The night air was so chilly that Hyejin felt her fingers and toes getting numb as she sat out on the steps in front of Dongdaemun's Design Plaza. The opening of Seoul Fashion Week was over and there was hardly a single soul left, save for the old man who was emptying the garbage bins.

She didn't know how long she had been sitting there for, but it felt like hours ago since she had told Yeseul that she was alright and asked her friend to go on home.

Reaching into her pocket, she unfolded the sketch that she had carefully stashed away. "It wasn't entirely my fault... Why did he have to be so harsh?" she said to the sheet of paper. Hyunwon had an uncanny way of making people feel like ants, and she hated that feeling. Even though she had grown up in a small pond and she knew that she was nothing but a tiny anchovy in the vast ocean, she still wished that she could have been allowed to retain at least the tiniest bit of her pride. But no, Hyunwon was determined to feed it to the wolves and have them spit out her bones.

A single teardrop fell onto the piece of paper as the waterworks started up again.

"Hey, you alright?"

Hyejin turned around in surprise to find Ares standing behind her, hands in his pockets, looking just as dapper as he had been during the fashion show. She, on the other hand, probably looked like a train wreck.

She quickly wiped the tears away from her eyes, trying her best to pretend that everything was okay. "Yeah. Why are you still here? I thought everyone had left," she replied.

Ares sat himself down on the step beside her. "I could ask you the exact same question. I hung around to settle some other business," he said. "Didn't expect to still see you here."

"You know what, maybe I'm just not cut out for this," she murmured. "You shouldn't have brought me into the Cutting Edge. This place—" she turned to look back at the glamorous Design Plaza, "—isn't where I belong."

To her surprise, Ares let out what sounded like a snort. "Don't be ridiculous. If you don't belong here then neither do I. Don't forget, we came out of the same neighbourhood. I used to be that snot-nosed kid that had his hair cut by your father."

"I made a mistake today. I could have ruined the entire show, and all the efforts of the people who worked hard to make it a reality."

"Well... to tell you the truth, I heard about what happened. The model who was involved? She's a friend of mine. I hung around to make sure that you were alright and I was just going to stay until you went home but you've been sitting here for ages—I got a little worried that you had turned into an icicle." Ares smiled at her, then turned to look up at the starry sky above. "I find that counting stars helps you forget your problems. You should try it sometime."

Hyejin felt a warm glow within her when she realised that she was the reason why Ares had stayed behind. He could have left with all his celebrity friends, who had most likely headed to a club for an after-party, but instead he had chosen to remain here just to make sure she was alright. She had told Yeseul that she was fine and didn't need someone to babysit her, but maybe she did after all.

Smiling weakly, the tears started to well up in her eyes once more. She looked up at the sky and listened silently as Ares began to count out loud, counting each and every star they could see.

"You must have a ton of problems," she remarked with a small laugh. "You seem to be an expert at counting stars."

"You can't even begin to imagine..." Leaping up to his feet, Ares reached out his hand to her. "Come on, let's get you home. It's late and we both have to go to work tomorrow, unfortunately. In case you haven't realised, my boss has snakes for hair and a glare that can turn men into stone."

Hyejin laughed, this time a little louder than before. Taking his hand, she got up and followed behind him as they headed down the pavement toward the direction of home.

Above them, the stars twinkled silently.

#

The next morning, Hyejin sat in the training room waiting, not quite knowing what to expect. After last night's debacle, everyone was waiting curiously to find out how things would pan out between the creative director and his prodigy—needless to say, most people just wanted to pop the popcorn and watch some drama unfold.

As if he was trying to heighten the anticipation, Hyunwon still hadn't shown up.

"Still here? I'm surprised you even showed up for work today. If I were you I would have spent the entire night crying and then called in sick in the morning. Actually, scratch that, I would have submitted my letter of resignation because I would have realised by now that I'm just not good enough for this place. I wish I had your resilience, Hyejin," Hannah cooed from the doorway.

Hyejin clenched her fists tightly beneath the table, trying her best not to jump onto Hannah and yank out her hair.

"You knew that the hair accessory was the wrong one, didn't you?" she said between gritted teeth. "You gave it to me on purpose."

Hannah shrugged her shoulders and replied innocently, "I don't know what you're talking about. Like I said yesterday, you should have checked with one of the senior stylists before making a decision. It's not my fault if you haven't got any common sense."

It was pointless trying to argue with Hannah, since she had no way of proving that she had been set up anyway. Turning back towards the designs she had on the table, she picked up her pencil and tried to ignore Hannah's mocking gaze. In her mind, she imagined herself throwing darts at Hannah's smug face.

"Song Hyejin, how long do you think you can hang in there? Even having a mentor like Hyunwon can't seem to save you. It really makes me wonder how you even got here in the first place. Some of us had to work really,reallyhard just to get a place here you know."

