Just seconds before the curling iron would have come in contact with Hyejin's palm, someone stepped in and grabbed hold of it, throwing it onto the ground immediately.

Hyunwon frowned as he looked down at the curling iron before turning to Hyejin and saying, "Can you just stay out of trouble for once! Don't you know that curling irons need at least fifteen minutes to cool back down to room temperature?"

Hyejin's immediate reaction was one of indignation. She hadn't meant to catch hold of the curling iron on purpose, all she had done was to instinctively reach out to catch whatever she could, since everything was raining to the ground. How was she supposed to know that the curling iron— "Wait," she suddenly snapped out of her own thought bubble and grabbed hold of Hyunwon's hand, "are you alright? I mean, that curling iron..."

There was a huge, angry, red burn on Hyunwon's right hand where the curling iron had done its nasty work.

"Oh no!" she exclaimed in dismay, all her earlier indignation vanishing without a trace.

"I'm fine," Hyunwon replied drily, quickly extricating his hand from her grip. He looked around them, noting with displeasure that Hyejin's exclamation had drawn some attention and odd looks their way. He hurriedly went back to what he was doing and put the final touches of hairspray onto Soojin's hair using his good hand before checking the final look once over and sending the girl on set.

Hyejin waited for him to be done, and the moment she saw him set down the spray can, she immediately grabbed him by the arm and dragged him out of the studio.

"What do you think you're doing?" Hyunwon demanded.

"Stop being stubborn and come with me," she replied, using both hands to pull him along so that he wouldn't be able to break free. "You were the one who told me that a stylist's hands are his most important asset, so you should practice what you preach and take care of yourself!" In the few minutes while Hyunwon was finishing up his work, she had managed to ask one of the magazine's employees for the whereabouts of the nearest first-aid box—it was apparently in the pantry four doors down. Although they were getting a couple ofc queer looks from people down the corridor, she barely noticed.

Hyunwon looked at her, slightly surprised that she still remembered what he said when he had pretty much forgotten that he ever said anything of that sort. He let her drag him along to the pantry and forcibly sit him down on a chair.

"It looks quite bad," Hyejin murmured, a frown setting in across her forehead. She carefully examined the burn that Hyunwon had incurred before placing his palm under a running tap.

Hyunwon winced when the water came into contact with his skin, an awful sting hitting him all of a sudden.

"You need to get it properly cleaned otherwise it could get infected," she rambled on, rummaging about the first-aid box for some antiseptic lotion.

"I can do it myself."

"No you can't," Hyejin retorted, waving the tube of antiseptic lotion high in the air so that it was just out of reach. "Just be a good boy and sit still while I put this on for you. It's not going to hurt, I promise. After that we just need to get a bandage round it and then it'll be done."

Be a good boy? Does she seriously think I don't want to let her do it because I'm scared of the pain? Hyunwon looked at Hyejin incredulously, all of a sudden remembering how brazen this girl could be. He had almost forgotten that he had been slapped by her before—even his grandmother had never slapped him before.

He watched as Hyejin carefully applied some antiseptic lotion onto his palm, the cool sensation of the lotion immediately taking away the sting that had been there before. At that moment, he suddenly felt like laughing (although he did well to maintain his stern look). After living on his own for so long, he couldn't even remember when was the last time he needed someone else to help him do a bandage.

"It must hurt," Hyejin mumbled to herself as she began wrapping the white bandage around his hand. "If it had been me it wouldn't have mattered, but these hands need to work magic... What's going to happen if they can't hold a pair of scissors anymore?"

There weren't very many things that could shock Hyunwon but he had to admit that he was mildly shocked to see tears suddenly start glistening in Hyejin's eyes.

"Are you about to cry?"

Hyejin shook her head in denial, but a single tear that trickled down her left cheek exposed her lie. She bowed down her head and quietly finished up the bandage.

"Since when were you such a crybaby? There's nothing to cry about, it's nothing serious," Hyunwon said, his tone softening somewhat. He reached over and gently wiped the tear away from her cheek. "Who am I? I'm Kang Hyunwon, a little injury like this can't kill me."

"That's true," Hyejin mumbled, a tiny smile breaking out across her face.

Suddenly realising that she was still holding on to Hyunwon's hand, Hyejin leapt up in horror and abruptly let go. Hyunwon cleared his throat awkwardly, looking towards the potted cactus sitting on one of the kitchen counters. "I think you should keep the first-aid box. We should go back to the studio, they'll need us there to touch up for the models during the shoot," he said. Standing up, he stuffed his hands into his pockets and strolled out of the pantry, leaving Hyejin behind.

Hyejin stared at the empty doorway through which Hyunwon had disappeared, wondering what on earth was going wrong with her. She placed her hand over her heart, willing it to go back down to a more normal rate. Quickly putting the first-aid kit where it belonged, she ran to the washroom and stared at her own reflection long and hard in the mirror.

"What is wrong with you, Song Hyejin?" she asked her own flushed face. She flicked the tap and splashed some water over her face to bring herself back to her senses.

It can't be. No, it definitely isn't.

