Secrets - Chanlix

Scene 1

Now Playing: Waving Through A Window- Ben Platt, Dear Evan Hansen cast

Secrets.

Secrets, secrets, secrets. They can destroy everything or put it back together. They can change your life or ruin it. You love them when they're your own but the moment they are anybody else's you lose your shit.

Life.

Life, life, life. It has the drama of a 3 act broadway musical or a British soap opera (cough, cough, Eastenders) but somehow still isn't exciting enough. It terrifies you and makes you long for it to end. You love it and think it goes too fast. It's a rollercoaster that has you screaming your fucking head off and probably throwing up afterwards. It's something you own but something everybody else wants to control and you can't be pissed about it because you do that to others too.

Love.

Love, love, love. It's only able to be described when you experience it and varies on the person, who it's with and the time of the experience. One day it'll be true.

Musical theatre. The shit that started this all. At least to an extent.

The Sydney University for the Arts was a school packed with diversity and a reputation of putting on the some of the greatest showcases by young people that Australia had ever seen. At least that's what the slogan and website implies. Yet not once had it put on a musical. They had no musical theatre students to put on the damn thing. What did they have? 4 extremely talented music students and 4 extremely talented theatre students. What a great idea to combine the two? Right...?

Wrong!

Kinda...

At least the students thought it was wrong, according to their reactions when they were told. The responses were varied but they all seemed to be along the lines of: 'Oh you've gotta be fucking kidding me!' to put it simply. When you combine two friendship groups of different expertise and tell them they have no choice but to work together? A lot of things happen. Including putting differences aside to discover they aren't quite so different after all...

It took a looooonggg time for them to realise that though... I think.

One group were the fruitiest bunch of guys you will ever meet. The others were exactly that as well. One group knew that (and, I have to say, they made it pretty fucking obvious too) and the others did not. The others took that misunderstanding of themselves and self-hate into homophobia, even if some regretted their own actions. None of them were perfect, of course not (who is?) and all eight of their stories deserved to be told, and were gonna be, but this story is centered around two Aussies with so much still to learn about love, life and secrets. Their names were Chris (also known as Chan) and Felix.

Felix was walking down the halls all alone the day he discovered of their new assigned project. He admired the paintings (created by the art students) that brought life to the lonely grey walls, the bright overhead lights illuminating them in a way that did the works far from justice. As Felix's gaze drifted across the various pieces, they caught on one in particular. One he knew from some of it's very first moments, when his best friend started to paint it. It was the side profile of a person, the entire face being full of colour and life. Except the ear, which was black and white. His eyes moved down to the bottom right corner, where it was signed: Samuel Hwang. He always loved how Hyunjin drew his emotions, especially his experiences as a deaf person in such a moving and beautiful way.

As if by magic (or just great timing) the artist appeared beside Felix, "Ah yes." He began, "The worst painting I've ever created."

"First, where the fuck did you come from? Second, this is incredible. Shut up." Felix, who had his hand planted to his chest dramatically after the shock of Hyunjin's sudden appearance, spoke.

"First, my art room. Second, whatever you say. And third, I've got the worst shit to tell you about."

"By that do you mean you did a really bad number 2 and forgotten what TMI is or is it tea like the matcha I had about 20 minutes ago whilst heading between the Seungmin's dorm and the library before I got distracted here?" Felix adjusted his forest green over the shoulder satchel bag, that matched with his sage green cargo jeans, black converse and white Spiderman t-shirt, as they wandered down the hallway.

"The second one, ew." Hyunjin made his signature look of disgust, rolling his eyes at his best friend's antics.

Felix's interest in the conversation peaked, "Ooh, spill!"

"We've been assigned a massive musical theatre project to do, Minnie and Innie too." Hyunjin said, no sign of enjoyment in his voice.

"Oh! Great!"

"But it's with those homophobic music students."

"Oh. Great." Felix's tone went from excited to sarcastic in the blink of an eye and his mood dropped about an octave lower than his voice.

"I know, maybe they'll be chill though?" Hyunjin voiced, hopeful for what was to come for them.

"I wouldn't get your hopes up, Sam. We're talking about people like Han Jisung and Lee Minho here!" Felix gave his best friend a reality check.

"Nah, there ain't no way those two ain't a bit y'know." Hyunjin said, making the 'gay hand' pose as he spoke.

"You're only saying that because you have massive ass crushes on them."

"Shut up Yongbok." Hyunjin snapped, his cheeks flushing a bright red and matching his vibrant hair colour.

"Anyway! Let's go, Hyune. We've got shit to do." Felix smiled, realising they had stopped halfway down the corridor and he started walking off, beckoning for his friend to follow.

They headed off to the auditorium, Hyunjin's slightly heeled shoes clicking with each step. They couldn't imagine half of what was to come for them, in that moment. In that auditorium, especially. They weren't ready, they didn't really need to be. Only you do, are you ready?

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On the outside always looking in,
Will I ever be more than I've always been?
-Dear Evan Hansen

SCENE ONE