensive for me."

Aiden said. The car he had bought was BMW iX xDrive50. It had cost him 89k dollars to buy it, but Aiden was not at all worried about the price.

America was a country on wheels, so having a car was a necessity for him. Other than that, He had moved into an apartment in Greenwich Village. It was one of the richest areas in New York where a lot of celebs live.

The apartment was pretty expensive to live in as it cost him around 3k dollars monthly, but it was one of my cheapest ones in the area.

But as it was security he was looking for, this was the best place to live in.

"Anyway, let's get on with your segment in The Rory Chamber's show. Are you nervous?"

Wade asked, changing the topic. This was an opportunity he had gotten for Aiden. Granite films didn't want him to promote the movie or give interviews but he was somehow able to get him a five minute segment in the show.

It won't be an interview, so there was no problem. Aiden just needed to perform his segment and promote [Black Saints] at the end of it.

When Granite films contacted the producers of the talk show, they agreed immediately due to Aiden's image. After all, a five minute segment in a one hour show wasn't too much of a big deal.

"I think it was a very obvious thing to be nervous. Are you sure I can't just sing one of my songs?"

Aiden asked, giving an awkward smile.

"This segment is generally celebrities doing something that people have never seen them do before. One of the celebs even crossdressed and danced to a pop song. Comedy is still not that bad."

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The segment Aiden was going to appear in was named 'Did you know it cause we never did?'. It was named like that because in this celebrities will do things that the audience never expected them to.

Some would also show their hidden talents.

The producers wanted Aiden to do stand up comedy as it was simple and they could plan it in a short time. Moreover, comedy was always popular if done right.

"The thing is I don't know comedy. I never did it. If it's singing, I'm confident in it. Even acting but doing stand up comedy is not really something I ever thought I would do."

"I know you are not really the funny type. I have been with you enough to know that." Wade chuckled as Aiden wondered if it was a subtle insult or not. "Think of it as playing a role in a comedy movie. Anyway, we are going to go over the jokes with the writers of the show. They themselves don't want it to be bad."

Wade explained and Aiden just meekly nodded his head. He still had reservations about the segment but he knew that he needed to push on and try to give his best.

His worries weren't all about the jokes. It was also the timing that needed to be good and you needed to give out the right expressions during your act. Some comedians would try to keep a serious, deadpan expression while in the middle of an act while others would try to be cheerful.

He needed to decide what exactly would suit him.

"Let's hope I don't become a meme when the episode is broadcasted." Aiden muttered as he took a right turn.

"Even being a meme won't be bad. People would overuse your photo as a template until they get bored of you. At least like this, people would surely recognise you."

"Yeah, that's the dream. Becoming the greatest meme."

Aiden chuckled as he focused on driving to the set of The Rory Chamber's show.

In a room which was only brightened up by the light coming out of a laptop, a man was typing furiously. His hair was long and unkempt while his face was filled with a rough beard.

Seeing him, anyone would say that he had not been to a salon in a long time.

'I need to do this right… Just the climax needs to be perfect.'

The man thought as his fingers danced on the keyboard. He had been writing the script for a long time and it was finally at the end.

He had been stuck at the climax for over a month and just last night, he was able to get a satisfying one. A climax that suited both the characters and the story that he was trying to tell.

About love, relationships and how things can come to an end one day when no one expects them to.

"It's completed! Finally!"

The man screamed as he typed 'The end' on the laptop's screen. His story was finally finished.

"Now, I could finally take the leap to become a director myself!"

The man muttered as a lot of emotions appeared on his face. He was thinking of the struggles he had gone through all the years to be finally called a true director.

He was sure that with this story, his dream was finally going to be fulfilled.

The man's name was Leo Shaw, the assistant director who had worked in [Shadows of War] and had gotten close to Aiden.

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"Don't be nervous. It's not a live broadcast or anything, so you can chill. Even I mess up a lot of times, trying to read from the teleprompter but the editing handles it all."

Rory Chambers said, smiling as a makeup artist applied some light makeup on his face. He was wearing the same clothes that he would wear on every one of his shows — a blue suit and pants with a tie. It was his signature dress that had gotten famous as the show went.

"I know it's not a live broadcast but there's still the studio audience. If I messed up too much, I'm sure that you won't call me back on the show."

Aiden muttered as a stylist did his hair. They were currently in the makeup room just before the broadcast and Rory was trying his best to make the newcomer besides him a bit less nervous.

He had met Rory yesterday and after half a day of refreshing together, he had got to know that he was a very friendly and straightforward person. To a really high degree.

Aiden had only met once before during Lonely promotions and back then, they had not even talked for more than two minutes.

"Nah, I will still call you if you just keep doing good in your career or keep getting stabbed." Rory laughed. "Just don't become someone who lives in a cloud of its own. I met celebs like that a lot, so it's very refreshing to work with a newcomer. You know Micky Bella?"

He asked at the end of the sentence and Aiden nodded his head. She was a very popular rapper and artist who had won countless awards. Though, he was not a big fan of her as their music tastes were very different.

"What about her?".

"We did a show last year. She was the guest but she was in a whole new world. I even made a bet with some people from my team that she was on drugs. She kept complaining about working too much and kept talking about how she changed the game for women in the industry."

Rory took a breath and glanced at Aiden wondering if he was still focusing on his story and continued.

"You know, basically following a character not because they believe in the cause but because it's a good celeb character trait. It's very ironic because she married a sex offender and had songs glorifying drugs, cheating sex and how she chooses which guy to go home with at the end of the party."

"I thought that's more or less how most of Hollywood behaves."

"Nah, the number is pretty high but there's those guys who really believe in what they are doing. Truly meant for the art. But crazy people sell because they have funny stories, so we invite them to the show. Audience likes hearing a story about one celebrity grabbing another celebrity's hair."

Rory was literally telling Aiden about how talk shows work. By talking about trending topics with a humorous twist and inviting people who would be able to get good ratings for the show.

"Let's hope they like my jokes too."

Aiden was only able to mutter that. He agreed with what Rory was saying and he realised that in a way, Rory was as much a businessman as a talk show host.

He knew the people who are trending in the industry are no good but he knew that those were the ones who would give good ratings.

"Just talk about your stabbing jokes. Those would surely be a hit."

"From what you are saying, people are more interested in my stabbing story than anything." Aiden raised an eyebrow.

"That's what I know. Here, people do everything to make the common people remember their names. At least faces but even with a hit movie or series, it's a very hard thing to do. But you came out nowhere, got stabbed and became a hero. People might get over the incident and talk about something else, but now over half of America at least knows your face. People are very jealous of you in Hollywood."

Rory said with a smirk, talking about what he had heard in some parties he had attended. It was weird but a great boost to Aiden's career.

But Rory knew that Hollywood was an industry where everything happens. If it was fate, no one could stop someone from becoming a star no matter what.

"Do you think he would be able to do good?"

Jerry asked as he looked at Rory who was sitting behind a desk and going over the daily news and presenting it in a fun manner, making people laugh out loud from time to time.

He was the producer of the show and was currently talking with Hilton, one of the main writers who had written the concept of the entire show.

"His jokes weren't bad, so we kept a lot of them for the show. It would really depend on how he delivers them but he speaks well. Probably because he's an actor and a singer."

Hilton said. He was wearing a cap and had a bushy beard on his face and a belly that made people wonder when he had last exercised.

"We will know if it will work or not from the audience reaction. Anyway, we can edit out parts and sort it in a 2 min clip. It's not a big deal."

"Yeah but it's better if we could keep a lot of him. He had made people interested in him after the incident, so I'm pretty sure ratings will go up."

Hilton said and Jerry couldn't help but nod his head. For ratings, he didn't really mind doing anything as more ratings meant more money and sponsors for them.

"It would actually be better for us if he failed. We got a lot of views on MeTube the last time one of the celebs messed up this segment. She was trying to sing too hard but her voice was unbearable, even with autotune."

Hilton knew which celeb Jerry was talking about. She was an actor who was trying out singing and it was even a very hard song, but she managed to mess it up too badly and for the next few months, people truly memefied her.

It was to the point that people became sarcastic and talking about how the actor should opt for a singing career as a grammy was hers to grab.

All in all, it was great publicity for the show.

"So, Aiden could do good or just mess it up. What do you think? Which one are you learning towards?" Hilton asked and Jerry didn't hesitate to reply.

"Whatever gives us better ratings."

"Good Evening, and Welcome back everybody, to 'The Rory Chambers Show' Rory began with a big smile on his face. His welcoming statement was followed by a note on the piano, played by the in-house musician.

As the audience clapped, he gave an short introduction to the next segment, reading out every word from the teleprompter.

"We have a very special segment for our next part of tonight's show. The hero of the hour, Aiden Silvereye everybody, and he is going to unveil yet another facet of himself for us, by debuting in Stand-Up Comedy for our segment in 'Did you know? Cause we never did!' He announced, as the cameras in the studio panned to the foyer, through which Aiden walked in.

He was wearing a buttoned-up black suit, over a black shirt on top of black trousers. He walked to the front of the stage, as he waved at the audience, and took in the number of people around him. The stage light shined on him, as he began to speak.

"Hello everyone, My name is Aiden Silvereye and as you can see, I'm alive." A few in the audience chuckled hearing that. "I'm just clarifying because a lot of people on the internet think that I actually died. Not a joke. I have proof of it."

Aiden pointed at a screen where there were screenshots of people actually commenting 'Rest in peace' and quotes like 'People only get value in life after they pass away because regrets are one of the strongest emotions'.

There were even people asking likes and subscribers in comments.

"So, yeah, I'm not really dead." Aiden said, smiling at the audience. Then, taking a deep breath, he started, "So, where do I start with? I don't know a lot about comedy and I don't really plan to get into it. I mean, who would risk getting punched in the face?"

The audience could not help but laugh at that jibe. Feeling like his jokes were working, he showed a confident expression and continued.

"Anyway, let me start with my surname. Silvereye and again to clarify but I'm not from a royal British family nor I have silver eyes for real. Many in Hollywood even think that it's my username which I used to have in Mayhem online or something…"

As he started his bit, Rory Chambers who was looking over at him from the side couldn't help but feel that Aiden had a certain kind of charm to him.

It won't be evident if you talk to him off stage but he was surely showing it off when he was standing on the stage. The people in the audience could not help but laugh at his jokes.

A lot of people were smiling and Rory could not help but think that the episode was going to be successful.

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"I think people would surely like it when the episode airs. The rookie didn't disappoint." Hilton, one of the main writers for 'The Rory Chamber's show' said as he sat down in front of Jerry.

Both of them were currently in Jerry's office, planning to go over some ideas for the next week of shooting. Normally, Rory Chambers would join them as the show was his and he was also one of the co producers.

But he was busy with some things, so only these two were talking.

Before the talk of the upcoming episode, they began talking about the shooting of the last episode with the focus being the segment that Aiden had appeared in.

The shooting had ended a few hours ago and in the end, it had all gone pretty well. The episode was going to air next week around the same time when [Black Saints] would release.

"Yeah, he didn't. Though, I was hoping for it." Jerry chuckled. "Anyway, the audience reaction was pretty good when he was up on stage. When I saw the viral video of him, I really wondered about his personality but it seems like a lot of what I heard is true."

"It seems like you like him."

"He had good charisma and I don't know about his acting skills, but if they are even a little good, he may work well in a skit show that I'm currently working on. It's still at the pitch and the channel is still wondering if they want to give it a go or not."

Hilton just gave a nod hearing that. He knew that Jerry had co produced a lot of shows in the last decade. He was one of the big names in the TV industry.

If he was really looking for a cast for a new TV show, then it made sense for him to be interested in Aiden.

"I think you would know if he's a good actor or not by his next movie. He came on the show to promote it anyway and no studio would send him on the show if his role isn't big."

"I know that." Jerry smiled, leaning on his chair. "I have been invited to the premier of [Black Saints]. I will go and check it out as the trailer seemed interesting. Would see if the rookie could act or not."

"You think the movie would work well? Seemed like a common cop thriller to me.".

Hilton raised an eyebrow. According to him, Hollywood was already past the time when cop thrillers or buddy comedies would work a lot. As a writer, he felt like he needed to keep up with the trends.

"It does seem like that but the genre doesn't matter if the movie is good and I heard some interesting things in some circles."

As Jerry said with a smirking face, Hilton couldn't help but be curious. Like with most people, curiosity was his enemy.

"What things?" He asked.

"Apparently, [Black Saints] are going to be sold to Xtra prime. They held a screening before the deal and one of my friends was invited to it. He told me that the movie is really good and could even delve into being a franchise."

"It's hard to truly get a franchise at this time. We have only had 2 of them in the last five years and both of them barely earned money after the third movie."

"That's true." Jerry nodded his head. "But it largely depends on the ambition of the director and how much the first movie earns. The producers would never pour money into something they are not confident in."

Hilton fully agreed with what Jerry was saying. Putting a hand on his chin, he tried to remember what movies were going to be released in the next two weeks.

Suddenly, his eyes widened as he remembered one of the major movies releasing in the next two weeks.

"Ain't [The Last Wolf] releasing next week?"

[The Last Wolf] was a supernatural teenage romance franchise and this was the last part of it. Although the story was heavily criticised, it was very popular among teenagers.

Both Jerry and Hilton knew that many in the film circles had already declared it a big hit.

After the shooting of 'The Rory Chamber's show' ended, Aiden resumed his work of attending small events and doing shows in bars and other places.

There was only a week to go for [Black Saints] release, but he hadn't stopped work to prepare for the premier or anything.

He had just bought a car and gotten into a better apartment, Aiden didn't want to not work because he was low on money again.

Wade also liked it and they got into an usual routine but it was not like Aiden was not thinking of his future projects.

Singing at a lot of places was good for money and a bit of exposure but after a while, people would get bored of you if they keep seeing you too much.

It was important for him to keep moving up.

"So, I got you two auditions that you can try for. The scripts aren't bad and one of the roles that got offered to you is even of a very important supporting character."

Wade said, putting two scripts in front of Aiden. He was currently holding a pizza slice in one of his hands and his eyes shined seeing the two scripts.

It was evening and they were sitting in Aiden's new home. It was a well furnished apartment which came with one bedroom. They were sitting in the living room when suddenly, Wade had pulled up two scripts and put them in front of Aiden.

"So, what's the genre?" Aiden raised an eyebrow.

"One is a teenage romcom made for Zetflix. The role is of a guy who is basically an eye candy and you will get a lot of shirtless scenes for girls and some boys to drool over." Wade chuckled seeing the hardened expression of Aiden. "I read the script and the character ain't even half bad. He has some good scenes and you get a lot of teen fans if it's a success."

Aiden made an awkward smile hearing that. Shaking his head a bit, he looked at the script besides the teen romcom.

"That's a thriller. About a guy who gets the power to kill anyone he wishes, just by looking in their eyes and how he murders people here and there. The role you are auditioning for is for a guy who gets killed quite early in the movie. Not a lot of dialogues and at most, you will be in one scene but it's under Spiral works and they are pretty big names."

He wasn't able to stop himself from frowning hearing that.

"Aren't there better projects?"

"There are not a lot in Actor's guild and it's hard to get any good role until you are established as an actor. You are one movie old and sometimes it takes dozens of roles for an actor to establish himself."

"I know that…"

Aiden trailed off at the end of the sentence and just decided to use one of his skills to see which one of these scripts were better for him.

'Script appraisal.'

He thought and for a second, his eyes shined before the information of both the scripts appeared in his mind. It was a quick process and he was able to know what was the score of the script.

[Name: The Summer of Boys

Script score: 29/100

-The plot seriously lacks any emotional connection of the characters with each other and is filled with various plot holes. The script would be more useful as ash than a movie.

-The script score doesn't reflect if the movie would be popular or not.]

'This doesn't look good. The system even roasted it.'

Aiden thought and moved on to the second project.

[Name: Death on my Fingers

Script score: 56/100

-The plot is interesting but fails to take itself seriously and eventually, the story feels like a lot of things mashed together and tries hard to make a protagonist that people would relate to but fails.

-The script score doesn't reflect if the movie would be popular or not.]

'This one's a bit better but again, I don't really like it a lot.'

Aiden thought. In his head, he didn't really feel excited about both the scripts. For the latter one, his role being small wasn't a problem but he felt like wanting to do a lighter themed movie this time.

After all, both [Shadows of War] and [Black Saints] were pretty serious when it comes to their characters and overall tone of the movie. But [The Summer of Boys] truly didn't seem like his type of movie.

"I don't think you like these a lot." Wade said, seeing Aiden's reaction which helped him came out of his thoughts.

"Not too much but I would first read the scripts and prepare for the audition. I know I can't afford to be picky at this point."

"Yeah." Wade was a bit impressed by his answer and smiled. Thinking of something, he changed topics. "Anyway you heard [The Last Wolf] dragged their dates to be on the same day as our movie."

Aiden made a confused expression as he didn't know anything about it. He thought [The Last Wolf] was going to be releasing a week after [Black Saints].

"Why?" He just asked that.

"I don't know. Probably something about not wanting to get [Black Saints] time to build momentum. Studios are very wary of each other. They also have a very large fanbase, so I'm suddenly worried about [Black Saints]."

Wade sighed, making a worried expression. It was very important for the movie to work for Aiden's career but now grey clouds were roaming on top of the release.

'I have not watched any part of the Wolf trilogy.'

Aiden didn't comment on Wade's worried expression and thought. It was a popular teen franchise but he had never watched them. It seemed like a nice time to watch them now.

Thinking like that, he searched for the TV remote and connected it to the option of streaming services. He selected Zetflix and chose the first part of the wolf trilogy.

"What are you doing when I'm worried about the box office numbers becoming worse?" Wade asked and Aiden shrugged.

"Trying to know about our opponents. I never watched any movie of the wolf trilogy."

"I never did too but as it's a huge hit, I'm pretty sure it has a good enough plot. I don't understand what teenagers like but it won't be too bad."

Wade muttered and without saying anything, Aiden played the first part of the trilogy and for the entire night, both of them watched the entire trilogy.

Though, it was better to not comment on whether they liked it or not.

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As the release of [Black Saints] and other movies came close, a lot of critics' work started. Their primary job was to give their opinions on movies while trying to be completely unbiased.

But only a few of the critics were like that.

A lot of them would just take money from movie studios and sometimes even actors to praise them in their reviews.

It was shady but a good way to earn a lot of money.

Just the thing was that a lot of these critics would lose their credibility over time, especially with audiences starting to trust sites like 'Do you like the movie?' and 'Rotten Apples' more where people could post public reviews of the movie.

A lot of them would even go on forums to check reviews from people instead of listening to critics. But it was not like there weren't any good critics.

There were good ones too and they were very popular due to their unbiased opinions and had a string of fans. One of these was by a person who goes by the handle of @Criticye on social media platforms.

Every month, he would release an article about movies that were going to be released soon and what clashes were expected in the theatres. He was very popular as he focused more on the art than the artist.

This month, the article he released on his website was titled, "Two different movies and a clash that might see no winners".

[Hello, just like every month, I'm back with a look at the movies that will be releasing at the box office next month. Two of these would be clashing at the box office next week and it's going to be a very different clash than what anyone is used to in Hollywood.

Because this time, both the movies have a chance to bomb at the box office.

Everyone knows that box office clashes are big, wild events at the box office with two big studios going against each other. Films headed by big directors and supported by astounding actors create a storm at the box office in which innovation and egos clash with only one movie coming out on top.

Sadly, nothing like this is going to happen this month.

The movies that clash next week are [Black Saints] and [The Last Wolf]. Both of them are by mid sized studios and going by whatever was shown of these movies, they failed to create any big anticipation in the audience..

[The Last Wolf] is the fourth movie in a trilogy which should have never gone ahead after the first movie but producers saw the results. Despite the horrendous story and a female lead which the movie tries hard to show as an innocent girl trapped in supernatural events but failed, the box office returns were very big, with the first movie earning over 400 million dollars at the box office.

But the next two movies earned almost half of it. It was a sign to the producers to end the story there as the third movie provided a fine end but the fourth movie is now being released and has grey clouds all over it as most of the original fans of the trilogy have already grown up and have moved on.

Now, only time would tell if the producers have grown up or not and going by the trailer, they have not as there's a lot of hints that the fourth movie is just going to be a bad try at trying to make the story move forward.

At least from a critics point of view, the movie is certainly not something that is aiming to be a part of the list of Top 100 movies of all time.

Let's move to the second movie which is a bit more promising but comes in a genre that only selective people like, especially when it's headed by a TV director working on his first movie. Though cinema has moved forward and integrated well with TV, there's still a massive line between TV and movie productions.

From what we saw in the trailer, this one is touting to be an interesting Cop vs Mafia thriller with good cinematography and the colour palette gives the world a very grey look. It makes one hopeful for the movie.

But only a few directors can pull up movies like this, showing off the appropriate amount of charm of the villains as well as the rugged look of the main character.

Even if the movie is not bad, the genre is something that has stopped working a long time ago due to the excess of movies that sound similar to this one.

Just on pure box office numbers, [Black Saints] is going to be suffering a lot due to the obsessive fans of [The Last Wolf]. Though the last two movies didn't perform well, the opening weekend was packed with a lot of fans coming in to watch it.

So, the momentum would surely be with [The Last Wolf].

Now, let's move to the other movies that will be released at the end of the month, both eyeing for an Ott release. That's a smart move by the producers of the movie going by how many movies are working in the box office these days…]

'This one is also getting a good amount of reads.'

A middle aged man with a shaved face said and smiled at the comments on his IPad.

People were praising the article and the reads on it were increasing every minute, with the article getting 14k reads in just three hours.

His name was John Longbottom and he was mostly known by his social media name @Criticye. He would feel very happy whenever people would appreciate him for his views on movies and because of his hardwork and love for movies, he had become a very big critic in Hollywood.

"Sir, we are here."

As John was reading the article and smiling to himself, his driver suddenly stopped the car and said.

'I really hope my time won't be wasted.'

He thought, getting out of the car and waving at the paparazzi that were gathered outside the theatre. He was here to attend one of the screenings of [Black Saints].

But he was not really anticipating anything great from the movie. Just yesterday, he was at the premier of [The Last Wolf] and the movie was too hard to go through for him.

Rather than supernatural powers clashing at each other, the movie was focusing more on the love triangle. Midway, it even went to become an erotica with a threesome scene between the leads.

Because of that, his expectations were very low and he was just hoping that the movie would be decent.

"Sir, are you excited to watch the movie? How did you like the trailer?"

As he was walking inside the theatre, one of the reporters asked and he Just politely smiled.

"I would give replies after watching the movie." Saying that, he went inside the theatre.

Most of the major questions would be asked after he had watched the movie, so John didn't feel like giving too much time to the reporters. Once inside, he saw that a lot of famous people were present there.

Granite Films had called a lot of actors, directors and other famous celebs. On one corner, there was the cast of [Black Saints] talking among themselves. The director, Zavier Lamb.

Looking at them, John thought to himself.

'Let's see what kind of a movie you have made.'

Two hours later, when [Black Saints] came to an end, John wasn't able to mutter a word as the credits rolled on the screen. Around him, people were giving similar reactions and a lot of them were also clapping.

The movie had truly managed to amaze them.

'I never expected it to be this good.'

John thought to himself and his shocked face slowly changed to one of smile as he processed the whole movie in his mind. At first glance, he was able to feel a lot of weak points in the movie, especially in the mid parts where the plot seems to be a bit slow.

In those parts, it was only the actors' performance that was able to keep one interested in the movie. There were also more weak points like some technical aspects and how some characters seemed very unnecessary.

But the climax was what made the movie a great watch.

As a critic, John has seen thousands of movies but only a few of them were able to give him such a shock in the climax. It was something that he had not expected even if it was hinted at.

Ultimately, [Black Saints] was a movie that made John like a character after a long time.

'This is truly a great surprise. Who's the guy who played Kai? I can't remember where I saw him before.'

He thought and stood up, his eyes trying to find out the cast of the movie. Finally, he saw Ray Hardy talking to some reporters from Hollywood Weekly and LA times, both big movie magazines.

He quickly made his way towards him.

"Ray." John said, having known him for some years.

"John, you are here too. How did you like the movie? I hope you liked it and are planning to give a good review." Ray said, turning around and facing him.

"I did like it a lot. The plot truly captivated me. But I am actually looking for someone." He said, before asking. "Do you know the actor who played Kai?"

"Ah, yes. Many people are interested in him after watching the movie." Ray laughed and looked around him before his eyes stopped at someone's back. "Hey, Aiden, come here."

A young man wearing a suit walked towards him and Ray patted his back.

"John wanted to meet you." Ray explained and Aiden stayed calm and gave off a charming smile.

"Hello, I'm Aiden Silvereye."

John was surprised for a second when Aiden introduced himself as his atmosphere and smile were completely different from Kai. But that was only natural as Aiden was an actor.

Composing himself, John said.

"My name is John Longbottom and I'm a movie critic. Kai made me a fan. I'm really interested to know about the projects you have done in the past and projects of yours that's going to be released in the next few months. You must have a lot of them."

"Thank you, but the only movie I have done aside from [Black Saints] is [Shadows of War]."

"Ah, I really liked it. Now that I think, you do look familiar. What else other than that?"

"There's nothing."

John's expressions formed a crack hearing that.

"What?"

"These are my only movies."

"What about future projects?"

"I have not signed any others but I will audition for some soon."

Hearing that, John realised that the guy in front of him wasn't a new actor from a big agency who already has a career plan formed out in front of him but is a complete rookie.

'When was the last time a rookie managed to stun me?'

He thought, gulping.

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 101.[Black Saints] Releases! (1)

On 11th March 2016, [Black Saints] was released, and on the day of the release, articles and reviews about the movie filled social media sites, especially Sparrow. These articles were from reporters and critics who had attended the movie's previews.

Many also tweeted about it, with some prominent critics' tweets becoming the centre of attention.

They were even used as headlines for some articles.

A gangster flick that nearly went the wrong way, but the climax saved the whole movie. Filled with great characters and good performance, the movie is something that might make you leave your home this weekend -US monthly.

Went for Ray Hardy and Graham Rude, stayed for climax and a potential new stock -Vanity Magazine.

A plot that became repetitive in the middle with action scenes that we have seen a lot of times. Nothing unique but the grey nature of the characters makes the movie a good watch. The plot twist at the end and the interrogation scene are the standing points -Betacritic.

A gritty crime thriller that went too boring in the middle. Though there are a lot of standing points for the movie, it shines in parts, but unfortunately, they killed off the best character of the movie too soon -Rotten Apples.

Just go and watch the movie. Even if you don't like it for the first one and a half hours, the climax will make up for it. I don't want to say a lot, but I'm hoping for a prequel focused on the background of my favourite character [email protected]

Most of the critics gave mixed reviews, but the positive point was that none of the reviews was primarily negative, but there were indeed several highly positive reviews for the movie.

The negative points were just the action scenes, which were mainly scenes that many other movies had already executed. Still, both Zavier Lamb, the director and Anthony McCarthy, the producer, were not bothered by this.

First, [Black Saints] was promoted as more of a gangster drama than anything and the scenes between characters were praised well.

But undoubtedly, the thing that every critic praised was the climax. It was truly a spectacle for most of them, and no one really anticipated it, making people leave the theatres with amazed faces.

Though, there were also arguments against it. Marko Rodriguez, one of the critics from Hollywood Weekly, said this at the end of the review, "A lot of my friends have praised the climax a lot, but for me, it was something that lacked a lot. I couldn't make much sense of it because they never explained how it happened. Before you know it, the climax is over, and no explanation is given in any way, which makes the movie a bad one for me."

The audience who had watched the movie on the first day didn't agree, saying that the movie was just trying to leave it to the viewers to interpret everything.

When the marketing team of Granite films saw that audiences were arguing with critics about the movie, they felt it was going to soon spread through word of mouth, and their strategy was going to be successful.

But their biggest problem wasn't the opinions of critics but the movie they were competing against.

[The Lost Wolf] was released on the same day as [Black Saints]. Compared to mainly positive to mixed reviews of the latter, the former got roasted by the critics and anyone involved in the business of movies.

