Hair Part

Prologue

The girl blinked her eyes upon having her sentence cut, "But ... b-but I want to have a ch-change of my look! You know, for the new sem—"

"But it's ugly!"

She froze. Unconsciously, she took a step backward with her left foot. Her boyfriend's hands were on her shoulders, but instead of feeling warm and uplifting, they felt heavy and cold. His eyes were staring at hers, a glint of disdain and disgust on them. She recalled how excited she was to show her new, below-the-eyebrow blunt bangs to him, hoping that he would like it. Yet, he just slapped onto her face the fact that her fringes were ugly. She felt like shrinking; it's as if her boyfriend found her to be the ugliest creature in the whole world.

She took her eyes off her boyfriend's and moved her head away, slightly bowing it. He also dropped his hands, and his expression relaxed.

"Hey, Marc," she nervously spoke, "A-Are my fringes really that ... ugly?"

While waiting for an answer, as well as hoping for the best and preparing herself from the worst, she felt a warm touch on her trembling hands. Her hands were then gently pulled, and as she shifted her head back to the front, the serious yet comforting face of her boyfriend welcomed her, and her chest loosened a bit.

"It's seriously bad. Let's hide it, okay?" he answered with a sincere tone.

But she couldn't decide what to feel. A part of her felt disappointed that her boyfriend didn't like her new look. She also felt irritated at him for finding fringes ugly, knowing deep inside that fringes were not that bad at all and are actually fashionable. But a piece of her heart wanted her to listen to him and just think about making him happy and more attracted to her.

"Do you have a clip there?" he continued, disturbing the girl's thoughts. She glanced at him in puzzlement, but then nodded. She then took off one of the straps of her Totoro backpack and swung the bag to her front, opened the front zipper, and then dug into the bag's pocket. After such, she pulled out two black hair pins from the pocket, zipped the pocket to close, and then wore the bag's strap back.

The boy grabbed the clips from her hands. He then moved towards her, and she stiffened at their distance. Nervously, she watched him, confused of what he would be doing. With a focused expression, he gathered her bangs together, and then flipped them upward and clipped them together with the rest of her hair, revealing her prominent forehead. He smoothed some of her hairs a little, and then ultimately stepped away. The young lady's cheeks glowed pink.

"There you go," he remarked, placing his hands on her shoulders again, "So much better. Way much better. You're so pretty! Ha-ha!" the boy started clapping his hands, "Look at that!"

However, she only looked at him, not really knowing how to react.

"Don't remove the clips, okay? You look so much better with that. And please, don't wear bangs anymore. Seriously, who wears them anyway? Ok—oh, the school bus is here! Thank God, you finally arrived."

The squeaky sound of the bus's wheels in contact with the concrete road as the bus stopped on the last shed it was supposed to stop at resonated on the area, grabbing the attention of the two. She turned to face the vehicle, and her boyfriend began walking towards the bus, passing by her.

Her ears itched as his statement got grasped by them. Her chest panged at his harsh remark. Seriously, did he have to say that? Okay, I'm not having fringes now, but please cut the insults. Her eyebrows furrowed as she said those words in her head. With her innate girlish vanity, her right hand started reaching for her above-the-waist-length hair strands, all which had been placed in the front. When her fingers had arrived on the strands, they began combing her hair. In her mind, she couldn't help but continuously wonder what made blunt fringes seriously bad.

"Let's go!"

"Ah!" she snapped out of her thoughts. She lifted her head and caught his foxy eyes. Her boyfriend's right foot was already on the first step of the bus, and he was shaking his head. Quickly, however, she disconnected herself to their stare, and then ran to ride the bus, passing by him. He smiled after eventually seeing her get into the vehicle, and then proceeded to ride as well.

Upon the warning of the guard of the bus, the vehicle continued its paused trip, drifting forward to the next street where it was supposed to fetch more students.

The couple sat at the third-to-the-last chair on the right side of the bus, with the girl near the window. She placed her backpack on her lap, its front facing her. On the other hand, the boy also placed his haversack on his lap, although he didn't really care about its placement, as the bag just lied sloppily there. He rested his back on the soft back of the chair and shut his eyes, and she couldn't help but admire him in the corner of her eye, despite him upsetting her.

To forget about what just occurred, she averted her gaze to the view displayed through the window, with her hands gripping on her hair that was being tangled by the strong winds brought about by the extreme speed of the bus. Meringue clouds floated on the light blue sea up above, with some parts of them being torched by the sprouting daylight from the sun. The morning traffic was already at rush, and establishments had already began another day of business.

"Lily!"

The girl rotated her head, and she was met with the handsome face of the guy beside her. He was not sleeping anymore; his eyes were looking intently at his girlfriend. Their eyes interlocked, but she immediately broke away, still feeling a little down at his harsh comment regarding her fringes. Nonetheless, she still tried to face him, although her eyes were focused on his mane, as she couldn't endure an eye contact with him yet.

"Lily," she heard him began talking, "I suddenly remembered. A while ago at the bus stop you were going to say something, right? Sorry for cutting you that time. Wh-what was it that you were ... saying?"

Upon the mention of the event, she automatically rolled her eyes and sneered. She then returned her view to the picture outside, crossing her arms.

"Ahh, Lily ...?"

"It was nothing, Marc. Never mind it anymore!" she faced him again and then answered him with a smirk before looking back outside and rolling her eyes once more. The boy, who was left confused, just rested back on the chair while scratching his head.

But truth be told, she was actually going to compliment her boyfriend's new faux-hawk, despite its being a common hairstyle for Filipino boys and her undying hate for stereotypes. However, after receiving harsh comments from her venture for a new look, she decided to return her boyfriend the favor. She smirked at the thought of her revenge.