Everyone but Me!

Rhea didn't go to the studio every day since she had classes. She was able to visit the shooting spot in the evenings. Also, she spent her holidays there as well.

But, even after two weeks, Ryan didn't seem to give her any works to do other than running errands.

His phone, his script, his water bottle, his keys…

Like this, she had to fetch the things he had asked for. It was more like he is giving her works to do just because he has to. All she did was to wait and watch him act.

At first, it was interesting to watch people work and act. But with time, it all became boring unless it's Ryan. She always keenly watched him act while sitting in a corner in an armchair just like her first day there. But when it is not his part that is being shot, when he was in his make-up room, Rhea didn't find anything amusing. It was difficult for her to pass her precious time.

By going to the studio in the evening Rhea didn't have much chance to visit the library either. So she borrowed some books and read them in the nights. Because of this, the time she spent on her illustration works was halved. So Rhea thought it through and finally found an interesting way to chase away her boredom while doing something useful in the studio.

She had started to bring her laptop, her stylus pen, and her drawing pad to the studio.

She found a table for herself where she could watch the working people and do her business at the same time. She set up everything. Then was thinking about what to draw.

Her third book!

She had prepared everything already. Character bible, the world background, design, and everything. She had given faces to her characters as well. She had already prepared the drafts for a few chapters. As she was going to draw her next chapter, the first assistant director of Yuan Yu had called Ryan in front of the camera. It was an action sequence.

Ryan was not with his full makeup. He was wearing a navy blue t-shirt. His hair was a mess, still attractive. The make-up artist had just finished adding a small amount of fake blood in the right corner of his mouth.

"Quiet on Set! Roll sound!" the first assistant director called out. Since Yuan Yu was busy checking the older takes, he was the one in charge then!

"Speeding", the sound recordist responded.

Once again the first assistant director shouted, "Roll camera"

"Rolling", the cinematographer responded.

Then the clapper board sound could be heard. "Scene twelve, Take one"

"Set", the cinematographer responded once again.

"Action!"

Ryan brought his right arm near his chin and wiped the oozing fake blood with the dorsal side of his hand which was fisted. His eyes looking at the man in front of him, bloodshot.

"Don't you dare touch my girl!", his deep voice hissed from behind his clenched teeth giving the viewers shudders.

Rhea was keenly watching him, unable to take her eyes off him.

From day one, Rhea had observed Ryan acting in various types of scenes. He never needed a retake as far as she knew. If there were any retakes, it was easy to guess that the other person in the frame had made a mistake.

He was indeed an astonishing actor! The way he showed his emotions in front of the camera, his style, his face, and everything about him was perfect.

"Cut!"

Following the 'cut', Rhea could hear the 'cut' being echoed by a few others. As she was observing Ryan, she could clearly see his change of expression, from anger to nonchalance, just in a fraction of a second.

'Whoa! That was pretty good!' Rhea couldn't help but praise him in excitement.

Ryan went near the camera to check what he did.

'You don't need to! It was brilliant!' Rhea gave him assurance using her mind voice!

The scene successfully ended without any retakes.

Now the cameras were ready to shoot the scenes of the other man who was standing with Ryan a moment ago in the lights. It was a scene between him and the female lead. Ryan had already sat down.

Rhea had already brought back her attention to her laptop display.

She started to draw, randomly. She was just drawing without nothing much in her mind, but when she finished, she was really dumbfounded. She had ended up drawing a man, who is looking at the one before him with angry eyes. It was obviously not Ryan's face. But if Ryan was ever turned into a cartoon, he will look like this.

Rhea started to paint the model she had just drawn. Finally, she didn't forget to add a few lines of red by his lips, as if he was bleeding in his mouth.

A smile bloomed in her face looking at what she had drawn.

She had finally drawn Ryan's cartoon. To her surprise, the cartoon was handsome, like him. It was one of her best drawings. She was more than happy just by looking at the cartoon Ryan.

Although she wanted to work on her third novel, now she felt more contended through what she had drawn which was not related to her book. When she finished touching up the cartoon a little, she ended up with a picture of Ryan, more like an anime version.

Rhea suddenly got an idea.

It was not so difficult or boring for her anymore. She started to draw more of those drawings, with Ryan as her live model.

Though she had used Ryan as her model in Just Met You, what she had drawn was not his face in her illustrations, but an imaginary face. But this one really looked like Ryan. And he was in front of her as her model. She didn't want to publish them or anything. She just wanted to keep them for herself.

Just like this, drawing Ryan's cartoon version perfectly and painting him, Rhea found her happiness in the studio. She successfully passed almost a fortnight like that. She had drawn one art a day. It was all Ryan in different costumes and poses. She even added her creativity into the art.

Ryan with a pilot uniform, Ryan with his headphones listening to something, Ryan playing football, Ryan wearing a historic outfit and with long hair and so on….

One day, she was busy drawing him as a pirate!

"Rhea, you're amazing! Looks really good!"

Shocked by the sudden interference, she turned and found Ethan sitting next to her.

"Oh! Ethan… Thank you"

"Just as expected from the illustrator of 'Just Met You'!"

"Did you know... When?"

