The Cutting Edge

033

Drying off her hands with a paper towel, Hyejin quickly left the bathroom, half wondering if Ares would already have returned to his seat. When she peeked in through the ballroom doors, she saw him still standing with Gina, smiling politely at something that the managing director of the station was saying. She immediately did a U-turn and decided to hang around at the ballroom reception area instead.

She was looking up and counting the number of crystals on the chandelier when someone called out from behind her.

"So you're the girl who's supposedly going out with Ares?"

The voice belonged to a girl with bangs and long, wavy hair, walking towards her in a bright pink minidress that revealed way too much cleavage. Hyejin recognised her—she was the girl who couldn't keep her hands off Ares at the Alexander McQueen fashion show. Was her name Minji? Or Mina? Or Minjoo? She couldn't remember.

"Mina, where are you going? The washroom's the other way," another girl said when she saw the pink minidress head in the opposite direction from where they were supposed to be headed.

Ah, so it's Mina.

Mina ignored her friend and continued heading towards Hyejin, scanning her from head to toe as she walked.

"Did you not hear my question?" Mina asked, a slight frown appearing on her porcelain face. "You're that girl from the salon who seduced Ares, aren't you?"

"Excuse me?"

"Who's she?" Another three girls came out of the ballroom and joined Mina, each of them regarding Hyejin warily.

Mina rolled her eyes. "A nobody who thinks she can make it big by clinging onto Ares. Some girls have no shame."

Hyejin could feel her blood beginning to boil as she listened to the words leaving Mina's lips. From what she remembered of this girl's interactions with Ares, it was an obvious case of the green-eyed monster rearing its ugly head and she was just an innocent victim who was now the butt of Mina's jealousy just because of Gina's elaborate scam. Part of her wanted to give the smug starlet a smack across the cheek, but she clenched her fists and held it in knowing that it would cause even more trouble if any of the reporters caught that on camera.

She turned to walk away, but before she could make a hasty escape, Mina reached out and grabbed hold of her hand.

"Don't you know it's rude to walk away when someone is talking to you?"

"Oh, I didn't realise that anyone was talking to me," Hyejin replied coldly. "Let go of me."

Letting go was never going to happen. All at once, Hyejin found herself being surrounded and herded away from the ballroom towards a staircase landing. She tried to free herself from the girls, but they turned out to be surprisingly stronger than she had expected.

Once the door to the stairwell slammed shut behind them, she was shoved roughly towards the ground, collapsing in a heap as her borrowed designer heels snapped and gave way. She looked up at glared angrily at the three girls, who were now sneering at her pathetic state.

Mina bent over and pressed her index finger against Hyejin's forehead, saying, "Who do you think you are? Some sort of Cinderella? Fairy tales don't exist in this world. I suggest you grow some brains and get out of your daydream as soon as you can, otherwise the only one who will get hurt is you."

"Ares isn't someone that a nobody like you can touch. He and Mina have had a thing going on for ages. Everyone knows that!"

"Oh really?" Hyejin replied stiffly. "Well it's surprising that Ares himself doesn't know that." She took a deep breath and tried to pick herself off the floor, but a sharp kick hit her in the ribs almost immediately.