A/N: I don't know if you've noticed a trend in my word count, but I certainly have. Hence why this oneshot is split into two parts. Also, I know next to nothing about acting or scripts so bear that in mind!
*some strong language*
Finished: 4/1/2020
Word count: 11772 (Total for parts 1 & 2, don't worry. For some perspective, "When Shadows Fall," the story I've been working on for 3-4 years now, is only 78k words at this point. And I wrote this oneshot in 2-3 weeks. I hate my brain.)
College!AU
***
"Now, you can either suggest a prop or vote for one that's already been suggested," said Ms. Kim, pulling out one of those small yellow notepads she used all the time. "Remember! Whatever you choose, this will be the only prop you'll have onstage during your scenes."
I threw a quick glance at my scene partner, Jinwoo. He glanced back, so I smiled and looked up front at the professor.
The girl who sat in the front row (I could never remember her name, but she was very nice and always tried just a little too hard) raised her hand. "A letter?" she said when Ms. Kim called on her. I internally sighed – that just sounded so theatrical. This community college theatre class had been good, but I wasn't excited for more over-dramatic scenes. Something fun to close out the summer semester, that was what I'd love.
"A ladder," someone in the back row yelled without raising his hand. I chuckled under my breath, looking back at Jinwoo.
"Could be fun," I whispered.
He nodded, smiling. Mentally I thanked my dear neighbor Eunwoo again for ditching me for a friend who was actually passionate about acting – I'd known Jinwoo for a long time (again thanks to Eunwoo), but during the class I'd gotten to know him better and now considered him my friend. He was really nice, really easy to work with, and had been a great partner through every single exercise (he'd even been nice when I'd accidentally whacked him in the face with my prop sword during the stage combat lesson).
The next person to raise their hand voted for the ladder. I considered doing the same. It seemed like a very interesting prop, although I wasn't sure how many different kinds of scenarios we could come up with using a ladder.
Ten raised his hand and the whole class bristled with anticipation. He was either going to say something genius, something risqué, or something hilarious – we all knew what to expect now that he'd dropped his shyness halfway through the semester.
"Yes, Chittaphon," Ms. Kim said with significant patience.
He leaned back in his seat with a sly grin. Not genius this time, then. "How about a bed?"
The class erupted like Vesuvius. Most of us were laughing, but at least one person was complaining about how "does nobody take acting seriously or even care about actually learning anything in this class?"
Sorn said, "I would vote for a bed!"
"I second that," Sungjae said. "Sounds like fun."
"What about my ladder idea?" the guy in the back row shouted.
Eunwoo raised his hand. "I vote to use a bed for a prop too!"
It soon became clear that the class, most of us laughing and giddy from heat and homework exhaustion, had indeed picked "bed" as our prop of choice.
"You realize how much work that would be to set up," Ms. Kim said. "I'm afraid it wouldn't be practical."
A girl across the aisle from me launched into an overlong story about how her brother had dropped out of school and was working at this moving company, and this super asshole family had donated a queen-sized bed and a bunch of other furniture to a second-hand store but still yelled at the moving crew the whole time to be careful even though they were getting rid of all of it, and that had been just two days ago so the bed probably hadn't been sold yet and since her brother's coworker's aunt worked at the store the university might be able to borrow the bed and redonate it afterward, and she was sure she could bully her brother and his moving team to haul it in for us.
"My," was all Ms. Kim could say at first.
"So there's really no excuse," Ten said.
Ms. Kim sighed. "I did say you could pick the prop, didn't I." We all nodded. She set down her yellow notepad and stared us down. "Okay, I'd like to see a final vote. Everyone in favor of our final scene prop being a bed?"
I threw up my hand, grinning as I took in the sea of waving hands around me.
"All right," Ms. Kim said. "A bed it is, but everything has to stay well within PG-13 limits!"
I looked over at Jinwoo, laughing, and suddenly sobered up at the realization... I'd just totally screwed myself over. I might think of him as my friend, but in no way were we good enough friends for an acting scene involving a bed to be just passed over like nothing.
