“Papa, look!! Minnie hyung bought Mochi many many toys!!”

Kyuhyun welcomed an armful of Henry as soon as he stepped through his apartment door. The little boy giggled and squealed in delight when his papa scooped him up in his arms and blew raspberries against his cheek.

“How’s my Mochi today? Did you listen to everything Minnie hyung said?”

“Mochi good boy!! Minnie hyung bought toys for Mochi because Mochi good boy,” Henry said proudly, wriggling out of Kyuhyun’s grasp to show him his new toys. While getting them, Sungmin walked casually out of the kitchen with a tray of coffee and hot chocolate. He placed the tray on the table and gave Kyuhyun a smile. The stylist immediately sauntered over to the heavenly smell and accepted his coffee with enthusiasm.

“Thanks, Min. I hope Henry wasn’t too much of a handful for you,” he said, sipping the delicious fuel before leaning back against the couch, mug in hand.

“He’s an angel. Don’t worry about it. We had lots of fun together,” Sungmin answered, bringing his own hot chocolate to his mouth. “We even kind of went shopping today.”

“Papa, Minnie hyung bought Kiki for Mochi!! Mochi loves Kiki very much!!”

Little Henry ambled back into the living room with a yellow giraffe in his hands. Kyuhyun let out a short laugh and petted Henry’s head. “Did Henry say thank you to Minnie hyung?”

Henry nodded firmly. “Yes, Mochi good boy. Thank you Minnie hyung!!”

“My pleasure,” the model smiled, pinching the little boy’s chubby cheeks. Henry gave a small squeal and rushed back into his own room, giggling and talking softly to Kiki all the way.

“You really get more and more attached to the energetic ball of sunshine every day,” Kyuhyun muttered to himself, shaking his head in amusement. “Thanks again for babysitting, Min. What would I do without you?” he joked.

“I think it’s about time you registered Mochi for school. He’s old enough for elementary school already. He is seven, after all. Don’t you think so?” Sungmin suggested. “I don’t mind babysitting him most of the time, since my schedules lately have been cancelled, but he’s pretty lonely. He’ll be able to make more friends if he goes to school. I don’t think he’s been with many kids who are his age.”

“You think so?” the stylist asked. “Then I’ll enrol him in the nearest school next week. I think they’re accepting students at the moment.”

“Perhaps it best for Mochi,” the model agreed. “He’d learn to socialize with other kids.”

Kyuhyun nodded and placed his empty coffee mug back on the table, seemingly deep in thoughts. He frowned and looked at Sungmin before speaking again.

“Is everything alright with you?”

Sungmin was taken aback. “What do you mean?”

“A lot of your schedules have been cancelled these days for the past week. I suppose it’s a good thing because you get more time for yourself, but I didn’t think the cancellations would be so frequent. Didn’t your manager say anything?”

Sungmin clasped his hands tighter around the mug and heaved a sigh. He kept quiet for a while, and Kyuhyun waited patiently for his answer.

“It’s the other guy,” he mumbled softly.

“Leeteuk, was it?”

The model nodded before heaving another sigh. “I’m slowly being replaced, Kyu. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m no longer in any of the commercials playing on TV right now. My offers are getting lesser and lesser; even some existing ones also cancelled on me. Only those that couldn’t back off due to a long-term contract between them and my agency still remain. My prime time is over, Kyu. I’m outdated. People want fresh and new faces, and I’m getting a little too old for that. After all, I’m hitting thirty soon. They just don’t want me any longer.”

“That’s a busload of crap, and you know it.”

Sungmin smiled weakly. “But I can’t do anything about it.”

“That is so unfair.”

“Welcome to the modelling world, Kyu. Where people just dump you whenever they want to; it’s a dog eat dog world out there. But don’t worry, I won’t give up without a fight.”

“You better not. I’ll be here whenever you need my support, Min. I promise.”

* * *

It was the first day of Donghae’s challenge, and after an entire night of one-on-one coaching and last-minute crash coursing with Eunhyuk, Donghae thought he was quite ready. Nervous, but ready.

