Chapter 58
Roselia is a capable manager.
For starters, she speaks three languages and is excellent at coordinating schedules.
The stability that comes from her having been an army officer, her meticulous consideration, and so on—
I could go on listing her good points forever, but this time she missed two things.
Namely, she failed to look ahead and took pride in knowing her hometown of Paris well.
“Apparently Paris is insanely hot right now….”
As I boarded the plane, I couldn't believe my ears when I heard Roselia.
Wait, why? Paris?
Wasn't Europe supposed to be less hot?
You know how it is.
Those videos where foreigners visit Korea in summer and go, “Oh—Korea is cold in winter, but why is it so hot in summer—?”
marveling at Koreans' spirit, mental fortitude, and survival skills as they endure the extremes of hot and cold every year.
But apparently Europe is as hot as Korea this summer.
“It's under a double heat dome right now….”
“Good grief.”
Honestly, I'd been hoping to enjoy a cooler Europe with a bit of a vacation feel.
But thanks to some double heat dome or whatever, Paris had apparently turned into a sauna.
“Then let's just stay at the hotel….”
Still, one good thing was that the hotel we'd been provided was a luxury hotel.
Surely a hotel foreign visitors stayed at would have at least one air conditioner.
However, the real problem was something else.
Following a local employee from Andel, we arrived at the studio.
The moment I reached the place where I'd be getting my makeup done for several hours, my jaw dropped.
"What the hell is this…."
No air conditioning?
What the fuck is this supposed to mean?
They expected me to get my makeup done without air conditioning?
What kind of primitive place was this?
No air conditioner—the GOAT of human history, the emperor of technology, the antithesis of fire?
In that famous metropolis, Paris?
They couldn't even turn the fans up high during makeup.
And so.
“Are you all right...?"
“...Yes.”
Irritation, irritation, fucking irritation.
My irritability had shot straight through the roof, and I was on the verge of going insane.
If there was one fortunate thing, it was that I didn't let my mood affect my behavior.
For the record, this wasn't something Ms. Han Seonghwa taught me; it was my personal motto.
To be honest, Ms. Han Seonghwa did have a bit of a tendency to let her mood dictate her behavior.
‘What the fuck kind of studio doesn't have air conditioning….’
So there I was, getting my makeup done while silently unleashing every obscenity under the sun, when—
“This place doesn't have air conditioning? How does that even make sense!”
A sharp French voice rang out from one side of the studio.
Ah, how refreshing.
Normally, I would've frowned and wondered why she was raising her voice like that.
But with me holding it all in, watching her throw a fit instead gave me a sense of vicarious satisfaction.
Who was she?
Judging by her voice, she sounded young.
"Bring me something, anything! I'm sweating!"
With that high-pitched voice,
at a glance, she clearly had the Han Seonghwa-style mindset of letting her mood show in her behavior.
“Who is that?”
More importantly, judging by how she was getting annoyed in a studio like this, was she a model?
Curious, I casually asked Roselia, and she poked her head up.
Roselia, whose unusually high vantage point for a woman gave her a clear view, nodded soon after.
Apparently she'd gotten a good look.
“Someone Ahyeon knows.”
“Huh? Really?”
Who? I barely knew any foreign models—I mostly only knew the Korean ones.
So just as I began to wonder—
“She's coming over.”
Before Roselia could answer, I heard footsteps coming this way.
“Do you have any more fans? What are you doing without proper cooling equipment…."
The owner of the voice I heard was
a young French woman,
with blonde hair and blue eyes,
and faint freckles, perhaps because she hadn't had her makeup done yet….
“Selina?”
“Oh? Ahyeon?”
It was none other than a young French model,
Selina, whom I was now meeting for the third time, standing before me.
**
“Why are you here, Ahyeon?"
That's exactly what I wanted to ask.
Why was Selina here?
"Oh, right. You're an Andel model, aren't you?"
"That's right."
This was Andel's exclusive studio, after all.
“Ah… something came up on our end, so they let me get my makeup done here for a bit.”
“Aha.”
Come to think of it,
Selina was someone who had even attended parties arranged by Andel.
So it made sense that she might be here.
“Still, you should've contacted me when you came to Paris.”
Selina looked at me and spoke in a slightly reproachful tone.
I had exchanged contact information with this French model I'd now met three times.
We exchanged a few messages right afterward, but then we both got busy and naturally lost touch.
“When did you get here?”
“Yesterday.”
I arrived yesterday afternoon and immediately holed up in the hotel.
It was too hot to go anywhere.
“Hmm, really? What are you doing after this?”
“...Aren't you hot?”
“Who cares? I'm getting around by car.”
So I declined Selina's offer to hang out afterward.
Even the brief heat of walking into that place was painful to me.
The scorching sunlight beat directly down on my skin,
and the resulting streams of sweat were always an unpleasant sensation.
Ah, was it just as sweaty here?
The realization sent a sharp wave of irritation through me.
“W-wait, did I say something wrong?”
“...No.”
Savage Ahyeon surfaced for a moment, but I suppressed her immediately.
I couldn't make a spectacle of myself in front of a foreign friend.
