~~~

8:07 PM

“Why’re you home so late? Your dinner’s stone cold,” Jungah tuts as she closes the microwave and sets the timer. “Dad’s really pissed,” she adds, crossing her arms and turning to face Jongin, who’s got a less than apologetic expression on his face.

Jongin shrugs, playing with the fork in his hand. “That’s a shame.”

“Really pissed,” Jungah says for emphasis. “It’s frigging eight o’clock, how on Earth're you gonna manage to study in such little time?”

“I’ll bet he is, and I'll manage,” Jongin mumbles, resting his head on his hand. He watches as she retrieves a glass from one of the cupboards and proceeds to fill it with water. “Milk, please.”

Jungah huffs. “Maybe you should fix your own dinner,” she murmurs under her breath, emptying the contents of the glass into the sink and opening the fridge. “You never answered my question, by the way, why’re you so late?”

Clearing his throat, Jongin shrugs. “No reason,” he says absentmindedly before pulling out his phone and inspecting his reflection in the mirror. Man, she was right, he thinks as he ogles his roots, do I need a dye job. He sighs when she shoots him an unimpressed look. “No reason,” he repeats, unlocking his phone and opening up his group chat with Jongdae and Baekhyun.

Pouring milk into the glass, Jungah rolls her eyes. “It’s rude to use your phone while others are talking, you know,” she says, shaking her head in disbelief. “I thought Mom raised you right. Anyway, did you have practice or what? Wait, I saw your stick upstairs earlier, nevermind.” She places the carton on the counter and puts her hands on her hips. “Speaking of which, you still need to pick it up off the floor; Dad nearly tripped on it this morning.”

“Sure,” Jongin hums, fingers scattering across the keyboard as he types out a message.

Jongdae (8:08 PM): oh my ign GOD we so should’ve been there to watch your smitten embarrass itself!!!!!! god damn it

Baekhyun (8:08 PM): how the did you manage to sleep for 5 ing hours?? and nobody woke you tf up??????? damn dude

Baekhyun: (8:08 PM): anyway, what did you and prince charming talk about??? ;-)))))

Jongdae (8:09 PM): baek no one uses that emoticon anymore

Jongdae (8:09 PM): idiot

Jongin (8:10 PM): WE’RE GOING OUT THIS FRIDAY!!!!!!!

Baekhyun (8:10 PM): hoLY ARE U SRS 

Jongdae (8:11 PM): DUDE that’s awesome, what’re you gonna do???

Jongin (8:12 PM): he suggested we go to this cozy lil bubble tea café not far from school ヽ(*・ω・)ﾉ

Baekhyun (8:12 PM): let’s hope he kisses you!! 

Baekhyun (8:12 PM): btw did you ever get to checking your contacts???

Jongin (8:12 PM): haha, funny 😒😒 and i did! guess who’s got his number? 

Jongin (8:12): 😏😏😏

Jongdae (8:13 PM): DUUUDEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Baekhyun (8:13 PM): dae wtf

Jongin (8:13 PM): he said he’ll text me the directions tomorrow ٩(｡•́‿•̀｡)۶

Baekhyun (8:13 PM): so when’s the wedding??? 😊😊😊😊😊👬

“Jongin!”

The brunet nearly jumps out of his own skin at the sound of Jungah’s loud voice, nearly falling off of his chair when he flinches in surprise. Rolling his eyes, he shoots her a less than amused stare. “What?”

“Since you weren’t at training, the heck were you doing all that time?” Jungah asks for the fifth time. When the microwave dings, she opens it up and retrieves the plate inside before closing the door. She’s in the midst of unplugging the microwave when she freezes, a -eating grin spreading across her face. “Wait, hold on, were you-”

Jongin growls in irritation. “Don’t you da-”

“You were with your boyfriend, weren’t you?” Jungah exclaims, much too loudly, although it comes out sounding more like a statement than a question, as she practically jumps up and down in excitement, her long pigtails bobbing up and down. Quickly unplugging the microwave, she grabs the plate off the counter and practically throws it on the table in front of Jongin, who leans away slightly.

