Silver Linings

Chapter Seven - Like Magnets

[31 May 2020]

⁂ GONG JUN ⁂

Gong Jun met Zhang Zhe Han's eyes in the mirror when his co-lead walked into the hair and makeup studio early in the morning. He nodded in greeting, closed his eyes and continued to listen to the soothing voice of Li Ronghao on a relatively loud volume through his earbuds. He was used to the routines of attaching the long wigs by now and tuned out the hair stylists as they did their final touch-ups on the glue around the lace‑front of the wig. The makeup artist took over shortly after that and started fussing around him, applying concealer to hide the edges of the wig.

Even though Zhang Zhe Han had arrived later than him, he was out the door first. His hair was apparently long enough to not require a full wig. He had just gotten a top-knot attached and his makeup done. Flanked by both of his assistants, Gong Jun watched him disappear out the door and guessed they were heading for the dressing room.

Twenty minutes later he was also heading out the door. They were in their dedicated hair and makeup studio location, a place they would keep for the duration of filming, and Wenrui guided him along the hallway and into the room where all of their costumes were located. Each row of the hanfu robes was marked with their character names and when he spotted the one that said 'Wen Ke Xing' his eyes widened. Deep red, silver, Azur blue, dark green, purple, all mixed into a rainbow of luxurious costumes worthy of a peacock. An invisible shiver ran up his spine and he took a deep breath in.

"Aren't they absolutely perfect?" Director Sing walked in and smiled at Gong Jun.

"They are definitely something..." Gong Jun walked up to the first one and ran his fingers over the intricate and delicate embroidery that covered almost all of the beautiful fabric of the red robes. They felt exquisite under his fingertips. He walked further in between the racks and shifted the hangers to have a closer look at some of the costumes.

"What do you think?" Director Sing was still standing in the middle of the room, watching him with curiosity in his eyes.

"They are very well made." He cast a side glance at the red costume again and looked back at Director Sing, "Which ones am I wearing for the photoshoot?"

"I think you will be in most of them. It will be a good run through of how they fit as well. The designers will get a few days to do any adjustments that are needed before we start filming."

Gong Jun nodded and stepped out from between the racks just as Wenrui came back, followed by two female staff members. One of them headed straight for his rack and picked out a set of silver robes. "Wen Ke Xing is starting with this one, Zhou Zi Shu is already shooting his first set now so let's hurry up."

"Where is the dressing room?"

"You and Zhang Zhe Han are sharing a dressing room down the hall today. The temporary photo studio has been set up in one of the bigger rooms next door. I'll take you there after you've changed." Wenrui held on to his bag, motioned for him to follow and flanked by the two staff members they headed to the changing rooms.

He kept the black adidas track pants on but the t-shirt was swapped for a tighter white one. As soon as the white shirt was on him, there was a flurry of fabrics as his arms were bent and folded in various angles. Soon he was in full costume with the fine silver robe almost glistening against his black hair. It wasn't as heavy as he thought and he caressed the fabric. This silk is really fine. They must have spent a lot of the budget on these costumes.

Wenrui shuffled him out of the room, down the hall and they walked into the temporary studio that had been made ready for the photoshoot. Zhang Zhe Han was in front of the photographer and moving from pose to pose and Gong Jun thought that the only word able to describe his co-lead would be lethal. The charcoal colored cloak had a stiff high collar but somehow the man managed to make it flow around him rather than make him look bulky. The dark purple outer robe almost looked black against the deep auburn colored inner robe and it was all tied together with a matching auburn colored belt. The look was perfected with a black triangle shaped hat on top of his head. The man looked like an exquisite human weapon. Gong Jun guessed that this was the assassin outfit and smiled without realizing it.