"Oh me? I'm Valentina, the third female lead. Sorry for my late entrance. It's a pleasure to meet you all." A soft, yet seductive voice came out as the woman looked around at the reporters.
Valentina looked around at the reporters and did her best to smile at them. Despite her best efforts, it seemed that she was the last cast member to arrive on the carpet. Thankfully the male and female lead had held them up, otherwise wouldn't she be walking down an empty carpet?
"Miss Valentina, how come you're the last one to show up? Don't you find it disrespectful that your senior cast members including the director showed up before you? Where are your manners?"
A reporter started with a vicious question.
Turning to look at the man who asked the question, Valentina took a deep breath before answering.
"I will admit that I did arrive late due to some unfortunate circumstance. It wasn't intentional, but that's not an excuse. I plan on apologizing to my fellow castmates and the director I offended for my poor manners." She directly took the blame without telling her excuse. After all, could she really tell them that her company was scheming against her, and she only just found out about the premiere? No way! She could only take accountability.
Seeing the reporter continue to stare at her, she approached Jay King and Anna Lire and bowed her head.
"I have to apologize to Mr. King and Miss Lire for being late to the premiere. Please forgive me."
"Ah it's okay, we're all friends here." Anna hurriedly told her.
"Thank you for your consideration." Valentina immediately lifted her head and smiled at her.
"Miss Valentina, as one of the most junior members of the cast, can you say that your performance didn't bring down the acting? There were rumors that due to your insufficient skill, you delayed the filming."
Another reporter threw a vicious curveball at her.
"Although I can't say anything about my acting skills, I think I performed to the best of my ability and performed enough for the director to be satisfied. That's all I can ask as I continue to improve my skill in my craft." Valentina gave a confident reply.
As the reporters continued fielding questions at her, she answered everything gracefully with a smile. Her smile became more and more natural because each time she answered correctly the system kept announcing.
[Reporter acknowledgement: 1/5]
[Reporter acknowledgement: 2/5]
[Reporter acknowledgement: 3/5]
[Reporter acknowledgement: 4/5]
The reporters kept bombarding her with so many questions that Jay King and Anna Lire seemed like extras. Finally, when she had gained the acknowledgment of 5 reporters, Valentina gently interrupted them.
"I wish I had more time to answer your questions, but we must get inside in time to view everything. Thank you for your time." She turned elegantly and started heading inside, leaving the other two behind.
"One last question Valentina, who you're wearing today? You look beautiful." A fervent voice called out.
Valentina turned back and saw it was a younger woman holding a camera.
Grinning, she replied, "Thank you for the compliment." And continued walking without reply.
Naturally, she couldn't respond since she herself had no idea who she was wearing. She just put on whatever the stylist gave her.
Once she got inside, she saw that everyone was interacting with drinks and hors d'oeuvres. As Valentina walked in, everybody stared at her in stunned silence.
Who was this gorgeous beauty? How come they hadn't seen her before?
As she approached the director and introduced herself, everybody realized it was Valentina the third female lead!
"Hello again, Director Cranston, I apologize for being late." Valentina bowed her head in greeting.
"Hello Valentina, you look gorgeous tonight. How have you been? I've only heard good things from Director Lee about you."
"Thank you so much. I really enjoyed working with her. So much so in fact that if you have another job recommendation I'd be willing to take it." Valentina joked with him.
"Ha ha ha, I see you're greedy for more roles hmm? Well, if you increase your acting skills I'll think about it." Director Cranston laughed boisterously before leading her around, "Come along let me introduce you to some people."
Everyone around was shocked to see the usually strict director laughing happily. It was even more surprising to see him happily introduce an actress to different acquaintances.
For Valentina, the night could be called a resounding success. Thankfully Director Cranston was feeling amenable to her and had led her around introducing her to people. Although she wasn't close to any of the other cast members, she had felt uncomfortable by the lustful looks she received from the men and the subtle glares from the women. She knew that her reputation was bad, but she didn't think that anyone would obviously shun her and was grateful for Director Cranston's care. She hadn't felt alone as he took her around, almost like a proud father introducing his daughter to everyone.
After the social hour, everyone gathered in the theatre and watched the first 2 episodes of the 15-episode drama. Afterward, there was a Q&A session where Valentina didn't have to answer any questions since she was such a minor character. She just had to sit down and look pretty.
Once that was over, Valentina politely rejected any invitation to continue the night by partying. She excused herself to the restroom and pulled out her phone. A quick search showed that the
Completed with her task, she decided to figure out how to get home. She had been dropped off at the premier by Kaiser, but she figured he would be gone by now. The Grayson estate didn't allow taxis, but she could always go to her own apartment. Although the space was less comfortable than the Grayson residence, it was solely hers and with Luca gone, she had no reason to be at the Grayson's. And she wanted to avoid Kaiser.
He had confessed his attraction and although he never acted inappropriately, Valentina wanted to keep a proper distance from him. As much as could be kept while living in his house.
Before she could call a taxi, a call came through.
It was from Kaiser.