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If there was one thing that bothered Jeonghan the most, it was when people touched his hair.
Wearing it short, it wasn’t much of a problem, but his friends still pulled him in for the occasional headlock and ruffled his hair, which made him pretty upset.
He couldn’t blame them though. He took great care of his hair. When showering, Jeonghan always made sure to shampoo his roots and rinse well before he conditioned it. His hair has never been blow dried nor straightened, leaving it healthy and smoother than silk.
One reason he hated it when his friend touched his hair was the oil on their hands that would damage his beautiful locks, making them lose their shine and smooth texture.
Once he grew out his hair, and his friends stopped wrestling him by his neck, Jeonghan thought that all his troubles would be gone. Oh, he was terribly wrong.
In high school, his friends began to run their fingers through his hair, which angered him more because he couldn’t feel them touching it when they walked behind him. Even Jisoo, his best friend, couldn’t help but reach over and touch the ends while they were walking side by side.
The one time Jisoo was caught, he just lifted his hands up, guilty of charge. “I’m sorry!” Jisoo apologized as they continued walking over to their lockers. “You’re hair’s just so nice– I just needed to!”
Needed to? That wasn’t the first time Jeonghan heard that one.
The real reason Jeonghan didn’t want anyone to touch his hair again was because of what happened in preschool. It was a time of playtime, nap time, and a bit of learning time. An easy life for five and six year olds.
Back then, his mother thought it would be a good idea to grow out her son’s hair. Back in the day, he was often mistaken as a little girl because of his hair and his facial structure. He didn’t really mind, but it was pretty bothersome since most of the other boys in his class kept making fun of him for his long, silky hair.
“Why don’t you have bows in your hair?” One of them joked, causing the others to laugh and point at Jeonghan. He didn’t cry from the comments, but it made him a bit sad, seeing that none of them wanted to be his friend just because of the length of his locks.
It wasn’t until that one rainy day that he realized he needed to change his hairstyle. It all happened so quickly, but it was a blur of Jeonghan and his class painting, one of the boys using the tips of his hair as their paintbrush, followed by Jeonghan crying on the ride home with his mother as she washed her son’s hair free of the blue dye and went straight to the barber right afterward.
He doesn’t want to admit that he was scarred, but that’s what ended up happening. Jeonghan had kept his hair short ever since, but apparently nobody can resist his enchanting strands of heaven. What was a charm to others was a curse to Jeonghan, and he figured he would live the rest of his life swatting people’s hands away to keep himself sane.
That is until Seungcheol came into the picture. Transferring to the new school may be tough for most, but Seungcheol walked to the front of homeroom with ease as he introduced himself to his fellow classmates.
What a nice smile he had, Jeonghan thought. Just his luck, as if it were fate, the new student was assigned to him and Jisoo to show him to his classes and around the school. It was around lunch time when the two introduced Seungcheol to their friends.
“This place is pretty nice!” Seungcheol smiled as he took a bite of his food.
“So is Jeonghan hyung’s hair!” Soonyoung said with a mouth full of rice as he slung his arm around Jeonghan’s shoulder. The older shrugged the arm off as he went back to his food, keeping to himself and glaring at his younger friends, making sure they don’t make any attempts at touching his hair.
“It is nice though,” the new one said, surprising Jeonghan as his eyes were wide when he looked at Seungcheol. Jeonghan felt his face redden. Multiple people on multiple accounts have complimented his hair, but this would be that Jeonghan felt himself blushing and shy over one comment.
As the school year continued onward, Seungcheol integrated himself into the student life, but most importantly Jeonghan’s life.
They met up at each other’s lockers before school started, walked to every class they had together and sometimes walked each other to class, ate lunch with the rest of their friends at their usual outside table, and even took the bus home together.
Jeonghan learned how much Seungcheol loved skinship. With the constant hugging he gave to his friends and other classmates, the high-fiving, the cheek patting, and sometimes even the butt smacking, Seungcheol was a very touchy person. It was nice and all, until Jeonghan realized that it was only a matter of time before his new friend was going to attempt to touch his hair.
He tried to prevent any situation that could possibly lead up to Seungcheol touching Jeonghan’s hair. It came to the point where he felt bad, always avoiding Seungcheol’s attempts at making any physical contact with him, but it was the only way to make sure that his hair doesn’t get touched.
At some point, Jeonghan even considered cutting his hair back to his short style, but he didn’t want to take the risk of another year full of headlocks, ruffles, and noogies.
It wasn’t until Jeonghan was thrown off guard. Seungcheol and him were waiting for the next bus home, sitting on the bench together. They were at a fair distance, a few feet apart, and Seungcheol tapped Jeonghan’s shoulder, making the younger one flinch before facing the smiling one.
“Hey, I got this new song, do you want to hear it? It’s your style,” Seungcheol grinned as he took out his left earphone and offered it to his friend.
Jeonghan scooted closer, taking the earphone and placing it in his ear before leaning his head against Seungcheol’s shoulder. His bangs brushed his eyes in front of his face. He tried to blow it off, but they came back to position, which annoyed him.
“Here, I got it,” Seungcheol said. It was too late for Jeonghan to stop his friend as he felt his friend’s fingers swoop across his forehead as his bangs obeyed. Seungcheol even brushed a strand of hair from Jeonghan’s face and tucked it behind his ear.
Such actions made Jeonghan blush, looking down at his lap as he twiddled his thumbs together nervously.
He was brought back to reality when he heard Seungcheol snicker, making Jeonghan grow a bit anxious. Was he laughing at him? Was it his hair? Was he laughing at his hair and how it was too long? Was he laughing because Jeonghan couldn’t control his bangs?
“I thought you hated that,” Seungcheol sighed as he leaned back onto the bench more, bringing Jeonghan’s head with him.
Jeonghan looked up, genuinely confused.
“You’ve been avoiding skin contact with me,” he said, meeting Jeonghan’s gaze. “Don’t think I didn’t catch onto that.” Jeonghan sighed in defeat. “I’m not going to ask why you have been or what your reasoning is, I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable so I held back on it.”
It was shocking to hear this information, at least to Jeonghan it was. He was still leaning on Seungcheol’s shoulder as he reached over to grab Seungcheol’s arm that was around his neck and placed the older’s hand on top of Jeonghan’s head, signaling that he was given permission to stroke his hair.
He took a deep breath until he realized just how gentle Seungcheol’s motion was. It was calming, it was soothing, but most of all, it just felt right. His body relaxed as he closed his eyes, smiling. That’s when Jeonghan decided: nobody was allowed to touch or play with his hair, omit Seungcheol.