The Cutting Edge

042

The week that went by was possibly the best week that Hyejin had had in a long time. Hyunwon came by every day to give her a private boot camp in preparation for the final assessment (which made her want to strangle him at times) and Ares seemed to be well on the mend, judging from how his voice sounded more chirpy on the phone with each passing day. Also, the reporters were starting to get bored of their "scandal" and had all withdrawn from their stake-out positions after the third day, flocking instead to cover the new explosive story about up-and-coming actress Yoon Mijin suddenly declaring her pregnancy.

Such was the entertainment industry—fickle to a fault.

There were still fans of Kara leaving nasty gifts on her doorstep though. To date she had received several boxes of rotten fruits and vegetables, letters filled with vulgarities and even handmade voodoo dolls with her name on it. All of it went into the rubbish bin immediately.

"I've got another box of rotten eggs today," she announced, dumping the stinking box into a plastic bag and tying a it up with a tight knot.

"Lovely," Hyunwon replied absentmindedly, staring down at his phone.

Walking over to his side, Hyejin rested her chin on his shoulder and said, "Are you even listening to me? What's so interesting on your phone?"

There was a text from Ryu telling him to get his ass back to the salon right now because he had been taking a vacation for far too long and it was downright irresponsible to be dumping a hot mess and leaving everyone else to clean up his crap for him. Then there was one from Remy, saying that anarchy was going to break out at the Cutting Edge if he didn't come back soon because speculation was rife about him leaving the salon and all the senior stylists were beginning to show their horns as they tried to compete to become the salon's next creative director.

Snorting, he said, "New creative director? Them?" If any of the current crew at the salon thought that they were anywhere near his standard, then they were seriously deluded. Roxy could, at best, be promoted to lead stylist if she kept up her current rate of improvement, but she was still a far cry from setting the style and direction for the entire salon. None of them had the natural talent inside them, which meant that hard work would only get them so far before they would hit a glass ceiling.

That was why he was determined to invest all his effort into training Hyejin. After having worked together for the past couple of months, he had reluctantly come to agree with the original magazine report that heralded her as the next Kang Hyunwon, and perhaps she could become even better than he was. Girlfriend or not, he could see that she had it in her.

"Go practice your curls again," he demanded, pointing at the curlers lying on the table.

"What?" Hyejin wailed in dismay. "I just received a whole box of rotten eggs and you're just telling me to get back to work? How unfeeling can you be!"

"You always knew that I was an unfeeling jerk, but you still fell for me anyway," Hyunwon replied arrogantly.

"How is that you can say things like that without batting an eyelid," she grumbled, though she obediently headed over and picked up the curlers anyway. Hyunwon said that curling was still her weakest skill, so he had her curling all sorts of curls for at least two hours every day. Even when she burnt her index finger with the hot curler by accident because she had zoned out for a moment, he still insisted that she continue (even though he did help her to bandage it gently to make it feel a little better).

All the effort that Hyunwon was putting into her training was making her feel all the more nervous as the day of the final assessment approached. She wanted desperately to do well so that she would make him proud, but that just piled on the pressure onto her shoulders.