CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

A Chance

Pacing along the packed backstage hallway is the second lead actor. His eyes are wandering around the area as he switches his view from one crew to another when he attempts to find the one and only Wardrobe Master in the sea of humans is failing. There is a slim chance for Mingyu to be here, Seungkwan guesses and pouts at the end of the hallway. The tall fellow is nowhere to be seen.

“Aren’t you supposed to get ready in the dressing room, Seungkwan?” The boy heard a girl asking him in the midst of dejection. Turning his head to the side, he finds Yerin looking at him in utter confusion. It is already two and from what she is seeing, Seungkwan is far from ready. “I’m looking for Mingyu.”

“I mean, he’s not difficult to find. He’s probably in the female’s dressing room if you can’t find him in the male’s one.” The assistant stage manager informed helpfully and points at the door behind her. With the two mentioned dressing area situated literally far apart, it is rather complicated to have a single head department in one place at any given time.

Seungkwan knocks on the door before he slips into the aforementioned room, aware of the whole situation that might happen. He partially expected to see Mingyu helping one of the actress ready, decked in their costume already but to his surprise, his partner is there in her costume unlike him.

Yet, Mingyu is nowhere to be seen.

“Eunha, have you seen Mingyu? I can’t find him anywhere. I can’t find my outfit. There’s only Myungho’s on the railing.” The actor finally reveals his problem and it is no wonder is worried. This conveniently happens on his first day acting as Minseo too. It is not uncommon to change actors for the same character. He is doing it for today’s matinee and the second night performance’s too.

“Oh,” The girl paused and notices him fidgeting by the door. When she cannot figure out an answer, she asks Jiyeon who is putting make-up on Sujeong. “Have you seen Mingyu today, Jiyeon?”

“Gyu? He’s fetching Taehyung at the workshop. Why?”

“Seungkwan’s costume is missing.”

“What?!” Jiyeon almost yelled when she turns to look at Seungkwan herself. Fortunately, Sujeong is good to go so she can focus on the boy. “Look for Mingyu’s assistant then, Kwan.” She suggested, hoping that eases the random trouble.

“I don’t even know who…”

“It’s Soyeon. Soyeon. Now go! You don’t have time.” Eunha pushes Seungkwan out of the room and luckily for him, he immediately finds the Mingyu’s assistant running in the hallway with clothes bunched in her arms.

“Soyeon-ie! My costum-”

“I know! I’m sorry. One of the crew members tagged it wrongly.” Jeon Soyeon, being the person in charge for the day stops in front of Seungkwan before breathing heavily in front of the said actor. “How did you know I’m looking for it anyway?”

“Well, you weren’t in the room so I asked Myungho and I instantly look for both the outfit and you.” At that moment, he feels bad for the girl. Without Mingyu to keep things in check, everyone rushes her to do all the work Mingyu left. He can hear her name being constantly tossed around instead of the older male’s for that day.

It is Seungkwan’s and Eunha’s turn to shine. Shinyoung takes note of that as soon as she arrives at the Silver Diamond Hall’s entrance. Lines of audiences already standing by the ticketing booth but as expected it is not as many. People rarely come for a matinee performance anyway so she shrugs it before heading to the closed door where Sungjae is guarding.

“Who’s in charge for today’s opening?”

“I think it’s Seokmin like how we originally planned.” The Production Manager spoke knowingly and only then Shinyoung notices the boy is not with his fellow crew members. “Right. We are that short of crew, huh.”

“Yeah,” Sungjae uttered as matter-of-factly. They have been conversing for a couple of minutes and it takes them three minutes into the talk to make an eye-contact. His mind is scattered, making sure that the front of house is well managed under his watch. “Anyway, poor casts. They’re probably tired. Seungcheol thought it will be best to proceed with last night’s line-up for the rest of the show.”

“Wait, what?!” Shinyoung bursts, almost gathering all attention by the entrance to them. The person who delivered the news simply furrows his brows. Weird. How come the news does not seem to reach the Scenographer? “You don’t know?”

