Not again.

"Why does my head ache so bad? what happened yesterday"? Mark asked himself with his palms on his head after waking up the next day. He recalled to some of the activities that happened at the club party yesterday, but he doesn't have an idea on how he got to his apartment and why his head ached so badly. He checked his phone and saw the message Ben left behind on WhatsApp, the message reads,

"I told you to drink and relax your mind, not to drink yourself to a stupor, the liquor in you made you misbehave and pass out, and it was a whole lot of stress for me".

Mark tried his possible best to remember what occurred at the club party yesterday night after he got drunk, but he was unable to do so. Luckily, Ben was online at the moment, so Mark texted him back,

"In what way did I misbehave? l hope I didn't blurt out useless words from my mouth".

"You did, but I bet you, you wouldn't want to know". Ben texted back.

Mark: "Please tell me, I gat to know".

Ben: "I would tell you later, but as for now, am ain't telling you nothing, you are downhearted already, telling you would make it worse.

Mark: "Promise me you gonna tell me later, it's important I know.

Ben: "I promise you, and I hope you ain't still bombarding yourself with thoughts regarding the low outcome of the song you recorded with Arnold.

Mark: "To be sincere, it isn't that easy to forget, it's really painful, but I know with your continuous encouragement, I won't give up and am gonna keep striving.

Ben: "That's my boy, You've got to keep on striving until you achieve your goal".

Suddenly, a text message from Mark's manager, Jeffrey, disrupted their WhatsApp chat. The text message popped in out of nowhere into Mark's phone, and it pissed him off a bit 'cause it disrupted his chat with Ben, but he had no choice but to go through it,

"The music video for your single titled 'Wishes and hopes' is gonna be shot today. You should head over to the MG video studio room as fast as possible, that's where the video shoot is gonna take place, your label prepared everything ahead of time".

Jeffery's text message wasn't pleasing to him at all, he wasn't in the mood to get involved in any video shoot right now, but he has no other choice than to show up for the video shoot. He quickly texted Ben telling him of the activity he was about to get involved in, unfortunately, Ben wasn't online anymore.

He dashed into his bathroom, brushed his teeth, took his bath, before dressing up. He felt like eating his favorite dish for breakfast, rice balls, and gumbo stew, but he had no ingredients to prepare them, and even if the ingredients were available, preparing them would take a lot of time. Cornflakes were the only foodstuff available in his house right now, so he ate cornflakes for breakfast before departing from his apartment.

Terror and fright struck Mark at the same time immediately he set his eyes on the violent looking guy that was apprehended by the cops coming in his direction. The thug's eyes were red with rage, and his face roved about like he was in search of someone. Fortunately for Mark, the violent looking guy hadn't sighted him yet, so he quickly hid behind the wall of a building.

"I thought this guy was apprehended by the cops, how did he escape? he is definitely in search of me right now, damn! this is so dangerous, my life is in danger. I have to evacuate this environment before he finds me". Mark said to himself in fear, his heart was beating so fast.

He instantly boarded a cab he saw along the road driving him straight in his direction. Arriving at the MG video studio room, he saw the music video director and his crews already prepared for the video shoot and were waiting for his arrival. He also spotted the presence of his music manager and label boss in the studio room.

"You kept us waiting, why"? His music manager questioned him.

That question on its own pissed off Mark already, they weren't even happy and thankful that he showed up for the video shoot after giving him a short notice about it. If it wasn't for the sake of respect, he would have disrespectfully answered that question, but he had to keep his cool.

"At the time you texted me of the video shoot, I hadn't brushed my teeth and taken my bath yet, not to talk of eating breakfast. So I had to engage myself in those activities before coming here". Mark said explaining himself, he hated the fact that he was clarifying this to them.

"Ok, we've heard you, but next time, you have to be more rapid in situations like this". His label boss uttered.

"Damn! don't tell me that garbage". Those were the words Mark felt like spilling out from his mouth in reply to his boss, but he had to keep his cool as usual.

"Ok". he said.

The video shoot began, and it was done and finalized within two hours and some minutes. Throughout the video shoot, Mark was pissed off by the presence of his label boss, seeing his face seems to vex him nowadays for some reason best known to him. He was more vexed when his label boss decided to show himself in the music video,

"So he came here to jeopardize this music video with his presence and appearance". Mark said to himself in his thought.

Mark's music manager, Jeffrey, came up to him to discuss a few things with him after the completion of the video shoot. At the moment, Mark wasn't in the mood to have an oral conversation with anyone, he was thinking about the violent looking thug he saw today along the streets, he was afraid for his life. But he just had to give a listening ear to his manager.

"Xup Mark, hope you enjoyed the video shoot"? Jeffrey asked after approaching him.

"Yeah, I did". Mark answered him with a look that screams 'I want this conversation to end as soon as possible'. He could manage a conversation with his manager, but what he hated most was a discussion with his label boss, he can't possibly be discouraging and vexing Mark most times and be expecting Mark to be free with him.

"I just want to tell you that you gonna be interviewed at the 'Music Extra' next week". Jeffrey uttered going straight to the point after noticing the uninterested look on the face of Mark.

Mark's uninterested facial expression lightened up a bit the moment he heard Jeffrey's statements. In the music industry, it's a privilege for an artiste to be summoned for interviews, especially for the upcoming artiste. It is a very good way of advertising artistes and their songs, their fans could get to know more about them through interviews. Mark had been summoned for interviews on very few occasions, it's been months since he last got invited for interviews.

"Really"! Mark said with his face fully lightening up in gladness.

"Yeah, next week Thursday, they called me and informed me about it yesterday". Jeffrey stated, he was pleased in his heart that he was able to cheer up Mark with his words.

"I would surely love to honor their invitation, at least, let me change routine once in a while, not only recording songs in the studio and participating in video shoots". Mark said, "Songs that won't turn out to be hit songs". He mumbled this time.

In about 20 minutes, the studio room was deserted apart from Mark and the Music Video director remaining in it. Mark had no plans of returning to his apartment with the violent looking thug still Lurking about in his boulevard, he was really scared for his life. He checked his pocket to see if he came along with the card the cops gave to him, but he wasn't with it. Fortunately for him, the mobile number he used in calling them last time was saved to his call history, so he put the phone call through immediately,

"Hello". An unknown voice said.

"Hello, who am I speaking with"? Mark asked with confusion, he didn't recognize the voice at all.

"Who are you"? The unknown voice queried.

"Its Mark speaking, can I please talk to the police captain, I have something important to discuss with him". Mark stated already becoming uneasy.

"Ok, I am his colleague, I am gonna hand the phone over to him right now".

"Yeah, do so".

Within a few seconds, the main police captain took over from the phone call,

"Hello". The police captain uttered.

"Xup, you know who is speaking, right"? Mark asked.

"Yeah, the guy who informed us about those thugs". Said the police captain.

"There is a big problem, I saw one of those thugs with the violent look roving about in my street, did you guys release him or what"? Mark questioned

"What"! The police captain exclaimed in shock.