Ares did not expect to find Hyunwon at his doorstep when he woke up in the morning—especially not after having a terrible night and while nursing a mind-splitting migraine.

"What are you doing here?" he mumbled, ruffling through his own bed hair. He held open the door to let the visitor in, gesturing for him to take a seat somewhere.

"There's something I need to talk to you about," Hyunwon replied.

"Mmm."

Ares walked to the fridge and fumbled around for some carrot juice. He hated carrot juice but Gina insisted on stocking his fridge with it, claiming it was good for detox and maintaining good lines. A part of him had already guessed what Hyunwon was here to talk about, but that part of him was avoiding reality right now.

"So, how's the situation over at the salon? I heard from Gina that the paparazzi are still hanging around waiting for you to confirm whether Kara's story is true or if Hyejin's is," Ares remarked, taking a gulp out of that vile glass of orange goop.

"Ryu and Remington are more than capable of handling things," Hyunwon replied. "I won't be issuing any response. There's no purpose in doing that except to stir up more drama." He didn't want to lie, neither did he want to drag Kara's name through the mud. Honestly, he felt sorry for her, for this girl that he had once loved so, so much. When he had seen the statement she issued on television yesterday, it had felt like she was desperately clutching at straws. Her career, her fame, the adoration from her fans—they meant everything to her, which was why he was never going to be enough.

"The whole world is going to label you as a heartless, womanising jerk. Your career at the Cutting Edge is almost definitely going to take a hit. Doesn't that matter to you at all?"

Hyunwon shrugged. "Would it matter to you if you were me?"

Ares hesitated for a moment, thinking seriously about that question. If he were in Hyunwon's shoes, what would he have done? Would he be willing to let an ex-girlfriend accuse him of something he never did and be willing to give up his career just so that everyone could have a peace of mind? He felt like he understood where Hyunwon was coming from, but at the same time he understood Kara's perspective far too well. For both him and Kara, they had spent years painstakingly building up their reputations and careers to where they were now—internationally renowned superstars whose faces were on multiple billboards across the country and whose fanbases numbered in the hundreds of thousands. To be willing to put it all behind them and walk away, for whatever reason, was unimaginable.

"Yes," he replied honestly. "Yes it would. Even if you don't enjoy your job, you've invested so many years of effort into it—I don't think I would be able to give that up if I were you."

"Maybe it's because there are other things I find are more important than being an acclaimed hairstylist at a top salon—" Like Hyejin, or his dream of making wine from his own vineyard.

Hyunwon knew himself well. He had sky high standards for himself and for all those around him, which was why his staff were often fearful that he would bite their heads off for the slightest error (which he did). When he worked, he worked like a machine; but at the same time, he brought along that sort of high expectation and commitment into all other aspects of his life, such as his relationships. Once he made a decision about something, he would give it his all, and he would also be most willing to set aside everything else he deemed lower priority.

In the past, Kara had been that number one priority. He loved her so much that he entered the styling business for her, that he was willing to keep their relationship under wraps to protect her career, that he spent months planning the perfect proposal—only to have it all washed away by a heavy downpour.

Now, he had new priorities.

"—which brings me to the reason why I'm here today. I know this might seem abrupt, but I'm going to have to ask you to let Hyejin go," he said, looking Ares straight in the eyes.

"Excuse me?" Ares frowned, setting down his now-empty glass.

"Let her go, Ares. If you let her go, you know you'll always have her as a friend, but if you don't, I'm sure you know how this could possibly end up."

"Did she ask you to tell me this or is this just your own presumption?" Ares retorted, getting visbly agitated after hearing what Hyunwon had to say. He had known this was coming, but when it actually came out from the latter's mouth, it still shook him no less. "I know you like Hyejin, but you can't just walk in and tell me to let go of her. What right do you have to tell me to do that!"

"Ares, I think you've known this, and you've known for a while now, that Hyejin doesn't like you in that way. She's always treated you like a close friend, like a brother, but never anything more. It doesn't mean she doesn't care about you—she does, a great deal—but for you to take advantage of that friendship to trap her by your side is unfair to the both of you." Hyunwon maintained a measured tone while he spoke, all the while watching Ares's changing body language closely. It was almost like navigating a minefield, where you had to take small steps to make sure that something didn't blow you into smithereens.

Ares clenched his fists into tight balls, his hands starting to tremble a little. "You're just saying all this to try to steal her from me," he said. "Kang Hyunwon, you can dream on. At the press conference, she told the whole world that our relationship was fine. Do you know what that means? It means that Hyejin chose me, not you."

Sighing, Hyunwon said, "What happened the night before the press conference? Why did Gina have to delay the press conference when it was originally scheduled to be in the morning? I think you can work it out for yourself why Hyejin chose to say what she did at the press conference. And I also think that you engineered it to be that way."

