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“I thought you were a celebrity.”

She scoffed. “Before I had money.”

He nodded slowly, feeling a little uncomfortable.

She started snipping around the top of his head. Hair floated down his garbage-bagged shoulders and onto the ground. “My mom used to own a beauty salon. Whenever she was short-staffed, she would make me work. Hair, nails, makeup, you name it.”

Hearing this about her was strange. Yet it wasn’t as strange as meeting a former child star who turned into an unknown skater-like girl, hanging out with former gangsters at a small gas station.

Everyone started somewhere.

“Did you enjoy doing that?” he asked, hoping it wasn’t an awkward question.

She hummed. “I guess. Back then, things were simple. I had my mom’s shop, my art, my music.” More snips. Jun scratched at a strand that got stuck on his nose. Her voice dropped. “Then the Cambodian aunties got in my mom’s head, and everything changed.”

Jun knew too well that service shops amongst the Asian community were places for people to gossip. He thought only Taiwanese people did it, but he guessed it happened everywhere else. “Like what?”

She stopped snipping and scoffed. “You know, typical nagging Asian auntie shit.” She raised her scissors in a bent-wrist imitation, her voice pitching into a dramatic Cambodian accent. “‘Your daughter is so pretty! Her skin is so fair! Half white. She could get a rich white man!’” Her lips pressed tight, the flush of performance giving way to something bitter. “Because of that, my mom signed me up for auditions.”

“And that’s how you got into Sugars?”

“Not yet,” she said, pointing at him with the tip of the scissors. “I did commercials first, then small variety shows. The more gigs I booked, the more obsessed my mom got.”

She leaned against the workbench and snapped on a pair of plastic gloves. “Her white-looking Asian girl became a household name.” She spread her gloved hand across her eyes. “So when she saw a newspaper ad for an upcoming girl group, she put everything into making sure I got that spot.”

“So… you never wanted to be in Sugars?” Jun asked.

A sharp, putrid smell filled the garage. Jun’s nostrils burned. When Kana turned around, a blue face mask covered the lower half of her mouth, and she was already shaking the bleach mixture in one hand as she made her way back to him.

“Not as much as her,” said Kana.

Something about the way she spoke—matter-of-fact, like she had rehearsed the pain out of it—made Jun want to understand the full picture. As she stepped behind him, he asked, “Did you hate being part of that life?”

She took a strand from the top of his head. “For the most part, yes. Probably one of the worst things I’ve ever experienced.”

Jun pressed his lips together. He could feel the conversation inching towards something heavier—a door she might not want opened.

“I’m sorry…”

“Don’t.” Her voice was firm but not sharp—nothing like the way she snapped at Alex or Hal. He felt her fingers dig through the strands closest to his neckline. “I’m gonna start banning you from apologizing to me when you didn’t do anything wrong.”

Jun nodded slowly. He hadn’t expected this version of her—unguarded, trusting him with something she clearly didn’t hand out freely.

If she could crack her door open for him, the least he could do was hold it. “Then was there anything that you enjoyed during that time?”

She tugged a handful of hair at the back and began working the mixture through, strand by strand. “A few things actually.”

A sharp cold sensation hit the roots of his neckline—icy but not numbing.

“Dressing up in cute outfits was probably my favorite part. But the best moments were with Sunny.”

Sunny.

“What was she like?” He winced at his own words. It came out like she was already gone.

He thought he heard Kana chuckle. “The most anxious overachiever.” She poured the mixture on the front layer towards the side of his head. “But also, the most selfless person I ever met. If it wasn’t for the fact that I didn’t have to do this whole girl group gig, it was worth the entire experience just because of her. She was the first person that gave me hope that there are still good people in this world.”

Jun couldn’t see her smiling, but he could hear it in her voice. “Sounds like she’s someone that meant a lot to you.”