Back In The Game

CHAPTER 17

3rd Person's Pov

Flashback~

'"AP. Bren I think? I've still yet to go down by the details but they are currently bidding me to be their model." She smiled flatly.

End~

Aleah was curious about why her friend suddenly became a model of ECHO instead of BREN. She wanted to ask the people beside her, but it was best if she would directly ask the primary source.

"What are you thinking deeply about?" Kairi asks in a low voice.

She shakes her head and turns to him "Nothing."

The shoot took a break for a while to let them have their snacks Aleah had mentioned that she had a food truck waiting outside their area. The models and players lined up to get the food and drinks. Aleah and Maria are waiting for Joanna with their heads.

"I thought you also had an offer about this, Maria?"

"I rejected it. I tend to focus more on my endorsements right now. I don't have an interest in gaming." Maria shrugs.

"That's understandable, but you should be aware that the gaming industry has gone into massive growth right now, especially when the pandemic started almost five years—six years ago?" she counted the years. "And it impacts our whole community that moment. Also, I think the Esports industry is slowly gaining approval from other countries. Just like in the U.S"

On one of her vacations, Aleah could see that the youth around toddlers to early childhood have already engaged in gadgets and technologies which amazed her. She's somewhat still couldn't keep up with the technology trends that have been just released.

Joanna finally arrived and sat beside Aleah and Maria.

Aleah looked at her and asked; "Why are you modeling for ECHO instead of BREN?" Joanna was startled a little but continued to eat.

"I got replaced." That's all that she could say. Aleah's brows furrowed in confusion. Maria gasped about what she had heard.

"What do you mean you got replaced?!" Maria was mad. Joanna tried to calm her down.

"It was a mutual decision. You will probably see the person who replaced me in a while though." She caressed Maria's back.

Aleah was confused because of the sudden changes. Joanna was the best competitor when it came to MLB because not only she was once a cosplayer for it, but she also had a chance to compete. But she rejected it because she chose to be a model.

Karltzy walked towards their table and sat on the available seat. "What's up?" he asked. Joanna just shrugged whereas Aleah was in deep thought, Maria was calming herself from a sudden strike of blood pressure.

"Kyletzy is here." Renejay popped out of nowhere with Yskaela. Eyes were set on the man who had just gone out of the door, behind him was a girl who was tall, fair, and familiar.

"that's the new model for BREN." Yskaela introduced. "That's Marcy. A new local model. She's a fresh face in your industry."

"Seriously? They would rather pick an amateur instead of a veteran and one of the popular models?" Maria couldn't believe what BREN E-sports had done.

"They're quite the risk taker, but they are also impulsive of suddenly changing it," Aleah commented.

Kairi and SZE arrived with their snacks.

"What are you gossiping about?" SZE asked.

"Can I open it up to them too?" Maria asked for Joanna's permission.

"Sure, it's not like it's a secret you know." She said and laughed. Maria filled up Kairi and SZE about the gossip while Aleah was staring at the new girl and Kyletzy.

'she's a little familiar.' She thought. She couldn't only see her side profile, not her whole face.

"She's Marcy, she was an influencer before she was scouted to be a model," SZE told them.

"That's weird. I thought that she's a local model here in the Philippines?" Joanna asked.

"Well, for now. My sister told me that a modeling agency in Indonesia is pirating her." SZE answered.

"She's that good huh?" Maria snickered. "Let's see if she can survive in our real world."

"What are you planning?" Aleah shot her a look. "If you want to blame someone, blame BREN. It wasn't her fault that Joanna got replaced. Remember to know the root of the cause before blaming someone." Aleah's response knocked out of Maria to realize that.

Maria felt a little embarrassed but was still stubborn about it. But Aleah knew that Maria would shift the blame to the management instead of the poor girl.

Aleah sighed and munched a bit of cookies she had taken from her food truck.

"Do you have a problem?" Kairi asks her. The others were busy gossiping about the issue, she didn't expect that Kairi would have noticed her being too preoccupied with something.

But little did she know that Kairi was looking at her the whole time. Not minding their surroundings.

"Not really, I was just thinking of something." She replied.

"So you're telling me that BREN had informed me to replace you after they announced that Marcy is their new model?! What the?!" Maria was fuming mad.

"Yes. They not only replaced me, but they have also framed that I had a conflict with my schedule!" Joanna exclaimed. All of the people gasped as Joanna's voice had been heard throughout the area. "Oops!" She covered her mouth.

Aleah and Kairi saw that Kyletzy twitched and Marcy's one eyebrow raised. They noticed how Kyletzy was nervously talking to Marcy.

"Hmm, that's interesting." Aleah puts her head on the palm of her hand.

"What's interesting?" Kairi asked. Aleah giggled.

"It seems that BREN E-sports didn't inform Marcy about the situation." Joanna heard what Aleah said and made her turn to her.

"What do you mean she wasn't informed?"

"When your voice accidentally slipped, I saw Marcy's confused face while Kyletzy was nervously dragging her away from the scene."

"That's only your assumption. We can't be too sure of it." Maria rolled her eyes.

"I had interacted with her some time ago, she's nice." Yskaela tried to converse with them.

"Is that so? But it's still skeptical. Why would BREN suddenly change their model two days before the shoot?" That question got everyone into thinking.