It was actually a sort of tradition as only the first movie had gotten decent reviews. The two after that were trolled heavily by the critics who even labelled it as 'The worst franchise in Hollywood'.

One of the famous Metubers and movie critics on Sparrow @BeeTheMovieCritic wrote, "If you are into porn with a plot, with supernatural powers added into it, make your way to the theatre to watch [The Last Wolf]. You won't be disappointed as the only scenes that make sense are the sex scenes."

Another critic, Lisa Liyanage, from Movie Mania, wrote, "My teenage daughter loves the wolf series and to write the review I asked her why she likes it. She answered hot, pretty shirtless boys and mushy, overdramatic romance. So that might give you the answer to why the movie has so many die-hard teen fans."

Another critic, Bobby Atkinson, wrote a detailed review of the movie saying, "Look, no matter how popular it is, the plot is very sexist, logic-less and problematic. But in the past few years, we have seen tons of movies like this directed at the teen audience and are just a way to make a lot of money with low effort."

Despite most critics giving it 1 and 2 stars out of 5, just on its first day, the movie earned over 20 million dollars, giving a good idea to everyone of the popularity of this particular franchise.

Even if it was bad, teenage fans would still go and watch it.

Compared to that, [Black Saints] earned just 7 million dollars. The difference was so much that people were already saying both movies didn't even have any competition at the box office.

The difference continued on the second and third day too.

Seeing this, Anthony McCarthy and Zavier Lamb felt depressed each day, and the investors were very noisy. Everyone felt that even with it being a decent movie, it would get overstepped by [The Last Wolf].

Anthony was worried that the movie wouldn't recover its budget like this, and they would need to look for other platforms and ways not to make a loss.

Although the competition at the box office had just started, [Black Saints] was in a critical condition.

[The Last Wolf] was the fourth movie of the wolf franchise, and all of them were produced by Ferox pictures. Again, it was a mid-sized studio, kind of like Granite films, but a few years ago, they adapted the books of wolf series that were very popular among female teens and had gotten a gold mine.

Since then, they have earned a lot of money through the series, as each movie has made a lot of profit at the box office.

It was to the point that they have decided to produce three-four more movies in the same franchise. After all, no one likes to stop digging if the mine still gives out gold.

Currently, some company executives, including the CEO, Jordan Walsh, were at a club, drinking and talking about the fourth part, which was on the brink of a huge success.

In three days, the movie had earned around 40 million, and they were very confident in getting back the investment of 120 million dollars that they poured into the movie.

"Hahaha, like this, we will get all the investments back in two weeks."

One of the executives, a bald guy, said as a girl snuggled to him. They were sitting in a premium lounge in a club, drinking alcohol with strippers Jordan had arranged for.

"I was pretty scared at first due to the barrage of bad reviews, but I realised that reviews don't matter until we can make those stupid teens feel like this is a masterpiece."

Another executive said, chugging a glass of wine. His eyes vision felt a bit blurry due to drinking too much, but this was the night to enjoy, and he didn't care.

"Reviews and those critics are a fucking joke. They really think people watch movies because of them." Jordan muttered, one of his hands fondling the breast of a stripper next to him. "People don't care if we are trying to make a good movie or not until we project that the movie is good. Those teens are too easy to fool anyway."

Over 65 percent of the audience that had come to watch [The Last Wolf] were teens. The numbers were way higher for the previous movies in the franchise.

Jordan's formula of success was to aim for the age bracket that has a lot of time in their hands and is easy to satisfy. For example, teenage fans always come to watch movies in groups or on a date. Sometimes they would even take their parents to watch the movie with them.

He had used this point well to sell the wolf franchise.

"I think we should announce the fifth part as soon as the movie becomes a hit. Then, it would automatically get momentum."

The bald executive said, and others nodded. But suddenly, one of the executives, who was a bit sober, opened his mouth.

"Will we be able to get the actors back for the next movie? This time, they already created too much trouble in the sets and promotions."

"They will come back. They need to." Jordan muttered. "They don't have an identity other than the wolf franchise. No other Hollywood movie would cast them as leads as they are nothing more than pretty faces. They should thank us for a career in the first place."

The cast of [The Last Wolf] had gotten famous as teenagers, but even they knew that the franchise was getting worse and worse with every movie, and this time, some of them even wanted to quit.

It was only due to Ferox pictures giving them more money than they agreed to be in the movie.

Otherwise, most of them wanted to break away from the tag of a pretty face in a bad supernatural teen drama.

"Yeah, those dumb bitches would be auditioning for roles daily without any success without Ferox movies giving them a chance."

"Even if they want to break away from the franchise, the stigma is already there. The Academy isn't known to like commercial actors anyway."

"But they can live rich lives by working in the wolf movies."

Other executives agreed with Jordan and drank, enjoying the night thoroughly. In their eyes, their movie was already a big success.

...

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 102

"There's no fucking way I'm going to watch that movie. If I want to watch porn, I would do it in my home. At least in them, there's no 2 minute slow motion shots of a guy nude body."

"You are misunderstanding the movie. It isn't like that. You don't understand good cinema."

"Since when two guys fucking up the whole world for a girl who actually cheated on both of them before, is good cinema? They all even got a threesome in the end?! Your cinema is way different than mine."

Outside the movie theatre, a couple was bickering with each other. They were a high school couple that had decided to watch a movie together but their differences were clear.

A lot of people were staring at them due to how loud they were being.

"Paul, it's really not like that. You don't even know the plot of it?"

"I have heard enough from your friends and it's easy to guess after seeing the trailer. Camila, Why can't we just watch [Black Saints]? All of my friends are raving about the movie."

"Because I don't like it."

Paul gritted his teeth hearing that and wasn't able to stop himself from frowning. His last girlfriend had done the same when the previous movie of the wolf franchise had come out and he had regretted every second of it.

This time, he was not going to do what his girlfriend wanted. He was not someone who was looking to appease his girlfriend at every point.

'At worst, it will be a breakup. I don't care about sex when I have lived without it for more than half my life.'

He thought and made his decision.

"Then, watch whatever you like alone."

"What?".

"You heard it right. I'm going to watch [Black Saints]. Go watch whatever the hell you want."

Saying that, he went up and bought a single ticket for [Black Saints].

Camila made an expression like she was going to hunt down Paul at the exact moment but in the end, she sighed and bought a ticket for [The Last Wolf].

'I don't fucking care about him.'

She thought and stomped her feet before going inside the theatre to watch the movie she wanted. Seeing her like that, Paul shook his head.

'At least I can watch a movie in silence now.'

Thinking that, he entered the screening for [Black Saints]. The theatre was mostly full with people and only a few seats were empty. Despite the popularity of [The Last Wolf, it was not like [Black Saints] was crushed straightaway.

Being a good movie, it was slowly spreading through word of mouth.

'Let's hope the movie is good now that I have risked my relationship for it.'

He thought as the movie began. The whole theatre went silent as the first scene of the movie appeared with a classic 70s song playing in the background.

A scene of a very young guy walking on the streets, wearing a suit came. Few people glanced at him with scared expressions as he walked past them to enter a comic book store.

Then, the conversation with the comic book owner happened and his name was revealed to be Kai. Paul unconsciously thought of the trailer in his mind and recognised that Kai was the guy that was shown at the end of the trailer.

When the scene turned to Kai talking with the kid named Archie, Paul became more interested in his character due to his interesting answers. He had never expected this movie to take a philosophical turn.

But it was indeed fun.

When Archie asked whether Kai had ever killed someone, the scene cut to the shot of Kai killing someone by shooting him when he was in the middle of a sentence. As the scene turned back to him and Archie, Kai gave the answer.

The entire conversation between them made Paul intrigued by what he was seeing. He felt like the character of Kai was very interesting.

There was a certain charm, the character would often give out a scary smirk which was way more chilling than just a smile and his words would always make sense even if they were twisted.

After that, the movie would cut back to the main character who was named Charlie Morgan getting an almost suicide job to go after the black saints as the movie termed them, gangsters that ruled the city.

It was then that the movie would introduce the characters of the saints. 4 saints that ruled the city and Charlie would go after Kai first.

For the next 20 minutes, Paul wasn't able to stop himself from thinking that in every scene Kai added a certain essence to it, like he was too unexpected and the audience would never be able to tell what his next action is going to be. One of the scenes perfectly described it.

In it, one of Kai's subordinates would return with good news of him getting reports and proof of a politician's shady business. Kai would laugh, looking very happy about it, saying that they could finally blackmail the top brass of the city.

He would hug his subordinate saying that but in the next second, his subordinate would fall on the floor with a knife wound on his chest and Kai would spit on his face before continuously stabbing him.

The scene would end with Kai proclaiming him a traitor, making everyone in the theatre both excited and scared.

The next scene that Paul enjoyed the most was the interrogation scene between him and Charlie Morgan, especially the part where he won't stop speaking even if Charlie was grabbing his collar.

There was even a twisted smirk on his face while talking about it. When Charlie would throw Kai off and his back would strike the wall, a few people in the theatre weren't able to stop themselves from muttering, 'Oh god.' and 'That felt so real!'.

Even Paul was not able to stop himself from acknowledging that the scene looked very real.

'Damn, I am loving this more and more.'

He thought but just in the next minute, Kai's character would decide to take his life in the prison as most of the politicians and other gangsters in the city were trying their best to keep him. So, rather than spending the rest of his life in jail, he was willing to give up on his life.

"I won't survive sitting in jail for the rest of my fucking life. At least there's some excitement in dying, maybe a real life is awaiting me after this or maybe I would meet Lucifer. Whatever happens, it's surely going to be more interesting than sitting in a prison cell, scribbling on the walls by myself."

Those were one of the last words of Kai and Paul became very entranced by them. In his mind, Kai had already become one of the best parts about the movie for him.

In his heart, he was wishing that he would survive but that didn't happen. However, Kai gave an order to his subordinate just before taking his own life.

"Start Project Anarchy."

Hearing that, a lot of people in the theatre began to wonder what it was. Paul was the same and he was eager to finish the movie to know about it further.

But after Kai's death, he wasn't able to find the other saints interesting. Their characters and other traits were very different and unique and Paul felt like the drama was very intense.

Still, he wasn't able to enjoy it as much as he had when Kai kept appearing on the screen. It even felt like the movie was dragging itself by going deeper into the past of Charlie Morgan in which he had become corrupted and one of his colleagues had lost his life when he had done nothing.

After that, he had lived his life with guilt, trying to drink it away but the result was him becoming an alcoholic.

The only reason Charlie Morgan was even trying to go after the saints was because his colleague's death was due to them.

Like that, the plot moved towards the climax where Charlie Morgan was finally confronting the main villain of the movie, Durham Rodrick in a party that was attended by most of the politicians and rich people in the city.

But it was then that something unexpected would happen and after five minutes, as the credits rolled, Paul's mind would just be thinking of one thing.

'Fuck! Kai is freaking awesome!'

"You were right. The movie was bad, a total waste of time."

When Paul came out of the theatre with others that had enjoyed the screening of [Black Saints, he had found out his girlfriend was standing outside while making a face that was akin to a pup who had made a mistake.

It seemed like [The Last Wolf] had ended just five minutes before [Black Saints]. Paul who was completely ready to break off was a bit stunned seeing her like that.

"I thought you were very excited about it. What happened? It was bad?"

"It was awful. They killed off my favourite character for no reason and in the end, he even turned out to be the main villain with no reason given. It just… was messed up." Camila frowned before noticing his happy expression. "Was the movie you saw good?"

She was curious as even the other people who came out of [Black Saints] screening weren't able to stop themselves from chattering about it with happy faces.

"Yeah, it was super good." Paul said. "Why don't we go and watch—"

As he was speaking, his eyes suddenly landed on two people who just walked ahead of him. The reason his eyes stayed on one of them was because he felt like he looked incredibly familiar to him.

It was just hard to tell as he was showing his back to him.

Paul was not able to stop himself from walking towards him and tapping his shoulder.

"Excuses me."

"Yeah? How can I help you?"

"Ah…"

Paul stopped speaking when the man turned around. His eyes widened in shock as he realised who he was. Seeing his strange behaviour, Camila couldn't help but walk towards him.

"Paul, what happened?"

"Camila, this is… he is… Kai August!!"

Paul shouted and suddenly everyone looked at them. As his voice was very loud, it attracted a lot of attention from the crowd of people outside the theatre.

"Kai August?"

"The actor has come to watch the movie? Should I ask for an autograph?"

"We just saw him in the movie. He was so chilling."

"He's so handsome in real life."

"Who is he with? The guy looks like his bodyguard."

People discussed for a moment as Aiden just stared at their reactions. But in the next second, they swarmed at him.

…

/DreamNote/

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"Kai, look here! Can I get an autograph?"

"I love the movie! What's your real name?"

"Can I take a selfie please?"

"Who is that guy? Why is everyone clamoring for him? Is he an actor? I never saw him before."

"He's so handsome. I feel like I'm getting a crush."

As everyone excitedly talked about Aiden, he was very shocked. He had come to the theatre to check out [The Last Wolf] with Wade. As his movie was competing against it, both he and Wade wanted to check it out.

But when they came out of the theatre, people suddenly swarmed them after recognising them. It was not wrong to say that he had not expected this at all.

"Aiden, don't act weird and just give out autographs or selfies. Whatever they want. The security will arrive sooner or later but you need to project a good image. A lot of people are taking photos and videos."

Wade whispered to him and Aiden glanced at the people who were standing in a distance clicking photos.

"Okay."

He nodded his head and for the next twenty minutes, he just gave out autographs and took selfies. Some high school girls even hugged him tight while taking photos and he wasn't lying when he said that he was uncomfortable.

But he still did his best..

"Can I get a photo? My name is Camila. I loved your acting. My boyfriend here will take the photo." A girl said, giving her phone to her boyfriend who just muttered, 'You didn't even watch the movie.' while dejectedly taking the photo.

Even after that, the questions didn't end as more and more people circled around him, asking different types of questions.

"I really loved you as Kai. What's your real name? I will follow you on Skygram."

"My name is Aiden Silvereye and thank you for watching the movie."

"Are you going to appear in more movies? I will definitely go and watch them."

"I hope I appear in more movies."

For the first time in his life, Aiden felt like a real celebrity. He was surrounded by a lot of people and didn't feel used to it but he was nevertheless happy. This continued until the security arrived and managed to take them to one of the rooms in the back which was connected to the emergency exit.

There, a female employee was standing who introduced herself as the manager of the theatre.

"We normally are always informed when celebrities come to the theatre and prepare accordingly but it seems like you were not expecting to get swarmed like this."

She said and both Aiden and Wade nodded. As his agent, Wade had thought that Aiden would get more popular after [Black Saints] but the response was truly unexpected for him too.

"We never expected such a situation." Aiden said and the female employee shook her head.

"It's fine." She suddenly took out something from one of the drawers. It was one of the posters for [Black Saints]. "Can you give me an autograph on it? I will put it up on the front wall. These days, a lot of people are coming to the theatre for [Black Saints]. I enjoyed the movie a lot myself."

"Ah, okay."

Aiden quickly signed the poster and after that, the female employee even took a selfie with him before letting both he and Wade go.

As soon as they sat inside Wade's car, Aiden took a sigh of relief. The images of people swarming him, asking for autographs and photos were still playing in his head.

"How do you feel?" Wade asked, glancing at him.

"It feels like I did something I always wanted to experience but it will take a while for it to set in."

"Then, it's good."

Wade muttered before taking out his phone and opening up Sparrow. Using keywords like Aiden and Kai, he realised that people were already tweeting that they met him outside the theatre and even posting photos.

It looked like the incident was surely going to spread.

Then, thinking of something, Wade searched some other things before glancing at Aiden.

"I think [Black Saints] is going to surpass [The Last Wolf]."

"What?" Aiden raised an eyebrow. "I thought we were losing at the box office."

"We are for now but you saw [The Last Wolf] for yourself. What was your review for it?"

Aiden thought for a moment. If he was honest, the movie was horrendous. The budget of the movie was clearly high as the cgi and the set pieces looked great and as real as they could be. But the movie missed one thing that was necessary for any movie — a good plot.

"It's something people should watch if they are drunk and want something to laugh over." He gave out a review.

"Yeah, it's so bad that it's good." Wade laughed for a moment before getting serious. "It's only earning a lot because of the fans but there's no word of mouth. There's a lot of hate about it online. Ferox pictures probably take it as negative publicity and don't care about it but they are ignoring that [Black Saints] is slowly getting a lot of people interested in it."

Aiden suddenly thought about the words the female employee in the theatre said. A lot of people were asking about [Black Saints] and it was spreading.

Suddenly, two very contrasting movies were in the theatre. A good one with word of mouth and a bad one with a lot of fans.

"If [Black Saints] manage to keep growing like this, it will surpass [The Last Wolf]." Aiden said and Wade nodded to him.

"Yeah, the second week is vital."

Like Wade said, the differences between [The Last Wolf] and [Black Saints] started becoming less and less as the days went.

On day 1, [Black Saints] had earned only 7 millions compared to the 20 million of [The Last Wolf]. But on the second day, the former earned 8 million while the latter earned 11 million. On the third day, both the movies earned 9 million.

The box office numbers for the movie stayed more or less the same for the next two more days but at the end of the week, [Black Saints] ultimately managed to take a lead.

It earned 12 million dollars while [The Last Wolf] only managed 7 million. It was clear that one movie was getting popular and the other had started to lose its momentum.

One could clearly see it on social media too.

There were several trends against [The Last Wolf] with most of the people who have watched it bashing it left and right. They truly felt like their money was wasted and this time, it was the fans who were bashing the franchise.

With the last three movies, the fans would fight with anyone who would say that the movie was bad, but this was nowhere to be seen this time.

Trends like #TheLastWolfistrash was trending and it was fans who were behind it. There were a lot of reasons behind the fans hating it so much.

One of the major ones was that the fourth movie messed up the character of one of the most famous male leads and made him a villain before killing him off. This truly pissed off the man.

Other reasons were obviously a bad plot and no innovation from the last three movies. Even the author of the wolf series which the franchise was adapted from said that she didn't like the fourth movie.

On the other hand, the trends for [Black Saints] were incredibly positive. Most of the people liked the movie. Even if some didn't, everyone praised the character of Kai that was inspired by a lot of comic books.

But the way it was played and the climax attached with Kai truly contributed in making him a character that everyone talked about.

It became even more when in an interview, Ray Hardy revealed that during the interrogation scenes, he actually punched Aiden because the latter wanted it to be genuine.

These types of stories have always been popular with movie fans and this too spreaded like wildlife, with many even saying that this was one of the great examples of method acting.

It got so popular that Kai was trending on 7th rank in the trending rankings. This obviously got noticed by Aiden's fan group who weren't able to stop themselves from talking about Aiden.

[SkyNeves: Did you all see Kai trending on Sparrow? He's getting more and more popular as the days go on. I'm already on my third viewing of [Black Saints].]

[April on Roof: I know. He aced the role of a villain and now people are going crazy over him. Who was the guy who said that he would go bald if Aiden turned out to be a villain?]

[Dancing Monkeys: That was Darth Fader. Wait, he left the group. Fucker ran away in fear of going bald.]

[Salty nectar: He said something like he won't get a girlfriend if he went bald. I don't think he knows that a certain bald guy got too many girls and he never even had to marry them.]

[Moaning Frodo: I still have not watched the movie due to my job but I saw a lot of people talking about the climax and how it was spectacular. Can anyone tell me what it was or send me a clip?]

When one of the prominent members of the group asked that, a lot of people tried searching but no one found a clip of it. They knew that just telling me about it won't have the same reaction as watching it would have.

It was then that a certain famous member appeared.

[Hollywood Insider: Worry not, young padawan. I'm here. #Thebest.]

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 104

[Hollywood Insider: Worry not, young padawan. I'm here. #The best.]

When Hollywood Insider appeared with that text, everyone in the group knew that the problem will be solved now. It was because for reasons unknown to anyone, Hollywood Insider literally knew everything related to Aiden or Hollywood.

He was like that one kid in class who knew every answer no matter how difficult the question was.

Many people had tried to know his identity but no one was able to find it out. For everyone, he was someone too mysterious. There were even silly rumours that he was some kind of a wizard with clairvoyance powers.

[My Genius generates gravity: Do you really have a link to the climax, Insider?]

[Nepotism is the way: I thought it would take a while before the movie comes on any streaming platform? Don't tell you pirate movies on the side?]

[Se7en: You do know it's illegal right? But how much money do you make? Can I dm? My friend has some questions.]

As everyone in the group chatted excitedly about it, Hollywood Insider went silent for a minute. People thought that he had run away due to getting too much attention and people asking too many questions.

But he returned after a while with a link.

[Hollywood Insider: Here, use this. It should work. https//full-ending-of-black-saints.html ]

Everyone quickly started clicking on the link and trying to see if it was legitimate or not. Some even thought the link would just lead to a guy dancing with a song playing in the background. .

But Moaning Frodo who has asked for it in the first place quickly thanked Hollywood Insider.

[Moaning Frodo: Let me try! Thanks so much, Insider.]

As he clicked on the link, it opened up a video sharing website in which the last few minutes of [Black Saints] were present. It took a minute for the video to load and it showed the scene of a guy who Moaning Frodo recognised as Ray Hardy.

It was not a big problem for him to understand the story as the people in the group had spoiled him enough. The only thing they never fully mentioned was the climax, only saying that it was better watched than said.

Wondering how exactly the climax would unfold, he stared at the screen in which the character of Ray Hardy eventually cornered a meeting of politicians and the saints, shouting that he has records of their illegal deals and he was here to arrest them.

Before the two parties could confront each other, the building they were in suddenly shook and at the next moment, a person looking like a butler would come running, nearly falling and giving one of the saints in the party a letter which he said was addressed to him.

The camera then shifted angles to show what was written in the letter and seeing it, Moaning Frodo's eyes went wide.

[Do you remember what I told you when we met last time? Humans die, ghosts return as symbols to become Immortal.

P.S. Look at the window.]

After reading the letter, the black saint would show a shocked, frightened expression and move towards the window as others stared confused.

One of them would even try to ask what was going on but there would be no reply. It was then that outside the window that had the view of most of the city, several blasts would suddenly happen at different places.

Even the character of Ray Hardy would be surprised by them and forget that he was here to arrest people. Then, the scene would change several times, showing different people, each of them getting a letter and being surprised by it before looking at the blast.

Then, the scene would cut to show a couple that were innocently watching TV when the broadcast would suddenly stop. The lights would turn off too, scaring the couple and it was then that on the TV, a shadow would appear with a sinister smile.

Moaning Frodo instantly recognised the smile.

"Miss me?"

The figure in the TV said and the clip ended there. Moaning Frodo who would be watching it all would not be able to utter anything for a while before typing in the fan group.

[Moaning Frodo: Fuck! That was intense. I don't understand a lot of things as I didn't watch the movie yet but that was Kai at the end right? I thought he died in the middle of the movie.]

[Skyneves: He did but… well, it's hard to explain. Just watch the movie.]

[Moaning Frodo: I'm going to watch it tomorrow asap!]

As his fan group kept talking about [Black Saints] and how good Aiden was as Kai, there was one thing that they overlooked.

It was that the episode of 'The Rory Chamber's show' that Aiden had appeared in was going to air tonight. There was not a lot of buzz about it on the internet too but it was all going to change soon.

"Hey, bitch, give me the remote. 'The Rory Chamber's show' is starting soon. I already missed yesterday's episode as you were watching your fashion program. I don't want to miss it today."

Duke said, snatching the remote from his sister, Dahlia who glared at him and tried to snatch the remote back.

"You enjoyed my fashion program too. Don't you love ogling at hot girls." Dahlia muttered, mocking him. "Pervert."

"If you don't want to get beaten up, shut up. I am an advocate of gender equality rights and I don't mind teaching my younger sister a lesson."

Dahlia stayed silent at that. Duke and her had fought a lot of times before and she was never able to win against him, especially after both of them had been hit by puberty.

Their parents were mostly out working, so no one was going to come to save her.

'If he really tries to fight me, I will kick his balls.'

She thought, glancing at Duke's legs with a vicious smile and he suddenly felt a chill and shifted a bit to the end of the sofa. Thankfully, none of them tried anything and soon, the logo of Rory Chamber's show appeared.

Duke watched with anticipated eyes as the show began. Rory Chambers welcomed everyone on the show with the piano music accompanying him and quickly started the segments that were going to be shown this week.

"No celebrities are even appearing this week. So boring."

Dahlia muttered and took out her phone, ignoring the broadcast while Duke kept his eyes on it, knowing full well that the show never needed celebrities to work.

For the next half an hour, Rory Chambers commented about the daily topics that were going on in America currently, like the upcoming elections and how one of the candidates was involved in a very hilarious scandal called 'Locker gate' in which he was seen making sexist remarks about grabbing things better left unsaid.

Next, Rory talked about celebrity culture and what was going on in Hollywood, often making his audience chuckle due to his jokes.

Even Dahlia would glance up once in a while to see the show as it was truly entertaining.

After a few skits and segments, the show moved to introduce a guest that had never appeared in the show before.

[We have a very special segment for our next part of tonight's show. The hero of the hour, Aiden Silvereye everybody, and he is going to unveil yet another facet of himself for us, by debuting in Stand-Up Comedy for our segment in 'Did you know? Cause we never did!']

He announced and Duke couldn't help but think he had seen Aiden somewhere before but wasn't able to pinpoint where. It was only when Aiden started his stand up with talking about his viral video that he remembered where he had seen him.

'I never knew he would appear here. He must have gotten pretty famous.'

Those were his thoughts as he looked at the screen. At the start of his standup, Duke felt like Aiden was pretty good. He was making fun of his surname which Duke didn't think was too funny but it did make him chuckle.

But as the stand up continued, he felt like it just got better and better. Like there was a part where Aiden was talking about his aspirations of getting into a Hollywood rom com and trying to make differences of its cliches with the rom coms he was used to.

[I always want to do a Hollywood rom com. You know the types where the couple meet, they fight and in the end, the girl is leaving for another country. The airport scene comes up and the hero is running, screaming her name and everyone is like 'That's cute' and try to ultimately get them together. It actually doesn't make sense as a guy screaming like that at an airport would be taken down or shot depending on the colour obviously.]

Duke wasn't able to stop himself from laughing when he heard that. As he was trying to control his laughter, the scene continued.

[You know, in India from where I'm from, the scene is a bit different and both of them in the end don't make any sense.]

He tilted his head this time as on the screen, Aiden smiled and continued.

[In India, we never stop someone at the airport. We directly stop marriages. And let me clarify for you, we don't get any priest saying 'Does anyone have any problems?'. No one had that much patience there. We just directly come in the middle of one and stop it, not caring which stage the marriage is. A guy would come up and say 'This marriage can't happen' and he's not really requesting the girl or anything along the sides. He's demanding. That's lesson 101 of marriage in Bollywood. And the funny part is that the groom, his family and relatives don't even think about the millions they smoked in the marriage as the hero is taking away the girl. And I can guarantee Indians spend way more on marriages than Americans spent on health care…]

"Hahaha, he's funny. Who's this guy?"

Duke suddenly turned towards his sister when he heard that. He didn't know since when but his sister's eyes were glued on the screen.

It seems like she was enjoying it as she wasn't able to stop herself from laughing.

"I think he's a singer. His name is Aiden Silvereye."

"Let me search him up."

She said, quickly typing out his name while her ears stayed perked up to listen to the stand up comedy on the screen.

When she searched him up, she suddenly froze as her eyes came across something very unexpected.

'Why is he trending on Sparrow?'

…

/DreamNote/

The stand up bit is not fully original. Unfortunatly, I am not that Talented. It's inspired from one of my favourite stand-ups, Vir Das. You should check him out

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The episode of 'The Rory Chamber's show' had a profound effect on Aiden's popularity. A lot of people were already looking for stuff related to him after watching [Black Saints] and when he suddenly appeared in a popular talk show, social media was bound to be erupted.

Especially the forums that often talked about celebs that appear in talk shows.

Although his stand up show was only 9 minutes long, the jokes were funny and he was already hyped. A lot of people made short clips of his jokes and circulated it on Sparrow, Skygram, MeTube and online forums.

