Next morning, I dressed myself with a white-collar shirt and black pants to work, to face my sentence. “After much consideration, I have decided to transfer you to the daily operation of the hair salon. You will be an apprentice, learning how to do a haircut, hair dye and etc. Miss Jung will be in charge of you from now.” Miss Kim said in a monotone voice. I nodded and bowed as I packed my few items before leaving, without a word. I am not even surprised at this. This is considered the best situation as I am not kicked out.

“Is that her?” “Looks like it.” “Better don’t mess around with her.” “She can accuse of anything.” People started whispering when I introduced myself at the salon. “Let’s welcome Rhiannon as our newest member!” Miss Jung motioned by clapping her hands. I gave a bow and said, “I am under your care, please take care of me as I am inexperienced.” When I looked up, I can only see a few of the girls eyeing my coldly while other guys just stared at me blankly. What a great start, I thought to myself.

Over the week, I learned how to do a simple hair cut on wig models, how to dye and mix hair dyes to make a nice colour, how to perm, curl and hair treatment. I passed the basics and I finally got to test my skills on a customer. My first customer was a middle-aged lady, with curly short bob hair, thick pearl necklaces, gold rings adorned her fingers as she carried around her bright red LV bag tightly like a piece of rope. The minute she sat down, she gave a long list of her demand, she wanted hair treatment, she wanted to dye her hair and she wanted a trim. I can already tell that she will be a tricky and hard to please customer. This is why the minute she came in, the girls recommended me to take her. How kind of them.

Things seems to be going smoothly after the hair treatment, however, as I was dying her hair, she suddenly yelled, “Ya! What are you doing?!” Confused, I asked her what was wrong. She started to yell in my face rapidly, her tone excruciatingly ear-piercing to me, almost like shooting glass into my ears. I did not understand a single word that she said. I mean who can? When she is speaking so fast like bullets. I simply told her to calm down and speak slowly as I did not understand her. “Are you Korean? Don’t you understand Korean? Why did a newbie noob serve me? She can’t even understand Korean!” She was exasperated. “Where is the manager?! Call the manager to come speak to me!”

Miss Jung came running in, bowing and apologising to the customer. “I wanted red colour but she gave me a mud colour instead!” She complained to my manager. “No you did not, you chose the Havana Brown and that’s what I applied,” I explained. Unhappy that I have stated the truth, the customer started yelling in her pitchy voice again. “The colour is so ugly, I cannot believe she actually put it on my head, it looks like poop!” “As I have said, that is the colour that you chose, if you did not like it, you can simply let me know without yelling at me.” I snapped. “Stop, Rhiannon, apologise to the customer.” Miss Jung said. “I..” looking at Miss Jung, her eyes were flaming and her eyebrows were arched upwards like two arrows. Knowing that nothing comes out good, I apologised reluctantly and excused myself. As I walked back to the restroom, I can still hear the customer furious complaints and Miss Jung’s diplomatic voice trying to soothe the situation.

What on earth did I get myself into? Why do I always face sticky situations? I have such worst of luck. Bona is enjoying herself and getting recognised in her team. I can barely stay in a team for a week. What is left of me is my makeup skills. I think they were running out of places to put me when they told me I am going to be part of the makeup team and I will be assigned to a company that hires the makeup team.