When Hyejin stepped out of the building at the end of a long day's work (she had refused to take the day off), the first thing that caught her eye was the sleek, silver Audi sports car that was parked out front. It was no surprise to be seeing expensive cars around this area, but for someone who had never seen a sports car outside of a TV screen until she started working in Gangnam, it was still quite a sight to behold. As she walked closer towards it, the car door suddenly swung open and a figure clad in a black overcoat, with a black mask and cap obscuring much of what he looked like, stepped out.
Not again... Hyejin thought to herself in dismay, wishing that she had taken the back door out instead. She reckoned she should be getting use to these late night surprises by now but the truth was she was still surprised each time she saw him standing there. Her first instinct was to look around to make sure that there was no one else around who had noticed anything amiss. Thankfully, the district was relatively quiet at this time of night.
Seeing that there was no way of evading this, she walked up to him and said, "What are you doing here?"
"Get in," Ares replied, opening the door of the passenger seat for her. "I'll give you a ride home."
A quick glance at her watch told her that it was almost midnight and she was feeling exhausted after everything that had happened today even though she had since gotten over the disappointment of the interim assessment. Since Ares was volunteering to give her a ride which would shave almost half an hour off her commute, there was no good reason to reject him.
Nothing wrong with taking a ride from a friend, she told herself as she slid into the passenger seat. The seat were made of genuine leather and she could smell it the moment she stepped in.
Once Ares got into the car, he removed his mask and cap, ruffling his newly-dyed white crop of hair to get rid of the awful cap effect. He smiled in amusement when he saw how Hyejin was staring wide-eyed at the dashboard of his car, running her fingers across the blue LED display as if it were the first time she had ever seen such a thing before. Sticking the key into the ignition, he stepped down on the acceleration and the car began speeding down the empty roads.
"Where have you been over the past few days?" he asked.
Hyejin snapped out of her moment of awe, tearing her attention away from the car. "Where have I been?" she repeated his question. "Oh, I was just out of town with Hyunwon undergoing some training in preparation for today's assessment..." Her voice trailed off when the memory of this morning's disappointment came flooding back to mind. "Were you looking for me?"
"With Kang Hyunwon?" Ares arched an eyebrow, seemingly contemplating about what this meant. "Did he make life difficult for you?" Hyejin shook her head in response, although he didn't know whether or not be believe her entirely—it was no secret that Hyunwon was a harsh taskmaster and it was already obvious from previous instances that he hadn't taken a liking to Hyejin whatsoever. "I came by the salon a couple of times, not intentionally to look for you," he caveated, "but to have some things done with my hair. Since I was around I thought I'd buy you a cup of tea if you were free, but they told me you weren't around."
Hyejin stole a quick glance at Ares's new hairdo, wondering how long it took him to get his hair bleached to that shade of white. She had only seen one of the senior stylists bleach someone's hair once before and it looked like a horribly painful experience for the customer—there were points in time where she thought she saw the person's scalp bleed a little, and she flinched at the thought of that.
The things people put themselves through just to stand out from the crowd, she thought to herself.
"You shouldn't do that to your hair so often," Hyejin remarked. She tried counting the number of different hairstyles she had seen on Ares ever since they first met on that rainy night back at the barbershop—she reckoned he must have cycled through at least four or five different looks since then. "It's not good for your scalp. You won't realise it now but if you continue putting your hair under that sort of stress, the problems are going to start showing sooner or later. I had this friend from school who loved dying her hair all sorts of weird shades of the rainbow, and about two years into her craze her hair started falling out a lot more than it should, so much so that the doctor demanded that she stop any sort of chemical treatments to her hair until her scalp had sufficient time to recover."
Ares laughed. "Thanks for the advice, although it's odd hearing it from a hairstylist. You do realise that your rice bowl depends on people coming back to the salon frequently to do all sorts of treatments to their hair. Unfortunately, I also depend on my image for a living, so it might be difficult to keep status quo for extended periods of time."
Hyejin shrugged her shoulders. She had said her piece, whether or not he wanted to take her advice was his own business.
It was slightly awkward sitting in silence as the car continued making its way back towards Hyejin's home, but she didn't really know what to say to him. There was nothing much they had in common to talk about, save for the good old days when they were still children and living in the same town, but even back then she didn't really know much about him. Just as she was thinking about what else she could say to break the monotony, a loud grumbling from her stomach did the job for her.
"Sorry about that," she mumbled in embarrassment, wishing there was a hole she could bury herself in right now. She was sitting in an imported sports car that likely cost over a million won, and she had just gone and done something that was entirely inappropriate for such a classy setting.
The corners of Ares's lips tugged upwards in a slight smile, though he didn't say anything in response. Instead, he took a left turn and pulled up in front of a small twenty-four hour convenience store. "Come on," he said, putting his mask and cap back on.