One of the clips in which Aiden was talking about social media and the stupidness of it really resonated with a lot of people. A user named 'God Greed' posted a short clip of it on Sparrow and just in a day, it got over 200k views which was a big deal as the account didn't have a lot of engagement.

[Now, let's talk about social media for a bit as Rory here is probably already thinking that I'm on the stage for too long already. After all, he needs to pay rent by showing cereal commercials. Anyway, social media… the weirdest place on earth. I'm on it like you all but a lot of things there don't make any sense. You might post a photo of an injured dog and add the caption, 'Stop animal cruelty' and some nutjob in the comments would say 'What about human cruelty. What about man's rights? You don't speak on those' I mean, I understand but both of these things are very very different…]

The clip ended with a vigorous applause from the audience. A lot of people on Sparrow could not help but comment on the post.

[Science makes me Dope: Which is this show? I feel like checking it out? Is the comedy special on Zetflix?]

[Justin Frudeau: This is from 'The Rory Chamber's show'. They posted the whole segment on their MeTube channel you should check out. It's very funny. Probably the best stand up I have seen in a while.]

[Dreams of being number 1: I think I have seen this guy but I don't remember where.]

[Loki Funguson: He's Aiden Silvereye. Check out the bloke. He's bloody damn good. Watched him in [Black Saints]. Hollywood needs more actors like him. The Nine realms need more actors like him.]

[My readers are the best: Ain't he a singer? Saw him in X-Star just last year. He had come a long way to be featured on a talk show. I guess I will check out [Black Saints] to see what the buzz is about.].

[Bread Pitt: I saw the movie today. Would see it again tomorrow just for Kai. Hands down the best character for me in the first quarter of the year. Would love to see a solo movie on him, exploring his past.]

[Mayhem online Player: I didn't really Kai too much. Sounded like a confused character with a mental illness. Should have been played accordingly instead of making him a cool villain.]

[Rats are dads: Loved him on the Rory Chamber's show last night. Me and my kids were laughing on all his bits. Check out his songs too. They are pretty good.]

[Threesomes are complex: I reckon he can be the next big Hollywood superstar. Has charms, talent and doesn't look pretentious jerk.]

[Average Indian Watcher: Following him since X-Star days. He has come a long way and I hope he doesn't stop here. I seriously think we have seen nothing of his talent yet.]

[Griffin eggs: All this talk about him is making me curious to watch his movie.]

The Rory Chamber's show became the final nail in the coffin for [The Last Wolf]. They were already getting less and less collections everyday and the hype for [Black Saints] was increasing.

But after the episode of the talk show, there was a spike in the collections. As Aiden had gone to the show to promote [Blank Saints, a 15 second exclusive clip of it was shown on the show and as the movie was already dominating the trends, it had a very positive effect.

At the end of the second week, the movie had earned around 79 million dollars at the box office and was estimated to finish around 150-200 million dollars easily. Compared to that, [The Last Wolf] had basically stopped at 71 million dollars, barely getting 2-3 million dollars everyday.

It was hard to say if it was even going to get the filming budget back. Ferox Pictures have already given up on getting the marketing budget back and everyday, their executives felt depressed, thinking of the loss the company would have.

The worst thing for them was that they won't be able to milk out the franchise after this as the investors were already angry and it was clear that the public has no interest whatsoever in the franchise.

By all estimates, the franchise was done for good, making Ferox pictures future plans a mess.

There was even a report that Ferox Pictures CEO, Jordan Walsh broke his phone by throwing it on the wall after getting bombarded by calls from journalists, investors and the studio's partners.

The situation was completely different at Granite films as Anthony McCarthy was almost dancing everyday.

[Black Saints] was the biggest hit of the studio. The gamble had paid off and he couldn't be happier about it.

For context, the last movie of theirs that had made such an impact on the box office was a romantic comedy called [The Last moment]. It had earned 45 million dollars and was made on a budget of mere 6 million dollars which ensured the high percentage return.

But even that hasn't made a profound impact online like [Black Saints]. Everyday, new articles about the movie would come out, calling it an unique gangster flick that won hearts.

[Black Saints] — A box office behemoth that gobbled up everything else and was the dominant force in March in the North American box office.

Ray Hardy's gangster drama creates excitement about viewers with its great storyline and characters that are becoming fan favourites too quick.

Kai August — The villain inspired by comic books that superhero movies these days lack.

The underdog at the box office which defeated a big franchise with only two things: good plot and even greater characters.

As [Black Saints] popularity grew, the people who were having the hardest time were reporters. Especially the interns working in small media companies.

They were asked to write articles every hour or try to research about anyone involved with the movie. Because of that, a lot of reporters weren't even able to sleep.

Their superiors were telling them to keep working even if they needed to get vitamin tablets to keep going.

"Ah, fuck. My fingers are hurting from typing so much. Why do we need to write so many articles on a single subject? It's just a movie which got good business."

One of the interns, a sharp faced black boy muttered. He felt a headache in his head and wanted nothing to do other than to sleep.

"You are still better than me. I still have four more articles to go. One about Granite films, one about Ray Hardy, then about Kai and in the end, about the failure of [The Last Wolf]."

Another guy next to him muttered. Around them, a lot of people were just like that. Tired and frustrated from doing so much work but it was something that they were used to.

Everytime a movie would do well or something big would happen, they would experience similar situations. The regular employees were still better and it was only the interns who suffered so much.

"You asked why we need to write so many articles right?" One of the oldest interns suddenly asked and everyone focused on him. He was going to become a regular employee from next month.

"Why?" The sharp faced intern asked.

"It's a lot to do with the PR that a lot of celebs and studios have. We have written so many articles on Ray Hardy because his agency has deals with our company to keep him relevant in the eyes of people. Even if most people talked about Kai, we are writing more articles about Ray Hardy."

"The actor who played Kai. What was his name again? Aiden something, his agency didn't have a deal with our company." Another employee raised an eyebrow.

"From what I researched, he doesn't have an agency. He said that in an interview himself. That's why, a lot of reports barely mentioned his name but more would as he came on Rory Chamber's show."

Everyone nodded, properly understanding the relationship between the media and talent agencies. Both were mutually beneficial to each other and were just trying to do business.

Ray Hardy's agency was trying hard to show him as the sole reason for the movie's success. Even if it wasn't the case and Ray himself didn't want it, his agency would still do it to make the perception that he is pulling a large number of crowds in the theatre.

That way, his fees would be much higher in his next movie.

"By the way, does anyone know if Aiden had any other movies signed up? My last article is about him and I can't find anything."

Suddenly, the sharp faced intern asked.

"I don't think I know anything."

"I heard he was going to do a horror movie with a Spanish director but didn't find a source."

"I heard he's focusing more on singing."

As everyone started shaking his heads, one of the employees who was coming out from the editor's room heard the discussion and replied.

"He doesn't have any movies next. I found out about it and he doesn't have anything signed up. I heard he got rejected for Zetflix original movie recently but other than that, there's nothing."

"Oh, thanks."

"No problem but I think something will come up sooner or later. His popularity is surging for now so people would try to sign him up in some projects."

…

/DreamNote/

Please vote with your power stones and golden tickets!

We're close to hitting 300!! Let's go!!

3 Chapters tomorrow night.

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Kai August

He was the character that Aiden played in [Black Saints] but he now felt like the name had gotten attached to him and became a sort of a nickname. Whenever he would go, people would call him that and ask for autographs.

With the popularity of [Blank Saints] surging day by day, Kai August got more and more popular. To the point that Wade's phone started ringing day and night with requests of interviews and appearances by reporters.

It didn't even seem like it was going to stop anytime soon.

Everyday, the bearded gangster looking agent would smile from too much happiness. The actor under him was finally getting the recognition he deserves. There was no way he wouldn't be happy.

As for Aiden himself, he wasn't even able to think of anything as the work had increased too much. Everyday, he would wake up to do a morning interview and then his afternoons would go to photoshoots and events. In the evenings, he would be doing live shows.

It was said that in Hollywood having too much work was never a bad thing as you don't know when you would be out of work. Aiden knew that the statement was very true for a rookie like him who just had his first impactful role.

So, he didn't complain even if he was only sleeping 4 hours everyday.

Aside from that, he only did the auditions for [The Summer of Boys] and [Death on my Fingers].

Surprisingly, even with his newfound popularity, both the auditions were unsuccessful. In the first one, another actor was chosen because he had abs and Aiden didn't. The director told him that the role required it and they would save time if they already got an actor with abs.

In the director's words, "Acting is also about looks in this age". .

In the second one, Aiden was simply rejected because the producer of the movie felt like he didn't suit the innocent look of the character that was offered to him because in people's mind, Aiden was Kai, a crazy villain.

Aiden wanted to tell the producer that people's perception will change with time and the role was small enough for the movie to not have a lot of impact, but he chose not to say as he felt like the producer had already made his decision.

Like that, he lost both the roles.

But Aiden wasn't down because of it. Both of the roles weren't something he had liked a lot and only auditioned because he wanted to move on to his next movie.

In the past, he had been rejected a lot of times already, so this rejection didn't come as a surprise either.

"So, you lost out on both the roles. I think it's a positive thing as I don't see any of those movies working a lot and a teen romance without actual substance can actually hinder your career as people think you can't do better roles. See what happened to the actors working in [The Last Wolf]."

Omar said, laughing as he looked at Aiden. Both of them were meeting after a long time as Aiden had last met him before the shooting of [Black Saints] and after that, a lot of time had gone by.

Currently, both of them were sitting in a small lounge area in a theatre room. Due to the success of [Black Saints, Granite films had hosted a special screening of the movie with fans and reporters.

They have called everyone involved with the project, so naturally Omar was also here.

"I know that. But I need to try for any roles I get." Aiden explained, shaking his head a bit.

"I thought you are getting a lot of offers now that the character you played got so popular."

"These roles are from before the movie release. And yeah, I did get some offers." Aiden nodded his head. Wade had shown him some new scripts, but he never got time to check them out. "But most of the roles are negative characters."

Aiden said the last part of his sentence with a frown. He was happy about the scripts but it was important to select very carefully now.

He had decided to participate in auditions for [The Summer of Boys] and [Death on my Fingers] because Kai had not become a sensation.

There was no pressure on him.

Now, with his popularity on the high, he naturally felt like people had expectations on him. Because of that, he didn't want to choose a project that he didn't believe in fully.

Wade had the same thoughts in his head. Their mentality had changed a bit due to the response that [Black Saints] got.

"Every film industry is known to typecast. Studios would now try to get you in, thinking that they will get a similar response. There's a lot of chances it will work." Omar said, knowing full well of the mentality of studios.

"Well, Kai was someone with a lot of substance, so I had a lot of points as to how to act as him. It won't be the same with every character."

"True. You can try to look through those projects and just do a few of them for money." Omar said, even if he knew well that Aiden wasn't that type. "But you won't do it, right?"

"Nope." Aiden smiled. "If those projects fail, my career is as good as done."

Omar nodded his head before thinking of something. Hesitating a bit, he suggested, "I actually get a lot of projects, asking for investments and you made me a big profit by working in [Black Saints]. I don't even know what would happen if Tyler was in it."

He laughed at the end and Aiden raised an eyebrow.

"So?"

"So, I will send you projects that I like and are going to invest in. If you like any of them, I will try to get you a good role in them."

"The movie was so exciting. I now understand why people are talking so much about it."

"I have not had so much fun for a long time."

"That climax blew my mind off. Is Kai alive? Is he dead?"

Audience excitedly talked about the movie as it ended and the credits rolled. These were the people who had won an online contest held on Granite films social media handle.

A lot of them had taken cameras with them to shoot the event. Videos of it were going to be on the internet as soon as the event ended.

Aside from them, there were also a few reports that were called in for the screening.

"I hope you all have liked the movie." A host came on stage with a mic in his hand as soon as the movie ended. "But the event hadn't ended yet. Next, we are going to hold a Q/A with the director and the cast of the movie. Give a round of applause for them."

The audience clapped as the host said that. The very next second, the cast and the director climbed the stage and as soon as people saw them, the cheers doubled.

"Then, we would start one by one. Let's try to be civil and ask questions one by one."

The host said and reporters and some people in the audience started asking questions. For a lot of them, they were seeing celebs for the first time and were very excited.

Most of the questions were asked to Ray Hardy as he was the most popular out of them but unsurprisingly, the second person who was asked a lot of questions was Aiden.

If it was before the screening, maybe the questions wouldn't be this much but as it was after, Kai had already become a fan favourite.

"Is it really true that during the interrogation scene, you asked Ray Hardy to actually punch you because you wanted the scene to be as realistic as possible?"

One of the reporters asked Aiden. Although Ray had confirmed it on a show, a lot of rumours were still saying that it was exaggerated.

"Yeah, it's true. I did get punched and actually, no one in the crew knew about it, so they quickly got me to the hospital as Ray punched pretty hard."

"Why did you take such a risk?"

"It was mainly to make sure that the scene could look as good as it could be. Also, because I wanted to really feel what Kai would feel in that moment. It worked out well in the end, so I think it's a risk worth taking."

At Aiden's answers, a few journalists who had come with laptops started typing it right away. Every answer from here was going to come in articles.

The event moved as the journalists, reports and even the common people asked a lot of questions from the celebrities. There was one instance where an audience member asked a question from Aiden that made everyone laugh out loud.

"How does it feel like to go from getting stabbed to stabbing people?"

The question was truly aimed for Aiden and the guy who asked it had surely followed Aiden before. Smiling, Aiden thought for a bit before replying.

"Now that you mention it, my name has been related to stabbing a day for the last few months." That made everyone chuckle. "Anyway, the movie's shooting took place before the incident where I got stabbed, so it's pretty opposite and getting stabbed was not really as fun as actually stabbing people while shooting but in the end, I'm just hoping that my name won't get associated with stabbing for a while."

…

/DreamNote/

Please support this novel with your golden tickets and power stones!

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Chapter 107.TheScript

By the end of March, [Black Saints] had already crossed the 110 million dollar mark and although it had slowed down at the box office as a lot of people had already watched it, the numbers daily were still really good.

As for Aiden, everyday, there was a lot of work for him to do, but he had also started thinking of his next project.

Everyday, Wade and him were discussing a lot of plans. One of them was even Aiden starting to work on his album but in the end, both of them thought that it was too soon for him and he should get a bit more popularity first.

In the end, they decided to go for another acting project.

"So, we don't really have a lot of choices. I don't really think you should do another villain role but most of the scripts we got are like that. Either a very serious role or just straight out bad guy."

Wade said, sipping down on his coffee with a frowning face. It was getting more and more difficult for them to pin down a movie to audition for.

But it was also a sign of success.

Before Aiden was going for any movie he could get his hands on, trying to not be out of work, but now he could take his time and only do projects that he's confident in and would actually help his career.

In Wade's words, he had grown from a golden worm to a golden worm with wings.

"So, what plan do you have?"

Aiden asked. There was no other reason for Wade to call him here early in the morning if he just wanted to say that he didn't have a plan.

"Well, I got a script for you yesterday." Wade smiled.

"Genre?"

"Romantic comedy."

Aiden felt a bit surprised hearing that. A studio was crazy enough to offer the guy who just played a crazy villain a romantic comedy? He felt like it was very interesting.

"How's the script and which studio is it from?"

"I read it a bit last night. The first 20 pages are pretty great. Funny at parts and obviously very emotional." Wade said, then paused for a bit. "And it's from someone you actually know."

"Who?"

"Leo Shaw. I think you worked with him in [Shadows of War]."

Aiden's eyes widened hearing that. He hadn't heard from Leo in a while but he still remembered what he said during the car ride when he was leaving Australia.

'I'm writing a script. A romantic comedy. I think you will fit very well as the male lead.'

Back then, Aiden hadn't thought that Leo would actually cast him in his movie as these types of promises are made on a daily basis in Hollywood but rarely, people stay true to their words.

"The role? Is it the male lead?" Aiden raised an eyebrow and asked.

"How do you know? Don't tell me Leo called you already about it?"

"No, he just told me once that he would cast me in his romantic comedy as a lead. Anyway, a romantic comedy sounds like a change of pace finally."

Aiden said with a smile.

If he kept doing serious roles, people would surely start taking him as that type of actor and no fun, commercial roles would be offered to him. He would become an actor with movies that would only work in award shows and film festivals.

Kai was someone with subtle seriousness to him but he was also a character that would resonate with the masses.

Now that Aiden was over him, he truly wanted to try out a comedy or romance movie.

"Yeah, it is. The movie's picked up by Night Hawk studios. You probably know about them. Their movie [A day in the Life of Jonathan] clashed with [Shadow of Wars] at the box office. It failed but it seems like they are still trying to go the romantic comedy route. They must be very confident in the script as there are a lot of rumours that they are desperate for success."

Aiden nodded his head, thinking of the headlines he had seen on tabloids some months ago.

Night Hawk studios used to be a very big studio, capable of even competing with something like Zero International. They had everything right going for them, even getting subsidiaries like a talent agency and animation studio.

But a few years ago, the chairman of the studio had died and the management had shifted completely. His sons weren't able to properly manage the whole studio and a lot of producers made their own cliques.

Because of all this, the internal management of the studio was a mess and the studio was in desperate need for stability.

'They have a couple of flops this year already. But even if they are down, they have a great control of the distribution channels in America and even overseas. Doing a movie with them is largely thought to be a safe choice still as at least the movie would be promoted enough to be in everyone's eyes.'

Aiden made an assessment in his mind and looked at Wade.

"I think it's a pretty good choice. Not a lot of risk and if the movie is good, it might become a sleeper hit."

"That's what I'm hoping for. Though you can't guarantee anything in this industry. And as you are offered the lead and the director is also new, the whole movie would be on your shoulders. If it does well, it's fine but…"

Wade trailed off in his sentence and it was very evident what he was trying to say. Aiden's career was currently on a straight road but if the movie failed, it was as good as falling in a hole that was on the road.

It would take a long time for him to get out of the hole.

"Everything has risk in this industry." Aiden said and Wade smiled.

"It's good that you know it. Anyway, let's not get ahead of ourselves. First thing would be to get the role and sign the contract. The director already likes you, so you have a high chance of securing the role."

"Have you gotten the script yet?"

Aiden raised an eyebrow and without saying anything, Wade pulled out a script from a bag. He passed it to Aiden who read out the name of the movie.

[30 days of Happiness.]

Reading out the name, he decided to check the script score.

[Name: 30 days of Happiness

Script score: 45/100

-The story has a lot of right things going for him in the genre. A solid theme, good plot twist but it fails to make the main character someone flawed. Moreover, It doesn't leave anything for the viewers to comprehend.

-The script score doesn't reflect if the movie would be popular or not.]

As he read out the words written on the system prompt in front of him, Aiden gulped down his saliva. A score of 45 wasn't giving him much hope for the movie.

He even read it out twice just to be sure.

'What should I do now?'

He thought, looking at the script on the table.

"Leo, are you really going to be hell bent on casting a rookie actor for the male lead. This is one of the major decisions and it could potentially make it or break it for the movie."

Rodrigo Burke, one of the executive producers working in Night Hawk studios sighed. He and Leo Shaw were currently talking about the casting for [30 days of Happiness] in his office.

Rodrigo's office was filled with awards and posters of movies that he was a part of. It was an indicator of how long he had been working in the industry for.

"I think the movie could benefit from having a fresh face as the lead and Aiden had just done really well as Kai August. You know the movie is still going very well at the box office."

Leo said, being very clear about his ideas. He was wearing a suit with short hair and a clean shaved face, looking very calm and composed.

"I know but [Black Saints] has a whole ensemble cast. No one focused on him before the movie release. Are you really confident that he could carry a whole movie? How about giving him a supporting role. Even I won't object to that."

"I promised him that he would be the lead and I have seen his acting at a close range. He has the ability to give out performances that would stun people and I think he could carry the whole movie. There would be other actors in the movie too and anyway, it's not like the budget is too high that we can't afford a gamble."

Leo gave out his thoughts and Rodrigo stayed silent. He had watched [Black Saints] himself and he knew that Aiden Silvereye has potential.

He was now touted to be a rookie who could make a name for himself going forward.

But Night Hawk studios were planning to make [30 days of Happiness] a packaged deal, which means that they were going to take most of the actors from their talent agency and make more deals with another studio to distribute it.

That way, they would be able to promote their actors and even the risk won't be a lot. With failed projects, Rodrigo was very sensitive about risks.

'It doesn't look like Leo is going to agree with me. Damn these stubborn directors!'

He thought in his mind and couldn't help but frown.

The rights to the script were still in Leo's hand and only a verbal agreement was made. So, he didn't have the level of control that he wanted.

"Okay, let's do an audition first and then decide."

...

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 108.Villain

On 12 April, 2016, [Black Saints] crossed 130 million dollars at the box office and with that, they were one very sure of entering the 150 million mark and might even touch 200 million mark.

The movie was going to be in the theatres for two more months before it gets added to streaming platforms..

As soon as it crossed 130 million dollars, Hollywood Weekly, one of the leading celebrities and movie magazines, released an article titled, "Why Kai is one of the best modern day villains?"

The article's title made a lot of people curious and it got over 34k reads in just a day.

[We have seen a lot of villains since the start of 2010s, most of the famous ones being the ones from superhero movies but fans always felt like they lacked a certain edge compared to how these villains were in the comics.

Aside from the comic villains, a lot of original villains have also appeared on the big screen. But not one of them was able to make the movie elevate just because of their presence in it. Not one was able to resonate with the masses.

It was not because of bad acting. Ironically, the level of acting talent we have in Hollywood is just increasing every year, so it was never about talent but how a character is written or portrayed.

But just last month, [Black Saints] gave us Kai August, a villain that thoroughly resonated with the masses and was trending on Sparrow for quite a while. But why was that so? Is it the acting? Just the character traits? Or something entirely else.

Let's discuss that!

First, if you have seen the movie, you must have seen the opening scene. Just that set up the whole character of Kai. It gave him a very relatable background of someone who likes comic books. But it's a very unique character trait for a gangster.

Next, we see Kai talking to a kid and in that scene, we understand his mentality very well.

Here, we find out how Kai talked about his philosophy about politicians, the world and how being a gangster and politician isn't really different as in the end, it's all about power.

Both authority and fear are powers that one could use. And Kai understands that well and later, we get to know that he wants to grow over power.

The only way to do it is to become a symbol.

This is a very comic book philosophy but it sticks too well with the world of [Black Saints]. Like the director, Zavier Lamb said, "Kai is a villain inspired by comic books and he knows that even without superpowers, one could do a lot of things if they are smart enough."

That gets us to our next point. Kai is very smart and has plans for everything.

In the movie, he had already thought of all the What ifs that could happen to him. When he realised that he won't be able to get out of prison, he decided to take his own life so nonchalantly that it came off as a very unpredictable decision but at the end of the movie, everything came together.

Kai achieved his only goal, meaning that he had it all planned already.

Although a small point, his style is also one of the reasons that Kai became so popular. Wearing a black suit with a knife in his hand — That was one of the concept arts of Kai that was released after the movie did so well at the box office.

A lot of people liked it a lot and termed Kai as a very stylish villain.

Now, the next point is that despite being a villain, Kai is someone who loves the city a lot. He wants to rule over it as he thinks that he's better suited for it but this also stems from the fact that he has seen the effects of corruption on people.

In a way, being a gangster is a way for him to protect the city that he was born in.

Now, one of the last points is that Kai is probably one of the most mysterious characters. Project Anarchy that was revealed at the end of the movie is a definite proof of it.

The whole project is about destroying the illegal businesses of politicians and other black saints. He even revealed all the corruption of the politicians on the internet and we don't know since when, he was planning it and how he even did it.

But the moment that really cemented his mysteriousness was the video of him suddenly appearing on every TV in the city. It was the big reveal that Kai was still alive but those who watched the movie with keen eyes would know that Charlie Morgan, the main character of [Black Saints] himself said that he saw Kai's dead body.

So, was Kai actually dead or Charlie was lying in that particular scene?

It was never explained but a theory had come that Kai had made that video a long time ago for Project Anarchy to make it seem like he didn't die and was looking over the city, truly becoming a symbol even if he wasn't alive.

This theory had become very popular among fans of the movie and this just adds to the smarts and mysteriousness of the character.

Now, the final point is very easy.

The way the character was played. Aiden Silvereye, the actor who played Kai gave a great performance but it was only successful because he completely devoted himself to it as Ray Hardy himself explained.

It was probably not an easy role to play for a rookie actor, still trying to make his way into Hollywood but he surely gave his all to it and in the end, Kai became one of the most popular characters this year…]

"We are here."

Aiden raised his head from his phone in which he was reading the article from Hollywood Weekly when he heard Wade's voice.

"Are you ready?" His agent asked and Aiden nodded.

"Yeah, let's go."

Saying that, Aiden got out of the car and looked at the theatre building in front of him. It was the same place where the auditions for [Shadows of War] had happened and now, his audition for [30 days of Happiness] was going to happen here too.

It was only because the theatre was one of the cheapest to rent for a day but Aiden felt like things had come full circle for him.

"Are you nervous?"

"Actually, no. I have analysed the script a lot and am very confident that I would be able to pass the audition. Maybe because I have already been in too many auditions. I don't really feel the jitters."

"That's a good thing."

Wade said as they entered the theater. Aiden didn't tell him that rather than the audition, there was something else that was in his mind.

'I need to discuss the script with Leo.'

The system gave the script a low score and as it had pointed out negative points of the script, it had made Aiden's job easier.

As he walked, he saw a small number of staff from Night Hawk studios was there. From what Wade had told him, the producer of the project, Rodrigo Burke was trying to keep the budget as low as possible.

It was because he had gotten a lot of loss from his last few projects.

"Please come this way."

A staff member led them to the area around the stage where everything was already set up. There, Aiden saw a familiar face who was helping set up the camera.

"Leo, been a long time."

Aiden said, shaking hands with Leo who looked a bit different than the last time he had seen him, like there was a bit more maturity and experience in his eyes.

"Yeah, you really got too popular in just some months. I watched [Black Saints] and loved it. Your acting has improved a lot."

"Thanks." He said before turning to Wade. "And here, Wade is my agent."

Both Leo and Wade shook hands and introduced themselves before starting to talk about other few things. It was just small talk before they got to the main topic.

"Anyway, everything is already set up, so we can start any second." Leo pointed at the cameras and the other crew members standing around the stage. "The theatre is booked for the whole day, so you can take your time."

Aiden made an awkward expression hearing that. Hesitating a bit, he opened his mouth.

"Actually, I was hoping to have a discussion with you about the script and the main character before the audition."

"Oh."

Leo was not a lot surprised as actors would normally have discussions with the director about the plot and characters.

It was pretty normal.

He actually wanted to have discussions with Aiden about the script, but Rodrigo wanted to quickly finish the casting, so he had directly invited Aiden to the audition.

"Let's go to the makeup room then. We could talk about the script there."

Aiden nodded and they both went to the makeup room while Wade stayed behind to talk with the crew and staff from Night Hawk studios, trying to make a few connections.

As both of them reached the makeup room and sat down, Leo asked.

"So, what is it about the script that you want to talk about? How do you like the script?"

"Actually, the script is pretty good but…" Aiden trailed off in his sentence before completing it. "There were some parts that I thought could be better."

Hearing that, Leo's face froze.

...

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 109

[30 days of Happiness]

It had been a week since Aiden got his hands on the script, and when he saw the script score, he had a hunch the movie's plot wasn't going to be good.

His expectations had naturally gone down.

But when he started reading the script, he realised how wrong he was. Rather than disappointing, it was one of the best stories he had read in a while.

[30 days of Happiness] was a movie with many intricate plots hidden in it, but at its core, it was a story of two people's journey.

A journey with a lot of fun moments, enough to get people invested in the story.

The story starts with a narration by the main character, Arthur Reeves, who kick-starts the plot by talking about the best journey of his life, which happened in a summer when he was 17.

On one faithful day, he had met his neighbour, and a popular high school girl, Claire Price and they would spend the whole day together as Claire had just broken up with her boyfriend.

Arthur, who always had a crush on Claire but never told her about it as she was dating another guy, would think of it as the best day of his life, but at the end of the day, Claire would ask him if he wanted to travel the whole Europe with her to find a person.

