"Ok, my beautiful cast! Final two rehearsals!" Kyungsoo's voice booms over our heads.

"And you two! Time we start rehearsing that kiss huh?" Kyungsoo points at Yixing and I. 

Groan... I almost forgot there's a kiss scene between Kate and Petruchio. But I don't want to kiss Zhang Yixing's filthy mouth! Also, things are highly awkward between us now as Yixing has not made any further attempts to apologize after I ignored his earlier messages and neither have I made any attempts to contact him. Our interaction limited to editing scripts on the online forum with the rest of our crew. I start to argue against the need for a kiss, making a case for how it's gratuitous and unnecessary.

"No way! The kiss can't be taken out! You know how the crowd goes wild for kiss scenes! It'll score us brownie points with the judges. Besides, everyonelse is doing the kiss scene. It'll be glaringly obvious if only EP omits it." Kyungsoo slams down my protestations. "Also, you two got this potent going on, we should milk it. Your tension is palpable! I can feel it! It'll be brilliant onstage when you both finally kiss!"

"What?! ...xual? Kyungsoo, you idiot! There's tension alright! But it's not ual! Ew!" I shriek vehemently.

"Methinks the lady doth protest too much. Give it a rest Kyungsoo! Mrs Choi here probably has not kissed anyone else other than her betrothed Siwonnie. Let's not force Miss Prude to make sacrifices for our theatre. I mean it's only EP's theatre pride at stake here? I'm sure that means nothing at all to her" Yixing mocks.

"I am not a PRUDE!" I shriek. "I'm fine with kiss scenes! I just don't want to kiss...this...this womanizer! Libertine! Profligate! Who knows what kind of STD I'll contract from him!"

"Woah, wait up here Mrs Choi. Let me state for the record that I practice safe ! I always use protection and I check for sores and cuts. I'm clean as a whistle. Besides, we're just probably gonna exchange a chaste peck? There's hardly any chance for any contamination... Or were you hoping for some open-mouth tongue action?" Yixing remarks sardonically.

"I... Never!!!" I protest.

"What did I tell ya? . , folks!" Kyungsoo eagerly addresses the rest of the crew. Ugh!

"Besides, if I have STDs, I would have long passed it onto you, 2 months ago?" Yixing remarks wryly. I gasp along with everyone else in the room.

"What are you insinuating? Explain yourself!" I demand.

"You recall...when I went down on you, 2 months ago?" 

Kyungsoo whistles and a few of the girls titter. What! We did no such thing! 2 months ago? Oh! Is he referring to the CPR? This git! He's intentionally misleading everyone with his double entendres!

"He performed CPR on me! CPR! That's all there is to it!"

"Sure, if that's what you call it."

"Why you! Stop giving everyone the wrong ideas!" 

"This is GOLD! Keep this up, Petruchio and Kate!" Kyungsoo gleefully jests.

***

I storm out of the rehearsal room. Thank God it's finally over! Kyungsoo that numbskull and his insistence on a kiss between the leads! The rest of the crew voted with him too, including Yixing! So I have to acquiesce. I'm not a quitter so I won't think of quitting the play just to get out of kissing that filthy mouth. I did think of exerting my Queen B rights and demand that we drop the kiss but that Zhang Yixing called me out! He called me a prude! I'm not a prude! I'll show them! I'll show him! 

A kiss is just a kiss. But I managed to cancel the rehearsal of the kiss. So we'll only need to kiss on the actual performance. I convinced Kyungsoo that there's hardly any need to rehearse a mere peck and somehow Kyungsoo bought into it and saw it as an added opportunity to create more tension and suspension for the kiss scene. He reasons that if it's unrehearsed, it'll naturally come out unexpected and more organic and have greater impact as befitting the intention of our script. Yes, whatever. I'm just glad I only have to kiss that toad once, not twice or more.

***

Next chapter: Tingles