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The door slams shut loudly, letting everyone know that one of the flat’s owners is back home. Following the loud thud, a quiet curse can be heard – apparently, he hadn’t really meant to make so much noise. Then comes the sound of rustling clothes, the clatter of boots against a metal shelf, and the rustle of shopping bags.
With slow, weary steps, Youngbin enters the flat. Usually he announces his arrival at the entrance with the usual “I’m home”, but because of the door's loud closing, it seemed unnecessary – he had already woken those who might have been asleep. Before he had even confirmed anything, Youngbin began to feel guilty. After all, no one had answered him or come to greet him.
He reaches the living room, which is connected to their kitchen, and sees a familiar head behind the back of the sofa. Or rather, he thinks it’s familiar – after all, this person had somehow ended up in their apartment. Youngbin carefully walks around the sofa, keeping his eyes on the bright hood, and finally comes face to face with the “stranger.”
Inseong, trying his hardest to ignore the gaze, sits in the lotus position, pretending to meditate. But his lips keep trembling, and he squints harder and harder – anything to keep his eyes shut. He knows perfectly well that someone is watching him – and knows exactly who it is.
Youngbin walks backward, still looking at Inseong, into the kitchen and sets the shopping bags on the table, then quickly returns to the living room and sits down next to him on the couch. Feeling the sofa give slightly under new weight, Inseong decides to stop pretending to meditate and opens his eyes, meeting a puzzled gaze.
“Welcome back,” Inseong tries to sound calm and cheerful – as always, but one of his eyes is still twitching.
He gives Youngbin the world’s most awkward smile, one that practically screams – “one more second and I’ll burst into tears.”
“Hi… what’s this?” Youngbin nods toward Inseong’s head, which is covered by a bright orange hood shaped like a hamster head.
It even has little hamster ears that you just want to tug on, and two buttons for eyes. Youngbin looks at the piece of clothing in surprise, trying to remember where it even came from.
“It’s cute, isn’t it?” Inseong awkwardly runs his hand over the hamster’s “face,” touching his forehead as if checking something. It is precisely this moment that Youngbin picks up on, already guessing where this is all going.
Youngbin leans closer to Inseong’s face, and he immediately panics – his eyes dart from side to side, and his hand freezes on his forehead. The leader snorts, and the poor hamster immediately realizes – he’s been caught.
“You went to the hairdresser today, didn’t you,” Youngbin says. It’s not a question, but a statement, because he knows the other man’s schedule for the day perfectly well.
In response, Inseong swallows painfully. His eye finally stops twitching, and he looks utterly pitiful. The corners of his mouth drop slightly, and his eyes grow a little wet – usually Inseong does this to fake sadness, but this time Youngbin decides to believe him.
“This is bad, this is just awful,” Inseong begins to ramble, not taking his eyes off Youngbin, who is watching him intently. “This is a nightmare, Youngbin.”
“Show me.”
Inseong swallows, and you can clearly see a huge lump is passing down his throat – his Adam’s apple moves distinctly, trembling. He grabs the hood with both hands, nervously pulling it tight.
“If even you tell me now that this is bad, I’ll have no choice but to leave the industry and go live on the islands.”
Youngbin snorts in response and rolls his eyes.
“It can’t be that bad. Take it off.”
As soon as the hood slips off his head, Inseong sees how quickly Youngbin covers his mouth with his hand, his eyes squinting to Inseong’s annoyance.
“Youngbin, please.”
Inseong is on the verge of tears.
Generally speaking, everything really isn’t that bad, but that’s only if you look from behind, and even then, to be honest, they cut it too short – not to Inseong’s taste. But from the front… from the front, his bangs were cut so short you could say they are nonexistent now, and the hairdresser decided not to stop there – they’re also very crooked. And on the sides, near his ears, for some reason, two long, uneven strands remained. Inseong looked like the failed experiment of an intern who was blind in one eye and had only learned what scissors were a couple of minutes ago.
Youngbin stared at him in horror. He was afraid to say a single word.
"Youngbin," Inseong draws out the name hysterically, trying to get even a single word of support, but instead he hears Youngbin’s betraying grunts as he tries to swallow his own hand – just to keep the sounds from getting louder. "Ya, Youngbin-ah."
And Youngbin presses Inseong’s head against his chest, stroking the back of it with his hand.
Silence fills the apartment, lasting a minute, then two, then five. All this time, Youngbin silently strokes Inseong’s head.
Until it was broken by Inseong’s muffled voice.
“You’re a terrible person, Youngbin.”
He said it so painfully that others would have thought Inseong was crying. Crying over a broken heart, the death of a loved one, a failure at work…
But he’s crying because, despite the silence, he can feel Youngbin’s body trembling with silent laughter. His shoulders and chest were shaking slightly, and his face was buried in the other man’s hair, biting his lip painfully – just so the laughter wouldn’t escape. Nevertheless, he didn’t stop stroking Inseong’s head, still trying to offer some kind of support.
“Seriously, you’re a bad person, Youngbin,” Inseong continues to vent his frustration, which only makes things worse. A chuckle escapes Youngbin involuntarily, and he immediately tries to stifle it. “You were my hope. My only hope, Youngbin.”
“Stop… please…” Youngbin whimpers into Inseong’s hair. He doubles over even more – his stomach hurts.
He finally pulls away and sees the most hurt expression in the world staring back at him. It feels like it’s the first time he’s ever seen that look on Inseong’s face.
But looking at it was a mistake, because another wave of laughter immediately washed over Youngbin, which he now tries to hold back by showering Inseong’s face with kisses. One kiss lands on the right cheek, a short chuckle; the second lands on the left cheek, another chuckle; then he plants one more on the already painfully bald forehead and finally bursts into laughter. A ringing, irritating laugh – Youngbin’s typical one.
He wraps his arms around Inseong’s neck and starts laughing in the crook of it. Inseong isn’t in the mood for laughter right now.
“We have a performance in two days, Youngbin,” Inseong continues, trying to get through to the leader, but to no avail. Youngbin just laughs even harder, leaning his full weight against Inseong, forcing him to hug him back.
“I have to put on a wig, Youngbin. Youngbin-ah.”
At some point, the absurdity of the situation finally sinks in for Inseong, and he finally smiles, then giggles, wrapping his arms around Youngbin’s waist. He rubs his nose against the body in his arms, causing Youngbin, already in fits of laughter, to squirm awkwardly.
As soon as Youngbin calms down, he pulls away from Inseong, studying his face. Inseong, of course, is still offended, but he smiles at his leader anyway.
Youngbin thoughtfully took Inseong’s front strands of hair and began twisting them back and forth, then tried to tuck them behind his ears. He noted something to himself with a brief “hm” and lowered his hands.
“Maybe we could try a headband… Or some other kind of headwear.” He fell deep in thought, weighing all the possibilities.
Inseong couldn’t help but smile fondly as he watched the pensive expression on the face across from him. But he decides to interrupt his partner’s thought process anyway – Inseong is Inseong.
“I’ll wear a wig. That’s the safest bet.”
His remark is met with a chuckle and another kiss on the forehead, which makes him wince. It’s too bald.
“I’ll talk to the staff, okay?”
Youngbin gets up from the couch and walks to the kitchen, toward the grocery bags forgotten on the table. He looks at Inseong from across the table, who is looking at him hopefully. “We’ll figure something out.”
Youngbin didn’t have the strength to say “don’t worry,” because he covered his mouth with his hand again, trying not to laugh at the sight of chopped Inseong across from him. For which he received an offended, dismissive shout of his name.