A Little Less Makeup, A Lot More Action
A True Beauty Fanfic
When Han Seojun got the text asking him to meet after practice, he knew exactly what was coming.
Even after two years, Im Jugyeong was still holding onto Lee Suho, and he had been stupid to think he could ever change that.
He didn’t answer, hoping she would take the hint and leave, but of course, she didn’t. He considered telling her Suho was leaving to visit his father again. That would make her leave, run back to Suho, right? But if it didn’t . . . better not to get involved.
Well, any more than he already was.
“You should leave. We’ll talk later.”
“But, Han Seojun–”
“Please. Let’s talk later.”
She hesitated, but nodded, then left.
He got up two sets of stairs before he broke down.
He had known Suho would come back eventually, but he had hoped . . . he had hoped, and it had been foolish. The two still clearly had feelings for each other. They would work themselves out eventually, and he needed to distance himself from them for a while. Suho would understand, and Jugyeong would eventually.
He wiped the tears away and went upstairs.
Jugyeong paced the dressing room, biting her nails and wishing for the millionth time she had texted Seojun.
She hadn’t seen him in nearly two months, and while he kept in contact, he had made it clear he wanted to stay away for a while. It had taken some time to understand why he had sent her away that day, but Seojun had always been better at reading her than anyone else, and he had certainly known what she had to say. He had always given her everything she needed, and now it was her turn to do the same. She had resolved to give him space as long as he needed.
Until Selena’s company was hired to do his group’s makeup.
She had debated for days whether or not she should warn him, but would that make too big a deal out of it? In the end she left it too long and decided not to make him worry for longer than necessary.
And yet.
Her legs were aching by the time the group walked in. Seojun was the last one, flashing that cocky grin at every member of the makeup team–
Until his eyes fell on her.
His grin slid away and her heart stopped.
In an instant, hundreds of possibilities flashed through her mind. Would he turn around and walk away? Would he send her away? Would he yell at her? Pretend not to know her?
And then his smile came back, awkward, hesitant, but unmistakably genuine, and she could breathe again.
“Im Jugyeong! What are you doing here?”
Managing a coherent sentence seemed too much to ask at the moment, so she just grinned and gestured to the makeup on the table.
He nodded. “I should have guessed, though I don’t think you’ll have much to do. This face doesn’t need much.”
“Tch.” She jerked her chin at him, and he laughed. Just like that, everything felt right back to normal. Back when they were best friends with nothing to worry about.
“Are you ready to get started?” Selena asked. Seojun nodded and sat down. Selena did his makeup herself, and Jugyeong passed her brushes and palettes and watched.
“What color do you think would be good?” Selena asked. Jugyeong swallowed as she realized she had been staring.
“M–me?”
“Do you see anyone else?”
Seojun opened his eyes and smirked at her. He continued to smirk as she looked him up and down, then handed over the lip tint she thought would fit best.
“Why don’t you try it then? I’ve heard you two are friends.” Selena handed the tint back and walked away. Seojun’s smirk was gone now.
She had done this before, while shopping for Gowoon, without a second thought. There was no reason for her hand to tremble now. No reason for being this close to feel so . . . strange.
She finished and pulled away slightly. He shot to his feet. It shouldn’t hurt that he wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Sorry, um, this is my first time on a job.”
He shrugged. “It’s fine. Not like you could mess up. I look good in anything.”
She laughed, and his eyes flicked over to her and softened. “Thank you, Im Jugyeong.”
She forced herself to relax. Of course things would be awkward for a while, but it would get better. It would. “It was good to see you.”
“You too.”
Then he disappeared.
The next time she came to the studio, a bottle of cleanser was spilled as they set up, so Selena sent her to find something to clean it with before Seojun’s group showed up. She walked down hall after hall, searching for someone who could tell her where to find some rags, but didn’t see anyone.
Then she heard the singing.
She recognized Seojun’s voice, and she crept over to where the door was cracked open and peeked through.
He sat on the floor, eyes closed, fingers tapping out the rhythm. He looked so peaceful, and she couldn’t tear her eyes away, even as the song ended and he switched to a new one–a ballad this time.
