"We see everything, we play with it. We do it again, we fall for it. We run, run, run, run." 

   We Run - NEIGHTZ

   I held back a laugh before Peter shifted his attention to the mirror in front of me. The sound of the bell caught my attention, and Peter stopped what he was doing, turning around.

   “Finally,” he grumbled, dropping the brush onto the counter. “I was starting to think you’d died.”

   “Shame I didn’t,” replied a voice I recognised immediately, causing my breath to catch.

   Peter broke into a smile. I didn’t bother turning the chair around, instead watching him through the reflection. Alexei stood near the entrance, accompanied by Lucy, who held a folder against her chest as she looked towards the rest of the crew.

   He looked… normal.

   Or almost.

   He wore a light T-shirt beneath his leather jacket, and his hair was slightly messy, which struck me as odd. I didn’t remember it being windy outside.

   And his expression was so… unexpected.

   “Sorry I’m late. It won’t happen again,” was the first thing he said.

   Peter narrowed his eyes.

   “Are you ill?”

   Alexei straightened his shoulders.

   “Do I look… ill?”

   Lucy held back a laugh as she approached them.

   “It was my fault. I forgot my bag at home,” she said.

   That was when Alexei finally looked in my direction.

   Or at least, I thought he had.

   His eyes passed over me so quickly that I couldn’t tell whether he had actually seen me before turning back towards Peter.

  

   “Where do I sit?”

   The smile disappeared from my face. Peter looked at me, then at Alexei.

   “Over there.”

   He pointed towards the empty chair beside mine.

   Alexei simply nodded.

   For some reason, I expected him to say something. It didn’t have to be a good morning. I wasn’t expecting a smile or anything like that either.

   But some sort of provocation would have been enough.

   A stupid comment.

  A pointed remark.

   Anything that matched the Alexei I knew by then.

   He walked behind my chair and simply sat down beside me.

   No comments. No irritated look…

   I frowned.

   “Wow,” I blurted out without thinking.

   He huffed before pulling his phone from his pocket.

   “What?”

   “Nothing.”

   Alexei looked at me.

   “Then why did you say it?”

   “Because I wanted to.”

   “Great.”

   His attention returned to his phone.

   I stared at his profile for a few seconds.

   “Why are you acting weird?”

   Alexei raised his eyes.

   For a moment, I thought I was finally going to hear one of the sharp replies I had been waiting for ever since he walked in.

   “I’m not acting weird.”

   I opened my mouth, but I couldn’t respond straight away. Silence settled between us.

   Peter, who had been watching our conversation through the mirror as he arranged the products, raised an eyebrow.

  Alexei looked over towards Lucy, who stood beside the counter. She walked over to him, touching his shoulders in an affectionate gesture before stepping away again, which only made me more suspicious.

   Alexei remained silent as Peter split his attention between the two of us, doing our make-up.

   And that was, without a doubt, the strangest part of all.

[...]

   “Everything ready?” Lucien asked from behind the main camera, although the monitor beside him displayed the feed from the other two cameras positioned around the set.

   I took a deep breath, going over my lines in my head. I tried to shake off the nervousness that had taken hold of me moments earlier.

   With the spotlights adjusted, the production assistant clapped the slate.

   “Action!”

  I turned towards the coffee machine, pressing the button that brought it to life and sent the espresso flowing directly into the glass cup. The smell of coffee filled my nose just as the bell rang.

   And in that moment, it was as though I had an eye on the back of my head, because I could picture Alexei walking through the door, looking away from the phone in his hands, staring at my back before taking three steps towards the queue.

   Just as I had imagined and rehearsed, twenty seconds passed before I heard the customer grumbling, and the machine switched off with the order already being processed beside it. I picked up the hot cup.

   “Double espresso.”

   I turned, becoming the focus of the camera to my right.

   The man standing in front of me smiled as he took his coffee.

   “Thank you,” he said.

   “I didn’t order an espresso. I ordered an iced coffee,” another customer grumbled.

   I sighed, throwing the tea towel over my shoulder.

   “Ma’am, I’m going to make your order now…”

   “What do you mean you haven’t even started yet?” she snapped, making me genuinely annoyed with her. “I’ve been standing in this queue for five minutes.”

   If I had actually worked in a café and she had been a real customer, I definitely would have been genuinely annoyed by her tone of voice.

   I took a deep breath.

   “She’s just a customer, Joonho,” I murmured, turning around. “I’ll make your order now, ma’am.”

  I placed the tall glass on the counter and filled it with ice cubes almost to the brim. Behind me, the customer’s complaints sounded like irritating whispers, making my next line all the easier.