Mumbling a barely audible ‘thanks’, Jongin picks up his fork and proceeds to stab into the chicken leg in front of him. Despite not having eaten for seven hours, his stomach feels incredibly full and he nibbles on the (slightly burnt) skin ever so slowly. As usual, he blames it on the butterflies which seem to have quadrupled in amount.

Grabbing a chair, Jungah pulls it out from underneath the table and eagerly sits down, resting her head on both hands as she stares at Jongin intently. She watches him for a minute or so before speaking. “What’s his name?”

. No. Jongin sighs in irritation before putting his fork down. “Listen, could you just-” His sentence abruptly ends in a loud yelp of ‘hey!’ when Jungah, out of nowhere, reaches across the table and attempts to grab his phone (which, unfortunately, still has the chat open). He thankfully manages to shove it aside at lightning speed before she has a chance to get to it. “Go to your room,” he says sullenly, placing his phone in his lap.

“That’s no way to talk to the person who just served you your food, you know,” Jungah says as a matter-of-factly before chuckling slightly. “You were texting him just now, weren’t you?” she adds, an excited look on her face.

Says the one who humiliated the absolute hell out of me yesterday. “No,” Jongin says, sipping his milk in annoyance, “as a matter of fact, I wasn’t.” He plays around with his food before running a hand through his hair. “And before you ask, yes, I’m gonna dye it soon.”

“Good,” Jungah says with a smile. “So uh, lemme guess, judging by what I saw just now, is it Jongdae?”

Jongin blinks, horrified. “What?”

“Jongdae; is he your new boyfriend?” Jungah asks, beating Jongin with her gaze. “I’ll know if you’re lying, by the way.”

Jongin nearly spits out his milk. A chill rushes down his spine at the thought of dating his best friend. Not that he’d have anything against it, it just doesn’t sit right with him. At all. “No, what the , of course not,” he coughs. “He’s my best friend, holy , I’d never- oh my God.” He gestures towards the roll of paper towels sitting on the counter a few feet away. “Get me a tissue.”

“Just use the back of your hand,” Jungah says, rolling her eyes. “Okay, fine, then I guess it’s Baekhyun?” she asks, leaning in closer and staring Jongin square in the eye. “It must be him.”

This time, Jongin actually does spit out his milk and he watches in both horror and amusement, mostly amusement, as Jungah scrambles to get out of her chair with a shriek and rushes towards the towels hanging above the oven. He watches, chuckling, as she hastily wipes her face and runs the towel through her now drenched pigtails. “Baek?” he garbles, a grimace prominent on his face. As if the thought of dating Jongdae wasn’t off-putting enough. “Are you goddamn insane?”

“How was I supposed to know?” Jungah retorts before sitting back down. Jongin tries not to laugh at the drops of milk that trickle down her bangs and down her face. She only stares at him in unamusement. “Anyway, tell me his name, and you better not be lying to me,” she says after a while, wiping her face with her shirt. "Especially now that you've ruined my hair."

Realizing Jungah isn’t, by any means, taking no for an answer, Jongin clears his throat before proceeding to poke at his chicken. Ignoring her cry of ‘Jongin, how many times has Dad told you not to play with your food?!’ he heaves a sigh. “Sehun,” he says after a few seconds of silence, although it’s so quiet neither he nor Jungah catch it the first time.

Jungah raises an eyebrow. “Either I’m going deaf or you need to speak up,” she says.

Jongin fights the urge to scoff. For a 14 year old, Jungah be awfully stuck up sometimes. “Sehun,” he repeats, significantly louder this time, avoiding his sister’s piercing gaze. When she doesn’t say anything, he looks up, eyebrows furrowed. “What?”

“Why do you look so nervous,” Jungah whines, reaching over and grabbing Jongin’s head before squishing his cheeks together, much to the latter’s distaste. “You look like you’re this close to crying, what’s wrong with you?” She lets go and sits back down, her voice suddenly serious. “Come to think of it, you’ve been kinda...distant for the past couple of days, why is that? What’s the matter?”

