17. Rehearsal

"Why are you guys looking at me like that?"

"They tried to recruit you."

Wu Yige's answer made Katrina look at her superiors with gaffes.

Du Chen with 'the lowest rank' in the room gently tugged Katrina to sit down, then Lin Juan handed her an iPad.

"Look at this. People in the industry are reaching out to me because they couldn't get in touch with you. Your followers are growing rapidly and The Ones global coverage flooded us with brand collaborations and sponsorships worldwide. If we don't offer you a contract, that will be our loss."

Katrina knew about the followers thing, it was favorable for a rookie to have them before debut because popularity matters. Some projects brought more eyeballs to it by casting the popular stars to guarantee viewership.

KatrinaxShin that used to be a public 'personal space' for now became a public platform flooded with new followers, comments, and direct messages. She navigates the sea of interactions, grappling with the sudden influx of attention from strangers and the pressure to curate a public image. She could hardly maintain her usual virtual interaction because some of those followers were chasing Katrina's following to know why she followed them.

The people she networked with but not really friendly with her made irresponsible remarks and irritated Katrina new found haters and terrorized her with threats and verbal abuse. She even had to take down Lin Zhi's picture before, at this point she needed to delete her entire feed.

"Ouh, I'm actually considering deleting my account. This is really giving me a headache."

"What do you mean by that? Are you crazy?!" Du Chen throughly offended, Wang Lin promised him that if Katrina signed unde Wang Media, he could also manage her. "This is an opportunity of a lifetime, how many people want to do this but they can't?!"

"Those people are talented and passionate, I don't have those. I'm not qualified."

"That's why we have training! Besides, you can start with being a model and act in some supporting roles. Wang Media has enough in-house production to help you."

"Du Chen," a deep masculine voice with a hint of warning stopped the middle age man, "I bring her here to you to persuade, not to be drilled."

The trio in the room looked at Wu Yige with puzzlement, this superstar never standing up for other people, even if he needed to save his face this was simply weird. Seems like the relationship was better than they initially thought.

"Sorry, I'm a little too excited," Du Chen achieved this position by knowing when to bend and stretch, he immediately changed his posture. Inside, he was more determined to sign Katrina, not only she got the popularity and capital, but she was also in a good relationship with one of A-lister!

The money making channel was guaranteed!

He must sign her!

"Thank you for the kind offer, but as long as the company agreed I'm still going to be Wu Yige's PA."

Wang Lin was about to speak, but Wu Yige stood up.

"Alright, enough with this. I'm going to take her to read the script with me. Let's go!"

The last bit was directed at Katrina, and she followed him after excusing herself to them.

Katrina immediately went to the kitchen once they're in Wu Yige's lounge.

"What are you doing?"

"Making you ginger drink, you're slightly feverish after Jeju. You can't afford to be sick now, your schedule is packed."

"Just sit down, I need to ask you something."

Katrina gave up the idea and brought warm water instead.

Wu Yige was frowning, his new look made him more mature, completely shedding the handsome young man image to a mature man.

"I heard you pushing 'Revival' to me, why?"

"It's a good script. Your current mental state fit for the role, it's the same strategy we use with Inner Demon."

"You do realize Zhang Siyuan is the second male lead, right?"

"Of course."

Wu Yige focused his entire attention into her, there's no hesitation from her answer. No slight winch from hearing his name, no desolation from talking about him, or any abnormal emotion could be detected from her.

As if she was talking about a complete stranger.

"Shouldn't you be against it? He's your ex, you will meet him everyday on set."

"Bah," Katrina snickered, "Why should I care about that. I'll stick to you the majority of the time, I won't see him. Even if I did, I won't shy away from him. He is a cheater, why should I avoid him? Also, not many people know about us, so it will be more weird if I avoid him."

"How can you be so.." Wu Yige was searching for a fitting word, "calm? He's you boyfriend for 10 years. If she-"

His sentence abruptly stopped, but amidst the silence they knew what he meant.

