It was already her third day of work and Hyejin had yet to touch the hair upon a single customer's head.
"So what gave you the inspiration to create the lightning bolts on Ares's head?"
Instead, she spent most of her time being shuttled from interview to interview, having to face the questions of reporters who were eager to learn more about the story of the Cutting Edge's new up-and-coming hairstylist.
"Umm... I first came up with the design when I was in my second year of high school. Remember when there was that lightning storm in the summer of 2012 that lasted for over a week?" It was covered on every single newspaper for the entire week, there was no way anyone could have forgotten. "I was sitting in my room watching the lightning bolts come down from the skies, that's when I first made the sketch."
She had repeated these same lines at least seven or eight times over the last two days, so much so that she had begun reciting them in her sleep. The upside of the matter was that at least she didn't have to lie. Everyone simply assumed that she was a stylist with the Cutting Edge and no one had questioned the only white lie in the whole story. As for the rest of it, Gina and Ryu let her say pretty much whatever she had wanted after they had checked and verified her story three times to check for loopholes.
"Ares has said nothing but good things about you so far and the two of you seem pretty close. Is there something more there than meets the eye?"
Hyejin rolled her eyes. What is wrong with these people? Just because a guy and a girl talk to each other doesn't automatically mean that they're in bed... That was probably the ninth reporter who had asked her the same question. She had half the mind to tell the next one to just compare notes with the other eight that had gone before her so that she didn't need to waste her breath explaining the same things over and over again like a broken record.
"No, there really isn't anything more between Ares and—"
"I thought we made it very clear that there are to be no interviews done in the salon during opening hours?" a mellow voice suddenly interrupted her in mid-sentence.
Turning around, she saw a man exit the lift and stroll into the salon, wearing a plain white shirt that was partially untucked paired with a pair of navy corduroys. He removed the sunglasses that he had been wearing before, casually slotting them into his breast pocket. When his eyes met hers, Hyejin felt like those eyes emanated a frigid coolness that threatened to make hell freeze over. She quickly looked down at her feet instead.
"Surely the rules of this place haven't been thrown out the window just because I've been away for a couple of days?" he said, scanning the entire place as if waiting for someone to answer his question.
Hyejin could sense the immediate change in the atmosphere the minute this man walked in. All the employees of the salon had their heads bowed down, each pretending to be concentrating extremely hard on whatever they had been doing. Even the boy who was sweeping the floor seemed to be sweeping a lot harder than he had been two minutes ago.
"Hyunwon!" the reporter exclaimed, leaping out of her seat and rushing over to his side. "Could we get a quick interview with you? What are your thoughts about Miss Song being at the Cutting Edge? There have been news outlets that have touted her as the one to take over your mantle one day, do you think this will ever be the case? Is she your successor?"
Hyunwon glanced sideways at Hyejin, who was sitting quietly in the chair and acting as if she hadn't seen him walk in. Turning back to the reporter, he said, "Like I said, interviews are not allowed in the salon during opening hours. If you would like to continue with the interview, then the exit is that way." He pointed his finger towards the elevator. "Ella," he called to the receptionist, "see them out. If they won't go, call security."
He didn't wait for the receptionist to do as she was told before he began walking away, hands casually slipped into his pockets as though he hadn't just evicted some people off the premises. He didn't even give Hyejin a second glance before he took a right turn and disappeared from sight.
"Who was that?" Hyejin asked Ella curiously after the latter was done shooing the reporters out of the premises.
"You don't know who that is?" Ella exclaimed, looking extremely surprised. "That's our creative director Kang Hyunwon." She sighed dreamily, clasping her hands together as she conjured up a fantasy in her mind. "He's so good looking, but so unattainable. If you asked me to choose between Hyunwon or any of the male celebrities that frequent our salon, I'd choose Hyunwon any day. If only he weren't so scary and unapproachable..."
"Is the creative director back?" a new voice entered the fray. "Where is he?"