"If working really, really hard refers to standing around and working your mouth, then I'm not sure if your definition of 'hard work' and mine are the same," a cold voice echoed past. Hyunwon walked into the room, brushing by Hannah as if she were thin air. Walking right over to Hyejin, he frowned and pointed at what she had on the table, saying, "What's all this?"

"The rest of the designs that I was supposed to do," Hyejin said quickly, a little startled by his sudden appearance. After what happened last night she wasn't able to get to sleep, so this was her way of making productive use of her own time. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Hannah skulking away quietly like a wounded animal and a sense of triumph washed over her.

It was unbelievable how one sentence from this man could send the vipers running.

Hyunwon looked down at the drawings, a little surprised by what he saw. To be completely honest, he had not expected Hyejin to be here this morning, much less with all these completed designs. Typically anyone who received a scolding from him would conveniently fall ill the next day, just so they didn't need to face him again until they were absolutely certain that their bungle-up was water under the bridge.

"I'll take a closer look at these later. The first interim assessment is in three days. At the rate you're going, you're going to disgrace yourself and drag my name through the mud along with you."

Hyejin tried her very best not to scowl or roll her eyes. He's your mentor, he's your mentor, he's your mentor, she kept telling herself over and over, before she went and did something rude.

"For the next three days, I don't care if you don't eat or sleep or go to the toilet—if you seriously want to atone for yesterday's mistake, you'll do everything I tell you so that you don't embarrass the both of us in front of the rest of the salon, is that clear?"

"Uhh... yes sir?" Hyejin replied hesitantly. She didn't even know what the hell he meant by that, but it didn't sound like he was throwing her out. Either that, or he had an even more heinous plan up his sleeve and he just wanted to lull her into a false sense of security. Narrowing her eyes at him, she said, "But I thought you wanted me gone. Why are you doing this?"

Hyunwon scowled when he heard her hit the nail right on the head. He did want her gone, but after letting Remington's words simmer in his mind a little longer, he realised his friend made more sense than he was willing to admit. If he left Hyejin to her own devices, she would screw things up for herself and leaving the salon would only be a natural consequence. However, if that happened under his watch, then people would deem him as a lousy mentor and that could potentially raise serious questions about his own skills. Making the decision to take her on as a trainee (so that he could slowly torture her) seemed like a good idea to begin with, but now he realised it was evidently a bad decision. Anyhow, it was too late for regrets—now he needed to keep up with appearances and at least make it look as if he was putting in some effort to train her.

"Go home now and pack your bags for two nights," he said, waving her towards the exit. "I'll pick you up in an hour."

"What? Why? Where are we going?"

Clucking his tongue impatiently, Hyunwon simply glared at her, his displeasure written all over his face. If looks could kill, his now read: leave now before I string you up to dry.

Hyejin didn't need to be told a second time.

"Right, do exactly as you say. No questions asked." Throwing all her stuff into her bag, she was out of the door in a jiffy.

#

An hour later, Hyejin found herself sitting in the passenger seat of Hyunwon's silver Mini convertible, cruising down the highway with the Seoul skyline fast receding behind them. Since she stepped into the car, the only thing Hyunwon said to her was to demand that she put on her seatbelt. After that, there was radio silence.

"Can I turn on the radio? It's a little quiet," she asked, reaching out her hand for the radio knob. The silence was making her uncomfortable.

"No."

She immediately retracted her hand.

"So, where exactly are we going? Are we really going to be staying out for the next two nights? What about the salon?"

Hyunwon pursed his lips tightly, contemplating how he could make her shut up. He didn't like it when people insisted on talking in the car—it made for dangerous driving, in his opinion. He opted for ignoring her, hoping that her dim mind would get the hint.

Fine... If you don't want to say anything then suit yourself, Hyejin thought to herself. Folding her arms, she turned the other way and looked out the car window, watching as the scenery zipped by. It was a beautifully sunny day, even though the temperatures outside were slightly chilly, and the greenery that surrounded them was quite mesmerising. If Hyunwon was staring at the road ahead less intensely and gripping the wheel a little less tightly, perhaps he would think the same.

After driving for an hour and half, the car drove down the gravel roads of a tiny village, pulling up in front of what seemed to be an old church.

"We're here. Get out."

Hyejin obediently got out of the car and looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings. "Where are we?" she asked.

"This is the village of Kangju, south-east of Seoul. There's only about six hundred people living here now, of which a good proportion are senior citizens. Grab the bags from the back of the car."

"So what are we going to do here?" Hyejin asked again, hauling her own bags out from the boot of the car. She followed behind Hyunwon as he walked into the church, turning a couple of corners until they reached a small community hall at the church's left wing.

"Community service."

"Community service?"

