Embarrassed at being caught, she cleared her throat and gave her justification, "Hmm Hmm. I am taking these for behind-the-scenes shots so don't think too much about it."
"With your personal camera?" He replied coolly.
"Hmm Hmm." Sarah Lee cleared her throat again, "I didn't want to miss the moment. The professional camera is coming soon."
"Get out."
"Is that any way to speak to your director? Anyways you should be thanking me for hiding this for you. It's your fault for doing this in public with your girlfriend." Sarah Lee coldly scolded.
"She's not my girlfriend. It's not what it looks like." Rio stared at her as if she had no sense.
"Then that's even worse. You're doing this with a girl with no attachment to you. Are you trying to ruin her reputation? You know how the industry is. You might be too big for rumors to affect you but she's just starting her career and you want her to be in a scandal? You want your fans to brutalize an innocent person?" Sarah Lee asked.
The Fallen Angels fans were called Pillars after the 72 demonic pillars. They were known to brutalize and tear down the fandoms of any female artists who approached Shawn, and most especially Rio. A new artist with no true backing would be drowned in hate and be forced to quit the industry. It's something that had happened before.
She watched realization hit Rio as his eyes widened. Satisfied that her point had gotten across, she continued.
"We can skip today's meeting and meet up first thing tomorrow, but I hope you'll caution Valentina against behaviors like this when she wakes up. And as for you, tighten up because a lot of your actions can be misconstrued as interest and that's not fair to the other party."
After saying her piece, she walked away confidently hoping he wouldn't ask her to delete the footage of her camera.
Rio watched her back before closing his eyes again in contemplation.
No matter how much he denied it, nobody would believe him.
Valentina woke up feeling comfortable and warm. Her head was pillowed on something a bit firm, and she felt like she was being held firmly.
Unconsciously she nuzzled her face closer into the warmth and breathed deeply. She could smell a fresh unique scent that wasn't quite perfume and was quite comforting.
As she got more comfortable she felt an arm tighten around her.
Wait.
An arm?
Valentina immediately sat up and noticed that she was no longer sitting by herself.
Pushing her hair away from her face and rubbing her eyes, she did her best to wake up.
Right beside her, squeezed into the innermost portion of the couch, Rio was lying on his back while staring at her. One hand was behind his head while his other hand was loosely placed near her waist. His face had a light smirk as he stared at her, his red eyes flashing with amusement.
Laughing Rio said, "Sleep well?"
Valentina blinked twice as her brain tried to process his words.
Once they registered, she immediately jumped up and looked around nervously. She hoped that nobody had witnessed her faux pax of being so close to him. Thankfully it seemed nobody was around her, so she glared at him and responded "Why were you so close to me? I could have sworn I fell asleep by myself on the couch."
"Rather than me being close to you, I should be complaining that you grabbed me and didn't let me go."
Valentina looked at him incredulously. There was no way she had grabbed him. She distinctly remembered falling asleep by herself.
Rio glanced at her and said, "You don't believe me? Out of the kindness of my heart, I wanted to lay you on the couch since you looked very uncomfortable. Who knew that you would latch onto my neck like a clingy jellyfish saying, 'body pillow body pillow 'and not let go? Whatever training method you use to build your grip strength please share it with me. I had no choice but to stay here until you woke up 2 hours later."
Valentina was dead set on not believing him, but when she heard the words 'body pillow' her face turned red, and she could only bury her face in her hands in embarrassment as she squatted on the floor.
Since she was a child, she was somebody who wasn't comfortable sleeping unless she was wrapped around a pillow. Even in her old office, she had a pillow that she used to wrap around. Who would have thought she would have used the great Rio as a pillow instead?
"I am so sorry for my horrible behavior of harassing a senior. Please forgive me." She gave her heartfelt apology as she knelt without looking at him. She had become somebody who sexually harassed a celebrity.
"It's fine but I think you're a little casual about your reputation. Something like this can sink your career so be a little more cautious. Optics are very important in this industry. Understand?" He advised her softly.
Valentina nodded frantically but then looked up at him and asked, "Why have you been so kind to me? You don't know me at all."
Rio had been excessively kind to her the whole time they had been recording. Although he was a little snarky, he had been very considerate to her. He had no reason to risk his reputation just because she was a clingy sleeper.
She was a minor co-star, so she didn't really matter. A swift kick would have woken her up and no one would have said anything because she was the one at fault.
Rio stared at Valentina in silence for a moment before shaking his head and smiling sadly.
"You don't remember huh? Let's just say that I understand what you're going through with your family, and I empathize. Stay strong. And act smarter."
As Valentina looked at him blankly, he chuckled before continuing. "Regardless, filming is done for the day so you can leave and come back tomorrow. Same time as always."
After that, he got up and strode away without looking back.
Valentina stood up feeling a bit confused. Empathized with her family situation? Was there a backstory between Rio and Valentina like that? Confused, she asked the system but was coldly rebuffed.
[I'm not a history book. I am simply here to help the host upgrade until the host is the best actress and has achieved the original body's goals. The host should please refrain from actions that would lower your reputation even further as it is already so low it might be competing with Satan's.]
...
Forget it. It was her fault for asking this system that had a vicious tongue. She would just go home and reflect on herself.
Right right, no matter what, it was always her fault even though the system was the one who gave her this uselessly weak body.
Valentina conveniently forgot that the system didn't give her the propensity to cling to others as a body pillow in her sleep.