“No!” She screamed. Panic immediately rushes into her mind whilst going through the file in hand. The next object she glimpses on is her phone which is surprisingly blank. No time. No reminder. Just plain black screen mocking her for not charging her phone beforehand.

Upon smashing the back entrance open, the news clearly had arrived in the hallway. It is a chaos. Firstly, there are those dance ensembles hectically getting into their respective outfits with the recognisable Mingyu’s assistant face swiftly passing pieces of clothing to their owners. Next, we have the Theatre Director and Stage Manager settling the issue in hand in a very loud manner. Their faces were red and it is the best not to meddle them. And lastly, Shinyoung’s heart drops when she catches the sight of the Chinese actor. He looks like he is going to cry any minute.

“Myungho!” She called across the hallway as she runs straight ahead, bumping onto a few of Soonyoung’s dancers. Swimming through them is tough yet her heart still races upon seeing the actor up close. “Goodness, don’t tell me you just knew it-”

“I can’t recall Minseo’s line! Not today, Shinyoung. I wasn’t supposed to lead today’s show. I’m going to screw this production. I’ll fail this-” Worried, the girl holds the boy securely by his shoulders. She is bad at consultation like this. She is not even supposed to be there in the crowded backstage. Her conscious led her here. This might be the reason.

Shaking him lightly, she makes the fellow look her in the eyes. Even with the numerous numbers of crews, no one seems to stop by to calm the boy. With everyone is busy doing their respective jobs, it is obvious no one will notice his shaking gaze. Sure enough, it is watery. He is scared.

“We can’t afford any failure today. I understand how you’re feeling right now. Here, let me help you, okay?” She grabs her file and retrieves the play’s manuscript, flipping it through with Minghao. At least he is showing sign of calming down after she told him to take a couple of breaths to ease his wired brain. From the corner of her eyes, she finds Seungkwan who appears in the same mess as anyone else.

“I’m so going to talk to Seungcheol after this.”

A fellow assistant director lets a long sigh escape his mouth after he is able to find his way out of the chaotic mess which was caused by his friend. Seated on the single steps right by the backstage entrance, Wonwoo snatches out a stick of cigarette from his pocket. Just one. It is his way to prevent from overdoing his unhealthy habit. Also there is a minute more before the matinee show starts so he does not want to re-enter in such condition.

When he thinks he will be alone, the door opens, revealing the least expected figure coming out of it. Wonwoo flicks the stick once while his eyes fix itself onto the incoming figure. He expects the person to walk off immediately but of course people tend to jump over his expectation nowadays.

“How long have you been here?” Shinyoung questioned out of the blue once she claims the empty spot on Wonwoo’s side. Switching his gaze, he looks nowhere in particular until it remains constant on tiny line of smoke produced between his fingers. “Not that long. I don’t think I can stand seeing whatever happens in the place. It’s too much.”

Right, there is way too much events going on in the backstage alone. Unlike Shinyoung and the rest of the casts and crews, he learned Seungcheol’s plan an hour before the noisy scene took place. However, he is not satisfied how the director seemed to seek everyone but him about the matter. Before Seungcheol’s news reached the backstage, he was prepared, physically and mentally. The latter part though, he might have missed it by one shot.

He has no idea why he has to witness Minghao’s panic self as soon as he arrives at front of the male’s dressing room. His instinct told him to approach him yet he was a step too late when he saw Shinyoung rushed towards the younger fellow. As if his feet were stuck on the floor, he only managed to eye on the scene from a distant. A dangerous distant.

Her attentive figure amused him. She kept her gesture light, knowing that she has little knowledge in the comforting department. After realising the overwhelming emotion in him climbing up to his head, Wonwoo sneaked out, only to bump onto the recognisable Choreographer’s face.

‘Soonyoung probably witnessed the same thing too,’ Wonwoo ponders quietly. It is his sudden abrupt in verbal communication that calls his consciousness to return to the present time. Shinyoung too is being her quiet self so it is logical for him to get carried away.

“Aren’t you supposed to be inside to work with the tech team?” He asked. His curiosity is genuine and she nods a couple of times before answering, “I passed it to Soonyoung minutes ago. He quickly gets to work when I told him.”

