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“You cut your hair.”
Xinyan makes a humming noise. “Yes- I told you I was going to cut it, right?”
Neeraj picks a newly cropped lock of hair in his fingers, before letting them fall from his hand. “You did.”
“Right? So why do you sound surprised?”
“I’m not, I-“ He pauses for a moment, searching for the right words. “…I like your long hair.”
Xinyan arches a brow at him, puzzled. “Didn’t I tell you why? The baby likes pulling on it too much, I’ll become bald at 30 if I let this go on.”
He quietly chuckles. “Then our baby must be very strong.”
“I’m not joking around,” She frowned at him, brow furrowed. “Hair health is serious business. If you don’t take care of yours, then you’ll become bald at 30.”
Neeraj lets out a laugh, reaching an arm to wrap around Xinyan’s shoulders. “Me? Bald? With these locks?”
She rolls her eyes. “Don’t be so overconfident. I don’t want to become known as the one with the prematurely balding husband among my cousins.”
“You are so mean~” He smiles, leaning his face against her head, eliciting an annoyed sound from the woman. “To your husband, too, of all people.”
“I’m always this mean.” She replies, nudging at him. “What does it say about you that you married me?”
“That I’m a sucker for punishment, obviously.” He grins down at her.
“Ugh, you are so-“ She breaks off her words, crossing her arms and glaring at the wall in front of them.
Neeraj turns his face into her black hair, breathing the scent of the expensive Korean shampoo Xinyan always used. Before today, her hair fell down to her back like a curtain draped over her body. In the mornings when she didn’t want to get up, it spilled out from her shoulders and fell against the bedsheets like whorls of ink. He’d spent hours brushing all the knots and tangles out of it for her, taking a handful of her hair into his palm and kissing it, much to Xinyan’s chagrin. Now it had been cut chin length, and he could see the nape of Xinyan’s neck with the way it parted behind her head.
“I’m sorry,” He finds himself murmuring into her neck. “I miss your hair.”
He hears a breath leave Xinyan. “You’re so sentimental about the strangest things.”