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It was, at least to Nene before the incident, a silly superstition. But when an understudy had been asked—for some ungodly reason—what his underwear brand was, his answer came with the swiftness and suddenness of a guillotine blade being dropped: “Macbeth.”
That had been a little over a week ago, and everyone who’d been in the room during dress rehearsal stopped whatever they were doing to stare at him in acute horror. The understudy immediately realized what he said and stood in place for a moment before leaving due to an “upset stomach.”
For the first three days, nothing happened, though everyone on the team treaded carefully, hyperaware of every creaky floorboard and faulty stagelight. Nene was about to forget what happened, since she was never the overtly superstitious type, when, on every following day, members of the production team began to fall. One. By. One.
On the fourth day: the lead choreographer slipped on an overly-waxed spot on the floor and rolled her ankle.
On the fifth day: a good majority of members in the sound and lighting departments—including a few cast members in the ensemble—fell sick with food poisoning at the nearby Panda Express from an undercooked batch of orange chicken.
On the sixth day: the assistant director had been suddenly divorced by her wife and was busy with court preparations.
And, what seemed like the end of the show on the seventh day: Nene’s co-star got into a car crash on the way to the final dress rehearsal. He sustained only minor injuries, but needed to remain in the hospital to recover. Shortly after this, his understudy—who’d been the one to say that accursed word—arrived at the theater… only to have a stagelight fall right on his foot.
So much for Nene’s first professional production in America.
Now, the remaining crew and cast members were left nearly directionless and scrambling—and very, very cautious. As much as everyone wished and prayed to possibly reschedule the show to a later date, the tickets were all sold out, and cancelling now would be too costly and cause outrage.
Nene paced in a circle backstage, waiting for the replacement to start their quick, last-minute rehearsal. Luckily enough, they found an actor who knew the play and role by heart, and could learn it within time. While he was being flown in to LA, Nene could only hope that he could keep up. If they couldn’t develop their stage chemistry within an hour, then the play was ultimately screwed.
She didn’t know much of him except a few bits of information she got from the gossip train. Apparently, he was a popular director—which should have been Nene’s first warning—who’d sometimes act in his own shows. Somewhat of an up-and-coming Lin-Manuel Miranda. Nene hoped to God it was, but that was too wishful thinking when everything was going to shit.
“Ah! Kusanagi, there you are!” her stage manager called.
“Is everything alright?” Nene asked, squeezing her folded hands.
“Yes, yes… Mostly, yes. The swings finally covered the missing ensemble track. Oh, and the replacement just arrived, he should be—”
First were the footsteps before Nene turned her head. The second sign should have been his garish attire, but before Nene could make out who it was, his voice did enough to tell her everything. “Nene?”
Rui Kamishiro.
The bastard. That damn bastard.
It’d been a long time since she last saw him, when WxS had to split ways once Rui and Tsukasa graduated from high school. When he told her they couldn’t be together anymore, afraid their relationship would distract him from his studies. It’d also been a long time since Nene gave a single flying fuck about him. She spent a year crying herself to sleep and eating a constant supply of ice cream, while Emu consoled her. The two never planned to tell Tsukasa, not wanting him to worry either. Who knew what hell he’d unleash upon Rui, too.
She stared at him as if he were a cockroach she had just stepped on. She could be petty and act confused and ask him what his name was and have we met before—oh, right! But she settled for, “Oh. Rui.”
“Great, you two already know each other! That should make things easier.” The stage manager, bless her heart, smiled brightly—unknown to the hidden tension between the two. “Follow me to the stage—huh?” She furrowed her brows, something being said into her earpiece. “Excuse me, I’m needed elsewhere. Nene, show him the way, yeah?”
Nene nodded hesitantly and gestured to the side. “This way…”
As the pair walked to the stage, the awkwardness was almost suffocating. Around them, cast members could be heard doing vocal warm-ups, and footsteps scurried all around the area. Nene pointedly didn’t look in his direction and continued walking. She could handle this, right? Rui would be acting alongside her throughout less than half of the musical. And by then she’d have to k—eugh—ki—save me—kiss him.
Fine. It would be fine, just fine.
Once they reached the stage, Rui stood to the side, smiling ever so politely. Nene wanted to wipe that shit-eating grin off his face. “Should we perhaps… You know, address the elephant in the room?” he asked.
“I’m staring at it right now,” Nene answered, rolling her eyes.
“Nene—”
“Let’s focus on acting, okay? We have an hour and a half until the people start walking through those doors, so forgive me if I don’t want this to be a total disaster.”
Rui dropped the smile. “Alright, then.”
The two quickly went through the scenes, focusing more on placements as Rui got a feel for the stage. It was quite funny, the two of them moving and speaking in fast forward from spot to spot and line by line, almost like before—get a hold of yourself, woman!
She shouldn’t—wouldn’t be hung up over a break-up that happened, what? Nearly a decade ago? Not like she was keeping track anyway.
What she hated the most, though, was how he would reach out for her whenever she half-slipped. She mentally swore to get the person who waxed the floors fired soon.
The stage manager arrived about thirty minutes later, and Rui had quickly memorized his blocking. “Oh, wow, okay, um. Looks like you two are well-prepped.Let’s run a few scenes, just to get a feel?”
Rui resumed his earlier smile. “Should be fine.”
Nene huffed and said, “Surely we don’t have to, right?”
