"Sir... are you really okay driving all the way to my place?" she asked after a while. "The Inksea Island campus area is pretty far."
"It’s fine," Stan replied casually. "I stay around there too."
Xenia blinked in surprise.
"Really?"
Stan glanced at her briefly before returning his attention to the road.
"What’s so surprising about that? The internet already knows I’m still a student."
"Yes, but..." Xenia hesitated before laughing softly. "After seeing your position at Star Entertainnt firsthand, it still feels strange. You don’t really feel like a student anymore."
Stan sighed faintly.
"Well, what can I say? I like it there."
That answer only seed to deepen her curiosity.
The car continued through the glowing highways of Velaris while the distance between downtown towers slowly widened behind them.
After a brief silence, Stan spoke again.
"What about you? You stay around the campus area too?"
"Kind of," Xenia replied. "I graduated recently. I’m still staying there temporarily while trying to figure things out."
She smiled self-consciously.
"Tiktuk streams and online content were honestly just supposed to help survive while searching for sothing more stable."
"Well," Stan said calmly, "if it’s a job you were looking for, I guess you’ve already found one."
Xenia laughed softly.
"When you say it like that, it still doesn’t feel real."
She leaned slightly against the window.
"I didn’t study theater arts or acting or anything related to entertainnt. So suddenly becoming part of Star Entertainnt feels... overwhelming."
Then she looked toward him again.
"Especially after seeing Ghost Signal and Unfinished Business."
Stan let out a quiet laugh.
"Oh? You watched those?"
"Of course I did."
"And?"
Xenia straightened slightly as she answered.
"Ghost Signal had a really good balance between romance and action. Unfinished Business felt more cody-driven, but the action scenes still carried weight."
She paused before adding honestly,
"And your acting surprised ."
Stan raised an eyebrow slightly.
"In a good way, I hope."
"In a very good way," Xenia said imdiately. "You looked natural on screen. Not forced. Most celebrity actors overdo emotional scenes because they’re trying too hard to look cool."
"And I didn’t?"
"No," she replied without hesitation. "You felt... relaxed. Like you understood exactly what kind of presence your character needed."
Stan chuckled softly.
"That’s because I barely knew anything when I started either."
Xenia looked genuinely shocked.
"What?"
"I originally studied theater arts for a while before switching fields completely," Stan admitted. "So when I got the scripts, I mostly relied on instinct."
"You’re joking."
"I’m not."
"That’s actually unfair," Xenia muttered under her breath.
Stan glanced sideways.
"What is?"
"You saying that so casually after outperforming half the industry."
That made Stan laugh properly this ti.
The atmosphere inside the car gradually beca lighter afterward.
As the drive continued, the conversation drifted naturally between topics.
Entertainnt scandals.
Terrible livestream donations.
Weird fan culture.
Actors who secretly hated each other while pretending to be close online.
At one point, Xenia nearly choked laughing while telling him about a strear who accidentally exposed his fake luxury apartnt setup after forgetting to turn off a mirror cara angle during a broadcast.
Stan even shared a few stories from backstage filming that never reached the public.
For the first ti that evening, Xenia found herself relaxing completely.
Not because of his status.
But because Stan, unexpectedly, was easy to talk to.
Ti passed quietly.
The glowing skyline of Velaris eventually faded behind them as the vehicle crossed the massive illuminated bridge connecting the mainland to Inksea Island.
Cold ocean air drifted faintly through the ventilation system.
The dark waters below reflected scattered city lights like fragnts of broken glass.
They passed Starfall Isle soti later, where clusters of luxury residences and entertainnt estates rested against the coastline beneath soft silver lighting.
Eventually, after another long stretch of road, the Peak University district finally ca into view.
The atmosphere there was completely different from downtown Velaris. There was this relaxing calm to Inksea that relaxed the heart of them both...
Filled with late-night cafés, apartnt complexes, student lounges, and glowing convenience stores still crowded despite the hour.
Xenia sat up slightly.
"We’re close now," she said.
Stan nodded calmly.
"Directions?"
"Take the next left."
The Huracán turned into a quieter residential lane lined with modern apartnt buildings and trees swaying gently beneath the night breeze.
A few minutes later, Xenia pointed toward one of the buildings ahead.
"That one."
Stan guided the Huracán through the entrance of the apartnt compound before bringing the car to a smooth stop near the building she pointed at.
The engine continued humming softly beneath them, low and restrained like a sleeping predator.
Compared to the luxury districts back in central Velaris, the compound was modest.
A single older-model sedan was parked neatly off to the side beneath one of the overhead lights, its faded exterior making the black Lamborghini feel even more out of place inside the small residential area.
For a mont, neither of them moved.
Outside, the night breeze stirred gently through the trees lining the compound pathways.
Inside the car, only the faint sound of the engine and distant city ambience remained.
Xenia looked slightly apologetic as she turned toward him.
"That must’ve been a really exhausting drive for you."
"It was," Stan admitted calmly. "Even driving faster than I normally would because of the empty roads, it still took over two hours to get back to Inksea."
Xenia laughed softly under her breath. "I can imagine the suffering."
Stan glanced at her. "You sound very sympathetic for the person responsible."
"That’s because I am sympathetic," she replied imdiately, sounding almost offended.
Stan chuckled faintly.
The atmosphere inside the car had beco strangely comfortable over the course of the drive.
Far removed from the tense corporate environnt they had left behind earlier that night.
Still, Xenia made no move to leave.
Stan noticed imdiately. "Aren’t you going upstairs, Miss Xenia?"
"I will," she said quickly.
Then she hesitated. "...Probably."
Stan raised an eyebrow slightly.
"That sounds uncertain."
Xenia looked down briefly before letting out a small breath.
"There’s actually sothing I’ve been thinking about."
"Oh?"
"I want to try sothing," she admitted carefully. "But I’m not sure whether you’ll hate afterward if I do it."
Stan leaned back slightly against the seat.
"Well, now I’m curious."
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth at he thought of sothing, "I’ll allow it. As long as it’s not sothing outrageous."
The mont he said that, Stan noticed movent from the corner of his vision.
Xenia took a deep breath. Not casually either.
It was the kind of breath people took when ntally preparing themselves for sothing dangerous, embarrassing, or emotionally reckless.
Stan couldn’t help feeling faintly amused by the seriousness written across her expression.
For so reason, she looked more nervous now than she had while standing in front of half the entertainnt industry earlier that evening.
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