The Ocean and the Moon

Chapter 1 - July

"Did you read it?"

C sighs at the voice coming from the phone on the table. He walks towards the window, tugging at his hair, and looks out at the city in the night.

"So?" his manager insists.

"I did."

"So you'll do it? What do you think?"

"I think it - has potential."

He goes back to the table and leafs through the script.

"I like that there are 2 co-directors," he says.

"Oh yeah, some French guy, right?"

"Right."

"I've researched the Korean one as well. Young, up-and-coming, indie. Should be interesting. So you'll do it?"

"So you think I should audition?"

C chews on his bottom lip, runs a hand through his hair, pulls on a few strands, looks at the phone.

"I think if you say you're interested, the audition will be just a formality. They seem like a good team and like they know what they're doing but they're new to the game. They probably can't afford to turn you down, unless they've already cast another Kpop singer - which I doubt. If you ask me, it'll be down to the chemistry test with the other actor."

C takes a look at the script again. He runs a finger on the letters of the title: 바다와 태양: Love Begins Again.

"What? You don't like it?" YuJin asks again. "Come on! A writer leaving the hustle and bustle of Seoul to stay in a quiet coastal town? A handsome, young waiter at the café where he comes to work on his next book? What's not to like? It's going to be about second chances and new beginnings - give the people what they want."

C looks out the window. It's started raining. The million lights are still on, sleepless like him. He walks over to the piano.

"Okay," he says. He presses a few keys. "Let's see how the audition goes. I guess we can decide after."

***

"How do you feel?" Joon takes H's hands and shakes them a little.

"I don't knooow," H says, extending his last syllable dramatically and letting the script drop to the bench next to him. They're standing in front of an intimidating building in the already humid morning.

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"Do you think I'm making a mistake?" H asks

"You're asking this now? As you're about to go in and audition? Now?"

"I'm serious! Please, Joon. Take your manager-hat off for a second."

"Ok, ok."

"I mean -"

"Here we go." Joon rolls her eyes.

"No but hear me out - these BLs, they're just a fantasy."

"Yeah, I think that's the point of, you know, series."

H ignores her and goes on, "The cutesy romance, the inexplicable absence of homophobia." He squishes his face between his hands. "These are not our lives. Pride was literally the other day. We were literally walking for the bare minimum of our rights and being literally insulted by those Christians with their signs." He points toward a random direction and then looks down at the ground. "I don't know. I feel like maybe I'm insulting myself in a weird way by doing this - and you, and all the people we know who are trying to push for change. And here I am, about to sell my integrity for a piece of media where I have to masc it up and pretend I am heteronormative in every way but the straight actor I'll be kissing."