You chuckled. “Lu Han, tell me again why you’re Juliet?”

“Ah, shut up,” he hissed. “Just shut up, and help me with my lines.” 

Besides singing, sleeping, dancing, and playing Temple Run, Lu Han had one other passion: reading. He was a self-confessed bookworm who had a new book every other day, sometimes, every day. While Lu Han liked to read the writings of contemporary authors, he was a true, avid fan of the classics, and his favorite author, as unexpected as it was, was William Shakespeare.

Lu Han wasn’t particularly fond of romance, which Shakespeare wrote a lot of, but he loved the way the English writer used wordplay, and created so many twists and turns. The tragic endings, the comedic lines, the descriptive narration, and the tips he got from The Taming of the Shrew were just a few things that drew him to Shakespeare.

A few months ago, Lu Han joined an organization dedicated to Shakespeare. When you found out, you had raised an eyebrow in disbelief and had to stifle your laughter, shocked to hear that such an org existed.

“It’s just small,” he grumbled, annoyed at your ridicule.       

The first term was finally coming to a close, and as a sort of culminating activity, his organization planned on staging a reader’s theatre of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. They wanted to make it special, and inserted some songs for the readers to sing; it was to make it more romantic, they said.

And because they turned the play into a musical, the org assigned Lu Han to be Juliet.

“There were no females who could sing, so they chose me,” was his grumpy answer when you asked him for the umpteenth time why he was Juliet.

“Lu Han, you do know that they just insulted your masculinity, right?”

“Shut up, I know.”

Lu Han was never a good actor; in fact, he was a terrible liar. So when you entered your room one day to find him struggling as he read his lines, you laughed non-stop for a few minutes before offering to help him with his dilemma. You told him that in Junior high, you played Romeo (against your will), and the girl who was Juliet did a good job of portraying her character, and that maybe you could recall how she said some lines in order to help him get through this storm.

Lu Han scrunched his face, feeling humiliated at how his roommate discovered this disgraceful, idiotic thing he’s been dragged into, but accepted your offer nonetheless. “Fine,” he grunted.

But then he smirked. “You played Romeo, huh? Not surprised.”

You hit him with your thick No Fear Shakespeare. “Okay, okay, you’ve had your revenge on teasing me. But I must say that I was a good Romeo, in spite of it being against my will.”

“I bet you were.”

You looked at him, wondering what that meant, but he shifted his gaze to his book. “Anyway, let’s rehearse Act 2-Scene 2. You open, Romeo…And you better say it with feelings.”

Weird, that last sentence of his was said in a subdued manner, and you noticed how red his ears were getting.  

“Okay, here goes.”

You cleared your throat, and took in a deep breath. This was your favorite scene, not because it was filled with the mushiest crap, but because it was just so damn funny. You remembered how hard it was for you to master this part because you could hardly do it without breaking into a fit of laughter. But on the day of the play, you did great, and everyone applauded your performance.

“But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!” you read.

“…Do I really have to say all this? There are like fifteen lines.”

But Lu Han did not answer you.

Damn it, stop doing that.

Your voice had always been lower than the normal, common girl’s, and you actually sounded like a guy. The first time you and Lu Han talked on the phone, he thought you were with some dude, or were kidnapped by some maniac asking for ransom. But no; it was just you and your weird, raspy voice.

And when you lowered it some more, when you made it huskier, deeper…you sounded y (in the most wrong way possible because you still sounded like a guy).

Lu Han brought the book closer to his face.

Damn you, stop doing that.

Stop making your voice more suave than it already is.

He shouldn’t have agreed to this.

Damn it.

Damn it.

“Lu Han, what the hell are you doing?”

Lu Han kept on smacking himself with the book, and he only stopped when you grabbed it out of his hands and set it on the desk.

“You’re not helping.”

“What?”

He glared at you. “You at this. How am I supposed to rehearse when my Ro— …when Romeo looks like an idiot?”

You scoffed in reply. “What the hell? Where is this all coming from? Dude, if you haven’t noticed, I was doing a very good job sounding like Leonard Whiting in the 1968 movie. And you haven’t even started reading your lines; how can you say that this isn’t helping?”

Not wanting to listen to your nagging, Lu Han stood up, got his book, and headed for the door.

“It’s just not, all right. I can’t concentrate. I’m going to duizhang’s room. And I’m locking the door so that you can’t barge in.”

He exited, and all you could do was stare at the wall outside.

“Lu Han, what the hell?!” you yelled. 

Author's Note:

Hello again, everyone! 

Who read RoJu when they were in high school? Boy, that sure was a whirlwind of an experience! Could not have survived it without NFSP :)) Actually, the old English verses were pretty easy to understand, but by Act 3, I was just too lazy to try and comprehend it and turned to the Modern verse instead :))

Anyway, this chapter's title was inspired by LMNT's song Hey Juliet! which SHINee covered during their Lucifer-days 

And nice slip of the tongue there, Lu Han :))

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the people who complimented me for the way I wrote this fic. I've never published my works before, so I was a bit hesitant to join AFF at first, but thank you so much for believing in me! 

Also, thank you to my readers and subscribers, especially those who have been with me since the start of this series.

Man, I sound like it's about to end.

:)) 

Again, thanks for reading, subscribing and commenting!

If you have time, drop by and express your thoughts about the current or even previous chapters!

Next chapter: There were times that Lu Han did not look like the doe-eyed beauty to you anymore.

He was a man.