“It's just too hot.”
“You really don't handle heat well. Isn't Korea really hot too?”
“It is. Actually, it's hotter there than here.”
“What?”
Selina was surprised by my words, but objectively speaking, it was true.
I mean, it wasn't very humid here, was it?
Korean summers were like tropical nights.
“Ha, but Korea is cold in winter too, right?”
“That's right.”
If Korea endured heat like that in summer, and then suffered winters nearly as cold as Siberia,
Selina's expression filled with awe.
“Th-that really is impressive.”
…Is this why people watch Korea-pride YouTube channels?
Just as the sight of a foreign model marveling at it was making me feel proud,
“So that's how your culture developed.”
“What?”
“Korean culture is incredible, isn't it? Isn't it because everything there is so harsh?”
I was briefly at a loss for words at that follow-up blow.
“Want to do YouTube with me?”
“Huh?”
This Selina girl had the makings of a Korea-pride YouTuber.
If I put a huge picture of her awestruck face on the thumbnail and wrote, “A famous French model marvels at Korea's weather and culture,” couldn't I become a million-subscriber YouTuber?
“I'm joking.”
Well, it wasn't as if that would actually happen.
"What? Are you interested in that sort of thing?"
“Who doesn't watch YouTube?”
“No, you didn't seem like you would….”
Anyway.
Despite the heat, Selina and I chatted amicably.
“Is it okay if I get mine done here beside you?”
“Yeah, there's an empty spot.”
Since we'd met up, I got my makeup done beside her too,
and while the setup took a long time, we had a lengthy conversation.
“Your older brother is a soccer player?”
Surprisingly, Selina said her older brother was a soccer player.
“Yeah. Do you like soccer?”
“I watch it when the World Cup is on, more or less?”
“Then you probably don't know him.”
“What team does he play for?”
I only watched soccer during the World Cup,
but it wasn't as if I knew nothing about the teams.
Honestly, it was less interesting since they weren't the same teams as in my previous life,
but soccer itself was an appealing sport, wasn't it?
And more importantly, Aseong and Dad liked soccer.
They sometimes watched overseas soccer matches together in the living room.
“He plays in Paris.”
“Paris?”
“PSG. You might not know them if you don't follow soccer.”
“What? That's the team that just won.”
In that sense, it was surprising to hear that Selina's brother played for PSG.
I mean, it was the club that had won the Champions League the year before last.
In LoL terms, it was a Worlds-winning team, one of the most renowned soccer clubs in the world.
“He's a starting striker?”
“Yeah. He's more famous than I am.”
Well….
Selina was a famous model too, but she obviously couldn't compare to a striker for a major club.
“You know more than I thought. I thought you only watched the World Cup.”
“My younger sibling is interested in it.”
“Really? Then do you want to go watch a match together? There's one coming up.”
“Huh?”
In that sense, Selina's offer was the sort of thing that, if Aseong had heard it, would have made him do three backflips from surprise.
Going to a match with the younger sister of a local soccer player.
The seats would obviously be practically VIP.
Honestly, it was a tempting offer for me too….
“Let's put it off until next time.”
“Why?”
“It's hot.”
“Ah….”
Unfortunately, soccer stadiums didn't have anything like air conditioning,
so making me sit under the blazing sun for two hours was no different from a death sentence.
Anyway.
Setting aside the fact that her older brother was a famous soccer player and that she had the kind of reactions that would suit a Korea-pride YouTube channel,
being with Selina was fairly comfortable.
“More importantly, do we have to keep roasting? Air conditioning isn't the only cooling system, is it?"
"Hey! Bring us something, anything!"
That was because Selina was venting all my irritation for me right beside me.
Humans were truly pitiful creatures,
in that they tended to become more efficient only after getting irritated.
Every time Selina got annoyed, more and more items for cooling the studio began appearing,
until at some point, it felt like the average temperature had dropped a little.
“It's finally somewhat bearable.”
Well, it was still hot enough to kill me.
But thanks to Selina, it had cooled down to some extent.
Was I supposed to adopt more of a model mindset too?
Watching Sel-Changseop restore the studio to normal made me a little doubtful about my own mindset.
Maybe there was nothing wrong with freely getting irritated whenever I felt like it…?
Angel Ahyeon had always pushed Evil Ahyeon aside, but maybe I should exile Angel Ahyeon.
Anyway.
After getting my makeup done like that,
I went to look at the outfit I'd be wearing for Fashion Week next week.
“Take a good look and let me know ahead of time.”
Since it was embargoed until the show, I left Selina behind and went with Roselia.
“What do you think?”
“I'm not sure either.”
What would the outfit be like?
I was going to wear it, but since this was my first time seeing it, I was nervous.
Still, honestly, whatever the outfit might be…
If a model was told to wear it, she wore it.
Even if it was a style I didn't understand, I was confident I could wear it professionally.
*
Right, well.
I had been confident.
Following the staff's directions, I arrived at the wardrobe room.
I stared dubiously at the outfit displayed inside some glass case.
For good reason….
“Isn't that going to melt?”
Because there was a dress made of ice displayed inside the case.
...It would be cool, at least.