He reached the salon bright and early that day, and greeted the staff with a smile on his face and a skip in his step. He was going to win this challenge and prove Victoria wrong, that he wasn’t here for fun and actually did learn a lot from Eunhyuk. He could do more than just washing and cleaning. In fact, he was going to make all his customers happy and there was nothing that could stop him from achieving that!!

Except for the fact that none of the patrons that day were interested in what Donghae had to offer. The brunette’s confidence dwindled to less than a quarter when the customers turned him down one after another, each sighting out the more famous and more familiar stylists instead of him, a mere trainee who’s had little to no experience in the professional styling world whatsoever.

Sensing Donghae’s distress, Eunhyuk tried with all of his might to recommend some of his regulars to him. After what seemed like forever, finally one lady agreed to have her hair done by the overly-eager brunette. She did cast him a scornful gaze before sitting in his chair though, wondering if she’d made the right choice by letting an unknown trainee meddle with her hair since she had an important wedding to attend in less than five hours.

Before Donghae could even start introducing himself, Eunhyuk pulled him aside to warn him.

“That’s Miss Krystal, and she’s one heck of a fussy lady. Make sure you don’t get into her black list or she will make it hell for you. Just ask me if you have any questions later, okay?”

Donghae’s eyes widened at the warning and for a moment he faltered in his steps, letting the information sink in. Suddenly he wasn’t too confident after all. What if he screwed up big time, and Eunhyuk had to suffer from the loss of a highly respected customer just because of him?

He gulped and shakily introduced himself to her with a bow before draping the cloth over her clothes so that her hair wouldn’t fall onto her expensive clothes. Why would she even wear such extravagant clothes to get her hair done, Donghae simply couldn’t fathom why.

Krystal flipped through the fashion magazines and hummed in approval at several pictures. “I like this style,” she said, before flipping another page. “This one’s not bad either… or this one. I want my left side to be like this… and the fringe a little bit like this… maybe you could use this colour to tone down on my blonde highlights… or perhaps you could add curls at the end…”

Donghae’s head was in a whirl as she showed him the plethora of different cuts and styles she said she wanted all on her head. In the end when he just looked entirely confused, she scoffed and put the magazine away.

“Are you sure you can handle me? Maybe I should just go back to Eunhyuk oppa, he knows what to do.”

“No!! I… I can do it,” the brunette said, chewing nervously on his lips. “Please let me do this on my own.”

“You’d better make a good job out of it, or else I’m going to sue you and your sorry and let me tell you, you wouldn’t be able to afford that lawsuit even if you scrubbed floors for the rest of your life. Do you understand??”

“Y-yes madam.”

* * *

“AAAHHHHH!!!!”

* * *

Eunhyuk ran as fast as he could to where the scream sounded from and found Krystal clutching at her hair in despair with Donghae cowering at the side. She glared accusingly at Eunhyuk when he appeared in the mirror behind her and began jabbing fingers at his chest.

“WHAT IS THIS THING STILL DOING IN YOUR SALON?? WHY IS HE EVEN WORKING HERE?? I TRUSTED YOU, EUNHYUK OPPA, HOW COULD YOU LET HIM DO THIS TO ME?!?!”

Krystal’s eyes were soon full to the brim with tears and even other patrons started looking at the little scene developing before their eyes. Eunhyuk stared at Donghae with a frown on his face and quietly motioned him to leave, which the brunette did as quick as he could, leaving the director to deal with the angry customer.

“Miss Krystal, please calm down. It’s not as bad as you think it is…”

“THEN WHAT DO YOU CALL THIS??” Krystal shrieked, pointing at her head, sporting a multitude of shades of colours ranging from red to brown to orange, with the left side of her hair cut into a bob and the right side layered with a silver shade, whilst the rest of her hair were pulled into little curls. In short, she looked simply ridiculous, but Eunhyuk wasn’t going to tell her that.

“Calm down, please. You’re attracting way too much attention to yourself, miss.”

“I AM SO UGLY!! THAT MISERABLE BRAT TURNED ME INTO A WITCH!! I’M GONNA SUE HIM TO DEATH IF THAT’S THE LAST THING I’LL EVER DO!!”

Eunhyuk sighed. He knew Krystal was getting more and more hysterical and if he didn’t do something to