Rubbing both sides of his face, Jongin grimaces. “Nothing’s the matter,” he says simply before shoving his plate aside. “It’s just, you know...exams and stuff. I’m stressed, that’s all.” He makes a move to stand up when Jungah speaks up.

“How long have you two been together?” she asks, completely ignoring Jongin’s reply. “When’ll I get to meet him? Is he handsome? What’s he like? How long have you known each other? Have you kissed?” she adds, cocking her head sideways and clasping her hands together. Jongin fights the urge to roll his eyes.

“Uh,” Jongin says, swallowing. “We’re not uh, a couple, so I have no idea when you’ll be getting to meet him.” He fidgets in his lap under the table, avoiding her eyes. “And he’s handsome, I’d say,” he adds, ignoring the way his gut churns when Sehun’s face, inevitably, pops into his head, almost like a reflex. “And he’s really great, he’s pretty chill and really smart, but I don’t know that much about him since we’re not that close. Oh, and he plays football.” He nods slowly before sighing. His phone has buzzed a total of 63 times since he locked it and all he wants is to lock himself in his room and spill his heart out to Baekhyun and Jongdae since his gut (and heart, for that matter) feels like it’s seconds away from exploding. And the image of Sehun’s face most certainly isn’t helping matters. “Uh, can I go now?”

“Football?” Jungah asks, eyes widening in astonishment. “He must really be handsome,” she says absentmindedly before chuckling. “Hey, are you dating a jock? From what I’ve heard, majority of football players tend to be stuck up, conceived idiots, so you better watch out, just saying,” she adds with a loud laugh.

Jongin bites his lip. If she were referring to Chanyeol and Junmyeon, she’d be a hundred percent correct and he might’ve even laughed a little. But this is Sehun, and Jongin knows for a fact that Sehun; Oh Sehun, isn’t, in fact, a stuck up, conceived idiot. “He’s not like that,” is all he says before balling his hands into fists under the table. His legs itch to stand up and run up the stairs to his room. "And we're not dating!"

“Sure he isn't,” Jungah says. “Is he like, really popular with the ladies?”

Swallowing, Jongin shrugs. “Yeah, sorta.”

“I’ll bet he is,” she chuckles. “Wait, d’you think I’d have a chance with him?”

“No,” Jongin practically yells and he clears his throat when he hears his father’s harsh scolding of ‘quiet!’. “I uh, I’m not sure, maybe,” he adds, scratching his neck. “He’s way too old for you, though.”

“How old is he?”

“Nineteen, he’s turning twenty in less than two months,” Jongin replies and mentally smacks himself. “Nineteen. He’s nineteen. Look, I really need to stu-”

“You’ve hardly even touched your food,” Jungah whines, changing the subject completely, pointing to Jongin’s plate. “Dad’s gonna be hella pissed, you know.”

“Whatever, see ya,” Jongin murmurs, practically racing out of the kitchen and bolting up the stairs at inhuman speed.

4:03 AM

It’s the sound of his ringtone (which he has yet to change) blaring through the speakers that wakes Jongin up at the crack of dawn. Dismissing it as Jungah calling for God knows what reason (honestly, Jongin doesn’t even know why she’d call himself, but he’s fresh out of ideas at the moment), he rolls over and grabs a pillow before placing it over his head in an attempt to drown out the noise. When said noise continues to ring through the air, he groans loudly before throwing his pillow across the room and reaching behind him, fingers scattering across the surface of his bedside table in search of his phone. He’s not in the mood to deal with his father’s yelling at four in the morning, anyway.

After a few seconds, he finally locates his phone and holds it up in front of his face, and hisses when the brightness of his screen stabs him in the eyes. Vision still a bit blurry, he squints hard enough to make out the word ‘Baek’ on the screen and nearly cries, both in confusion and irritation. What on Earth could he possibly want at this hour?

Swiping right to answer the call, albeit hesitantly, Jongin clears his throat before placing the phone next to his ear, praying that his voice isn’t too raspy. “Baek, it’s ing four in the morning, what the hell do you w-”

“Open the door,” Baekhyun practically yells on the other end of the line. “Quick!”

Jongin blinks and sits up. “...What.”

