Hyejin emerged from the shower, towelling her wet hair with her favourite Pororo towel. It was Saturday and the house was fantastically peaceful. In fact, it had been rather quiet for a couple of days now, with no sign of her beloved brother anywhere to be seen. As much as she was enjoying the current peace, she couldn't help but feel a little curious about where he was. He wasn't even at home to watch his favourite morning soap drama this morning, and as far as she could remember he never missed an episode.
She walked over to his room and pushed open the door. The room was spick and span—it looked as if he hadn't been home in days.
Shutting the door, she took a left and walked into the kitchen where her father was in the middle of boiling soup for lunch. "Where's Hyukjin?" she asked.
"I don't know. He packed a weekend bag and said he was going away for a short while but he didn't say where he was going. Maybe he decided to take a short holiday to the beach? He's been working hard on the ship all this while so he deserves a good break."
"Why would he go to the seaside when he's already spent a year at sea?" Hyejin mumbled to herself. Sometimes her father made completely no sense whatsoever. Nevertheless, it was good that her brother had decided to go away. It saved her the trouble of trying to get him out of her hair.
"Your brother is trying his best. You should give him a second chance," her father said. "Who doesn't make mistakes? What's important is that you learn from your mistakes."
Hyejin sighed, shaking her head as she walked out of the kitchen. If she stayed any longer, she would no doubt be subjected to yet another one of her father's sermons about how family should behave, much of which would involve scolding her about her coldness towards her only brother.
She wanted to be on friendlier terms with Hyukjin, but each time she was just about to set their feud aside and agree to a truce, he would stir up some new form of trouble that would piss her off all over again. Eventually, she decided that it would be best if they just kept out of each other's way.
Going back to her room, Hyejin sat herself down and took out her sketchbook, picking up her pencil to start a new sketch. She was already almost at the end of this book, having already filled most of its pages with sketches of hairstyles and the occasional hat or fascinator design that she plucked out of thin air. She made a mental note that she would need to make a trip to the bookstore to buy some new sketchbooks soon.
She had barely begun on a new sketch when she heard the doorbell ring. Her father's footsteps could be heard rushing from the kitchen towards their front door.
"Hello, who are you looking for?" her father's voice rang out. There was a momentary pause, and then she heard her father say, "Wait a minute, aren't you the lady who came round to the barber shop a couple of days back?"
"Indeed, not bad for someone your age," a female voice replied. The voice was a little familiar, and cold enough to make hell freeze over. "I'm here to see your daughter, Hyejin. Is she around?"
Hyejin didn't need to wait for an invitation. Out of curiosity, she popped her head round her door, peering at the guest who had stopped by.
Today, Gina had her hair done up the exact same way she always did, in a neat bun, but she had swapped out her navy blue pantsuit for a wine-coloured silk blouse and a tight, black pencil skirt. The condescending look in her eyes was exactly as Hyejin remembered.
"What do you want?" she demanded, strolling out of her room.
"Well that's a polite greeting," Gina huffed, rolling her eyes. The things I do for Ares Hwang, she silently griped to herself. "I'm here to hand you this. I tried calling your brother but I couldn't reach him, so I figured I'd drop by." Reaching into her tanned leather Chanel bag, she fished out a paper envelope, handing it over to Hyejin. "I hope you realise that the Cutting Edge is nothing like your little barber shop, so don't go creating trouble for us. It wasn't easy getting you in."
Hyejin frowned, unwinding the string that kept the envelope shut. She had absolutely no idea what this witch was going on about, but hearing her mention Hyukjin just gave her bad vibes. When she had extracted the document from the envelope, she quickly scanned the front page, her father peering at it from over her shoulder.
"What the hell..." she muttered, her eyes widening gradually the more she read. Looking up at Gina incredulously, she said, "What is this? I thought I said I wanted nothing to do with any of this!"
The left corner of Gina's blood-red lips curled up in a barely-there smirk. She reached over and flipped the document to its last page, jabbing her fingernail at the signature on the dotted line. "Sure you did, but I suppose someone else in your family thought that this was the best solution for everybody," she said. "At least one of you has brains."
Hyejin stared at the signature in disbelief, her hands trembling with rage.
"That looks like your brother's name," her father remarked, squinting to get a better look at the messy scrawl. Sure enough, as illegible as his penmanship was, the signature spelled out Hyukjin's name clearly enough.
"My brother signed this contract with you, not me," Hyejin said between gritted teeth. "Take this back with you. He's not here right now so you'd best go elsewhere to look for him."
Gina sighed and shook her head. "You've seen the contents of the contract, so I'm sure you have enough common sense to know what it means. The conditions laid out within clearly state that you, Song Hyejin, will take up employment at the Cutting Edge with immediate effect, and that you are not to reveal to anyone the details behind what happened with Ares and his haircut. If you breach any of these conditions, you will need to pay liquidated damages amounting up to two hundred million won, which is the value of Ares's contract with the Cutting Edge."
