When Hyunwon walked into his office the next morning there was a cup of caramel macchiato and a vegetable pancake already sitting on his table. In fact, steam was still issuing from the coffee cup when he lifted the lid up. He walked to the door and scanned the surroundings, but there was no sign of her anywhere.
"The sun must have risen from the wrong side this morning," he mumbled, shutting the door and walking back to his desk.
Every morning he would come to office and demand for his morning coffee and breakfast, only then would Hyejin reluctantly drag her feet out onto the streets to buy it (but not after pulling a dozen grumpy faces). Her standard retort to him would be, "Do I look like a slave to you?", and he would just be well smug about it because his answer would always be, "Yes." After all, she was getting the sweet end of the bargain by having the opportunity to learn from the master, so the least she could do was to be at his beck and call.
It was odd not needing to go through that routine this morning. Picking up his coffee, he took a whiff of the sickly sweet smell of caramel. At that moment, a strange thought crossed his mind.
"Is she avoiding me?" he wondered out loud.
Ever since the day they went for the W magazine photoshoot, Hyejin had been behaving slightly erratically. Whenever she saw him she still gave the same sardonic replies from time to time, but mostly she seemed to want to end their conversations as quickly as she could and then vanish into thin air. He was beginning to think that there were secret hiding places in the salon that he wasn't aware of. He was almost certain that something was going on, he just couldn't quite place his finger on it.
It didn't matter, that girl just didn't make sense anyway.
At that moment, Remington burst in through the door, waving a cream-coloured envelope in the air.
"Good morning, good morning! It's that time of the year again, time for the start of the year-end award frenzy!" he declared, setting the envelope down in front of Hyunwon. When he saw the half-eaten vegetable pancake on the table, he scrounged up his nose and frowned. "Since when did you eat things like that? Are you sure that's hygienic?"
Hyunwon waved his hand dismissively, picking up the envelope and taking out the card within. It was a black card embossed with a classy gold print, inviting him to the MBC year-end entertainment award ceremony. Frankly, he didn't care two hoots about all these events because all it meant was more work for the salon. Whenever these ceremonies came round, the phone lines would ring off the hook with managers trying desperately to secure his services for their artistes. The broadcasting companies would send a couple of invitations to the salon, usually for Ryu and himself, but he never attended more than one a year and the only reason why he even bothered attending one was because Ryu insisted it was good publicity and dragged him along.
"Tell Ryu I'll just go for the one," he said to Remington. "When he decides which one it should be then let me know. As usual, I'll only take three appointments per event and I'll leave it to you to decide who I take on."
"Got it, I've got it all under control. The requests have already started coming in fast and furious, I'll try my best to be somewhat selective. By the way, Gina called this morning and she said that Ares—"
"I'm not taking Ares Hwang."
"I haven't even finished my sentence!" Remy exclaimed. He pulled up a chair and sat down across from Hyunwon, looking awfully serious for this time of morning. "Like I was saying, Gina called. She didn't sound very happy about this, but she's requested that Ares be styled for the MBC awards by..." he paused momentarily for dramatic effect, "... Hyejin."
"What?" Hyunwon put down his coffee cup and stared at Remy, not quite sure whether or not he heard right. "Excuse me?"
"Ares has asked that Hyejin be his stylist for the MBC year-end awards."
"What is wrong with that man?" The hand that was holding the cup clenched a little and the cardboard began to buckle under the pressure. It just had to be Ares Hwang, creating trouble for him all over again. If not for Ares and his late night debacle, Hyejin wouldn't even have stepped foot into the Cutting Edge in the first place and he wouldn't have had to suffer the agony of becoming her mentor. Now, Ares was trying to pull another stunt by making such a ridiculous request.
Remington reached over and pried his fingers away from the cup, extricating the poor cardboard cup from his hand before he crushed it completely and created a sticky mess all over the desk. "Now now, don't get your knickers in a twist," he said. "I've already told Gina that it's not possible because Hyejin is just a trainee at the moment and we both know we should avoid another media circus like the previous one. I think Gina understands, because she didn't sound too happy about this request anyway. My guess is that Ares was being stubborn and she had no choice but to give in to him, so she's more than happy if we reject it for her."
Hyunwon drummed his fingers against the table, his brows furrowed as he contemplated the situation. He reached for the plastic folder that was sitting quietly at one corner of his desk, flipping through the sketches within. It was the assignment that he had given to Hyejin the day before, which she must have completed late into the night because that folder definitely hadn't been there when he left the office yesterday.
Suddenly, he looked up at Remington and said, "Call Hyejin in."
Remington seemed a little surprised by his sudden instruction, but he did as he was told and returned with the girl a couple of minutes later, after having found her in the laundry room folding towels.
"You wanted to see me?" Hyejin mumbled, staring awkwardly down at her feet as she spoke. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the half-drunk coffee and half-eaten vegetable pancake lying on Hyunwon's table, both of which she had hastily placed there before she rushed out of his office to avoid having to face him this morning. Evidently it didn't work, because here she was anyway.
