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

6. 161

Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood #161 Chapter 161 - Read Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood 161 Chapter 161 Online - All Page - FREEWN

Chapter 161 Fall

The next day, on Sparrow, a famous user with a lot of followers made a poll. It was about last night's episode of [Searching for the One].

Do you liked last night's episode of [Searching for the One]?

Yes, I loved it – 95%

No, the show had became stale – 5%

This poll summarised that a lot of people who had watched yesterday's episode had loved it and it was mainly because of Aiden.

A lot of fans thought that he was a breath of fresh air in an otherwise dying sitcom. His character was full of life with interesting catch phrases and theories about love and relationships.

Though, it was established early on that all he wants is to get laid, the goofy and unexpected manner he goes about to do things made hk. Instantly likeable.

One more factor was also the scenes and expressions that instantly became a meme.

Catchphrases like 'Legendary night' and lines like 'People always have issues. It's how you use them to your advantage. Does that make me a bad person? Yes, I'm one, so what?' instantly became super famous.

A lot of people made them into memes and spread them around on the lanes of social media.

Articles also started to pop up one by one after the episode. Famous websites like 'Rant on Screen' who normally do theories on pop culture shows, games and other things were the first one to let out articles.

Alan Gellar might be the next big character in sitcom history. At least, he's the character that had revived [Searching for the One]. But would we see more of him? Sources said yes..

-Rant on Screen.

[Searching for the One] ratings seems to have a surge last night. Watched by average 15 million viewers last night at its peak. Becomes the most watched sitcom of the week.

-US weekly.

In its quest to aim for a good season finale, [Searching for the One] might have found a way to correct all the flaws the show had made over the last few seasons.

-Weekend Tribunal.

Aiden Silvereye has made a big splash in the acting industry in just more than half a year. With a good commercial role like Kai August and now, a character that's everyone talking about in a sitcom. This along with his movie winning People's choice award in Toronto. He might be becoming the most sought after rookie actor soon.

-The Box.

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In the cafeteria of the office building of IBC, a lot of people were talking. IBC was one of the most popular TV channels in America, so everyday, the atmosphere in it was always very busy, like people had a train to catch.

No one could get a proper break as deadlines would hang on their heads.

In the corner of the cafeteria, some production members of a talk show were talking. It was a talk show that followed the old traditional style but talked a bit more about politics all over the world with things from Hollywood also being discussed from time to time.

Currently, all of them were talking about [Searching for the One] and particularly Aiden.

"Aiden Silvereye is pretty good, right? He hasn't had a failed project in his career yet."

One of the producers who was eating a burger looked at everyone on the table and said. It was a simple industry gossip as Aiden was considered a new stock who was surprising everyone.

"Didn't he fail in X-Star? He wasn't even in the semifinals." A production assistant said.

"Yeah, but he's doing way better than other contestants. I only remembered Rachel other than him. After that, he just is going up and up in his career. It can't be all luck."

Everyone nodded hearing that and thought for a bit before giving their opinions. A woman who was a writer on the program opened her mouth.

"I'm pretty sure he's related to someone in Hollywood. His career seems like it's all planned out like Andrea Hales. She tried too hard to show herself as someone who struggled but she's been lying to her fans for a long time."

"I don't think it's like that. He drove a taxi for two years. It's a known fact and a major publicity he got is due to that stabbing incident."

"Yeah, he's very lucky but smart too."

The Producer said, making everyone focus on him. Taking a bite of his burger, he explained why he said that.

"He's talented but we all know that's like the least you need to survive in Hollywood without something backing you." They all nodded at that. "So, Aiden used it to get roles but he only did those that are basically risk free. If [Black Saints] had failed, Ray Hardy and other veteran actors would have taken the blame. He's a rookie and had a meaty role, so he would have been praised anyway. Then, his music going viral made him famous, making him get a better chance at roles. I heard music played a big part in the Toronto movie, so it's a role made for him. Now, the sitcom is just cherry on top."

"That's true. But he's attracting too much attention."

The female writer said and everyone nodded in their minds. In Hollywood, attention was good but not always. It would bring all sorts of gazes on you. Some good and some obviously bad.

Aiden's massive rise has already made people interested in him but there would always be people who he would come across that don't want him to grow so quickly.

"Well, he's a rookie currently, so it's still going to be fine. Though, I think he will move to a big agency with time as a way of shelter and backing."

A guy said and another one shook his head. Even if it was a wise decision, Aiden's actions showed something else.

"He would have already if he was going to. I don't think he would do that unless he takes a fall. Everything is going well for him, so he won't feel the need."

"Yeah that's true." The Producer said. "A lot is going to depend on his Toronto movie that will be released in a month. What is its name?"

"[30 days of Happiness]." The female writer answered.

"Ah, yes that. Eternal life movies are going to be released next month and I heard it will clash with some other movies. So, Aiden would probably take a fall. Although the movie might be good, the box office is too shaky these days."

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"What do you think would happen if the movie really fails?"

An employee who was silent till now asked. He was very curious about this question after hearing the whole conversation. Looking at him, the producer replied.

"If it actually failed, then Aiden's momentum would take a big hit and I think it would be a flop. Everyone's luck runs out sooner or later."

"Ah, I'm finally at home."

Aiden muttered, taking deep breaths and feeling the soft surface of his bed. He was living in his New York apartment for just a few months but he had indeed gotten used to it.

Due to being at the festival, he was not able to rest a lot with one interview after another. In the rest of the time he got, he mostly just wrote a bit of his novel and went to watch the screenings of other movies.

So, he was currently on a week-long break to rejuvenate.

Aiden felt like he would break down if he didn't take a break. Before the festival, he was busy shooting of [Searching for the One]. After that, he flew straight to Toronto.

A human body can't work without rest always. Especially in the business of entertainment.

So, Aiden had even refused the interview offers that Wade had received after the last episode of [Searching for the One] had aired.

He had seen the internet comments but he was not going to bother too much about them. There were still two more episodes to go, so Aiden just wanted to let them release first.

In the meantime, he was going to just spend time with his uncle and cousins as well as just living a relaxed one week where he didn't have a schedule.

'I also need to complete my novel and try to see if I can increase my writing skills.'

He thought, standing up from his bed and looking towards his laptop.

At the same time, he opened up his system as he had gotten few system notifications after [30 days of Happiness] had won the award.

[A movie you acted as a lead in had gotten a prestigious award. Congratulations for achieving such a big feat.]

[A movie you made the soundtrack of had gotten a prestigious award. Congratulations for achieving such a big feat.]

[A lot of experience has been given in both singing and acting.]

[You are close to making a breakthrough in your singing ability.]

[You are close to making a breakthrough in your acting ability.]

Seeing the system notifications, Aiden had only one thought in his mind.

'A little more push is needed.'

He was sure that after the movie was released in theatres and if it got a good approval rating from the audience, he would get enough experience to level up, once again.

But that was still a month away.

In the meantime, he could just focus on his writing skill and get it to grow.

'I should complete the novel.'

Thinking of that, Aiden picked up his laptop and sat down on a chair. For the next hour, the sound of typing filled the room.

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'Novels.'

From childhood, Aiden loved stories. He had an inbuilt curiosity and love for them. That made him read a lot of them from childhood.

As he reached teenage, a friend made him get into anime by showing him one of them and like that, he also got into light novels. Those stories were fun for him too.

He felt like they were perfect to read to pass time and due to them being very light themed, they would always make him feel better.

But the thought of writing any kind of novel was not something he had thought.

He felt that he wasn't good enough to write them.

He felt that until he got his writing skill. After getting it, he felt a desire to write. No matter what type of story. A nonfiction novel or a light novel. He just wanted to try his hands on it.

For a long time, he felt that he wouldn't find a topic to write about. Though there were a lot of things he wanted to write about, he didn't know how to continue them after a while. The inspiration wasn't coming for him.

Aiden didn't want to just write about anything.

He wanted to write a story that could inspire others, make others feel a lot of emotions and teach them something.

That inspiration came when he first met Harley Martin.

'I really felt that there was a story hidden in him. A story that even I have lived for a short time. The story of struggling for dreams.'

At first, it was just curiosity. .

After all, even with a high skill level, he was just an extra. A background actor who would work around the set to not be unemployed.

That's why he has asked him about his story.

When he had heard it, he had truly felt that his story should have been told to everyone. It was a story of perseverance and struggle. Even if he didn't have a lot of money or a place to sleep, Harley had kept going on, just because of his love for cinema.

Aiden had felt that it was a great injustice that Harley was nowhere in his acting career.

Of course, Aiden didn't mean his story to be a biography. He was just taking inspiration from Harley's life to base the main character around him. He was also going to add the experiences that he had gone through in his struggling days.

In his quest to write the story, his 'Synchronisation' skill was helping him a lot.

'No, this scene looks a bit weird. I need to portray a bit more emotion here.'

Currently, Aiden was typing out his novel in his bedroom. The clock on the wall was showing that it was already midnight but his focus was on his laptop's screen like he had forgotten about the time.

His skill 'Synchronisation' was in effect here.

As he was writing the lines, his eyes looked a bit different. Normally, his eyes would be black but currently, there was a bit of blackish glow in them.

This was an effect of his skill.

The skill function was pretty simple. It was making Aiden think like Harley while writing the main character that was based on him. He was feeling like he and Harley were the same person, making it very easy to write down his dialogues and emulate his way of talking and personality.

In a way, it was similar to his character affinity but it activated only if he got inspiration from a real person while writing.

At the same time, it didn't have any downside to it either, like Aiden's personality changing into the character.

It was a pretty safe skill because of that.

'No, I'm making Harley's character too headstrong and his love for cinema needs to be shown more and the character of the director is very one dimensional with no backstory. I need to give his actions a bit more dimension.'

'A love interest might halt the flow if I don't do it right. She just needs to connect to the story in a good way.'

'The ending needs to be perfect. I don't want to portray that even after all the struggles one won't get a good ending. Harley needs to have a good ending and I need to give readers inspiration to follow after their dreams. That's what this book represents.'

Like that, Aiden wrote whole night, occasionally taking a few breaks to go through his ideas again and to read other books to gain inspiration.

At the same time, he was also thinking what to do after he finishes up the novel.

He wasn't writing for just himself. He wanted to publish it and in his eyes, the book was written very professionally but he didn't know if the story was good enough to be published.

He decided to show it to his friends to take their view on it.

'These days, young writers have really lost their way.'

An old man thought, frowning. His eyes were reading the lines of a book in his hand but he was severely disappointed by what he was reading.

Frowning, he was unable to read another word and put the book on the table.

The book he was reading was called 'Birds in the Black Sky'. It was a story that had recently won an award in a competition but in the eyes of the writer, the story was severely lacking.

The story was based around the main character's fear of light and because of that, he would only go out at night and would meet interesting people and have an adventure, eventually conquering his fear.

The premise of the novel was very interesting but the old man felt like the execution was severely lacking. The motivation of characters, his life outside his fear of light and even his romantic interest felt very random to the old man.

Obviously, it wasn't bad.

The book was good enough to win a prize after all. The author had done well but it wasn't at the level that the old man had thought it would be.

Because of his high expectations of the book, the old man was left disappointed in the end.

"It's been so long since I have read a great non fiction novel."

He muttered, turning his head to look at the bookshelf to his right. In the bookshelf, all sorts of famous and underrated novels were there that the old man had collected over the years.

On top of the bookshelf, several awards were attached to the wall. All sorts of prestigious awards were there.

'International book award.'

'Wright prize.'

'Good Novels novel of the year'

All these literary awards were there. These were the awards that the old man had written in his life.

Yes, he was a writer and a world famous one at that.

Not only has he written novels that have won prizes, his stories have also been adapted into movies in Hollywood, making him one of the millionaire authors.

From non fiction books in genres like mystery, romance and drama to fiction books in the genres of epic fantasy and sci-fi. The old man had tried everything but had gotten success more often than not.

But these days, he is not in a good mood.

It was because he felt like the writers coming through in this age were not as good. The quality of stories were becoming worse and even if there were good writers, most of them were very old.

He had already retired from writing some years ago and just rarely wrote for himself.

Still, he had a desire to read good stories and there were not a lot of them. It was a very sad state that he felt the world was going through.

'My desire to read a good novel is just increasing but I don't think I will find a good one.'

Thinking that, he sighed.

"I didn't know you were writing a novel. When did you ever start writing novels?"

Aiden was currently sitting in Uncle Sam's office. He had come to meet him, carrying his now completed manuscript in hand.

He had printed it on his way to his uncle's restaurant.

Yes, he had completed it last night and without wasting any time, he wanted to get views on how it was. He had called Wade too but it seems like he was busy with some other things, so he naturally came to his uncle.

"Just a month ago. I felt like I should try different things. Wade was fine with it as he said that it just adds to my image." Aiden replied and his uncle nodded.

"Yeah, but only if it's good." Uncle Sam chuckled. "I thought the only time you would try writing a novel would be when you would write your autobiography to get the tag of a 'best selling author'."

Uncle Sam said in a mocking voice. He was not mocking Aiden but celebrities who would write their autobiography. Even if it wasn't good, it would easily get the tag of a best seller due to the popularity of the celebrity.

These days, even some famous MeTubers would do that.

"Well, I'm not like that. I just had a story to tell and I wrote it. Now, read it and tell me how it is."

Aiden urged and Uncle Sam squinting his eyes.

"You do know I'm busy too, right?"

"Uncle, you are not working. You are playing a fps on your computer. I can clearly see that."

Aiden said, pointing at the computer on his desk that was clearing showing the pause screen of a fps game.

"Ah, yeah. Let me read it."

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'He has written a novel? That's interesting but I don't think it would be any good.'

That was the thought inside Uncle Sam's mind when Aiden had come to him with his manuscript. It was not too thick, coming off as a short novel that might be easier to write for a beginner.

But still, Uncle Sam didn't feel like it would be good.

After all, he knew that Aiden had never talked about writing before. He read novels but writing was not something he seemed interested in. So, it was very random.

Uncle Sam knew that his nephew was very talented in acting and singing but both these things have been developed through his childhood. Though, he did believe that Aiden had natural talent in acting that he had developed over the years.

As for music, it was only because of his mother that he had gotten into it. Learning how to use instruments and later getting into composing songs.

Luckily, it had worked out pretty well for Aiden as he had learned a lot, eventually earning a lot of fame as a singer and songwriter.

Still, writing was very different.

Uncle Sam himself used to be a part of Hollywood before. He knew writers too and a lot of them would find it hard to come up with a story and later develop it.

In their words, it was harder to continue a story than to develop it.

Even after that, a story would go through several edits before the final version would come out. It was the same for script writing too.

It was too hard of a skill.

'That's why, it's better to think of this novel as a beginner's attempt.'

Uncle Sam thought, reading up the title of the story.

"Behind the Scenes?".

He raised his head to look at Aiden at the title of the novel.

"Yeah, I thought that it fits the novel a lot. At first, I went with Extra-ordinary life but I thought Behind the scenes suited it way better."

"Is this about movies?"

"A background actor."

Uncle Sam didn't ask much and nodded. He felt that it was a good choice that Aiden was going for a novel that connects to the movie industry.

It meant that he would have a lot of things to write about.

'I'm now a bit more curious about the novel.'

Thinking that, Uncle Sam flipped the title page and started reading the story.

The story of Behind the scenes was obviously about an actor who was obviously based on Harley. Aiden had kept the first name Harley as a nod to him being the inspiration for the novel.

The full name of the main character was Harley Wright.

He was a struggling actor in LA, in the middle of a divorce and the only support being his lazy dog 'Maxwell'. He does a number of jobs to sustain a living in the City of Angels while trying to do any auditions he could find, working as an extra on sets.

The only time he feels like he's living is when he sits in an old theatre outside town as they play a random movie every week. One day, a famous actor insults him on the set.

Distressed, he goes to the theatre to watch a movie and meet Rocco Matthews, an old man who claimed to be a movie director. They bond over their love for movies and Rocco invites Harley to a bar where he told him that he has Cancer and was very close to death.

Before dying, he wanted to shoot a last movie.

Rocco asked Harley to audition for the lead role as he didn't care that he was a nobody when it comes to fame. After he goes home, Harley searched about Rocco and finds out that he was a very acclaimed director who was once on the way to win an Oscar for best director.

But somehow, his career fell through after that as every movie he made after that was a flop and now, he was considered one of the worst directors.

Reading all this, Harley would have a lot of doubts about Rocco but he would eventually go to the audition and somehow bag the role.

The true story of Behind the scenes would start there as both Rocco and Harley try to make a movie while gaining a friendship.

There were a lot more plot twists in the novel as secrets and past of the characters get revealed.

'This… What is this? This story is actually pretty good.'

Uncle Sam thought, flipping a page of the manuscript. He has been engrossed in the novel for quite some time now but it was only halfway done.

At this moment, his hands were trembling a bit as his eyes phased across the words.

He had truly not expected it but Behind the scenes was actually written very well. So much so that he doubted that Aiden was the one to write.

"Aiden." Uncle Sam called him out, raising his head from the manuscript.

"Yeah?"

"You sure you have written it. Just so you know, plagiarism is not something moral and the laws are very strict if found out—"

"What are you saying, Uncle? I have not plagiarised it. It's my own work."

Aiden said, squinting his eyes and wondering why his uncle was pushing such allegations on him out of nowhere.

"No, just. Anyway, let me complete the novel then talk."

Saying that, Uncle Sam took a deep breath and licked his lips. If this story was really written about Aiden, then his nephew might be much more talented than he had thought.

Thinking that, Uncle Sam continued on reading.

Time ticked away as his whole attention was on the manuscript. On the other hand, Aiden just silently sat, feeling a bit nervous and calmly looking at his uncle's expression, trying to know if he was liking the novel or not.

He was very nervous due to it being his first piece of writing.

He had given his best to complete the novel and if Uncle Sam actually said that it wasnt good, then he would be very disappointed.

"Okay, I'm done."

When Uncle Sam finally put down the manuscript on the table, he sighed.

Seeing that, Aiden's heart filled with fear, "So, it's not good?"

"That's not it."

"Then?"

"You shouldn't have came to me."

"What?"

"Just go publish it." Uncle Sam finally said. "It's good. Way better than I expected. Hollywood and especially LA is described in a great way and it all feels very real. I particularly liked the relationship between Harley and Rocco. It was a good read."

As Uncle Sam finished his review, Aiden finally took a sigh of relief. Going by his uncle's expression, he had really liked it.

"I was very scared that you won't like it."

"No, it's good. I have myself struggled in Hollywood in initial days, so I related to Harley's desperation a lot. It was really to the point."

Uncle Sam gave out a bright smile. His normal day had become better after reading the novel and at the same time, he was happy that Aiden was venturing out into different fields and if the novel was any indication, then he indeed has a lot of talent.

"Thank you. It seems like I was scared for nothing."

Aiden thought and leaned against the chair. All the fear and nervousness left him as he finally felt relaxed.

"So, tell me one thing." Uncle Sam suddenly asked. "Are you going to publish it?"

"Huh?"

Aiden wasn't able to give any answer when he heard that. The only reason he was writing this novel was because he wanted to test his writing skills.

As for publishing it, he hadn't thought about it before as the only thought that was swimming in his mind was wether the novel would be good or not.

"If I'm honest, I have not really thought about it."

"Well, it would be a waste to actually not publish it. With your popularity, the book would get a lot of popularity. You could actually just contact publishers and I'm pretty sure a lot of them would be interested, especially if they read your manuscript."

"That's true."

It was never hard for celebrities to publish a book because no publisher would say no when they have millions of followers.

It was very easy to market books like that and there was almost negligible chances of the book not doing good financially.

The same stood for Aiden.

"Though, before that, I have another idea. First tell me one thing."

Uncle Sam suddenly said. Reading the manuscript had reminded him of an old friend of his that might be able to help his nephew.

"Are you actually serious about writing? Like in a way that you would continue it alongside acting and singing."

"I think so. It's something I enjoyed and I do want to continue it."

Aiden thought. After talking to Harley and writing a novel inspired by him, he was very interested in writing more stories. Especially those who are inspired by real people.

He felt like there were a lot of stories in the world that needed to be told and at the same time, if his system had given him a skill, he needed to take full advantage of it.

"Okay, then, there's a friend of mine. He might be able to help you in writing by giving you pointers on your novel. He's a veteran writer and would be able to guide you. As you are on your break, you should go meet him before you get too busy."

Uncle Sam explained.

[A/N: Novel names would be in bracket.]

….

/DreamNote2/ ()

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As Aiden was busy with things related to his novel, [Searching for the One] new episode was going to air. This was the episode which was going to be the second last of the season and next week, the season finale would air.

Before this season, the ratings of [Searching for the One] was 8.1 out of 10 on sites like 'Do you like the movie?' and Rotten Apples.

But as the season went on, the rating further decreased to 7.5, showing the decrease in quality in the series and a lot of fans have now even started to give one star just because of their frustration with the storyline.

One of the critics from US Weekly even quoted, "The producers of [Searching for the One] are really wasting 50 million dollars per season just to get the overall ratings of the show worse."

It was a tight slap on the faces of the producers of [Searching for the One] and a lot of people in the industry were even guessing that it was going to go even lower, becoming another example of how a channel's greed drowned a good show.

People were even comparing it to a show that had dropped down from 8.5 to 7 in ratings straight in its last few seasons because a main actor was replaced after some troubles on the set, making the audience feel like it was a completely different show.

All of it changed with the entry of Aiden on the show.

Of course, just one episode and an appearance of a new character wasn't enough to suddenly up the approval rating but from 7.5, it did increase to 7.6, showing growth.

At the same time, the viewership ratings and comments of the audience also changed as they thoroughly enjoyed Alan Geller's antics on the show.

Now, Industry insiders, critics and the audience were awaiting the next episode. Going by the episode teaser and the information leaked, Alan Geller was again going to appear in the episode.

For the record, his screen time was even increased after the producers saw the ratings of the last episode.

On Sparrow, a user going by the name 'Cat Goddess' posted a tweet, "Who all are excited for today's episode of [Searching for the One]?"

She has a meme and mostly troll account and due to having a good engagement, comments piled up soon after.

[DC is a joke: I'm very interested in it. I was hoping that it's not a character for just one episode and the teaser proved me right. Hope we see more of him today.].

[Abandoned Batgirl: Me and my husband had tons of fun last week due to [Searching for the One, so definitely tuning in today.]

[Great Wall of Gatsby: My bald boss won't let me leave work early. I will probably binge watch the whole season on weekends. You have lots of time when you live alone and don't have friends.]

[Hello darkness, my dear friend: I accidentally watched the last episode and I'm totally hooked. Wish we see more of Alan's playboyness on the show and get a few good tricks.]

[Give another banner: I think I will pass. [Searching for the One] just gives me vibes of webnovels I read. They start off great, then become mediocre and then the author ruins it for money by continuing it. The sad thing is that after reading so many bad ones, you start to feel satisfied by mediocrity.]

[Aiden Silverfry: From the rumors I heard, Alan Geller is just a character that would appear in three episodes and the actor Aiden Silvereye had made no additional contract to appear in next season, so I see the show falling again next season if they don't just get on with the ending.]

[Link Kokiri fan: Whatever man, I don't really care about next season. I just want this season to finish on a good note and for Alan Geller to shine.]

Going by the comments, it was very easy to see for anyone that due to Aiden, people's interest in the series was coming back.

Though, only time would tell if it was going to stay like this or not.

'This is a very big house. It would almost suit a horror movie if changed a bit.'

Aiden thought as he moved inside the house. Rather than a house, it was a big mansion that seemed like it belonged to an aristocrat. Paintings were attached on the wall and there was no dust around, like the house was cleaned everyday.

He was following an old man who was his Uncle Sam's friend. His uncle had just given him an address and told him to meet the old man.

'Richard Allen.'

That was the name of the old man.

'I have read his books. He's one of the top authors in the world.'

Aiden thought and while following him, he secretly checked up his status, wondering what level he was at.

[Richard Allen] [67 years old]

[Writing level: Level 9]

[Special skill: Eyes of a writer]

When Aiden read through Richard's status, there were two things in his mind.

'He's old!'

His system was showing that Richard was already 67 years old but he looked like he was just in his 50s. With a bushy beard, burly body and sharp eyes to go with them, he looked like a cool mentor character from an anime.

The second thing that he thought was.

'He's freaking Level 9 and what is that skill? Sigh, I really hope I get a feature to know what a skill could do eventually. It's hard to guess every time.'

If there were only 10 Levels in writing, then Richard was already close to the peak and with his special skill, he was sure that he was one of the best writers in the world. Thinking of that, he got a bit nervous and felt like he wanted to prove himself to Richard.

"Your name is Aiden right?"

Richard suddenly asked as they turned around a corner. It was the first time he was talking to him.

"Yeah, Aiden Silvereye, sir."

"Just call me Richard."

Aiden nodded as Richard stopped outside a room. Glancing at Aiden, he opened the door and moved inside.

The room was probably one of the biggest rooms in the mansion and just a glance was enough to tell Aiden that it was the room where Richard generally wrote his novels. An old typewriter was put on the desk beside a computer and there were lots of awards, alongside three bookshelves filled with different types of novels.

For a second, he felt fascinated by the room as Richard gestured him to sit on the sofa.

"You don't really look like Sam." That was the first thing Richard said after sitting down. "Your atmosphere is more calm too. Sam is like a mixture of chaos and goofiness. You are different."

"My uncle said the same thing actually."

Aiden said and Richard shook his head before getting to the point.

"Let me make it clear for you. The only reason I decided to meet you is because Sam was the one to adapt my first book into a movie when I was new to Hollywood. I just didn't want to say no to him when he asked me to read your manuscript."

"I understand that."

Uncle Sam and his studio Silver films was one of the most promising studios back when it was running and had helped a lot of people out as they were always promoting new talent.

"I still read your manuscript."

"How was it?"

Aiden asked, looking at Richard and he just frowned.

"In one sentence, it has a lot of potential that was wasted."

In an office room, Omar was shaking hands with an old woman who was wearing glasses. Her hair was completely white and wrinkles covered her face, displaying her age.

"It's a great pleasure to meet you again, Mr. Omar."

"You can talk to me casually, Ms. Spencer."

"If that's the case, then just call me Sofia."

She said and walked to the sofa where both of them sat down. It was their third meeting. Two of the meetings have happened in Toronto when both of them have met to discuss the distribution of the movie.

Sofia Spencer was the CEO of Eternal life movies, the studio that was distributing [30 days of Happiness] all over America.

After a bit of chitchat, they started the main topic about the movie.

"I think it's best to go with 18th October for the release date for [30 days of Happiness]. It's the best period as we are basically going to be standing in a thorny garden."

Sofia said and Omar nodded with a serious expression.

By thorny garden, Sofia meant that in October and November, there were going to be a lot of movie releases. Earlier, they had discussed postponing it to December but that was even worse.

All top studios were going to release their big movies around the Holiday season.

Especially big fantasy, sci-fi and superhero movies. It was better to avoid them as much as they could.

"We don't have a choice. It's the best period in the next 6 months and at least we have a lot of momentum coming from the Toronto film festival."

"Yeah, and [Searching for the One] is doing great. Aiden's popularity is really increasing but our biggest competitors are the other movies releasing in the same week as us."

Sofia said as the meeting continued as they thought more about what could make [30 days of Happiness] a hit on the box office.

….

/DreamNote2/ ()

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Chapter 165 Inner Demons

"You are talking about [Leap in the Sky] right?"

Omar asked, looking at Sofia and she nodded with a grave expression on her face.

"Yes, but not just that. [Boys Club] and [Laws of the Land] are also going to be released around the same time. [Leap in the Sky] might be our biggest competitor but there are others who could slow us down too."

"It seems like we have too many movies to fight with."

Omar chuckled, thinking that luck was not in their favour.