‘That is probably not the reason why he is so quick to leave.’ He added more to his train of thoughts. He feels bad for Soonyoung honestly. After all, they are living under one roof for awhile already. It is only time to see him very devastated by a new comer. He does not have a clear clean start with the fellow but he can read him well. Contrasting to his fiery spirit, Soonyoung does not explode in jealousy whenever he found Shinyoung with his so-called rival.

That is admirable, Wonwoo guesses because there is him out, smoking away his initial depressive state with no other than the girl he is trying to gain attention from. He recalls her not liking an active smoker. He has been controlling that if you want to know that. Anything to get on her good side. Besides, it will aid him a long run.

“Hey,” She softly spoke after delaying another minute. “I’m giving you a second chance to prove yourself.” If her eyes are not playing tricks with her, she swears she sees the male freezes before his face scrunches in confusion.

“I don’t get it. A second chance at what, exactly?”

“Well, I heard some of the things you, Soonyoung, and Myungho discussed last night when you guys thought I was sleeping. I think you can figure that out on your own. You’re Jeon Wonwoo after all. One of the smart kids in high school and SIA. I’ll get going.” Shinyoung shrugs, gently patting her jeans after standing up from her spot.

Looking at Wonwoo who is still gaping at the information, she bids her goodbye but not before sparing a final glance, “And you might want to ditch that.” She pointed out with a knowing smile. Following her index finger, he finds himself laughing and nodding. He puts his hands up in a surrender manner. Still the stick stuck between his fingers.

Once the door closes itself, he holds his gaze on them. He is registering a fact. The fact where Shinyoung actually knew their uncalled rivalry. And now she said she is giving him a second chance? Does that mean he already had his first chance before that he had zero idea about? ‘That can’t be it,’ Wonwoo shakes his head. The cigarette in hand is already out by the time he pins down the situation he is in.

“Oh, Shinyoung unnie.” Yein uttered in a whisper once she sees the older female approaching them on the second floor. The younger girl seems a tad excited, genuinely bright knowing her favourite senior decided to show up when the show is running.

As expected for a matinee show, there are not a lot of audiences seeing that the seats are only filled until the third row. There are about seven more rows behind them and it is completely bare. Shinyoung changes her view, now looking at whatever that is happening on the stage at the moment. It is one of the Chinese actor’s scenes. She remembers how this particular scene created a fight yesterday.

“You’re not even looking at Eunha, Shin.” The mentioned girl shakes from her daze. Apparently, she has been staring a bit too long to a point her fellow crew member noticing it. There is only one boy she knows that will call her by that singular syllable. “The lights are not even on him yet you still look at him. He must be that good, huh?”

“Soon…” Shinyoung skims the tone Soonyoung used and immediately recognises them. She heard it before and she notices the pattern after gaining the piece from last night’s uncalled discussion.

After all, Shinyoung is not much of an idiot to not pick up those little things Kwon Soonyoung does for her. Others might already ditch her apartment but not him. He stayed and even helped maintaining the whole place. He even pitched in some cash for the communal space they got. It is their shared office space now.

She would be lying if she never gives him a chance to form something more out of the bond they have. She is willing to try yet she is too scared to step it up. Obviously it is due to the fact Soonyoung rarely makes the move and if he did, she shut him up rather quickly to the boy’s dismay.

And then there is Myungho…

She cannot quite point out the reason why he attracts her most. Never in her right mind thought would it be possible to second guess this fellow. Working with him for the Cinematography presentation was calm and with him as the leader, she miraculously learned the subject a lot faster which was why she could bravely fire through the group presentation, much to Mingyu’s expectation.

Even with a time distant between them, they managed to be dropped into one production. This time Minghao has to be the follower as it is his first time to act in a real play. For an amateur, he does too good to be true. Everyone always question him if he wanted to join the production in the future once again. And honestly, RQS Production, Seungcheol will seem stupid if he let him go.

Reasons?

Shinyoung does not have list it down for this one. And without a doubt, the chance card is also given to Xu Minghao.

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