To Live Again, For the First Time!

"Do you want me to come with you?" Xander tidied up the papers that he had finished reading, putting them in separate files, while holding on to those he had yet to start.

"There won't be a need, I can go by myself," Emilin replied as she passed the last folder on the table to the man, telling Xander to put the files that he was still holding onto into the folder.

There was no need to elaborate on why it would be a bad idea to have any one of those papers out in the open.

Xander just nodded at Emilin's response.

Having spent but a week with Emilin, he still felt like he understood her quite a bit. She definitely wasn't as simple as he had originally thought.

'Then again, what kind of simple person would be able to become Master M's disciple?'

After all, this was a man who he idolized, despite having never met.

Xander had been previously skeptical about what Emilin had said, but now, after having been under her tutelage, he was sure that she was more than qualified to have him take her as his Master.

It wasn't a matter of age or gender, to begin with.

Xander had already come up with such a thought two days ago, but seeing as Emilin had yet to say anything, he didn't either.

"Then I'll go back home first to review what you've taught me today." Xander had gotten into the habit of giving Emilin a 15-degree bow before leaving as he did today.

"Bye," Emilin returned the short bow before turning around.

'I guess she doesn't disdain me as much as I thought,' Xander smiled as he looked at Emilin's receding back.

In the first two days they had come to Phashi country together, Emilin hadn't even greeted him unnecessarily. Now, looking at how far he had come, it was pretty satisfactory.

However, when Xander thought about Margo and how she had gotten Emilin to open up so much quicker, his smile couldn't help but wilt.

Comparison at this rate would only lead to the deterioration of his health and exponential growth of anxiety, well that was also true for any kind of comparison really, but still, it was quite sad.

A small rain cloud could almost be seen growing out from Xander's head, but he quickly dispersed it as he shook his head.

Xander made his way back to his home, the one he had rented out here.

Emilin actually found it quite perplexing how Xander could call this rented-out flat his home having been there for less than a dozen days.

In her over 15 years of life + however long she had lived in her past life, she only had one place she could call her home.

Of course, she wouldn't be able to understand.

Xander departed from the cat cafe, walking across the street, before making his way into the building directly opposite to the cat cafe they usually hung out at.

Right before he entered, he turned around one last time to check on Emilin, who had already entered a taxi and departed.

***

Emilin gave the driver the address that Lisa had sent her previously.

Lisa had offered to go pick her up a the airport, thinking that Emilin had just landed in Opaque city's main airport, but Emilin rejected the notion considering she was a 30-minute ride from the named upon location.

There was no need for the other party to go through that much trouble.

"Hello, do you have an appointment?" The desk clerk at the front desk of the studio asked in Phain, the local language.

He had never seen Emilin before and considering there was already someone else doing a photoshoot with Sir Nosa at the moment, this desk clerk highly doubted that this young lady had an appointment, but it was courtesy to ask, and so he did.

He also read novels, okay? He knew well what would happen to cannon folders who didn't know their place. Even if he worked for Sir Nosa, he was still just a desk clerk. If he faced any big troubles, the best and only option was to ask higher-ups.

He didn't even think about taking his own actions, after all, he was getting paid. No matter how nice his employers were, he would never forget his job.

Emilin nodded a little before moving her gaze to her phone, clicking some icons before bringing her phone to her ear.

The desk clerk, who still didn't quite believe Emilin simply smiled and waited.

This wouldn't be the first time some random nobody came here claimed to have an appointment here, he had to keep his cool in order to protect their studio's prestige, or so he thought.

He knew how to do his job, but he wasn't a coward or a fraud who would let unknown people into the building. This was why he was able to keep his job here, he would never allow himself to be bribed or anything of the sort.

Though Emilin was quite pretty, there were really a lot of beautiful people who came around trying to get a photoshoot with Mr. Nosa, and the front clerk already believed himself to be immune to all beautiful people after having seen Noah and some others walking in and out of this place all the time.

But it was also then that the clerk heard the young girl voice out a familiar name. He could only vaguely understand as Emilin spoke in English, but the boss's assistant's name wasn't one that he could miss.

"Hello, Miss Lisa." 

"Yes, I'm already here."

"Mm, at the front desk."

"Okay, then I'll wait here."

He could only hear Emilin's side of the conversation, but that was enough for him to get the gist of it.

The clerk instantly adopted a slightly more polite smile, though he wasn't particularly impolite, to begin with.

"Miss Emilin, you've come. It's so nice to finally meet you," Lisa had quickly made her way over, but not enough to break a sweat. 

She was quite close, after all, she already knew that Emilin was coming sometime soon.

Emilin gave Lisa a short bow as a greeting and though Lisa didn't have such a habit, she wasn't flustered and returned the greeting.

"Sir. Nosa is currently working on a photoshoot with one of our models, would you like to come to the lounge first?"

Emilin thought for a moment before responding with a question of her own.

"Can I watch?"

She was quite interested in this matter.

Lisa seemed stifled for a bit, but not for long.

"It should be fine, as long as you leave all your devices, phones, and otherwise, outside."

That much was understandable, after all, they wouldn't want anything leaking.

Emilin hummed and followed Lisa as she guided the way.

After walking past a few corridors and dressing rooms along the way, they reached the end of the hallway after which they could hear the muffled sounds of a particularly strict photographer shouting.

Lisa gave Emilin an awkward smile and slowly opened the door.

"What are you trying to pull here? It's an icy face! Not a dead one. Can't you tell the difference? If I wanted to take pictures of the dead, I would go look for a corpse, at least he would do better than you."

There was none of the harmony that previously filled this studio was gone.

Vanished into thin air.

It was instead all replaced by the frustration that stemmed from being unable to meet Mason's standards.

"You're conflicted, be more conflicted, conflicted but cold!" Mason demanded.

They were finally on their last set of clothing in the Four Season's men's clothing line, but it wasn't going too well, as one could tell.

The people around Mason and Noah were already sweating bullets. 

It wasn't only because of how poorly it was going, but rather how impossible Mason's current demands were.

When it came to working with Noah, Mason tended to just tell him outright what he wanted, unlike with some others, and there was one thing that should be known. 

Mason never changed his mind, no matter how absurd his demands sounded.

Since he had already been clear, this meant that he already had a vision of what he wanted, and he wasn't going to compromise for anything less.

And since he was already telling Noah, Mason had determined that Noah had the potential to meet his standards, it was just about the question of whether he was going to be able to do it in the given time frame, be it this day, this week, this month, or even this year. Mason wouldn't stop for as long as they had the time, for as long as Mason knew that Noah could do it.

However, there was a deadline for this specific photo, and so they didn't have that kind of luxury.

There were many discarded works for this very reason.

Mason would never submit something substandard, even if that meant that he would have to pay the compensation.

Many people who worked with him knew that, and so they made sure to have someone else ready just in case.

Multiple companies had demanded Mason just give them what he had, after all, to them, it was good enough, better than their substitute's work, but Mason always rejected, this gave many companies a great headache.

Mason was both a pain in the ass to work with as well as the best partner you could ask for at the same time for many reasons, many times depending on the situation as well as the mood, yet even so people still lined up to partner together, this just went to show how valuable his skills were.