More Short Stories!- Kai Ships Only

Beomkai- The Understudy

Writing challenge to myself. Make a story with no dialogue.
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84 hours in six days. Thats exactly how long Beomgyu had practiced for the audition of the newest Netflix series called "Reign: Chapter 1".

The main character, the role he was auditioning for, was set to be an orphan in a dystopian city called "Ethonis". Ethonis was a capitol to be overthrown in the first episode by the main villian. In a desperate move to regain the army they lost, the villian would force all able bodied citizens of a certain age into the military. Those who didn't pass their basic tests would die or be forced into slavery. The hero would become the best out of all of them. He would lead a revolution with a side plot of falling in love with the villian's daughter.

Beomgyu fell in love with the script. This concept was going to be a hit and he knew it. Even better was how large the studio's budget was. A large budget meant a higher paying role. He saw himself being the hero. He practiced endlessly for it.

Yet, he didn't get it. He wanted to ball up his phone into a tiny ball when the director offered him an understudy position. His pride was even further shattered when he was told he lost the role to someone who had never acted before. Some money was better than no money so he took the job. Secretly, he hoped this "Kamal Huening" would be poisoned or break his leg. He had half a mind to make it happen himself too.

When he called his manager for more information about "Kamal", he was told that the casting agent just saw him walking down the street and begged him to audition. The rumor was she trained him herself for it. Beomgyu knew what that meant in his world. He personally had never slept with someone to get a job but it wasn't uncommon to hear of. It started to make more sense as to why he lost it too.

Only Kamal didn't sleep with her. That was obvious when Beomgyu threw back three shots of vodka before stalking Kamal's social media. Drunkenly, he started with the Huening's Instagram first. The younger rarely posted. He found that his uploads were bi-weekly at best. Most of it was cute selfies with a photo of where he was.

Because Kamal didn't post often, it wasn't hard for Beomgyu to scroll two years back. He saw a lot of pictures captioned of him and his boyfriend together. Another shot was slammed back. Even further into the feed was another boyfriend. Kamal apparently knew he was gay from a young age.

Beomgyu didn't. His sexuality was only realized when his friend, now ex, kissed him on a dare. Instead of hating it, he found himself enjoying it. That was all in the past.

He slammed back another shot then went to Kamal's Facebook next. There was even less posts on this site than the first one. The dates were blurry in his vision but he assumed it was once a season. Beomgyu accidentally liked a post of the younger on his 18th birthday. He drunkenly hoped to God that Kamal wouldn't find out. It was bad enough to hate him for taking HIS role but being a hateful stalker was even worse.

Another shot was slammed back. He drunkenly called his manager and begged him to set Kamal on fire. His manager told him to go to bed before he did something he would regret.

Beomgyu decided to do something he would regret. Through more drunken stalking, he was able to find Kamal's phone number. Before he called him, he took a quick break to throw up in the bathroom. His throat and nostrils burned. He couldn't stop coughing when some of it refused to come out. Through exhaustive effort, the last little bits were spit out then flushed into the toilet.

Tiredness started to set in on that cold bathroom floor. Still a bit drunk, Beomgyu stumbled to his feet. The journey to the couch was wobbly. He almost tripped over his phone which was laying face down on the rug. Since he didn't have a case, he half expected the screen to be cracked. Luckily, it wasn't. Kamal's phone number was still loaded and ready to be dialed.

One more shot went smoothly down the back of his throat. His vision became incredibly blurry. His eyes did their best to try and focus on that bright green button.

Should he call him? No. Even his drunk brain was telling him not to call but his finger had a mind of it's own. That little green button was pushed. The phone began to ring loudly as he put it on speaker.

Kamal didn't answer.

Beomgyu was annoyed that this "nobody" didn't have time for him. He wasn't exactly an A-list actor himself but he had more credible roles than Kamal did. The last of the bottle poured down his throat as the phone rung again.

This time, Kamal did answer. The younger asked who kept calling him. Beomgyu didn't bother to introduce himself. Instead, through slurred words and barely constructed sentences, he told him that he didn't deserve his role. That the part of "Logan Sujin" should've been his. Lastly, he made sure to threaten Kamal by implying something bad would happen to him soon.

Kamal didn't think much of it. He knew a lot of people were going to be unhappy that he got the part. Truthfully he still wasn't sure how he, out of all of the people who auditioned, landed the role.

He just assumed this was a prank call. The guy on the other end of the line couldn't actually be his understudy. That would be incredibly unprofessional. Unlucky for him, he was. The world of Hollywood was full of drama. Kamal was going to learn that very quickly. Beomgyu was just a small part of it.

Beomgyu's "undeserving" tirade ended up making a segway into why it's bad that Kamal doesn't post often on social media. Drunk Beomgyu would just not stop talking. Next, he started giving unsolicited advice on how to improve Kamal's public image.

An image that Kamal did not care one bit about. He wasn't going to change himself to gain the public's favor. If people were going to be his fan then they were going to be fans of the real him. Authenticity was crucial to his morals.

Every time he tried to explain himself, his annoyance started talking again. He wondered if he ever stopped to breathe inbetween words. Eventually, Kamal just put the phone on the coffee table then started to game.

All of that talking began to tire Beomgyu out. His speech on public favor was educational in his head but only mumbled noises were heard. He sounded like a grumpy baby trying to communicate. His eyelids became heavier by the second. Before he knew it, he passed out.

Kamal was so deep into his game that it took him fifteen minutes to realize his understudy stopped talking. He called his name but only silence answered.

Laughter came out when he heard a random snore. That confirmed Beomgyu really was asleep. Kamal hung up. He began telling his friends about that hour long phone call. When he mentioned Beomgyu's name, one of his friends recognized him from a small Law and Order role. Kamal thought he was joking until the internet confirmed it was true.

Beomgyu Choi, asshole of the year, was really going to be his understudy. These next three months were going to be long with him around. Before, he couldn't wait to start. Now, they both dreaded it.