Archive of Our Own

taehyung had both of his headphones in as he walked to his floor's shared bathroom. a slow jazz song blasted in his airpods as he scrolled through instagram and pushed open the door.

someone heaving a heavy sigh caused him to look up from his phone. one of the students on his floor- probably a sophomore or junior, by his looks- was standing in front of one of the mirrors, items scattered across the thin counter. upon further inspection, taehyung seemed to recognize some cheap hair bleach, a small bowl and a brush, some developer and- no.

the other student seemed to notice taehyung staring at him and his products through the mirror and, assuming he was in shock of how late it was and what he was doing, simply shrugged and said, "mental breakdowns, am i right?"

taehyung stared at the horrid hair dye with wide eyes. "is that splat?" he said, spitting the word with disgust.

the guy glanced at where taehyung was staring and picked up the bottle, quickly scanning the label. "uh... yeah, i guess so. why?"

taehyung immediately walked over to the makeshift hair salon and plucked the dye out of the other's hand. "what's your name?"

"uh... jeongguk?" he replied.

taehyung picked up the hair dye and harshly grabbed jeongguk by the arm. despite the late hour, he put on a bright smile at the handsome man in front of him. "jeongguk, i'm taehyung and i'm about to change your life for the better." completely ignoring the other's slightly frightened spluttering, taehyung dragged jeongguk down the hall to the direction of his dorm.

"dude! where the hell are we going?"

taehyung rapped his knuckles against his dorm's door, checking to see if jimin was inside. "my name's taehyung. this is my dorm. i'm going to try to save your poor, virgin hair." taehyung paused and looked back at jeongguk, hand sitting on the door handle. "though, on a cutie like you, i don't think any hair color would look bad," he said with a wink.

taehyung let go of jeongguk (who was blushing furiously) as he opened his door and dropped the hair dye directly into the trash can. jeongguk's face went red. "what the hell, that was new!" he whisper-yelled, still visibly flustered. "and why'd you call my hair a virgin, you virgin?"

taehyung laughed at jeongguk and pulled him into the room, closing the door behind them. "your hair is virgin hair because is never been dyed before, unlike mine." taehyung held up a piece of his own blond hair next to jeongguk's natural dark brown. "and to save your hair's soul, i'm going to help you dye it."

jeongguk sighed. "listen here, tae- sorry, what was it? taemin?"

"taehyung."

"listen here, taehyung, you're awfully pretty, but i've watched lots of youtube videos and i'm pretty sure i'll be fine. i don't need your help."

"says the guy who was using splat hair dye," taehyung said, pointing to the trash can. jeongguk made to walk over and dig it out of the garbage, but taehyung grabbed his arm and pulled him back. "no- i'm not letting you near that disgusting thing ever again."

"bro, are you, like, okay up here?" jeongguk asked, tapping taehyung on the forehead.

taehyung gave him a look. "i'm an art student, how okay can i be?"

jeongguk lightly giggled and taehyung was taken aback by his cute bunny teeth. could this man get any more endearing? "okay, as a dance major, i feel you. but seriously, what are you trying to do?"

taehyung smirked and reached under his bed. he pulled out a tub of small black bottles and dumped them out on the small surface area that wasn't covered in his sketching material. "my dear friend," taehyung said, gesturing to the bottles, "this is the new love of your life: arctic fox hair dye."

a brief silence fell over the dorm room. jeongguk stared at the bottles, quirked his eyebrow, and then stared at taehyung. "okay... and?"

taehyung's mouth gaped open. "what do you mean 'and'? arctic fox is vegan, cruelty-free, lasts longer than that damned splat dye, and won't stain your hair!" taehyung gestured to the bottles in the way one would in an infomercial.

jeongguk looked partially impressed, but still held that look of disbelief or fear- taehyung couldn't tell which. "that's cool. uh, why do you have so much?"

taehyung fidgeted with his earbuds, one still in his ear even though there was no music playing. "my roommate and i dye our hair all the time and since our hair is short we don't use the entire bottle and we always have some left over so," taehyung took a deep breath after rambling and gestured again, "ta-da!"

jeongguk nodded and furrowed his eyebrows. he walked over to the bottles, scanning the color selection and looking sort of impressed with the wide range of hair dye taehyung and jimin had collected. finally, jeongguk spoke hesitantly. "do you watch my hero academia?"

taehyung brightened up immediately. "yeah! one of my favorite animes, for sure. i could talk about it for hours."

jeongguk smiled, taehyung's disposition seeming to rub off on him. "what if, hypothetically," jeongguk said, picking up a red-colored bottle, "i wanted to dye my hair like todoroki? y'know, half and half?"

taehyung chuckled. "well, hypothetically, i'd join you and maybe give myself some todoroki hair too."

"oh," jeongguk said with a look of surprise. he bounced on his heels and held the bottle, fidgeting with the cap. "we could match, maybe."

grabbing some more supplies (and jeongguk's hand), taehyung winked and led them to the bathroom. "that's the idea."

"how long do you think this will take?" jeongguk asked when they arrived, setting the new bottle of hair dye on the (still too thin) counter.

taehyung shrugged. "enough time to let us get some sleep before any morning classes."

they didn't expect to finish washing out the dye some time around 7 am, with jeongguk having to leave for class in an hour.

jeongguk ended up skipping that day.