The pair of scissors was so old and blunt it hurt my thumb to cut through the cardboard. The edges of the clouds came out rough and jagged. Everyone else in the props team had already left so it was just me inside the closet-room that also acted as the storage room. I wanted to be in the writing club but I couldn’t let anyone know I wrote. That was my secret. I didn’t exactly have an opinion on theatre – for one, I could never picture myself wearing the Emperor’s costume (the tailor-made robe of cheap brocade-like material), the lights making my silhouette glow softly, flapping the unusually long sleeves that resembled the wings of a butterfly, and most importantly not stammering and messing up the lines. But anything to do with telling stories, I was in.
Just then I heard footsteps and a strange sound of something being dragged on tiny wheels. The door opened and a bunch of people entered, two of them pushing a costumes rack. None of them glanced in my direction and I didn’t care about them either. I quietly gathered all the cardboard cut-outs and carefully placed them on the shelf. I was about to leave when someone yelled, “Chapter 97 is finally out!”
I froze, my ears perking up. It sounds pretty vain but I liked to listen in on people talking about my web novels. Without looking I randomly grabbed an unfinished prop and pretended to be working on it.
The girl continued, “It’s shorter than the usual length. Gosh what a torture waiting for days only to get five pages!”
Note to self: Write longer chapters.
“Where did the last chapter leave off again?” asked her friend. “I have a shitty memory.”
I paused. I’d put up the new chapter in the morning before coming to school and even I’d already forgotten what I’d written. Where ‘did’ the last chapter leave off?
“What are you guys talking about?” That was Jamyang, the guy who played the Emperor’s role and didn’t mess up his lines. “What’s so interesting about BL? Why is it so popular among girls?” His voice had that note of calculated caution like he didn’t want to come off as an ignorant person, but I couldn’t help noticing the scorn underneath.
“Hey, aren’t we going to try on the costumes first?” That was Jigme, the guy who was always hanging around Jamyang. He plucked a robe off the rack and helped Jamyang into it. “Wait, the buttons aren’t supposed to go all the way up.”
I admit there were several instances when I’d had to resist the urge to ship the two of them together. They’d most likely kill me if they found out. Truth be told, guys like them didn’t bother me. I didn’t write for them so I didn’t care what they thought about what I wrote.
After they were done with the fitting, the girls left hastily. Jamyang glanced down at his watch while his right hand went up to rub underneath his eyebrow. “We have half an hour before we have to leave,’ he told his friend without looking up. “Let’s go play basketball.”
It’s weird but he reminded me a lot of the lead character in one of my books, down to the details of how deep and low his voice was. At first I thought it was a voice he’d consciously practiced to go with his outstanding looks – the way he was so arty and ‘out there’ I wouldn’t have been too surprised if that was the case but I’d never once seen him lose his composure so it must be something he was born with. Maybe I’d subconsciously based the character on him, who knows?
Okay look, I wasn’t a creep alright? I would like to think of myself as only an extremely observant person. It wasn’t something I went out of my way to do. I just saw things that made me feel a certain way, and the feeling stuck to memory.
I was quite lost in my own thoughts that I didn’t hear or sense that someone had come beside me and crouched down. He was extending a hand, coming for the paint brush in my hand. Instantly, I moved my arm away. When I looked up, Jamyang’s eyebrows were raised.
“I just wanted to help,” he said, his voice low and gentle. Before I could answer, he took the brush from my hand, dipped it into the paint jar, and in a few easy strokes drew the parapet of the castle wall I had been pretending to draw. “There. Wasn’t that easy? You’ve been at it for ages.” He flashed a grin, stood up and left the room with his friend.
What the hell?!