"It used to hurt me deeply, that's true." Katrina poured the water to his glass, "But I've been there, I experienced that. Time did heal many wounds.. the duration just different."

Wu Yige gulped down the water and spat it out the next second, "What the hell! It's so hot! Are you trying to kill me or something?!"

Katrina gave him tissue and immediately wiped the table, she couldn't help but snigger. The desolation just now was broken just like that.

'The temperamental Wu Yige is back.'

.

.

.

"What the hell is this? You say it's compatible with my mental state? Are you saying I'm crazy?!"

Katrina pretended to be a wall and focused on the script at hand, it was the nth time Wu Yige protested on Revival script. Because of Katrina's loathing on 'The World of The Stars' experience when they had no actual script ready for filming, Katrina chose those that at least had half the series written down. TWTS really a bad experience, how could they have no script ready for the Main Lead?! That's out of the line!

"Heyy! Are you listening to me or not?!"

Of course not, but Katrina tightened the grip on the script and asked with a smile. "Which part of it don't you like now?"

"Look at scene 132! Do you find it cute to see a grown woman skipping on the beach? Smiling alone on the beach? She lost all her money, she's in a frustrated situation but a nice view makes her dance? Are the writers crazy?! This was supposed to be Lian Jun's time to realize his love for Laura? This is crazy! How come people watch this shit?!"

Wu Yige didn't just come back, he was more explosive than before.

"Can't you get me action, noir, or criminal scripts? What the hell is this? Playing in a medical drama is also not bad."

"You played enough characters in those movies, your fans might get an aesthetic fatigue. You also need to take care of your body, you owned it for a lifetime. Cherish it," Wu Yige just opened his mouth but Katrina interrupted. "And you said the medical drama gave you a headache because of too many unfamiliar terms. The boss also refused medical drama to you," another attempt from Wu Yige, but "Also nobody cast you for a family drama. You don't have the image they wanted at that time, and so is now. Get back to rehearsal!"

Wu Yige pulled up the chair, sat in front of her, "I'll start, don't be nervous."

"Heyy!"

Wu Yige was plotting revenge, he held her hand instead. "Shut up. You say we need practice."

"I mean the lines! What are you doing so close to me?"

"I'm an actor, I act it out."

"Wu Yi-"

"It's an order, you're still my assistant."

Katrina had no choice but to stay still.

Wu Yige flipped the script and stopped at the desired scene.

Katrina couldn't match the page but from the corner of her eyes, she found it.

Katrina: "!!!"

"Give me a reaction and imagine that you are the heroine."

Katrina was cursing inside, but she maintained a straight face not to disrupt Wu Yige's conditioning.

Lian Jun held Laura's hand in his big hand and rubbed it with his fingers. His stare was casual, almost impassive, as if Laura was nothing more than a piece of unattractive meat.

Laura instinctively knew to run, but he wrapped his arm around and pulled her. Amidst the struggle to run and avoided his kiss, she fell backward on the sofa giving him a perfect opportunity to restrain her.

Katrina got goosebumps all over her body and was about to sit down, when Wu Yige really cornered her with his body. Their faces were only a breath away.

"Wait-"

The look, the posture, and the atmosphere confirmed her suspicion that he was still acting.

"You shouldn't provoke me."

Wu Yige said in a slightly magnetic voice, and then raised his eyes to look into her eyes. Katrina held Wu Yige's finger with his backhand. Wu Yige came forward and breathed with her.

When filming the whole scene must be repeated when there's a mistake, she remembered when an actor couldn't hold his laugh and staff had to reshoot the scene multiple times. It created discontent within the crew and the actor had a hard time to maintain his calmness on following scenes resulting in another messed up and the vicious cycle continued.

Katrina took a deep breath and adjusted her mentality. Wu Yige was her boss, her money maker! Focus!

'Mortgage, college fund, medical bills..'

She steeled her heart and just stared at Wu Yige, no, Lian Jun's eye.