Work Text:
Im Jugyeong gets to work at 9 AM sharp on Monday morning. Typically, she works on the weekday afternoons after class when it’s less busy, but now that she’s been gaining a little more experience, Selena is starting to give her more independence on projects during the busy morning rush before the day’s activities. It’s been giving her a little bit of a confident boost lately.
Today, however, feels off. When Jugyeong enters the shop, she’s overcome with a slight paranoid feeling that everyone’s avoiding her. Though every interaction with her coworkers is polite, they are extremely curt with her and no one is quite meeting her eyes. Jugyeong tries to chalk it up to everyone having a busy day -- the schedule is packed and every chair is filled. It does bother her, though. She bites her lip. Did she… do something wrong? Is she about to be fired?
Rubbing her temples with her fingers, Jugyeong takes a deep breath and decides not to let her worries and anxiety overwhelm her. After all, she’s kind-of on the chopping block with Selena and she still wants to impress her.
Forcing the thoughts out of her mind, Jugyeong gets to work on the first client of the day, a woman in her late 20s getting her makeup done for her engagement shoot later that afternoon. Because she’s an intern and she can’t work on clients by herself yet, her co-worker Kim Ha-Yoon is supervising her.
“Where is the photoshoot going to be?” Jugyeong makes conversation with the customer as she begins, pursing her lips in concentration as she applies the base eyeshadow on the woman’s lids.
“An art museum,” the woman replies, a smile on her face.
“Wow! That’s so cool,” Jugyeong gushes, carefully blending out the eyeshadow and applying a second color to the crease. “What made you pick that location?”
“My fiancé and I met there, actually,” she explains, excitedly. “We happened to both be studying the same piece of art and we started talking about it – and then we just got along from there.”
“That’s so romantic,” Jugyeong sighs in response. “My boyfriend and I met in a comic book shop when we were kids. Not exactly the most beautiful place to take pictures.”
“Wow, so you’ve known each other for a long time,” she replies, in awe.
Jugyeong laughs, tapping the excess powder off the brush. “Kind of,” she says.
“So, you will definitely get married?”
“Well, we’re both still young,” Jugyeong explains, blushing. She pauses for a moment to carefully apply the liquid eyeliner, concentrating on getting the wing perfect. “But I mean-- I’d marry him,” she says with a giggle.
She hears a compact drop loudly next to her, the pressed powder shattering into pieces. Jugyeong jumps in response and looks over at Ha-yoon, surprised – it’s the first time she’s ever seen someone else other than her make a mistake.
“O-oops,” Ha-yoon says, flustered, hurriedly picking up the compact and heading to grab a broom from the supply closet to clean up the mess.
-
It’s nearing the end of the long workday, and almost all the clients have left happily, so Jugyeong heads to the sink to start on cleaning the used makeup brushes. After carefully washing them, she sets them on a towel to dry.
When she looks up, Ha-yoon is standing in front of her, an incomprehensible look on her face.
“Oh – Kim Ha-yoon-ssi,” Jugyeong greets, a smile on her face.
“Your boyfriend is cheating on you,” Ha-yoon says abruptly, her eyes filling to the brim with pity and sympathy.
Jugyeong’s smile fades from her face and she drops the makeup brush she was holding in her hands. It rolls off the table and onto the floor. “What?” Jugyeong responds, at a loss for words, the look of confusion clear on her face. Suho? Cheating?
“I didn’t know if I should tell you,” she continues, grabbing Jugyeong by both her hands, leaning in close and keeping her voice low. “But I thought about it all weekend and I came to the conclusion that if it were me-- I would want to know.”
Confusion is still across her face because the thought of Suho cheating on her is so other-worldly she isn’t sure how to respond.
“I was at a ramyeon place in Itaewon on Friday,” Ha-yoon says, her tone serious, resting her arm on the table as she tells the story. “And as I was leaving, I saw Lee Suho across the street. I was going to go over to say hi, but then I saw he had his arm around another girl!”
Jugyeong wracks her brain for the weekend’s activities and discovers there’s a discrepancy in the story because Lee Suho was with her all of Friday night. At least – that’s what she remembers? It’s a little fuzzy. She stares blankly.
“I know, it must be hard to take in. I was shocked too. I can’t believe Lee Suho would do that to you,” her coworker clicks her tongue, in disapproval, shaking her head. “I guess all men are truly trash, huh?”
“Um—” Jugyeong starts, drying her hands on a towel. “What did the girl look like?”
Ha-yoon hits the table with her palm, as if she suddenly remembers that important part of the story. “She had these huge thick glasses and her hair was in a ponytail. She was so wasted too-- it was so embarrassing; she was tripping all over herself and couldn’t even stand up straight.”