“If you’re not down here in one minute, I’m gonna ring the doorbell,” Baekhyun says and Jongin’s confusion only doubles. “Hurry, come down here, quick!”

Jongin doesn’t know if it’s the result of going to bed at two in the morning or the fuzziness in his head talking, but all of a sudden he feels a great sense of concern overwhelm him and he furrows his eyebrows, pressing the phone closer to his ear. “You mean my door?”

“Yeah!” Baekhyun says, voice still loud as ever.

“What’s the matter,” Jongin says hurriedly, quickly throwing the blanket off and scrambling to get out of bed, nearly tripping over his own two feet in the process. In his dazed, half awake state, he runs around his room like a headless chicken in search of his jeans. “Are you hurt? What’s going on? Are you okay?” he asks and hisses in pain when he accidentally stubs his toe against the wall.

“It’s frigging freezing, hurry and get down here already!” Baekhyun exclaims. Jongin hears the sound of the wind howling in the background and his concern triples. “I’ll explain everything as soon as you let me in!”

Giving up on trying to find the lightswitch, Jongin mumbles a ‘screw it’ before opening rushing out of his room and does his very best to make it down the stairs as quietly, and quickly, as possible, which is proven to be a difficult task given how old and therefore creaky the stairs are. Despite how annoying and what a downright nuisance Baekhyun can be sometimes, Jongin won’t ever deny that the thought of his best friend in danger, makes him feel sick to his stomach, especially given that it’s midnight and zero degrees outside. He swallows the lump in his throat as he creeps past Jungah’s room. “I’m coming.”

Jongin’s feet hit the floor a full minute later and he ignores the sense of dread that washes over him when he approaches the door. Is he hurt? Sick? Sleepwalking? In danger? Reaching for the handle, he swallows the lump in his throat before grabbing it and pushing it down. The door swings open and-

“Hey!” Baekhyun chirps, no sign of fatigue in his voice at all. He’s sporting a bright grin, much to Jongin’s amusement, and his eyes are as bright as ever.

Adrenaline still not fully gone, Jongin furrows his eyebrows before inspecting Baekhyun; he looks fine, maybe a tad bit tired (but honestly, who wouldn’t be at this hour?) but all in all, Jongin thinks he looks perfectly unharmed and he blinks in confusion. “Are you okay? Do you need help? Are you hurt?” he asks, still holding the phone by his ear.

It’s Baekhyun’s turn to blink. “Huh? What are you on? Did you really pull an all nighter?” he asks and chuckles, ending the call and shoving his phone in his pocket. “Didn’t think you were serious. Anyway, can I come in?”

“You’re not hurt?” Jongin asks, eyebrows still furrowed in concern. “Are you sleepwalking?” He waves a hand in front of Baekhyun’s face just in case. The latter has a history of doing crazy things while sleepwalking; one of them being ordering ice cream at a café, by himself, 30 miles from his house at three in the morning. Jongin won’t ever forget how Baekhyun had called him at the crack of dawn to tell him all about what flavor of ice cream he’d bought. Come to think of it, Jongin wouldn’t even have known Baekhyun was sleepwalking (and sleeptalking, for that matter) had the latter not associated the color red with chocolate. He fights back a chuckle.

“Cut it out, you moron!” Baekhyun exclaims, way too loudly, before grabbing Jongin’s arm. “I’m fine, I’m starting to think you’re sleepwalking, if anything,” he adds with a chuckle before visibly shivering. “Seriously, it’s below zero, either you let me in or I let myself in.”

Stepping aside, still a bit dazed, Jongin watches as Baekhyun enters the hallway before the latter proceeds to remove his jacket and shoes. Upon closer inspection, he doesn’t know if it’s due to the fresh cold air or the adrenaline, Jongin notices that Baekhyun does, indeed, look fine, and he blinks again. “Uh. So you're not hurt?”

Baekhyun momentarily stops untying his right shoe to look up and shoot Jongin a confused look. “Will you stop with the whole hurt thing?” he says, a hint of irritation in his voice. “I’m fine,” he adds, and moves to resume untying his shoe when Jongin suddenly grabs his arm. “The fu-”

“Why the hell are you here, then,” Jongin hisses, making sure to keep his voice in low in fear of his father waking up. Honestly, he has no idea how he’d explain standing in the middle of the hallway in his pyjamas with an overly chipper Baekhyun. “I thought you were in trouble, the hell’re you doing here at ing four in the morning, you dolt,” he adds, dragging a hand down his face. "My exam's in four hours, dear God."

