Work Text:
Mingi had finally made the choice to grow his hair out, he'd spent most of their US concerts with extensions in, and he loved how well it suited him.
The one thing he didn't know? How to manage it. It wasn't that he hadn't managed his hair in the past, but that was with the constant guidance of hairstylists.
Ateez were currently on a break, they'd had 3 different comebacks, and another tour. It was the least they deserved, and for the most part, they were enjoying their time off.
Sure, Mingi had ended up in the studio, and everyone knew Hongjoong had spent time there too. Most, if not all of the group had in fact, but it wasn’t any proper scheduling, so they'd all had time away from their stylist team.
That had become a slight issue for Mingi, he had gotten a slight trim when he was back to help with the dead-ends, besides that he hadn't had a reason for a stylist to do his hair.
He wanted to try new styles with it, as it hadn't been something he'd explored in the past. The only issue was the fact he'd now been sat in front of the mirror in his room, pretending like he wasn’t two seconds away from losing his temper. It wasn't that he was angry, not at himself, not at anyone else. He was simply frustrated.
His youtube history was full of hair tutorials, one after another for hours, yet he barely had any stay neat. Some were too complicated, which he'd find out way too late; he'd pull too far on certain strands and make his hair a mess, or he'd get half-way through and realise his hair wasn't long enough for it.
The ache in his arms was building up, having to drop one of his arms for a few seconds at a time in attempts to reduce the soreness that was going through them.
There was a knock on the door, it hit him fast that it had now gotten dark outside, he'd spent the last hour sighing so loud that he was 99% sure Seonghwa and San could hear it through the walls.
“Come in,” he chimed, realising how stupid the scene that he had created looked.
Hair ties, everywhere, multiple bobby pins sat in a pile, the iPad he owned sitting their on do not disturb, with a tutorial he’d had to restart 5 times already, not that Seonghwa would've know. He was still sat in a plaid pyjama shirt, as well as some grey joggers shorts.
“You okay Min?” Seonghwa was leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed.
“Yes…” he looked at everything scattered around him, “okay, no. I've been trying to do my hair in new ways for the last like 2 hours! And it's not worked. I'm so lost.” Seonghwa walked over, grabbing the chair that sat against Mingi's desk, and pulling it directly behind the younger of the two before sitting down.
“Let me help, you remember how long mine got at the start of the year right?” Mingi just nodded, before passing the hairbrush over to Seonghwa.
He started gently combing through his hair, making sure to be careful on the smaller knots that had formed from whatever Mingi had attempted before.
“What are you trying to do? Anything specific?” Seonghwa made eye contact with him through the mirror, letting Mingi take his time to answer.
“I saw,” he paused for a moment before unlocking his phone, “you know where the sides have the thicker braid going into a pony tail? I thought that would look cool…” he trailed off, his face showing clear worry, presumably at being judged. Seonghwa nodded, finishing up the brushing he'd started a few minutes prior.
“Do you have a comb? Let me try and section it to start.” Mingi nodded before passing it straight to him, as well as grabbing a few pins and hair ties, both the standard ones he had a stockpile of, and smaller elastic ones.
Seonghwa started combing though the side of his head, separating a few stray pieces to frame his face.
Mingi did his best to sit still, still occasional moving in ways that messed up the rhythm Seonghwa had started to set.
He started to explain how to do the braid on the side, showing him slowly but enough to keep his attention. It took a few minutes to finish the left side where he'd started, before repeating the same on the right.
Mingi's smile was very obviously shining through, Seonghwa unsure of whether he was trying to be subtle about it or not.
The plaiting had been finished, both sides trying to go straight down but being unsuccessful. Seonghwa gestured for one of the smaller elastics, as well as a few bobby pins which he carefully inserted, trying to show Mingi clearly where they were being placed
He got onto the final part, resectioning his front pieces before focusing on combining the two plaits with the ponytail at the back, all while explaining the slightly tedious process to do so.
It didn't take long to finish up, he played around with the strands he'd left to frame his face, gently combing through them before moving back a bit.
“All done! What do you think?” Seonghwa asked, being followed by a small clap.
“It looks good! Maybe you can take me on a date tonight so everyone else can see your hardwork?” Mingi giggled after he finished speaking, seeing Seonghwa jokingly roll his eyes.
“Get ready, I'll go get changed, we can go wherever you want Min” He got up after he spoke, walking in front of Mingi before leaning down to put a kiss on his forehead.
“I'll figure out where… Now hurry! I want to go now!” he did a little shooing gesture with his hands, laughing as he did so. Seonghwa went to turn around, before catching a glimpse of Mingi moving his head around to see the final product, before smiling once again.
Mingi was very thankful for Seonghwa's time with long hair