Chapter 6: Today.

“You said it doesn't hurt!” Daehyun said as he followed Himchan inside the study.

    “It doesn't, you're overreacting, 'cause it was your first time” Himchan entered the studio that looked bigger now that the models were gone.

    “It hurts” Daehyun rubbed his arm, his skin never felt so smooth, but the laser hair removal thing hurt.

    “Take off your clothes”

    “What?”

    “We're alone, I sent Jimin to the big studio”

    “You saying this is the small studio?” Daehyun looked around; the place was large with thousands of tables and closets chock-full of clothes.

    “Of course, here isn't big enough to keep all my stuff” Himchan grabbed a tape measure off the table and approached Daehyun.

    “Is it necessary?” Daehyun took a step back.

    “I’m no mind reader, can't guess your measurements” Himchan rolled his eyes “And I need them to get the right clothing and headpieces sizes like wigs”

    “Wigs have sizes?” Daehyun said as Himchan used the tape to measure his head.

    “Of course, not all the heads are the same, nor bodies” Himchan said, getting impatient “I know your secret, we’re both men, so get undress”

    “I’m really a very shy person”

    “I don't bite, besides, you don't have to go commando, you can keep your underwear”

    “Fine... Can I undress in the bathroom?”

    “Whatever you feel comfortable with”

    Daehyun headed to the bathroom and got undressed as slow as he could, but in the end he manned up and let Himchan take his body measurements. Himchan was very professional, so Daehyun stopped being nervous until someone knocked on the door and then Daehyun's heart flew out his chest. Himchan hated being interrupted in the middle of work. Annoyed, the stylist went to the door and half opened it.

    “Who the hell you are” Himchan fixed the stranger with a withering stare.

    “I'm Moon Jongup”

    “Am I supposed to know that name?”

    “I'm the new photographer’s assistant”

    “Your studio is on the fifth floor”

    “I know, Hyoseong (Secret) noona sent me to ask if the new model is ready for the photo shoot”

    “What photo shoot?”

    “The photo shoot for Ego website, all the models have profile pages with galleries where they make different poses and facial expressions, you know, a modeling portfolio”

    “Of course I know! I wasn’t born yesterday! I mean, I’m not old, I’m young and I know what the hell I’m doing!” Himchan burst out as he had forgotten the photos for the website.

    “When will she be ready?”

    “When I say so” Himchan closed the door in Jongup’s face.

    Himchan finished taking Daehyun's measurements and sent him home to rest, because tomorrow was going to be a photo shoot.

Daehyun went to the studio by 6am; he only wore a gray hoodie and the wig.

    “You have big dark circles!” Himchan said when he saw Daehyun coming into the studio.

    “I didn't sleep much” Daehyun said, worn-out.

    “How so? I sent you home early, so you could sleep eight hours!”

    “I had to go to work”

    “I thought this is your job”

    “My real job, I work at a newspaper and I have to clean the storage room”

    “Resign”

    “No way! This modeling thing is temporary; I want to stay in the newspaper and become a professional photographer someday!”

    “Fine” Himchan sighed “I’ll get you a coffee. Meanwhile, you take this to Youngjae” Himchan gave him a manila envelope “Your papers are inside”

    “My papers?” Daehyun opened the envelope and found an ID card with a photo of him as woman “Oh my God, this is a fake ID? How did you...?”

    “I know a man that makes very real fake IDs. When I was young I used to buy fake IDs for me and my friends to get into bars... I mean, I'm still young. The point is you can give it to Youngjae for the contract”

    “Isn't a crime?”

    “You want to tell him the truth?”

    Daehyun considered telling Youngjae the truth, and pictured him yelling and screaming and setting everything on fire a la Godzilla.

    “Never! He doesn’t seem as chill as you!” Daehyun kept the papers in the envelope “I'll take this to him”

    “Be quick, I’ll wait in the parking lot”

    “We will go to some part?”

    “To Lotte World” Himchan said “Today you have a photo shoot for Ego website. And since I’m the stylist that makes all the important decisions, I thought the perfect scenario for the shoot is Lotte World, because we’re in February, Valentine’s Day and Winter Olympics, couples love to go to Lotte World, thanks to doramas, plus there’s an ice rink to skate with your boyfriend”

    “I see”

    “So what are you waiting for? Take the papers to Youngjae! Now!” Himchan said “I know you guys love to spend time together, but I need you to leave the papers and go find me in the parking lot as soon as you can”

    “I don't love to spend time with him!”

    “Whatever you say” Himchan pushed him out of the door.