Hyejin was slightly puzzled, but she had no choice but to get out of the car and follow after him. She watched as he paid for two bowls of instant ramen and promptly proceeded to fill them up with hot water. When he was done, he set down one bowl in front of her and said, "I know it's a little cheapskate but no restaurant will be open at this time of night. I'll treat you to something better next time."
It was a little surreal to be sitting in a convenience store eating instant ramen with one of Korea's top stars. As she stared at Ares, who had just stuffed a mouthful of ramen into his mouth, she wondered for a moment whether she was dreaming. If not for the tell-tale strands of white hair peeking out from beneath his cap, she might have taken him for just another boy on the streets instead of the nation-wide phenomenon that he was.
Snapping apart her wooden chopsticks, she began tucking into her own bowl of ramen, letting the comforting feeling of warm soup and noodles fill her hungry stomach. "There's nothing better than ramen when you're hungry," she said, sighing in satisfaction when she was halfway through. "Thanks for that. Sorry you have to squat with me in a place like this in the middle of the night though."
"No problem," Ares replied with a smile. "It's better to have someone to squat with than to have to do this alone."
"You do this alone?"
"Sometimes," he said. When he saw her look of surprise, he added, "Gina helps to buy me packed food when my schedules get busy, but there are times when I get sick of that because every meal she gets is based on strict proportions of carbohydrates, protein and vitamins—she says that I need to regulate my diet in order to stay in shape. So sometimes I sneak out at night to the convenience store near my place to binge on cup ramen. Don't tell Gina that, she'll have me killed."
Hyejin felt a little sorry for him when she heard that. It was not something unexpected—she had seen many TV talk shows that discussed the strict diets and health regimes of famous people, though all that had always seemed so far removed before. "Don't worry, I won't tell her a thing," she said. "Besides, if I tell her then I'll get killed too, because I'm your accomplice now."
Laughing, Ares decided to change the topic and said, "So how was your assessment today?"
Hyejin had just put a mouthful of noodles into her mouth but her mouth froze the moment she heard the word "assessment". Slurping in the noodles slowly, she said, "Terrible. I came in last."
"Oh. Well..." Ares said hesitantly, "it's alright, it's just one assessment. I'm sure you did well, it's just that everyone who's on the training programme is equally good so it's bound to be a tough fight. You're not as experienced as them, but given time I'm sure you'll come up tops."
"It's alright, I've already gotten over it. Hyunwon was right, instead of wasting time feeling sorry for myself I should use the time to improve instead so that I can do better the next time round. You don't need to comfort me, I'm really alright," she said with a smile. She knew that he was trying to make her feel better but she wished he wouldn't try so hard because it only made her feel worse.
Ares paused when he heard Hyunwon's name pop up once again, then he said, "Alright then, just know that if ever you need someone to talk to, I'm just a phone call away."
At that moment, the awkwardness seemed to set in once again. While they were eating their noodles, Hyejin had thought that the atmosphere seemed rather comfortable between the two of them, as if she was just having supper with an old friend. Well that sort of atmosphere just went out of the door. How was it ever possible for her to pick up the phone and dial Ares's number to rant and download all her woes about work and life? He was busy enough needing to manage his own hectic life to have to bother with hers.
"By the way, I don't think I have your number yet. What is it?" Ares suddenly asked. He reached for a napkin and scribbled down his own number on it, sliding it across the table to hers. "Here's mine, feel free to call or text me anytime if you need anything. Even if it's just to eat cup ramen in a convenience store."
Hyejin stared at the napkin in disbelief. He did not just give me his number, she thought. This number must be worth tens of thousands if I auctioned it off to his fan club.
"Hyejin?" Ares called out, waving his hand in front of her face to get her attention.
"Oh sorry," she blabbered. She quickly ripped a small section off the napkin and scrawled down her own number, watching as Ares dutifully saved it into his phone. When he was done, he gave her a smile and reached over to ruffle her hair, leaving her a little bewildered.
Right. Now we have each other's numbers... What on earth is this supposed to mean?
Her life made no sense whatsoever.
#
The Seoul headquarters of W magazine was also located in the Gangnam district, just a couple of blocks down from where the Cutting Edge was. When Hyejin walked in through the revolving doors the next morning, the first thing that struck her was: how are there so many beautiful people on this Earth?
Must be plastic surgery, she thought, giving herself a pat on the back for being completely natural from head to toe. Squeezing past all the well-heeled ladies who were milling about the lobby area, she made her way up to the sixth floor where the studio for the photoshoot was located. This being the first time she was stepping foot into a magazine headquarters, she did a couple of stops along the way out of curiosity, just to peek through gaps in doors to see what was going on in this place.