Claire would then reveal that she had found some love letters addressed to her grandma by a person named 'Charles Dunkin', but the addresses on those letters were always different and were spread all over Europe.

Reading the letters, Claire wanted to meet Charles to learn about her grandma as she passed away when she was a kid. However, Arthur asks her what if Charles is dead too? To this, she replied that she wouldn't find out until she goes to the addresses in the letters. .

Like that, a month-long journey would begin, and along the way, both would encounter many weird and funny situations to find Charles.

This was the basic premise of [30 days of Happiness].

The story was something that looked like another romantic comedy focused on teens and young adults, but after going through the whole script, Aiden found out that it was way more than that, and it tells a lot of stuff subtly.

But despite the premise being good, there was obviously a lot missing from the script. It was only because of that that the system had given it a low score.

In the last week, Aiden thought a lot about the script and what it lacked and was even able to get different viewpoints on the plot and how to improve it.

But the problem was how Leo was going to take it.

'If Leo doesn't like my idea, I might lose the role.'

He thought, staring at Leo, who was making a blank face. Aiden knew very well that directors were arrogant and stubborn, especially those who write their own scripts.

Even if he told his points to him, there was a chance Leo wouldn't like them, but he needed to try as if Leo listened, the script score would surely get better.

"What parts are you talking about?" Leo asked, raising an eyebrow. He had thought that Aiden wanted to discuss a scene with him or try to get more perception of a character.

But he had not expected to say that some parts in the script could have been better.

"Well, first of all," Aiden said, trying to be confident. After all, if he hesitated, Leo might not take him seriously. "I think the story could easily be divided into three parts. The first part is the character introduction of Arthur, the second part is the trip to Europe, and the third part is obviously the conclusion."

Leo nodded hearing that and gestured to Aiden to keep talking.

"I think the second part is the soul of the movie with the main plot taking place then, but the conclusion it gives really destroys everything the first part sets."

"What do you mean?" Leo made a confused expression.

"Let me explain. The first part sets up the character of Arthur as a high school student having a crush on his neighbour. But that's just the outer surface. The background of Arthur is way more than that. It's not really simple if one reads the script closely."

"What do you think it is?"

Leo made a curious expression.

"His dreams, his family, his childhood. In these things, only his family is revealed as Claire and Arthur bond on it later in the second part. As for his childhood, we never got a lot of it, so I can just make assumptions. But his dreams are clearly mentioned."

"Yeah." Leo nodded. "He wants to be a singer."

"Yeah, he wants to sing. He writes songs. All this is mentioned, but the plot never really explores all this even when it's technically Arthur's story as he's the narrator telling his own story. In the second part, the plot gets centred around Claire too much, making it seem like Arthur is just a guy obsessed with her and doesn't really have anything to show for himself. Because of that, rather than [30 days of Happiness, the movie could easily be called 'Claire', and it would make more sense."

When Aiden had completed the script, the feeling that the plot forgot Arthur as a character surfaced in his heart.

He had expected it to explore his vulnerabilities and ambitions more. As the audience would volunteer themselves in Arthur's journey, it would make a lot more sense if the plot tries to explore him more.

Otherwise, the audience would feel like Arthur had become a shell of what he was at the beginning of the story, and they would not feel as attached as they should feel.

It was not like Claire was a bad character for Aiden. On the contrary, he felt like she was kind of a trigger for Arthur actually to do something he usually won't do.

She also has a lovely character and her own dreams, which were very well fleshed out, but the plot starts focusing too much on her, making the story seem empty and confused at the core.

That's why, at the end of the story, Claire's journey gives a sense of satisfaction while Arthur doesn't, making the whole story very pointless.

This makes [30 days of Happiness] a mediocre romantic comedy.

When Leo heard Aiden's words, he couldn't help but frown, not because he didn't like them but because the more he thought, the more Aiden's words started making sense.

'Now that I think about it, I made the plot centred around Claire, but at the end, Arthur's character really got sidelined.'

Leo thought in his mind.

He made this mistake because he was very focused on trying to create good chemistry between the characters, but in the middle of it, he forgot to make Arthur stand out.

So, it became like Arthur's whole purpose was Claire, while it was very different for Claire.

"Your perspective is fascinating. I did not notice such a big problem with the plot."

Leo said after a while, and Aiden couldn't help but smile. Thankfully, he had taken it in the way he had expected.

"I'm quite surprised," Leo said, looking seriously at Aiden. "I didn't expect you to analyse the script at this level."

"I did have it for over a week. I was just trying to get into the skin of Arthur, and I realised that he looked more empty as the story went. So, I wanted to talk about those points with you."

"I'm glad you did. I think I will make some more revisions in the script." Leo muttered before hesitating a bit and asking, "Do you have any ideas? I'm very interested in hearing If you have any."

When he heard that, Aiden thought for a moment, it was not easy to suddenly come up with ideas to make the script better. Earlier, his entire focus was to make Leo realise that the script has a lot of weak points.

'How to correct the weak points? Well, the main flaw is the journey of Arthur and him not growing as a character.'

He tried to think from the perspective of Arthur, and suddenly, an idea struck his mind.

"I think it's very simple. You need to give Arthur more motivation than just impressing Claire. At the start of the movie, he's sitting in a sort of an interview and narrating about Claire and the journey, so let's assume he's already a successful singer."

"Yeah." Leo nodded, and Aiden continued.

"But it's never really explained, like his struggles of becoming a singer and other things, so I think this is something that we could take into consideration. Like adding this to why he decided to take the journey with Claire and in the end, we could expand more of it and connect it to the interview."

"That's an interesting idea."

Leo said, pretty happy with what Aiden was saying. For the next 30 minutes, both discussed more ideas about the script and how they could improve it.

At this point, Leo had pretty much already confirmed Aiden as the lead. At that moment, system notifications suddenly appeared in front of Aiden.

[You have delved into another talent and had unlocked the skill 'Writing'.]

[Sub skills like 'Script writing' and 'Novel writing' have been gained.]

[Analysing the skill level of new skills.]

[Congratulations on unlocking a new skill. A lot of experience has been given.]

…

/DreamNote/

The second chapter will be delayed. I will write and upload it in morning, tonight I am bit busy in personal stuff.

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"You seem a bit worried. The audition went well. Do you think I won't get the role?"

Aiden asked, turning his head to look at Wade who was driving the car with a blank face but as they were working together for a while now, it was easy for him to notice his emotional state.

He was never so silent until he was worried about something.

"Well, I know the audition went well."

The audition went on for more than 2 hours as Leo had made Aiden try out a few dresses that they were designing for the character of Arthur and then, he was told to act out some scenes.

As Aiden had a good control over the plot and had analysed the character of Arthur, the audience had gone very well.

At least Aiden thought that.

"Then?" Aiden raised an eyebrow.

"The thing is Leo looked blank at times while doing the audition. He didn't even look like he was focusing a lot on the audition. This is worrying me."

"Oh, that." Aiden smiled and explained. "I think it's just because he was thinking of the plot. I had a talk about it with him and pointed out a few loopholes in the script."

"What?"

Wade asked in a raised voice, shock written all over his face and Aiden had to quickly open his mouth.

"Don't worry, he liked my suggestions and even thanked me. That's why I think the audition is a success. I managed to impress the director even before the audition."

Aiden said and Wade took a few seconds to calm down.

"It would have been better if you had pointed out any suggestions after you passed the audition. A lot of directors have big egos and don't really like actors interfering with the story."

"I know that but Leo is a friend and I thought he would listen. He's very passionate about getting his debut right, so I thought he would take it in the right way."

There were various cases of directors refusing to work with actors just because they don't like the actor. Sometimes, actors and directors would even fall out in between the shooting. .

Whereas there were even actors who liked to shadow control movies and some action actors who wanted the studio and the director to list down how many punches and kicks their character would take during the movie.

For a movie to succeed, sometimes a director had to keep aside his ego and an actor to completely give himself to the vision of the director.

"So, it worked out right? Are you completely sure?" Wade asked after a while. If everything went right, the movie would be Aiden's first lead role.

So, it was very important to get everything right.

"Yeah, I'm. Leo even told me that he would call me to discuss some more ideas."

"Okay, it's best if Leo feels like only you could play the character of Arthur Reeves. We don't have a lot of luck otherwise."

Aiden felt something amiss at the end of Wade's sentence and couldn't help but ask, "Is something wrong?"

"Well, when you were discussing stuff with Leo, I was trying to make new friends with the crew and staff members that were there and it seems like the guy producing the movie, Rodrigo Burke, doesn't really like you."

"Why he don't like me? I don't even remember meeting him." Aiden asked, tilted his head.

"It's not like that. He just wants an actor with more visibility heading the movie. The staff told me that he and Leo had a few discussions about it already. Leo wants a fresh face who's not in a lot of movies and Rodrigo wants an actor with at least 10 years of experience."

In Hollywood, actors have lost roles for all sorts of reasons. From producers not liking the actor's face to just on the fact that an actor had never been struck by a girl.

There was even an incident that Aiden remembered where a director told a pretty famous actor, "You look too American for this role." when he had auditioned for a British supernatural wizard movie.

So, getting rejected due to not having a lot of experience and visibility among the audience was still a pretty good reason.

"I sometimes feel like getting roles is way harder than playing them." Aiden said after a while.

"Yeah, but it's Hollywood. We are still standing at the back of the line in popularity. Just we have one advantage."

"What?"

"There's too many projects being made here every year. One goes and another comes."

Wade said and smiled, his face loosening up a little.

"That's true."

Aiden muttered and the conversation died down. Truthfully, he really wanted to play the role of Arthur and even if the producer didn't like him, he was very confident that Leo would at least get him a role in the movie.

'If the studio wants a more popular actor, I will at least get you a supporting role.'

That's what he had told him and these words didn't seem like a lie to Aiden.

Moreover, he had already gotten a skill out of it. Leaning against his seat, Aiden thought of it and in an instance, system notifications appeared in front of him.

[You have delved into another talent and unlocked the skill 'Writing'.]

[Sub skills like 'Script writing' and 'Novel writing' have been gained.]

[Your Writing skill has been assigned 'Level 6'. Sub skills Script writing has been assigned 'Level 6' and Novel writing has been assigned 'Level 5'.]

'It's been a while since I checked my status screen.'

He thought and opened up his status screen.

[Aiden Silvereye] [25 years]

[Singing level: Intermediate Grade 2]

–Has all the basic qualities of a vocalist.

–A uniquely calm and soothing voice with a talent for composing.

–Has the ability to express emotions like the very best.

–High level of proficiency in the use of Silver light.

[Acting level: Intermediate Grade 1]

–Has a charm that reflects during acting.

–Prefers method acting.

–Is able to understand the character being played.

–Have the ability to immerse yourself in the role you are playing. The Immersion might affect your real personality.

[Writing level: Level 6]

–Have all the basic skills of a writer.

–The ability to understand stories in more than one way and portray them as such.

–The ability to write characters that could relate to people.

[Special skill: Empathy]

–The ability to understand, interpret and experience the emotions and feelings of characters, music, and people.

–Gives a special boost to performances that might entrance people.

–Weaves strong emotions into music and acting.

[Special skill: Charisma]

–People would notice you easily in a crowd. Gives a special effect to your aura, making you stand out.

–Easy to increase the favorability of people towards you.

–You will look more handsome to the opposite gender.

There were a lot of things written on his status screen but Aiden's eyes went towards the writing skill that he had gotten just a few hours ago.

He was sure that he had unlocked it by trying to add a few things in [30 days of Happiness]. Maybe that was the criteria to unlock the skill.

After all, the last time he came close to writing a book was in high school when he was in a sort of group with his friends where they would share the books they have and write short stories.

After that, he mostly focused on writing songs as for him, his songs were also a way to portray stories.

Both novels and songs were similar to him in that regard.

'Now, what should I do with my writing skill?'

Aiden thought, closing off his status screen.

Now that he had gotten the skill, he felt like it would be a waste if he didn't do anything with it. There was a gamer inside of him who wanted to grind levels on it too.

'Maybe I can try writing a script or a book going forward?'

He thought, getting an idea in his head. Sadly, for now, Aiden wanted to take one step at a time and the next step for him was [30 days of Happiness].

"Congratulations. I watched your movie last night and it left me starstruck. It was too good."

"Oh, I love that song? You know that Canadian singer?"

"Is it true that Aaron Hart got aids? There were photos of him going to clinics and his wife hasn't been out for a long time."

Rodrigo Burke entered the party with a smile on his face. It was hosted by a director friend of his and he could see that a lot of people were invited.

On the right, some producers were talking about what films were working in the market currently and on the left, there were people gossiping about every type of scandal in Hollywood.

'I should try to have a good time here. My work has been stressing me a lot these days.'

He thought and was about to join some other producers to talk when a voice called him out.

"Hey, Rodrigo."

He looked up to see a guy with a sharp face, blonde hair and a clean shaven face heading towards him. He was wearing a suit and he looked like the type of guy who would always be surrounded with girls no matter where he went.

"Harold, I didn't expect you to be here."

"I have some time off. Flops give you a lot of time to think about your next. My agent doesn't want me to rush into another movie, so I'm pretty free these days."

His name was Harold Wood, an actor who had gotten famous due to his looks early on and had solidified himself in Hollywood with a lot of romantic comedies and dramas.

"Oh, are you going to try another in the action genre?" Rodrigo asked. Harold's last movie [Grenade] was an action movie which had tanked at the box office.

"No, I'm not comfortable in those. I only did that because my agent forced me, saying it's an opportunity to try something new." Harold shrugged. "I think I will go back to doing comedies or any romantic drama. They are well suited for me but my agent hasn't been able to get a good script."

"That's true." Rodrigo nodded before an idea suddenly struck his mind. "By the way, do you have a minute? I think I might have a script for you."

….

/DreamNote/

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'Let's get Arthur to have a motivation other than Claire to make him go on the journey with her. Maybe he's in the middle of writing a song and has some kind of artistic block? We could get that as the motivation and soul for the movie.'

'But it isn't a musical?'

'It doesn't have to be, you know. These days, coming of age rom coms lack a lot in the emotional depth of the movie, and a song could definitely help. Music touches the soul more than anything. So let's make the motivation for Arthur to go for the trip a song.'

Leo couldn't help but smile, thinking of his conversation with Aiden.

It had opened up a lot of creativity that was blocked in his mind and given him a new, fresh perception of how he wanted the story to be.

After Aiden's audition, Leo came home and read the script many times and found out that whatever Aiden pointed out was more or less true.

The traits Aiden wanted to expand on regarding Arthur were taken very well by him as he felt they suited the story.

So, he worked hard for the next two days to modify the script.

Giving Arthur more exposure as a musician also meant that Aiden, who was a singer and songwriter, could connect way better with Arthur.

"It's hard for me to see anyone other than him as Arthur now."

Leo thought as he looked at the video playing on his computer. He was currently sitting in his home, reviewing Aiden's audition tape again.

On the computer screen, Aiden was reading a book, with his eyes peeking over to look at the person sitting in front of him. A staff member who was acting as Claire.

[What book are you reading?] .

The staff member asked, and Aiden, focusing half-heartedly on the book, couldn't help but fumble and hesitate.

[It's a coming-of-age romance novel about two teenagers who have cancer. It's a pretty good story.]

[Sounds heavy.]

[Not really. It will make you cry, and it will make you laugh. That's what a story does, and as the book fulfils it, it's a good book.]

Aiden said with a shy smile covering his face. That was the character of Arthur, who was a lot shy and insecure but had an innate love for stories.

[You love novels, right? Even in class, you would always be in some kind of book. Do you want to be an author?]

[No, I'm not good enough to be an author, and I just don't love novels. I love any kind of story, and I want to make stories and express them, but writing is not the way I can do it. I tried, tried very hard on it, but it's not for me…]

Leo paused the video as Aiden was in the middle of his sentence. It was because these lines weren't in the scene given to him, and he was improvising a lot on the last sentence to show more of the character of Arthur.

To show the storyteller inside of him. A guy who wants to read and tell stories to the world regardless of form or shape.

'He has improved a lot in the past half-year.'

Leo couldn't help but think about when Aiden first came on the [Shadows of War] set. But, aside from his last scene, none of them particularly stood out.

Even the critics have praised that scene only in the whole role. It was not like his other scenes were bad. They just never stood out compared to the actors he was working with.

The only reason Leo even told him that he would make him the lead in his next was that that one scene kept playing in his mind over and over again.

It was a very impulsive decision back then, but now, he knew it was one of the best decisions of his life.

For him, Arthur Reeves was Aiden Silvereye!

[Do… do… do… do… do… do… do…]

Suddenly, his phone that was plugged into the charger rang. Leo quickly took it in and saw that Rodrigo was calling him.

"Hello, Rodrigo. What happened?"

He picked the phone up and asked, going straight to the point.

"Leo, can you come to my office? I have someone here who wants to meet you."

"Right now?"

"Yeah."

Leo quickly checked the time and saw that it was just evening. He quickly agreed and left his apartment.

'I wonder what Rodrigo wants to talk about. Well, a thousand things going on with a film's production.'

He thought, getting in his car.

When Leo reached Rodrigo's office, he saw that there was already someone there talking with Rodrigo happily. Leo recognised the guy that was with him.

He was Harold Wood.

"Mr Wood, I'm a big fan of yours."

Leo said, shaking their head with the blonde-haired, charming guy in front of him. Harold smiled and opened his mouth.

"Thank you, and just call me Harold. I was just talking with Rodrigo about you. I read the script of [30 days of Happiness, and I loved it. I think the story has a lot of potential."

"Thank you. I'm actually in the middle of modifying it a bit."

"Oh, then I would love to read the modified version."

He said, and both of them sat down on the sofa to join Rodrigo. Leo felt things were strange as Rodrigo had suddenly called him to meet with Harold.

It was not like Leo didn't like it. In his time as an assistant director, Rodrigo had talked to many A-listers, but Harold was unfortunately not one of them. But he nevertheless loved the latter's movies and knew he was still one of the young actors firmly established in Hollywood.

Though Harold was in his early 30s, he was considered young by Hollywood standards.

'I don't think he called me just to chat.'

Leo thought, and the next moment, he finally got to know why Harold was here as Rodrigo explained it to him.

"Actually, Harold and I met at a party, and he was looking for a script these days for his next movie. He feels like romantic comedy is the genre where he has a forte, so he wants to get back to it and then, I told him about [30 days of Happiness]."

"Oh." Leo understood what Rodrigo was trying to hint at. "And he liked the script."

Both Harold and Rodrigo nodded at that.

"I liked it more than I thought I would. The idea of a journey all over Europe with fun situations popping here and there is very great. And the reason to go on the journey is very old school but emotional, making it easy for the audience to connect with the story. It's probably the best romantic comedy I have read in a while, and I genuinely want to be a part of it and try out the audition for Arthur Reeves."

Harold said very sincerely. It was strange for an A-lister to act like this, so Leo was clearly able to see that he had loved the script a lot and wanted to be a part of the project.

"I actually wanted to meet you, so I came running to Rodrigo even without telling my agent."

"Yeah, I think Harold would suit Arthur a lot. What do you think, Leo?"

Rodrigo looked at Leo, who hesitated a bit before remembering Aiden's face.

"I'm sorry, but I already have a guy for Arthur in my mind."

As soon as he said that, both the faces of Rodrigo and Harold froze. Rodrigo wasn't able to believe that Leo had said that in front of Harold.

"Is that so? Well, that's disappointing…"

Harold muttered with a deep frown on his face. He was really looking forward to the role, but it seemed like it was not going to work out.

"Wait. Wait, I think it's a misunderstanding." Harold raised an eyebrow at Rodrigo's words. "We just had an audition, and we have not signed any actors yet, so I'm pretty sure we can take your audition, Harold."

At the end of the sentence, Rodrigo gave a hard look at Leo like he was telling him not to ruin a perfect casting. Leo himself didn't know how to make the right decision at the moment.

'Harold means the movie will get great exposure. But I can't get the image of Aiden as Arthur out of my mind.'

He thought, frowning inwardly.

It was a big decision for him here. But, if he was honest, it was the dream of every direction to make his debut with an A-lister and make it a hit. With Harold, there will be a lot of visibility, and the movie could easily earn twice or thrice its budget if it connected with the audience.

But what about Aiden?

He was the lead in his heart, but now he needed to go the other way. Was it right or wrong? Those things were roaming in his mind.

"If it's possible, can I give an audition too? I have actually prepared for the role already."

Harold suddenly said, making Leo get out of his thoughts. Rodrigo was the first to nod his head, and then he looked at Leo.

In the end, Leo sighed.

"Okay. Let's do an audition."

…

/DreamNote/

Sorry for the delayed chapter but because of some personal work, my whole schedule is currently out of order. Today might be only one chapter because I am too tired to write anything. We will resume 2ch/d from tomorrow night @11:00 pm IST. Apologies.

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The reason why Leo decided to do an audition with Harold was simple. A slight fear that the movie won't work at the box office with a lead that was not famous had gripped his heart.

Although many movies have worked at the box office without a famous lead actor, the number of movies which didn't work was much higher. And the difference had just increased in recent times.

Earlier, a movie which would work at a film festival and get good ratings had a chance to do well at the box office with adequate promotions.

But now, studios would release many of them on streaming platforms like Zetflix because the audience prefers to watch them in their homes instead of going to the theatres, this would also help a lot in recovering the budget, and the movie might even break even.

Leo didn't want [30 days of Happiness] to release directly on a streaming platform as he felt the true beauty of cinema was on the big screen. Still, he also didn't want the movie to fail at the box office because of not getting good visibility.

This fear and Rodrigo's intentions made him allow Harold Woods a chance to audition.

After all, the latter was a big actor and was very fitting in a rom-com despite being in his early 30s. Moreover, he had nailed down a lot of teenage romantic comedies, which had become big hits at the box office.

There was no doubt about his credibility as an actor, too, as Harold had given some great, intricate performances throughout his career.

Ultimately, Leo consoled himself thinking it was just an audition and he wasn't giving Harold the role straightaway.

"What parts of Arthur's character do you like the best, Harold?" Leo asked as they entered a room adequate for an audition.

The cameras and lights were already set up, meaning that Rodrigo had planned everything from the start.

"I think I liked his love for Claire the best part of the script. It's very pure and something one would rarely see in this age. That's the main point of the script for me – the love that Arthur has for Claire and how he's willing to do anything to get her. You don't get that kind of passionate romance at this age in Hollywood. So I think people, especially young girls, would love that part, and the movie will get a lot of popularity."

Harold said, and Leo felt like his comprehension of the script was mainly from a box office point of view which wasn't bad as Harold was a commercial actor. .

"What about the changes in the individual characters as the story progresses? What do you think of it?" Leo asked, trying to see what kind of answer Harold would give and if it would be better than Aiden.

Harold took a while before giving out an answer.

"I think the changes in both the characters are shown very subtly. The whole point of the journey for Claire was to know about her grandma, but the subtext was that she wanted to know more about love and relationships as she was very confused about them. So it was a personal journey for her."

"What about Arthur?"

"He took it to get closer to her, and I think it was also a way for him to get over his insecurities by doing something he won't ever do. So, it was also a personal journey for him, and his goal was to give himself a chance to win over Claire."

"Did you feel like you wanted to add something to it to make Arthur's character more relatable to the viewers?"

Leo asked, hoping for an answer like what Aiden had given him, but Harold shook his head after thinking about it.

"No, I don't think so. For me, the story is about a guy wanting to get over his insecurities and trying to win over the girl of his dreams. It's simple, and I think it should stay like that."

For Harold, [30 days of Happiness] was a very true-to-heart rom-com, and he didn't want it to be more than that. But for Leo, he felt like the soul of the movie that Aiden had described as Arthur's struggle to write a song was the better one.

He felt like that truly elevated the level of the whole movie.

"Anyway, let's start the audition. Shall we?"

Rodrigo suddenly interfered with their conversation and said.

Leo nodded his head, and Harold read the part of the script that he would perform again. Then, after taking a few breaths, he was ready to do the scene.

It was one of the ending scenes where Arthur would have a personal talk with Charles Dunkin about love. Rodrigo personally was going to read the lines of Charles.

He had chosen this scene because Arthur was going to be in emotional turmoil during the scene as Claire had told him that she still loved her ex. It was then that Charles would have a talk with him about life and love.

"Start!"

As Leo gave out the signal, the performance started.

Harold closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, there were a lot of emotions in his eyes; pain, grief, heartbreak. Arthur couldn't help but clench his fist tightly in that emotional turmoil.

"Are you okay?" It was then that Rodrigo started acting, and Leo had to say he wasn't a good actor. He said that line in a very casual manner.

Thankfully, it was just an audition.

"No, no, I'm not. It hurts a lot. I feel like everything I did was for nothing… I can't even think straight."

Harold muttered, finding it hard to say out the feelings inside of him. Rodrigo patted his shoulder.

"I know it hurts. I felt that too when I was young."

"Don't. Just don't give me that." Harold looked at him. "I don't want to hear that you need to let go. I tried letting go, but I couldn't. You don't feel it right now. I do. I fucking do…"

"What are you going to do now, then?"

Rodrigo asked, looking at the script in his hand. There was an awkward expression on his face as he continued to read out the lines.

"I don't know. The only thing I ever wanted was her… just her. Now, I only feel hurt whenever I think of her…"

Harold suddenly stopped his sentence and blinked his eyes. The expression on his face loosened up as he raised his head to look at Leo, who was also looking at him strangely, standing beside the camera.

"What happened?" Leo raised an eyebrow.

"Ah, I forgot my lines. Can we start again?"

Harold made an awkward expression and asked. Leo nodded and muttered, 'Cut'.

It was only on the fourth try that a good audition came off.

Something like this was acceptable if the actor auditioning was popular enough and the director was patient.

After the audition was over, Leo felt like there were a lot of complicated thoughts in his mind.

'The audition wasn't bad, but… he just doesn't seem like Arthur Reeves in my mind.'

Leo frowned inwardly.

The audition was good in his eyes, but the way of talking, his emotional range, and even the way he looked didn't match what Leo had in mind for Arthur.

"How did you like my audition?"

Harold asked, looking at Leo, but before he could reply, Rodrigo pitched in.

"I thought the audition went very well. Your dialogues flowed well, and the expressions were on the mark too. I feel like we should contact your agent right now to sign the contract."

Rodrigo said, looking like he was very impressed with Harold's audition.

He was very clear that he wanted Harold to head the project. After all, [30 days of Happiness] was a very small-scale project and getting an A-lister to be a part of it was a huge thing.

If he's lucky, he might even recover all his losses from the previous projects with just this one movie.

'I need to say something.'

Leo thought, seeing Rodrigo and Harold talking to each other. If he really didn't say anything, he won't get the lead that he wanted.

'But is it worth it?'

He thought in his mind, hesitating a lot. It could go very wrong as going with Aiden over Harold was a risky choice for Leo, especially when Rodrigo wanted Harold.

He might even lose the investments from Night Hawk studios as he knew that Rodrigo saw Harold as a great opportunity to give the movie more visibility and a higher chance to earn profit at the box office.

But in the end, Leo won't be completely satisfied with Harold as the male lead.

"I'm sorry, Harold." He said after a while, attracting the attention of both men.

"What happened, Leo?" Rodrigo asked, staring at him.

"I don't think Harold suits the character of Arthur. I'm happy that he's interested in the movie, and he played it well too, but in my mind, another actor had already become Arthur, and I think I want to make the movie with him."

Harold's face froze hearing that.

He had thought that everything was going very well. Rodrigo was the movie's producer, and he looked impressed by him, so he believed that the role was as good as his.

But suddenly, Leo was saying that he had another actor already selected.

Was this some kind of joke? And who was this actor? Some other A-Lister? If not then…

…

/DreamNote/

Please vote with power stones and golden tickets!

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"Can I know the reason why have you rejected me?"

Harold couldn't help but ask. He felt very bitter about getting rejected by the director and at least wanted to know why he was rejected.

After all, based on popularity and talent, he was sure he was qualified to play Arthur. After all, [30 days of Happiness] wasn't a hundred-million-dollar project or anything.

