Work Text:
Felix has her evening all planned out.
She has just settled down to enjoy a movie with Jeongin, one that the younger girl had picked out while Felix had ordered them dinner. It’s some horror film that Seungmin had recommended to them last week that they are just now getting around to watching. The sun is just now starting to go down, bathing the living room in a low light that Felix could fall asleep in easily. But not now, it’s date night. She has been looking forward to this all week. Minho is out with Changbin, Chan, and Jisung, probably drinking after a long week of finals. She’s staying at Chan’s tonight. Seungmin is with Hyunjin, at least Felix thinks so. She’ll be back later tonight, but usually doesn’t bother them during their dates. They have such good roommates. Always so considerate.
Felix makes herself comfortable in Jeongin’s arms, letting the girl play with her blonde hair as much as she wants. She might have stole Jeongin’s shampoo during her earlier shower, just because she liked the way that it smelled. It’s so nice, laying with her girlfriend and watching the slasher flick in front of them. Maybe, if she’s lucky, they might be able to go to Felix’s room later and enjoy some more time together, maybe with less clothes-
The slam of the door breaks through all of Felix’s thoughts, scaring the pair on the couch more than the film has in the past hour. Felix only has a second warning before they hear the telltale sound of someone stomping through the dorm and to the living room.
“I’m going to kill Hwang Hyunjin.” Seungmin grits out between her teeth. They can see a glint of the braces that she swears at every morning. She’s a sore sight, hair shoved into a beanie that Felix didn’t even think the other girl owned. It looks like Hyunjin’s. Seungmin never wears beanies, claiming it dries her hair out. She hates it when her hair is dried out and damaged, not even liking to straighten it too much unless she has at least two heat protective sprays on it.
“What did she do?” Jeongin asks, pausing the movie in front of them. Felix watches the girl in front of them curiously. She looks like she just got off work, but it’s been hours since she got off. Felix knows this only because she knows Seungmin works until 4 on Friday so she can meet with Minho at 5 for dinner while they leave Felix and Jeongin the dorm for their date night. It’s close to 8 by now and Seungmin is still in her work uniform. The cafe she works at doesn’t give them a lot of creative freedom with their outfits, black fitting pants and a white button up with short sleeves. Seungmin normally has a black jacket on as well, as she does now. It’s completely different from how Seungmin normally dresses, which ranges from fitted skirts and matching blazers all the way to baggy jeans and overly large hoodies. The only thing that remains the same is the rectangle glasses that sit perched on Seungmin’s nose.
“You can’t laugh.” Seungmin looks completely serious at them, glaring at them as if they were Hyunjin themselves. Felix sits up a bit more, knowing this might be much worse than they thought.
“We won’t.” Felix promises.
“I might.” Jeongin also promises.
That seems to be enough for Seungmin though. She looks like she’s having an internal battle before reaching up to pull the beanie off her head. Felix wishes they had got some sort of warning though.
She is in no way ready to see the mess that is Seungmin’s hair. Where there is normally long dark straight brown hair with just a hint of a curling at the end matched with Seungmin’s straight across bangs that hit just at her brow is now replaced with varying shades of blonde. It’s been bleached. That wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t completely fried. It’s a mess, a real mess of bleached blonde and Felix can see the frayed ends from over here.
“Holy shit.” Jeongin mumbles, looking at the other girl in complete awe. Felix is about to agree but the way that Seungmin’s expression seems to crumple at the exclamation makes her rethink.
“It looks horrible, doesn’t it?” Seungmin’s lower lip wobbles and she looks like a kicked puppy. Felix is quick to get off the couch, wanting to salvage some of this.
“No! It doesn’t look that bad! It just needs some toning and maybe some rebleaching and a trim and-” Felix falters, looking at Jeongin for help. The other girl is just staring, unhelpfully.
“Hyunjin did that to you?” Jeongin asks. Seungmin nods miserably. Felix can’t help herself, reaching up to touch some of the fried strands. It’s just as dry as she imagined. She doesn’t know how Hyunjin could have messed up this badly.
“She said she needed to practice for her upcoming exam and-” Seungmin cuts herself off, looking up to the ceiling. The other two know what’s coming and Jeongin is quick to stand up. For all the grief that she gives her roommates, she hates to see them cry and Seungmin is close to bursting into tears. “And she-I thought she knew what she was doing, so I asked her to just bleach mine so she would stop whining about it! She said she was really good at it! I told her I never bleached my hair before and she did this!”
