<🎧 Song Recommendation: You & I by One Direction>

...

For a romance or drama movie, this specific stage was about a lot more than just making the male lead act out a scene. In the industry, it was famously known as the chemistry read.

It was the ultimate test. It would let the director determine if the two actors playing the leads actually had a natural, undeniable chemistry that went far beyond just raw acting technique.

You could have two Academy Award winners in a room, but if their energies didn’t match, the movie would flop.

But just from observing what had happened to Chloe the moment Von entered the room, Marcus could already guess that wouldn’t be a problem here.

The chemistry already existed.

Still, Marcus trusted Chloe. She was a professional and a phenomenal young actress. He hoped she wouldn’t let her personal feelings or sudden star-struck panic get the better of her during the actual read.

For Marcus, what he was truly looking out for right now was whether the inexperienced music star was actually capable of carrying a multi-million dollar movie.

He was judging Von with the highest standard possible. After all, they had an established A-list actor waiting in the wings to take this exact role.

For Von, however, he believed this setup couldn’t have been any better for him. Scene 29 was the exact scene he and Chloe had first practiced in the dark hallway outside her room.

Now, he just had to deliver a flawless performance.

He looked over at Chloe. She had completely locked herself in, staring straight ahead and not even taking a single look at his face as she waited for Marcus to give his final directions.

Von still remembered what he had seen when he used [Inspect] on her during their first encounter.

[Name: Chloe Martin]

[Acting: A+]

It was incredibly high unlike what he expected. But looking at her now, it made perfect sense.

It also explained why she wouldn’t get into too much trouble with her uncle even after breaking the quarantine rules. When you had an A+ talent anchoring your entire movie, you made exceptions.

Even back when they had played out this exact scene in the hallway, despite how good Von was with his voice, she had still done her part a lot better than him. She had easily slipped into that arrogant, toxic Camila act without breaking a sweat.

But that would actually helped Von. Having a brilliant scene partner made his [Immersion] feel a lot more real when he used it.

So now, his goal was simple. He had to beat her in this scene. And he wasn’t going to hold anything back.

"Action!"

The moment Marcus snapped the black clapperboard, the atmosphere in the room shifted instantly.

Chloe immediately played her role. She walked forward with a cool, confident, and slightly arrogant swagger, her chin tilted up as she swayed her hips in her stride.

They played out the scene just like they had done in the hallway, but a lot of things were completely different now.

With [Immersion] fully activated, Von didn’t just sound like Aiden. He had almost become him.

Back during their secret rehearsal, Von was only able to talk with the heavy emotion that Aiden’s voice was going to carry. But the way he walked, his posture, and a lot of his micro-expressions still felt like Von playing pretend. That had been enough to impress Chloe back then.

Using his Stage Two [Emote] was enough to make him change his expressions, but only [Immersion], coupled with actually understanding the character, could help him completely alter himself.

His shoulders slumped slightly. His violet eyes lost their usual sharp confidence, replaced by a guarded, exhausted emptiness.

The air around him felt heavy and defensive. Even without the System skills, most of the credit for this flawless transformation went to his Character Proficiency.

***

"We were never friends, Camila."

Aiden’s voice was raw and trembling with anger. He pulled the stack of papers that he was holding inside his bag and aggressively dropped them onto the empty space between them.

"Take your shitty homework." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

He stepped closer, closing the distance. The raw intensity in his eyes made Camila instinctively hold her breath.

"I regret every second I wasted doing this for you. Consider it my final favor. I’m done."

Aiden had said that with a sudden, booming tone that echoed across the large ballroom.

It was so unexpectedly loud and filled with pure frustration that it left Camila completely frozen in place.

Her confident swagger shattered instantly, leaving her contemplating what she had just done to push him this far.

But Aiden did not spare her a single second glance. He turned his back and strode away, his heavy footsteps echoing as he walked out of the imaginary corridor, making everyone in the room focus solely on his retreating figure and the frozen, stunned Camila left behind.

"Cut!"

Von had already walked several paces away when Marcus finally announced it.

Turning around, Von looked at the old director’s face. Marcus didn’t look overly shocked, and Von couldn’t even tell if he was impressed.

His face was just completely neutral, sitting perfectly in the middle of whether to be mad or intrigued.

Marcus slowly lowered the script in his hands and looked at his female lead.

"That wasn’t in the script, Chloe. Why didn’t you chase after him?"

Chloe blinked, snapping completely out of her character. She looked a bit flustered as she rubbed her arm.

"No, it’s not that way..." Chloe explained quickly, her voice returning to its normal pitch.

"His words actually hit me for a second there. Like, I actually believed I was Camila for a second, and hearing him scold me with that much pain made me start contemplating a lot of stuff... I couldn’t move. I’m sorry, Uncle Marcus."

It felt incredibly surprising that Chloe hadn’t said a single lie among what she just said.

Perhaps she would have frozen up like this today even if it wasn’t a part of her secret masterplan to test him. Von’s [Immersion] was just that intimidating.

"Hmm." Marcus caressed his white moustache in deep thought. He wasn’t mad at her, mostly because he didn’t doubt her excuse for a single bit. He had felt the heavy tension in the room too.

Marcus shifted his sharp gaze to the young man standing a few feet away.

"What about you, Von? You knew she missed her cue. Why didn’t you turn around to scold Camila like the script dictates?"

Von dropped the slouched posture of Aiden, returning to his calm, confident self.

"From what I remember from the script, the scolding was only supposed to happen after Aiden felt Camila grab his shoulder. She never touched me... so that never happened. So, staying true to Aiden’s character, I just had to walk away uninterrupted."

"Not bad. Not bad at all..."

Marcus clapped his hands together once, a loud smack that signaled his final verdict. A very faint, begrudging smile appeared on his lips.

"You did good, Von... I must admit that you managed to impress me today. Let’s say your chances of getting this role have gone from one percent to thirty percent. That’s a really impressive jump, I say."

Von almost frowned hearing that. He wasn’t satisfied, but he had to restrain himself. He knew how the industry worked.

An established A-list actor was no joke. They brought guaranteed money and investors, so he stayed humble and smiled.

"The praise means a lot coming from a revered director like you. Nothing in life is won on easy odds, so I’ll be looking forward to your final decision."

Marcus returned the smile. He was secretly very grateful that Von wasn’t as arrogant or entitled as he had assumed during their terrible video call. The kid took criticism well. He wouldn’t be bad to work with at all.

"That’s all for now," Marcus told him, waving a hand to signal that his time in the room was over.

As Von turned and walked toward the double doors, Leviathan caught his eye. The large rapper threw Von a quick wink and a solid thumbs up, waiting until the doors clicked shut behind Von before bursting out into a wide, victorious smile.

"You see! Who told you musicians couldn’t make great actors, eh?" Leviathan laughed. "Next time, try to listen to your pal a bit more, buddy."

Leviathan immediately began humming one of his own hit songs, tapping his hands happily on the wooden table.

Marcus just smiled and shook his head.

"Calm down, Levy. You haven’t seen Sam yet. I promise you, his experience will make Von’s performance look like a child’s school play."