No way... Ares Hwang? Whatever happened to Hwang Minhyun!
It all made sense now, why he had seemed a little surprised that she hadn't heard about him or what he had been up to all these years. Everyone else in the entire country probably knew who he was, except her.
Despite having a dream of being a top hairstylist one day, Hyejin had never been one to keep up with the trends. Instead of spending all her money on fashion magazine subscriptions, she chose to be content with doodling her own designs in her notebooks. Over the years, she had accumulated over twenty fully-filled notebooks that was chock full of her own imagination. Unfortunately that meant that she had little idea about what was going on in the world outside—the only famous person she knew of was Kara Jung, and only because she was every army boy's dream girl and they always talked about her when they came into the shop to get their hair cut.
From the moment she saw Ares on TV, she immediately went into a bit of a daze. She even almost tripped over herself on her way out of the house, much to her brother's alarm. Now, she was giving a haircut to yet another army boy and really wasn't paying much attention to the hair.
It wasn't until her customer threw his phone onto the counter in a rage did she somewhat snap back into reality.
"It's just one bloody haircut, does she need to go gaga all over him? Sheesh!" he muttered in annoyance.
"Why the bad mood so early in the morning?" Hyejin asked.
The boy picked up his phone and showed her a photo. "Look at this, does he look that handsome? My girlfriend has been swooning over him all morning saying that this hairstyle makes him look like the most handsome man on earth. Are you kidding me? My hair looks just about the same and she's never said that about me."
Hyejin nearly choked right there and then. The photo he was showing her was a photo of Ares, complete with the two lightning bolts she had shaved into his head just last night. In fact, Ares had been seated in the very same chair that the boy was now sitting in.
"It's not that special," she said, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.
"Exactly! Why can't she see things the way you do?" her customer replied, pulling a face. "She says all her friends agree with her and that they're all getting their boyfriends to get the exact same haircut. I'm the only one who can't because my staff sergeant would throw me into the detention barracks if I did."
"Don't worry, these celebrities change their hairstyles every day. Tomorrow he'll have a new haircut and maybe it'll be real ugly," Hyejin offered helpfully. She sure hoped that Ares would get a new hairstyle soon, so that she wouldn't have to see her handiwork splashed all over the media.
Now that she knew Minhyun's real identity, she was totally regretting the haircut that she gave him yesterday.
Celebrities like Ares got their hair cut at high-end salons where they would have dozens of stylists and assistants busy attending to their every whim and fancy, not at a tiny old-fashioned barber shop that looked like it came straight from the early 1900s. So far the commentary about the haircut seemed to be fairly good, but who knows what could have gone wrong along the way? What if it had turned out badly and the critics panned it even more than the poodle hairdo?
"Oh God what if his head is insured..." she mumbled under her breath.
Imagine if she had accidentally given him a small cut because she hadn't been paying enough attention to the razor. That might have been a mistake that would have cost her and her family a hundred times more than what her brother could ever gamble away. She thanked her lucky stars that nothing like that happened.
Minutes later, the doorbell jingled and in came her father and brother with lunch in hand. Hyejin scowled at the sight of Hyukjin, but she remained silent just so she wouldn't get an earful from her father again.
"Hyejin, come over and have lunch when you're done," her father said cheerily. "It's Hyukjin's treat today. He paid for it using the salary he earned from his trip to sea."
"I'll probably get a stomach ache after eating it," she muttered to herself.
When she was done, she used a towel to dust off the strands of hair around her customer's neck and sent him off. Poor boy was still grumbling about Ares even as he left the shop, and Hyejin couldn't bear to let him know that she was the cause of his current misery.
Walking over to the front door, she flipped the sign from "open" to "closed" before joining her father and brother at the table. Sitting down on her high stool, she quietly began picking at the food on the table.
"What's the matter? You look a little off colour today," her father remarked, looking at her with concern.
"I'm fine," Hyejin mumbled.
"What could possibly be the matter with her?" Hyukjin answered. "She's just sulking because she doesn't want to eat the food that I bought."
Their father frowned. "Hyejin, how many times must I tell you to let bygones be bygones? Your brother is finally home after so long, can't the three of us just have a nice meal together in peace? What would your mother say if she knew that you're still throwing tantrums like a child? Hyukjin was nice enough to volunteer to buy lunch and bring it over to you, shouldn't you at least say thank you?"
Hyejin stuffed some rice into her mouth to stop herself from arguing back. Thankfully, the door to the shop swung open at just the right time and the doorbell jingled.
"We're closed for lunch. Come back again in half an hour's time please," Hyejin called out.
"I'm not here for a haircut," a woman's voice answered back.