“It really isn’t that bad unnie-” Jeongin tries to console her. The sob she gets in response is pitiful.
“Yes it is!” Seungmin cries before throwing herself on the couch. She would normally never lay on the couch with her work clothes on, she always scolds everyone for wearing outside clothes and sitting on the couch. These are special circumstances though.
Felix crouches beside her, patting her back gently as the girl continues to cry. Jeongin takes up residence behind the couch, leaning on the backrest just enough to pat Seungmin’s legs that kick every so often as she screams into the couch pillows that she’s laying on. It’s a sad sight, they both think.
Felix isn’t sure how long she lays there crying. The longer she does though, the longer the lecture Felix is going to give to Hyunjin about proper hair dying skills. Really, she should know better by now, she’s been dying her own hair for years, it’s not that different dying someone else’s. Plus, she’s going to school for this! She should know by now. Felix knows how to do it and she’s just learned from videos online that are years old! Once Seungmin calms down, she’s going to send Jeongin out to go get some hair supplies so they can fix this. They might have to sacrifice a date night, but it’ll be worth it.
Seungmin mumbles something into the couch cushions between sobs, something neither of them can understand.
“What did you say unnie?” Jeongin asks, uncharacteristically soft. Seungmin mumbles it again. Jeongin sighs as she leans over to make Seungmin roll over. Probably for the best since Seungmin takes in a long breath of air once her face isn’t shoved into a pillow. “Say that again.”
“This is all unnie’s fault!” Seungmin sobs, wiping her eyes. Felix has never seen her so messy, tears and snot covering her face. It’s a far cry from the normally composed and put together version of Seungmin that never seems to crack under the worst pressure. She’s taken accounting classes that would make a grown man cry. She’s made grown men cry in those accounting classes. She’s never cried this much and it makes Felix’s heart break that much more. Felix reaches up, wiping away some of the tears that continue to flow out of Seungmin’s eyes without pause.
“What do you mean?” Felix whispers, afraid anything above that will make her cry more. The question brings on more tears as Seungmin covers her face and sobs into her hands. The sight is pitiful, watching Seungmin cry on their couch without pause.
“Unnie-” Seungmin manages to get out around her crying. “She-If she never said she liked blonde hair-I would have never dyed my hair if she didn’t say it!” Seungmin cries, inconsolable. The pair around her share a look. There is a pause before they both realize what happened.
Jisung just dyed her hair. She dyed it a pretty ash blonde that suited her, cut it a few inches but it was still long and pretty. Hyunjin had done it. It was a good dye job, toned nicely, cut well, and even treated with a nice hair treatment. Jisung had raved about it in their group chat, giving Hyunjin great reviews. Minho had responded that she loved it, as she normally always does about anything that has to do with Jisung. Mainly because it irritates Jisung’s girlfriend. It irritates Hyunjin so Minho does it more and more.
The real issue though was when they started talking about what kind of hair they all liked. Seungmin said she liked long, dark hair. The kind that Minho had. Minho had said she liked short, blonde hair. The exact opposite of what Seungmin had.
Oh, they lived with two idiots.
“Minnie, did you dye your hair because of what Minho-unnie said-” Felix hedges and it’s met with another sob. Felix’s heart breaks at the sound again.
“Yes!” Seungmin sobs. Felix isn’t sure what to say to make it better, nothing she says will fix the mess on Seungmin’s hair until they can get her to stop crying. They spend the next ten minutes trying to calm her down with mixed results. Everytime they get her to stop crying and move her hands from her face, she catches a glimpse of her bleached hair and it starts all over again. At some point, Jeongin removes Seungmin’s glasses from her face, knowing that the older girl will break down again if they end up broken.
It feels like hours have passed once they get Seungmin to sit up on the couch. They make her sit between them as she drinks water that Jeongin had fetched at some point. Felix can only pet her damaged hair, petting the scalp gently to not hurt her red scalp. She really wants to know how Hyunjin messed up that badly when she did such a good job on Jisung.
