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The theme is film noir.
He has it all planned out. The costumes, the location, the storyline. It sounds cool and all, except I have to be in it. And acting in a film is way beyond my comfort zone.
"Do I have to wear a dress?" I ask, dreading the answer. I know what the women in film noirs wore. They were very chic and very beautiful, two things I struggled to be in life. But Taehyung's answer surprises me.
"I want you to play a man."
"What?"
Taehyung elaborates. "You're gonna be the good guy who's scared of his own shadow, but then...it turns out his shadow isn't a shadow, but the bad guy! But the bad guy is you..."
"Like Jekyll and Hyde?" I ask. "A split personality?"
Taehyungs claps once then snaps his fingers, pointing at me. "Exactly! Except...deeper."
I can't argue with his idea, since he completely aced the last assignment. Our tutor loved the photos so much that they are displayed in the student gallery of the library. Taehyung is a genius with a unique view of the world, and I can't help my fascination for the way his mind works. I also can't help complying to whatever he tells me to do, because for some instinctual reason, I trust him and all his whacky decisions.
We are now shooting the film in Fitzroy, one of the the most artsy bohemian suburbs in Melbourne. It is also where I live, except not in the artsy area. More like the complete opposite...
Taehyung is dressed differently for the first time since I met him. He wears a beige beret, silver-framed glasses and a black leather jacket, with extremely baggy high-waist pants and brown loafers. He looks...artsy. Like a true director, as he said. It took me ten minutes to get used to his new look. In fact, I still can't get used to it.
"Now go!" he commands, following me with the camera that is secured onto a handheld tripod. I fall into my role quite quickly, glad that it is a minimal speaking role. Taehyung is even making me wear a fake moustache that we bought from the costume shop on the corner of the intersection to make my character more "authentic." But we are not even halfway through the first scene when Taehyung stops me.
"Wait..." he takes a moment to scrutinize me, forming a frame with his thumb and forefingers.
"What is it?" I ask with a tired sigh.
He approaches me, closer than ever before, and peels off the moustache, tucking it into his pocket. Then, all of a sudden, his hands are in my hair as he unravels the braid I had so precariously entwined in order for my hair to stay hidden underneath my cap for the role. I cry out in protest, but he just shushes me as he continues to unravel my hair with expertise, raking his fingers through my dark locks until it is completely untied.
I don't know where to look as his eyes watch me through those glasses which are a hundred per cent fake, but they gave him an artistic flair and an intellectual maturity. He scoops my hair into a column and ensures that it drapes half on my shoulders and half down my back, before stepping back with a satisfied smile.
