2 THE REMINDER (1/2)
Hua Zhendan stared at the face of the girl sitting across from him and frowned slightly. His frown wasn't because she had done something to displease him, Hua Zhendan's frown was because the girl sitting across from him reminded him of the boy he had met two months prior on the eve of Spring Festival.
The boy he met at The French Red Wine Pub who would neither spend the night with him nor give him a call.
The boy who had made him feel so cheap and worthless, he was sure he now hated him.
The boy Hua Zhendan now hated so much that he couldn't bring himself to stop thinking about him.
The boy whose name Hua Zhendan didn't know.
The girl sitting across from Hua Zhendan didn't remind him of the boy because she looked like him, which he would soon find out she did, she reminded him of the boy from that night because—like that boy—her face gave him a déjà vu.
Hua Zhendan stared at the girl sitting across from him thoughtfully and noted that although she was plain-looking, she was quite pretty.
She was so pretty that describing her as 'as pretty as some of his models' would not be a lacking description. Perhaps, she was even more attractive than some of them. Scrap that. Yes, she was more beautiful than most of his female models.
Although her big bright eyes, ample red lips, and long hair were all equally alluring, what had struck him about her was her long beautiful legs which he couldn't take his eyes off of when she had walked into his office. If he weren't expecting her, he would've mistaken her for an aspiring model.
As beautiful as she was, it was quite a shame that she didn't seem interested in modeling. Hua Zhendan could imagine her having one hell of a career.
He played with the thought of asking her to consider modeling but quickly pushed it aside. There was no need to force it if she wasn't interested. He could easily find another girl with these qualities anyway. If however, perhaps by a stroke of luck, Hua Zhendan saw a guy he could adequately describe as the male version of the beauty sitting across from him, he would do everything in his power to make him a star.
Hua Zhendan opened the portfolio in front of him and stared at it. He was personally interviewing her because Shen Rui had personally recommended her to him.
He knew Shen Rui was particularly hard to please, so he had been surprised when she had given him a call and recommended the girl for the recently vacant position of a makeup artist.
Flipping through the pictures in the portfolio she had handed him, Hua Zhendan was impressed. Although most of the photos looked like there were personal projects, they were all quite good, from simple makeup to complete transformative ones.
”What's your name?” he asked her.
”Xuan Tianmei,” she replied, tense.
He shut the file of the portfolio and handed it over to her. With an expressionless face that made Xuan Tianmei skeptical about her chances, Hua Zhendan said, ”Welcome to Shenhua's modeling.”
Although Xuan Tianmei's showcase was alright, her portfolio had no concrete experience she could write home about, so she been doubtful about her chances, most especially as Hua Zhendan had been extremely cold to her from start to end. Needless to say, she was surprised that he had indeed hired her.
While smiling, she clutched the file that held her portfolio to her chest, she then bowed slightly, and said, ”Thank you.”
Staring at Xuan Tianmei's somewhat familiar yet unfamiliar face, Hua Zhendan's hand lingered over the buzzer that was usually used to call the attention of his secretary.
Deciding against that, he withdrew his hand from the top of the buzzer and propped himself up from his chair. ”Come with me. I'll show you to your office.”