Rise To Stardom: My Villainess

Inside the building which houses thousands of employees─ all working for one cooperation, the XU Cooperation, an amber haired beauty calmly struts her way in. Wearing a simple black dress that flows down right above a few inches of her knees, Ember smirks as she feels their gazes on her. The dress tightly hugs her figure, perfectly showing off all her curves. She matches it with her white trench coat. Contrasting colors, but it mainly shows off the fantastic style she has on. With her favorite red-soled black heel, she completes the look with her BVLGARIE sunglasses, which she most have likely kept as a spare inside her car.

The woman looks just like what an empress should be─ fierce and ready for war─ but the cute lunch bag she is holding right now disrupts the image she is almost perfectly portraying.

Murmurs from left and right follow the woman as songs of praise and judgment softly echo amongst the people dressed in business attire. Ember just focuses on the path before her, indifferent to their criticisms and compliments.

"Isn't that the President's fiancée? Wow, she's totally gorgeous as hell in real life. She looks like a goddess even in her simple outfit," stammered a blushing man as he helplessly tries to hide his smitten gaze. Once can totally see that he has become a fan of Ember as soon as his eyes land on her.

"What are you talking about?! She is not just the President's fiancée. She is the A Country's Muse of Beauty. She obviously doesn't need a man to be known! The man will instead be known because of her!" the woman beside the man snaps at his ridiculous previous comment.

She is desperately trying to withhold herself from the urge of smacking the man's head. It was like he was belittling the goddess with that statement of his. The woman huffs as she then turns to look in awe of the beauty before their peasant-like presence. Obviously, this woman was a devoted fan of Ember.

"True that! With so many accomplishments, I won't be ashamed to state that maybe Alessio is the one who doesn't deserve her. She's also not just a simple celebrity, but she's also an heiress of her own company. So she being a gold-digger is totally out of the question!" An obvious fanboy exclaims, entering the conversation of the two, while he feels so happy to see his idol inside their building right now.

Ember's lips twitch. 'Of course, he doesn't deserve me. I'm the best female artist of Country A. A man with no loyalty will never deserve me,' she shamelessly thinks upon hearing the words of her fan.

She continues to walk until she reaches the elevator before her. Unfortunately, the elevator before her is already full. That's not really too much of a problem for her as she can simply wait. Taking a few steps back as she hugs the lunch bag close to her, she decides to wait for the other elevator to open. Looking at the time on her watch, Ember is startled when a voice calls to her, offering her space inside the elevator.

"Miss, you can go first."

She looks up and sees a fine-looking man before her. He has stepped out already from the elevator, along with his two buddies. He smiles at her, and Ember cannot help but smile in appreciation for his kind gesture. She looks over his two friends and smiles at them as well.

"Thank youー,"

She looks over his name tag,

"ー Cyphrus," she says, happy that she doesn't have to wait any longer. The faster she gets the job done, the faster that she'll be able to leave. The man rubs the back of his neck and nods, feeling the rising warmth on his face, never expecting the famous beauty to acknowledge his name.

She enters the elevator, and she hears the two friends whisper compliments of her to the guyー"Wow, she looks like a goddess up close," "Damn, the muse of beauty herself said your name," and such. More whispers are heard appreciating her beautiful appearance. But of course, other than the compliments, there are also jealous women existing in this world, who couldn't simply shut their mouths.

"Tsk! She's probably using the President's power and money so that she can be popular. Why else would people about her if it wasn't with his help," a woman mutters, rolling her eyes while observing the interaction that just happened. This employee is just beside Ember, so the goddess herself clearly heard the insult from the woman. Ember compels herself to remain calm while the smile on her face slightly twitches.

'Tsk this stupid woman. Without him, I would be even more famous. I don't need his help. Do they even know how difficult it is for a singer to have dating scandals? What more if it's an engagement?!' She continues to feign ignorance of her insult, not wanting to suddenly ruin her reputation by slamming that basher's head on the elevator door.

Eventually, she's the only one left alone.

Reaching the 37th, the highest floor of the building, she steps out from the elevator. Before her is a wide empty space. There are two doors. One of those is for the meetings that Alessio personally calls for while the other door directly leads to his spacious office. In the middle of those two doors is a table for his personal secretary. Strangely, she isn't here. She must be running an errand for him at the moment.

