Early Bird (Erkençi Kus)(Part 1)

108. Answering the question

It was take 68, better than some of the ones before and Guliz smiled hopefully when Sanem grins and holds up her thumbs.

They were all just waiting for Cemil to smile at the camera.

When Cemil takes a sip, he turns pale and Sanem stops holding her thumbs up, turning to JJ. "Why does he look ready to hurl?" she asks when Cemil gags, his complexion turning grayer by the second.

"He's had a lot of the stuff. And it's not like he likes it."

"Where did they even find him?"

"Cut! Cut!" Tahir growls when Cemil gags again, a burp coming up. "I'm going to kill him!" He makes a strangling motion.

"Let me go and talk to him, calm down," the assistant director says quickly and Tahir growls again, heaving heavily while his assistant comes over to fan him with a handfan.

"Make up!" JJ calls. "Come and fix him! Give him some color! And dab his head! He's looking shiny!"

"You're doing very well JJ," Sanem smiles at him.

"Hm, I'm the main man around here and let me tell you something else," JJ points at Cemil. "I'm going to find out what his problem is. Watch this." He walks over to him and clears his throat. "Hello, can I ask why you're still not acting well?"

Cemil opens his mouth only for JJ to keep talking.

"That was rhetorical. Haven't we talked about this? You have to smile after taking a sip. Every time. Pay more attention to that, okay? Because if you get nervous I get nervous and no one wants that, trust me. Okay? Okay." JJ nods and then turns to Sanem, coming back to her side. "There, I warned him very professionally. He'll do better."

"Oh okay," she nods and then smiles, trying not to laugh.

As she looks around the set while they reset, her eyes land on a pair of legs walking across the grounds.

Polen...

Sanem stares at the woman and purses her lips.

-

Every male eye seemed to settle on Polen as she passed them and Can met her halfway after he spots her coming. Giving her a hug and a kiss on each cheek, they turn and Can leads her to where he was sitting.

"I see Sanem is here too," Polen nods over at Sanem.

"She's an employee, of course she's here. Everyone's here."

"How was I supposed to know that the tea girl is important enough to come to a video shoot?" She shrugs and then sighs. "Sorry," she says, "I'm just surprised to see her here too."

Can looks over at Sanem, fiddling with juice bottles. "She surprised us too. She understands things very quickly and in a unique way. That makes her very valuable to us."

"Of course," Polen smiles and they enter the tent, Can helping Polen over the wires to a chair so she can sit down.

"Listen here, son!" Tahir walks over to the stage, still unhappy with Cemil. "Drink like your life depends on it, okay? With a smile! I am getting tired, I am getting frustrated, and I am this close to throttling you...If you fail this take I will poke both your eyes out. Yes? Okay! Let's do this!"

"What a menacing man," JJ says and looks at Sanem.

"Yes," she agrees carefully, eyeing him as he sits down again before she looks over at Can whose eyes are on her for just a second before he looks back at the screen once Tahir moves away.

Polen slides her hand into the crook of his arm and Can looks down at it. Sanem clears her throat and tries to bottle her reaction, while Polen gives her a raised eyebrow.