Tori, after working in the office for a couple of days, finally caught the attention of the photographer. “How would you like to model for our magazine? I feel as if you are suited for this job. It makes more money and you are wasting your talent by doing labor chores like those. Go to the back and the lady will pick a costume out for you and do your make up.”

Tori smiled and bowed. “Thank you very much sir, but what about my job?”

“I’m sure the director would be fine with it.” replied the photographer. “You’ll be making more of a profit for him in this way.”

It was all so sudden, an opportunity to pay him off quicker. However, her heart fell when she saw what she needed to wear. The lady was holding up skinny jeans that were slightly holey, top of the line sneakers, a long sleeved striped shirt, a leather vest, chain necklaces, leather and thread bracelets, two silver rings, and a watch.They were cool looking clothes, but obviously meant to be worn by a guy.She changed into these clothes and found that they suited her perfectly. The clothes fit her build just right. Although she was quite muscular for a girl, for a guy she seemed to be on the lower end.

After she had finished changing the lady called her over. She looked as if she was in her early twenties and was beautiful, even from a girl’s perspective. “Come here and I will do your hair and makeup.”

Tori sat in the swivel chair in front of the mirror and spun around once. She was surprised to see her makeup artist smile and blush.

“You know, you have very soft skin for a guy. You’re making me jealous.” She said.

“Thank you I guess.” replied Tori. The makeup artist just continued to smile while she styled her hair.

“You can call me Hikari.” she said. “I’m sure we’ll see each other often.”

“That would be good.” said Tori. It wouldn’t hurt to have a friend while she had to slave away in this terrible place. Well it didn’t seem so terrible now that she wasn’t doing labor, but she was still a “slave” to that jerk.

Hikari finished styling Tori’s hair and applying Tori’s makeup. “I was right to go with this eyeliner. It makes your eyes seem smoky and seductive.”

“Smoky and wha-?” Tori asked.

“Nothing.” said Hikari. “I was just talking to myself.”

“If you’re done.” said Tori. “Is it cool if I go now?”

“One second.” said Hikari. She ripped a piece of paper from a nearby notepad and quickly wrote on it. “Here’s my number. We can hang out sometime. I know a pretty good tea shop nearby. They sell the cutest cakes…”

“Thanks.” said Tori. “I call you if I’m ever free.” Tori turned around to leave.

“Yes!” said Hikari once she thought Tori was out of listening distance. “I think I scored a date with a beautiful guy.” In actuality, Tori heard her and felt awkward. That girl had been hitting on her? She guessed that it could be possible; she did look pretty handsome right now. Tori spun around in a little circle and then walked towards the area of the photo shoot.

“Okay! Tori!” said the photographer. “I want you to pose with this bike.” Tori obliged and tried to make her coolest pose.

“You’re a little stiff.” said the photographer. “Loosen up a bit.” Tori tried her best to relax and seem natural.

“Yeah. That’s it.” said the photographer. He began taking several pictures from several angles.

“Now pose with Miyuki.” Tori stood next to Miyuki and tried to look cool.

“No no. You have to get a little closer. Put your arm around her waist.” Tori sighed for a moment and then placed her arm around Miyuki’s waist, pulling her closer.  

“Just relax.” Miyuki said to Tori. “This must be your first time?”

Tori gulped. It was awkward, but she would do anything for money. The faster she could get out of her debt, the better. She hoped that she could finish up all this business before the new school year. Her vacation was only one month, but the director had asked her to work for two months. Surely by working as a model she would be able to settle her debt in half the amount of time.

Right at the time she was taking a break from finishing the shooting Kazuki walked in through the door. Shoot! She almost spit out her coffee. She had forgotten to deliver the documents to the director. He was sure to be mad now. Maybe even threaten to take her to the police. What to do? She picked up a magazine and put it in front of her face, hoping he wouldn’t recognize her.

Kazuki saw Tori Kun easily, who else would hide from him? He walked up to him and took the magazine. There he saw Tori trembling; he must be scared of Kazuki punishing him. “Where are my documents?” he asked. “They were to be delivered half an hour ago.” Tori showed him the crate with hanging folders andunorganized documents. “Now get back to work.”

