Chapter 110 - 108: The Fans Exploded
With the roles reversed, Jonah Goodman’s face burned with humiliation.
Yet Cecilia Sterling wasn’t deliberately targeting him. Every word she spoke was simply her truest, most honest thought.
She had long since lost the ability to fall for a man. If a man could hold her gaze for more than a few seconds, there was likely only one reason: he was handsome.
That’s right; she still had a thing for handsome men. She’d never deny it.
She had said all that needed to be said, making her stance perfectly clear. Even though the look of astonishment hadn’t completely faded from Jonah Goodman’s face, Cecilia Sterling simply offered a cheerful smile and walked away.
Watching from afar, Estelle Goodman had no idea what happened. All she saw was her brother, looking as if all the life had been drained out of him. When Cecilia returned, she rushed over to ask, "Sweetie, what’s the situation? Did you tear into him?"
Cecilia Sterling let out a soft laugh and retorted with a quizzical look, "Why would I do that?"
"Then why does he look like that?"
’He looks shocked, a little hurt, and something else, too. It’s complicated.’
Cecilia sighed and confessed, "It’s just as you hoped. I drew a clear line. We can be friends, but anything more is impossible."
When Estelle Goodman heard this, she instinctively clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide as saucers. "You... you actually said that?"
Cecilia nodded earnestly. "What’s with that reaction? Isn’t this what you wanted?"
Estelle Goodman’s expression was now even more complicated than her brother’s had been. Excitement seemed to be warring with conflict and an undercurrent of uncontrollable surprise.
After a long pause, she suddenly laughed. "He’s always the one rejecting people. It’s about time he got his comeuppance. Cecilia, that was brilliant."
Cecilia felt a smile tugging at her lips, but in the end, she just shook her head, at a loss for words.
’I really didn’t mean to humiliate Jonah,’ she thought. ’It’s just better to be direct about these things. Since I have no intention of giving him a chance, I shouldn’t let him cling to any false hope.’
*
After a kiss scene, some actors could take a moment to adjust and immediately snap out of character.
Others, however, would remain lost in a daze of confused passion, reliving the moment long after—so much so that it seeped into their wet dreams, leaving behind a damp spot on their underwear.
When Andrew Sutton got out of bed, he stormed into the bathroom for a shower, feeling both annoyed and ashamed.
He had just finished blow-drying his hair when a loud BANGING erupted at his door.
"Andrew! Andrew!"
Drake was shouting his name from the hallway. Andrew set down the hair dryer, quickly pulled on a clean pair of underwear and his pants, and then went to open the door.
"What’s wrong?"
Drake said in a panic, "We’re screwed! You just shot the kiss scene yesterday, and now fans are swarming the hotel. It’s chaos downstairs! We have to take the back exit today."
Andrew’s expression hardened at Drake’s words. Without a second thought, he shot back, "Why the back door? What if they can’t find me here and decide to cause a scene on set instead?"
"But you can’t just go down there like this, can you? What if they grill you?"
Andrew walked back into the room and started getting dressed. "They don’t need to grill me," he said. "The kiss scene has been filmed. That’s an undeniable fact. What do I have to be afraid of admitting?"
Drake nearly burst into tears when he heard Andrew was planning to admit it to their faces.
"Andrew, don’t scare me like this! If Iris finds out, she’ll have my head!"
Andrew turned to look at Drake. "Did Iris ever tell you I’m not allowed to film kiss scenes?"
Drake froze, then quickly shook his head. "No, but Iris told me I have to keep your fan base stable! If the fans make this blow up and start trending, our whole team will be punished by the company!"
Drake wasn’t exaggerating. Whenever a celebrity started trending, for better or for worse, their team received corresponding rewards or punishments.
A successful, well-marketed trending topic earned the team a bonus.
A negative one, on the other hand, meant the team would be punished right alongside the artist.
Andrew considered this for a moment before deciding to take responsibility and face the situation head-on. "Running away is pointless. You guys don’t need to be scared, either. Filming a kiss scene isn’t some huge scandal. It’s a fundamental part of an actor’s professional duty. I believe that aside from a few extremists, the majority of people will support me."
Drake looked like he was about to cry, but Andrew’s words weren’t entirely without reason. Iris wasn’t around, and he had little experience handling emergencies like this.
’Since Andrew wants to face them head-on, I’ll just have to go for it. It’s his call, for better or worse. Even if things go south, Andrew won’t just abandon us.’
"Fine!" Drake gritted his teeth and agreed.
Outside the hotel, the van meant to take the actors to the film set was already waiting. The extremist fans were clever. They didn’t block the elevators or cause a disturbance in the lobby; they simply staked out the area around the van.
The elevator doors opened and closed, revealing mostly regular hotel guests. But then, one car arrived on the ground floor, and out walked Lily Sterling’s team, completely oblivious to the situation.
Lily’s team had only ever consisted of three people: herself, Yuna, and Finn!
The only man on their team, Finn, was hardly the tall and brawny type; he was only half a head taller than the two women.
The moment she appeared, Lily was recognized by Andrew Sutton’s fans, who had been lying in wait.
"It’s Lily Sterling!"
"Lily Sterling! Did you film a kiss scene with Andrew?!"
"Did you two really kiss? Answer us!"
The group swarmed them, instantly surrounding Lily and her team. Lily had never experienced anything like this; her mind went completely blank, unable to process what was happening.
Yuna and Finn did their best to shield her, terrified the extremists would hurt her.
Finn remained relatively calm. Seeing there were too many of them to push through, he said urgently, "Lily, we have to go back! Let’s get back inside, now!"
Yuna yelled, "Go ask Andrew Sutton! What does this have to do with our Lily?"
"How could it not involve her? She and Andrew are a couple in the show!"
"Exactly! Just because their couple’s fan page has over a million followers, does that mean they can just ignore us die-hard fans?"
"Andrew has been in so many dramas, and he’s always used clever camera angles for his kisses! He’s never actually kissed anyone for real. Why was it a real kiss with Lily Sterling?"
"She must have seduced our Andrew!"
"That’s right! That’s right!"
The fangirls were acting like they’d lost their minds, using their superior numbers to keep the small group trapped and unable to move.
Some of them even started throwing punches at Lily. Yuna and Finn were overwhelmed and couldn’t protect her. Yuna burst into tears of desperation, doing everything she could just to shield Lily’s face.
Just then, a fan at the back of the crowd, unable to get close enough to use their hands, recklessly hurled a stainless steel thermos at Lily’s head. The flask was as thick as a forearm; getting hit by it would be excruciatingly painful, even if it didn’t break the skin.
But just as the thermos arced through the air, someone suddenly burst through the crowd, shot out a hand, and swatted it away.
A tense voice immediately sounded from above her. "Lily, are you alright?"