ILJIN

24 | PARANOIA

"You know, sometimes I envy Yilin," she continued and the Liu boy's brow went up so high he was almost sure it was at his hairline now. "Even when he claimed he loathed her, he spoke of her with a different type of respect. Admiration. Admired her guts, admired her skills, admired her creativity, admired her. And he'd never admit to it. He doesn't even know how he feels."

Now how was Yangyang supposed to react to that? Wait, no forget that, what was that red hot feeling spreading across his chest? Was he getting heart burn or something? His heart was pounding hard in his ears, nulling the noises around him. What was this? What was this strange, rising and unreasonable urge to whack Sicheng upside down?

"I'm sure," he said, voice surprisingly calm and stable for the amount of emotions rushing through him right now. "Sicheng doesn't like Yilin romantically, Kim. She killed his parents."

"You're sure," she raised her eyes to bore right into his. "Or you hope, little sheep?"

..

I flattened my hands against the crisp formal pants, ironing out the non-existent creases as I hurried into the building, nodding to the security who pointed to the backstage prep room when I lied about my identity.

Sicheng was suspiciously prepared for this. Throwing me a set of formal wear and a mask, he dropped me off at the closest public washroom to Velvet and zoomed off, reminding me once again that this plan must succeed no matter what. Bitch sure had little faith in me.

"Oh my God, you're so late!" The woman who seemed to be the supervisor barked at me when I slipped through the curtained doors. "Hurry hurry! Miss Sunmi needs a make-up touch up before her second shoot."

Shit shit shit. Was I going to be the one doing it for her? I was hoping I could just slip it into one of the make-up artists hands and leave or some. Fat hope, it seems.

My hands shook as I neared the woman everyone was fussing over, hoping the mask covering the bottom half of my face would make me unrecognisable enough. I had added facial marks with the eyeliner pencil Tzuyu had forced me to carry around for emergencies. Thank God for the girl, really.

"Are you okay?" one of the stylists jammed in the room whispered, offering me a tissue to wipe off the sweat dripping down my forehead. "Ms Lee isn't as scary as they all say, really. Relax." She probbed me forward gently. "The theme is towards a more casual style so light natural make-up would be fine. You can do that, right?"

Thank God for Tzuyu's make-up lessons. My my, she is truly my life saver today.

Wordlessly, I nodded, putting on a pair of plastic gloves and picking out the suspicious compact powder Sicheng shoved to me and started work.

Perhaps it was because there were plenty of other stylists and staff busying about her, but she'd- unexpectedly- not paid me any attention as I dabbed poison all over her face, heart thumping so loudly I swear the girl beside me could hear it.

When I deemed the base enough, I moved on to blusher and eyeliner, which I stealthily picked out from the open make-up bag which clearly didn't belong to me.

"Thank you."

I nearly jumped out of my skin when she suddenly turned to me, a surprisingly pleasant smile curving her lips as I painted them with pink tint. Trying to calm my nerves the best I could, I smiled an eye-smile, re-focusing on not messing up so I could leave this place fast.

She tilted her head, eyes flitting over the upper half of my face, a flicker of confusion in them.

Did she recognise me? Fuck, I knew this was a bad idea. God, she's going to-