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Hal: ALLLL BYYYY MYYYYSELFFF

Robin: you’re not by yourself Hal… I’m here! Well not

physically

Robin: But Ken is!

Ken: I’m at the register

Augs: be back soon pitstop at sonics

Augs: anyone want anything

Hal: At 8am??

Augs: i got fucking hungry

Augs: Matts paying

Kana: ok but we’ll meet later

Augs: wtf r yall having a hair apoinment for

Kana: bleach

Kana: his hair was pissing me off and it’s my duty to fix it

Augs: … where did u get dat

Ken: Hal had some in the storage room

Augs: >:[

Hal: chili dog please :3

***

Jun glanced back and forth between the two items in each of his hands. A hose and a black box labeled in bold shimmery letters “Super Lightning Bleach Kit.” He had never bleached his own hair, but Kana insisted she would figure it out after she finished her own hair in the restroom.

He set the box down on the plastic chair and held up the prickly dry ends of his hair, rubbing the frizzled split ends between his fingers.

They say hair holds the most memories because of its continuous growth. It started with a childish agreement between him and Alex back in high school, and they had kept their colors ever since. He still remembered how Ruki smiled when he saw his blond hair, how he stood at the threshold of Alex’s bathroom, how his throat bobbed.

“It looks really good. It suits you.”

Jun let his hair fall back onto his shoulders, the memory of that smile lingering. Since Ruki’s comment, he had been trying to maintain his blond hair. But it never turned out the same way Alex had dyed it, no matter how many YouTube videos he watched. It always ended up in the same frizzy dry spell. And when Ruki stopped talking to them, he stopped caring. Not just with his hair—everything.

When Ruki wasn’t there, neither was Jun.

The garage door opened, and Kana strolled over with the large plastic bag in her hands, bouncing against her knees. He pointed to his own bangs. “Just the bangs?”

Her usual long fringe was pinned back with bobby pins jutting in every direction, wet and glistening yellow, revealing her smooth forehead.

“I always wanted to try this look anyway.” She set the heavy plastic bag on the workbench with a satisfied sigh. She looked up at him with puffed cheeks, a smile sucking in her lips. “Your turn.”

“Um.” Jun hesitated.

She rummaged through the plastic bag.