Chapter 8: The Hairstylist’s Apprentice

 

 

 

Chapter 8: The Hairstylist’s Apprentice

 

PRINCESS Patricia’s debut party ended without incident, and the next day, I spotted a handful of women in the castle sporting the same hairstyle, likely having used my pamphlets as a reference. Some of the noble ladies had put their own unique spin on it, too.

“Oh, I’m so flattered that they’d style themselves after me. It feels like they’ve accepted me!” Patricia gushed as I was putting her hair into bedtime braids that evening.

I had handed out pamphlets of my own hairstyle as well, but naturally a commoner’s hairstyle couldn’t possibly hold a candle to the Princess’s in terms of popularity.

“You’re the talk of the town, Your Highness,” Mona sighed dreamily. “All the Dragonkin girls are taking note of your hair and fashion sense. Speaking of which, I think I might try a different hairstyle tomorrow... I want to show off for Padell.” She was, of course, referring to her Bondmate.

“You do realize he’ll swoon over you no matter what your hair looks like, right?” Rebecca teased as she was making Patricia’s bed, and Mona grinned sheepishly.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that Sari was looking at Mona rather coldly. With her pale, platinum blonde hair and upturned eyes, she always gave off a distant air, but it occurred to me that I had yet to see her smile even once. She spotted me looking at her and turned away, still scowling.

Unlike with Rebecca and Mona, who were starting to warm up to me over time, I still hadn’t made a connection with Sari. If I spoke to her, she would rarely even respond, and when she did, she was always detached and formal. In retrospect, this wasn’t too terribly different from the way she treated Rebecca and Mona. Perhaps she preferred to keep her work and personal life separate...or maybe she just didn’t enjoy her job all that much.

I turned back to the conversation at hand.

“Yes, I imagine you’re a star player here in Vaxwald, Your Highness. As a commoner, I couldn’t be more envious. I can style my hair however I like and no one would notice, but when it comes to you, why, you can start an entire movement! You’re a trendsetter, Princess!”

“In that case, I’d better pay careful attention to my appearance from now on. Especially if I’m going to appear in public.”

“Your next big event will be the wedding, I imagine. Now that will start some trends—your hairstyle, your dress, everything. All the brides will want to look like you.”

Patricia’s wedding dress was currently in the process of being tailored, but it was scheduled to be ready in time. As for her hairstyle, I was still in the brainstorming phase. Her dress was going to be pure white, so I needed to come up with something equally pure and innocent, yet still classy and dignified. Something everyone would want to imitate.

❀❀❀

THE next morning, before noon, I was visiting Patricia’s sitting room to discuss my thoughts about her wedding hairstyle, show her some of my designs, and take note of any requests she had. Partway through, however, there was a knock at the door, and Rebecca went to open it.

“Your Highness, it’s Torpan, the palace attendant.”

“Let her in.”

At the Princess’s request, in walked the slender, middle-aged woman in charge of supervising the servants, as well as a young man I didn’t recognize, and...Ray? He was supposed to be standing guard just outside. Did he need something from Her Highness? He had a hard frown on his face.

As for Torpan, normally she was so stern in demeanor that she made Rebecca look easygoing by comparison, but in perfect contrast to Ray’s dour mood, today she was actually smiling.

“Your Highness, I have brought you an apprentice hairstylist who will be taking over after Miss Mayna returns to Myulan.”

“You’re referring to that gentleman there?”

“Indeed I am. Go on and introduce yourself.”

At Torpan’s prompting, the young man took a step forward, placed a hand on his chest, and bowed deeply. “I am Kirion Soh.”

Kirion looked to be the same age as me, or perhaps slightly younger; a hint of boyishness yet twinkled in his eyes, and he had an outgoing, friendly air about him. He was half a head shorter than Ray, with his long, dark hair tied back in a low ponytail. The average Dragonkin man generally kept his hair short, and yet Kirion’s descended well to his posterior. Rarely did I encounter a man with hair as long and healthy as his.

“When I heard that the Princess of Myulan was seeking a hairstylist, I volunteered myself immediately. It would be an honor to work on your hair, Your Highness.”

“Kirion here is a barber. He used to work for a merchant and would visit his mansion regularly to work on both his and his wife’s hair,” Torpan explained.

“Not only can I give haircuts, but I’m also very skilled with my hands,” Kirion continued. “While I don’t have any prior experience with your intricate Myulan braiding techniques, I’ve worked with hair for a long time now, so if you’re willing to train me, I’m sure I can pick it up in no time flat. Again, it’s truly an honor to be here!”

