“Who is so thoughtful, sending a bouquet every day?”
“I don’t know, and there’s never been a name on it,” Maria said as she pulled out a few pretty blooms from the bouquet and placed them in the vase.
She looked down and saw a card tucked inside the flowers. She grabbed it and put it on the nearby bookshelf where she kept all of her fan gifts that she hadn’t had time to take home yet.
Jane walked into Star Entertainment just as Maria was holding the roses.
She smiled faintly, “Maria, who sent you roses?”
“I don’t know,” Maria hesitated for a moment when she saw Jane but then set down the flowers.
The agent joked, “Maybe someone who admires you wants to pursue you.”
Maria paused with her hand still holding onto one of the petals as if thinking about something before giving a bitter smile.
But when she turned around, that smile disappeared as she took out her script from her bag and started reciting lines.
“It must be from fans; besides didn’t you say public figures can’t date?”
“Little girl, dating…” The agent’s words were cut off by Maria’s quick response.
“You’ll lose your fans.”
The agent laughed at what was meant to be just teasing banter earlier, “Oh yeah! By the way, we got an offer for shampoo endorsement.”
When Maria saw which company it was for, Jiale Bamboo Group, she froze for a moment, “Jiale? They’ve only hired big-name stars before; why would they want me?”
“The company wants someone with strong fan base like yourself; after all now you’re already an A-list star,” said her agent confidently. “You’ll start shooting tomorrow on location.”
“Tomorrow?”
Maria muttered under breath while touching her hair, “Can I talk to our sponsor about photoshopping my picture instead? Changing my hair color should be easy enough.”
“Why not let them just photoshop your whole face so that you won’t have to go at all?”
“I don’t want to lose my beautiful hair color,” pleaded Maria pitifully while looking at her agent who had long developed immunity towards this kind of behavior.
“But I didn’t expect Jiale would directly choose your name this time around instead of hiring regional representatives first; moreover, they even made you their spokesperson rather than their ambassador.”
“Wow, this is so luxurious?” Maria was surprised. Jiale had been an old brand for years, and the product quality had always been good, thus establishing a good reputation and being considered one of the best in the region.
Previously, all the spokespersons they hired were big-name celebrities who had won various awards. This time they suddenly signed her up, which made Maria feel flattered.
However, despite her surprise, Maria’s arrogant attitude did not change at all.
“They have a keen eye for talent. I will definitely become famous in the future,” she said proudly.
“Okay, future rising star. You don’t need to show off so much,” said her agent with a smile.
Maria quietly hummed and looked at the thick script in her hand before picking up a pen and drawing a smiley face in the corner.
She smiled to herself and muttered that it was really ugly.
Because there were outdoor scenes during filming for this advertisement shoot, Maria had gone to set early to do hair styling. Looking at the busy film crew now made her sigh inwardly; big companies were indeed generous even when it came to advertisements like these!
After discussing with the director about how things would proceed on set that day, Maria began shooting promotional photos as well as a short commercial clip. She thought such large productions would have strict requirements but surprisingly enough she found filming quite easy-going; even more so since directors allowed her to relax on set throughout most of that morning without feeling too tired by noon time
“Click!”
The director knocked on his straight tube-shaped object signaling an end to their morning shoot session. Maria breathed out relievedly before walking over towards where they monitor performances on screen while checking out how well she did today.
“Your expressions are very good! The effect is great! We’ll start shooting our main feature this afternoon. Take some rest first.” The middle-aged male director smiled warmly making people feel close towards him.
Maria thanked the staff and made her way to the rest area.
“You’ve worked hard.”
As Maria was looking at her phone, a glass of juice suddenly appeared in front of her. She thought it was a staff member, but when she looked up to express her gratitude, she found a familiar face.
“What are you doing here?” Maria blinked in surprise, smiling at the sight of Kim.
“I heard that the new spokesperson is shooting an advertisement today, so I came to take a look,” Kim said as he sat down beside her.
Maria held the juice, a bit slow to react to Kim’s words.
Seeing her somewhat bewildered expression, Kim blinked and playfully said, “Let me tell you a secret, the chairman of Jiale has the surname Ragsdill.”
“Ragsdill?” Maria muttered to herself, then looked at Kim’s smile, and suddenly realized.
“It’s you… it’s you…”
“My dad is chairman of group.”
Kim pushed his glasses up on his nose. Although what he said might have sounded like bragging, it didn’t come across as annoying when it came out of his mouth.
In Maria’s impression, Kim gave her the feeling of being refined and cultured, like a wealthy gentleman.
Now it seemed that he really was a bona fide rich second generation.
“Since your family is running a shampoo group, why did you become a doctor?”
Maria blinked in confusion. Was this one of those skills that domineering CEOs had in novels?
“My dad always wanted me to inherit the family business. He even forced me to study finance in college, but I didn’t like the business world,” Kim said indifferently. “So I secretly changed my major and studied medicine instead. But because of this, my dad almost kicked me out.”
As he spoke, Kim even put on a pitiful expression that made Maria laugh out loud.
But in Maria’s heart, she already looked at Kim with new eyes.
Although going against the wishes of elders wasn’t good, being willing to work hard for something they loved was already enough.
“I saw you filming earlier too,” Kim praised her. “You’re completely different from how you usually are when you’re behind the camera.”
“You were watching all along?” Maria hurriedly thought about whether she had done anything strange in front of the camera earlier.
“I just got here too,” Kim smiled and pushed his glass towards her. “The food will still be awhile; have some juice first.”
Looking at the brightly colored juice in her cup made Maria blink before firmly refusing it.
“No thanks; I’m trying to lose weight and juice has high sugar content.”
Even though she said so herself though, she kept staring longingly at the juice which amused Kim greatly.
“Lose weight? You’re not fat at all!”
“You don’t understand things about female celebrities,” muttered Maria under her breath.