Finally, we're at Act V! Everything's going swimmingly so far. We've all acted out as rehearsed, no one has missed a single line and the audience has been responsive to our play so far, laughing heartily at the jokes we've slipped in. Now I just gotta get the dreaded kiss scene over and done with. Good thing too that Baekhyun gave in to Yixing in the end and added a long metal neckpiece that covered him up in all the strategic areas. Otherwise I won't know where to look when I act opposite him! Now I just have to wait for the cue from Yixing before I kiss him. Thank goodness Kate will be kissing Petruchio and not the other way round. This way, I have absolute control over the kiss. I'll make it as brief and as quick as possible!

"Kiss me Kate!" Yixing speaks to me. Here goes nothing. I take a deep breath and walk towards Yixing. Why do I hear my heart pounding in my ears again. And can Yixing not look at me so intently?! I lock my eyes on Yixing's plump lips, take another deep breath and give him a swift peck. There! It's done! I prepare to pull away. But Yixing suddenly grabs onto my waist! What's he doing? This is not in the script! But before I can react any further, he pulls me in and kisses me back! I try to push him away but he grips my face firmly and continues kissing me forcibly! Then he reaches down and squeeze my bum, causing me to gasp. And when my mouth opens, Yixing shoves his tongue into my mouth and start force frenching me. I try my best to push him away but to no avail. So I bite his tongue. "F-ffff" Yixing suppresses a curse as he pulls away. I give him a resounding slap across his cheek. The audience gasps.

We glare at each other and I contemplate walking off the stage but Yixing breaks the uneasy silence and speaks as Petruchio, "What, are thou ashamed of me?"

The cogwheels in my head turn as I see from the corner of my eye, Kyungsoo frantically flipping through the script and looking at us franctically from the side of the stage. So I improvise, "Ashamed? Nay! My gorge rises at it! Thou knave, thou villain. O thou art false! I scorn you, o vile one! Take you me, for a harlot? Fie!"

"Nay, nev'r! Ye art not a harlot. Forsooth, wench! Thine ity breeds mites, much like cheese!" Damn you Yixing! What kind of insult is that? But I follow his lead and launch into a diatribe in defense of female ity, frantically improvising along the way and borrowing much from the soliloquy that I've scripted for the later scene. I end my impassioned speech emphatically and break down into tears and collapse, to close the scene, because I'm at a lost at what else to do. We need to end this scene ASAP and regroup with Kyungsoo!

But the audience erupts into resounding applause and cheers when the curtain closes on us! What? They like it?

***

"What was that? It was BRILLANT! Trust two of you to rebel and do your own thing! The audience loved it! I love it! This is even better than what we first envisioned!" Kyungsoo exclaims as we regroup behind the closed stage while the rest of the crew shift the props to change scene. 

I ignore Kyungsoo's enthusiasm and launch at Yixing, ready to hit him, "Zhang Yixing! What was that!"

Yixing grabs my hands and stops me, "Wasn't this closer to the idea that you had first proposed? Now, because Petruchio forced himself on Kate, we set up an opportunity for Kate to lash out, which you've done so brilliantly by the way, she gets to lecture Petruchio and makes him see the light, rights his thinking. Petruchio learns from Kate and repents. Voila! Wasn't that what you proposed? That Kate leads Petruchio to the path of enlightenment?"

"Oh really! So you just decided midway onstage that my idea was better and therefore had to 'act out' a forced kiss on me? How convenient!" I shoot back.

"Ok, 10 more seconds folks!" Baekhyun signals to us to get back onstage.

"9, 8, 7..."

"Just follow my lead!" Yixing grabs me by my hand and we head out to stage again. "3, 2..." The curtain draws open again.

We act out the final scene, the feast scene with the rest of the cast according to what was scripted and rehearsed but now it's Petruchio's turn to speak again. My heart pounds. How is Yixing intending to spin the earlier scene into something that can give us a satisfying wrap-up now? And I was supposed to wrap up the play with my feminist soliloquy. I've already used much of it earlier, what can I say now? Think Bo, think!

Petruchio continues speaking. Oh...I see where this is going...Yixing is making Petruchio renounce his earlier ways! He's talking at length! He's swopping out Kate's soliloquy for Petruchio's! Hey, he's stealing my thunder! But I must admit, he's on a roll here! Everything he's saying is purely unrehearsed, how does he come up with lines just like that? His speech is even better than my previous spin earlier! And well, I gotta admit, Yixing is quite the actor. He just acted out a whole gamut of emotions there. From denial to uncertainty to his current broken repentant state and he sounds so convincingly repentant and so besotted with Kate. Oh, here he comes, walking towards me. I must get ready to react.

Yixing kneels before me and takes my hand, "Kate, sweet Kate. I am but a daw, enamoured for thee. Willst thou forgiveth me?" Petruchio's, Yixing's watery eyes look up into my eyes pleadingly. My heart races and I kneel down next to him and nod back. He's so convincing. I look at his sincere eyes and cannot help but feel moved. 

"Thou art mine and I am thine. I love thee, Kate. I love thine brite ebony eyes that sees unembelished, thine crimson lips that spew forth such wit, thy candour wrought thee, fell a-doting ... I adore thy true spirit. I love thee for what thee art." Yixing speaks gently to me and looks at me tenderly as he cups my face. Then he tilts his face towards me and kiss me. I melt into his gentle kiss and kiss back as the curtain closes in on us.