By the time Noah finally started getting started, talking about his issues, he felt like he had just finished a workout or listened to a few hours of lectures.

So damn tired!

​​

This woman was just way too hard to talk to with sense. All he could do was allow Grace to drill holes into his ears until they bled.

Quietly listening as his suffering was portrayed as a favor from Grace to himself by the woman herself.

"Can I watch?" Emilin asked about their makeup session which she wanted to join.

It was both a good chance to learn more about this duo who were close to her in age as well as a chance to watch Grace in action, which she had missed out on this time.

"Are you sure? It's quite tedious you know?" Grace worried for Emilin's poor soul.

Though she personally loved it, she knew that it could be tough on others to spend hours on end just watching.

The process was an incredibly slow one, especially if you wanted to get things right.

To someone who didn't have a passion for the arts, it was like telling someone with ADHD to meditate for 9 hours.

'So you also know!?' Noah's eyes rolled at this disgraceful hypocrisy.

"Yeah, it should be easier to pass time with one more person to talk to right?" Emilin nodded softly.

'What a kind soul,' Noah gave Emilin a look of appreciation and a thumbs up in his heart.

There was some thankfulness, some gratefulness, and some shock in his eyes.

"Thank you, Weiwei," he blatantly expressed his sentiments, "You're so kind, I don't understand why you're friends with someone like her."

Noah humphed at Grace like a little child.

"Friend?" Emilin mumbled to herself under her breath...

She didn't even catch anything else, like Noah's sarcasm aimed towards Grace.

But before she could ask if that were really true, Grace spoke first.

"Hey! Aren't you here to ask for advice? I'm going to start charging double if you don't make haste."

Noah's face immediately reddened as if he were about to explode, before cooling himself down.

This was a basic skill if you wanted to be friends with a fox who liked stepping on your toes.

'As if it's my fault we took so long getting started!'

"Okay, okay, so I wanted to ask for some advice for my friend--"

"You can stop there. There's no shame in admitting that it's about you. I think just about everyone in this world knows that 'my friend' -> 'me', so can we skip the cutting of corners?" Grace wasn't in for it for the bullshit.

The 'so my friend this' and 'my friend that' would get seriously annoying when you heard it for long enough, especially knowing that it wasn't about this 'so-called friend.'

'It's because everyone knows that I say this, so can't you just not put everything on the table for others to see?' Noah complained inwardly.

This was a somewhat private matter, okay?

He still wanted to retain his pride.

"Who said so, I'm talking about---"

Noah who wanted to explain himself and put the blame on someone else was interrupted once again.

"You are already here. Desperate enough to pay me 9 hours of work. If this is really for some friend, then I'm afraid you'll have to call that friend daddy!" Grace's eyes shone with disdain.

That seemed to make sense, at least to Noah, who knew Grace and himself well enough.

He probably really wouldn't get that desperate if it were something or someone else.

Noah suddenly felt like he hadn't thought this through properly.

"Whatever. Does it matter who's the problem it is?" Noah sighed.

"Either way, just give me your honest opinion..."

Noah went on to explain the general idea and some of the more important details in his mind.

"So let me get this clear. There is this girl who you fell in love with, at first sight, knowing her for less than a day, not knowing who she is, what she does, where she comes from, and more. You didn't confess, wanting to make more space between the two of you so that you wouldn't like her as much. And now you are telling me that you were friendzoned just yesterday and you want me to advise you whether or not you should accept her offer of being friends."

"Did I get this right?"

'Since when did he become so scummy?' Grace inwardly thought.

She didn't think that anyone with Noah's level of appearance would be able to fall in love at first sight.

I guess there's a first for everything.

Grace was dumbfounded at how dramatic all this was, but that didn't affect her professionalism as she spoke with an even tone and a calm voice, suppressing her great urge to laugh at this friend of hers.

Nor did she voice her real thoughts until their 'session was over', it was only later that she would be able to laugh at her friend all she liked.

Noah's eyebrows furrowed at the accuracy of what Grace had said.

It wasn't accurate, but he couldn't say it was completely inaccurate either, which was what really bugged him.

"First of all, I wouldn't say I fell in love with her at first sight. I'm not that superficial."

'That sure isn't what it sounds like,' Grace commented in a voice that couldn't be heard by Noah.

She was so immersed in the story that she didn't want to interrupt, but she also couldn't help but comment when she had something to say.

This was also why she didn't notice that the other person sitting next to her stiffened when she heard Grace's words.

"Second of all..." Noah felt like he had nothing left to correct.

Ah!

"I think she was a model that Mason brought in yesterday," Noah said so that his words wouldn't be left hanging over there.

"A model huh?" Grace subconsciously looked at the other model in the room other than Noah, giving her more and more ideas.

Enough to write a novel out of.

"Is that so?" She continued curiously with a wee smirk that made her look like she was up to no good.

When Noah noted Grace's gaze, which moved from himself to 'Weiwei', his eyes widened a bit.

"Oh, do you have something you would like to say?" Noah asked Emilin, thinking that he might have done something wrong, such as accidentally talking over her or some other thing of the sorts.

Emilin was silent for a bit before speaking in a soft, gentle voice.

"Do you want to be her friend?"

It was such a simple question, yet at that moment, amidst all those chaotic thoughts in Noah's mind, he genuinely felt like he hadn't thought of that just yet.

The question sounded in his heart like a wind chime, crisp and clear amidst all that other mess, calming his own thoughts, something he couldn't do with his own efforts.

He felt his own eyes widen in realization as he paused to ponder on the matter.

Did he want to be friends with that peculiar girl?

There was something so magnetic about her.

So mysterious.

His curiosity was poked at time and time again with no mercy.

He wanted to learn more about her.

He wanted to be closer to her.

To talk to her.

Maybe then, he would finally learn what it was he was feeling when he looked at her.

That feeling that he couldn't understand.

Noah truly couldn't bring himself to believe that that incredibly complex feeling could be something as shallow as love at first sight.

At least those were his thoughts on the matter.

So in the end, the question came back to, did he want to make acquaintances with Emilin?

"I think so... I think I do."

That was one of the most indecisive sentences Emilin had ever heard, yet somehow, they gave her a sense of great assurance.

It was strange.

Maybe it was because of all those failed attempts that had broken her heart, but when she heard that she wasn't a lost cause, that her efforts were not all in vain, it felt incredibly good.

She felt... acknowledged.

***

Mini-Theater

Grace: Haiz, you know, I lied to you.

Noah: Hm? About what?

Grace: I didn't figure that it was 'you' and not 'your friend' just because of the fact that you wouldn't be so desperate as to come to me otherwise…

Noah: ???

Noah: Really? Then how did you figure?

Grace: Because you have no friends. >__

Noah: …

Noah: But I actually do have some really good friends…?

Grace: Hey! That's not how the script is supposed to go!

Noah: Actually, if we're talking about people who have no other friends, isn't that you?

Grace: What do you mean! It can't be me, I have, erm, err, ehh.

Grace: HEy THerE iS sOmeTHinG SEriousLy wROng wiTh This ChARacter sETting!

Grace: How could someone as charming as me not have other friends besides this monkey!

Noah: …

Noah: Why am I not offended after being called a monkey?

Noah: Maybe because the real monkey is right in front of me (¬д¬.)

Grace: Nah, it's probably just because you share over 90% of your DNA with monkeys.

Grace: With you being 98.8% alike with the chimps, maybe I should just call you that…

Noah: Then wouldn't I also be able to call you a chimp?

Grace: You know what, never mind.

Grace: Just vote and get out of my face.

Noah: Shouldn't you be a little kinder?

Grace: 'Why does he actually make some sense this time?'