The night felt so long to the lovesick Mu Yang. When morning came, he practically looked like a zombie with a pair of dark circle on his handsome face. His manager almost had a heart attack when he saw him come to the office looking like that.
"My good brother Yang Yichen, what were you doing last night? Did you forget that we have a meeting today with Apollo? You should look your best! Why do you look like you haven't slept all night?" The freaked out manager looked like he was about to go crazy. He wanted to scold him but it came out like a frustrated whining, instead.
Mu Yang blinked his eyes sleepily. "Brother, I promise I'll try my best. I've told Nana that I would nail this contract. No matter how unwell I am, I will do my best. Now, just cover this ugliness with make up for today. I'll make it up later to you on the photoshoot."
The vexation inside Lin Aotian's heart found no place to vent. He could only take a deep breath and walk away in a huff, finding a make up artist to cover Mu Yang's so-called ugliness. He was an inch away to complain about who deserved the word handsome if Mu Yang called himself ugly. Everyone in the industry knew that Mu Yang was one of the top ten most handsome actors/idols in the entertainment industry. His mixed of masculine and adorable beauty made him one of the best amongst his peers. As much as his haters hated him, no one could say anything about his looks. In the near future, Lin Aotian was sure that his beauty would be even more prominent and mature.
Even when he was tired, he still looked handsome.
Hours later, Mu Yang had finally signed a contract with Apollo and arranged a super tight schedule with them as his main job. For the upcoming months after he finished the promotional season for his newest drama, he would be flying here and there to be their brand ambassadors, learning from their designers about the meaning of each design to get full understanding about every product, and attending some formal occasions globally in the name of Apollo with the CEO and other important figures in the office. In short, he would be doing what Brand Ambassadors do, and he would get the chance to understand it more closely as per his request.
For this project alone, Mu Yang's agency was willing to postpone his drama offers and let him focus on being Apollo's brand ambassador.
The news that Mu Yang was officially chosen as the first Asian man's Brand Ambassador spread quickly. All media talked about him and Apollo, and most of them praised him and had faith in him. However, haters were still finding faults with him, saying that he had done underhanded means to get selected as the BA. Many accusations came towards him but none was responded. Mu Yang's manager had cooperated with their legal teams to track down these people who slandered their artists quietly and planned to sue them all.
The person who was slandered, Mu Yang, was ignoring them all and having the time of his life in the main headquarter of Apollo. His eagerness to learn about his favorite brand made him like a curious student during his visit. He listened to them when they said to ignore all the bad remarks and to focus on his job. He trusted them when they said they were going to take care of the slanders and haters. In turn, he just needed to give his all during the photoshoot and every other occasions related to his identity as Brand Ambassador.
People said that the Westerners usually didn't pick any Asian for some reasons. Even when a Western brand picked an Asian, there would be one or two people in the brand would find that person unsatisfactory. There would be one or two who didn't believe in their works and underestimated the Asian.
In Mu Yang's case, however, he felt like he was at home during his stay there. All of them was nice to him and very supportive at what he wanted to do. The CEO felt satisfied with his dedication and creativity in spreading awareness of their products and the responses of their VIP customers were even better. The only people who refused his role as BA were his haters.
Getting to learn about the history of Apollo and expanding his networks were not the only ones he got during his stay there. He managed to fish out the inside information of the reason he was chosen out of nowhere when there wasn't an audition being held in the first place.
"Our CEO suddenly had an interest in Chinese douyin and had been checking it out constantly for a whole month. We only thought it was just a curiosity, but out of nowhere he suddenly showed us your pictures during a meeting and asked us 'what do you think of him?'. You should have seen our faces at that time. It was so sudden that it caught us off guard." Julian, the one in charge of Mu Yang's daily and schedule in Apollo and the Director of Public Affairs, laughed when he recalled the incident.
"We all like, what? why Asian, though? Didn't we all agree before that the characteristic of Apollo could only be fulfilled by Westerners? No hard feelings, but it was an unwritten rule of our brand. But then, he showed us why he put your pictures on the big screen for us to see. He even said, with a little bit of exercise, you would be the perfect Apollo for us. You've proven him right, though. You've heard about the definition of Apollo, right? You're fit into the definition and you've done well. We definitely didn't make a mistake in making you as our Brand Ambassador." Julian smiled reassuringly at him, thinking that Mu Yang was suddenly feeling insecure.
"Ah, also, the theme for this season was able to be portrayed perfectly. I haven't asked you for that. Do you have a girlfriend?" The way Julian's eyes turned into a teasing slit made Mu Yang chuckled. He had not responded yet, and the talkative man made even more guesses. "Let me guess, you miss her? Why haven't I seen you calling her? You're free to call anyone you like during your stay here, you know that, right?"
Apollo really didn't limit his connection with his relatives or friends. He was allowed to make a video call and even an office tour for his friends, and they had seen him calling a few of his friends and family, but never a girlfriend.
The smile on Mu Yang's face changed. "She is busy." His bitter smile looked painful even for Julian.
"What kind of girlfriend can make our Apollo's BA suffer from lovesickness? Did she know you are an Apollo's BA now?" That was a position most entertainers fought for!
Mu Yang nodded his head. Of course, she was the first one he informed about him being Apollo's BA. How would she not know that? But, she had not sent him any congratulatory messages or anything. He didn't know her other social media accounts. Should he stalk his fans one by one to find out which one was Nana? It suddenly crossed his mind that maybe he should hire a private investigator to find out about her.
"Do you have her picture?" Julian whispered, full of curiosity.
Mu Yang glanced at him and fished out his phone from his pocket. He tapped on it twice and showed the lock screen video on his phone with a proud smile.
"Cute, isn't she? She isn't an entertainer so you won't be able to recall where you've seen her before." After saying that, he put his phone back to his pocket. "It's a secret. I only told it to you." Mu Yang whispered, ignoring the initial bewilderment look on Julian's face which then turned into an understanding.
"Don't worry. I'll keep my mouth shut." Julian's excitement for being the first one to know future hot issue was evident in his eyes. Even so, he cooperatively made a promise to Mu Yang and ignored the questions inside his head.
Despite the questions he had inside his head, Julian also held back two important comments to himself.
One, he had seen the girl before. Since it wasn't that long since he last scrolled on TikTok, the memory of that girl's characteristic was still clear in his mind. So, that lovestruck boy beside her was Mu Yang? What a coincidence!