The trio all looked towards the door curiously. Firstly, it was rare that there were women coming into the shop, unless they were mothers bringing their sons for haircuts; secondly, what would a person come to a barber shop for if not for a haircut? The petite woman at the door had her hair done up in a tight bun, not a single strand of hair out of place. She was wearing a tailored navy blue pantsuit with a pair of neon yellow heels. All in all, she didn't look like someone who belonged to these parts.
"Are you Song Hyejin?" she asked, pointing one carefully manicured finger at Hyejin.
Hyejin nodded warily. "Who are you? Are you looking for me?"
The lady walked over, her heels making clipped sounds against the tiles as she walked. Handing a name card to Hyejin, she said, "My name is Gina Lee. I'm Ares's manager."
Hyejin choked on her rice, spluttering as she fumbled around for a glass of water.
"Is there somewhere we can talk," she glanced sideways at Hyejin's father and brother, "in private?"
"Of course, uhh..." Hyejin gestured towards the back of the shop, where there was a storeroom filled with bottles of shampoo and conditioner.
Once they were both inside, Hyejin shut the door behind them, ignoring the curious stares of her family. The woman named Gina looked around the storeroom in disgust, brushing dust off her shoulders. She made a mental note to give Ares a telling off when she returned for making her come all the way down to this backwater to speak to this girl. If not for the fact that she had Hyejin to thank for salvaging what seemed to be a PR nightmare, she wouldn't even have bothered.
Coughing, she removed her shades, revealing a pair of cat-like eyes accentuated with thick black eyeliner. "I would like to offer my thanks for what you did last night. It saved us quite a bit of trouble," she said.
"Uhh you're welcome?" Hyejin replied, staring down at her feet. This woman gave her the creeps.
"Ares had a bit of an unfortunate incident with his previous stylist. He was quite distraught last night. I hope he didn't cause you too much trouble when he swung by. I must apologise on his behalf." She didn't sound at all apologetic. "You must have seen the news by now, everyone is talking about Ares's new haircut. It has created quite the storm in the industry. Everyone wants to know who his stylist was."
Hyejin could sense that there was a bigger point that Gina was trying to drive at and she was taking her time to get to it. The way Gina was staring at her reminded her of how a tiger would stare at its prey, sizing it up before the kill.
"We can't have anyone find out that the person who cut Ares's hair for him comes from some tiny barber shop in this suburban backwater. It would do no good for his reputation. The media can be extremely fickle; one day they are praising you to the skies, the next moment they can drag you through the mud. Ares has always had his hair styled at The Cutting Edge and he also has an exclusive contract with them worth over two hundred million won. Technically, we could be sued if anyone finds out that he had his hair cut by someone else. Thankfully for us, I've managed to work something out with the CEO of The Cutting Edge. You can start work there on Monday and we'll take this matter as settled. Given your level of experience you'll probably only be an assistant over there, but that's already much better than this dingy place."
Hyejin scowled. She didn't like the look of this woman from the moment she walked into the door and now she really disliked her. Who did she think she was, walking into the shop and thinking that she had any right to tell her what to do? Also, she had absolutely no right to be insulting the barber shop.
"No."
"No?"
"No, I'm not going to this Cutting Edge or Crapping Edge or whatever Edge place you're talking about. I'm staying right here. Whether or not Ares gets sued by anyone or whether his reputation takes a beating is really none of my business." Sorry Minhyun, but we were childhood acquaintances once upon a time. You're a nice bloke, but we're not that close. "Ares was the one who barged in last night after opening hours begging for a haircut. I did him a favour. Now if you don't mind, the door is that way." She opened the storeroom door and pointed towards the exit.
Gina narrowed her eyes into slits and glared at the insolent girl. "Do you know what you're saying? This is an opportunity of a lifetime. The Cutting Edge is one of Seoul's top hair salons. If not for us you wouldn't have been able to even take one step through their front door. They pay their lowest assistant more in a month than this barber shop could possibly earn in a year. Why would you give up a chance like that?"
"Some of us have something called pride," Hyejin replied curtly. "We're going to be opening for business now so please see yourself out."
Seeing that she was not getting through, Gina rolled her eyes and headed for the door. Just before she left, she placed another of her name cards on the counter, saying, "If you ever change your mind, give me a call. Mind you, this offer has an expiry date. If I don't hear from you in a week, the deal is off."
"Who's the lady? She's hot," her brother quipped after Gina had disappeared. "I checked out her car out front earlier—she drives a BMW sports model. You don't get cars like those around here often."
"Nobody important," Hyejin snapped. Picking up Gina's name card, she tossed it into the garbage bin.