How many times had she heard him sing? She had even heard him sing this song before, and yet, something was different. It wasn’t supposed to feel like this, wasn’t supposed to send that strange, warm feeling down her spine and all the way to her toes. It wasn’t supposed to make her heart flutter and feel like he was singing only for her.
She laid her hand over her heart and clenched the material of her shirt in her fist.
He couldn’t see her here. She didn’t know why, but she felt determined. She turned around and pressed against the wall, out of sight, closing her eyes as she listened. When the song ended, she forced herself to walk away before he could start again.
The feeling was so foreign that at first she couldn’t account for it. Then it hit her all too suddenly, and she knew she had made a very big mistake.
She didn’t know what to do with her discovery, so she threw herself into work. Selena gradually let her work more and more with clients on her own, until eventually she was allowed to do a client’s full face of makeup, which Selena inspected afterwards and told her, “wasn’t horrible.”
She’d wanted to celebrate that day, and had almost asked Seojun to go out with her, but in the end, she called Sua instead.
“I want you to do Han Seojun’s makeup today,” Selena said a couple weeks later.
“What?”
“Didn’t you hear me? Go.”
Jugyeong slowly turned around to look at Seojun. He was staring back at her, looking just as shocked, then he cleared his throat and glanced away.
She shook her head and walked over to his chair. He was just another client right now. Not her friend, not a famous idol, not . . . anything else. Just another client.
That mindset lasted until she told him to close his eyes as she smoothed BB cream over his face.
He had pretty eyelashes. Somehow, in three years, she had never noticed that.
“What?” he asked. She realized her brush had stopped moving. She shook herself again. The only thing she should be thinking about his eyelashes was whether her needed mascara.
“You can open your eyes now.”
That was a mistake.
She was still leaning far too close, and his dark eyes stared into hers. The heat returned, filling her chest and melting her feet to the floor. She swallowed and hoped he couldn’t hear how fast her heart was beating.
Seojun’s fingers closed around her wrist, and she jumped. “Um, actually, close your eyes again. I need to do your eyeshadow.” His eyes narrowed, but he obeyed. His hand fell from hers, and she sighed in relief.
She hurried through the rest of the makeup, realizing, to her annoyance, that he really did look good in anything. She pulled out the right lip tint, then hesitated, remembering the last time she had put it on him.
This time, he stared at her the entire time, which did not help. She made the mistake of meeting his eyes, and immediately looked away, then realized she had smeared the lip tint. “S–sorry.” She closed the bottle and reached up, wiping it off his lip with the tip of her finger.
She felt him clench his jaw, and she jerked her hand back. “You’re done.” She whirled around and put her makeup away. She didn’t think she could look at him right now.
After he left, she busied herself with cleaning up and tried to ignore Selena’s all-too-keen glances. They washed brushes and packed up palettes, then waited for the group to come back to have their makeup taken off.
But Seojun never came back.
The other boys did, but just shrugged when she asked where he went. “He said he was busy and you didn’t have to wait up.”
It was her fault. She was sure of it. She had made him uncomfortable, and now he was avoiding her.
As everyone finished up their work, she kept looking up, hoping desperately that he would come back, but he didn’t.
“I’ll stay a bit longer,” she said. Selena gave her a suspicious look, and she continued. “I’m afraid I did something to upset him. I want to apologize and make sure it doesn’t interfere with work in the future.”
Selena studied her, then nodded and said, “don’t stay too late.”
Once everyone had left, she slipped out of the room, searching for her friend. The other group members had already gone to their dorms, so when she heard running water in one of the bathrooms, she knew it must be him.
She knocked.
“What?”
She pushed open the door, and Seojun froze, clearly in the middle of washing his makeup off with whatever random bar of soap he had found in the bathroom.
“What are you doing?” she nearly shouted.
He hid the bar of soap behind his back. “Nothing!”
She ran over to him and tried to take the soap from him, but he held it out of reach. “Put that down! You’re going to ruin your skin like that!”
