PRETTIER THAN FAME

Memoir of the Human Emotion
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//TW - a reference to ED

Koede - Prettier Than Fame 

Christian Leave - Superstar

Winter and Karina, both models, work together for a sensual shoot as they sort out their feelings.

 

She looked straight ahead, body poised, strutting along with the rhythm of some underground pop artist. She didn’t typically do this, usually, she would be at a studio for a photoshoot rather than a runway. Maybe being a jack-of-all-trades type of model wasn’t so bad for her publicity though. 

 

Thanks to her agents like Yeji, she had another opportunity to walk for Louis Vuitton. Ginger hair flowing past her shoulders, a preppy skirt swaying, Winter turned the final corner of her walk. Ever since she was younger, when her mom would make her take modeling workshops, she was always taught to look straight ahead. 

 

Do not look at the audience unless you are queued to pause and stop to show off the attire.

 

It was common knowledge in the runway handbook, and she doesn’t recall ever breaking that rule. Except for some damn reason, tonight, she decided to. 

 

Her gaze fell on the last person before she had to slip away behind a wall. It was a lady, rather stylish, Winter could only guess that she was an influencer of some sort. Her phone that she held up to capture the outfits blocked Winter’s view from placing a face on the owner of LV sneakers. 

 

The lady seemed to have noticed, through the lenses of her phone, that Winter was exclusively looking her way. So, she lowered her phone to have a look herself. 

 

Maybe Winter broke out of her character for too long, so she decided to divert her gaze back ahead, disappearing behind the wall barrier. 

 

She missed to see the identity of the woman and the smirk that her red lips wore. 

 

Winter did not look anywhere but straight ahead during the final walk when all the models and the main designer came out.

 

Getting to where she is now wasn’t easy. She never really had any dreams or aspirations as a child apart from being a model, her mom made sure of that. Taeyeon Kim was once a supermodel of her times until she decided to settle down and care for her family. She taught everything she knew to Minjeong, and soon enough, during her high school years, she fell into the skin of Winter. The countless auditions, dieting, and blistered feet from heels made Minjeong become Winter. Others would think she didn’t need to go through all the trouble, being the only daughter of Taeyeon.

 

Minjeong would more often find herself staring at her reflection in the mirror, practicing her facial features than studying for her high school exams. That’s when she realized that she couldn’t possibly be anything else aside from a model. 

 

She was so set to become one that she wasn’t even aware of the other competition she had. Winter didn’t bother knowing their names, as long as they knew hers, she was satisfied. 

 

It sounded self-absorbed, sure, but with the constant rise and fall of the people in the industry, was getting to know someone really worth it? Even her older brother, Taeyong, agreed with that sentiment.

 

Taeyong was quite popular among other models too.

 

Of course, while Winter never really made effort to get to know someone, she couldn’t control whether someone wanted to get to know her. Wanted to get to know her more than an Instagram follow, story pic, post, or whatever. 

 

During her first big shoot, Teen Vogue, she met a Chinese model. Yizhou, largely known as Ning Ning, is someone dear to Winter. 

 

Ning Ning was there to bear the pain with her through her first breakup. She was there when Winter would throw up her food continuously. She would call Winter every night during the times when she would cry about her final decision regarding having to drop out of high school. Yizhou held Minjeong close through every traumatic event in her life. 

 

Ning Ning was someone dear to Winter, and she hopes that it was the same with Ning Ning regarding her. If she wasn’t introduced to Ning Ning, she isn’t so sure how she would be now. 

 

Now with Winter being 21 and Ning Ning 20, they were still inseparable. 

 

“Why is this article even a thing?” Ning scoffs from the comfort of Winter’s couch. “Like they might as well say that we’ve been married since we were 12 with how long the media has been going at us for years”

 

Winter sighs, she had no energy to even pay attention to silly claims and rumors about their love lives. 

 

“It’s not worth your time, Yizhou”

 

“Like did they completely ignore what Jaemin or Sakura said about you being their ideal type? Why me?! I’d rather jump off your balcony than the date your freaky-” Winter’s hands on shut her up.

 

“Don’t.” Winter starts. Ning Ning holds her wrist to pull it off and pouts. 

 

“Alright but why do they even care about models’ love lives, we aren’t like singers or actresses. Why can’t they just let us look pretty and leave us alone” Winter laughs at Ning’s comment. 

