Looking at June’s leaning posture, Will couldn’t help but think how beautiful she was.

She wasn’t like those supermodels and such, but she carried a natural aura about her that would attract anyone as they spent more time with her.

*badump* *badump*

Will’s heartbeat increased in intensity without him realising.

“What are you gawking at?”

June asked mischievously after noticing that Will was looking at her so intently. This time, not at her body, but at her face

“Nothing much. You look nice in that colour.”

He said, looking deeply into her eyes. This was something he had learnt from his girlfriend in his previous life. Commenting about something tasteful would be more of praise than saying something raunchy and sounding cringe.

June was inwardly pleased with herself. She had been practically screaming for attention, but the young director was too busy directing to even notice her advances.

Her efforts to make herself stand out seem to have worked as he finally praised her.

They didn’t talk at all after that, as both enjoyed the peace of the balcony with loud voices coming from inside the apartment.

Will munched on his pizza slice while looking towards the sky. A blanket of darkness had engulfed it as the night approached, and stars lit up the sky like Christmas decorations.

***

“Thanks for the get-together, but don’t forget your promise. This is nowhere enough to make up for it.”

As everyone started leaving one by one, Jeffrey met Will and reminded him about the promise again.

“Don’t worry, Jeff. I’ll make sure to throw a grand party after the movie hits a hundred million.”

Will said with a smile.

“As long as you remember your promise.”

Jeffrey patted his shoulder as he laughed and left too.

One by one, everyone had left the house except June.

Will looked at her and raised an eyebrow as if asking what she was still doing here.

“Your apartment looks like a mess; it’ll take a while for one person to clean it. I might as well lend a hand.”

Will didn’t complain as they started gathering the boxes littered around.

Again, both of them didn’t talk as they did their work.

After everything was cleaned, they both bumped into each other as they were trying to put the trash in their hand out at once.

“Ouch.”

June rubbed her forehead as Will mouthed a ‘sorry’ in a barely audible voice.

Will put his trash bag outside and waited for June to put hers out. As she threw it outside while making a ‘Huup’ sound, she turned around to say something only to bump into Will once again as he was waiting for her right behind her.

This time, none of them made a sound as they stuck their foreheads to each other, not backing off.

June closed her eyes and bit her lips in anticipation. But what she was expecting didn’t happen as Will let out a sigh and backed off again.

“Why..?”

Will could hear a quavering voice from June. She had her head down, looking almost at the verge of crying.

“Don’t misunderstand here. It’s not like I’m trying to push you away.”

Will said in a sympathetic voice, making disgust boil up inside June. She had hoped that Will was just too dense to notice her advances, but it seemed like she was the fool here. She felt disgusted with herself that someone who kept rejecting her was now pitying her.

She couldn’t control her tears as droplets of salty liquid flowed out from her burning eyes. Her face felt hot with emotions as she couldn’t help but shout while crying.

“You always knew, you always know, but you kept rejecting my advances. Why? What’s so undesirable about me? Why don’t you like me when all I could do is think about you every moment of my damned day?”

Will looked at her with a bitter expression. He put his right hand on her quivering shoulder as he held her chin with his left hand and looked into her flooding eyes.

“It’s not like that. It’s not that I don’t like you. I like you. I like you a lot. But I also care about you. I’m sure after this movie; you’ll get the popularity that you always wanted. I don’t want to involve you in any possible scandal, making it seem like the director who made you popular was like everyone else.”

“I gave you the role because I genuinely thought that you deserved it, but I don’t want you to confuse gratefulness for something more. I, for one, was not expecting anything in return apart from a performance worth seeing. Are you really sure you like me?”

“Hiccup, hiccup…I…”

June finally seemed to have calmed down as she heard Will’s explanation. All along, he was thinking about her, and she thought that he kept pushing her away because he didn’t like her.

“I…sob….I love you, Will. I love you a lot. I only had one goal all my life, which was to get what I deserved. You noticed me. You noticed my talent. You provided me with an opportunity to prove myself. You made me reaffirm my self-confidence. And I’m grateful for all that.”

“But I don’t love you for such shallow reasons. I’ve seen you, your persona. I love the person you’re. I love your company; I love myself when I’m with you. I just love you for reasons I can’t explain, but trust me….I …really do…”

Most of her sorrow had subsided by now, replaced with embarrassment.

Will, who heard June’s words, was in a mental uproar. He knew she liked him, but he wasn’t sure if that love was brought up by the gratefulness she felt for him or something else.

After listening to her confession, his heart beat loudly as he felt a sudden rush inside of him. He had never felt this way before, not even in his past life. Right now, he felt so attracted to the embarrassed June that he couldn’t help but think about how ‘cute’ and ‘lovely’ she looked.