Out of all these, [Boys Club] was a movie by a pretty well known director and it was his venture in his new production house he had opened with all new faces in the movie. It was a huge risk in Omar's eyes and going by the trailer, it looked average.

At least he hoped it would turn out average.

As for [Laws of the Land, it was a full blown western movie with horses, cowboys and angry men but there was not a lot of chance for this movie to do well at the box office, even if it looked good. The trend of cowboy movies was long over and it mostly only attracted niche audiences that obviously won't fill up the whole theatre.

The director of this movie was only making it due to his love for cowboy action movies and nothing more.

'These are just small fishes. The big shark is [Leap in the Sky].'

The movie had Night Hawk studios behind it, well known for their aggressive marketing campaigns and it even had big leads, so it was already attracting good attention from the audience.

"Didn't [30 days of Happiness] also have something to do with Night Hawk? I heard rumours like that."

Sofia suddenly asked, making Omar nod his head in agreement. .

"Yeah, Leo was doing this project with Night Hawk before but they had a falling out. That's when my investment firm came into the picture. Actually, Rodrigo Burke was the producer of [30 days of Happiness] and now, he's producing [Leap in the Sky]."

Leo and Aiden had told everything about Rodrigo to Omar, so he knew what had happened. Surprisingly, Harold Wood was the lead of [Leap in the Sky].

He was the same actor who Rodrigo wanted as the lead of [30 days of Happiness] instead of Aiden.

Rodrigo must have tried hard to get a good script quickly to make a movie in order to make Harold star in it.

"If that's the case, then he won't be happy that a movie that won in Toronto got out of his hands."

"Yeah, he's a petty type of person. He is surely holding a grudge and would do everything in his power to make sure that his movie crushes ours at the box office."

"Yeah, then we need to be pretty good with our marketing to stand against Rodrigo and Night Hawk."

Sofia said with a determined expression and at that moment, Omar shook his head.

"We need to be better than good. Doing the bare minimum will not get us anywhere, especially when we have a good movie with everything great about it. It's your last chance, right?"

Even though it might come off as rude, Omar didn't hesitate to say it and for a second, Sofia's eyes did waver a bit.

"You do know you are being too casual."

"I'm just trying to be straightforward. Even if I say the reality in a roundabout way, it won't change."

There were a lot of reasons behind Eternal life studios current situation but one of the reasons was strictly Sofia. She had chosen a lot of wrong movies as the CEO to produce and distribute.

Of course, there were good, successful ones but the overall record wasn't good.

One of the reasons so many of their movies had flopped was because they did the bare minimum and just thought that the content would win. A good movie would eventually be successful.

But reality was often not the same.

Sofia leadership was a big problem behind their current misery.

"Look, I want [30 days of Happiness] to do good. I have seen Leo and Aiden bet a lot on it and I don't want to remember it as a flop ten years later. That's why, Eternal life needs to give their best. You know you would be able to revive if this is successful."

Omar looked at Sofia and she frowned but didn't say anything. His words were very blunt but they were right.

'It's really my last chance.'

Sofia thought in her mind.

As a CEO, she felt responsibility for the employees and like Omar said, if this worked, they might actually be able to revive, chase their former glory again.

Sighing, she opened her mouth.

"I know. Eternal life movies would give their all to make sure [30 days of Happiness] becomes a big hit. Even if I have to give away everything, I will make it a bit."

"Now, we are on the same page."

Omar smirked as the meeting between them began for real.

"In one sentence, it has a lot of potential that was wasted."

When Aiden heard that, his expression shook for a moment. He had readied himself for any criticism that Richard would give him, especially because he knew that being so high level meant that he would be able to pinpoint things that could be better with his story.

But even Aiden was a bit stunned hearing that.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"I mean." Richard sighed. "There's a lot of potential I see in this. A lot but you are showing your characters as victims. I have been in Hollywood as a screenwriter. I know how it feels but you are trying to make your characters victims in order to portray them as morally better persons."

Richard said, standing up and pulling out a copy of the manuscript that Uncle Sam had sent him. He sat in front of Aiden and sighed.

"Look kid, I will explain it in detail. What kind of character do you think Rocco is?"

"An asshole."

Aiden gave a one word answer after thinking for a bit and Richard finally smiled.

"True. He's an asshole but he's a main character and his friendship with Harley really shows but maybe due to that, in the end of the novel, you really gave him all sorts of reasons behind his actions to make him morally right."

"I did."

"That's where it went wrong. When I was reading the novel, I felt that Rocco was like a demon. Do you have demons?"

"Ah?"

"Demons. Everyone has. Inner demons. Rocco for me is that demon."

Richard explained with a very serious tone, making Aiden think more and more about it. He had created Rocco as a bad guy, an alcoholic who doesn't give a damn about things.

Because of his attitude, he had gotten into troubles a lot of times, almost jeopardizing his career and family. When Aiden thought hard on it, it does seem like that at the end of the novel, Aiden had provided a lot of reasons behind his actions.

"You are saying I should not give reasons?"

"Let people judge him. As the author your job is narrating. Readers are going to think of a single story in many ways but give them that freedom."

Richard said and Aiden couldn't help but nod. In his mind, he was still thinking of Richard's interpretation of Rocco as a demon that rests in everyone.

Everyone wanted to do what they wanted, without caring about anything. Get a lot of money and do anything with it.

In a way, Rocco was a representation of it.

"Can you explain a bit more about the demon part?"

Aiden asked and Richard sighed but nodded.

"Think of it like a guy mocking you in a bar. A lot would not say anything, scared to start a fight and some would fight. But Rocco is someone who won't just fight. He would break the head of the guy who mocked him. Law? Police? He knows them but he doesn't fear them or care. It's because he had cancer. He knows he don't have a lot of days to live, so he don't give a fuck. In his state, he became a complete demon from an asshole."

"Right but ain't that dark?"

"It is, especially because one expects a cancer patient might be seen in a bright light but ain't that what's unique about Behind the scenes? I liked it because it was real but you ruined it for me in the end."

Richard clicked his tongue, like he was seriously annoyed by it. He had read a lot of books these days and only Behind the scenes was any good in them and Aiden had ruined the end parts of it.

He certainly didn't enjoy it as a reader.

"Give me a chance. I will change it."

"Huh?"

Richard looked at him with a raised eyebrow hearing that.

"It's just a draft. I can make changes."

"You sure you won't ruin it more?"

"No, please trust me. I think I have the idea now."

Aiden said with utmost sincerity.

The short conversation with Richard had somehow cleaned up his mind. At first, he was trying to give moral reasons for the actions of his characters but he now realised that explaining the actions doesn't change them.

He needed to let the readers judge the action.

It was then system notifications appeared in front of him.

[Your writing skill has advanced to Level 7 from Level 6. A huge amount of experience has been given due to making a breakthrough.]

[Congratulations on achieving such a feat.]

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After Aiden's writing skill increased to Level 7 from Level 6, he felt like the ideas in his head were getting more and more clearer.

It was the same feeling when he had felt his composing skills increasing in skill levels.

He felt like he would be able to write the novel better now.

The original ideas he had about Harley, Rocco, the movie they were making and their friendship were getting more solid in his mind.

He had once read a famous writer say, "No one cares what you have written in your first or second draft. As one gets to know more about their story, it improves and most of the time, the stories that the readers see are way different than the first draft as all the rough edges are removed."

After his skill level increased, Aiden also felt that he was now able to see more of the rough edges. Richard also helped him identify more of the problems with the first draft.

Although the old man sounded grumpy most of the time and often looked at Aiden like he had slept with his wife, he was not a bad person and was just trying to help him.

Though, he didn't know whether it was because he was thankful to Uncle Sam or because he genuinely liked the core of Behind the scenes.

Anyway, thanks to him, Aiden was able to increase his skill levels. The conversation with Richard really helped him a lot and at the same time, he understood that someone with a level as high as 9 would surely see Behind the scenes a bit differently than him.

He knew that for casual readers like Uncle Sam, all these won't be a big problem and they would still be able to enjoy the core values of the movie and be invested in Harley's journey.

But making modifications in the manuscript was undoubtedly increasing its quality.

That's why, over the next three days, he worked hard to go through the draft again and again to remove and add things that could make the story better.

'Ah, I have given too many lines to Harley's ex wife. I need to change it and make sure that she's just a small character who loves Harley but can't be with him. I need to show the connection and conflict she feels towards Harley.'

'Maxwell needs more scenes. He's the pure part of the book and I need to give more emphasis on him being the only support of Harley in hard times.'.

'I should show glimpses of Rocco's past and cut down the parts where I have explained his reasons. The characters need to look more humane.'

Like that, he edited the whole novel. Aiden was even working in between his other works like photoshoots and interviews with reporters. Wade was even worried that he was just going to overwork himself.

After three days of constant work and only thinking about his novel, his manuscript was finally looking way better.

Aiden even got system notifications, indicating that he had indeed made Behind the scenes better.

[You have realised your mistakes and corrected them. You have taken a step towards becoming a great writer.]

[The quality of your work Behind the scenes has increased after all the modifications.]

[This is the utmost you could at your current skill level. You have completed your first work as a writer.]

[Congratulations!]

Seeing his system notifications, Aiden was relieved that he hadn't made the novel worse in his attempt to edit out things.

After completing his novel, without wasting any time, he went to Richard's house that was situated in one of the most expensive areas in New York.

Although his system had told him that his novel's quality was way better now, he didn't know how Richard was going to see it.

"How's it?"

He asked, looking at Richard who was sitting in front of him. Aiden was in the same room where Richard had told him that his novel has potential that was wasted.

Richard had just finished reading over the edited manuscript but he hadn't said anything about how he had liked it.

"Well…" Richard took a glance at the manuscript in his hand. For a moment, Aiden felt the atmosphere freezing but he soon continued his words. "It's way better than before. I liked it."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I feel like the emotions portrayed by Harley and how you described him are the best parts of the novel and you removed a lot of unnecessary things. My main fault with this book was Rocco and after you corrected it, it feels like a new book itself. You have done well."

Aiden took a sigh of relief when Richard said that and maybe for the very first time, there was a light smile on his face.

'This kid learns quickly.'

When he had first heard from Uncle Sam, Richard wasn't expecting anything good.

He was a veteran writer and a big part of the writing community in New York and none of them liked any type of celebs getting into writing.

For them, it was just an insult as the books by celebs sell not because of the quality but the name associated with the book.

It was a harsh reality!

It was one of the reasons why the prestigious writing communities generally did not let actors enter them.

That's why, Richard wholeheartedly believed that Behind the scenes was going to be bad but he had surprised him a little.

'He does have talent. Just need a bit of grooming.'

Richard thought in his mind and opened his mouth.

"What are you going to do next?"

"Ah, I don't know."

Aiden replied and Richard titled his head.

"Aren't you going to publish this book? I believe that a good book needs to reach people."

"I do want to but I'm still a bit confused about it. I don't know any publishers and even if I went to one, they are going to publish the draft just because of my popularity. Even people would buy it because of that. I kinda want to avoid it."

Currently, Aiden's feelings were a bit conflicted. He did want to use his popularity so the book reached as many people as it could but would people buy it for its content then? Won't he just join the ranks of other celebs who people think write books to earn a bit more money on the side and add in their portfolio that they are an author?

There were these types of thoughts in Aiden's mind.

"Well, I understand that." Richard said, putting a finger on his chin. Suddenly, an idea came to mind. "Oh, I have an idea for you then."

"What?"

"Have you heard of Vikings publishing?"

"Yes, they are pretty old publishers."

Vikings publishing was one of the oldest and most popular in America, publishing millions of books till now and they had a lot of contacts in Hollywood too, helping a lot of their books get adapted into movies and series.

Aiden remembered their logo which was a tough looking Viking with a big beard holding a sword.

"Every year around this time, they held a competition where you could enter with your book. It's a pretty big competition for rookie writers and even some established ones enter it using different pen names. If you come in the top three, then your book will be published."

"That seems nice."

"Yeah, you can even negotiate the contract. Just enter it and win it, so you could say that your book isn't getting published due to you being a celeb but because it's a genuinely nice book."

At the time as Aiden was talking to Richard, the broadcast of [Searching for the One] was going on.

The same group of friends who were watching the show in the bar had gathered in an apartment to catch the next episode of it. All of them were very excited as the episode began.

"It's beginning. It's beginning!! Come quickly!"

"Yes, yes, I'm coming."

"I really hope they do this episode justice."

"Obviously they would. Just by the teaser, I know that Alan will do his best in this episode too."

"You already got a crush on him after an episode."

As they talked, the episode began and it started with Rod, another one of the main characters of the show going towards a client meeting. He was one of the most popular characters of the show but in the current season, he was on the verge of divorce.

The episode went on as Rod entered the meeting and that's when Alan entered the scene with a smirk on his face. It's revealed that he's the head of a subsidiary company of a very big corporation.

"Damn, so he's rich."

"I think so. At least that explains all those expensive Armani suits we have seen him wear."

As the episode went on, Alan and Rod finished their meeting and he invited him to a bar because he was bored where they started to talk about their lives.

On the screen, Alan was talking with Rod.

"So, you are married?"

"Yeah, it's been four years since that day. Do you want to see my wife's photo? We are having a baby."

"No, I don't." Alan gave him a glare. "What made you even give up a happy single life and get married? Wait, is she rich?"

"No and actually, she's my first."

"Heresy!"

Alan said, standing up and looking down at Rod who seemed confused about his over the top behaviour.

Like that, the episode started.

…

/DreamNote/

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Aiden Silvereye stars as Alan Geller in yesterday's broadcast of [Searching for the One]. His charms make the show an entirely different experience compared to the other episodes.

-US Weekly.

Alan Geller is the character that is the fresh wind of air that is saving the sitcom that had become stale in recent times.

-Pop Hazzard magazine.

Alan Geller trends on Sparrow alongside other hashtags associated with [Searching for the One]. Fans' interest is back in the controversial sitcom as IBC finally takes a sigh of relief.

-LA times.

One of the producers of [Searching for the One] said, "When we decided to add a new character for the last episodes of the season, there was a bit of unrest, but when Aiden came on board, he provided a sense of calm to the whole situation as he truly made Alan Geller a great character.".

-Weekend Tribunal.

[Searching for the One] broke its record ratings yesterday night as the show officially got on track. Fans can't wait to watch its finale next week, and there's a lot of anticipation among us, especially when the teaser showed Alan Geller meeting up with Frank Russel. There's a high chance that the episode next week would make a record for IBC in ratings.

-The Dominique.

After the second episode that featured Aiden was broadcasted, the response from fans was great, and even a lot of casual viewers loved it.

Especially, Alan's character displaying a lot of weird character traits was the point that made everyone laugh a lot, and then the talk he had with Rod at the end about marriage and divorce made people think that it was very true.

The clip of it even went viral on the internet.

In the clip, Alan was talking with Rod about the fear of being a father and thinking that the marriage was falling apart.

"You love your wife. You love your kid that's going to be born, but you feel like you can't handle it more. You want to give up, right?" .

Alan asked as he looked at Rod, who nodded.

"I just don't think I'm ready for it. I have not had a proper conversation with my wife that doesn't contain baby, diapers and savings for his college. I'm sick of it. Really sick and I feel like…"

"What?"

"That I'm not good enough to be a perfect father. My own father was great, and I don't think I could really be that. It's scary, and I want to run away."

Hearing that, Alan shook his head and sighed. He just stared at Rod and smiled.

"You are thinking of it wrong. No one is a perfect father from the start."

"There's expectations on him."

"Those expectations are on your wife too, and trust me, no one becomes a father like that. Having a kid and being a father are very different. You can't be perfect from the start. You can only try to adapt to the role slowly."

This whole clip was short, but it already had 790k views on MeTube, and it was just increasing.

The whole episode finally made Rod get over his worries and thoughts about divorce, and he made up with his wife, finally getting his character into the path the audience liked.

At the end of the episode, the character of Alan was made to meet Frank, the main character of the show, and it made people anticipate the next episode.

The ploy of using Alan to correct the wrong things with the sitcom was clearly working, and as Alan had a wholly different personality and due to Aiden's performance, he was also gaining a lot of popularity.

Both fans and critics loved the character and Aiden's portrayal of him.

'I hope the ratings of the last episode are good.'

Aiden thought, scrolling through comments and reactions of last night's episode of [Searching for the One]. At the moment, he was in Wade's car, going towards another one of his schedules.

Along the way, he was checking how the last episode was received as he was busy talking to Richard about Behind the scenes last night.

For the record, Aiden had decided to enter the competition by Vikings publishing.

It felt like the right choice.

"Did you read the scripts I sent you? How are they?"

Wade suddenly asked, making Aiden look at him. Now that the filming of all of Aiden's projects was done, he had been going over a few offers that were interested in casting Aiden.

If he was being honest, the interest in him was increasing a lot.

"I read some. I liked that gangster flick. The script is well written, but it sounded similar to [Black Saints]. The dark comedy one was good, too, but I'm not really sure about it." Aiden said, then stopped in his words like he was thinking about something, "Actually, I'm not really sure about my next project or something I want to do. The scripts are good but they are not interesting to me."

"Don't tell me you want to just focus on writing from now on? Early retirement?"

Wade asked, joking and Aiden shook his head.

"No, I have finally started getting more and more recognition and offers. As for writing, treat it as a side hobby."

"Yeah, but why are you not finding the scripts interesting? Do you want to take a break from acting? You already have three acting jobs this year anyway."

Normally, actors won't go from one project to another. Well, unless they were inspired by a certain actor who did a string of B-grade movies to pay off debts.

"Yeah, but I don't think I need a break. It's more like I'm waiting for that right project to come my way. Anyway, if I didn't get it, I could just start work on the album."

"Yeah, we do need to have a meeting about it. Do you have any ideas on the songs?"

"I could look at some of the songs I sang in X-Star. Try to make them better and I do have a few other ideas."

"That's good."

Wade said. There were a lot of things in his mind for Aiden going forward. More acting projects and a focused approach to singing were required at this point from Aiden.

In his mind, Aiden was in a very fragile place in his career.

His name was in public, songs were hits, he was on a famous sitcom, and his movie had even won an award. All this in just a year.

Many in the industry thought that this was Aiden's peak, and they weren't wrong either.

In the past, a lot of musicians and actors had years like these when they had given hits after hits, but after that, they were never able to emulate them again. Wade wanted Aiden to go even higher.

Currently, in the industry, many were thinking of Aiden as one of the few good rookie actors, those who were between the age of 20-30 and were new to the industry but were giving top performances. Top stars of Hollywood had started from being rookie actors until one of their roles made them evolve into a top star.

These roles were sometimes commercial and sometimes artsy.

"Anyway, take it easy." He looked at Aiden. "We need to take it step by step. Not to mention, we have already climbed a lot of steps this year. In my calculations, anything else is a bonus."

"I guess so." Aiden smiled before remembering something and asking, "By the way, how is the work going on for—"

"Ah, we are here!"

As Aiden was speaking, Wade suddenly stopped the car, interrupting Aiden's words.

Aiden looked toward the tall building that the car had stopped in front of. It was the office of one of the top entertainment magazines in America, Hollywood Weekly.

It was the same magazine that had taken his interview during the shooting of [Blank Saints].

Today, Aiden was here to have a photoshoot and interview.

"Ms Huff, Aiden Silvereye is here. He's currently going through the photo shoot."

Katherine Huff raised her head from the pile of documents to look at her assistant before giving a nod.

"Okay, I will go see him."

She said, and the assistant left the office. Standing up, Kathrine took a deep breath.

She was a senior reporter in Hollywood Weekly and had already interviewed a lot of celebs before. So much so that she was too used to it, but today she felt a bit nervous.

It even made her feel like she was back to her days of being a new reporter.

'It's fine. I can do this, but I really wonder how he is as a person.'

She thought in her mind as she left her office and walked through the hallway to reach the studio room where the photoshoot was happening.

To other employees passing her by, she seemed very normal. Red hair, a stern face and an almost perfect figure, making people wonder about her real age.

But inside her mind, a lot of questions were roaming.

'How Aiden is as a person? When did he start thinking that he wanted to be a celeb? What was the inspiration behind his songs? What does he think about his current popularity?'

These were not the questions she had prepared for the interview but questions that she genuinely was curious about.

'He's there.'

As she entered the studio room, she saw Aiden talking with the French guy who was their photographer for the shoot. He was explaining a pose to Aiden.

After he finished, Katherine walked up to Aiden and introduced herself in a professional tone.

"Hello, I'm Katherine Huff. I will be taking your interview today."

She was trying hard to be professional, but in her mind, she was only thinking one thing.

'I'm also your big fan.'

Yes, the reason Katherine was so nervous was that she was Aiden's fan.

…

/DreamNote/

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There's a time in every person's life when their life seems to have got stuck. Nothing good was happening, and it was like they were in a dark hole with no signs of light.

Some time ago, Katherine was going through the same time.

Her life had become very stale and depressing, and she had even started sessions with a psychologist due to too much stress in both her personal and professional life.

It had mainly happened due to her divorce, which completely ruined her life and made her experience the meaning of a midlife crisis.

Even in her workplace, she was not able to focus much. She felt like life didn't have any meaning, and no matter what she did, she would never achieve happiness.

It was at that moment that 'Lost in the Sky' had gone viral.

At first, she had only seen her colleagues and other juniors talking about it, and most of them had told her that the song was really good and the singer was a rare talent that would go a long way.

Hearing all those praises, she became curious about Aiden and tried to find information about him. After all, it was an entertainment reporter's job to keep up with what was going on in the industry, and if Aiden was really someone who could go a long way, then it was better to have an eye on him.

It was then that Katherine listened to 'Lost in the Sky' for the first time.

At first, she thought that it was a good song and nothing more than that. But when she focused more on the meaning behind the lyrics, she felt that they were very poetic and seemed to be telling a story.

The song was basically telling her that even if bad things were happening at the moment, she would rise above them one day, and everything was going to be okay.

Even if the current chapter of one's life was sorrowful and hurtful, the next chapter might be better.

Those words have really stayed with her, and for some reason, in a tough time, they had given her hope that it would be fine. .

Sometimes in life, even small things are able to uplift someone and at least give them a small thread of hope. 'Lost in the Sky' was exactly that for Katherine, and because of that, she had become Aiden's fan.

She had gone through his songs and movies, not because she was a reporter but as a fan of Aiden.

ɴ[0)ᴠᴇʟ That's why, when the editor-in-chief of Hollywood Weekly had said that they were going to put Aiden on their cover for the next issue due to his movie winning at the Toronto film festival, she was excited to be the one to interview him.

"So, let's start the interview," Katherine said, looking at Aiden in front of her.

Now that she was taking the interview, Katherine wasn't letting her admiration of Aiden ruin the interview. She was acting as professional as she could be.

They were sitting in a room with cameras all around them. The lightning had been kept to a minimum, enough that the focus was more on Katherine and Aiden.

Aiden, who had just gone through a photoshoot, was smiling as he anticipated the questions.

"So, what exactly is your song 'Lost in the Sky' about? It topped the charts last month, but people know very little about it. Can you describe what you wanted to integrate into it?"

She started off with a simple question, and Aiden thought for a bit before opening his mouth.

"It's a mixture. When I was making it, it wasn't easy because I wanted the song to be filled with the thoughts of a guy who is lonely, so the first part of it is just questions that many people would have at some point in their life; then the chorus…"

Like that, the interview continued as Aiden tried hard to answer every question.

Before coming here, Wade had already given him a brief of what sort of questions he would face. He had also looked up Katherine's earlier interviews and had found that she wasn't a provocative reporter.

Though, there were still some sensitive questions.

Like what he thought about his songs doing better than other established singers and what he thought when his movie beat the movies of veteran directors at the Toronto film festival. There were also questions like his thoughts about the current state of Hollywood and the rise of franchise movies and superhero cinematic universes.

She also asked about [30 days of Happiness] releasing on theatre and how he thought it would fare at the box office.

In the end, there was even a question related to his personal life.

"Everyone believes that you came all the way from India and made a name for yourself but didn't your uncle used to own a studio? Was it not easier for you because of that?"

Wade, who was standing beside a camera, gave Aiden a worried look hearing that question.

"My uncle had a studio a long time ago. He's mostly retired now, and the studio closed down."

Aiden said, not showing any emotions on his face.

As Uncle Sam worked in Hollywood before, Aiden knew that sooner or later, his name was going to start being related to him. Until now, it hadn't happened just because Aiden's popularity wasn't a lot.

That's why he had already prepared for it in advance.

"Does that mean you didn't take his help to get roles?"

"No, not really. As I said, my uncle is retired. My agent helped me get the role in [Black Saints, and as for my debut movie, [Shadows of War, a friend told me about the movie and said to audition. That's how I made my debut."

Aiden said, trying to be as clear as he could. If he didn't really explain himself, people were surely going to think that his connections had played a big part in him getting roles.

Though, even if people believed that he didn't feel like his popularity would have an effect.

After all, his struggle was something that most people who followed him had seen. At most, people would think that he was trying to achieve everything on his own and not use the connections his family had, giving him a much better reputation.

In the past, there had actually been cases like that.

"Okay, let's get to another question."

Fortunately, Katherine didn't hang on to it for longer, and Wade took a sigh of relief. They continued on with the interview like this.

After more than an hour, the interview finally ended, and Aiden sighed inwardly.

'I thought I would mess up so many times.'

Thinking that he put a hand on his chest. It was one of the most detailed interviews he ever had, with Katherine asking all sorts of questions, both about him as a person and his work life.

"That was a nice interview. You did well."

Katherine said, walking up to him with a smile.

"Thanks."

"Can you please give me your autograph?"

She suddenly asked, and Aiden finally noticed the signature board in her hands. Without wasting any time, he took out his pen and started scribbling away his autograph on it.

Though, he was still a bit clumsy at it due to little practice.

"I'm actually a big fan of yours. 'Lost in the Sky' is the first song on my playlist."

"Really?" Aiden was a bit surprised when he heard that because Katherine hadn't acted like she was his fan till now.

"Yes, I also bought the soundtrack album of [30 days of Happiness] and will watch the movie when it is released."

Katherine stated and talked a bit more about why she had liked the song and how she felt that Aiden was going to be a big star in the future.

Hearing all that, Aiden could only feel flattered.

In the end, Katherine took out her business card and passed it to Aiden. He saw that there were two phone numbers written on it. One looked to be a personal number.

"This is my business card in case you need me for something. I want to be in contact as my instincts say good things about you. So, if you have any job as a reporter, don't hesitate to call me. Ah, there's also my personal number on it in case my other one is busy." She smiled before adding. "You could also call me if you just want to grab some drinks."

After saying that, Katherine left, and Aiden was only left thinking of one thing.

'She was surely hitting on me.'

In a conference room, a man with white beard and an angry look on his face was shouting at the employees gathered in front of him.

"We need to get everything right. We can't expect others to go easy on us, so we need to crush them from the start. I need every couple out there to go and see [Leap in the Sky]. Try to use Harold's popularity anyhow and get me a good plan that doesn't seem generic."

The man was Rodrigo Burke, the producer of [Leap in the Sky] and also the same person who had fallen out with Leo.

Currently, he was in the middle of a marketing meeting for the movie.

"We need to target all the couples. We are lucky that no big movies are releasing next to us, and we have the capability to crush the smaller ones, especially [30 days of Happiness]."

He shouted and one of the employees raised his head with a bit of fear on his face.

"Sir, why [30 days of Happiness]? There are other movies releasing at the same time too. That movie would surely get a niche audience interested in him."

"I don't care about it. I just want that movie to flop!"

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 169.Marketing and Last Episode

"I'm telling you. Divorced women are something different. Especially the ones who are recently divorced. They are trying to enter the free market again and most of them aren't even looking for a relationship. They just want to let off some steam."

"You seem to have a lot of experience in it."

"You bet. At your age, I wasn't just fooling around. I was studying for the Agent exam but it was pretty stressful, so whenever I will get a chance, I will go to a bar and try to find a divorced woman to release some stress."