Daehyun went to Youngjae's office, this time Jooe (Momoland), the secretary; let him in without any trouble. Youngjae wore glasses and typed on his laptop, he looked smart and focused on his work, and Daehyun was pretty embarrassed to interrupt.

    “Jooe told me you're here to give me your papers” Youngjae said without looking at her.

    “Yeah, here's my information”

    “Leave it over there” Youngjae waved his hand indifferently.

    Daehyun nodded in silence and left the envelope by the laptop, then Youngjae lifted his head and looked her in the eyes.

    “I... Bye...” Daehyun turned to go.

    “Wait” Youngjae got up from his seat and rushed towards Daehyun, grabbing him by the arm and making him to face him.

    “Why do you have dark circles?” Youngjae used his free hand to pat the bags under Daehyun’s eyes.

    “I didn’t sleep…” Daehyun held his breath. No one’s ever touched his face with such familiarity, much less a man!

    “Damn, you have a photo shoot today, I hope Himchan’s good enough to cover that” Youngjae released Daehyun’s arm like nothing.

    Daehyun sighed, for a moment he thought Youngjae was worried about him, but he was only worried about work.

Himchan drove to Lotte World to the beat of Red Velvet’s music and Daehyun drank the iced coffee the older got for him. The trip took a few minutes; they arrived at the park at seven. Himchan parked the car; the parking lot was empty like a ghost town.

    “The park isn’t open yet, what are we doing here?” Daehyun asked.

    “Hyoseong and her staff will be arriving at eleven, so I need all the time I can get to get you ready”

    “Who needs four hours to get ready?”

    “You” Himchan got out of the car “Help me with the bags”

    Daehyun followed Himchan to the trunk of the car which was full of suitcases.

    “What’s all this stuff?” Daehyun asked in astonishment.

    “My work tools” Himchan replied proudly “Help me carry the luggage to the hotel”

    “Hotel?”

    “I booked a room in Lotte Hotel World. I need a comfy place to work, unless you want to change clothes here”

    “Of course not, but people will think badly of us! Two men with all these suitcases in a room!!!”

Himchan chose the dining room as his headquarters; he took everything out of the bags and put them on the table carefully while Daehyun watched expectantly.

    “Good news you’re naturally thin, bad news curvy girls are in and you got no curve” Himchan said “Good news there's bodies” Himchan showed him a piece of clothing that looked like a swimsuit with the bust open and the entire back covered.

    “You must be wondering what this is for” Himchan shook the bodysuit in Daehyun’s face.

    “Not really”

    “This is an open-bust mid-thigh bodysuit, great to shape your body, flat your stomach, lift your bosom, make your bum look perky and create a feminine silhouette. It'll flat out your thighs too” Himchan put the body back on the table and grabbed two pieces of fabric “Your arms are big. You’ll have to wear arm shaper too! So you’ll only wear things with long sleeves, Thank God there’s wide range of dresses, tops, blouses, shirts, etc. with long sleeves that are flawless”

    “It all seems uncomfortable”

    “Not as much as the fake s”

    “What do you mean by fake s?”

    “They’re called prostheses or forms” Himchan took a pair of s out of a small box “These are B cup”

    Daehyun turned red with embarrassment as Himchan displayed the forms in front of his face.

    “I’ll show you how to attach them” Himchan placed a male mannequin in the center and Daehyun shut his eyes tightly “I need you to pay attention”

    “I don't want to; they’re fake s, but s!!!”

    “It's not like your first time seeing s, right?”

    Daehyun blushed harder.

    “Get out, are you serious? You're in your 20s; you’ve never had a girlfriend?”

    “Yes, but all we did was kiss!”

    “Don’t worry, it’s no big deal, s are perfectly natural. So open your eyes and watch”

    Daehyun half opened an eye and Himchan positioned the on the mannequin’s chest.

    “These forms come with adhesive, so you just press and wait and voila!” Himchan took his hand away and the was effortlessly attached to the mannequin’s chest.

    “Oh my, that looks so real that got a …” Daehyun said, freaking out.

    It took forever, but Himchan convinced Daehyun to sport the fake s, then Daehyun put on the white dress that Himchan picked beforehand. The dress was short coming to his thighs with long lace sleeves.

    “This is very tight” Daehyun said.