“Nene, I am running on three cups of coffee and two hours of sleep, please, please don’t fight me on this.” Though she was smiling, her eye twitched, and Nene reluctantly agreed. “Great! Let’s go over the major scenes. Let’s try the first meeting between Abigail and Duke in the garden.”
Rui went into character and winked at Nene. “Well, it seems like I caught you at the right time.”
Nene rolled her eyes, taking a breath before she sat on a prop bench. “Can’t you leave me alone? You’ve already fucked up enough.”
He sat next to her as the instrumentals began. He hummed a soft melody before singing in spoken word. “Don’t you think… that we’re a little better than this? Fighting like kids.”
“What I think… is that you should go and leave me alone,” Nene continued, standing up to meet him and pointing a finger at his chest. It was just Nene’s luck that the whole musical revolved around an ex-couple who got back together by the end.
Once the song concluded, their stage manager put her palms together, ecstatic. “Yes! Oh, we are so back! Okay, okay. Um. Before anything else, we have to—” Her earpiece buzzed again, and her smile cracked as she nearly snapped the clipboard she was holding in half. “I. Will be. Back.”
Rui leaned against a prop streetlight as she stormed off. “Now, what?”
“You shut up and wait for instruction.” She crossed her arms and looked away. Approaching the curtains, she pulled one slightly away and peered at the empty seats, anxiety beginning to curdle within her. What if a damned stagelight fell on her in front of… all of those people. Or her voice cracked during a rift. So many things could go wrong, and she was on the brink of losing it because of a certain man—
“We should talk, Nene. Before it affects our performance,” Rui said, now standing a few feet behind her.
Nene cursed under her breath, dropping the curtain. “About what? We did fine enough.”
“Well, first of all, your eyes couldn’t focus on me. Second, you would scoot away or step back whenever I was near.”
She never noticed any of that, but who could blame her? It was his fault she felt like this to begin with.
Was it so wrong to hate the same man who broke your heart? How could she even trust him not to do so again, when all of these conflicting feelings warred inside her? She hated him now, sure. But that never meant she never loved him. Nor did it mean that love ever completely went away.
“So? You’re also jittery.” She scoffed and looked at the wings, hoping the stage manager could return. “I couldn’t care less about what you think of me.”
That wasn’t true, and she knew that.
Rui stepped closer. Nene didn’t look at him, but she could see him in the corner of her eyes, at the faint lines on his face. They were so much older now, unlike the inseparable kids in a boundless fantasy. Maybe the girl she used to be then would wish for something like this, but now… She didn’t know what to think.
He took a breath, held it, and exhaled. “I don’t expect you to forgive me, Nene. I figure it’s time I told you the truth.”
The truth? What truth? That he selfishly broke her heart and never looked back? Left her crying to pick up the pieces? There was nothing left to say; the story had concluded long ago. The curtains closed on their relationship, so why, now, did she want to hear him out?
“I feel like a hypocrite saying this, but…” He scratched his sleeve. “I once believed that in order for you to grow as your own person, I had to end things. That our relationship would distract you. That I was holding you back from seeing yourself truly. And I knew that you’d try to fight back, so I gave you no reason to want to return.
“I thought that if you hated me, moving forward would be easier than looking back.” He laughed without humor, squeezing his sleeve tighter. Finding the courage to look at his face, he seemed so genuinely regretful that it pained her, too, to see him like this. He grimaced. “I kept telling myself I was doing it for you. But the truth is… I never asked what you wanted. I decided your future on my own. I’m sorry. I don’t know if there’s anything I can do to make up for all of these years.”
Nene gulped, gaze dropping to the floor, afraid she’d burn if she stared at him too long. She wanted to slap him for being so stupid, then slap herself for not realizing this sooner. She could see directly through him now, how her remembered Rui never left, not really.
So, she steeled herself and stepped up to meet him, extending a hand for him to take. “If you want to make up for it, then make this a good performance. Promise me that much.”
Nene wasn’t sure if she could forgive him so easily, but this was enough to make her dip her toes into the pool, testing the waters. At the end of the day, they were here to deliver to the audience. Just for now, she’d allow him back into her heart again.
He took her hand and squeezed, grinning. “I promise, Nene.”
♫彡*:･ﾟ✧
The play was nearing its end, and it was time for the final scene—the kiss.
After Abigail realizes Duke never cheated on her, and her current boyfriend, who’d been jealous of Duke, was the one behind the misunderstanding, she ran out in the rain, rushing to catch Duke before his flight took off.
She reached the airport, where Duke stood in the parking lot of LAX. He decided that if she would never forgive him, even if it never happened, it would be best for him to leave and wish the best for her. But Abigail stopped him before he could leave.
Now the two stood out in the cool, humid air, holding each other close. Close enough to feel the other’s heartbeat, to the soft sounds of their breath.
Without hesitation, she leaned in and kissed him, almost voraciously. And incredibly, incredibly needy. She tried to reach for his waist and instead grabbed his ass. Trying to rectify her mistake, she pulled her hands away, but Rui grabbed her hands and placed them back. Unsurprisingly, the crowd went absolutely wild.
She pulled away slightly and subtly mouthed the words, so her mic wouldn’t pick it up, “I hate you. So much.”
“I love you, too, Nene. Does this make up for everything, now?”
“Just shut up and kiss me.” She leaned in again for a double-tap, and Rui let her claim him entirely.