Why does she keep staring at the ground? Hyunwon wondered to himself as he looked at her. He stood up and walked round to where she was, sticking the black and gold invitation in front of her eyes.
"What's this?" she asked, keeping her eyes trained on the invitation instead of at him. "MBC awards?"
Everyone knew what the MBC entertainment awards were—the three major broadcasting stations organised these star-studded events at the end of every year to honour the best in the country's entertainment industry, and this time each year, the rest of Korea would be glued to their television sets to witness the glitz and the glamour. Hyejin never really cared about the celebrities who graced the red carpet and she still couldn't name more than five of them if she was ever asked to, but she did watch the award ceremonies year after year just to ogle at the fashion and styles.
"The MBC awards ceremony is in a week's time. Typically the salon gets numerous requests to style various artistes for the red carpet and Remington will sieve through all the requests to decide which ones we eventually accept." Hyunwon picked up one of the designs from Hyejin's plastic folder and said, "I want you to do this one for the MBC awards."
It was a male style, a windswept look that Hyejin had spent the wee hours of the morning painstakingly colouring a pastel purple, the exact same shade as the purple hyacinths that she had gotten inspiration from. There was a field of hyacinths not far from where she lived and she used to cycle past it on her way to school every morning, and every year during springtime the entire field would be a glorious shade of purple. Not the most conventional of colours for hair, but she quite liked the way the sketch had turned out anyway.
For the first time this morning Hyejin stared straight at Hyunwon, unable to mask the look of disbelief on her face. "You want me to do what?" she asked.
"Replicate this look for the awards ceremony."
"For who?"
"Ares Hwang."
Now it was Remington's turn to stare at Hyunwon in shock. When he finally came back to his senses, he immediately jumped in and exclaimed, "Are you out of your mind? I thought we just went through this! Hyejin is still a trainee so we can't possibly have her styling Ares for the MBC awards. I've already told Gina that!"
"Well just call her and tell her that we've changed our minds then," Hyunwon replied calmly. "Log the appointment under my name. In any case, I'll have to supervise. Tell Gina that if anything goes wrong I'll step in immediately, so she has nothing to worry about. I won't send her boy onto the red carpet looking like a poodle, in case that's what she's worried about. I think my name still has that level of credibility."
Hyejin wasn't quite sure whether or not she was dreaming. Perhaps she had fallen asleep in the training room after having stayed up for too long trying to finish those sketches, so this was all just some crazy dream that she was experiencing. That has to be it, this must be a dream. Without thinking twice, she reached out and pinched Hyunwon on the cheek, expecting herself to wake up immediately.
To her horror, Dream Hyunwon didn't evaporate and she didn't wake up in her own bed.
"What the hell do you think you're doing!" Hyunwon cried out, appalled at what she had just done. His hand instinctively flew up to his cheek, which was now burning because of how hard she had pinched him.
"I'm so sorry!" Hyejin immediately exclaimed, taking two steps back. "I thought I was dreaming!"
"If you thought that this was a dream then shouldn't you be pinching yourself instead of me?" Hyunwon stared at her incredulously. He had almost forgotten that this was the same girl who had given him a tight slap in this very same office previously, but now he remembered it all too clearly. This was what happened when he let his guard down, he told himself. Glancing sideways, he caught sight of Remington trying desperately to control his laughter, so much so that there were tears streaming from his eyes—he immediately shot his friend a warning glare.
Hyejin's cheeks quickly turned a flaming shade of red from a mixture of embarrassment and shame. This clearly wasn't a dream, which meant that she had just gone and pinched her boss, and what Hyunwon had said earlier had been real after all. But how could it possibly be real?
"If this isn't a dream, then what you just said about the MBC awards and Ares..."
Hyunwon stormed back to his chair and sat down in a huff. "You clearly heard what I said earlier so I'm not going to waste my energy repeating myself. If you want to achieve that look then between now and the day of the awards you're going to have to learn how to use different waxes properly and also how to get the correct dye shade you need. Now go back to the training room and get out all the different types of wax we have—if you're not ready within ten minutes I'm going to kick you out of the salon."
Hyejin stood there frozen to the spot, somewhat shell-shocked.
"Do you seriously want me to kick you out?"
Hyunwon didn't need to repeat himself a third time because within the blink of an eye, Hyejin was gone.
"What was that all about? You're seriously going to let Hyejin style Ares for the MBC awards?" Remington asked, still not quite sure whether or not everything he had witnessed had actually happened. Unlike Hyejin though, he chose to pinch himself instead—and it hurt. "Ryu will have a fit when he finds out. Ares is one of the biggest celebrities out there. All the cameras are going to be on him the moment he steps out of the car and onto that red carpet. We can't afford for anything to go wrong, especially not after the last time."
"Remy, since when have you ever seen me making a wrong decision? The only time something screwed up was when I wasn't around and Ryu set his mediocre niece loose." Out loud, that was what he was saying; deep down, he was also thinking that he must have been out of his mind.
