The Cutting Edge

032

"I told you there was something going on between the two of them. Ares never used to stop by the salon so often."

"She probably seduced him, that little minx."

"Do you think this is going to affect the training programme? I mean, what if the bosses decide to give her the job just because they don't want to offend Ares?"

"Shit, you're so right. Ares does endorsements for the salon and he probably rakes in tons of business for us. But that's unfair! She isn't even as good as most of us!"

"She did come up tops in the previous assessment."

"Who knows whether Ares or Hyunwon pulled some strings in the background. Anyway that assessment only involved sketching! What's the point in being good at sketching if you can't actually bring your own designs to life?"

"Guys, if you're jealous then why don't you all go seduce your own celebrity. We get so many of them walking in and out of here. I'm going to ace this training programme fair and square."

"Get off your high horse. You were the first one to post a sour remark on Twitter about Ares and Hyejin's relationship. Did you think that no one would know your username?"

"What username? It wasn't me!"

"What's the point in us arguing about this? It's not going to change anything. Look at all those reporters, their necks are practically as long as giraffes' waiting there to get a picture of Mrs Ares."

The trainees were looking down from the glass windows at the group of reporters huddled downstairs in the rain with their little black umbrellas, still resolutely hanging on even though the rain kept battering down upon them.

It was two days after the Cutting Edge and Ares's management agency came out with a joint statement confirming the speculations about Ares and the junior stylist who had given him the famous lightning bolts—and the entire country was in an uproar. No one cared about anything else these days except digging up more about the story behind the entertainment industry's latest scandal. The media had settled on a Cinderella angle to the story, which seemed to have caught on like wildfire on the internet.

"Cinderella my ass," Hannah snorted, turning away from the window. "I'll wait and see how long this fairy tale lasts. We all know that celebrity relationships don't last long, and Ares is surrounded by pretty girls every day."

Yeseul caught sight of Hyejin standing quietly by the corner, having arrived just in time to hear everything that the others had been saying about her. She quickly ran over to her and led her away.

"Just ignore what the others say," she said. "They're just having a bad case of sour grapes right now."

Hyejin nodded, although her eyes betrayed what she was feeling inside.

It had all been a little overwhelming over the past few days. From the moment the press release was issued, reporters followed her everywhere. Gina had had to arrange for special security protection for her just in case she was attacked by Ares's fans. Her pictures were on the covers of tabloids and papers—she couldn't walk past a newsstand without cringing. Hell, she couldn't even walk past a newsstand anymore because walking on the streets just wasn't something that a celebrity's girlfriend was supposed to be doing.

Then there were the envious and disgruntled glances from the others at the salon. And there was Hyunwon.

"Do we pay you to stand around and chitchat? I'm sure there's a spot downstairs with the reporters in the rain, if cheap gossip is what you're more interested in," Hyunwon snapped at the group of trainees gathered by the window.