Odalisque - Chapter 2.1

Entangled between her hair, the tips of her fingers tensed vaguely. She, who bit her lower lip, replied in a low voice.

“You said you’d only draw the back side.”

“I know, I know, but… I’ll draw without making you recognizable. Or how about I draw a bit of your side profile?”

“No.”

There was room for excuses for her back side, but it would be a different story when her face is revealed.

“Haah, that’s a shame.”

Brad, who muttered to himself, quietly clicked his tongue. He didn’t try to persuade her any more, however. He might have thought that she could even forbid him from drawing her back if he kept forcing her. Listening to the scribbling of the pencil, she tried hard to be aloof.

She couldn’t get used to taking off her clothes no matter how many times she did it. It was also difficult to try not to mess up the posture, but more than that, the most difficult was to control the imagination that kept flowing in a bad direction during this time. The imagination was something like this, for example.

What if someone around her finds out about this, what if she gets fired from her job because of that, what if she needs more money than she does now, what if she, what if…

At the end of the loop of worries, there was a moderately heavy pouch that Brad would give. A heavy pouch to ease her mind even for a few months.

Today, she remembered it, too. It was the only way to withstand the unfamiliar atmosphere of the studio that made her want to pick up her clothes right away.

“Erm, Liv. Your back.”

She quickly relaxed her back, which she turned in a straight posture without realizing it. She usually showed off her neat posture that she was even called a living textbook. Since the upright posture had become a habit, she straightened up her back involuntarily when she didn’t pay attention. Alas, what Brad wanted was not an exemplary lady figure.

What Brad was trying to paint was her disheveled naked body. Not the straight back or the unbending, balanced shoulder, but the hair just before it fluttered down and the fluidly twisted waistline.

In fact, it was more appropriate to bring in the courtesans for such a gesture. Aren’t they the ones who try harder than anyone else to have a beautiful woman’s body? That was the reason why people generally called for courtesans to be models of nude paintings. Compared to them, her stiff shoulder line would be boring and bland.

While thinking that way, she lowered her head a little without realizing it. Nude painting. Those short words made her dispirited. Shivering chill seemed to appear on her arms.

She inadvertently twisted her head a little and looked down at her bare arm. Without having to turn her head a lot, she could see the soft forearm that was defenselessly exposed. Her arms were relatively smooth and white. It was a color that was made through obsessive covering of bare skin.

It was ridiculous. Even if she tried hard to be virtuous on the surface, she could easily throw off her shell like this because she is blinded by a few pennies.

“Liv.”

She looked back casually at the sudden call. The scribbling sound of the pencil had stopped. Brad chewed on his lips as if he had something to say. In other words, however, he seemed to be racking his head to say anything despite having absolutely nothing to say.

“Brad?”

“Oh, yeah. Erm, so…”

“Do you have anything to say?”

Brad nodded. However, he couldn’t easily speak even though he said he had something to say. He’ll surely tell me when he thinks of it. She turned her head to correct her broken posture again. When she did that, Brad called her again urgently.

“Liv!”

“Speak.”

“No, look at me for a second.”

Anxiety flashed across her face. Frowned, she stared at Brad while resting her chin on her shoulder.

“… You’re not trying to draw my face, are you?”

“No, I’m not. I promised you not.”

Although Brad emanated a strong air of shifty, he had been keeping his word, at least. So far, he had paid her modeling fees on the same day, never played with the pay amount, nor had he disclosed anywhere the fact that his nude model was her. Knowing that well, she decided to be a model for Brad.

No, the expression “decided to be” was misleading. Rather, it was appropriate to say that Brad, who pitied her circumstances, hinted at her first, and she managed to relieve her difficulties by pretending to help him.

Regardless of how the process was, today was very strange. Maybe it was because Brad was uncharacteristically sitting in such clean attire. She thoroughly glanced over Brad’s complexion again.

Is it because the distance was far? Brad looked particularly pale.

Letting out a lot of sweat in the studio, which was not even hot, he suddenly raised his voice brightly as if he had finally remembered what he wanted to say.

“Well, I put in more today!”

“… Are you talking about model fees?”

It was true that Brad felt sorry for her situation, but such compassion did not make her pocket heavy. She had usually been paid the same amount the other models received. And she wasn’t particularly unhappy about it.