The Way Back to You

Interlude (1)

INT. HOSPITAL WARD – DAY

BRIAR regains consciousness as he lies in a hospital bed. He hears the beeping sound of a vital signs monitor and feels the coolness of the air-conditioned room. He opens his eyes and sighs.

A GASP FROM NEARBY

BRIAR turns his head towards the sound and sees a blurry figure approach. He smiles.

                BRIAR as QING XUE

            (in an archaic language)

        Ruyi, I have come back to you.

…

…

…

Inside the large private dining room, silence suddenly reigned. 

This should not have been so. For well over an hour already, there had been a steady stream of numerous voices alternately reading off of their script. 

From the director reading aloud the non-dialogue parts to each of the actors reciting the lines of the characters they would be playing, the relay thus far had been largely smooth and uninterrupted.

But now that they reached this transition scene, which necessitated the modern setting’s male lead to take up the baton again after a long break, everyone gradually became aware that something was amiss, and they raised their eyes from each of their scripts to look around them.

Pretty soon, all eyes settled on one particular man.

Right by this man’s side, head tilted sideways to try to see his face, Xian had a worried expression as he called, “Lance…?”

There was no response.

For some time now, the focus had been on the ancient setting, and it was the actors on the left side of the room—along with Xian in the middle—who had been doing much of the reading. Throughout most of it, Lance had had his elbows propped on the table and was leaning his head against his hands. 

His script was right in front of him, and thus, although his hands were clasped over his forehead in such a way that his eyes could not be seen, it could easily be supposed that he was also quietly reading along with the others.

But Matilda, the senior actor to his right, suddenly said, “I think he’s asleep. He hasn’t been turning his script for a while now.”

Swallowing nervously as he found himself hoping that that was really the case, Xian reached for Lance’s shoulder and shook him a little. 

“Lance,” he called again. When there was still no response, he repeated both actions—this time, with more force borne of rising panic. “Lance, can you hear me? Lance!”

When everyone clearly saw that no amount of shaking or shouting could get through to him, they also became more concerned.

“Do we know if he has a medical condition?” Samuel asked Laurel beside him. 

Already wondering the same thing, she took out the film club’s tablet and brought up the info they had on Lance Hill. After skimming through lines of text, Laurel came across the words: “History of seizures.”

She immediately pushed off her chair and stood up, already opening her mouth to shout, “Xian, get him on his…!”

…Get him on his back, she would have said, if she’d managed to finish speaking. It was important that they administer first aid just in case Lance had stopped or was having difficulty breathing.

But Laurel couldn’t help trailing off upon witnessing her younger brother’s next actions, along with what happened after.

From how he had been clamping a hand over Lance’s shoulder, Xian shifted his hold such that he now had an arm protectively around the other guy’s neck and was cradling him against his chest. 

Viewed another way, it looked like Xian was now embracing him, especially after his free hand reached to hold both of Lance’s clamped hands and he leaned close to Lance’s ear to whisper something.

Even the ones near them did not manage to hear what he said, let alone Laurel who was still across the room. But her curiosity over that was eclipsed for the moment by Lance’s sudden movement, seemingly in response to Xian’s whispered words.

He sucked in a sharp breath of air, as if surfacing from underwater after nearly drowning, or waking up from a nightmare that had left him unable to breathe.

As Lance continued to pant audibly, he lowered his hands, revealing his face that clearly showed he was in a daze, and not from merely sleeping. For a moment, it didn’t even look like he knew where he was.

Then his unfocused eyes landed on his hands that were still being held. At the same time, he must have also become aware that the owner of the other hand also had an arm around him, and he was leaning against his chest.

He roamed his confused eyes from his hands to his right shoulder before finally turning his face to the left and seeing who the person so close to him was.

Quite visibly for anyone looking to see, Lance’s expression turned into relief the moment his eyes focused on Xian.

“Are you okay?” Xian asked him softly. He shared none of Lance’s relief and was still as worried as he had been from the very beginning.

Lance was blinking slowly while nodding, and his breathing was returning to normal. By this time, Samuel had already crossed the room to also ask after him.

Though now would be an “appropriate” time to do so, Xian was reluctant to let go of Lance. 

But because he must do so or he’d only cause more worry, Lance straightened in his seat and appeared more or less back to normal. Xian also took his arm from around him, only to proceed to run his hand soothingly up and down his back. He cared nothing for how any of this looked.

Noticing and understanding this, Lance had a leg to stand on when he also told Samuel that he was now fine. More than fine, in fact, at least in some ways.

But Samuel said that he should be brought to the hospital anyway to double-check that nothing was wrong with him. When Lance tried to decline, Samuel pulled the director card on him and won.

“Please excuse us, everyone,” he then said to the room at large. “Mr. Hill and I will be going for a checkup at the nearby hospital. Our assistant director and our co-producer shall be taking the reins from here.”

Xian didn’t feel like he could continue with the read-through under the circumstances, but Lance told him with a gentle quirk of the lips, “I’ll be fine. We’ll be back soon.”

Now with no choice but to let go of him because he couldn’t even see him out of the restaurant, Xian nodded. 

Unseen by most others, he also clutched the back of Lance’s clothes tightly.

Lance just smiled at him again, then he stood and Xian finally had to let go.

“My apologies for the disruption,” Lance said to everyone with a small bow of the head.

“As long as you’re fine,” Matilda replied on his other side, with other voices concurring. “Be a good lad and have yourself checked. Losing consciousness like that shouldn’t be taken lightly.”

At that, Lance nodded before heading for the door. Samuel looked like he wanted to support him as he walked, but somehow, it was obvious from the change in his demeanor that Lance wouldn’t welcome any help. 

Not from him, in any case.

Refraining from revealing his thoughts by looking at Xian, Samuel quietly followed Lance.

Once the door closed after the two men, the remaining heads of the crew had to take a moment to decide who would stand in for Briar in the meantime.

It left Xian free to be mentally shaken once more.

He didn’t actually think it would work when he thought of it. He didn’t even know why the idea suddenly popped into his head.

But after he failed and failed again to shake Lance awake by calling his name, Xian just… tried calling him by another name. 

He’d felt like he had nothing to lose at that point. He was already desperate.

Did he think it would actually work?

Not really. But it did.

Xian had whispered, “Xue, wake up…”

And he actually did.