The room was oddly quiet for a few seconds. The younger man opened his mouth to say something, but quickly shut it when the older director shot him another warning glance.
"So…" the older man said carefully, "if you are free this week, we could arrange a rehearsal. The script is ready. We just need to… confirm a few things first."
Alina's heart thudded. Rehearsal? Script? They're taking this so seriously already? Oh my God, I didn't even give them an audition, and I've already landed the role?
Trying to keep her cool, she reached out and tapped the water glass as though she'd done this a hundred times before. "Of course, of course. Rehearsals are important. You know, I've always been dedicated. No matter how small the role, I give it everything."
The younger man frowned. "Role? What role?"
"Shhh." The older one silenced him with another sharp look. Then, smiling at Alina, he said, "It's wonderful to hear your… dedication. We've heard you don't like wasting time and that you're very strict about professionalism."
Alina nearly choked on air. Strict? Professional? People are talking about me already?! She smiled smugly."Well, I suppose word travels fast. I do believe in discipline."
The young man muttered under his breath, "I thought that was Kai's reputation…"
Alina caught only her own name in her imagination and beamed brighter.
The older man opened the folder and slid a stack of papers across the table. "Here's the script. Have a look."
Alina stared at it, hands trembling. A real script. With dialogue. Scenes. Stage directions. This is real. This is actually happening. She carefully placed her fingertips on the stack as if it were a priceless relic.
"So… when do you want me to start?" she asked softly.
The younger director almost jumped. "You?! No, we—"
But the older man kicked him lightly under the table. "We'll discuss the timeline soon. First, we'd like to meet the main actor."
Alina blinked. "Main actor? But… I thought…"
She straightened, flicking her hair back. "Listen, I'm perfectly capable of carrying the story. I know you probably came here thinking you'd just give me a supporting role, but look at me." She gestured dramatically to herself. "Do I look like background material to you?"
Both directors sat frozen.
"…Well?" she pressed.
The younger man coughed into his hand. "…No. Definitely not background material."
Alina smirked, satisfied. "Exactly. A lead actress needs presence, and clearly, I have it. Why waste time searching when you've already found the perfect candidate?"
The older man rubbed his forehead. "Miss, we didn't come to—"
But Alina had already launched into her own "impromptu audition."
She leapt from the sofa, clutching the script to her chest. "Picture this: the heroine walks in, her eyes blazing with fury, her voice trembling with emotion. She declares—"
She flung her arm toward the ceiling and boomed, "I will never give up on my dreams! Not while there's still breath in me!"
Silence filled the living room.
The younger director's mouth fell open. The older one blinked, clearly regretting every decision that had led him here.
Alina turned back to them, breathing heavily, cheeks flushed with excitement. "Well? Convincing, wasn't it?"
The younger one whispered, "…She's got guts, I'll give her that."
The older sighed. "Miss, we appreciate your… enthusiasm. But this project is actually—"
"—perfect for me," Alina finished for him, collapsing back onto the sofa with the confidence of someone who had just been signed by Hollywood. "Don't worry, I understand. You don't need to say more."
The older director pinched the bridge of his nose. "…When can we meet him?"
"Him?" Alina repeated, confused.
"Yes. The actor."
Alina blinked rapidly. "Actor? I think you mean actress. I'm right here."
The younger man finally blurted out, exasperated, "No! We mean Kai Arden! We're here for him!"
The words hit Alina like a lightning bolt. Her proud smile faltered, her brain screeching to a halt. "…Kai… Arden?"
Both directors nodded firmly.
Alina froze when the name slipped out of the director's mouth. Kai. Her jaw nearly dropped. The glass she had been holding almost slipped from her hand.
"KAI?!" she repeated, her voice sharp like a dagger.
The young man holding the glass of water suddenly looked uneasy.
"PUT THAT DOWN!" she snapped, her tone so fierce that the poor guy instantly placed the glass back on the table. ''Get up, I said, get up!"
Both of them got up rapidly, and both men blinked at her, confused.
Alina stood up, her hands on her waist, her nostrils flaring. "Do you think this is some kind of joke? Do you?" she thundered. "You come barging into my house, talking nonsense, wasting my time, and then—" she pointed a sharp finger at the old man— "you, with your spectacles and your fake-serious look, acting like some big shot… What do you think of yourself?"
The old director opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
"I thought you finally recognized talent when you saw it! A girl like me—with the grace of a heroine, the figure of a star, the charisma of a queen. But no…" her voice rose with each word, "instead you come here to ask about him? About Kai?!"
She scoffed so loud it nearly shook the walls. "Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. Out of all the people in the world, you dared to ask me about him. Kai Arden. Really?"
Her temper flared hotter. She leaned towards the coffee table and pulled out the knife from the fruit basket, and showed it to them one by one.
"Still standing here. Didn't I just tell you to get lost? Didn't I? Then why are you still here? Get lost!"
The poor old man stumbled to his feet. The younger one scrambled after him, terrified.
Her voice grew even louder, commanding the whole house. "Listen carefully, both of you. From today onwards, if either of you ever shows your face in front of me again—I swear, I won't spare you. Do you understand?!"
They nodded furiously, their faces pale like they had just seen some horrific thing.g
"Good. Now get out!" she roared, pointing toward the door like a queen banishing traitors from her court.
The men nearly tripped over each other as they rushed outside. The moment the door slammed shut behind them, Alina exhaled loudly, fuming.
Her heart was pounding, her eyes blazing, her lips curled in fury. If anyone saw her right then, they wouldn't see a simple café worker or an ordinary girl. They would see fire. Raw, untamed fire.
