It’s Tuesday night and Jonghyun slams the door behind him after a long day of classes and studying. “Hey, Kibum! I’m back!” he shouts in to their shared apartment. Instead of a reply, Jonghyun hears metal clanking and a muffled scream.

“Kibum?!” Jonghyun runs to the bathroom where he finds Kibum desperately trying to shove the contents of the trash back in to the silver bin.

“Um, what are you doing?” Jonghyun asks.

“Wh-what? Nothing. What does it look like I’m doing? I mean, nothing. I mean, obviously putting the trash away. Because I knocked it over. Not because of some weird reason. I just accidentally knocked the trash can over. That’s all,” Kibum replies quickly and nervously.

“Alright,” Jonghyun chuckles, knowing Kibum is lying. But he shrugs it off, not really caring what had caused Kibum to knock the trash over. He walks to the kitchen and pulls out an apple from the fridge, biting in to it without bothering to wash it first. He grabs a paper towel before walking to his room and closing the door behind him.

In the middle of studying chemistry, Jonghyun hears Kibum groan, soon followed by a “where the hell is it?”

Now, Jonghyun was a bit curious, but he was more worried about doing well on his chemistry test so he ignored it and continued studying.

Fifteen minutes later, Kibum knocks on Jonghyun’s door and tells him he’s going to run to the grocery store.

“Can you get some food? We only have apples and cereal.”

“Yeah, sure. Anything specific?”

“Anything edible that you want is fine. As long as it’s quick to make.”

“Yeah, I’ll be back soon.”

“Ok.”

Kibum heads outside to his car and unlocks it. When he sits down in the driver seat, he sets an empty hair dye box down on the dashboard. “Bleach blonde” is written across the box in silver, shiny letters. Kibum looks at it and smirks. “Took me long enough to find,” he mutters under his breath.

By the time Kibum is back from the grocery store, Jonghyun had finished studying and was sitting in the kitchen, eating dry fruit loops. “I hope you got milk because as sweet as this cereal is, it doesn’t taste as good by itself,” he greets Kibum.

“Yeah, I did.” He starts emptying the groceries and putting things in the fridge when he can feel Jonghyun hovering over him. “What do you want?” Kibum demands.

“Just wanted to see what food you bought,” Jonghyun explains, trying to peer over Kibum’s shoulder into the plastic grocery bags.

“I just got the usual stuff,” Kibum sighs, pushing Jonghyun away. “Space, ok?”

Jonghyun scoffs. “You’re the last person I thought would tell me he needs space.” But he backs off anyways, quickly reaching for the milk he spots in one of the bags.

“Hey!” Kibum scolds.

“What?” I can’t even get milk now?”

“No it’s just… nevermind.” Kibum hastily bends down, grabs the milk and hands it to Jonghyun.

“Thanks.” Jonghyun stares at him blankly but doesn’t ask what that was about. He doesn’t notice that Kibum sneaks one of the grocery bags in to the bathroom, holding a box of bleach blonde hair dye.

After Jonghyun goes to sleep, Kibum closes the door of the bathroom behind him. He pulls the bleach blonde hair dye out of the cellophane bag and places it on the counter, next to the used box that he found in the trash of bleach blonde dye. “Should I do this now or… will he notice? Maybe I should wait a week. Jonghyun did just dye his hair two days ago,” Kibum wonders aloud. “Ah, it. I got the dye might as well do it now.” He takes out the contents from the box, unfolding the instructions. As Kibum starts mixing the bottles’ contents together, he hears a knock on the door.

“I just need to brush my teeth. I forgot,” he hears Jonghyun say.

“Um, I’m busy.”

“Ok hurry up my mouth feels gross because I had the milk.”

“I’m ,” Kibum says. why did I say that? He mentally slaps himself for telling such a stupid lie.

“Ok, well just hurry up.”

“Will you just ask Minho if you can use his bathroom? Or use the kitchen sink?”

“My toothbrush is in there. And stop having a conversation with me while you’re ing.”

Kibum hears Jonghyun’s footsteps retreat and he lets out a sigh of relief. He quickly mixes everything else together and spreads the mixture evenly over his dark hair.

“Who the takes that long to come?” he can hear Jonghyun mutter. Kibum peels off the gloves and throws them in the trash, when he thinks Jonghyun is no longer in the hallway, Kibum darts to his room with a towel over his shoulders.

“You were dyeing your hair but for some reason you told me you were ?” Kibum pauses upon hearing Jonghyun’s voice.

“Uh, yeah… Sorry.”

“Whatever,” Jonghyun chuckles, rolling his eyes. He walks in to the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

When Jonghyun is really asleep (Kibum thinks he is, at least), Kibum goes to rinse the dye out of his hair. After blow-drying it, he looks in the mirror. The color is almost exactly the same that Jonghyun dyed his own hair a few days earlier. Kibum smirks at his reflection, thinking that he pulls it off better than his best friend. On Wednesday mornings, the two don’t usually see each other because Kibum’s class starts at 8:30 and Jonghyun’s doesn’t start until 11:00. But this morning, as Key was pouring himself a glass of water before heading out the door, Jonghyun walks in to the kitchen, eyes half shut and blonde hair a mess.

