To Live Again, For the First Time!

Grace conjured up a concept while talking to Emilin.

Her eyes lit up, right when she got to work and the talking slowly dwindled as Grace needed her full attention on the matter at hand.

Unlike when she was simply cleaning Emilin's face and laying the foundations, something she could do with her eyes closed considering her experience, the projection and visualization part took a lot of concentration.

Emilin had already expressed to the makeup artist that she could simply do anything she liked to the best of her capabilities, Emilin wouldn't limit her options, she trusted the other's professional opinion.

Grace was also glad to work with someone who didn't limit her creative freedom because that would oftentimes lead to unnecessary conflicts.

She wasn't one to bend very easily. The right word would be stubborn.

Either way, when she got to work, she was like a tornado.

Emilin closed her eyes while her face was worked on, only opening them when asked to at times for some other details.

During the rest of the time, Emilin was able to isolate all other sounds, going into her meditative state as she both calmed her own mind and thought through her conversation with Grace, inwardly praising her awesome work so far.

'I wonder if I can learn from Grace...'

Emilin truly admired Grace's ability to change her personality by changing her appearance.

'Maybe if I can change how I identify myself, I can also gain the courage necessary to take that next step.'

Emilin was already quite certain that her condition was due to post-traumatic stress disorder.

There was fear inside of her to connect with strangers. Something that she couldn't control at will, though meditating did help quite a bit.

Now she was wondering, if she could create other identities for herself, then maybe those fears would become non-existent, after all, whatever she did with them wouldn't directly affect her real identity.

Like a smurf account, but in real life.

There was a reason, after all, that people became much more unrestrained when they couldn't be identified online.

Though of course, Emilin wouldn't use this opportunity to do anything illegal or immoral, not that she had any reason to do so either way.

Nor would she do anything that went against her original principles. The reason she wanted to this was mainly because she found that this would likely be a shortcut to accomplishing a lot of her life goals. Not to mention she didn't really have a defined path right now anyways.

At least Emilin believed that this could very well give her the push she needed.

Though she wouldn't want to accidentally permanently severe parts of her personality, as long as she was careful enough, Emilin was sure she could handle it.

She was slightly skeptical about taking this path, but now that she knew that the makeup may take a while, Emilin was taking this time to make some calculations in her mind.

[45 minutes later]

"I'm done! You can open your eyes to see how you like it now."

Emilin could easily tell how excited Grace was from her voice, she seemed quite satisfied with her work, Emilin was a little more expectant with Grace's words and confident tone.

"That was faster than I expected," Emilin commented.

She had been told that at times, this could take hours.

"It depends on what kind of makeup you are doing, there are many types you know?" Grace said with a pout as if Emilin's words had somehow offended her and or her skills.

"Well, you'll just have to open your eyes and see."

Grace's eyes shone expectantly as well, expectant for Emilin's reaction.

"Wow," Emilin's hands went straight for her eyes.

She was about to rub them just to make sure that the person she was seeing in the mirror was really her before it was swatted away by Grace.

"Don't touch!"

Grace shouted as if she was about to have a heart attack.

Then again, the scariest thing to her was really probably someone who smudged the makeup right after it was done and right in front of her too.

What was worse was someone who didn't know what was wrong with that.

And Emilin seemed to be both.

"But wow," Emilin repeated in awe, even though her facial expression didn't change.

She really couldn't believe her own eyes right now.

In the mirror reflected was a woman who seemed two or three points more mature than her past self and even Grace, making her look around 18, her face sharper and more defined, her eyes more prominent, the hazel color more mesmerizing paired with the blush.

Even her nose looked slightly taller.

Emilin's face looked more rueful, her cheeks had a slight blush and cute freckles littered her face, contrasting against her naturally pale countenance, along with the wig of short curly black hair which made an impression when considering her original long locks.

This look made her look incredibly lovable.

There was no other way to describe it.

Even Emilin found this image of her lovable, adorable, cute, and whatnot even though she looked much more mature at the same time.

All the while looking very natural.

She almost wanted to ask, just who is this?

This went way past magic.

Her original hope was for this makeover to be at a standard that not even her family including her siblings would be able to recognize her but forget about that.

She could barely recognize herself if she weren't sure that this was a mirror she was staring into.

Grace was incredibly satisfied with Emilin speechless, gobsmacked reaction, even though it was quite sad that the shock and admiration couldn't be shown on Emilin's face.

"It's wonderful," Emilin finally came out with it.

Grace chuckled.

"I can't tell if you are complimenting me or yourself."

"Can't I be complimenting both?"

Emilin had clearly relaxed a lot more in this past hour.

She was still able to crack a joke when she was speechless just a few seconds ago.

In this respect, meditating helped quite a lot.

This was probably why the monks meditate, to keep the inner demons far away.

Grace's chucked grew into a peal of laughter.

"You've grown much more unrestrained, and here I thought you wouldn't know what a joke was," Grace wiped the tear from the corner of her eye.

Emilin took it as a compliment.

"Indeed I also think we are both quite amazing," Grace found herself remembering why she did this at all.

For this feeling, this connection stemming from understanding, from sharing with others what you love, and having others come to love it as well.

It was similar to when you read a book, watched a show, an anime, read a manga, or a novel, and you just found yourself ranting to your friends about it.

Trying your best to convince them to read or watch it as well just so that you could proudly say 'see, I told you right? It's amazing isn't it?' as if you had been the one to write or film it.

There was a certain pride there.

A pride that came from others agreeing to your point of view on something you are passionate about.

Just as Emilin was about to ask how the process even went about, seeing as she had been too immersed the whole time, not having taken note of anything, yet wanting to satiate her curiosity, someone knocked at the door.

*Knock* *Knock*

Two crisp sounds were heard as the person on the other side simply waited to be answered to.

'It mustn't be Mason, is it Lisa?' Grace considered how polite the knocks were.

She gave Emilin a questioning glance and after she (Emilin) nodded, Grace looked back at the door.

"Come in."

The doorknob turned slowly as a male figure came in.

"Grace, are you free, I need some advice, oh you have a guest, I hope I didn't interrupt anything..." Noah scratched his head awkwardly as he moved his gaze from Grace to Emilin and then back.

"Should I come back later?" He asked after realizing that the other girl in the room wasn't his acquaintance.

After another exchange of glances between Grace and Emilin, Grace shook her head and pointed Noah to a sofa seat.

"It's fine, you can stay."

"Okay then," Noah made himself comfortable rather easily after the initial awkwardness that came from not knowing that there was someone else in the room dissipated.

Then as silence enveloped the room, he finally realized that it would probably be even more awkward if he were to talk about his problems in front of a stranger.

However, the other girl in the room, other than Grace didn't seem like she was leaving any time soon.

Now there was a conundrum. 

At least when Noah gave her a few glances, she didn't seem to be taking the hint at all.

Just lowering her head, fidgeting with her fingers as many of the other young girls did around him.

"Do you want to introduce this new friend?" Noah asked to break the ice.

Seeing Emilin shake her head, Grace picked her words carefully.

"What's it got to do with you? If you have something to say, then just spit it out already."

Or maybe not so carefully.

Grace and Noah were already at the point in their friendship where they could insult each other without being offended, so this much wasn't anything.

Plus Grace rather liked seeing this friend of hers (Noah) in a sticky situation, though she was indeed quite curious about what this thing Noah needed advice on was.

That could come after she had her fun.

Hehe.