Wade said like he was reminiscing about his past. For the record, the Agent exam was a special qualification test for people who wanted to work as an agent in Hollywood, taken by the guilds.

[A/N: Agent Exam is something I came up with for both mhs and vs. So, it doesn't exist in real life.]

"How do you even know if a woman is divorced?"

"Experience."

Wade shrugged and Aiden shook his head, not wanting to hear about his agent's playboy lifestyle.

They have started this conversation just because Wade had seen Katherine giving Aiden her business card. When he had heard she had hit on him, he had started to talk about his adventures with divorced women.

"Anyway, we are here."

Wade said, pointing at a door as they stopped.

"Let's go in. We are a bit late." Aiden said and Wade opened the door, revealing a conference room filled with people.

They were currently in the building of Eternal life movies to attend the marketing meeting for [30 days of Happiness]. Omar apparently wanted Aiden to attend the meeting.

"Sorry, we are a bit late."

Wade said and Omar turned to look at them. Besides him, a woman that Aiden recognised as Sofia Spencer, the CEO of Eternal life movies was sitting. He had met her once during the Toronto film festival. .

"It's fine. We are just starting."

Both Aiden and Wade sat down and a brawny looking guy with a calm expression stood up to talk about the plans they have made to market the movie. A female employee next to Aiden told him that he was the Marketing head.

"Let's start the meeting now. I would give a brief as to how things are going."

Saying that, the Marketing head gave a detailed explanation on the ways they were promoting the movie. From posters on social media sites to billboards, Eternal life movie was trying their best to make people aware of the fact that a good rom com was going to release soon.

At the same time, they were trying to sell the movie by focusing more on the fact that it won an award in the Toronto film festival. As the trailer was cheerful and the album was a big hit, it was working too.

For the record, the trailer which was released two weeks ago already had 5 million views. It was a good amount no matter how one sees it.

Eternal life movies was even in talks with talk shows and other reality TV shows like 'Good morning America' and 'Family Fight' for the cast to appear there to promote but they didn't have a lot of success there.

But even without it, the movie was getting a lot of interest, especially from teens and young adults. Aiden's new image as a playboy due to the sitcom was also working in favour of the movie.

The studio had really invested their all in the movie as they desperately wanted it to be a hit.

The problem was their competition, particularly [Leap in the Sky] from Night Hawk studios.

"Due to Night Hawk studios having a better relationship with the theatre chains and being a bigger studio, added with the fact that Harold Wood is like one of the big stars in a rom com genre, [Leap in the Sky] would probably open up in more than 2500 screens. They are seriously going for a wide release in America."

"How many screens is our movie getting?"

"Around 1000. Mostly thanks to it winning in Toronto."

A silence engulfed the room when people heard that.

Compared to [Leap in the Sky, they were getting way fewer screens. It was a very big worry as that means that even with a better occupancy rate, [30 days of Happiness] might not even earn half of [Leap in the Sky].

But the bad part hadn't ended here.

"And as Harold Wood is more established, the talks shows and reality TV shows are more likely to ask him to come on it. His chemistry with the female lead had also been praised a lot, so he might go on those dating shows with her according to rumors. A lot of kids watch it."

The Marketing head said and a male employee raised his eyebrow.

"With Aiden's current popularity, I'm pretty sure talk shows won't reject him appearing."

A few people glanced at Aiden.

"Yeah, you are right but the interest in them going with Harold is way more. Though, it would be easy to send Aiden to singing shows. Those would be pretty open to Aiden appearing on it. Anyway, if you have any ideas, you all could pitch in."

Like that, the meeting went on with people trying to chip in a few ideas to promote the movie way more.

There was no solution to the problems of them getting allocated less screens, so they could only focus more on getting as many people interested in the movie as they could.

'I don't really think these ideas are really going to work. They are too generic. Marketing a movie is really not something easy these days. Most of the things have already been done, so it really needs something that could pique people's interest.'

Aiden thought in his mind, seeing people talk about different ideas in front of him.

ɴ[0)ᴠᴇʟ At that moment, an idea struck his mind.

He thought about it for a second before deciding that it was not bad.

"I think I have an idea."

He said and everyone looked at him, wondering what idea he had. Omar looked at him with interest.

"What?"

"Let me explain…"

After the marketing meeting ended, Aiden didn't really have time to rest as in the evening, a special event was taking place.

The season finale of [Searching for the One] was going to be broadcasted. For that, Producer Brandon Carell and the Director Amelia Fryman wanted the whole cast and crew to watch it together because of how big of a moment it was.

One of the reasons was also because there was a lot of chance that this episode was going to be the most watched episode till now.

The possibility of it had only increased because the social media team of the sitcom had spread rumours that something special was going to happen at the end of the episode.

The media sites had been used to spread it around, getting the curiosity of a lot of people.

It was a great strategy used by them.

When Aiden reached the restaurant that was booked to watch the screening, everyone swarmed him with smiles on their faces.

"Our star is here!"

"We thought you wouldn't come but it's great to see you here."

"Thanks to you, our show is back on track."

"Hey Aiden, my friend was talking about how good [30 days of Happiness] Is. He watched it in Toronto. It seems like you are going to have another achievement under you."

"You are looking more handsome tonight. Let's have a drink together."

Seeing his popularity, Aiden was surprised for a minute but he understood that it was because everyone on the internet who had watched the show was talking about Alan Geller.

Thanks to that, Aiden's popularity among the crew of [Searching for the One] had also increased.

"Aiden, you are finally here."

Amelia Fryman came close to him as Aiden was replying to the swarm of people around him. She looked a bit tipsy but there was a soft smile on her face.

"It looks like everyone is very excited." He replied, giving her a small hug.

"Yes, they are. It's all thanks to you. Your character brought back the fans for us and it's being received greatly. They also like the fact that the main characters are realising the wrong things in their life and becoming the same as before. You must have seen the comments online."

"I did."

"Anyway, we can talk more at the table. You don't mind sitting with the cast right?"

"No."

He said and for a second, his eyes roamed the restaurant, trying to find Harley but he wasn't there. Probably because no extra actors were invited.

When he reached the table, Ellison and Jason greeted him.

"So, you are finally here. I thought you would be too busy doing magazine shoots and interviews after your success."

Jason, the actor who played the lead role of Frank Russel said while Ellison glared at him.

"Don't listen to him. He's just jealous because your name is trending so much on social media."

Jason just shrugged at that as Aiden sat down. They talked a bit more about how their lives were going and how happy they were with the reception of the recent episodes.

As the cast had come back to reshoot the last three episodes, they were pretty happy that their efforts weren't for nothing.

It was then that a guy suddenly said,

"It's starting!"

"The episode is finally here. Keep an eye on the real time ratings."

"Let's hope it's good."

"Ah, the logo and theme song is here."

…

/DreamNote/

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'14.7 million people.'

That was the highest number of people that watched an episode of [Searching for the One]. That episode was long back from the second season.

The peak of the show.

After that, the show had hovered between 12-14 million views every episode but in recent seasons, the numbers had gone down to around less than 10 million.

It was only in the last two episodes that the ratings improved. In the first episode that Aiden appeared in, it went to 10.7 million and in the second, it went straight to 13.9 million.

It was a massive jump and thanks to the season finale, there was a huge chance that the ratings would actually surpass the record.

That's why, everyone was very excited.

"Okay, the first scene is here. Quiet down everyone! Talk among yourselves but don't make it too noisy." Amelia said, raising her voice but people were still chatting. Frowning, she took a deep breath. "Quiet now!!"

Her loud voice even managed to surprise the waiters who were serving food here and there.

It was like the voice of a viking who was giving a speech to motivate his fellow vikings before going into a battle.

But it had the desired effect as everyone nodded and the unnecessary noise ended.

"There's a reason why her husband sometimes looked scared of her."

Jason muttered to Aiden while chuckling.

"I'm glad I didn't get on her nerves while shooting."

"You did well."

Smiling, Aiden just focused on the big screen. It seemed like the screen was installed just for today as the producers themselves had paid for it.

On the screen, the first scene was going on. Frank was walking on the road, his head down. He would look at couples walking down the street and stare at them for a second before going on his way.

It was clear that he was thinking about the fight he had with his girlfriend and questioning the longevity of their relationship. .

As he reached the bar and ordered a few drinks, Alan Geller finally made an entrance as few people in the restaurant cheered and whistled.

Even the waiters were glancing at the screen from time to time.

'I should look up at the real time comments.'

Aiden thought, taking out his phone and opening up Sparrow. Clicking the hashtag related to the sitcom, he saw people tweeting in real time.

[Voldemort's father: Are you all watching [Searching for the One]. Alan just made an entrance and I have a feeling this is going to be a legen-wait for it-dary episode. My son is loving it too.]

[What movie you want next: My whole family is watching the episode together. We normally just fight around, so it's very rare for me to see all of us laughing together.]

[Burying Bread in the Pitt: I really wonder how Aiden is so good. My son loved him as Kai, so he's surprised by seeing Aiden like that. He's saying Kai survived and became funny.]

[Horny Penguin: I really hope they bring back Alan next season. He's a heck of a fun character and I love how he gives great advice at the end of episodes, something you won't expect from his character.]

'It seems like most of the comments are positive.'

Thinking that, Aiden felt like all his effort had bore fruit as people were really loving the show and his character. Taking a bite off the chicken in front of him, he focused on the screen.

It was the scene of Alan showing Frank how he got girls.

On the screen, he approached the bar where the girl was sitting and stood next to her and ordered a drink. Then, keeping an eye on the girl sitting next to him, he muttered.

"People would never going to care about the environment! I'm sick of these bastards! When would humans realise that without their efforts, the earth is going to suffer more!"

He said that in a very dramatic manner like the entire world's problems were on his shoulder. Hearing that, the girl turned to him and asked.

"What?"

"Nothing, I'm just a climate activist. Just seeing people not caring about the environment pains me a lot."

"Oh, it must be hard for you."

"Yeah, it's very hard. You know…"

Like that, the conversation began as the girl became more interested in hearing about him as Alan continued his act of being a Climate activists.

Standing a few feet away from him and listening to the whole conversation, Frank was only able to mutter one thing.

"Son of a bitch, you could do that!"

"What? I can't believe it. You can really do that."

"That's really funny."

"Just don't try that in real life or you might go to jail."

"Yeah, but it does make sense. Not like you're gonna meet after one night, so you could just lie about anything."

ɴ[0)ᴠᴇʟ "Alan really has a way with his weird acts."

In the office of a media company, a few of the reporters were talking while watching the episode of [Searching for the One] in their lounge area.

A few of them were also checking up the internet for reactions.

Until now, their verdict was simple – The episode was going to be a huge hit!

People have loved it, the viewership was increasing and the show was spreading all over America and Europe. From the rumours, even some Asian countries' viewership has increased.

All thanks to one character and changing the storyline.

This has proven that small things are fully capable of making big impacts.

"Like this, don't you think they would actually break their record?"

"You mean ratings?"

"Yeah I'm pretty sure. Fuck, the editor would surely ask us to write so many articles on it."

"Hey, don't talk about that. Just enjoy the episode in your break. At least you would be happy writing articles about it if you like the episode."

Like that, the reporters chatted around with their eyes glued to the screen. At that moment, one of them muttered.

"I'm pretty sure it would cross 15 million viewers like this."

In a train, three friends were going home after a day in college. It was a long and hard day as all of them were busy finishing off their assignments in the library.

Two of the friends were talking while the third one was just smiling while holding his phone. One of the friends noticed it and couldn't help but ask.

"Hey, what are you doing? Did that library assistant actually give you a reply back?" There was a hint of mocking in his voice.

"No, I'm just watching [Searching for the One]. Today's the season finale, so I'm watching it."

"Ah, yeah. My girlfriend was talking about it too."

"Is it really good?" The third friend asked.

"Yeah, see for yourself. It's nearly at the end."

The guy said, shoving the phone a bit sideways, so both his friends could watch. Both of them looked at the screen where the last scene was going on.

The scene where Alan was giving advice to Frank about love and relationships.

"Who's this guy?"

"I feel like I have seen him in memes."

"He's Alan. A pretty funny character they introduced some time ago. He's already a fan favourite now."

The other two guys nodded at that and kept their eyes on the screen. After five minutes, it ended and the season finale officially ended.

Although they have not watched a lot and the last scene was pretty emotional rather than being funny, both of them didn't hate it.

In fact, the show seemed good.

"I think I will watch it. Sounds good. Anyway, my girlfriend was going to make me watch it anyway."

"I will check it out too I guess. I'm hearing good things about it on the internet."

Hearing that, the guy smiled. It was a different feeling when your friends were interested in the same show as you. Leaning against the seat, he said.

"You all should definitely check it out. Anyway, I hope they get a solo series for Alan. I would pay anything to watch it."

"The show's reactions are great!"

"Fans loved the ending. A lot of them are saying that on the internet. They are glad that Frank is taking the right step in his quest to find his one true love."

"Look at these comments. 'I think this is the best episode of this season.' and 'It was very wholesome'."

"We are going to get the ratings in two minutes!"

The whole restaurant was rowdy as the episode ended. The cast and crew loved it. The audience loved it and the online reaction was just blowing up.

It couldn't be better than this.

In that happy and excited atmosphere, Aiden was struggling with something.

"Can you get off me? You are hugging me for more than 2 minutes."

"Let me thank you a bit more."

"If you really want to thank me, then increase my payment."

When Aiden said that, the others around him chuckled out loud. Currently, he was being hugged by Brandon Carell, the producer who had gotten completely wasted.

To show his thanks, he was now hugging Aiden while he tried his best to get him off.

"Hey, Brandon, you never really thanked me like this before."

Jason said and Brandon glared at him, finally getting off Aiden who took a sigh of relief.

"I did way back in the first season. After that, your paychecks kept getting higher and higher."

"So, it's all about money for you."

"Obviously."

As they were talking in a joking manner, a commotion started in the restaurant.

"The ratings are here! The viewership ratings are here!!"

"How much are they?"

"Fucker, tell us!"

"I can't wait for them. Just say if we broke the record."

Everyone looked at the guy who was on the phone with the IBC control room about the ratings. Some even threw pieces of chicken on it in a drunken state.

"I'm telling you. I'm fucking telling. They are…"

…

/DreamNote/

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[Searching for the One] breaks all records in the season finale of an otherwise average season. They end up on a high note and are expected to take a break before getting on with the shooting of the next season.

-Vanity Magazine.

Aiden Silvereye as Alan Geller is the breakout character of the season. It's very hard to outwit his charm.

-Hollywood Weekly.

Fans asked whether Alan Geller would appear in the next season. It's unprecedented how quickly the character is getting popular amidst viewers.

-Global HQ

A hint about Frank's final love interest and the usual charm of Alan – Two things that make the finale of [Searching for the One] a worth watch.

-Link Magazine.

Producer of [Searching for the One] said, "We are going to make the next season the best out of all the other seasons in the show. We are fully Invested in it after seeing the love that the finale received.

-Variety.

'15.2 million viewership.'

That was the number of how many people watched [Searching for the One].

It broke all records with the season finale.

Everyone who got to know about it after the episode was shocked and why they won't be. It was a massive number, especially considering that the episode was released on the streaming platforms at the same time too.

In recent times, a lot of streaming platforms are competing against the traditional TV channels for shows and their shows are also getting more and more popular with people being able to binge them at any time.

It was one of the reasons why young actors preferred acting in a show in Zetflix more than on a TV show. .

It was undoubtedly a danger to TV shows with their ratings falling.

But [Searching for the One] finale proved that TV was still good and you could still break records in it.

There were even rumours that the top brass of IBC was so happy that a lot of their employees had gotten bonuses. It was almost like the holiday season had begun early.

The cast and crew of [Searching for the One] was also the same. They were dancing in joy as in the end, everything had turned around for the show.

At the same time, the last episode of the season also hinted that the next season might be the last one. The last scene was just Frank narrating that after the talk with Alan, he thought a lot about himself and what he wanted.

Also the lines that he was going to find his love one way or another kept resounding in his mind.

Then, there was a still of a girl holding a yellow umbrella with her face hidden. In the background, Frank was saying, "A month later, I actually found that girl."

With that, the season ended and it caused a lot of excitement among fans. They were waiting for Frank to finally get the girl and be settled and now, it was finally here.

Though, an official announcement was still to come.

Aside from that, one more thing happened that attracted a lot of attention. After the episode ended, the official social media handle of [Searching for the One] released a poll about who was the best character of the show.

The results surprised everyone.

[Frank – 25,789 votes.]

[Alan – 25,780 votes.]

[Hazel – 22,124 votes.]

Alan came second on the poll and nearly uprooted Frank from the first place as the difference between them was too less — Only 9 votes.

This was enough for people to know about Alan's popularity in the show from his appearance in just three episodes. He had nearly beaten up the main character while having way less appearances than him.

It also made the fans wonder whether Alan would be in the next season. By all means, he should be as no one knew how the reaction would be without him.

A lot of people even requested IBC to get him on the show permanently but nothing was confirmed about it.

Another good news was that Aiden got a lot of experience from the finale being such a big hit.

It became the final push that he needed.

[Everyone is in awe of your charisma. The level of the skill 'Charisma' has risen. People are more likely to be attracted to you.]

[You have gained a lot of experience.]

[Your character 'Alan Geller' is slowly becoming an iconic character in the minds of people.]

[You have advanced to Intermediate Grade 3 from Intermediate Grade 2. You have gained a lot of experience.]

[The skill 'Immersion' is becoming more impactful.]

He had finally leveled up his acting and now, both his main skills were on the same level.

Even with the massive success of [Searching for the One, Aiden didn't celebrate a lot as the marketing of his movie was also going on at the same time.

He could only celebrate after the movie had been released. Before that, there was no time to waste.

In the marketing meeting that he had ended, his idea was liked a lot by the employees present there. There was a bit of rejection but, both Sofia and Omar thought that it was a good thing.

So, they agreed.

"Do you really think it would go well? This is one of the busiest streets in New York and it's filled with street performers."

"I know Wade. I live in New York."

"I'm just worried as the season finale of [Searching for the One] ended only yesterday and your popularity is sky high currently."

At his words, a guy with messy black hair who was sitting on the back replied.

"Yeah, he's still trending all over Sparrow. I was checking up on it today and you are getting a lot of female followers."

"Yeah, girls love him."

A woman sitting next to the guy chuckled, giving Aiden a teasing look. Currently, they were in a van and both of them were a part of a camera crew that was travelling with them.

'I did get 200k more followers after appearing on the show.'

Aiden thought. His Skygram and Sparrow followers were close to breaking the 2 million mark. His MeTube channel had already crossed 2.7 million subs after 'Lost in the Sky' was uploaded on it.

"Anyway just follow me." Aiden said. "Remember that if it's successful, there's a lot of chances it will go viral. We need that marketing for the movie."

"Okay, I would just stand close to you for protection."

Wade said and Aiden nodded, having no qualms about it. These days, people were swarming him a lot even if he would just go out for a walk or to a convenience store.

So, appearing in a public place filled with people could easily turn ugly.

'Hopefully, it will all go well.'

He thought in his mind and got out of the van.

"As a producer, there would be a lot of projects that would interest you. What made you go for [Leap in the Sky] out of all of them? Was there anything special you saw in it?"

Rodrigo smiled when he heard the question from the male interviewer. He took a while to think of a proper answer and opened his mouth.

"There were a lot of things. The story of not giving up resonated with me a lot. The main characters and how it all comes together really made me think that this is what people would love to see in cinemas." Saying that, he turned to glance at Harold Wood. "Moreover, when Harold came on board for the project, it was more or less decided that I would go with it."

Harold just smiled in response to that as the interview continued. The next question was asked from the female lead of the movie who was sitting besides Harold.

ɴ[0)ᴠᴇʟ The cast, director and producer were doing one of the numerous interviews for their movie. Though they were smiling, they were pretty tired inwardly.

Well, except Rodrigo who was liking all the attention.

'It was a good thing that I decided to participate in the promotions myself.'

Rodrigo thought to himself as the interview continued.

He was in a pretty happy mood as the promotions for the movie were going pretty well with the expectancy rate of audience on the first day pretty high.

The movie was taking a lot of advantage of Harold Wood's teenage fanbase and it was also showing effects.

If everything went well, the movie was bound to make a business of around 50-80 million dollars which was pretty good and would make the movie a superhit.

Rodrigo would also earn more from the streaming rights.

'It's great that we got a spot with no big releases.'

That was the thought in his mind and after the interview ended, he walked outside the studio with a big grin on his face. It was then that he saw his assistant running towards him.

"What happened?"

Rodrigo asked, looking at the worried look on his assistant's face. This was surely not a good indication.

"Sir, there's a bit of a problem."

"I could guess that by your expression. Tell me what happened."

"See this."

The assistant pushed the iPad to Rodrigo who realised that a video was being played on it. It seemed to have been uploaded recently and was swiftly gaining a lot of views.

After seeing the whole video, Rodrigo's eyes widened in shock.

"When did this start?" He asked his assistant.

"We don't know but a lot of people are sharing similar videos on Skygram and Sparrow. Even on MeTube."

Hearing that, Rodrigo could mutter only one thing.

"Fuck."

…

/DreamNote/

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'There's a lot of people here.'

Aiden thought, looking over at the crowd in front of him. A lot of people were passing him by.

Some distance away, there were some street performers performing for a small group of people that was crowding in front of them. There were a lot of musicians here.

No one seemed to recognise him in the busy streets.

It was because Aiden was wearing a mask that covered his mouth and nose. Only his eyes were visible. On his back, there was a backpack, containing a small speaker.

It was obvious that he was here to do a street show.

"You think the trick would work?."

Wade asked, next to him. In his hand, there was a cup of coffee that he was holding.

"Probably. At least I have faith in it."

"That's good enough. Get ready."

Aiden nodded and saw that the staff that they had come with had already prepared the mic. Picking up his guitar from the van, he took his position and got ready to sing.

Some people who were passing by gave him looks but no one stopped, thinking of him as another street performer.

'Let's go.'

He thought and took out his mask. Then, his fingers started strumming the chords of his guitar.

A silver light slowly started to come out of him as the melody intertwined with his voice.

"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."

'Okay, I have bought everything. Eggs, bread, flour, toilet paper, dog food…'

A woman was checking up on the list written on her phone. It was the list of the items she needed to buy today for her home and she was just cross checking it on her way home, in case she had forgotten anything.

"Mom, you forgot to buy me pizza."

Next to her, a small 10 year old kid tugged at her dress.

"I didn't forget. You are not getting any."

"But why? Pizza is so tasty."

"You eat enough of it whenever your father watches his game."

She snorted and her kid puffed up his cheeks, clearly disliking her mom not buying him pizza. He was about to start another argument with her when his attention suddenly got taken away by a melody.

He tilted his head in the direction where the music was coming from.

A voice soon followed it and the kid widened his eyes, very shocked by it.

It was a very soft and melodious voice. Even his mother noticed it and thought that it was a pretty good tune and she seemed to have heard the song somewhere. As she knew the street well, she thought that it was just another one of the street performances.

But her kid was already entranced.

"Mom, it's fine if you can't buy me pizza. Let's go watch whoever is singing."

"Huh? It's already late, you know."

"Just five minutes is enough."

The mother got in a dilemma hearing that. She wanted to say no but the song was actually good. Other people around her also seemed to be walking towards the music, wanting to know who was singing in such a good voice.

In the end, she sighed.

"Okay, let's go see it."

She held her kid's hand and brought him to the spot where a lot of people were already gathered. The crowd gathered was way more than other musicians and a lot of people were whispering to each other.

Even some of the musicians who were performing in the distance were staring.

"Hey, isn't he that guy?"

"Yeah, he looks exactly like that. I didn't know he could sing."

"No, he could sing. I saw him in X-Star and he was too good. His latest songs are awesome."

ɴ[0)ᴠᴇʟ "I loved him in [Searching for the One]. Do you think he's a playboy in real life too? I think so."

"Right, he's very handsome."

"There's a camera crew there. Is he shooting a music video?"

"I don't know."

"Then, what's he doing here?"

"Let me shoot a video and post it on social media. It would blow up."

Listening to these comments, both the mother and kid got more curious. They tried to move through the crowd and after a minute, finally reached a spot where they were able to see the face of the musician.

Instantly, the mother was able to recognise him.

'I think I have seen him before. Ah, yes! This song. It got viral a few months ago right. This guy is the singer of it. What's he doing here?'

As questions arose in her mind, she noticed that her son was already fully engrossed in the song. Glancing at Aiden who had his eyes closed, she also focused more on his singing.

"Can I still believe in a better tomorrow?"

"I'm trapped in between the darkness of your sorrow."

"Take my hand, let's go find ourselves in the dark."

"Running away from the sharks."

As Aiden sang, the mother and son felt like the words were directly affecting their hearts. She had heard the song before but the live singing had an effect that a studio album didn't.

At least Aiden's voice was like that his live singing was way better than his studio one.

It was because the audience would be able to feel the emotions at a very personal level. The effect was way more in a song like 'Lost in the Sky' which was a beautiful melody that asked a lot of questions about life.

Everyone that was listening to the song was already immersed in it and a few people were making videos. It was then that someone tapped the shoulder of the mother.

"Excuse me."

"Huh? Yeah?" She looked at the young girl in front of her.

"Please take it."

The young girl gave her a pamphlet and left. In her hands, there were more pamphlets that she was distributing. If one noticed, they would see more people doing the same.

'What's this.'

The mother looked at the pamphlet and saw that it looked like the poster of a musician's show.

[Come catch Arthur Reeves perform at your local theatre and know how he composed his hit track 'Lost in the Sky' through watching his journey.]

Those were the words written on the pamphlet and they confused her a lot. Arthur Reeves? Who was he?

When she turned the pamphlet over, she realised what was going on.

'It's a movie poster. They are promoting a movie here.'

There was the poster of [30 days of Happiness] on the other side, clearing away all the confusion in the mother's mind. At that moment, her kid tugged at her dress.

"Mom, what's that?"

"It's a movie poster." She replied.

"What type of movie?"

"I think it's a musical. It looks like that."

"Will there be songs like the one that guy is playing?"

"Ah, yes."

The kid brightened up instantly after hearing that. With hopeful eyes, he opened his mouth.

"Can we go watch the movie then?" He said. "Please, it's been a while. The last time we went was for that pirate movie."

His mother thought about his words for a few seconds and glanced at Aiden and the poster.

'It doesn't look bad. It says here that it won an award.'

"Okay, let's go to watch it."

She finally said and a big smile blossomed on the face of the kid.

It didn't take long for Aiden's street performance to spread into social media as a lot of people uploaded videos of him online. Because of that, people who were nearby got to know that Aiden was doing a street performance and quickly went to watch it.

After every song, Aiden would talk to the crowd, ask about them and hand out selfies and autographs.

This friendly behaviour made a lot of them feel like that they should go and see the movie Aiden was promoting.

After all, the songs were good, Aiden's acting talent was proven and the movie was not going to be bad if it had won an award.

This was the desired effect Aiden wanted to create.

He knew that just doing social media marketing and going on talk shows would only get generic reactions.

They needed to make people interested in the movie some other way and there was no better way than the lead actor himself performing and asking people to go see his movie if they could.

It was a great way to make people relate to him and get better favorability.

At the same time, it was going to work on creating a wave on social media too. As people posted videos and selfies with Aiden, they got a lot of clicks.

One of the reasons behind it was yesterday's episode of [Searching for the One]. Aiden was still trending on social media for it.

Eternal life movies also helped fan the flames as their Marketing team quickly promoted the videos and selfies in order to make it gain even more publicity. The camera crew that had come with Aiden sent them the recordings and even without editing it, they uploaded it on the social media handles.

The reason they didn't edit it was because they wanted to show more raw footage.

In the end, in just a few hours, it was very successful as more and more posts came about it.