“Think you’re done now?” Felix asks softly, not wanting to set her off again. When she gets a nod in response, Felix pats her thigh. “Good. I know it seems really bad but we can fix this! Really, this isn’t the first time I’ve had to fix messed up hair! I have been bleaching mine for years, you think this is a problem? I can have it fixed up before you have work tomorrow. Innie, can you run down to-”
“What happened to you?” A voice chimes in from behind them. Felix and Jeongin both freeze. It feels worse than the horror film that they were watching as they both turn behind them to see Minho. She’s wearing the clothes she left to go clubbing in. She looks completely sober by the way that she stands without swaying and her eyes are clear. The short skirt that she wears compliments her thighs along with the tight top matched well with the large jacket that makes her shoulders look larger than what they are. Her makeup still looks flawless, annoyingly so, and her long hair is down, framing her face nicely. Felix is about to tell Minho to go to her room, they are obviously dealing with something. That something being a crying, mildly inconsolable Seungmin that none of them have ever dealt with but they are figuring it out!
Before she can tell Minho that though, Seungmin turns, looking at the girl in the doorway and it’s like a dam breaks. The pitiful noise that escapes Seungmin’s mouth is unlike anything they have ever heard before. It’s a mix between a whine and sob and then Seungmin is crying into her hands again, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees and sobs. It’s not like before, where the sobbing was uncontrollable and unrestrained, this time it sounds like it hurts, like the sobs are being punched out of her and Felix really feels out of her depth at this point. She’s helped people when they cried before but Seungmin is bordering on a panic attack at this point and it’s hard to watch but she wouldn’t be anywhere else.
They have no time to react because before they can try to calm Seungmin down again, starting all the way back at square one, Minho is there. She’s crouching in front of Seungmin, pulling down her hands.
“Minnie, sit up, you can’t breathe like that.” Minho tells her gently, voice pitched soft as if she’s talking to an injured animal. An injured puppy, Felix thinks. “Help her sit up.” Minho tells the pair beside the sobbing girl. They work quickly, making Seungmin sit up. The relief is near instant in Seungmin’s breathing, as she takes larger gulps of air.
“Unnie-” Seungmin sobs, trying to bring her hands back up to her face to cover her crying. Minho doesn’t let her, holding her hands softly. “I-I’m so ugly-” Seungmin whines. Felix rubs her back gently and she hears Jeongin scoot closer to Seungmin, just a bit but enough to give Seungmin a bit more comfort.
“Let’s focus on breathing right now baby.” Minho redirects her. Seungmin doesn’t seem to notice, mumbling still about how gross she is and Minho wastes no time wiping away the tears pouring down her face after she puts both of Seungmin’s hands into one of hers. Seungmin could easily break free but doesn’t seem to have the frame of mind to do it. “Just breathe with us for a little bit puppy, then we can talk okay? Breathe in for me sweetheart.” Minho over exaggerates her breathing to guide Seungmin through the breathing. Felix isn’t sure how long they do it, all three of them trying to calm down Seungmin’s breathing and bring her back from the edge that she was so keen on throwing herself over.
It’s a while later when Seungmin finally seems better, when her breathing isn’t as ragged and doesn’t seem like it’s been pulled out of her like someone is hitting her everytime she exhales. It’s a much better sound to hear Seungmin breathing normally and maybe Felix is weird in thinking she wants to hear more of it. Just for her peace of mind.
“Want to tell unnie what happened?” Minho asks once Seungmin has been given another glass of water, courtesy of Jeongin once again. Minho still sits in front of Seungmin, though now she stopped crouching and rather just sitting close to Seungmin legs. It’s got to be uncomfortable, the hardwood floors on Minho’s bareskin with no pillow or blankets but Minho doesn’t seem to be bothered in the slightest, just glad to be by Seungmin.
“You’ll laugh at me.” Seungmin whines. Her face is a mess, red and blotchy and covered in snot and tears, even more than the last time that Felix looked. Her hair is a mess now, Seungmin had been messing with it more than normal. Despite the mess on Seungmin’s face, Felix can’t help but think how pretty her friend is. She doesn’t know how Seungmin could ever think she was ugly. Sure, her hair is a little messed up and her face is gross but that doesn’t make her ugly. She’s just having a bad day. And even if she looked like this all the time, Felix wouldn’t think of calling her ugly. She’s Seungmin and that’s enough.
“Do you think any of us are going to laugh at you after you just had a panic attack?” Minho deadpans. It gets a startled laugh out of Seungmin, despite everything.
