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“A-are you sure you want m-me to help?”
Mikan stuttered as she sat on the floor of her classmate Ibuki’s bathroom. “Of course. Ibuki knows you’re the brainiest girl in all of Japan!” the girl yelled out over the rush of running water she was spraying all over her hair.
Mikan watched as she tried to grab the bottle of shampoo on the side of the bath, only for it to topple over and hit her in the head. It was pretty hard for Ibuki to see what she was doing with her head in the bathtub which is probably why she didn’t seem to notice that the water from the shower was getting all over her shirt. “That’s definitely an exaggeration...” Mikan replied nervously as she passed the shampoo into Ibuki’s hands.
Mikan had agreed to help Ibuki re-dye her hair after school, since it was beginning to fade. She didn’t know why she agreed though. Maybe it was Ibuki’s special charm. “Ibuki’s sure Mikan can get it, if she can be a nurse she can dye hair!” she beamed as she lathered up her long hair with shampoo. Mikan grabbed a towel off the towel rack and placed it on her shoulders so her school shirt wouldn’t get any wetter. It didn’t make much of a difference though, her shirt was already soaked.
Ibuki picked up the plastic bag she had gotten from the drug store and passed it to Mikan. “Could you read the instructions on those, sweetie?” Ibuki asked. “Sweetie?!” Mikan thought. It was such an affectionate nick name, it made Mikan blush. “Ibuki always gives her friends nick names like that, it’s no big deal!” Mikan reassured herself.
After school, Ibuki grabbed Mikan’s hand and dragged her off to the drug store down town to get some hair dye. She picked out four boxes of the four colours she always used. Black, white, hot pink and bright blue. Mikan listed each out in her mind as she took them out of the plastic bag and laid them down on the tiled floor beside her. She picked up one and began to read the instructions.
“What do I do now, Miki?” she asked, still hunched over the bathtub. “O-oh, right, sorry!” Mikan blurted out as the fumbled the box in her hands. She had been to distracted to notice Ibuki had finished washing her hair. “Uh, it s-says here that we first have to split your hair into sections.” The two girls then attempted to part Ibuki’s hair into sections. Mikan’s clumsy fumbling combined with Ibuki’s lack of vision made the job much harder than it should have been. The duo fingers kept getting tangled in her hair and occasionally bumping into each other only to awkwardly retreat.
“Ok, so next it says we have to apply the dye to your roots first.” Ibuki picked up the box, rooting through it until she found the small brush that came with it. “Wait a second, Ibuki!” Mikan warned. “We need to wear gloves so the dye won’t damage our hands.” “Ohhhh, good thinking Miki! I knew you were the right gal for the job!” Mikan giggled as she went to grab some plastic gloves out of the cupboard, turning away from her friend, hoping she wouldn’t see her blushing face. Mikan pulled a pair of gloves onto her hands and Ibuki mixed the dyes in containers. Once they were ready, Mikan began to apply the dye to Ibuki’s hair.
It took a while to cover her whole hair in the many different dye colours but Mikan took her time, wanting it took be as perfect as possible. “So, what do we do now?” the nurse asked, removing the stained gloves and throwing them into the bin beside the sink. “We gotta wait for it all to set into my brain, Miki! Then it will be all vibrant and stuff.” Ibuki replied. “Heh, I didn’t know you had a brain…” Mikan said. After she processed what she just said, she exploded into a frenzy of apologize, reduced to a red faced stuttering mess. “I-I-I’M SO SO SO SORRY IBUKI! I DIDN’T M-MEAN IT! I S-SWEAR IT WAS AN A-ACCIDENT!!!” she blubbered. Ibuki didn’t seem offended in the slightest, instead she was cackling manically at her friends comment. “It’s fine Mikan, Ibuki would have said the same about herself too if you didn’t beat her too it!” she reassured, still erupting with laughter.
The two girls talked for a couple of minutes as they waited for the dye to finish drying. They talked about all sorts of things; Mikan’s knowledge of the human body, Ibuki’s music and the drama that was unfolding within her band, their classmates and anything else that came to mind. It was a beautiful moment.
After a couple of minutes, Mikan grabbed the shower head and rinsed off her hair, slowly running her fingers through it all as she did so. She had never seen Ibuki this calm before. As the excess dye was sprayed out of her hair, pooling in a rainbow of colours before running down the bath drain, Mikan felt something warm on her thigh.
She looked down to see Ibuki had laid her hand on Mikan’s thigh. Mikan kept quiet. She was a bit worried that if she spoke up, Ibuki would move her hand away. She didn’t want that to happen.
She wanted this moment to last as long as possible.
After another minute, Ibuki’s hair was finished being dyed. “I’ll grab the hairdry-“ but before could finish, Ibuki threw her head back and shook it back and forth like a wet dog. The water splattered across the wall, bath, mirror and most importantly, all over Mikan. “Sorry about that Miki,” Ibuki chuckled as she got up off her knees “I couldn’t help it!” Mikan looked down at her white school shirt now covered in splashes of pink, black and blue.
“You don’t gotta worry about your shirt, you can borrow one of Ibuki’s” “b-but I can’t just leave your house with one of your shirts!” Mikan protested. “Yeah you’re right, seems like you just gotta stay here than” Ibuki remarked, a smug look plastered across her face. “Wh-What?!” Mikan stammered, a little confused. “You could stay here all day! We could hang out, just the two of us.” Ibuki sounded ecstatic at the idea and Mikan thought it sounded wonderful too.
“Alright, I’ll stay!” Mikan beamed, her face brightened up with a smile. “That’s awesome! Ibuki’s gonna go get you a spare shirt.” She darted out of the room, towards her bedroom. “Wait for me, please!” Mikan called after her as she followed quickly behind her.