One more thing Aiddn did was to not stay at one place. As soon as he saw too many people gathering, he left to perform on another street.

But this was really just the start.

This marketing campaign was not just for New York. Eternal life movies just wanted to see the reactions at first and after finding out that they were super positive, they quickly began the second part of the plan.

It was to give a street performance in every major city in America.

….

/DreamNote/

Please support this novel with your power stones and golden tickets

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New York, LA, Chicago, San Diego and Austin. For the next few days, Aiden travelled all around America to hold street shows and ask people to watch his movie.

As [30 days of Happiness] was a musical movie, the songs worked like a charm in making people interested in the movie. At the same time, the marketing campaign was a big hit on social media.

A lot of people were hoping that Aiden would come to do a street performance in their city.

Videos of Aiden performing and talking with people became a hit on the internet, and a lot of people appreciated it.

One of them went very viral.

In the clip, Aiden was performing in Chicago when an old lady who was listening to his performance asked him to play an old 70s song that was her favourite.

Without wasting any time, Aiden performed the song for her, making it a sweet moment.

These types of moments were pretty rare on the internet, and it helped the clip gain a lot of popularity.

People were terming Aiden's fan interactions as very polite and sweet.

This move by Aiden and Eternal life movies was helping gain a lot of free publicity for [30 days of Happiness]. A lot of people who witnessed Aiden's street performance and got the pamphlet decided to go watch the movie.

ɴ[0)ᴠᴇʟ The advanced bookings were increasing day by day because of it. .

Sofia and Omar felt like their movie would actually be able to make a big impact at the box office, and smiles were not leaving their faces.

Aiden's fan group had also been active since the [Searching for the One] broadcast. More than 2000 people joined the fan group after the sitcom, making Aiden gain more and more core fans.

When the fan group learned that Aiden was promoting [30 days of Happiness, many of them were excited and happy. Most of them had not been able to catch the movie in Toronto, so they finally had the chance to do it.

[Chuck Norris: So, my advanced booking is finally made for the weekend. Excited to watch [30 days of Happiness]. Is anyone else in the group going?]

[Korean novel regressor: I want to go, but I don't have anyone else to go with. I might feel like yeeting off myself if I find myself in a room full of couples who have come to watch the movie. Can't take risks in rom coms.]

[Bond's 20-year-old girlfriend: The trailer looked cliche except for the songs, so I'm kind of hesitating especially because I know the movie would come out on streaming platforms sooner or later. Although I would catch up with it in the theatres if the initial reviews are great.]

[Young Fruit smiley: I caught up with the movie in Toronto. Really enjoyed it, and I don't think people should worry about the quality as it won a prestigious award. The ending was very sweet, and I would watch it again in the theatres.]

[Spandex lover: If I'm being honest, I was really not interested in watching the movie as I don't like rom coms, but the marketing really made me change my mind. It's a pretty great idea as it's a musical. I might check the movie out because of that.]

[My dog stepped on a bee: Yeah, the marketing has been pretty good. Reminds me of one time when an actor actually performed with a circus crew because his movie was related to that. They broadcasted it on TV, and everyone was like it looked great. I wonder what the movie is about?]

[Moaning Frodo: Do anyone know how many people have already booked the ticket? I wasn't able to book it online in my town.]

[Hollywood Insider: That's mostly because the allocated screens for the movie aren't a lot. So, it would be harder to get tickets for it if it actually got famous. Though, I do see theatre owners increasing the screens in the future.]

[Mother from another brother: I don't think so. [Leap in the Sky] looks better to me, actually. Harold Wood is finally back in the genre he rules, so it would be a good watch. I heard a lot of screens are allocated to that because of that, and it's mostly confirmed that it would be good.]

[Hollywood Insider: You never know if a movie will be good or not until it releases. [Leap in the Sky] could be good or bad, but you will only know after watching it. Neutral audiences are still going to be more interested in [30 days of Happiness] because the product is proven in a film festival.]

[Simping for my boss: It seems like the clash at the box office would be pretty good.]

As the marketing campaign of [30 days of Happiness] was going on, Night Hawk studios weren't happy as they felt like one of their competitors was getting a huge leap above them in terms of public interest.

That's why Rodrigo also decided to change the tactics.

He made Harold and the other cast members visit high schools and colleges to promote the movie. In the movie, Harold played a high school student who was a dancer, so it fitted well with the movie plot.

Because of his teenage fanbase, [Leap in the Sky] was also getting a good amount of anticipation from the public.

"The estimates for the first day aren't bad. 8-10 million is a pretty good opening for a rom-com."

Rodrigo said, looking up at the documents that his assistant had just given him. He was sitting in his office, and his assistant was in front of him.

"Yeah, it's expected to rise up after the first day. Though, a lot depends on the online reviews after the first day. People don't really go to watch movies after critics reviews these days and just wait for common audience reaction."

"That's how it is with social media. Hollywood needs to move with it." Rodrigo muttered, making calculations in his head. "By this rate, the movie could end up anywhere between 100-120 million dollars."

He thought in his mind.

The total budget of [Leap in the Sky] was 30 million dollars which were a bit excessive for a high school rom-com, but the truth was that Rodrigo needed to spend 15 million dollars just to get Harold on board.

They even spent 20 million dollars on marketing, so they needed 50 million dollars at the box office to break even their total budget.

Actually, Rodrigo wasn't worried about it a lot. He was very confident about breaking even and earning a decent profit. More money was going to come from other things like soundtrack and streaming platform deals.

If the movie worked well, it would be easy to get more than 50 million dollars from the streaming platform for the movie.

"What about [30 days of Happiness]? Do you know anything about their advanced bookings and estimates?"

Rodrigo looked up at his assistant.

"The response is pretty good for them. They are probably going to open up at 3-4 million dollars going by the marketing. Then it all depends upon the audience and how many people the leads could pull in the theatres."

"Their lead is nobody. They should not even get 3 million dollars opening." Rodrigo said, frowning, thinking that Leo's movie would surely make a decent profit.

He certainly didn't like that.

"Well, Aiden Silvereye is doing pretty well based on the current market. I heard a lot of studios think he's talented, and they are starting to take him seriously. In the next five years, he could be the—"

The assistant stopped speaking, seeing Rodrigo's glare and coughed.

"Uh, their marketing strategy was a big hit and momentum from Toronto and the songs doing well on charts are helping them a lot."

Rodrigo sighed and nodded, waving his hand to dismiss his assistant.

After his assistant left, he thought to himself.

'Let's see who's movie is going to earn more.'

Days went by pretty fast as Aiden's unofficial street tour came to an end. After making a lot of buzz on social media, the strategy had managed to get a decent amount of pre-bookings for the movie.

At the same time, everyone who was on the internet had heard of the movie in America, so both Eternal life movies and Aiden were anticipating good numbers at the box office.

One of the reasons why Aiden was a bit more excited for the movie release was also because it was his own movie where he was the main character.

That gave a different feeling.

He was even telling everyone he knew to go watch the movie.

One more reason was that he had a share in the movie, so if the movie earned well, Aiden would surely get richer.

Due to his songs doing so well, the endorsements he was doing, and of course, the matter with Aaron Hart, Aiden had already become a millionaire.

But in Hollywood, it was really not a lot.

A lot of stars here earned millions of dollars every month and would also spend it all in the same month to live a luxurious life. Though Aiden was not like that and had little interest in luxuries early in his career, he still needed money.

So, he was hoping that [30 days of Happiness] would do good business, so Aiden could get more money.

It was mainly because of the plans in his mind. He and Wade had discussed a lot about the next step to make Aiden a bigger star, and for that, they needed money.

….

/DreamNote/

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In the middle of bad, cringey and sloppy rom coms, [30 days of Happiness] might be the odd one out.

-American Sun reviews.

For a film with a basic storyline, it shines in its moments with great performances and music elevating the level of it. It's not a bad watch.

-Variety.

[30 days of Happiness] tells Hollywood what to expect from its leading man Aiden Silvereye. He shines in the front with his acting and in the back with his music.

-Hollywood Grant.

One of the better movies to come out this year that might surprise everyone in the theatres.

-Movie Fever.

Katie Brooks might have landed the role that could promote her in the Hollywood hierarchy but the standout point was nonetheless Aiden Silvereye.

-Rotten Apples.

'I told her several times that this is a good movie but in the end, she didn't come.'

A bespectacled guy with brown hair frowned, reading out the reviews on a poster of [30 days of Happiness]. Studios would often pick out the best reviews to attach with the posters to make it look like the movie is really good.

As for the reason why the brown haired guy was frowning, it was because the girl who he had asked to see the movie with him had stood him up.

It was five minutes to the next screening and she wasn't picking up calls, texts were not going and she seemed to have no intention of coming here.

Knowing well that she won't come today, the guy could do nothing but feel disappointed.

'I bought two tickets for nothing it seems.'.

He looked at the two tickets in his hand. It was then that his phone rang as he got a notification. It was his Skygram.

He opened it up and was shocked.

On the screen of his phone, the first post was a photo of the girl who had stood him up. In the photo, she was standing in what looked like a pretty big theater and a guy was holding her hand as they both smiled.

He recognised the guy.

He was a part of the basketball team in his high school and was pretty rich too. Going by the photo, both of them were going to watch [Leap in the Sky].

'Bitch! Fucking bitch!'

The guy couldn't help but curse in his mind. He was feeling stupid for even inviting that girl for a date. She could have just rejected him but she hadn't done that and instead decided to stand him up.

'I even saved money to buy good clothes for today.'

He wasn't able to stop himself from frowning and wondered what he was going to do with the extra ticket in his hand.

It was then a sweet voice called him out.

"Excuse me."

"Ah, yes?" He turned around and for a second, he felt mesmerized as a girl was standing in front of him. She had short brown hair and was wearing jeans and a T-shirt.

Even in those casual clothes, she looked very petty.

"Are you waiting for someone? You have two tickets but you seem to be alone. I actually wanted to watch the same movie but the tickets are already sold out on the counter." The girl said, a bit hesitant in her speech. The brown haired guy was able to tell that she had only approached him after thinking a lot. "If you don't have anyone that you are here with, do you mind selling me the ticket? I'm a big fan of the lead actor, you see."

The brown haired guy glanced at the tickets in his hand and then at the girl.

'Jesus, you are alive!'

He thought in his mind and thanked the god. He didn't have to watch the movie alone anymore.

"Yeah, I could. Actually, the person who was going to watch the movie with me never came." He looked at the girl. "I don't mind giving the ticket to you. We could watch the movie together."

On that day, the brown haired guy got his first girlfriend and to give his thanks, he left a five star review for [30 days of Happiness].

"The occupancy rate is an unbelievable 70 percent in all the theatres on the first day!"

"We earned 4 million dollars on just the first day. Like this, won't we eventually cross 50 million dollars in just two weeks."

"We would earn more than that. Most of the audience reviews are good and a lot of teenagers are liking it."

"At this rate, we might recover the production and marketing budget in a few days."

In the Marketing team office in Eternal life movies, employees were keeping an eye on the comments on social media and checking up on the collections of the first day.

The box office collection of the first day was as estimated 4 million dollars but the good news was that the audience reviews and comments have started to come out and they were highly positive.

It meant that the word of mouth was surely going to spread.

It opened at 6 at the North American box office rankings. For the record, [Leap in the Sky] has opened up at 3 with 7 million dollars on the first day.

The top spot was taken by a superhero movie about a guy who had the power of a vampire and loved cringey catchphrases. The second spot was taken by the third movie of a super successful zombie action franchise.

Both of these movies have already been released two months ago but are still ruling the rankings.

Though, there were definitely chances of an upset in the coming days.

It should be noted that the budget of the movie was only 5 million dollars and the marketing had only cost an additional 5 million dollars. It was like that because the majority of the marketing was handled by Aiden himself.

Otherwise, marketing these costs a lot of money.

The streams on the soundtrack and the physical copies sold had already gotten a lot of the budget back, so in just some days, the movie was going to break even and after that, all the money would be profit.

"It looks like everyone is working hard."

The door of the office opened, revealing Sofia who had come with a bright smile on her face, obviously happy to see a good number of people excited in the movie. Behind her, Aiden also walked in with Wade following him.

Every employee became excited seeing him even though they have gotten used to seeing him around the office.

"We are getting very positive reviews. Critics are calling [30 days of Happiness] a sleeper hit and a movie with one of the best soundtracks, so the atmosphere is pretty good."

Sofia nodded when one of the employees said that.

"It seems like we are going to make a lot of money this time." Sofia said then turned to Aiden. "All thanks to your marketing idea."

"It was just an idea I suddenly got. I'm happy it worked out."

Aiden sat down on a seat and one of the employees excitedly opened her mouth.

"It worked like magic! Look at this graph. People's interest in the movie was at 56 percent before and now it's over 135 percent, at least on social media and it's just increasing."

Aiden stared at the complicated charts that the employee was showing him. It truly looked like his marketing idea truly struck a chord with the audience.

"I'm hoping it goes higher. If you all want me to do something, tell me. My schedule is free these days."

Aiden said, smiling. He was here at the office to check up on the box office numbers and how the movie was received.

Fortunately, everything was going great.

"Actually, there's something we wanted you to do. It's not a lot and you don't even need to do a lot. It's just for some free marketing from the tabloids."

"What exactly?" Aiden raised an eyebrow.

"It involves both you and Katie…"

Outside a theatre in Los Angeles, a few high school students were lining up against the ticket counter, asking for tickets of [30 days of Happiness].

"Hey, old man, we need tickets for [30 days of Happiness]."

The guy against the counter squinted his eyes at the students and frowned.

'Who are you calling an old man? I'm still young!'

He thought in his mind but knew that he needed to be polite.

"I'm sorry. All the tickets are already sold out. The tickets for the next two days are sold out, so you could only watch it after that."

"Can't something be done?" A scrawny guy asked.

"No, I don't really have the power to do anything. Why don't you guys watch something else? Like [Leap in the Sky]. If you want some fantasy, [It's Morbin time!] is still running in the theatres."

In his words, the high school students frowned. They have only come here after hearing very good things about the movie. But they can't get a screening of it.

That made them upset.

"We don't want that."

"I heard [Leap in the Sky] is bad. My friend didn't like it."

"I won't mind another screening of [It's Morbin time!] actually. Just for jokes."

The high school students talked among themselves and at that moment, a lady who was hearing the entire conversation from a distance walked towards the ticket counter.

"Can't you just get more screenings of [30 days of Happiness]? I saw [Leap in the Sky] getting way more screenings. Just get another screening if there's so many people wanting to watch it."

"Actually, I don't have the power to do it. We need to contact the studio for that."

"Then do it."

"We are already in contact with other movies."

The employee replied as best as he could but it just made the high school students feel much worse. It looks like nothing could be done.

It was then that a guy walked ahead.

"We demand more screenings for [30 days of Happiness]."

ɴ[0)ᴠᴇʟ Hearing that, other students also started chanting the same.

"Yeah, we demand more screenings!"

"More screenings!"

"More screenings!"

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote this novel with your power stones and golden tickets

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As [Leap in the Sky] and [30 days of Happiness] were released on the same, there was no way there won't be any comparisons between the two movies.

Especially because the genres of both the movies were the same. Even the early reviews of both movies have come out good.

One of them had already proven itself in a big film festival and the other was applauded as a bright and lovable film by critics in the preview screenings.

But when both movies were released, reality came out.

On the first day, [30 days of Happiness] was liked by a lot of people, especially among the age group of 16-25. Sadly, the same can't be said about [Leap in the Sky].

Even though the movie got a lot of interest initially, a lot of people didn't enjoy it as much as they had thought.

The storyline of it was pretty good with it being the story of a high school student who had aspirations to be a dancer but his father always wanted him to become a doctor as he came from a family of renowned doctors.

The romantic development of the movie was its core with the main character falling for the dancer of a rival team that his team was competing against. It wasn't something too philosophical or deep.

Just a very simple storyline.

A lot of times that would have been enough for the audience to have a good time but the execution of it was very sloppy.

The comedy didn't land a lot and the movie tried to go into the territory of misunderstandings to cause funny situations but the audience was already tired of such tropes that lacked innovation.

One of the reasons behind it was also that normally after this, drama would ensue and in this movie, it wasn't well executed. .

The characters sounded funny on paper but the performances weren't convincing. For example, there was a character of a professor who was a sex addict and there were few gags to showcase it in a fun way but they never landed.

That's why, the audience reviews were pretty harsh on the movie.

"Harold Wood should really think more about his career. At least work with good directors If you are labelling yourself as the best rom com actor."

"I watched the movie because critics said it's good but my god, it was bad. Those comedy movies released on DVD back in the day were way better."

"Is it only me who thought that Harold Wood looked weird as a high schooler? He has two kids, so I can't imagine him like that. The female lead looked too unreal too because of the choppy editing. I should not have watched it."

"Don't watch [Leap in the Sky] no matter what. It just tries hard to be a great rom com but the problem lies in just that. The movie tries but never becomes that."

These types of reviews from the people who have watched the movie were pretty common on social media sites. At the same time, a lot of people were also bashing the critics who gave the movie good ratings.

The truth was that Night Hawk studios had only promoted the paid reviews that they have done and a lot of bad ones were concealed because of that.

At the same time, people also noticed other things like how the screens for [30 days of Happiness] were too few and how [Leap in the Sky] had gotten most of the screens.

This problem came out in the public eye when a video of some high school students protesting for more shows was uploaded on the internet.

In the comment section, a lot of people talked about the same problem.

[30 days of Happiness] was received very well by the public, so a lot of people were trying to get a ticket and all of them had problems such as the theatres being full already.

So, there was public outrage against it.

[Girl with glasses: Why are there no screens available for [30 days of Happiness] in my area. It's very annoying, especially because I really want to watch the movie.]

[Cornhub fan: I'm facing the same problem. Every ticket sold in the area. I asked the theater to get more screens but they said they were bound by contract. It's very annoying when this happens.]

[Karma's grandma: I guess I would wait for the movie to come on Zetflix. No point in trying to get a ticket if screenings are so few.]

[Weed smoking Pope: I heard the theatre chains gave more screens to other movies thinking this one won't do well but the audience response is pretty good, so they must be regretting now. I know the world is harsh but at least in cinema, we should promote better stories than big names.]

[Toxic Sparrow user: Hollywood blocks good movies from earning a lot always. They only care about big franchises and universe movies now.]

[Dreams of publishing a book: I didn't know this was going on. Thankfully, I was able to book tickets for my parents and me early on. They liked the songs and wanted to go see the movie, so it became a family outing.]

[Cats are our owners: I'm pretty sure they are going to increase the screens in a few days, depending on the public interest and box office. Theatre chains normally do this. It would help if people could tag the theatre chains and tell them to get more screenings.]

[Smoking cigarettes to look cool: We want more screenings!]

Like that, a lot of people were commenting about the issue and some were even tagging the social media handles of theatres in their locality for more screenings.

Eternal life studios also released a statement saying that they would renegotiate a contract with the theatres for more screenings because of too many requests.

As the movie was doing so well at the box office, every single employee was very happy. If this movie had failed, they would have been unemployed, so it was a very concerning matter for them.

But now everything was fine.

On the second day, [30 days of Happiness] earned 5.5 million dollars, an increase in the numbers. On the third, the number went to 6.4 million dollars, making it collectively earn 15.9 million dollars in just three days, already recovering all the budget of it.

This was just the start.

"I feel like we are on a secret mission."

"It does feel like that."

ɴ[0)ᴠᴇʟ Aiden said to the smiling Katie. She seemed to be in a good mood due to the movie doing really well. They were currently sitting in Aiden's car which was parked outside a theatre.

"Okay, now that we are here, let's hope everything goes well. Eternal life movies have already ticked the paparazzi about us visiting a theater. So, expect a few of them lurking around."

"Let's hope they take good photos."

Katie said, getting out of his car.

'You really have to do a lot of things for your own movie.'

Aiden took a deep breath thinking that the movie business was pretty interesting. The marketing team of Eternal life movies have asked Aiden and Katie to go to a few theatres together, so paparazzi could click their photos together.

These photos would then appear in tabloids and other news outlets, getting more publicity for the movie.

Apparently, it was a common tactic used in a lot of movies, especially rom coms. Media anyway thinks that any actors working in a rom com would eventually end up dating.

It was true to an extent but they had a habit of making the actors a couple even before anything is confirmed.

The marketing team wanted to use that to promote the movie a bit more.

As Aiden and Katie were both single, they didn't have any problem with it, so currently, both of them were walking into a theater to watch [30 days of Happiness].

"You know this makes me imagine the time when both of us were struggling. We used to go to watch movies like this." Aiden said then laughed. "More like I was watching the movie and you were busy imagining yourself in the lead role and saying how you could do it better."

"Hey, I could have actually done it better." Katie said, slapping his shoulder a bit. "Anyway, this is surreal too. Our movie is running in the theatre and we are going to watch it."

"That's progress from watching other people's movies."

Aiden said and both of them walked to the ticket counter. A lot of other people were also there and it looked like a screening of [30 days of Happiness] was just about to end.

"Can you give two tickets to [30 days of Happiness]?"

"Yeah, that would be—"

The female employee who was handling the counter widened her eyes seeing the two people in front of them. For a moment, she felt like her eyes were projecting an illusion.

"Are, are you two really? Oh my god! I loved your movies." She squeaked in excitement. "I didn't expect you two to come here like this. Wait, are you on a date?"

They didn't answer that question and the female employee nodded like she understood everything.

"Can you give me an autograph? We would be very glad if we could sign the posters too."

She asked and Aiden nodded.

"We could do that after watching the movie. We are just here to see the audience reaction." Aiden said and the female employee quickly got them the tickets.

It was then that other people there also started recognising both Aiden and Katie. Some of them were already taking their photos.

Their plan had started to work.

….

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote this novel with your power stones and golden tickets

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Chapter 176 Ready for Battle

Aiden Silvereye and Katie Brooks spotted together outside a theatre. Is this the start of a new couple in Hollywood?

-Jks magazine.

[30 days of Happiness] earned 7.7 million dollars on its fourth day. The movie is becoming a new rage among the public and is now at the third spot in the North American box office rankings. At the same time, there are rumors of the lead couple in the movie to be dating.

-Hollywood Love.

Old interview clips of Katie Brooks coming out. She had once talked about her relationship with Aiden Silvereye and how they know each other from their time of being struggling actors.

-The Box.

[Leap in the Sky] heading towards becoming another flop from Night Hawk studios. Theater occupancy went from 68 percent to 46 percent on the fourth day. The films struggling with a bad plot and its clash with a better rom com movie.

-The Point.

The success of [30 days of Happiness] and failure of [Leap in the Sky] implies that audience wants to see good stories instead of stars and in this era, small movies only need good scripts and performances.

-Hollywood Weekly.

These types of articles were coming in everyday since the release of the movie. They increased after Katie and Aiden were spotted together. .

Even if they didn't say it, the media was already making them as a couple and the effect was great.

It was to the point where Wade was joking around that he and Katie should really become a couple, so that he could enjoy the popularity that would come through the relationship. In the past, a lot of Hollywood actors had become a couple and that had just increased their popularity.

They would go on to do ads together and the media and people would be crazy about them.

From here, the term 'Power couple' has been generated.

Sadly, Aiden had no interest in it and Katie wasn't really his type in the first place. He saw her as a good friend and nothing more.

On the other hand, as Eternal life movies was celebrating, Night Hawk studios had the atmosphere of a funeral. No one in the office was talking as they were too depressed by the public reaction to their movie.

Everyday, less and less audience were coming to watch their movie, lowering the collections. Even with more than double screens of [30 days of Happiness, they were struggling a lot.

On the first day, it had opened to a decent 7 million dollars but on the second day, the collections had not increased. It stayed around 6.7 million dollars but on the third day, it went straight to 5 million dollars.

On the fourth day, the status was way worse with the movie only being able to earn around 3 million dollars.

Hollywood analysts were already saying that the movie was going to be taken out from the theatres in a week, making it a big disaster in the eyes of people.

Due to the bad reception, theatre chains were already talking about lowering the screens for the movie and giving more screens to [30 days of Happiness]. They were just catering to public demand and thinking of profit, but it was a pretty big blow to Rodrigo.

Sofia told Aiden that in a few days, the screens for [30 days of Happiness] were going to increase.

Even Harold Wood, who had done this movie just for the 15 million dollars payment, was in a bad mood because of it. His movies had been constantly failing and critics were calling him out to reinvent his script choices and acting.

Even his fanbase seemed to have grown up, not wanting to see him in a high school rom com. But with a disaster flop, it was going to be pretty hard for him to get his next role.

Unless he lowers his fees.

As all this was happening, Aiden's fan base was pretty much in an uproar. Even they did not expect that the movie was going to be this good. A lot of them were already recommending it to their family and friends.

ɴ[0)ᴠᴇʟ [Shota hater: I finally watched [30 days of Happiness]. Felt like the middle part of the movie was pretty slow but overall, it was really great. Especially the last scene. Man, Aiden should get his own concert.]

[The guy under your bed: He should get one. I would buy tickets no matter how expensive they are. The songs in the movie completely mesmerised me. I even ordered the soundtrack album straight after the movie.]

[Avacadorable: Is it only me who liked Claire and other characters more in the movie? Arthur seemed like another wimpy protagonist getting his courage after going through events. I understand it's coming of age but I expected more. Music was the part that saved the movie for me.]

[Sleepy Bee: Well, one can't expect every movie to be different and unique. A movie needs to entertain and I was entertained and entranced by it. Would probably watch it again once it comes on streaming platforms. I really wonder if Aiden and Katie are actually dating.]

As the people in the group were talking, the group leader 'Skyneves' suddenly posted a short clip and the link to a review.

[Skyneves: Guys, check it out. I found something interesting. Go through that clip and then read that review.]

When the group members clicked the link, they were directed to a short video posted on Skygram. It seemed to be from a press conference for [30 days of Happiness].

In the clip, they saw a reporter asking a very rude question to Katie and then Aiden defending her and calling the reporter rude straightforwardly.

The clip was pretty short but the visual quality and audio quality was pretty good, so everyone was able to get the context. Whoever watched the clip felt that the reporter was very judgemental and was asking absurd questions, thinking that he could just ask anything.

They felt very angry towards him.

The way Aiden defended Katie made them feel good and appreciate him. At the same time, some people thought that he was being a protective boyfriend due to the rumours of both of them dating.

After watching the clip, they clicked on the second link which was a review. Apparently, it was from the same reporter/critic.

It was a review posted in Vanity Magazine and most of them already knew how big of a magazine it was.

But when they read the whole review, they felt that it was too harsh.

The review talked about how the movie lacked in cinematography and the soundtrack was pretty average with bad performances and even advised Aiden to not venture into acting.

Reading the review, everyone was able to tell that the review was by the same critic who had been humiliated by Aiden after asking a rude question.

[Skyneves: As you see, this review is a joke. The critic has surely made it harsh because of the humiliation he got from Aiden. This is simply unfair when he was in the wrong in the first place. We should fight back against it as this guy is from a big magazine. We can't let them just get away with anything.]

[Chad Putin: I agree. These types of people should be dragged publicly for an exec— I mean a trial. Anyway, my fellow fan group members. Let us raise our voices against injustice.]

[Moaning Frodo: Yeah, let's fight back. Does anyone know where to get a gun and give me the address? I feel like I could do this alone.]

[Reporter Huff: I think we could do that without any blood. Don't forget Gandhi's teachings.]

[Hollywood Insider: I'm going to enjoy this with some chips and beers. #LookingForEntertainment]

At the same time, in Rodrigo's office, he was on a call with Harold Wood's agency. Harold belonged to SGA, one of the biggest agencies in Hollywood.

He had a frustrated expression on him and even veins could be seen on his neck. At the same time, he was sweating a lot.

"Look, you can't expect me to take the losses myself. I lost too much because this movie isn't working out. We sold it entirely on Harold's stardom but you know the results."