“Morning,” he greets Kibum.

“Hey.” Kibum prays that Jonghyun won’t notice they have the same hair color and quickly swallows his water. “Well, I got class so I’ll see you tonight. Bye.”

Kibum heads for the door but Jonghyun grabs his shoulder. Kibum prepares himself for the awkward question he knows will come.

“Can you help me with econ tonight?”

“Oh, yeah. Of course,” Kibum answers, surprised that Jonghyun didn’t ask about his hair. He quickly leaves and walks to class. When he sits down in anthropology next to Minho, he receives a strange look.

“What?” Kibum asks.

“Your hair,” Minho answers.

“Yeah, I dyed it. You like it?”

“I do. But isn’t it the same color as Jonghyun’s?”

Kibum blushes but pretends like he doesn’t know what Minho is talking about. “I bought this dye a while ago. I just got around to actually using it last night. Besides, our hair color isn’t exactly the same.”

Minho shrugs and turns to listen to the professor.

On Wednesday nights, Jonghyun gets back first. By the time Kibum arrives, Jonghyun is usually sitting on the couch watching TV or studying. Tonight, he’s watching the news, which Kibum notes, is unusual for Jonghyun.

Kibum plops down on the couch besides Jonghyun, who is completely immersed in what the news reporter is saying. “Since when do you watch the news?” Kibum sneers.

“You’re so rude.”

“Really, though. Why?”

“It’s for a class.”

“Thought so.”

Jonghyun throws a pillow at Kibum without ever looking in his direction. Kibum is starting to get frustrated. He wants Jonghyun to notice his hair. But he can’t distract Jonghyun from his assignment so he stands up to leave.

“Hey, why don’t you watch this with me? It’s actually nice to know what’s going on in the world,” Jonghyun offers, finally turning towards Kibum as the ads start to play. “Oh, you’re hair,” he adds.

“Uh, sure. And yeah, I dyed it last night,” Kibum responds, sitting on the opposite end of the couch as Jonghyun.

“I know. You lied to me about remember?”

Kibum frowns, remembering what he said the previous night. “Yeah, sorry. But uh, what do you think of my hair?” he asks, trying not to sound too desperate.

“Looks good.”

“Is that all you’re gonna say?”

“You think I’m a hair expert or something? Want me to tell you it’s the perfect shade for your skin tone or something?” Jonghyun laughs but notices the frown on Kibum’s face. “What’re you upset about? Because I didn’t notice this morning?”

“No. It’s nothing.”

Before Kibum can do anything, Jonghyun’s face is just centimeters away from his. “Don’t move,” Jonghyun tell hims. Kibum sighs and stays still for Jonghyun who then grabs Kibum’s wrist and forcefully drags him in to the bathroom.

The two blonde boys stand in front of the mirror and Jonghyun looks at their reflection. He leans his head against Kibum’s and mumbles something that Kibum can’t understand.

“Is this why you were going through the trash yesterday?” Jonghyun finally asks.

Kibum nods slowly.

“And you think this is… romantic or something?”

“No. I just… I liked the color and I wanted it too.”

“Ok. That’s weird but understandable since I look so damn good.”

“Oh, please.” Kibum rolls his eyes and Jonghyun punches him lightly.

“Well now we have couple hair,” Jonghyun laughs. “Oh god when we go out in public together…” Jonghyun is cut off by his own laughter. Kibum frowns again.

“It’s not funny.”

“Of course it’s not,” Jonghyun agrees, still laughing. He can barely hold himself up anymore and he grabs on to Kibum’s shoulder for support. Kibum groans and drags Jonghyun to his bedroom, shoving him on to the bed.

“You’re the one who looked so good with blonde hair that I thought I might give it a shot, too. Since I’m way hotter than you anyways,” Kibum tells Jonghyun.

“Yeah, sure,” Jonghyun replies sarcastically, still unable to stop laughing.

Thursday is the only day that Jonghyun and Kibum have a class together. And since it’s their first class of the day, they walk together. When two blonde boys walk through the classroom door, they’re met with stares from their classmates. A few of them mutter under their breath and some laugh. “Did you guys do that on purpose?” someone asks. Jonghyun scoffs and sits down. Kibum sits next to him, blushing.

On Thursday nights, Jonghyun usually gets home first so Kibum is surprised when he comes home to an empty apartment. He starts making himself something to eat when Jonghyun walks in, grocery bag in hand.

“I just went shopping. We don’t need-”

“Shut up.” Jonghyun pulls a box out of the bag and tosses it towards Kibum who tries to catch it but fumbles and uselessly watches it fall the the floor before bending down to pick it up. When Kibum looks up, Jonghyun is gone. He looks at the box “Natural Black” is written across the top and Kibum rolls his eyes.