The week after the whole Charity Night drama, things seemed to have returned to normal for everyone. Elena and Frank have returned to the US, Jacky was out of town to Canberra for a conference and Altheda was in the midst of preparing for a big fashion show. It was a very important event for Blake, as he was the one who scouted the designer - Mitchel Park, a Korean designer who presented a fresh side of fashion ; his creation was quirky, colourful and often a little absurd. He also designed some casual street wear which has risen to the top chart of most Instagram-ed fashion by Korean young adults. For a moment, the whole engagement saga was put aside from everyone's mind.
As usual, Naomi was having a quick lunch together with her friends at the campus cafeteria. She looked just like any other ordinary university student - with her thick glasses, books and a laptop. She was munching on her egg mayo sandwich when her phone chimed.
"Dinner at home tonight?" the message was from Debby. "Okay." Naomi replied.
She then shifted her attention back to her friends as they were talking about something serious regarding their group project. Little that she knew, there was another pair of eyes following her every movement from the end of the cafeteria.
Naomi was in her lab coat, with her full protective equipment on as her group was doing a small experiment in the biology lab. They were observing the heart beat of a frog when stimulated with a small electric current. After an hour, her friends left for their next class, except one. Lucy was cleaning the bench while Naomi was about to return her ECG leads into the storage. As Naomi opened the door to exit the lab, she accidentally bumped onto someone .
"Oh I'm sorry."
"It's alright, it's my fault."
Naomi looked up to see the victim (?) to her clumsiness, only to find an unfamiliar face looking back at her with an enticing smile. That boy had a very different vibe to Blake, with his black eyes and dark brown hair and denim jacket. For some reason, Naomi felt like she has seen him before but not sure when or where.
"Sorry I should've checked my surroundings before opening the door..."
"Nah, it's my fault. I was playing with my phone so I wasn't paying attention." He smiled at her. "It's not like me to be so lucky to bump into a cute girl."
Naomi cringed a little on the inside. She has never been called cute. With her strong and independent vibe, Naomi was far from girly. Her sports motorbike and her gym bag pretty much created people's assumptions of her.
"Well... good that you're unharmed."
"What if... I am hurt? Are you gonna take responsibility for it?" he continued to probed her, blocking her way, leaning against the wall, still maintaining the same cheeky smile.
"Depends on what kind of damage I've caused." she replied.
The boy maintain his intrigued gaze on her calm expression.
"How about... dinner?"
"With a stranger? How sweet."
Naomi started to get a little annoyed with this stranger who was very good at maintaining eye contact. She was not an expert at talking to people, or looking at someone intensely over 5 minutes, even if it's someone she knew.
"I can tell you my name, if you tell me yours." he winked at her.
"Ha! Goodbye."
As she turned on her heels and walked away, the boy shouted from behind her.
"I'll be at La Piazza around 7 tomorrow. I'll be waiting!"
Naomi heard it but she waived it off. There's no way she would meet a weird boy she didn't know. Or... was he interesting enough for her to go?
===========
On the other side of Sydney, Blake had been rushing up and down the hallway, supervising his subordinates to make sure the rehearsal for Mitchel Park worked smoothly. He finally got a break that he needed after 3 hours of constant pacing, so he sat on a chair on the front row of the audience seats. He was watching model after model walked their way down the runway with different outfits. One particular model caught his eye, he knew her too well to notice her signature runway strut. It was Mel. She was the closing model for that particular set of outfits. Their eyes met briefly before Mel turned around at the end of the runway and made her way back to the backstage.
Blake quickly got up on his feet but he was not fast enough. Mel was a top supermodel who had mastered the art of changing her outfit in 5 seconds. She emerged from the side of the stage and walked towards Blake who grabbed Mike's arm and pretended to talk to him about something. In sync, Mike played along with Blake but as Mel approached, Mike couldn't help but walk away to give them space - followed with Blake's sharp gaze as if saying "damn it Mike!".
Blake clearly heard the clocking sound of her high heels getting louder behind him, so he turned around and found Mel standing there, looking very professional in her event make up and dress.
"Mel." He nodded curtly at her and shifted his gaze back towards the stage, when another set of costumes were paraded down the runway.
"Oh sweetie, don't be so cold." she placed her slender fingers on his shoulder but Blake moved away.
"Ah-" Mel was taken aback and anger boiled inside her but she maintained her composure and crossed her arms instead.
"Seems like we would be working together for a while."
"Uh huh." Blake tried to ignore her but she did not seem to want to move away.
"I'm really sorry about what happened before, I was beside myself." Mel looked at him adoringly.
"Were you?" Blake snickered.
"Look, I just wanna make it up to you. I'll treat you to a good dinner alright?"
"Whatever Mel."
"Wait..."
Mel pulled Blake's arm gently and stopped him on his tracks.
"Just this once, meet me for dinner."
"Look , Mel, i don't wanna be in another drama with you. I've learnt my lesson and I don't think I wanna be seen with you."
"That's... " (rude - in Mel's head) "very honest." she replied, gritting her teeth.
"Fine, let's have a company dinner then. We shall have Mike and Mr.Park with us."
Blake finally looked at Mel.
"Public restaurant, Mel, no private rooms."
"Sure, let's go downtown. I'll take you somewhere nice."
Blake sighed. "Just this once."
Mel smiled meaningfully, but her eyes were cold as ice. Blake continued to watch the runway and soon after that, Mitchel joined in.
"Blake, do you have any Asian models in your agency? I need to shoot a cover for Vision magazine, it'll be oriental theme and my current model is unable to make it."
"Any specific criteria?"
"She's gotta be tall, over 170cm and if possible, of Chinese descent."
"I'll look into it. I'll find you an oriental model ASAP."
"Thanks Blake."
As Mitchel walked away to talk to his organiser, in Blake's head there was only one person in mind that might fit that criteria, Naomi Lee.