Rodrigo said and the agent that he was talking to just shook his head.

"We can't do anything about it. Harold's job was only acting and it's not on the contract either. He already did whatever was in his contract."

"He did a shit job at acting. That's why, the movie is flopping so hard." Rodrigo raised his voice. "Do you know how much losses am I going to get from this? The investors are going to suck my blood dry."

"I know you are in a tough spot but the streaming rights and the soundtrack would cover it—"

"It won't cover shit!"

Rodrigo shouted. Even streaming platforms were choosy about which movie gets on their app. Even if they want a bigger libraby, most of them want to be known by their quality and not quantity.

Moreover, even if he go for a deal with them, it won't pay as much money he needed.

"Look, I need SGA to help me out with this. Think from a long term benefit. You all should help me out this time as Harold is responsible for the movie flopping."

"He's not."

"Haven't you read the reviews, you crazy fucker?!"

He cursed, unable to stop himself. Hollywood was a pretty stressful place because in just a couple of months, million turns into nothing.

For the next half an hour, Rodrigo was on the call with the agent from SGA but nothing come out of it. The agency didn't wanted anything to do with Night Hawk studios or Rodrigo.

He can't do anything legally, so Rodrigo was only left cussing.

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'I have a very uneasy feeling in my heart today.'

Gordon Lee, the critic and reporter who had been humiliated by Aiden thought as he sipped on his coffee.

It was early morning and it seemed like a good day but Gordon had a bad feeling since the time he had woken up. Trying to ignore it, he just went on to his usual routine which was to look at the collections of movies running at the box office and check up on other things related to Hollywood.

But when he opened his laptop and logged into Sparrow, he was surprised.

There were a lot of people tagging him on a post and it was almost like one of his tweets had gone viral. He checked his phone and found out that there were a lot of messages on it. Both from his family and colleagues.

Wondering what was going on, he opened up one of the messages.

[Dude, you are fucked. People are trolling you hard.]

When he read that, Gordon made a confused expression. What was going on? Why was he fucked? Who was trolling him? Thinking of all these questions, he focused on his laptop screen and found out that one of his tweets had really gone viral with over 1000 comments on it.

Clicking on it, he saw that it was his review of [30 days of Happiness].

'This doesn't look good.'

Gordon thought, gulping his saliva.

Since the Toronto film festival, he hasn't been in a good mood. Because of Aaron Hart's agent giving him money, he had decided to write a bad review for the movie even if he knew that the movie was actually good.

His decision was also due to the fact that Aiden had humiliated him in front of other reporters and critics.

But after the movie had won the People's choice award, Gordon was scared. In his heart, he had started regretting his decision to post such a review and take money. He was even guilty for the type of question he had asked Katie. .

Time was pretty powerful to make people realise their mistakes and the same had happened with Gordon.

Sadly, it was too late.

Not only did the movie win a big award at a major film festival, it even became a box office hit. In just a week, it had recovered all the budget and was just starting to grow strong.

At this rate, the movie might even go on to earn over 100 million dollars at the box office which was a huge deal for independent movies like this.

In a way, it was the dream of every independent movie to achieve something like this.

'I'm really fucked.'

Gordon thought, looking up at the comments. Like he had thought, the tweet had gone viral, possibly due to the great box office numbers of [30 days of Happiness].

The fans of the movie had found his review very odd and a lot of them were even posting the clip of Aiden defending Katie. In the comment section of the review, people were cursing him and calling him a paid critic who doesn't have a sense of reviewing movies.

When Gordon read out a few comments, he felt suffocated.

[Knock knock man: These types of critics should be banned. They review movies not on the deserving criterias but on emotions and whether the actor behaves nicely with him. Fucking critic!]

[The man from North Korea: These types of critics would be burned in my country. Sadly, there's no movies.]

[Moaning Frodo: Vanity Magazine should fire him. I'm pretty sure he got paid to do the review. He gave 4.5 stars to [Leap in the Sky]. That's impossible until he's like a huge simp for Harold Wood and had his face on his pillow covers. Sounds very creepy.]

[Bieber buns: Dude, shouldn't this guy publish an apology or something. There's clearly something very fishy here and it stinks. He got roasted and thought to take revenge by a review.]

[ZhangYe69: Professionalism is really dying in this industry. If only these people get punished for letting ego speak more than what is right, then the world would be a better place.]

[Gossip Aunty from next door: I would lose all respect from Vanity Magazine if they actually didn't fire him out after this. They should at least launch an investigation into it.]

[Playboy Spidey: Damn, Aiden really roasted him out and from the looks of it, he and Katie were already dating back then. He really protected her from a rude reporter.]

[Aiden's wife: I have said this before and I would say it again. These critic's forte isn't reviewing movies. And for fuck sake, Aiden is not dating anyone. At least not so early. Stop the Katie rumours already when it's not confirmed.]

[Chad Putin: I think it's time to contact the KGB.]

Going through each of the comments, Gordon kept sighing. Holding his head, he wondered what to do now. So many people were bashing him online and he had lost all credibility.

He was literally being cancelled over the internet.

All this was hurting his head a lot as he struggled to think of a solution to this mess.

"Should I just delete the review? No people would have already taken screenshots. These Sparrow users are too good at trolling. My internet life would be hell because of them."

As he muttered that, his phone suddenly rang. He thought that it would be from a colleague who would be calling to ask about his situation due to the drama online but instead, it was from the Editor in chief of Vanity Magazine.

With trembling hands, he picked up the call and an angry voice came out.

"What the hell were you thinking posting such a review? Did you really get paid to do that and that viral clip?! What will we do with that? You are ruining the magazine image."

His heart sank hearing that but he quickly replied.

"They passed the review, so I thought it was fine."

"It must be an intern. Even if it's not, I would deal with that later. Tell me clearly, did you get paid for writing a negative review?"

Gordon wasn't able to reply to that. What could he even say? If he really said he took money, then he was surely going to get fired from the company.

He can't afford unemployment.

"Tell me quickly! Just know that we could always check your bank statements!"

"Ah, yeah, I took money." He finally said, having left no option. "It was the first time I did it and it—"

"Don't give excuses. People are already accusing you of being a paid critic and trolling the magazine. We are going to take out your review from the issue and come to the office. I will deal with you myself."

After that, the call ended and Gordon's shoulders dropped down.

'What have I done to myself and my career?'

He thought as he felt like punching himself a few months ago when he was writing that paid review.

Now, nothing could be done.

His career was almost over.

Vikings publishing office, California.

In a meeting room, a lot of people were gathered to go through the manuscripts that have reached the final round. Over 500 manuscripts have been submitted to them over the course of a month by established and budding authors.

Only 250 of them had been left after the first round and only 100 after the second. After the third round, the number dropped down to just 10.

Today, the number was going to drop even further down as only 3 novels would be left with some bonus prizes for those who missed out on the main prizes but were good novels nonetheless.

"These years too many good novels were submitted. The quantity was a lot too." A guy with a black moustache said.

"It's mainly because the winner of last year got adapted into a movie. Authors always dream of getting their work adapted into movies, so many were submitted just for that."

Another guy who was a senior editor replied.

"Yeah, I got a lot of rom coms during the first round because of that. I got exhausted after a while."

"Yeah, but only 10 novels are left. We need to select a winner from all this. Let's start the meeting I guess."

The senior editor said and like that, the meeting started. They began by talking about the novels one by one. What they liked about a particular novel and what they didn't like.

If they were worth publishing and how good the story and writing was. All this was discussed one by one as they went through each novel.

In the end, a voting process was going to decide the winner.

"This novel is pretty good. The writing style is something I have seen before. Pretty sure it's from an established author who's entering the competition through a pen name."

"You get a lot of those in the last rounds. Somehow, it's pretty unfair to the true rookies."

"Yeah but this year, we have monster rookies. Check this novel out. It's called Behind the scenes. The writing style is very fresh and I really liked it. I'm pretty sure it's from a new writer."

A guy with blonde hair said, picking up the manuscript of Behind the scenes. Other people nodded hearing his words.

They have all read it and have liked it a lot.

"I think that's one of the top three."

"Yeah, the story was flawless, especially the scenes of the shooting. It's almost like the writer is a director himself."

"The main plot is very noble too. The last chance of a struggling actor living in LA. A lot of people would like it due to the themes of the novel. It was pretty realistic."

"What is the writer's name? I forgot it."

A guy asked and the senior editor replied without blinking.

"Aiden Silver."

…

/DreamNote/ (11 aug)

There was a blackout in my area, so couldn't upload and write properly. Only one chapter for now, 2 chapters will be uploaded later tonight once I have finished writing them

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As days went on, the box office collection of [30 days of Happiness] also kept increasing.

In just the first week of release, it grossed 35.9 million dollars at the box office. It was a massive figure for an independent rom com and people were already guessing that the movie was going to enter the 100 million club in a month and a half before eventually slowing down.

After all, the target audience was teenagers and young adults who would have already watched the movie by then and it would be hard to get more out of them.

But it was undeniable that the movie was a massive success. After gobbling up a lot of screens from [Leap in the Sky, it managed to top the North American box office rankings.

It was the first case of its type this year.

After all, it was very rare for independent movies to top the box office. One of the reasons it had happened was because no big movie had released in October and it would only be in December that a big studio movie would release.

Till then, [30 days of Happiness] was going to rule the box office.

Not only that, overseas box office and streaming platform deals would eventually make it gross 200 million dollars. There was already demand for it in Europe and Canada for a full release.

A rom com was the easiest to sell no matter what country.

Omar as the producer of the movie and Eternal life movies as the distributor were going to make a lot of profit from this and Omar had even told Aiden, "Thanks to you, I could grow my investment firm into a full fledged production house."

Apparently, that was his ultimate goal when he had left his family business to start investing in movies.

Sofia, the CEO of Eternal life was also unable to contain excitement and was already handing out bonuses to her staff. As for Leo, his life had changed the most. .

From an assistant director to Lincoln, he went on to become a 'People's choice award winner director whose movie had been a big hit at the box office'. His stocks were rising everyday in Hollywood and he even said that a few studios had contacted him for his next movie.

He had directly become one of the most promising young directors in Hollywood.

As for Aiden, media houses were hyping him like never before. Truthfully, Wade also had a hand in it as he had contacted reporters he knew to write more about Aiden.

As the story of the movie's success was interesting enough, they were also willing to write about him.

It was then that the cover of Hollywood Weekly came out with Aiden's picture on the front. The famous magazine has written the headline, "The next big thing in Hollywood" for him.

In the interview with Katherine, Aiden had talked about the details of what had gone on when he had signed [30 days of Happiness] and how he knew Leo from his debut movie. Those parts were pretty highlighted in the interview and instantly became famous.

The statement that Aiden was the one who told Leo to make it a musical to show more of Arthur's characteristics made a lot of people think that this movie only worked because of Aiden.

Everyone knew that he had made the soundtrack and his marketing tactic was what made people more interested in the movie initially, so Aiden got most of the praises.

It was so much that the movie instantly started becoming recognised because of him.

Wade and Aiden didn't have a hand on it and it happened pretty naturally but no one was complaining. Leo himself had talked about it in multiple interviews.

A famous director who watched the movie even commented, "Oscars are blind if they don't nominate Aiden for the best soundtrack category. He's a brilliant guy."

Of course, Aiden didn't think a lot about the comment as for him, Oscars was far away and something he wasn't really concerned about.

One thing he had learned in his life was that rather than awards, it was way more important to get in the hearts of people. Awards might give one a lot of recognition and acclaim but if one is in the hearts of people, he would always be loved by the audience.

Not everything was good obviously.

Night Hawk studios who were going through a loss now were apparently pretty furious at Rodrigo for letting go of Leo and [30 days of Happiness].

In anger, one of their producers talked about it, "[30 days of Happiness] was going to be our movie. Everything was set. Just the director wanted Aiden to play the lead and there was a clash because he was a new actor. There were concerns because no one knew if he could get people to come to the theatres. Apparently, he could and he's very creative about it. It's pretty much our bad luck that we choose not to take a risk."

These types of statements easily made tabloid headlines and with all the attention on Aiden after the movie, one thing was clearly set.

Just with three movies and one role in a sitcom, Aiden had proven in just a year that he was here to stay and maybe, it won't be wrong to stay that he was now the most sought after young actor.

Especially because of the three dimensional skills he possessed.

A studio executive from Zero International even said, "We would love to work with him on a project. He made his debut in our movie, so if we need a young actor for a role, there's a lot of chances we would go for him."

That was a lot of praise from an industry that makes it hard for an actor to stay relevant for a long time.

So, it also added pressure on Aiden to choose his next projects very carefully.

Was he going to go for another risky and niche project? A horror movie or a fantasy? Or was he going to go the safe route and star in a lot of comedy and rom coms to go on a similar route such as Harold Wood.

There were also chances that Aiden might just start getting supporting roles in big blockbusters. Kind of like Katie when she was at the start of her career.

Options were endless and it was only on Aiden as to what he wanted to choose.

In a cafe, Aiden was smiling while signing off autographs for a couple who approached him when he entered the cafe.

"We are big fans of your movie."

"Yeah, we watched it yesterday and loved it."

To the compliments, Aiden just politely nodded. He had gotten a lot of them recently but everytime, he felt like he had achieved something big.

They left after getting their autographs and Aiden turned to look at Wade who was quietly sipping on his coffee.

"You sure look to be enjoying your success." Wade said.

"Yeah, it kind of hits differently than when my songs get popular."

"That's just the feeling of a hit movie. Your hit movie." Wade put down the cup of coffee and decided to start the main topic.

"Gordon Lee is probably going to get fired. How do you feel about it?"

"Complicated. I know he deserved it but his career got ruined."

Aiden said honestly. It was a very conflicting feeling for him but he also knew that Gordon had done the wrong thing and had not apologized for it.

In a way, it was just karma.

"This is Hollywood and it's more common than you think. Just not everyday it makes headlines. A lot of actors lose work daily and a lot of studio employees get fired because of something that wasn't their fault. At least Gordon is just paying the price for his actions."

Wade said and both of them talked about it for a bit more. Apparently, Vanity Magazine published a whole statement about it and had taken down the review of Gordon from their site and they would change to the magazine issue too.

Though, they never said that the review was paid but that was not something a big Hollywood magazine was going to accept.

Instead, they put everything on Gordon and acted like they didn't know a thing about it.

After talking about Gordon, they started discussing a very important topic.

"Anyway, I think I might be able to get a good team for you. I got a real estate agent to show me the places we could rent for the team workplace. We are not going to make them live together right?"

"No, I don't really think that's a good way."

"Some celebs do that for efficiency. They are more of those narcissistic fools who don't really care about their employees."

"I don't really want to be that."

Aiden said, shaking his head.

He was on his own when he had gotten selected in X-Star. After that, he had gotten [Shadows of Wars] and then, Wade had joined him, making his career trajectory very smoother.

After Wade became his agent, Aiden was never out of work and even if in the starting movie offers were low, his agent had used his connections to get him more.

For a whole year, Wade had handled everything on his own but that can't go on for longer.

With Aiden's music career booming and [30 days of Happiness] being such a big hit, it was practically impossible for Wade to handle everything on his own.

He was already overworked during the Toronto film festival.

That's why, they had decided to finally get their own personal team. A team that was going to revolve around Aiden to make him a bigger star and was absolutely necessary to increase his stardom.

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote with power stones and golden tickets

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Behind each celebrity, there's a fully-staffed team or an agency.

A star is one person and can't possibly do everything it takes to propel their image into the cultural stratosphere. The celebrity maintains the status and fame, but the team or agency surrounding them makes the decisions and actually gets things done.

These are the people people need to reach out to when trying to work with celebrities.

In a way, celebrity teams are the invisible army that stands behind the celebrity.

No matter if one is a big or small celebrity, everyone has a team or an agency. It was because they were a necessity if one wanted to succeed in any entertainment industry.

Normally, actors would join agencies as it was way easier to navigate through their career with the connections and power of an agency but a lot of actors also had personal teams.

These were mostly set up by already established and big stars as young and small stars are gobbled up by agents from big agencies early on.

It is only after they are more stable in their careers that they try to get out of the agency.

One of the reasons behind it was personal meetings were way better than agencies in comfort and the actor had way more power over them.

For Aiden, the case was very different.

He had never joined an agency and was always on his own. So, it was way more important for him to get a team. These days, he was anyway thinking of lowering Wade's workload.

For a while, he had only seen Wade on phone calls because of too many trying to access him for a gig or an interview for Aiden. .

That's why, Aiden himself had proposed the idea of getting a team.

Wade had immediately agreed with it. Infact, he was thinking about it himself. That's where the 2 million that Aiden got from Aaron Hart's agency came in handy.

With that money, it was easy to hire good team members and get a rented apartment for the team.

They needed a big space for everyone to work well and handle everything related to Aiden, so he could just focus on singing and acting.

Some celebrity teams have like 50-60 members and it was almost like a one man studio but Aiden didn't need that many people. He only needed a small team that he could be comfortable with.

"So, for the team, we are really going to need specialists in your case as you are both an actor and singer. Some people would still be common like stylists and makeup artists. Although we would only need them for special occasions."

"You contacted Miranda?"

Aiden asked and Wade nodded his head. Miranda was the makeup artist that he had worked with on the sets of [Black Saints]. He had gotten a good relationship with her back then and he remembered that she had mentioned that she worked as a stylist too.

So, he had asked Wade to contact her for the job.

"I contacted her and she agreed to do it but we need to talk about the details and other things. Stylists and makeup artists are not permanent members, so it would be more like we would pay her separately instead of a fixed salary."

Wade explained. The conversation went on with them talking about the other members such as the social media manager who would handle everything that would be posted on Aiden's social media accounts. They also talked about the Business manager who was mostly an accountant who would take care of Aiden's money and how he was spending it.

There was also the Tour manager, the marketing guy and a personal legal counsel for all the legal matters.

Wade was handling everything till now but as Aiden was going to go big from now on, he needed to expand his team.

"That's a lot of people we are gathering." Aiden said, sipping on his coffee, wondering if he was going to get along with everyone.

"Yeah, teams are like that. Anyway, I know a lawyer from a Trust Law agency. He could be the guy we are looking for in legal matters. Some celebs need a lot of lawyers."

"I have seen that." Aiden chuckled. "We don't need a manager right?"

"No, because I'm handling that. Anyway, I'm with you more than I'm with my girlfriend. I'm the perfect manager and agent."

Wade frowned, looking at Aiden who could only scratch the back of his head. His career was pretty tiring and he knew that well. Because of it, Wade was also not getting a lot of free time.

"Don't worry. My professional life is way better currently. I prefer working with you rather than someone who doesn't take things seriously and is just after the money and fame."

"I'm after fame too." Aiden replied.

"Yeah but you know how to handle it. You are not a moron. Fame is pretty much that alcohol that intoxicates you. Money does the same and you need to have a lot of control to be the one to control the money and fame instead of vice versa."

As someone who had worked as a shadow of celebrities, Wade knew how powerful fame and money was, especially because after one gets a lot of fans, it was normal to get arrogant.

Thankfully, Aiden's legs were still on the ground.

"Anyway, I think we should go visit the real estate agent office and check the apartment I found. If you like it, let's get it for the team."

At those words, Aiden couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

"Have you even found a team? Don't we only have Miranda on board yet?"

"Yeah, but I know some people. Some I worked with before. They are out of work currently and I think they would fit straight right in. I contacted them last night about it and by this point, they would already have made their decision."

As Aiden was busy in setting up a team for himself, Viking publishing released the name of the books that had made up to the top three.

Over 500 books were submitted but in the end, only three of them were left. Those were the best books that Vikings publishing was going to publish.

Though, the final winner was only going to be announced in the award ceremony. It was to maintain the interest of the people.

These books were A devil in the city, Dumb people and Behind the scenes.

Yes, Aiden's book had been chosen for the top three.

Out of all these three books, two were from rookie authors. The author of A devil in the city was someone who had participated in poem competitions a lot and it was his first time writing a book and Behind the scenes was by Aiden who had just entered with the pen name "Aiden Silver".

Obviously, it wasn't a lot creative but Aiden had still decided to go with it.

Only the author of Dumb people was known to the public as a very established author had revealed on his social media that he entered the contest with a pen name.

A lot of people thought that he was just waiting for the results before revealing himself as the author.

It was guaranteed that he wouldn't have revealed himself if he had not come out in the top three.

At least that's what people thought as they barraged the author's social media with comments like that. There were also comments congratulating the author and wishing him best of luck.

The author had a few famous works in the past, so he had a good following.

'It looks like the reception is pretty good.'

Zac Anderson, British author of 34 years, looked at the comment section of his Sparrow post in which he had revealed himself as the author of Dumb people. Some people were writing bad comments as in the past, he had posted some things that had offended a lot of people.

But Zac didn't really care about all those people.

His social media engagement was just going to go up from the number of hate comments. In his mind, these people would even buy his book just to hate on it.

'Those other two books. What could they be about? The first one looks like a thriller by the name of it and the second one is maybe a drama of some sort. Hard to tell by names. Anyway, these are rookie authors. I will easily beat them.'

He thought in his mind, checking up on the whole announcement on Vikings publishing handle.

As he was a young and established author, he was very arrogant and didn't really think that rookies would be able to beat him.

In fact, he won't even mind betting on it.

Adjacent to where he was sitting, there was a trophy cabinet with a lot of trophies that he had won since childhood. He was called a prodigy from the start because of it.

Among those trophies, there was also the trophy of 'Vikings New book of the year'. That was the name of the award that Aiden had participated in.

Two years ago, Zac had entered the same competition to win it under a pen name. There wasn't any rule that the same author can't enter the competition two times under different pen names, so he had entered it again this year.

Actually, he wasn't really after the award. He had already won it once.

The thing he was after was the acclaim that he would get.

Zac's sole goal was to get his work adapted into different mediums at this point of his career. He knew that getting your work adapted into a movie was the way for writers to become millionaires.

Zac wanted that and because of Viking publishing connections in Hollywood, he had entered the competition. In hopes of an adaption, he had even made his novel a comedy drama, something that was very cheap to adapt compared to a fantasy or sci-fi.

'This year, I'm surely going to win the award and then my next goal would be Hollywood.'

…

/DreamNote/

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"This place looks very big. I think we would need to get a bit of furniture, though."

Aiden said, looking around at the whole place in front of him. He was currently standing in the studio building that they had rented. It was a two-storey building that had cost them 5000 dollars for a month to rent.

The building also had a pretty big basement which could easily be renovated into a place where Aiden could work on his music — His own personal music studio.

The price for such a building would have been way higher if it had been in a more expensive area.

"Yeah, we need to make the living room more like a lounge area where everyone could just rest and then make the bedrooms into office space. I would call in some guys to get it done in a few days."

Wade said, closing the door behind him and sitting down on the sofa. He was pretty tired from all the real estate agent stuff and seeing different places before choosing one.

For the last week, he had been busy with that.

"We need to get equipment in the basement too. All that would take a lot of work."

"Yeah, but it's way better in the longer run."

"True." Aiden sat down in front of Wade. "Anyway, where are the guys you said would meet us here?"

Wade had called the people he said would be perfect for his team to the studio to have a meeting with Aiden. Not to mention, Aiden already had a bit of an idea about them from all the stuff Wade had told him.

"They should be here soon."

Ding!.

The doorbell rang at that time, and Wade smirked before going toward the door to open it. Aiden stood up, and after half a minute, footsteps rang before five people revealed themselves.

"Nice to meet you."

A guy who was a head smaller than Aiden was the first one to introduce himself. He looked to be even older than Wade, as a few wrinkles could clearly be seen on his shaved face.

"My name is Jody Sharp, and I work as a business manager. I have heard a lot about you."

"Aiden Silvereye, it's nice to meet you too."

Aiden smiled, and after that, the whole team introduced themselves one by one. It seemed like he was the oldest here and also the one managing the whole team.

"I'm Sasha Levi, I work as a social media manager." She was the second most experienced out of all of them.

"George Potter, I'm from England but have worked in Hollywood for two decades. I have worked as a tour manager for artists like Robin Swift and Andrew Sheen."

"My name is Lia Garcia. I will be handling all the PR aspects related to you if you decide to hire me." Lia, a black woman, said.

"Tom Wake, I work as an assistant to celebrities."

After everyone had introduced each other, they sat down to talk about the possibility of working with each other. Wade had explained to him that all the five people had worked together with him before.

They were all people who had been part of different agencies and celebrities, so they had a lot of experience.

Except for Tom, who had only started working a few years ago. He was the youngest out of all of them.

Miranda, the stylist and makeup artist, wasn't here, and Aiden was going to meet her later. Anyway, she wasn't a fixed part of the team.

He was also going to have a meeting with the lawyer that Wade had told him about for all the legal matters involving him.

"So, first of all, I'm pretty sure Wade had already told you about me, and you all had looked into my career," Aiden said, starting off the conversation.

"Yeah, the career trajectory is currently going high," Jody said. "You probably decided to set up a team because your work is increasing day by day."

"True. So, I need people who can make it easy and efficient, and Wade told me that you all are one of the best teams in Hollywood."

Wade nodded at that remark, and Sasha, the social media manager, opened her mouth.

"Even if we are good at our job, it would ultimately revolve around you. So, before working together, we need to know what type of a team you are looking for and what type of a career you want."

"I told you all about it a little," Wade replied, looking at Sasha.

"Yeah, but it's better to ask him, and I'm curious about what he wants. He has already made a good mark in the entertainment industry, but without ambition and a good plan, he won't be able to reach beyond a point."

"Yeah, so, Aiden," Jody looked at him, "What are you exactly looking for? We can do all the basic things for you if you decide to go ahead and work with us. But it's better if you could tell us your goals, so we could make a systematic plan to reach them."

Hearing that, Aiden thought about it for a minute.

In the past, Wade had also asked the same question to him. At that time, he had just said that he wanted to act in movies, no matter what role. He wasn't a big actor or singer at that point, merely being talked about as a lucky viral sensation.

Things changed a lot after that.

Aiden had gotten popular, and after [30 days of Happiness, people were finally seeing him as a good actor who studios could rely on to give a good performance. In singing, he was now seen as one of the best new artists to come out.

It was to the point that people were waiting for him to do a tour in other countries and release a full-fledged album.

But the question was simple.

What did he want next? How ambitious was he? Things were going pretty well for him, but whether he was going to stay in this comfort zone or try to do something different. Many people have that point in their careers.

A lot of them would choose to stick to the things that were working for them due to a plethora of reasons, but Aiden was different.

'I have a system. I need to reach the peak of what it could do. Explore it a lot more and become way bigger than what I'm currently.'

He had always wondered what would happen if he reached the next level in singing or acting talent. Would the silver light change to golden? Would his immersion get even stronger?

Was he going to get new artistic abilities such as writing?

In the end, there was only one answer to his questions. He needed to look for them himself. He needed to increase his levels and try to delve into different things to get the necessary skills.

If he could do all that, then he was destined to be the person who would stand at the top of Hollywood.

"I have only one goal." He looked up at the people in front of them. "I want to reach the top of Hollywood."

"What?" Jody looked at him with shock on his face.

It was too unexpected and arrogant of an answer. No one in the room was expecting such an answer from him. Only Wade looked like he had expected it a little.

"I know it sounds arrogant. Trust me, it seems like that to me too." Aiden said. "But I do want that. I just wanted to be an actor when I came to America, but after getting to this point of my career, I feel like I could take those risks that would propel me to the place I want to be. It's not going to be easy, but I know I would regret it if I don't go for it."

His eyes were very serious as he said that. Jody and Sasha looked at each other, hearing that. There was a conflict in their eyes.

"Ah, I thought all of you wanted to be called the best team in Hollywood. Why are you acting like this when Aiden is saying he wants to be at the top?"

Wade asked, laughing at the five of them. It was not easy for them to act like this, so Aiden had surely surprised them.

