Chapter 36 (2/2)
”It must be fun, meeting artists?”
Oh G.o.d, how funny! Khalil didn't know why, but he felt like laughing after hearing a celebrity being called an artist. To Khalil, artist means a person of art[1] . A celebrity isn't necessarily an artist - unless posing beside a swimming pool is considered art.
Khalil smiled, simply being courteous.
”The popular actress, Hanni Maisara, used to attend here too, right? Is she in your batch? This kid is good. Not wasting time. Not too flowery. Now she's showing her thorns.
”Yeah. We staged a show once,” answered Khalil, slightly longer.
”Really? On this stage?! Oh wow, how fun! Sharing a stage with Hanni Maisara!”
Not just a stage kid. We even shared a bed. But as a super senior with high calibre and character, Khalil answered, ”You gotta start somewhere. Why not high school, right?”
The girl nodded energetically. ”That's right. I want to be like Hanni Maisara too. That's why I'm beginning to familiarise myself with the acting world.”
Oh boy, kid… your answer is already like one of them!
The girl suddenly put her hand intimately on Khalil's thigh. ”By the way, my name is Qaseh Raihanna Ilyana Sofea.”
Is the ritual of shaking hands already replaced by placing hands on thighs? And what happened to names with lengths that don’t require two ICs? Those were among the questions that came to Khalil's mind while Qaseh was rubbing his thigh.
”Nice to meet you,” replied Khalil while pretending to check his Twitter account.
”Qaseh feels like… she really wants to be an actress. Feels like… it's my destiny, you know?” she said while swinging her body towards Khalil - revelaing her not-so-deep cleavage.
”Good for you.” What name do you want to use? Qaseh Raihanna? Or maybe Raihanna Ilayana? Perhaps Ilyana Sofea? Qaseh Ilyana is fine too.
”After you watch my acting in the drama you made, you'll see my capability. Who knows, maybe your new film would have a character that suits me,” Qaseh Raihanna/Raihanna Ilyana/Ilyana Sofea/ Qaseh Ilyana immediately persuaded with a coy voice akin to Ella.
”I'm not the one who decides who starts in my film,” replied Khalil. Let's see the result of this social experiment.
Immediately, Qaseh's hand stopped its work. ”Oh? Then who?”
”The producer. If it's a telefilm, it's the TV station who would decide them. They wouldn't want a no-name,” explained Khalil.
”Oh… I see…” and as simple as that, Qaseh was no longer interested in Khalil.
Khalil cynically laughed in his heart. If he lied, he would get a sleeping partner that night. But days like that had already pa.s.sed for Khalil.
Jeremy entered the auditorium a few seconds after that, immediately making the awkward situation between Khalil and Qaseh disappear. 4-5 more people entered after Jeremy and Jeremy started the training. It seemed like those were the only members of the Drama Club - pitiful!
But the characters in the script weren't that many. What's important was that the message would be received. More than anything, Khalil really hoped that the script's message would be received…
[1] Ok. In this sentence, the orginal word for artist is ‘artis’ while ‘person of art’ is originally ‘seniman’. In Malay, when you say ‘artis’, it usually means an actor, a singer or anyone in the mainstream entertainment industry that you know. A ‘seniman’ is, as mentioned, a ‘person of art’. They’re technically the same thing, probably, but, well, it’s a bit hard to explain. Let’s just say one is a model and the other one is a… poet. Yup. Let’s go wth that. … … did you get that?
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