“But–”
“Go back to the dressing room, and I’ll remove your makeup properly.” He looked like he was about to argue, so she put her hands on her hips and glared. “Now.” He meekly put the bar down and she ushered him back into the dressing room.
“You know most of your makeup is waterproof right?”
“That’s why I had the soap,” he said. She closed her eyes and sighed.
The lights were off when they came back, but with just the two of them, she decided the lights around the mirror were enough and didn’t turn them back on.
When she finally had him in the chair and made sure he couldn’t get away, she spoke again. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I can ask them to have me work with someone else if you’d prefer.”
She pulled out a bottle of cleanser and a washcloth. He let her remove the makeup, but avoided her gaze. “What about your boyfriend. If you’re so sure it makes me uncomfortable, how do you think it makes him feel?”
“What boyfriend?” The words slipped out, and she winced.
He pulled back and swept her hand away. “You’re joking, right?”
“Lee Suho and I broke up, or don’t you remember? I’m pretty sure I cried on you for about a week after.”
“Yes, I remember that, but he’s back now. I know you were just waiting for him to come home. Don’t try to deny it.”
She couldn’t say this with him looking at her like that. “Close your eyes.”
“No.”
“Close your eyes, or I’m going to get this cleanser in them and it’ll hurt.” He frowned, but obeyed, and she took a deep breath. “I did still like him. I do still like him, but it’s been two years. We aren’t the same people we used to be. None of us are.”
Suho would always be one of her first friends, but he didn’t know her anymore, and she didn’t think she knew him either. He hadn’t been there at 3am on the days she thought she wouldn’t be able to make it through the makeup academy. He didn’t know how much one of Selena’s not-quite-compliments meant. He would never know how hard it was to decide if she would show up to her internship bare-faced. As much as it had hurt, she had left their relationship behind.
But Seojun . . . he had always been there.
“Besides, I think there’s someone else I like now.”
Seojun flinched, and his eyes opened. “No.”
“Seojun-ah–”
He covered her mouth with his hand. “No. We are friends, but I still like you, and I don’t want to hear about your crush.”
She shoved his hand away and huffed. “Han Seojun–”
“Don’t you think it’s a little much to be telling your guy friends about who you like anyway? You can talk to Choi Sua about that–”
She sat the washcloth down and laid her hand on the side of his face. He broke off with a choking sound.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you supposed to be taking off my makeup?”
“I’m finished. You can get up if you want to.” He didn’t move, just stared up at her like a cornered animal.
She brushed her thumb over his cheekbone, and his breath caught. “Why are you doing this?” he whispered, but she shook her head. She didn’t want to break this silence. She let her hand trail down the side of his face and brushed her thumb across his lips before pulling her hand away.
He shot to his feet, scooped her up, and deposited her on the makeup table in front of him, stepping between her legs.
“Hey, put me down!” she gasped. “You’re going to mix up all the makeup!”
“I don’t care. I’ll say . . . something. I’ll tell them it was my fault. Just answer the question.”
She stared up at him and took a deep breath. “I think I like you.”
He stared at her for what felt like ages, his expression so blank she wondered if he hadn’t heard her. Then–“Tell me to stop.”
She didn’t know what he meant, but then he leaned over her, hands planted on either side of the desk, and she couldn’t help but think of when they had modeled together. Suddenly nervous, she tucked her feet back under the desk and curled her hands tightly around the edge.
“Tell me to stop,” he said again, quieter this time. She leaned back and closed her eyes, but didn’t say a word.
His lips brushed over hers hesitantly, then he pulled back. She was afraid he would leave, but then he wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and crushed his mouth against hers, kissing her ask though he wanted to make up for the last three years in a single night. Jugyeong didn’t know if that was possible, but it seemed well worth a try.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and dragged him closer, then reached up and buried her hands in his hair. He groaned and pulled away, though he didn’t go far.
“You really like me?” he asked.
“Do you really think I would have kissed you like that if I didn’t?”
“No.” A hint of mischief curled the corners of his mouth. “Took you long enough.”
“Oh, shut up.”
He leaned closer, letting his lips brush over her ear as he whispered, “Make me.”
So she did.