“That wasn’t a panic attack…” Seungmin maintains, being difficult just to be difficult. Minho only smiles softly, reaching up to brush some hair out of Seungmin’s face.
“Whatever you want to call it, we won’t laugh. Right?” Minho looks at the pair flanking Seungmin who only nod.
“Of course not unnie.” Jeongin assures her and Felix is right behind her.
“I would never laugh about this Minnie, you know that.” Felix promises, close to tears herself.
“It’s so stupid.” Seungmin starts, looking at her hands. “I… I had such a bad day. I was late waking up and barely made it in time for my accounting class. My advanced auditing accounting class.” She pauses, grimacing. “It’s at 8 in the morning, who the fuck schedules the worst class ever invented in accounting at 8 in the goddamn morning!” Seungmin exclaims. It’s not the first time she’s complained about her major but it is the first time she’s this mad about it. It’s slightly refreshing to them.
“An idiot.” Jeongin mumbles.
“An idiot!” Seungmin agrees. The tears seem to be less likely to fall the more she continues. “So I was almost late to my class because this guy kept asking me for my number on the subway and then followed me to class-”
“Someone followed you to class?” Felix interjects. Seungmin waves her off.
“That’s not the important part-”
“I think it is a very important part.” Minho interrupts.
“-the real issue was that I was almost late and didn’t have time to study before class for my pop quiz!” Seungmin barrels on. She seems to ignore any interruptions at this point but Felix knows that later, when Seungmin calms down, they will grill her more on the guy that followed her to class. And ask her why she didn’t call any of them when it happened. They just might come up with a schedule to walk Seungmin to and from class until they see who this guy is and make sure he learns that someone doesn’t get to mess with Seungmin so easily.
“Did you fail the quiz?” Jeongin asks. Seungmin sighs, shaking her head.
“I passed it but just barely… I would have got a perfect score if I had time to study!” Seungmin’s nasally voice is coming out more and more and Felix can’t help the surge of fondness that rushes through her. “And then I didn’t have time to get coffee like normal and I didn’t even have time for a lunch break because I had to start working right away when I got to work-”
“You didn’t have breakfast or lunch?” Minho stops her again. This time, Seungmin does pause, nodding her head. Minho raises an eyebrow. “And dinner?” She presses. Seungmin is more hesitant when she nods again. Minho only scoffs, standing up and pulling Seungmin up with her. The pair watch as Minho marches her to sit on one of the barstools they have. “I’ll make you something, don’t argue with me and just keep talking.” She tells her as she starts pulling things out of the fridge. Felix and Joengin migrate as well, Jeongin sitting beside Seungmin while Felix offers her help in the kitchen.
“Oh. Thank you unnie.” Seungmin mumbles after a few moments of watching her starting to cook. “Anyways… I didn’t have time for lunch and I worked until 5 because I knew unnie was going out clubbing and we weren’t having dinner. Then, Hyunjin texted me to come over. She was bored and I was free so I went over and… Somehow, I let her convince me that I should dye my hair.” Seungmin stops, making Jeongin look at her with a raised eyebrow.
“That’s not what you said earlier.” Jeongin reminds her. Seungmin side eyes her, willing her to shut up. Jeongin does no such thing. “You said you asked Hyunjin to dye your hair.” Jeongin adds and Seungmin groans, laying on the counter in front of them, head in her arms.
“Okay fine, I asked her.” Seungmin confirms, voice slightly muffled.
“Why did you ask her to bleach your hair?” Minho asks, turning on another burner. Seungmin glances up, looking at what Minho has pulled out. It’s everything for kimchi stew, Seungmin’s favorite.
“No reason.” Seungmin is quick to answer. Felix clears her throat, glancing at Seungmin who just glares back at her. “Okay there was a reason.” Seungmin corrects.
“Which was?” Minho presses and Seungmin looks like she wants the floor to open up and consume her.
“You’ll laugh at me.” Seungmin pouts, not looking at any of them. Minho sighs, putting down the knife with more force than necessary.
“Kim Seungmin.” Minho says, voice pointed and clipped and Felix wants to remind her to be nice. “If I haven’t laughed at this point, I’m not going to. Just tell me what stupid reason you bleached your hair.” She levels her with a blank look, one that would have Felix crying if she was in Seungmin’s shoes but Seungmin seems to take it much better than Felix.