Instead of her own reflection, an image of Hyunwon's face suddenly appeared in the mirror. She quickly shook her head, and the hallucination disappeared. In her mind's eye though, the film reel of all the little memories she had of him was playing non-stop and she couldn't stop herself from thinking about him no matter how hard she tried. From the first time she met the man at the salon reception in all his arrogant glory, to the stunned look on his face when she had slapped him, and then that warm smile she had seen when he interacted with the grandmothers at the village, all the way up till minutes ago when he had placed his hand on her cheek and wiped the tear away from her eye.

When she next looked up into the mirror, she realised with horror that she had been absentmindedly smiling to herself. That was when it hit her like a ton of bricks.

You must be out of your mind! she scolded herself in dismay. Of all the men in the world out there, why him?

Her life was over.

#

The next day, Hyejin was sitting in the training room mulling over some of her sketches. Hyunwon had asked her to work on a series of styles for the spring-themed collection and complete it by the end of the day, but her distracted mind had barely been able to churn out the two measly designs sitting on the table right now.

Maybe I was just a little confused yesterday, because of what happened with the curling iron. I must not have been thinking straight.

She chewed on the end of her pencil, trying to find more evidence to convince herself that she was not insane.

"Hey Hyejin, what are you up to? Still sketching?" Yeseul walked into the training room and asked. She popped herself down on a seat beside her friend and glanced at the sheets of paper in the table. Sighing, she said, "I wish I had half your talent. How is it that everything you draw looks good? My mentor just gave me a telling off this morning because she said my sketches looked like they came out of a primary school art class."

Hyejin wasn't really paying attention to what her friend was saying. Instead, she suddenly collapsed her head onto the table and moaned, "Yeseul, I think there's something wrong with me. I think I need to see a doctor."

Yeseul placed her hand over Hyejin's forehead. "You don't seem to be running a temperature. Are you feeling very unwell?"

Hyejin nodded miserably. She wasn't physically unwell but she was most definitely mentally unwell. She concluded that she must have been infected by the most toxic of parasites, a mindworm that was responsible for her hallucinations and crazy thoughts that were all related to one particular man.

"Have you ever had a certain person pop up in your mind every now and then, like you just can't control it? Like even though you tell yourself to concentrate on something else, thoughts of this person still manage to creep in somehow?" She turned and grabbed Yeseul by the shoulders, staring at her friend in dead seriousness. "Then sometimes your face gets flushed for no reason and your stomach feels queasy like there's a herd of rhinos charging through?"

"A herd of rhinos?" Yeseul looked absolutely bewildered.

"Forget it, I must be out of my mind. I'd better go see a doctor soon."

She stared down at the empty sheets of paper in front of her, wondering how long it would be till she would be cured of her own insanity. It wasn't as if she had never fancied a boy before—there was the cute boy who lived two streets down and moved away when she was fourteen, and then there was her Chemistry lab partner in high school who turned out to prefer their other classmate Junho instead of her—but at least the both of them were widely acknowledged to be genuinely nice people and she could think of at least five reasons why she fancied each of them. There was absolutely no good reason for her to feel anywhere close to the same about Kang Hyunwon, the man who was single-handedly responsible for almost all of her most dreadful moments here at the Cutting Edge.

Just then, the devil waltzed into the training room in an all-black ensemble, save for a gold collar pin fashioned after a feather.

Surprised by his sudden appearance, Hyejin almost fell out of her chair and the pencil she had been holding slipped between her fingers and onto the floor below. She quickly bent over and burrowed under the table in search of her pencil, watching in consternation as his shiny black Ferragamo shoes inched closer and closer towards her.

The shoes stopped, and Hyunwon's voice said, "One entire morning and you've only done this much? Are you planning to pull an all-nighter to finish what I asked you to do?"

"Sorry, I'll get them all done by the end of the day, I promise," she mumbled from under the table. As she spoke, she continued staring at his shoes, wondering exactly how much they cost—her guess was that they probably cost more than an entire month's rent.

"What are you doing down there?"

Hiding from you, she thought. Instead, she replied, "Looking for my pencil, it dropped." Please just leave! The pencil excuse was only going to last her a couple more seconds before it expired and she wasn't quite ready to face him just yet. When he had come round to give her the assignment this morning, she had pretended to be looking down and tidying up the desk so that she didn't need to look him in the eyes.

Despite her fervent prayers, the black Ferragamos didn't go away.

"Leave the sketches for now, I need you to come out and help me with something," he said.

"I need to find my pencil. Why don't you ask Yeseul to help you?" Hyejin replied. Her reply sounded lame, even by her own somewhat low standards. Still wishing that Hyunwon would just get the hint and go away quietly, she remained in her crouched position and fiddled with the pencil in her hand. If she left work slightly earlier, perhaps she might make it to the doctor's before he closed for the day.

