Hyejin was slumped on her bed with her head buried beneath her pillow, wishing she could just dig a huge hole and jump into it. Throughout the day, she could barely concentrate on anything she was supposed to be doing because every now and then an image of Hyunwon would slip into her mind and then her mind just turned into a jumbled mess.
"Song Hyejin, get a grip!" she chided herself. "This is all an illusion. You are just confused because you haven't had enough sleep over the past week." Yes, that had to be it. She knew that she had a perfectly logical mind, so there had to be a logical explanation for these illogical thoughts.
Just then, her cheesy ringtone went off, making her leap up with a start.
"Hello?" she said, once she had managed to locate her phone somewhere in the black hole of her bag.
"Hey, it's me." Ares.
Hyejin groaned. The last thing she needed now was another guy trying to mess up her life and Ares tended to be exceptionally good at doing that. Hearing his voice, it reminded her of the score that she needed to settle with him.
"What do you want," she replied curtly.
"Could you come outside for a while?"
Hyejin immediately ran to her bedroom window and peered downstairs—sure enough, there was a silver BMW parked below with someone in a white baseball cap standing beside it.
Is he out of his mind? she thought to herself as she hurriedly threw on the thickest jumper she could find lying around and dashed out of the house. The last thing she wanted was for the neighbours to realise that Ares Hwang was standing outside her house—the woman next door was possibly the biggest gossip in the nation.
"What are you doing here in the middle of the night?" she hissed at him. The time was now ten to midnight.
"Sorry, my schedule ended slightly later than I had expected," was his reply, completely missing the point.
"Get in the car. If we hang around here my neighbour will—"
What happened next was even more mind-boggling, so much so that Hyejin was completely stunned into silence. Ares suddenly enveloped her in his arms, burying his head against her shoulder.
"What are you doing? Let go!" she cried, looking around in horror to make sure that no one was about. If anyone took a sneaky shot of this scene then the tabloids would have a field day and there would be hell to pay tomorrow morning. She frantically tried to push him away, but the more she resisted the tighter he held on to her.
"Just a minute. Please."
Exasperated, Hyejin stopped moving and stood there stiff like a washboard, willing the minute to go by as quickly as it possibly could. The strong smell of vodka suddenly accosted her, causing her to wrinkle up her nose in disgust.
"Have you been drinking?" she remarked with a frown. "Is that why you're behaving so strangely?"
Ares didn't reply. Instead, he just kept his arms quietly wrapped around her for the rest of the minute, before he slowly let go. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," he said.
Now that she had the chance to look at him in the face a little more carefully, she realised just how bloodshot his eyes were. Either he hadn't slept in days or he had been crying—whichever it was, the alcohol only served to exacerbate the effects two-fold. Tonight, Ares didn't look the slightest bit like the poster boy that he usually was; he just looked like a broken young man without the slightest bit of hope in his eyes.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. I think I'm just too tired. The past few days have been pretty hectic. With awards season coming up, Gina's got way too many interviews and shoots lined up. It's typical for this time of year."
"Right, maybe we should talk inside the car," Hyejin said quickly, eyes still darting left and right to make sure they hadn't been spotted. The minute Ares opened the car door to the passenger seat, she immediately leapt in.
When the both of them had gotten into the car, Hyejin did one final scan of the surroundings before heaving a huge sigh of relief. She sank back into the leather seat, thanking her lucky stars that none of the neighbours had decided to come out at midnight to empty the rubbish or make a trip to the convenience store for a late night snack.
Turning to Ares, she said, "You still haven't answered my question from this morning. What on earth were you thinking when you asked for me to be your stylist for the MBC awards? That doesn't even make sense!"
"It makes sense to me. I trust you."
"There are plenty of other stylists out there who are far more experienced and skilled than I am! I think you should call Gina right now and tell her that you've changed your mind."
