With every pass of the blade, the sharp angles of his jaw and the intensity in his eyes became clearer. By the time the barber applied the cooling peppermint oil to his smooth, shaved scalp, Kaito didn't recognize the man in the mirror. He looked raw, formidable, and entirely new.
The neon hum of the barbershop was the only sound in the quiet Seoul alleyway. Kaito sat in the vintage leather chair, staring at his reflection—a messy mane of black hair that felt like a heavy shroud of his past life. "Everything?" the barber asked, his clippers hovering. "Everything," Kaito replied.
He stepped out into the rain, the cold droplets hitting his bare skin like a baptism. He wasn't just starting over; he was finally visible.
As the first strip of hair fell to the floor, Kaito felt a strange lightness. He was a corporate defector, a man who had spent a decade molding himself into the perfect salaryman. The hair was the final vestige of that suffocating identity.