Zelo takes slow steps up the dimly lit stairs, heart beating unsurely inside his ribcage as goosebumps rise on his skin when he surveys his surroundings. The walls are painted black and the lights are a orangey yellow. His eyes feel like there’s a translucent film around them. The further he climbs up the stairs, the further away he is from the only light source bright enough to light the way. The light bulb in this suspicious stairs does not serve any purpose. He has to feel his way up the steps and he trips on a few.

He comes to a glass door. He peers through the slightly tinted glass door. He sees people moving inside the room and flashes of light. The rose on the glass door, hidden among the thorny twigs remind him of something. He feels in his pocket for the cardboard paper and when his fingers touch the almost velvety material, he pulls it out and confirms it.

Yeap, this is the place.

He pushes the door, timidly at first, to peek his head in then more daringly as he takes a step in. Nobody gives a care about him. they are all extremely busy. A model in a long dress, however, gave him a glance when she strode past him in her impossibly high heels, a frantic assistant carrying the tail of her dress behind her. The people carrying the white boards, the women with the brushes working on the models’ faces, the person holding the lights, the busy photographer doing his own poses with the camera. Zelo’s wide eyes cannot leave the site of the photo shoot. Everything looks so foreign. He feels like he’s standing inside a reality TV show. He blushes when a raven-haired model smiled at him in her black flowy dress that left little to imagination.

He just stood there until the people holding the white reflecting boards stopped and walked away, the models moved out of the backdrop and the photographer put down his camera and walked over to the laptop on the desk beside him. Zelo couldn’t get used to the sudden lack of flashes and clicks of the camera for a moment.

Zelo stares at the photographer in black slacks who is leaning his weight on his palm at the edge of the desk, browsing through the photographs he took. Many of them are repetitive and Zelo cannot see the difference between them but the photographer divides the large pile of pictures into different stacks fluidly with the quick clicks and drags on the mouse. Zelo was so amazed and intrigued by everything that he forgot what he’s here for.

Oh right, he’s here to work.

He phoned the strange woman with the number on the name card and is greeted by a voice that sounded almost expecting. He was told that this chance given to him won’t be a wasted trip and he was to go to this address read out to him through the phone to see if he can get the job.

Zelo would’ve turned down the suspicious job offer and that peculiar woman if he is still like how he was before. Anything foreign to him would be a no-no. He didn’t like step out of his comfort zone.

He didn’t tell anyone about this, hoping to keep this a little secret to himself only, his little venture into something he’s never been in before. And he hoped he doesn’t get himself into trouble for this because there would be no one to save him.

But more importantly, can this help him forget that smile for a while?

He marches himself over to the serious looking photographer, looking too busy to be bothered but he interrupts him anyway.

“Excuse me…”

The man behind the black rimmed geek specs turns his head slowly to look at him before surveying him from toe to head and then head to toe before settling on the prints on his T-shirt.

Zelo tugs on his bag straps nervously and bites down on his bottom lip. Is it a photographer’s habit to check out a person’s sense of fashion? Zelo becomes even more self-conscious and thinks that maybe he should’ve chosen another shirt before he came out of the house.

“You are?” The man pushes the side of his spectacles and they sit further up his nose bridge. His voice is low and deep, like Yongguk’s. Zelo resists the urge to shake his head in front of the man. The way he asked about him was casual but not impolite. The way he speaks makes Zelo feel comfortable, strangely.

“Erm, I came here because of erh…” Zelo can’t find the words to say, this is his first time doing this anyway.

The man runs a hand in his brown hair and straightens his back, putting all his attention on Zelo. Now Zelo’s really nervous. That person’s got a real intense stare, it feels almost piercing and scary. Zelo doesn’t like to judge people, but those smo