His bright smile was contagious, and Patricia smiled back in kind. “Welcome, Kirion. Mayna here is incredibly good with my hair, and I’d trust her over anyone, but she left her whole family back in Myulan to come here with me, and I don’t want to keep her in Vaxwald forever. That’s why I’d like for you to train under her and study her methods. Mayna, make a proper stylist out of him before you leave, won’t you?”

“Yes, Your Highness,” I said with a firm nod. Honestly speaking, I was nowhere near talented enough to take on an apprentice, and as such had never attempted to teach someone before, but I was willing to give it my very best.

But before the conversation could reach its conclusion, Ray cut in. “Wouldn’t a female stylist be better suited to the task? Surely one would think it strange to assign a man to handle a woman’s hair.”

“He’s a good worker, Sir Ray. Very diligent and dedicated,” Torpan argued. “If you’re worried that he’ll harbor untoward thoughts regarding the Princess, don’t be. He worked on the merchant’s wife’s hair just fine.”

Her sleek ponytail and perfectly pressed uniform gave her a generally uptight vibe, but perhaps she was more lax about opposite-sex interactions than I had given her credit for... Then she placed a protective hand on Kirion’s shoulder, and I started to wonder if maybe she was just really fond of him in particular.

“You speak as though you’ve known him a long time, but you only just met him a few days ago,” Ray commented, his suspicion plain.

“Yes, but you see, in all my years I’ve worked with many a servant, and I can tell at a glance whether they’ll be trustworthy.”

“Is he?”

“He is. There were a number of other candidates, but I determined him to be the most talented and trustworthy of the lot,” Torpan declared proudly.

The two stared each other down in perfect silence. Things were getting nowhere fast, so I decided to take Torpan’s side.

“There are male hairstylists back in Myulan, too. The most well-known is the man who personally served the Queen about a hundred or so years ago—he was so incredibly talented. He crafted hairstyles in which he would build the hair straight upwards. Sometimes he would style her hair like the ocean and use a miniature ship model as an accessory, and other times he would shape her hair like a birdcage and put live birds inside! All done with the power of braids, of course! He went down in history as the original inventor of many strange and unique hairstyles.”

“Goodness, it sounds as though male stylists have been around for at least a century! Nothing strange about it then, is there?” Torpan fixed Ray with a smug smirk.

Kirion turned to me. “You sure know your stuff, Miss Mayna!”

But when I looked into his dark eyes, I felt...restless. Not the flutter of budding attraction—no, this was something else. Something I couldn’t quite place...

“Mayna!”

At last, I managed to tear my gaze away from Kirion’s. I turned to find Ray glaring daggers at me. Perhaps he was angry that I had taken Torpan’s side in the debate...

❀❀❀

IN the end, Ray was so completely opposed to Kirion taking the job that he went straight to Prince Dario about it. His protests were ultimately in vain, however; the Prince was not the type to judge a book by its cover, and he was content to let Kirion stay as long as he proved he was the right person for the job.

And so Kirion Soh was officially appointed as my apprentice.

“I’m excited to be working with you, Miss Mayna!”

“Likewise, Kirion, I look forward to teaching you.”

For lack of a better place to go, I led him to my quarters so we could show each other the tools we were most accustomed to using. As it turned out, Kirion had far more of a collection than I did when it came to male-targeted hair care items. I’d worked on men in the past, and so I stocked the bare minimum necessary for trimming and shaving, but his sheer variety of gels, shaving creams, and razors had me all agog.

“What beautiful hairdressing scissors! They’re not bulky, either—I already feel right at home using them!”

“They’re nice and sharp, too. I see you’ve got a whole selection of brushes and hair oil and pins here...not to mention all these decorative accessories! You could open your own shop with all this!” Kirion exclaimed as he opened a wooden box full of hair accessories. Although I made sure to dispose of any that grew rusty or otherwise fell out of fashion, I still had three whole boxes’ worth.

As we were fawning and gushing, I caught sight of Ray standing in the corner of the room.

He had tagged along right from the moment I invited Kirion back to my quarters, standing behind me and exuding a venomous aura. I wasn’t sure why he had bothered to come with us, but his presence was clearly making Kirion uncomfortable, and frankly, it was a buzzkill.