   The camera moved closer as I naturally turned my body, reaching for the espresso machine.

   The next few seconds were almost silent as the camera captured a close-up of the dark coffee pouring into the glass, hot and rich. The sound of the ice cracking was interesting, I had to admit, and the aroma…

   I sighed, impressed by the smell of the coffee.

  I reached for the vanilla syrup, pouring in a generous amount as instructed by Sully, the barista who actually worked at the café. I slowly turned the glass before adding the cold milk, which spread through the coffee in swirling patterns.

   Using the long spoon, I stirred it slowly.

   “Oh, come on. What’s taking so long?”

   “Who would have thought you’d have to wait in a queue to get a coffee, right?” I heard Alexei say.

   For a second, I froze, because that line wasn’t in the script.

   However, Lucien didn’t interrupt, so I carried on and turned around.

   “Here you are. One large iced coffee with extra syrup,” I said.

   The woman gave an odd little laugh as she took the lukewarm cup, which was slowly becoming colder.

   “Cut!” Lucien called.

  I blinked quickly, seeing Alexei behind the woman. His eyes seemed fixed on his phone before shifting towards me, then following Lucien.

   His black hair and dark eyes had taken on a faint orange glow beneath the enormous spotlight simulating sunlight.

   “Great, everyone,” Lucien said.

   He left his chair and walked towards us.

   “Alexei, that improvised line was great. Exactly the sort of comment Luke would make,” he praised, making me roll my eyes. “San, are you ready?”

   I took a deep breath, knowing I needed to be.

   Otherwise, if I messed up the scene, I would have an extra thirty minutes of cleaning myself up before we could start filming again.

   “Of course. Let’s do this,” I said.

   Lucien smiled, raising both thumbs.

   “Back to your places!” he called. “Eddy, focus on Alexei’s reaction,” he instructed the crew member standing near Alexei, whose camera was covered with a plastic sheet. “Julie, are you ready?” he asked the actress playing the customer.

   She smiled, suddenly carrying a sweetness that had been completely absent from her face moments earlier.

   “Coffee scene, part two,” the assistant said before clapping the slate.

   “Action!”

   I picked up the cup and handed it to the customer. She looked at me with a certain mockery in her eyes.

   “What is this? I want an iced coffee, but not frozen. Warm it up a little.”

   I tilted my head slightly.

   “Sorry? You want an iced coffee… hot?”

 

   She shrugged.

   “Exactly. I don’t like it that cold.”

   I smiled sarcastically.

   “Ma’am, you can’t heat up ice.”

   Behind her, Alexei suppressed a laugh.

   “I don’t think someone knows much about physics.”

   I laughed quietly, making Julia raise an eyebrow in response.

   “Oh, so I’m funny now?” she snapped, improvising brilliantly.

   I took a deep breath, knowing what her next move would be.

   I watched her take a step forward, then she grabbed the cup and thrust her hand forward.

   My body flinched just as the coffee ran down my T-shirt and onto my trousers.

   My chest rose and fell as I kept my expression frozen in surprise. Beside her, Alexei wore the expression of someone who wanted to laugh but had to maintain a look of shock.

  My breathing remained unsteady as I ran my hand along the counter, eventually feeling the cup the production team had prepared.

   I picked it up and raised my hand, delaying my movement for two seconds—just enough time for Julia’s expression to change and for her to duck.

   Then I threw the liquid forwards.

   It hit Alexei square in the face.

  The liquid splashed over everything around him as it ran down his face, while my own expression remained completely still.

   I held my breath before looking at the cup in my hand.

   The brown liquid left inside it made me close my eyes.

   The smell of chocolate filled the air.

 

   My chest tightened.

   When I opened my eyes again, Alexei was running a hand over his face, wiping away the excess chocolate. I could see the restrained anger in his eyes as he took a deep breath. Even beneath all that brown, I could see his skin turning red.

   Heat rushed to my face.

   “What the fuck was that?” he muttered angrily.

   I took a step back, feeling my stomach drop.

   “I-I didn’t…”

   “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” he accused. I blinked, slowly drawing in a breath. “What the fuck is wrong with you, eh? Can’t you do your fucking job properly?”

   “O-Of course not,” I tried to defend myself, looking at the cup beside me—the one filled with water.

   The cup I was supposed to have picked up.

   “I-I mean, I know how to do my job. I just…”

   “I don’t know how anyone was able to hire you to work here.”

   My body went cold.

   My expression hardened.

   “Who are you—”

   “What happened here?” Jorge called out.

   The actor in the red cap stood there with a decorated cake in his hands.

   He looked around at everything surrounding him, then his expression changed.

   “Cut!” Lucien announced.