3. Chapter Three Spin

Chapter Three: Spin

K iet is lying on his stomach on the couch in my apartment, thumbing through Instagram on his phone. It's rare for me to get to be alone with him like this because Daw monopolizes all his time.

"So…Park Rardchawat, the guy you had a crush on when you starred with him in the university play, is your new ship partner," he says teasingly.

"I didn't have a crush on him."

"Yes, you did. A big, fat, ugly one."

I throw a balled up sock at him, and it bounces off his arm.

"Stop giving me a hard time and help me pick something to wear. Our agent spent thirty minutes telling us how important it is for our ship to make a good impression at this event, and I'm nervous."

Tossing his phone down, Kiet gracefully rolls off the sofa. "That should be easy. You and Park had real chemistry in the play. Everyone shipped you back then."

"That was years ago!"

"Well, you must still have it, or they wouldn't have cast you together," Kiet says. "How are the workshops going?"

"It's mostly been the cast getting acquainted so far."

"Come on," Kiet says, and I follow him into the bedroom where he stops at the closet I share with my sister. "Did they say anything about you and Park color coordinating at this event? I've noticed from clips my sister's made me watch that the guys often do that."

I frown and pick up my phone, scrolling back through my texts from the producer. "Shit! I didn't even see this text. Red with black or navy pants." I hug him. "You saved my life."

Chuckling at my dramatics, Kiet gives me a squeeze before turning back to the closet and pulling out a red shirt. "Okay, so this with…" he finds a pair of dark blue dress slacks. "These. And these shoes." He picks up a pair of black leather loafers from the rack on the closet floor.

"Are you sure?" I ask, looking them over critically.

"Absolutely. I'll do your hair and put a little makeup on you when you get out of the shower. Where is this event being held?"

"At the convention center downtown. Oh! Do you think you can give me a lift? I meant to ask you earlier." I sift through my drawer of socks.

I can drive, but I don't have a car.

"I've been riding the BTS mostly," I say.

"You wish you could ride BTS," Kiet says, referring to the Kpop group we both love.

I laugh with him. "Seriously, if I take the blue line tonight, I'll be a rumpled mess by the time I get there. So, can you take me? Na, na, na?" I beg, giving him my best puppy-dog eyes.

"Yes, of course," Kiet says. "Daw won't be coming over tonight. She says her cheeks are swollen and numb from the dental work she had done this afternoon, so I have nothing else to do."

"You're the best." I hug him again and hurry to shower.

Ten minutes later, I sit in my robe in front of the mirror while Kiet works his magic on my hair .

"You'd make a great stylist," I tell him, not for the first time.

Kiet majored in engineering because his dad wanted him to, not because the subject interested him. The internship he did with a local company last year proved it isn't for him. Yet now Daw has wheedled him into working for her father's company. It infuriates me.

"You should do what you want to do," I add when he doesn't say anything.

"Just drop it, Baby," he says so seriously, I do as he asks. When he's finished with me, I get dressed and look at myself in the mirror.

Resting his hands on my shoulders, Kiet smiles at my reflection. "You look great."

"Thanks to you."

Taking a selfie with my phone, I send it with a text to P'Park.

Almost didn't see the text to coordinate. This is what I'm wearing.

"So, you're nervous?" Kiet asks me.

"Yeah. This is a big thing with all the production companies presenting their couples for the year. Our agent is adamant that P'Park and I have to look good together. She makes me nervous. It's like she's pinned all her career hopes on us."

"You changed agents?"

"Yeah. Khun Lee is supposed to be really good, and she's P'Park's agent, too. She's just kind of intense."

"If she makes you uncomfortable—" Kiet begins, and I hold up my hand to stop him.

"She's fine. Really. I'm just nervous."

Kiet pats my arm. "My advice is to treat this evening like it's work. An acting job. That way you can push your nerves to the side. "

I nod. That might work. "I did this last year with Bang, but I'd had time to get used to having him as a partner, and we weren't the main couple in a series like P'Park and I will be."