Baekhyun grins. “No one’s using your bathroom at the moment, right?” he asks, placing his shoes by the door and standing upright.

Jongin blinks. “...You came over to my house at four in the morning to take a ?” he deadpans and mentally punches both himself and Baekhyun. “I must be dreaming. Please tell me I’m dreaming, dear God.”

“No,” Baekhyun huffs before closing the door behind him and grabbing Jongin’s wrist. “Let’s go upstairs!” And with that being said, he drags the brunet towards the stairs without giving the latter a chance to reply, constantly ignoring his pleas of ‘these stairs are loud as a motherer, slow down, moron, they’ll wake up!’ as he drags the brunet up the old, wooden stairs.

Baekhyun doesn’t let go of Jongin’s arm until they’re both safe and sound inside the latter’s room. Opening his mouth to speak, Jongin is reminded of the fact that needs to turn on the light when Baekhyun trips over what Jongin thinks is a dictionary somewhere in the dark. Jongin doesn’t see it happen, but he hears Baekhyun’s pained and not so quiet grunt of ‘mothering damn it’, and that’s all he has to know.

After a couple of seconds of rubbing the wall, Jongin finally manages to locate the lightswitch and he scrambles to switch it on, and emits a cat-like hiss when the room quickly fills with a bright, white light. Blinking a couple of times to get his eyes to adjust, Jongin finally gets a good look at Baekhyun and, is able to confirm that the latter is, indeed, fine. Jongin doesn’t know whether he should be relieved for Baekhyun’s sake or march right over and whack the latter clear across the back of the head.

They stand there in silence for a while before Jongin feels a sudden wave of exhaustion come over him and he stifles a yawn. “Any point in asking what on God’s green Earth your is doing in my bedroom at four in the goddamn morning?”

Baekhyun shoots Jongin a -eating grin, and the latter automatically swallows. “Well,” he starts, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the wall. He looks so incredibly...awake, quite the contrast to Jongin, who is seriously starting to wonder whether or not there’s an invisible Sandman wandering around the room. “While your was asleep in the hallway, I overheard a little something during my History lesson.”

Jongin sighs before sitting down on his bed and lying down, stretching out his long limbs. “M hmm,” he hums absentmindedly, doing his best to stay awake, which is incredibly difficult given his all nighter only a couple of hours ago. “What was it about?”

Baekhyun chuckles as he watches Jongin’s eyelids droop. “Sleepyhead. Don’t ever pull all nighters since you clearly can’t handle it,” he tuts, shaking his head. “Anyway, it was about Sehun,” he adds and stifles a loud cackle (thankfully, since Jongin is at least 100% sure his father would storm into the room and chew them both out) when Jongin sits up like a bullet. “Man, you’re so smitten.”

“What did you hear?” Jongin asks, trying to sound casual, even though he’s highly aware Baekhyun can see right through him. The mention of Sehun’s name instantly triggers his Sehun-reflex (he honestly isn’t sure what to call it) and before he knows it, he thinks he smells the latter’s fragrance but he quickly dismisses it. “Well?”

Shooting Jongin a questioning look, Baekhyun grins. “Well, these two awfully annoying girls that sit behind me were gossiping on and on about Sehun, since he seems to be the topic of every single conversation among the entire female population at school, and I may or may not have picked up the fact that Prince Charming is into blondes,” he says and chuckles when Jongin blinks. “It’s only a rumor, of course, but you know what they say about men’s preferences,” he adds, putting his hands up in defense. 

