While the Alarm Girls were experiencing their worst life crisis yet, Iris was busy rehearsing with her band and the symphony orchestra every day.
Dom would update her on the latest news about the Alarm Girls during breaks, but she already mentally tossed them away as not worth her time and precious brain cells. For now, all she wanted was to focus on perfecting every single live performance of her songs.
Tang Yiyi visited her one time during rehearsals.
"Iris, I received many interview requests. They want you to talk about the 'MusicFest Tonight' incident with the Alarm Girls and your fainting episode. And I'm guessing that they also want to hear about your opinion about what the Alarm Girls are going through right now. What do you think? Do you want to accept an interview? Don't worry, I'll choose the safe ones who won't give you a hard time."
Iris sipped hot ginger tea from a thermos. She waved a dismissive hand, looking uninterested. Then she returned to studying the sheet music for one of her songs again, mentally rehearsing while she rested her vocal chords during this break.
Tang Yiyi sighed and then chuckled. She felt pleased seeing how dedicated Iris was in rehearsing. Tang Yiyi thought of one word to describe Iris at the moment: "obsessed".
It wasn't just passion, but an obsession. Iris breathed music, lived music. It was deep within her bones.
Usually, when an artist was too much of a perfectionist, nitpicking everything to the smallest detail, the band musicians would feel disgruntled and resentful for being made to work harder over and over a part that they personally thought couldn't be improved any further without changing the style.
This was why JJ was a nightmare to work with. He would frequently reduce people to tears with his extreme perfectionism and overbearing attitude. However, it was a fact that his perfectionism wasn't for nothing. The music he produced were almost always phenomenal. It was just that his methods were extremely difficult to take especially for the faint-hearted.
Iris was also a perfectionist, but her approach was totally different from JJ's. She knew what she wanted, and she also knew how to achieve it. She would explain her vision in a clear, easy to understand manner. When words weren't enough, she would just grab their instruments and personally show them the way she wanted them to sound.
Her obvious skills, creativity, professionalism and good attitude completely won their respect.
The grueling rehearsals went on every day. During these days, she rarely spoke aloud to protect her vocal chords.
As a result, Jin Liwei forced her to video chat because she refused to speak more than a couple of sentences during a regular voice call and he was unsatisfied with just texts. During their video chats, Jin Liwei spoke while she typed.
Seeing his face on her phone's screen, Iris was surprised of how much she missed him. She still felt a bit sullen at how he treated her before he left, but she was really missing him at the moment. She wished that he would come home sooner, and hug and kiss her.
Iris sighed.
"What's wrong, baby?" Jin Liwei asked in the video chat.
"I wish you're here," she whispered, wanting to say the words in her own voice.
He looked surprised at first before his mouth curved into a delighted smile. "Me too. I wish I didn't have to leave you. I'll be back home soon. Wait for me."
"Okay," she returned to typing. She paused and then typed again. "Ice Cream and Popcorn miss you, too."
She blushed. "Yes."
"Yes what?"
"I miss you," she whispered.
"Miss me what?"
"I miss you...darling."
His eyes darkened with desire. "I miss you too, baby. So much."
Despite the half a day time difference and jet lag, Jin Liwei never failed to call Iris every single day. She knew that he was exhausted from all the business meetings, but he ignored her repeated suggestions of limiting their communication so that he could rest up.
"I need to talk to you or I'll feel even more tired," he told her.
She shut up after hearing his reason. She realized that she also felt the same way as him. Her exhaustion from the rehearsals would mysteriously melt away whenever she talked to him. She even felt oddly energized.
Later, however, her search results proved uncertain. She couldn't find any concrete or verified data or evidence. Most were personal feelings and experiences from random people.
An overwhelming majority of them claimed that the mysterious feeling was called "falling in love".
She tilted her head, thinking deeply.
Was she falling in love with Jin Liwei?
She didn't know.
It was frustrating for someone like her to be unsure of anything and to not be able to find a concrete answer.
Falling in love was such a hassle.
Since she was still unsure, she would not recklessly conclude that she had fallen in love with Jin Liwei. She would wait until she had gathered enough data. She had no idea how she would gather these data, but she would find a way.
Then perhaps she could finally claim that she had experienced falling in love for the first time in her two lives.
