His Stylist Noona

Chapter 12

It was rather dark in the room with the main source of light coming from overhead spotlights which illuminated six large statues along the perimeter. There was scaffolding along with one of the walls, and a heap of equipment in one corner, which explained the construction tape outside. In the middle of the room were several rows of display cases filled with what looked to be very old, very delicate, and very precious artifacts; there were ornately carved sculptures, jewel-clad vases, and gold-plated war relics. However, the doors to all of the cases were surprisingly wide open, the pile of cleaning products at the base of one suggesting that the museum was taking advantage of the exhibit closure to spruce things up.

The fact that all of those artifacts were just sitting there out in the open made you shudder; you were most definitely not supposed to be here with access to them.

"Tae," you whisper-shouted, a slight hint of panic in your voice. "We really shouldn't be in here."

"Wow, these are incredible," he said, clearly ignoring your warning as he walked over to one of the statues.

Growing increasingly nervous, you went over to where he was standing on the far side of the room.

As you walked over to him, you thought back to the warning Mrs. Choi had given you and the rest of the stylists earlier in the day. She had repeated numerous times that it was an honor for the museum to have allowed the team to film there and reminded everyone to be respectful and considerate at all times. She had looked directly at you when she said that, which at the time pissed you off, but nowhere you were, clearly taking advantage of the museum's hospitality and violating its rules.

"Tae," you said more firmly, tugging on his sleeve as you spoke. "C'mon, we really need to go. It's definitely against the rules for us to be here."

"I'm tired of the rules," he said wearily, though with an unmistakable bite to his tone, as his eyes remained trained on the statue like he was in some sort of trance.

You stared at him blankly, having no idea what that was supposed to mean. When you tugged at his sleeve again, this time much harder, and he didn't budge or even so much as blink, you gave up and let go.

This was definitely not the time or place for him to be having some sort of crisis and staging a rebellion. He might be an untouchable national treasure who wouldn't get in trouble if someone found him in here, but you certainly weren't. You needed to get out of this room now.

Having begun frantically pacing back and forth, you were contemplating whether or not you should just walk out and leave him here when he finally broke out of his trance.

"How come you always turn down Hyun?" he suddenly asked, turning to face you with a curious expression.

Your breath caught in your throat as you abruptly stopped pacing. Surely, he had not just asked that question.

"W-What?" you stammered out nervously.

"Hyun," he repeated calmly. "He's asked you out several times, but you always say no."

Immediately, all of the stress you had been feeling about getting caught morphed into stress over how you were going to survive this line of questioning and casually play things off. If you had been anxious before, you were about to have a full-on panic attack now. Even under normal circumstances, you would not have been prepared to have this conversation with him, but right now, in your current state, you were so unsettled that it was hard to think straight.

"As I said," you replied shakily as you turned away to look at the statue. "I-I don't have time."

He didn't say anything for a few moments and you thought perhaps he was going to leave it at that, but then he spoke again.