@GarudaZero0ne A direct personal attack does not constitute any kind of logical discussion over this topic. People like that exist even in normal novels. Life isn't Disney movies and often times people who use others hide it very well, especially in the media business. They will smile and shake your hand while driving a knife in your back in the other. To pretend the world doesn't have these types or do this type of thing is willful ignorance.
@Leecher77 A friend that ignores me, doesn't reach out when she's doing good, and is perfectly aware the music industry doesn't consist of just one popular person, isn't a friend. Like the comic says, they're great in different ways and thus they wouldn't even be direct competitors. It's not like "I sing exactly the same way as him so I'm risking my business". She could've reached out before the throat issues. But she didn't.
And that's a key point and a key hint.
NOPE, it's instead *
exactly right when she's gonna lose her voice* that she reaches out. This is not coincidence. Then she proceeds to try to get him into the business and suggest that'd she'd work with him if she got the chance... that right there is your 'tell'. He can sing, she might not able able to but she can play an instrument as well. Thus, it's easy for her to think "Now that I'm losing my voice, how do I avoid losing my entire fanbase, business and brand? Easy! Me making an old friend famous and collaborating with him would make an excellent sob story to make me more popular, and he could sing filling in for me while I do the instrument."
Doing this in advance of her surgery ensures he's in the works for if it fails, and also makes it seem to others and him like she's not doing it because the surgery failed and she needs a backup. Takes time to get someone who is rusty back up to snuff. The fear of losing everything overcomes any fear of "losing to him" if he becomes big, especially since he wouldn't pose any threat to her as he'd have a different style and fanbase.
Like I mentioned above, recommending him to the agency is part of getting him into the system in advance of "D-Day" aka surgery day. Both to ensure trust is laid, that he is ready to go when she reaches critical point of losing everything if it fails, etc. It's "grooming" him.
Ofc readers want a romance and will blindly believe that this is a romance and that she innocently had a change of heart and remembered him after all these years, and did all these things that just coincidentally would work out perfectly for her, *
because they want the romantic dream*. It's like the spouse who ignores all the signs of cheating or person who ignores all the red flags in the person they wanna date because they want the dream more than they want to acknowledge reality.
Justification and denial are powerful tools people use on themselves every day.
Honestly I think what the author did with making most people believe in this romance is more beautiful than the story itself. The author is showing us a situation where people will want to use justification and denial to believe in an innocent dream. It's brilliant writing, making it just vague enough to not be obvious but not so vague that it's deniable or just not obvious enough.