The Greatest Showman

William Taylor pressed down on Graham Hughes’s shoulder with his right hand, stretching his body to the limit as he tiptoed and leapt upward. Yet all he could see was a dense sea of people, blocking his view of everything. The scene at the centre of the square was completely obscured. He could only faintly glimpse some hair at the top, let alone see any faces—he couldn’t even tell if the person was male or female.

Standing nearby, Hope Bates was being squeezed by the crowd to the point of breathlessness. Her frail frame seemed as if it could be swallowed up at any moment. She had to shout, “You can push forward, but please don’t crush me, okay? ‘The Big Bang Theory’ cast isn’t standing next to me!”

The waves of people quickly drowned out her clear voice, but it managed to ease the pressure around her slightly. Hope finally got a bit of air, though the murky atmosphere made her lungs ache. She quickly patted William’s left hand. “How about now? Can you see him? Can you see him? Isn’t Renly breathtakingly handsome? Isn’t he? Isn’t he?!” Instantly slipping into fangirl mode, her sharp tone from before was nowhere to be found.

William grumbled in frustration, “Nope, can’t see a thing!” He jumped a few more times, but it was futile.

“Then let’s do this!” Graham raised a banner in his left hand that read, “Renly Hall: The Most Outstanding Leading Actor in My Heart!” Holding it high with both hands, he waved it around vigorously. However, the swarm of fans ahead, dense as a forest of United Nations flags, obscured their banner completely. Standing in the middle-to-back section of the crowd, they were utterly engulfed.

William took the left side of the banner while Graham held the right. The two of them stretched their arms to the utmost limit, raising the banner high into the air. Hope looked up at it, shouting, “Higher! Even higher!” The banner wobbled but managed to emerge from the sea of people.

But the two young men couldn’t hold it for long. Their arms soon grew sore, and they had to lower it again. William groaned, “Why are there so many people today? I thought the Emmys weren’t that popular.”

“It’s all because of the fans of ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and ‘Glee’. They practically own the place,” Hope replied with an exaggerated eye-roll, her irritation plain as day.

Hope Bates, a freshman at UCLA, had met William and Graham by chance during a freshman mixer. The three quickly bonded over their shared enthusiasm for ‘The Pacific’—or more specifically, for the actor Renly Hall in that series.

As a die-hard fan of ‘Band of Brothers’, William unexpectedly became enamoured with Renly. It was the first time he truly appreciated the distinction between an actor and a script. Some depth came from the script, and some from the director’s storytelling, but certain layers of meaning were uniquely conveyed through the actor’s performance. This realization made William a devoted fan of the up-and-coming actor—especially since Renly was only two years older than him!

Yet when William searched Yahoo forums for like-minded fans, he found few. Since ‘The Pacific’ DVDs hadn’t been released yet, its audience base remained small, and the initial buzz had faded. Renly’s relative obscurity over the past few months didn’t help either.

So when William and Hope discovered they both admired Renly’s acting and were both freshmen, they couldn’t contain their excitement. Naturally, Graham was on board too.

After the Emmy nominations were announced, Hope was determined to attend the ceremony—it was a rare chance to see Renly up close. The venue, located in Los Angeles, gave them no excuse to miss out. William and Graham eagerly agreed.

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The anticipation made William giddy. Despite his past obsessions with ‘Band of Brothers’ and ‘Harry Potter’, he had never ventured out to meet his idols in person. But for Renly Hall, this rookie actor, he decided to make an exception.

Because William and Graham had classes in the afternoon, Hope arrived alone at the Nokia Theatre at 11 a.m., securing a spot in the front row with high hopes of getting close to Renly.

However, by 3 p.m., fans of ‘The Big Bang Theory’ began to arrive. Slowly but surely, they pushed the scattered fans to the periphery. Hope was among them. Her refusal to yield led to a heated argument, but the opposing group—more than ten people—overwhelmed her, forcibly taking her spot.

Seething with rage, Hope complained to the event staff, but they explained that since this wasn’t a ticketed event, they couldn’t control the crowd once positions were disrupted. To make matters worse, fans of ‘Glee’ soon joined the fray, clashing with ‘The Big Bang Theory’ fans for space. Chaos ensued, and individual fans, unable to unite, were left scattered.