"I'm the only one who can sign a contract like that, and I didn't. So as far as I'm concerned, this contract does not exist and I don't intend to any of those things. You can leave now."
"Sure, you can by all means reject us and choose not to comply. In that case I will take this up with the lawyers and see to it that your brother is sued for breach of contract. It should either be two hundred million, or a jail term of... a year or two? Oh, your brother did also ask for an advance of six months of your pay, so that brings the liquidated damages up by another million won or so? Nothing much," Gina said casually.
Hyejin wanted to throw a punch in the woman's face. Instead, she held out the contract in front of Gina's eyes and ripped it into two, tossing it onto the floor. "Fine, do whatever you want. It's none of my business."
"Hyejin, what's going on? Your brother will need to serve a jail term?" her father asked in alarm, a little shell-shocked by what he had just heard. From what little he had figured out, it seemed like his son had signed some contract that he wasn't able to fulfil, and he had seen enough television dramas to know what happened when things like that happened.
Gina smiled, though her botoxed cheeks hardly moved as she did so. "I thought you might do that, little girls and their dramatics," she scoffed. Reaching into her bag once more, she took out yet another envelope. This time, she handed it to Hyejin's father instead. "I prepared extras. The original copy is with our lawyer, so you can rip as many of these as you want. Take some time to think about it. Once you've thought it through, you can report for work on Wednesday. I'll let Ryu know that you're taking a couple of days off."
Having said her piece, Gina took out a pair of oversized Tory Burch shades from her bag and slipped them on before she walked back towards the stairwell. They could hear the clickety-clack of her stilettos as she headed down the stairs, followed by the sound of her revving the engine of her flaming red sports car and heading off.
"Give that to me, I'll throw it away," Hyejin demanded, the moment the front door shut behind them.
Her father frowned, holding it out of her reach. "No, I'm going to take a good look through this," he said. Sitting down, he took out the document and placed it on the table, putting his reading glasses on. "What is this all about? Why did that lady say that your brother might need to pay a few hundred million won or serve a jail term? Hyukjin can't go to jail!"
Hyejin collapsed onto the ground and screamed, yanking at her hair in frustration. Why can't he just leave me alone? Why is it that every time he's home he needs to stir up some trouble and ruin my life? Not only that, now Hyukjin had gone missing, taking with him six months-worth of what was supposed to be her salary if she had agreed to work at the Cutting Edge. She could only guess where he would have gone—somewhere where he could gamble it all away.
"This doesn't look all that bad," her father mused, flipping through the pages. He couldn't understand half of the lawyer lingo that was used in the contract, but he got the gist of it. "It's just a job, isn't it? They want you to work at this place called... the Cutting Edge? Where is that? It even has details of the salary that they will be offering to you, and it's a pretty decent amount."
"This is not happening..." Hyejin buried her face in her knees. "You don't understand! It's not 'just a job'. It's a matter of principle! I wasn't the one who signed this contract. What right does Hyukjin have to sign something like that on my behalf? He's already ruined my life once, why does he need to do it again?"
Her father looked over at her and sighed. "Hyejin, I know that you still haven't forgiven your brother for what he did to you previously, but you can't keep viewing things so negatively. I agree that your brother shouldn't have signed this contract without consulting you first, but he only did it for your own good. This is an excellent job offer and it sounds like they really want you to work for them. Hasn't it always been your dream to work for one of those fancy salons in Seoul? You have the talent, Hyejin. It's time someone appreciated it."
Hyejin felt like crying.
She wished that her father meant what he was saying, but she knew that it was only a half-truth. If he truly thought that she should pursue her dream and take up a job in one of Seoul's top salons, then he would have encouraged her to do so a long time ago instead of remaining silent when she chose to stay behind and look after the barber shop. He was only doing so now because he needed her to go along with this so that his precious son wouldn't need to face a lawsuit and a likely jail term. In this family, it was always about Hyukjin.
"Fine," she suddenly said. "I'll do it."
"Really?" Her father's eyes lit up immediately.
She nodded her head slowly. "You're right. I've always wanted to work at a top salon in Seoul, but no one will ever accept me because I haven't got any formal qualifications. Why should I give up an opportunity like that just because I'm annoyed with Hyukjin?" she said, though it hardly sounded convincing.
Her father smiled, giving her a pat on the shoulder. "That's my girl," he said proudly. "I knew you would be able to think things through properly. You don't need to worry about the barber shop. Your old man still has a couple of years left in him. We might have to operate shorter hours because of my bad knees, but we'll manage. You just go and do what you've always wanted to do."
Picking up the contract, Hyejin smiled weakly at her father before heading back to her room. When her door was shut, she collapsed face first onto her bed and started to cry.
#
Gina said that she only needed to start work on Wednesday, and so she did. She wasn't about to be all over-enthusiastic about this by volunteering to start early. She had already lost most of her pride by agreeing to come, she couldn't possibly throw it all away.
Standing at the base of the seventy-storey glass tower, Hyejin looked up at the topmost floor where the Cutting Edge was housed, high above the clouds. She raised her hand to shield her eyes from the glare of the sun, squinting to try and get a better look.
