The next morning, I woke up to brisk knocking from my door. Since I was in one small room, the sound echoed all around the walls and sounded like soft gunshots in my ears. I was so startled that my head lifted up and my eyes snapped open. After the residual shock wore off, I rubbed my eyes and squinted at the door, pulling myself out of bed. I pulled open the door with bits of my brown hair scattered across my face and my one of my dress sleeves hanging limply off of my right shoulder.

A pair of narrowed eyes stared back at me. I faintly remember this guy as the person holding a watermelon who almost bumped into me yesterday. By his disdainful expression, I assumed he was still mad at me. “Please come to the annual festival this Friday as it is tradition and everyone in town will be there.” He said straightforwardly, shoving a basket of fruit in my arms. Sitting on top of a medium-sized watermelon was a small card. The other fruits in the basket included two bananas, one apple, and one Korean pear.

Before I could respond, he turned around and walked away, his long blonde locks floating in the calm morning wind. I managed to speak a soft ‘thank you’ and looked down at the basket. I picked up the card resting on the watermelon and read it.

Annual Hill Valley Festival

Friday 7PM – 12AM

Be prepared for

merriment, food, activities,

and enjoying time with

fellow townspeople!

I brought the basket into my room and set it down on the countertop next to my gas stove. I was hungry so I picked up the apple and cleaned it off with a wet washcloth. As I ate, the confrontation with the wanted thief and his assistant resounded in my mind. I chewed slower, becoming more and more nervous. I really didn’t want to participate in their scheme, but I also didn’t want to suffer potential head injuries from Shindong’s silver mallet.

I sighed and made up my mind. It wasn’t like they were gonna kill me. Leeteuk said so himself. Let’s just hope he keeps that promise…

I walked away from the countertop after finishing the apple and looked through my closet for fresher clothes. If I was going to get Heechul alone with me, I’d obviously had to do it inconspicuously. But no matter how much I thought about possible ways to do that, by the time I was fully dressed and my hair was brushed, I was drawing a blank. I decided to stop thinking about it. Besides, I had the whole week to come up with something.

I opened the door to my apartment and closed the door behind me. The morning air was very pleasant and the humidity was still low enough to not make standing outside uncomfortable. I made my way toward the saloon and saw some townspeople already lingering around the outside of the saloon and city bank. I didn’t look at any of them because I was wrapped around in my own thoughts and anxiety. Then my gaze wandered over toward the barber shop. I couldn’t see an open sign nor the barber, but as I got closer, the door opened and the barber stepped out, looking very tired and moody. I slowly moved my gaze toward the saloon and made it halfway pass the barber shop before I heard a voice.

“Hey.”

I blinked and looked toward the barber shop. The barber was looking at me.

“Did you just wake up?” He asked me.

“Uh yeah, like, five minutes ago.” I answered.

“Wow…” He looked a bit uncomfortable.

“What?”

“…I don’t mean to be rude, but your hair is a mess.”

I sighed a little and touched my hair. “That is rude, but it’s not totally out of line…I didn’t wash it after I woke up…”

“Why not?”

I paused. “…I’m just…I have a…i-it’s nothing.” I looked down embarrassingly. I decided I shouldn’t tell anyone about Leeteuk just yet.

“Please come here.” The barber patted his patient chair.

I quickly waved my hand. “I’m sorry, I don’t have any money on me right now.”

“I want to fix your hair. Don’t worry about any charges.”

I stared at him. “…stop joking.”

“It’s really okay. I really want to fix your hair.”

I stood where I was for another moment, then slowly walked up the small stairs and sat down in his chair. I shifted a little as I felt his hands feel through the first layer of hair on my upper back.

“Oh my god…you have so much hair.” He said in awe behind me.

I chuckled a little. “It’s a hereditary thing. My mom has a lot of hair too.”

“It is very thick but it’s a little unkempt. You wash it often, right?”

“I have to. Because I have a lot of it, it needs to be washed almost every day.”

“Do you wash it every day?”

I paused. “…mostly every other day.”

He hummed softly and moved around to my front. “I need to remove your glasses.” His hands came up to my face and he pulled my glasses right off. I looked at him, expecting him to move back to his original place, but he just stared at me for a moment in silence.

I blinked. “Um, is something wrong?”

He didn’t respond for a while before clearing his throat and shaking his head a little. “I’ll keep these until I’m finished.” I felt his hands lift up my hair and he started to brush it. It took a while since I have a lot of hair and there were some tufts that had slight knots in them that he had to struggle to get his hairbrush through. After about five minutes, my hair was slightly thinned down from moisture and was styled in a way to make me look like I have bangs when I don’t. The barber handed me a hand-held mirror so I could see what I looked like. I smiled at my reflection.

“Wow, thanks a lot! I try to make this style myself but usually I can’t get it quite like this.” I turned around to look at him.

He smiled politely. “It’s no problem. It definitely looks much better now.”

I stood up and faced him. “I could pay you back later for this.”

He held up his hand. “Don’t worry about it. It’s on the house.”

I nodded slowly. “Okay.” I’ll definitely pay him back somehow..

We stood in silence for a moment until I glanced at his pocket. “Um, my glasses?”

“Oh.” He quickly reached into his pocket and pulled them out.

“Thanks.” I took them and put them on.

“But honestly…you don’t need them.” He said.

“I kind of do…my vision .” I chuckled.

He looked at me and didn’t respond.

“Anyway, I have to go into the saloon…I need to talk to the bartender.” I took a step back and waved. “See you later?”

The barber nodded and waved back. “See you later.”

I turned around and walked down the small stairs of the barber shop and walked the short distance to the saloon next door.