Hopeless Romantic

CHAPTER TWO

Marius felt butterflies in his stomach, feeling more and more excited as he watches one of the agency's staff members hang up his profile photo next to his sister's on the wall where all the photos of agency's models were hanging from. He felt a good sense of accomplishment, feeling that now he's finally part of this big modelling 'family.' It had been about two weeks since his photoshoot with Kudo Haruka. With help from his manager, he was able to complete three more photoshoots. He wouldn't really call himself a professional. Though, he was slowly starting to get used to being in front of the cameras and slowly catching up to the quick pace of the photographers, displaying different poses as quickly as possible.

"So you're new guy joining. Nice photo." Marius turned to see the owner of the voice. He came face to face with a guy who was slightly shorter than him. He had cheeky grin on his face, that almost reminded Marius of a monkey.. No, a capybara. There we go, that's better.

"Oh, thank you!"

"I'm Sou, Matsushima Sou. Nice to meet you!"

"Nice to meet you, I'm Marius! Feel free to call me Mari!" The two boys shook hands.

After chatting for some time, the two boys decided to go out for coffee to talk more. Marius felt happy, knowing that he made a friend in the agency. The two boys walked a couple blocks away from the agency building and into one of Sou's favorite coffee shop places. Marius was literally in awe when one of the waiters gave him his latte- and there was a bear. Using the steam milk, the waiter had drawn on a teddy bear design on Marius' drink.

"Nope, nope! I can't drink this anymore. This is too cute! I don't wanna ruin it!" Sou laughs at Marius' remark, watching as the latter struggle to drink his latte without ruining the latte art.

"So I heard that your first photoshoot was with Kudo. You're pretty lucky for a newbie, getting to work with a professional and a popular model like Kudo for your first photoshoot. Not a lot of models get to work with her."

"Eh? Why?" Marius asks while carefully – CAREFULLY – sipping his latte.

"She's friendly when you talk to her and all. However, she's pretty distant. She doesn't really open up to others, plus she always have this serious attitude. From what I've seen, she prefers to work alone and other models don't talk to her as much," Sou replies as he drinks his coffee. Marius recalls his conversation with Haruka that day, causing him to frown a bit.

"You know, we had a conversation during break that day. I told her that I love romance, that I believe in soulmates. However, she told me that she doesn't believe in love at all– that experiencing such an impossible romance was unrealistic. Dreaming of experience a romance similar to that of romance novels and finding your soulmates– she said those dreams were for suckers," Marius pouts. Sou simply shrugs.

"I'll prove her wrong for sure!" he says with such a determined look on his face. The expression quickly disappeared when moments later, when he was sipping his coffee, the latte art was ruined. Marius' eyes started watering a bit as he looked down at his drink, seeing that the teddy bear design had been ruined.

"Nooooooooo! The teddy bear!" Sou couldn't help but laugh afterwards.

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'If I become close friends with her, maybe she can open up and explain why she doesn't believe in love,' Marius thought as he was taking the elevator back to up the agency's main office. After chatting with Sou a bit more, the two boys eventually separated as Marius had to go back and talk to his manager about other potential jobs. After his talk from with Sou, learning about how Haruka's a bit distant than he expected, he had a new goal in mind – to befriend her.