As Valentina walked away, she could hear Rio ask in a calm voice, “Val? Who was that talking to you?”

“A friend that I'm staying with ahahaha.” Valentina nervously laughed as she went back into her room.

“Who’s the friend?” Rio’s voice became calm.

Valentina considered lying, but there was no need. After all, Rio had been there when she had met Kaiser.

“Kaiser Grayson.”

“What do you mean Kaiser Grayson?? Huh? Explain yourself. Why is he talking to you first thing in the morning?”

“Hmm, it happened one way or another. It’s not any of your business so let’s skip it. Moving on, do you have anything else to tell me? If not, I have things to do.”

“What things are you doing? I told you to stay inside the house. And explain ‘it happened one way or another’” Rio yelled.

“Maybe another time. Anyway, I got it. If you’re done yelling I'm dropping off.”

“Wait, wait. One last thing. We plan on releasing the second MV tonight. And the extended edition video tomorrow. As part of the extended edition, there are clips of us…cough.” His voice sounded embarrassed as he coughed to hide his word.”

“Clips of us what?” Valentina asked in confusion.

“…..napping. The director happened to record us when we were sleeping on the couch, and she thinks the fans will really enjoy it since the music videos are a bit dark. I wanted to warn you ahead of time since the scene seems really ambiguous. I will of course warn our fans to behave, but sometimes they don’t listen. I really apologize to you in advance.”

Valentina: “…… am I allowed to say please don’t release it?”

“Hah, no unfortunately not. All clips are released at management's discretion. Fans are asking for a happy ending even though both the songs are quite dark so they want to give them some closure. Something to that effect.”

“Ughhhh Rio. When was this decided? Why are you only just telling me this?” Valentina complained.

“It was decided today which is on of the reasons I called you so early.” Rio quietly chuckled.

“Ugh, fine. Well then thank you for telling me. I am dropping off now. I have to mentally prepare myself.”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“You do that. And remember, don’t go outside-” She immediately hung up to stop his nagging while snickering to herself. For someone who was barely older than her, he sure acted like a concerned father.

Once she hung up, Valentina immediately threw herself onto the bed, wrapped herself in covers, and began reading the comments on the music video as she rewatched it.

Most of them were admiring the visuals, especially of Rio but a few of them were actually supporting her and cheering her on which brought a smile to her face. As for the negative comments, she directly ignored them. Her acting might be bad now, but she would continue to improve given time.

She was just happy to see something of hers out.

***

Production Staff Meeting for Spring Love Drama

“Director, what are we going to do? Do we have to release her visuals?” A stressed production manager asked as she stared at Director Cranston.

They were in a meeting planning the continued rollout of the remaining promotional material for the Spring Love drama as the weekly episodes were being released.

“I’ve already told you to release the photo and put back her images! It was you all that said the higher-ups were blocking it. You already know my stance so why are you asking me this again?!” Director Cranston roared in irritation. He had finally gotten the drama the way he wanted it to be, yet people were interfering with his artistic vision. He had been in the industry for decades and knew that deals were made in the background. Although he was the director and had a lot of say, the final cut was sometimes out of his hands.

The promotional material for the Spring Love Drama and been prepared and ready to release until his team got a freeze order on the portions involving Valentina Salazar. Although it was too late to cut out the scenes she had in the drama, his team had been ordered to not promote and put out her visuals like the other actors. Although he had pushed back since he liked her improved attitude during filming, at the end of the day, he wouldn’t risk himself too much for an up-and-coming artist with no backer who had seemingly offended somebody high up in Black Rock Entertainment so early in her career.

The reason the staff members were now panicking was because a shift had happened. The Fallen Angels had released their short film music video which was on track to break several records. One of the key actors in that film was Valentina Salazar who was experiencing a large boost in popularity. Fans wanted to know who she was, and different brands and businesses wanted to capitalize on her while she was still a hot topic. Since she was a part of the drama, the Spring Love team wanted to use the current buzz around her to promote the drama to bigger heights. However, they were unsure about what to do since the order came from higher up to not feature her.

Remembering how he had recommended Valentina to Sarah Lee on a whim, he felt gratified that things were working out for her. It was difficult working in this industry, and it seemed that Valentina’s luck was finally turning around.

“Director, what should we do?” one of his team members asked him on the verge of tears.

Daniel Cranston thought it through for a moment before making a decision. He knew how hard he had worked and struggled when trying to break into the industry and remembering how that frail actress had coughed blood up on the set repeatedly yet still worked without complaint, he wanted to do what he wished someone had done for him.

“Begin releasing her visuals. Regardless of what the higher-ups want, this is thousands of dollars in marketing we can save by capitalizing on the natural buzz that’s going on. Make sure you contact her and ask her to post what is needed. If we’re lucky, we can snag some free promo from the Fallen Angels as well.”

“But the higher-ups…”

“I’ll handle them. At the end of the day, we’re here to make money. As long as we show them the impact that sharing her likeness has on viewership and ratings, I'm sure they’ll be quiet. Besides, isn’t the first episode where she officially shows up being released this Thursday?” Daniel Cranston gave them a devilish grin. “Create a feature with actors appearing in this episode and stick her on the back. If people happen to see it and cause a ruckus, no one can blame us.”

And on the backend, he would reach out to his friend the Poison Tongued Photographer. He had asked Daniel Steele to hold onto the photos and videos he had taken even though the photographer wanted to post them immediately. Every once in a while, Daniel Steele still bothered him as he claimed it was some of his best work to date.

If things were coordinated right, even if the higher-ups of Black Rock Entertainment wanted to suppress her, they would have to fight multiple big names rather than squash his drama.

As Daniel Cranston began laughing to himself, the rest of his team looked at him in fear. They knew that when their director started laughing like this, somebody was going to suffer.

After all, he wasn’t best friends with the 'Poison-Tongued Photographer', and called 'The Fiend Director' for nothing.