The Number One Star in the Interstellar Era

THE man who just had been pushed to the floor was Mark Rogers – the casting director for the movie [The Sleeping God].  They're already nearing the end of filming.  But because their crew couldn't find a suitable actor for a small yet very important role, Director Trevane would surely postpone filming.  Which most of them from the crew didn't want to happen.

That's why when he saw that clip of that black-haired teenager on the trending topic three days ago, he immediately knew that he found the one.  So, he quickly sent the clip to Director Trevane, asking him if the teenager suited the role they were looking for. 

He didn't have any expectations.  Because in the past, when he brought people who he thought was perfect for the role, that picky director rejected them all.  He already readied himself for another rejection, but who would have thought that the director's reaction would be much crazier than him?

He could still remember what the director told him via video call word for word.

[He's the one!  He fits the image perfectly!  Where did you find such a treasure?  Quickly, bring him to the set so I could check his acting!]

When he told Director Trevane that he just accidentally saw the clip of the teenager on [Cyberspace] and he didn't know who he was, the director gave him a week to track the boy down.  Seriously, Mark felt that that was already beyond his job description.  But since he was the casting director and no matter how demanding the director was, casting artists in the movie was still under his jurisdiction. 

So, there's really only one thing he could do.  Search for the black-haired teenager.

But he didn't expect that it would be too hard. 

Despite the boy trending, he couldn't find any important information about him.  He couldn't find the teenager's [Cyberspace] account.  He couldn't even find his name.  The only thing he knew was the teenager was in a hostage-taking incident at some mall.  But even with that, he still wasn't able to find anything.

The live broadcast video where that clip came from was nowhere to be found.  As if someone had deleted it in [Cyberspace]'s sea of data.  When he tried to ask the military department to know who was in-charged of that hostage-taking incident, all he received was silence.  As in, literal silence.  They refused to answer any of his questions.

He almost wanted to ask their major producer to just handle this matter.  After all, their producer was the top entertainment company in the Empire - Kaleido.  Surely, they could solve this problem.  But he resisted the urge to do that. 

Kaleido wanted to insert as many of their artists to this movie.  In fact, their male lead, third male lead, second female lead, and even some of the extras came from that company.  Those people from Kailedo would definitely take it badly if he asked them to look for someone who he's planning to cast for this role.  Especially when the first artist who was supposed to take this role was from Kaleido. 

So, he decided that he and his assistant should just do it themselves.  He had some connections that he made throughout his career.  He made use of that to track down the teenager.  But after three days, all he could find was the mall where the incident happened.       

He was seriously on the verge of losing his mind.  It's like, was he tracking some kind of legendary alien beast or something? 

That was until his assistant told him that he saw a post on [Cyberspace] with a picture of the teenager.  The photo was taken in a restaurant near Redwood Academy.  Since he was already near the area – he's been going around there since he found that the mall was in that area, hoping that he would accidentally bump into the teenager – he rode there as fast as he could.

Mark probably hadn't ridden his car that fast right at that moment.  All he could think of was that he needed to get to that restaurant before the teenager could leave.  He must say, it was quite a miracle that he wasn't ticketed at the speed he was going.

When he arrived at the restaurant and saw the black-haired teenager, he was simply overwhelmed with excitement.  Before he could think, his body just moved and rushed forward.  And then before he could even speak, he was suddenly thrown and fell on his butt. 

"Get the hell away from my brother," said the young man with ice-blue hair and teal-gray eyes.

Mark quickly snapped out of his over-excitement.  He looked at the angry young man in front of him and then at the black-haired teenager behind the young man.  He suddenly realized that his action just now made him seem like a pervert. 

He immediately stood up and no longer tried to rush up.  He raised both his hand to show that he was harmless. 

"Please, I'm not some weird person."  He opened his Terminal and showed them his official Empire ID.  "I'm a casting director.  Ever since I saw the trending topic about you, I felt like you fit the role of one of the casts of the movie crew I'm currently in.  I also showed that clip of yours to the director of the movie I'm working on and he said that he wanted to audition you for that role.  Please, believe me."

He said that in a very sincere voice while looking at the black-haired teenager. 

The young man with ice-blue hair scoffed.  "Do you really want us to believe that crap?"

Mark finally looked at the young man.  Didn't this guy say that he was the brother of the teenager?  This was probably the first time he saw siblings that looked so different from each other. 

He shook his head and just focused once again on the black-haired teenager.  "I swear I'm not lying.  You can easily check my bios on [Starnet].  I'm really just here to talk to you about that role."

Before the young man could antagonize him once again, the teenager touched the young man's arm.  "Wait, Reas.  I think it's alright to listen to him."  He looked at Mark and smiled.  "Mr. Mark Rogers, right?  I'm Astrid Townsend.  Should we go to somewhere more private to speak?"