I. Glamour

The cameras shattered and flashed tremendously as soon as she catwalk through the runway. All the guests, critics, fashion tycoon, and famous designers were focused at the gorgeous young woman as if she were a piece of rare diamond. Her long hair was pulled up in a high sophisticated bun, showing off the strong, striking yet elegant features of her classic beautiful face. She wore lighter make-up, only a bronzer to highlight her cheekbones, slightly dark eye shadows to emphasize her big round eyes, and a colored lipstick for her heart-shaped lips—compared to the other models who were wearing full blast heavy make-up. Although, everyone in the runway show didn’t completely mind her cosmetics, because it was more than enough to captivate them with her beauty. However, it was obvious that she was the highlight of this show, for she wore the most expensive clothing that the designer made. It was a concoction of golden and silver high collar formal gown with an intricate sequin pattern, a see through fabric on her back, and a high cut slit that reached up to her left thigh. Silver strapped five-inch high heels sheltered her feet, as the long gown delicately flowed behind her as she professionally walked through the runway. With the continuous camera flashes, she literally was shining like a rare piece of jewelry.

“So that’s Yun Minnah?” he leaned to whisper at the man taking the seat next to him, a good friend of his who dragged him into this event.

“She’s stunning, isn’t she?” the guy replied as a smirk formed on his face. “Finally got you interested, huh?”

Zhang Yixing leaned back to his seat and refocused his attention to the model. Honestly, for the past hour since the runway started, he had been so bored to the extent of nearly dozing off. He fought hard to win against his drowsiness, but he sure did wish for the event to come to an end soon. He had never been interested in fashion before, though, ironically he was the new CEO of Zhang Models Company—a type of enterprise that obviously casted models. Of course, he had been invited to this event since the designer hired models from his company and truthfully, upon receiving the invitation he was going to decline because… he sure wasn’t interested. But this man beside him, named Kim Junmyeon, his best friend forced him to come to the event since it would help him appreciate his new line of work. Moreover, the designer was Junmyeon’s uncle too so Yixing didn’t have much of a choice.

Fortunately, his disinterest was thrown out of the window for a while. Because this model who was currently owning the runway managed to captivate his attention. She looked elegant and untamed at the same time, sophisticated yet fierce, and expressive yet mysterious.

Yixing smiled. “She really is stunning. Any news if she’d renew her contract to her current company?”

Junmyeon casted him a look, “Hey, wait… don’t tell me you’re interested in taking her?”

Yixing glanced at his friend, “Is there something wrong with that?”

“Whoa, you really aim high. As expected of you.” Junmyeon chuckled, “Well, from what I’ve heard, her contract is going to expire this month but I don’t think her company and her manager’s just gonna let her go. It’s a real slim chance.”

“Hmm…” Yixing pondered for a second or two, “But there’s still chance, right?”

“If you were to ask me, then, yeah. I think so. It’s still her final decision. After all, I did hear from my uncle that she and her manager got into a huge fight and nearly couldn’t make it to the show.”

“Ohh, you know a lot, Junmyeon.” Yixing commented, which made Junmyeon clear his throat awkwardly. He patted the guy’s back, “Don’t worry. I’ll approach her later and try to negotiate with her. If she agrees, then I can set you two up on a date?”

“Aissh, this guy. It’s nothing like that.” His friend shook his head. “Good luck later then. Her manager watches her like a hawk.”

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Yixing smirked. He couldn’t blame if his friend was a huge fan of the supermodel, because he, himself, despite being filled with disinterest with this industry, was captivated by Yun Minnah.

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As soon as the fashion show was done, Yun Minnah immediately slipped out of the expensive gown and changed back into her casual clothes. She was settled back in her dressing room and asked for the personal assistants to leave her all by herself for a moment. Fortunately, she was granted that moment of solitude since her manager was miraculously still out there, chatting with whoever famous designer or critic he wanted to meet.

She still didn’t have the energy to deal with so much drama.

She was exhausted from her schedule the whole week, and dealing with their recent dramatic argument was the last thing she wanted right now.

Minnah cranked her neck from side to side and it produced a stressed cracking sound. When was the last time she actually had a good rest? A year ago? She had lost track of it.

She reached for the comb on her dresser and started combing her long wavy hair that was now out of the high bun. She stared at herself at the mirror. Her doe-like eyes stared back at her, and then traced down to the cheekbones and heart-shaped lips that everyone adored about her.

Such a pretty face.

Beautiful eyes.

Perfectly shaped lips.

Just like her mother.

Though, what Minnah could only see through her reflection were dead, empty eyes...

Did her mother ever look like this?

Then there came a knock from the door that interrupted her thoughts. She guessed that was it for the solitude she wished for. Time to deal with reality once again. She stood from her chair to open the door, but it had already opened and revealed the fashion designer responsible for tonight’s show. Kim Suk Jin.

“Ah, there’s my bright diamond!” Kim Suk Jin smiled genuinely upon seeing her.

Minnah smiled back, “Thank you for tonight, Mr. Kim. The gown was very stunning.”

“No, you were stunning.” Kim Suk Jin supportively patted her shoulder,