“Why do you want to dye your hair anyway?”

  Jeonghan is crouched down on the dirty floor of the twenty-four convenience store, trying to decide between two shades of light brown in the bright, fluorescent lighting. Joshua crosses his arms against his chest, a bit uneasy. It’s not a pleasant place to be at two forty five am.

  “Because, Joshuji,” Jeonghan answers him, without looking up, “one can only live so long with this kind of root-growth without wanting to choke oneself.”

He surely has a knack for overreacting, Joshua thinks, looking at the supposedly horrid mess on top of Jeonghan’s head. It’s really not that bad. There’s definitely a bit of black peeking through, but not at all to the extent that Jeonghan thinks. Joshua tilts his head a bit. It’s a bit Madonna-like, actually. He hums.

“At three in the morning, though?”

Jeonghan does look up at him this time, head lolling lazily over his shoulder. “Excuse me, Mr. Hong. I wanted to go to bed five hours ago. This is all your fault.”

Joshua snorts. They had been in the middle of Jeonghan’s first viewing of the Lord of the Rings; going to sleep would have been unacceptable. Besides, he’s pretty sure Jeonghan had a good nap through most of Two Towers, anyway. “I’ll have you know that those movies are very important to me and my culture.”

“What, nerd culture?” Jeonghan asks, finally putting one of the boxes back on the shelf. Looks like he decided on ‘Hazelnut Caramel Mocha Latte’, whatever the that means.

“I think that that’s now officially the most lame thing you’ve ever said,” he says, and Jeonghan points his tongue at him as he slams the dye box on the conveyer belt, startling the poor cashier out of his nap. Joshua rolls his eyes and grabs a Twix.

Jeonghan’s bathroom is a bit too small to actually accommodate two people at once, but it’s not too hard to make it work, either, for Joshua and Jeonghan. Joshua has found his seat on the toilet seat, scrutinizing the back of the dye box, while Jeonghan sets all the different products orderly down on the countertop.

Jeonghan claps his hands. “Read me the instructions, Shua.”

“Well.” Joshua inhales. “First, you’re supposed to mix a tiny tube into a big bottle.”

There’s a bit of fumbling, before an excited “Got it!”

“Shake it,” Joshua says, “But screw on the lid first.”

“Do you thinks I’m stupid, Shua?” Jeonghan says, with fake exasperation in his voice.

“Yes.”

Jeonghan rolls his eyes. “What’s next?”

“Uhm.” Joshua brings the box a bit closer to his face, trying to read the tiny Hangeul. The lighting in Jeonghan’s bathroom is not much better than that in the convenience store, and Joshua has to squint to even make out the illustrations. He tries not to make it too obvious, knowing Jeonghan wouldn’t wait a second to accuse him of practical blindness, even though he’s definitely the worst sighted one. Joshua has, to his knowledge, perfect twenty twenty vision, while Jeonghan, as much as he deny it, can’t really see anything much at all without his glasses. “You need to put on gloves.”

Jeonghan, who was leaning almost into the mirror and poking at an invisible pimple, puts on the gloves and brushes one last time through his hair. “Can I start now?”

“I think you’re supposed to use a brush?”

Jeonghan frowns. “A brush?” He starts lifting up the different tubes of product, as if there would be hiding one under one of them.

Joshua shrugs. “That’s what it says.”

It’s silent for a minute, both of them just looking at each other, before Jeonghan huffs and squirts some dyes into his gloved hand. “Sounds stupid,” he says.

“You’re stupid!” Joshua gapes, “Are you really just not going to do what it says?”

“Only nerds follow the instructions, Joshuji. As my glamorous assistant, it would do you good to remember that.”

Joshua leans back, sighs, and watches as Jeonghan tries to evenly cover a lock with his fingers.

It ends up being Joshua who does the rest of the dye, standing over Jeonghan while he sits on a chair they dragged in from the kitchen. Jeonghan’s hair is quite short, so it doesn’t take long for it to be fully covered, but Joshua is really meticulous, really doesn’t want Jeonghan to look bad. He’d never hear the end of it.

They had to open the both the door and the small window by the ceiling to air out some of the ammonia smell, not that it’s very effective. Joshua does enjoy hearing the sound of Seoul by night, though. He’s a big city boy by heart, and it feels good to hear the distant noise of traffic and all other sorts of big city sounds.

“There, all done.” He massages Jeonghan’s scalp a little bit, making sure the mixture is evenly spent. He can tell that Jeonghan is starting to get sleepy again, his eyes look a bit heavier and he leans his head a bit heavy into Joshua’s touch. Good, Joshua thinks. Maybe they’ll go to bed soon.

“Thank you.” Jeonghan says, softly. “How long is it supposed to stay in?”

Joshua throws the now dirty gloves into the garbage can and reaches for the box again. It takes him a moment to find the instructions again, eyes even more tired now. “Twenty-five to thirty minutes.”

Jeonghan hums, and starts collecting the used bottles and tubes. “I think I have some black fruit tea in the kitchen?” He yawns.

It’s actually a bit too warm out for tea, Joshua thinks. It’s the middle of summer, warm enough that Joshua hasn’t worn a long sleeve shirt in at least two weeks. However, sometimes he doesn’t really mid breaking his own personal habits for Jeonghan.

Joshua smiles, a bit adoringly, and kisses Jeonghan quickly on the cheek before leaving for the kitchen.

When the dye is washed out and Jeonghan’s hair is blow dried, Joshua feels like giving himself a pat on the back. The black roots are definitely still visible, but the brown is pretty, shiny and even, and it looks so good on Jeonghan. They may have ruined a perfectly good, white t-shirt, but it’s definitely worth it, Joshua thinks, when Jeonghan’s eyes light up and he can’t stop turning his head and running his fingers through his hair. The bathroom sink is covered in brown stains and there are cups of cold tea in the living room, but Joshua definitely doesn’t dread having to clean it up in the morning when they finally fall asleep, Jeonghan’s face tucked into his neck and their legs tangled in a way that is a bit too hot in the middle of summer.