Far From It
Unexpected"Ally Sit here, I need to talk to the manager. I'll be right back" Jina tells you as she directs you to the white sofa in the corner of the salon. You had come with your friend because she requested you to and since there was nothing to do back at the apartment by yourself anyways, you willingly obliged.
"Be fast.. I'm sorta hungry" You tell her as she gives you a slight nod in reply before dashing into another part of the salon in a hurry.
You sit still like you had been told, patiently waiting for her. Your eyes however was continually scanning the room for something interesting to look at to try and kill time. You notice the place was mostly black and white and definitely high class judging from the other furnishes and equipment in the room, especially the glass vase placed on the table next to you.
Your attention however was soon diverted from the room's stylish setting and towards loud noises of people talking coming from the entry of the salon. You look up to see seven guys dressed in branded clothes walking in one by one through the door with a busy team of staffs following closely behind them. Most of the guys had a black mask on covering half their faces while some had snap backs on so it wasn't easy trying to figure out who they were. One of them must've noticed you looking as he turns your way, giving you a questioning look.
"This way please!" you hear a lady from the other side instruct them causing the guy to swiftly turn his attention away from you again, bringing him back to focus on what he was supposed to do.
"You three go" you hear him say to the guys in front of him, "Bobby, Jinhwan, Donghyuk and I will stay on this side." They all replied with a tired nod before lifelessly following the lady to the other side of the salon. The other four followed the second lady to the side you were sitting at. In the rows of seats lined up in the middle of the salon the same guy that had looked at you decided to sit in the seat closest to you. You noticed he did this and swiftly grabbed a magazine from the table in front of you to make yourself look pre-occupied, a sense of awkwardness had somehow managed to wash over you as you realise the guy was weary of your presence while the others had completely ignored it.
'When are you getting back' you desperately text your friend as you begin to become restless. People were now becoming louder and rushing past you from all over the place doing their job.
You couldn't help but glance up from the magazine a few times to get a better look of the guys and it wasn't until they started removing the masks and hats that you realise who they were.
'Of course they're celebrities!' you told yourself, slowly recognising Them.
"Hanbin, it's good to see you again my darling!!" a male hair dresser exclaims dramatically as he approaches him, his hands placed on his shoulders to get his attention.
Hanbin flashes him a warm smile before another thought enters his head, gesturing for the man to come closer to him.
"Is that girl behind us part of the staff here?" He asks the man as silently as he could.
He turns around slightly to confirm your face before turning back to Hanbin again, shaking his head in reply.
"Do you know her?" He continued asking, this time their suspicious actions catching your attention.
"I've never seen her before" the man admits, causing some sort of unrest in him.
"You don't think she's one of those sasaengs do you?" The man says first as if he had read Hanbin's mind, "What if she's in MY shop, pretending to be one of MY staffs to get the loop on you guys?!" This time, the issue was becoming personal for the man. You managed to hear the last statement the man had said and you knew full well that was far from the truth, somehow annoyance begins to enter your thoughts as you start to feel as if you had been accused of a crime you didn't commit. How could they get the conclusion of you being a sasaeng from you doing nothing but your own business?
It wasn't before long that the man begins to stride your way. You cautiously watch him from behind the magazine as he gets closer to you.
He coughs deliberately to get your attention before speaking, "I don't mean to sound rude, but do you perhaps have an appointment here?" The man asks clearly as he watches you slowly drop the magazine away from your face.
"No, I actually don't" you tell him honestly, a hint of annoyance in your tone somehow manages to make its way out as well. You place the magazine back on the table and begin to rise up from your seat, realising he wasn't going to be easy.
"Then can I ask what your purpose here is?"
"That's really non of your business" you reply, your arms now folded tightly in front of you
"How can you say that?! I am the owner of this place, it's definitely my business!" the man begins to raise his voice to show whose boss, catching the attention of everyone in the shop. Hanbin slowly rises from his seat, letting out a bothersome sigh after hearing the scuffle and begins to make his way towards the man. He places himself next to him as his eyes thoroughly observes you silently.
"If it's really that big of an issue, I'll tell you right now I'm not a sasaeng like you're thinking" You state as clearly as you can, shifting your position as you begin to roll the sleeve of your jacket up, somehow expecting a fight or something to go off.
"We can't just take your words for it, give us your phone, we'll need to check." Hanbin finally breaks his silence as he calmly pulls his hands out, expecting for you to oblige but your pride got in the way. They accuse you of being a creep now they want proof? You had nothing to hide but you were also stubborn, giving the phone would mean you lose to them.
"My phone is my business, you two are going overboard"
"How can we not?!" The man butts in, "Who knows how many sasaengs are stalking them a day! You are sitting here all suspicious in my shop how can we not think you're one of them. News flash! We had the salon close until 10am so no one should be here apart from staff...but here you are!" The man exclaims, half sarcastic about the end part.
Hanbin lets out another annoyed sigh after realising how much precious time this situation was eating away, slightly scratching his eyebrow before stepping closer to you.
"If you have nothing to hide then give us your phone nicely. My manager isn't as patient as I am" he warns you sternly as if giving you one last chance to own up but you just couldn't budge.
"Then make your manager aware that I'm not one of those creeps you are accusing me of being" you strike back, also stepping forward to face him, too far into the situation to back down.
"That's what they all say! If you won't give it to us then we'll have to force it out of you!" the man bursts out as if he had had enough as he suddenly leans forward and grabs a rough hold of you in an attempt to get the phone that was tightly wrapped in your palm. You struggle for a small while with him before the man over powers you, knocking you off balance and causing you to fall onto the hard ground. The sound of shattering glass accompanied you as fall. You realise you had knocked over the vase from all the confusion, leaving the ground laced with sharp glass everywhere. You look up towards the many faces that have now gathered around you and the only thought that managed to get processed through your head was that you hoped the vase wasn't as expensive as it looked.
Everyone stood around shocked, muttering different things to each other but you could careless about what these people were saying right now as it wasn't your first priority. You shift your body slowly as you attempt to get up from the ground and for a split second you managed to glance over at Hanbin. You saw that his expression wasn't that good at all, instead of being annoyed he looked more shocked than anything however before you could think any further you were soon distracted by a familiar voice rushing your way.
"What happened?!" Jina asks worriedly rushing to the scene. She observes everything for a short second before her eyes stops at your hand. You follow her gaze and realised it had been cut, blood covering a decent part of it.
"Ally, your bleeding!" She exclaims as she rushes to your side. "Who did this?!" She asks, somehow her worries turned into anger as she looks towards the two men in front of you.
"It's nothing, let's just get out" you try to calm her, knowing she was even more stubborn than you were.
"How is this nothing? You're bleeding!" She exclaims before turning her attention back to the owner of the store.
"She was acting suspicious....." The man mumbles unsurely now that the situation had turned out this way,
"Suspicious..? ...About what!?! She's my friend, all she did was wait for me like I asked her to, what did she even do to look suspicious?!" Jina exclaims angrily before gesturing for you to make your way out. Jina follows closely behind you, leaving Hanbin and the man in the salon to realise how bad the situation had gotten. All that was able to come out Hanbin was a tired moan, knowing for sure that this wouldn't be the last time they meet.
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