The two girls turned to find a third walking over towards them, dressed in the same black outfit as everyone else. She had her long hair tied in a french braid, making her look like a schoolgirl that should be in school instead working here at the salon.
Hyejin pointed one finger in the direction that Hyunwon had just disappeared in. "He went that way. And you are..."
"Oh, I'm so sorry I haven't introduced myself. My name is Yeseul, Han Yeseul."
The name sounded awfully familiar. It took only a couple of seconds before the memory hit her. Ares had mentioned this name before in one of their conversations—this girl was the niece of the salon's CEO, the one who had been parachuted in and made a mess of Ares's hair. Based on the description, Hyejin had been expecting a proud, snooty, little princess, not this timid-looking girl who was standing in front of her right now.
Reaching out her hand, she smiled and said, "Nice to meet you. I'm Song Hyejin, I'm new to the salon."
Yeseul shook her hand gratefully. "You don't need to be so formal with me, I'm also new here. I know who you are, I've read about it in the newspapers. I've been meaning to say thank you, for helping to salvage the situation with Ares. If not for you, I would have gotten the salon into a whole lot of trouble."
Seeing how apologetic she looked, Hyejin couldn't bear to find fault with her. In fact, she was beginning to think that Ares had been overly harsh with his criticisms of Yeseul. She couldn't possibly have meant for his hair to turn out badly and she must have already tried her best.
She shook her head. "Don't worry about it. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, and for the record, I didn't think that Ares's hair was that bad." That was another white lie for the day—she thought it was horrendous.
"You're just being nice," Yeseul replied shyly.
While they were talking, Ella had already walked back to the receptionist's desk. It didn't go unnoticed by Hyejin that Ella hadn't seemed too enthused about Yeseul joining the conversation.
"I've been so caught up with all these interviews that I haven't even had the time to learn the ropes around here. Do you think you could show me?" Hyejin asked, linking her arm around Yeseul's.
Delighted that someone was willing to be friendly towards her, Yeseul eagerly nodded her head. "After what happened with Ares's hair they haven't let me take on any customers of my own, although they still let me help out with washing and dyeing hair from time to time. I can show you where we keep all the hair dyes and shampoos, before we look at all the other equipment."
Hyejin found that Yeseul was far more knowledgeable about salon operations than she had expected for someone of her age and experience. She almost felt like a fool listening to Yeseul because back at Gongja she had never needed to touch things like hair dye or hair treatment products before; army boys didn't need dyed hair and hardly had any hair left to be treated anyway.
"You really know a lot about hair styling," Hyejin exclaimed when Yeseul was finished with her tour.
Yeseul immediately blushed a bright shade of pink. "I don't know that much. Everything I know comes from the lessons that I went for at Hongdae University. They offer a vocational degree programme in hair styling. I was never very talented, so it was a miracle that I even managed to graduate. Uncle Ryu helped a lot, so I'm very grateful to him."
Hyejin knew of the vocational degree programme at Hongdae. She also knew about all the other universities and vocational schools across the country that offered courses in hair styling because she had done research into all of them back in the high school days when she still harboured hopes of ever attending one of them. Unfortunately she wasn't like Yeseul and blessed with a rich and famous uncle who would no doubt be able to help her open doors to any of these places even if her grades didn't make the cut.
"Ah there you are!" Remington called out to them. "Hyunwon is looking for you, he wants to see you in the training room right now."
Hyejin looked at Yeseul and Yeseul looked back, both of them not quite sure who Remington was referring to.
"Both of you! Now!"
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The Cutting Edge had a training room that was located at a snug corner of the salon, hidden away from prying eyes where the salon's staff could practice their craft in peace. The first thing that struck you when you walked into the room was the glare from the white surroundings. From the whitewashed walls to the white marbled floor to the white leather chairs, everything was in the same clean shade of white.
Hyejin and Yeseul knocked on the door and stepped into the room timidly, not quite sure what to expect from the creative director who had demanded to see them.
