Early in the morning, Carl prepared breakfast for Nana with the help of the kitchen staff and left a gentle kiss on her forehead. “I’m off to work now. You stay home and rest,” he said.
Nana’s morning sickness had eased up a bit from the previous days, but she still felt uncomfortable. Slowly getting up from bed, she offered to accompany Carl downstairs.
Carl refused several times, not wanting her to strain herself. “Nana, you stay in bed and rest. I’ll go down by myself,” he insisted.
“It’s okay. I want to see you off.” Nana smiled lightly as she put on a coat and walked downstairs with Carl.
“Alright then, drive safely,” Nana said as she saw him off at the door.
Watching Carl leave, Nana pursed her lips unknowingly feeling more dependent on this man than before; time spent thinking about William was becoming less frequent.
But was this love?
Nana didn’t know for sure yet. Compared to her passionate relationship with William before, what she had with Carl seemed more like a steady stream of water flowing through time.
At work later that day after arriving at his company building, Carl was immediately approached by his agent who handed him an MV script for promoting his new song “One More Time”.
“I think it would be good if you could collaborate with this actress in it. Everything seems great about both production team and director”, said his agent while passing over an iPad containing basic information about the MV which included details of another female lead actor involved in it too.
“Who is this actress?” asked Carl raising an eyebrow.
“She’s a newcomer who just returned from abroad last week. We might need your help guiding her during filming.” His agent replied slowly.
As someone well-respected within their industry, Carl held no reservations towards working alongside newcomers or unknowns.
“Has she never acted before?” asked Carl again.
“Yes, she hasn’t acted before but is young and beautiful.” His agent replied slowly again, “She will be coming over soon so let me introduce you two beforehand.”
Carl nodded slightly, thinking it was a routine job and didn’t give it much thought.
A few minutes later, the agent received a call from the actress, “Carl, the person has arrived. I’ll go pick her up first.”
Carl sat quietly in his office, watching the plot of a music video to pass the time.
“Carl has a very good temper and a good reputation in the industry.”
Carl could clearly hear the agent introducing at the door, “Working with him this time, you can learn a lot.”
Outside the door, a familiar female voice could be heard saying, “Okay, I will definitely study hard with Carl and improve my acting skills.” As Carl listened to the woman’s voice, he had a sense of familiarity but couldn’t quite place where he had heard it before.
Knock knock knock.
A knocking sound came from the door and Carl spoke up, “Come in.”
“Carl, the actress is here. This is Grace, who will be playing the lead role in this music video,” said his agent as he introduced her.
When Carl saw Grace walk in, he was taken aback and furrowed his eyebrows slightly as he looked at her and asked, “Why are you here?”
Grace already knew that Carl would be playing opposite her in this music video; she arranged it herself. However, she still pretended to be surprised when she spoke up, “Carl! You’re going to play the male lead for this music video?”
As they conversed with each other, his agent finally realized that they might know each other already so he asked them curiously, “Carl? Grace? Do you guys know each other?”
Before Carl could even speak up, Grace interrupted him by saying, “Carl and I are neighbors; we grew up together since we were kids! It’s such fate that we get to work on this project together!”
“Right.” replied Carl while nodding his head slightly without saying anything else.
His agemt felt relieved after hearing what they said because now there wouldn’t have been any awkwardness between them during filming due to lack of chemistry or understanding.
“Why did you decide to enter showbiz?” asked an astonished Carl when seeing Grace there.
Grace gazed admiringly at him before replying softly, “It’s all because of you! I heard about how successful you’ve become as an actor overseas and I envied that so much; I wanted to follow your footsteps.”
In reality though she only entered showbiz just so she could get closer to him.
“Grace, being a female actress isn’t easy; it can be very tough especially for newcomers like yourself.” advised a concerned Carl trying his best to dissuade her from pursuing such career path.
However, despite what was said by him earlier on about how difficult things can get for actresses in showbiz industry, she smiled sweetly back at him indicating that nothing would stop her from achieving success like himself too someday, “I understand how tough it can get but Carl, I want shine bright just like you do!”
After listening intently towards what was being said by Grace, Carl didn’t have much more words left unsaid anymore. He simply nodded his head slightly once again without speaking another word further on regarding discouraging remarks towards entering showbiz industry.
“This time the company assigned me to shoot this music video, and I was worried about running into difficult actors. But I didn’t expect to meet you, Carl. I’ll definitely learn a lot from you,” Grace said innocently.
Carl’s lips curved into a slight smile as he replied, “Don’t worry too much. Just act according to your logic and ideas. If there are any scenes where we need to act together, I’ll remind you.”
At the moment, Carl still saw Grace as a neighbor’s little sister whom he wanted to help.
Thinking that Carl had feelings for her because of his kindness towards her, Grace stood affectionately next to him and said excitedly, “That’s great! If there is an opportunity for me to work with you on set again in the future, I will cherish it.”
Grace stayed close by Carl throughout their conversation while staring at him intently. His agent noticed something was off but thought that since they grew up together as childhood friends, maybe they just had a good relationship without any other intentions.
To break the awkward atmosphere, the agent handed the script to both of them, “Carl, Grace. This is the script for the shoot. Take a look; the plot is simple, a romantic-themed song. The most important thing is to convey the intense emotions between the two characters.”
Carl carefully read through the script while gaining an understanding of each character’s psyche.
Grace looked through the script hoping she could find some intimate moments with Carl where she could get closer with him during rehearsals.
“How should we portray these emotions? What if my acting isn’t good enough? Should we practice more?” asked Grace naively while looking at Carl.
“I can rehearse more with you and go over more scenes so that your emotions come across accurately,” replied Carl calmly as he treated her like any other new actor who needed guidance on set.
His agent watched silently from afar wondering if perhaps Grace had feelings for Carl even though he already had an engaged fiancé who was pregnant with his child.