"It's just that it's really surprising." Tom, the assistant, said and Lia, the marketing manager, also added.

"Yeah, he said it with a lot of conviction, so…."

"So what?" Wade raised an eyebrow. "From what I know of him, he's not the type to joke about his career. He's kind of a mad lad with a lot of unexpected things going on for him, so it would be a good ride if you decide to join him. What do you say, Jody?"

All the attention diverted to Jody when Wade said that. His team looked at him to make the decision. They had followed him so far and trusted him a lot.

"You seem to have a lot of ambition," Jody said, his eyes fixed on Aiden.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"No, it's actually good." Jody smiled. "It's after a long time I have seen a person with so much confidence."

"So, what do you say?"

Aiden asked, and without batting an eye, Jody replied.

"We will work for you."

Actually, Jody and the others had already made their decision before coming here. After all, they all needed work, and Aiden was a pretty lucrative option, especially with Wade working with him.

But after meeting him, everyone truly felt that it would be a different kind of experience working for him.

"Welcome on board."

Like that, Aiden got his team.

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote this novel with your power stones and golden tickets

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After the team was set up, they wanted to start the work quickly, but there was still renovation and other things to do in the apartment to make it more like an office.

All that would easily take over a month. They would finally be able to work properly in their new office after this year was over.

Because of that, the operation shifted to a nearby cafe that was close to the apartment.

As Aiden had just given a big hit at the box office and had no other projects signed up, it gave them the perfect opportunity to make a good and diverse plan for him to move forward with.

All of them were pretty excited as Aiden didn't focus on just one thing. Singing and acting were already nice enough, but when Wade had told the team about Aiden's book winning a contest, their faces were something to be seen.

"It's already November, so I think it's safe to say that there won't be anything related to you releasing this year, apart from Behind the scenes. Even so, I think they will publish the book in January."

Wade said, and Sasha, who was sitting next to him, nodded. Lia, George and Jody were sitting adjacent to Aiden, and Tom was running late to the meeting due to something personal.

"Yeah, in that case, it's better to focus more on things like modelling and commercials."

"So, basically making money." Aiden chuckled. Actors would normally go for modelling because it was very easy to earn money by it. Same with the advertisements.

Even if they weren't professional, people would have seen their faces and would recognise them.

A lot of fashion designers use celebrities to showcase their new clothes. Though, Aiden had no idea how he was going to walk a ramp.

"Kind of, yeah," Wade said. "It's a good step in making you a brand. Those give a lot of publicity to the actor too, especially with commercials. A lot of actors are associated with products because they promoted them."

Hearing that, Aiden nodded his head. .

'I got a lot of money by doing endorsements for EXO. I even got my contract renewed for over 500k dollars.'

Aiden thought in his mind. Money was not a bad thing because money was the thing he needed the most if he wanted to take risks. It was also a good backup.

"What type of commercials anyway?" Aiden looked at Lia.

"We need to take care of your image when we go for them. We can't just go for any random product."

Lia said. In the industry, it was very important to maintain an image, and companies would also approach a celebrity thinking of what sort of image would suit their brand.

For example, an actor who is seen as a sex symbol would get commercials for condoms, and female celebs would get commercials for cosmetics or jewellery easily.

"That's why it's better to go for stuff that targets the youth. Shoes or sportswear are good enough. Even snacks or energy drinks. Perfumes too." Sasha added, and Aiden took all the information in silently.

"Well, I don't really mind going for commercials and modelling. Just make sure that the company or product I'm doing the commercial for isn't bad news."

Aiden stressed the last part of his sentence, and everyone around him nodded, knowing full well how important it was to check up on the company.

In the past, a few celebs had been called scammers because they promoted websites or products that had just cheated the money of common people. All this also adds to the narrative that rich people only care about making more money.

Aiden knew that it was true, but he didn't want to do the same. If he didn't even know the product well, how could he tell the public that it's a good product?

"Don't worry, we can take care of it."

Wade said, and the conversation moved ahead to other things. They talked more about the modelling work and how Wade had already received a few commercial offers from some brands.

Lia was going to do a background check on them later. After that, Wade mentioned the album that he and Aiden had talked about a few times before.

"So, it's confirmed that we are going to go for the album, right?"

Wade looked at Aiden. The whole album depended on Aiden, as he was going to be the composer of the majority of the songs. It was to promote more of his singer/songwriter image.

So, he needed to be in the right state of mind to create great songs.

"Yeah, I think I would be able to make good songs. 8-9 tracks aren't going to be hard." Aiden said, looking very confident and excited about it.

Having his own album was the next step in his music career, and he also felt like it was the right time for it.

"It's good if we could contact other record labels to get some collaboration for the songs. Fans will be excited if Aiden is working with other artists on songs." Jody said, then looked at Aiden and Wade. "You two have connections in record labels, right? Aiden, you worked with Grey before. How's your relationship?"

"My relationship is pretty fine with him. He texted me congratulations for the success of 'Lost in the Sky', so I'm pretty sure he would agree to a collaboration."

Wade also nodded and added, "I have contacts in Cyco media too. Actually, Aiden worked with Steven McDonald, the CEO of Cyco media on X-Star."

"Yeah, I don't think featuring other artists on the album would be a problem."

Two popular artists working together was a pretty big thing in the music industry, and it would normally happen if the artists liked each other enough to work together. It was a pretty good way to promote the album by getting other artists to collaborate on a few songs.

Some albums would even be filled with collaborations to attract other fan bases too.

"If we could get the production of the album finished in 4 months, then we could release it in March." George, the tour manager, said. "I think we should then target music festivals like Coachella. There are award shows happening at the same time."

"Will you be able to handle that?" Aiden looked at George, who smiled with confidence.

"Don't worry. Leave it to me."

As a tour manager, it was George's duty to make sure that any gig that Aiden was doing would be successful. It was pretty hard work, especially when Aiden would get his own concerts.

After talking about the album, there was a bit more talk about Behind the scenes, and then they moved on to a serious problem—Aiden's next acting project.

Everyone was already impressed by his songs and was expecting something similar, but in acting, there was a lot of scrutiny as to what he was going to pick as a project next.

Wade hadn't been able to impress Aiden with any of the projects he was bringing. So, they talked about the type of project that would suit Aiden.

He didn't want to go for another rom-com yet so as to not get seen as another rom-com actor. Wade had even contacted Granite films to talk about a possibility of a prequel of [Black Saints] with Kai August as the main character.

There were talks about it previously after the movie, and Kai had become so popular.

But Granite films weren't willing to go with the idea so soon because it hadn't even been a year to [Black Saints]. They wanted to wait a bit more and get a better story for the prequel.

In the end, they decided that they should wait for the right project.

'A project that could be a new experience for me.'

After Vikings publishing released the name of three books in contention for the top prize, they announced the day of the award ceremony and invited many people.

Although the award ceremony was still very small and would not even be broadcasted, a few journalists were going to be there but nothing fancy.

On the day of the ceremony, Aiden invited Uncle Sam and his cousin to the ceremony. His aunt had some sort of yoga class, so she was not attending.

"You look good."

"Not as good as you."

"Well, all of us are handsome in the family. You just got a little less than me. Not a big deal."

Uncle Sam chuckled, patting Aiden's shoulder with a smile on his face. It was the first time he would be seeing his nephew win an award.

Due to that, he was wearing a grey suit that looked great on him. Before coming here, he had even gone to a salon, so he looked exactly like the classy gangster boss in an 80s mafia flick.

"Stop it, dad. You always act narcissistically." Lisa, Aiden's cousin, said, shaking her head.

"It's not narcissistic if it's true."

As they bantered, Aiden took a look around. Currently, they were standing inside the hall where the award ceremony was taking place. A lot of people had already come, and there were even some of the authors here who he knew.

They were just talking among themselves. In the corner, Aiden could even see some reporters with cameras.

Fortunately, they had not seen him yet.

'It would have been good if Richard was here.'

Aiden thought in his mind. He had invited him, but Richard had rejected, saying he was busy with some other things. He hadn't pushed him, knowing his personality.

"Hey, Sam."

It was at that moment someone called Uncle Sam.

They all turned their heads to look at the way the voice had come from. Aiden saw an old man with dyed black hair and a cane walking toward them, followed by a brown-haired man with a smirk on his face.

Coincidentally, Aiden recognised him.

'Zac Anderson'.

…

/DreamNote/

Don't forget to vote with power stones and golden tickets

Thank you for reading, please continue your support for WSA 2022!

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'Zac Anderson'

Aiden thought, looking at the brown-haired guy walking towards him with the old guy with a cane beside him.

Before coming to the award ceremony, Aiden had researched a bit on the other two authors whose novels had come in the top three. He hadn't found anything about the author of A devil in the city, but as Zac had revealed himself, he knew about him.

Aiden had even gone on to read one of Zac's books which he had liked. He could clearly see Zac's talents because of that book.

Though, he still didn't know who the old man beside Zac was.

"James, what are you doing here?"

Uncle Sam said, shaking hands with the old man who was apparently called James. Although there was a smile on his face, Uncle Sam didn't look too happy to meet him.

"I'm here because of my son. He's going to win an award here today. It's a proud moment for me, so I took the flight straight from London."

James said in a heavy British accent, glancing toward Zac standing next to him.

"Zac Anderson, my book Dumb people has been nominated today."

There was a smirk on his face as he said that, clearly proud of the achievement.

"That's great." Uncle Sam said and looked at the proud expression on James's face before patting Aiden's shoulder. "Actually, my nephew Aiden here is also nominated."

"Really? I didn't know anybody from your family is a writer."

"Aiden is just trying out writing. He's actually an actor.".

"Oh, an actor?" James looked at Aiden with interest. "Broadway? Or are you trying out in movies?"

Just by that one single sentence, it was apparent that James didn't know anything about Aiden. It made sense as he was not from America and lived in London, where Aiden was relatively less known.

The surprising thing was that even Zac showed the same expression.

"I'm trying out movies. Haven't tried Broadway yet." Aiden replied with a smile, not revealing anything.

"Oh, then, if you can't get work here, I can help you get a role in London. There are a lot of theatre groups performing Hamlet there."

For the record, Hamlet was one of Shakespeare's best works.

"Thanks."

Aiden smiled to himself after saying that. Nowadays, as everyone recognised him no matter where he went, it felt like a refreshing change.

It was then that Zac focused on him.

"So, you are the author of Behind the scenes? Aiden Silver?"

"Silvereye. I just shortened my surname for the pen name."

"Oh, okay." Zac said before squinting his eyes at Aiden. "I feel like I have seen you somewhere."

That made it clear that Zac didn't actually know about Aiden. At most, he had seen a poster of Aiden's movie or came across a video of his performance.

It surprised Lisa, who was standing beside Aiden the most.

"He actually doesn't know you. How surprising." She whispered to Aiden.

"It's a big world. Not like everyone is going to know me." Aiden whispered back, and then Zac started speaking.

"Anyway, good luck with the award. I think you might need it." Zac said in a slightly mocking tone, annoyed by Aiden and Lisa whispering in front of him. "As you might know, I'm a veteran author, so there are more chances that I'm going to win the award. I am telling you so you can prepare yourself."

Hearing that, Aiden could only think of one thing.

'Is it a red flag for him? This guy really acts like a proud side character from a web novel.'

Smiling to himself while thinking about it, Aiden looked at Zac.

"I will say the same to you. I might be new, but I'm pretty sure my novel would do well."

"Let's see about it."

After saying that, Zac left with his grandfather James who had also finished his talk with Uncle Sam.

'He's pretty proud, but he's at the same level as me. Level 7.'

Aiden thought in his mind as Uncle Sam suddenly grabbed him by the shoulder. It was so sudden that he yelped in surprise.

"What happened?" He asked, looking at Uncle Sam.

"Beat that bastard's son."

"You mean Zac?"

"Yeah, I want to see him cry as he loses to you."

Uncle Sam said with determination evident in his eyes. Lisa was already face-palming while seeing the interaction between her cousin and father.

"For your information, I'm not going to have a boxing match with him to make him cry. And what even happened? I thought you and James were friends."

Aiden asked the question he was the most curious about and Uncle Sam released him out of his grip before telling his story.

It was something that had been going on for years between him and James.

"The thing is I met James in London when I was doing my college. At that point, I was trying to get a degree in literature to become a writer." Uncle Sam started narrating. Parts of it were something that Aiden did know, like how his uncle's first dream was to be a writer. "Back then, both me and James used to compete against each other. After getting out of college, he and I started sending our manuscripts to publishers, but…"

"No publisher agreed to publish your book."

"Yeah, and his books kept getting published. After repeated failures, I accepted my lack of talent, but James kept mocking me whenever we met. He used to call me to parties just to mock me."

Uncle Sam said, remembering the days when he was young. It was not a good time for him, with his life labelling him as a failure.

"You didn't do anything to retaliate.? You are not the type to not do anything."

Aiden raised an eyebrow, and Uncle Sam smirked.

"I had planned something, but the timing was bad." He sighed. "Your dad asked me to come to Los Angeles to get into Hollywood, and I just settled in America after that. I rarely met James, so I never got the chance to take revenge."

Lisa, who was just listening to the whole conversation till now, finally opened her mouth with a frown.

"Dad, it's been years. Just let it go."

"Lisa, revenge is not something to let go of. It's something you need to take, or in this world, they'll call you a pushover. Even now, James was saying sorry to me, acting as if Aiden had already lost the competition. That guy is too proud and needs to be taken down."

At that moment, Aiden felt like his uncle would have surely flourished in a cultivation fantasy with all the talk of revenge. Shaking his head with a light smile on his face, he opened his mouth.

"I think the winner is already decided, so I can't really do anything about it. We can just wait till the winner is revealed."

"That's fine. I know you would beat the guy. Your novel was pretty good, especially after all the edits you made. I'm just waiting till Zac loses to take my revenge."

Slowly, the whole hall filled up with people, and the ceremony started without any delays. Viking publishing had called on a lot of prestigious people working in the literary community of New York.

There were even some executives from Hollywood agencies that had their headquarters in New York.

Soon, the host came on the stage and started the ceremony with a chit-chat before getting onto the main thing.

"Let's get on with the main thing. First of all, let's give applause to the three books, which are just incredible. They are also going to get published soon."

As the host said that, people started clapping. The name of the books appeared on the screen. Uncle Sam patted Aiden's shoulder with a smile on his face.

"Now, for the prizes. The winner of the third place is someone who presented a very cold story to the editors. It was something that made them feel chills while reading through each page. Give it up for The Devil in the city by Carl Johnson."

As the host announced that, a black man in a suit stood up with a smile on his face. There was a bit of disappointment on his face as he lost out in the first place, but just standing on the stage was a big thing for him.

In his speech, Carl talked about how he had desperately tried to help his family through the years. Coming from a poor family, it wasn't easy for him to get into a career like writing, but today, he did it.

His book was going to be published!

There were literal tears in his eyes as Carl took the prize. Aiden could see how much it meant for him.

After it was done, only Aiden and Zac were left in the competition. One of them was the winner while the other one was going to go home with the second prize.

"Now, only two novels are left." The host said, looking around the hall. "One is a story of the life of a corporate employee and how he sees life on a day-to-day basis, while the second story is of struggling while chasing a dream. A story based in the heart of Hollywood. Only one of these is going to be the winner."

The host talked about both of the novels and then opened up the envelope with the winner's name.

"So, the book that won the award of 'Vikings New book of the year' is…"

…

/DreamNote/ (14 Aug 2022)

Mass Release Tomorrow

Your gift is the motivation for my creation. Give me more motivation!

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Chapter 183.Lazy pen name

'This is not really exciting. Damn my editor! Just because of him, I'm stuck here.'

One of the reporters who was present in the award ceremony thought as he stopped himself from yawning. He had no interest in books or the people receiving the award.

Actually, he was someone who hated reading.

But a job is a job.

When your editor wants you to do something, you need to do it even if you are not interested in it. That was the case with most jobs and it was the same with media companies.

The editor wanted a headline on Vikings publishing and how their contest is a good way for a new batch of authors to get a stage. At the same time, in the past, a lot of these books had become movies or series.

Whenever Hollywood runs out of movie ideas, they would look for books to adapt from. A lot of these books would often become very famous due to the movie.

'Just why is my life like that? When I was transferred to the entertainment department, I thought I would interview celebrities.'

The reporter sighed, thinking that and looked over at the host on the podium.

"You look pretty bored." The cameraman next to the reporter said and he nodded his head.

"Yeah, I am standing at a place where I don't even know who is attending. The editor said that it's good if I could interview famous writers who are attending to add to the article but I don't even know who is a writer and who is not."

"Didn't you do your research before coming here?" The cameraman raised an eyebrow.

"It was an impromptu job. The guy who was going to do it got admitted to the hospital. Apparently, he broke a bone or something."

"Tough luck then." The cameraman shook his head. "Just try to search up stuff online on famous writers and try to match up their faces with the guest here. Anyway, they are announcing the first place.".

Both the cameraman and the reporter focused on the stage. Even if they weren't interested in writers, the first place winner did attract their curiosity.

"So, the book that won the award of 'Vikings New book of the year' is… by Aiden Silver."

As the host announced the first winner, people started clapping. An old man in a grey suit even shouted out loud due to excitement, attracting a lot of varied gazes but people mostly ignored him thinking he was a fan.

Soon, a pretty charming guy who looked young got on the stage to receive the award with a smile on his face. Looking at him, the reporter could only think one thing.

'Haven't I seen him before?'

The cameraman was thinking the same stuff but both of them weren't able to point out where exactly they had seen him.

It was then that the host started a conversation with the winner.

"Congratulations on first place. Is this your book? And is 'Aiden Silver' your real name or just a pen name?"

"Yeah, this is my first book." He said. "Actually, my real name is Aiden Silvereye."

'Silvereye.'

When the reporter heard that name which seemed like the name of a character from a fantasy series about dragons, something struck him.

Other people in the hall had also started whispering among each other, slowly realising who he was.

"Isn't Aiden Silvereye the name of that actor whose movie is running in the theatres currently. He's a singer too, right?" The cameraman turned to him and asked.

"I think so. Let me check."

The reporter said and took out his phone to check up on Aiden and like he had thought, it was the same person. Suddenly, his hunched shoulders rose as excitement ran through him.

'This could be big news. There are not even a lot of other big media houses here. We could be the one to reveal it.'

The reporter could already imagine the headline.

The talented singer, songwriter and actor turned towards writing, bagging his first award. Something like this would surely make people click on the article, especially with his movie running in the theatres.

This could be his first big article.

Thinking of the article, the reporter didn't even focus on Zac when he went to take up his prize for second place with a sulking expression. He already wanted to get his laptop and start writing the article.

'No, maybe I could get an interview with him. Even a few lines would be pretty good. I should inform the editor about it.'

The reporter thought and quickly took out his phone to call the editor.

"Hey James, I'm sorry your son lost. I'm feeling very bad for him and you."

After Aiden won the award, Uncle Sam didn't waste a minute before approaching James who was frowning by himself. When he saw Uncle Sam with a smirk on his face, he felt a bad premonition.

"Yeah, it seems like he still has lots to learn. Contests are tricky." James said.

"Yeah, I mean he has a lot to learn if he's losing to a writer and his first work. Even then, Aiden isn't a writer in the first place."

The expression on James's face cracked a bit hearing that and he quickly tried to get a rebuttal.

"Well, I think he will do better in this career than acting. Anyway, he's not anywhere in it."

"Ah, who told you that?" Uncle Sam tilted his head. "My nephew's movie is still running in the theatre. People are saying that it might even earn over 100 million dollars. It hasn't been released in the UK yet, so I think you don't know about it."

"What?"

James looked surprised hearing that but the confidence on Uncle Sam's face told him that it wasn't a lie. When he shifted his attention to the reporters, he saw them clamoring to Aiden.

It was not only because he had won the first prize. It was because he was a celebrity.

"Uh, yeah, I certainly didn't know that."

"How about it? I could invite you to the theatre to watch his movie. I think you would like it. Aiden even made the soundtrack for it, so I could tell you a lot about him."

"Sure…"

James trailed off in his words, not knowing how to reply. He had been arrogant to Uncle Sam only because he was confident that his son would get the first prize but now he was sure that his old friend won't let him go easily.

As his expressions cracked, Uncle Sam laughed more inwardly.

'I'm going to take his revenge today, James. Unlike your son, my nephew had talents even I don't know about.'

Thinking that in his mind, he mused to himself.

'This feels great.'

Aiden thought when he was on the stage to take the award. He knew very well that he might win the award but thinking and actually achieving it were completely different things.

He felt like he hadn't let down Harley or Richard who had helped him out to make .

As soon as he gave a short speech and came off the stage, the journalists and reporters present in the hall surrounded him to ask questions.

'What made you try out writing? Your movie is already being hailed as a winter hit. How do you feel about it?'

'What was the inspiration behind you writing the book? Could we expect you to write more books? Is writing your passion too? Please give a few details.'

'The story is about an actor from what is revealed. Is it inspired from your own life or is it an original story? How do you feel winning the award? What made you write the novel?'

'Do you see your book doing well after it's published? Don't you think being a celebrity the book would have an unfair advantage over others?'

Aiden patiently answered all the questions one by one as the flash of the camera kept haunting his face. It was only after 20 minutes that he managed to get out of the hoard of reporters to make way towards Uncle Sam and Lisa.

At the same time, standing in a corner, Zac was holding his second place trophy in his left hand while checking up on Aiden online.

The whispers about Aiden being a celebrity also reached him and when he saw that Aiden had so many followers on his social media, he couldn't help but feel a sense of defeat.

Compared to his measly 400k followers, Aiden had over 2 million on his social media.

When he checked up on his movies and songs, Zac realised where he had seen him. Just a month ago, his girlfriend asked to see a movie and showed him a poster.

It was the poster of [30 days of Happiness].

'Wait, if he's in Hollywood, then isn't he already at the place where I'm aiming?'

Zac's ultimate goal was to follow a certain children's fantasy author into becoming a celebrity writer with a lot of fans.

He wanted to see social media tags for his books.

But it seemed like he had a lot of work to do before reaching there. For a moment, Zac felt that Aiden only won because he was a celebrity and had enough followers to make the book work.

But he soon shook off that thought.

Vikings publishing was pretty thorough in those matters and anyway, Aiden had entered with a pen name. Though, the pen name looked lazy and the only reason he wasn't found out yet was because no one imagined that Aiden would be writing a book in between his song recordings and movie releases.

It was simply unexpected!

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 184.Sceptical

As it was already December, [30 days of Happiness] was already running in the theatres for over one and a half months. It would have gotten collections in the holiday season if not for big franchise releases.

Even then, analysts were saying that by the end of December, the movie was going to cross 100 million dollars at the box office.

It would run till Jan end before coming to streaming platforms, so the total collections were going to be off the charts.

Until now, the movie had earned around 81.9 million dollars at the box office. It was one of the sleeper hits of the year which had really made a mark at the box office.

Because of the movie's success, a lot of streaming platforms like Zetflix and Dream have shown interest in acquiring the rights to the movie but Omar was still busy negotiating a good deal.

As all this was happening, a strange news suddenly started coming out from a few meds websites.

It was about Aiden winning a prize in the contest held by Vikings publishing. Those who were present on the scene had quickly posted articles on the topic.

won 'Vikings New book of the year' award. Are we seeing a real life genius showcasing talents one by one? always seemed to be a special book to me and the other editors when we read it. It was something that truly impressed us and it was only in the award ceremony that I got to know that Aiden is a celebrity." He was all praises for the book and mentioned that they were going to sign the contract with Aiden as soon as possible..

As those headlines came out, it came off as very unexpected to people who were following Aiden. He had written a book and even won the prize? It looked like fake news.

A lot of people just thought that Aiden had published his autobiography. But then, what would he write when his career was not even two years old properly?

When they checked, it turned out that he had actually written a novel and Vikings publishing was even going to publish it.

It was very big news and although it didn't blow up like other viral things related to Aiden, his fans were still very excited.

Particularly, his fan group was buzzing with messages after this news came out.

[Rugby not football: Is it true that Aiden is publishing a book? That really came out of nowhere? Is it fake or he's actually trying to get into the writing field.]

[Harry Potter's wand: Man, my respect for him would go down a lot if it's just another bad book because a celebrity was like 'Let's make easy money by writing a book. Who cares if I don't know the spelling of literature.'.]

[Corny talks: Yeah, I'm still regretting buying a biography of a porn star. My wife saw me reading it and beat me up with the same book. The worst part was that I wasn't using incognito back then.]

[Daoist Z: No, guys, he won a pretty good contest with it. I follow Vikings publishing and they don't have below average novels and have a good record. I'm pretty sure the novel would be good enough. I'm going to buy it as soon as it releases.]

[Dao of not giving a F: Let's hope it's at least average. Going by the name, it could be a story set in Hollywood. Don't get a lot of stories like that these days.]

[My name is Fuk Yu: sounds like a cool name but he entered the contest with the pen name 'Aiden Silver'. I guess he spent most of his time thinking about the novel.]

[Reporter Huff: If it's a success, then I'm pretty sure a lot of media houses will talk about it. A lot of actors pick up writing or directing by the end of their career. Rare to see someone take it so early.]

[Lucifer is Balls: I'm kinda curious as to how it would be when the book comes out. Aiden does seem like a storyteller. His songs have nice stories and he portrays them well.]

Like that, his fan group talked about this news. Not a lot of them looked excited as they were still sceptical if the book would even be good but most of them were still going to buy the book when it comes out.

"It looks like the media is doing the job properly. The news is spreading quietly."

Sasha, the social media manager of Aiden said as she looked at the articles on her screen. Besides him, Lia was also working on something.

Both of them were working on the ground floor as the first floor and basement was currently getting renovated.

"I already sent some information to some of the media channels I knew of and they were soon going to release the article." Lia said and Sasha tilted her head.

"Should I promote it a bit more? It could get interest from a lot of people easily and then copy articles are going to come up, spreading it even more."

"No, I don't think we should do that. A lot of people already complain about celebs doing heavy PR. We need to keep it natural and not make it seem like Aiden is everywhere all the time."

"Yeah, news about him is still floating around due to [30 days of Happiness] and [Searching for the One]."

Overexposure was something that a lot of new age celebrities suffer from. Partly, it was their and their PR teams fault as their Skygram and Sparrow would be filled with too many posts and pictures.

The PR Team would literally push for the celebrity to be everywhere on the internet and it would significantly reduce any interest in them in the longer term due to overexposure.

It would become harder to create interest in their new projects.

That's why, both Lia and Sarah wanted to avoid that for Aiden. He already was someone who did a lot of projects every year, making it into entertainment news a lot. In the past year, he has trended a lot of times.

It was fine if it's natural but they can't push him otherwise. There needs to be a bit of mystery to him as all celebrities that were labelled as superstars have an aura about them like they were from a different world.

"Just monitor it, then. For the book release, a lot of people are going to doubt and be sceptical until it releases."

Sasha said, feeling like this new chapter in her life had started on a very interesting note.

"Do you think the book would do well?"

Lia asked as she turned to work on her laptop.

"I think it would have good sales but it matters more if it got good critical reviews. We need people to take Aiden seriously as a writer as he made it clear that he will write more books going forward."

"He's a weird person, ain't he?" Lia suddenly said.

"Why?"

"He doesn't stay with one thing. It's like he's a kid who's jumping from one thing to another. It could very well be a disaster for us because people have already started seeing him as a genius and it's hard to top expectations when they are high."

Lia was thinking very logically about it. It was certainly not a normal case in Hollywood and that scared her.

But Sasha just smiled.

"It's fine if people are taking him as a genius because I think he might actually be one."

"Hey, Harley, you want to get drinks together. I know a good bar."

A guy called out Harley as he was leaving the set of a movie he was working on. Turning back, he saw it was another extra actor.

