The Treasure She Never Asked For

The two walked into the house together, and the cameras were already rolling. Marcel thought that they would let them relax tonight, but it didn't look like that was the case. Filming started immediately.

"The house is so quiet," Lauren commented as she adjusted the strap of her backpack. 

"Looks like not everyone has returned. I'm going to rest for a bit until everyone returns," Marcel said and Lauren nodded in agreement. If there was one thing they were not supposed to skimp on was rest, Lauren hadn't had much sleep with this short break and neither did Marcel.

The two went upstairs together and separated once they got to the corridor. Marcel walked into his room and instantly felt relaxed. He went to unpack his things before going to take a shower. After his shower, he wore a pair of trunks and slipped into bed and went to sleep.

After another two hours, he was woken up by the sound of the blow dryer running. He figured that Alistair had already returned. Rather than wake up, he just turned over and closed his eyes to go back to sleep. His roommate tried to be as quiet as possible, but it was inevitable that Marcel would be woken up again since he was half asleep. When Alistair walked out of the dressing room, he saw Marcel still laying in bed while in a daze. 

"Did I wake you up?" he asked as he sat on his own bed.

"Mmmh," Marcel answered vaguely as he sat up on his bed and rubbed his face a few times as if that would get rid of his sleepiness.

"You look… refreshed," Marcel said as he observed his roommate.

"I would hope so. I did everything I wanted to do and relieved my stress," Alistair said, as he smiled ambiguously. 

"Must be nice," Marcel said as he smiled back at him.

"Right, your manager reached out to me and Micah yesterday. I guess we'll be coworkers in the future," Alistair said as he looked at Marcel, who seemed to look different.

"Didn't you get offers before?" Marcel asked him. He was sure he did, seeing how popular he already was.

"I did, but this was the most attractive one," Alistair said as he gave up on finding out why Marcel looked different.

"I'm hungry. Do you want to eat?" Marcel asked as he stretched and got off the bed. 

"Sure," Alistair said absentmindedly as he fiddled with his phone. 

"Let me freshen up first," Marcel said and went to the bathroom to wash his face, which made him feel much more awake afterwards. He went to put on a t-shirt and straightened his bed.

"I'm going downstairs first," Marcel said to Alistair.

"Wait for me," Alistair said, and got off his bed as well and followed him out of their room. Marcel continued to stretch himself as he walked down the stairs. When they got to the living room, most of the people were back and were scattered around the couch.

"Good evening," Marcel said and walked towards the kitchen.

"I'll be with you in a second," Alistair said from behind him, and Marcel waved his hand to show that he had heard him.

He opened the fridge and picked out an apple and continued to look for something to eat. He could see that they would have to go buy groceries soon, since they were running out. .

He took out a few things he could use to make a quick snack and started immediately. He chopped up his ingredients and prepared stir fry them and baked some potatoes. He finished off his apple as he waited for the potatoes to be ready so that the stir-fry would be hot when served, since it wasn't going to take a long time.

It was at this time that they were all called to the living room by the production crew. Marcel went to sit on the large couch and waited for everyone else to arrive. Soon Alistair joined him and, looking at him, he could already guess where he had been.

"Won't it be easier if the two of you just make it public?" Marcel asked, and Alistair shook his head to say no. Both he and Micah were extremely popular. They wanted to separate their professional and personal lives. Especially because of how a breakup would spell disaster and most likely cause a fan war.

"Oh," Marcel responded and didn't say anymore. He knew that as much as he didn't want his personal life to affect his professional one, he did not want to sneak around as if he was doing something bad. 

"Okay, is everyone here?" the producer asked and looked around the living room and saw that everyone was present.

"So, for this week there is going to be another photoshoot, but unlike last week's, you will all have to pair up," the producer said as he took in all of their expressions. As expected, some of them already showed unease.

"How are we going to pair up?" Jeremy asked, and received a nod of approval from the producer.

"The jewellery company have ranked the advertisements you have made last time, the first five people are the ones that will have priority in choosing their partners, of course, this is going to be done by random," the producer said and a staff member brought out a box that they ȧssumed had the names of the sixth to the tenth person.

"The first one is Marcel Melar," the producer started and Marcel stepped forward to pick his partner. He wasn't surprised by the result since he had planned the whole thing, taking into consideration what the audience enjoyed seeing. It was also hard to go wrong with all the research that Avian had done for him.

He pulled out a folded paper from the box and didn't open it to keep the suspense on who was going to be next.

"The next one is Alistair," the producer said, and he, too, went to pick out the paper from the box. Later, Lauren, Micah, and Chloe were chosen consecutively, and they all went to pick out the paper. Once Micah's name had been called, Alistair was so disappointed that Marcel almost couldn't hold in his laugh.

After that, they all read out their partners' names. Marcel had ended up partnering with Adrian, Alistair with Ellie, Lauren with Nick, Micah with Jeremy, and Chloe was stuck with Lydia. She was visibly annoyed and everyone seemed to feel sorry for her, but the production team was the most excited about these arrangements. Especially with Nick and Lydia because they were already recognised as the most troublesome people in the house.

Marcel looked at Alistair, who was looking at the piece of paper with Ellie's name, while completely dazed, and he couldn't help but laugh at him. Ellie was not the brightest bulb in the room and was even a bit self-absorbed, but it was because she was very pretty as well.

"So the theme for this week is…" the producer continued and paused for quite a while, making everyone feel uneasy.

"Of course, it's couples," he finished and even laughed sadistically. 

"I'm willing to switch with you," Chloe said to Marcel, and Marcel turned her down decisively. He had no problem acting as a couple with Adrian since he had been bisexual in his previous life. It also helped that Adrian was also very attractive. Chloe looked at Lauren and her gaze was avoided.

"Don't worry, I definitely won't hold you back," Lydia said out loud, making Chloe feel awkward. 

"You have three days to get familiar with each other so you can coordinate better. This is a fashion shoot, so you not only have to properly display the clothes, but your chemistry with your partner is important. You all know under normal circumstances you won't be given three days to get familiar with your partner. The shoot will take place on Thursday and Friday. Your break will begin after the shoot and you will be free to leave the house and return on Sunday," the producer finished and gathered his staff and went to the recording room. 

They were going to interview the models to know how they feel about everything. He was especially excited about Marcel, Adrian, Chloe and Lydia's opinions.

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