Act

Chen An let out a shaky breath after closing the door to the principal's office behind her. She could still feel the weight of the principal's fountain pen in her hand, one so heavy it caused each character of her name to bleed as she signed the contract.

It was a simple agreement on paper. She was to help Li Jun Jie with his studies, give him notes when he missed class for his doctor's appointments, pair up with him when they had group projects. Those things were all easy, things she was used to doing for the other students that fell behind in class.

Most difficult of all was that she had to be his friend. Li Jun Jie had never had many friends. It was not to say that no one tried; in fact, he was quite popular. Everything was set up in his favor for him to be the talk of Jinling High School: he had grown up to be rather handsome, his parents were influential businesspeople, he was seemingly good at everything.

Several girls in their class found his mysterious aura quite charming and tried to sit next to him in class. But, Li Jun Jie never said more than five words to them at a time, and his standoffish attitude eventually drove them away. His tall height and top performance in the school's fitness exam made many of the boys ask him to join their teams for soccer or basketball. But, Li Jun Jie preferred to spend his free time alone in the art room.

After some time, the students came to accept that Li Jun Jie was a loner by choice. Occasionally, a brave soul would volunteer themselves to approach him, but without fail, each and every one would give up after they grew disinterested in his emotionless personality.

Mrs. Li knew that her son would refuse help from anyone, especially if his parents had a part in arranging it, and pleaded Chen An to keep their agreement a secret. Chen An would have to help him without him finding out. In other words, she would have to do these things convincingly out of her own willingness; she would have to befriend him. Or, and she determined this was the only way to go about things, at the very least pretend to be his friend.

But, Chen An was a terrible actor.

In the ninth grade, all of the students were required to take a theatre course and put on a production of Butterfly Lovers at the end of the semester. As fate would have it, Chen An and Li Jun Jie were assigned to the same group.

Chen An had planned to arrange the musical score for this project and keep her distance away from any form of acting, but their eccentric theatre teacher Ms. Yuan threatened to fail everyone who didn't participate, no matter how big or small their role was.

Their group sat in a circle on the floor of the auditorium, and Chen An busied herself flipping through the script disinterestedly. The story was one they had all read before, about a girl who dressed as a boy to study in Hangzhou and the boy who fell in love with her. It was the kind of story her mother had liked, and Chen An wondered if it was part of the reason she had chosen to study at Zhejiang University, but Chen An found these stories utterly pointless.

A boy, nicknamed Little Piggy for the one time he ate ten servings worth of ham in the school's cafeteria at lunch, decided to elect himself to the role of leader. "How about we all try the main roles and see who is the best?"

The group nodded, and Little Piggy paired them up for the unofficial audition. His eyes drifted to the last three students in the circle. "And Yao Yao..."

Su Lin Yao was known to be the prettiest girl in their grade, with a face like a doll's and doe eyes that shone brilliantly like pearls. And it was painfully obvious that Little Piggy had a crush on her.

He looked toward Li Jun Jie, the last unpaired boy in the group. By this time, Li Jun Jie had already begun to grow taller, and girls, even those in the higher grades, would whisper to each other when he walked by.

"Will be paired with me," Little Piggy finished. "And Li Jun Jie and Chen An will be together."

Su Lin Yao began to protest, but Li Jun Jie had already taken Chen An's copy of the script and left for the hallway to practice. Chen An had no choice but to follow him, and the two sat in the empty staircase behind the auditorium.

Chen An squinted at the words on the page and began to recite her lines awkwardly. "From now on... we two will be separated... and be very far away from one another."

Li Jun Jie remained silent, and Chen An raised her head from the script, almost offended at his lack of response. His mouth was pressed in a thin line to hold back a laugh, and Chen An swore she could see tears forming in the corners of his eyes. There was no way she could be that bad at acting. Oh, but Li Jun Jie was so much worse.

"Dear, you have already accompanied me past our studies," Li Jun Jie began to read loudly like a true thespian, his voice echoing off of the walls of the stairway.

Afraid of attracting attention, Chen An rushed to shush him, pressing a hand over his mouth.

Despite her efforts, Li Jun Jie's muffled voice continued to resound through the air, which seemed to vibrate with his booming words. "The butterflies by the building are clinging to one another."

The faint sound of chatter and approaching footsteps startled Chen An, and she attempted to quiet Li Jun Jie with both of her hands, her eyes gesturing frantically to the open door.

Li Jun Jie pulled her hands slowly from his mouth. Chen An was suddenly aware of their closeness, the warmth of his hand on hers, his hot breath fanning over her skin. The noise outside reached a crescendo and began to diminish down the opposite end of the hallway.

Li Jun Jie's voice was now a whisper. "Oh, butterflies, you stay together in pairs. I have to be alone on my way. Three years of deep affection now vanish."

Chen An could see copper streaks that caught the light in the eyes that stared at her under long eyelashes. Her breath stuck in her throat when Li Jun Jie leaned even closer than she imagined was possible. "It's your line now, An An."

Finally, her thoughts came back to her, and she pushed Li Jun Jie away a little too harshly, fumbling through the pages to find her place.

Just then, everyone was called back to the auditorium.

When they arrived, Su Lin Yao sat with her arms crossed a distance away from a defeated-looking Little Piggy. "Yao Yao mentioned that it will probably be good idea to have some impartial people judge the audition. Since I am the group leader, I will volunteer myself. Is anyone else interested?"

Chen An immediately raised her hand, relieved at saving herself the mortification of acting in front of her classmates. Li Jun Jie was paired with the now-cheerful Su Lin Yao, and the two stood before Chen An.

"Action!" Little Piggy called, suddenly immersed in his fake director role.

Su Lin Yao raised a hand to Li Jun Jie's face. He tried to dodge her touch, and her hand instead fell to his shoulder. "From now on, we two will be separated and be very far away from one another." Her voice flowed melodiously through the air, and her fingers caressed his arm as if unwilling to let go of a forlorn lover. The other students leaned forward in their seats as if watching a television drama unfold in real life.

Li Jun Jie brought his hand to hers on his arm, appearing for a moment to be acting seriously, but quickly brushed it away. "Dear... you have already... accompanied me... past our studies."

Chen An's face flushed, and she could feel anger and embarrassment boiling in her chest. Though the other students were none the wiser, she was keenly aware of his attempt to mimic her.

The other students began to snicker as Li Jun Jie continued about his robotic performance, ending with a dramatic flourish. Su Lin Yao could only gawk at him in disbelief, and from her periphery, Chen An could see Little Piggy relax beside her.

Eventually, the roles for the play were distributed. Su Lin Yao was unanimously chosen to be the female lead, and another boy who put on a half-decent performance was her partner. Chen An and Li Jun Jie were assigned to be the two butterflies that flapped about in the background with no lines at all.

After that horrific experience, Chen An had never tried her hand at acting ever again until now. And this time, she had to put on a convincing show. But since the ninth grade, she had performed nearly a hundred times in orchestras and as a soloist to a point of near perfection. This little thing was definitely something she could handle. Chen An nodded to herself in falsely attributed determination.

Walking away from the principal's office, she began to prepare for the several month long performance she was about to undertake.