Hyunwon was standing alone in the room, adjusting the wigs on two mannequin heads that were seated on raised platforms. Since this was a training room, there were plenty of these mannequin heads lining the side of the room in case any of the stylists needed a model to practice on. When he heard their footsteps, he turned around and surveyed one and then the other with his stern gaze.
The silence in the room was almost deafening.
"Bob cut with bangs, followed by a C-curl."
"Excuse me?" Hyejin asked, a little confused by Hyunwon's random statement.
Yeseul tugged at her sleeve, gesturing towards one of the mannequins. Without saying a word, Yeseul quickly walked over to the mannequin on the left and picked up a pair of silver scissors sitting on the tabletop, studying the hair on her mannequin's head seriously. Her hand was visibly trembling as she raised the scissors in the air, before letting her hand fall limply to her side once again as she deliberated on how to go about making the first snip.
"What are you waiting for? For the sun to set?" Hyunwon said calmly, glancing sideways at Hyejin. Even though he was speaking in a level tone, Hyejin felt the hairs on the back of neck begin to stand. There was something about this man that bothered her. Every word he spoke felt as if it had been doused in ice.
Taking a couple of steps forward hesitantly, she gulped as she stared at the hair on the mannequin. She had heard of a bob cut before and she knew what bangs were, but it didn't mean she was confident of giving the mannequin that particular haircut. After all, most of her previous clients had been men and men didn't exactly get bob cuts very often. And what on earth was a C-curl? Out of the sides of her eyes, she could see Yeseul tentatively snipping away at her own mannequin's hair. At least one of us is making progress, she thought to herself.
She didn't pick up any of the scissors lying on the table. Instead, she reached into her pocket and fished out her own pair of silver scissors, with its familiar speckles of rust sprinkled all around. This particular pair belonged to her grandmother and had been passed down to her on her sixteenth birthday. She had never used another pair of scissors since.
Hyejin took a deep breath and studied the head of hair carefully before making her first move. She wasn't sure she knew what she was doing, but she didn't have any choice but to try. She could almost feel Hyunwon's killer stare boring holes through the back of her head as he watched her every move.
"I'm done with the haircut," she suddenly heard Yeseul's voice call out from beside her.
"Already?" she heard herself say.
Out of curiosity, she glanced towards Yeseul's mannequin on her left, noting with amazement that the mannequin's shoulder-length hair had now been shaped into a neat bob, with a fringe that ended just above the eyebrows. Hyunwon walked over and circled the mannequin, the furrows between his brows deepening with every passing second. Then, he let out a sigh that reeked of disappointment.
Waving his hand dismissively, he said, "Continue with the C-curl."
What a rude jerk, Hyejin thought to herself. She recalled the scene in the salon earlier when he had interrupted in the middle of her interview and had all the reporters thrown out of the building. Who does he think he is? Just because he's the creative director doesn't mean he needs to be so rude.
"Are you done with your daydream?" a voice suddenly disrupted her thoughts. Hyunwon was looking at her, a single eyebrow raised as he waited for her to do something, anything. "Not all of us have all day to mess around."
Muttering under her breath, Hyejin turned her attentions back to her own mannequin and continued with the haircut. From time to time she would glance towards Yeseul's side, watching as she slowly applied some sort of cream onto the mannequin's hair and started wrapping sections of hair around curlers.
Within fifteen minutes, Hyejin finished with her bob cut, taking a step backwards to admire her own handiwork. It was a little rough around the edges, but she thought it turned out pretty well. At least her bangs were straight and it looked more or less like what she had imagined in her mind. Hyunwon circled round her mannequin just like he did with Yeseul's, shaking his head as he went along.
"C-curl," he said.
"I don't know what that is."
Hyunwon stared at her in disbelief. "Are you kidding me right now? You don't even know what a C-curl is?"
Distracted by the conversation that was taking place nearby, Yeseul accidentally landed her fingers on one of the hot curlers, letting out a yelp of pain as she dropped it onto the floor. Hyunwon immediately snapped his head round, looking down at the curler that lay on the floor. Yeseul immediately bent over to pick it up, frightened by the way Hyunwon was glaring at her.