“Oh,” Jugyeong mumbles, coming to a sudden realization. Her face flushes red from embarrassment. “Oh!”
“Wait! I actually got a picture too,” Ha-yoon says, pulling out her phone. She has a concentrated look on her face as she’s scrolling through the contents.
After finding the photo in question, Ha-yoon eagerly pushes the phone towards Jugyeong. “Look at that.”
It’s a little pixelated and not the best quality photo since it was taken at night, but the man in the picture is unmistakably Lee Suho. It’s a particularly intimate moment between them – she’s drunk and leaning on him and he’s kissing the side of her head as they’re both waiting for a taxi on the streets of Itaewon.
Jugyeong stares at the photo, eyes wide.
She remembers the night now. They had been studying at his apartment – her for her midterms and him for his college entrance exam, when she had spontaneously declared that it was a Friday night and that they should be having fun. Because they hadn’t planned on going out that night, she had come over to his apartment bare-faced with her glasses. As a result, she had gone out like that. And… gotten way too drunk like that.
Jugyeong groans, burying her face in her hands in shame.
Ha-yoon reaches over to awkwardly hug Jugyeong over the table. “I’m so sorry, Jugyeong,” Ha-yoon says, her voice full of sadness. “If you want to leave early, I can finish cleaning up our station.”
Jugyeong shoots her head up from her hands immedately. “Oh, that’s okay, that won’t be necessary—”
“Gosh, Jugyeong, you’re so strong,” Ha-yoon reacts, a sigh of admiration escaping her. “If I found out my boyfriend was cheating on me, I wouldn’t be able to take it this well.”
Exactly at the wrong moment, another female coworker overhears as she walks by. “Oh my god, you actually told her?” she asks, joining into the conversation, clearly already attuned to the gossip that Jugyeong did not even realize was spreading.
“Does everyone know about this?” Jugyeong asks to no one in specific, but her question goes unanswered.
Ha-yoon sighs dramatically, putting her hand on her chest as if she was heartbroken. “I had to,” she admits. “Jugyeong was talking about marrying him.”
The girl gasps, throwing a hand over her mouth. “Nuh-uh, girl, don’t marry a cheater.”
Jugyeong is about to speak up when Lee Selena pops in, her arms crossed in front her chest. “Who’s marrying a cheater?” her boss cuts in, her tone serious. “I don’t condone this gossiping in the workplace, but the last thing I want is one of our girls to be making a big mistake.”
“No one—” Jugyeong tries to speak up hurriedly before Ha-yoon cuts her off.
“It’s Jugyeong, boss,” Ha-yoon declares, in a misguided attempt to be helpful. “I think she should go home early today to recover – I can finish cleaning up for the both of us.” Ha-yoon turns to Jugyeong and shoots her a thumbs up and a wink.
It’s… all a mess.
“Very well,” Selena responds, looking Jugyeong straight in the eye. “You can go home early, Jugyeong, so you can be ready to work again tomorrow.”
-
When she recounts the story to Suho that night at Prince Comics, he’s looking at her with disbelief and slight amusement. She’s laying on her beanbag chair, a frustrated look on her face and he’s sitting on the ground cross-legged in front of her, like a child looking up at her.
“And now the whole makeup shop thinks you’re cheating on me,” she groans, burying her face in her hands. “Why do I always get into these situations?”
He laughs, reaching up and pulling her hands away from her face. She opens her eyes, and he’s looking up at her cutely with a smile. “Because you’re Im Jugyeong.”
“I thought the whole double-life with my makeup would be over once high school ended,” Jugyeong whines. “But I guess I’m destined to be two people forever.”
He plays with her fingers in his hands, another chuckle escaping him.
“And also, maybe you shouldn’t visit me at work tomorrow. All the girls want to beat you up,” she admits to him, sheepishly.
He raises his eyebrows. “I’m a little hurt that you’re letting my name be tarnished like this,” Suho says, bringing the palm of her hand to his face as he lazily rests his cheek on it.
“I’ll clear this all up tomorrow when I go in,” she promises.
He smiles, unbothered. “Okay—” Suho mumbles. “But I would never cheat on you, you know.”
“I don’t know,” Jugyeong replies, pulling her hand away to cross her arms to feign disappointment. He pouts like a kid at the loss of her touch. “Every time you walk into a room, God Suho, there are a million girls that want to steal you away from me.”
He rolls his eyes before getting up from his seated position on the ground to get face to face with her. His brown eyes so close, she can see them sparkling. “Yeah, but, there’s only one girl for me,” Suho says. He pauses before teasing, “Or I mean, I guess two.”
“Shut up,” Jugyeong says with a giggle before she leans forward and kisses him.