The car moved slowly down the now-quiet road, the only sound was the hum of the engine filling the cabin. Waksi kept his eyes on the road, his hands gripping the steering wheel tightly. In the passenger seat beside him, Silvia sat staring blankly out the window, lost in thought. The silence in the car felt heavy, as if every passing second carried with it unspoken questions. The girl was still thinking about the mysterious message she had received moments ago. The dark night streets kept her thinking that someone was currently watching her from a distance. This made her a little anxious.
"Silvia," Finally, Waksi broke the silence with a low, uncertain voice. "Don't you feel guilty about what happened to Jessey?"
Silvia was startled by the question. She turned her gaze to Waksi, trying to read the expression on his face. It was rare to see someone as cold as Waksi worry about others, especially a girl like Jessey. This is surprising.
"You mean because I made him fall off the stage and bleed his knee and elbow earlier?" Silvia's voice was firm, but tinged with a quiet honesty.
"That's one of them. I think you've gone a little too far. Jessey seems to be training hard to win the modeling contest. But you casually sabotaged her performance and easily won without any effort." Waksi said without looking up from the night street in front of him.
"Is that how you see everything I did earlier? I must admit that it's rare to see you, who is usually indifferent, caring about people like Jessey. Is there something between you and her?" Silvia asked in a mischievous tone.
"Don't be silly, even for someone like me, your actions just now were indeed impudent. If I were Jessey, I would probably beat you up on the spot."
Hearing all these words, Silvia chuckled. She felt like a bad person in front of her own boyfriend. Whereas before this, she was the one who was always bullied by Jessey. And now when she avenged all the girl's evil deeds, Silvia felt like the most evil person of all.
Silvia then said, "I admit that I do feel guilty about what happened to Jessey earlier. But it was really purely an accident. I had no intention of making her fall off the stage, let alone derailing her performance." Silvia took a deep breath before continuing, "but you need to know, from the beginning I could already guess that Jessey wouldn't win the contest. She thought that the model search was really a talent search to become a professional model. But she didn't realize what the competition was really about. She has misplaced her hard work and effort from the beginning, so I believe she will not succeed."
"I told you before, this model search is just an attempt by Tunic Proud to find someone who is willing to be paid cheaply to promote their products. That's why they're happy to come to our campus to look for talent. If they were really looking for professional models, they would have opened auditions on a large scale without coming to a campus filled with amateur students. That's why Jessey failed. The event was not the place she was looking for."
Waksi remained silent for a moment, his expression hard to read. The tension in the car was palpable, and despite his skepticism, it was clear he found it hard to argue with Silvia's logic. He knew that in a world full of manipulation and image-building, perhaps this was the harsh reality to accept.
"I just hope you know what you're getting into, Silvia," Waksi spoke again, his tone softer this time. "This world isn't kind to people like us. You may have won now, but I'm afraid this is just the beginning of bigger problems."
Silvia was silent. She just looked back out the window. She knew very well that what Waksi had said earlier was true. Less than an hour after she signed the contract, a mysterious message said she was being watched from afar by someone even more mysterious. There was a good chance that what Silvia had done would make her regret it in the future.
The car sped up as they drove further away from the competition venue. But inside the vehicle, the weight of their conversation lingered. But when her eyes were busy looking at the night cityscape outside the window, she realized something. The road they were currently traveling on was somewhat different from the one Waksi usually took to Silvia's house.
"Where are we going?" Silvia said, raising one of her eyebrows.
"We'll go to my house. Seeing what happened today, it seems like my father wants to talk to you directly. You'd better prepare an answer that will satisfy him." Waksi said in a sharp tone.
"But didn't he already see all of today's events through that little camera on your necklace? Why should I explain it again?"
Waksi pulled the pendant from his collar in front of Silvia and said, "It's true that my father watches everything we do. But this pendant only has a camera, there's no microphone in it so he can't hear anything recorded here. I purposely asked him to remove the microphone from this camera. At least I still have a little privacy."
"I see," Silvia nodded her head, "good. It would be bad if your father found out that we're only in this relationship on pretense."
After a long drive filled with discussions in the car, they finally arrived at Waksi's house. Located in a quiet, serene neighborhood away from the city's hustle, Waksi parked the car in the driveway and glanced over at Silvia, who seemed a little more composed after their conversation, though there was still a trace of anxiety in her.
Silvia looked at him, hesitating. "Waksi, after arriving at this place, I suddenly became nervous. What's your father going to say? I don't really like talking about this with your parents."
Waksi sighed deeply. "Just explain everything to him."
Silvia nodded slowly, though a part of her felt burdened by the situation. She knew this was part of the consequences she would have to face after deciding to step into the world of modeling. They both got out of the car and walked toward the front door of Waksi's house. Waksi opened the door, and they entered.
In the spacious living room, Waksi's father, a middle-aged man with a stern and serious demeanor, was sitting on the sofa reading a newspaper. As soon as he saw them, he put down the paper and looked at them with intense attention.
"Dad," Waksi said with a respectful nod. "As you said, I brought her here."
The man, raised an eyebrow and glanced at Silvia for a moment before speaking, "Silvia, I've heard about what happened today. Your victory in that competition, I have to say, it's quite surprising."
Silvia felt a bit uneasy under his sharp gaze, but she tried to stay calm. "Thank you, Sir."
Mister Nicole didn't answer immediately, but his eyes were evaluating, sharp and calculating. And then he raised his voice, shouted, "I'm not congratulating you, Silvia. The reason I called you here is that I want to tell you one thing, that I, as Waksi's parents, your boyfriend's parents, your father's business partner, do not agree with you becoming a model!"