𝐎𝐇, 𝐇𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐘 • PLOT SHOP [OPEN]

till there was you - celebrity | available

TITLE | Till There Was You
FACE CLAIM | Constance Wu
OC NAME | Vivien Chou
LOVE INTEREST | Tom Hiddleston
SUMMARY |

  ❝ We've already done the for better or for worse part and the sickness and in health, so let's do the 'til death do us part, too. Make a life with me. Start with me. End with me. Complete me. Be my one and only first, because god knows I'll be yours if you let me. Marry me?❞  

Vivien Chou knew a lot about moments. After all, she lived in them. 

From childhood to being an adult, it all involved moments. Her birthdays were stuck in their own special moments on photographs, have it be on her Instagram page or on the picture frames that hung on the walls of her home. She even kept those moments in a photo book that rested on top of the coffee table in the living room, photographs and dates with names and little scribbles of those that attended. 

Never did she live in the today. 

While exciting a Broadway play, her son bumped into a gentleman and fell back, hurting his forehead. The gentleman quickly helped him up and tried to soothe him, to not cry. He didn't stop. This gentlemen thought the only solution would be to buy him a ice cream, even in that cold November night.

Vivien agreed, knowing well that her son deserved ice cream for the large bump he would wake up with in the morning. 

The gentleman introduces himself as Tom, a kind man who had a gentle smile and even gentler eyes. He spoke carefully, deep. Even the word 'ice cream' sounded attractive when it came from his mouth. And the way he laughed made her heartbeat accelerate a bit more than the usual. 

After that fateful night, Tom and Vivien didn't stop seeing each other or talking through the phone. After all, that simple moment was the beginning of the moments she didn't want to keep in photographs, but live them.

OTHERS |

Vivien Chou was never married, but she was going to be. At one time, in her twenties, she was engaged to Jack Tuan. He used to be the most amazing man to ever live, she'd like to think. Her personal fairy-tale. Until she found out that she was pregnant. Jack decided that it was too hard to be married, even harder to be a father of an unborn child. At six months, he left.

Vivien decided that she would raise this child and never lie to it. The moment he was born, the moment he was given to her and she wrapped her arms around him, she knew that there would never be any other man that she would love as much as him. She named him Jude Chou, after the name her father chose when he moved to the US from Taiwan. 

For ten years, Vivien and Jude were great. She worked as an art curator (and assistant museum educator for school programmes) at The Frick Collection, a Gilded Age mansion-turned museum that housed masterpieces by artists such as Bellini, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Gainsborough, Goya, and Whistler. Ever since she was a little girl, she has loved art, so what better way than to allow future generations to see the art that had been around for hundreds, even thousands, of years. 

Her son, Jude, also loved the arts. Instead of oil paintings and sculptures, he loved acting and singing. He always told his mother that he wanted to become an actor, or maybe a singer, or maybe both. Why not Broadway? His mother told him that every time he got good grades in his classes she would take him to a Broadway play. This time, he chose one of his all time favourites: Aladdin. 

As he sat in his seat, he marvelled at the cast on the stage, at their elaborate costumes, at their voices, the way the moved, and the backdrop. He took in everything about the stage, about the theatre. And Vivien, loving her son to bits, took him in. The way he stared at the stage was like how she stared at art, like it was the very thing that kept her alive in the world. At that moment she decided that she would help him achieve his dream of being on stage. 

As they were leaving the theatre, Jude gushed about every bit of it. It was there where he bumped into a man and fell backwards, hitting the back of his head against the sidewalk. He began to cry at that moment, holding his head between his hands. The gentleman he bumped into was quickly propping him up to his feet and running his hand through the back of his head, trying to calm him. He apologised to him, to his mother, over and over again.

"I'll tell you what," the gentleman softly said, "how about I take you out for ice cream? Will you forgive me if I do that?"

Like magic, Jude stopped crying and nodded. Vivien sighed and smiled at the stranger, telling him that there was no need for him to do so. The stranger smiled back and shook his head, insisting that it would be best to have the child forgive him. At that moment, Vivien realised that she did not mind spending a bit more time with this handsome stranger. So, she agreed. 

It was a small gelato shop near the theatre, almost empty except the three of them and a two other couples that sat at the front of the shop in the cold. Jude took whatever ice cream he wanted, three scoops of his favourites: chocolate, strawberry, and passion fruit. When the handsome man told her she could also have one, she decided on a small cup of passion fruit gelato. The gentleman, with a wide grin on is face, ordered the same thing.

As they sat on the table, the man introduced himself as Tom. She introduced herself, then introduced Jude as the trouble maker. Tom laughed and shook Jude's hand, calling him lovely instead of a trouble maker. 

Vivien and Tom spoke for the majority of the time, each speaking of little random things and about Jude's dream of being a Broadway actor. At the end of the night, Tom asked for her number and says, "It would be lovely if we could continue talking." Vivien, with her heartbeat accelerating, gave him her number. 

The days were spent sending each other text messages about random things, about deep things. Vivien told him about Jack, Jude's father, and how he disappeared from their lives when she was six months pregnant. It was then when he decided that it would be best to hear her voice again, so he called. Vivien continued her story, saying that it was hard but she knew she could get through it. The moment Jude was born, the moment she held him, she knew she couldn't love any other human being more than she did him. 

Jack decided to relinquish his rights as a father when Jude was three months old, and ever since then she didn't know anything about him. And didn't want to know about him. 

Tom, being the loveliest person ever, said that she raised a wonderful boy who would become a wonderful Broadway actor. He decided that he could give Jude acting classes, if she agreed of course.

Every Thursday afternoon, Tom would appear in her apartment and teach Jude everything he knew about becoming an actor. They would rehearse little bits of movies and plays to try them out, to see what would fit him best. And then Jude sang, and it was the voice of a boy who could be on Broadway if he practised a bit more.

Thursday afternoons became Friday and Saturdays afternoons, then Sunday afternoons strolling through the city with Jude between Vivien and Tom. 

At those moment, Vivien felt like she didn't need to keep the moments forever in a photograph, but live them right there. She wanted to continue to live moments in the present with Tom and Jude, and their little adventures.