The Truth Hurts [exo]

9

I awoke from the sound of splashing water. The previous day, we had walked for miles before coming upon a pond by evening. Jongin decided it was a good place to stay because it was a watering hole for the animals. That meant I would be watching him skin prey all day.

I pushed myself up and saw him coming with a hand running through his wet hair. He stopped when he noticed me staring.

"Hey, you're up."

I nodded only slightly before opening my mouth. "What happened to you?"

"I washed up," he muttered while taking a seat next to me and pulled out some bread from his pack. "You should, too."

"In there?" My face contorted into one of disgust as I pointed at the pond. "But it's not even clean in there. And it's so cold."

Jongin leaned over to stuff a piece of bread into my mouth so I would stop complaining. "Get used to it."

"Not with my hair. I'm going to get sick if my hair stays wet for too long." I carefully chewed the tough, stale bread.

"Then cut it," he said as if it was the most obvious solution in the world.

My mouth dropped without warning but when he didn’t even notice my reaction, I fidgeted in my seat. "Can't we wait until we get to the next town?"

Jongin shook his head. "Who knows when we'll get to the next town? Besides, you're stinking up my cloak." He grabbed the brown rag that I had used as a blanket and sniffed it before twisting his face in disapproval.

I heaved a frustrated sigh before turning my back on Jongin. "Fine, cut it."

"What?"

I pulled out the overused ribbon that held my hair in a bun and combed through a few of the strands. "Cut." When it was down, my hair reached the middle of my back and suddenly felt a lot heavier.

"What do you mean by cut? I can't cut hair."

I turned around and gave a sneer. "You can kill ten men in ten seconds and skin a rabbit without a thought. Cutting hair isn't hard."

"But I don't even know where to cut. What if I get it too short? Then you'll cut my fingers off!" Jongin backed away little by little like a child shying away from impending chores.

I rolled my eyes and took the ribbon in my hands. I tied my hair so that the ribbon reached just past my shoulders. "Here," I gestured at the knot. "Cut just above this with your knife."

"You promise not to kill me?"

My eyes rolled and I was tempted to slump forward. "Just do it before I change my mind."

I heard Jongin unsheathe one of his knives and I shut my eyes. I never liked getting haircuts but this was even more frightening. Having an inexperienced person decide the fate of how I would look didn't sit well with me.

Jongin held the knot firmly and began sawing the hair. I didn't open my mouth to complain about how he was tugging but I wished that he'd be done soon. The last strands were the worst.

"There." Jongin let out a breath that he was holding and handed me my ponytail. I pretended not to notice how stiff he was from nervousness.

"That wasn't so hard, right?" I asked while looking down at the black hair sitting on my lap. I wasn't sure if I was talking to Jongin or myself.

"Just go take a bath already." I turned around and saw that he had his back towards me and was already onto eating his bread. Did cutting hair really scare him that much?