Experiment

The first reasons for the experiment start on a humid day in Bangkok while Singto's crammed onto a small and uncomfortable stool next to a bladeless fan that's barely doing anything to cool the room.

His team is scheduled to shoot some photography for an ad campaign. It's hectic in the rented studio space because the company before them has run overtime in their booking, leaving his crew displaced and trying to set up their equipment and wardrobe while the overlap in time slots makes things crowded.

Singto has his phone a few inches from his face, making use of the unexpected free time to read through the character synopsis and rough draft script for a new role he's signed on for.

In the beginning stages of the contract, he'd jumped on the brand-new acting opportunity for more work in the industry.

And, ok. Singto had acknowledged early on that this type of plot was – like so many other shows on television – chock full of messy relationship drama that viewers ate right up. And of course, that meant, at some point, his character would have a sex scene.

So, look... Singto is a professional and he's gaining a reputation for always keeping a cool head while filming. But sitting here in a stuffy studio, reading the sordid tiny text of a scripted scene off his phone preview, he's swiftly and bluntly confronted with the knowledge that he will, in fact, be required to act this out.

Oh no.

*

The shoot wraps several hours later and Singto's picking at the meal he's ordered, huffing while his manager P'Jane is laughing as he reads through the scene of that script.

"Now you see?" Singto cracks a genuine smile, glad that the other man is finding humor in it.

"Yes I do see!" P'Jane finishes his chuckling and sets the borrowed smart device down on the table.

"This is going to be a mess." Singto's laugh turns into a sigh of self belittlement and he runs a hand through his short black hair, scrunching his nose. "Ahhhh."

P'Jane gives Singto a patient look and pats his free hand. "Nerves are normal, especially for intimacy on camera. You know that. It won't be any different while shirtless. Don't worry too much about this- the scene is only going to be less than a minute."

Well, hey. It's not that Singto's shy! It's not even that he's nervous. He just tends to overthink his performances. He tends to over prepare. When he's able to and left to his own devices, he's going to do both.

"Singto, there's still some weeks before filming. Practise beforehand. It doesn't need to be with your co-stars. Find someone you can experiment the scene with. You'll have a long career in this industry and that means there's always going to be more and more outside of your comfort zone. You won't always have chemistry with the people you work with. Preparing for this is just a small hurdle you'll get past."

"Thank you, P'Jane." Singto's hands press into a wai for his manager and they nod and smile at each other, returning to their meal.

And that's really good advice. Perfect advice... in theory. But now the gears in Singto's mind are turning and he's feeling pressured with the whole new problem of trusting someone to help him with his work.

The LINE app message alert chimes a few times from his smart device and Singto glances at the notification bar that lights up his phone. Someone is sending him cute animal memes. He clicks into the app and sees that it's just Krist.

There's a little heart covered emoji staring back up at him from an endless column of cats and then his phone screen auto-locks and something inside Singto crashes to a halt. He's stunned with epiphany, suffering the whiplash of a Eureka! moment to end all moments.