By the time William and Graham arrived, they had been pushed back to the sixth or seventh row. The crowd continued to swell, leaving them sandwiched with no way forward or back—a thoroughly exhausting ordeal.

“Do you think Renly saw the banner?” William asked hopefully.

Both Hope and Graham fell silent. The crowd numbered at least 800, with over 500 on the left and about 300 on the right. The dense mass of people, countless signs, and deafening cheers created a chaotic spectacle. Swallowed by the crowd, the three were powerless. The likelihood of Renly noticing their banner was heartbreakingly slim. 𝐑

Hope gritted her teeth fiercely. “Damn hooligans,” she muttered, casting a glance at the dense crowd ahead. The face of Sheldon, the lead character from ‘The Big Bang Theory’, was plastered everywhere, his smug smile dominating the scene and leaving no space untouched. “If only we could have gathered more people,” she sighed.

At such a grand event as an award ceremony, the efforts of just three people felt utterly insignificant.

Renly’s view was filled with a sea of fervent faces. In the hazy glow of the lights, they blurred into one indistinct mass. The only clear sight was the overwhelming wave of “Sheldon” posters, that iconic mischievous smile covering every inch of the left side of the square. Even the other main characters of ‘The Big Bang Theory’ were entirely overshadowed, as if the Nokia Theatre had been overtaken by Sheldon’s army.

In contrast, the fans of ‘Gle’e were less coordinated. Their banners, photos, and signs created a chaotic visual cacophony. Although their numbers might have even been slightly greater, their disorganized display gave the impression that this was ‘The Big Bang Theory’’s home turf.

Renly found the whole scene amusing. In his previous life, he had only heard about the passion and frenzy of fans, but he had never witnessed it firsthand. Now, standing amidst it all, even though the support wasn’t for him, he couldn’t help but feel amazed. It was as if waves of heat surged from all directions, enveloping him completely. Everywhere he looked, there was an immense energy waiting to erupt.

“What do you think Jim Parsons would feel seeing this?” James shouted into Renly’s ear.

Renly imagined the scene and couldn’t help but chuckle. “Just picture hundreds of your own faces floating before you. That’s probably even creepier than the cloning scene in ‘The Matrix’!”

“Who knows? Maybe next year it’ll be your turn to face this. Let’s hope it doesn’t give you nightmares,” James teased with a feigned look of disgust.

Renly spread his hands casually, unfazed. “We’ll see.”

The square was teeming with A-list actors. Though no banners were waving for them, their familiar faces were enough to incite cheers and screams. Cries of “Elisabeth Moss!” hadn’t faded before another group shouted “Jorge Garcia!” Meanwhile, fans nearby erupted into shrieks at the sight of January Jones.

The entire square resembled a massive outdoor party -it was vibrant and lively. Renly and his two companions, however, looked like clueless newcomers who had just arrived and couldn’t even locate the bar.

“Look, that’s our team over there,” Rami said, nudging Renly with his shoulder and motioning to a small group in the far-right corner. Renly and James turned to look.

Besides the massive banners for ‘Glee’, a small group of people were holding up posters for ‘The Pacific’. At a glance, there were about a dozen of them. But compared to the grandiose displays nearby, they looked like a solitary canoe facing a tsunami. If Rami hadn’t pointed them out, they might have been easily overlooked.

Renly suddenly broke into a smile. “Look, there are even two posters for ‘Band of Brothers’!” The three of them burst into laughter.

Despite ‘The Pacific’ garnering numerous nominations and leading the awards buzz, its fanbase wasn’t nearly as vocal. The HBO miniseries format lacked the pull of mainstream television shows. Moreover, none of them had forgotten the controversies during the show’s airing—the higher the expectations, the harsher the scrutiny. With the DVD yet to be released, it wasn’t surprising that only a small number of fans showed up to support them at the ceremony.

The trio took it all in stride. Just seeing their posters in the crowd was enough to make them content. Laughing and chatting, they made their way across the square, waving cheerfully at their small group of supporters before heading into the Nokia Theatre.

“Whew, that was a quick walk down the red carpet,” Renly quipped, drawing laughter from Rami and James. Just then, a smooth, composed voice, tinged with humour, chimed in beside them.

“I thought young people would want to linger and savour the applause.”

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T/N – Merry Christmas to everyone who is celebrating it and I wish you all are good and healthy, let us enjoy the next year…

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