Chapter 17 #2
“We’re good,” Sud says. “And I’m sorry, too, P’Arm.” He gives the wai.
“Things like this happen when two people work closely with each other. It’s best to get things out in the open before they fester and affect your work. Okay, if Mee Noi feels better, let’s talk about scene thirteen, love scene number one. Your first intense kissing scene.”
He talks us through the scene. I’m nervous, mainly because this scene could make or break us.
Sud and I may have been able to manage a simple kiss during the audition, but something more passionate?
I’m not sure if I can do it, and the reason isn’t because it’s Sud I have to kiss or even that he’s a man—It’s something else entirely.
“Nong Mee Noi?”
I turn my attention to P’Arm, who is watching me.
“Is something wrong?”
I glance at Sud.
I have two choices: admit my fears or try to fake it.
This is too important to Sud to try to fake your way through.
My cheeks heat as I look down at the floor rather than at P’Arm and stammer out, “I’m not…I mean, I don’t…I don’t exactly have any experience with, uh, with passion.”
When I drum up the courage to peer up at P’Arm, he’s smiling kindly.
“Believe it or not, most young actors I work with don’t.
Consider this, though: your character doesn’t have experience, either.
That means you’ve already got a leg up. I’ll tell you a secret.
” He moves closer to me with a conspiratorial air.
“Your lack of experience is one of the things that impressed the execs when they viewed your audition video. Your innocence in that first kiss. It was like it was your first.”
If he only knew.
P’Arm pats my back, and then his kind tone changes to all business. “All right. You two have a seat on the floor, and I’ll go over there and sit while you go through the scene.” P’Arm walks over to the sofa and sits.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Sud asks me. “What about your head?”
“I’m fine.”
Sud looks like he wants to argue, but since he just promised he’s going to treat me like an adult, he has to stay quiet.
Late at night, after I’ve finished studying for school, I’ve been reading about acting and systematically taking notes on how I want to approach certain scenes.
I’ve decided to use aspects of method acting—the technique P’Prapha taught me the day I broke down in the workshop—essentially tapping into my own emotion and experience.
Despite Sud telling me that I didn’t have to do something that drastic to prepare for a scene, I found the technique worked well, and I plan to practice and use it for the moment when Train breaks down as well as for any time my character needs to become particularly emotional about something.
I’ve also noted different ways that actors relax and prepare for scenes. My hope is that by the time we begin filming, I’ll have a technique down that works for me.
Since my character is a lot like me, in that he’s a relatively shy student at university with a best friend he’s very close to, I find it relatively easy to sink into the character.
I do think that Train is braver than I am, and I find it kind of fun to play out scenarios where he reacts much more boldly than I would dare to act.
Sud grabs a couple of pillows off the couch and tosses them to the floor.
Scripts in hand, we lower ourselves to sit on them, facing one another.
In the scene, Sound and Train are in Train’s dorm room.
It begins with us standing, and, eventually, we wind up on the bed.
From reading the novel as well as the script, I feel that at this point, my character is longing for Sound.
Although they’ve admitted their feelings, they’ve been dancing around getting physical for a long time at this point in their story, and I imagine there is a lot of sexual tension built up.
We run through our lines several times before P’Arm announces we’re going onto one of the sets with a bed to block out the scene.
I thought we’d run through the movements a few times before trying it with dialogue, but it’s more like a dozen.
When we finally do add the dialogue, I see why: it’s a hundred times more difficult.
Without being comfortable getting from one place to another, it would be impossible to concentrate on our lines.
P’Arm moves around us, giving us pointers as we go. There are snags to work out and then more practicing.
Eventually, the scene runs more smoothly, and this time when we start from the beginning, I’m able to forget about the logistics and sink further into my character.
When we get to the part where Sound sits on Train’s bed and pulls Train down on top of him, I’m fully immersed—my character nervous but excited and full of yearning to become as close to Sound as I can get.
Staring down at Sound, Train balances with one hand on the mattress and the other on Sound’s chest, a gasp escaping his throat at the burning look in Sound’s eyes.
Sound’s hand shakes slightly as it comes to rest on the nape of Train’s neck, his palm warm and dry on Train’s overly sensitized skin.
Tingles run down Train’s body as Sound uses his other hand to unbutton Train’s shirt.
