“Soojung-ah!”

At her mother’s call, Soojung startles and falls off the climbing frame. Standing up, she tries to dust off her overalls in vain and runs to her mother.

Mrs. Jung sighs as she kneels and inspects her daughter. She has a scab on one knee, scratches on her arms, holes in her overalls and a cloud of dust in her hair. “Soojung, let’s go home. You have to get ready for Jieun’s birthday party.”

“Isn’t that in two hours? Why do I have to get ready now, umma?”

“Ah, aunty, does Soojung have to go?” Upon noticing the disappearance of their playmate, Taemin and Jongin came running. “Waeyo~?”

“Soojung has to get ready for Jieun’s party, boys,” Mrs. Jung explains as she takes Soojung’s hand. “You two are going too, aren’t you? Soojung will see you later.”

“But why does Soojung have to get ready now? The party’s at three o’clock, aunty.”

Mrs. Jung smiles. “It will take Soojung a little longer to get ready. You’ll see why later.”

Soojung pouts. She does not like the sound of this.

“Aunty, is Soojung ready to go?”

Soojung grabs her mother’s leg as she starts walking to the door. “Umma, you can’t let them see me like this!”

“Don’t be silly, Soojung, you look pretty! And you’ll see them at the party anyway…” Her mother manages to shake her off and reaches the door before Soojung could.

Jongin and Taemin stood there in chino shorts and collared shirts. Nothing remarkable.

Soojung, however, stood in front of them wearing a sleeveless pink dress with a large bow attached on the waist.

The boys only froze for a second before Jongin blurted out, “Eeeewwww, Soojung is wearing a dress!”

“It’s pink!” Taemin squawks. “Aunty, you ruined her!”

Jongin burst out laughing and Taemin follows suit. “Soojung looks gross!”

Soojung bit her lip hard. She wanted to hit them, but the truth was she agreed with them completely. She was torn between defending herself to save face in front of those two boys or bursting into tears because she was so embarrassed. Before she could decide, however, Jongin’s oldest sister lightly hits her brother’s head to chastise him. “Jongin, shut up! Soojung looks nice.” She holds her hand out to Soojung. “Shall we go?”

On their way to Jieun’s party, Taemin and Jongin continue picking on her until she became less embarrassed and more irritated and kicks Jongin’s shin so hard he trips up over himself and shows up at the party with bloody knees, despite his sister’s valiant effort to clean him up with a spare tissue she dug up from her pocket.

*

Jongin’s mother sent him over to the Jungs’ house to borrow an onion, so he walks over next door and knocks on the door. Soojung’s older sister Sooyeon opens the door, and before he could open his mouth her face breaks into a smile and she grabs his arm. “Jongin! Perfect. Tell me what you think?”

“What I think about what, noona?” Then he catches a glimpse of Jinri, wearing a floor-length yellow dress with her previously long hair cut up to a shoulder-length bob. “Jongin!” she chirps, throwing her arms up in the air. “Do I look pretty?”

“You cut your hair,” Jongin says because that’s the first thing that comes to mind. 

“Yes. Unni took us to the salon. And the dress store. I’m so excited I finally bought this! I wanted a peach one at first but I thought I liked this one better…”

“Us? You and… Soojung?”

“Yeah! Soojung, Soojung, come out!”

“What? What are you guys - unni, stop pulling me like that - ”

“Look, Jongin, I remember you and Taemin laughing when you first saw her in a dress - you actually said ‘ew’, if I remember correctly…”

Soojung walks into the living room then, and Jongin almost loses his breath.

First, she was wearing a dress. A floor-length royal-blue dress with a full skirt consisting of layers and layers of fluffy chiffon, with a smattering of sequins. The top of the dress was ruched, hugged her form and left her shoulders bare. This was an extremely unusual look for Soojung considering the fact that she doesn’t really wear skirts.

Second, she was wearing makeup. Not too much, but Soojung never wore makeup. And even more, the minimal makeup made great impact in enhancing her features; a bit of deep blue and shimmery pale blue eyeshadow with liner and mascara made her eyes look huge, and a bit of blush enhanced her cheekbones but gave her a soft blushing glow at the same time. 

And third, her hair was red. As in, bright red, only deepening into a dark auburn where the light doesn’t hit it.

“Your hair is red. Like, actually red.” Jongin has an impeccable way with words.

“Doesn’t she look pretty?” Sooyeon gushed, wrapping her arms around her little sister, who squirmed and protested. “Unni, please…”

“Um… you look different?” Jongin offers, shifting from one foot to the other.

Soojung narrows her eyes at him. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“Good, I guess, considering the way you usually look…” He laughs and dodges the slipper Soojung chucks at him. When she turns away, he lets himself look at her again.

“Don’t tell Taemin-oppa about this,” Jinri says, breaking his reverie. “It’s a surprise!”

“Jinri, this isn’t really… I mean, Taemin knows I’m going in a dress. And Jongin doesn’t even know enough words to describe this dress…”

“Yah!”

“Yeah, but I bet he doesn’t expect you to get all dolled up like this! He’ll be so surprised! Excited! Happy!”

Sooyeon laughs and goes over to sit next to Jinri on the couch. “I find it so funny that you’re going with Taemin.”

“It would be more funny if she was going with Jongin, unni,” Jinri says.

“Hey, I’m offended by that!” Jongin folds his arms and stares at Jinri. “Unless you mean I’m too good for Soojung.”

“Yeah, right, Kim Jongin.”

