Thug and Idol: 10X Rewards Second Identity System

Before Tristan could read the article itself, Nelson noticed Tristan hovering over him (ONLY because Tristan wasn't trying to hide).

With a gasp, he pressed the smartphone's screen to his chest, hiding it.

Tristan frowned.

"Nel? You look like a deer in headlights who just saw a ghost of his future self."

The other man bit his lip. Tristan didn't need to have 923 points in observation skill to know that Nelson was extremely nervous.

"I… That's… Shit!" Nel groaned in his palms, squishing his phone to his face with the movement. "It's not true. They told a bunch of slander about it! I… I thought I wasn't famous enough that anyone bothered to slander me, ha-ha-ha… And what will Mr. Writfield say?"

Tristan scowled, putting two and two together.

A man's parents, telling slander about their child instead of supporting them?

Worth a punch to the face.

Tristan stepped away from silently lamenting Nel and pulled out his own phone. Finding the article was a matter of a quick online search.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

[Nelson Mayar—a promising star with a shocking secret? Interview with his parents!]

The article was posted anonymously—which already was telling. The interviewer visited a small town and talked with a pair of people who claimed to be Nel's parents.

Their names were removed from text, and their photos were blurred on photos, but there was a shot of their house. From Nel's reaction, Tristan supposed it meant these people were, in fact, his parents—and not some impostors.

The pair told a story about rising Nel with love and care. Maybe too much, from the father's words—because in his early teen years, Nel began to gravitate toward things that were too "feminine".

They explained to him it was wrong, but Nelson still did it. He kept listening to artists who wore flamboyant clothing, even if they were men. He hid posters with them under his bed! And many of these musicians were Asian and so pretty, they looked like girls.

And so on and so forth.

Nel's interests were about pop and rock music, alongside some k-pop and j-pop. Completely expected—Nel's music took a lot of inspiration from Asia.

However, Nel's parents concluded that this could mean only one thing—their son was gay and hiding it.

There was more in the interview, more so-called "proofs", which the interviewer eagerly lapped up, adding his own speculations about the public reaction to this.

Tristan huffed and closed the article.

"Pure trash," he said. "But whoever came up with this idea should pick his favorite kneecap, because he will lose the other one."

Nel sat up straighter and glanced at Tristan.

"You don't believe them?"

Tristan looked at him incredulously.

"What? That you are gay? Don't make me laugh. Same people could say that I'm gay because just because I'm not dating anyone. Or they can say this about you. Anyway, do you have any enemies you know?"

"E-enemies? Wait, wait, wait!" Nel shot to his feet. He looked much less anxious now. "You were joking about the kneecaps, right?"

Tristan chuckled.

"Of course. But this was clearly a targeted attack. You are right, you aren't famous enough for being slandered like that! Nobody will even care."

Nel still looked worried.

"They might care later, when our co-promotion comes out. Even if this is just slander, even if I deny it, some people will believe it! Maybe… maybe this co-promotion wasn't such a great idea."

Tristan said nothing, but his look spoke volumes. People who gave up from a single minor setback—like this article—didn't deserve more than being walked over in his book.

Amplified by the force of Tristan's charisma, his gaze became like a whip that straightened Nel's back. The young man ran a palm through his blond hair.

"Right, right! We are doing this, and fuck everybody else! My mom and pops didn't want me to go to the CYS contest, but I still went! And now I'm in the agency, and I'm going to become famous and they can go and stew in their grumbling about it!"

Tristan laughed.

"Yeah, fuck them! That's the spirit. But they weren't the ones to come up with the interview, weren't they?"

Nel thought about it for a moment.

"I don't know. I'd like to think they wouldn't have done this, but it's not like this is impossible…"

Tristan hummed, exploring all the possibilities in his head, but he was distracted by the shooting producer approaching him and Nel.

"Mr. Gemello, Mr. Mayar, the break was over five minutes ago! You wanted to finish everything quickly, then don't make us move from the schedule!"

"We can talk more about it later. Mr. Writfield will have to know, too," Tristan told Nel.

He then turned to the producer and smiled apologetically. His voice changed almost imperceptibly with a timbre of hypnotism.

"Sorry, something important came up suddenly… You are right, we all shouldn't get distracted. Let's get going!"

Under the double onslaught of Tristan's charm and a tinge of hypnotism, the producer melted like butter. All ire he felt was gone, and instead, he could only smile back at Tristan.

Nel also smiled at Tristan in a daze, although he was only caught in a periphery of the hypnosis. Not that there wasn't much of it.

Inwardly, Tristan chuckled at the effect. He was experimenting with it bit by bit in the last few days, and it was as incredibly useful as every other talent he had.

People opened in front of him like books, where Tristan could write whatever he wanted. The easiest way to put it was to say that as long as Tristan spoke directly to someone, his charm increased tenfold.

***

After the filming was done for the day, Tristan spoke with Nel again.

"Can you just ask your parents about who came up with this?"

"What's the point? It's best just to ignore it, probably. People will forget. Or I can release a statement denying everything…"

Tristan scowled.

"These people went against you personally, Nel. They MUST be found! You understand?"