It was so uncomfortable. Hands everywhere, and Wonwoo didn’t even know where to look. Someone was messing with his hair. Someone was powdering his face. Someone else was fixing his belt and someone else was messing with the buttons on his shirt. Personal space simply did not exist in the modeling industry.

Wonwoo glanced at Mingyu, who was just standing there without caring about any of the hands on him.

Mingyu eventually noticed Wonwoo’s discomfort and laughed, “I told you it would be uncomfortable.”

Wonwoo couldn’t even respond to Mingyu because a coordi-noona was applying lip-liner. Wonwoo closed his eyes and tried to yield to everything all of the employees were doing to him.

Mingyu was the first who was ready and so was sent out to the set to take his solo shots. Wonwoo was also done with the layers of makeup and the outfit adjustment and eventually followed him to the set.

Blessed was he with the sight of model Mingyu. Wonwoo could not have imagined how attractive eyeliner would be on Mingyu until then. Mingyu was also such a natural at modeling. He instinctively carried out all of the poses, all of the intense eye stares, all of the sensual faces. The director and photographers did not have to direct him at all; he carried himself through the photoshoot effortlessly.

Just when Wonwoo didn’t think Mingyu could be any more attractive, one of the coordi-noonas opened up the buttons of his shirt.

At one point, Mingyu caught Wonwoo staring.

“Like what you see?” Mingyu teased, making Wonwoo look away and blush.

Yes, Wonwoo liked what he saw, and he couldn’t even deny it.

Wonwoo was up next for the solo shots after Mingyu was done. He was not nearly as confident and as natural as Mingyu, and so the director had to instruct on how to stand and what facial expressions to make. The director was kind of demanding about it, which didn’t help. Wonwoo felt clumsy as he told him what to do, and as Wonwoo awkwardly forced all of the faces that Mingyu had so effortlessly made before him.

Mingyu also watched him, and so Wonwoo felt embarrassed as he struggled in front of all the cameras. Wonwoo thought that Mingyu probably felt he was stupid.

Wonwoo’s session took three times as long as Mingyu’s as the director tried to get good shots of him. Eventually, the director seemed frustrated with Wonwoo and told him that it was enough impatiently.

“You’ll get the hang of it,” Mingyu told Wonwoo when he was finally done with the first shoot, “I was like you my first time too. The director gets kind of mean, but don’t take it to heart.”

Afterwards, they had a shoot together with a few other models, male and female alike, which also took quite a while. At one point the director seemed fed up with Wonwoo and told him to get dressed for the second round as Mingyu kept the shoot going.

The coordi-noonas walked up to Wonwooo and began undressing him. He stopped them and requested to put on the next outfit by himself in the changing rooms. One of them rolled her eyes at him, and another seemed annoyed. It must not be common for models to dress themselves, Wonwoo thought as he grabbed the outfit from one of the noonas and entered the changing room. He put the outfit on the stool and took a moment to recharge by himself. Modeling was quite draining for Wonwoo because it involved being the in the spotlight and everyone looking at him, and Wonwoo just was not very comfortable with that. He sat on the stool and used the time to see if anything went down between Jin and Sena.

Did you talk with Jin? Wonwoo texted Sena.

S: No. Jin isn’t here.

W: Where is she?

S: I don’t know. She said she might take a while longer.

W: I’ll talk to her, hold up.

S: I think she’s still avoiding me.

W: No, I’m sure that’s not it.

S: I think it is.

W: Sena, she told me straight out that she wanted to talk to you. She isn’t avoiding you. Just wait for her for a while. I’ll call her now.

Just as Wonwoo was about to call, an employee knocked on the door and told him to hurry. Wonwoo decided to text Jin instead.

Sena is waiting and she thinks you’re avoiding her. Hurry up. gtg now.

He quickly took the outfit and put it on, glancing at his phone every once in a while to see if Jin would respond. She didn’t, but Sena did send him something.

I really need to talk to someone. Can I call you?

Wonwoo could feel from her text that she was sinking. It was such a bad time for him though, he thought as he heard the lady knock on his door for the second time.

He figured that Sena was more important, and so he called her despite the impatient coordi-noona waiting for him outside.

“What’s up?” Wonwoo said as soon as she picked up.

“Wonwoo, I want to quit,” Sena said to him on the other end of the line, “I want to drop out.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he replied.

“No, I’m serious,” she said to him. He could tell from her voice that she was broken, not the confident and spirited Sena she was at the beginning of the semester. She sounded tired and soulless. “I want to go back to Jordan.”

Wonwoo didn’t know what to say or how to convince her otherwise. The coordi-noona knocked on the door again more aggressively and yelled at him to come out. Wonwoo felt disoriented as he tried to decide what to do. His immediate instinct told him that he needed to obey and get out and do his job, but he also felt like talking to Sena was so much more important now.

“Oh, you’re doing your modeling job now, aren’t you?” Sena said, realizing it was not a good time for him. “I’ll hang up now. Sorry for disturbing…”

“No, I can stay on the line for a while longer,” Wonwoo told her, “you’re not disturbing me.”