"No thanks. Last time you said the same thing and it turned out that you brought me to be your wingman as you hit on a waitress. I am not interested in that tonight."

Saying that, he quickly left, ignoring the shouts of the actor. Making his way out of the set, Harley wondered what to do next.

It was already evening and he didn't have any other job today. Maybe he could just go home and rest, watch a game with beers.

'No, there's another place I should visit. It's been a while.'

Thinking like that, he got on a bus that took him to the area where one of the most prominent guilds in Hollywood was located — The screen actors guild.

Harley was a member for a long time and he was here to see if there's any notices about independent projects that he could go for. Normally, indie projects would allow new actors to audition.

So, he would come here often to look for a project.

As he entered the guild, he saw that it was noisy as usual. He walked towards the notice board, trying not to bump into someone. It was then that he heard some strange words.

"Did you hear about it? Aiden Silvereye's book got an award. He's now being published."

"I don't think it's true. He must have paid to win. He's in the big leagues now with a blockbuster."

"Maybe. We don't know for sure."

It was the conversation between two actors and he couldn't help but stop in his tracks hearing that.

He still recalled the guy that had asked him about his life story for his book.

'It seems like he finally wrote the book.'

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 185.Spirit

After the contest finished, Aiden stayed in the hall for a while as a lot of people wanted to talk to him. Famous authors who have attended, some Hollywood studio executives who hadn't expected to see Aiden and even the two other winners.

Out of the two of them, Carl was pretty friendly towards him and told him that he would buy his book when it comes out.

Zac, while still coming out as a bit too proud, congratulated him for his win. Aiden guessed that he wasn't exactly a bad person. Just he had a habit of thinking of himself highly and downplaying others.

He left the hall with Lisa after talking to them for a restaurant to celebrate. Uncle Sam didn't join them as he had left with James somewhere already.

Nevertheless, it was a very special day for him as he truly took another step in his writing career.

The next day, Wade and he visited Vikings publishing office to go over the negotiations of the contract. In the previous contest, the books that had won had been published pretty soon after the contest.

It had taken only a month for most books.

Vikings publishing had a lot of connections and they knew how to market a book well. That's why they were very successful.

When Aiden reached their office, he noticed that posters of movies that had been adapted from books that were published by Vikings were everywhere. There were also covers of great novels which had won awards.

It seemed like they were displaying what their publishing house had achieved till now.

Seeing that, Wade remarked, "Let's hope your book is there someday."

"Yeah, I hope it makes it there."

After that, both of them have taken the elevator to meet the owner and senior editor of Vikings publishing, Marshall White.

From what Wade told him, Marshall White was an editor in a small publishing house where he began his career but one day, after the senior editor there rejected a novel he was pushing for, he left the job and opened up Vikings publishing. .

That novel he was pushing for became the first novel from Vikings and won several awards, including a movie adaptation.

He was a very passionate person about stories and considered it his duty to let a good story reach its audience.

"Hello, it's a pleasure to meet you."

When Aiden entered the office of Marshall White, he looked at the both of them with a gleaming smile. He was a white man, wearing a suit and donning a thick beard and glasses.

"Aiden Silvereye, it's nice to meet you. He's my agent."

"Wade Spectre."

They introduced themselves and sat down for the discussion on the novel.

"Do you always meet the winners like this?" That was the first question that Aiden asked. Something that he was very curious about.

After all, a man like Marshall wouldn't be so free.

"No, not really." He said. "I do eventually have a discussion with authors who publish their books with us. In your case, I was just curious about you, so I read your novel last night. It truly stunned me. You have a brilliant mind."

"Thank you. Were you curious because I'm an actor?"

Marshall nodded without hiding anything.

"Yeah, I have met a few actors and I don't really think that most of them have the patience to sit down to write a book."

"I think it changes if you are really passionate about something."

They talked like that for a while. Marshall was a man with a lot of different thoughts about novels and people and he enjoyed the little chit chat with Aiden but soon, the conversation shifted to the main topic.

"So, we want to release your book in January. As the contest has just ended, it's good to release as fast as we can. Marketing could take up a large chunk of time but it's not going to be hard."

Marshall said with a smirk. His calm and astute demeanor changed a bit into one of a businessman.

"Because of my name?"

"Yeah, my team is expecting good sales and I do understand your followers and fans would play a big part of it but it's just a part of the business. The bigger the name, the more sales we get."

"We understand that."

Wade said, agreeing with what Marshall was pointing at. A book selling well was important for both the publisher and author.

He already had a talk with Aiden and he was not going to shy away from using his brand as a celebrity. In the end, it didn't matter a lot.

He just wanted people to like his work.

"Anyway, so, I think we should go over the contracts."

Saying that, Marshall pulled over the contract from a desk and Wade took over the conversation from Aiden. He had only come here today to negotiate the contract as his agent.

The negotiation was always a tough process as both the publisher and agent would try to get more. But in the end, they needed to settle on something.

The market rate for new authors was 8-10 percent of the royalty but Wade argued that Aiden was bringing up a large number of followers with him and that was going to help out in the marketing.

He also argued on other points and went over several clauses with Marshall. Even Wade had to admit that he was a tough opponent to argue with.

Marshall had great business skills which he had used to get Vikings publishing to the top but in the end, both of them reached the point people called 'Sweet spot'.

"I think we both could agree to 13 percent in royalty."

"Yeah, that's fine with me."

Aiden said and shook hands with Marshall. He knew that as his writing career would grow, the royalty fee would just increase slowly.

"I hope we work together for a long time."

Marshall gave a sincere smile to Aiden after the meeting between them finished.

After signing the contract with Vikings publishing, Behind the scenes was ready to be released in the first week of January in America and all over the world.

Aiden was pretty excited about it but at the same time, he had other works to look forward to. Gaining a team had really made him feel more like a professional celebrity.

Each of the members of the team were working on different things. Wade was overseeing everything as the agent and at the same time, he was handling how Aiden's next projects would go.

The album and his next acting job.

For the latter, he was still looking for a good script but for the former, he was already talking with a few record labels to collaborate together.

At the same time, Aiden also got his first commercial that would air straight on television and it was not from just any brand but a truly big brand.

A soft drink brand called Spirit.

It was a brand that has been running long since the 90s and was one of the top soft drinks all over the world. They were paying him 300k for coming in one of their commercials which was a great amount.

So, he had immediately signed the contract after going through it with his new legal counsel, Haines.

Other than that, Wade was also in contact with a few fashion brands and sports wear who wanted to sign Aiden as one of their models.

"So, what you need to do here is just to run through here and jump here. We have a green screen here, so it would all be handled in post production and David, you need to come out of the other way and look a bit surprised. I don't think I need to tell you two how to act."

The director of the Spirit commercial, who looked to be in his 40s said as he looked at Aiden and the man standing beside him called 'David'.

"Don't worry, I will handle it." David said with a bright smile and the director nodded, happy that he was listening to him.

After he left, David sighed and turned to look at Aiden.

"I don't really like advertisement directors but it's way better to just smile when they are telling what to do in the ad."

"Ah, why?" Aiden raised an eyebrow.

"Because if you don't do what they are saying or even complain a bit, you are labelled as a big actor who is disrespectful. Sometimes worse. It happened with me once in early 2000s, an ad director blabbered about me to a news agency and then, it became the news. Most people in Hollywood either way don't have a great reputation."

"They must suck."

"It does. That's why, just nod whatever they are saying."

David said, patting Aiden's shoulder. He was a head taller than Aiden who himself was 6ft.

For this commercial, Spirit had gotten both Aiden and David. For the record, David Sylvester was an A-lister actor who had made his debut in the 90s and was one of the oldest action actors in Hollywood.

While Aiden was getting 300k for the commercial, David was getting over a million dollars. That was the difference between both of their star powers.

Since he had met David, he was telling Aiden all sorts of things about his career and how to deal with certain situations.

His appearance was very burly and in some days, his stature gave off a deep impression but he was very friendly.

Because of him, Aiden's first commercial was going pretty well.

…

/DreamNote/

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On the sets of the advertisement of Spirit, Aiden was working since morning. He was only shooting a 45 seconds ad but it was not easy work.

Ads take a whole day to shoot a lot of times even if they look easy to shoot or are very short.

He was fine with it as it was still a new and enjoyable experience for him.

"Aiden, could you show a bit more expression. David, try to look at the sky as you are drinking. Understand?"

The director of the ad said as he looked over to Aiden and David who both were holding a can of Spirit in their hands. It was the final scene of the commercial in which both of them would drink Spirit together and then the name of the product would come on the screen.

But they were having trouble shooting it. Aiden had already drunk 3 cans of the soft drink.

"Just nod and don't show any expression." David whispered to him and he nodded to the director.

Frowning, the director sat back in his chair and shouted.

"Let's take a five minute break."

The crew and the extras scattered around hearing that. Some talked among themselves while others went off to smoke or to the bathroom.

It was already close to the evening and they had been shooting since the morning. All of them were pretty tired.

"Are you okay? You have drunk a lot of soft drinks already?"

As Aiden walked out of the green screen, Tom, his newly assigned assistant, walked towards him. He was the one who had accompanied him to the ad shoot.

He was a young guy with brown hair and a sharp face.

"I'm fine. Just they taste a bit too sweet for my taste. I actually like another flavour of the drink better.".

"You can't do anything. This one sells a lot more." Tom glanced towards the green coloured Spirit can with a lot of labels stuck to it.

"At least, after this, I don't have to drink this."

"Oh, well actually, they sent 50 of those just yesterday in the office. Brands normally do that as a sign of goodwill."

"What?"

Aiden was very surprised hearing that but thinking about it, even EXO had given him free clothes after the shoot for them. He dismissed it as a marketing ploy by the brands.

"Don't worry, the others will finish all of them off."

Tom said, shaking his head and chuckling.

Aiden had instructed him to just speak casually. He didn't want his employees to feel uncomfortable, especially because they were going to work for a very long time.

"That's a relief."

As they were talking, Aiden's phone suddenly rang.

'It must be Uncle Sam or my mom.'

Thinking that, he took it out but to his surprise, it was Wade. Picking it up, he opened his mouth.

"Hello, Aiden. Are you still at the ad shoot?"

His rough voice came out of the other side.

"Yeah, it would probably end in an hour. Why? What happened?"

"There's good news. At least I feel like it's good news."

Wade's excited voice came out. Aiden realised that it might be something big for Wade to sound like this.

"What happened? Don't tell me you're getting married?"

"Uh, no. I'm not even thinking of proposing yet. Anyway, it's related to work. I actually got my hands on two great projects. Both seem like something that you would love."

"Really?"

Aiden became excited too hearing that. A good script that could make him want to do the role. He was searching like that for a while now.

"Yeah, I'm coming to the studio where the ad shoot is going on. Let's talk about a nearby cafe. I would tell you more about it in detail."

Saying that, Wade cut the call and Aiden was left wondering what type of scripts it would be during the whole shoot.

Wade arrived at the ad studio pretty quickly and it took half an hour for Aiden to give a good take that the director liked.

David Sylvester asked him to come to a party with him but Aiden had to reject him saying he needed to talk to his agent about a new script. The older action star didn't mind it, appreciating the work ethic and exchanged numbers with him.

He even said that it would be fun to work with him one day.

After that, both he and Wade left for a cafe. He told Tom that the work for today was over as he wanted to talk to Wade alone. Tom was more than happy with it and left.

In the cafe, both of them found an empty corner seat and started talking after ordering two cups of coffee.

"So, today, I went to a few production houses to know what type of projects they were working for and tried to get some information for you. There was a lot of stuff, scripts just laying around but I found two projects that looked perfect for you."

Wade began and Aiden had a lot of questions hearing that.

"They aren't offered to me?"

"Not yet but the production house was more than happy to give me the synopsis when I talked about you, so they are very much interested. It's about if you are interested or not."

Saying that, Wade pulled out two documents.

Both of them were synopsis of the project. If Aiden liked them, he could request for a script to prepare for the auditions.

"Let's talk about this one first. I feel like you are much more likely to like it."

Wade tapped one of the documents and pushed it towards Aiden. He read the name that was written in the middle of it in his mind.

'[Disconnected].'

It didn't tell Aiden a lot about the movie. It could just be another rom com about the connection between two people? Or something different.

"How do you like the name?" Wade asked.

"It doesn't tell me a lot about the story. What's it about?"

"It's a business drama. Kind of like [Wall Street Thug] but different. It has other elements like entrepreneurship and what it takes to build a fortune. A lot of things mixed in it."

Aiden recalled [Wall Street Thug]. It was a story of a guy who cracked the code of being a stockbroker but eventually started doing illegal business, eventually becoming one of the richest men in America.

That movie was filled with profanity and a lot of drama but Aiden had liked it.

"It looks interesting."

Muttering that, he turned up a page and started reading the synopsis. It wasn't a script but it was enough for him to understand the basic premise of the story.

Moreover, it was pretty thin.

'So, it's about a group of friends working together to build up a company, eventually making one of the leading social media sites – Snapbook.'

That was the basic premise of [Disconnected].

The main character started off as a college student in 2007 who heard about social media sites coming up and would try to make something similar, only to get friends involved in it who would innovate to make the site way better.

These friends would become the owners of one of the fastest growing social media sites, getting millions of investments and becoming young millionaires.

But after getting money, their friendship would get strained as they would face the cold truth of the corporate world, eventually starting to plot against each other.

It was a pretty dramatic plot and one that could potentially become a great movie.

"Is it a biopic? It's giving that feeling?" Aiden looked up and asked Wade who shook his head.

"No, you could say it's inspired but it's not a biopic. The production house doesn't want to make a movie about a rich billionaire because they could easily get a controversy like that. They want the movie to not be attached to anyone."

"So, the director just wants to show what money does to people?"

Wade nodded his head to that question. The only reason he had thought that [Disconnected] would be good for Aiden was because of its themes about money, greed, power and eventually falling out.

"How do you like the story?"

"It looks good." Aiden said after thinking for a bit. "I like the main character and how the story talks about his personality changing as he gets more power and money. It's pretty much the standard becoming the rich guy story."

"Yeah, but this one has capable people behind it, so you could bet that the execution won't be bad. Moreover, people do love a story like this. [Wall Street Thug] earned over 300 million dollars for a reason."

These types of movies generally give people an insight on how the people whose names are attached to the word 'success' reached there.

So, their interest was natural.

"So, what do you say? Should we go for it?"

Wade looked at Aiden who lowered his head, his eyes scanning the words written on the synopsis. It was a description about a main character.

'A man slowly changes to become something different than what he was initially. The change is constant through the story and it's basically a portrayal of him falling into depravity and becoming more and more cruel. It's not something I have done before.'

Aiden thought in his mind. All of his characters till now haven't gotten this type of character development. Kai was a character who actually never got any development as he was shown like a crazy villain from the start.

In [Shadows of War, his role was for the main character's development and in [30 days of Happiness, Arthur had gone through positive development after accepting his situation.

He hadn't played someone that was slowly falling to become a horrible character.

…

/DreamNote/

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"Okay, let's go for it. I feel like it would be a very interesting project."

Aiden said in the end after finally coming to a decision. Wade smiled hearing that, thinking that the troubles of finding a good script were finally over but he didn't get lost in his emotions and opened his mouth.

"I think we should audition for the main lead. The studio is Black Line Cinema and from what an employee there told me, they are looking for actors who could look young as the main character starts off as a college student."

"Kind of like in the same wavelength as [30 days of Happiness]." Aiden replied, tapping the table.

"Yeah, but it might be hard to get the lead role. You might fit the bill but you do know there's too many requirements."

Aiden sighed, having fully accustomed to different requirements of different studios. It was hard for an actor to keep getting the lead role in Hollywood but he didn't mind it too much.

A role was a role. If the role has substance, he doesn't mind doing it no matter how big or small it is.

"We will know after doing the audition." Aiden said. "If I can't get the lead role, let's try out for a supporting role. The story has good characters."

"Yeah, we would need to do that."

Wade wanted Aiden to get the lead role as like that, people would slowly get more used to him being the lead in the movie and if [Disconnected] worked on the box office, then Aiden would start being seen as a reliable box office actor.

"So, I would try to get you to audition as soon as possible. Two weeks should be enough for you to prepare for it." Wade smiled, thinking that he finally had some progress. If Aiden had rejected this movie, then he wouldn't know what would impress him. "Anyway, you still want to go over the second project I got?"

"Yeah obviously." Aiden quickly replied, glancing over at the second project that was kept in the corner of the table. "I am very curious about it."

"It's actually a very interesting project.".

"More than [Disconnected]?"

"Yeah, [Disconnected] relies more on the execution of the plot and characters as the premise is something used a lot but this one's premise is something that would attract the audience from the start."

Aiden grew more curious about the project after hearing about it. A project whose premise was something that would attract the audience? Something like that was rare in this age where most of the things have already been done.

Unable to contain his curiosity, Aiden picked up the second document and opened it. Reading out the name of the project, he looked at Wade.

"[Sherlock of the Shadows]." Aiden said, then asked. "Is it a detective movie?"

"A series to be exact. Sherlock is just to represent a detective. The story is completely different and unique. It's a mix of different genres."

Aiden nodded, turning up the page of the synopsis and reading the main premise of it.

'A detective who could see ghosts.'

He felt like it was the most interesting thing about the synopsis. The main character was a detective but unlike the traditional detective who would rely on wits and clues, he was someone who relied on his ability to see and talk to ghosts.

The premise which the synopsis was based on was indeed pretty interesting.

It was mixing genres like investigative drama, mystery and crime to supernatural horror. Reading the synopsis, Aiden felt like it was a series that would be fun to watch.

"Which channel would it come on? IBC?" Aiden raised his head to look at Wade.

"No, it's going to be straight on streaming. It's a Zetflix original series that they are making. As you read, the main character is a young detective with strange powers."

"Didn't Zetflix shows lagging a lot these days? A lot of those aren't working. They are just relying on old series and renewing them for next season."

The streaming scene all over the world was pretty complex. Zetflix was a leading platform but in recent times, the monopoly of it had ended and reliance on quantity over quality had hit them hard.

With other platforms like Dream and Neo Prime coming up with different and interesting series and movies, Zetflix can't survive with bad teenage rom coms.

Aiden recalled reading a news article about it in which it was written that Zetflix's rom coms won't work because most of the teenagers from that time had grown up and new stuff isn't appealing anymore.

Maybe [Sherlock of the Shadows] was a way of them trying out something new.

"They are lagging a lot. That's why, this new series. The creative executives there are very hopeful for this project and as it's a series and not a theatre movie, they don't mind working with a less known actor. In the end, people look at the content more on streaming."

"So, we have a good enough chance. I do really like the main character."

Aiden felt like there was something common between him and the main lead of [Sherlock of the Shadows]. Both of them see something that other people can't.

He could see his system and the main character could see ghosts.

"Do you really like it?" Wade asked to confirm.

"The synopsis is very interesting and if I'm honest, it makes me take a break from the realistic romance and drama genre. If I got [Disconnected, it would be my second movie in that genre and then, with this, I could try something new that is good for my filmography."

"True. This type of stuff usually either falls hard or becomes very big."

Wade said but then suddenly, he realised a big problem if Aiden was actually going for both the projects.

Overwork.

"Wait, won't you be overworked with two acting projects at the same time and the album coming up? We can't postpone the album."

When Wade said that, Aiden also realised the problem.

It was December currently and the album was going to come out in March. His book was also releasing next month and with two acting projects on top of it, it was going to be almost impossible.

Even if he could shoot two projects one by one quickly, he won't be able to handle an entire album out of nowhere. Something would surely take a hit like that.

"What should we do then?" Aiden asked.

"We could just go for one of the projects." Wade said, squinting his eyes a little at both the synopsis but Aiden quickly shook his head.

"No, I like both of them. It would be hard to lose out on any of them. I don't want to regret it later."

Aiden certainly didn't know if these projects would be a hit or not, but he did want to experience acting in them. Both of them looked very interesting to him and he wanted to be a part of their worlds.

"That would be difficult."

Wade made a frowning expression, trying to think of a solution. After some seconds, an idea struck his mind.

"Let me try to see the shooting dates and other things for both the projects. Both of them are still in pre-production, so we never know."

"Okay."

Wade took out his phone and dialled some numbers. Aiden was sure that he was talking to his contacts in Zetflix and Black Line Cinema. It was only after five minutes that he put down the phone and stared at Aiden.

"They said that it's not clear for [Shadow of the Sherlock]. As it's an ambitious project, they would take at least two months to complete pre production. I found out that the script isn't completed yet, while [Disconnected] should start shooting at the end of Jan. They are looking for a release date of around May-June."

Aiden smiled hearing that.

"Then isn't it good for us? I could first finish up [Disconnected] and the album. By the time it would be released, [Disconnected] would finish shooting and I could start with [Sherlock of the Shadows]."

"No, it's still going to be extremely difficult. It's still going from one project to another. Even doing two things at the same time. You are going to get exhausted."

Aiden sighed after hearing that.

He knew that it would be difficult but he can't do anything else about the timings. As he didn't want to miss out on a chance on the acting projects, he could just try his best on handling all the projects at the same time.

There was no other way in his mind.

"Wade, I know it's going to be hard but I really want to do it."

Aiden looked at him with determined eyes. He wasn't one to run away from hardships and anyway, it was only a matter of three four months.

He could handle that.

"Okay, let's go with that."

In the end, Wade agreed. Knowing Aiden's stubborn nature, it was better to agree and try to find a way to go through all this.

In the first place, both the acting projects weren't confirmed.

"Let's first get an audition for [Disconnected]. The Zetflix series would come later anyway. It's already close to Christmas too. We are going to be very busy after that."

Wade said and took a deep breath.

The New year was about to start and it seemed like Aiden already had a long lineup of projects ready.

Just the question was whether these projects would be able to become a hit or not.

…

/DreamNote/

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Close to Christmas, Aiden had stopped most of his work to celebrate the Holiday season with Uncle Sam and his cousins. Wade and the other team members were also on holidays.

At the same time, one more thing related to Aiden was happening. The commercial that he shot with David Sylvester was finally going to air on television.

"Haha, this is so funny."

A girl who looked to be 15 laughed as her eyes were focused on the television screen in which a small child was fighting with two robbers that had broken up in his house.

It was a Christmas movie that would often be broadcasted around the holiday season.

It has already become a tradition for the girl to watch the movie while waiting for her mom to return home.

She was having a lot of fun while watching the scenes that she already knew about but there was still an innocence in her eyes that was making her feel the same way she had felt when she had watched the movie for the first time.

It was then that the movie suddenly stopped as the commercial came up. Seeing that, the girl frowned.

'Ah, I should have really watched it on Dream instead of TV. I don't like ads.'

She thought and picked up her phone to pass time till the commercials ended.

But at that moment, she saw a face that she hadn't expected on the TV screen. She nearly dropped her phone due to the shock.

"Aiden is in a commercial?"

She said out loud as her eyes glued to the screen. She was someone who was following Aiden after watching [Black Saints] at the beginning of the year but she hadn't expected him to appear in a commercial so soon.

On the TV screen, Aiden was running to get the last can of Spirit in the refrigerator. When he finally reached it and took it out, David Sylvester suddenly appeared out of nowhere and tried to grab the last can of Spirit.

"Kid, give me that." He said, trying to pull the can towards him. .

"No, I got it first."

"You can't compete against me. Who even are you?"

As David asked, Aiden would put down the can and pull out a poster and the album of [30 days of Happiness].

"I got a hit movie on myself. Something you didn't have for years now."

The girl laughed hearing that. David was a big action star but was struggling to land a hit these days as action roles don't suit him now with age. It was a clear dig at him.

"Oh really? Looks like these days anyone could be a star. Do you even have fans?"

As soon as he said that, several girls appeared behind Aiden cheering him on and he smirked in a mocking manner. The very next second, a big burly man appeared behind David.

The girl had to admit that at least the commercial was at least creative.

After that, David and Aiden had a verbal fight until Aiden mentioned something that picked up David's interest.

"How about it? You let me take the Spirit and I would get you a song with me. Teenage fans are useful to sell the movie these days."

"Oh, that's a good idea."

David throws the Spirit can to Aiden and then, the commercial cuts to show both of them on the stage trying to sing a song. The Spirit logo appeared on the screen with both David and Aiden drinking it.

Like that, the commercial ended.

'That's actually not a bad commercial. I can't believe Aiden who no one knew a year ago is in a commercial with David Sylvester now. Life really changes quickly.'

Thinking that, she opened up the fan group of Aiden. It seemed like other members had also watched the commercial.

"You should eat with us more, Aiden. You only come home on the holiday season and I know you visit the restaurant but it's just to visit that old fool."

An older woman that looked to be in her 50s said as she smiled towards Aiden. Despite her age, she had kept herself up in shape and looked younger than most people in their 50s.

She was Uncle Sam's wife, Sally Silvereye.

Behind her, the whole house was decorated and a Christmas tree could be seen too. Uncle Sam's house was pretty big as he had bought it when he was still running his studio.

"I would love to but I don't get a lot of time."

"Ah, I know how hard you work."

As they were talking Uncle Sam came out of his room and found Aiden there. Smiling, he walked towards him.

"You are finally here. I thought you were going to miss dinner today because you got busy working on some song. Lisa already left to celebrate it with her husband and in-laws."

Hearing that, Aunt Sally glared at him.

"Don't talk to him like that, old fool."

"Hey, stop calling me that. You do know I'm the one paying for your yoga classes, right?"

"When your movies were failing, I was one who financed them, remember. I'm pretty sure I could live fine without you."

For the record, Aunt Sally was a pretty famous painter whose painting would be shown in exhibitions. Aiden was pretty sure she was richer than him.

He just stood there as both his uncle and aunt argued. Eventually, Uncle Sam pulled him to sit by the heart and Aunt Sally went to the kitchen to cook dinner.

"So, how's it going with you? Don't miss home now?"

He asked, looking at him.

"I do. Home has a peace to it that I don't really find here, so I would always miss it but my career is here and I want to do something in Hollywood."

"I think you have already done a lot in Hollywood. I just watched your commercial on TV. You are going places for someone who is not white, is from America or UK and didn't start off as someone with money. It's hard to survive without those here."

As Hollywood was based in LA and New York, people needed a lot of money just to live in those places and then, open auditions were very rare, so one needed to have a great agent or be influential enough to attend the parties where directors and studio executives appear.

Then, there was discrimination based on colour.

"I got lucky. If I had not been in X-Star, I don't know what would have happened."

"I still think you would have gotten a movie and would eventually make your way up. It's in our blood. Even if we start at the bottom, we know how to go up."

Uncle Sam laughed as he said that. They talked like that for a while, just discussing things that were going on in their lives and in general.

Aiden felt a bit of peace as he talked with Uncle Sam.

As he lived a hectic life, it was hard for him to get moments of peace where he's not thinking about work or his next project.

After a while, his aunt appeared, calling them to come for dinner.

It was easy to say that his Christmas went very well.

In a practice room, a girl was sweating as she panted, taking deep breaths. After a while, she calmed down and again started practising.

There was no one else other than her in the whole room.

Even if it was Christmas, she was here practicing.

The girl had silky blonde hair that was tied up in a ponytail. Determination was evident in her eyes as she practiced her dance steps.

The girl was Rachel.

For the past two months, she had been giving her all to dancing because a lot of people online felt that her steps felt robotic, so she was trying to put effort in it to get better as a performer.

[You can't dance. Just try to be a proper musician who doesn't dance instead of being a performer.]

[Your singing is way better than dancing. It looks like you are some toy. So robotic.]

[Just give up trying to dance. You should save some face for yourself.]

Those comments had really hurt her ego, so after that, she had gotten very serious about dancing, even getting praise from her cruel instructor Karen.

It was only after a while that Rachel stopped and dropped on her knees, taking deep breaths and drinking water.

Wiping the sweat off her forehead, she picked up her phone and found out that there were a few messages in it.

