Chapter 1.1

With her new mobile phone in hand, Vee tried to keep herself occupied by watching music videos of her favorite bands. Since she likes having free time before her actual work, she is used to arriving at the venue not less than three hours before the call time. Her habit has made her image really pleasant in the eyes of designers and their staff as they never had to stress about her not getting enough preparation time before her shows start. 

Today, as she arrived much earlier than usual, she was greeted by a staff member right after she got off the service van that picked her up from the private hangar as she arrived in her private plane. She was then asked to wait for her stylist in her own dressing room while one of her assistants joined the rest of the staff who were preparing all the items needed for the fashion show - from different sets of face paint to five different outfits and props for each model. 

Her room was adjacent to the common one where the rest of the guest models were huddled, and not wanting to feel isolated, she had asked her assistants to keep the room to her door open. Occasionally, models who were new in the industry would peek inside her room to greet her or take selfies with her, while the veteran ones who have already become immune to her presence simply waved her excited hellos as they were ushered by their own assistants to their own rooms.

The other room was quite crowded - everyone involved in the show was busy working on his own assignment, intent on ensuring there would be no mistakes. They seemed to only communicate with a colleague when they happened to share a task. Even with less conversations though, the large room was still filled with excited noise, but as the start of the show fast approached, the bustling noise was soon mixed with urgent call outs, panicky orders, and last-minute meetings called by the managers.

As the top paid model of one of the biggest fashion lines, Vee attends more out of the country shows than some of her model friends, thus she always missed their rants and cheers every time she had to be away, solo. They never fail to send her videos and messages wherever they are, but she still never fails to be homesick every time she has to travel without more familiar people around.

"I'm starting to think that you don't consider me as a true friend, Vee." The make-up artist cum stylist that Vee was waiting for, has finally arrived and entered the room, followed by her assistant. Her name is Lenka, model turned make-up artist, who has been working with Vee since she was 12 years old.

Vee grinned lazily while waving her phone at Lenka. She had just started watching a romantic comedy after binge-watching music videos. She tried to hide it from Lenka, but she knew that it would be useless to pretend that she wasn't bored. She and Lenka had been friends for over ten years now, and the latter could smell boredom even from ten thousand miles away. Her friend was seven years older than her and has decided to quit modeling upon getting married and having a child.

What would it take to make you smile today?” Lenka asked Vee after giving the latter a tight hug. Yes, she didn’t fail to notice Vee’s sad eyes despite her wide grin.

Vee simply shrugged and finally put her phone down as she stretched her limbs which were starting to get numb while she was unmoving earlier.

"You are opening the show today," Lenka said, smiling brightly. "This is the third time the Guy Perry has convinced you to walk his lingerie collection." She started giggling when Vee rolled her eyes, grinning with her tongue in between her teeth. She knew that she struck the right buttons to make her precious friend feel a little better.

Guy Perry is one of the best designers in the industry and is known for his revealing line of clothes. Despite being close friends, it took him five years to convince Vee to walk for him even with a hefty offer, and only got a nod when he made known to public that the lace products he uses on his designs were woven by a group of deaf individuals - something that sold Vee, who was a big supporter of charity institutions.

"You've always had an amazing bum, Vee." Guy would always say, while flicking his fingers against the model's behind, "and your body looks a lot sexier now that you're a full grown woman." Since his house has a resolve of not letting underaged models walk his lingerie collection, he was only able to start talking to Vee about it when she had turned eighteen. It was a gamble, since Vee was already signed for another clothing line, and she was a model known for being too cautious of not wearing anything lacey - an exact opposite of what his house designs. His lace products being bought from charities for the deaf was the only edge he had over Vee's then house.

"Woman, you say," Vee grunted, snapping back to the present but still thinking of Guy’s words, "yet my Dad still sees me like a twelve-year-old." Lenka laughed as she watched Vee scroll through her mobile phone's call logs, looking for her father's number. "He called me six times yesterday and sent me about twenty-five messages!”

Not that she was complaining - Vee likes to always hear from her father especially when she is out of the country. It had become a routine for her to let the Yates patriarch hear of her whereabouts, or any member of the family for that matter. She understood her father’s reasons for keeping her under close watch as though always scared of losing her, having heard hundreds of times how his world had crumbled when he lost his wife after she had given birth to Vee.

Apart from her father, Vee also has an older brother - Viktor - who loves badgering her for the most unthinkable reasons when she is not home. Just this morning when she was not in the mood yet to wake up, Viktor video called her to ask for the best tie color to match his beige coat refusing to not get any answer until he was sure that Vee was finally awake.

"Seriously, Viktor?" She had snapped, seeing her brother's silly grin on the screen of her laptop. "Get a girlfriend to help you dress up, dude!"

"Don't you think they'd rather help me get undressed?" Viktor laughed as Vee threw a pillow on the screen as though it would hurt him. "Good morning, Veevee!" And he was gone. Crazy family. She thought, but she couldn't deny that it made her feel better every time.