"No," Ares said simply. "Hyejin, I picked you because I believe you'll do a good job. Also... I just want a friend to be by my side for once. The entertainment industry is a lonely place. If I could I would hire you to be my permanent stylist, but Gina won't ever let me do that. She already gave me a telling off for insisting on having you this time round but that's ok. I'm used to it." He was looking at her with such sincerity (despite the bloodshot eyes) that it was making her uncomfortable to keep pushing her case.
This is how he goes around charming half the population of Seoul! she thought indignantly to herself. How was she supposed to say no when he was playing the friendship card? If she still insisted on rejecting him then it would appear somewhat unfeeling, especially after he had showed up at her doorstep in a less-than-optimal state looking like he needed a big hug.
"Hyunwon will supervise, so in case anything goes wrong he'll step in to save the day," she finally said. "Are you alright with purple hair?"
"So I'm graduating from being a white poodle to being a purple grape?" Ares said with a slight chuckle, and he immediately received a hard smack across the shoulder from Hyejin. "In all seriousness, that's fine. I'll leave it up to the professionals to decide." He paused for a moment, looking a little pensive. "Hyunwon seems to be quite concerned about you."
"Eh?"
"I thought he would reject my request, but he not only agreed to it but he also agreed to supervise?" Ares explained. "The Kang Hyunwon that I know of wouldn't have wanted to waste time on this. He seems to have changed somewhat."
Hyejin flushed bright pink when the focus of the conversation shifted to Hyunwon, though it was hardly visible in the dim light. "That's not true," she said dismissively. "He's exactly the same as he's always been—arrogant and self-centred." Most of the time. "So, are you expecting to win anything at this year's awards?" she asked, praying that he would let the topic slide.
Thankfully, Ares shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Who cares? Nobody remembers these things the next day. All of it is meaningless."
"Well, it's not entirely meaningless. Winning an award is kind of like an affirmation of the work that you've been doing, isn't it? It's a recognition of your efforts! Like back in high school when I won an award at the science fair—that was one of my proudest achievements in my life to date, although the prize was just a cheap, plastic trophy. They really should have been a little more generous. What's an MBC award like? Does it look like an Oscar?"
She turned to Ares to wait for an answer, only to find that his eyes were tightly shut and the slow, rhythmic breathing betrayed the fact that he had fallen asleep.
"Great. Now what?"
Sighing, she looked at the sleeping boy, wondering how exhausted he must be to be able to fall asleep on his car seat. It wasn't the least bit comfortable, in her opinion. As she watched him sleep, she recalled the memory of that awkward little boy who would come to the barber shop with his grandmother every now and then and would fall asleep in the barber's chair, lulled by the steady drone of the razors in the background. That little boy was all grown up and an entirely different person now—he was the handsome face on every billboard and front covers of magazines, the envy of every teenage boy and the guy of every girl's dreams.
But maybe, just maybe, that little boy who once asked her to be his friend a very, very long time ago was still in there somewhere, lost beneath the gloss and veneer that the industry had given him.
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Time flew when you were having fun. And apparently also when you were having the most awkward and uncomfortable time of your life, because the days when Hyejin was forced to stay within close proximity of Hyunwon (bless her tortured heart) so that he could teach her all that she needed to know for the MBC awards simply zipped by in the blink of an eye.
The awards ceremony this year was being held at the KINTEX halls, which was a twenty minute drive from Seoul. Despite the short journey, she had somehow managed to doze off in the backseat of Hyunwon's car, only to wake up to an empty car to find that they hadn't woken her when they reached the destination.
"Why didn't they wake me!" she grumbled to no one in particular, hurriedly grabbing her belongings and getting off the car. As she tried to find her way about the huge exhibition arena, she caught sight of her own reflection in one of the mirrored wall panels, realising to her horror that she had remnants of drool visible on the right side of her chin.
She quickly wiped it off with her sleeve, praying that Hyunwon hadn't seen it when he left the car.
