Hate at First Sight

"Miss Night! Ops! Excuse me, sorry… Miss Night!" the journalist of 'Les Parisiens', a famous French fashion magazine, said aloud, trying to attract the attention of a young woman not too far from her and making room among the crowd of people around her.

A somewhat clumsy-looking cameraman tried to keep up with her and managed to side with his colleague step by step.

"Miss Night! Finally! Can I... can I ask you a few questions? It'll be quick," the reporter asked again, putting her hair in order because of her passing through the crowd.

Those words finally caught the young woman's gaze, intent on sipping an excellent French white wine from a glass, sitting near a small round, raised table.

"Hello! Excuse me, are you...?" a woman sitting next to the first exclaimed, standing between her and the journalist and preventing the cameraman from going any further.

The journalist did not say a word, merely showing the small badge attached to the chest of her elegant jacket, on which were all the information of the well-known magazine for which she worked.

Miss Night's assistant, a beautiful young woman of Asian descent, after closely checking the details of the badge, turned to her boss and whispered something in her ear, something that made her smile.

"Yes, of course, you can ask me whatever you want! That's why I'm here! Come closer, come closer! With this hustle and bustle, I risk not hearing your voice!" Miss Night said as her assistant moved two stools at their own table. "Would you like a drink? This wine is exquisite!"

"Well, yes. Why not!" the journalist replied, happy to be able to catch her breath and satisfied that she got the attention of her main objective, knowing that that article would probably end up on the front page of the magazine.

"Nice to meet you, Miss Night. My name is Christine Courtois, and I work for 'Les Parisiens'," the journalist said with conviction, noting that the assistant's large black eyes kept looking at her from head to toe.

"The pleasure is mine! I'm Kora, Kora Night. But you can call me Kora. We don't have to be so formal," Kora smiled, treating with kindness yet another guest at her table.

When both of them sat in front of her, she personally poured white wine into two glasses. "Here's to you. I'm sure you've already tasted this wine, but for me, it's the first time... it's really inebriant, I can't stop drinking it!" Kora replied, approaching a hand in front of her lips and politely holding back a hiccup.

"Hahah! Well, yes, of course I know it, and it's one of my favourites! Anyway, I congratulate you on your beauty, Kora. In addition to being young and talented, you are splendid as a blossoming flower," the journalist replied, returning the smile and feeling immediately at ease.

The young Kora's long light brown hair was tied upwards with a braid up over her head, and minimal makeup on her face enhanced her gentle, Mediterranean features: two large, brown, almost dark green eyes, a small nose and full lips, gently wrapped in red lipstick, which recalled her dress.

Her clothing was also less luxurious in the giant hall, filled with celebrities: it was a long red evening gown with an important neckline at the height of her uncovered shoulders, which hinted at her well-proportioned and trained physique, despite sitting position.

"Thank you very much, but you are too kind! Um... can I ask you a question?" Kora asked the journalist, who looked at her confusedly, accustomed to the VIPs usually interviewed, barely answering her words.

"Um... Yes! Why not?" she replied, shrugging her shoulders and turning her gaze for a moment towards the cameraman, who had just begun recording after finding the ideal location.

*sniff*sniff*

Kora began to sniff in front of her, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

"'Sometimes' by Francois, am I right?" the young artist asked, drawing with her way of doing the gaze of the wealthy people around her.

"Oh, wow. Yes! Is... it's my perfume! How did you do it?" the journalist exclaimed, turning again towards the cameraman, who framed her face closely. "Miss Night guessed my perfume, and we just met each other! This gorgeous girl really has incredible talent!"

Behind the cameraman, dozens of people approached the table, curious to find out what made that interview less monotonous and predictable than the others, noting that Kora's face, in that giant room, had never been seen.

In fact, it was the first time Kora Night had received an invitation for a perfume exhibition Gran Gala organized by the Académie Francaise de la mode, and therefore, it was the first time that wealthy people buzzing around the most excellent stylists could observe her closely, discovering who was hiding behind that emerging perfume brand.

"Congratulations, I mean it. I was stunned. So... back to us! Can I ask you a few questions, Kora?" the journalist asked for a second time, pulling out a somewhat crumpled sheet from under her jacket and making her interlocutor realize that that would be the real recorded scene.

"Yes, I'm ready," Kora said, smiling and looking for a moment at her assistant, who had coordinated more than fifteen consecutive interviews that day. The two women's eyes, beautiful and of the same age, crossed for an instant, and an accomplice smile appeared on their mouths.

"As I said, you're very young... when did you start getting closer to the world of perfumes?" the fashion journalist exclaimed, without wasting any more time.

"Mmh... even without knowing it, I began to approach this world since I was just a child, and I was walking among the plants of my father's greenhouse, in the far north of Scotland" Kora explained, speaking with a charm and delicacy that enchanted everyone around her. "My dad is a botanist, and plants have always been his passion. When I was little, I often went to the greenhouse with him and spent my time looking at the strangest plants, memorizing their smells. It was like a game, but…  those smells were not 'simple smells of plants' to me. There was something supernatural, harmonious and inexplicable among them. A natural law that allowed all those fragrances to come together and coexist under a single roof, to occupy a single space."

Despite the low-volume music of the large, very high-ceilinged hall and the general buzz of the other interviews that took place here and there, Kora's audience continued to hang from her lips, immersing in her tale.