And we didn't even really get to decide the basic premise! Another pair in the class would be assigned to write our first six lines of dialogue.
If we were lucky, whatever script they gave us wouldn't be stupid or based around sex. I'd probably quit the class if that happened, flee the country or something. Maybe murder Eunwoo on my way out for convincing me to do this, who knew.
"All right, I'll come around and get assignments done so you can get started on the first six lines of dialogue and whatever accompanying action cues you need. Remember, those need to be finished by the end of class so everyone can practice over the weekend!"
Miss Overachiever in the front row raised her hand. "Ms. Kim, are you sure we have to do the performances on Tuesday? Couldn't we have more time to practice?"
Ms. Kim beamed. "I love to challenge you all." Miss Overachiever (I really needed to learn her name) slumped in her seat. "Besides, this exercise is less about meticulous practice and more about being able to find a core story quickly, develop a working relationship with your fellow actors, and improvise as necessary. Please do not spend every waking hour this weekend practicing; that is not the point. Find the organic and let it grow." She picked her yellow writing pad back up and started making the rounds.
"Do you think she'll let us pick who to write the beginning lines for?" I asked Jinwoo.
He shrugged. "If so, who do you want to write for?"
"Eunwoo and Sanha?"
"Maybe." He looked over at them. "We've done so many projects with them this semester though."
"Who do you want to write for then?" I asked.
"I don't know. Someone new, I guess." He gestured toward Ms. Kim. "We probably won't have much to choose from anyway by the time she gets back here."
"I guess sitting in the second-to-last row has its downfalls, huh?"
"I guess." He scribbled his pencil back and forth a few times in the margin of his notebook. "Any ideas for a general premise?"
Looking off into the distance, I hummed. "I'm not sure." I tapped my own pencil against my desk. "But we should definitely be nice to whoever we get and try not to give them anything too embarrassing or dumb."
He bobbed his head up and down. "Like no clichés, yeah."
"Or–" The distinct, high-pitched sound of Sanha's giggle cut through the classroom. When I looked over at him, he and Eunwoo had their heads together, shaking with mirth as they looked down at whatever they'd written.
"I wonder who they got," I said.
"Who knows."
Eunwoo reached his pencil to the paper and added something. Sanha cackled. They both looked at Jinwoo and me.
"It couldn't be us, right?" I asked. "They'd want to write for a group who was better at acting, wouldn't you think?"
"Excuse me, I think we're pretty decent."
"You are. I took this class because Eunwoo said it would be fun and was very disappointed to find out that acting is actually hard work."
"It certainly is!" Ms. Kim chirped, appearing in front of us. "I'm glad you've found a new appreciation for the arts." She poised her pen over the notepad. "Let's see, who's left – we've got Jeongin and Felix, Jiu and Sua, Minghao and Jun, and Jihyo and Daniel. Which would you like, JinJin and – do you still go by JinJin?" she asked him, peering through her glasses.
He laughed and shrugged, shifting against the back of his chair. "It doesn't matter, either that or Jinwoo."
"Oh my god, that was like a third-grade nickname right?" I asked in a low voice.
"Yeah, whatever. Who should we write for?"
I looked around the class, trying to pick out the people Ms. Kim had listed. My eyes landed on a slim boy sitting quietly with his legs pulled up, ankles crossed on the seat as he listened to his scene partner talk, and an idea exploded through my neurons.
"Minghao and Jun!" I looked over at Jinwoo. "If that's okay with you!"
He nodded and Ms. Kim marked it down.
"Um, could you tell us who'll be writing for us?" Jinwoo asked as Ms. Kim was getting ready to move on.
She looked down at her list. "Sanha and... Eunwoo." She sighed. "I can't keep up with all these children growing up and changing their names."
Once she'd walked on to the next desk, I leaned over to Jinwoo and whispered, "We're screwed."
"Yeah, definitely screwed." He flipped his notebook to a blank page. "So, why Minghao and Jun?"
I gestured toward where Minghao sat, knees pulled up by his chin. "Just look! I saw him sitting like that and my brain was like 'he would make a perfect boy with a monster under his bed' and I just couldn't pass that up."
