33

322 20 6
                                    

||Lucas||

Fittings are fun, but they get tiring after about and hour. Not to mention the amount of times I get needles poked into my skin.

I'm standing in one of the company's fitting rooms. It's huge with wall parts that create cubicles. We each get pulled into a different cubicle and there's always a dozen different clothing pieces hanging on the wall rack. I pull on the first set of clothes which is a simple gray suit with a patterned shirt and glittering shoes and step out into the foyer. A mirror lines the wall to my left and other models are already critiquing their appearance, Madame Maudelle's assistants buzzing by their sides.

I step onto the mock catwalk and find a place in front of the mirror. Andrew comes to my side shortly after.

"It looks nice. Just needs a few adjustments." He mumbles more to himself than anyone else who cares to pay attention. He starts to pinch the jacket and pokes sewing pins into it. He pulls a clip off his tool belt and clamps it against the back of the suit to fit it to my hips.

Andrew licks his lips. "You kinda look like a Dorito."

"What?" I try not to move while he continues to pull at my clothes.

"Wide shoulders, small waist. Upside down triangle, equals Dorito." He shrugs.

"Added bonus that you're six foot something. I'd kill for that." I roll my eyes and snigger. Mostly because his head barely reaches my shoulders.

"So who's the guy?" Andrew throws the question in the air without even batting an eye. My first instinct is to freeze up but I try to stop myself and act normal. No one can know.

"What do you mean, guy?" I try to play dumb.

"Rumour has it you're seeing someone and you know I like my gossip. So who is it?" I expect him to lean in like a school girl and flutter his lashes. Although he doesn't do the whole lash thing, he does move closer to hear my supposed scandal. Like no one heard him borderline scream out the rumour already. I take a few steps back.

"First of all, I'm straight. There's no guy. Even if there was a guy, we couldn't date. It's against the contract." I'm surprised by how easy the lie comes, but I feel my heart pounding nonetheless.

"Riiiight." He winks at me.

|||

The fitting finishes after a few hours and I return one last time to my change room and pull off the house robe I was given after stripping the newly fitted clothes. I pull on my jeans and button up and leave the room.

"Lucas." I hear a woman's voice behind me. It sounds stressed. When I turn, Natasha's already strutting toward me. Her tight curls are pulled back today into a lose bun that bobs against the back of her head.

"Will you come see me sometime before you go home?" She looks extremely serious and I can't decide if it's because of the fitting that we just finished, or if there's something else bothering her. I hope it's the first one.

"Alright." I nod and she passes me into the hallway.

|||

I can't stop worrying about what Natasha said to me. She's asked me to her office before but this time I can't help but think it's about something bad.

She never specified a time to meet in her office so I had planned to pop in at the end of the day, before I went home. But I can't keep waiting like this. The longer I wait, the more stressed I end up. I tried seeing her earlier today but there was no answer when I knocked on her office's door. I asked around and apparently she was at some meeting.

I try her office once more. I knock my knuckles against the door and mentally cross my fingers, hoping to hear her voice behind the door.

"It's open!" She calls. I feel a small amount of weight lift from my shoulders. Twisting the handle, I straighten my posture and put on my best business face.

"I came earlier, but you were in a meeting." I say when I sit down at her desk. She doesn't answer me and focuses a little too hard on what she's doing. Natasha's trying to avoid my eyes and I already know this isn't good. The hopeful voice in the back of my mind says that I'm overreacting. She's arranging a few papers into a neat stack and puts them in a small shelf that takes up little space on her huge wooden desk before she knits her fingers together and looks at me.

"I trust you, Lucas. I really do." The full-wall windows let in what feels like way too much sunlight.

"Well, thank you." I don't know how to respond. She takes a deep breath, preparing for the news she's about to drop on me.

"There's been some rumours floating around. You must've heard a few." Instantly, my thoughts go to Andrew and his relationship talk. Oh no.

"I've heard." I try to keep my voice from wavering. No one can know.

"Lucas, it's none of my business. But if there is something going on..." my heart drops through the floor. Jungwoo. I keep picturing his face. I just want to make him smile, prompt him to come out of his shell a little. But all I've seemed to do is give him a hard time. I decide not to say anything, too afraid that my voice will betray me if I do. I nod instead.

"You could be fired, Lucas. Best case scenario you lose your position as lead model but you'd have to work your way back up again. That is, if Madame Maudelle feels she'd be able to trust you again."

"I promise you, I am not dating anybody. This job means too much to me." The lie is like a punch to the gut.

"It's an unreasonable contract, but I don't make the rules." Natasha's voice softens.

"Thank you." I say before getting up and leaving the room.

|||

I can't focus on anything other than Jungwoo the rest of the night. I try to calm my thoughts by watching TV, but I keep catching myself spacing out, going back to Jungwoo. I can't let this ruin my career. I've worked too hard for this. But at the same time, I can't hurt Jungwoo like that. Not many make the list of people who are important to me, but Jungwoo seems to be at the top of it. I don't know what to do, so I call Yuta.

|||

"You have to talk to him." Yuta says. I expected that, but I already know what jungwoo would say. He'd try to convince me to leave him. He's too generous to put himself before my work, even though I've tried to tell him he's more important countless of times.

"I know." I sigh.

"I just don't want to hurt him more than I already have."

"You have to. You can't keep this from him. If he found out that you were hiding something like that from him..." Yuta doesn't have to finish his sentence. I'd send Jungwoo into an irrational guilt trip.

"Hello? Lucas?" I realize that I've gone quiet.

"Alright. I'll tell him eventually, but I'm going to try to figure this out first. I'm not giving him more stress if I don't have to."

"Okay, but sooner's better than later. Just call me if you need anything." Yuta says through the phone.

"Thanks." I hang up the call and press my face into my pillow. I'm exhausted after today, but my new list of problems is clearly keeping me from sleep. I have to tell him sometime, I just don't know when.

Work of Art || LuwooWhere stories live. Discover now