Pygmalion

Sukyung scanned her closet sharply before selecting her outfit. 

When she arrived at the shop, she couldn’t hide her confusion. For once, the receptionist was present and two other employees were walking by on the first floor while looking at her curiously. 

Sukyung walked up to the front desk. The girl she met the first time she came to the shop was there. Sukyung asked her,

“Umm. Is President Jin here? I have a reservation…”

“Please go upstairs.”

Even as she walked up the stairs, she could feel the female employees on the first floor staring at her sharply. Feeling uncomfortable, Sukyung flinched. She reached the big room where she always had her lesson with Sungwoo. She opened the door and murmured,

“Umm… Hello?”

Huh? To her surprise, the room was filled with people. A young girl was in the middle and three female employees of the shop were around her working. Sungwoo was nearby studying the young girl intently. 

The young girl seemed uncomfortable standing because she was fidgeting. When she spotted Sukyung, she frowned. A middle-aged woman who was standing nearby turned toward the door and shouted,

“Who are you? We didn’t call for anyone! Can’t you see that we’re in the middle of a consultation?”

“Umm, but…”

Sukyung stammered. She wanted to say that she had a reservation at this time, but she didn’t have the courage to argue back. Sukyung mumbled her apology and was about to close the door behind her when Sungwoo finally noticed her. He walked up to her and asked in annoyance,

“Don’t you carry your cell phone with you? Why won’t you answer my call?!”

“Ah, pardon? Cell phone? My cell phone? It wasn’t working, so I am having it repaired right now.”

When Sukyung replied in confusion, Sungwoo continued to glare at her. Crossing his arms, he continued, 

“If you had answered your phone, I would’ve been able to tell you that I had to change our reservation time. I had to take an emergency appointment, so this time slot was double booked. I wanted to change your lesson to tomorrow, but I guess we might as well do it today.”

The middle aged woman, who appeared to be the young girl’s mother, protested,

“What? No way! Mr. Jin, you promised to take a look at my daughter Arum! We’ve only been here for 30 minutes now. We came all the way here so we could get a private consultation with you. If you work on another client at the same time, that won’t be fair for my daughter. Arum really needs this…”

Sungwoo turned sharply toward the middle aged woman and glared at her. The woman seemed scared as she closed her mouth. All Sukyung could see was the back of Sungwoo’s head, but she could guess how angry he must look right now. Even the employees who were working on the girl looked nervous. 

Sungwoo replied to the middle aged woman quietly, 

“And who was it that begged me to change her reservation to this time on such short notice? If I remember correctly, it was you who insisted on this appointment even though we didn’t have the time, wasn’t it? I was being kind when I allowed you to change your appointment so suddenly. You’re the one who needs me, not the other way around, right? We accommodate you, so don’t you think you should be doing whatever we tell you to do? And did I say I won’t do the consultation? I said I’ll do both, didn’t I? If I didn’t think I could do it, I would’ve canceled one of the appointments. So how dare you tell me what to do? If you think you know everything, you can do the consultation on your daughter yourself. But if you want to stay, just keep quiet. I can’t stand you constantly interrupting me.”

Wow. All Sukyung could do was stare at Sungwoo. The middle aged woman looked bright red, but she didn’t dare to argue back. It looked like she was scared she would be asked to leave. 

How could Sungwoo treat his client so rudely like this? This was a service industry, wasn’t it? Was this really okay for him to act this way? 

Sungwoo turned toward her and ordered, 

“You can go to the third floor. Tell the girl there I told you to get a massage. I’ll give her the details later when I go up there with this client. Just get them to have everything ready.”

“Umm… The third floor?”

“Yes, the third floor. It’s the one above the second floor. Get it?”

Noticing Sungwoo’s eyes narrowing in annoyance, Sukyung didn’t ask any more questions. She hurriedly left the room. She knew that if she said one more word, he would get even more annoyed. 

Thankfully, the door behind her shut quietly. Sukyung always wondered if this shop had any clients other than her because she had always been the only one here when she had her lessons. But it seemed that it was indeed a busy shop after all.