The Truths Behind the Life of Maeve Sun Lively

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I made myself smile at him before leaving the room, but everything just seemed so hard to fake in front of him. "There's probably just a lot of family stuff Cameron has to deal with, I'm sure it's just that. When he's all done, he'll call you."

At this, he slightly smiles. "I really do hope you're right."

FOUR YEARS CAN PASS by in a flash of an eye when you're buried in work. But while at that, the amount of the many things that occur during it does not lessen.

G.W.F. broke up in 2022 when both the Recording Industries or just Hollywood industries in general kept rejecting them. I heard both Kayla Huang and Phoebe Zhao went to college even as old as they already were. Bridget...she, well, I heard she also went back to school, but the rest of it was unclear. Mason mentioned that Mr. Wang had given Bridget a chance to go solo while still representing his company, but she denied the offer. I still had her contact information, but I couldn't bring myself to call or text her.

And also, Mr. Wang's company did not stop going even with G.W.F. broken up. But I wasn't so petty enough to care about him when I was already all over China myself, taking films after films, photoshoots after photoshoots. I wasn't that damsel in distress anymore that needed his saving. Or really anyone's saving, so what need did I have to care about him?

Ascending8—as I predicted—wasn't doing so well after the two years that Descending 99 had aired. And in 2023, producers were making some other reality show that had one hundred and one girls instead of ninety-nine competing with each other. Nathan Ma, who hadn't gotten much famous other than being known as the one I slapped a few years ago was one of the instructors on that show. He looked so pathetic. While another group of girls formed from that reality show to a C-Pop group, Ascending8's influence began to decline. But even though that happened, Klarise was hired to some other company where she was now a professional singer, going on concerts and recording albums and music videos. I listened to all of them.

(Laughs) Cameron and Mason were like two of the sweetest sweethearts, as busy as each of our schedules were, the three of us made sure we got to check in on each other almost everyday. Mason cooked when we got together, Cameron and I would discuss films we're considering to cast in or he would just tell me these random things to make me laugh, and then Mason would come over with fresh-made food, smiling at the sight of the three of us together.

I was famous, I was all over the screen, I had money, and I had what seemed to be a family, I had an enjoyable life. Things were peaceful, I'm not saying there weren't any hate on me, there definitely were, everyone prominent will have people who don't like them, if not, well, you're not really famous. And with the mindset of knowing I'll have the comfort of Mason and Cameron, knowing that I was living, that I was doing good, I managed to not think about Klarise. I stopped trying to email her, trying to talk to her, I simply made all of her-related things into the back of my head when I came to the realization that we were never happening. She was jumping from guy after guy it seemed, C-Pop stars, models, actors, or just guys who weren't even so famous at all. And in order not to see those, I had to simply forget about her. I had Cameron and Mason, my two best friends, yes, Cameron too. I had them, and I had my fame and money, I had my fans, I had the love of people who watched my films, I didn't need her to be happy. I didn't need love like that, or sexual pleasure from someone else when I could give it to myself. So at the time, I guess I was somewhat what you'd call happy.

I would have done anything for Cameron and Mason. And I would still.

Cameron was born to a very traditional and religious family. Meaning there was no way he was going to tell them about him and Mason, it wasn't so soon for that confrontation to happen when Cameron came to us, the guy who never cried—unless it was onscreen—in streaks of tears, well mostly to Mason, and telling him how sorry he was. It was also then that I realized I did not want his life. I don't really know what life I wanted yet, even though I had been finally famous. As much as I had, it just didn't feel for some reason, enough.