“It’s okay. I’m okay,” Sena reassured him, but Wonwoo knew that wasn’t the case.

“Listen Sena…”

“I’m hanging up now,” Sena said.

“No. Don’t. I want to talk…”

“Bye Wonwoo. Have fun modeling!” she hung up. Wonwoo groaned, feeling so guilty. She clearly needed to talk to someone, and he really wanted to be there for her. He tried calling Jin, but she didn’t answer.

He sent her an angry text in caps lock instead: TALK TO SENA ASAP.

At this point, the coordi-noona outside was furious. Wonwoo put away his phone and left the changing room. He was suddenly in a really bad mood at the thought of not being there for Sena, and he really didn’t feel like modeling anymore.

“You think this job is a joke?” the coordi-noona yelled at him. She then glanced at his outfit and frowned, “and look what you did! You wrinkled it!”

Wonwoo looked at the shirt he was wearing. It was indeed slightly wrinkled, probably from when he accidentally sat on it in the changing room while he was on his phone.

“Sorry,” he said with a shrug.

She glared at him and grimaced.

“Take it off,” she said.

Wonwoo was tempted to go back into the changing room to do so, but he figured he had already pushed his luck. He hesitantly undid the buttons of the shirt and was apparently too slow for her. She helped him and undid the buttons herself.

“What’s going on?” the director asked from the set, “where’s the model?”

“He wrinkled his outfit,” the noona shouted back at the director, “do Mingyu first; he’s ready!”

Wonwoo glanced and saw that Mingyu was already changed into his second outfit and the make-up team was touching up on his face powder.

Wonwoo felt stupid as the coordi-noona took off his shirt and yelled for someone to have it ironed. He crossed his arms over his bare chest awkwardly as he waited for the shirt. He was tempted to look back at his phone, but he didn’t want to appear any more incompetent than he already looked.

Mingyu did his solo shoot next as Wonwoo waited, and Wonwoo found nothing else to do but watch. Mingyu was such a natural, and Wonwoo realized that he himself was simply not cut out for this modeling thing.

He was in such a bad mood, and it made it no better when another employer started screaming at him for not being in the make-up room. And when he did go into that room, a storm of women came to him and started fixing his outfit and hair and make-up. He then felt one particular woman deliberately touch him inappropriately, and he pushed away all hands in response to that.

This earned him more yelling, and when he tried to explain himself, no one listened. He felt violated and angry, but eventually conceded to the pressures of the employees and let them do their work on him again.

When he was finally ready and back on the set, he received more scolding from the director for being late. What made this scolding worse was that it was in front of Mingyu. Ashamed, Wonwoo’s eyes were glued to the floor as the director directed his insults at him.

In front of the cameras, Wonwoo just could not model. He could not make the expressions or hold the poses. He was just in such a bad mood, and so everything inside of him resisted the performance for the camera. Of course, the director yelled and castigated him into oblivion.

It was all too much for him. He was on the spotlight and literally everyone was looking at him, including Mingyu. The guilt of not being able to speak to Sena when she needed him, the feeling of being ually violated, the hurt from all of the verbal abuse he was going through from these employers, the humiliation he felt with it happening in front of everyone… Wonwoo could not take it. He turned his back to the cameras and covered his face.

The director proceeded with his loud insults.

“Stop yelling,” Wonwoo heard Mingyu say to the director.

Mingyu’s footsteps grew closer and closer until he appeared in front of Wonwoo.

“Are you okay?” Mingyu asked, reaching out and placing a supportive hand on his arms.

“I can’t do this anymore,” Wonwoo answered. He felt like he would burst into tears any moment now, but he held them back as best he could. No need for more humiliation than he was already put through.

“He’s like this to all new models,” Mingyu said softly so that no one else would hear them, “cheer up.” He pulled Wonwoo’s arms away from his face and down at his side.

“Can I just leave?” Wonwoo asked, feeling like he really could not handle it anymore.

“Come on, Wonwoo. Just get through it Remember, you need the money.”

“I do but…”

“I’ll help you,” Mingyu said. He took hold of Wonwoo’s shoulders and turned him around to face the cameras again. Wonwoo felt sick in the stomach seeing everyone witness this moment of weakness.

Mingyu helped position Wonwoo’s face and body in the right way and then stepped back to instruct him on the facial expressions to make as the camera began to roll again. Mingyu’s instructions were a lot clearer than the director’s, and lot kinder as well.

Wonwoo found motivation in not wanting to disappoint and humiliate Mingyu with his failure, and so he pulled together and tried to do what Mingyu was instructing him. The director had thankfully shut up, and Wonwoo was able to relax into it again.

“Mingyu, get in the shot,” the director eventually said, and Mingyu conceded.

Their duo shoot started off simple. The two of them just stood back-to-back, or side-to-side, but then the director had asked Mingyu to put his arm around Wonwoo’s torso, or for Wonwoo to rest his head on Mingyu’s shoulder, or for them to stand right in front of one another with no space between their bodies.