When it’s fully open, exposing Train’s chest, Sound runs his hand from Train’s waist to his pec, pausing to drag his thumb across an exposed nipple.
His focus zeroes in on Train’s mouth, sending every nerve in Train’s body on red alert.
Sound’s heartbeat flutters under Train’s palm.
Train can’t wait any longer, the need to feel Sound’s lips against his own more important than anything else.
Making a dive for Sound’s mouth, he meets him in a fierce kiss.
“Stop,” P’Arm interrupts. “Mee Noi, angle your face this way.” He physically repositions my face.
“Slow motion, move toward the kiss…that’s it, now stop.
Sud, Mee Noi’s bottom lip needs to be between your lips when your mouths meet.
Try it. That’s it. But the kiss is hard and filled with yearning. Start again from Mee Noi’s line.”
Making a dive for Sound’s mouth, Train meets him in a fierce kiss.
Sound flips Train over, so Train is lying on his back with Sound now crouching over him.
Train bends his knees, encasing Sound between them, his hands clutching Sound’s shirt, wanting it off.
The hard planes of Sound’s abdominals brush against his hands as he slides the material toward Sound’s armpits.
The feel of Sound’s lips nipping and sucking Train’s is heady and so, so good.
Train wants to feel skin on skin. He needs it.
I have become Train. But somewhere in the back of my mind, I’m very aware that the person I’m touching is Sud. That it’s Sud’s warm skin I’m stroking, Sud’s soft lips caressing mine, his hands on my body.
“Stop,” P’Arm calls, and bubble pops, breaking me out of character. I blink, staring up at Sud as he pulls away from me, the warmth of his body gone. My fingers trembling, I hurry to rebutton my shirt. I’m surprised at how hard I’m breathing.
“Good, good,” P’Arm says. He’s looking at his iPad, and it’s only then that I realize he’s been using it to film us. Rolling onto my stomach, I close my eyes a moment, willing my body’s response to the scene to go away.
“Noi?” Sud sounds concerned.
“Yeah, I-I just need a minute,” I say.
“I get it. That was intense.”
I lie there, waiting for my heart to slow down and the semi-erection in my pants to subside.
After five minutes or so, P’Arm calls us over to sit on each side of him as he plays the footage back.
My cheeks have got to be scarlet with embarrassment.
Is that really me attacking Sud like that?
Is that really us kissing each other like…
like lovers? I watch my hand move lower on Sud’s hip. I don’t even recall doing it.
The camera is still rolling when P’Arm calls an end to the scene, and when Sud moves off me, I look utterly debauched before the screen goes black.
Automatically, my hands go to my hot cheeks, pressing into them as I close my eyes, hiding from the two men sitting beside me.
“That was excellent for a first love scene!” P’Arm says, standing. “You can be proud of yourselves.”
I open my eyes. I don’t know whether it makes me feel better or worse that Sud looks as embarrassed as I feel.
“Are you sure you two haven’t done that before?” P’Arm teases us. “Well, I think we can call it a night. You’ve done exceptional work. I’m very pleased. I’m going to show this footage to Khun Intapong in the morning and tell her that I believe you are ready to film this scene for the trailer.”
I am so eager to get out of there, I just nod at everything P’Arm says.
Sud and I are quiet on the elevator ride down to the lobby. Once outside in the fresh night air, I pull a deep breath into my lungs and release it slowly.
“That was…different,” Sud says, leaning against the side of his car.
I go to stand beside him.
“Yeah. Never imagined doing that when we were growing up together.”
Sud chuckles, triggering a bout of nervous giggles from me, and, for a moment, we just stand there and laugh, letting the nervous tension of the last few hours bleed away.
Sud unlocks the car doors with the key fob. “I think we deserve a treat. Ice cream?”
Grinning, I say, “You know I never turn down ice cream.”
When we’re in the car and leaving the parking lot, Sud asks, “Is your head okay?”
“There’s only a dull ache,” I assure him.
“What about the lump?”
Gingerly, I feel the back of my head. “It’s gone down.”
“I really am sorry.”
“I know. But right now, I just want to eat ice cream with my best friend and relax for a while. Is that okay with you?”
“That sounds great,” Sud says, grinning.
Sud drives us to the riverwalk where we buy ice cream from a vendor and take a walk in the warm May night.