After pulling out the stunt on the stage, Viviana was now facing the consequences of her action. Manager An was chewing her head off with all those scolding she was giving her.
Not to mention Agent Yan. But thankfully, he was more focused on stabilizing the unstable emotion of his other ward.
Manager An expected this incident to become a hot search by the next day. But what she did not expect was for it to explode even before the end of the premiere.
Some fans in the audience had recorded Viviana defending her co-artist and had uploaded it on Lounge. Now there were already videos of her battle with the reporters from different angles spreading all over the internet.
[What can I do! I never knew that the person I once hated was so cool. Now I'm falling for her…]
[Get them Girl!]
[AHHH!!!! Vivi!!! Are you on a mission to bend me? Imagine her defending you like this. I can't be having a crush on a girl!!!]
[I'm a guy. But I wouldn't mind being defended by someone like this.]
[I have been obsessed with this girl these days and was just complaining that there were no contents. And I'm being served…]
[Now that I think about it, Viviana is a really private person. Other than her dramas and commercials, she never appears. Other than the scandals the media spread about her of course.]
[I'm more curious about this ER incident. Does anyone think that she had really sent someone to the hospital after getting drunk?]
- [Could be the truth. This matter has been brought up twice already.]
- [Don't just assume things! This could be just rumors others spread like those before.]
- [I don't think that it's just a rumor. Lyra was talking about it like she really knew of the incident.]
- [I can believe anyone. But Lyra. She's so fake…]
- [What do you mean by she's fake?]
…
This incident that was brought up was also the concern of Manager An. She had forgotten to ask about this. She asked Elisa if she knew anything about it. But the assistant had no idea about it.
The manager finally got the chance to question the person involved when the premiere ended. They were in the van on the way to the hotel where the after party will be held.
"It did happen."
"…"
Manager An did not ask further. Just made the command.
"Explain!!"
"It was way before. It was after 'Scavenger.' Agent Yan took me to a party. There were some whom I didn't know who kept insisting that I drink. I did take two drinks from him. But was irritated when he kept repeating that."
"…"
The other two in the car remained quiet and let her narrate the incident.
"When I refused to drink further, he was infuriated. It didn't help that he was drunk by then. He began sprouting nonsense. So, I poured a bottle of… Was it a beer or whiskey? I forgot. So, what I did was I poured a bottle of alcohol over my head to wake him up from his drunkenness."
"…"
Elisa and An Mey did not buy that. 'Was it really to wake him up?'
"Then he got physical with me. So… I grabbed his head and banged it on the table."
"???"
Manager An and Elisa's were as wide as a saucer hearing that. 'She did what?'
"I thought that if coldness didn't wake him up, little pain would." Viviana said as though she was just stating a matter of fact.
'Oh really?' The other two thought.
"But here's the thing…" Viviana sighed as she met eyes with An Mey through the reflection of the back view mirror. "At the heat of the moment, I forgot that the table was made of glass…"
Elisa almost stepped on the break when she heard that.
"…"
"…"
"…"
Silence filled the small compartment of the van. Then… An Mey blinked once as she stared at Vivi's reflection on the mirror. Vivi blinked too. The manager blinked once again, and the actress followed again.
After repeating this series of actions for two or three more times, An Mey couldn't help but sigh out loud as she closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose.
Not too long ago, just a few days ago, she was complaining that the actress whom she was assigned to manage had no temper. That she let others walk over her while she just accepted everything thrown at her quietly. And even prayed for her to change.
Now, she was reconsidering her decisions. This young woman, Viviana. If she had such a temper before… She wondered how she could hide her temper so well… Even in the press meet today, she could see her temper…
It was definitely resurfacing…. Whatever that the girl had been burying under. And An Mey did not know if this was a good sign or a bad one.
But she had a bigger problem now. This little woman had challenged the press to dig up the truth.
"Aren't you afraid that this would resurface?"
"What? That I really sent someone to the ER?"
Viviana who had thought they had already moved on from the topic was absent minded for a while. Then she shook her head.
"Nah! It was a pimp party so I don't think they dared to expose that."
'A what!!!'
"Yan Lui took you to a pimp party? How could he? You…" Elisa was fuming.
But An Mey who had been in the industry for a while knew this was not surprising. And with Viviana's looks, she must be on the top of the list of demand.
Viviana's heart warmed up when she saw someone else got infuriated for something she had been put through unfairly on her behalf. So, in an assuring voice, she calmed her assistant down.