“Why can’t I do this job?” she asked. “The pay is a lot better and I will be able to pay off the debt quicker.”The photographer seems to be pleased with me as well.He stared Toridown and seemed to agree.The boy was indeed handsome and the clothes he wore to model actually suited him. Much better than those old hoodies that the kid would normally wear to work.

The makeup gave Tori’s eyes a smoky look that captivated Kazuki. He couldn’t stop himself from looking at them. They seemed to call to him and lure him in. And those lips… why did they seem so familiar?

“Um… director?” said Tori. Kazuki snapped back into reality.

The photographer walked over and placed a hand on Tori’s shoulder. “Don’t blame the kid; it’s just that when I saw him, I knew he would be perfect model material for our photo shoots. I personally believe that he suits this field of work a lot more than the labor you were having him do. It was me that pressured him into changing his clothes and modeling before he was able to finish organizing your papers.”    

Kazuki paused for a moment and was about to smile, but stopped himself. “You better not mess up the photos in the magazine.These shoots cost me a lot of money, and if the model does not look confident with what he’s advertising, the people won’t be confident about purchasing it. Before you continue with modeling, first finish the task that you have been given.” said Kazuki.“I want those papers organized and delivered to my office in an hour’s time.”

Tori sighed. She changed back into her regular clothes. Now that she thought about it, her clothes were pretty lame and worn out in comparison to the ones she just wore. She had lived most of her life wearing the hand me downs from her older brothers. She didn’t really care if they made her look like a guy, as long as she was able to save money. Tori felt as if she was always trying to save money. She gazed longingly at the clothes she returned to the rack.

She went back to organizing the papers. Lots of papers had been filed in the wrong section, and once they were in the right section, she ordered them by date. She picked up the crate, and got in the elevator that took her to the top floor. She placed the crate on Kazuki’s desk and sighed.

“Is this all?” Tori asked. It was almost 6:00 pm, her shift was almost over.

“You still haven’t finished your work yet.” said Kazuki. “If you hadn’t gotten side tracked and started modeling, you would have been done by now.”

 “I finished organizing your papers.” said Tori. “Isn’t that all that you wanted?”

“You organized them, but you have yet to input the data on the computer.” said Kazuki.

“On the computer?” asked Tori.

“The files I gave you to organize were from the 1980s.” said Kazuki. “Back then we only kept our records on paper. I’m trying to make an effort to digitize all our records in case we ever need to access them.” Tori nodded. It made sense.

“You can sit in Secretary Hamada’s desk and use the computer there.” said Kazuki. “I let her off work early so that she could go to her blind date.”

“Blind date?” asked Tori. Would there be someone willing to marry Secretary Hamada?

“Once she gets herself a fiancé, they she will stop eyeing up the young guys in our company. I try to keep a distance from her myself.” said Kazuki. “The only reason I’ve kept her is because she’s really good at her job.”

“So all that I need to do is copy this information into your database?” asked Tori.

“That and make a side note. Some of the papers talk about Haru Productions. Haru Productions still exists, but they’re now owned by Fujiwara Films. Fujiwara Films bought them out in 1987.” said Kazuki. Kazuki thought to himself. ‘If only his grandfather had succeeded in purchasing Haru productions first, Fujiwara Films would not be as much of a threat as they are now.’

Tori managed to finish all of her work by 8:00 PM. After Kazuki quickly checked it, Tori turned around to leave.

“Wait kid.” said Kazuki. “Do you mind watching a movie with me tomorrow?”

“A movie?” asked Tori. Why did he want to watch a movie together with her?

“I’ve been meaning to screen it before we release it to the public. To see if there are any last minute corrections to be done.” said Kazuki.

“I guess I could watch it with you.” replied Tori. Her stomach grumbled.

Kazuki smiled. “You better get going then. It’s getting late.” said Kazuki. “I would have dinner with you, but I still need to stay here for a while to work.”

“Who said that I wanted to have dinner with you? My family is waiting for me to come home and eat with them.” Tori was confused. Why did the director seem a bit nicer all of a sudden? Or was he always like this?

Tori left Kazuki’s office and went into the elevator. She hummed to herself while she waited for the elevator to reach the bottom floor. Boy was she glad that Kazuki let her use the elevator and didn’t force her to use the stairs. It seemed as if the goal of the contract wasn’t really to torture her, but just to have her pay him back. It was not as if she was actually a slave.