The brunet sits glued to his bed before he clears his throat, attempting to shove all Sehun related thoughts aside. “What,” he blurts out, “uh, exactly am I supposed to do with that information?” He scratches the back of his head. Somewhere in his head, he’s struck with the idea of Sehun’s girlfriend possibly being blonde. It makes his gut churn horribly and he hurries to squash the thought before focusing on Baekhyun again. “I mean, that’s...cool, I guess, but what do you want me to do? Be on the lookout for his blonde girlfriend or what? Watch how he behaves around blonde girls? You’re confusing me here, Baek.” He’s suddenly struck with another thought and he chuckles out loud. “Hell, since I’m so head over heels, I might as well go blonde myself, am I right?” He chuckles again before shaking his head in disbelief.

Baekhyun grins. “Exactly.”

Jongin freezes. “What?”

Reaching into his pocket, Baekhyun pulls out a shiny box and holds it up in front of his face. “Not a lot of stores open at this hour so I had to wing it. Hopefully this works just as good, though,” he says and lets out a laugh when Jongin’s eyes suddenly widen to the size of quarters.

“No ing way,” Jongin blurts out, instinctively backing away, keeping his gaze fixated on Baekhyun’s face for any signs that could hint at the latter possibly fibbing. When he finds none, he proceeds to sputter a series of ‘no way’s while he scrambles to get as far away from Baekhyun as the limited bed space will allow, only to topple over the edge and fall face first onto the floor.

“You’ll look great,” Baekhyun says as a matter-of-factly, ignoring the brunet's pained groans, while inspecting the cardboard box in his hands marked ‘PLATINUM BLONDE’ like it’s some sort of rare, exquisite gemstone. Seemingly unaware of Jongin’s incoherent, garbled noises to his right, he grins to himself before walking towards the brunet, who only backs away even more. “You want Sehun to notice you, right?” he adds. “Besides, look at you!! You hair’s practically half black and half brown; look at your roots! Sorry, but you look like a complete and utter trainwreck!”

“He’s already noticed me, we’re going out for ing bubble tea on Friday,” Jongin shrieks, not even bothering keeping his voice down. “If he had a problem with my hair he would've frigging said something about it by now!” He growls in irritation when Baekhyun only laughs. “Get away from me, you maniac!”

“You haven’t even seen the color yet!” Baekhyun retorts.

“I have and I hate it,” Jongin exclaims, backing away even more until his back hits his closet door. Damn it. “Seriously, Baek, no! Sheesh, I like the dude and all but I’m not willing to go that fa-”

“I saw him ogling two girls yesterday.”

Jongin stops mid sentence. “What?”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun says, apparently deep in thought. “After that lesson. In the hallway. One blonde and one brunette. I mean, I was sitting quite far away and couldn’t really see properly but I know for a fact that he seemed to stare at the blonde one a tad bit longer than the brunette. It wasn’t a ual or creepy stare, though, it kinda just seemed like he greatly appreciated her beauty and-” His sentence abruptly ends when Jongin suddenly stands up.

“I’ll do it.”

Baekhyun blinks. “Huh?”

“I said I’ll do it,” Jongin murmurs, gaze fixated on the carpet. He looks up after a brief moment of silence. “What?”

“Nothing.” Baekhyun clears his throat before a gigantic grin spreads across his face. “And that’s great! What changed your mind?” he adds, practically jumping up and down in excitement.

Jongin shrugs. “I, uh-”

“I knew I'd get you to crack. And you’re smitten, that’s why,” Baekhyun coos, walking over to Jongin and patting the latter’s shoulder. “Smitten with Sehun.” He turns around and is about to open the door to head to the bathroom when he freezes. “Hey, if you ever become a famous musician, please, please promise me you’ll make that your title track.”

Jongin blinks, a certain redness spreading across his face and he rushes over and whacks Baekhyun in the back of the head.

6:01 PM

“Jongin, you’ve been in there for an hour and a half, did you die in there or something?”

“Shut up Baek, this stuff takes forever to set!”

“I told you I should’ve helped you!”

“Well, how about you don’t get dye for less than three bucks next time!”

“You try finding a store that’s open at the crack of Satan’s that sells hair dye!”

“Okay, I’m gonna need you to come in anyway, Jungah showered yesterday and forgot to hang up new towels.”

