Irina's story!
Irina has been under great stress lately. The Idol industry was more difficult than she expected.
Not only does one need the right skills and abilities but one also needs connections to survive in this industry.
Irina had all the elements needed to be an Idol except for one; she didn't have any connections in the Idol world.
As such she has gone through some rough times lately.
One of her seniors from the talent agency, Luna Gracia, had been using her seniority to suppress her and Cecilia. The upcoming most talented Idol trainees are Irina and Cecilia, while Luna has currently become Dreamwave Entertainment's most popular idol.
Even if Dreamwave Entertainment valued her and Cecilia, they were still nowhere as important as their top idol Luna.
Luna could not let the upcoming trainee replace her. Therefore, using her connections and position, she made it hard for Irina and Cecilia in the company. They would receive less attention from the trainers and other Idol trainees also started to avoid them like a plague.
They could endure these things to a certain limit. However, recently something big happened.
Both Irina and Cecilia were almost done being Idol trainees and would soon make their debut. However, that is when the trouble began.
As the promising rising stars, they were promised experienced and good managers for the two of them. However, it seemed that Luna had used her connections to remove the managers and assigned them to another Idol trainee.
Luna was making it difficult for Irina and Cecilia to debut. Knowing that Luna, the most popular idol of their company was taking action against Irina and Cecilia, all the managers from Dreamwave Entertainment refused to become their managers.
Luna didn't fire Cecilia and Irina but rather made it so that their debut would fail. If they are fired, at least they could go to another company. However, if they fail their debut, they wouldn't be wanted by another company which would completely cut off their path to becoming an Idol.
Therefore, Irina had no choice but to search and get their manager by herself.
She already had a good candidate in mind but was not sure whether he would agree or not.
She knew that he had talent and could very well become the best Idol manager in the world. The problem was that the said person was not interested in the Idol World.
The person she was thinking about was none other than Alan. She had witnessed Alan's talent on more than one occasion when they were kids.
She remembered that one time, Alan had written an original song and sung it. It was unlike a child song and had a deep meaning that could already be qualified to be sung by an idol. She remembered that her parents told her that Alan would make a great idol much to her dismay.
Not only that, he had been class captain many times due to his popularity and how efficient he was at handling things. Not to mention his intelligence and how well he mingles with his classmates.
With such talent, Irina knows that Alan would have no problem being their manager. However, she knew that getting him to join her would be extremely impossible.
Others would gladly become an Idol manager but she knew that he would refuse.
As much as he was talented, he was also lazy and wouldn't do what he didn't want to even if he was capable of doing that thing. Doesn't matter whether it was an opportunity of becoming an Idol that everybody dreams about.
She was thinking about how she could blackma- convince Alan to be her manager. She could not think of anything until this morning when she found out that Alan seemed to be interested in her best friend, Cecilia. Immediately an idea popped up in her head to make Alan her manager.
******
Present time.
Irina had a devilish smile.
The smile was something too familiar to Alan. It was something that Irina did whenever she found something to make fun of him or blackmail him into doing something he didn't want. He knew that Irina had found out about his feelings for Cecilia and would not believe it even if he lied.
The only person who he didn't want to know about was Irina. If Irina got hold of this information, he knew that she could use this information to order him around.
Since he doesn't want Cecila to know just yet how he feels about her, he would have no choice but to obey. He already experienced something like this when he was younger.
"So what?"
Alan replied casually. He thought that the less panic he seemed, the better it would be. If he were to show that he didn't care about Irina finding out his feelings, he thought that maybe Irina would not use this information to bully him.
However, he underestimated how much they knew about each other. The more he denied it, the more assured Irina was about her plan. The more disregard he showed, she knew that he the more he cared about it.
As such, she knew that what she said was true and something Alan didn't want her to find out.
"Nothing really! I just thought that I should help my childhood friend with his love life."
Irina replied.
Her reply was entirely unexpected. And Alan didn't believe a bit about what she just said.
( Help me? Phui… She must be scheming something. I must tread very carefully as to not get caught in her trap. )
'When something is too good to be true it probably is'. Alan didn't believe a single thing that she said. As someone who has known her since childhood, he knew that Irina must be scheming something. It would already be good if she didn't blackmail him.
However, despite knowing this, he can't directly say that she was lying and deceiving him. It was already good that she was not blackmailing him. He didn't want to make her mood bad and change her mind if she had good intentions.
"Really? How will you help me?"
Alan asked. He didn't actually have any hope of Irina keeping her word. He just asked so that she wouldn't think that he didn't trust her. Well, he didn't but he didn't want Irina to know that.
"Humph! Who do you think I am? I am best friends with Cecilia. I know everything about Cecilia like the type of guy she likes."
Irina said, emphasizing the type of guy she likes. Irina already started to lay out the bait that would catch Alan's attention. And she knew exactly what Alan wanted to know.
Even though Alan had no hope in his heart that Irina would help him, when he heard that she knew what type of guy Cecilia liked, he was naturally curious. If he had this information, he can work hard to be that type of guy.
"Alan, do you want to know how you can win Cecilia's heart?"
Irina said. With each word, she was enticing Alan more and more.
Alan nodded at Irina's words. He has already been caught in Irina's trap.
Irina smiled in her heart while still maintaining a serious tone. She wanted Alan to be convinced that she was seriously helping him.
"You know that to get close to someone, one needs to spend more time with her and get to know her better. Help her when she needs help and you would be able to win her heart."
Irina explained.
"How?"
Alan asked involuntarily. After hearing the explanation, Alan forgot that Irina was the last girl he should trust with this type of thing. He thought that what Irina said made sense and that her plan might work.
He knew that for him to win Cecilia's heart, he needed to spend more with her. However, the problem was exactly that he could not spend time with her nor could he help her. The only time that he meets her is in the morning. Their class was different and when class ended, Cecilia would go to the Idol Agency for training. There was not a lot of opportunity for him to get closer to her.
"You know how Idol has managers?"
Irina asked.
Alan nodded.
"Managers are one of the people that Idol is closest with. There is a vacancy for the manager of me and Cecilia. If you want, I can let you become one."
Irina said.
"Really!"
Alan asked excitedly. He really thought that Irina was trying to help him. Even trying to give him the Idol manager position.
One should know that in this world where idols are revered, being an Idol manager is one of the most prestigious jobs. The opportunity to be able to become one of them is something that many would die for.
Therefore, when Irina said that she would give him this position, he was really excited. He was not interested in Idol managers' status nor its salary but it was a position that would enable him to become closer to Cecilia.
Irina smiled knowing that she had managed to hook Alan in.
"As the Idol, I had the power to nominate whoever wanted to become our manager. As long as I say that you will become one, it shall be the truth."
"Okay!"
Alan agreed immediately. If the opportunity of getting close to Cecilia was given, he was sure to grab hold of it.
"We can talk about the contract of becoming manager later. However, Alan, you must promise me that you will not quit the job after agreeing to it, and also you must listen to me all the time. You should also give your 100% to this job."
Irina said. She seemed to imply that Alan had to try his best in this job but what she said was different from how others would interpret it.
She meant what she said. In order for her to become a world-renowned idol, she wants Alan to give his 100% capability to help her achieve that goal. She had known Alan's talent since young. She also knew that Alan was somewhat restrained from doing things even though he was capable of more.
She doesn't want Alan to do things half-heartedly for her. He wants him to give his all to make her popular. Be it writing her songs, getting her food, or getting good contracts; everything within his abilities he would need to do.
"Sure! I will do my best."