    “Bodies are modern corsets” Himchan said “You look good”

    “How am I supposed to know? You don’t let me look in the mirror”

    “I haven’t done the makeup yet. So sit tight, I’ll need a lot of concealer to cover up the infamous dark circles under your eyes”

    Daehyun didn’t understand anything; he just let Himchan do whatever to him. The theme of the photo shoot was romance and winter; Himchan used pastel blue eye shadow for Daehyun’s eyes and black eyeliner to do double winged, and then he brushed through the natural thick brows and curled the eyelashes. The stylist also contoured and highlighted his nose, painted his lips with baby pink and his nails with dark pink.

    “Aren’t we done yet?” Daehyun asked, feeling like an eternity.

    “All that’s left is putting the wig on” Himchan took the wig from the mannequin’s head “This wig unlike the one you’ve been wearing is made of human hair”

    Daehyun took a look at the wig; it certainly looked more natural than the one he had.

    “It’s black, long and straight, but I’ll curl it to create a romantic feeling” Himchan pulled the wig cap on Daehyun’s hair and made sure to hide all his hair and secured it with snap clips, then he placed the wig on Daehyun’s head and ultimately he placed bobby pins through the top of the wig hooking them into the wig cap and hair underneath.

    “Now you can look in the mirror” Himchan said, excited.

    Consumed with curiosity, Daehyun reached the mirror and admired his reflection, he couldn’t believe it, there was a very gorgeous and attractive girl before him.

    “This is a distorting mirror like the ones at the Carnival?” Daehyun said in shock.

    “No, it's you Dasom the new model of Ego”

    “No, really, she can't be me, she is too pretty...” she is the kind of girl that would never go out with me. How can she be me if I'm so plain and ordinary?

    “Like I said, you're a good-looking man, Jung Daehyun, and with my help you can be a good-looking woman”

    “I can't believe, it's not possible”

    “Believe it, you're flawless”

    “I wish Youngjae were here to see how beautiful I am, he always says I’m ugly”

    “I can fix it” Himchan took a picture of Daehyun with his cellphone and sent it to Youngjae.

    “What did you do?!” Daehyun shouted in alarm “He’s going to think I’m flirting with him!!! Girls don’t send their pics to guys just because!!!”

    “C’mon, he's the editor-in-chief and I'm the stylist that sends him a photo of my work” Himchan shrugged “It's not like I sent pics of yours” Himchan giggled.

    “Himchan-nim” a male voice called from outside, Himchan went to the door and opened it a little to see a young man with dark brown hair in leather jacket “Mmm… Moon Jongup, the photographer’s assistant”

    “Hyoseong noona is getting the cameras and lighting ready for the shoot” Jongup said “She wants to know when the new model will be ready”

    “The new model is already ready” Himchan said “So tell your boss to hurry” Himchan slammed the door in his face.

Meanwhile, Youngjae was in his office, writing an essay about how to make Ego great again. The partners of the magazine wanted to stop providing a large sum of money, since its sales dropped in recent months, however, by not having big money the magazine couldn’t afford the most popular idols or expensive brands, they couldn’t afford foreign top models or singers or go to posh restaurants or travel around the world to make fancy articles. A fashion magazine without all those luxuries would be doomed.

    Suddenly, his phone rang; Youngjae took it and stared at the photo that Himchan sent him. It was a pic of Dasom in a short white dress with a dreamy makeup and striking curly hair.

    “She is beautiful” Youngjae said, captivated “Hell, no, she is ugly and Himchan is good at his job!!!” Youngjae smacked the phone against the table, he wasn’t going to change his mind just because Himchan worked his magic on that ugly duckling, besides, why did Dasom send him a pic of her? Was she flirting? Girls only send pics to their friends and guys they’re interested in!

    “Is she interested in me?” Youngjae had a look at the photo again. He was so into it, he didn’t notice that someone came into the office.

    “Hi, Youngjae oppa” a young woman entered the office; it was Nahyun (Sonamoo), Youngjae's girlfriend. Youngjae startled and quickly hid the phone in the drawer.

    “What are you doing here?” Youngjae said, covering his face with his hand, he turned red for no reason.

    “You said we’d go to Lotte World for Valentine’s Day”

    “Today isn’t Valentine”

    “I know, we both work on Valentine, so we agreed to spend today together” Nahyun frowned “Have you forgotten?”

    “No!!! Let’s go to Lotte World!!! Wait in the parking lot while I finish this” Youngjae turned the laptop off as Nahyun sighed and left.

    “How could I forget?! We’ve been dating since 2014 and we do the same every year!” Youngjae opened the drawer and grabbed his cell to delete the picture of Dasom; however, he thought over and saved it instead.

click here (you can go to this link and see how shy daehyun is)

february is lunar new year too, so happy new year!!! hope all the things you want come true, thanks for reading