Premiere Night (1)

Valentina woke up well into the afternoon the next day. Since she had gone to bed so late and had been unable to fall asleep easily, her body decided to take it out on her, and she slept like the dead for over 14 hours. She groggily got up and went down to breakfast and was shocked to see that Kaiser was at the dining table. He was dressed in a simple black button-up shirt, folded at the elbows, and simple black slacks.

 "Good afternoon Valentina, I hope you slept well." he greeted her while reading something on his tablet.

 "Uhm why are you here?" Valentina asked as she sat down.

 "I live here?" Kaiser replied with a chuckle as she rolled her eyes at him.

"Sure, sure don't tell me I don't care," Valentina replied with a wave of her hand as she dug into the porridge that a maid brought for her.

"I'm expecting a gift to be delivered so I decided to come back early." 

"Oh." Valentina continued eating her food and the conversation stagnated. Wanting to fill up the awkward silence between them, she asked, "When will Luca return?"

"Do you miss him?" Kaiser glanced at her and asked.

"Actually yes. I'm used to being around him all day so it's a bit different." Valentina honestly replied. Habit was such a scary thing. It had only been for a short while, but she had gotten used to seeing Luca and being around him every day.

"Since today is Friday, he should be back by Sunday. I'm sure he misses you too so if you give him a call he would be very happy."

"Isn't he at your parents' place? That would be awkward for me to explain who I am if they asked."

"Just say you're his new mom." Kaiser joked.

"Absolutely not." Valentina immediately shut him down.

"Valentina." At his soft tone, Valentina couldn't help but look at him.

"What?"

"You know that I'm attracted to you. Don't you want to be Luca's stepmom?" his tone was the epitome of a seductive devil trapping an innocent victim.

"No way. Please find someone else." Valentina immediately retorted. Although she did find him attractive, he was objectively a walking red flag.

"Why not? I think it's a pretty good deal. Spend my money, get a free son, and build great social connections. Or do you think I'm ugly?."

"You're definitively not ugly!" Valentina immediately corrected and blushed when he winked at her, "But you don't love me. You think I'm physically attractive and I'm currently doing you a favor, so it's given you a positive impression of me. But it's all surface-level. I have no interest in romance at this time as I want to focus on my career and even if I did I would only want someone who truly loved me."

Hearing her words, Kaiser nodded his head at her and sipped his tea.

"Your words are fair, but we'll see in the future." He smirked at her, and Valentina felt a chill run through her body. Before she could speak, he continued, "It seems your phone is ringing."

Valentina glanced at her phone and saw that her phone was vibrating, and it was the company number.

"Hello?"

"Miss Salazar, we're calling to inform you that the premier for <Spring Love> is tonight. The location is the Fox Theater on Central Avenue. After the film, there will be a Q&A session for actors to attend. The press schedule for the release will be sent to your email tomorrow as well."

"What do you mean there's premier tonight?! What kind of bitch ass company tells an artist a couple of hours before the premiere?"

"It slipped our minds and we apologize for the delay. However, all actors are expected to attend, and we expect you on the red carpet appropriately dressed by 6 p.m."

Before she could say anything, the call dropped, and Valentina was left staring at her phone in anger. If Kaiser wasn't there, she would have thrown her phone across the room before stomping it to death.

<Spring Love> was the drama she had acted in as the poisonous third female lead and today was the premier launch episode for the drama. It was currently 4 pm and she was expected to be red carpet ready and on location by 6 pm. She didn't have any red carpet-ready clothes with her. Even if she ran to Imperial Mall, found a dress, and immediately wore it and applied her makeup, she would still not make it in time.

These things had to be scheduled in advance, it didn't make sense for her to be told about it the day of unless somebody was intentionally withholding the information from her.

Valentina released a big sigh and wanted to bang her head on the table. What was she going to do? Maybe she could skip it? Before she could finish that thought, the system spoke out.

[Ding!]

[Hidden Task Assigned!]

[Hidden Task – Gain the acknowledgment of at least 5 reporters on the red carpet and gain over two thousand likes on a post!] 

[Reward: Gain the skill to gracefully walk or run in heels with no discomfort or pain.]

 Hearing the system assign her a task, Valentina could only feel as if it was mocking her. Not to talk of reporters acknowledging her, but she would be happy if they didn't spit on her okay? And over two thousand likes on a post? Keep dreaming! She only had around 300 followers and the most likes she had ever gotten was approximately a hundred likes. Where would the other 1900 come from?!?

 Although she was a bit tempted by the walking-in-heels skill. Reject! Reject! Directly reject the task. She would just tell the director she was sick and had coughed up blood again. They would definitely believe her!

[The host has been relaxing and not engaging in activities that would boost the host's reputation in the industry as well as advance the host's career. Hosts must attend the premier, make more connections in the industry, and raise hosts reputation. If the Host refuses to attend, the host's health will rapidly deteriorate.]

To Valentina, the system's emotionless voice sounded like a threat to her. Rapidly deteriorate? Her body had only just gotten to a semi-healthy condition. Looking at the body health status of -99998/100, an improvement of only 2 points after she had been eating and resting well for the past couple of weeks, Valentina wanted to cry. She had no choice but to accept the mission.

"I take it you found out about the drama premier?" a cool voice asked.

Valentina tearily looked up and saw that Kaiser was staring at her. After processing his words, she asked, "How did you know about it?"

"I asked Roman to look up any entertainment information about you. This came up but I figured you knew about it. I guess not. How about I help you out?"

"How could you even help me? I'm totally screwed here. I don't even have anything to wear" Valentina grumbled.

"Did you forget who I am? I can help you out, but not for free." Kaiser replied arrogantly.

Ahh, that's right. This was a big boss CEO who could summon the winds and rain at a single call. He even owned an entertainment company, so he definitively had connections. Still, Valentina didn't want to be indebted to him, so she asked,

"What do you want in return?"

"A kiss." Was the cheeky reply.

Rolling her eyes, Valentina got up and ignored the rubbish coming out of Kaiser's mouth. She would figure out how to get to the mall and get a carpet-appropriate dress. Even if she couldn't do her makeup and hair, she had faith in the 90/100 beauty stat. Maybe she could market herself as a rustic beauty or clean girl aesthetic.

"A month Valentina. Just add an additional month to our deal. I'll help you out of this predicament and provide you with a red-carpet-worthy appearance. What do you say?"

As Valentina continued to stay silent, Kaiser added. "Think about Luca and how happy he's been. Won't you do it for him?"

Once again, as he spoke, Valentina swore she could see demon horns and wings behind him.

Well, it was only a month, what could happen in that time?