Baekhyun sighs before getting up off of Jongin’s bed and walking up to the door. He winces when a few banging sounds ring through the air. “Fine, hang on,” he calls, although he isn’t sure if Jongin can hear him over the shower running, and covers his mouth when he realizes how loud his voice is. Come to think of it, he assumes that the ability to sleep through just about anything, including loud voices and the sounds of someone falling over multiple times in a bathtub, runs in Jongin’s family since they haven’t been scolded once in the past hour, and it’s not like they’ve been putting in any real effort to keep it down. In fact, they stopped around the 5:50 mark when Jongin emitted the loudest and most inhuman noise Baekhyun had ever heard in his life after (somehow) getting dye in his eyes.

Walking over to Jongin’s closet, where he knows the brunet keeps his towels, Baekhyun opens the doors, making sure to step aside when a pile of (hopefully clean) clothes spills out and onto the carpet. He only grimaces because how does Jongin keep track of his clothes??

After some careful inspection, Baekhyun grabs a light blue towel and walks back to the bathroom. “Open up!”

A couple more banging noises, closely followed by wet slipping sounds, are heard before the door is slowly unlocked and Jongin, whose pyjamas are so drenched that they stick to his body like glue, swings the door open. He stares at Baekhyun with an unreadable expression before the latter hastily lets himself in, slipping the second he enters the bathroom.

“What the hell,” Baekhyun exhales, clinging onto the towel rack for dear life, as he tries to stand upright, which is extremely difficult given that the entire bathroom floor is covered in at least 2 inches of water. Murky, yellow water. “What the hell are you doing, it looks like a cheese bomb went off in here!”

Jongin sighs before running a hand through his wet hair and curses when he sees that his fingers are absolutely covered in yellow paste. Sacrificing my precious hair for this better be worth it. “You try getting around with a face full of hair,” he mumbles before accepting the towel and drying his hair with it. Not once did Jongin think he’d ever find himself standing in an overflowing bathroom while towel drying his newly (self) dyed hair an hour before a big exam. He blames it on the sleep deprivation preventing him from thinking straight, although he low key wishes he were dreaming.

Baekhyun watches, eyes twinkling as Jongin finishes drying his hair. “What are you guys gonna be doing on Friday, anyway?” he asks, grimacing when the cold water seeps into his socks. “Boring ol’ café date? And Jesus Christ.” He wrinkles his nose in disgust. “It smells like a meth lab in here.”

“It’s not boring!” Jongin exclaims. “We’ll find a way to make it fun, shut up.”

“The date’s tomorrow, think of something fast,” Baekhyun says, chuckling. “Hey, I saw a poster for this new horror movie that’s currently in theaters, d’you think he’d appreciate that?”

“You know I-”

“-Like we said yesterday, it’ll give you an excuse to-”

“-But I don’t want to cling onto him,” Jongin whines, a droplet of water trickling down his face, “even if I’m scared out of my goddamn mind.” He momentarily stops drying his hair to sneak a peek at himself in the mirror to his right. He can’t see much, given that the towel covers at least ¾ of his head, and for that he’s extremely thankful.

“Why not?” Baekhyun exclaims, throwing his hands in the air. “That way he’ll know you care about him!” He his head to the side. “That’s enough drying, I think. Jesus, any more rubbing and your hair’s gonna fall clean out.”

Jongin groans in frustration. If people wonder why he doesn’t go to Baekhyun for relationship advice, this is precisely why. “If this ends up ruining my hair, I’mma kill you,” Jongin mumbles before handing the towel to Baekhyun, whose eyes widen. “What? What?”

Baekhyun whistles lowly before nodding in approval. “Man.”

Feeling a sense of agony creep up on him, Jongin furrows his eyebrows. “Well?” he asks, not having the courage to look at himself in the mirror. “Is it ed up? Damn you Baek, if I look like a train crash victim I swear to ing God I’ll-”

“Let’s just say that if you weren’t already head over heels for Sehun and I wasn’t dying for Junmyeon to notice me already,” Baekhyun says, ignoring Jongin’s snort, “I’d totally do you.” He blinks when Jongin emits an unattractive squawk. “What's wrong with that?”

