ninety-nine balloons (part 4 x fem!reader)

12-peculiar things

OH MY GOD ITS MARCH I UPDATED THIS ONE MONTH AGO EVERYONE IM SO SORRY PLEASE FORGIVE ME I LOST TRACK OF TIME AND I HHHHHHHHHH

PLEASE IM SO SORRY---- I THOUGHT I UPDATED IT 

OK HERE YOU ARE IM SO SORYSRRYR

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maybe a trim would be nice, or perhaps some really short hair would do you good so you wont need to style it as often. unfortunately, you would have to go as short as your stand had cut it in order for your hair to not look as weird as it does at the moment, which would be very weird.

sitting in the salon chair in front of a rather large mirror, you inspected each differently sized chunk of hair still attached to your head, sighing when you finally faced your apologetic stand with a small frown. "quit pouting. im alive, arent i? that's all that matters.

[ninety-nine balloons] seemed almost relieved by your words, floating away to go mess with melodys hair before it finally began to braid it. your stand was a strange one, never sticking to being fully childish or fully mature. just when you thought it had fully grown an adult mindset, you'd find it playing with dolls or pretending a pen was a plane.

after a minute or so of watching [ninety-nine balloons] playfully style melodys hair, the hair-stylist, Aya Tsuji, appeared out from nowhere and introduced herself to you. it was safe to say you squeaked with surprise when she appeared out of thin air, the woman humbly giggling to herself in amusement as she spoke.

after a bit of going back and forth between ideas, and lying about your reason for being there, you finally decided to let Aya do as she pleased with your hair, only asking that she didnt make you look ridiculous, which she obviously understood.

it frightened you that the hair cut was so cheap, even more so when you found she was done in less than ten minutes. both of those factors usually led to an awful haircut, but when you opened your eyes after closing them from anticipation, you were shocked to find that your hair actually wasnt too bad.

it was much shorter than before, of course, but it definitely wasnt a bad look. (coiled/curly/wavy/straight/other) hair sat a little bit above your shoulders, each of the strands glistening under the dim light in the salon with a (hair/color) tint.

"oh, this actually isnt too bad!" you giggled to yourself, turning your head from side to side. "i got a bit worried since you went so fast!"

"of course not, miss roma. i'd never wish to make my customers upset."

melody stood up from her seat, stretching her back while swatting away [ninety-nine balloons] from her hair. poor thing, it was almost done with the braid.

"you ready to go?" she yawned, pulling out a handful of yen from her wallet. "margo and your brother should be back at the cafe by now."

you stood from your seat as well, feeling a sudden gush of cold air wash over your body from the air conditioner, some of the stray hair on your shoulder blowing onto the floor. "wait- are you paying? i can always just-"

"no, no. its ok, youve had a rough day, so consider it my treat!"

"oh-! thank you, then, melody! i appreciate it!"

with a quiet thank you and a dismissive 'good-bye!', you and your coworker left the salon, hands unable to not touch your hair with slight awe. you'd never thought you'd be forced to cut it without thinking about it first, but its not like you regretted it. after all, if you were yukako-free, then that was all that mattered.

the walk back to the cafe was much quicker than the walk to the salon, in your opinion. the idle small talk you made barely filling the empty silence that the brisk morioh hair filled temporarily.

seth and margo were sitting at a small table in the corner, concerned expressions on their face as they spoke in mumbles too low for you to hear as you entered the cafe.

both heads turned to you and melody when the little bell above the door let out a fun jingle, [ninety-nine balloons] manifesting for a moment to play with the bell for a few minutes more. "(y/n)-?" seth called out to you. "oh my god, youre ok! what happened to your hair?"

you giggled bashfully when he jumped out of his seat to check you, a large pair of arms engulfing you in a spine-breaking hug.  "i had a 'run-in' with yukako again, sorry the cafe is trashed. oh, and my hair got a little caught up in the fight i had, so i cut some of it off. do you like it?"

"definitely! you look so much older after you cut off that much, y'know!"

"really? do i look that much older?"

"well, not older, but more mature. like, it really defines your features now, especially your jaw and cheekbones!" seth spat out with a smile. "regardless of what your hair looks like, im just happy youre ok and not dead in a ditch somewhere..."

you pinched his cheek, watching as his skin slowly turned red under your grip as you scolded him. "hey, dont say something like that! its super morbid!"

after separating both you and seth from each other, melody suggested that she escort seth back to tonios so he could finish his work for today, while margo and you cleaned up the mess in the main part of the cafe. there was hair all over the floor, each strand having fallen in a way that made the plain tile look like marble, the broken glass from a stray vase adding some color to the unsightly scene.

"you know, im not too happy with how today turned out..." you mumbled to yourself, grabbing a broom and dustpan from the shelf behind the counter.

seth and melody had already left, and closing time would be in an hour. there shouldnt be any customers left that wish to come in. "my entire day has been shit, actually. i was kidnapped, beaten, forced to make food, barely escaped with my life-"

and thats when you remembered. "oh my god."

"what is it?" margo asked with a hum.

slowly, your head turned to face the curious blonde with a horror-stricken expression, skin losing all its color as your breath grew thin.

"i never went back for koichi."