ɪ ʜᴀᴛᴇ ʙᴇʟʟ ᴘᴇᴘᴘᴇʀꜱ [𝓐𝓺𝓾𝓪 𝔁 𝓚𝓪𝓷𝓪] {𝒪𝓈𝒽𝒾 𝓃𝑜 𝒦𝑜}

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟙𝟙 ~ 𝕄𝕒𝕔𝕙𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕣'𝕤 𝕊𝕥𝕒𝕣

Kana POV:

An hour later  I finally walked out of the dressing room, decked out in full makeup and a pretty pink silk dress. The dress had gold buttons and a sakura pattern, with a short-sleeve white turtleneck underneath to give off a preppy spring vibe. They matched it with white heels, some simple jewerelly, and a matching headband.

Even though Machistar's studio looked extremley bland, the amount of effort they put into dressing me up was better than I thought- they had curled my hair and even painted my nails with a clear polish to make it 'shine beneath the camera'. 

The person who had styled me was Ophelia's friend- Mina. Mina was the oppisote of Ophelia- slightly younger and extremely shy. Well, maybe shy wasn't the word. Mina didn't talk to me at all except for the occasional 'move your head' and it wasn't a 'you're a stranger' kind of silence- it was a 'I don't really like you' kind of silence.

Mina made me feel strange and uncomfortable and although I didn't like Ophelia, she was a lot better than Mina. Apparently they were best friends- though they didn't look like it. Mina didn't talk to anyone except flirt with the camera man.

Ophelia introduced the camera guy as Jacob. Jacob was tall, and mildly attractive- Mina seemed to be obsessed with him. She became a whole different person around Jacob! 

Jacob was friendlier and actually normal compared to Ophelia and Mina- I was glad for an actual normal human soul around here.

They began the shoot with a few simple poses- hand on hip, turning back, smiles or neutral expressions and some more basic things I could easily do.

But then Mina brought in the green screen and a fake swing. I was required to sit on the swing and pretend to be swinging mid-air while looking like it was the best day of my life, though today was far from it.

I did my best but it was hard to do a natural open-mouthed smile, especially while trying to angle the swing. The fake swing had plastic strings instead of rope and the wooden seat was replaced with a fake foam one. The only reason it didn't collapse under me was the stool underneath the seat, holding me up. 

After a few failed takes of that particular pose, Ophelia had me take a break. Mina was stuck to Jacob like glue, so Ophelia settled with chatting to me. 

"You've been doing a wonderful job, darling," Ophelia gushed, "My, you're a natural! Just like our Annie. Your face is even prettier. We might really have a chance this year!"

I smiled awkwardly at the compliments, though I wasn't sure if I wanted to be talking about Annie like that behind her back. There was always a cost to gossiping. 

"Darling, might I ask- will you contuine with Machistar after this competiiton?" Ophelia asked curiously. "If you do make it in as a finalist, of course you'll have to do more live modelling practice. And if you don't, well... would you still like to be with Machistar?"

I opened my mouth to decline, but Ophelia talked crazy fast over me. "I know it might be bad for your reputation to be with a small, failed modelling company- but we might make it big, and you would be doing us a great favour. Right now, we only have Annie and it would be sensational if we had a larger variety of models. You'll get pay every week and you'll only have to occasionally come in for a job!"

To be honest, the idea sounded tempting- with the amount of jobs Machistar got, I would probably be able to go weeks without doing anything and still get pay. But I wasn't sure I wanted to be a model- I wasn't cut out for the high beauty standards, the rage of hate online or the instense training.

Besides, this was only a temporary thing. I didn't want to get obsessed with modelling and have the same idiotic hope that I might make it big again like I had with singing- if I was a failed actor I would be a failed model.