Taking a deep breath, she did a once over of her outfit using her reflection in the glass—baby-blue blouse, simple black trousers and matching black flats—a fairly conservative outfit for the first day on the job. In the barber shop, she typically wore a casual t-shirt and jeans, so this was already far more fancy than she would have liked. Still, as she watched the people stream in and out of the building, she started to feel as though she was grossly underdressed.
This was Seoul, not her sleepy town of Cheonggye-dong.
Here, the women wore four-inch heels and blazers with their pencil skirts, and the men walked around with their tailored suits and briefcases. Given that this was Gangnam, home to the richest and wealthiest people in this country, it would hardly be surprising if one of those tailored suits cost as much as a year's worth the barber shop's income.
Hyejin had been to Seoul several times before, on excursions with her friends during her high school days, but this was only the second time she was stepping foot into the famed Gangnam district. It had always been out of their league. The first time she was here, her jaw had hung open for most of the time because she was awed by everything and everyone she saw.
"Like what you see?"
Hyejin whirled around, eyes widening in surprise when she saw who it was that was standing behind her, hands casually tucked into the pockets of his ripped jeans. Under the sunlight, the two lightning bolts that she had inscribed along the side of his head stood out even more starkly than she remembered.
"I'm glad you decided to take up the offer in the end, if not I would have gone back to Gongja personally to invite you to come," he said. "You have some talent, Hyejin. You shouldn't let it go to waste."
"Whether I have talent or not is my business, as is what I choose to do with it, Ares," she replied coldly. Hwang Minhyun who? The man standing in front of her now was not her childhood friend. A friend wouldn't have sold her out by cutting a deal with her devil of a brother.
"Look, I know that you didn't come willingly. Gina told me what happened and I hope you know that I don't agree entirely with the way Gina handles things sometimes. If it were up to me I would have wanted you to come because you wanted to and not because someone put a gun to your head and forced you to. Although I can't say that I'm altogether unhappy about the outcome. I think you'll like it here. There are many talented stylists at the Cutting Edge. You can learn a lot just by being here."
Does he think that I'm going to kiss his feet and thank him for this? Hyejin thought to herself in disbelief. She didn't know if Ares was just trying to be polite or if he was genuinely thick.
"If you don't mind, I'm going to be late for work," she replied snootily. Turning on her heels, she was about to walk into the building when Ares reached out and grabbed her hand.
"Hyejin, I just wanted to say—"
Ares was rudely cut off by the sounds of camera flashes going off in the vicinity and an ensuing ruckus caused by the flock of reporters that had suddenly swarmed in.
"Ares, who is this lady that you are with?"
"Is she your girlfriend?"
"Miss, what is your relationship with Ares? Are you dating?"
"Ares, you have always maintained that you are not interested in dating. Have you changed your mind? You are one of the rare celebrities who has yet to have a scandal with any of the other female celebrities, is this young lady the reason for this?"
Hyejin felt like she had just been thrown straight into the path of a stampede. Frozen to the spot, she felt like the world was spinning and the flashes coming from the cameras were doing nothing to help matters. She had seen scenes like these before, when she watched the entertainment news on the TV, but never had she expected something like this to hit her in real life.
Ares on the other hand, remained impassively calm, having been through almost everything that he needed to in this industry. He pushed Hyejin behind him so that her face was partially shielded from the eager reporters and their cameras. Putting on his megawatt smile, he said, "Everyone please calm down and let me say a few words. First and foremost, this young lady here is not my girlfriend. We are not dating. Therefore, I would very much appreciate if all of you could refrain from writing anything to the contrary when you go back to file your stories later."
Hyejin stared at him, slightly awed that he was still able to speak coherently when faced with all this.
"Now I know that you won't leave here with just that, so let me set the record straight. This is Miss Song Hyejin, and she happens to be the hairstylist that is responsible for the haircut that all of you have been so interested about," he continued, pointing to his head.
"Miss Song, how long have you been at the Cutting Edge?"
"Have you always been styling Ares's hair? Were you also the one who gave him the previous hairstyle that was so widely panned across all the media outlets?"
"Which other celebrities have you styled? Where do you get your inspiration from?"
The questions from the reporters kept coming like a never-ending barrage, until all their words began jumbling together in a mess that Hyejin just couldn't entangle.
"Miss Song is a new stylist at the Cutting Edge and she isn't used to all this limelight, so please do me a favour and let her be? I wouldn't want a talented stylist like Miss Song to be frightened away from here would I? Who would style my hair in the future if she left? If you have any further questions, you may direct them to my manager. Thank you," Ares interjected, smiling broadly at the reporters before he escorted a stunned Hyejin into the building, leaving the security officers to deal with people outside.
He led Hyejin into the lift, hitting the button for the seventieth floor. Within seconds, the lift shot all the way up until a soft "ding" signalled that they had reached their destination.
When the lift doors opened, Hyejin felt her heart skip a beat.
"Welcome to the Cutting Edge."