The Manipulated Villainess

Aston was sitting on his van, leisurely strolling down the articles regarding his signed deal with Yang Group which was reported by the media first thing in the morning.

"News surely spread fast." He muttered to himself without even thinking much.

"That's not even new. You're Aston Kang. But do you know how much trouble these articles gave me?" Derin raised his cell phone for Aston to see. "I already lost count of the calls I received since early in the morning. Several companies who are in discussion with us voiced their displeasure, saying how unprofessional your decision was."

"What's their problem?" Aston simply asked.

"The clothing brand of Yang Group is a newly launched one, while some of the companies are already reaching out to us for more than a month. Maybe it hurt their ego that you prioritize a novice brand." Derin explained but judging from his face, it was sure that the complaints didn't trouble him that much.

"I'm free to choose my own work. Besides, Yang Group also spends a month trying to reach out to me. So, I think the one who complains are the ones who are unprofessional." He put down his phone and grabbed the script for his upcoming shooting. He never needs much time to prepare as he was really good at memorising, but his manager still keeps on talking to him.

"Don't worry. Yang Group is much more influential than those companies. Who cares about their brand being a novice? They are still Yang Group. It's much better -"

"I'm trying to use my brain here." Aston bluntly said as he tilted his head to Derin which made the man stop talking at once.

"Sorry." Derin looked at him with an appeasing smile like always, then Aston's phone went off.

The actor simply picks up the call without even glancing the caller ID as he was too troubled by his talkative manager.

"Hello?" He responded and shifted his gaze to the script.

"Hello? This is Nicole Yang." The familiar voice echoed in Aston's ears which made him lose focus on whatever he was doing. It was the exact voice which he truly wished to hear again soon.

He remained silent for a while, lost in the beautiful voice of the woman who stole his heart by her sad smile.

"Hello?" Nicole, who was currently in her office repeated herself. She was a bit surprised as she didn't expect to receive a blank response, especially from this man.

Her voice finally snapped him out, struggling for words which was very unlike him. "Oh! Sorry. I was wondering how the busy Chairwoman makes time to call me." He still maintained his playfulness even in the unforeseen situation which made the woman helplessly sigh.

"Aren't you tired of being this playful all the time?" She said in a sarcastic tone but the man on the other line was so far from being offended. In fact, simply hearing her voice made him grin from ear to ear.

"What about you? Why are you always being so sulky? Isn't it exhausting? I think smiling suits you more." He continued to tease her again. He gave a quick thought and concluded that it's more fun to talk to her on the phone because... her guard was a little down this way.

"There you go again, always dodging my question. Okay, enough with the small talk." She paused for a second and continued, "I want to repay what I owe you. When will you have the time?"

Her words made Aston chuckled. "You can't wait to cut me off, don't you? I can tell it when you disposed my coat in less than 24 hours." He tried to stall time so that he could talk to her a bit longer. Before this, he never knew that talking with someone on the phone could be this fun!

'He won't forget that I threw his coat away.' She thought to herself as she shook her head. "I already explained that to you. I never know that the top celebrity of our country is such a dumbhead." She calmly replied.

"What? Dumbhead!" Aston gasped. "Did you just call me a dumbhead? I'm famous for having a good brain and high IQ." He was very quick to clarify himself. "Ah! What's the point of telling you? You don't even know anything about me yet you are my business partner now. How can I trust you in this state?" He loudly sighed, so that the one on the other line could hear him clearly.

As expected, his words and hopeless sigh made the woman lose her cool. "Who says that I know nothing about you?" She retorted, refusing to be labelled as an insincere business partner.

"Then how about I test you. When is my birthday?" He asked, hardly supressing his laughter. He never thought that the young Chairwoman would be so easy to provoke!

"Your birthday? How will I know that when I even used to forget mine?" She blurted out which entertained the man on the other line even more.

"I thought that you will know at least that." He said. "All my fans know." He added to provoke her more.

"Hey, Mr. Celebrity. I'm not your fan." She firmly said. "Three days ago, I don't even know your face." She said in a mocking tone but the man was more than hard to provoke.

"Really? Then who was the one who reached out to me with an offer for a whole month?" Aston's adjusted the tone of his voice so that it would seem like he was surprised. Such a good actor he was!

Nicole finds her situation getting mess up more and more. "Whatever. Tell me when you have the time so that I can make arrangements beforehand. I'm busy." She hung up on him and instantly put down her phone on the desk as if it was a virus.

Less than thirty seconds had passed when she picked up her phone again and looked at his number.

Why did she always lose herself and become a different person whenever she talked with him? The way she talked and behave just now felt so foreign to the point where it gave her the chills!

Aston put down his phone and even though he didn't utter a single word, a smile plastered his face the whole time. It was not a fake smile which he always wore, but a real convincing smile and his expression made his nosy manager more and more curious.

"Who is that?" Derin finally asked after battling his curiosity throughout the call.

Aston picked up the script again and without even sparing him a single glance, he simply replied, "The Chairwoman of Yang Group."

"What?" Derin's eyes grew wide open as if his eyeballs were about to pop out. "The villainess? Are you saying that the one you talked with on the phone, with your face all smiles was the Ice Queen?" He whispered as if he was afraid that someone would hear them, even though they were the only ones on the van, except the driver on the front.

"Yes. That so-called villainess." Aston responded as he casually flipped through the pages of the script.

He tilted his head to Derin and saw him still unable to speak due to shock. The manager was covering his mouth with his hands, finding it hard to believe what he just heard.

When he listened to the actor's talking on the phone, he thought that he was just playing around with his friends but he was still curious. He never looked so happy like he did just now!

But... the fact that the person on the other line was the Ice Queen didn't even cross his mind! Not for even once!

Derin put away his hand, trying to ask more questions but the actor stopped him.

"No more questions for today. I'm in a very great mood, so I don't want you to kill the mood by your endless questions." The van stopped on the filming site and Aston get off and started greeting the crew with a smile never leaving his face.....