She was peeking into one of the photo-editing studios with wide-eyed wonder as she watched the editing staff swiftly crop images and do all sorts of magic to them, turning perfectly ordinary looking photos into the works of art that made every girl want to buy that pair of shoes in the magazine. She was just contemplating how much those shoes cost when a sharp tap on her shoulder made her jump out of her skin, nearly falling backwards onto the floor if not for the culprit reaching out to grab hold of her arm just at the right moment.
"Stop being embarrassing," Hyunwon hissed, letting go of her arm when she seemed somewhat stable again. "Are you done being a voyeur yet? We're not here on tour you know." Without waiting for her reply, he tossed his bag of equipment into her arms and said, "Hurry up or we'll be late."
Hyejin pulled a face, trotting along obediently behind her boss. She silently cursed herself for her own bad luck, having been caught by Hyunwon and then having to be saved by him. She wondered which was worse, having landed on her bum or having him catch her in time—she decided that both were equally bad. Now that they were back in Seoul, Hyunwon had transformed back into his usual chic, stylish and icy-cold self. If not for some sneaky photos she had taken back at the village which captured Hyunwon actually smiling while he was talking to the old folk, she would have thought that the man she had seen in the countryside was a hallucination.
When they reached the studio, most of the stylists were already there setting up, all of whom greeted Hyunwon respectfully as he entered while treating Hyejin like empty air. Hannah looked up from what she was doing and caught sight of Hyejin walking in behind Hyunwon—a look of condescension immediately appeared on her face, as if to say, "What are you even still doing here?"
Hyejin tried to ignore Hannah's snarky looks, quietly moving to put down the equipment where Hyunwon had gestured for her to. As she unpacked the contents of the bag and laid them neatly out on an empty trolley, she snuck some glances around the studio, observing that it was much larger in scale than she had expected. The photographers were busy adjusting their lighting and tripods in front of the set, while the stylists were at one side of the studio getting ready for when the models arrived.
"Who are the models for the photoshoot today?" Hyejin asked.
"Lee Jong Min and Park Soojin, along with some other fashion models," Hyunwon replied. "It's a winter theme so we'll be going for a more sleek look. Later on you can do some of the curling. We've been through this before at the village, you just need to do more of the same."
"Me?" Hyejin stared at her mentor in disbelief. "Are you sure?"
Curling hair for some old grandmas was alright, but for actual fashion models in a magazine photoshoot? Some of the models had just started streaming into the studio, taking their seats in front of the mirrors. Her hands immediately started to feel a little clammy as she watched them take their places.
Hyunwon looked at her pointedly and said, "I'm not training you to just give haircuts to the old and needy. If you don't even have the confidence to do the most basic of techniques on these models, then you'd best pack your bags and just go home."
"Fine..." she grumbled, sticking out her tongue at him when he wasn't looking. "I never said I wouldn't do it. I was just asking you if you were sure that you wanted me to..."
It wasn't as difficult as she expected, once she got down to actually doing it. All she needed to do was to curl the models' hair as Hyunwon instructed while he did some of the more complex manipulations in order to get the effect that he wanted. As she did the curling, she kept an eye out for what he was doing at the side. The more she watched, the more she realised that there seemed to be a million and one things that a person could do to hair, much more than she had originally anticipated.
She was caught up in watching him twist a model's hair into tight bun and securing it in place without needing a single pin, that she didn't notice him reach over with his free hand until his hand was on her head, turning it so that she was facing her own model again. "Focus on what you're doing or you're going to burn her hair off," he said sternly.
Hyejin smiled sheepishly at her model, who looked a little alarmed when she heard what Hyunwon said. Although she was still curious about what was going on around her, she obediently kept her eyes focused on the task at hand, finishing the curling like she was supposed to. When she was done, she looked around the studio, noting that all the hair and make-up for the shoot was almost done and the models were beginning to file onto set for the start of the shoot.
Hyunwon was still busy putting some finishing touches onto one of the models (some of the other trainees told her that the gorgeous girl he was styling right now was actress Park Soojin, but she didn't have any clue who that was anyhow), so she simply stood at one side and started packing some of the equipment that had been left scattered around.
"So how does it feel being on the set of a photoshoot for the first time? You'd best enjoy it while it lasts. It might be the last time you get to step into a place like this," Hannah came over and said, smirking as she looked at Hyejin. "I heard from Roxy that at the next interim assessment, the two trainees with the lowest scores will have to leave the salon. They don't want to waste resources of people that are unlikely to make the final cut."
"In that case you'd best work harder," Hyejin replied. When the words left her lips, she was a little surprised by how scathing that sounded—it sounded exactly like what Hyunwon might have said. Maybe some of her mentor's bluntness was rubbing off on her.
Hannah looked slightly appalled as well, a scowl appearing across her face. Sticking her nose up in the air, she turned on her heels without a single word and stomped off. Just before she left, she took a swipe at the table and swept off all the curlers, combs and clips that had been lying there, just so that Hyejin would have to bend down to pick everything up—including one hot curling iron that had just been switched off just minutes ago.
#