Jinwoo nodded, looking at Minghao. "I can see that, I guess."
"So, now we just need to decide what kind of monster Jun will be," I said.
"Yeah, it probably has to be something that wouldn't require a special costume."
"Oh yeah." I sat back in my chair. "I didn't think about that."
"He could be, like... I don't know, I'm kind of thinking about how sometimes parents or family can be the monsters, but I don't think that would translate well to the stage?"
I scribbled the idea down. "I don't know, I like the idea though! I'm not sure it would translate well, you're right." As I tapped the eraser of my pencil against the spiral binding of my notebook, I asked, "So what about... like the ghost of a friend or something?"
"An imaginary friend gone wrong," he said.
I high-fived his shoulder, then his hand at least five times. "That's it, dude! That's perfect!"
By the time class had ended, we'd come up with the first six lines to a script that would hopefully give Minghao and Jun enough to work with.
SCENE
(Lights come up to show BOY walking onstage from stage left, looking behind him and waving. An unmade bed sits center stage. IMAGINARY FRIEND/MONSTER is under bed, hidden from the audience.)
BOY
Good night!
(BOY flips a switch on the wall and the lights dim to show him go to his bed and lie down. After a few moments, IMAGINARY FRIEND/MONSTER pushes out from under the bed, his upper half showing on stage left of the bed. BOY jumps at the noise and freezes.)
IMAGINARY FRIEND/MONSTER
Good night to them but not to me?
(BOY sits up, drawing his knees under his chin and pulling thin covers up to his shoulders.)
BOY
(Small voice)
I don't tell you you're not real and you don't bother me. That was the deal.
IMAGINARY FRIEND/MONSTER
(Laughing)
That was your deal. My deal was that we'd be friends forever.
(He comes all the way from out under the bed and sits on the floor looking at the BOY.)
IMAGINARY FRIEND/MONSTER (cont.)
And look where we are now.
BOY
I have other friends now. People who say and do surprising things because I'm not the one making up their every move. Real friends.
(The BOY jumps again when IMAGINARY FRIEND/MONSTER stands up and starts aimlessly walking around the foot of the bed. The BOY's eyes follow him nervously.)
BOY (cont.)
I don't need you around anymore, you can go do whatever it is you want to do.
IMAGINARY FRIEND/MONSTER
(Climbing up and crouching on the bed, looking at the BOY as he shrinks away.)
"Whatever it is I want to do" is be friends forever. Like you promised. (Tilts head) Do you remember that promise?
"I think it's good enough," I said to Jinwoo, scrolling up to fix the typos I'd made from typing too fast. We'd decided to transfer the script to a word document since we'd scribbled out a lot of stuff and written in some revisions really small and it was just generally a mess. (I'd found out that Jinwoo had better handwriting than I did, too.)
He pointed out another typo on the screen. "More than good. I'm kind of jealous we don't get to act this one out."
"Yeah, I'm really quite nervous for whatever Eunwoo and Sanha have cooked up over there."
Ms. Kim cleared her throat. "I hate to interrupt creative processes, but there are about five minutes left until the end of class. I won't throw you out, but the genetics professor teaching the next class might."
I panicked and made another typo. Jinwoo giggled and started pointing out every error one by one.
"That's not helpful, Jinwoo. Or 'JinJin,'" I said. "Would you mind going and asking for Jun and Minghao's email addresses?"
"Sure, no problem." He walked over to them, and I had a moment of peace to look over the script for any last changes I wanted to make before I sent it away forever.
When Jinwoo came back his smile shone like a beam of sunshine. "I told them our basic idea and they liked it," he said. "Or at least they pretended to."
"I'm sure they liked it! It was a great idea and you should really be proud of it."
"Thanks!" He beamed even brighter and sat down. "Thanks, I'm glad you like it. I just hope it will turn out well." He showed me the piece of paper with a couple of emails written on it. "Ready to send it off to them?"
I sighed. "Any more typos you can spot?"
He leaned over and speed-scanned through the document. "Not that I can see. Looks pretty good to me."
"Okay, I guess I'll send it on then."