“No, I think it’s equally funny, Jinri,” Sooyeon says. “Both of them have more or less the same embarrassing history with Soojung. I mean, Jongin was the one who peed his pants when they were playing in a water fountain — ”

“Ah, noona!” Jongin should never have befriended the girls next door. Two of his own older sisters were enough. He didn’t need another one to torment him. “Why me? Why didn’t you talk about the time Soojung ate a goldfish — ”

“You and Taemin made me do that! And that wasn’t that embarrassing… What about the time when Taemin forgot to bring a change of pants and he walked home in his swimsuit from the public pool…” 

Jinri was laughing so hard she was keeling over. “Oh my God, I can’t believe you guys.”

Sooyeon checked her phone and stood up. “I have to go. Donghae is waiting for me. Jinri, do you want a ride back?”

“Yes, unni, please.” Jinri hopped up to get changed and Sooyeon, too, bounded up the stairs to get her things.

There was silence between Jongin and Soojung for a moment, and Jongin didn’t know why he felt a little awkward. After all, they’ve been alone together a lot of times before, and silences have never felt awkward. Finally, Soojung says, “I should get changed, too.”

“Err… I’ll definitely have to go then.”

Soojung cuffed the back of his head. “I’m not changing in front of you, idiot. You can stay, I need some company since Jinri and unni are leaving.”

Jongin shrugs. “I have things to do, people to see… I’m a busy guy, Soojung.”

Soojung rolls her eyes because she knows all he’s going to do is go online and play Dota. “Sure. See you tomorrow, Kkamjong.”

Jongin returns to his house, and upon hearing the front door open and close, his mother calls out, “Did you really need that much time to get an onion, Kim Jongin?”

*

“I heard you were getting dressed up for Homecoming.”

Soojung punched his shoulder. “Did Kkamjong tell you that?”

“No, actually, he didn’t say anything. Jinri was babbling about her new dress, and naturally she talked about you too.”

Soojung rolled her eyes. “She was the one making a big deal about not telling you. Not that I think it’s a big deal. I mean, you know that I’m going to wear a dress, right?”

Taemin pretended to mull it over. “Um, I guess there is a possibility…”

Soojung shoved him to the side with her whole body and Taemin laughed. “Geez, sorry! I didn’t really think about it. But yes, even though I know you generally don’t care about what people think, I knew you wouldn’t show up to Homecoming in your running shorts.”

“Is it really that weird that I’m getting dressed up? I mean, of course, Sooyeon-unni roped me into everything… but, I mean, Jongin looked really weirded out when he saw me.”

“It’s kind of weird because you just never seemed that interested in stuff like that… but it’s, good, I guess? So when you actually need to do… girly stuff, you know how to.”

“Thanks for the wisdom, Lee Taemin.”

Taemin smirked. “It’s nice to know you’re going to all that trouble for me, though. Ow!”

“Please, don’t get above yourself. I just feel the need to outshine you.”

“Let’s see if you can do that.”

“Fine! Challenge accepted.”

Soojung replayed this conversation over in her head as she stared at her reflection in her sister’s full-length mirror. She was all ready, in full make-up with her hair done in a half-up half-down hairstyle. Part of her hair that was down fell down her shoulders in soft curls, and Soojung admires the way the bright red looked against the dark blue. 

Soojung isn’t used to this, dressing up and being pretty. She’d never changed her hair in any way except t it, she’d never worn a fitted bodice or a full ruffly skirt, and she’d never had any makeup on her face except for a tiny bit of brown eyeliner that Sooyeon had bullied her into wearing for a family event. Nothing like what she had on now.

And Soojung had always known that one day Sooyeon would be able to conjure a full-on makeover on her. But she’d expected to feel out of place, like a little girl in her mother’s high heels, looking like a clown with an overly-made-up face. But now, as she stared at herself in the mirror, she didn’t feel that way at all. Sure, she felt a little… strange, like she was someone else. But in a good way. 

Like she was becoming a new, confident person who was capable of the things she’d never dared to try before. 

“Soojung-ah, Taemin’s here!”

Soojung picks up the clutch bag Sooyeon lent her and her Polaroid camera. “Coming!” she yells back as she makes her way down the stairs.

Taemin was slouching on the couch, but straightened up when he saw her. “Soojung…”

“Yo.”

He walks up to her, smiles and slings an arm around her shoulders. “You look really pretty, Soojung-ah.”

“Thanks.” She gives him a little nudge. “You don’t look so bad yourself. Here, hold this.” She hands him her Polaroid, and he takes it, rolling his eyes. 

“Wait, wait, let me take a picture of you guys with that!” Sooyeon suddenly appears and grabs the camera out of his hands. “Pose, kids!”

“Unni…”

Taemin complies almost immediately, wrapping his arm around her waist, and Soojung was a little surprised at this - at his quick response and how snug his arm was around her body. She felt a little awkward, but since everyone else in the room seemed at ease, she hid it and leaned towards Taemin just a little. 

Sooyeon just had to take the pictures with three different cameras, and Soojung tried not to fidget. When the photoshoot finally wrapped up, Soojung hastily peeled herself off Taemin. “Okay, now, unni, can we go? Please? Or do you want to get out Dad’s VCR and start a documentary…”

Sooyeon wagged a finger in her sister’s face. “Cheeky. Not the way to treat the person who just spent five hours working on your hair and face.”

“I don’t think it was five hours… and I never asked you to — okay, lovely unni, I’ll be going now, please don’t hurt me!” Soojung dodged her sister’s hands by hiding behind Taemin.

Sooyeon laughs and heads back up the stairs. “Have fun, kids!”

//

a/n. title taken from the song "flowers in your hair" by the lumineers.

this is a sort of transitional chapter so it's not super-exciting, but i hope you enjoy anyways :3