Unfortunately, I couldn'trelate to them.
I said thank you when theothers were nice to me. Likewise, I distanced myself from theindividuals who didn't have any good intentions. I knew how I shouldreact and I could mostly analyze how they treated me.
However, that ended there.
Once, I found out that achild who was my roommate in the orphanage took my personalbelongings and threw them in the garbage bin. I treated the boy as myfriend. But, I neither felt sadness nor disappointment when I sawwhat he did. I didn't even feel a slight hatred towards him.
I always knew that I wasdifferent from the others. I thought that I might just have slowemotional intelligence compared to them. However, several years havealready passed and I remain the same.
Things turned differentlywhen I went to university. One time, there was a play that I neededto see as an educational requirement. The night when I saw the play,one classmate called me to ask whether I remembered a line of themale lead. I always had superior memory retention and I couldperfectly remember the said line. So I mindlessly started recitingthe line.
The male lead of that playhad a terrible life. He was born from a poor family and struggledmost of his life. Still, he remained optimistic about life. Despitepoverty, he met the love of his life and married her. Unfortunately,one night, his wife was killed by a robber when she was on her wayhome. That was when he lost all the optimism and sanity that remainedin his heart. He started roaming the streets in search of his deadwife, to find her and to protect her. From then on, he was made knownto the community as the crazy homeless guy.
"Don't be scared of thedarkness, my love. Nothing can hurt you. Nothing can cause you pain.In this small alley, I will be waiting to protect you. Cruel fatesand lives which gave us only torment, I will chase them away! Sodon't be scared of the darkness, my love!"
At that time, I feltsomething stirred inside my heart as I recited the line.
Was it pain?
The pain of losing someone,and the pain of being unable to protect the one that you love?
I was unaware of it, but myvoice echoed the feelings of pain and torment as I was reciting theline. After I finished, my classmate was speechless before heendlessly praised how good my voice acting was and how it broughttears on his eyes.
From then on, I triedacting. Amazingly, I learned that I could feel the emotions ofcharacters that I was portraying. I could feel their happiness, theiranger. I experienced their feeling of helplessness and excitement.For the first time in my life, I felt that I was living. Thus, I heldinto acting. This continued until I arrived at where I am right now.
It was probably thatthe others appreciated the way I acted because they gave me numerousawards. Just after a few months, I started to receive offers fromwell-known directors and producers.
I was aware that I becamepopular. Everywhere I went, people wanted to start a conversationwith me. However, I never felt the urge to talk to anyone of them.
I took a seat at mydesignated chair and grabbed a water bottle given by a crew member.At this time, most of the other actors and actresses already returnedto reality and snapped out of their roles.
"Excuse me, Ellias. I gotsomething that I need to discuss with you." I heard a sheepishvoice and turned my head to see the director clearing his throat.
I put down my water bottleand looked at the director without expression.
"Yes?"
"It's like this. Thescreenwriter of the film produced another set of scripts and theproducers loved it." The director started to say and his eyessurveyed my face. He must have been trying to figure out my reactionto this. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't find out anything.
"In the changed script,you will have an empress who is supposed to rule with you. *Ahem* Inother words, you will have a love interest."
A love interest?
Love. I read love storiesand saw movies about love before. However, I didn't feel likestudying such emotion. Thus, I have yet to accept any role whichinvolves a love interest.
I saw the director gulped.He must have had a lot of contemplation before he asked me. I wasknown to be very picky about the roles that I play. Moreover, I couldeasily pull out of his film if they unilaterally changed the rolethat I agreed to play.
I stared at my water bottlefor a couple of seconds and didn't say anything.
Love... was a complicatedfeeling as it involved varied emotions. As I've read before, lovecould be coupled with happiness. It could also be coupled withsadness.
Maybe I should give it atry.
"Alright. I temporarilyagree. Send me the script first." I slowly told the director asI looked at his shaking hands.
CHAPTER ONE
Start from the beginning