“Whatthe,” Jongin blabbers. He doesn’t even give Baekhyun a chance to reply before he puts his hands up. “Okay, anyway. Glad you like it,” he mumbles before taking a deep breath. I definitely need better friends. His scalp isn’t, in fact, burning, which he interprets as a good sign. Ever so slowly, he turns his head until he’s looking into the mirror and- “Oh my ing God.”

“Well?” Baekhyun asks cheerfully, staring at Jongin expectantly as the latter gawks at his reflection, mouth hanging open. Despite the dye only costing a measly three dollars, Baekhyun thinks it looks decent. When he bought it, he didn’t know what to expect, but looking at Jongin now, he smiles to himself because it looks awfully good. He blinks when Jongin remains silent for a whole two minutes. “Wellllllllll?”

“I look,” Jongin starts, taking a step closer to the mirror. The usual brown (or black) he’s so used to seeing atop of his head has now been replaced by a shade of yellowish blonde (definitely not platinum blonde, like the box had said, but it still looks rather decent), and it sends a shock down his spine the first time he sees it. He seems to inspect his own reflection almost...disbelievingly before he reaches up and tugs on a lock of his hair. Well, at least it’s not coming off, he thinks before running a hand through it. It’s still a little dewy and he figures he’ll have to blow dry later (he figures the sound of a blow dryer at would most definitely wake his father). He isn’t sure what the color is going to look like when it fades later on, and he figures it won’t look pretty in the least, but as of right now, it looks surprisingly okay which is enough to make him exhale in relief. He seriously hopes Baekhyun was right about Sehun preferring blondes because he thinks he feels his scalp itch. “Adequate.”

“Are you kidding?” Baekhyun exclaims, running a hand through Jongin’s hair. It’s surprisingly soft to the touch, something neither of them had been expecting. In fact, Baekhyun was at least a hundred percent sure Jongin’s hair would end up feeling like a horse’s mane. “It looks perfect! It's so...you! You look like a Greek God; no wait, a mad scientist! Holy , Sehun’s gonna flip when he sees you in a couple of hours; he'll totally get down on one knee the second he lays his eyes on you, my God, holy wow,” he babbles in excitement, and the blond has to slap his hands away. “You look like Einstein! Hey, d’you have any white robes around here somewhere? You’ll see what I mean when I say you look like-”

“-There’s one in Jungah’s room but don’t go in there, she’s not a morning person, trust me, I had to find out the hard way last year,” Jongin says flatly before inspecting himself in the mirror again. The new shade really makes his eye color stand out, as well as his eyebrows, and Jongin smiles slightly. “At least my roots aren’t showing anymore,” he mumbles. His fingers itch to pick up his phone and text Sehun a picture of himself but he figures that can wait until later. Not to mention he left his phone in the hallway, something he realizes seconds later. Cursing under his breath, he looks down and drags a hand down his face. “.”

Blinking, Baekhyun follows Jongin’s gaze and sighs in exasperation. “Damn it, the ’re we gonna do,” he mumbles. He’d been too caught up with fawning over Jongin’s new hair color that he'd completely forgotten about the water all over the floor. He turns around and nearly cries when he sees majority of the bathtub (and shower, which Baekhyun finds extremely strange considering the fact that Jongin didn’t even use the shower) is covered in yellow goo. Checking his watch, he bites his lip. “When do your parents get up?”

“In like half an hour,” Jongin sighs, stifling a yawn. His head is hurting and he doesn’t know if it’s due to whatever unidentified chemicals inside Baekhyun’s mystery hair dye or the fact that he’d slept less than two hours before the latter got the bright idea to come over. Glancing at the floor one more time, he swallows the fear of whatever his father (and Jungah, given that she uses the shower first of them all) might do to him when he walks in at half past six and discovers him and Baekhyun standing in two inches of yellow, dye filled water. He figures he'll have to brace himself for whatever profanities Jungah will throw at him when she enters to use the shower before school. Shoving all that aside, he nods at Baekhyun. “One hour, go.”

“Me?” Baekhyun squawks. “You did this, not me, I was literally standing out there the whole time! You clean it u-” He doesn’t even get a chance to finish his sentence when a (dye covered) towel comes flying and hits him square in the face.

~~~