ᴀᴅᴅɪᴄᴛᴇᴅ

【39】

the hallway was loud with morning chatter when mingi and yunho walked through the front doors together. backpacks slung over one shoulder, hoodie sleeves half-pulled over their hands, just another monday—except mingi's hair was black again.

freshly dyed, neatly trimmed, the ends soft and even thanks to yunho's steady hands the night before. he hadn't really thought much about it. it felt more like getting something back than changing anything new. but apparently, that's not how the others saw it.

because the moment they turned the corner into their usual hallway—

"oh my god—"

wooyoung dropped his water bottle mid-sentence.

"mingi, is that you??" he gasped, rushing over like he'd seen a celebrity. "why do you look like you're about to ruin someone's life in a romance story?"

"i—what?" mingi blinked, caught completely off guard.

"who let you be mysterious and full of aura at 8 a.m.?" wooyoung demanded, circling him like a hawk. "who said this was allowed?!"

san walked up behind him, squinting. "he looks... different."

"good different?" mingi asked, already starting to feel warm.

"like, distractingly good," san replied. "like, 'missed half the lecture because i was looking at you' good."

"you cut your hair?" yeosang asked, coming up with jongho right behind him.

"and dyed it back to black," yunho said, trying to hide a proud smile as he watched the group crowd around mingi. "we did it this weekend."

"you did a good job," yeosang said, nodding in approval.

jongho gave a small smile. "you look clean. soft. less like you just rolled out of bed."

"is that a compliment?"

"from jongho, yeah," san said.

seonghwa showed up seconds later, adjusting his earrings. "okay, what's with all the screaming—" he stopped short when he saw mingi. "oh."

"what?"

"nothing. you just look like you walked off the cover of a magazine."

"you guys are being so much right now," mingi muttered, tugging at his tie, but the edges of his mouth were lifting. he couldn't help it.

yunho leaned in closer, voice low. "i told you you looked good."

mingi glanced at him, eyes soft. "you did."
——

throughout the day, the compliments kept coming.

"new hair?" classmates asked, eyes lighting up.

"looks amazing!"

"clean cut suits you."

"are you glowing or is it just the lighting in here?"

even their math teacher paused when handing mingi his graded quiz.

"you changed something."