The halls were bustling with activity as staff members rushed to and fro trying to get everything ready for the big event later that night. No one seemed to give a hoot about her wandering around looking rather lost, and the one person she tried to ask for directions gave her a sideways glance and then dashed off while shouting loudly into her walkie talkie—something about the emcees demanding for mineral water imported from Switzerland. From the sound of things, said mineral water had not been on the top of the organising team's priority list.
"Are you here on a tour or are you here to work?"
Hyunwon was standing a couple of metres away, hands folded across his chest as he spoke to her. He wasn't intending to wait for a reply, so he turned and began striding off in the direction he came from, taking a left turn down a long corridor.
Hyejin quickly followed behind, thankful that she didn't need to continue roaming the place because it was absolutely massive. Did he come out specially to fetch me? she wondered to herself as she observed Hyunwon from the back.
He led her down the row of changing rooms, each of which had the assigned artistes' names stuck onto the door. As they made their way down, Hyejin played her own little game of trying to match each name to a face, realising halfway that this game was doomed to failure because of her lack of pop culture knowledge. She did notice that some rooms had the names of multiple artistes on the door, whereas others had just one.
"You get different treatment depending on your status," Hyunwon remarked as he stopped in front of a door that said "Ares Hwang". When he pushed open the door, Hyejin sort of understood what he meant, because the changing room that was allocated to Ares looked like it was large enough to house three girl groups, yet it had been set aside for Ares alone.
"Hyejin! You're finally here. I was beginning to worry that you weren't going to show," Ares exclaimed the moment he saw Hyejin walk in through the door.
"Usually the stylist waits for the artiste, not the other way around," a cranky-sounding voice interrupted. It belonged to Gina, who was seated at one corner of the room regarding her with some disdain. Evidently she was still upset over Ares's choice of stylist, though she had given in to his whim in the end.
"Sorry," Hyejin mumbled, trying not to look into Gina's eyes just in case she turned to stone.
Ares smiled, unperturbed by his manager's hostile attitude. "Let's get started then, there must be a lot of work you need to do," he said. When she walked closer, he leaned over and whispered, "Thanks for the blanket that night, sorry I fell asleep in the car just like that." He hadn't woken till daybreak, only to find that he was alone in his car with a warm blanket over him.
Hyunwon cleared his throat, giving Hyejin a slight jump. "Are you done chatting?" he asked. "If you are then I would suggest you get started because time is ticking."
Taking a deep breath, Hyejin walked over the counter and looked at the different dyes that had already been laid out. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Gina giving her a skeptical look from her corner. Knowing that Hyunwon was going to start getting impatient if she dallied any longer, she quickly began mixing her dyes, hoping for the best.
"Remember what I said, don't leave the dye on for too long after the bleaching or else the colour will be too vibrant. We're going for an ash purple, not a mangosteen," Hyunwon said as he watched her slowly apply the bleach. "I have to go settle my other appointments. I'll be back in about an hour. If anything crops up, send Remington to look for me, got it?"
Hyejin nodded her head reluctantly, although she didn't really want Hyunwon to leave at a time like this. It was already taking her a great deal of effort to stop her hands from trembling while she continued combing the bleach through Ares's hair, while thoughts about all things purple (like Barney the dinosaur) popped into mind. She heard the door shut behind Hyunwon and then he was gone, leaving her to fend for herself under the watchful eyes of Gina who was ready to kick her out of the room the minute she made a mistake.
I wonder who he has appointments with... Mina? Or maybe the gorgeous Park Soojin from that magazine photoshoot?
"Penny for your thoughts?" Ares's voice interrupted.
"Huh?"
"Nothing, just wondering what was going through your mind. Did you not realise you were frowning just now? Did you discover a bald spot on my head?" he joked.
