Bringing the Nation's Husband Home

XXXI | Hurt Physically

Alexander pursed his lips, casually throwing his white shirt into the laundry basket. He made his way upstairs and looked in the medicine box in the corner mirror of his wide changing room. He took the cotton swabs and used all his strength to stretch his arm out to clean the wound on his back.

The pain brought an expression of discomfort to his face. There were some places he couldn't reach, and after a couple more unsuccessful tries, he eventually gave up. He closed his medicine box and stood half-naked in front of his floor-to-ceiling window.

The stars in the night sky, half-way up the mountain, were very clear. The shining lights above were dazzlingly beautiful.

Alexander stared at the sky for a while, until he saw a faint outline of Isabelle's face appear among the stars. At that moment, he was completely transfixed, but his phone suddenly rang. He abruptly snapped back to reality to find that it was all just an illusion.

He lowered his eyes, standing still in his spot, then headed to the bedroom. He picked his phone and saw a notification, the director of "Alluring Times" was calling. Alexander's fingers swiped the screen to accept the call.

"Mr. Smith, about the swing incident this afternoon, it's been investigated. When the stage prop crew were preparing the props, there was a mistake. They didn't notice that the rope was thinned out. I already gave them a good yelling. How would you like to proceed with this incident?"

Alexander's voice sounded slightly heartless when he asked, "Are you sure you've investigated thoroughly?"

"People from the stage prop crew said so themselves."

Alexander held the phone without saying a word.

Even though they were a phone call away, the director still felt Alexander's silence pressuring him to the point where it was difficult to breathe. His forehead was covered in sweat.

After a good while, Alexander finally said, "Since you've investigated thoroughly, I'll leave it to you to handle."

There was clearly no emotion in Alexander's tone of voice, but you could hear the director's weak heart in his. The director spoke in a tone you'd use for negotiations when he carefully said, "I'll fire them all right away for an entirely new crew, Mr. Smith. How does that sound to you?"

"That's up to you. I just hope that a situation like this will never happen again," Alexander spat out the ruthless words before hanging up.

~*~

When the director heard the 'doot doot' sound through the phone, he let out a long sigh of relief.

He turned his head and looked at Producer Johnson and Annabelle who were sitting in his room. He raised a hand to wipe away the sweat on his forehead. Then he looked over at Annabelle and said in traumatized voice, "It's not like you don't know that Mr. Smith has always disliked conflict amongst a crew. This time, for Chief Johnson's sake, I helped you cover this up, but if this happens again, I'll definitely not interfere."

Annabelle smiled sweetly at the director. "This time, thank you so much, director."

"Don't thank me, thank Chief Johnson." The director waved his hand, and said, "You'd better quickly get someone to pay-off those crew members now, whilst Mr. Smith isn't on set. Make them quickly go away to save yourself some peace of mind before anyone finds any flaws in the story!"

~*~

Even though there was a big incident on set yesterday, no one got hurt, and so they continued to shoot the next day as per usual.

Isabelle and Alexander were originally meant to have a scene together in the early afternoon. However, because some scenes were delayed yesterday, theirs was pushed back till later that afternoon.