"What do you think you're doing? You've already been scalded by the curler once and you want to pick it up again with your bare hands?" Hyunwon suddenly shouted. Yeseul froze, looking up at him in confusion. She didn't know whether to pick it up or not; it was as if anything she did would be a mistake.
Turning back to Hyejin, Hyunwon repeated himself, "Are you telling me that you honestly don't know what a C-curl is?"
"I don't, I'm sorry."
Hyejin had never thought that admitting to not knowing something was something shameful, but right now, the way Hyunwon was looking at her with such condescension was enough to make her feel absolutely tiny. Like an ant that could be crushed under his shoe within the next second. Still, she insisted on holding her head up high. Her mother had always told her that there was no one who could make you feel inferior unless you let them, and she was determined not to admit defeat to some arrogant jerk whose ego was too big for his head.
Hyunwon was about to open his mouth to begin his lecture when the door to the training room suddenly swung open, with Ryu and Remington walking in.
"I don't see you for over a week and the first thing you do is give the newcomers a hard time?" Ryu boomed, his loud voice echoing across the walls. "What's this? A pop quiz?" He walked over to where the trio were standing, taking a look at Yeseul's mannequin. "Good job, looking good!" He patted Yeseul on the back proudly, beaming from ear to ear.
"Good job? Looking good?" Hyunwon scowled. "Her bob cut has insufficient layering, making the model look like she's wearing a helmet on her head. She forgot to thin the fringe before she shortened it so it looks much heavier than it should. I was watching her while she did the cutting and her technique is clumsy at best. She didn't even have the common sense to take care when handling hot curlers and—" The smell of burning hair suddenly filled the air. His expression darkened. "—she didn't even take note of how long the curlers have been on the hair for. If this was a real customer, it would be the customer's hair on fire right now."
Yeseul's eyes widened in horror as smoke began rising from her mannequin's head, but she was too shocked to be able to do anything. Remington winced, watching as Hyunwon angrily yanked out the plug from the socket, cutting the power supply to the curlers.
"And this one!" He pointed an angry finger at Hyejin. "This one doesn't even know what a C-curl is. It's the most basic of perms and every other customer that walks into this salon asks for one, so how can she not even know the basics? I thought we made it clear a long time ago that every staff member that is hired by the salon needs to go through me? I go away for a week and return to find that two deadweights have joined our payroll?"
"Deadweights?" Hyejin almost choked on her own saliva.
Ryu rubbed his belly and chuckled, slinging one hand across Hyunwon's shoulders. "Now now, no need to get so uptight so early in the morning. Your standards have always been too high. Since when have any of the stylists in the salon met your expectations? Yeseul's skill isn't that bad, she graduated from Hongdae! She's just frightened because of the way you're breathing down her neck. Give her some space and the girl will do well! As for the other girl, it's just a temporary measure. Remy must have updated you on what happened with Ares. We just need to keep her here for a while until things blow over. Anyway, if she managed to give Ares that stellar haircut, she must have some talent too. Treat it like we've found a diamond in the rough, you need to give it some tender loving care before it can shine."
"Diamond in the rough?" Hyunwon repeated between gritted teeth. If not for the fact that Ryu was still his boss, he might have punched the idiot straight in the beer belly by now.
Hyejin was in a temporary state of shock. She had not expected the outburst from Hyunwon, criticising both her and Yeseul as though they were both utterly worthless. Every word he said cut like a knife and beside her, Yeseul already had tears streaming down her face, her entire body trembling uncontrollably as she cried.
"Stop crying! Is this some sort of nursery for crybabies?" Hyunwon snapped, glaring at Yeseul. The vein at his right temple had begun pulsing vehemently as he tried not to explode any further than he already had.
What happened next took everybody by surprise—a tight slap, straight across Hyunwon's face.
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