After confusing her boyfriend, Silvia made her way to the campus hall where the auditions were being held. Waksi was still confused about his decision because of Silvia's erratic behavior. He just stood in the middle of the corridor staring at the girl's long black hair as it grew farther and farther away.
Finally, after struggling with his thoughts, Waksi decided to follow Silvia to the audition.
As soon as the two of them arrived at the location, all the students crowded the room area all the way to the entrance. There was a very long queue consisting of several young girls trying to sign up to be contestants. Next to it was another similar queue filled with young men who were also signing up for the same thing.
One of the familiar-looking contestants was standing in the center row wearing a worn-out wide-brimmed hat full of stitches. With great effort, Jessey tried to make her appearance as flawless as possible. Silvia and Waksi, who watched her standing there like a fool, could only smile. To be honest, the hat made her look even worse. She should have just thrown the hat away instead of having to wear it unwillingly. It was ruining her appearance.
Silvia, however, was not the type of person who would shout out in a crowd to warn someone as stubborn as Jessey. Moreover, Waksi's girlfriend seemed more eager to see Jessey humiliated than to see her succeed.
Seeing that there was no way in from the front door, Silvia stood outside the room, her eyes scanning the crowd of people waiting in line for the modeling audition. In her hands, she held a plan that no one could have guessed. Not even Waski himself.
In the end, she chose to go to the back of the hall, looking for an entrance that no one had ever thought of: the back door. Waksi was shocked to see his girlfriend disappear out of sight into the quietest part of the hall. His feet tried to keep up with the speed of Silvia's tiny feet. The two of them entered the back of the hall and walked around the backstage area where the audition was being staged.
The place they visited was very dark. There were cables and sound systems lined up along the floor. They had to step carefully so as not to trip over all the death traps under their feet.
From inside her bag, Silvia took out a small, shiny object that reflected the light of the lamp. It was a mirror. A lot of mirrors.
"Silvia, what are we doing here?" The girl's footsteps stopped when Waksi tugged on her shoulder as he asked.
But the girl just put her forefinger to her lips and whispered, "Lower your voice. We'll get caught."
"Are you planning to do something illegal?" asked Waksi, who was starting to panic a little.
"What? Of course not." Silvia denied.
"Then tell me, why did you come to this place alone in the dark with a very suspicious behavior?"
"Look, I never asked you to come with me. If you want to ruin my plans, you should just leave here. I didn't need your help from the start," Silvia said curtly.
Waksi was annoyed when he got such a blunt answer. He couldn't help but want to go home, to lock himself in his room until tomorrow came. It was just that he had unknowingly become entangled in suspicious actions with Silvia, who didn't know what it all meant. He honestly felt like he was committing a crime. But his curiosity got the better of him. Waksi couldn't trust himself either.
"I should have just run away and left this girl here by herself. But why am I following her?" Waksi thought.
While struggling with his thoughts, Silvia had already placed some of the mirrors she had brought with her into random areas on the floor. Each mirror faced the light bulb that was still unlit.
Every time she encountered a burnt-out light bulb, Silvia would place the mirror she had brought in front of it. Waksi, although still upset and eager to leave, slowly and patiently watched his girlfriend's random behavior.
"Alright, all set." Said Silvia as she put down the last mirror.
"What's the point of all those mirrors?" Waksi said with a pointed mouth.
"You'll see." Said Silvia, with a wide smile. "Now, let's see the performance. It will start soon."
Silvia took Waksi to a specific spot next to the stage where the judges' eyes could be seen very clearly. A place where there aren't many people because, to be honest, it's difficult to see the performance directly from that place because it's blocked by the stage poles. But it seemed that the girl had calculated the position she was in. Waksi, who still didn't understand any of this, just obeyed like a good puppy.
Silvia surveyed the room with a sharp gaze, her mind already calculating every move. Jessey, despite trying to exude confidence, seemed a little more flustered at the end of the room.
Within the next twenty minutes, the hall lights were turned off. The audience lined up in front of the stage and the lights on the stage were brilliantly lit. The three judges ready to judge sat at the end of the catwalk. Each of them held a pen and paper containing the bios of each contestant.
The auditions began, and each participant was called one by one to showcase their talents. Jessey's turn came first. She took a deep breath, walked confidently to the center of the room, and tried to put on her best smile. She had put on a luxurious outfit produced by Tunic Proud. But still, even though her clothes were grand and beautiful, her favorite hat was an eyesore. She should have thrown it away, or at the very least, she could have worn another hat.
Her steps were hesitant, her posture was not as graceful as she would have liked, and the judges were watching her closely. Jessey couldn't help but feel the tension in the air-not just from the serious judges, but also from the competition around her.
Despite this, there were still many hands clapping to congratulate the girl. She did have a pretty face and a good body shape. If only her behavior could be as good as her body, perhaps many would queue up to be her boyfriend.
The spotlight followed her as she took her first tentative steps onto the stage. She moved with an almost unnatural grace, trying to block out the gnawing feeling in her stomach. The judges' eyes bored into her like cold, indifferent knives. She kept walking, each step harder than the last, each breath shallow, as if the air itself had turned to glass.
After walking towards the judges, it was time for Jessey to go backstage. However, As she reached the middle of the stage, the magnificent light from the light bulbs around the stage bounced off the mirrors scattered on the floor directly into Jessey's eyes. The light was blinding, a fierce, sharp glare that sliced into Jessey's eyes like a laser.
She squinted, instinctively raising her arm to shield her face, but the damage was already done. Her vision blurred, her senses thrown into chaos. As a result, her steps went off course, and she fell off the stage. She plummeted towards the pile of garnishes on the left side.
Her knees and elbows were bleeding from landing directly on the very rough floor. Due to the incident, the performance was immediately suspended. The lights in the hall immediately came on as medical personnel rushed in to check on Jessey.