All of a sudden, Hyunwon's face appeared in front of her, slightly lopsided since he was tilting his head to peer under the table. When he saw her squatting there with her pencil in her hand, he gave her a look of utter disdain and said, "Looks like you've found your pencil. Get outside right now, unless you'd rather pack your things and go home which is also fine by me." Startled by his sudden appearance, Hyejin immediately jerked upwards and crashed her head resoundingly against the underside of the table, giving everyone else in the room a bit of a start as well. Yeseul quickly helped her up, looking at her with concern.

"I'm alright, I'm alright," she murmured, though she could already feel a little bump appearing at the top of her head. She stared down at her feet, still not wanting to look at Hyunwon in case her own self-control failed her once again and she let slip any tell-tale signs of her emotional turmoil. She quickly packed up the sketches that she had on the table and shoved them into a folder before following Hyunwon out of the training room.

He led her straight across the main area of the salon and into the VIP room, where the silhouette of a young lady was sitting in wait. When she heard the sound of footsteps enter the room, the lady turned around and smiled at them, saying, "Hyunwon, what took you so long? I only have an hour and half before I need to leave for my next schedule. They brought forward the timing for the filming of our music video so I've got to meet the other girls on set at half three."

Hyejin was slightly surprised to realise that she actually recognised the girl—it was Mina, the girl who couldn't keep her hands off Ares during the Alexander McQueen fashion show. Up close, Mina looked even more exquisite than she had remembered, with porcelain skin and dainty features that made her incredibly telegenic. Hyejin caught a glimpse of her own reflection in one of the mirrors and suddenly felt like an ugly duckling being in the same room as someone like Mina.

When Hyunwon walked up to Mina and stood beside her to study her current hair condition, Mina casually rested her hand on his forearm as she shared some of her thoughts about how her new hairstyle should look like. She would have kept it there a little longer, had it not been for Hyejin abruptly stepping into the frame and reaching between them to grab a hairbrush off the counter, forcing her to remove her hand from where it had been.

"Director Kim said he was going for a new style for the music video," Hyunwon replied, walking over to the trolley and fishing around with his good hand. "We'll need to take a couple of inches off the length of your hair and increase the volume in order to give you a more youthful look. It shouldn't take long." He turned to Hyejin and reached out a pair of scissors, saying, "About three inches off the back and two inches round the sides. After that, use the thinning scissors to give it some layers."

"Me?" Hyejin stared at him in disbelief. This was the first time she was looking straight into his face all day, but right now she was too shocked to even register that fact.

Mina was also looking at her now with an unconvinced look on her face. "Who is this?" she asked, pointing at Hyejin. "She doesn't look like she knows what she's doing."

"If she didn't have what it takes then I wouldn't be asking her to do any of this. I injured my right hand recently so I can't work the scissors at the moment. What we're going to do with your hair today is pretty standard, so I don't think there'll be any issue if Hyejin does it instead of me. In any case, I'll be here to supervise."

Even though Hyunwon was only the stylist and Mina was the client, his word was final and she didn't so much as raise any objections once he had made his position quite clear. All she did was pout a little then sit back in her chair with arms folded, tossing Hyejin a condescending glance. Much of the clientele of the Cutting Edge were top grade celebrities and famous personalities, but anyone with half a brain would know better than to risk upsetting Hyunwon because it was incredibly difficult to even secure an appointment with him in the first place—no one would want to throw the opportunity out of the window.

Seeing that Mina had been overruled, Hyejin felt a growing sense of smugness within her. I don't look like I know what I'm doing? What makes you think you have any idea what I can or cannot do? Just because you're some famous celebrity who likes to go around putting your hands on men doesn't mean you know any better—

"What are you waiting for?" Hyunwon's curt voice cut off her train of thought, yanking her back to reality. He was still holding out the pair of scissors to her, waiting for her to take it.

"Are you sure about this?" she leaned over and whispered in his ear.

Hyunwon took her hand and stuffed in the pair of scissors, his tone betraying the slightest tinge of annoyance, "Three inches off the back and two inches round the sides. Now."

"Yes sir, right away sir," Hyejin said, immediately turning towards Mina and cracking on with it. Whenever Hyunwon gave her the "don't test my patience" look, she knew better than to argue with that. Raising her scissors, she took a deep breath and made the first snip, watching as a little of Mina's hair floated lightly down to the ground. This was no longer the hair of some old grandmother who lived in an unknown village by the countryside—this was the hair of one of the country's most famous girl group members, hair that was worth its weight in gold just because of the number of commercials it had appeared in.

If she said she wasn't nervous then that would be an outright lie because she was, but as she made each progressive cut, there would be Hyunwon's voice in the background guiding her along and giving her the confidence she needed to make the next cut. Even when he wasn't speaking, she could sense that he was there beside her and that in itself was enough assurance to allow her to keep going.

It was then that she found one good reason to explain the mindworm that had been troubling her. Unlike the boys she had met earlier who were nice and funny, charming and kind, Hyunwon was pretty much none of that, but somehow or other he had the uncanny ability of making her feel safe and secure, and that was a feeling that no one had ever given her before.

As long as he was around, there was nothing that she couldn't do. Even if she made a mistake, he would be there to help her solve any problems and make them disappear. And perhaps that was all her heart needed.

#