He picked at the scab on his skin and felt the dry skin flake off under his nails. He flicked them off and once more his fingers found the dry spot that was on his cheek.

            “Daehyun! What are you doing?”

            He felt a strong grip pull his hand away from his face and was met with the face of his disgruntled but concerned stylist. She glared at him. “If you keep picking at your face, do you think it’ll get better?”

            “No,” he mumbled. “But I hate it.”

            She wheeled his chair around so that he was facing the mirror. Daehyun closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see himself looking the way he did. She tutted in impatience and touched his temples. “Open your eyes.” He refused and she looked around. Nobody was in the room. “Open your eyes and tell me how my eyes look.”

            “What?” At this odd request, his own eyes flew open. He winced visibly when he saw the pink and silvery scales on his face. But he looked at her eyes in the mirror. “They’re fine.”

            “Are they?”

            He stared a little harder. “Yeah. Why?”

            She pointed at her left eye. “I had retina tissue tearing and that turned into a whole big mess. It was just when I was getting ready to go into cosmetic college. I thought I would go completely blind because it turned out that the tissues were so badly damaged, I couldn’t see. I was afraid of it happening to the other eye. It had to do with complications from a medication I had taken. I was scared.”

            Daehyun was quiet. His hand, once more, went to his face. But rather than pick at the scarring, he was now it, feeling the contrasting surfaces of smooth and scaly. He was focused on her, however. She took his hand away. “Don’t touch it. It’ll make it worse.”

            “Sorry.”

            “They managed to save whatever they could but they had to insert a glass eye. They couldn’t save my sight in this eye, and I think rotting eyeball would be even more disgusting to deal with. I was scared, and angry. The whole time when they kept my eye wrapped under bandages, I was angry. I couldn’t move in case I tore more tissue, but I wanted to roll my eyes in rage, to scream. I saw my dreams come crashing down around me, and I couldn’t take it.”

            He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “I can’t go on with this skin. Idols are supposed to be perfect. They aren’t supposed to be peeling and flaking. It’s going to get to my scalp, and then I won’t be able to dye my hair because the spots would hurt. My nails would be difficult to keep in control without them looking gnarled. My entire image will be ruined.”

            “Daehyun, I still went to beauty school. I decided that I’d rather see a person with one eye and a whole new perspective than to see nothing with my own despair. I still could see and I still could do magic with my hands. I wanted to make people look beautiful, and so I pushed myself. Was it hard? Yes, but it worked. Haven’t I been keeping you up there as visual for nearly three years?”

            “That was because you had a template to work with. I can’t look at myself now without wanting to gag. I can’t see the skin peeling off and the dry flakes fall onto my pillowcase without wanting to give up.”

            “You aren’t listening to me.” She once more smacked his hand away from his face. “Look at me.”

            It was the commanding tone in her voice that made him obey more than anything.  “You still have your voice, right?” He nodded slowly. “Isn’t that your dream? To be a singer? Didn’t you make that dream come true? Didn’t you say yourself that you went from a kid who just liked to sing to an artist who was performing on the big stages?” Again, he was dumb. She plowed on. “You are living your dream, and I am living mine. Do you think I, who can work magic on anything, will let something like a skin disease to get in the way of your dream?”

            Daehyun’s mouth opened and he closed it again, no words able to come out. He swallowed and she could see the tears that were threatening to fall. “As for your hair, we can use chalk. This way you can change up whenever you want. For your nails, we’ll have to take medication. For your face, makeup can do wonders. But Daehyun, you know when you look underneath the dry skin, there’s still you.”

            “Me?” he asked hoarsely, and she smiled impishly.

            “Yes, you. The Jung Daehyun with the devastatingly good looks who can make fan girls swoon. You still can, you know. A little marring of the skin isn’t going to take away the good bone structure and the charisma.”

            She pointed at her glass eye. “And just like how you said I looked fine, so do you.”

            Finally, he smiled. And when he did, it brightened up the room. She beamed at him and he curled his fingers on the arms of his chair. “Okay,” he breathed. He looked at her in the mirror and smiled widely. The scars could hardly be seen. “Okay, work your magic.”

this is for eyesthatsing

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