The Last Appointment – Part 1: Fifteen Minutes After Closing

The salon in Gangnam closed at eight. At seven minutes to eight, Min-ji was sweeping the last clippings from under the chairs, humming to the radio and counting the minutes until she could go home and sleep.

The bell over the door rang.

"I know we're closed," said a man's voice. "I'm sorry. I'll be quick."

She turned. He was tall and slender, in a dark coat with the collar turned up, and his hair was a shaggy black mess that fell into his eyes. He looked as though he had walked straight from a funeral, or a very bad job interview.

"We're closed," said Min-ji, though she was already reaching for the appointment book. "Are you a regular?"

"No. I've never had my hair cut in my life," said the man. "My mother always did it with kitchen scissors. I'm Jae-won. I start a new job on Monday, and I want to look like someone I'm not scared of."

Min-ji put down the broom.

"Sit," she said. "Ten minutes. But you have to tell me who you're afraid of becoming."

He sat in the chair, and looked at himself in the mirror with an expression that broke her heart a little.

"Someone who doesn't run away," said Jae-won quietly.

Min-ji picked up her scissors. Her hands were steady, but her pulse was not.

"Then let's start with the fringe," she said. "It's in your eyes. You can't see the future with it covering your face."

She cut slowly, carefully, the scissors whispering through his dark hair. He sat very still, his eyes on hers in the mirror, and she felt him watching her hands with a kind of breathless attention.

"You're good at this," he said.

"I've been doing it for six years. Nobody ever asks me about the hair. They only ask me to make it shorter."

"Then tell me," said Jae-won. "What do you want when you're not cutting someone else's hair?"

Min-ji's scissors paused. She looked at him, and the question sat between them, honest and unexpected.

"I want to stop being careful all the time," she said slowly. "My mother wanted me to be a teacher. I became a stylist because it was safe, and I never asked myself if I wanted to be good at it or just fine."

"And are you good at it?"

"Yes," said Min-ji, and smiled, a little surprised by her own answer.

Jae-won's reflection smiled back at her.

"Can I ask you something?" he said.

"Yes."

"Would you stay after closing, just for a while, and finish the cut properly? Not because I need a haircut. Because I'd like to talk to someone who's already good at being honest with other people's reflections."

Min-ji's breath caught. The clock on the wall ticked past eight.

"Yes," she said. "But only if you let me pick the coffee, and you tell me why you're afraid of being someone who doesn't run away."

"Deal," said Jae-won softly. "Green?"

"Green," said Min-ji, and put the scissors down, very gently, on the counter. "Very green. Now stay still, and let me look at you properly for once."