It was a very small movie considering that his last movie took 40 million to make. But still, Leo had rejected him.

He couldn't help but have a lot of questions in his mind.

"Yeah, I can obviously tell you," Leo said, trying to explain his decision in the best way he could to not hurt the ego of Harold. "As you know, I auditioned someone else before you, and he has very interesting ideas about Arthur and how he saw the story. I even decided to modify the script after talking to him, and I felt like there won't be a better actor than him to play Arthur. He just suits him that best."

Harold couldn't help but frown hearing that. He wondered what he should say for a second as Leo's reasons were completely valid.

For a director, some actors are just perfect for playing a part, and he had experienced it himself before as early on in his career. Harold had gotten some roles because a director felt like no one would be able to play a role better than him.

'I guess I can't do anything about it.'

He finally thought in his mind and looked up at Leo.

"Then, I hope we could collaborate again sometime in the future, and once the movie is completed, I would love to watch it. Good luck with it." After saying that, he turned to Rodrigo, who still had a shocked expression. "Rodrigo, it seems like we can't work together this time, but if you have any project in the future, please send it to my agent and If I like it, let's work together.".

Leo felt like Harold was showing a very professional attitude here and was a bit relieved knowing that he wasn't someone who would try to snatch away the role under any condition.

One of the reasons behind it was that Harold had a lot more resources to get even better projects and work with established directors.

Even if he liked [30 days of Happiness] a lot, it was still a small project with a director that was making his debut. It wasn't worth fighting in his eyes.

"I will excuse myself now. Let's talk again later whenever we get a chance."

After that, Harold left and Rodrigo, who was just shocked still all this while finally bursted out. He felt immense anger inside of him, like someone had snatched away a big fortune from him.

Looking up at Leo with angry eyes, he shouted.

"What the fuck were you thinking? Harold was the way for us to get the movie to a wider, bigger audience. It would be very easy to distribute it overseas because he's a worldwide star. Now, it's all ruined! For fuck sake."

In his anger, he even kicked up the camera beside him, and it rolled on the floor.

"Rodrigo, calm down! I rejected Harold just because I think there's a better actor for Arthur. The film would be way better than—"

"I fucking don't care." Rodrigo frowned at Leo, and his face was contorted with rage. "Do you think I give two fucks about which guy is better suited? I just want to earn a good buck, and I found the perfect opportunity to do it. We are not making a movie for the Oscars. We are making a movie to earn money. Can't you understand that, you stupid fuck?"

Creative differences between actors and directors were very famous in Hollywood. But people sometimes forget that a lot of producers also have creative differences with their directors.

After all, they are investing in the movie and want it to get back their money, and in that process, many times, they won't agree with the way a director is taking forward a movie or an actor the director wants to work with just because they thought that it wouldn't work at the box office.

There are even instances in which a producer would take away the editing rights from a director and just edit the movie in his way. There was a reason the term 'Director's cut' was so popular.

Both Rodrigo and Leo also had differences, especially because the latter had no power or value in the industry.

But Leo had never thought that Rodrigo would behave like this with him.

"Take back your words right now and stop fucking cursing me. This is my movie, and remember that the rights are still with me."

Leo said with a stern face. He wasn't the one to just take any words.

"Rights? You can't scare me with that. Do you really think I care a lot about it? I decided to help you as your script was good, but I didn't know you are such a prick to work with and don't know how to do business."

"Help me?" Leo scoffed at those words. "You liked my script and decided to produce it because you felt like it would make you money. You didn't do it to help me or anything. You are just seeing your own profit."

Once, Leo was talking with Linchon Bradley, the director of [Shadows of War] in a cafe about Hollywood. There was one line that he had told him that he felt was so true at this moment.

'Hollywood is just a dirty business disguised as art.'

Remembering that, Leo decided in his mind. There were a lot of thoughts roaming in his head, but in the end, one thing was very clear he won't be able to work properly with Rodrigo.

"Leo, you don't really know how Hollywood works. That Aiden guy you think could be a good fit as the lead is just one rookie out of a hundred. These are made and destroyed every day in Hollywood."

Rodrigo calmed down a bit and said in a deep and profound voice like he was trying to advise Leo.

"There's still a chance we could get Harold on board for the project. I can get more investments for the movie like this, and we could even target—"

"No."

Leo interrupted his sentence with just a single word, and Rodrigo blinked his eyes.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"I don't want to do this movie with you. I'm sorry, but I can't make it with you when we have so many differences. I don't want to just do what you tell me because it's better for the box office. I seriously want to make a good movie, and I don't want regrets."

At that moment, Leo's fate was sealed.

He knew that his decision could potentially make a stop in his career, but he wasn't scared. He never wanted to be a director for just box office numbers.

He wanted to be a director that at least wasn't lying to himself.

"Thank you for the autograph. This means a lot to me."

A girl said and smiled at Aiden before walking away with her friend. He was currently sitting in The Rabbit hole, relaxing after doing shows and going through some more scripts all day.

Looking at her, Aiden smiled and turned to Wade, who was drinking beer.

"You have gotten a lot of female fans these days."

"Yeah, for some reason, Kai is very popular among girls. They somehow like a bit of craziness in his character, or it could be because of 'Revolution'. It's not been a long time since then."

"Yeah, since then, you literally doubled your followers on social media."

Wade said with a laugh.

Currently, Aiden has over 1.3 million followers on Skygram and 1.1 million on Sparrow. This had happened due to consecutive bursts in his popularity.

Though Wade knew that after a while, Aiden's social media growth would stagnate, but for now, it was good enough. They were even getting a lot of sponsorship offers after crossing the million mark, and Aiden had even gotten the blue tick on both platforms.

His social media growth was also due to Wade, who had told him to post stuff on it continuously to keep the engagement going, so Aiden would regularly post about his work and even interact with fans in comments.

"Have you heard from Night Hawk studios or Leo?" Aiden suddenly changed the subject and asked. "It's been a while since the audition, and there's no news."

Wade thought for a bit before replying.

"I am pretty sure there will be an answer soon. They must be going over some other auditions and actors for the lead role in the meantime or just having more meetings. A delay is very common, as you know."

Just as Wade said that Aiden's phone suddenly rang, thinking that it was Uncle Sam or his mom that was calling him, he picked it up and saw that it was Leo.

"It's Leo." He muttered to Wade, who gestured to him to pick up the call.

Knowing that it would be about the audition, Aiden picked it up, but when he heard the voice of Leo, he knew that something was not right.

"Aiden can, can we meet?"

Leo asked from the other side. His voice was a bit hoarse, and Aiden had a hunch that something bad had happened with him as he had never heard him talk in such a deep yet sad tone till now.

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote with your power stones and golden tickets!!

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"So, uh, now, I lost the investor, and I don't really know what to do next… I feel like I'm back to square one, and this is fucking depressing…"

Leo sighed and stomped his fist on the table, barely missing the glass containing beer. Wade and Aiden looked at each other, trying to take in Leo's whole story.

They couldn't believe that he had fallen out with Rodrigo and had lost the backing from Night Hawk studios.

An hour ago, he appeared in The Rabbit hole and immediately ordered many drinks. There was a depressed expression on his face as he told them what had happened between him and Rodrigo.

How they constantly had creative differences since they started working together. How Rodrigo wanted a more famous lead than Aiden for the movie and how Rodrigo had insulted Leo after he had rejected Harold Wood for the lead role.

In a fit of rage, Leo had decided not to work with him over the movie.

At that moment, his decision had seemed right, but after he had calmed down and had thought a bit more practically, he realised that now, he was out of any backing and would need to find a studio to invest in his movie again.

He was now back on square one.

"Leo, calm down. Everything will be fine."

Aiden said, putting a hand on Leo's shoulder, who was constantly frowning. There were a lot of thoughts in his mind, but one of them was the most prominent.

'In a way, he lost his investments because he wanted me as the lead.'

He couldn't help but feel like he had a responsibility in this matter as Leo had fought for him to get the lead role. Even going against an actor who was way more famous than him. .

"Leo, can't you have another meeting with Rodrigo? I think you two would be able to have a more civil discussion after you have calmed down. Your career is just starting, and going against a producer from Night Hawk studios might not be the best decision."

Wade said after thinking through the whole situation.

As he had seen how fragile the egos are in Hollywood, he knew that fighting with a producer with connections could stop one's career for years.

If Rodrigo wanted, he could easily destroy Leo's career or stop his career trajectory from going anywhere for a few years.

"I don't mind making amends with him, but I don't think anything will come out of it. We can't work together, and I know that very well." Leo said, taking another sip from the glass.

He knew the consequences, but he wasn't one to go back on a decision. He had also been hustling around in the industry for a while and knew enough people to not face such an end.

"So, what next?"

Aiden asked, knowing full well that Leo was firm in his beliefs, and they can't go back now.

"I want to make a movie. So I'm going to contact some other big and small studios and check out distribution channels. There's a small chance something will come up but [30 days of Happiness] has already gone around most of the studios based in LA and New York."

"So, chances are very, very low."

Aiden muttered, and Leo nodded, feeling a bit of a headache. He didn't know how to move forward from now on.

"How about investing in the project yourself? It's a rom-com, so it would take way less."

Wade suddenly suggested. Many rom coms were made on a budget of 2-3 million dollars, and they would easily earn through their investments.

But Leo shook his head.

"That's the last option, but from my estimates, it would take at least 7 million dollars, especially because the modified script will need an excellent soundtrack. Moreover, I want to shoot most of the scenes in Europe to make them seem genuine. So even if I sell everything I have, it won't be enough."

Hearing that, Aiden couldn't help but open his mouth.

"I could do the soundtrack."

Both Wade and Leo looked up at him, a bit surprised. Making the whole soundtrack wasn't as easy as making a single song. There were too many things to do when making a movie's score.

Not just every musician was capable of making a good score.

"Can you really do it?"

"I never made a movie's score before, but I'm pretty sure I could try my hands on it. We don't have any other option currently. Moreover, the idea to incorporate music in the plot was mine, and I have a bit of an idea what type of music would suit [30 days of Happiness]."

Aiden's words also meant that he was trying to make him an essential part of the movie. As Leo had taken a big risk for him, he was obviously not going to back out. He felt like it was his responsibility to help Leo make a good movie.

In the first place, he was very invested in the script.

"Aiden, think about it again." Wade looked at him, staring into his eyes. "Making the soundtrack is going to be extremely tough. You are still very young as a musician, and it would be a huge leap."

Wade was trying to see if Aiden was really confident in his decision or if he was just trying to help Leo. Film composing was an entirely different field, and there were special musicians who would just focus on that.

In no way Aiden looked like someone who could score an entire movie. Sometimes, many artists would come together to work on a soundtrack.

"I know that, but I was always interested in making a soundtrack for a movie. I've been studying about it for a long time now, and I am sure I can do it. So let me give it a try."

He said, trying to sound as confident as possible.

'It's a great opportunity for me.'

That was the thought going around in his head.

He knew that if Leo was even going as far as to fight for him to be the lead, he was confirmed to play Arthur Reeves. But he wanted to do the soundtrack because it was a way for the movie's budget to decrease, and at the same time, Aiden could get more experience in his composing skill.

If it was still at Level 6, he might not be so confident, but Level 7 was a pretty high grade, and he knew that it would take a long time for him to go to Level 8 from this.

"If you are confident that you would be able to make it, then it's the best for the movie. I have listened to your music, and I think you have the quality."

Leo finally gave out his verdict after thinking for a minute. It was easy for him to understand that Aiden doing the movie score was the best way to go forward. Moreover, his style of music actually suited the story.

But they still have a lot of problems.

"Well, even with you doing the score of the movie, there's still just a lot of things that are unchecked. We will need a lot of investment to make the movie, and then distributing it would be hard without any famous people associated with it."

"I think I might be able to get you a good distribution deal." As soon as Leo said that, Wade suddenly chirped in. "I know some guys, and it won't be hard to get the movie screens, but in the end, those studios would want to see the complete project first and won't really invest in it."

All three of them frowned and thought hard about how to get more investments in the project. Leo and Wade did have connections but investing even a few million in a movie was a big risk, especially with a new director.

When some directors have stories like how they had to sell their house or car to make a movie, they weren't exaggerated.

The worst thing was that some who had sold all their property and belongings to make a movie would also sometimes fail, going into depression and sometimes even choosing to end their own lives.

This was one of the unfortunate parts of the movie-making business.

'Should I try to contact Ray or Zavier to see if they could help out?'

Aiden thought in his mind.

These were the people he felt would be willing to help them out, and he had a good enough relationship with them to ask them for help, especially with [Black Saints] being such a big hit.

But he also felt like he had forgotten someone. Someone who could actually help him out, for sure.

'Ah, yes. I'm forgetting Omar!'

Aiden still remembered what Omar had said the last time they met. He knew that Omar was a shrewd businessman, but he also knew that he was interested in his career and had even offered to help him out.

One more point was that with him being an investor in [Black Saints, he must not be low on money.

'If there's someone who could help us out, it's him.'

Aiden thought and looked up at both Wade and Leo.

"I think I know someone who could help us."

Thinking hard on a solution, both of them looked at Aiden with hopeful eyes.

…

/DreamNote/

Please vote with your power stones and golden tickets!!

We're just 135 Golden Tickets away from the 10th Spot! Let's get it tonight!~

The next chapter will come in a few hours, I need to rewrite it because it didn't turn out good enough.

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As Aiden was busy contacting Omar and trying to get him to invest in [30 days of Happiness, his fan group, which had slowly increased in numbers, was pretty bored.

They were getting nothing new from Aiden for a few weeks. There was no announcement for any new movie or even a hit.

There was nothing about a new song either.

In his fan group, Aiden was very well known as a workaholic who would move from one thing to another, not taking a lot of breaks, but now, it seemed like nothing new was going to come from him for a short time.

His fan group treated it as a break for Aiden as, since the start of the year, many things happened, and his popularity was never so high.

[Skyneves: How's everyone? My job is becoming stressful these days because I'm not getting time for myself. I never thought being an adult would be so hard with all the bills and pressure.]

[Aiden's wife: It's harder to go through the day because my watchlist ended. I don't even get a good novel to read these days and feel like Aiden is on vacation.]

[April on Roof: If you want a good novel, there's a mmorpg about a guy becoming a monster that you can try.]

[Young Fruit smiley: @Aiden's wife, I don't think he's a break. He's still doing shows. Just not putting out new content. Though, I'm pretty sure he will be in a few movies from now on.]

[Swagrid: Yeah, after [Black Saints, he should really try to get himself in a few movies. Just for the visibility, it will give him. Although I want another song as I think he's a way better singer.]

[Cliche Harem protagonist: I don't think we can expect him to do something new every other month. It takes a hell lot to pump out new creative things, especially if it's something like composing songs. It's better if he just gets another role. I don't mind him doing something like Kai again.]

[Broke Island owner: Doesn't someone know what he's doing next?]

As a member of the fan group texted, everyone realised that Hollywood Insider was nowhere to be seen for the past few days.

The user had already become a myth because he almost always knew Aiden's every next move. Sometimes, he would even predict how his career should go and what he should do next. .

For the people in the fan group, he was already akin to Nostradamus or the octopus who had predicted the world cup.

Many in the group had predicted that he was surely Aiden's agent or someone from his team. Someone who works with him.

But these were only speculations as nothing can be confirmed about the man – Hollywood Insider.

[Hollywood Insider: Someone missing me?]

As soon as people started talking about him, Hollywood Insider, who was lurking, suddenly came out.

[Skyneves: Insider, do you have any idea about Aiden's next project?]

[Hollywood Insider: Yes, I do know a bit. Want to know?]

That sentence reeked of a smirk, but everyone in the group was too curious to ignore his tone.

[Moaning Frodo: Tell us.]

[Ed Siren: Is it a song? Please tell me it's a song.]

[Aryna Stan: Let him talk. He's typing something. I'm just hoping it's something big. There were rumours of Aiden getting a big-budget superhero movie.]

In the end, Hollywood Insider finally replied.

[Hollywood Insider: He's going to be the lead in a romantic comedy.]

A commotion started in the fan group seeing that.

In Aiden's apartment, four people were sitting on the couch, and he had put the script of [30 days of Happiness] on the small table in front of him.

It had been a week since Leo had broken off ties with Rodrigo, and after that, he had contacted a few other studios, and even Wade had called his connections, but nothing good had come out.

In the end, only Omar replied after reading through the script.

There was a tense atmosphere in the apartment, like a very important meeting was going on, and no one wanted to be the first to open their mouths.

"So, I read the script. It's a fascinating idea."

Omar finally opened his mouth, looking at the three people in front of him. Wade, Aiden and Leo nodded, hearing his words.

Seeing that everyone was paying attention to him, he continued.

"I think that the market these days has a very big hole of feel-good romantic comedies that you would often see in the early 2000s. There's just too many superheroes, fantasy, adventure, war and thriller movies these days, and a gap has emerged because of that."

"You feel like [30 days of Happiness] could fill that gap?" Aiden raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know about filling the gap, but it would be different in the current market. But for a movie like this to work, it needs to be different than what people had seen before."

Omar was strictly speaking in the business sense. However, he could sense the pulse of the audience going around currently.

In the next few months, there are going to be a lot of very serious themed movies being released, and sooner or later, people are going to get exhausted. Or they would just stop going to the theatre to watch a serious drama because there are already too many depressing things going on in the world.

Inflation, recession, a guy invading countries and another guy breaking the stock market on Sparrow.

In that case, no one would want to watch a serious, dramatic movie or even a bloody thriller in a theatre. They would either want something like a spectacle like a superhero movie or a light-hearted romance.

It was one of the reasons why Omar had liked [30 days of Happiness].

"[30 days of Happiness] isn't your ordinary rom-com. It has a lot of themes going for it." Leo said, his breath a bit rugged due to his nervousness.

"A lot will come down to execution, too," Omar said, smiling before asking. "Tell me, how are you going with the movie's release if I decide to invest in it? Do you have a plan? Any distributors?"

It was Wade who nodded his head this time.

"I don't think we should get any distributors currently. We won't get a good deal."

"So, you must have plans to get a good deal."

"We do have. We are going to target the film festivals."

Omar said, being curious, and Aiden replied with a confident tone.

After deciding to be a part of the project, he discussed with Leo the best way for [30 days of Happiness] to work at the box office.

In the end, they decided to go with sending the movie to film festivals. Sundance, Venice, Toronto, Cannes — There were a lot of famous film festivals in which movies would be shown, and a lot of distributors would also come there.

If a movie got a good response, it would be easy to get a distributor.

The best thing was that [30 days of Happiness] was not a complete artistic movie and had a lot of commercial elements, so it would be easy to get a lot of screens for it if they got a good deal from a distributor.

"Targeting the film festivals is a good strategy. Especially if the movie manager bags some awards. The script is good enough to do that. You are the only actor cast currently?"

Omar asked the last question looking at Aiden, who promptly nodded his head.

"Yeah, for now, it's only me."

"Your reputation is good enough in teens, so the movie gets a bit of a benefit from that, and the best part is the musical theme which is the soul of the movie. So we need to get it extremely on point.

He stressed the last part a lot. Everyone in the room understood the reason too.

"If the music gets popular, the movie gets a lot of publicity," Leo said, leaning on his seat.

"Yeah, and if it doesn't work, we could get Aiden to get stabbed again. I don't think the trick will stop working anytime soon."

Omar chuckled, and Aiden just glared at him. Then, they talked a bit more about the script, the marketing, the budget and casting.

In the end, Leo couldn't help but ask, looking at Omar.

"So, are you on board?"

Before Omar could reply, Aiden chipped in.

"He's already talking like he's a part of the movie. I'm pretty sure he already decided to invest in the movie."

His words surprised Omar, who couldn't help but chuckle, but in the end, he nodded.

"Yeah, I think the movie is interesting enough for me to be a part of it. I believe in the script, and you all have a good plan. I think this venture might work."

"Really?" Leo asked, just to be sure.

"Yeah, I actually prefer to reject it on the phone if I'm not interested in the movie. So, I had already decided to invest when I came here."

In his words, a surge of happiness overcame Leo, who took a sigh of relief. It was tough for him to sleep in the past week, and he had dreams in which a voice would tell him that his career in Hollywood was over.

But now that they finally found another investor, he could relax.

"Thank you. I won't disappoint you."

Those were the only words that Leo was able to say.

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote this novel with your power stones and golden tickets!

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After Omar came aboard to invest in the project, things were finally moving in the right direction for both Aiden and [30 days of Happiness].

The contract between Leo and Omar was soon signed, and it was also when Aiden found out that Omar's private investment firm was called 'Green Finance'.

After they had signed the contract and Omar was officially the producer for [30 days of Happiness, they had a lot of meetings.

Upon thinking a lot and cutting down on some budget here and there, they decided that five million dollars were more than enough to make the movie.

Omar wanted to limit the budget for the movie-making because he felt they should keep a more considerable portion for the marketing of the movie as he felt like the movie could be a massive success if promoted the right way. Although, the main worry was Aiden not being a well-known actor yet.

During all this, Aiden also signed up as the movie's lead.

Usually, he would have gotten around 200-300k dollars for the movie as his value in the industry has increased after [Black Saints, and this pay scale was very average for the lead of an independent movie.

Actually, it should have been more overall, as Aiden was also doing the soundtrack.

But after a discussion with Wade, he didn't decide to take money upfront. Instead, he opted to take a share in the profits once the movie hits the big screen.

This way, the movie could have a better budget and Aiden would also earn more if it did well at the box office. Again, though, he knew that it was a significant risk.

Only A-listers would opt for the profit-sharing model instead of directly taking away the payment upfront because they are confident that with their stardom, the movie was bound to do well.

One actor had even gotten more than a hundred million dollars due to him opting to go with the profit-sharing model, instantly making him one of the wealthiest actors in Hollywood. Still, at the same time, a lot of actors had taken a loss due to this model.

In the end, he took the risk because of his gut feeling.

Omar and Leo didn't mind doing that, as it meant that Aiden would only earn if the movie would earn. After a few negotiations, they concluded that Aiden would get 9 percent of the profits. .

Although 9% sounds low, it was actually a high range. Even A-List actors would get at most 15% in the profit share. In fact, Leo had offered just 7% at the start of the negotiation, but Aiden had a big bargaining chip in his hand since he was doing the movie's score too. So, in the end, both parties agreed on 9%.

After this was done, the pre-production for the movie quickly started with Green Finance and Leo hiring a freelance crew, picking out the filming locations and having discussions on the movie's cast.

Aiden was not involved a lot with the pre-production of the movie as he started practising for the role of Arthur and analysing it further.

At the same time, he started making the soundtrack of the movie.

Normally, a soundtrack is mainly made after the filming is concluded. It is done to make an appropriate soundtrack that would suit the movie, and the editor revises the soundtrack in post-production.

But it depended a lot on the film composer and the director as to how they wanted to go with it.

In many movies, a composer had minimal on what he could incorporate in the movie as a soundtrack was one of the major parts of a movie.

A famous film composer once said, "Music on the screen can seek out and intensify the characters' inner thoughts. It can invest a scene with terror, grandeur, happiness or misery. It can propel the narrative swiftly forward or slow it down. It often lifts mere dialogue into the realm of poetry, and in the end, it connects the audience with the characters on the screen. Good music often stays with the audience even if the movie doesn't."

Aiden also felt the same about film composing, and that's why, after talking about it with Leo, he started working on the soundtrack.

He felt like he already had a good amount of understanding of the characters and themes of the movie, so he would be able to make a good soundtrack for [30 days of Happiness].

"Um, I need to really nail down the soul of the movie. Without it, it's basically nothing…"

Aiden muttered and glanced between the guitar he was holding in his hand and the sheets of paper on the desk.

He has already created a bit of an idea as to how he was going with the soundtrack of [30 days of Happiness, and for him, the soul of the soundtrack needed to be the song that Arthur was in the middle of writing before taking the journey to Europe with Claire.

In the modified script, Arthur was slowly going to complete the song after coming across a lot of people and hearing their experiences.

It helped him give the final touches to the song, and for Aiden, the whole song would be the soul he was looking for.

For the last two hours, Aiden was just sitting at one place and trying out different tunes and thinking more about what kind of song would suit Arthur.

To make the song, Aiden knew that he needed to completely get into the character of Arthur. After all, the song is what Arthur has written and completed through his journey. Aiden was just playing him.

'I needed to let go of my style of music…'

He thought, a bit restless as to how he was going to do it. His style of music was very soft, peaceful and anything that might give a smile to a person listening to it.

But the character of Arthur was different.

He never wrote music for someone else but himself.

He was a teenager obsessed with telling stories through his music, and more often than not, Aiden felt like he was the type to integrate a lot of his personality or experiences into his songs.

A budding musician was exactly like that.

It was always hard for an artist to separate his thoughts, opinions and characteristics from the piece of art that he was creating.

To do that, Aiden felt like he needed to go back to the days when he was just starting to write songs.

"Knowing Arthur, he's more likely to ask questions through his Music than anything else. He's confused about life, so the song needs to be sad, but as the movie goes, it needs to become brighter and brighter."

Muttering that, Aiden strummed the strings of his guitar as a weak white light burst forth. His mind was filled with many ideas, but choosing the right one would be a hard job.

Just then, a system notification came up in front of him.

[Your understanding of the character has increased. Your affinity towards him has increased.]

Smiling at the system notification, he knew he was going on the right path.

'A song with a sad theme, something that is asking questions…'

He thought that repeatedly in his mind and went through a few ideas. Finally, in the end, something struck him.

He put away his guitar, picked up a pencil and wrote down some words on paper.

'Lost in the sky.'

He decided that this was going to be the soul of the movie.

Over the next few days, Aiden mainly focused on composing 'Lost in the sky'.

From morning to evening, he would work on it, adding different things to the song, trying to write down several lines of lyrics only to change it to something else in the end.

The process was very complex, but Aiden was surely enjoying it as he felt like he was creating something that was probably the most complex piece of writing he had done.

When he was making 'Revolution', rather than the lyrics, it was the music that had troubled him, but this time, the song was all about words, containing a story of their own in each line, and the music was just easy access for the words to affect a person.

Aside from making the song, Aiden would read the script and act out a few scenes at night. Sometimes Wade would help him by reading out the lines of other characters, mostly Claire, as most of his conversations as Arthur were with the female lead, Claire, in the movie.

But Aiden had to say that it was tough for him to imagine a bearded bear-like guy as a girl, and he would often chuckle when Wade read out her lines.

Aside from that, one more thing to mention was that the script score had elevated to 74 after the modifications.

The score was the same as [Black Saints, so he was confident it would do well.

The casting for [30 days of Happiness] was also concluded in the meantime. Aiden didn't know much about the other actors cast in the movie as he hadn't taken part in the auditions or heard a lot about it.

Most of the phone conversation between him and Leo was about the soundtrack.

Once the casting was completed, Leo and Omar decided on a meeting between the cast members to get to know each other.

The script reading sessions were also going to begin in a few days, so it was good to know each other a little before that.

They hosted the meeting in a cafe in Greenwich Village, New York.

'I hope I'm not the only one late.'

Aiden thought as he entered the cafe. Wade was not with him as he was busy with some personal matters and he had come alone to the cafe, but due to the traffic, he had gotten late.

He looked around the cafe and found most of the seats vacant. After a while, his eyes finally gazed over a table where both Omar and Leo were sitting.

There were other people there, too, and as Aiden walked over, they noticed him.

"Aiden, you are finally here!" Leo, who saw him first, waved his hand and called him out.

"I'm sorry I'm a bit late. The traffic—"

As Aiden was speaking, his words suddenly stopped like he had seen something too shocking. His eyes darted over to look at the person sitting next to him.

A familiar face that he had seen a lot before was sitting there. He had not seen her in almost two years, so he was very surprised.

It seemed like the girl reacted similarly to seeing Aiden as she repeatedly blinked her eyes.

'Katie Brooks. Why is she here?'

He thought in his mind, thinking of the time when he had first landed in New York and had gone to an audition.

There, he met Katie for the first time.

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote with your power stones and golden tickets

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When Aiden first started auditioning, Uncle Sam suggested he audition for an independent movie. While waiting for his turn in the waiting room, he saw Katie Brooks for the first time.