"You'll do great." Kiet walks to the door, slips on his shoes, and grabs his keys. "What happened with Bang, anyway? Did you two have a falling out?" he asks as I lock the door behind us.

"No, nothing like that. They just put him with someone else."

"And you were hurt."

Damn him and his intuition.

"I just felt awkward," I say, hoping he doesn't push.

I'm relieved when he asks if I've eaten instead.

"No," I admit, pressing the button for the elevator.

"Baby…"

"I forgot, okay?"

"You shouldn't skip meals."

What would he say if he knew I hadn't eaten at all today?

"It's because you think your cheeks are chubby," Kiet says as the elevator doors slide shut, like he knows me so well. "That's stupid. It's just the shape of your face. There isn't an ounce of fat on your body."

"Then maybe if I lose weight, it'll come off my cheeks," I say reasonably.

Kiet shakes his head. "I might have a granola bar in the car."

"I'm too nervous to eat. You don't want me to throw up, do you? I'll get something after."

A text comes through from P'Park.

Saw the text from Khun Lee earlier today. I just arrived at the venue.

"Will you need a ride home?" Kiet asks me as he starts the car.

"I can ride the Skytrain. "

"It'll be late. I'll give you a lift."

"The event's over at eleven. The Skytrain runs until midnight, I checked. I'll be fine."

"Baby, I said I'll give you a lift. I told you I won't be seeing Daw tonight, and I don't want you on the Skytrain alone so late."

I don't argue anymore. My mother passed away when I was young, and Pah ran off when I was eighteen, leaving me as sole caretaker of my then thirteen-year-old sister. I'm used to fending for myself, working my way through university and waiting tables at night. I'm tougher than I look. But I like it when my friends want to take care of me. It makes me feel loved.

Kiet drives as close to the convention center as he can, and I thank him as I jump out of the car. I hurry across the street to the sound of horns honking and enter the building. I know that the event is being held in one of the convention center's smaller auditoriums, but I'm not sure which one or where exactly it's located. Before I can work myself into a panic, someone snags my arm.

"Spin, there you are! I've been looking for you. I need you with make-up right now." Khun Lee tugs me through a back door that I'm sure I would never have found on my own and pushes me into a chair. A guy with earrings running all the way down both ears immediately comes at me with a makeup brush.

Then he pauses, scrutinizing my face. "Actually, you look pretty good already."

I grin. "My friend did my makeup. He's good."

"Can't argue," the guy says. "Go on. You're ready."

I jump out of the chair. Across the room, P'Park stands from where a girl has been doing his makeup. He looks handsome in a white shirt, red tie, and navy slacks. His dark hair is slicked back from his angular face, giving him an older look, and I suddenly wonder at fate having placed me with him in this series. I remember all those long evenings at university my freshman year, the two of us practicing dance moves for the play. We had a lot of fun together, and I feel more comfortable with him than I would with a stranger. My mother used to talk a lot about fate. Maybe she was right.

Khun Lee motions P'Park and me over to stand beside her.

"Tar and Payu just arrived. They're a very popular ship with Rainbow TV, so watch them carefully," Khun Lee tells us.

Tar is an exceedingly handsome, half-Thai, half-Korean actor with several Korean bl's under his belt, but he didn't take off in the genre until he was paired with Payu in a Thai bl last year. An inch or two taller than his partner, Payu has thick hair and eyebrows that make him look stern. Together, they are a dynamic shipped couple that has become insanely popular in the boys love world. Their fandom is huge.

Tar and Payu pause to talk to a popular bl couple in SPPT, Prince and Gift. Both couples look comfortable with each other. Tar's hand rests on Payu's slim waist, even though there's no press in the room nor fans to witness the affection between them. Fan opinion on the bl chat sites is heavily of the opinion that Tar and Payu are a couple in real life. I watch, wondering myself, as they continue through a door to join their company in another room.