 

“If only it were that easy”

 

“Do you remember Jimin Yu?” the name felt familiar, she digs through her brain to try to recall, “the other Asian kid during that competition your dearest mother raved about when we were younger” 

 

Then a light bulb lit up in Winter's head. She definitely remembers Jimin Yu, despite meeting her once and really having no interactions. There was only one person that caught her attention that day, and it was a Korean girl with sharp eyes. Winter’s memory was slightly foggy but she can still vividly pictures her hard gaze and charismatic posture. She often times would find herself wondering where the girl was now.

 

“Yeah, why?” 

 

“I found out recently that our very own Jimin Yu,” Winter scrunches her face at her friend’s wording “ is now Karina” 

 

Winter blinks a few times at Ning Ning's seemingly exciting discovery. The Chinese girl thinks that Winter is silent because the news was too shocking to comprehend but that wasn’t the case.

 

“Who?”




 

Fortunately for Winter, she had an excuse to escape Ning Ning’s tormenting fight about how she doesn’t know who the hell Karina Yu was. She had bigger matters to attend to, like the call from Yeji, asking her to come by the agency’s building.

 

While waiting for the elevator doors to open, Ning Ning is still spamming her disgraceful things for being so ‘ignorant’. Winter didn’t want to have to go on silent mode since she was always paranoid about missing an important call, so she decides to entertain Ning Ning. She asks for a photo of this wonderful Karina. 

 

Finally, the doors do eventually open and Winter swiftly walks in with another person trailing behind her. She clicks on whatever photo Ning sent to have a closer look. 

 

Karina was stunning. She had the same eyes as the Jimin Winter remembers from her youth, of course with added makeup. In some ways, Winter understands the buzz Ning Ning made about this girl. Still, Winter doesn’t recall ever seeing her after the modeling competition. She does hope to have that opportunity soon though. Winter has always loved getting to know other models now being in her 20s. It was good, it was networking. 

 

Just when Winter was about to click out of the photo and think of a reply for her friend, her body tense. She feels a woman’s front flushed against her back and clearly, someone was watching her over her shoulders. 

 

There were 10 floors left to go and she battled whether to cuss the person out or just completely ignore it. Her calculating thoughts didn't go on for longer though.

 

“Winter Kim,” Winter turns around to face the woman with a face mask. She recognizes those eyes. Sharp, cold, yet teasing. The woman pulls her mask down, revealing her face. The same face that stared back mockingly on her phone screen. “Looking at my photos now, aren’t we?” 

 

She’s so going to kill Ning Ning. 

 

Winter huffs out a frustrated sigh. 

 

“Look it isn’t like that” Winter starts, Karina obviously not buying that excuse. Winter taps out the photo to show Karina her messages with Ning Ning “My friend was telling me about other models and stuff and- I really didn’t know how you looked like and she was going over this whole tangent so I-” 

 

Karina laughs, yet her eyes remained the same. Winter didn’t understand this girl.

 

“Winter Kim doesn’t know who I am? That’s disappointing because I know you so well” Karina smirks and all Winter could do was blush. “Daughter of Taeyeon Kim and sister of Taeyong Lee”

 

Winter didn’t like Karina’s tone. It was condescending in a way that just made her want to sink into the metal walls and disappear. The blush that adorned Winter’s cheeks only deepened, and her jaws tensed. Karina wasn’t any better than she was, she only knew Winter because of her family. Perks of nepotism. 

 

“Right” she mutters dumbly. Why would Karina even be in this building when she was in another agency? One that was considered a rival to her own. She didn’t want to ask, it would only fuel more chances of embarrassment. 

 

The doors of the elevator eventually open, and to Winter’s utmost horror, Karina follows behind her into the meeting room that Yeji texted her to be in. She was too shaken to find out why Karina just had to be there. 

 

And yeah, Winter really did not know Karina and she really didn’t want to even try to know her. 


 

 

 

Winter clenches her fist that laid on her lap, listening to the staff of her company discuss with Karina’s staff about an upcoming shoot. One that included both of them. 

 

Finally, all it took was one sentence for Winter to completely short-circuit. 

