Only Kamu (A MeerNa's Fanfiction)

Chapter 2: That Ugly Filter

It's already 9 am in the morning. Eli is all dressed up in her t-shirt and jeans waiting for her mom to drive her to the set. While waiting for her mom to get ready, Eli picks up her phone and begins to scroll the feed on her Instagram account. She sighs. Boring! A thought comes to mind.

"Oh ya! I haven't checked my DM today." She quickly clicks on the DM icon.

She notices one familiar face on the DP at the top of her DM's inbox. She recognises that face so well. A face that has been haunting her for the past few months. It's Qeef!

"Qeef had mentioned you in their story." Says the DM.

Without hesitation, Eli clicked on the link to see his IG story's update. She's shocked looking at the content. It's a video of her taken during yesterday's shoot but using an ugly and weird filter.

"Wait a minute! When did this guy take my video? We don't even talk on set. The audacity of posting my video using this ugly filter is unbelievable!" Eli grumbles.

But a few seconds into it, her anger towards Qeef slowly subsides. The video actually tickles her funny bone. She begins to laugh so hard.

"Hmm... I thought he's cold-hearted and doesn't joke around." Eli smiles, perplexed. Eli was still smiling when her mom comes traipsing down the stairs.

"You seem so happy today, my dear. Is there anything you wanna share with me?" Her mom asks.

"Nothing mom. I just watched a funny video on Instagram" replies Eli.

"Hurry up, or we're gonna be late" continues Eli distracting her mom from asking further.

Once on set, Eli takes her revenge. She arrived just in time for Qeef's scene. Eli scrolled for the worst filter she could find and starts recording Qeef.

"Serves you right. Two can play that game." Declares Eli satisfied.

And it turns out to be, the revenge taking becomes their daily routine. Instagram stories become their language, their conversations.

—

It's break time now. Eli has just had her lunch and now she's sitting on a sofa waiting for the Zuhr prayer. The shooting is wrapping up soon. About a week to go. Eli evaluates her experience being in the project so far.

Overall, she's had a pretty good experience and enjoys the shoot. The cast and the production team are super nice and treats her well of course, except for Qeef. His attitude towards her has not changed at all from the first day she met him. She doesn't really see him as someone she would like to get to know any better nor considers him to be her number one enemy. In short, she doesn't have much of an opinion about him. But Qeef, being aloof most of the time, makes the situation rather awkward, especially when they have to do a scene together. Fortunately, her character is an antagonist. So she doesn't really have to have much chemistry with Qeef.

"Why am I so bothered by him? He's a nobody in my book. And worst of all, I was even bothered by Bettina asking if I had a scene with Qeef on the first day that I lied to her. What is wrong with me?" Her mind encourages her to come to her senses. But her heart is insistent. Her heart doesn't want to leave the 'Qeef issue' alone.

"I don't want to leave this set with a bad impression on anyone, based solely on my judgment. I would like to have good relationships with everyone here. Who knows, I might be working with some of them again in the future." Eli shuts her eyes and takes a deep breath trying to get rid of the clutter in her mind.

Just as Eli's eyes begin to close, trying to take a nap, suddenly Qeef is right in front of her, out of nowhere.

"Mind if I join you?" Asks Qeef. Eli opens her eyes.