Chapter 1

In this world, you can do nothing unless you have contacts. It's all both luck and connections, and both of them you have to get them on your own. Don't expect them to come to you, but rather go out to find them. There's no such thing as destiny. You have to pave your own path. At least that's what Remi and Leila had always thought.

It all started as a joke, a stupid idea you throw in the middle of a friend's conversation. Leila Hines was always the dreamer type, always having the weirdest and most unrealistic ideas. All she lacked was someone as ambitious as her, but that was able to help her ideas come into a reality. And that someone was Remi Grey, her childhood best friend.

They had met at a cafe to catch up. Both of them hadn't seen each other in a while, so they had a lot of things to talk about. They conversed about many topics, from their lonely love life to how Leila hated that the people around her didn't seem to strive for the best opportunities. She complained to Remi about everyone being a conformist, and not taking into realization how hard their life would be after they finished their degrees. Meanwhile, Remi, who was more of the quiet type, sipped from her matcha latte while intently listening to her.

"It's not that you're unrealistic," Remi told her after Leila had vented out "it's just that because everybody follows a determined path, whenever someone does or thinks something uncommon they're labeled as 'unrealistic'. But that doesn't mean it's not realistic"

Leila looked at her friend, relieved that at least someone didn't take her as a crazy woman.

"But like, for example," Leila insisted "I would like to sneak into a wedding, but I wouldn't know how to do it. And if I were to tell this to someone else, they would directly laugh at my face"

"Why would you want to do that?" Remi asked her friend, confused as to why she would want that, but also curious about what she had in mind.

"Because think about it, if it was an important person's wedding, there's bound to be other important people. Right? Like, imagine it's the wedding of someone who owns a business or something. Then, people from that world would attend too, and we could talk to them and get background. Besides, in a wedding there's always a lot of people, so two girls wouldn't stand out..." Leila finished explaining as she looked at her friend who was deep in thought "But I wouldn't know how to do it"

"That's easy," Remi said, sipping from her latte.

Leila looked at her friend with wide eyes.

"Would you really know how?" Leila asked in disbelief. Remi looked up for a second, thinking about it a second time before nodding again.

Leila couldn't help but smile. How didn't she think about it earlier? Remi was smart and always believed in her. How come she never thought of telling her about her idea? Remi began explaining how she'd sneak in the wedding, but not before telling her that it was rather difficult to get there. Because how would they know where there was a wedding to begin with? Remi pointed out all the flaws in Leila's idea while she nodded and listened in silence, mainly because she knew that Remi would find a way to solve these problems. And she did. They spent all evening at the cafe talking about how they would do it, and carefully taking into consideration every small detail. And in the end, they had a two to three-year plan in order to get contacts for when they needed to start their working career.

First of all, they learned which places were frequented by influential people. But they knew that they couldn't aim for something big from the beginning. So they started going out to party in snobbish places. And while they scooped the place —where the VIP zone was, where the restrooms were, where would they be seen more by the VIP, etc.— they also began studying. Whenever they weren't busy with exams, the two girls would be at the library reading about psychology. They read many books: about mentalism, body language, how to seduce someone... and the list really went on and on.

It took them a few days until they got used to being invited to the VIP. Sometimes only one of them would be invited, most times it was Leila, and some others it was Remi. But they already counted in having to separate, so they had previously agreed on sending each other a message every hour and a half so they could make sure that they were safe. And it took them even more time to learn how to put into practice what they had learned from the books— how to read the guys that invited them and exploit their weaknesses.

They were aware that most people went out partying to have fun and possibly have a one-night stand. And they were wary of them.

"I can't talk for Leila," Remi explained as she recalled all those nights they went out "but whenever I realized that the person who had invited me didn't exactly mean to talk... I retreated" she kept explaining as the man in front of her sipped from the brownish liquor drink in his hand, never once stopping from looking at her with his dark and penetrating gaze.

That was one of the many rules Leila and Remi had agreed on before beginning to work in their goal. They weren't out to party and have fun, they were out to work. They had prohibited themselves from flirting with anyone for pleasure, at least not on those nights.

Then, there were other nights when they'd actually find guys who didn't want to immediately get in their pants. Those men bought them drinks and insisted on keeping in touch In this world, you can do nothing unless you have contacts. It's all both luck and connections, and both of them you have to get them on your own. Don't expect them to come to you, but rather go out to find them. There's no such thing as destiny. You have to pave your own path. At least that's what Remi and Leila had always thought.

It all started as a joke, a stupid idea you throw in the middle of a friend's conversation. Leila Hines was always the dreamer type, always having the weirdest and most unrealistic ideas. All she lacked was someone as ambitious as her, but that was able to help her ideas come into a reality. And that someone was Remi Grey, her childhood best friend.