It was a highly risky move to agree to let Hyejin style Ares for the awards ceremony but at the same time he trusted his own judgement. There was no doubt that Hyejin had a great deal of latent talent—what she lacked was the confidence to be able to push her own boundaries and make the magic happen. He had tested out his own hypothesis when he let her work on Mina's hair, where he could sense her hesitation holding her back, resulting in an outcome that was acceptable but nowhere near outstanding. That was the reason why she had been rock bottom in the last trainee assessment and it was still a hurdle that she had yet to overcome.
What he needed to get out of her was the spark that had revealed itself for a brief moment, the moment that had given her thirty seconds of fame the first time round, and perhaps that required the presence of the same catalyst: Ares.
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"Are you insane? Why did you request for me as your stylist!" Hyejin yelled over the phone the moment someone picked up on the other end of the line.
"Hyejin?" The voice sounded a little out of sorts.
"You know full well that I'm still a trainee and I just flopped my last assessment big time, so why would you do something like that? I could put you on the red carpet looking worse than a fluffy poodle!"
A hoarse laugh came through the receiver. "Nothing could be worse than a poodle."
"I'm being serious here!"
"So am I. Hyejin, umm, now's probably not a good time. Can I talk to you another time?"
The phone line abruptly went dead, much to Hyejin's chagrin. She thought she had heard a female voice call out Ares's name in the background—not Ares per se, his official name Hwang Minhyun—but it had been a little muffled so she wasn't entirely sure. Where could he be? Waiting for his turn at a photoshoot perhaps? It was odd, because she had not heard anyone address him by that name ever since their re-encounter.
She didn't have much time to mull over this further because Hyunwon walked in through the door a minute later, scanning the neat row of wax tubs that she had laid out on the counter.
"For setting all sorts of hairstyles, especially those we put down the runway or red carpets, there's either wax, mousse, gel or hairspray. All of them create different effects and are meant for different hair types. For men's looks in particular, the most commonly used one is wax, and even then you can see there's almost a dozen different types." He gestured towards the row of tubs, rattling off their names and uses one by one with Hyejin furiously scribbling down notes by the side.
When he was done with his lecture, he picked up the fifth tub from the right. "Ares's hair texture is slightly thick, which makes it somewhat more difficult to manipulate. However, that also means that there's a lot of room for creativity. Number five is the best for this sort of texture. If you use it well, any sort of look is achievable." He placed the black tub in front of her and gestured towards one of the mannequins, saying, "Go ahead."
Hyejin hesitated for a moment, looking up at Hyunwohn for some sort of further instruction. All he did was to lean against the wall with his arms folded, watching her with a placid expression that told her that he had already started his judgement and if she didn't get her act together soon she would end up getting a negative score from him by the end of this session. Oh, and he would threaten to kick her out, just like he always did.
She quickly unscrewed the cap and dipped her fingers into the tub of wax. It was a familiar sticky sensation against her skin, though she could immediately tell the difference in quality between what she had in her hand and the cheap version that her father had back at the barber shop. She rubbed her palms together to spread the wax evenly over them, before running her fingers through the mannequin's wig. Closing her eyes, she tried to imagine what the design she had drawn would look like on someone like Ares and as she conjured up the images her fingers moved through the hair to rub in the wax in.
"It's not about rubbing it in," Hyunwon's impatient voice suddenly interrupted. "The trick to using wax is having a light touch if you want the style to look effortless. Start from the inner layers and work your way out. Watch." He stood behind her and took her hands in his, guiding her fingers through the mannequin's wig to show her just how she needed to manoeuvre in order to get the hair to do as it was told. "It's not difficult once you get the hang of it, just that most people don't use wax the right way and that's why it ends up looking grossly unprofessional and goes flat after a couple of hours."
Hyunwon's hands moved deftly in and out of the layers of hair and with every twist and turn a slow transformation began to take place. Hyejin stared in wonder at what seemed to be happening right beneath her fingers, even though she really wasn't doing anything except allow her hands to be controlled by the puppeteer.
Her hands!
Hyejin held her breath, her heart racing in her chest from the surreal sensation of Hyunwon's hands holding onto her own. Since knowing him, there were numerous moments when she had thought that there must be ice running through his veins because of how unfeeling and cold he typically was, but right now she could feel the warmth radiating from his hands to hers, telling her that her previous assumptions could not have been more untrue. The first thought that floated into mind was the memory of the first time she had held hands with a boy—which was pretty much a blank space because it had never happened before.
Standing this close to him with her thoughts running amok was not an ideal situation to be in, especially after she had put in so much effort to avoid him over the past day. They weren't quite done with the styling yet but she abruptly withdrew her hands and spun around to beat a hasty retreat, only to find that she was staring straight into Hyunwon's surprised face with their noses a little too close for comfort.
He gulped. She blinked.
And then she legged it as fast as she possibly could.
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