Faith in Me

Chapter 9 - All the Reasons Why

Yangjin glanced warily at the young woman curled up on the passenger seat next to her. Yue had been sitting in the same exact position for the last twenty minutes, uncharacteristically silent. Their shared car rides were typically filled with gossip, laughter, general discussions about the schedule and the occasional philosophical debates, but today was different and Yangjin knew exactly why. She had walked in on the tail end of that reshoot and seen the look on her young charge's face. It was a mixture of emotions but the one that stood out the most was stunned surprise. And it didn't look to be the good kind.

"Yue, do you want to talk about it?"

A pair of large brown eyes blinked at her, the light in them unusually dimmed. Yangjin couldn't help the pang in her chest. She was aware of how difficult it was to be young actor, having managed others in the past, but she was especially sympathetic towards Yue simply because she liked her. Anyone would have to be blind to miss the way Yue and Dylan lit up like firecrackers around each other, but so far the two of them had kept it strictly platonic. The reason Yangjin knew that was because it was her job to know that.

She also knew that Yue needed to talk to someone. Despite her outwardly optimistic personality, Yue could be extremely sensitive and prone to tears. The last thing Yangjin wanted was Yue to internalize all of her feelings and have it affect her, both personally and professionally. Troubled, Yangjin picked up her cell phone, scrolled the contact list until she found the number she was looking for and sent a quick message. A few seconds later, she received the response: I'm on my way.

***

Yue tucked her feet neatly onto the couch and pulled the throw blanket more snugly around her shoulders. She stared listlessly outside her apartment window. The rain had come unexpectedly, deceptively light before quickly turning inclement and sending people outside on the street running for cover. A streak of lightning flashed across the sky as the rain pelted violently against the side of the building, splattering water across the window pane. She watched in fascination as one droplet gradually trailed down and merged with another, the process happening over and over again, until the heavy burden had nowhere to go but straight down into one big, messy heap at the bottom.

How fitting. It felt like a sign - almost as if the universe was warning her that if she persisted on her current course, she would just as quickly crash and burn.

Yue almost rolled her eyes and giggled at her dramatic interpretation of what was, really, only rain; but then her mind flashed back to what just happened and her own involuntary reaction to the entire thing and she quickly sobered. It wasn't funny at all.

Wang He Di kissed me.

She knew it was him and not Daoming Si because the kisses were not like the ones she had received in the past. Those kisses had been short and chaste and sweet, meant to evoke a sense of youthful romance while remaining appropriately restrained to comply with the modesty standards required by censorship rules. She always knew where she was supposed to be standing, what she was expected to do next, and to never, ever show any initiative unless it was required for the scene. That meant she was supposed to act like she was responding but to keep her mouth relatively shut, literally and figuratively – the perfect Chinese drama heroine. Prim, proper, and passive. Shen Yue was a consummate professional. She did her job and she did it well.

That was, until today.

Until Dylan Wang.

What the hell could he have been thinking? What the hell could she have been thinking? She should have known that he would do something to provoke her if she deliberately ignored him. It simply wasn't in his nature to let sleeping dogs lie. Yet, she remained stubborn. She was still upset about her dream and the fact that he had called her out on it. Worse still, the feelings from that ridiculous dream lingered on and she found that she couldn't look at him the same. She was frustrated and flustered and so she went out of her way to avoid interacting with him unless absolutely necessary; but Dylan being Dylan, refused to be ignored.