Kill the Lights

Kill the Lights by Jangryang

“Haaaaaah-….”

After Mason let out a long yawn, blinking at a heavily trafficked road, Tony asked, “Did you drink a lot yesterday?” Mason scratched his cheek.

“If only I had consumed the alcohol…”

If they behaved like that under the influence of alcohol, it would have been fine. But what happened was, both sides were completely sober and so it was more uncomfortable. Well, on one hand he tried to convince himself, ‘it can happen, it’s only human’. But whatever he told himself, it felt like he would only think of last night if he saw Noah’s face again.

“No, we might not see each other again.”

Well, they don’t have to worry about meeting each other in their relationship. Hearing him murmur Tony asked, “What? See what?” and Mason shook his head.

“It’s nothing. –Ah, but aren’t we late?”

‘I heard the filming starts at 9:00 AM’. –Mason asked staring at the clock, which already showed 8:52 AM and Tony replied while looking at the heavily trafficked road.

“I think we’ll be a few minutes late… I don’t know if anyone would arrive at 9 AM sharp. Didn’t they all get drunk last night?”

‘Did the director even wake up?’ Tony asked suspiciously, and Mason was now worried about whether Vick got back home safe last night.

Since he was not a pretty girl, nothing would have happened if he fell asleep outside. But yesterday, he had shoved him into the elevator just to save Noah and pressed whatever floor b.u.t.ton and had sent him away.

‘Oh well, an investor is more important than the director, you know’. Mason murmured an excuse to himself and as if on perfect timing, Mason’s phone beeped. It was Vick, one of the not so many people saved in his cellphone that Tony had bought him last week.

[Where is this place?]

Mason typed a reply [How should I know?]. Beep, beep. The reply came soon.

[You threw me away yesterday, didn’t you?]

[I think you were dreaming].

At Mason’s insincere reply, the other side went quiet for a while. But another reply arrived [I dreamt about you slapping my cheek saying that I can’t pee here.]

“-….”

Mason kept his mouth closed for a short while and stared at that message. He then turned off the phone screen and put it inside his pocket. More beeps came from his pocket indicating a new message, but he pretended not to hear it.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“….It’s nothing. There is something that might get me fired from the movie.”

No way are they going to fire him just for that, but since he didn’t know for sure, he told Tony and Tony trembled, “What?”

“Did you cause any trouble?”

“It really is nothing. You don’t call it a trouble for throwing the director into an elevator, do you?”

‘What did they consider it around here?’ Mason mumbled, wondering about the Hollywood life that he had not been privy to. Tony asked in a surprised voice, “You threw the director into the elevator? Vick?”

“How… Why did you do that, Liz?”

“…. That… He was trying to pee in public.”

Mason replied briefly. Tony said, “Uht…,” and closed his mouth. His face was like, ‘Really? Then you can’t do much about it,’ but then he said, “Still…” and clicked his tongue.

Around 9:20 AM, after pa.s.sing through the heavily trafficked roads, they finally glimpsed at the entrance to the movie set.

“….Uh? Why are there so many people?”

Tony turned slightly at the wheel; his facial expression said there must be some kind of a mistake. And the clamoring people, who were standing in front of the movie set’s entrance, all turned to look their way. All of a sudden, every camera started to flash like crazy.

“Haley! Haley!”

“Tell us one thing! Haley? Haley!”

“What were you thinking, doing that? Were you drunk? Or was it cocaine this time too?”

People pushed their cameras into their faces, flashing out of control, and shoved their microphones. Mason fumbled and took out a pair of sungla.s.ses from the car’s glove box and put them on. Even if he wore the sungla.s.ses, the flashes were still too bright and left traces in his eyes. Tony asked in a scared voice

“Li, Liz, what have you done yesterday…?”

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It"s not "like a date," but "it is a date."