Bending close to me so that I can hear him over the conversations around us, P'Park says, "Khun Lee is a little overbearing, but she's good. If she says we need to start out strong, it's the right thing to do."

"I agree," I say.

"All right, everyone!"

I turn to the front of the room where Khun Hom stands with her hands raised. The group quickly quiets. "The event is about to start. Momentarily, the production companies will go on stage and their speaker will announce their plans for the upcoming season. We are lower on the list this year, so we'll have a wait. After I name our series, I'll introduce our veteran couples, who will walk out to stand on the marked spots on stage as I do. Then I'll introduce the six new couples, at which point you will walk out onto the stage to take your marked places. You won't have to say anything. Just stand there and smile. At the end, we will walk off the other side of the stage together. Understood?"

We all nod and line up in the order we are to be called onstage. Butterflies take off in my empty stomach.

Due to my short stature, I can't see past those in front of us. I listen as one of the producers of Best Entertainment takes the microphone.

Tida Li from Hearts Entertainment begins introducing couples from the company, and I notice that she places Pravat and Rama together even though they are both starring with other people right now, probably due to fans' refusal to think of them with anyone else but each other. When she's finished, a producer from Rainbow TV takes the stage, immediately introducing Tar and Payu. The applause is thunderous. After about thirty minutes of introducing couples and their new series, it's finally Khun Hom's turn. Currently, the most popular shipped couple for SPPT are Prince and Gift, so they are introduced first. Gift is so stunning, I can only stare at him as he passes by, his hand clasped in Prince's. After what seems like forever, Khun Hom finally introduces P'Park and me as the company's newest ship and the stars of the new office romance, Heartbeat .

Taking a deep breath, I force myself to relax and loop my arm around P'Park's as we walk onto the stage together, both of us smiling. The crowd is much larger than I imagined it to be, but because of the lights, I can't see individual faces in the audience and that helps to calm my nerves. We take our place on the final X on the stage, and Khun Hom explains that Heartbeat will be a "steamy office romance" that no one will want to miss. I realize I have a death grip on P'Park's arm when he leans down to my ear and says, "Relax. Give them that beautiful smile, and you'll have them eating out of your hands."

Heat rises to my face at his words as flashes go off from cameras. I do as Park instructed and smile, pressing the side of my head against his hard bicep, being careful not to get makeup all over his shirt. When it's time to walk off the stage, P'Park takes my hand, and we exit the auditorium into a small hallway that becomes increasingly packed as others follow us out. I'm uncomfortable being in the middle of all these taller people. It feels suffocating.

"You did well," Khun Hom says when we're all packed in the hall, and then she proceeds to give a speech while I concentrate on breathing evenly. I really want to be outside in the fresh air.

"You okay?" P'Park asks quietly, looking down at me.

Embarrassed, I nod.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm just a little claustrophobic in tight spaces," I admit.

Seeming to notice for the first time how my height puts me at a disadvantage, P'Park takes my hand and says, "Stay with me until we're outside so you don't get hurt."

Now all I can think of is how warm and big his hand is, while staring at the back of the guy in front of me while telling myself the air is not actually getting thinner. Finally, Khun Hom finishes talking and our group begins shuffling toward the exit. When we hit open air, I take a deep breath.

"Okay?" P'Park looks at me with concern.

I nod.

"Baby!" a familiar voice shouts, and I turn to see Kiet walking quickly toward us. "Hi, P'Park. It's been a while. "

"Kiet, right?" P'Park says.

"Yeah." Even though Kiet wasn't in theater arts, he was present at a lot of the rehearsals for Dirty Dancing , since Cushion, Bass, and I were all in it. "Come on, Baby, I'm double-parked." Kiet grabs my hand and tugs me toward the street.

Glancing back, I call out a goodbye to P'Park, wishing I had a few more minutes to talk to him and missing the feel of his hand in mine.