Astra Yao.
Award-winning actress. Top-selling songstress.
Superstar.
Astra herself was used to the attention by now, but the fact that she could no longer go outside by herself without worrying about fans, stalkers, or worse...it sucked, for lack of a better term.
Of course, no harm would be done to her, given her bodyguard Evelyn that was always in her shadow, or the fact that she wasn't completely inept at fighting herself. It was annoying, and a hassle, and certainly not worth the trouble. Or it wouldn't have been, had she never found that little video store at the end of Sixth Street.
Random Play, it was called? How she found herself on that particular street that afternoon, she couldn't remember, but that mattered little anyway. The way she had strolled in without a care in the world like a regular customer, before taking off her glasses and promptly making the sibling manager's jaws hit the floor. I mean, of course they knew her. They were film buffs, and she was the head heroine of just about every high-budget New Eridu film in the last few years.
Needless to say, one of the siblings caught her attention. A kind of attention she hadn't given anyone for a long time.
She couldn't understand it herself. Day after day, despite the warnings of Evelyn, Astra found herself walking through the doors of that video store, just to see them. It was so bad, she scared herself.
"Hello..?"
The sound of the front bell rang out as Astra stepped through the threshold of the door, her voice low and soft, as she was still in undercover mode.
"Managers...? Anyone there?"
She walked a bit farther into the store, leaning beside the front counter as her eyes perused around the racks of the empty establishment. Right as she removes her glasses, the sound of the creaky Staff Only door draws her attention over, just to see her favorite sibling smiling back at her.
That smile that made her heart sing.
"Ah, there you are. Almost thought you were closed."
She sighs in relief, before returning the expression in full.