They had met at a cafe to catch up. Both of them hadn't seen each other in a while, so they had a lot of things to talk about. They conversed about many topics, from their lonely love life to how Leila hated that the people around her didn't seem to strive for the best opportunities. She complained to Remi about everyone being a conformist, and not taking into realization how hard their life would be after they finished their degrees. Meanwhile, Remi, who was more of the quiet type, sipped from her matcha latte while intently listening to her.

"It's not that you're unrealistic," Remi told her after Leila had vented out "it's just that because everybody follows a determined path, whenever someone does or thinks something uncommon they're labeled as 'unrealistic'. But that doesn't mean it's not realistic"

Leila looked at her friend, relieved that at least someone didn't take her as a crazy woman.

"But like, for example," Leila insisted "I would like to sneak into a wedding, but I wouldn't know how to do it. And if I were to tell this to someone else they would directly laugh at my face"

"Why would you want to do that?" Remi asked her friend, confused as to why she would want that, but also curious about what she had in mind.

"Because think about it, if it was an important person's wedding, there's bound to be other important people. Right? Like, imagine it's the wedding of someone who owns a business or something. Then, people from that world would attend too, and we could talk to them and get background. Besides, in a wedding there's always a lot of people, so two girls wouldn't stand out..." Leila finished explaining as she looked at her friend who was deep in thought "But I wouldn't know how to do it"

"That's easy," Remi said, sipping from her latte.

Leila looked at her friend with wide eyes.

"Would you really know how?" Leila asked in disbelief. Remi looked up for a second, thinking about it a second time before nodding again.

Leila couldn't help but smile. How didn't she think about it earlier? Remi was smart and always believed in her. How come she never thought of telling her about her idea? Remi began explaining how she'd sneak in the wedding, but not before telling her that it was rather difficult to get there. Because how would they know where there was a wedding to begin with? Remi pointed out all the flaws in Leila's idea while she nodded and listened in silence, mainly because she knew that Remi would find a way to solve these problems. And she did. They spent all evening at the cafe talking about how they would do it, and carefully taking into consideration every small detail. And in the end, they had a two to three-year plan in order to get contacts for when they needed to start their working career.

First of all, they learned which places were frequented by influential people. But they knew that they couldn't aim for something big from the beginning. So they started going out to party in snobbish places. And while they scooped the place —where the VIP zone was, where the restrooms were, where would they be seen more by the VIP, etc.— they also began studying. Whenever they weren't busy with exams, the two girls would be at the library reading about psychology. They read many books: about mentalism, body language, how to seduce someone... and the list really went on and on.

It took them a few days until they got used to being invited to the VIP. Sometimes only one of them would be invited, most times it was Leila, and some others it was Remi. But they already counted on having to separate, so they had previously agreed on sending each other a message every hour and a half so they could make sure that they were safe. And it took them even more time to learn how to put into practice what they had learned from the books— how to read the guys that invited them and exploit their weaknesses.

They were aware that most people went out partying to have fun and possibly have a one-night stand. And they were wary of them.

"I can't talk for Leila," Remi explained as she recalled all those nights they went out "but whenever I realized that the person who had invited me didn't exactly mean to talk... I retreated" she kept explaining as the man in front of her sipped from the brownish liquor drink in his hand, never once stopping from looking at her with his dark and penetrating gaze.

That was one of the many rules Leila and Remi had agreed on before beginning to work on their goal. They weren't out to party and have fun, they were out to work. They had prohibited themselves from flirting with anyone for pleasure, at least not on those nights.

Then, there were other nights when they'd actually find guys who didn't want to immediately get in their pants. Those men bought them drinks and insisted on keeping in touch with them. Because they were interested in the two girls they would ask about their lives, talk about what they did for a living, and flaunt about all the many fancy places they could take the girls. It was with those guys where the girls got the most information. And if they didn't get all they needed that night, they definitely would after meeting a second or a third time with them. Never more than a third one.

"So, you're telling me that you began looking for connections in low-life parties?" the man interrupted Remi's explanation as he asked with ridicule towards those places, and also quite unbelieving of the girl.

Remi looked at the man in a dark retro suit. He sat calmly on the velvety loveseat, entirely in his element, unlike Remi. Although she still managed to look familiar with the situation as in the end, she had lately been surrounded by classy people. Even though no one could compare to him. That was perhaps what was making her be more on edge.

Remi shook her head in denial while the dark-haired man loosened his tie lightly under his dark vest coat.

"Only God knows what type of background we'd get from the people in those parties" Remi mocked with a small smile, in contrast to the unfazed expression of the man in front of her. But despite his seriousness, Remi remained calm all the time.

Deep down, Remi wanted to tell him that if he hadn't interrupted her he would understand the whole story, but at the same time, she knew better than to say such things to someone as important as him. So instead, she stared at the man, expecting him to make her continue. He caught on quickly, knowing that it was highly unlikely for someone who had got to where Remi was to be as dim-witted as to expect results from those parties. And so he gave her a dismissive gesture with his hand, signaling her to keep talking.