-8 years later-

"Could you tilt your head up a bit more? And move your hand just slightly to the left. Yeah, just like that! That's great!" Nozomi shouted out orders as the model in front of her complied and changed her pose accordingly.

Nozomi quickly took some pictures when the model got into the right position, the noise of the camera shutters drowned out by the surrounding hustle and bustle of the crew.

"And... that's a wrap!"

Nozomi turned off her camera and placed it into the leather pouch slung around her neck. She went forward to shake the model's hand, the latter doing the same.

The model had lustrous brown wavy hair that cascaded past her shoulders, stopping right below her breasts. Her large eyes were a bright lime green, emphasized by the light purple eye shadow and violet eye-liner applied wonderfully by the make-up artist. She had a cute button nose with full lips curving up to reveal dimples. Her cheeks were covered with a light pink blush. She wore a strapless frilly satin green dress that reached down to right below her knees, revealing smooth spotless skin, and long legs that led to beige high heels which matched her skin tone and made her slightly taller than Nozomi.

"It was nice working with you, Toujou-san," the model said as they shook hands.

"You were a pleasure to work with too, Izumi-han," Nozomi good-naturedly replied.

"If you don't mind, would you like to join me and some of my colleagues for dinner tonight?" Izumi asked when they separated.

Nozomi thought about it for a while. Well, why not?

Nozomi settled down on the comfy leather couch in her living room, glad to finally be able to rest her tired aching feet after a long tiring day at work. Dinner had ended up a bit crazy with most of them getting drunk and one of them had even tried to hit on her. The yakiniku there was great though. I should visit again some other time.

She propped her feet up on the wooden coffee table in front of the couch while simultaneously picking up the TV remote controller lying beside a bowl of apples on the table to turn on her Samsung UHD television, the speakers on both sides of it automatically turning on at the same time. She took an apple and bit out a sizable chunk as she flipped channels. It gave out a loud, satisfying crunch that prompted Nozomi to continue biting into it. By the time she found a channel she liked, she had already finished eating the apple, save the core which she expertly threw into the nearby dustbin. The advertisements had just came on when her phone rang, its ringtone permeating through the noise coming from the television. Nozomi groaned in displeasure. She had left her phone on the bedside table in her bedroom and was too lazy to go answer it after getting so comfortable on her couch. After a few seconds of incessant ringing, Nozomi decided that it could be an important call and went to pick up her phone. She turned off the television and slowly got up. She immediately missed the comfort of her couch and could feel the ache return to her feet again. She trudged into her bedroom and grabbed the phone vibrating on the table. She plopped down on her bed as she pressed the button to answer the call.

"Hello? This is Toujou Nozomi speaking." Nozomi fought to keep a professional tone instead of just shouting at the person on the other side of the line for disturbing her rest time.

"Good evening, Toujou-san. Sorry to disturb you so late. I am Takashi Yamato from Star Magazine and we are looking for talented photographers like you to join us for a photo-shoot taking place next month. You would be working with a new and upcoming model from Russia, Lia, and, the also recently starting fashion designer duo, NiTori. There will be a meeting tomorrow morning for you to get acquainted with each other. We will also be discussing more details about the photo-shoot. If you are interested, please tell me your email address and I will send an email containing all the necessary details about the meeting later."

Nozomi perked up at this. Star Magazine was really popular among teenagers these days. Not to mention, NiTori's clothes had shown up on a few fashion magazines she had seen and she had to admit that they were really good. Nobody knows how they look like or who they are since they refuse to reveal their identity though.

This was quite a last minute arrangement but this was also the golden opportunity for her career and Nozomi could not refuse. She told Yamato her email address and heard the faint sounds of lead scratching on paper from the other end.

"Thank you very much! I shall email you the details in a short while. Have a good day."

Nozomi let out a huge sigh when she heard the monotonous beeping coming from the earpiece indicating that the caller had hung up. A few minutes later, her phone buzzed as it received a notification that she had a new email.

She opened it up and began to skim through the email. Her eyes almost bulged out in surprise as she noticed the time the meeting would start.

7am?! That's way too early! And the place isn't that near either, Nozomi mentally complained.

Nozomi was not going to pass up this job anytime soon though. She put her phone back on the table and leaned back onto the headboard. She stared blankly at the ceiling.

I guess I should do some research on Lia and NiTori.

Nozomi looked up to glance at her laptop sitting on the white work table on the opposite end of the room and felt the ache in her feet return tenfold.

Or maybe not…

Nozomi felt her eyes begin to droop. She felt really sleepy all of a sudden. She laid down on the bed and pulled the covers over her body. Closing her eyes and snuggling deeper into her pillow, she drifted off to sleep.

I'll do a search on them tomorrow…

Oh no! It's already 6.15am!

Nozomi quickly got into the bathroom to have a quick shower and brush her teeth. When she was done, she quickly put on a plain black blouse with a light beige cotton skirt and dashed out of the house, almost forgetting to lock the door. She mentally cursed herself for not getting a driver's license as she tried to hail a taxi. A few taxis passed by her before she finally got one to stop. She told the driver her destination as she hastily got in.

When she arrived, she passed him a bunch of bills, telling him to keep the change as she quickly ran into the building. A security guard stopped her but let her go after Nozomi told him what she was there for. She spotted the lift door closing in the distance. She sprinted there as fast as she could and stuck her foot between the doors just in time to prevent it from fully closing. She was thankful as the doors slowly opened again that there was no one else in the lift that could see how crazy she looked with her hair and clothes in a mess. She glanced down at her watch. 6.55am. Good, I still have 5 minutes left. Nozomi took the time to tidy up her appearance and make herself presentable for the meeting.

She smoothened down the hair that stuck up from the mad dash earlier and took out her red hair tie from her right pocket. She combed through her hair with her fingers before tying it up with the red hair tie. She then took out two equally red clips from her left pocket and clipped up her fringe that had been covering her right eye. She straightened her blouse with one hand and used her other hand to smoothen out any wrinkles that had formed on it.

The lift let out a 'ding!' as it reached her designated floor. She stepped out of the lift and took her time searching for the meeting room, giving herself more time to calm her breathing. Soon, she found the door that had a brass plate on it with the words Meeting Room 04 engraved on it. She took another peek at her watch. 6.59am, just in time.

She felt her hands shake as she reached out to open the door. She was starting to get nervous but she ignored it. She took a deep breath and pushed open the door.

Her eyes widened when she saw the familiar figure in front of her.

A/N: I love cliffhangers, don't you? Sry for taking so long to update tho, school's been kind of a bitch y'know? (i s2g i literally spend more time in sch than at home)

Thanks Kumiko-chii and Crimson for your title suggestions but um I'm looking for sth different..? But i guess that's my fault cos ya'll can't really tell what the
story's about from the first chapter oops sry bout that. Thanks all you others for your reviews, favs and follows too! I welcome more suggestions ayy ヽ(○･▽･○)ﾉﾞ

Uhm I don't really know anything about fashion or make-up so if their clothes or make-up are kinda weird then yeah sry... Constructive criticism welcomed :D

Also big thanks to my bff, tried-to-art, for the wonderful cover art (go check out her tumblr of the same name ye)