She was a struggler, the same as him, and they were also of a similar age.

During the audition, the Director, who felt they didn't suit the characters, rejected both for the respective roles.

It was Aiden's first rejection, and he wasn't too bothered by it as he was not expecting to get the role the first time, but it was different for Katie, who had tears in her eyes.

Feeling bad about her, Aiden approached her, and they went to a cafe to talk. There, she told him that she had not gotten any role for more than a year and was on the brink of quitting acting.

She was depressed as many directors had told her that she would never be an actress. On that day, Katie had ranted out all her frustration to Aiden.

They were strangers, but she wanted to release the frustration that was eating her from inside. Upon hearing her story, although he couldn't come up with any motivational speech, he advised her not to give up because of rejections because life isn't finding shelter in the storm. Instead, it's about learning to dance in the rain.

From that time, Aiden and Katie encountered each other in numerous auditions and often discussed acting and the type of roles they wanted to do.

Because of that, they became good friends, and after two months, Katie had actually gotten a good support role in a drama series.

Aiden remembered that he was glad for her at that time, and after that role, Katie's career had always been on the rise. Then, finally, one of the agents from the Red Ant agency saw her acting and offered her a contract.

Aiden didn't really see Katie after that as she reallocated to Los Angeles and started being a part of more movies with higher budgets and bigger studios.

Although there were quite a few movies that Aiden had watched in the theatre in which Katie had played a part..

In fact, she was one of the reasons Aiden hadn't given up even after continuous failures. But seeing her right now in front of him, Aiden couldn't help but be surprised.

Seeing her, he felt like she was still the same. Katie had brown hair bound in a ponytail, and her small face and delicate facial features gave her the vibes of a girl next door.

'What is Katie doing here?'

He thought in his mind as a weird atmosphere started to build up.

Katie's eyes were also wide, looking up at Aiden. She knew that Aiden was the male lead of [30 days of Happiness, but as they saw each other after a long time, she still felt a bit of awkwardness.

"Aiden, what happened?" Leo was the one to break the weird atmosphere. He glanced up between him and Katie. "Do you know each other?"

"Yes!"

They replied simultaneously.

Aiden took a deep breath and explained the situation.

"I met Katie a long time ago during an audition. We are friends but have not really talked to each other for a long time." He then looked up at Katie. "I didn't know you would be here today."

Katie smiled at him and nodded her head.

"My agent gave me the script for [30 days of Happiness, and I really liked the plot of it, so I did an audition."

"Yeah, she's going to play the role of Claire Price, the female lead," Omar said, and Aiden thought that the role of Claire was pretty, unlike Katie, who was a very reserved person.

But he knew that she was an outstanding actress.

'She's in Intermediate Grade 1. The same as me.'

He thought, sitting in front of her. As he sat down, Leo looked at everyone there and introduced Aiden.

"Aiden is playing the role of Arthur Reeves." Everyone, including Katie, looked up at Aiden. "He's also doing the soundtrack for the movie."

"It's very nice to meet you."

Aiden said, looking at everyone. Aside from Katie, there were three more actors present there. One by one, everyone introduced themselves.

One of them was Fredrick Miller, a veteran actor who was mainly known in independent circles and had also acted in some series, gaining a lot of acclaim for his acting skills.

He was playing the role of Charles Dunkin, one of the most significant characters in the movie.

The other guy was Jayden Briggs, a 20-year-old actor playing the role of Sam, Claire's ex-boyfriend, and the third guy was Colby Hudson, who was playing an Italian gangster that both Claire and Arthur would come across in a very comedic sequence.

"So, now that everyone is here, it's good if you can get to know each other better and get a tacit understanding of each other's characters."

Leo said after a while. The whole cast was called here to give them a chance to get to know each other better, so the shooting could go smoothly.

It was also good to be close to your co-actor as the chemistry between them was easy to develop like this.

Fredrick, as a veteran of the industry, was the first to break the ice, and seeing him, others also opened their mouths. The talk was mainly about the script, characters and their favourite parts of the script.

Omar and Leo didn't interfere much, letting the actors talk.

"Aiden, I heard you were the first one to get casted. Why did you audition for Arthur?" Fredrick turned towards Aiden and asked. The old man seemed curious to know his answer.

"I just thought that he's fascinating," Aiden said after thinking a bit. "He's timid and awkward, but during the scenes in which he's talking about his hobbies or just music, you can clearly sense the confidence. He's very arrogant about his work, pretty much like how an artist is."

"Is it easier for you to get into the character because both of you are musicians?" Katie asked, staring at him, and he shook his head.

"Not really. We both like music, but he's more passionate than me. He's the type of a guy you would find holed up in his room, half-crazy one day because he's trying to focus too much on his music. Our personalities are different, too, and he has a sense of clumsiness around him. It's only at the movie's end when he really gets out of it and starts believing in himself more."

Aiden gave a very detailed answer, making both Katie and Fredrick impressed. The other two also nodded, and the discussion went ahead, with other people talking about their characters and the relationship among their characters.

Even if a character doesn't have a backstory, many actors will try to make an imaginary story in their minds so that the character looks real.

Both Fredrick and Colby talked in detail about that.

"You must be surprised to see me here."

As Aiden listened to the conversation going around him, Katie suddenly whispered. Looking up at her, he nodded.

"Kind of. I just didn't expect you to be in an indie movie, especially the one I'm doing. I guess Hollywood is really just a small circle."

"Yeah, it is." Katie nodded, smiling to herself.

She felt good to see Aiden again and know he had come this far. When they used to be in contact, he would never talk about music, so she was amazed when she saw him trending on Sparrow due to being in X-Star.

After that, Katie had kept on his career from time to time, but she hadn't really expected to meet him as co-star.

"I thought you were only going to do big, commercial blockbusters. So what are you doing in a 5 million dollar project when you don't even go below 50 million?"

Aiden raised an eyebrow. After getting an agent, Katie's career trajectory had become one of an actor who would play a supporting role in many commercial movies.

Some worked, and some didn't, but she had earned a lot of fame in the last two years for being a part of many big-budget movies.

If Aiden was honest, Katie was well over doing independent movies.

"My agent told me that I need to have critically acclaimed performances to be seen as someone who could lead a movie, so I'm trying to hustle in the indie world to show people that I'm not just another pretty actress. And I really liked the script of [30 days of Happiness]. Leo said you helped in modifying it."

She tilted her head, and Aiden nodded.

"Yeah, but it was more of a discussion to give more exposure to Arthur's characters and show his backstory. The earlier version missed a lot of points, so I just pointed it out during the audition. It wasn't a big deal."

Aiden was honestly saying that as he was sure that if the system hadn't told him the script score, he wouldn't have worked hard to analyse it whole and talk to Leo about it.

But Katie didn't know that.

"I think it's still quite impressive. First music and then this. You have changed a lot in the time I have not seen you."

…

/Dream Note/

Don't forget to vote with your power stones!

I have started stockpiling for a mass release to reward you for your continuous support!

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"I think it's still quite impressive. First music and then this. You have come a long way since the last time we met."

When Aiden heard that, he couldn't help but smile a bit, thinking of the day he last saw Katie.

Compared to that time, it was true that he had changed a lot. And seeing her also made him realise how far he had come. Rather than just relying on acting, he had ventured out into other fields, accumulating popularity slowly, which had ultimately helped him in his acting career.

"I'm just more focused on the things I know I could do. Moreover, after doing two movies, I feel like I'm getting a better sense of acting."

"That might be true," Katie whispered back. "I was very nervous when shooting scenes with many famous actors in the beginning, but I'm more used to it now and know how to not get overwhelmed. Moreover, you might not know, but working with famous stars is not as grand as you might think."

Aiden raised an eyebrow at that. From the conversations he remembered with Katie, she always wanted to stand among the very best.

"I thought that's what you always wanted."

"Yeah, but that was my thinking before I did movies with them." Katie chuckled. "Some of them are good, but many are pretty much in their own world. I thought I would learn a lot from them, but it wasn't always the case. Most of them were too busy for me to get to know them. Some will do a scene, then an interview, then another scene, then a fan meeting and so on."

"Sounds like your dream was not exactly like you imagined. Well, isn't there a saying? Never meet your heroes."

Aiden said, remembering his days on the set of [Shadows of War]. Katie had probably encountered people like Aaron Hart, but he also knew that not everyone was like the latter. Ray Hardy, the lead of the [Shadows of War, had treated him pretty well on the set and had even helped him in preparation for the role of Kai.

"Yeah, but I at least got a lot of money. It's way better than struggling to pay rent every month.".

Katie said, leaning on her seat and picking up her cup of coffee. Slowly slipping it up, she stared at Aiden, thinking he looked a bit more mature now.

The meet-up went ahead like that, with all of them moving on from talking about [30 days of Happiness] to other things like how they had begun their acting careers and their experiences.

This was one of the good things about being part of an independent movie. The actors would be very open, and all of them would have the same goal — to give their best to make a good movie.

As their meet-up ended, Aiden couldn't help but ask a question to Katie that was running in his mind.

"Why did you choose the role of Claire?"

He wasn't just asking this because he was curious. It was also a way for Aiden to understand Katie's thoughts about Claire.

He felt like it was important to know what other actors thought when deciding to do the role.

"Well, let me think," Katie said, hearing the question. It wasn't something she could answer straight away as there was a lot about Claire that she had liked and disliked. "You can say that at first, I hated her character."

When she said that, Aiden squinted his eyes in interest, wondering what had made her change her mind.

"It's prevalent in rom coms to have a female character who's already popular or wants to be popular. I know that happens, but it is very overused, and I thought Claire was the same kind of character. She's popular in school and has an athletic boyfriend who's a bit of an asshole." She glanced at Jayden. "It just seemed like an overused trope."

"But that's just the outer layer."

Aiden muttered. A character always has a lot of layers until a director has just not decided to explore it or give a hint about it. Claire was the same.

On the outside, she seemed like another female protagonist in a high school romance that people were already bored of. But Claire was more than just the guy that Arthur had fallen in love with at first sight.

There was a reason why Aiden said that the name 'Claire' would suit the movie title a lot.

"As the plot moves, a lot of stuff about Claire is revealed. In the end, she's more or less a girl that just wants to know more about love. Her relationship with Sam early on in the movie is pretty much hollow, and she realises it too, but she's fearful of losing people close to her. Her grandma's letters are just a way for her to get more time to think about the questions in her mind and get answers. I like how much of a confused and vulnerable person she is inside and how her cheerful persona is more or less an act."

Katie finished her explanation with a smile. Aiden could clearly feel like she had prepared a lot for the character of Katie, and in his mind, he slowly began to project her face as Claire and felt like she would do a great job.

'It seems like I would have a lot of fun working on the movie.'

Aiden thought in his mind.

For him, Katie was someone who complimented his acting well. He still remembered when they used to practice their roles together after work.

So, he was sure that it would also reflect in their characters.

Slowly, he really was looking forward to the start of the shooting.

After the meet-up ended and the cast got to know each other, they met again after a few days for a read-through of the script.

The filming locations were also decided then, and they were going to begin filming by the middle of May. Leo had decided that the first part of the script would be shot in LA.

The scenes in which Arthur and Claire would meet at the start of the movie and some montages of their school life would be shot here before the crew would fly over to Europe, where filming would take place in Paris, Brussels and Rome.

The major part of the movie was going to be shot in Europe. That's why Leo wanted to do it after the LA shoots.

If everything goes well, the movie would finish shooting in one and a half months and would be sent to various film festivals.

"Are the cameras ready? Recheck everything. We don't want any mistakes on the first shot. We are going to start in the next few minutes."

Leo shouted, and everyone around him nodded and started rechecking everything just to be sure. Everyone knew the importance of the first shot.

It was the first day of the shooting, and they were filming in a high school that had agreed to let them shoot for half a day. They did not even ask for money and only requested to show the school's name in one of the shots.

Apparently, the school was trying to get some fame for itself like this.

Filming devices had been placed far away from the school gate, on the pavement leading to the school. The camera crew was adjusting the devices for the last time.

The cinematographer communicated with the lighting engineer to ensure the lighting and exposure. Some staff members who had finished their work listened attentively to their conversation.

In some distance, many high school students were glancing at the staff members, excited about a film's shooting. Some of them had even recognised Katie and asked for an autograph.

As for Aiden, many people also pointed fingers at him and called him by the name 'Kai'. But none of them had come forward to ask for an autograph yet.

"Aiden, are you ready? Remember, this is a brief scene. You just need to walk on and glance a bit at Katie there."

Leo, who was explaining the scene to Aiden, glanced at Katie, who was sitting in a car with Jayden.

"Don't worry, Leo. I will give my best."

"Good."

Saying that Leo walked over to Katie and told her the same thing. Aiden chuckled, seeing Leo like this. He was clearly very nervous about his first scene as a director.

Even if it was the most simple scene in the movie, he was nervous that it wouldn't go well.

'I need to give my best.'

Aiden took a deep breath and took his position. Around him, the crew members were spread out, and Wade looked over at him sitting on a nearby bench.

Like Leo, this was also a huge moment for Aiden.

It was the first shot of the movie that he was the lead of. That surely added a bit of pressure on him, but he was also confident.

A lot has happened over the last year, but in the end, he has finally reached a point where he always wanted to stand.

When everything was set up, Leo finally took his position as the director and glanced around for a final check. He shouted, "Action!"

Hearing those words, one word roamed in Aiden's mind as he truly became Arthur Reeves.

'Immersion.'

…

/Dream Note/

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"The photo looks good. You really look like a high school student with those clothes and hairstyle. I remember your photos from when you were in high school."

Uncle Sam's voice came out from the phone. Aiden had just sent him one of his photos from the set, which was the look they were going for Arthur.

Currently, he was wearing a grey hoodie with blue jeans, and his hair was cut very short. There was light makeup on his clean-shaven face as the makeup team had tried their best to make him look younger than he was.

He was 25 years old, but he looked more youthful with the makeup.

"Yeah, they applied different stuff on my face for over an hour. It was pure torture but way better than what I went through during [Black Saints]."

Aiden muttered, and a chuckle came out from the other side of the phone.

"Get used to it now. You will have a lot of movies in the future. Audiences these days think that a good actor has different looks in every movie. So, you might even need to sit for 5-6 hours. It was way easier when I was in the business, but perceptions changed with time."

"I know. I hope I learn not to get bored just sitting in one place as people apply makeup on my face."

"Hey, nothing more boring than being married for over 30 years. There's no spark left. Your wife finds yoga fun like every other rich wife in Beverly Hills, and you find video games fun. In the end, you don't find each other fun."

Uncle Sam said. Aiden couldn't say anything as he knew his uncle and aunt loved to take digs at each other whenever they got the chance.

In a way, they both were very similar.

He just shook his head with a light smile. After that, they talked a bit more about other things, mostly about Hollywood, filmmaking and how his uncle's restaurant was going.

Then, he put down the phone and picked up the script to read through the scene they were doing today again.

"Aiden, are you ready? We are starting soon."

It was then that Leo, Jayden and Katie walked over to him. Today, they were shooting a scene in the residential area where Arthur would persuade Claire to take revenge on her ex-boyfriend, who had cheated on her. .

"Yeah, I'm ready. Is everything set up?" Aiden asked, standing up from his seat and glancing around the set.

Most of the staff was doing their own work, but it did look like everything was ready.

"Most of it is. Are you excited? It's the first scene where we are going to act together." Katie let out a teasing smile. "It's fine if you are too nervous to act with me and give a bad take. We could afford that."

"No, we can't." Leo sternly said. "It would be best if we could finish it in one or two takes. We can't waste too much money. Every bad take means an increase in the budget."

This was one of the things that an independent movie director needed to take care of. If an actor gave out a lot of bad takes, the budget would skyrocket, and it was very hard to ask for more budget from the investors.

"I will do my best, Leo," Aiden said and glanced at both Katie and Jayden. "And rather than you, I'm more excited about the scene due to Jayden. Not every day you get to hit your co-actor with eggs and tomatoes."

Hearing that, Jayden could just give out a wry smile, "Please go easy on me."

"The scene won't come out good if you don't get hit by some eggs and tomatoes. We need that situational comedy."

Leo said, patting Jayden's shoulder. This was a scene in which both Arthur and Claire would find Sam, her boyfriend's car, outside the house of another cheerleader, and she would say that he's surely cheating on her in her room.

Arthur would come up with an idea and will get eggs and tomatoes to throw at his car and the window of the cheerleader's house. In the process, a few of them would also hit Sam, who would open the window.

"Just don't hit too hard."

Jayden was only able to mutter that. Aiden couldn't help but feel a bit bad for him by seeing him like that.

[30 days of HappinessMay 16-2016Act 1Scene 3Take 1]

"There's the car."

Claire said as she pointed at a white car standing outside a house. Arthur stopped his own car, the gift he had gotten from his mother on his last birthday and gazed at the home behind the car.

"It seems like your boyfriend would be in that house. Do you know who lives there?"

Arthur looked at Claire, who nodded. Her face turned a bit stiff as the suspicions in her mind turned into reality. He noticed the change in her expression too, and waited for an answer.

"Yeah, I have been there a couple of times. It belongs to Genny Davies. Her parents are mostly out, so she often calls the entire school to party there. You have never been—"

Claire stopped in her sentence, realising that Arthur was treated as a social outcast, more or less, and he shrugged his shoulders awkwardly.

"I don't know enough people to get invited to parties." He muttered. "Anyway, what now?"

"I, I don't know."

Claire stuttered her words, and her eyes kept glancing at the house's window.

She wondered what was going inside. She was not stupid. She could guess what her boyfriend was doing there, but it was a scenario that she didn't want to face.

Arthur noticed her inner struggles too.

He wanted to tell her that they should turn away and leave. He didn't want to interfere in her relationship as he was never the type to help others. But this time, he hesitated.

Frowning, he again thought about what he should do. Maybe, this was the chance he was always looking for. He had given up on any hope long ago and was content with it, but it might be the chance he never imagined he would get.

In the end, he took a deep sigh and opened his mouth.

"Tell me one thing. Are you sure he's cheating? Like completely sure. I don't want it to be a case of a misunderstanding."

"I saw him kissing her, and he has lied to me many times. I just… know it. I'm very confident that he's cheating."

"Okay. Good enough." Arthur smiled, getting an idea in his head. "Get out of the car. I think I still have some eggs and tomatoes in the back."

"What? Why do you have those in your car, and what will you do with them?"

Claire asked as she stumbled her way out of the car. Arthur didn't say anything and just picked up a grocery bag from the back and passed it to her.

"My mom told me to get these. I forgot them in the car, but I guess they have more needs than to be used in making my dinner."

"What are you going to do exactly?"

She asked, squinting at him, and he just smirked in reply. Then, glancing in between the car and the eggs and tomatoes in his hands, he replied.

"How's your aim?"

It was then that Leo's voice came as a signal to end the scene.

"Cut!"

The immersion ended as Aiden looked at Leo, who was giving him a thumbs up. It seemed like the scene had gone well.

As it was a romantic comedy and the world of it was pretty much the same as the real world, unlike the greyish vibe of [Black Saints] and the tense, war atmosphere of [Shadows of War, his immersion didn't change a lot of things for Aiden.

The one thing it did though was to make him feel Aurthur's emotions more vividly, making him feel like he was really crushing on Katie, who was playing Claire.

"Okay, onto the next scene."

[30 days of HappinessMay 16-2016Act 1Scene 4Take 1]

"Are you sure you want to do it? I'm very nervous."

"I'm nervous too. I have not played baseball in a long time."

"And I have not played it in my entire life."

Claire sighed, taking deep breaths to control what was happening in front of her. Currently, she was holding a pair of eggs in her hands, and her neighbour was standing beside her, urging her to throw them at her boyfriend's car.

"Okay, at my signal. Think of the eggs as the weapons to take your revenge." Arthur said.

"You seem like you have done it before."

"No, I just read it in a book. I always wanted to try it out. Now Throw!"

Arthur shouted, and like it was a reflex action, Claire threw the egg at the car. It hit one of the wheels, and Arthur urged her to throw one again.

This time, the aim was better as he hit the top of the car.

"Good job!" Arthur exclaimed. "Let me try too."

Shouting that, he threw one of the tomatoes at the car, and it suddenly started making a 'Beep' sound. Stopping in his tracks, he glanced at Claire, who wasn't stopping even now and was just throwing eggs one after another.

At that moment, the window of the house next to them suddenly opened.

"Hey, what the fuck is going on here?"

A girl looked at them from above. Arthur recognised her as Genny Davies. She was wearing a very thin shirt and looking at her messy hair. She was surely in the middle of some action.

Raising his head, he waved at her.

"Hello, Genny Davies. Uh, I'm sorry, but can you go back inside and send out the guy who you are busy with. We don't really have any business with you, and I don't think you would like to be out when there are eggs and tomatoes getting thrown here and there."

"The fuck are you—"

"Bitch!"

Before Genny could finish her sentence, Claire threw an egg at her, and it landed straight on her face. Even Arthur was surprised at her aim for a second.

Genny didn't stay long to look out at them, and quickly Sam glanced outside from the window, half-naked and his eyes worried, knowing that he was caught red-handed.

"Claire, what are you doing?" He said, then looked at his car. "Fuck! My car!"

Just as he said, Claire and Arthur glanced at each other and started throwing down everything they had at Sam.

…

/DreamNote/

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The sun was high up in the sky, shining brightly and it was a warm, sunny day.

Currently, they were shooting in a cafe that was located in one of the streets of Paris where musicians would often perform. As Paris was also called 'City of Art' alongside its other names, there was no limit to the musicians, painters and other artists that would come to the city every year.

It had taken little more than a week for the crew of [30 days of Happiness] to complete all the shooting in LA. Omar, Aiden and Leo had multiple meetings over the shoots and they were pretty happy with the outcome.

After the shoots in LA, the crew and cast quickly flew to Paris to do the parts there. But it wasn't as smooth sailing as shooting in LA.

Just getting the permit to shoot in the streets was very hard here due to them being just an independent crew and even after that, just accommodating the whole crew at one place meant a lot of money would be spent daily.

Because of that they were hurrying to go over the shoot quickly. To lower down on budget, they even hired some freelancers in France to help around in the crew.

"These days anyone can become an actor."

A brown haired guy with a moustache said in a French accent, scoffing as his eyes gazed at Aiden who was going through the scene with Leo.

"I don't think you should say that. He must be good enough to be the lead. I don't think they will take anyone from the street."

His friend, a blonde haired guy with hazel eyes said. They were both the freelancers that the crew had hired. As their work was over for now, they were just spectating from the side.

"They are from Hollywood. The guy doesn't even give that aura that those actors give out and it's just a small crew. No big studio backing them. The guy probably slept with the director to get the role. Those things are too common in LA."

"You are just saying that because you weren't able to make it in even an independent crew after years of trying."

The blonde haired guy mocked him. This was not the first time that his friend was being bitter about other actors when they were working on a set.

He felt like he could be the one to lead a movie and get famous but if he had the talent and luck, he wouldn't be working as a simple crew member.

"No, it's not just that. I saw his other scenes. They were not anything great. He doesn't even have a handsome face. The actress is way better than him. I'm pretty sure the critics will roast him a lot when the movie releases.".

"I really think you are nitpicking. There hasn't even been a prominent scene yet. They are just shooting the easy ones and they don't really need a lot. And the director never really scolded him. I have seen directors shouting at young actors all the time. I think he's pretty good and he's respectful with the crew, so I like him."

He shrugged his shoulders and the brown haired guy didn't know how to get his point across to his friend. Suddenly an idea struck his mind.

"How about we make a bet?" His friend raised an eyebrow at that.

"I heard the director saying the next scene is very important. 10 euros that he will mess it up."

"Well…" The blonde haired guy thought about it for a minute and hesitated. He knew that it was not easy for an actor to give the right scene in one shot but the bet was interesting.

In the end, he decided to take the risk.

"Okay, deal."

"Good. You have guts."

As they were talking, someone who was standing right beside them the whole time and listening to their conversation couldn't help but smirk.

He was Wade.

"Hey." He called out to the two freelancers.

"Are you talking to us?" The brown haired asked.

"Yeah, I want in on the bet."

His words surprised both of them.

Both of them were actually talking in French and didn't think that anyone from the crew that had come from America would even understand them.

"You understand French?" One of them asked, very curious.

"A bit. I had a French girlfriend once. Whenever we fought, she would cuss me in French, so I learned to at least understand what she was saying." Wade explained in French.

His words made them chuckle and thinking for a bit, they nodded to let him in the bet.

"Okay, which side are you on?"

"Aiden. I'm sure he will nail down the scene."

"This scene is going to be very hard."

Aiden said, looking down at the script. A hand patted his shoulder as he sighed, wondering how he was going to nail the scene down.

"Don't worry a lot. We have practiced the scene a lot and you have improved everytime. I think you will do well."

He raised his head to stare at Colby Hudson, who was playing a gangster named Lorenzo Scalleta, an Italian gangster who was living in Paris.

In the story, one of the letters mentioned him and both Claire and Arthur would try to find him to get a clue about Charlie Dunkins and his whereabouts.

Only to find out that Lorenzo and Charlie have an enmity between them.

Lorenzo would try to get money out of Arthur and Claire but Arthur would manage to hit him with a guitar and run away. But in the end, Lorenzo's gang will capture them in a cafe and he would say that he would let them go after punching Arthur.

Overall, it was a comedic scene.

"I never did a comedic scene before and although I have practiced, it's still something that I don't have a lot of confidence in." Aiden explained and Colby shook his head.

"Comedy is all about sticking to the tone of the movie and trying to be in character. A lot is also on reaction on your co actors line and how you use your body."

"Body?"

"Yeah, good comedy actors know how to use body language to make the scene better. Just stick to the script and let loose, you can't perform well if you are nervous."

Aiden nodded his head hearing that and looked at the script again. A lot of thoughts were in his mind as he read through it again, diving more into the scene and examining it in his mind.

While reading it, he found it a bit ridiculous.

After all, it only happens in movies or novels that two people would come across a gangster and have a comedic moment between them. It was fun and a bit crazy.

But [30 days of Happiness] was just about that.

It was a bit crazy, funny, sad and gave a great experience to the viewers. It never needed to be realistic until it managed to provide a smile to the audience.

'The script really moves from one genre to another.'

Aiden thought. Until this scene, most of the characters were pretty realistic and even the funny scenes were not exaggerated but Lorenzo and his whole gang were just written in a comedic way, having no other side about them.

They had no purpose in the story other than to thicken the plot around Charlie Dunkins and provide a very funny comedic sequence.

Maybe, that was what made them funny.

'Just let loose, huh.'

He thought, closing his eyes.

[30 days of HappinessMay 28-2016Act 3Scene 2Take 1]

"Arthur, what are we going to do now?"

"If I had an idea, I would have already done that."

Aiden gulped down his saliva as he looked at the big, burly, tattooed gangsters standing. In front of him. They have circled around Lorenzo Scalleta, the leader who was a scrawny looking fellow but had a scary reputation.

He was wearing a bandage on his head, a proof of what has went wrong for him in the last encounter between them.

The customers who were already present in the cafe were just staring at the whole scene and no one had any intentions to do anything.

"Can't you, uh, like let us go? We are just high schoolers. You probably have way better things to do than surround us in a cafe."

Arthur asked in the most polite voice he could gather. He didn't know how they would get out of this situation. When he had agreed to come on a trip to Europe, pisssing off a whole gang was definitely not in his plans.

"There's a rule in our business." Lorenzo said in a thick Italian accent, looking as serious and domineering as he could. "Always give twice what you receive. You are kids, so I will let you go if you leave all your money here and let me punch you."

"How many… punches?" Claire asked slowly, her words not coming out properly due to how tensed she felt.

"I will decide that."

As Lorenzo said that, both Arthur and Claire looked at each other. He glanced at the door of the cafe and a bald guy was standing there with a smirk on his face.

There was no way out of this situation.

"What are we going to do? I think you should just get punched." Claire whispered to him and he glared at her.

"Does he look like a pacifist to you? He won't stop until he ruins my whole face and where are equal rights now? Why are you assuming I will be the one taking the punch? We are facing this because of you. Try to take responsibility."

