"I would like to offer you a deal instead. Would you hear me out?"
"What deal?" Livia furrowed her brows.
'What can he offer me?' She looked down on Aren, only seeing him as a struggling actor.
Yes, he had enormous potential in her eyes; however, he was nowhere near the level to offer her a deal.
Moreover, she was here to make him an offer, not to receive one herself.
"It's simple, really." Aren rested his chin on his palm, speaking with a polite smile. "I want to offer you a job."
Livia frowned and then spoke in an annoyed tone. "I already have a job. Can we return to the agency's offer? You still haven't given me a response."
"Oh that?" Aren tilted his head with an amused smile. "I reject."
Seeing the ease with which he rejected her offer, Livia was stunned.
"Can you listen to my offer now?" Aren asked with a polite smile.
'Should I just leave if he isn't interested?' Livia contemplated with a heavy gaze. 'But what if he changes his mind later? I shouldn't ruin our relationship yet. I can still try to get him to sign with us.'
She decided to play along with Aren for now. She would reject his offer first and then give him a better offer afterwards.
"Alright. I'll hear it." Livia said as she leaned back on the sofa.
Aren clapped with a smile. "Perfect!"
"Let me ask you." His tone turned serious. "What is your current annual salary?"
"What does that have to do with your offer?" Livia turned defensive.
"I need to know to make you an appropriate offer." Aren stated calmly.
She hesitated for a few moments and then reluctantly revealed: "3 Million Siera."
Aren already expected this much. He had been the CEO of the very agency she worked for, after all.
He showed five fingers and then made his offer: "I'll pay you a salary of 5 million if you come and work for me."
"Five Million?" Livia's pupils shrunk, but soon she turned suspicious, doubting if Aren even had that much money.
She had also read the article about him living on cup noodles. How could he have such a huge amount of money?
And even if she took into account the payment he would've received for the second season of To Your Heart, it still didn't reach anywhere near five million.
After all, she only suspected a million or two as his payment at most.
Even that was inflated.
AxisPlay was known to be cheap, not paying generous fees to anyone.
And that was true.
It was only because of To Your Heart's success that the actors had received such high amounts as acting fees.
Leon himself only received four hundred thousand Siera in the first season.
Due to the potential success of the second season, AxisPlay had been generous enough with their renewed payments.
However, Livia was unaware of all this.
It was because of this that she took Aren's words as nothing but empty talk.
"Do you even have that much money?" Livia inquired with a doubtful gaze.
She would've smirked at him, if not for wanting to sign him to her agency later.
"Of course," Aren replied confidently. "Do you not know that I received 8 million in payment for the second season of To Your Heart?"
"What??" Livia's eyes widened in disbelief. "Eight million?"
Eight million for a rookie actor was unheard of.
Even established veterans didn't charge this much for a role that wasn't even a lead role.
Moreover, AxisPlay had never paid more than 2 million to any actor, no matter how great or famous they were.
It was difficult to believe Aren's claim from Livia's perspective.
On top of that, this was only a single role that only lasted a month and half.
If he did three or four dramas in a year, he would easily be able to pay her five million... no, even more than that.
"Can you show me some proof?" Livia's tone was humble this time.
If what Aren said was true, then maybe he didn't need to sign with their agency right away.
She had thought that he must be poor right now, and if she gave a lucrative contract, he would jump to sign it.
However, everything seemed to be going opposite to her expectations.
"Here is my contract copy. See for yourself." Pulling the contract PDF on his phone, he passed it to her.
With her experience with dealing with contracts, she could easily navigate to the most important part.
Her pupils shrunk despite knowing about it in advance. "I-It's real..."
She passed the phone back to Aren in a daze, looking at him in a new light.
His worth had suddenly changed in her mind.
However, it was still not enough to make her agree to his offer right away.
After a few moments, she turned serious and then inquired: "What kind of job are you offering?"
She was considering her options.
Who didn't like more money after all?
Aren revealed a satisfied smile upon hearing her question.
"I'm just asking you to be my personal manager." He answered, "You know better than me what a manager does for their actor, right?"
Livia silently nodded, contemplating the offer.
After a few moments, she sighed: "I cannot make a decision right away. Can you give me some time to think about it?"
"Sure." Aren smiled. "Just message me on LinkChat whenever you make up your mind."
He rose and left.
***
After two days, AxisPlay announced to prepone the drama's release by a week on their official PulseX account.
Since the drama's shoot had wrapped early, they could afford to do so.
Moreover, the AxisPlay executives desperately wanted to avoid clashing with The Insiders.
Bonh, the mediahouse, released the first article about it.
'Good News for To Your Heart Fans. Release of the second season just around the corner. Click to find out about the schedule.'
'To Your Heart's second season preponed by a week — A gift by AxisPlay to its viewers. Click to find out how it's a genius decision.'
Similar articles followed, released by different networking accounts.
The two articles by Bonh wrote in favor of AxisPlay's decision. It read that this decision was to reward its viewers, giving them a pleasant surprise.
There was no mention of The Insiders.
The second article hailed this decision as genius, explaining that there were too many dramas releasing in the start of spring. However, the week prior to that was empty with no competition.
Thus, advancing the release was praised as brilliant.
However, the Ventage fans were quick to ridicule these articles in the comments.
[A gift to viewers? My ass! Everyone knows they are just running away from clashing against The Insiders!]
[Hahaha, Cowards being praised as geniuses... Has the end of the world come? Such shamelessness!]
[AAAAAHHH... How...]
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(A/N - Thanks for reading. ^..^)