?June pursed his lips as he waited for Director Nana to get to where they were standing.
She had shouted "cut" several times now, yet it seemed like Arin and June still didn't know how to act out the scene.
"What is going on with the two of you?" Director Nana asked, sounding disappointed.
"Our filmings had always been smooth since the start, so why the sudden change? I thought you would be more comfortable with each other now."
"Sorry, Director," June apologized.
Arin, too, bowed her head in shame as an apology.
"I know your guys' potential, so I won't hold this against you. Maybe this is just a bad day...or maybe you're not used to filming such scenes?"
June enthusiastically nodded.
"I see," Nana sighed. "Well, it wouldn't be strange since it's your first time acting. However, Arin, you've been in plenty of short romance dramas before."
Arin placed her hand behind her neck, feeling shy.
"Sorry, Director. I'll work harder."
Nana sighed and nodded. "Alright, let's take ten for now. I say, go over the script and think of how to channel these feelings. The first part is already great. However, you can't act awkward all throughout the scene."
"You've been acting as rivals since the beginning of the show, so you should do justice to the romantic parts. The fans will surely appreciate it if you nail this performance."
June and Arin nodded in agreement.
"Alright! Let's take ten, everybody," Director Nana shouted.
The crew members dispersed for a while, getting a cup of coffee or chattering with their friends to make use of the ten-minute break.
June turned to Arin so they could talk about breaking down the awkwardness between them, but she was already gone in the blink of an eye.
June sighed before walking over to where Jay was. The manager had an amused smile on his face, causing June to shake his head.
"Well, you look happy despite my failures," June pointed out.
"It's nice to see you fail sometimes," Jay said. "I felt like something was wrong during the past shoots, but I get it now. It was too perfect! It's unlike you to have great circumstances all the time."
June sat beside him.
"I honestly don't know how to portray this scene," he confessed.
"Just do what you've been doing from the start. Channel your inner experiences. Have you never asked someone out before?"
June pursed his lips.
He came close to….once in his life.
However, he quickly shook his head at the distant memory.
"Figures," Jay said. "That's why the scene was so awkward then. You don't know how to portray it."
June nodded.
"Well, do you have someone in mind right now—someone you want to ask out on a date? It's not that I'm encouraging you to have these thoughts. Mr. Ong will kill me if he finds out you're dating someone so early into your career…"
"I don't," June said, cutting Jay's rant off.
"Well, that's good," Jay sighed in relief. "Wait, that's not good at all…How would you be able to channel these feelings then?"
June didn't respond since he also didn't know what to do.
They were silent for a couple of seconds until Jay clapped, standing from his seat.
June looked at him with furrowed eyebrows. "What?" June asked.
Jay smirked, feeling proud that he had come up with a genius idea. He gestured for June to come closer, but the latter hesitated to do so.
Honestly, he didn't know if listening to Jay, someone who had the worst luck in dating, would be a wise choice.
"No offense, but I don't trust you when it comes to love," June said.
Jay rolled his eyes and continued gesturing for him to come closer.
"I'll pretend I didn't hear that. At least I got some experience under my belt!" he boasted.
"Now, do you want to listen to my suggestion?"
June shrugged and stood. He felt like he didn't have any choice anyway.
Jay smiled before making his suggestion.
June raised his eyebrows in surprise.
It actually wasn't so bad.
***
There were still five minutes left into their break, so June decided to look for Arin to test out Jay's suggestion. He had a hard time finding her in the sea of staff members, but fortunately, he finally saw her sitting on the covered part of the rooftop.
June observed her as she talked with herself. It seemed like she had plenty of frustrations as she continued talking to the air.
June shook his head, amused, as he walked to where she was.
"Have you gone crazy or something?" June asked.
"Ah, I'm crazy!" Arin exclaimed, startled by June's sudden appearance.
She felt her heart race and her cheeks redden once more. She cursed in her mind as she looked into his teasing eyes.
Arin was only able to calm herself down a couple of moments ago, yet here June was to shake her up again!
"What are you doing here?" Arin asked, feigning a disappointed tone to hide her true feelings.
"Can't we talk?"
"Talk about what?" Arin asked, feeling nervous.
Perhaps talk about their relationship?
"Talk about the scene, of course," June obviously said, shattering Arin's fantasies.
"Right," Arin cleared her throat."What do we even have to talk about? Let's just stop acting awkward with each other."
"How can we do that when you can't even look into my eyes?" June asked.
Arin clicked her tongue, not wanting to let go of her pride.
"Of course I can," she confidently said, finally facing June to look him in the eyes.
Meanwhile, at that very moment, June tested Jay's suggestion. Surprisingly, it actually worked pretty well! He didn't feel awkward looking into her eyes anymore, and he felt like he could actually do the prompts on his script!
However, their eye contact was quickly broken when Arin pushed June away.
"You're too close!" she exclaimed, sounding breathless.
June thought for a couple of seconds. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that Arin must still hate him.
It was the opposite, actually.
Why would she be acting so hostile, then?
Because she felt like she was going crazy.
Yeah, she definitely hates him! June felt proud for coming to the conclusion. He couldn't read people's feelings too well, but now, he felt like a mind reader!
He still wasn't good at gauging other people's feelings.
June wanted to film an excellent scene for the readers of 'Hate To Love You,' so he went through his user interface to find something that could help him.
That's when he saw it—a glowing red dot in his inventory.
The Love Potion.
