Flawed Perfection

|➵ clear and glistening

*･゜ﾟ

❝I hear the wind in the trees and
I'm weak in the knees when.❞

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'I'm utterly fucked.'

The clear and glistening mirror of Taehyun's clear and glistening washroom reflected the face of a, let's say, utterly fucked Zuki.  A mess of tears and water and baby hair sticking to her flesh and black mascara and more tears. In her attempts to wash her face, Zuki had managed to ruin the matter tenfold. Who would have known that waterproof mascara doesn't come out with water but rather spreads instead? Who would have thought that Taehyun's shampoo was actually made of red chili essence? Not Zuki, certainly.

"Zuki, we need to leave. Its already been 35 minutes!"

Felix was bashing the door with his uselessly long arms.

"Shut up Yonbok. This is all your fault!", Zuki was on the verge of tears. They were already running late to school and now, with her locking herself in, Felix and Taehyun had no other choice but to wait and beg her to open the door.

"Zuki just let me in. I'll help you out. If we're any more late, we'll miss the first class." The urgency in Taehyun's voice embarrassed her to no ends.

"No! I can't go, nor can I open this door. Just go you guys. I think I will skip school and just go home today."

"Why are you crying? Just open the damn door!" Felix's annoying voice thundered.

"Fucking Felix! You should really consider fucking off when you have the chance because the moment I catch you is the moment you die!"

"Great, now she's crying and screaming." 

"No, wait, Felix. That's actually a great idea. I need you to run and go to school. Now", Taehyun's eyes lit up at his brilliant idea.

"What? No way, dude-"

"Just go. If you make it to class in ten minutes you will be able to slide in just at the time of attendance, if we're lucky."

"Ain't no way you're suggesting that I do your roll calls." Felix coughed up a dry laugh, his eyes wide in surprise at this unexpectedly brave side of his new friend.

"That's exactly what you're gonna do. Run, now."

"Oh God, I hate you guys." 

Felix, despite the protest, scrambled to his feet, grabbing his bag in the process. With a mischievous smile permanently plastered on his face, he banged on the door before dashing away, "Zuki, I'm off!"

"Oh, fucking finally.", she deadpanned from the washroom.

➷

After the loud bang of Taehyun's door echoed, Taehyun gathered his courage and knocked on the small door again. 

"Zuki. Can you please let me in now?"

As her last attempt of scrubbing her eyelashes with the detergent only fueled the burn in her eyeballs, Zuki accepted defeat, and all the humiliation it came with. 

"Yeah, hold on a second." She replied in a tired voice.

The lock clicked and the door swung open, revealing a small panda with hollow eyes and a running nose. Taehyun fought to hold back the chuckle that bubbled at the back of his throat. 

"Go ahead. You can laugh. You have my permission or whatever." Zuki rolled her eyes, cheeks ablaze in shame.

Taehyun only smiled, his large eyes scanning the counter top trashed with cotton pads and micellar water along with almost all of his toiletries. 

"Are your eyes okay?"

The softness of Taehyun's voice almost made Zuki cry all over again.

"I swear I didn't know it was waterproof. I am so embarrassed right now."

"There, there. We have all been there. Come now, wipe your face. Lets get this mascara out of your poor eyes."

Zuki nodded, taking the white towel from his cold hands and rubbing her eye lashes off. While she did that, Taehyun disappeared from her sight and came back with a small tub-like  container.

"I've heard vaseline helps. Come, let's try this trick."

He held Zuki's shrunken face with the tips of his fingers and smeared some vaseline across her shut eyes. All the while, which was probably no more longer than a single minute, Zuki could feel the air suspending around her. The sun stopped burning, her lungs ceased moving and nothing else had ever exited other than her damp face and Taehyun's cold touch.

"There. Now try rubbing the mascara off. With the cream, you know." 

She opened her eyes and the earth started its turning again; the frozen clock started ticking again. In front of her stood Taehyun, his fingers rubbing the air before his wide eyes in demonstration.

"Yes, sir." Zuki couldn't help but crack a smile as sang out her response and proceeded to do what she had been doing the past half hour: rub her eyes helplessly.

Except that this time, she could really feel the thickness of the black evilness peeling off and sticking onto her fingertips. Suddenly, the sun's first rays were breaking the night sky, spreading warmth and life and Zuki was able to open her eyes fully despite the slight sting.

Taehyun was inspecting the weapons of crime-his toiletries- that she had used to abuse her eyes while chuckling silently. 

"What do I do now?"

He turned to see Zuki, eyes wide and bloodshot, and picked up fresh pads of cotton. He dropped the micellar water on them. "Now, we clean them with this."

Zuki held her breath, once again, as Taehyun put the cold cotton onto her closed eyelids and began pressing it down and across. 

"Ow, careful. You're gonna poke my eyes out."

Taehyun broke into a fit of laughter. His eyes beautifully crinkled and teeth blindingly bright. "Sorry, sorry. I put too much force into it. I will be gentle now." 

And he was. His eyes focused, and hands light as the air. Zuki dared not catch his eyes. She was far too self-conscious and ashamed to even open her eyes. But despite the suffocation surrounding them, the dopamine rush was soon getting Zuki addicted. 

"There we go." Taehyun withdrew with a breath of relief, throwing the black cotton into the trash bin, his ears pink and eyes somewhat downcast. "Just reapply this one if you want. It comes off easily with facewash."

Zuki took the long beige stick of mascara from his open hand and stuffed it back into his purple pouch.

"Nah, I think I've had enough of make up for today." Zuki handed the pouch back to Taehyun and only excused herself to let down her hair, freeing it from the torturous ponytail she had made and combed her fingers through it, setting it back into place.

"Shall we go sacrifice Felix to the rain Gods now?"

Her expecting eyes were met by an oddly flustered Taehyun who threw the towel at her. 

"No. You should just go home now. Skip school today. Just go home and get changed or something."

In a hurry, he left the washroom, leaving a very confused Zuki to stare at her damp face in the now not-so-clear and glistening mirror of Taehyun's otherwise clear and glistening washroom.

And that's when she saw it. All the splashing while washing her face had wet her uniform shirt.

Zuki had never felt the full and true force of embarrassment, that is, until now.

➷

double update! now I'm gonna go disappear for another few years