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"She said no," Gina declared, sashaying into the room and sitting herself down on the white leather couch. "I'll need to borrow your shower, I feel like I have a layer of grime on me after going down to that place. Are you sure that was where you used to get your hair cut when you were a kid? The place is antiquated!"
Ares walked out from the kitchen, placing a glass of whiskey in front of his manager. Smiling wryly, he said, "I expected her to say no. The barber shop has been there for tens of years. It contains all that her family has worked for. She wouldn't agree to leave so easily."
"Clearly her family hasn't worked for very much," Gina snorted. "I conveyed our thanks, although I'm not convinced we couldn't have done it over the phone. Also, what am I going to say to Ryu now? Because of you, I had to talk myself dry to convince him not to sue us and to accept some no-name barber into The Cutting Edge, and all of that for nothing."
Settling himself down on the couch, Ares took a sip out of his own glass. "It's a pity," he sighed. "She has talent." He looked at his own reflection in his whiskey glass, admiring Hyejin's handiwork. He especially liked the lightning bolts she had carved along the side of his head—one of the magazines had called him "The Flash" and he decided he really liked that nickname.
"Now I've got to go back to Ryu and tell him that plans have changed and hope that he still decides not to sue us. We'll probably need to give credit for the haircut to The Cutting Edge, or else we'll be done for."
"That's lying," Ares frowned.
"If no one finds out then it's not a lie," Gina replied pointedly. "I don't think the girl will spill the beans, but I hate going on blind faith. You know I don't trust easily. It would have been best if she had agreed to go over to The Cutting Edge, that way we wouldn't technically be lying and we wouldn't need to be worried about getting found out. Do you know what she told me? She said 'some of us have something called pride'. What a joke..."
Ares shook his head. He didn't agree with Gina's ways some times, but she was the reason he was where he was right now. A good manager was all the difference it made between fame and obscurity and Gina was the best that there was out there. Everyone called her Medusa, and for good reason, but she was probably the only person who could be Medusa and still have the rest of the entertainment industry eating out of the palm of her hand.
"You know what," he suddenly said. "Let me try."
"Try what?"
"I'll speak to her and see if she'll agree to the proposal," he replied. "I don't like lying, and most of all I don't like giving the credit to the person who ruined my hair in the first place. Tell Ryu to fire that rookie from his salon, else he'll probably sink the salon's reputation within a week."
"That 'rookie' who gave you the perm happens to be Ryu's niece, so I really don't think he'll fire her. He's still the boss," Gina chuckled.
Ryu Matsuo (whose real name was actually Ryu Ji Won but he decided to give it a change after he married his Japanese wife) was the CEO of the Cutting Edge and one of Korea's top mavens of the fashion and style industry. He wasn't a hairstylist himself, but more of a businessman who had an extremely good eye for style and talent. As a result of that, the Cutting Edge had an eclectic collection of Korea's best hairstylists that every artiste could want, the crowning jewel of which would have to be its creative director, Kang Hyunwon.
That was, of course, before Ryu decided to engage in a spot of nepotism and hire his own niece who obviously didn't have her uncle's good eye. The result was the disaster that was the poodle on top of Ares's head.
Thankfully Ryu himself agreed that the perm was possibly the worst thing that could have happened to anyone and was more than sympathetic towards Ares's situation, hence it hadn't been too difficult to get him to gently set aside the possibility of a lawsuit after news of Ares's spanking new haircut hit the press. Gina was just glad that Ares had enough sense not to go to a rival salon to get his hair done, else there would have been no end to it.
"I'm doing him a favour by suggesting that he fire her. If she goes and gives anyone else a popcorn hairdo, they might not be as charitable as me," Ares replied, rolling his eyes. He liked his current crew cut, but it still hurt to have to let go of most of his precious head of hair. "Can I sue her? For ruining my reputation?"
"Technically you could, but if you do then Ryu will most definitely fire a lawyer's letter back at us for your breach of contract. Also, that contract is worth a truckload of diamonds. Hold on for a second, let me get this." Gina reached for her phone, which had begun ringing just two seconds ago. "Hello? Yes this is Gina. Ah, I see, and you are calling because... This isn't something that we normally do, but I'm sure we could work something out. I'll have to get you to sign a contract if that's alright? Just something to give us the assurance that you and your sister won't go back on your word. It's just business, I'm sure you'll understand… That sounds great, I'll see you in two days' time."
"Who was that?" Ares asked once Gina had put down the phone. "Some new artiste the company is signing?"
Gina shook her head, her thin, red lips curving upwards ever so slightly in a tiny smile. "That happened to be Song Hyejin's older brother," she replied. "And I believe you don't need to waste any more time going back to speak to that girl, because we just got ourselves a deal."
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