Midnight.

Despite all attempts to fall asleep, his eyes just simply wouldn't remain shut. When they did, however, he was plagued with images of his own stupid actions, as well as those of things he'd always feared. It's been going on for quite some time, and one thing was for sure, being in America wasn't helping.

That girl, Boa, she was nothing that he'd expected to be. Frankly, she was quite the opposite of it--beautiful, talented, smart and dedicated. After all those years in the industry, he'd expected her to be one of those divas whose beauty was only skin deep, and whose talent came from this thing called autotune.

Despite her frustrations, Dean envied her. She was here to expand her career, to make her name more famous than any other Kpop singer in the world, to extend her clutches far into the world, past Asia.

At least she had someone behind her back. He had none, save probably his family, but that didn't really count.

Dean Geyer was a man who simply loves music, a man who loves to sing, but aside from his talents, which is something that could be easily outshined by another's, he was just an average joe. He worked at a coffee shop so he could, through his meager earnings, save some money to help him along with his music career. He sold his songs to others so that he could make a name for himself. It might not be the way he liked it, but at least he was there, somewhere.

Nothing about him really stood out, unless you factor in the fact that he was once part of Australian Idol. But seeing where he was, he didn't think that it did much good.

He fell through the cracks, and he knew it. It made him feel bad.

He got up and went over to the music scores that he'd been working on recently. He was proud of himself for getting so far, and for his sort-of new found ability to write songs, but his dream was to sing. Sing in from of a multitude of people, to have them listen to what he had to say through his songs, not have someone else sing his songs for him. Those were his words not theirs.

He sifted through them, wondering to himself which one he would use to audition for a company when one song caught his eye.

It was about love, a piece that he'd written years ago, something when he and his girlfriend were still on speaking terms. Memories of it made him bitter. His heart thumped faster out of annoyance, anger and hurt.

Why?

Unanswered questions went through his mind once more, and he found that his unwillingness to really cooperate with Boa partially stemmed from his hurt. She's just so much like her. So beautiful, so talented, so, so, very deceiving.

Who knew that under such a face was a horrible demon, just waiting to be unleashed?

His stomach churned, and he wanted to hurl out the contents of his dinner.

Fate was not kind. He worked hard to get where he wanted to get, only to lose it in the end because of her.

A man's weakness really is a woman. One glance at those beautiful eyes, and he could no longer resist her charms, he just had to give in.

What a joke.She'd just used him as a leverage to shoot herself into stardom, she never really cared about him. Just like Boa. He was only there because she needed him. Her company needed someone to produce her album for her. Whatever she was doing, whatever it was under her sleeve that she was trying, well, it wasn't going to work.

I'm not going to let that happen again. This time, I'm going to get my name out there, and it's going to be me, he thought. His mind was full of poisonous thoughts, and he didn't even bother shoving them out.

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Hey guys. Sorry for the long wait. Uni has started for me, and updates are certainly going to slow down, but we're still going to do our best to deliver to you guys this story. :)

Did this chapter even hint any sort of angst for you? /gets bricked for not knowing how to write angst.

-xinli_ang