The Luster of Stars in Moscow
⁇ 22
Inside the elevator Mikail and Rafael were still silent to each other.
Cheri watched the two in a misbehavior.
It was shocking, Cheri thought. Mikail looked much more manly, while Rafael looked childish.
It turned out to be true, Cheri said inwardly. The name human is complicated.
Mikail then cleared her throat and glanced at Rafael while crossing her arms.
Rafael glanced back at him and snorted, "Alright," he said helplessly. "I'll apologize to Demian first. That's the director's job!"
Oh, so it's not about me? Thought Cheri. The two of them... are thinking of a way to make up with Demian?
As Sesha was right, Demian was more respected here.
It's a big mistake if I think Rafael will defend me.
"Maybe I should have stepped down from the role of the Beautiful One" Cheri said. "That way, it won't end like that."
The two men beside him simultaneously turned their heads with wide eyes.
Cheri.
"What kind of stupid word is that?" Rafael.
"But you don't seem to like it either?!" Cheri raised his face, looking at Rafael. Then back down. "Again, I don't understand how to play the Beautiful One."
Rafael gulped and froze.
Mikail glanced at the digital figures near the door. "It has arrived" he said, taking forcibly the hands of Cheri and Rafael. As soon as the elevator door blared, the man drove the two out of the elevator.
"Hei—" Rafael screeched in surprise. Cheri fell on her chest.
Mikail grinned as she waved her hand briefly before the elevator door closed again. "Invigorating the actress is also a director's duty," he murmured to himself.
Rafael bought some slack while pushing both of Cheri's shoulders and pulling his face away. Both of the girls shoulders were shaking in his hands. Rafael frowned and ducked.
Cheri covered his face with a palm and gasped.
Rafael pulled Cheri's chin and raised his face.
The girl's face was teary.
Rafael. Why is she crying? He asked in his heart.
"Sorry," sizzled Cheri Parau. "I—"
"You're wrong" cut Rafael.
Cheri stutters.
"I really like your acting" Rafael admitted.
Cheri blinked, looking into Rafael's eyes.
Rafael looked back at him. "You didn't ruin my scenario" he said, smiling sadly. "Just I tied my position to this theater. Anyway, I feel bad for Demian until I praise you so easily. But if the other players can understand your interpretation, it means that your Beauty has potential. If there were a couple of the Beautiful One and the Bad One who were different, wouldn't it be more interesting?"
"Wuaaaa.." Cheri sucked his face into Rafael's chest and cried.
Rafael groaned and twisted his eyeballs. Why did he even cry, anyway? Rafael did not think. Women are hard to describe, she wrote in her heart. "Yes, already! It's okay," he said half muttered. "Crying, after all, this sweater is old."
Cheri snatched Rafael's sweater collar with both hands and crept on the man's chest, burrowing his face deeper and deeper.
Rafael slipped both his hands into his pants pocket and sighed. "Sometimes I forget you're only 18 and your father has just left" he said. "Now you live in Moscow alone."
Cheri was crying.
"Alright," said Rafael, taking one hand out of his pocket and lifting it, gently rubbing the back of Cheri's head. "I may not be able to replace your father, but. cry!"
The spring cold wind blew from the balcony of Rafael's room.
Rafael leaned his back against the wall. Staring blankly at the pair of tightly clenched metal doors, right in front of him.
He was still in front of the elevator!
And…
Cheri was still slumped in his chest while crying.
I don't know how long it took for that girl to drain away her tears.
But Rafael could feel the girl starting to calm down.
The girl's breathing began to settle.
Rafael glanced at the end of the corridor, the place where the girl's room was.
"Rest, Cheri!" Rafael whispered as he stroked the girl's back.
Cheri pulled his face from Rafael's chest and looked up. His eyes look haphazard.
Rafael buried his forehead at the top of Cheri's head and rubbed the back of the girl's head once more.
...***...
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Moscow, March 19, 2023.
One day before the show…
The MoscovArt Theatre looks much more alive towards the end of spring.
Hustle and bustle busyness.also downstream the people who mill around in the hall makes the building look like a tourist attraction.
A group of teenagers huddled near the entrance, discussing something while laughing. In their hands, each of them held a manuscript sheet and a catalogue.
At the entrance of the auditorium is a prospectus: GLADI RESIK, WHO HAS NO INTEREST IS PROHIBITED!
Not far from the door of the auditorium, a long line crowded the terrace of the counter.
The yellow-haired girl, Tania Deanlova, assistant to Mikail Volkov, was seen busy serving ticket reservations. While Mikail serves ticket reservations by phone in the administration room.
The female players were chirping in the costume room while gossiping. While the male players threw jokes at each other in the room next to him.
The creative team was milling around all over the place and instructing each other a lot of things.
Rafael sat in the pews watching everyone accompanied by Sesha Montrosecova.
Cheri has not seen the trunk of his nose.
Cheri is still at school, while Kyle chooses permission not to enter the school. The boy had been busy since the early hours.
"Did Cheri still not come home?" Rafael asked Ibrahim who was perched on top of the folding ladder—posing a poster, near the entrance.
"I haven't seen him yet" Ibrahim replied without distracting himself from the poster he had unfurled overhead.
"How, anyway?" Rafael began to grumble. "Say he wants permission to go home sooner?"
"Demian hasn't returned from lunch yet!" Sesha.
"Yes, Lord.." Rafael groaned. "They are absolutely outrageous!"
"Please give me some nails" Ibrahim ordered the boy under his stairs.
In a culinary center, a few kilometers from MoscovArt Theatre, not far from Cheri school, two men sit opposite each other inside the Coffee Shop.
Some girls glanced at them full of admiration.
One of the men glanced at them while smiling faintly.
The girls were twisting and whispering while giggling.
Cheri ran in a row not far from the place. His school shoes were pounding on the asphalt surface, throwing off road dust and fine gravel.
Once he got to the front of the Coffee Shop, the two men had already moved from their desks and walked side by side to the exit.
Cheri stopped his steps for a moment while flabbergasted. Then inched to his side and drowned himself among the crowd of people who were milling about.
The faces of the two men looked familiar!
The demian?
Cheri squinted his eyes to sharpen his vision. His breathing was still stingy when he stuck his head out from behind someone's back.
Not wrong anymore!
That guy is Demian.
But that was not what made Cheri choose to hide himself.
But the other guy…
The man next to Demian was Vladimir Vallensky-the arch-enemy of Rafael.
Why is Demian with Vladimir?