─── ·𖥸· ───
Gold.
Minhee loves it. She thinks it is the best colour that describes the hypocrisy of the world. If one thing is worthless, of no use is described as the 'fool's gold' and if one thing is extremely valuable to them, it is said to be 'good as gold.'
A child who's talented gets called as the 'golden child' and the woman who marries into the house of the rich is labelled as a 'gold digger'.
People say it makes anything shine but when you look closely, it is as selfish as the hyenas. It shines itself and makes the other colour dull, but people are blinded by its beauty to even notice it.
To Minhee, Golden is quality. It's superior to everything else.
It is inspiring, alluring and eye-catching.
Gold is everything she wants to be.
"The CEO is going to do the makeup on her own?"
"She learnt it professionally, of course she can!"
Minhee walks inside the shooting set with Dahyun filling her up with the updates for the day. "Persona magazine has sent their editors and a photographer. We don't have to handle any cost for them, they are here to assist us."
As soon as she enters and sees the team ready with the set, she nods, acknowledging their efforts.
"Is Taehyung already here?" she asks, removing her coat and handing it to her secretary.
"Yes, he's waiting inside. This way, ma'am."
Minhee follows the staff member to the room Taehyung was waiting in. He's sitting lazily with his legs spread apart, a phone in his hand and clothes hanging loose on his body.
"Good morning, Mr Kim Taehyung. Yoon Minhee here." she walks in, offering her hand for a handshake. Taehyung looks up, throws his phone on the couch and stands up. "Nice to meet you, CEO Yoon."
"Thank you for joining us. We didn't know Mr Jeon had already asked—"
"Don't worry, Ms Yoon. My work life is something I enjoy but I like to keep it professional. What my relations or commitments to someone are don't hold importance if a deal is sealed." Taehyung says, hands stuffed in his loose pants' pockets.
Minhee smiles, "Let's get started then."
Elegance is a beauty that never fades, that's what was the first impression Minhee got when she saw Taehyung's profile. When people think of elegance, they think of smooth silk flowing in between the fingers, the fall of eyelashes, a turn in the waltz. They never think of something strong and charismatic.
Yet Taehyung makes you think like that. He's bold, spontaneous— seduces the photographer with his appealing eyes. It's like he challenges them, "Do you think you can take the best shot of me?"
Gold is Taehyung's colour.
When he shines, others are dull. When he looks into the camera, hearts fall. The main reason why Minhee wanted to work with him was that she needed his magnetic charms to get people to wonder, what makes him so alluring?
"Shading brush," Minhee says and the assistant hands her the item over. "Glue."
Taehyung is a beauty that will never fade.
Because his beauty doesn't lie in his face, but in the way he carries himself. He doesn't have the glare in his eyes that most of the models do and mask it as 'fierce eyes'. No, Taehyung has the softness in that piercing gaze of his, that puts you in a haze.
"Done. What do you think?" Minhee says, stepping back a little to see the whole look from a distance.
The first look is a little simple with its accent being the gold liquid eyeshadow on Taehyung's eyelids. Minhee nods, satisfied. She then looks around the room, some can hear broken murmurs analysing the look. Something about it being too simple for an international magazine, and some saying it is perfectly classic.
The shoot starts with Taehyung sitting on a faded throne, and a crown decorating his head.
"Good, sit back."
Minhee's eyes are fixed on the screen where all photos could be seen together. Her mind is reeling, getting sucked into a black hole of seductive beauty and when she hears someone speak against her ears, she almost forgets to breathe.
"Enjoying what you see, CEO Yoon?"
Minhee gulps head slowly turning towards the man who's standing just beside her. His deep voice sends shivers throughout her body, she wants to run away. "Don't enjoy it too much, your boyfriend won't like it."
The man winks and walks back to the room for his next look.
Holy hell, this is gonna be one difficult shoot.
...
"No that's totally alright, Manager Nam," Jeongguk says, sighing. "We understand, Kim Hye Soo's schedule can't work out with the pictorial."
Jeongguk hangs up and looks at Secretary Kim who shakes his head, with his mouth turned upside down. "No good models can work it out on such short notice. Some who might even manage to, don't want to. The news of Wings' model being Kim Taehyung has spread already, no one likes to be compared to him. That daft."
Jeongguk snorts and walks to the couch where Secretary Kim is sitting. He sits with a loud exhale, head resting back against the cushions. His phone buzzes in his pocket and he doesn't make an effort to move, lifting his phone up to his eye level to read the mail. "Han Mi Rae agreed. She's asking 2.5 times what we offered her."
"We won't do it." Secretary Kim declares. "They should be honoured if they get a chance to feature in Persona magazine, those rats. The media will say we paid them extra to work with us, it's gonna affect a lot of things."
Jeongguk sighs, keeping the phone down with a groan. He looks lazily at Secretary Kim.
"Your double chin is showing." The older man says.
"I don't care."
"It looks ugly."
"Uglier than the fish you got your mother?"
Secretary Kim pretends to think. "Maybe?"
Jeongguk picks a pillow from under his head and throws it towards Kim but he's too tired to even reach past his own feet. "Ahh, this is killing me. At this rate, I will have to become a model and then get hired by Kim Dong-Hee." He slowly shifts to lie down on the couch, still looking at the man sitting across from him.
He notices the shift in the older man's expression.
