Rewind With A Superstar System

Chapter 181: Chloe

<🎧 Song Recommendation: Billie Jean by Michael Jackson>

...

Von repeated the name in his head. Chloe.

He felt like he’d heard the name somewhere before. It sounded really familiar, but unfortunately, he couldn’t come up with anything. He didn’t know her.

"Nice name. Just call me the janitor, it’s what all the kids call me," Von said.

Chloe couldn’t help but chuckle at that. She nodded her head, pulling her hoodie tighter around herself in the cold hallway.

Von turned around and started walking away. But less than twenty seconds after leaving, he abruptly stopped, turned on his heel, and walked right back to her.

Before Chloe could even react, Von reached out and snagged the stash of hundred-dollar notes right out of her hands.

"I forgot my money," Von said, casually stuffing the cash into his wet pockets. "But I’ll be going now."

Chloe frowned her face seeing him accepting the hush money for real. She could only stand there and watch in silence as he disappeared down the dark hallway.

***

Von found a men’s locker room a few doors down. He pushed the heavy door open, walked straight to the showers, and turned the cold water on.

He spent over fifteen minutes standing under the spray, furiously scrubbing himself and his clothes with soap and a rough sponge he saw sitting by the sinks. The horrid smell of the garbage truck was stubborn, but he kept scrubbing until he felt raw.

Unfortunately, there were no spare clothes lying around in the gym lockers. He had to bathe with the oversized janitor clothes still on his body, washing the heavy fabric and his skin at the exact same time.

By the time he was done, he stepped out of the stall and used a towel to wipe the excess water off his face and arms. The blue uniform remained completely soaked and clung tightly to his athletic frame. It dripped cold water onto the tiles, but Von was least bothered about the cold. Thanks to his body, he wasn’t going to get sick from a little chill.

Taking a look at the large mirror above the sinks, Von paused.

His full, dark hair was wet and pushed back, making it look even more majestic.

Von smiled at his reflection.

"I look decent now at least, and the smell is gone," he muttered to himself.

Returning to the hallway, he walked quietly down the corridor. He eventually met Chloe further down the building. She was sitting on a desk in a nearby class, casually swinging her legs.

She had removed the headset from her ears, letting it rest around her neck as the sound spilled out into the empty space. As Von got closer, he found the song playing from her phone far too familiar.

It was Masquerade, his song.

"You listen to rap?" Von asked after coming within her sight.

"Oh, you’re back..." Chloe turned her head to face him.

But the moment her eyes landed on him, she immediately stopped in her words.

Her mouth slightly parted. She just stared at him. With the dirt gone and his wet clothes clinging to his chest, his incredibly handsome face was fully on display in the dim light. She was completely mesmerized, her eyes tracing his sharp jawline and deep eyes like she had just short-circuited.

She stayed like that for a long while until Von raised his hand and waved it right in front of her face.

"Anything?" Von asked, raising an eyebrow.

Chloe immediately snapped out of her daze. Her cheeks instantly flushed bright red.

"Oh! No, I mean—" she stuttered, getting completely flustered before finally remembering his question. "Yes! I listen to all types of songs... But I don’t know much about music. I just pick a random playlist and start listening."

"Ooh, I see," Von nodded his head.

He finally realized why she couldn’t recognize him. She knew his song, but she didn’t know the face behind the music.

"So should we start?" Chloe finally asked, her voice filled with sudden excitement. She quickly paused the music. She was really curious to know exactly how capable this random janitor was at acting. "I’ll find an easy scene for you."

"Sure," Von replied, leaning against the desk. "But find a really difficult scene. Trust me, I’m only a janitor because the job got aura and I love the kids. I could become an actor if I wanted."

Von said it with an arrogant smirk that immediately made Chloe roll her eyes.

"Oh, you’re so annoying," she scoffed, though she was smiling. "But I’ll give you something hard of course, just hold on."

Von stood there and waited for her. She unlocked her hone and scrolled through the script document until she found a specific section. She turned the bright screen around to show him the lines.

"So, I’m Camila and you’re Aiden," she told him, hopping off the wooden desk. "Practice this. I’ll be right back."

Von took the expensive phone in his hands and went through the script. He recognized the scene immediately. It was the exact argument scene by the lockers. It was indeed his part.

This made him wonder. If she had this exact script and knew the character Camila so well, it meant Chloe was really the female lead of the movie. It would be really crazy if that was the case. They were going to be working together for months.

He gave a simple nod. "Okay, I’ll practice this."

He said that, and Chloe quickly turned and jogged into the dark hallways to find a prop.

Left alone, Von didn’t even look at the phone screen again. He had already rehearsed the script perfectly back in his hotel room, so he didn’t need to read it again. Instead, he focused on saying the words out loud, testing the acoustics of the empty hallway.

He couldn’t use [Immersion] or the second stage of [Emote] right now because he had no EXP left, but, and he still had his basic [Emote] skill running passively, which was more than enough to make his facial expressions look realistic.

***

Meanwhile, it took almost five minutes for Chloe to walk down the hall and get what she was looking for.

As she walked back in excitement to meet Von, her mind began wandering to a lot of places.

’Wait,’ she thought, freezing in the doorway. ’I just left him alone with my phone. What if he runs away?’

She frowned, but then a different part of her mind quickly argued back.

’No, he won’t do that. He seems decent. Honestly, if he runs away, I’ll be more pained I couldn’t get his number than losing the phone.’

A deep blush crept onto her face just thinking about how insanely cute he was. The majestic hair, the confident smirk, those violet eyes.

She just couldn’t imagine someone that good-looking spending his nights cleaning college toilets and taking out the trash. It didn’t make any sense.

"Such an unfair world," Chloe said outwards into the empty classroom.

’Maybe I could help him somehow,’ she thought to herself. If he actually had some acting talent, maybe she could put in a good word for him with her uncle.

She quickly returned to the classroom where she had left him. As she rounded the corner, she saw Von still standing there, casually waiting for her.

Chloe let out a long breath in relief. He hadn’t run away.

She walked right up to him. Without a second thought, she reached out her hand and moved his head towards herself so he was looking directly into her eyes.

"I’m back!"