A Good Excuse

"Cut! Wen Rui, it's no good, you're still too wooden!"

A little noise of frustration slipped past Wen Rui's lips. Just mere inches away from him, Yu Siqing let out a quiet giggle.

"Sorry," he muttered, fighting the urge to run a hand through his hair because that was a bad habit he quickly realised he had to break if he wanted to remain in the good books of the stylists on set.

Yu Siqing shook her head with an understanding smile. "You're already doing very well for someone who isn't formally trained," she said encouragingly. He didn't miss the brightness of her eyes or the slight pink glow of her cheeks, which had nothing to do with her makeup for the scene. A teasing lilt sneaked into her words as she added, "Why not try reenacting your feelings from your first kiss?"

There was an element of tentative curiosity behind her suggestion. She wanted to find out what Wen Rui's relationship status was like.

But what was Wen Rui supposed to tell her? He didn't want to lead her on but a reply like 'I have never had a first kiss, oh and I'm married' would sound way too much like a rude brush-off.

Luckily, before he had to respond, Director Fu came over to pull Wen Rui aside with an expression that showed he was 'disappointed that iron didn't turn straight into steel' (1). Wen Rui gave Yu Siqing a weak grin before he let him get tugged away.

"Wen Rui ah," Director Fu said with the last vestiges of patience. He'd been very nurturing these couple of months. Perhaps it was because he felt guilty that he hadn't noticed his male lead getting bullied by his ex-female lead before things blew up or perhaps it was out of wariness for Zhou Ye's sudden involvement in the production, especially after all the rumours about the both of them. But Director Fu had been a lot keener to help Wen Rui improve in his acting and he'd become better by leaps and bounds in such a short period.

But the one thing Director Fu couldn't seem to be able to teach Wen Rui was how to act out a kiss. As per Wen Rui's strict contract, all intimate scenes above hugging—which really, only included chaste kisses because this was a high school drama—had to be completed through camera angles. This was in consideration of HEX4's countless 'girlfriend' fans and in a way, protection for his female co-star from any unwarranted vitriol. B

Since it was all going to be done through smoke and mirrors, with clever use of alignment and film technique, Wen Rui had expected it to go smoothly in one take.

Except…Director Fu had a problem with how 'dispassionate' Wen Rui appeared. Wen Rui couldn't understand it. He'd tried his best to follow the script directions and flavour it with his interpretation of Chen Wen's personality but this was where he was stumped by his blank slate.

Director Fu seemed equally stunned by how little experience Wen Rui had in this domain.

"You said you had a high school crush before."

Wen Rui nodded bleakly. "But Director, that was ages ago."

"…I don't get it, all the other romantic scenes you nailed like a suave motherf—" Director Fu cut himself off abruptly with an awkward cough. Wen Rui was used to all his truncated swearing. He seemed to have this peculiar effect on people, where they found it hard to let expletives fly comfortably in the presence of what they called his 'aristocratic face'.

"But I've never kissed anyone before," Wen Rui explained. Wen Rui could act like he was in love, he could pretend to go out with the girl he liked, he could even stand up righteously for her because these were all things he'd more or less experienced before.

But…kissing? Wen Rui didn't know if the older he had ever locked lips with anyone in the dark bowers of night clubs but for all intents and purposes, 18-year-old him had never even considered—

"Okay, but surely, you must have at least daydreamed about what it would be like kissing your crush in a moment of uncontrolled passion, right? Imagine, after a heady confession, just going in for the kill, pinning her against the wall of the fourth-floor stairwell after classroom cleaning duties—"

The sudden image of being cornered by Zhou Ye on the deserted rooftop stair-landing they used to argue on a lot flashed unbidden through Wen Rui's mind and he morphed from dignified ice-prince to the ripest tomato Director Fu had ever seen in less than a second.

Director Fu blinked before breaking out into a loud guffaw. "That's it, young man!" he said with a cheeky wink that looked very out of place on his severe middle-aged man's face. "Unleash the passion within!"

No, Director Fu was rather mistaken. If he knew that instead of kabedon-ing (2) the pretty girl, his male lead was currently entertaining the idea of being kabedon-ed himself, he might have an aneurysm on the spot. Wen Rui wisely decided not to correct him.

"H-How about we…um…Director Fu, would it be possible to reschedule this scene to tomorrow?" he pleaded.

This was the first time Wen Rui had ever made any request on set. Director Fu appeared reluctant but it didn't last for long and he finally acquiesced. Possibly because he remembered that any delays in the production would be footed by his new 'God of Fortune', insofar as he could reasonably justify it. Throwing Wen Rui's name out there was as good a justification as any when it came to Zhou Ye.

Sighing in relief, Wen Rui went to apologise to Yu Siqing too.

"I'll ruminate a bit more on it tonight," he promised. "Hopefully we'll get the scene over and done with tomorrow, I'm really sorry for the inconvenience."

Yu Siqing shook her head graciously. "Don't worry, every actor meets with a bottleneck now and then," she reassured. After a moment's deliberation, she asked, "…perhaps, I could assist you?"

Her lashes were lowered and for the first time Wen Rui could recall, she appeared too shy to meet his eyes.

He sighed inwardly and rubbed at the back of his neck as he struggled to come up with a response that would be firm but not hurtful. Yu Suqing was a good colleague and he could appreciate her both for her personality, which was fun, and her professionalism, which was admirable. But he couldn't reciprocate and that was that.

"I'm sorry," he said at last. "I—"—think I like someone.

The words lodged themselves in his throat but Yu Siqing must have heard the unspoken message because she gave him a small understanding smile. A hint of disappointment flickered over her face but that was all and Wen Rui felt his chest lighten with relief.

"It's okay," she said softly. "To be honest, I already guessed, you're not exactly subtle, you know." Her eyes crinkled as she sucked in a deep breath before letting it out in one big rush. "Phew! I just wanted to try my luck. You probably don't remember but you helped me out once before. I've had a crush on you ever since."

Wen Rui's glance turned apologetic. "I…" Not many people knew about the amnesia and it was safer like that. "I'm sorry," he repeated ineffectually, feeling a little pathetic.

She laughed. "Don't be, it was just a stupid thing, not worth remembering anyway." She winked at him and it looked far less creepy on her than it had on Director Fu. "Hope you'll work doubly hard tonight with whoever that special someone is."

Wen Rui opened his mouth to protest but nothing came out. This seemed to be happening to him a lot these days.

Later, in the Didi on the way home, her words rang in his head, persistent like a stubborn alarm that wouldn't shut up. Zhou Ye would be in the apartment tonight, he'd already texted Wen Rui about dinner earlier. It was nearly 9 pm but he would be waiting for Wen Rui to reach so that they could eat together. Wen Rui had tried telling him to go ahead first but after Zhou Ye had ignored him a couple of times, he'd slowly learnt to stop and just be grateful for the company.

Tonight wouldn't be any different, right?

He chewed on his lower lip, running his teeth lightly over the skin there that was always slightly dry no matter how much balm his frustrated stylists applied for him. It hadn't been all that long ago that he started suspecting that his feelings for Zhou Ye ran a little deeper beyond ex-love rival, current good xiongdi. And now Wen Rui was starting to get curious about what it would feel like to trace the thin line of Zhou Ye's mouth, always pressed into such an unimpressed flatness, with his own.

"Little brother, are you all right?" the chatty driver asked after he noticed how unresponsive Wen Rui had become. "Your face looks very red, are you unwell?"

Wen Rui shook his head. 'No, it's just a bit warm back here," he said. And then, in an inaudible mutter, he added, "And I think I might be a bit thirsty."