There is a picture of Taemin and Jonghyun from the summer between Taemin’s eighth grade and freshman year tacked up on both of their bedroom walls. In it, Taemin is smiling softly, one hand on Jonghyun’s shoulder, the other resting on his hip. His hair is cut short. Next to him, Jonghyun was grinning, eyes crinkling around the corners, both of his hands up with a peace sign. His hair is shockingly blonde; a little blotch of white on the photo. This is the only photo evidence of what became known as Kim Jonghyun’s Greatest Mistake.

Sophomore year, Key had made the not so impulsive decision to dye his hair blonde, thus setting the newest trend that would last for the next year.  Key made this decision knowingly.

“Not everyone can pull this off.” He had said the day after. “But I’d like to see them try.”

Jonghyun, like usual, completely ignored him and decided to grow his hair out long and Taemin did the same.  With summer fully underway, the three of them stuck to their usual routine; Jonghyun and Taemin hanging out and spending lazy afternoons under the tree that connect their houses until Key picked them up and took them to whatever new hotspot he had found.

One particular night in mid July, Key took them to a party.

“You know Jessica,” Key had said to the girl who answered the door. “You pull off blonde pretty well.”

Jonghyun rolled his eyes and pushed past the two of them, giving a small smile to Jessica. Taemin followed him, tugging onto the back of Jonghyun’s shirt.

“Key’s pretty hung up on all this blonde business.” Taemin mused.

“Yeah, well, when isn’t he hung up on something?” Jonghyun grinned, pushing through a small patch of people and made a bee line for the kitchen. When it came to these kinds of parties, they had their own way of doing things. Taemin knew the drill by now; he would make awkward small talk with whoever happened to be in the kitchen while Jonghyun took whatever alcohol suited his fancy, then they’d split. It would only take a minute or so, but at that point, most everyone would be wondering who let the eighth grader into the party, so it wasn’t unusual when the two of them slipped out the backdoor and jumped the fence and headed back out onto the streets.

“Man, I hate those parties.” Jonghyun sighed as they walked around the house to the front yard. “I don’t know why Key keeps dragging me to them.”

“They’re not so bad.” Taemin replies. “But then again, how would we know if we always leave five minutes in?”

Jonghyun laughed, the sound echoing through the stillness of the night. “Whatever, at least I’m doing good in our community.” He shook the bottle of vodka he had snagged from the party in Taemin’s face. “I’m preventing underage drinking. What have you done?”

“Don’t be mean, you should give it back.”

“I like your style, Taemin.”

Jonghyun opened the mail box at the end of the driveway and stuck the bottle inside before they started their trek home. They made their way to a 24 hour convenience store where they pooled together the change in their pockets to buy a candy bar, which they split. Taemin stole a small bite from Jonghyun’s half and Jonghyun kicked him in the shin in response.

“You know,” Taemin started, mouth full of chocolate. “That was probably the most interesting party we’ve been to in awhile.”

“How so?”

“Key complimented someone’s hair.”

Jonghyun snickered. “You’re right. The world must be ending soon.”

That brought about a comfortable silence, and they rounded the corner to their neighborhood. Taemin was finishing his chocolate, thinking about school and how summer seemed to be ending too fast when Jonghyun broke his train of thought.

“I would make a damn good blonde.”

Taemin nearly choked, a silence settling in, only to be broken by Taemin’s uncontrollable laughter.

Jonghyun stopped walking. “What? I totally would!”

“No, you wouldn’t.” Taemin snickered, punching him lightly in the arm before walking past him.

“What makes you say that?” Jonghyun replied, a little too quickly.

 Taemin knew he probably had hurt his feelings, so he turned and started walking backwards, shrugging. “I dunno. Key’s always doing those kinds of things so it just works for him. I guess I just can’t imagine you….blonde.” He couldn’t help but crack a smile, which Jonghyun frowned at.

“I’m just being honest!”

“Well, I guess we won’t know until we see it, will we?” Jonghyun smirked, rushing past Taemin the rest of the way home, both middle fingers up in the air.

Taemin shook his head, but could hear Jonghyun laugh. He smiled the rest of the way home.

The next day when Jonghyun showed up on his doorstep with his hair looking like the tip of a highlighter, Taemin couldn’t help the ‘I told you so’ that came out of his mouth. Jonghyun hit him in response, but then Taemin called Key and told him to come over as soon as possible, so Jonghyun hit him even harder, but it was all worth it to hear Key’s horrified shriek when he finally showed up five minutes later.

“We need a picture of this.” Key demanded. “Immediately.”

“No way!” Jonghyun had his arms over his head, trying his best to hide it.

“Trust me. Nothing will convince you to never do it again more than a picture.” Key nodded wisely.

Jonghyun couldn’t really argue with that, so he let Key take hold of a camera, slapped on a smile, and threw up a peace sign. Taemin threw himself into the picture, saying he needed proof of having seen a blonde Jonghyun out in the wild.

At the store, Jonghyun bought four bottles of black hair dye and Key made fifty copies of the same picture.