A buzzing sound startled Seulgi while she was staring at her reflection to make sure that her lip-tint was applied correctly. She took a peek on the screen and saw the name of her good friend, Sooyoung. She picked the phone up immediately. “Hello? Sooyoung, don’t you have any schedule today?” The caller at the other end called her name in excitement.

“YAAA! YOU ARE GOING TO BE A MODEL?”

“Eeeep! You’re too loud! No, no—I mean, I don’t know… yet. I was just telling you what happened yesterday by chat and now you’re calling as if it’s going to happen.”

“Oh my god, why are you wasting a very good opportunity like this?!” A sigh of disbelief was heard. “You should give it a try, Seulgi. Besides, I can help you if you want.”

Seulgi raised one of her eyebrows. “Huh? You’re going to be a model too? Aren’t you busy enough in the clinic?” Her questioned was answered first with a laughter of her friend. “No, silly. I have an acquaintance in the magazine. We kind of… met up recently but she was super nice! I bet she’d want to help you if you just ask her.”

Sometimes, Seulgi didn’t understand how Sooyoung could be so carefree and still hung out a lot when her job was very serious. Well, everyone should take a break routinely too, right? “I, uhh, I’m not photogenic. I take pictures of others, not the other way around.” And the next few minutes was spent with Sooyoung nagging on Seulgi of how she couldn’t see that the offer was another way to success.

“You said the one who gave you the offer was Irene Bae? She’s like… she’s really famous and very professional.”

“Wow, you know a lot about her.”

“I am surprised that you don’t. Don’t you watch TV?”

“Uh… yeah, sometimes.”

“Look, I am sure you’ll be alright with her. I’d say yes right away if I were you. When will I get another chance to work with a goddess like woman?”

Her cheek suddenly reddened. She was agreeing with Sooyoung deep in her heart. She just didn’t want to say it. “Y-yah! T-that’s not the point… she is amazingly pretty. I just… don’t want to embarrass myself.” Sooyoung was really good at comforting through her jokes and teases. “It’s up to you. Who knows? Maybe it will lead you to a chance of having dinner with her again?”

A light bulb suddenly showed up on top of Seulgi’s head. She blinked a few times, looking at herself. “Hey, I’ll send a picture of me. Tell me if I look okay, okay? Don’t lie!” she warned her friend. Even though Sooyoung was confused, she agreed and, on their chat, commented that Seulgi looked pretty. The girl immediately long-pressed the picture and forward it to a number she had saved since she got it. She got it with a card, a name card.

[To Irene Bae: I’m sorry if I don’t look good. I have thought about the offer and I think you know what this photo means. But if you don’t mind, I would like to ask you two conditions. First, you have to be there too, at the studio. Second, we have our second dinner date.]

She pressed sent and re-read the lines she typed. She was shocked and then hit herself because she just typed ‘date’ after ‘dinner’. She was about to send a clarification when a reply came with a sound which she was supposed to be familiar with. However, the sound made her nervous, happy, and thrilled.

[From Irene Bae: Dinner date? Sure. I’ll text you about the photoshoot soon. Thanks, Seulgi!]

Then Seulgi just flopped from her chair.

{ * * * }

The night of the photoshoot came as fast as how Seulgi finished her ramyeon bowl. It was done in two places. First was the photo studio owned by Jennie Kim, Irene’s friend, and the second one was near Han River where they could capture the view of Seoul nightlife. Seulgi was biting her lips constantly when the camera was not pointing at her. Her glance travels the surroundings until she felt that she was okay. She liked taking photos. She has never been shot professionally.

“You look awesome, Seulgi. Thank you for your hardwork!” It was Jennie, she was the photographer for Seulgi that night. “I wonder why you rather be behind the camera when you look so fine in front of it.” The praise got Seulgi scratched her head awkwardly.

“W-well… I guess I’m just not confident.”

Jennie chuckled as she put her camera and props back to their places. “If Irene’s proposal is accepted, you’ll get used to it.” Seulgi came up to her and helped. “Irene was right. You have a natural beauty. Even with a light make-up like this it shows.” The praised girl replied with a nervous laugh. She took a quick glance to a black car not far from them.

“Is Irene okay? She has been in the car throughout the photoshoot.” Seulgi was curious why Irene was not by her side. She was there, not far from them, but not exactly there like… there. Jennie looked at the said car. “She’s uh, she said the night was cold and she didn’t bring her hot pack along.”

“She was also not there when we took photos in your studio.”

“She got a phone call from the boss.” Jennie tried to shrug the conversation off.

“But… that long? She promised to accompany me…”

There was a disappointment heard from her tone and seen from her eyes. Jennie caught that and sighed. She gave a little smile when she tapped Seulgi’s shoulder. “She was looking. She made sure that everything went well. You just didn’t see it,” said Jennie. “Look, Seulgi, you two have a dinner date after this, right?”

At the word ‘date’, Seulgi turned to Jennie with a surprised look and was blushing up to her ears. “I-it’s not a date! It’s just.. a dinner together.” The shorter girl laughed at how Seulgi stuttered and tried to convince that it was not a date. “Calm down. Irene was happy when she told me that she wouldn’t be having dinner alone.” Seulgi’s eyes widened and she tilted her head a little.

“She was?”

“Yeah. Do you want a tip so that the dinner will work out?”

“What is it?”

“Wow, Seulgi. So it really is a date, huh?”

“I didn—”

“Now, now. Just talk about anything except asking for her reason why she was not there during the photoshoots. Okay?”

Seulgi blinked. She looked at Jennie, the car Irene was in, and back to Jennie who was smiling, encouraging her. “Umm, alright. Will that really help?” she asked. “Don’t worry. It will definitely help. Now go and pick her up.” With a smile, Seulgi said thank you to Jennie and off to the car she went. She knocked at the window and it went down slowly. Seulgi didn’t blink nor say any word when she finally saw Irene up close.

“So, we’re going on a date now?” Irene asked with a smile.

Date. That word just got Seulgi’s heart racing.

“Y-yes.”