She calmly walks over to the door from the right. Despite having not visited the room for months now, she can still remember where his office at. She just doesn't know if anything has changed from its interior design. Though she does think that nothing might have changed because Alessio is far too busy to have time to renovate his office.

Quietly pushing the door open, she peeks inside and sees her fiancé occupied with a phone call. His back is on her, so she is unaware of those jade green eyes absently staring at the picture frame resting on his table. The frame reveals an image of his family together with the Wang's.

Everyone looks so happy...

He places a hand on his black swivel chair as if to steady his body. Raising his head to the direction where the exit door is, he is surprised to see his fiancée standing and still holding the door to the office open.

Those jade-green eyes slightly widen at her appearance while Ember's perfectly trimmed brow raise at his. Her attention is fully stolen by the dark bruise that has terribly decorated his handsome face.

Alessio doesn't bother to continue the conversation with the person on the phone. He ends the call and places the device inside his drawer. While he does that so, Ember welcomes herself inside.

She takes off sunglasses and places it on her handbag.

She mentally bitterly smiles.

'Well, either way, that bastard deserves that bruise.' Ember stops herself from snickering. It is the first time for her to see Alessio with such an ugly bruise.

Sauntering off to where he stands by, Ember places the cute floral lunchbox on his table before directly heading to the couch that is a few meters away. Alessio remains standing, expecting her fiancée to do or say something, but she only leaves him to his own devices while she puts all her attention on the phone. She smiles when the mobile game finally loads to the lobby, oblivious to the war that is happening in his mind.

Thoughts of why's…

Despite the situation they are currently in right now, Ember still bothers to bring him food as she has always done in the past. Why? He looks at her as he cannot help but feel a tiny tinge of warmth bloomed in his heart. But like always, he brushes it off before he even gets the chance to think about it.

Gently forcing his gaze away from the girl as he rests it on the container, he cannot help but coldly ask why she's here. The warmth from before is gone without a trace and is replaced with coldness and suspicion.

"Why not?"

Ember doesn't care too much of his tone. She's so busy playing Digital Legend on her expensive phone to even care about any at all. The smile on her face that appears to be so mocking right now and her uncaring attitude ticks the young man off. Alessio's jade green eyes avert to the floor as he slowly hesitates.

"Because of what happened…"

"Unlike you, I have an image to maintain." Ember closes her eyes as if she is about to take a quick nap inside his office. Alessio gazes at her, wondering and waiting for her next move. There is a moment of silence once again. Ember doesn't seem to be sleepy enough, so she opens her amber eyes once more. She's too lazy to get her phone from the other edge, so she opts to take her spare one from her Chanele handbag.

As she is about to enter the game, Alessio suddenly asks.

"Are you not going to ask me anything?"

Ember just gives him a dead look. Ask? What is there even to ask? If he wants to say something, then he should say it and not let her initiate it. "No need. I will only stay here for a few minutes anyway, so why bother?" Her direct reply makes him unable to refute. Completely focusing once again on her games, she remains oblivious to the quiet stares that the other person is giving her right now.

Her gaming stops when a notification pops up. She groans as she barely manages to survive from the attack of the enemy. She almost wants to scream but refrains herself upon realizing that she's still with Alessio. Glaring at the notification, her glare falters when she sees the message Kielle sent to her.

"Hey ;3 I punched that ugly brother of mine for you, Ember. Don't worry. That won't be the last 0f my payback. I'll make sure to hunt that guy down until he becomes too afraid to sleep. MUAHAHA ????"

She almost chokes upon seeing that.

Ember cannot help it; she laughed. Her golden eyes brighten as it almost tears up from Kielle's humor. Alessio's once softened eyes that peered at her turns indifferent as he returns his attention to his paperwork. Ember still continues to smile. Upon learning the truth behind the bruise, she just cannot help it.

"Well, I'll be going now," she lightly says as her eyes delightfully drink in the sight of his pretty bruise. It really suits him a lot! Kielle did great. Giving out a chuckle again, Ember walks out of the room.

Alessio places down the papers as he emotionlessly stares at the door. As he sets his gaze on the lunch bag again, he cannot help but feel the strangely familiar warm feeling. He pulls out his hand and takes the container to his hands. Upon opening the lunch bag, he sees a small pile of rocks and a bright pink sticky note attached to it at the center.

"You thought! ????"

His thick eyebrows furrowed in confusion upon taking note of the elegantly written words. He takes the sticker note from the rocks and stares down at it for a very long time.