The Cutting Edge

017

Today was possibly the most tiring day that Hyejin had ever been through for as long as she could remember, but it was also the most satisfying day that she had had in a long time. The pop-up haircutting service attracted a long queue of villagers, some of whom even came bearing gifts of homemade kimchi and sea produce as a form of payment for Hyunwon's services. In between attending to the villagers in the queue, listening to Hyuwon's stream of never-ending instructions and actually being able to cut someone's hair again, Hyejin hardly had enough time to breathe in between.

She was now staring at the back of an elderly lady's head, whose bob of curly, white hair looked like a fluffy cloud sitting on top of her head. Just looking at the sheer volume of hair on the lady's head was enough to make Hyejin nervous—voluminous hair was the most difficult to deal with because you had to work through many layers and each layer had to be perfect in order for the overall shape to turn out well. This was not a job for a shaver.

"Are you alright, my dear?" the old lady asked, turning around to look at her quizzically. "Is something the matter?"

Hyejin had been standing there holding her scissors in her hand for quite a while, doing nothing but stare as she tried to think about where exactly she should start. She had seen Hyunwon cut the hair of grannies with similar styles earlier and it had seemed so much easier when he was doing it. Now that it was finally her turn, it seemed like an almost impossible task at hand.

She was about to give up and let Hyunwon take over when a firm voice appeared by her left ear. "Start with the bottommost layer and slowly work your way up to the top. Use the pins to separate the layers so that it doesn't seem so daunting."

Surprised, she turned and looked at her mentor who was standing beside her with his arms folded, evidently not intending to rescue her from this situation.

"I'm not sure I can—"

"If you can't, then just pack your things and go home. The Cutting Edge won't keep someone who runs away instead of stepping up to a challenge," Hyunwon replied.

Taking a deep breath, Hyejin turned her attentions back to the old lady's hair, her hand trembling slightly as she raised the pair of scissors in her right hand. With her left hand, she slowly pinned up the lady's hair according to the different layers, just as Hyunwon had instructed.

"Don't worry dear, just do your best," the old lady smiled and said kindly. Reaching out her wrinkled hand, she gave Hyejin a comforting pat on the back of her hand.

"Now take the bottom layer and start with trimming it to the correct length. Then, you'd want to thin the layer so that the final outcome isn't overly voluminous," Hyunwon said.

Hyejin obediently did as she was told, her scissors hesitantly snipping away at the bottom layer of the lady's hair. She had only learnt the skill of layering earlier today and she was still a far cry from being confident at it; things were never so complicated when it came to cutting guys' hair. Just as she had finished adjusting the length of the layer and was about to move towards thinning it, Hyunwon's hand suddenly reached out and grabbed hers before she could make the snip.

"Are you insane?" he hissed in her ear, just loud enough for her to her. "You can't thin the layer using the same pair of scissors! If you do that, the poor old lady is going to end up looking like a hippy punk!" He took the pair of scissors out of her hand and replaced it with another that had grooves along its blade. "Remember that layering requires a different pair of scissors."

Nodding her head quickly, Hyejin tightened her grip around the new pair of scissors and began snipping away tentatively. This was the most gruelling haircutting experience she had ever had, being so uncertain about every move and with the eagle eyes of Hyunwon observing everything she did.