Page 57 of Baby Love
Claiming technical problems, the producers shut off the live feed for the night. Our instructions are that the following morning, when the cameras and mics are turned back on, we are to act as though nothing happened, and that includes the two couples involved. Anyone not doing so or heard talking about “the incident” will be let go from the company immediately with no severance pay. Properly chastised, we all go to bed in somber moods, and Prince and Gift head to their single room without a word or look passing between them. Book returns upstairs to sleep in the common bedroom.
The next day, a rigged game of bingo pronounces Ban and Book as the next occupants of the single room. Prince and Gift move to the shared room, where they show no outward signs of their dispute. But the affection between them that was once there is glaringly absent from their interactions.
Aod tries to talk to me about it in hushed whispers that night when most everyone’s asleep, but I shut him down. I don’t want to risk getting into trouble.
Needless to say, the rest of the week in the Love Lounge house is extremely stressful. Prince keeps to himself, which fans notice and talk about on social media, but Book sticks next to Ban. When we leave, it’s actually a relief for me to go back to worrying about things like what my father’s up to, Bass’s interest in my sister, and Kiet’s absence in my life.
“The next several months are going to be about damage control,” Khun Hom announces in a hastily called meeting of all SPPT actors the day after we leave the Love Lounge house.
A meeting in which Prince is noticeably absent.
“It will take all of you to divert attention from what occurred last week. Our team has worked tirelessly the past couple of days to comb through the footage at Love Lounge and edit out anything we don’t want fans to see. Of course, many have already seen this footage, and there are screenshots and video clips all over social media. Beginning today, Prince is no longer with SPPT Productions. A notice is going out in the morning saying he has decided not to renew his contract.”
We are given a minute to digest this shocking but not-so-shocking information before Khun Hom resumes.
“Ban and Book will ramp up their fanservice and promote their upcoming series, but all fanmeets, promotions, and live streams are canceled for the next two weeks, at which time we will reevaluate the situation. No one is to speak of what happened. If questions come your way, you are to deflect them as best you can. We recommend that you act like you don’t know what the questioner is talking about.”
Cream told me and P’Park privately that Ban and Book were sequestered in Khun Hom’s office for hours earlier, and it’s probable they’ve been given a list of provisions for their ship, which they evidently want to keep. We assume one of them will be that Ban’s girlfriend—whom the producers were never particularly keen about having around—stays away.
Khun Hom’s eyes land on me and P’Park.
“Park and Spin are now SPPT’s lead ship. Please keep this in mind in everything you do, as eyes will be on you,” she instructs us before addressing each of the other shipped couples in turn. There is a special wedding episode planned for some characters, and a series of live streams for other actors. Everyone is expected to ramp up their skinship and promote their next series with enthusiasm and lots of skinship.
When she finishes her instructions, Khun Hom asks me and P’Park to stay behind and then dismisses everyone else.
“I realize this is a lot, but I have faith that the two of you can handle it,” she tells us after the room clears out. “I wanted to let you know about a couple of other changes. One is with the Heartbeat script. As you know from reading the novel, your characters go to the beach with Daeng and Aod’s characters, but that was left out of the screenplay. Due to recent events, we’ve decided that the beach trip should be included after all, along with the intense NC scene between Khao and Boom. We’ll give you your new scripts before you head to Koh Sumei next week to film.“ Khun Hom pauses, taking a deep breath and letting it out. “There’s something else. You may have noticed Aod was missing from the meeting.”
Now that she mentions it, I realize that he wasn’t sitting beside Daeng.
“Aod has been let go.”
I glanced at P’Park. From the look on his face, he’s as shocked by this news as I am.
“Why?” he asks.
“He leaked information about what happened between Prince and Book. His part in Heartbeat has been recast. Gift will be taking his place. With Prince out of the picture, we feel it is best to get Gift with another partner as soon as possible. The fact that it’s a secondary character he’ll be playing will make the transition easier all around. We’ll have to scramble to have Gift refilm the scenes we’ve already filmed with Aod, but there’s no way around that.“ Khun Hom looks at her watch. “Go on to lunch. Spin—I need to see you in my office when you get back.”
I’m reeling from the information dump. Prince was let go? Aod leaked information and now Gift will be playing the part of Bear? A hotter NC scene is being added back into the series? Hotter than that implied blowjob and the nipple-sucking?
And why does Khun Hom want to see me in her office?
In silence, Park and I head down to the lobby in the elevator. When we’re out of the building, I say, “Khun Hom wants to see me. It has to be something about Love Lounge or about my father. I can’t think of anything else.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong at Love Lounge,“ P’Park says.
“I let P’Daeng get on the float with me.”
“That was his fault. What were you supposed to do, push him off? If anyone’s going to get into trouble, it will be me for yelling at Daeng. Stop worrying. I’m sure it’s nothing.”
“Do you think you’ll get into trouble?” I ask, now more worried about that.
P’Park gives me a small smile. “No. Everything’s going to be okay.”
“Why would Aod risk his job like that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he thought he wouldn’t be caught.”
“But why? Did he want to get Book and Prince in trouble?”