When Hyejin had told him what had happened with Ares and the sleeping pills, his immediate conjecture was that the first time was an accident, but the second time could well have been intentional. For someone who had been hospitalised and had his stomach pumped before for mixing alcohol with sleeping pills, to do it again would be just plain stupid, and Ares was definitely not stupid. If he knew the consequences of doing that, then the only reason why he would have gone ahead and still done it anyway was because he had something to gain by doing that.

Ares's face turned ashen and the trembling in his hands became more visible with every passing moment. Scoffing awkwardly, he said, "What are you talking about? I have no idea what you're saying. Get out of my house now."

Instead of leaving, Hyunwon stood up and took a couple of steps towards Ares instead. "Be a man and stop trying to hide behind whatever mental condition it is you supposedly have," he said sternly, jabbing his index finger at Ares's chest. "Everyone has problems, but choosing to run away from them and using someone else as your shield doesn't solve anything. That's just selfish. If you refuse to wake up, then I'm going to have to take Hyejin away from you whether you like it or not, because I'm not going to sit by and let her continue wasting her time with you when you don't really have any intention of getting better anyway."

"How did you— How did you know—"

"I'm not going to tell anyone about your problems, in case you were afraid of that," Hyunwon said coldly. "They're yours, not mine. They're not Hyejin's either."

Ares felt like there was a stampede running amok in his head right now and the migraine that he had been having since he woke up had just gotten ten times worse. His face had gone completely white now and he was trying to support himself by leaning against the bar counter. The more he tried to regulate his own breathing, the more constricted his chest was starting to feel—as though someone was grabbing onto his neck and suffocating him.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?" Hyunwon frowned, placing one hand on Ares's shoulder.

"C-c-can't breathe—"

And his world went black.

#

When Ares came to, he felt like the lights from the hospital ceiling were almost going to blind him. Raising his hand feebly to shield his eyes from the light, he groaned, feeling as if someone had tied him down with a ton of weights. Just moving that hand alone had already taken a great deal of energy out of him.

Where was he and what had just happened? All of it came flooding back to him seconds later.

"You're awake! Are you alright?"

It was a familiar voice, one that belonged to the girl he had wanted to cling on to so badly because she was his only friend, his life raft during his bouts of helplessness. Lowering his hand, he turned to his left to look at Hyejin, trying his best to force out a smile. "I'm fine," he said. "I think I just had another one of those asthma attacks."

Hyejin remembered seeing one of his asthma relapses before back when they had been drinking beer at Gongja barber shop—at that time she had been frightened out of her wits. This would now be the third time that she was seeing Ares lying in the hospital, and it would probably be the most number of times she had come to the hospital within a six month span in her entire life. She could hear Gina's loud voice coming from outside the private ward as she continued her argument with Hyunwon regarding how Ares ended up in this state.

"Gina must be flipping mad," he croaked, chuckling wryly. His manager had always been high strung, and she definitely wasn't going to let him off the hook easily after landing himself in hospital yet again.

"You bet she is. But don't worry about her, she's always furious about something," Hyejin said with a weak smile. She was feeling awfully guilty about Ares being this way, especially when she knew that it was most probably a result of his conversation with Hyunwon. She had gotten the shock of her life when Hyunwon rang up to tell her that he had just sent Ares to the hospital. Sitting there awkwardly by his bedside, she couldn't help but avert her gaze so that she wouldn't need to look him in the eyes.

Ares reached out and placed his hand over hers, but her instinctive reaction was to withdraw it immediately.

Looking crestfallen, he turned his head towards the opposite side of his pillow instead. "You told him about my condition, didn't you?" he said quietly.

The guilt inside her began gnawing away even more. "Ares, I'm so sorry. It's just that I couldn't explain to Hyunwon what was going on between us without him understanding your situation." But she knew that it was no excuse—she had betrayed his trust.

"It's alright, I know that he won't tell anyone else about it. He's not the sort." Ares sighed. "I'm the one who should be saying sorry to you. Hyunwon's right—I was being selfish by clinging on to you when I knew all along that the one you liked was always Hyunwon." He raised his covers a little so that she wouldn't see the tears that had begun to trickle down his cheeks. "It's just that whenever I was down and out, you were always there for me, so I got greedy. I wanted you to always be there for me." Just like when he stumbled into the barber shop on that rainy night wanting to hide from all the criticisms that were being flung his way because of a bad hairdo.

Hyejin put her hand on his shoulder comfortingly, saying, "But I can still be here for you, even if we're not dating. We're friends, right? We've known each other since we were little! You used to weasel lollipops out of my father!"