"I thought boys love to be the hero."

"I'm not that stupid."

Both of them engaged in a back and forth conversation and urged the other to take the punch. It was then that Lorenzo stomped his feet to get their attention back.

"I don't have a whole day."

Arthur clenched his fist wondering how he was going to get out of this mess. If he really let Lorenzo take all their money, he didn't know what they would do.

He looked around in the cafe and suddenly, an idea came to his mind. Though it was risky, it was the only chance they had.

"Run towards the door at my signal."

He whispered to Claire who nodded even if she was confused.

…

/DreamNote/

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[30 days of HappinessMay 28-2016Act 3Scene 2Take 1]

"You should have given me the money back then when I asked. You won't have to suffer so much then."

Lorenzo smirked as Arthur slowly walked toward him. Their last encounter humiliated him, and he can't wait to take revenge on him.

"I'm asking this again."

Arthur muttered. He was trying his best to seem confident in his voice, but only he knew how fast his heart was beating at the moment.

He felt a bit suffocated as he stood in front of the gangsters, but he had no time to process all this. He was experiencing a tense situation, and he knew it wouldn't last long.

"Let us go." He said, and Lorenzo laughed. A gangster beside him whispered something to another one with a smirk on his face.

"I will let go after punching your face."

"Just… don't hit too hard."

Aiden said and Lorenzo slowly stood up. The mirth on his face could clearly be seen. The injury on his head was still stinging, and he couldn't wait to get his revenge.

"Don't cross some lines next time, kid."

He said as he pulled his hand to punch, but it was at that moment that Arthur moved quickly. In a split second, he grabbed a jar of red, chilly pepper that was just right beside him on a table.

Opening it up, he threw every bit of it on Lorenzo's and other gangsters' faces. .

"Ahhhh… what the fuck!" Lorenzo screamed as his eyes turned red like a wizard gone berserk in a video game.

"Claire, run!"

He shouted towards Claire and picked up a broom thrown on the ground. Claire ran towards the exit but was blocked by the bald gangster who was ready to grab her.

She screamed in fear, but at that moment, Arthur hit the gangster's head with the stick side of the broom. The gangster tried to fight back but getting the chance, Claire kicked him straight into his balls, making him fall to his knees.

"Fuck… Ah."

The gangster muttered as Arthur repeatedly hit his head with the broom.

"I'm gonna break that bald skull of yours!"

After saying that, he threw away the broom, held Claire's hand and ran away, leaving the gangsters screaming in the pain of their eyes, nearly going blind.

"Cut! Hahaha, that was great!"

It was then that the voice of Leo came out. He was laughing, and even the other crew members had smiles on their faces. All of them knew that the scene was perfect.

There were no mistakes or fumblings, and dialogue, expression, body language, and comedy were on point, making it one of the best scenes they have gotten till now.

"Let's take a break and get on with the next scenes."

Leo shouted, and everyone cheered. As the scene went very well, they felt a sense of excitement. Nothing was as good for a crew's motivation as a perfect scene.

There was only one person who wasn't happy.

"I guess I won the bet."

The blonde-haired guy said as he looked at his friend, whose jaw was dropped in shock. He was very sure that Aiden would mess up the whole scene, but the latter had nailed it.

The scene required Aiden and Colby to do most of the hard lifting, and the latter was a veteran actor that even the brown-haired guy knew of as he was a bit famous in Paris.

But he was very sure Aiden won't be able to stand toe to toe with him, but he had proved him wrong, proven his arrogance wrong.

"Ah, fuck it. Why did I even agree to the bet?!"

"You didn't agree. You made it yourself. Give me my money."

The blonde-haired guy put his hand forward and urged his friend to give him the money, and although unwilling, the brown-haired guy put a note in his hand.

'I'm never going to bet or complain about other actors from now on.'

He thought in his mind. That was his lunch money, and now he was sure he would go hungry for most of the day. His stupid bruised ego from failing in his own acting career had made him want to nitpick every young actor he would see.

As he was frowning, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"I participated in the bet too. Remember?"

"Ah, well…"

The brown-haired guy's words trailed off, seeing Wade behind him. He wanted to refuse as he didn't want to lose more money but seeing the statue of the man, he could only gulp down his saliva.

On top of it, he was smirking at him, which made him look even scarier.

'He might beat me up if I don't pay.'

Thinking that, the brown-haired guy took out another note from his pocket, and Wade quickly snatched it away.

"Talk to me if you want to make another bet," Wade said, putting the note in his pocket. Normally, he would not have interfered in the conversation of two crew members.

But he didn't like anyone belittling his actor.

"I will tell you something. You know that guy." He pointed at Aiden, who was talking about something with Katie after the scene. "He's going to be the next star in Hollywood."

"Huh?"

Both the crew members looked at Wade weirdly, hearing that. They knew that Aiden was a good actor. He had just proven it to them.

But the next star in Hollywood? That was a huge exaggeration.

Although both these crew members mainly dabbled in European film markets, they still knew a lot about Hollywood. It was not every day that a new star would emerge there.

Sometimes, there will be a fantastic actor popping out of nowhere, but even then, it will take him at least 5-10 years to establish himself as a star.

"Why do you think so? You look very confident." The blonde-haired guy asked, raising an eyebrow.

Wade just glanced at him before replying.

"It's because I'm his agent."

Both of their eyes widened hearing that, especially the guy who had nitpicked about Aiden before.

As the shooting went on, Aiden had not forgotten to constantly update his social media followers about his activities.

After [Black Saints, his popularity had blown up, especially among the younger audience, and as his follower count had gone above 1 million, Wade had told him to give updates on his activities.

In his words, social media is a powerful tool to promote yourself.

It was fine if Aiden didn't want to show much of his personal life in it, but he needed to update people about his work, so they could keep being interested in him.

That's why, after getting to the set of [30 days of Happiness, Aiden finally posted updates on the shooting and how everything was going on.

He had also revealed that he would make the movie's soundtrack, so his fan group was bustling every day with every pic that Aiden would upload.

[Gamma Mamma: This movie looks interesting. Seems like a typical romantic comedy with exquisite details. Is it the Zetflix movie that people here were discussing? The Summer I ate boys or something?]

[Clownson: No, I don't think he signed that. From what he revealed on his social media handles, it's pretty much a new movie. I think he's shooting in Europe for it, and it's a festival movie.]

[Potter Feet: Why is he shooting for a movie that would be seen only at film festivals by old critics with white beards? Kai stunned me, and I think Aiden could be the next big commercial actor. I don't want him to go into artsy movies.]

[Mobiux Hope: From what he revealed, it's a rom-com set in Europe. Not exactly an art movie, you know, and he's working with Katie Brooks. She's known to choose commercial movies only.]

[Alone Musk: I don't really know what to feel about this one. He was great in serious roles, but I don't think he will fare in a light role where he needs to show more charm than acting skills. Normally, actors go from rom coms to serious roles and he's doing the opposite. If you think about it, he's very much like me. Choosing his own path.]

[Naked Chris: @Alone Husk, who are you even? The richest man on earth?]

[Aiden's wife: Rather than the movie, I'm more excited about the soundtrack. He's going to compose it himself, and I'm very excited about it. I'm a bigger fan of his singing than acting.]

[Chilling in my wife's closet: Not really excited about the movie. He looks good in it, but I really doubt he would be good in a simple guy role. I would rather have him play Kai in a prequel of [Black Saints]. He can probably get a big hit at the box office like that.]

[Doraemon's pouch: I don't really think I would be that pessimistic about it. An excellent romantic movie sounds nice, and actors get tired after doing the same kind of role. Playing a serial killer is all good, but if he does it too often, he might really become one.]

[CaptainJackNarrow: Plus one of his songs. I liked 'Revolution', but I want him to return to the 'Life is a story' phase. That's where his song truly touched my heart.]

[the_other_name_were_taken: There are too many polarising reactions on this sub. I am curious as to what the final outcome would be.]

…

/DreamNote/

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[You have improved your comic timing]

[You have gained a lot of experience.]

[Your understanding of the character has increased. Your affinity with the character has increased.]

[You are close to breaking into Intermediate Grade 2.]

Aiden let out a smile seeing those notifications in front of him.

As the shooting was going on, it had become a habit for him to check every system notification at the end of the day.

It was like opening a box of rewards after a hard day's work.

He felt it was very similar to how people would check their phone notifications the first thing in the morning after waking up.

But sadly for him, his work was far from over now.

'I am still stuck at the middle part of the song.'

He thought, pulling up a chair and sitting down on it while staring at the DAW (Digital audio workstation) in front of him. Next to him, there was a keyboard attached to it.

Every day after the shooting, he was trying hard to finish up 'Lost in the sky', and although he could complete most of the first part of the song, he was stuck after that.

The worst thing was that time was running out for him.

One of the last scenes of [30 days of Happiness] was Arthur singing 'Lost in the sky' in front of a small audience. Leo had told him that he wanted to shoot it in the end, and it was best if Aiden could sing it live on the set for a very realistic experience.

For some reason, Leo didn't want to add a recorded version of the song in the movie during post-production and wanted to keep it genuine and live.

Aiden was fine with the request, but the problem was clear. He wasn't sure if he would be able to finish the song in time. .

"Ah, it's getting frustrating."

He muttered and played the part that he had already recorded. The simple sound of a guitar came out but the tone wasn't bright at all. It was like a melancholic sadness was attached to it.

The sound of the piano layered on top of it was just like a whisper, making people doubt if it was even there.

At that moment, Aiden's voice came out, his tone very soft with gentility and fragility written all over it.

"Please tell me if this is an illusion."

"Why am I still finding the reason?"

"Oh, am I just searching for something that isn't there?"

"Reaching my hand out to nowhere."

Aiden wrote the first verse purely thinking of Arthur's mentality at the start of the movie.

He was someone who always wondered if everything he thought was a lie he had told to himself and there was no reason for him to live life.

His dream was to be a musician but he would often feel like someone who is trying in vain, reaching his hand out to touch nothing because he never had the talent to succeed.

These were very common doubts in everyone's mind and the first verse was just to portray that.

"Is it worth it to take the arrow?"

"Can I still believe in a better tomorrow?"

"I'm trapped in between the darkness of your sorrow."

Aiden's voice became more restrained instead of opening up in the next verse as the piano in the background became louder.

When he was thinking of 'Lost in the sky', he was never trying to make a song with the passion of love that could be sung in front of a whole crowd. He wanted it to be like the song that one would only sing in front of their special someone.

It didn't have anything fancy, and instead, Aiden had focused a lot on the words, trying to create a deeper meaning behind each and every sentence.

Singing it, he felt like he was just speaking out about Arthur's character with the use of the song, as all these lyrics were just his thoughts.

But the melody coming out of the speakers soon stopped as it ended.

'I need to think beyond this.'

Aiden had a few ideas as to how to make the chorus part and then the end parts of the song, but no matter how much he tried to think, it wasn't working out.

Frowning, he rubbed his forehead before picking up his pen.

For the next two hours, he tried to write several lyrics to continue the song but wasn't able to come up with something concrete. Everytime he would think that he got it, the next thought would be that it wasn't good enough.

Aiden wanted 'Lost in the sky' to be the saddest song that he had written till now but only the first part was going to be full of questions.

It was because as the movie would go, Arthur would change bit by bit and his perspective about life and love would become brighter, becoming the inspiration for him to finish the song.

So, the second part of the song was like that.

Even though Aiden had nailed down the sad parts, he struggled in the other part.

'Is it because I still didn't have a good enough character affinity with Arthur?'

Aiden suddenly thought, opening up the Character list in front of him.

[Character list:

Arthur Reeves

-70 percent affinity.

-You understand the role very well and your charisma truly shines in some scenes but you are still lacking a bit.

-You need to make a little more push to completely get into the skin of your character according to your level.

-Affinity could be improved for the role.]

Reading that, he wondered if he would be able to complete the song if his character affinity increased. He had experienced that increased character affinity had made him think like the character.

In the past, when he had played Kai, his affinity with him had reached the utmost he could do at his level and on those days, he would feel like he was slowly not being himself.

Even his mannerisms were changing a bit.

Thankfully, he knew how to get out of the mentality of the character. It was even easier because of his system.

Back then, it was dangerous as Kai was a killer, but with Arthur, he felt like increasing affinity would really help him with the song.

"I guess in the end, it's all on my acting."

Muttering that, he leaned against his seat and took a deep sigh.

The days of rigourous shooting continued as May turned to June. Now, the crew was on the final parts of the shoots.

The last 25 minutes of the movie.

Today, they were shooting a scene in which Claire and Arthur will get in a fight as even after roaming all over Europe, they won't be able to find Charles Dunkin.

The fight would mainly be because Claire would accuse Arthur of only coming to the trip to try to win her over.

It was a pretty dramatic scene but it would happen in a restaurant, and the next shot was one where Claire would splatter Arthur with wine.

"How many takes do you think it would take to get the scene right?"

An old man wearing a blue cap asked Leo, who was standing next to him. The old man was the cinematographer that was working on the project. He was a major part of the independent crew Omar had hired.

"I'm hoping for one take. But scenes like these are pretty tiring to shoot as the expressions really need to be on point. We would be lucky if we can get the right reactions till the fifth take."

Leo replied, scratching his beard that was slowly growing over the course of the filming.

"That kid's going to get drenched in wine." The old man laughed. "Does he like wine?"

"I don't know. Never saw him drink that."

"Then, he surely won't enjoy the scene."

Leo shook his head lightly, hearing that he hoped that the scene would go right.

Some distance away, both Katie and Aiden were sitting and discussing the scene. Through the course of the filming, Aiden realised how good of an actress Katie was and how much she knew about movies.

So, they would often go through the scenes together.

"I'm sorry from the start if the wine goes in your eyes."

Katie said, her words seemed like she was sorry but there was a smile on her face as if she couldn't wait to get on with the scene.

"Just try to aim at my mouth. Your aim is pretty good anyway."

Aiden replied, thinking back to the egg scene.

"I will be careful." Katie smiled and then, suddenly, glanced around the set before looking back at Aiden. Her face was like she was thinking of something. "We only have ten days of shooting left. What are you going to do after the shooting?"

"I'm still going to be there in the post-production as I'm doing the soundtrack. Need to record the songs and go through with the editor and Leo about fitting it in the movie."

"Sounds tough. What after that?"

Aiden thought for a while about this question. He didn't really have anything to do as the movie would be submitted to film festivals, and until then, he didn't have anything more to do.

Maybe he would test out his writing skill?

"I don't really know. My schedule will be pretty free, I guess. Anyway, I am not thinking about it currently. I want to just focus on the shooting for now."

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to support this novel with your power stones and golden tickets

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[30 days of HappinessJune 11-2016Act 8Scene 6Take 1]

"I'm not leaving until I find him, Arthur. I can't just go back after everything. All this wild adventure, I need an end to it."

"There's no end. We are only here for today and tomorrow is our flight. If we don't leave for home right now, we are going to miss our high school graduation. Maybe he never existed."

"He does exist! I need answers from him!"

Claire said in a slightly raised voice. She looked like a genuine mess with her hair somewhat disheveled, and her expression was solemn, like she was on the way to losing her last hope.

On the other hand, Arthur frowned.

"We checked every place. Every clue we got from the letters. He's not here. He's not on the internet, and everyone says he never stops at one place. We can never find him."

It was already the end of their road trip, but they had failed to find Charles, and Arthur seemed like he had already given up on it. But that was not the case with Claire.

"I'm not going, Arthur. You can go." She said and looked up at him. Staring in his eyes, she said words akin to opening a pandora's box. "Anyway, you came on the trip just to win me over. You are not the type to do all this. You did it just because you think you love me when you don't. You never wanted it in the first place."

"What?"

Arthur stared in shock, feeling like someone had plunged a knife in his chest. It was that sort of sharp, depressing feeling that soon turned to anger and frustration.

"You know what. You are not wrong." He said. "I had motives, and they were stupid. I thought coming with you on this was my last chance to live my life. But it didn't give me what I was looking for. Because of you, I nearly lost my life, and had to sleep on a bench, and I'm questioning why I agreed to it every day. But I'm not the only one with motives. Claire Price, you are worse than me."

"Don't go there." Claire glared at him.

"Oh, I will. You didn't come on this trip to learn about your grandma. You came on this trip to find Charles to validate that love exists because you still love your fucking, cheating ex-boyfriend who never loved you but doesn't like him leaving you. You are just—".

Splash!

As Arthur was talking, Claire stood up suddenly, grabbed a glass of wine from the table next to him where an old couple was dining, and splashed it on him.

Everyone in the restaurant looked at them as a voice came out.

"Cut it. Can we do it again?"

Leo said, looking down at the screen where the recorded footage was playing with squinted eyes.

"What's wrong?"

Aiden asked, breaking down his immersion and tasting the wine dripping down from his face. He felt like the scene was fine, but it didn't seem like that from Leo's reaction.

"Nothing much. The quarrel was perfect, but the expression while throwing the wine can be better. Let's do one more take?"

"Okay."

Both Katie and Aiden nodded, and someone in the crew filled the wine glass again. The extra actors gathered for the restaurant scene sat down again.

For the next 45 minutes, Aiden kept getting splashed one after another.

"No, you need to show both surprise and anger."

"Let's do one more?"

"Katie, where are you aiming? Don't throw the glass. Throw the wine in it. We don't want injuries on the set."

"Aiden, I'm sorry, but can we do another one?"

Like that, Leo kept requesting one more retake every time, and Aiden's clothes kept getting soaked. He changed clothes after every take and was getting frustrated and exhausted.

Katie was the same as both tried to satisfy Leo, who apparently wanted the scene to be perfect in his eyes.

Finally, after a lot of tries, they got that perfect scene.

"Okay! That's it. It was perfect. Cut!"

When Aiden heard Leo say that, he couldn't help but take a sigh of relief.

He felt like he hadn't drank this much wine in his life. But in the end, it was finally over. He felt like he had even started to hate alcohol a bit because of this scene.

'I should avoid alcohol for a while after this.'

He thought, thinking that being an actor was not always fun.

The continued shooting day by day, and Aiden was clearly able to see that everyone on the set was working very hard daily. It was because they were at the end, and although people were exhausted, they were close to finishing it.

They were taking their motivation from there.

As Aiden was shooting more and more scenes, he showed his affinity rising every day, and it was also helping him out in the song as he made more progress on it.

But somehow, it wasn't enough.

He felt like he needed to push a bit more to capture the essence of Arthur completely, at least to his full capability, but something was stopping him from doing that.

It was like a wall that cultivators in web novels would often come across.

His affinity was currently stuck at 73, and Aiden still needed to finish the end part of the song. As they entered the second half of June, he started feeling more and more anxious about it.

"Young man, what are you thinking about?"

"Fred, hello." Aiden raised his head to look at Fred, the old veteran playing the role of Charles Dunkin. "I was just thinking about my role. The next scene is pretty important."

"Yeah, it is. But I think your acting is pretty good already. You impressed me a lot."

Fred said, sitting down next to him. He had first met him alongside the other cast in the case, and Fred had joined the set directly for the parts they were shooting in Europe.

He and Aiden got along well as the old man seemed like a jovial person who loved to play different types of characters. Aiden had noticed a faint innocence in himself, like he only lived because of his love for cinema.

"Thanks for your praise." Aiden smiled and then let out a sigh. "I'm just struggling a bit. I think I'm lacking something as to how I'm playing Arthur. It's like there's a thin wall between Arthur and me that I can't seem to cross."

Aiden explained. Fred was a veteran, and the old man was in Intermediate Grade 7 according to his system. It was a level that was very high for the current him, so he felt like Fred could help him out.

"That's a common problem between young and old actors. It's a good thing. It means you are taking your role very seriously."

"There's a way to cross the wall?"

Aiden raised an eyebrow and asked. Fred seemed to be in some sort of thought for a moment before he put a hand on his shoulder.

"From what I have seen of you, you make the script your religion. Actors do that, and it's a sign of a great actor. Give everything to the script but…" Fred trailed off in his words.

"But?"

"Sometimes, one needs to get out of the script. A type of acting that just doesn't keep on the pages of the script, but it is something more than that. Don't breathe like the script wants you to. Breath like the character." Fred smiled and shrugged. "I don't know if my advice will work or not but good luck."

After saying that, he patted his shoulders and walked away to talk to an assistant director.

His words kept ringing in Aiden's head.

"Get out of the script… Breathe like the character."

Aiden muttered and fell into some sort of thoughts. Fred's words seemed a bit philosophical, but they were extremely true when Aiden looked back at how he was going on with his scene.

He was an actor who would memorize the whole script and try to focus more on the actions of the characters to get a better idea of them but while acting, he would still follow the script and won't act out of line.

The only time he did it was in the interrogation scene as Kai, but even then, he had just tried to make the scene very real and grounded.

What Fred had told him was very different, but it surely was something that interested Aiden.

'I need to let my character control my actions and not control him. It's basically letting myself get lost and not try to come out of immersion.'

Due to his system, he felt like it could be pretty dangerous as he won't know how he would move next. It would all be very unexpected, but it might really help him reach the required affinity.

As he was thinking about that, some notifications suddenly appeared in front of him.

[You have gotten a better sense of the art of acting. It's a unique achievement.]

[You have gained experience.]

[You have acquired the unique skill 'Breakout scene' for a one-time use due to getting new insight into acting. In your next scene, you will break all your limits.]

[You are now one step away from improving your skill.]

Reading that, Aiden's eyes widened.

The next scene was with Fred, in which both characters would have a deep conversation.

It was one of his favorite scenes in the whole script.

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote with your power stones and golden tickets

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"Recheck the light and sound. Try to maintain pin-drop silence. This is one of the most important scenes in the movie. Do you all understand? Don't ruin it!"

Leo shouted, looking at everyone in the crew, who nodded with serious looks. He was pretty young as a director, only in his early 30s, but the crew knew that Leo was no joke.

He knew how to control the crew and act like a director.

They were even being more careful because of an incident yesterday. One of the production assistants had fought with an ordinary crew member in the middle of a critical scene where Claire and Charles would meet.

The scene was going so well, but a fight ruined it.

In his anger, Leo had fired both of them. The rest of the crew was a bit wary of him. And those who had worked in movies before knew that such things weren't uncommon.

"Aiden, Fred. Are you two ready?"

Leo asked, and both of the actors nodded.

They were currently shooting in a house which would be Charles Dunkin's house in the movie. At his signal, the lightning engineer glanced around the light scheme again, and the sound engineer held the long microphone. The cinematographer stood a distance away from Leo and held the camera in his hands.

"Okay. Action!"

[30 days of HappinessJune 12-2016Act 8Scene 9Take 1]

Hearing the sound of the slate, Aiden's surroundings changed as he lost being of himself and submerged into the personality of Arthur Reeves. He felt a powerful effect of immersion this time, possibly due to this being a breakout scene. .

'I feel weird. It's as if there are dark clouds all over my heart. I can't explain this feeling.'

He thought as he felt all his emotions of Arthur, feeling all the sadness and grief he was in. Claire had just rejected him, and all he wanted was to close his eyes and never wake up, just to not experience this pain.

"Young man, sit down. Do you need something? I have tea."

He looked up as he heard Charles' voice. He was wearing a simple shirt and was looking at him with a light smile on his face.

"I don't want anything."

"You seem like you do," Charles said, lowering his head with a smile. "I heard the argument. Going through heartbreak?"

"Yeah," Arthur said, not able to match gazes with Charles. When Claire had told him about the letters, he had been very curious about the person who had written them but now, everything seemed like a blur.

He wanted to just get away from all this, to somewhere no one could find him, see him, hear him. Just a quiet place. But he knew in his subconsciousness that even there, the voices inside his head and the feeling inside his heart won't leave him.

"Your hands are shaking."

Suddenly, he raised his head hearing that and glanced at his hand, which was really shaking. This would always happen when Arthur was tense, going through lots of emotions.

"Sit down. It's better to talk in these phases of life." Charles said, sitting down himself on the sofa and gesturing to Arthur to sit down in front of him.

This time, he sat down.

"She doesn't feel the same way?" Charles asked, almost in a whisper.

"Yeah."

Arthur nodded, fiddling with his hands, trying to calm down the shaking. At the same time, there was a sadness in his eyes that Charles recognised. He was trying to hold back his tears.

"You know her grandma was the same. I think it runs in their blood to break hearts. She gave me more pain than anything else I experienced in life." Charles said, chucking.

"You moved on?"

"No, not really." Charles shook his head. "Not until I was in my 30s. After that, I met my wife. Uh, she passed away last year. We used to travel the world together, but I just came here after she was not in my life anymore. This house is her idea. A place to go when our hearts crave one."

Charles looked around the house before sighing.

"I'm sorry for your wife."

Arthur said as an awkward atmosphere crept in. He didn't know much about Charles, just that he was a photographer who didn't like being in one place.

"It's fine." He smiled. "Uh, can I give you some advice? More like just something I experienced."

Arthur just gave the nod in reply. His whole body language seemed very uncomfortable, like he was going to cry at any minute, and he was desperately trying to hold back his emotions.

"When I broke up with Claire's grandma, it was just out of circumstances. It hurt a lot, especially because she loved me, but we wanted different things. I couldn't mold myself to someone she wants, and I didn't know how to move on."

"How you… did it then?"

"I just realised that something has passed away. I felt like this because I wanted to go back to the memories we had, do something similar, feel something similar. She was my hope, and I was depressed because I had lost it, but then one day, I just said I couldn't fight time. Past is past. In the end, it's about looking up for another hope, an inspiration, something that gave my life a meaning other than taking photos."

When someone's relationship does not work out, it could really feel like they have lost their world. However, humans are creatures that need others, and sometimes, losing the most important person in their lives is very difficult.

Charles was someone who experienced that, but time slowly made him feel better. Even if it hurts today, it doesn't mean it will hurt tomorrow.

Sooner or later, people are going to find hope. That was Charle's story.

"What if I never get it again?"

Arthur asked, looking Charles in the eyes this time. This was one of his biggest insecurities. He loved Claire, but he was afraid to say anything because he didn't want to face rejection.

The trip was a way for him to take a leap, hoping it would work out, but he never planned for what if it won't.

"What if I never get any hope again? What if I keep feeling this way for life? Tell me, what then? I, I don't want to be like this…"

He stuttered as a tear fell on the floor. Charles was surprised for a second to see him give this level of performance, but he stayed in character.

"I don't know, Arthur, but I don't think the world will be that cruel to you. It wasn't to me, and I personally think I'm not really a good person. I think it would fare better to you."

Saying that Charles put a hand on his shoulder. Arthur's crying intensified as all the emotions he was trying to stop burst out.

They just sat like that for a while as Arthur let it all out, trying to cry out whatever he was feeling.

The scene ended there, but it took a minute before Leo got out of his trance to say 'Cut'. The scene had not gone as he had expected, but in the end, he couldn't say he was disappointed by it.

In fact, he felt like he wouldn't get a better shot even if he did another take.

"Cut!"

Leo finally said, but it took a long time before Aiden stopped crying.

Originally, this scene was going to be very different. Aiden had played it with a bit of awkwardness, trying to portray a guy that was hurt but didn't want to show it.

The original version had Arthur screaming, shouting at Charles as to how he's never going to get another chance at love, but when Aiden lost himself in immersion, he felt like Arthur would never do that.

He didn't like showing his vulnerable side, so he would try his best to hide it until he couldn't.

Thankfully, Charles being a veteran, was able to keep up with him.

When he broke out of immersion, his thoughts were a bit jumbled, and it took a while before he acted normally. When he told Leo sorry that he changed the tone of the scene from dramatic to very emotional, he said that it made it better.

Before this scene, Aiden's only thought in his mind was that he wanted to truly become Arthur and lose control of himself, and it seemed like he achieved it.

At least his system notifications were saying that.

[The skill 'Breakout scene' has been used.]

[You have performed a scene that has broken all your expectations. As a result, you have gained experience.]

[You gave away your control to become one with the character. As a result, the affinity with the character has reached the peak at your current level.]

[To increase it more, you need to improve your skills.]

[You have advanced to Intermediate Grade 2 from Intermediate Grade 1. You have gotten a lot of experience.]