Later, Alina wandered into the little bookstore just as the evening sunlight filtered through the tall glass windows. The air smelled faintly of old paper, dust, and a hint of coffee from a tiny café tucked in the corner. She loved it here, quiet, peaceful, removed from the city's chaos, and full of stories waiting to whisk her away.
She came intending only to buy a novel, maybe two, something to distract herself or to get into a different world where everything is going right, where there is a happy ending. It's not just one reason that makes her love novels.
Reading a novel is such a sensational thing; it's like you are watching a movie with full details, and it is the only place where she cares about the male POV. It makes her feel like she is walking alongside them, inside their world, experiencing their journey firsthand.
Her fingers slid over the spines of the neatly arranged shelves, pausing here and there, picking up titles, reading blurbs, tilting the books to catch the glint of glossy covers.
Through novels, she felt love in many forms, like eye contact, holding hands, hugs that felt warm, the quiet compassion, the heartbreak, and fleeting joys. When she opened a book, she could escape reality, even if just for a little while; she could step away from harsh truth and the weight of the world and walk into another world, living it fully, feeling alive in a way her own life sometimes couldn't offer.
Near the "New Arrivals" section, she crouched slightly to reach a low shelf. She was balancing a few choices in her hand when she heard voices nearby. Two girls laughing quietly were examining books themselves, their chatter casual and light.
"You didn't meet me after the audition?" one asked, voice teasing. "You just vanished, rushed back instantly. And now… suddenly, you come back? Something big must have happened."
Alina froze. Her head tilted slightly, pretending to be interested in the book in her hands, but every fiber of her attention was on the conversation.
"I had to," the second girl said, a soft laugh in her voice. "But you won't believe what happened when I went in. My script… got exchanged with someone else's. Can you imagine? Even Mr. Arden shouted at me,"
Alina's heart thumped violently. Mr. Arden?
She sank lower behind the shelf, pretending to examine a book but hanging on every word. Her mind raced back to that day, the sharp, commanding voice, the energy she had thought of as harsh and cruel. She had overheard it from outside the audition room, judged him immediately, without a single thought.
The girl continued, her tone tinged with embarrassment but amused as well. "He said it was absolute rubbish, that I didn't even know how to write a proper story. Told me not to waste his time with nonsense."
Alina pressed her lips together and held her breath. These were the same words she had heard that morning. She would have ignored it if she hadn't heard those same words now, but now all her attention was fixed on this conversation.
Every detail she had assumed about Kai Arden, every judgment she had made about his temper, was right; that's what had happened there in that room.
"But it wasn't like that at all," the girl went on, her voice softening. "I went to Mr. Bennett, explained everything, and I got my scripts back."
Alina's hands clenched the book in her grip. She wasn't ready for this... she was expecting that girl to take out all the anger she had for Kai Arden, but that wasn't an anger...
"And you know what?" the girl whispered, leaning closer to her friend. "When Mr. Arden found out the truth… he excused. Can you believe it? Kai Arden, the perfectionist himself…excused.
The girls giggled, unaware of the young woman frozen behind the shelf, feeling as if the world had tilted beneath her feet. Alina's chest tightened. She had spent weeks letting her anger for Kai fester, building him up in her mind as arrogant, unapproachable, even cruel. And now, the universe, in the quiet hum of a bookstore, was quietly telling her otherwise.
''At first, when he was shouting at me, I thought he was heartless, cold, unforgiving. That he was… cruel. But he wasn't. He is a human. He had made a mistake. And he had excused.''
Alina slowly straightened, realizing her fingers had been trembling around the book. The universe, it seemed, had chosen this moment to hand her the truth she wasn't ready to seek. Her mind drifted to that day again, the hallways, the audition room, the clatter of shoes against the floor. She had overheard only fragments of the story. She had filled in the gaps with assumptions, with anger, with her own stubborn pride. And all this time, she had misjudged him.
The girls continued their conversation a little further down the aisle. "After everyone left," one said, "I finally got my script to him. And he… he actually sat with me, gave me advice, told me how to make it better, how to make it interesting. Can you imagine? He gave me ideas!"
Alina's lips parted slightly. She felt a strange warmth, a mix of surprise, relief, and guilt. She had been carrying the wrong story about him in her mind, and now she could feel it dissolving piece by piece. In that moment, she regretted each word she had said to him in his office ''Easy for you to say from that chair. When people beg for your approval, you don't even have to think about the struggle behind it. You don't know the weight of your rejection."
The universe hadn't screamed the truth at her. It had whispered it, casually, between the stacks of novels. She hadn't asked. She hadn't sought it. And yet, here it was.
For a long moment, she just stood there, letting the words sink in. Her heart pounded, her breath caught, and for the first time, she wondered if everything she had thought about Kai Arden, every sharp glance, every angry word she had imagined, had been a shadow, not the substance of who he really was.
She lowered the book gently back on the shelf, taking a deep breath. Around her, the soft rustle of pages and the faint chime of the doorbell created a cocoon of quiet, as if the world itself was giving her space to rethink, to reframe, to finally see clearly.
Alina realized she had come into the bookstore seeking a story to lose herself in. But instead, the universe had given her a real story, a truth she hadn't expected, about a man she thought she knew, and about her own heart's assumptions.
And as she turned to leave, her mind replayed the overheard conversation one more time. It wasn't just a story about Kai Arden. It was a story about seeing people as they really are, about truth arriving when you least expect it, and especially if they are written in your destiny, then no matter how much you avoid them, the destiny will keep throwing that person to you again and again, and sometimes, the universe whispers its lessons in the quietest, most ordinary of places.
Alina walked out of the bookstore slowly, her steps light, her chest strangely heavy with clarity. She had overheard the truth. And now… it was hers to hold.