As I was attaching the script beginning to the email, two giggling forms showed up by our table. I looked up to see – who else – Eunwoo and Sanha.
"What are you guys up to?" Jinwoo asked, leaning back in his seat and folding his arms.
Sanha smiled, a cheeky grin that somehow still managed to look sincere (a signature Sanha move). "We just wanted to give you guys your script so you could get started on your skit!" He held out a piece of paper.
"Thanks?" Jinwoo took it and they both bolted off, laughing and running out of the classroom.
"Geez, what is this, high school?" I muttered as I typed in Jun and Minghao's addresses and sent the email. Closing my laptop, I put it back in my bag as Jinwoo put the paper in the middle of the table so we could both see it.
SCENE
(The lights slowly rise on two people lying close together in bed. After a moment, THING 1 wakes up, looks at THING 2's face, and sits up in shock.)
THING 1
Oh shit, oh fuck, this was a mistake.
I didn't read any more. "I'm going to kill Eunwoo."
"And I'm going to kill Sanha. You want to team up?" Jinwoo asked.
"Let's do it," I said, flipping the paper upside down so I didn't have to look at it. "They talk a big game about 'taking acting seriously' and then give us something like this?"
"Ridiculous," we both said at the same time, and laughed.
I looked at the clock. "I have to get to my next class, but if you're free after three o'clock we could meet in the library and figure out what to do?"
"Sure, I could do that. Right now I think I'll ask the teacher about whether we have to do the scene that's written for us or not."
"An excellent plan," I said, standing up and starting to pack all my stuff into my bag. "I'll continue to mull over the best way to make a double homicide look like an accident."
Jinwoo giggled. "Awesome."
I shoved the paper with the so-called script toward him with two fingers. "You keep this, maybe showing it to the teacher will help our cause." Hefting my bag to my shoulders, I backed up a step and waved. "See you at the library around two then!"
"In the lobby!" he said, flipping the paper back over to read the lines Eunwoo and Sanha had written for us. I hurried off before I could receive any more bad news about its contents from his reactions.
If all else failed, I could always go back to my plan of fleeing the country.
*
When I found Jinwoo waiting for me in the library lobby, he was studying the paper the devil pair had given us with far too much interest for me to have any hope that the professor had allowed us to switch up the scene.
"Hi!" I called as I walked up to him.
He glanced up, a doleful look on his face. "The professor said no. We have to make do with what we have."
"And she said that after reading what they'd written?" I asked, sitting in one of the chairs beside him.
"Yeah, it doesn't ever get like... explicit..." His ears were red, and I privately found that hilarious even as my own ears heated up several degrees at once. "Like, it's embarrassing but not bad so we're stuck with it."
"I'm seriously going to kill them. I bet we could sneak some poison in their food and they'd never notice."
"Yeah, but poisons are traceable," Jinwoo pointed out.
"True." I sighed, eyeing the troublesome piece of paper. "So, shall we get a study room and have at this thing?"
Jinwoo nodded and threw himself out of the chair. "The third-floor rooms are super nice."
"Yeah, they have windows, they're definitely better." We checked one out with my student ID and spread out our stuff. I knew I was taking my time setting up my laptop and plugging in the cord, stalling, and he probably knew it too.
"Have you read the whole thing yet?" he asked, holding out the paper.
I huffed out a breath that made the paper tremble in the air. "No. That would probably be a good place to start, yeah?"
He handed it over and started pulling out some of his stuff. I ran through the lines we'd been given, hand squeezing tight onto a pencil to help allay the embarrassment.
SCENE
(The lights slowly rise on two people lying close together in bed. After a moment, THING 1 wakes up, looks at THING 2's face, and sits up in shock.)
THING 1
Oh shit, oh fuck, this was a mistake.
(THING 2 stirs in bed.)
THING 2
(Very intelligently)
Hmmm?
THING 1
This was a big mistake, I'm so sorry.
THING 2
(A little more awake now but still groggy)
Mmwhat? A milkshake?
(THING 1 is still frozen in place, staring at THING 2 in growing horror.)