"I know that look on your face. Stop thinking whatever you are."
"I am just saying it isn't actually a bad idea. It might be the only good idea you have come up with this year."
"Hey!" Jeongguk sits up, offence lacing his tone.
"You look good, have a good body as well. It's perfect." Secretary Kim points out. "I have been actually wanting to open an underwear line with you as a model in it. It would sell well."
Jeongguk covers his chest with his hands, face twisting in a frown. "Thank you but that's a very perverted thought."
"What have you worked out so much for? Bring it to some use!" Secretary Kim clicks his tongue, "I should have encouraged you to become a model back then instead of opening a company."
"I am not doing it."
"Okay."
Jeongguk blinks, dumbfounded. He sits up straight, hands falling down to his lap. "You gave up so easily?"
"You don't want to do it, I can't force you." Kim shrugs. "I have no such power."
"You are supposed to convince me more!" Jeongguk raises his tone, baffled.
"Are you going to do it or not?" Secretary Kim crosses his arms in front of his torso. Jeongguk pouts and brings his feet up on the sofa. He hugs a pillow to his chest and in the smallest voice says, "Do it."
"Then put your smelly feet down!"
...
Minhee licks her lips before walking inside the waiting room to get Taehyung ready for the second cut. "CEO Yoon."
"Oh, you are here Aera!"
"Should I start?" Aera smiles. Minhee nods, "You looked through the concept profile right?"
The other nods. Continuing the concept of golden, the second look consists of one of the popular items in art, the golden foil. Minhee wanted to make it seem like Taehyung's born of a gold statue and hence to create that look, bits of the gold foil will cover one side of his face to make it seem like that the statue is cracking.
"CEO, could you help me decide whether we should use the rose gold foil or the bronze-gold one?" Aera says. Minhee nods, taking the sheets from her to inspect. "It's a difficult decision indeed."
"Taehyung's complexion is good, both of them suit very well." Minhee nods in agreement. She then leans towards Taehyung's face, eyes fixed on the sheets which she tries to cover his face with to see which looks better. Taehyung chuckles when Minhee doesn't look into his eyes. "Why aren't you doing my makeup this time, CEO Yoon?"
She looks at him, his eyes curved into crescents and lips stretched into a smirk. "Got too pretty to handle?"
Minhee pokes the inside of her cheek with her tongue, "Mr Kim, rven though I have been professionally trained to do makeup, I don't have the practice that Aera does. Such technical looks should be left in the hands of the pros." she whispers, unable to take her eyes off his.
Taehyung keeps staring at her for a few moments until he says. "You definitely know what you are doing Yoon Minhee, don't you?"
"I like to keep everything under control." she says and stands back straight, "We'll go with bronze gold."
The shoot begins again. Taehyung's photo cuts have the staff squealing and gawking at him. What an eye candy. Minhee thinks.
"Which cuts do you like, Ms Yoon?" the editor sitting in front of the screen asks. Minhee sits on the chair beside him and looks through the pictures.
Taehyung's magnificent.
She looks towards him where he is posing for the camera. Taehyung's eyes catch hers, and his eyelids droop. Minhee thinks that his uneven lids are the reason he can pull people in.
A flaw in the symmetry makes him imperfectly perfect.
"Absolutely perfect." the photographer encourages.
Air gets knocked out of Minhee's lungs, she pulls her legs together, shoulders tense and eyes still fixed with Taehyung's. Taehyung reminds her of the ticklish feeling one gets when a feather brushes her skin.
"Okay, good!" the photographer says, and keeps his camera down.
"Ms Yoon."
Minhee gulps, looking away from Taehyung towards the screen. "Let's keep the top line and the second from the bottom one. I think if we fix this a little, it would be good," she says, pointing at the specific pictures she likes.
When she looks back towards the set, Taehyung is already walking back towards the waiting room. She looks at Dahyun and says, "Any update about Jeongguk's model?"
"No. Since it's on short notice during the promotional season, very few models are available. Those who are, either don't want to compete against Taehyung or ask for too much money."
One staff member from the planning team chuckles. "Looks like they won't be able to do the pictorial. Congratulations, CEO Yoon! The cover is yours." The others laugh as well.
Minhee raises an eyebrow, before slamming her hand against the table. She stands up, pushing the furniture back with a force that makes the laughter abruptly stop.
"Get your head straight! Have we prepared so weakly that we can win only if there's a problem on their side or they back out of the competition? Are you looking down on an opponent?"
"Sorry, Ma'am."
Minhee's chest deflates, she turns to walk to the waiting room when she hears the staff murmur, "Pretty protective of your boyfriend huh."
She looks over her shoulder back at him before walking again.
Taehyung is getting his makeup removed when Minhee enters inside. "Thank you so much for your hard work," she says to him through the mirror and Taehyung just nods, making Minhee bite her lip.
"You too, CEO Yoon." The staff says and bows. Minhee stuffs her hands in her pockets, nodding. She looks at Taehyung again who's fixed on his phone. Minhee doesn't understand herself when she stares at him for a few moments, walks out of the room with a heavy feeling in her heart but it is strange to her.
New to her, and she doesn't understand what it means.
─── ·𖥸· ───
i couldn't edit more pictures of tae in that golden foil or related to the concept but atleast you get the idea
also i really hope you're enjoying the story so far <3