Hyejin shook her head immediately. "Of course not! Sorry, I was just thinking about some things. It's not important." She set the bowl of bleach down on the counter and started the preparing the shade of ash purple she needed for the dye. It had taken her and Hyunwon several attempts at mixing the colours before they finally found the right combination that they were both satisfied with. "You shouldn't bleach your hair so often though, your scalp will get damaged," she said.
"If you do business this way, the salon will probably go bust soon," Ares laughed. "You're supposed to be encouraging me to change hairstyles as often as I possibly can. That way, you'll never need to close shop."
It took Hyejin about two and a half hours to finish the style for Ares, and she stepped backwards to admire her own handiwork after she was done. Not bad, it actually looks quite like what I had in mind, she thought proudly to herself. Ares seemed to like it too and even Gina gave a slight snort of approval after she had circled him a couple of times. What was missing was the seal of approval from Hyunwon because that was the only thing that was really meant anything, but he still wasn't back yet.
Turning to Remington, she asked, "Where's Hyunwon? Is he still not done with his other clients?"
Remington shrugged his shoulders as he went about snapping some pictures of Ares for the record (and possibly the salon's webpage). "He's probably getting ready for the awards ceremony," he replied. Seeing the look of mild confusion on Hyejin's face, he elaborated, "He's been invited too, along with Ryu. Typically he only attends one of the year-end award ceremonies and this year he chose this particular one to make his rare appearance."
Right on cue, the door to the dressing room swung open and in walked Hyunwon, now having thrown a white Armani blazer on top of his black shirt. A question that popped into Hyejin's mind at that moment was: if Hyunwon styles everyone else's hair, then who styles his hair? Right now his jet black hair was perfectly combed into a slick and clean look that was worlds apart from the messy do that he had arrived with (still good-looking, just not as quite as suave). She was trying hard not to stare but it took her a good couple of seconds before she finally managed to tear her gaze away from his face, after which she just stared down at the ground praying that her cheeks hadn't gone red.
"Are we done here?" he asked, walking over and checking on Ares's look. Picking up a pair of scissors, he trimmed a little off the left side of Ares's fringe. "That looks about right." Although Hyejin was delighted that he hadn't deemed her work to be shoddy enough to warrant a re-do and a big scolding, the lack of any sort of emotion in his face and voice left her a little disappointed.
"Good job, Hyejin," Ares said with a smile, patting her hand encouragingly. "I knew you could do it."
"Right, no time to waste," Gina stepped in and said. She grabbed Ares by the shoulders and ushered him towards the clothes rack. "You need to get changed quickly because red carpet starts in half an hour. Remember to smile and tilt to the left when you face the cameras, you always forget your best angle." Ares couldn't even get a single word in because his manager continued rattling reminder after reminder all the way until he was dressed and ready to leave the room.
Standing silently by the side not quite knowing what to do with herself, Hyejin watched with amusement as Ares was shuttled from point A to point B to point C and finally out of the dressing room door, though not before he gave her a rather sad wave of the hand to say goodbye. "I'll call you later," he said, just before he was pushed out of the room.
"We should go too. Ryu will be waiting out front," Remington declared, heading for the door.
Just as Hyejin was about to follow them out, her ringtone started going off. Fishing her phone out of her bag, she hit the answer button and said, "Hello?"
Hyunwon had already walked halfway down the corridor when he took a backwards glance and realised that Hyejin wasn't following behind. Frowning, he called out to Remington, "Remy, you go on ahead. Tell Ryu I'll be right there." Before Remington could respond, he had already turned on his heels and was headed back towards the dressing room.
When he opened the door, he found Hyejin frozen to the spot in the middle of the room with her face drained of all its colour. Her phone was pressed against her right ear, though the hand that was holding it was visibly trembling. "T-t-thank you, I'll be right there," he heard her say, before her hand fell limply back to her side.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
Hyejin looked up at him, her eyes unable to disguise the fear and anxiety within.
"That was the hospital. My father... My father has been taken to the hospital because he had a heart attack at home..."
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