"It's okay. It's all in the past now. He didn't dare to send me to any after that. It was the first and the last."
But this did the exact opposite of what she intended. Her words made her two companions imagine a poor girl who had just stepped into the adult world being cornered into the dark side of this industry. They could see a weak girl in tears but a determined look in her eyes.
If Viviana knew how they saw her as a pitiful puppy, she would have protested and repeated a hundred times that she had never been pitiful. That if the man didn't look like he'd pass out from blood loss or had glass embedded in his skull and feared that he'd die from her action, she would've given him more lessons.
After getting to know about what happened, the manager asked further questions like who was there in the party, and further more details. Even though Viviana had assured her that the party involved would not reveal the incident for the fear of exposing themselves, she still needed to prepare for any unexpected things that could happen.
Besides, this was a perfect chance to gather dirt on Han Entertainment.
After she got enough information, she asked if there was any similar incident that could cause problems in the future.
Viviana thought for a while.
In the driver seat, Elisa opened her mouth to say something. But before she would even make a sound, Viviana's voice came.
"No."
Elisa looked up at the rare mirror and met the pair of eyes that were also staring back at her through the reflection. Then she closed her mouth without saying another word and went back to looking at the front.
After driving for about an hour, they finally reached the venue of the party. There were many well-known individuals of the industry in the party. Parties in this industry are often not just events meant for celebration. It's a gathering where deals are made, resources are exchanged and many decisions of a project are initiated. It's mainly organised to spread and form networks.
And this party was not different.
At the corner of the big hall was Viviana who was just enjoying the fruits and juice, watching the boring people who were busy interacting with fake etiquettes. Besides her was her sweet assistant who had been given a job to watch over her boss.
Manager An, who had gone to join the other agents and managers for a while, after hearing about the incident and witnessing her temper for a bit, was not confident about leaving the actress on her own. So she assigned the mission of keeping her in check to Elisa.
"Sister Vivi?" The assistant called out.
"Hmm…"
Viviana turned to her. The little assistant was a bit hesitant. But the patient look of Viviana waiting for her to say her mind made her no longer hold back.
"Are you sure you don't want to hide what happened four months ago?"
"…"
Viviana was definitely not expecting her to bring up the topic. The assistant was talking about the incident that made Agent Yan punish Viviana for three months without any resources and changed all her staff and labeled her with the title of being an abusive employee to the staff.
"After all Lyra_ She could use that to… You know…" Elisa did not complete her sentence.
"Hmm… I'll tell her later."
Viviana responded after thinking about it for a while.
Viviana was expecting to be alone with Elisa till the end of the party. But her move in the press meet seemed to have broken her unapproachable persona.
The cast who had always been curious of her but never dared to get close to her for the fear of being caught in a scandal with her and also just because she didn't seem to be a welcoming person came up to her. Then gathered around her and kept on pulling her into their conversations.
They talked about many incidents that happened on the set. Most of which were funny. The conversations were light and humorous.
Viviana was not foreign to this type of group interactions. She even made comments and teased a younger artist who got NGed for almost twenty times when he was facing her for the first time.
This conversation was caught by Daniel who had just come over. And he was quick to join in.
"You know what he said to me later."
"No! Senior Miller. No…" The teen actor was almost begging.
But too bad. Daniel Miller was someone who enjoyed seeing other's drama and there was not a chance he could let it pass like this. And it was just fun to tease the hopeless young man.
"He told me later that he wasn't able to say the lines because he kept forgetting it after seeing your face up close…"
Laughter rang across the hall, drawing in the attention of the rest of the guests. But they soon got back to what they were doing before.
The young man wanted to crawl into the ground. Seeing the red face of the man, an older and more experienced actor consoled him.
"It's okay… To admire a good looking person is natural. Even I was awestruck by Viviana's visual when I saw her for the first time. I still am every time I see her."
The rest of the group began to compliment Viviana's visuals and it was time to feel shy. Meanwhile, Elisa was enjoying the rare sight of her boss getting red from other's compliments and was silently giggling.
But her little pleasure did not last long when she saw the person who was approaching in their direction. She quickly turned to Viviana and saw that her boss had already noticed the person approaching them. Her face no longer relaxed. It was replaced by an unreadable straight face that emitted coldness.
The actors around her were quick to notice the change in body language and turned to the direction she was looking.
"You guys seem to be having a lot of fun." The new arrival commented in a light tone.
Daniel was the first to stand up.
"I didn't expect to see you here...." He extended his hand as he greeted.
"Director Yan."