Wonwoo couldn’t look Mingyu in the eye throughout the shoot. When Mingyu was behind him with his arms s around Wonwoo’s lower abodomen, he had stiffened to the point he couldn’t even make a single expression properly.

The director yelled at him, of course.

“Relax,” Mingyu whispered as the director yelled.

“I can’t if he’s yelling,” Wonwoo said so only Mingyu could hear.

“Don’t listen to him,” Mingyu continued whispering close to Wonwoo’s ear, “just pretend he’s not there.”

It took a while, but eventually Wonwoo was able to drown out the director’s yells and get used to the feeling of Mingyu’s intimacy. The touches and the proximity stopped making him as nervous as they had, though that did not mean they affected him less.

Usually in those shots, Wonwoo and Mingyu were either looking into the camera or out in the open. At one point, however, the director asked them to make eye contact for a shot. Locking eyes with Mingyu proved to be the most challenging thing in the world for Wonwoo. Mingyu seemed to notice this clear enough as there was a hint of a smirk on his face.

Just when Wonwoo thought that the director was done, he asked the coordi-noonas to take their shirts. Mingyu immediately began undoing the buttons, like it was the most normal thing in the world for him. Meanwhile, Wonwoo was going internally crazy. His nervousness and prudishness were as apparent as ever as he recoiled let his arms cover his chest. Mingyu, on the other hand, was standing there with full confidence.

Wonwoo hoped dearly that the shirtless shots with Mingyu would not be so intimate; the last thing he needed was to be humiliated more than he already was. And thankfully for Wonwoo, they weren’t. The director only took a few shots of them standing side to side, before asking female models to join them; Wonwoo was definitely much less nervous with the female models.

-

Modeling for five hours proved to be pretty exhausting, especially since his spirit was killed many times that day with what happened with Sena and all of the verbal abuse. Maybe had he been in a better mood, he would have found that he enjoyed modeling, especially when the director made him model with Mingyu and other very attractive guys. That was something that Wonwoo had only dreamed of before. Now that it was actually happening, it that Wonwoo was too downtrodden to even enjoy it.

When the modeling shift was finally over, and the employees had given them their paychecks, it was late at night and he was exhausted. He just wanted to go home and collapse in his bed.

“Sorry about the director,” Mingyu told him as they were waiting for the bus, “he was cranky today.”

Wonwoo nodded. He still felt extremely embarrassed about it, and so he didn’t even look Mingyu in the eye.

“You did well, by the way,” Mingyu said, “really, my first time, I was a lot worse than you were. I literally accidentally tore one of the outfits. I also couldn’t pose or anything. It was terrible.”

Wonwoo wondered if Mingyu was lying just to make him feel better.

“Cheer up,” Mingyu nudged Wonwoo.

Wonwoo acknowledged Mingyu’s attempts at making him feel better with a forced smile.

“Can I cheer you up with a drink? On me,” Mingyu offered.

“I really just want to sleep,” Wonwoo told Mingyu, “but thanks.”

Mingyu nodded in understanding and fell quiet.

The bus finally came and Mingyu and Wonwoo took a seat beside one another in the back. A few minutes into the bus trip, Mingyu wrapped his arm around Wonwoo’s and put his head and his shoulder. Wonwoo was startled by this, but did his best to suppress it, as he didn’t want Mingyu to think that he was uncomfortable with it or anything.

“How’s Sena?” Mingyu asked Wonwoo sofly.

“Are you still interested in her?” Wonwoo responded, not knowing how else to answer the question.

“I am, but I don’t think she is,” Mingyu said.

“I don’t think Sena is interested in anything right now,” Wonwoo told him.

“I accidentally overheard you talk to her while you were in the changing room. She’s going through a hard time, right?”

Wonwoo didn’t say anything. Sena had explicitly asked him not to tell anyone, and so it felt wrong to say it outright to Mingyu.

“You’re a good friend to her, Wonwoo,” Mingyu responded, nestling his head against Wonwoo’s shoulder.

“What did I do?”

“Her pain makes you sad,” Mingyu said, “I think that’s the biggest sign of care for her.”

“You think too highly of me,” Wonwoo responded, “I feel like I can’t do anything for her.”

“You’ll figure something out.”

That was the end of that conversation.

Wonwoo couldn’t really see, but he felt that Mingyu had fallen asleep a few minutes later. Eventually Wonwoo himself rested his head on Mingyu’s and tried to keep his eyes open so that they aren't both asleep and miss the stop.

When they arrived, Wonwoo called Mingyu’s name softly to wake him. Mingyu tiredly removed his head from Wonwoo’s shoulders and yawned as they got up and made their way out of the bus.

“Sorry about that,” Mingyu told Wonwoo, probably referring to falling asleep on his shoulder, “I hope it wasn’t uncomfortable.”

“Not at all,” Wonwoo replied. It was actually the most comfortable he had been that entire day.

A/N: Sorry about how long it took; I had major writer’s block ;; at least it's long!

Also this might seem like an insignificant chapter in the development of meanie because nothing much takes place, but it’s actually really important for future meanie things that will happen ;)