'Must be from mom.'

She felt and checked them up. Indeed, it was texts from her mom. Like every time, she had scolded her for missing Christmas and ranted about being a singer had ruined her.

Even now, her mom had not understood her.

"I'm anyway used to it."

She thought and at that moment, she got another text but this time, it was not from her mom. It was from Emily Jung.

She was the only one who she had stayed in contact with after X-Star.

[Emily: Rachel, did you watch Aiden's commercial on TV? I saw it on the internet. He's really hitting it big, coming in a commercial with David Sylvester.]

Reading that, surprise appeared on her face briefly.

She hadn't heard from Aiden for over a year now. He had gotten famous with his songs while she felt like she was far behind.

'I wonder how he's doing?'

She thought silently and stood up again to practice.

…

/DreamNote/

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Outside the window, snow was slowly falling from the dark sky filled with clouds. No matter where he looked, everything was covered in white.

It was an atmosphere in which one just didn't want to wrap himself with blankets and stay cooped up in a room. After looking for a few minutes, Aiden closed up the window and sat down on his chair.

Completely opposite from the outside, his room was completely heated up, so much so that Aiden felt like taking a nap.

Unfortunately, he didn't have the time for that.

'I need to complete a few guide tracks before the New Year.'

The work on his office would complete in the first week of January and then, he could shift his whole album work there. With the underground studio that was getting prepared, he would work more efficiently there.

But currently, he needed to make do with the DAW (Digital audio workstation).

"There's so many different types of sound I could make for my album but I need to be careful…"

Aiden muttered, opening up the workstation.

As it was his first full fledged album, there was a lot of uncertainty in his mind. He didn't want to go away from his style of music in an effort to try something new and failing.

Still, he needed to keep the music creative.

'I at least have one song that would work well.'

Aiden thought, glancing at a piece of paper that was on the corner of the table. It was actually a letter that he had gotten from one of his fans.

He had received it just last week and reading it, he had gotten inspiration to write a song. In the letter, a girl was thanking Aiden for making 'Lost in the Sky' as it helped her during the time when she and her boyfriend were having problems with marrying due to both of them belonging to different races. .

The song made her feel like that a new chapter of her life would also be good and it would be a good chapter.

Reading the letter, an idea had instantly struck his mind.

"A song about forbidden love."

It was right up his alley and Aiden was sure that he could make a good song on this topic. Moreover, it gave a pretty solid theme to the composition.

Love was something that musicians would universally write about, so much so that it had become a cliche and many of them forget that a song on love could have a wide amount of subtopics in it and Aiden was going to just do that.

'Let's give the song a story.'

In his mind, a story was slowly forming. Two people with different status and colour, trying to be together but even if they wanted to be together, society wasn't so easy to face.

Even though humans had evolved a lot with time, becoming more technology advanced, they still lived in a world where money, status and even religion and colour still mattered in different parts of the world.

Trying to immerse himself in that story, Aiden tried out different instruments and sounds.

Guitar, keyboard, drums and even flute, he tried a lot of different things with different frequencies for each instrument. In the end, after a lot of trying, he was finally able to make a 45 second guide track that he felt suited the lyrics in his mind.

Obviously, a guide track still needed a lot of work on it but he had a lot of ideas for the final version.

One of those ideas was something he felt that fit the song a lot.

'A duet. A proper duet song.'

As the song was about forbidden love, he felt that he needed to include a female voice in it too with it being almost like lovers talking to each other.

Duets weren't that popular in the current music scene as most singers would just feature in each other's song, not really dividing the whole song in two parts or doing something creative.

It was just following a pattern.

Aiden wanted to change that with this song.

'This song would need to have a great voice for the female part.'

He thought, deciding to talk with Wade about it. He was already in talks with record labels for collaborations and till now, only Neu Entertainment had agreed with Grey more than ready to do a song with Aiden.

"It's going to be a very important start of the year for us this time. I really hope it sells well."

Marshall White, the owner of Vikings publishing glanced at the calendar on the wall. The date '7th Jan' was circled with a red marker.

It was the day when Behind the scenes] was going to finally hit the shelves and it would be interesting to see how the reception would be.

Sitting in his office and drinking hot coffee, Marshall couldn't help but muse on it. Being the first novel of the year, he wanted it to do well.

"Sir, can I come in?"

At that moment, his assistant's voice came out from the other side of the door.

"Come in."

A man wearing a sweater and dawning a ponytail walked in and put down a book on his desk.

"The copy of Behind the scenes came. You told me to give it to you once it arrives."

Marshall glanced at the book and took it in his hand. The cover displayed a man and a dog looking at a star, twinkling in the open sky. The star was used as a metaphor for the main character's dream of being one.

A lot of meetings were held before the team working on Behind the scenes had decided on this cover. There were also other covers made by the illustrators but this was the one everyone felt was the best out of them.

There was a melancholy about the way the man on the cover looked at the star in the sky that suited well with the theme of the book.

"It looks good. Did you already send it to Aiden Silvereye?"

Marshall asked, looking up at his assistant who nodded.

"Yeah, I mailed it. Sent a few copies so he could distribute it to his friends and family."

"Good? How did the talk with 'The Yorker' magazine go? What did they say about the interview? What about MeTubers?"

"They happily agreed to it and said that they could do it anytime possible. I sent them a copy of the book for a review too." The assistant nodded his head. "I did the same thing with MeTubers who we generally send books to review."

The Yorker was a literature focused magazine that was pretty famous. It would always interview authors before their books would come out and it was very good for promotions.

The case was the same with MeTubers whose content was focused around books. As they have a large group of people watching their content, it was a nice way to sell books.

Vikings publishing had contacts with a lot of MeTubers that helped them market the book well.

"That's good enough. It seems like we would be able to get a good number of people reading the book on the first day itself. After that, everything is based on how readers liked the book."

Marshall talked with his assistant about the book for a little longer. It was only after half an hour that his assistant left his office and sitting quietly, he again picked up Behind the scenes and opened it up before taking a deep breath.

'The smell of paper…'

Thinking that, he started his second reading of a book that had managed to impress him.

"Rachel, I got you a great chance!"

As Rachel was sitting in the lounge area in the office of Cyco media, drinking some tea, her manager Linda appeared out of the elevator with an excited expression on her face.

"What chance, Linda? You look pretty happy."

She looked up at Linda who vigorously nodded her head.

"It's a big opportunity. Wait! Let's not talk about it here."

Linda looked around at the other artists and managers in the lounge area and dragged her to an empty meeting room and closed the door. Seeing her like this, Rachel was pretty confused.

Her manager rarely acted like this and she was mostly composed.

"Linda, tell me what chance you got for me? Is the company finally getting me another song?"

Rachel asked, hope reaching her eyes that have mostly looked lost in the past two months.

"Kind of. But it's a bit different."

"Different? How?"

Rachel tilted her head. Shaking her head with a smile, Linda casually took out her phone and headphones from her pocket and passed it to Rachel.

"Play the audio file on it and tell me how you liked it. I will tell you about it after you have listened to it."

She still had reservations and confusion but Rachel still did what Linda said. Putting on the headphones, she played the audio file and the melody that sounded like piano came out.

It flowed smoothly for a while before the tempo increased and it got mixed with the sound of a flute, playing very strongly. It was kind of a grandiose sound that was giving her a feeling of watching a musical on Broadway.

Then, the sound of humming added to the clip, like it was trying to give a balance between the piano and flute.

The audio clip wasn't long and it soon ended.

After it did, Rachel looked at Linda who was smiling.

"How did you like it?"

"It was good. I can't tell much since it's just a guide track but I liked it. Who made it?"

…

/DreamNote/

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After Rachel had lost to Aiden in the music charts more than a year ago, a lot changed for her. After her debut single, Cyco media immediately planned to release an EP (Extended play).

She had lost to Aiden but her debut single had still worked well enough for her to get an EP.

Because of that, she had gotten busy in planning and recording her album. Cyco media was one of the top record labels and due to their influence, they were able to get the best composers, songwriters and sound engineers to work on the album.

The whole process went on for two months and it could clearly be seen that they were very optimistic about Rachel and her skills.

There were even rumors that their lead singer, Robin Swift was going to leave the label and they wanted to make Rachel stand in her place.

But things didn't go according to how they had planned.

When the EP was released, the reviews were above average at best. The songs were not bad and were catchy but the reception was pretty lukewarm.

They got a good amount of views but failed to make a large impact. The EP eventually ended up earning back the investments but it didn't cross the point Cyco media wanted.

After a few months, people even forgot she had an EP out.

Due to the disappointment of it, Rachel was mostly sidelined in the record label and there was no saying if she was even going to get another single. The only ray of light for her was that she was still getting gigs here and there and trying out modelling.

It meant that the record label hadn't given up on her but they were also not going back to her.

It was a pretty weird situation to be in.

That's why, when Rachel had seen Linda so excited, she had asked whether the company was finally giving her a new song. .

All this time she was practicing hard just to make a good comeback and show everyone that she did have talent.

"It was good. I can't tell much since it's just a guide track but I liked it. Who made it?"

When Rachel asked that, Linda quickly replied.

"Aiden Silvereye."

"Aiden?"

Rachel was very surprised when she heard that name. The message that Emily had sent her flashed in her mind but she didn't show any emotions on her blank face.

"Yeah, he made that guide track and sent it to Cyco media." Linda said and started to explain. "Apparently, he is making an album and Cyco media is interested in helping him out with the distribution of physical albums. They are still negotiating a good deal but both sides would surely come to an agreement. So, in the album, he wants to collaborate with other artists on some songs and I got this sound track because of that."

"He wants to collaborate with me?"

Rachel raised an eyebrow. She and Aiden weren't really on good terms and hadn't talked with each other since over a year.

Both of them were in completely different phases of their career now.

"Not you. The director just got the guide track and was going through singers who could work on it with Aiden. All his songs are doing very well these days, so he's a massive hit as a songwriter. Anyway, I heard about it and talked with him. Aiden wants a female voice for the other part of the song and I told the director how you two have known each other since long and got the song."

When Linda finished explaining, Rachel took a few seconds to take all of it in. She glanced at the phone which was still displaying the audio track and thought of her and Aiden's last meeting.

'I acted arrogant with him.'

It was something that she wasn't proud of but because of that, she was sure that Aiden didn't think of her in a high regard.

"Linda, I don't think Aiden would want to work with me."

She said, not hiding anything from her manager.

"Why?"

"Well, last time, I acted arrogant with him. My debut single was doing very well, so, it just happened. I never was even able to say sorry to him. He's big now, so he probably won't work with me. Even if you try to contact him about it, he would surely reject it."

Linda sighed hearing that. This was really not a good situation but it was the only chance they had. The management was pushing other female singers and Rachel would surely stop getting even small gigs like this.

If they can't grab this chance, then things would be very bad for them.

"He might reject it but we still need to try. Rachel, don't forget, it's probably your last chance. If the song with Aiden worked, your name would be out in the public again and the management might give you another chance."

"That's true." Rachel lowered her head, thinking about it. She didn't want to wake up everyday to just practice with her career going nowhere. "Okay, let's try it and hope for the best."

New year came soon for Aiden and with that, it was finally 2017. On the New year, he didn't do anything and just gave himself a day off to spend the whole day playing video games and catching up on a few webnovels.

Surprisingly, he found a good novel about a guy playing as a monster in a VR game. He liked it a lot and spent the whole day reading it.

After that, work began earnestly for him.

The renovation of his office finally finished and his whole team was very happy about it. They could finally work without any discomfort and slowly get used to the office.

At the same time, Aiden also got the script of [Disconnected] to prepare for the audition. Reading the whole script, Aiden felt that it was way better than the synopsis.

He liked a lot of parts in it and the main character's falling into greed and power was very well displayed, making Aiden feel like he did a good job by choosing to audition for the script.

It was a script that would end up being a hit movie.

"Cyco media is trying to play a waiting game to get a better share in the distribution. They surely can't afford for us to go anywhere else as they are already talking about their singers collaborating with you, so just wait and I would get a great deal. Joseph and Jody are a huge help in it, otherwise those people are pretty good."

Wade said as they continued their discussion about the album and Cyco media.

For the record, Joseph was the legal counsel that Aiden had appointed.

They were sitting in the waiting area of Black Line Cinema office. In front of Aiden, there were a few actors who had also come to audition but they were just talking among themselves or reading the script.

"You make it sound like they are desperate to work with us? Aren't they like a top record label?"

Aiden asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, they are in a way. You are pretty hot, at least in the music scene. A capable singer/songwriter. They probably regret not getting you when you were unknown and are now trying to form a good relationship for various reasons but the main reason is just to have a capable, talented person like you, have a good opinion of them, so both you and Cyco could work together in the coming years too."

Record labels normally try to have good relationships with composers and songwriters due to how essential they are to a song. Even if the singer and the record label gets the majority share in the royalty, a song won't exist if not for the composer.

That's why famous composers and producers sometimes earn way more than singers.

"That does make sense."

Aiden said and ended the conversation to go through the script again. He didn't know what scene he would be asked to perform, so it was better to prepare as much as he could.

His script already had tons of scribblings and marks because Aiden had written down pointers while practicing for the audition.

It even looked a bit worn out by comparison of other's scripts.

'The character has a different type of atmosphere about him in different parts of the script. It really isn't easy to play a character like this.'

As Aiden was analysing a scene, the door to the waiting room opened and a guy walked in, spotting a very confident smile.

"Aiden, look there."

Wade tapped his shoulder to look at the door and when Aiden saw who had entered the room, he couldn't believe his luck for a second.

'Dustin Redford.'

He was someone who Aiden had met during the audition for [Searching for the One]. At that time, Dustin had talked a lot about his acting journey and had acted like he was going to get the role.

But in the end, he had lost out on it.

Aiden hadn't heard anything from it after that.

'Is he here to give an audition too?'

As soon as Aiden thought that, Dustin noticed him, sitting in a corner and a wide smile appeared on his face.

He quickly spoke out loud.

"Yo, Aiden, my brother."

Hearing that, Aiden couldn't help but think.

'Brother? I don't remember being something like that.'

…

/DreamNote/

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"Yo Aiden, my brother."

When Aiden saw Dustin in the audition, he was confused by him calling him brother out of nowhere. They have only met once before and it wasn't really a special meeting in the first place.

Unlike what Aiden thought, Dustin looked very happy to see him here.

"Hi Dustin, it's been a while." Aiden said as Dustin walked close to him.

"Yeah, come to think of it, we weren't able to exchange numbers the last time we met. I was in a hurry that day due to the audition." He said then added with a smile. "I didn't get the chance to say this before but congratulations on playing that role so well. I have my doubts about you but you did well in that character."

"Thanks. I'm sure you would have played it well too."

Aiden randomly said but Dustin's expression wasn't too good.

"Ah, yeah… I would have. It's just that the writers said… They want to cast someone younger. Yeah that happened.

Even though he said that, a frown was visible on his face as he tried hard to not think about the actual reason why he was rejected for the role.

It had already given him quite a bit of emotional damage and made him work out more to look better.

"Anyway, I didn't expect to see you here. You're here to audition too, right?"

Dustin asked, sitting down next to Aiden and Wade.

A few actors who had come to audition were also listening to their conversations. .

"Yeah, what role are you auditioning for?"

Wade asked, being on guard against Dustin. Black Line Cinema had called several actors to audition for different roles, mainly the three main roles that would take most of the screen time in the movie.

Dustin was a quirky individual but his acting skills were pretty good and because of them, he keeps getting work. At this point, he was just waiting for that one good lead role to break out.

That's why Wade was hoping that he and Aiden would be auditioning for different roles.

"I'm auditioning for Sebastian Walker. What about you, Aiden?"

Wade took a sigh of relief hearing that.

"I'm auditioning for Mark Knight."

"Oh, going for the main lead straightaway. It's really like you." Dustin said, then shook his head. "I wanted to go for his role too but my agent said that Sebastian is better suited for me and the chances of getting the role is higher like that."

Although [Disconnected] had three main roles, the most important is undoubtedly the one of Mark Knight. He was the character who would get the idea of the social media site and would go on to become the CEO of the company and with that, his personality would also change slowly.

Compared to that, Sebastian Walker was one of the founders who is extremely loyal to Mark and would be the one to actually get him to the big leagues, by showing him the way to get his website to become a billion dollar thing.

Both characters were very different.

"By the way, did you see Seth Douglas here?"

Dustin suddenly asked, making Aiden shake his head with a confused expression.

"Why will Seth Douglas be here?"

"My agent told me that Seth was seen around Black Line Cinema. A photo of his car was also captured by the paparazzi and it's almost confirmed that he's interested in [Disconnected]."

Seth Douglas was a pretty famous actor who starred in a very famous series called [Dark Blood]. He was pretty young when that series took off and it instantly made him a big name among the public.

He decided to focus more on the big screen after that and starred in a lot of other movies which gave him a lot of credibility as an actor.

If he's interested in [Disconnected, then he was the biggest competition for all the other actors.

But in the industry, he was known because of another reason.

"Ah, that bastard Franco is at it again. He probably went through a lot of scripts and decided on [Disconnected] for Seth's next project. If he's involved, then the role is as good as Seth."

Wade muttered with a displeased expression, like he was reminiscing about a bad past.

"You talking about Franco Li, that SGA star agent?" Aiden looked at Wade.

"Who else? He's Seth's agent and it's well known that he is one of the most well connected people in Hollywood. There's a reason why he's the agent of most top stars. I'm not too sure about this movie now."

A sigh leaked out of Wade's lips.

'It's really going to be a hassle if all this is true.'

Aiden also displayed the same expressions. He knew who Franco Li was. Anyone who knew a bit about agencies in Hollywood would have heard of Franco.

He was a top agent. A bonafide star maker who has four A listers working with him. Seth was someone who was not an A-lister but everyone in the industry believed that he would be thanks to Franco.

That's why, people won't dare to go against him. No one in their right mind would try to get on the bad side of a potential A list actor.

"I don't really understand what you two are talking about. I'm not really well versed in agency's and things related to them but this Frano person seemed very popular." Dustin said, putting a hand on his chin. "I wonder how Seth got him to be his agent."

Wade just smirked at those words.

"He probably sucked him nicely."

"Wait, does that mean—"

"I won't clarify anything. Just know that it's Hollywood."

Saying that, Wade shrugged his shoulders.

'I don't have time to worry about other actors. The only thing I could do here is to focus on my acting and leave an impactful performance in front of the director.'

That was the only thought in Aiden's mind when he stepped into the audition room. A lot of people were already gathered in it and he could even see a cameraman and some staff members.

Out of all of them, the Director Jesse Ross was the person that he knew the best.

He was a director with over 10 years of experience. He started off with thriller indie movies like [Ghost in the Water] and [Bastards of the past]. Then, he moved to work with more mainstream studios on lighter themed movies.

Just three years ago, his movie [Waking up] was a box office hit. It was a pretty great coming of age story about a person suffering with insomnia. Aside from that, he was also an author and was the writer of [Disconnected] too.

Possibly the most influential person in the room. If he managed to impress him, the role was his.

"Aiden Silvereye, I have heard of you." Jesse opened his mouth, his eyes scanning through Aiden's profile.

"I hope you heard good things." Aiden replied.

"Most of them are but I don't know if they hold weight. I have only seen glimpses of your acting till now. What do you think of the character of Mark?"

Jesse asked, looking at Aiden. His causaician looks and blue eyes were clearly standing out. He looked more like an actor than a director in some day and he had pressure emanating from him.

But Aiden dealt with it calmly.

"He's a genius who never actually gets his due. At least at the start of the story. His girlfriend dumps him, he drops out of college and doesn't even know what to do with his life. He's confused at the start but he's still a genius and when an opportunity arrives, he grabs it tightly and hits a jackpot. In a way, I would even say he's an accidental billionaire and somehow, money and power becomes his core personality as the story moves and to increase it, he doesn't mind making an enemy out of people who supported him when he was no one but to be honest, he's a scared individual who don't know how to face people. He's not a leader so even if he's a CEO, he won't be able to lead."

Aiden summarised the entire character arc of Mark and Jesses nodded, writing something down in a notebook.

After that, he whispered something to other people sitting besides him and gestured to Aiden.

"You can start your audition. You were given the scene right?"

He nodded. Ten minutes before entering the audition room, one of the assistant directors had told him the scene he needed to perform.

It was the scene in which Mark's character would actually change from positive to negative for the viewers. In it, Mark would accept a deal from another company that would mean getting his website to another level but while doing so, his friends will lose all of his shares.

He would know it. There would be hesitation and conflict in his eyes, knowing full well this decision would change everything.

But he would still do it.

Aiden needed to show the conflict properly, the nervous eyes and the lure of the money and power he would get if he accepted the offer. All of it needed to be conveyed very precisely.

If Aiden isn't unable to do it, he would lose the role for sure.

"I'm ready."

He looked towards the staff member who would be playing another character in this scene. As Jesse ordered the scene to show, Aiden closed his eyes.

'Immersion.'

He thought as he got changed.

…

/DreamNote/

There will only be one chapter tonight.

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"Ain't this movie going to be a big hit?"

A man puffed up smoke from his mouth and held the cigarette in one hand. Cold wind touched his neck as he looked at the sky that seemed to be cloudy.

The cold weather wasn't going to go anywhere for a while.

"I don't know. Why do you think that?" The woman standing in front of him asked.

"It's a 60 million dollar production with SGA investing in it. The company is already looking to hold onto them with how things are going and the director's filmography doesn't leave a lot to desire. Most of the supporting cast we selected are great and talented. It's like they have all the right ingredients for a hit movie."

There was an old saying in the film industry that no one knows what project would be a hit but studios try their best to increase the probability of their movie becoming a hit.

Resources, great minds behind the movie and great actors on the screen — These things are present in almost all hit movies.

"Yeah, but we still have not pinned down the three main leads. I heard that Dustin Redforf got one of the parts. He impressed Jesse a lot."

The woman said. She was a production employee who was working on [Disconnected]. Opposite of her, the man was a HR employee and both of them were dating for a while. Talking to each other on the terrace had become a daily habit of both of them.

"Isn't Seth Douglas playing the lead? I even heard that Aiden Silvereye impressed in his audition." The man tilted his head.

"He did but both of them auditioned for the same role. Actually, Seth Douglas was already confirmed for the lead but Jesse Ross wanted to look at other actors too. Probably to see if he could find a perfect male lead and I heard he found Aiden pretty good but now SGA is pressuring to just get Seth on board for the project. They have a lot of power as they are investing in it and many of the supporting actors are from SGA."

"Basically a power struggle."

The man clicked his tongue. It wasn't new in Hollywood. Power struggles between agencies and studios, between two different actors or even between a director and a studio. Those were parts and parcel of Hollywood. .

Everyone was used to them but these struggles never end well.

"So, what do you think would be the end result of this?" The man asked, throwing down the cigarette and crushing it with his shoe.

The woman thought about it for a while and looked straight at him.

"I don't know. The Executive producer and Jesse are probably arguing over the casting in the office right now but going by who has the most power on this project, I think SGA has the upper hand here…"

Her words trailed off at the end of the sentence as she sighed.

"You know, I hope the movie didn't suffer because of it. These things destroy a good project sometimes."

In the office of the Executive producer who was working on [Disconnected, Jesse Ross had an annoyed expression on his face as he tapped the desk.

In front of him, a man with brown skin colour and a square face was sitting. His name was Rishi Suman, an Indian American who was also the Executive producer working on this project.

"Jesse, you need to understand SGA is helping us out in this project due to a packaged deal. One of their requests was to cast Seth as the lead. You are in this business for long enough to know how it all goes."

Rishi said in a thick American accent, leaning against the sofa seat.

"I know but there's more to this business. It's art too. A movie means a lot, especially this one and I just want to be sure that I cast the perfect person for the lead role."

"Seth is perfect."

"I have other candidates too. Good actors who I think could be great as Mark Knight too. I'm not saying Seth isn't a good actor. I'm just unsure about him as the lead."

Jesse was a director who always wanted to have the perfect casting. A bad casting could easily ruin a project. He knew that well, so he wanted to be extremely sure of his decision.

Unfortunately, Rishi saw the business aspect of movie business more than just filmmaking.

"Jesse, my friend. I understand you want it to be a perfect casting but there won't be any movie without SGA. They were already not happy when you decided to do an audition for Mark Knight too. Due to them, the project was given the green signal and you do know how big of a project it could be with SGA's resources, you as the director and Black Line Cinema distributing the project. Try to understand."

Rishi said in a very calm demeanor and Jesse hesitated. He understood that SGA was bringing in a lot of resources to make [Disconnected]. They were a premium talent agency with connections one could only dream of.

But Jesse wanted to hold an additional round of auditions for both Seth and Aiden.

'Aiden portrayed Mark pretty well and he looks far more like a college student compared to Seth but there might not even be a movie without Seth due to SGA.'

It was a very conflicting matter for him as a director. It was his first cooperation with Black Line Cinemas, so he wasn't getting any support and his authority as the director was not a lot compared to the power the studio and SGA held.

"Rishi, can't we just do another round of auditioning for both Seth and Aiden. I just want to be extremely sure." He asked again but Rishi shook his head, sighing.

"No, we don't have any time. We need to get to the shooting by the end of January, so the movie is ready in a couple of months." He said then added. "You know, I think you are unsure about Seth because you have only met him once."

Both of them have only met once when Seth had come to audition for the role. In Jesse's memories, Seth didn't look like a bad person and had good ideas on the character and story.

Just for an awkward character like Mark, Jesse felt that a more charming and expressive actor like Aiden would be better.

"I don't mind meeting Seth again."

"Yeah, I'm going to a party tonight. Seth would be there too. Come with me. You have already proven yourself as a director. You should show up in these events more and make good connections."

Rishi said and Jesse nodded before asking.

"What about Aiden?"

"What about him?"

"I have not yet agreed to casting Seth as Mark yet. I just said I don't mind meeting him again."

The Executive producer frowned hearing that. Stubborn directors like Jesse were very hard to deal with, especially because rather than box office, they worried more about creating a great movie.

That only works if the movie is being made for an Oscar. Even with those, a producer would always go for profit.

"You are making things difficult…"

Rishi muttered with a frowning expression as his calm demeanor broke. He didn't know what to say to convince Jesse. At that moment, an idea struck his mind.

"I have an idea for Aiden. He's not a bad actor and is doing quite well so…"

"The song is pretty good. I think you should send it to Grey. The beat is catchy and if you just increase the tempo a bit, then it could be a great pop song. Grey excels at those."

"Yeah, I did send him a few guide tracks but he didn't like any of those till now. So I might as well take the chance with this one."

"I have a good feeling about it."

Wade said as he tapped his shoe on the ground, listening to the track that Aiden had made. The catchy beat was really holding his attention together.

Both of them were sitting in a meeting room in Aiden's office and going through a few guide tracks that Aiden had made.

As the audition results would only come out after a while, Aiden had time to focus entirely on his album. Aside from making a lot of guide tracks and even trying new instruments, he was also in contact with Grey who was giving him more insight into pop songs and how to make them catchy.

In pop songs, lyrics were secondary and only the music mattered.

"I think I will send it to Grey and see his reaction and if it's good, then I could finish up the lyrics in a few days."

Aiden said and Wade nodded his head, happy with the progress of the album.

"With this, we will have four songs right?"

"Yeah."

For his first album, Aiden was recreating two songs that he sung in X-Star. 'I can't seem to forget' and 'Life is a story'. The third song was the duet one which was titled 'Firefly'.

He had already completed most of it and it would be the first song that he would record.

As they were talking, the door to the room suddenly opened and Tom walked in, holding a parcel in his hand.

"This just came from Vikings publishing."

"Ah, must be the book."

Tom put down the parcel and Wade opened it up. Few copies of Behind the scenes were in the box.

'It's finally releasing in two days.'

Aiden thought in his mind, excited about his book release.

…

/DreamNote/

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