Pose For Me | K.TH

2

AILA

He'd told me to leave after making me walk a few more times.

I'd been worried for nothing.

All I'd done was literally walk across a room a couple times. And other than the fact that I'd received a blow on my self-confidence levels, everything else had been nothing special.

I'd thought that he'd make me pose, but he hadn't even done that.

"Aila!"

"Where were you?" She asks, looking down at her phone. "You weren't there when I came back out."

"They made me take an audition."

"What?" Then all her attention is fully on me, away from her phone. "You can't take an audition here without applying first. And there were so many other girls waiting!"

Oh. I—

"I'm not exactly sure why." I quickly say, suddenly sensing the edge in her gaze. Awkward laughter forces out of my lips.

"I'm sure it's nothing, though. Is it okay if we leave?"

"No— they'll announce the results soon." She says, the tension in her eyes loosening. And when her eyes turn back down to her phone, I struggle to press down a frustrated sigh.

There were still at least fifty girls in line.

I wasn't stupid enough not to guess that the results were going to take at least another hour or two.

Should I just make up an excuse? That I hadn't realized it was going to take this long and that I actually had something to do after this?

Bomi was still scrolling through her phone, not looking she was going to talk to me anytime soon.

Yeah.

I'd do that.

My lips feel heavy as I move them, silently for the first minute. I must look like a complete idiot doing that, but I'd never been the one to say no. Or something that might displease someone else.

Just do it, for heaven's sake.

"Hey, Bomi?"

She blinks, glancing up from her phone.

I pause a split second. "I just wanted to tell—"

"Aila Choi!"

I nearly jump out of my own chair.

It's that woman. That middle-aged woman I'd seen in the bathroom, and she's looking straight at me. She has a faint smile on her lips as she flicks her fingertip in my direction.

"He has asked for you."

Bomi's eyes widen. She quickly puts her phone back into her pocket, gripping my forearm.

Her voice is high.

"Wait, Aila— who? Who's he?"