Crescent // ATEEZ ✔

21 [disguise]

Yeosang puts his finger to his lip, tilting his head as he studies Byul's face, a pencil tuck at the back of his ear. In his hand is his sketching book, turned to an empty page which has been in that condition since half an hour ago.

Beside him, Hongjoong is flipping through a stack of fashion magazines, looking for nothing in particular. The leader would point something on the pages to Yeosang, but he only shakes his head, closing his eyes like he's facing the biggest crisis of his life.

"I feel like there's nothing I can change on her face or appearance." Yeosang puts down the sketching book, reaching out for a cup of water on the counter.

"So uh, should I take that as a compliment?"

"Oh-ho," he puts up a finger, looking displeased. "In our world, that's not a compliment, that just means you're going to fail miserably because it's hard for you to disguise yourself. You're making me feel challenged as I, Kang Yeosang, is the master of disguises. Not being able to change anything for your outward appearance means that you are insulting me."

As he delves deep into his thoughts, he subconsciously takes his pendant and bites it. In his mind, multiple layouts with Byul as the model is spread out, with different styles and appearances. One thing he knows for sure is that something needs to change.

"Your hair needs to go."

Defensively her hands fly to the top of head, looking at him with a mix of disgust and horror. Accusingly, she says, "You are not going to touch my hair and I am not going bald. I know there's nothing wrong with a woman being bald but I can't pull that off. I'll look like an egg." She frowns then adds grudgingly, "An egg that has gone bad."

Hongjoong snorts but is cut short as she glares at him.

"You think it's funny but your strawberry hair is funnier."

"Do you have a problem with me?" he asks as he puts down a magazine. "Why are you so nice to the others but you treat me differently? You even gave Yeosang your portion of food during breakfast this morning." He tries to appear angry but he ends up sounding and looking like a whiny child.

"Hmm," both Yeosang and Byul verbalize at the same time. They stand side by side, crossing their arms as they turn to look at the leader.

"I don't know," she says sarcastically as she leans against Yeosang, her arm rested against his shoulder. It has only been two days but they are already like the best of friends, clicking right off from the start. "Yeosang, what do you think?"

"That's a tough question," he replies, pretending to think about it so hard that his forehead starts to crease. "Is it because he always looks so grumpy? Or is it because... I don't know... single-handedly ruined your life?"

She huffs. "I think it's the second one."

"Ha-ha, that's funny." He slaps the magazine shut. "That was two days ago, and I apologized to you until I felt like my lips could crack. And I'm trying to be nice while letting you stay at our house. For free."

"Oh boy, here we go again," Yeosang mutters.

"Well excuse me, Mr. Strawberry." She puts one hand on her hip and snaps her fingers with the other. "I should be cursing at you until you are on your deathbed, but here I am, trying to live with the fact that you just simply ruined my life. So don't expect too much."

"Everybody makes mistakes. Just because I'm a straw-" he shakes his head and quickly corrects himself, "-just because I'm the leader doesn't mean that I'm free from any mistakes; I'm not a saint. It's not easy trying to take another person under my wing, but it seems like the rest of the boys are fine with it-"