It was just another day, waking up, prepping myself for the many customers I was intended to service today. It was a tedious task that took up a majority of my “getting ready time” every morning to uphold the high appearance the customers wanted from our salon. Yes, I, Kim Kibum, work at a high end salon, cutting and coloring hair for as long as I’ve been out of school. It was the ideal job for me being that I had always loved doing hair and sealed my career choice after taking a cosmetology course in high school.

Although I loved my job, this was one of the downsides. I was supposed to be the image of perfection, always being kept up - not a hair out of place. It was a bit tiring, after all, I was supposed to make the clients look like this, not myself. I did it nevertheless, applying concealer here, pinning hairs there. When I was finally “decent” for work, I stepped away from my mirror, humming softly to myself as I gathered my belongings and headed for the door.

The drive to work was short, but enjoyable. I always got pumped for the day by listening to my favorite CD at the current time, today being Origin of Symmetry. I tapped my fingers on the wheel softly as I turned into the parking space labelled “employee” finishing the song Hyper Music with a hit to my invisible drums.

I exited my car, entering the luxury studio I was employed at, taking in the sight of the long rows of stations with numerous hairdressers already underway with their first appointments of the day. I went to my station, unpacking my things slowly, gathering all my utensils to be cleansed one more time before taking my first appointment. I looked over at the chair next to mine and saw my long time colleague, Jonghyun, busily flapping his mouth at the poor woman in the chair. I felt for her, having dealt with Jonghyun’s loud mouth for god knows how many years.

He never really seemed to know when he was talking too much, especially if he had something to say. There was no censor on his mouth either. If he thought it, it was probably going to be said, regardless if it was offensive or not. It didn’t surprise me when he paused his story after noticing my arrival, turning to me to whine how ually frustrated he was.

“What do you want me to do about it, Jongie?” I questioned, barely paying attention as I tried to locate my favorite comb.

“I want you to stop being perfect,” he spat, disgust in his voice.

“Excuse me?” I asked, half surprised.

“Don’t act so innocent, Kibummie. You were in my dreams last night,” he said nonchalantly, waving his comb and scissors around in the air as he talked making myself and the woman in his chair very nervous.

“What?!” I gasped, looking around to make sure my client hadn’t arrived and heard such foul things being said.

“I had the hardest morning wood. I was so miserable in the shower this morning trying to release myself. I couldn’t get you out of my mind.”

My jaw literally fell to the floor as he snipped the worried woman’s hair. I had never had someone say such toxic things about me to my face, especially in front of a client. Jonghyun was openly gay, but I didn’t know he was gay for....me.

“Don’t act so shocked,” he scoffed, glancing over at me, still leaning over my drawers of supplies, mouth agape. “You are so ing y, Kibum. You can’t deny it. Any man would love to squeeze that firm of yours.”

“J-Jonghyun,” I stammered, trying to straighten myself out.

“Save it. I know you love me, too. Aish! Why are you distracting me, fool? I’m going to mess up her hair,” he scolded, furiously snipping at the woman’s head.

Carefully, I made my way out of my station, combs in hand. I threw them in the sanitizer, allowing them to soak while I pinched the bridge of my nose with my forefinger and thumb. The last thing I needed was some scandal to erupt from false rumors caused by Jonghyun’s large mouth. Sighing, I let my hand fall from my face, relaxing a moment, thinking of a plan of action.

The next time we are alone, either in the bathroom or the lunchroom, I thought to myself, I will approach him about the matter and tell him he cannot talk about these things. It is unprofessional and, to be quite frank, sickening.

I scooped my combs up, smiling to myself, as I walked back to my station, tuning out Jonghyun’s current babble about different soaps.

~~

A strong pain in my gut had built up during my last three hour style. I had to cut and strip a woman’s hair from the wretched box drugstore dye then wait for it to process to get it back to a normal color. I nearly pissed myself waiting for her hair to finish coloring. If her hair hadn’t been in such a horrible state, I would’ve left her to relieve myself sooner, but I couldn’t risk overprocessing her brittle hair anymore.

I pushed the door open to the men’s room, a small sigh of relief escaping my lips as I began to relieve myself. I was finishing up, washing my hands when I heard the door swing in, another person entering. In the mirror, I saw a white haired man staring at me. Shocked, I jumped back a bit, squealing.

“Yah! You can’t just scare me like that, Kim Jonghyun!” I scolded, hand over my heart to try and calm my nerves.

“I thought I’d find you in here,” he purrs, taking a step closer to me.

“Wait, we need to talk,” I started to say, Jonghyun taking another step.

“About what, dear?” He took another step, his nose merely inches from my own at this time.

“What you said earlier,” I gulped, looking around the small bathroom, trying to avoid his gaze.

“I like you Kibum,” he half whispered, leaning closer to me, our lips nearly touching.

My breath was shaky. His pink lips were so close, but my mind was so far from the current situation we were in. Before I could think about what was happening, Jonghyun closed the distance between our lips, melting our mouths together. I didn’t know how to react at first.

Scared?

Happy?

Angry?

My long time colleague was kissing me. Someone I was highly comfortable with was kissing me. I had never thought of him in this way before, however. I had never thought of kissing Jonghyun. I had never thought of holding Jonghyun. In fact, I hardly thought about those thoughts about anyone. Now that it was happening, my mind was racing one hundred miles per hour thinking about all the possibilities.

Jonghyun was kissing me. I like Jonghyun. He likes me. . I like Kim Jonghyun.

He was a bold person, always stating what was on his mind, but I always liked that about him. He was nearly as sarcastic as myself, and had a wicked sense of humor. Now that I had the chance to think about it while I was so close to him, tasting his sweet breaths, I realized Jonghyun was close to perfect.

“Don’t ever scare me like that again,” I chuckled breathily after breaking the kiss.

“I won’t, honey. Why are you goofy around at work kissing your coworkers? Don’t you have a regular due at this time?” he said pretending to scold, hands on his hips, a mocking smile painted on his lips.

“Alright, boss,” I teased, letting boss roll off my tongue in a snarl. “Just make sure you keep it in your pants and stop having such unprofessional dreams about me.”

“Stop being such a star employee.”

With that, I left Jonghyun and his wet dreams in the bathroom, to go do my routine haircutting.