As if her life could become less interesting, the red head found herself bored of being bored. Since she dropped out of school, everything became so trivial to her that there was no point in working towards anything—no point in doing anything. After she left school, Gramps was the only one who attempted to get Hyuna back on her feet. To help her have a purpose. She admired and loved the man for that, and found that for the first two months of working alongside her grandfather at his barbershop she was beginning to enjoy waking up every day; however, just like school and her other hobbies, Hyuna found herself dreading the sound of the bell above the barbershop’s front door that signaled the start of her shift. Sitting in one of the salon chairs, Hyuna thought that it was about time that she needed something newer than new in her life—that she needed to start fresh.

What wasn’t new in the young girl’s life, though, was the store hours of Gramps’ shop. After working alongside her grandfather for three months now, Hyuna knew that just like the day was long her grandfather’s barbershop closed every day at 8 PM sharp. With this knowledge, she found it odd that the old man was requesting her to take a nine o’clock appointment. She had never heard of such a thing. The redhead stared at her grandfather with confusion as he innocently sprayed one of the mirrors of the shop with Windex. As he went in circles with the rag doing his best to make the mirror spotless, Hyuna questioned the old man.

“You know I’ll gladly do anything for you Gramps, and that I’m so thankful you were let me work here, but why the sudden change?” She handed the elder another rag as he moved on to the next mirror. The old man barely paused as he answered.

“Hyuna, darling, I know that you usually have plans after your shift here, but tonight is special.” Her grandfather replied, his gaze meeting hers through the mirror. She noticed a certain glow about them that she thought had extinguished permanently after her grandmother had passed away the year before. It confused her. “Although I know I always lock that door at eight o’clock, today is the one and only exception!” The old man placed the rag down on the counter and turned to look at his granddaughter with the satisfaction of a man who had just won the lottery.

“This client had wanted to come in during our usual hours, but found that he wasn’t going to be able to rearrange his schedule to fit himself in before eight! A schedule, can’t you believe it, Hyuna?” The elderly man held her hands and smiled. “He’s a model currently posing for a men’s health and fitness magazine, and although they wanted him to have a rugged look he is coming to our barbershop to freshen up his look!”

Hyuna stared at her grandfather, the confusion growing. He’d come to a family run barber shop to get a look for a magazine?

 “You’re probably wondering why he would come to some family shop, right?” Her grandfather probed, his smile widening. “Well, he phoned in to say that he had heard such great things about our staff here, that he wanted to make sure that no matter what he got into our shop! I tried to schedule him for another day that we are open, but he insisted that tonight was his only chance before the shoot.” Her grandfather dropped her hands and put up his own in defeat. “I know, I know, I’m a hard no when anyone tries to be lenient with our hours, but this client could mean big things for this shop’s future! That’s why, my gorgeous granddaughter, I’m giving you the privilege of working with this man.”

“What?” Hyuna stood up, her eyes portraying her shock to her grandfather.

“Now calm down, Hyuna, I’m not exploiting you or anything. I just think that you’ll need this opportunity to further grow in this business, and one day take over my shop!” The old man nudged her side with his elbow as he threw the rags from the counter into the trash. “Besides, he said he’d prefer a female employee—apparently the guy likes their touch or something like that. I didn’t argue with him, heck, I agree with the man!”

As her grandfather cleaned up the counter, he passed her with nothing more than a pat on the shoulder. Standing alone by the salon chair, Hyuna wondered further about why some hotshot would ask for her to be his barber. Shaking off the thoughts, she shrugged to herself. At least, she thought, tonight will be different—at least tonight won’t be boring.