“If you came here just to glare at Kirion, then please leave,” I sighed. When he didn’t budge, I pushed the point, “I really don’t know what you expected. You’re the one who asked Torpan to hire a new hairstylist. I get that you don’t like him, but everyone else does. You should try not to be so openly antagonistic towards people you don’t like, because believe it or not, it really hurts.”

Trust me, I would know.

As I pushed him toward the door, his expression grew conflicted, like he was tempted to say something...but whatever it was, the words never came. In the end, he trudged from the room of his own will.

Once I had shut the door behind him, I turned back to Kirion. “Sorry about that. He’s just really protective of His Highness Prince Dario—he cares for him like a younger brother. So when it comes to the Prince’s bride-to-be, he can’t help but want to protect her, too. It’s nothing personal.”

Kirion gazed at the now-shut door through which Ray had disappeared. “I can’t deny that might be the case, but to me, it seems a lot more like you’re the one he’s trying to protect. Are you two an item?”

“Wh—No! Don’t be silly!” I snapped hastily.

His lips curled into a playful smile. “Oho? Something’s definitely going on here. Is he your ex or something?”

“Nngh...” I couldn’t exactly deny it.

Kirion’s smile broadened. “Oooh, I love boyfriend-girlfriend drama!”

“Really? I didn’t peg you for the type.”

“Okay, so he’s totally your ex, right? And he wants you back?”

“He does not want me,” I corrected him.

Instead of letting him jump to conclusions about the situation, I decided to give him the gist of what had happened between myself and Ray—that he had mistaken me for his Bondmate, then ultimately changed his mind before we ever got together.

“Is it even possible to make a mistake like that?”

“I admit I asked myself the same question, but if it wasn’t possible, then it wouldn’t have happened. Anyway, wouldn’t you know better than I would? You’re the Dragonkin here.”

“I guess so...” Kirion muttered vaguely. Then he suddenly brightened up. “Well then, if you’re not with Sir Ray, then that means I could have a chance with you, right?”

His tone was lighthearted, so I laughed. “Trust me, I’m done with romance after that.”

But Kirion kept going. “Aww, c’mon. Just because it didn’t work out your first time?”

He was a walking contradiction—the innocence of a boy paired with the charm of a full-grown man. He looked down at me, and as I gazed back into his eyes, once again I found myself oddly restless. I wanted to look away, but somehow I couldn’t.

Then I saw my own entranced expression reflected in his eyes, and I snapped back to my senses. Turning my face away from him, I hastily gathered up the accessories lying around and returned them to their proper container.

“My job is more important to me than having a relationship.”

Kirion chuckled and shrugged. “I guess you’re just that dedicated.”

❀❀❀

AFTER three days of working with Kirion, I found him to be a good and honest person—smart and talented to boot. He was a quick learner, and whenever my explanation fell short, he was quick to fill in the gaps using his own intuition.

But if there was one observation I could make, it was that he was rather chatty. He would gossip with Mona about the latest scandals in the aristocracy, and sometimes he would fill me in on the secret factions he’d discovered amongst the servants. Either he came across this information incidentally while chatting up a storm with half the castle, or he was intentionally seeking it out to slake his thirst for drama.

Lately he had started to enjoy the negative attention from Ray, too. Evidently he had quite the thick skin. At first I felt sorry for him and thought about telling Ray to back off, but then I noticed that Kirion seemed a bit too eager to provoke him—leaning in close to me whenever he knew Ray was watching—and at that point, I abandoned any notion of choosing sides.

If anything, I couldn’t comprehend how Ray could get angry at the mere sight of Kirion within close proximity to me. It didn’t make sense. What was he thinking?

As the days passed, Princess Patricia grew more and more at home in Vaxwald. I could wager a guess that the kind gestures from the royal family had helped a great deal—not just from Prince Dario, but from Her Majesty the Queen as well.

“Her Majesty invited me to tea tomorrow afternoon! She told me she can’t wait to see my next hairstyle. She also mentioned she’d like to see me try something more Vaxwaldian... Something that isn’t a bun...”

While the Princess seemed excited at the prospect of attending a royal tea party, she couldn’t quite hide her unease.

“Well then, tomorrow we’ll just have to try the Vaxwald style,” I nodded.

“But I just know it won’t look nice on me! My hair’s too poofy!”

“I could use hair gel to contain it, but that might give it an odd sheen... Plus, it would make the hair unnaturally firm, to the point that it won’t rustle in the breeze... Hmm. I’ll have to come up with a solution that doesn’t use gel,” I concluded.

Behind me, I could feel Kirion’s eyes on me.