Tori excited the elevator and on her way towards the exit, she passed by the photo shoot. She paused again to look at the clothes rack. She removed the outfit that she wore earlier and looked at it. Dang it had made her look so cool, but it was probably expensive.

“You can have it if you want.” said a voice from behind.

“It’s probably expensive…” Tori turned around and saw the photographer. She wondered why he was still here when everyone else from the photo shoot had left.

“I’ll give it to you for a small price.” replied the photographer. He caressed Tori’s cheek with his hand.

“I-I’m not sure.” said Tori. “I don’t think I really need it.” She backed away a few steps into the wall.

“Are you sure?” said the photographer. “I can always give you money instead.” He inched closer to Tori. Tori could feel the middle aged man’s breath on her neck. There was a smell of alcohol.

‘Someone. Please help.’ Tori thought to herself.

Kazuki was coming down in the elevator. He needed to pick up some papers that were left earlier for him at the front desk. He would have asked Tori to bring them up for him, but he assumed that the kid had already left. He looked at his watch in impatience. It had become a habit now. He would probably have to work an all-nighter today considered all the work there was left to be done. He needed to contact his sponsors in the morning in order to promote the new film they were about to release. He was hopeful that this film might just put them ahead of Fujiwara Films for the first time in two months.

He exited the elevator and thought he saw some strange shadows near the photo shoot’s set. Why were people still here? He assumed that everyone had left by now.

“Please don’t do this.” said Tori. The photographer pinned her against the wall. Even though she was strong for a girl, the photographer was still able to overpower her.

“Why should I let go?” the photographer asked. “I’ve found myself a boy that is too handsome for me to resist.” The photographer began bring his lips closer towards hers. Before he could make contact, she head butted him. This caused him to be in a state of confusion and allow herself to break free.

She had just made it into the main lobby when the photographer grabbed her arm. “I thought you needed the money.” He took a few bills out of his pocket and carelessly threw them on the floor. “I’ll give you how much you want. Just let me have you.” She kicked him and then he winced on the floor. His hand still had a strong grip on her arm.

“What the hell is going on here?” Kazuki approached them. “Why is the photographer on the floor?” He looked at Tori accusingly. The 

photographer let go of Tori’s arm.

“I know this may sound hard to believe, but he was drunk and attempted to ually harass Me.” said Tori.      

Kazuki found that hard to believe. The photographer was one of the kindest people he knew. He even offered Tori the spot in modeling in the first place. Why was the brat being ungrateful and backstabbing him? “Apologize.” said Kazuki.

“Yeah he should apologize after what he tried to do to me.” said Tori. “Sometimes people act weird when they’re drunk, but this was going overboard.”

“Apologize to him.” said Kazuki.

“You want me to apologize to him?” said Tori in shock. “But he was the one that-”

“Apologize to him.” Kazuki repeated. “He gave you an opportunity to pay off your debt quicker and this is how you repay him?”

Tori looked into Kazuki’s eyes and found it hopeless. And she thought that he would side with her and believe her. How could he be nice one moment and be such a jerk the other? She felt like crying.

The photographer stood up and looked at Tori. He seemed to have returned back to his senses. Before the photographer could say anything, Tori knelt on her knees and lowered her head. “I apologize for my false accusations. I promise it will never happen again. I am grateful for all that you have done for me.” The photographer merely nodded his head.

Tori got up and went towards the front desk. From a closet behind it, she took out her skateboard. She wasn’t in the mood to ride it home and decided to take the bus instead. She arrived at the bus stop that was nearby the company building.

Once she entered the bus she placed a few coins in the toll box and went to sit down all the way in the back. She then finally allowed the tears that were b in her eyes to fall down her face. That jerk. That terrible jerk! It had been ages since she had cried this much. She was always the strong one and held her emotions inside. This time she couldn’t. This time she felt wronged.

Kazuki sighed and called a substitute driver for the photographer. Although the photographer stood up, he was barely able to keep balance. He didn’t realize this before, but the photographer reeked of alcohol. Could the kid actually have been telling the truth when he said he was almost ually assaulted? Kazuki no longer knew who to believe.

He temporarily pushed the problem aside. He needed to get back to work. If he didn’t start now, he would not have his files ready for tomorrow’s meeting with the advertisers.