THING 1
I'm so sorry, everything has been a mistake but especially last night, I didn't mean to, I don't know what came over me...
(He runs his hands through his hair.)
THING 1 (cont.)
I'm sorry. This was... it was a mistake.
(THING 1 gets up to leave but is stopped by THING 2's words.)
THING 2
Wait, you said...
(In earth-shatteringly heartbroken and betrayed tones)
Mistake?
I sighed, copying 'THING 1' by running my hands through my hair. "What are we supposed to do with this?"
Jinwoo chuckled, unusually dry and mirthless. "A mistaken one-night stand, I'm guessing?"
It was all I could do not to tear the paper to shreds. "That's so standard and pointless!"
"Yeah, kind of cliché."
I slammed the so-called script to the table. "There has to be a way to get out of this. I could move to Barcelona." I paused. "I could stab Eunwoo and Sanha and go to jail for it."
"Or we could find a way to make this decent," Jinwoo said, slapping a hand down on the paper and sliding it to his end of the table. "There has to be a way."
I sat down next to him, looking at the scribbles. "Yeah, there has to be."
He smiled briefly. "We'll find it."
We both stared at the paper for a while. After a minute I got up to use the drinking fountain and the bathroom, then he had to get up to let me back in because I forgot that the study rooms stayed locked even when there was someone in them. (Literally the weirdest policy ever.)
When we sat down again, I asked, "Any ideas for how to salvage this?"
"Not yet."
"Same here, no epiphanies yet. I'll start typing it into a document and you keep thinking." I slowed down this time, not wanting to make as many typos when it wasn't necessary to hurry.
After I'd typed in the six lines, I sat back and looked at them. Jinwoo didn't say anything. "I don't know how to proceed but I at least know I'm changing the names of the characters," I finally said. "Thing 1 and Thing 2 just make me think of those little squid-things from Dr. Seuss books."
"I don't think those were squids," Jinwoo said, barely holding back a laugh.
"Regardless." I highlighted 'THING 1' with my cursor. "Which character do you want to be?"
He shrugged. "I'll take Thing 1, I guess?"
"Okay, what do you want to be named?"
"I don't know. Doesn't matter, really."
"Elphibius Squandoff."
He bent over the table laughing. "No, not that. Thanks for the idea though."
"Okay, I'll just call the character JJ for now while you think about it," I said. "Let's see, what to call my character...."
"How about Raven. You know, like your favorite X-Men character?"
My head snapped around to look at him. "Wow, you have a good memory," I said, raising an eyebrow.
"Literally every time the gang watches an X-Men movie you and MJ have an argument about whether she's the coolest or not."
"Well if he keeps bringing Iron Man into the conversation when he's not even in the X-Men universe then how am I supposed to let him say her powers are stupid?!"
"Yes, I know." He laughed. "Just saying, there's no way any of us are ever forgetting that Mystique is your favorite when we've heard this argument so many times."
I laughed and looked away. "Sure, that makes sense. Raven works just fine." As I replaced every character name in the script, I stalwartly did not look at him. It's not like I meant to get all nerdy and defensive in front of everyone, but if MJ was so biased he thought a shiny suit from the wrong universe would be a better addition to the X-Men than a literal shapeshifter then what was I supposed to do?
"Okay, so I have no ideas," Jinwoo said as I finished typing in the last 'RAVEN.'
I sighed. "Here, can I see that paper?" When he handed it to me I took it over to the window side of the room and leaned against the wall. I read through it again before gazing out the window, watching the trickle of passersby without really focusing on any one person.
"I fixed a typo," Jinwoo said.
"Thanks," I said with the sharpest bite of sarcasm I could muster.
He laughed. "No problem."
"So," I sighed. "If we don't want to go with the 'mistaken one-night stand' approach, we need to figure out what else might lead two people – or I guess one person, it's just your character – to think that," I coughed, "sleeping together was a mistake."
Jinwoo nodded mutely, lips sealed.
I pressed the page to my face with both hands. "Why did they have to give us this kind of bullshit?"
He choked on a laugh. "Why indeed."