 

“The concept is an intimate relationship between two women” 

 

Yeji winces at the obvious whitening on Winter’s face. She knew she wouldn’t like to hear this, especially with another model she barely knew. Karina on the other hand remained calm, in fact, there wasn’t an ounce of opposition from her end.

 

Winter was barely even able to speak, not that felt confident enough to even object to the directors. Instead, all she could do was run her fingers through her ginger hair. Maybe this was a good step in her career, working with someone who had made such a big name for themselves, working with Karina.

 

But she was just thrown into this situation. She literally only knew of Karina’s popularity and existence today!

 

“Winter Kim,” Winter looks up from her seat to see Karina staring down, the woman smirks “It’ll be my pleasure to work with you”

 

“Ah, yes. It’ll be my pleasure” she tries to smile through it. Winter thinks that Karina would finally leave her alone to process this unfortunate event but she stays there, eyeing her. Winter didn’t like being under Karina’s scrutiny. It was the same gaze that she remembers from her youth. It was the only time Winter remembers being actually intimidated. 

 

“Give me your phone”

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“To save my number” answers Karina “and here's mine, put in yours”

 

She does as she’s told, too tired to argue. Karina bids her goodbye, remembering to give her another smile that said nothing but trouble. 

 

If Ning Ning hadn’t sent her a photo, she wouldn’t have felt this unprofessional about the whole situation. She knows she couldn’t let this get to her head, they were about to shoot something together that involved contact. Winter knows that she was just being dramatic, so she it up and heads to the company’s garage. 

 

The shoot was to be held in a week, and honestly, Winter didn’t expect Karina to even contact her during that time frame. Somehow, ever since Ning Ning brought her up that day, she couldn’t seem to escape the girl.

 

From one moment, she would never notice Karina ever, until she started to see her everywhere. From Billboards, advertisements recommended runways vids, and everything in between, Karina seems to have infested her daily life. 

 

They barely even talked to one another, Winter didn’t understand her situation at all. 

 

Karina Yu

Care to meet up?

 

Winter Kim

For what

 

Karina Yu

Would it hurt to just chit-chat?

 

Winter didn’t want to have to do anything that wasn’t business related with Karina. 

 

Winter Kim

Fine. Send me the address.

 

Yet for some reason, she agreed. 




 

And she wishes she never did. Now she's seated with Karina in a secluded part of a cafe, boring the hardest glare on her. Winter could’ve been at home resting, not here, wasting her time.

 

“What the hell did you just say to me, Karina?” 

 

And simply, Karina repeats her sentence. “You lack in your skills. I look through the stuff you shot for and you have the same two expressions and the same array of poses. What happened?” 

 

What happened? Winter didn’t understand what Karina meant by that question. 

 

“Look Karina-”

 

“You’re nothing but a pretty face. That’s the reason why everyone has such a positive response to everything you do” she says it like it's nothing. Like she didn’t just insult someone to their face. Perhaps, Winter was just terrible at handling criticism, but for someone she just met, Karina was doing too much.

 

“You don’t get to tell me that”

 

“Of course, I can. I share the same art as you, we are in the same field, but for different reasons” Karina scoffs, taking a sip of her americano “I can help you, you know? I take my job very seriously, and if we are doing a shoot together, you need to be better”

 

Winter’s mom taught her to be classy. In everything she did, she had to hold her head up high, but she oh so badly wanted to cuss the dark-haired woman. Her arrogance was out of this world, but her mom taught her better. She just wanted to leave Karina's presence and she wanted to do it as politely as possible. 

 

“Listen, I appreciate it but I don’t need your help. If you want to practice some poses together or something for the concept, sure contact me. Just don’t waste my rest days with bull like this” Winter looks up from her cup to find Karina alre

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Yooji-ah
#1
Chapter 9: def need pt 2
Jamess #2
Chapter 10: just read all of the chapter jmj were hilarious 🤣😁👍👍
Taitai84 1159 streak #3
Chapter 5: Ehhh the story ends here?
Luaxx03
#4
Chapter 10: ,😍
Yooji-ah
#5
stop that was so cute uwu
Neverbealover2
#6
Chapter 9: Thanks author I love your stories 💖
Taitai84 1159 streak #7
Chapter 9: They are so cute
Breezy #8
Chapter 5: Omg they’re so dumb they don’t even realize they love each other lol
A_Joyul
#9
Chapter 8: Aw we need part 2 pls!