REBIRTH : Chasing The Limelight-Chapter 50: A video...

Relanie quickly closed the laptop.

"I saw a video still playing, so I was just turning it off," she said.

The moment the words left her mouth, she almost cursed herself. It sounded exactly like something a person would say after being caught doing something wrong.

Adrian looked past her at the laptop for a moment. Then he asked calmly with a faint sneer on his lips, "Found what you were looking for?"

Relanie stepped away from the desk. For a moment she did not know what to say. Then she spoke quickly, "I... need to use the restroom."

"I also brought lunch for you." she also added quickly. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Adrian did not reply. He simply walked to his desk and sat down.

Relanie turned and walked into the restroom. Once the door closed, she stood in front of the mirror and took a slow deep breath.

She stared at her reflection.

Is Adrian interested in Elara?

The thought suddenly appeared in her mind as it kept appearing these days, but she shook her head immediately as usual.

That was impossible.

She had known Adrian for years and she knew how he was. For a long time she had even thought he might be aromantic. Adrian had never shown interest in anyone. Not in women or in men. Not in anyone.

But something is surely different, though Adrian never looked at anyone twice. Relanie knew she was an exception.

Yet she could not understand why he would be watching a video of another woman singing.

Maybe it was just a report, Relanie told herself. Yes. That should be it.

She turned on the tap and let the water run. Just then, she heard the office door open outside and footsteps entered the room.

"Ah, you’re out."

Relanie recognized the voice immediately as Harris’. She did not pay much attention at first. But then she heard him say something else.

"Sir, I went to meet the lady who was behind the microphone incident."...

–

Few days after the showcase, Elara could feel that everything around her had changed. Though the change was not completely good.

Some people praised her and said she was smart for handling the microphone problem so calmly. They also admired that she continued singing without panic.

But many others said different things. Some whispered that she was foolish for not leaving the stage when the microphone failed while others said she only wanted attention.

The most common rumor was that she was arrogant and liked to show off.

Elara truly did not understand where that came from.

But of course, she knew that most of these words were started by Perri and her small group of followers. They spoke loudly in the practice rooms, in the cafeteria, and in the corridors, making sure people heard them.

But Elara only ignored them as usual, she had lived through far worse things in her past life and small gossips like this couldn’t affect her much.

Two weeks after the showcase, Elara was suddenly called to the director’s office.

When she got to her office, the director spoke to her in a gentle voice. After a short talk, she announced something that surprised Elara. That she would be promoted to Grade Four in few days.

When the news spread, the Grade Three training hall quickly became noisy. Most of the singers were shocked and angry. They believed it was unfair.

After all, Elara was not the only Grade Three singer who had gone out for external music activities recently. Several other singers had also participated in events and a few of them had even won awards. One of them had recently sung the opening performance for a large sports match a few weeks ago.

So people began to question the decision.

Why was Elara the only one promoted?

Most of them said it was because she was being sponsored by the Vale family, or that she had been doing things in secret.

The discussions became louder day by day. Elara herself also felt confused.

If the management promoted her because she had won a showcase, then there were at least four other singers who should also receive the same promotion. So why only her?

Was this because she had been reborn?

Elara quickly shook her head at the thought. It sounded ridiculous even to herself.

Soon, the end of the month was approaching. Elara had already told her grandfather that she would come to Crelou before the month ended, so she had started making the arrangements...

On a quiet Sunday morning, while Elara was still sleeping in her room. A loud knock hit the door suddenly.

Elara almost jumped out of bed. She rubbed her eyes and sat up slowly. Even without opening the door, she could already guess who it was.

Although it was Sunday, she was very certain that it’s Ziva. She seemed to have committed the way she knocks to memory. Or maybe it was just because she is the one who knocks on her door the most.

Elara got out of bed and walked to the door. When she opened it, it was just as she had guessed. Ziva was standing outside, dressing a bit too much for the temperature as she always do.

But the expression on Ziva’s face was strange. It was not her usual calm or careless look. She looked very excited.

Before Elara could even ask anything, Ziva quickly walked past her into the room. She went straight to the bed and sat down.

Elara closed the door and followed her. She sat beside Ziva and looked at her.

"Have you seen the video?" Ziva asked immediately.

"Which video?" Elara asked back, blinking in confusion.

Without saying another word, Ziva lifted the tablet in her hand and turned the screen toward Elara. "Look at this."

Elara leaned closer to see what was on the screen. It was a video of her standing on the stage from the showcase.

Elara stared at it quietly. She did feel a little excited seeing someone post a video of her singing. But she still did not understand why it had made Ziva rush here so early in the morning.

Ziva turned to look at her. When she saw that Elara was not reacting much, she lightly hit her arm. "Aren’t you happy?" she asked.

"Of course I’m happy." Elara quickly said with a nod.

Ziva leaned back on the bed. "Guess who posted it?" She asked.

Elara reached out her hand to take the tab from her but Ziva shook her hand away. "I say guess, not look."

"Come on, I’m not so good at guessing" Elara said with a sigh, but Ziva still remained unmoved.

"Okay, let me take a guess"

"Uhn"

"Livienne?" Elara asked with raised brows.

Ziva stared at Elara with a strange expression. "You must be joking. Why would she do so?" She scoffed.

"Then who posted it?" Elara asked.

"Those high school students." she said.

"Really," Elara exclaimed blinking in surprise. She gave a small smile. "At first, I thought they might have been sent by someone to cause trouble for me." She paused before continuing. "I didn’t think they would like my singing that much."

Elara looked at the video again. "What is so special about what I did anyway?"

Before she could finish speaking, Ziva smacked her lightly on the head.

Elara turned to glare at her. "What was that for?"

Ziva rolled her eyes. "Come on. Even apart from singing without microphone, your song was better than everyone else who sang that day."

Elara smiled a little, but she did not say anything more. Ziva leaned closer again. "Look at the comments."

She scrolled down the page. Many comments appeared under the video. Some of them said:

"Her voice is so clear. I got goosebumps."

"Wait... she sang without a microphone? That’s crazy."

"Who is she? I want to hear more songs from her."

"This girl is amazing."

But not all the comments were nice. Some people wrote:

"She only wanted attention."

"This looks fake."

"No way someone can sing like that without a microphone."

"She probably planned the microphone problem to show off."

Ziva read some of the comments out loud and when she finished reading one particularly silly comment, she and Elara looked at each other. Then they both burst out laughing.

Soon, the two of them were lying on the bed, side by side, staring at the ceiling while talking. After a while, Elara suddenly remembered something so she tapped Ziva’s leg.

"I’m going to Crelou before this month ends," she said.

Ziva turned her head to look at her. "That’s good," she replied simply and Elara nodded.

But after saying that, she suddenly realized something. After that night, when she called her grandfather and he fell asleep while they were still on the call... He had not called her back since then...