"You mean that you being the scriptwriter? Yeah. I know. We all know"

"Oh!" Rhea was shocked at first. She didn't tell anyone about this. Could it be Yuan Yu?

"How? Did the director told you?"

"No. It was Mr. Ryan Jin!"

"Ryan…"

"Yeah. Some of my friends asked me about you. I told them that you are Mr. Ryan's assistant. He must have been passing by, then. So he came to us and let us know that you are the scriptwriter."

"Oh!"

"He told us that you are also a producer of the film!"

Rhea's eyes widened. Now she was really embarrassed.

"He also told us to not disturb you since you are really busy observing the direction and working on other projects"

"Ah??"

"That's why I didn't dare to disturb you all these days. But today, I was really amazed by what you've drawn and came here out of amazement. Sorry for disturbing you!"

For some reason, Rhea felt like he was complaining!

Ryan told him that she was busy but when was she ever busy in this studio? She was speechless. What is he trying to do? She looked up at Ryan who was still sitting in the armchair attentively reading his script.

"I'm not really that busy. If you want, you can come to talk to me. I don't know many people here. By the way, thank you for helping me the first day!"

"Oh, really? Then can you add me to your we chat?"

"Sure" Rhea smiled then added him to her we chat. Rhea if you are interested in teaming up in the game, you can text me. I'm short of team members and saw that you are pretty good."

"I don't play this game often Ethan, but I have a friend who plays and had already reached level 10000. I'll ask her if she wants to join"

"Level 10000?"

"Yeah. She is amazing!"

"Yeah! Must be!" he was really amazed for some amount of time. After a while, he spoke again!

"Rhea, the one in your drawing, Is that Mr. Ryan?"

Rhea was dumbfounded this time.

"Is it that obvious?"

"It gives away his vibes. You know. The cold, nonchalant but handsome vibes", he chuckled.

Though Rhea could obviously see why he called him a 'cold' from the way Ryan behave with other people, she knew how playful and lively Ryan is. So she only nodded.

"It's Ryan Jin!", Ethan felt more like a friend now. So she didn't feel fine saying this.

"Don't tell me you also have a crush on him!" he chuckled.

"Me also? Who else has a crush on him?"

"Most of the girls of your age, have a crush on Ryan. It's a given!"

"I'm just drawing him to get some ideas to promote the movie", she defended herself.

"Does 'Just met you' require him as a pirate?" he chuckled again.

"No. This one may be useful in his upcoming movies!", she simply lied.

"Ah. You are a producer! I forgot that!"

Though Rhea cannot be called a producer legally, it was true that she had invested in the film. So she kept silent.

"Do you want this?", in the middle of the conversation, he passed one of the two canned strawberry juice he had in his hand.

"Thank you", she accepted it after a little hesitation.

"Are there any others? Your drawings?"

"Yeah. Want to see?"

"Of course" he smiled.

She showed all the fourteen drawings she had worked on in those two weeks. Ethan was also appreciating her and praising her art. The two didn't know that a pair of icy eyes had been watching them for some time already!

Rhea was smiling as she was showing Ethan her works. She even felt proud. They were all really good.

She finally thought 'Isn't this all really amazing because the model was too handsome?'

With this thought, she couldn't help but look in the direction where Ryan was sitting. But this time, to her surprise, her model was looking in their direction, glaring to be more precise. His eyes were fixed on her and Ethan. Facing his sudden continuous glare, Rhea didn't know if she could ignore and avert her gaze back to her laptop or should she continue playing, 'who averts the gaze first'. Her smile had already frozen in confusion.

Seeing her sudden silence, Ethan once again spoke.

"Rhea, show me the next one!"

He was still admiring her drawing genuinely, so he didn't notice the staring war between her and Ryan!

Rhea who was brought back to the normal world by Ethan's call showed him the next image. It was a Ryan who was dressed in an ancient black costume with long beautiful black hair. Ryan never acted in historic films before. So this one was totally Rhea's imagination. But it was seriously awesome. The long hair and historic costume suited him. He looked amazing.

"Rhea, you're incredible. Really!" Ethan almost yelled.

"Thank you" she accepted the praise with slight embarrassment, smiling…

It was already around six in the evening when the shooting came to an end. Rhea was ready to leave the tall building. When she reached the gate Mr. Li called for her.

"Rhea!"

She turned around and saw uncle Li a few feet behind her. There was a black car behind him and she could easily say that the figure, which was sitting in the backseat of the car, which seemed so uninterested to look in her direction was Ryan.

"So temperamental!" she murmured.

Suddenly remembering uncle Li, she turned to him,

"Yeah, uncle!"

Mr. Li, whose ears were sharp easily caught the words she said. He smiled. Rhea understood and sheepishly smiled back.

"Mr. Ryan asked me to pass a message! From tomorrow, I'll give you basic training! You have to come to Mr. Ryan's cabin when you reach here. After a week's time, you can start to work as his assistant!"

Rhea was really happy hearing this. She badly wanted to do something useful as an assistant. Finally, Ryan agreed to let her be a real assistant. Uncle Li will be a great help indeed. She was so happy. She suddenly smiled widely.

"Sure uncle!"

Ryan who was curious and had just turned to see what's going on with them saw her smile as well.

"Smiling at everyone but me!" he murmured, then once again turned away his head!