Chapter Text
Pink is the color of many things, one of those being Joochan's hair color.
"Don’t you think the color looks weird on me?" One day Joochan asked. The tips of his lips took a tiny curve down, contemplating his new look.
There’s only two of them in that big room and Jibeom had only one thought.
It looks fluffy, like a ball of cotton candy, pillowy and soft. He just had to pat.
Thus, he did so. His palm grazed those pink locks of Joochan’s crown.
It did feel soft.
Meticulously, he gazed at the full figure reflection in the mirror.
Pink is the current color of Joochan’s hair. It’s also the all-time color of cotton candy. It’s both fluffy and soft. However, above all, there’s one precise resemblance.
“It looks sweet." He spoke out loud. Words just popped as they appeared in his head.
Then, there's a pause. Joochan who’s been unsettled in his seat stopped moving around. In the mirror, their eyes collided to a focus.
“Uh, sweet?” Joochan confusedly opened his mouth while Jibeom cluelessly blinked.
It’s about four to six seconds before Jibeom realized the ambiguity in his statement, and action.
The lean fingers stopped short on their way to stroke between the strands. He carefully retracted his hand from the pink locks as Joochan looked flustered before him.
"Yeah sweet, like cotton candy. It fits you well. Soft and sweet." Bluntly, the words slipped out his mouth, betraying his brain that just about to perform a word filtration procedure.
Joochan’s head snapped to his direction.
There, they stared again.
Then, a brush of laughter came to fill the air. Cheeky, lively, and a bit coy. Jibeom was taken aback, was there something in my face? He wondered. Nonetheless, he gave a dubious grin.
“Ah… thank you.” Joochan lowered his eye level for some reason and rubbed his nape. Not long after that, he beamed “I'll have more confident now!"
Curiously, since that event, he often felt Joochan’s fleeting gaze on his back. Yet, when he tried to check his tingle, the feeling disappeared and he didn't find those glances. Mostly, he would only find Joochan nearby, either bickering with Donghyun, doing something totally unfathomable, having a date with chicken, or shirtless in his apron while doing a painting.
He couldn’t help but think that maybe he had upset Joochan with his comment about the pink hair and cotton candy.
Jibeom confided to Daeyeol the next day with a troubled face, all lost and helpless.
The older gave a knowing smile. “Maybe you should ask Joochan to go somewhere. Just the two of you, sort thing out.” He advised.
As soon as Jibeom left with a determination in his eyes, Daeyeol showed a full blooming Cheshire grin. Well, he had no plan to tell Jibeom that Joochan spent nights watching his reflection in the mirror, playing with the pink strands and talking about how Jibeom called his new look ‘soft and sweet, just like cotton candy’ while smiling like an idiot.