That made Ares laugh a little. Half the time he wasn't actually scared of getting a haircut—he just wanted the lollipop so he would pretend to cry. He clearly had a gift in acting ever since he was little, so it was all well and good that he eventually made it into the entertainment industry.

"I know," he replied. After a momentary pause, he said, "Thank you, Hyejin, for not giving up on me."

The door to the ward swung open at that moment and Gina's irate voice came booming in. "—take your drama somewhere else. If the two of you want to play star-crossed lovers then go ahead, but keep Ares out of this or else I'm going to—"

"Turn him into stone?" Ares finished her sentence for her.

"Oh, you can joke now? Clearly you're fine then," Gina snapped. She walked towards his bedside in her four-inch Jimmy Choo heels, with Hyunwon following behind her with his usual placid expression. Gina's anger had obviously done nothing to ruffle his feathers, which would explain why she was even more angry and red as a beet. "I'm bloody tired of coming to this stupid hospital, so if you don't mind, stop getting yourself sent in. The reporters are still milling about after Kara's press statement, waiting to pounce on any one of you. If this mess gets any larger I think I'm going to be the one who needs to be admitted into hospital."

Ares looked past Gina at the man standing behind her. "Thanks for sending me in," he said with a weak smile. "And thanks for giving me that wake-up call."

Hyunwon shrugged, then turned around and headed back out. Hearing Ares's words, he knew that his job as successfully done and there was no need for him to linger any longer in case he agitated Gina even more.

Wiping his tear-stained cheeks with his sheets, Ares turned back to Hyejin and said, "Hyunwon is a good guy. He's far more mature than I think I'll ever be. You'll probably be happy with him."

"Oh, is that the verdict?" Gina interrupted. "Are we finally calling it quits? Thank goodness."

"We'll still be friends, right? And I'll still come round to help you do the cleaning—if you'll have me of course. If you need my help with anything, anything at all, I'll be right there," Hyejin said.

Ares nodded. "Of course, I wouldn't have it any other way." Sitting up on his bed, he reached for a glass of water. "You should probably go, just in case the reporters start snooping again and start spinning some weird love triangle story. We probably won't be able to announce our break-up anytime soon—"

"Definitely not! It's far too turbulent now. Leave that to me, I'll have it all sorted," Gina interjected.

"—so I'll have to trouble you to keep up with the act for a short while?"

"Of course," Hyejin replied with a smile. "Don't worry, we'll go along with whatever Gina has planned." The last thing she wanted to do was to create more trouble for Ares, now that the entire matter was finally coming to a peaceful resolution. After exchanging a couple more words with Ares and his manager, she got up to leave, finding Hyunwon still waiting out on the corridor.

"Hey," she called out.

Looking up, the right corner of his lips twitched upwards in a crooked smile. "Hey. Done with everything?"

Hyejin nodded her head, sitting down beside him. "I think he'll be fine, right?" she asked.

"I'm sure he'll be alright," Hyunwon replied, giving her hand a tight squeeze. "He's far stronger than he gives himself credit for. He just needs to find it in him to stand on his own and I think everything will be alright. Also, he still has his illustrious career to look after—he won't collapse that easily."

From that short conversation he had with Ares, he had figured out one thing—that for people like Ares and Kara, their careers had already become such a big part of their lives that it was impossible to separate the person from the job. The Ares on the silver screen and the Ares off it were one and the same, so you couldn't ask him to just live as the ordinary boy-next-door without forcing him to carve out and throw away a huge part of who he was. That was also the reason why he had been so affected just because of one poodle-like hairstyle—because one bad hairstyle could create a huge dent in his image, just like how one amazing hairdo catapulted Kara to stardom.

"Do you know how freaked out I was when you called to say that you were on the way to the hospital?" Hyejin said with a sigh. She had known that Hyunwon was going to speak to Ares this morning and because of that she had been tossing and turning in her bed all night. When the phone call came, she had gotten the fright of her life. "I almost thought that your conversation was a disaster."

"Looks like you don't think very much of my abilities after all," Hyunwon scoffed.

"It's not that! I mean, I was just worried because of Ares's condition and all—and sure enough, he had an asthma relapse because he was too agitated. Thank goodness he's alright and he's managed to think things through."

"Mmm... I don't really like it when you're being so worried about another man." Standing up, Hyunwon stuffed his hands into his pockets and went striding away, leaving a stunned Hyejin behind.

"Wait," she called out, running after him. "It's not like that. I was just worried because I've seen Ares in this sort of a state before and goodness knows what could happen because I read on the internet that people with depression can be a little unpredictable and unpredictable is bad because—"

Hyunwon stopped abruptly in his tracks, turning to face her. Reaching over, he gave her a hard flick her on the forehead.

"I'm just teasing."

#