[Congratulations on achieving such a big feat.]

Reading the system notifications, Aiden couldn't help but feel happy. But he didn't show it as one more thing was wandering in his mind.

'I feel like I can complete 'Lost in the sky'.'

He felt that confidence in him. Increasing his affinity with Arthur had made him aware of how he could finish the song.

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote this novel with your power stones and golden tickets.

Yesterday there was an emergency so I couldn't upload 2ch as usual, but now we're back on the schedule

64c3e69bf75c4d1715a59001

"Our ratings are dropping every week like this. In the beginning of the year, the channel wanted to renew the series for another series but the people there are worried now. We seriously need to change things if we want to survive in this goddamn crazy industry."

The scene was of a conference room where a lot of people were gathered. A white haired man that looked to be in his late 40s was heading the meeting, and by his words, it could easily be seen that he was not in a good mood.

His name was Bradley Carell and he was a TV series producer.

"Brad, that only happened because we were going to end the show two seasons earlier but due to fan demand, we weren't able to. We ran out of the original content a long time ago and because of that, the show has become another repetitive dramedy."

One of the main writers of the show said, looking up at him. He clearly wasn't happy with what had become of something that he had conceived. The greed of the channel and producers had eaten it up.

Another person who was a part of the production team added after thinking for a bit.

"We are almost at the end of the season. The ratings might increase then but the ending of the season that is written is pretty much another breakup. No matter how much we try to spice it up with comedy and gags that are running from the first season, I don't think it would be enough to save the show."

"That's why, I'm having this meeting." Bradley said, stomping his hand on the desk. "To revive this show! I don't want [Searching for the One] to become another sitcom with bad last seasons. We need to keep it running for a little longer and I need ideas."

[Searching for the One] was one of the most famous sitcoms in America, with the first two seasons winning Emmy awards and the actors in it were already showered with praises due to their performances, and some even got award nominations.

It was IBC's most popular sitcom, getting huge ratings from the pilot. The show's growth could easily be related to the main actor's salary, which had increased from around 70k dollars per episode to 700k dollars per episode.

But in recent times, the ratings have declined due to the IBC's greed to milk the show. It had lost its soul according to the viewers and even the sponsors weren't happy.

The show was already halfway in the group of shows that started out great but sucked after a few seasons.

If it continued, [Searching for the One] would just end in this season itself.

"I think we can do a cameo from a celebrity. Those always have good effects." One of the female members suggested. .

"No, we already had a lot of them last season. Doing it too much won't help."

"Yeah, we need to try out different things. Maybe add a new character or just a completely different plotline. It feels like these days that the show has forgotten the core idea, so we need to correct it."

"Most of the public reviews of the show said the same thing. I don't think a lot of our audience wants to see more heartbreaks. A lot of the episodes are also becoming stale as they don't provide anything more to the plot or progress it."

"We seriously need to take another look at the ending too. Even the alternative endings we wrote are no good."

Like that ideas were passed around as the meeting continued for over two hours. All of the people presented in the meeting tried to find out the actual problems, read out reviews and talked about how they could correct it and move the show in the right direction.

In the end, all of them agreed to one thing.

"Okay, so we are gonna go with a new ending for this season and get a new character in a cameo role for it." Brad announced and everyone nodded. This was the only way they saw to get the series to the track. "We need to do it extremely well. Go watch what you all wrote in the first few seasons. The series needs to go back to its roots for us to get back our audience."

Over the next few days, most of the shooting for [30 days of Happiness] finally ended. Most of the scenes were left between Katie and Fred, so Aiden requested Leo to shoot his scenes first, so he could just focus on finishing up the song.

Finally, after a week since his affinity with Arthur reached its peak, Aiden completed the song.

"Is everything ready? Check the stage lights again. We are going to start in a bit!"

Both Wade and Aiden looked at Leo who was giving instructions to the crew members. The moon was already up in the sky and a cold wind was blowing in the night.

Currently, they were waiting to start what would be the final scene in the movie. It was also going to the final scene that they would shoot.

The scene in which Arthur would sing 'Lost in the sky' in a small gathering in Paris, held by the locals. This was going to be the culmination of the whole movie.

"Are you nervous?" Wade asked, looking up at him.

"Not really. I'm just excited to finally sing this on stage. This song gave me sleepless nights and at one point, I even thought about giving it up. Now that it's completed, I can't wait to sing it."

"Good luck. Though, I know you don't need it."

Wade said and patted him on the shoulder. Smiling, Aiden walked to stand up on the stage and picked up the guitar and checked the mic.

In front of him, a small number of people were gathered, including Katie and Fred. A camera was panning down on them too as their reaction would also be in the scene.

"Aiden, are you ready?" Leo shouted towards him and he gave a thumbs up. Nodding, he gave the signal for the scene to start.

'Immersion.'

Aiden thought and felt himself becoming like Arthur. Even though it was a singing scene, Arthur was the one to sing it.

'I can do it.'

He took a deep breath thinking that and his fingers strummed on the guitar that he was holding in his hand. Looking up at the audience below the stage with a faint smile, he started humming.

His humming was like a whisper, but along with the melody coming out from his guitar, it was enough to catch everyone's attention.

"Please tell me if this is an illusion."

"Why am I still finding the reason?"

"Oh, am I just searching for something that isn't there?"

"Reaching my hand out to nowhere."

As he sang that part, some people couldn't help but look surprised. He had not shown anyone the song yet aside from Wade, so they were very shocked when they heard it.

Leo even felt chills on his arm hearing the fragility in Aiden's voice. The guitar tunes, his voice and the lyrics were painting a picture of isolation, like someone was standing on a hill and asking these questions from God himself.

Moreover, it naturally felt like the song was something that Arthur had written.

"Is it worth it to take the arrow?"

"Can I still believe in a better tomorrow?"

"I'm trapped in between the darkness of your sorrow."

The lyrics felt like someone was crying for help, confused about what he was doing and was it worth it? What are the chances that he's going to succeed?

All these questions were asked by the song as Aiden's calm and lonely voice added a deep layer to the song. He could see silver light everywhere but instead of focusing on it, Aiden just lost himself in the song.

"Take my hand, let's go find ourselves in the dark."

"Running away from the sharks."

"Oh, who am I?"

"Just dust flying, lost in the sky."

"Trying to fly high with the fear of falling driving me mad."

When Aiden sang the chorus, everyone in the audience felt something hit their chest like the lyrics were just thoughts that are always swimming around in everyone's minds.

The more he had studied Arthur's character, the more Aiden felt that his character was not very different from any other person. He had his quirks but his thoughts, questions, and doubts were the same as everyone else.

It was a very common thing for everyone to doubt themselves, their talents. Even if they don't doubt their talent, they feel like it's not enough to reach the top.

If they try to fly too high, they are going to fall sooner or later.

He had tried his best to portray it in the chorus. Maybe because of that, some people in the crowd had smiles on their faces, like they were really enjoying the performance.

It was proof that Aiden had managed to touch their souls.

"Maybe, all the doubts are true."

"But I believe I will make it through."

"Maybe, I'm just reading the page with lots of sorrow"

"So, let's turn the chapter up trying to reach a better tomorrow…"

As that verse finished, one person in the crowd suddenly felt a tear running down their cheek. It was Leo who had completely lost himself in the song.

"Are you okay?" The cinematographer who was just standing next to him asked, worry evident in his eyes.

"Uh yeah." Leo wiped the tear off his face and looked at Aiden. "I just felt like I achieved what I wanted to when I became a director. I don't know if the movie will work or not but I'm sure that the song will truly create something magical."

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote with your power stones and golden tickets

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By the middle of June, the shooting for [30 days of Happiness] finally ended. The shooting had started in May and it took it more than a month to complete.

But everyone was very satisfied by it.

They all had fun working on the movie and knew that the quality of the scenes were high, especially the last scene of the movie. It was one where Aiden had truly mixed both of his major talents of acting and singing.

That's why, after his performance had ended, he had been presented with a lot of system notifications.

[You have mixed your acting talent with your singing. A unique feat had been achieved. Rewards have been granted.]

[A huge amount of experience has been given.]

[The song 'Lost in the sky' had gotten a boost. The chances of it captivating the listeners and making them lost in a trance has increased.]

[You are now close to breaking into Intermediate Grade 3 from Intermediate Grade 2.]

When Aiden had gotten these notifications, he was very shocked as he didn't know that mixing both his talents would have such an impact on the song.

It was something that he had seen for the first time.

But it did make him think that he still didn't know a lot of his system and at the same time, he felt like this ability would be really useful if he ever decided to be in a musical.

Though the shooting ended, Aiden's job as the film composer was far from being over.

He had been able to nail down 'Lost in the sky' which was going to the soul of the movie, so after that everything else felt very easy. To complete the soundtrack, Aiden stayed in Paris for three more weeks. .

Leo also stayed here with him, wanting to oversee the production of the score as after the last scene, he had gotten more interested in film music.

Aside from 'Lost in the Sky', Aiden created two more songs for the movie. Though the lyrical version of them won't feature in the movie, the music was way more than enough.

One of the songs was 'Take me back home'. It was pretty much a romantic song about the feelings of a person in a relationship and the fears, doubts and complexes that come with it.

Although the meaning behind the song wasn't bright, the melody was bright and the song was sung in that way too.

The second song was titled 'Journey'.

It was pretty much a soulful, soft and breezy road trip song that Aiden had thought of while roaming Europe for shooting. Leo had liked it a lot when Aiden had sent the guide track to him and because of that, he had added lyrics.

All these songs were sung by Aiden and with that, the soundtrack of the movie was completed.

After that, the only thing left in the movie to do was to edit it out, add the dubbing parts and record the songs in a studio, so they could release the whole soundtrack in a digital album later on.

One more thing was that Omar and Leo finally decided on the film festivals that they were going to target. They were the Toronto International Film festival which was one of the major film festivals in the world and the Venice Film festival which was a part of the Big three (Cannes Film festival, Berlin Film festival and Venice Film festival).

They had decided on Toronto and Venice just because the dates aligned to them. Both of them were going to be held in September which was an ideal period.

Actually, Leo wanted to target the Cannes Film festival as it was just the biggest one but it had already passed away this year and no one had the patience to wait a year for it to come back again.

So, with everything decided, [30 days of Happiness] was more or less confirmed to be released around September-October after the screenings in the film festivals.

Though it was three months away, Aiden was still excited as this was his first movie in which he was playing the lead.

He had given everything to it, so he was very excited to know what the result was going to be.

On the screen in front of them, an electric rat monster was waiting for a turn to attack. On the other side, a dragon-like creature was standing. With a click of a button, the dragon-like creature changed postures and let out a fiery breath.

The attack was too much for the electric rat, and he fainted, ending the battle.

"You lost! Hahaha, I told you. You can't beat me in this game. I have grinded a lot to reach the status of a champion."

"You just won because I have not played it for years. I don't even know half the monsters in the game now. There are like more than 1000 in total now."

"That's just the kind of words a loser will say."

Aiden shook his head a bit, seeing his uncle relish beating him up in a famous video game. Uncle Sam was really someone who enjoyed victories no matter how small or big they were.

His carefree attitude was pretty childish, but that was just one of his good points.

His daughter already had her own family now and only Aiden was someone who he treated like a son, so whenever he would be free, they would get together to spend time together. It was also a way for Aiden to relax after days of working nonstop.

"Anyway, let's play some other game. Valhalla Knights just released and there's a co-op mode in it. We could slash enemies' necks together."

Uncle Sam said, sitting up to take out another game from his collection.

It was then that the door opened suddenly.

"Wade, you are finally here. Ah, wait, why are you wearing a suit?"

Aiden said, a hint of surprise in his voice. They planned to meet together today but as he was in his uncle's restaurant, he had called Wade here.

"Were you attending a wedding? Or a funeral? The suit looks expensive."

Uncle Sam asked, raising an eyebrow. An agent's work was pretty tiring and sometimes they needed to move around a lot, so clothes were easier to get dirty. So, Wade would always wear cheap clothes.

Completely different from the black suit that he was wearing right now.

"No, uh, I have a date."

Wade casually said but both Aiden and Uncle Sam looked at him with widened eyes, then gave a look to each other.

"I thought you already joined the club of 'Lonely Married/Divorced guys'. Are you sure the one who you were on the date with looked older than 18?"

Aiden couldn't help but chuckle at that jibe while Wade just glared at Uncle Sam.

"Shut up, Sam." Wade frowned. "She's in her 30s. Pretty much in the same phase of life as me. She works in an ad agency and it's going pretty well. I passed the second date today, I think."

Wade smiled and sat down. Aiden could clearly see that he had a big smile on his face and he even looked to be in a very good mood.

He was sure that he wasn't lying about the date going well.

"When did you even get time to date someone?" Aiden couldn't help but ask.

"I have actually known her for two years and I took time out when you didn't have any activities. I'm getting old with time and I don't want to die alone."

Wade shrugged his shoulders. Aiden knew that he was divorced once so Wade was pretty much just trying to give another chance to a relationship.

"That reminds me." Uncle Sam suddenly said and looked at Aiden. "What's going on between you and that Katie Brooks that you worked with in your last movie?"

His question surprised Aiden. He hadn't heard from Katie after the shooting had ended. In the first place, she wasn't the type to put in the effort to stay in contact.

"I don't remember anything happening between us." He said. "Why are you asking?"

"I saw your Skygram posts with her on the set and it's a rom-com." Uncle Sam said, trying to imply something. "These things happen easily between actors. In my time, I have seen so many of them have affairs on set. Even married ones give in to temptation and sometimes you will encounter some very gross affairs."

Uncle Sam said, shuddering a bit like he was remembering a bad memory. His words were enough to make Wade look at him in doubt, trying to see the changes in Aiden's expression.

"Is there anything?" Wade asked. "As your agent, it's better for you to tell me so I can prepare in advance."

"Trust me, there's nothing. I don't really think I will get in any relationship currently because it would be too hard to maintain it with me taking on different projects every other month and I need to like someone first."

Aiden gave an explanation. It was true that he never saw Katie as anything more than a friend and even with relationships in general, he was kind of avoiding them to not let it affect his work in any way.

He was just waiting till he met someone good and was ready for a relationship.

"Anyway, let's do this talk later. Why did you want to meet me today? The break doesn't end until Thursday, right?"

Aiden asked and Wade got serious, remembering the reason why he was here.

"Yeah but I got something good."

"What?"

"A radio show."

…

/DreamNote/ (13 July)

Don't forget to vote with power stones and golden tickets.

MASS RELEASE TOMORROW.

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The United States is often called the country on wheels.

It is because most people in the country have a car, and after radio became a prominent part of American culture, it also gave a widespread audience to music artists, both famous and regional ones.

People were able to discover songs they never knew existed due to radio, and it helped artists get widespread acclaim. The radio even had an impact on music charts as songs that would be played on radio stations would easily become popular due to radio.

After the internet and social media boom, the impact lessened as songs started going viral due to social media. Nowadays, one could just play their Melody playlist in the car.

Radio had clearly taken a hit, but it didn't mean it had died down.

It was still a major part of the country, helping artists find more success. Even now, record labels would try to get their artists' songs on the radio.

Aiden's last few songs had also been on some radio stations as Wade had contacted some of them. Also, as his songs had gone viral, a lot of people had requested them to be on the radio.

'Revolution' has even been on most of the radio stations in America, thanks to Animeroll promoting it a lot.

[Good morning, America. Today seems like a nice, sunny day to get up from bed. Are you listening to us going to work or dropping your kid at school? We sure hope you are going to have a good day. Now, let's start the program 'Weekly entertainment'. In this show, we are going to talk about the major things that happened last week primarily. From another superhero movie failing at the box office due to people just being tired from seeing too many people get superpowers to a senator being found asleep during one of his speeches, causing a debate on a lot of news channels. You will get everything today in the next hour.]

Aiden and Wade listened to the radio while sitting in the car. Normally, the radio would be off in the car, but today, they were listening to it because Aiden had an interview on the radio station called 'Red Ant FM' in the next hour.

Wade had gotten this opportunity for Aiden after having some meetings with a radio producer who worked in Red Ant FM. .

"What do you exactly know about Hector Burn? Like his personality? I can't guess a lot from his wiki articles I found." Aiden asked as he turned his head to look at Wade in the driver's seat.

Hector Burn was the RJ (Radio Jockey) that hosted a show called 'What's new in Music?' It was a very popular show from the last five years where Hector would bring in artists that had gone viral or were relevant to do an interview and then play some games.

The format of the show was very simple, but it was popular as Hector had maintained a pretty good reputation for himself, and the guests he invited always had their own group of fans who would actively listen to the show.

All in all, it was a pretty good opportunity to get on the show.

"Well, I never heard any rumors about him. At least not too bad. There was one about him nearly cheating on his wife, but it was never confirmed, and he's pretty steady in his life currently. I heard he just enjoys himself now as he earns pretty well and focuses more on the family."

"So, we won't have any problems with him."

"I don't think we will have but be careful of the guest that would be with you. It's good if you can cooperate with each other instead of trying to bring each other down to look better."

Wade said, reminding Aiden to be on guard. The show would sometimes call two artists at the same time to create a bit of diversity. Today was one such occurrence.

"I will be in the show with Andrea Hales, right? I have only heard good things about her on the internet. Though, her music is average and she does a lot of collaboration."

"Yeah, her reputation is too good. You need to dig a bit to even see people criticizing her. Her PR team blocks everything negative about her, so even I don't have any inside info on her."

Hearing that, Aiden searched her up on the internet.

Andrea Hales was a teenage pop sensation that had popped up in the era when Skygram had come up, and MeTube views were just increasing as more and more joined it.

She was just 16 at that time and had become a teenage idol. Aiden thought that it must have been hard for her to handle fame at such a young age, but when he looked at her wiki page, it was mentioned that her family was pretty big in the entertainment business.

It seemed like her father had shares in a record label too. He searched articles on her and found out that everything was squeaky clean.

'Andrea Hales – The next big thing in music.'

'A famous music producer said that Andrea Hales might be the youngest person to win a Grammy.'

'Andrea's debut single crosses 100 million views. She's in the line to win the best artist awards this year.'

'I want to create music that connects with people and could give them a smile, irrespective of their age – Andrea on the Jimmy Colbert show.'

Aiden read out the headline of every article he could find on her, but most of them were just praising her. Even the comments on forums were pretty good, but they definitely gave an eerie feeling to him.

It was because all the answers seemed too perfect. Coupled with knowing that she had a pretty aggressive PR team naturally made Aiden expect the worst.

'It's only for a radio interview. I don't think it would go badly. We would probably see each other only for two or three hours.'

He thought but during the last year, he had learned one thing- One should always prepare in case things actually go wrong.

That's why, for the next one hour in the car, he searched up every information he could find on Andrea. Even if one had an aggressive PR, this was still the age of the internet where everything could be found on the internet.

If one was not genuinely nice, there was bound to be something against them.

The room was filled with all sorts of people as they tried to check that everything was on line. The Music director was lining up the tracks that were going to play for the next twenty minutes.

The advertisement director was handling the ads, and the Station manager was drinking coffee while talking with an intern. There was a camera crew on the other side, setting things up.

It was the normal atmosphere the program team would have every morning before the program started.

It was then that the door opened, and a tall, scrawny-looking man with a shaggy beard entered.

He was the Production Director.

"Where's Hector? And the guests still haven't appeared yet. You know where they are? They should not be stuck in traffic in the morning." He asked, looking around.

The Station manager replied, "He's out getting some coffee. As for the guests, Aiden Silvereye's agent said they are coming up after parking. Andrea… Well, her agents and stylist are not picking up their phones. Let's hope she's here soon."

The Production director's face scrunched up hearing that. Frowning, he sat down on a chair, thinking how some celebs were just too irresponsible.

Looking up, he looked at the music director.

"What about Justin Frank? He needs to be here by 10, so we could do a bit of practice. The segment at 10 is something we have already promoted a lot, so I don't want anything to mess up."

"Don't worry. I talked to his manager before you came. They will be on time. It's very important for them too."

The Production director nodded, satisfied.

Justin Frank was one of the most famous artists in America and all over the world. For some months now, he's been preparing for his next album, and today, he was going to reveal one of the songs from the album on their radio station.

It was a deal signed by the record label and the radio station. Apparently, Justin's record label wanted to promote him as a traditional artist, and for that, they had decided to directly reveal one of the songs in his new album on the radio station.

It wasn't even going to have a music video as they wanted people to just close their eyes and listen to the song. It was surely a great way for the record label to establish him as a great musician.

Because of that, it was going to be a very busy day for them.

Suddenly, the door again opened, and this time, a brown-haired man with glasses entered with a young man with a guitar. There was also a scary-looking man following them.

The Production director recognized the guy with the guitar as Aiden Silvereye, one of their guests.

"Ah, I met him on the elevator." The brown-haired man said. He was Hector Burn, the host of the program Aiden was going to be in.

"It's nice to meet you all. Thanks for having me here."

Aiden said, looking around, trying to seem polite and humble.

"It's good to see you too. I really like your songs." The Production Director said, shaking Aiden's hands. "Let's hope we have a good program today."

At these words, Hector couldn't help but comment.

"I feel like today will be one of our best episodes. I have been feeling good since this morning."

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote with your powerstones

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Chapter 128.RadioShow (ll)

"Just try to be yourself in the broadcast. Most of the questions are already briefed to you. You just need to talk about your journeys to this point. The only unexpected part would be the Q/A session with listeners sending questions…"

A female assistant briefed Aiden about what was going to happen in the show. It was done to avoid any accidents or mishaps from happening as the program was going to start in ten minutes.

Like the assistant said, most of the questions were just going to be related to the singer's past, how they had achieved so much and what were their future plans. This was the format of the show.

Sitting next to Aiden was a girl who had her hair tied up in a ponytail. She was wearing a simple, black dress that suited her body, but she wasn't listening to the female assistant.

Instead, she was browsing through her phone.

"Ms Hales, did you understand?"

The assistant asked awkwardly, and the girl raised her head a bit and nodded.

"Yeah. I just need to talk about my story and other stuff. I already know all that. Just leave it to me and don't disturb me."

Andrew said in a rude tone like she was telling the assistant to get out of her sight. The assistant who was just doing her job gave an awkward smile but looked used to it and left.

'She's really like how I thought she would be.'

Aiden thought, glancing at Andrea. Until now, they had only exchanged some pleasantries, and after that, she had gotten busy on her phone.

She already seemed like she didn't want to be here but had no other choice. .

"Hey, your name is Aiden Silver, right? Which label are you from?"

When she saw Aiden glancing at her, Andrea put away her phone and looked at him.

"Aiden Silvereye and no label. I'm an indie singer."

"Oh, I did feel like I had seen you before." She said, and by her words, it was clear that her manager had not told her anything about him. "Yes, I remember now. You are the guy who got stabbed."

She suddenly said, her face becoming one of realisation. Her eyes naturally darted at Aiden's chest, where he had gotten stabbed, as he chuckled.

Even after his songs got millions of views, he was still known because of being stabbed on stage.

It was understandable as these things don't happen every day to artists. At this point, Aiden had fixed a performance spot in videos like 'Ten horrible incidents that happened with musicians'.

"Yeah, I'm that guy."

"I watched your viral video and how you suddenly beat Imagine Giants because of that. There was a lot of talk about it in the industry. Actually, there's been a lot of talk about you for a while. Did you actually pay for it?"

"What?"

Aiden made a shocked expression as he tried to comprehend what Andrea was saying. It sounded ridiculous no matter how he tried to process it.

He even wondered if she was trying to spite him.

"I mean, there were a lot of conspiracy theories about it. People found it weird how security was breached, and many said that you orchestrated it yourself to get fame. At least that's what I know from the parties I attended. In the past, a record label made a singer cut her wrist to get scars to pull off a depressed girl image. The industry has all sorts of weird incidents."

"I don't know what type of things people are talking about me at parties, but I won't get stabbed to get fame. I could have died. I'm not that crazy, and as for security breaching, those things happen because one doesn't expect something like this in a show. The security staff was acting lazy."

Aiden explained his part, but it seemed like Andrea was not satisfied. Thinking about something, she again opened her mouth.

"There's also that rumour that you deliberately left X-Star because you and another female contestant broke up. How you weren't able to handle rejection."

"Bullshit."

Aiden muttered. That was even more ridiculous than the stab conspiracy theory, but the longer Andrea spoke about these rumours, the weirder he felt.

'Why does she know all these weird rumours about me when she didn't even know my name properly before? I don't even know these rumours about me. She clearly is trying to make me angry.'

He said and glanced at her. She seemed to be smirking at his reaction. His doubts were not for nothing. She was clearly just an immature girl who was trying to spite him for no reason.

'If I don't say anything, she's probably going to continue.'

Thinking that Aiden thought back to the information he had searched about her. It was not only her who knew weird rumours.

"You know I have heard a rumour too. Actually, there is a lot about you." Aiden said, and before Andrea could say anything, he continued. "How your family paid for bot accounts on social media that used the algorithm to make you go viral and how you once nearly injured someone badly in Germany after a show because you were drunk driving while not even having a driver's licence."

Aiden had picked all this up from a special account in a celebrity forum. There was no proof of all this but going by Andrea's frozen face, he knew these rumours weren't too off the mark.

"One more thing is how you regularly visit a doctor who's very proficient in plastic…"

"Stop!"

Andrea said hurriedly, waving her hands. She just wanted to annoy Aiden a bit because she was feeling bored.

His reaction was fun to see for her, but she never thought he would talk back to her like this.

Most of the other people won't say anything because of her family and record label. But Aiden had really dared to do it and he was even smirking at her.

"I'm not saying these are true. They are obviously rumours. I'm just saying that there are a lot of strange rumours about celebrities everyday on social media and at parties. You shouldn't trust just anything."

"We are going live in 5…4…3…2…1. Go!"

As the signal came, the opening music started the program. Hector smiled and started talking. In front of him, both Aiden and Andrea were sitting, headphones fixed on their heads.

"Hello, I'm Hector Burn and welcome to our show 'What's new in Music?'. The show where we discuss everything new going on in the music scene in America and even abroad. Today, I have two special guests with me here that a lot of you must have heard of. I would let them introduce themselves."

At those words, Andrea was the first one to give her introduction. She just repeated the lines that were given to her.

"Hello, I'm Andrea Hales, and I'm a singer. I'm very honoured to be in such a special show."

After the short introduction, it was Aiden's turn.

"Hi, I'm Aiden Silvereye, and I'm a singer and an actor. I don't know if any of you know me, but I hope you like me through the show."

As soon as the introductions were over, Hector quickly started asking questions to both of them. It was the first time they were attending the show, and the whole point of it was just to tell their stories to the listeners.

"Aiden, from what I know, you first got famous after X-Star. Tell us a bit about how you got there."

Hector asked in a tone that seemed like he was very interested in hearing about his past.

"Well, I was very desperate back then. My life was not going anywhere, and I was basically trying to grab onto anything I could find. X-Star came then. I always liked to make songs, and music was never my first love, but it was always something dear to me, so I gave it a try."

"That's very interesting. You got pretty famous in the last season, but you were suddenly eliminated. How did you pull yourself from it? One of your songs got viral shortly after you left the show."

Hector asked, and even Andrea glanced at him.

"It was very tough when I was eliminated. I remember just sitting backstage for hours, and the feeling that it was over was really bothering me a lot. I think it was like that for two days before I finally picked myself up."

"What happened suddenly?"

"Nothing. It was just a feeling that time was ticking away, and if I can't get over one failure, I will never be something. X-Star was important but not the end. Thankfully, it worked out well in the end."

Hector nodded his head, hearing that, and glanced at the comments coming through. Most of them were pretty positive.

After that, he moved to Andrea, who talked about how she used to sing covers of songs before one day it suddenly blew up. She was trending on social media, and record labels were contacting her.

Listening to her story, Aiden felt like her team had prepared her well. He knew that a lot of celebrities were taught what to and what not to say or how to say things, and he was sure that Andrea was one of them.

She very subtly presented how she regarded it as a lucky success, and it got harder for her as she moved forward in her career.

'She's pretty good in interviews'

Aiden thought as the interview progressed.

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote with your powerstones

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