ɪ ʜᴀᴛᴇ ʙᴇʟʟ ᴘᴇᴘᴘᴇʀꜱ [𝓐𝓺𝓾𝓪 𝔁 𝓚𝓪𝓷𝓪] {𝒪𝓈𝒽𝒾 𝓃𝑜 𝒦𝑜}

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟙𝟘 ~ 𝕄𝕠𝕕𝕖𝕝 𝕌𝕡

Kana POV:

I escaped into my room, closing the door behind me with a swift click.

Oh no, no, no. Why did I say that? Modelling? Seriously? I couldn't have chosen a worse job. It had slipped out of my mouth- I was thinking of Frill. 

Of course, now I had to really cover up my lie by actually going out. I had planned to, anyways- no way was I staying in the same house as Aqua! But I would probably need to go to an actual modelling job- hence they might believe me.

The idea horrified me- I was not cut out for modelling. But maybe if I just showed them a few professional pictures they would believe that I was a truthful person- not a dirty liar like Aqua. 

I logged onto Twitter and scrolled through any live job offers. There were a lot of last-minute needed actors for small tv shows, but not a lot of modelling jobs. Most models had backups and I wasn't qualified enough to apply for any of the few live jobs.

Until I finally got to one available job at the end of the list- it was from a small account- 'Machistar Productions' - and was begging for any girls who had free time to come over to their studio and do a shoot- usually the opportunity would have been snagged up immediantly, but the dodgy part was the 'no pay' message. They needed a free, last-minute model- who's better than me?

So I quickly sent them a phone call telling them I'd be happy to do it. The lady on the other end sounded delighted, and told me I was only required to freshen up and dress in plain white clothing, then sent me the address of the studio.

I quickly brushed my hair and since I had already took a shower last night, I just washed my face and put on some light makeup, then a strapped white dress. I grabbed my handbag and rushed out of the room, pretending to be in a hurry as I stomped down the stairs.

Aqua and Ruby, whom were just finishing up breakfast, immediantly stared as I walked down the stairs as fast as possible.

Ruby opened her mouth to say something but I quickly shouted, "Gonna be late. Got to go!" I kicked on my white sneakers and sprinted out the door, slamming it shut behind me.

I kept jogging until I turned a corner, finally stopping for a breath. That was too close!

Luckily, the Machistar studio wasn't too far away, and I was able to get there pretty quickly.

The studio was on the second floor of a building containing lots of dodgy-looking bars- I wasn't sure if the studio was as legit as I had let myself believe and panicked for a moment that this was a trick- but I told myself to keep going as I climbed the impossibly long flight of stairs.

The door to the studio was marked with a piece of black duck tape, the words 'MACHISTAR ONLY' written roughly with white chalk. 

I tentivetaly pushed open the door and was immediantly greeted by a woman hugging me tight. She almost choked the breath out of me and I was jumpscared!

"Oh, darling, I am so glad you're here!" She sighed in relief. "Our original model, Annie, had to go to the hospital last-minute. Her sister Anna begged to take the job but her parents wouldn't allow it- saying she needed to stay with Annie and it would have been selfish to take Annie's job. Although, to be fair, that's reasonable."

I blinked. This woman talked really fast and was hard to understand.

"But it really put this modelling  job and my company at a risk, because this is one of the most important shoots of the year! The finalized pictures from this shoot will be submitted to the Model Up competition."

At my confused face, the lady raised an eyebrow.

"My, darling, you don't know what Model Up is?"

"Oh, no... I'm not really in the modelling industry. I just thought this job would be fun." I replied weakly. Model Up did sound familair, but it was probably just something I had seen on Twitter.

"Well, Model Up is Japan's biggest modelling competition! All modelling companies enter their best model's best pictures and the finalists have a live catwalk comp! 

The top three winners get over a million yen themselves and ten million for their company! If Machistar won this, it could be huge for us!" The woman's eyes lit up. "But, as you can imagine, it's an extremley hard competition to win. It would be a miracle to even get in the finalists. Machistar is still a very small company- one that me and my best friend opened up together- and we only had one model, Annie.

Annie's my friend's daughter, and she is really talented and pretty. It's such a pity she couldn't be here today- she was so excited! But I still want to enter the competition, and I posted so many live job offers online. But nobody would accept! No-one wants to work with a small company with no contacts- it's bad for their portforlio or something.

It was a stroke of good luck for me when I received your phone call! You really saved Machistar! I was afraid you'd be an ugly no-gooder, but I was so wrong! Darling, you're so pretty. Maybe even prettier than Annie- but don't tell her I said that! She'd get mad! Do you happen to already be in the entertainment industry, by any chance?"

"Oh, yes... um, I'm an actress. I used to be a child actor- Kana Arima." I introduced myself.

"Arima... Arima. Oh, yes. Yes! I know you. You're that genius child actor!" The woman smiled. "That's perfect! Since you do acting, you'll have the gist of modelling. I'm Ophelia. Please, come with me! We just need to doll you up before the shoot."

My head still dizzy from Ophelia's never-ending chatter, I followed her inside. 

The studio was much smaller than I first thought, with only two rooms- the studio and the dressing room. Ophelia lead me to the dressing room, which consisted of one big cracked second-hand mirror, a few cheap makeup things and a ripped leather seat, and a big curtain concealing a space for dressing.

I was extremley disappointed. The room was unprofessional and cheap- no wonder nobody wanted to sign up for the job! But I told myself I wasn't here to become a model. I was just here to prove myself.

So I took a seat in the leather chair, hoping I wouldn't regret this.

A/N: We are so close to the 50 followers goal!! Thanks everyone! <3