Cerise doesn't know what to feel, blinded by her own emotions that she feels as if its her first heartbreak. She's been crying on Jean's jacket with him acting as a throw pillow for her to squeeze.
She can't breathe. gasping for air with her mouth as her nose has become runny from all the crying. Sal hasn't come home in a week, moreover not even bothering to contact her. Her heart feels heavy, stomach growling in pain as if she was dying of hunger when in fact, she's just missing someone important to her. Jean doesn't understand this but he tries his best to comfort Cerise, drawing tiny circles on her back to calm her down.
"I miss her so much." Cerise cries out, tears continuously streaming from her cheeks and Jean makes sure to wipe it away with his finger.
"It's going to be alright she'll come back." Jean assures but Cerise is reluctant, "No she won't! She's mad I ignored her for so long we've been drifting" she sobs and continues murmuring words under her breath.
"She just needs some time I promise I know she'll come back." Cerise looks up at him with hope, and snuggles further on his chest, inhaling the sweet scent of Jean that her nose chose to ignore as she started crying.
The following morning, her eyes are puffy and unlike yesterday Jean is making fun of her for it, calling her bumblebee or frog. A group of frog hollows glare at them on the streets outside of Rubylust.
As they enter, there's a commotion in one of the studios. Apparently a veteran model has chose to transfer to the company and the staff members are amazed by her visuals.
"Let's go" Jean drags Cerise away from the crowd and into the office but the crowd seems to follow them, annoyed, Cerise uses her position to her advantage. "All of you get back to work."
The lot of them look at each other before splitting up and moving to their own cubicles. As they go back, they part like the sea, revealing the person in the middle of the crowd. It was a young girl with platinum colored hair, tall and somewhat familiar.
Cerise stares at her, directly in the eyes but she's looking at someone else, particularly the male beside her, Jean.
"Hello!" She approaches, a wide smile on her face and shakes Jean's hand. "My name is Joy-i pronounced as Zoe, I'll be working here from now on!"
She's too bright, Cerise notes. Observing the way her face is all glowy and even with the bad room lighting the shades seem to hit her visuals in the most gorgeous way possible.
Her eyes travel along Jean's body who remains unresponsive except for the tiny smile he offers her. She spots Cerise behind Jean and her lips seem to twitch when she sees Cerise and Jean's linked fingers.
"You must be?" She questions, Cerise raises a brow, the tone seeming a bit more aggressive than the way she greeted Jean. "Cerise. Go Cerise." Cerise highlights her last name, feeling threatened by the way this girl looks at her.
"Nice to meet you." She dismisses her immediately and tries to pry Jean away from her. She grips at his other side and pulls him away from Cerise which leaves her to work in the office alone.
Cerise is more than lonely at this point, breathing out heavily every five minutes and the sound bounces off the walls of the large headquarters. The director hasn't showed up to Rubylust for the past weeks, claimed to be sick and Cerise notes to visit him soon.
Now that she's done with her work, she checks her schedule and sees that Jean has a shoot she needs to be present in.
She makes her way downstairs and there she spots Joy-i and Jean in the studio, still gossiping. Something in Cerise's stomach brews, she feels hot in the head and her throat nearly explodes.
"Jean!" Cerise calls out, a fake grin on her mouth. "Get ready for the shoot"
Jean leaves and enters the wardrobe, leaving Joy-i and Cerise to talk.
"Goodmorning Joy-i, I believe you've heard that you're assigned under me?"
Joy-i seems bored, replies "yeah."
"One of the staff members should give you your schedule later, don't worry about Jean you'll get to work with him soon." Cerise points out, knowing that it'll be something that'd pique her interest.
She makes eye contact with Cerise, "Really?"
"Yes, now if you don't mind, I'll go and assist Jean in his shoot."
The shoot goes on for about two hours or so, with Cerise giving Jean water and telling the makeup artists to retouch him up every now and then. As soon as the shoot finishes, Janoir barges in the studio, five boxes of donuts in both of his hands, a cute smile plastered on his face.
From the side, Cerise can feel Joy-i stiffen up. "Are you okay?"
The moment she asks, Janoir looks her way and he frowns. "You." His voice dropped its usual jolly pitch, booming around the room which takes everyone's attention.
In less than a minute of staring back and forth, all of the people realize one thing.
Joy-i and Janoir are siblings. There's a strong resemblance, there's no doubt.
"Hello Janoir." Janoir drops the boxes of donuts on a table, and some of the people go back to doing their own business, some still shocked but doesn't pay much attention to them.
"What are you doing here?" Janoir asks, towering over her.
"I came for you."
"Get straight to the point," Janoir is nothing close to pleased, Cerise scoots away for a bit in her seat but remains having open ears. Jean however, is shamelessly looking at the siblings.
"Fine." Joy-i rolls her eyes.
"Father wants you back home, he's not giving me anything until I do everything to get you back." She spills, twirling her hair.
Janoir closes his eyes and bring one hand up to massage his temple. "You know I'm not going back to that hellhole" Janoir whispers but Cerise still hears.
"Oh but you must." Joy-i states, a curve to her tone, mocking.
Cerise doesn't like where this is going, she stands up and says, "Oh look Janoir! Jean! you have a meeting to attend to let's head out,"
She makes sure Joy-i is out of sight before settling Janoir to one of the seats in the lounge. Patiently, she sits down in front of him and waits for him to say something. "I'm not going to explain anything." Janoir utters, his lips in a pout as he looks down and plays with his fingers.
Cerise softens, "You don't have to. All I want to know is if you're feeling okay?
Silence fills the room and its not long before Janoir leaves to attend to his own matters. The day goes by and Cerise is still left thinking about Joy-i and Janoir.
Her and Jean are hanging out by the rooftops, munching on lemon candy as with Jean's preference. It's sundown already and the view from where they are serves as a dramatic scene that came from a movie. Down below Cerise looks, she spots multiple black cars lined up at Rubylust and wonders if anyone important has come for a visit. She doesn't remember having a special guest listed in their board today.
Joy-i comes out from the entrance and then, unexpectedly Janoir too. It seems as if they're negotiating. "Jean look at this." Cerise beckons.
They hear Janoir shout even amongst the noises of the busy street and the windy day and suddenly Janoir is gripped on the shoulders by three men and is pushed inside the car. Joy-i enters the car behind where Janoir was forced into and the line up immediately leaves.
"What the hell just happened?"