Glass Skin

The story

Eleven days before the showcase that decides whether seven years end in a debut or a release, Yerin is three sessions into a regenerative dermal trial her manager at Baekhan Entertainment arranged as a favor she was in no position to decline. Dohyun, the junior anesthesiologist at the Yeonhwa Aesthetic Institute who keeps countersigning her consent forms, has noticed that tissue discarded into the sharps bin is still warm three hours later, and that the woman in chair four returns on a schedule the clinic sets rather than one her body asks for. He knows enough to stop the trial and owes far too much to say so; Yerin would pay any price for the future and has been paying in installments she cannot see or count. The clinic has now scheduled a fourth session, and the first three have made refusing it something other than a neutral act, because what they started only a fourth is meant to settle. Between the recovery corridor, a mirrored basement practice room in Apgujeong and the last night bus over the Han, the two of them have eleven days to decide how much of the truth either one can afford to say out loud.

Co-stars

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  Yerin

  Seven-year trainee at Baekhan Entertainment, eleven days from the showcase that decides her debut

  Yerin is twenty-four and seven years a trainee at Baekhan Entertainment, eleven days out from the showcase that turns those years into a debut or a receipt. She is three sessions into a regenerative dermal trial her manager arranged as a favor she was in no position to decline, and she counts everything because counting is the only part of the deal she controls. A fourth session is booked, and refusing it is no longer a neutral act.

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  Dohyun

  Junior anesthesiologist at the Yeonhwa Aesthetic Institute, countersigning clinician on Yerin's trial consent forms

  Dohyun is a twenty-nine-year-old junior anesthesiologist at the Yeonhwa Aesthetic Institute, carrying a family debt older than his license at a clinic that knows its figure to the won. His countersignature is on every consent form for a regenerative dermal trial he can describe exactly and has never once described out loud. He has noticed how warm the discarded trim stays and how well it holds its shape, and he owes far too much to say so.

Story map