Letting the paper fall, I looked back out the window. How could two people sleep together and one of them think it was a mistake besides a one-night stand? Or some other such way-too-embarrassing scenario that I did not want to act out in front of the entire class?
What could we do that was unexpected and would be good enough to put Eunwoo and Sanha back in their places?
After at least five minutes of staring out the window, nothing but the sound of the A/C in the room, it hit me. I whirled around, then paused to make sure I had it straight in my head.
"You got something?" Jinwoo asked.
I nodded, then shrugged. "Maybe. Okay, so what if your character was away on a long trip and came back home and was intending to divorce my character – they're married, by the way – and forgot about it because he was so happy to see my character, and so... yeah, he forgot until the morning when he woke up. That at least is less cliché?"
Jinwoo nodded slowly, and I could practically see him trying to visualize the story playing out onstage. "But why would he want to divorce you if he's so happy to see you?"
Moving to sit down at the table, I dragged my laptop over toward myself. "I don't know... maybe it has to do with him coming home from a trip?"
"A frequent traveler? He travels so much that he doesn't feel close to your character?"
I held up a finger. "Or, he's tired of hurting my character because I'm so lonely when he's away. And he's tired of seeing and hearing that when they call."
He shrugged. "Those both seem like dumb reasons to divorce someone."
"Well yeah, but it's a theatre class, not a creative writing class. It doesn't always have to make sense."
"We could say my character cheated on your character."
"No, absolutely not. I'm not touching cheating with a ten-foot pole."
He raised his hands. "Okay, that works for me."
"Thanks. So yeah, your character will feel... how about he feels both guilty and a little distant?"
"Sure."
"What does he do, though, that takes him away so often?" I asked.
"Drum! He's a drummer, let's go with that," Jinwoo said.
I smiled. "Very cool."
"He works with a backing band or something like that? They go on tours with soloists so he's gone most of the time?"
"Perfect." I looked at my character's name in the script. "And I think I'll have my character be something that has to stay put, like a... an interior designer? Or an IT person for a specific company?"
"Yeah, it wouldn't make much sense if your character had a job that could travel so you could go with my character."
I nodded. "Okay, let's get this done."
Jinwoo had to leave for his four o'clock class, and I had to renew the study room every hour (making sure to block open the door with a trash can so I wouldn't be locked out when I came back), but by seven he had returned and we had a short script whipped into shape.
"How about we leave tomorrow to memorize lines and kind of mull it over, and you can come over and practice on Saturday if that's okay?" I asked while I packed up my stuff.
"Sure, sounds great. What time?"
"Afternoon, definitely. Saturdays are for sleeping in."
With a laugh, he agreed. "Okay, how about around two?"
I nodded. "See you then!"
He took his copy of the script and headed out. I sighed as I picked up my own copy. We'd managed to make something decent, I thought, out of the steaming pile of trash we'd been given.
Hopefully I'd still think that by the time Tuesday class rolled around.
*
We'd already changed three lines over email by Saturday, so it was no surprise when three and a half hours of practice led to a skit that looked very different than the one we'd written on Thursday.
"If we could just change those initial six lines," I groaned, dropping onto the saggy basement couch after another run-through.
"At least we're pretty happy with the rest," Jinwoo said, collapsing next to me.
I melted further into the couch. "I literally never thought acting would be this hard work. It's absolutely ridiculous."
"Yeah, it's not as easy as it looks."
"If I ever say I'm planning to listen to Eunwoo's class recommendations again, please slap me."
Laughing, he asked, "So he talked you into taking this class?"
"Practically twisted my arm. I swear, if–"
Jinwoo's phone rang, so I paused while he checked it. "Speak of the devil," he said and answered it. "Eunwoo?"
After a few seconds, he looked at me. "Sounds like we're planning to meet at Eunwoo's house tonight for lasagna and a movie." More listening, then Jinwoo said to the phone, "Yeah, we're practicing our scene. You know, the one from hell that you gave us." I could hear Eunwoo's cackle even though the phone wasn't on speaker.
After another second, Jinwoo looked back at me and held the phone half toward me. "Apparently you're not invited to the movie night."
