The Cutting Edge

038

When she finally registered what was happening, Hyejin's instinctive reaction was to immediately push him away, eyes widening in shock. She hadn't yet found it in her to utter a single word when someone else beat her to it.

"What the fuck!"

And a fist went flying straight into Hyunwon's face.

He had already been expecting it from the moment he decided to throw caution the wind and impulsively stake his claim on his property by kissing her in front of Ares, but when that fist met his left jaw it still hurt a hell of a lot. The impact from the blow made him stumble a couple of steps backwards and the next minute Ares had launched himself on him completely and he found himself sprawled on the ground with a 65kg man grabbing him by the collar and hurling abuse in his face.

Naturally, he wasn't going to just lie there and let Ares continue bashing him up—it wasn't his style. So he returned the affection with a knee in Ares's crotch, which made the latter yell out in pain and roll over sideways.

"What are the two of you doing!" Hyejin exclaimed, staring in disbelief at the two men brawling in front of her.

Was this really Ares Hwang, top star and heartthrob of the Korean entertainment industry, and Kang Hyunwon, stylist extraordinaire and creative director of Seoul's most exclusive salon? Right now, all she was looking at were two boys having a go at each other like any other punk on the street. She almost thought she saw the slightest hint of a smile on Hyunwon's face that seemed to suggest he was actually enjoying this.

"Stop it!" she cried out, trying to step in to separate the two of them from each other's throats.

The sudden flash from a camera distracted all of them from what they were doing, and it was only then that they all realised they were probably in trouble with a capital T.

Within an hour, all three of them were seated in Ares's apartment with a raging Gina pacing up and down in front of them, speaking tersely into her phone and trying her best not to just explode in ball of flames. "Yes I completely understand, this is your exclusive and I'm not trying to steal that away from you, but all I'm asking is that you give me some time to understand what's going on so that maybe we could help substantiate your story a little more? I'm sure you don't want me giving this information to another magazine instead, do you?" She glared angrily at the three of them—the famous Medusa glare that would immediately turn the fiercest warrior into stone. "I'm sure things are not what you think they are, there's probably a huge misunderstanding somewhere. Just give me some time—ok fine, two hours—to sort things out and I'll get back to you immediately and you can run your story, alright? We've been working closely together for so long, I'm sure we don't want to destroy that relationship, Editor Park. I'll be in touch."

Flinging her phone onto the sofa (and almost taking out Ares's eye in the process), Gina pointed her index finger at them and shouted, "What the hell are the three of you trying to do! This is absolutely ridiculous!" She didn't even have the words to express her disbelief at this incredulous situation right now. "The two of you," she pointed at Ares and Hyunwon, "having a brawl is already bad enough, but to be throwing punches at each other out in public in full view of everyone? Have you forgotten who you are?"

When the trio realised that they had been caught on camera by some hidden paparazzi, they knew immediately that it was game over. It was too late even if they ran back into the apartment block and went into hiding right there and then (which they did). Five minutes later, Gina received a rather horrific email from one of the chief editors of First Look magazine gleefully sharing with her the exclusive photos that his reporter managed to get hold of.

Fishing out the print-outs of the email that she had printed just before she smashed the entire printer onto the floor, she slammed them onto the coffee table and shouted, "Do you know what the press is going to be writing about for their next editions? And today is goddamn print day for goodness sakes! Almost all the magazines are going into print tonight and by tomorrow morning I can assure you that these pictures will be all over the newsstands. Editor Park wants to publish them on his website tonight!"