The first day of shooting ended with only one scene of Aren.
The director had decided to shoot the classroom scenes first, and Aren's character, Shin, remained in the classroom only for a little while.
Shin had some other things to take care of, so he usually remained outside, and thus, his scenes had to be shot in different locations.
However, to change locations, the crew had to move the equipment to the said location, which would take time, and thus, the classroom scenes were shot first, which were mostly Gisha's.
Aren returned to his hotel room and then went to the gym in the lower floor of the hotel to do some regular exercise.
He video called John while wearing his usual mask and cap to hide his appearance.
According to John's instructions, he completed his workout and then returned to his hotel room.
Ordering a home delivery of some healthy food, he began checking PulseX for any interesting news.
He had been absent from the internet in the last month, focusing only on his gym training, so he was clueless about most of the things going on in the industry.
On PulseX, he ignored most of the mean private messages and checked the trending list.
Among one of the hashtags, he recognized one of his interest.
#TheInsidersBTS
The Insiders was the name of the drama in which Theon played the second lead. It seemed its shooting had already begun and the behind the scenes had been shared.
Aren clicked on the tag and posts related to it appeared on his smartphone's screen.
The top posts were from the official accounts of the drama and Dragon Films. Beneath them, posts from Theon's account were getting the most traction.
They were mostly pictures of Theon in the middle of acting his scenes with the male and female leads of the drama.
Aren opened the comments under the post:
[Go Theon! Show Aren how to act. We need to counterattack with a comeback!]
[Theon, you are our star! We support you!]
[Aaaaahhh, How can someone be so handsome? Theon's looks are just out of this world.]
[Hahaha, Theon is debuting alongside Ryan Black and Luna Veil! Who is Aren debuting with? I don't even remember their names, Bwahaha!]
[Seriously... how can you even compare them? Cut him some slack. The Insiders is the drama with the highest budget this year.]
[Yeah! Dragon Films are going all in with the Insiders this year. Getting movie stars like Ryan Black and Luna Veil to act in their drama is no joke!]
[Did you forget about the director? It's Thames Maron! He is known for directing A-Tier dramas!]
[It's the script that matters, and I'm delighted to mention his name. The A-tier writer, Mathew Bernard, ladies and gentlemen!]
[Wow. Now that I look at it, The Insiders is really star studded. I don't think any drama will dare to go against them.]
[Bwahahaha! To Your Heart is releasing in the same week. They already announced their release date, and later, Dragon Films announced The Insiders' release on the same day!]
[Oh man. I feel sorry for Aren and AxisPlay.]
[He deserves it!]
[There is going to be a slaughter when To Your Heart releases.]
[Can't they change their release date to avoid clashing with The Insiders?]
[I don't think so. Dragon Films looks adamant about going against To Your Heart. Even if they changed their release date, Dragon Films can do the same.]
[Do you really think Dragon Films cares about To Your Heart? I think this is just a coincidence.]
[Well, let's see. I'm really pumped. I hope the time passes quickly and the spring comes early, hahaha!]
At this moment, Aren's phone rang as the food delivery arrived. He went and received the delivery before beginning to eat with his phone to his side.
In his head, he was thinking about what to do. After all, he had to rise in the entertainment industry to get his revenge. At least the revenge he was after could only be achieved by becoming a top tier star.
Well, he had no control over the release date, so he couldn't do anything even if he wanted to. He could only leave those decisions to the higher-ups of AxisPlay.
Meanwhile, he would just focus on his acting.
As for Ryan Black and Luna Veil. He knew them from his previous life. They were both signed with his agency after all.
Even now they were signed with Titan Crest Entertainment.
However, even though they were movie stars in name, they hadn't had much success in movies.
After getting success with some dramas, they had transitioned to movies, however, none of them could make their movies succeed, forcing them to return to the drama industry.
However, despite that, they were award-winning actors and easily had enormous star power to influence their drama's viewership.
The Insiders was destined to get a high viewership, and that could become a problem for To Your Heart if they clashed with one another.
Moreover, with Titan Crest Entertainment's resources and Dragon Film's backing, The Insiders will have a huge budget for publicity.
He even knew that the trending hashtag had been bought with money to create hype around their drama.
There was also BlackShore Management which could use its resources to do additional publicity and release articles.
It was like giants of the entertainment industry were joining together to crush To Your Heart and Aren.
In addition to all this, the director, Thames Maron, had a following of his own, with viewers appreciating his direction. He had won various awards in direction in the two-decade-long career of his.
Even the writer, Mathew Bernard, was a star writer. He was renowned as a pair with Thames Maron. Whenever these two worked together, the drama resulted in a hit.
Right now, Theon looked like an ant compared to these giants. Getting a second lead in a drama this big showed how popular Ventage had been once.
Getting the title of Theon's debut drama was attractive to even such a star-studded drama.
However, Aren could guess that Blackshore Management must have pulled some strings to secure this role.
Otherwise, Theon would have definitely ended up with a supporting role in the drama instead of the second lead.
Well, Aren decided to not look at any news to not get discouraged. He knew better than to be distracted by such news.
He just had to do his work perfectly and move according to his plan.
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(A/N - Thanks for reading. ^..^)