"Tell that little punk that I know his mother and will talk to her if necessary."
"Ooh, pulling out the mom card," Jinwoo said, turning back to the phone. "Did you catch that?" A moment passed. "He says he was just joking in the first place and resorting to such measures was unnecessary."
"Excellent." I reached over to pick up my script, looking at all the crossed-off sections and margin scrawls. When Jinwoo hung up, I told him, "The script almost looks worse than the first draft of Jun and Minghao's lines did."
"Yeah, it does!"
I set the script down between us. "So when's the movie night?"
"In an hour or two. Do you want to do any more practice?"
"How about a couple more times through, then I'll go type up some new copies of the revised script and meet you over there?" I asked.
"Great."
Both practices went much smoother than any had previously, and as I gathered up the scripts to retype I gave Jinwoo a high five. "We got this."
"Oh yeah, we'll do great," he said, grinning. As I walked him out and then headed up to my room for my laptop, a smile stayed stuck on my face.
As it turns out, retyping a script without further editing the text is a real struggle. I had to go back and fix things several times so they actually reflected what we'd practiced and planned to do onstage. At last I printed off two copies, left one in my room, and walked to Eunwoo's house.
Everyone was already there, as I expected. After greeting Eunwoo's family, eating, and helping wash up, we migrated to the TV for movie night.
"What should we watch?" asked Rocky.
"I don't know, but not an X-Men movie," I said. "Someone has recently brought to my attention that I am far too, shall we say, combative about that."
"But watching you and MJ fight is my favorite part," said Moonbin.
MJ started talking loud and fast, and I didn't have the energy to tune into what he was saying. After scoping out an empty chair, I headed for it.
As I passed Jinwoo, he said quietly, "Sorry, I didn't mean to make you self-conscious about it. I think you two are really funny and kind of cute when you argue about that."
"Thanks," I said, settling into a deep leather armchair. "I'll try not to be self-conscious about it then."
Eunwoo tugged a few options off the DVD shelf. "So, how's your scene going?" he asked Jinwoo and I over his shoulder. Sanha giggled while MJ asked what was so funny.
"A lot better than you seem to think," I said, glaring at Eunwoo's back.
"How about you guys, how is your scene going?" Jinwoo asked.
Sanha suddenly clammed up and Eunwoo yanked a few more DVDs from the shelf in silence.
"That well," Jinwoo said, raising his eyebrows at me. It was my turn to laugh and watch the pair shift in discomfort.
"Here, you guys pick something out," Eunwoo said. "I'll go grab some snacks."
"Snacks? We just ate!" I said, but he disappeared and the boys swarmed the DVD collection. By the time Eunwoo returned with a few packages of M&Ms and the pronouncement that popcorn was an option, they'd picked out something only three of us had already seen (myself included) and popped it in the player. The title of "remote king" was claimed by MJ; while he fiddled with the buttons trying to get to the menu, Moonbin started throwing singular M&Ms at him.
"Quit distracting me!" MJ said with a glare.
"I bet I can catch one in my mouth," Rocky said, so Moonbin changed his target.
"Let me try!" Sanha said when they succeeded on the second attempt. Moonbin pitched a blue one at him, which bounced off his nose.
MJ howled. The rest of us were also laughing to some degree, but he was by far the loudest.
"I wasn't ready!" Sanha said in an injured tone.
I chuckled, looking over at Jinwoo. He looked my way at the same time, and we laughed together for a moment. As Sanha got a fair try (several, actually, before he caught one), I wondered why I'd looked to Jinwoo to share the moment with.
MJ finally got the movie started. Instead of watching what was essentially a rerun for me, I found my eyes straying to the boys' reactions, then landing on Jinwoo.
Oh. That was why I'd subconsciously chosen to share the moment with him – because unless I did something, I was going to have a Problem.
I turned my attention to the movie, but even if I policed my eyes I couldn't stop my ears from picking out his laughter and warming to it. Finally I pulled out the copy of our script, which I'd brought for Jinwoo but hadn't given him yet, and read through it again.
That certainly made me nervous enough to curb whatever else was going on in my head.