𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐞

⊱𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑⊰

Eun-Jae

Just as I was about to knock on the changing room door, Nari stepped out. Surprised, I stepped back and stared at the outfit. It wasn't good enough. There was barely any attention to detail, the silhouette was extremely basic and it just wasn't good enough. But none the less, it suited Nari perfectly. Too perfectly. When I looked through her portfolio the first day I met her, it seemed like every outfit she wore was just perfect or her. Whether the outfit looked significantly uncomfortable or was just plain ugly, she pulled it off and made it look good. She made every thing look perfect and I despised her for it.

After adjusting the outfit slightly, Nari and I went over to the set to finally start the shoot. I stood next to the camera man and watched Nari go through her poses. As I watched her it soon became blatantly obvious that she was nervous. She kept avoiding looking at the camera and many of the poses she did were repeated. Sighing heavily, I told the camera man to wait for a minute and I called Nari over. She hesitated for a second but still walked over, her gaze directed at the floor.

"Nari."

"Yes?" She replied, looking up from the floor. Her long dark lashes obscured her deep brown eyes slightly as I looked up at her. Why was she nervous? Surely she's done many photo shoots before this one.

"Why are you nervous?" I questioned.

"...I'm not sure why. I have this weird feeling in my chest and it won't go away." She explained quietly.

"What are you sick or something?" I asked, wondering why she would come to the shoot if she was ill.

"No I don't think so." She spoke.

"Look, if you're sick then you can finish shooting in this outfit and go home but if you're not you need to model properly. We don't have time to take pictures of the same pose ten times. I don't have time for that." I said sternly. It felt like I was scolding a little kid. Nari nodded in response but she still looked as clueless as she was a minute ago.

"Just work with the outfit okay? Use it to create the poses." I tried to advise.

"I don't really know how to though." She muttered.

"When you look at the outfit how would you describe it; is it angular? Soft? You create poses based on those interpretations." I sighed.

"But how-"

"That's up to the stylistic choice of the model. Which is you. So you need to make that decision. I only choose the pictures, not create them."

"But in a way you do create the pictures. How could you design something so beautiful and say that you don't create the pictures? As a model I'm only a canvas for your stunningly detailed work. I'm only an accessory in the pictures you create." She said softly. 

I stared at her, my eyes widened as I felt my heartbeat start to quicken. My body felt hot and my stomach was churning with butterflies. Why did she have to say that? Why her of all people? Why did she have to say something so kind when I've been so determined to hate her.

"That doesn't matter, just go on set and do your job." I mumbled, avoiding her gaze. She thanked me for the advise and slightly bowed her head, walking back on set. As she posed it was obvious that she had gained confidence and the poses flowed a lot better but in most of the pictures she was still avoiding the camera when she wasn't supposed to. A few seconds later I caught her gaze and I pointed at my eyes then at the camera hoping she would understand that she need to look at the camera more. She quickly realized what I had meant and finally started to look at the camera.

After a while I sent Nari off to get her hair and make up redone in preparation for the next outfit. As she was getting ready, the photographer and I flicked through the pictures and I took mental notes of the best ones when one photo really stuck out to me.