Fluff
Word count: 4331
AU: High School
References: Shakespeare
Additional character(s): Park Bogum
Author: revelant on AO3
Inspiration: Inspired by Seulgi's UFO reply saying Irene practises her MuBank script helped by Wendy
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All eyes on her make Irene self-conscious. She feels her ears and cheeks burning, her throat drying and soon she notices that her partner is looking at her straight in the eyes, eyebrows raised, his big hands suddenly capturing her own in between. It is then that the young woman realizes how sticky her hands are because of her nervous sweating. She wants to retract them, scared that the young man would feel disgusted, but he seems to ignore it. Instead, he takes a quick breath and a wide smile appears on his lips as he starts reciting eloquently,
"If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss."
She sees 'Romeo' lower his head to allow his lips to touch the back of her trembling hand. That is her cue.
Irene knows that she has to barely let him kiss her hand, then remove it abruptly and say something. So she does the first two things, but...
... what is her line? What does 'Juliet' says here?
"Good pilgrim... good pilgrim." The light brown haired girl hears another girl's voice whispering behind her back. 'Juliet' moves her head slightly to her right, eyes looking down, to hear the prompter better. "Good pilgrim, you do wrong..."
Oh, snaps! Yes! Now she remembers! She fixes her eyes on her partner again, blinks repeatedly, and takes a quick breath before saying,
"Good pilgrim. you do wrong your hand too much, which-"
Suddenly, Irene stops speaking. Her mind has gone blank again. The frightened girl lowers her head and steps back briefly before biting her nails. Panic takes over, unwilling to let her go.
"Stop! Stop! Irene!" The loud voice of the stage director sounds threatening. The chubby young man approaches the stage and shouts at the girl again.
"Damn." She hears her 'Romeo' mutter. She glances at him and catches him shaking his head at her, sighing frustrated while looking at the ceiling.
"What is the matter with you? Why are you doing this to us now? The play premieres in 2 days!"
"I am deeply sorry, sunbae-nim. I don't know what happened." The girl bows apologetic.
"Didn't you hear the cue given by the prompter? Huh?"
"I did, but-" Irene bows again.
"But? But what?" He yells once more.
"I'm sorry." She murmurs.
"Being sorry doesn't solve anything, you know that, right? Focus, dammit! Have you forgotten all your lines? Huh? Do you want to ruin this? Are you dumb or what?"
The girl remains quiet, embarrassed to the core. Everybody else remains silent, too, worried and upset because the main lead's sudden mental block can spoil the whole performance if she continues like this. And she knows it, she knows everybody is judging her at the moment and it feels horrible. Humiliating. A feeling of constriction in her throat becomes unbearable and her eyes get watery, ready to shed tears.
