I.L.Y. - A MewGulf AU

Chapter 14: Kiss me again

Raising his head together with the bar to take a bite, he finally caught a glimpse of what was happening inside the room. All the actors were sitting at the side, leaning against the mirror and quietly talking about themselves. They were all wearing a shirt with 'Actor' written on the back, making them easy to recognise. A little more in the centre of the room stood a staff member -- whose shirt informed Gulf that he was an acting instructor – next to P'Jessi.

However, it was whatever was happening in the middle of the room that took Gulf's complete attention. Mew stood opposite Mai, barely any space in between them. As Gulf took another step forward, he realized that there was in fact no space whatsoever between the two. Mew's arm was around Mai, holding the woman in a tender embrace. His face was slightly tilted, so he could see that his other arm was cupping her cheek tenderly. There was no separation between the lips, and Gulf immediately felt sick as he saw them moving against each other.
He had seen this before, but it hadn't hurt this hard before. Gulf wasn't a fool, there was no doubt it was a simple movie-kiss, but the tenderness that Gulf now no longer received was now suddenly oh so present in the kiss. And wow, did it piss him off. He should be at the receiving end of that tenderness!

Before he knew it, he had continued walking up to the pair, now only standing a little more than a meter away. He would've continued approaching as well, if he didn't feel the sudden hand on his shoulder. His anger only increased at the intrusion, but when he saw it was Mild who had stopped him, he sagged his shoulders. Mild's eyes looked at him in worry, then quickly shifted into something deeper.

Gulf could hear a 'cut' coming from director Lee.

Right, they're only acting.

He had been so close to pulling them apart right then. Mild's intrusion had stopped him from - from what exactly? What had he even planned on doing? Go and stand in between them? Slap Mew? Mai? What then?

Fuck.

Taking a deep breath, Gulf turned around again and instead started walking towards the corner of the room. He actually wanted to leave again, feeling something prickling in his eyes, but that was no option. People would suspect something if he did that.

Mild followed the younger, pushing them to some other actors who hadn't noticed Gulf's entrance. Only after he finally sat down did he notice the now-squashed bar he was gripping in his hand. No way he was going to be able to eat that anymore, not that Gulf felt hungry anymore anyway. There was another feeling occupying his stomach now, and it made him feel sick.
Maybe it had been a bad idea to switch the main actress to Mai in the end, but nothing he could do against that anymore. He had dug his own grave.

For a second Gulf was scared that everyone had seen his awkward actions just now, his almost outburst, but Mild seemed to be the only one with an actual reaction. The Phi started to gently pat his back as he sat down next to Gulf. The action was meant to calm him down, but it had the opposite effect. The nong actually felt like puking right now.

However, there was one person for sure who had noticed the younger. One person, who was now looking at Gulf with those expressive eyes he liked so much. Mew had seen the younger approaching, and was now staring at him instead of focussing on whatever Mai was telling him. Eventually their staring match was interrupted when she tapped Mew on the shoulder, both of them deciding that's their queue to divert their eyes.

A staff member walked up to Gulf, handing him a shirt to change into and some more papers with today's schedule. He shrugged his shirt off, pulling the other over his head. He was happy with the sudden distraction as the staff member and P'Mild were both updating him on where they were. Turns out most of the getting-to-know-each-other games had already passed, which he was rather happy about. Gulf had never been the best in forced social interactions, preferring to stay at the side line. He had Mild to talk to anyway, the other option already occupied.