Before she could ask even more questions, an old priest shuffled into the hall, opening his arms wide in welcome when he caught sight of the younger man. "Ah, Hyunwon, you're early today! We weren't expecting you for another half an hour or so. The villagers should start coming in from two, so there's still some time," the priest said as he gave Hyunwon a warm hug. Glancing over at Hyejin, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes crinkled jovially. "I see you've brought a friend today. It is a pleasure to meet you, young lady."

"Hyejin, Song Hyejin. It's a pleasure to meet you too," Hyejin replied with a smile.

"You could start setting up first and I'll send Yubin down to give you a hand shortly. He's a little tied up in the garden right now, a bit of a weeding problem to settle."

"Sure, if he's busy then there's no need to trouble him. The two of us will be sufficient," Hyunwon replied.

"In that case I will leave you to it. You know where everything's at don't you?"

Hyunwon nodded his head, and the priest left the hall, leaving them to their own devices. Once he was gone, Hyejin turned to Hyunwon and asked, "What exactly are we supposed to do here? Do you come here often? The priest seems like he's quite familiar with you. What was that about community service that you said we'd be doing?"

"So many questions..." Hyunwon muttered. He walked over to the side of the hall and began unstacking some plastic chairs. "Give me a hand, arrange these in rows of ten, for the waiting area." As they slowly arranged the chair, he continued, "You haven't got any of the basic techniques so you need a lot of practice, but it's not the same practicing on mannequins as it is on actual people. All the mannequins have the same sort of hair texture, there just isn't the same variety. I come here from time to time to give free haircuts to the elderly in the village. Unlike the Cutting Edge, where a single mistake could get you sued bankrupt, things are a little more relaxed over here. Not to say that I won't bite your head off for making mistakes, which I will."

A sense of enlightenment dawned over Hyejin and her eyes immediately lit up with excitement. This was the first time since joining the Cutting Edge that she would actually get to hold a pair of scissors in her hand! The anticipation was almost too much for her to contain. Grabbing hold of Hyunwon's shoulders, she shook him hard and squealed, "Are you serious? I'll get to actually give people haircuts today? You're going to teach me something?"

"Let go! Let go!" Hyunwon struggled to free himself from the psycho. When he had forcibly extricated himself from her grasp, he barked, "First rule, you are not allowed to put your hands on me at any point in time, is that understood!"

Hyejin quickly nodded her head, embarrassed but still grinning from ear to ear.

Backing a couple of steps away from her, Hyunwon continued talking, "The only haircuts that you're familiar with are crew cuts for men, which is possibly the most basic and worthless of all techniques, but we'll start from there. After that we can move on to short hairdos for ladies and possibly some mid-length ones, if we have the time. The assessment coming up is only going to be on cutting techniques and even then I'm not sure you have enough time to get up to speed."

For the next fifteen to twenty minutes, Hyejin had never unstacked chairs so enthusiastically in her entire life. By the time the priest came back to check in on them, everything was ready for the opening of their small community salon.

"Ah, looks like the two of you got on just fine," the priest said kindly. "The first of your customers are beginning to trickle in now, they should be here shortly. Granny Kang is particularly excited to see you, although I'm not sure how excited she'll be when she sees that you've brought a female companion along."

Right on cue, the doors to the hall burst open and a handful of elderly folk streamed in, waving and greeting the priest and Hyunwon warmly. A little old lady with a head full of curly, white hair came hobbling over with her cane and floral bottoms. To Hyejin's surprise, the first thing she did was to throw her arms around Hyunwon and give him a tight hug.

"Hyunwon darling! Why didn't you come visit me earlier? Do you know how long I've been waiting for you? You promised me that you wouldn't leave me alone!" the little old lady cried out.

Hyunwon cleared his throat and laughed awkwardly, his face immediately turning red as a tomato. "Granny Kang, why don't you let go of me first alright? It must be tiring for you to stand, so let me take you to a seat where you can sit down while waiting for your haircut alright?"

The granny shook her head (like a bashful young girl, much to Hyejin's amusement). "If I let you go, you'll just disappear again. You're a naughty boy, Hyunwon, you don't really love me do you?" she said coyly.

Beside them, the priest chuckled to himself and walked over to Hyejin's side, whispering, "Granny Kang is Hyunwon's biggest fan. She also mistakes him for her deceased husband from time to time—they had the same name you see. He handles her quite well though, just watch and see."

"Of course I do! Why would you think that?" Hyunwon said, putting one arm round the old lady comfortingly. "I just don't want your legs to get tired from standing that's all. I'll give you the prettiest haircut today alright? Don't tell any of the other neighbours that I'm doing this specially for you, or they'll get jealous."

Granny Kang nodded reluctantly, allowing Hyunwon to lead her over to one of the chairs.

As she watched Hyunwon interact with the old lady, Hyejin couldn't help but smile. For the first time since knowing him, she actually thought that he seemed... human.

#