There is a beat of silence before they hear Seungmin speak. “...You said you liked blonde hair.” Seungmin whispers softly into the kitchen. The only thing that is heard is the sizzle of the kimchi frying in the background and Seungmin scratching at a stain on her jacket.
Then, a soft laugh.
Seungmin looks up, glaring at Minho for laughing when she promised not to. It doesn’t bring on the tears again but there is anger boiling behind Seungmin’s eyes and Felix is ready to stop Seungmin from jumping over the bar counter and strangling Minho if she needs to.
“You fried your hair because of something I said to piss off Hyunjin?” Minho’s still laughing and Seungmin, thankfully, doesn’t have the same murderous gleam in her eye anymore after Minho’s words.
“It sounds stupid when you say it like that.” Seungmin whines and Minho laughs harder. It draws a small smile out of Seungmin, the first of the night. Felix considers it a win.
“It is stupid!” Minho can’t control her laughter at this point and it’s slightly infectious. Felix smiles slightly. It is a bit silly, now that she thinks about it. It’s a very Seungmin thing to do, wordlessly trying to impress Minho when Minho is already impressed by every little thing Seungmin does, even if she tries to deny it. “For someone so smart, you’re so stupid Kim Seungmin.” Minho shakes her head and Seungmin stands quickly.
Felix is back to being ready to save Minho from a potential murder attempt but is glad when all Seungmin does is poke Minho in the back with her boney fingers. They hurt way more than they have right to. “You’re stupid! What kind of girlfriend says that in a group chat that their girlfriend is in!” Seungmin whines, her nasally whine back in full force and Felix can’t help but laugh at it. Jeongin seems to be in the same boat, laughing for real. It’s a much better sound to hear in the dorm than Seungmin’s sobbing.
“A mean one.” Minho tells her, unbothered by Seungmin’s poking in her side. Felix likes the smile on Seungmin’s face much better, it fits her face better. Crying doesn’t suit Seungmin. Teasing Minho in their small kitchen and being teased back is much better. “Felix, can you go get the bathroom ready for a haircut?” Minho asks, still unbothered by the way that Seungmin seems to follow her around the kitchen like a little puppy. Felix thinks that if Seungmin was a puppy, her tail would be wagging full force just based on how wide her smile is now.
Felix agrees easily, listening to Minho tell Jeongin to go down to one of the 24/7 makeup stores that sell toner and hair treatments. They’re going to need a lot, Seungmin has a ton of hair. If they are lucky, they will be able to save some of Seungmin’s length and just cut out the bad bits. Felix hears Minho tell Jeongin to save all the receipts, a certain stylist in training will be covering the costs.
The bathroom is easy to get ready, it takes no time at all. Felix knows the real reason Minho had shooed them both away, out of the kitchen and out of the house. It takes such little time that when Felix’s finishes, Jeongin is getting ready to go out. She ends up deciding to tag along with her to the store, wanting to give the pair some space.
They are half way down the hall when Felix realizes she forgot her wallet. She tries to be quiet while sneaking back into the apartment to grab it. She’s nearly back out of the door when she hears it though, the quiet whispers that can’t be hidden by the food cooking in the background.
“Unnie, I’m gross-” Seungmin whines, cut off by what Felix can only assume is Minho’s lips.
“My baby is never gross to me.” Minho tells her in a soft way that Felix has never heard from Minho before. Well, she has, but never has been directed at Seungmin.
“Let me at least wash my face.” Seungmin grumbles but Felix doesn’t hear any movement to get away from Minho. She’s just being difficult to be difficult.
“I can clean up my pretty puppy in other ways.” Minho teases and Seungmin groans.
“Unnie, you’re so gross!” Seungmin’s laugh is high and bright. Felix doesn’t stick around to listen to whatever weird foreplay they are getting up to, not interested in hearing about their sex lives.
Okay, that’s a bit of a lie, Felix will definitely be asking Seungmin about it later and will for sure make certain that Seungmin knows she isn’t ugly or gross in the slightest. She isn’t too worried about it though, she knows Minho has Seungmin. She trusts Minho with Seungmin. She’ll make sure that even with the new hair and look, Seungmin knows she’s just as pretty as ever, inside and out.