The Returning Ex

No matter what they were thinking about, they wouldn’t show it on their faces, so at least they were treating Ian politely. Cindy
waited for Ian to get his makeup done before handing him his outfit. After that, she found herself a spot in the room and sat down
in silence, keeping her presence unnoticeable. However, she kept an eye on Ian so that she would immediately notice if anything
happened on his end, which was a habit of hers.
Whenever Ian was at a filming set, other celebrities would greet him to engage in a conversation with him despite the fact that
they weren’t well-acquainted with each other. However, nobody spoke to him that day, as all of the other guest celebrities
seemed to be busy with their own stuff. In effect, it made the dressing room eerily quiet.
After mulling over the situation, Cindy figured it was probably because of the scandal on the Internet that had been spread on the
previous day. Ian was currently under the limelight after pulling the rug out from under Sena by using the two clips, which
naturally stirred up fear within his colleagues.
In the past, some might approach Ian in order to direct some of the attention that Ian received onto them, but they came to
realize that Ian wasn’t someone to be trifled with. They also saw him as somewhat conniving, figuring they should leave him
alone unless the circumstances were otherwise. Thus, Ian was essentially being ostracized, judging by the current situation.
Cindy knew Ian well enough to know he wouldn’t care about it. In fact, he might even think that it was for the best, as associating
himself with less people meant less trouble. If it wasn’t for his mentality, Cindy would most probably feel sorry for Ian.
After a while, the shoot was about to begin, so the guest celebrities filed out of the room, leaving their assistants behind, with
Cindy being one of them. These assistants, however, were just like their celebrity partners—they were ostracizing Cindy as well.
To a certain extent, Cindy was similar to Ian as neither of them liked being in the entertainment industry, nor did they like
socializing with people within the industry. Therefore, the situation at that point was actually to her benefit, as she could avoid
engaging in pretentious conversations.
Cindy took out her phone to check on the news online, only to see that the netizens were humiliating Sena the same way they
did Ian, whereas Sena had remained silent ever since her lie was exposed. She didn’t even give an explanation, but Cindy
figured that Sena didn’t know how she should explain her behavior either.
Although Sena’s statement was ambiguous at best, most of the public were aware of its underlying implications to blackmail Ian.
Now that Ian’s agency had released the recording, she would have a hard time clearing her name. Cindy was no longer
interested in reading through the harsh words that the netizens used to insult Sena. While she didn’t like Sena, nor did she like
plowing through the vulgar content either.

Therefore, she only updated herself regarding the general development of the situation. Meanwhile, Sena’s fans were protective
of her, whereas some were hurling insults at Ian, deeming him as unworthy of Sena even if they were a pretend-couple.
However, Cindy believed that some of the self-proclaimed fans were in fact trying to further tarnish Sena’s reputation by making
her fanbase look bad. Just like what Ian said, as far as being a celebrity would go, it was essentially a job, so Cindy didn’t
understand why things would wound up being so complicated.
In the end, she put her phone away before leaning back in her chair, waiting for time to pass as there was nothing else to do.
The rest of the assistants were chatting amicably with each other, but none of them spared a glance at Cindy. She was obviously
being ostracized, which was a situation that would make anybody uncomfortable.
After some time, Hannah gave her a call, so Cindy left the room to answer the call. Hannah predicted that Ian’s upcoming
shooting sessions might not go as smoothly, so she reminded Cindy to be more careful.