HNGH!

“You know, my hair’s getting kind of long, maybe I should cut it.”

I said while looking in the mirror in my room.

At least, it’s halfway down my neck by now.

“Your hair grew?”

“Yeah, just a bit. It’ll probably reach my shoulders in a month or so.”

“I can’t tell.”

Well, the bakery owner always did say that men were oblivious

“Anyways, so what if it gets a little long? I think you’d look nice with long hair.”

“Takes too much time to dry.”

“Is that really that big a problem?”

“You don’t have any hair, you wouldn’t know.”

“You realize I was human before, right?”

Right…

“Well what do you know about drying wet hair?”

“I just don’t wash it in the first place.”

“So you were bald?”

“Nope. Just take one shower every month.”

W h a t

I looked at him with disgust.

“Hey hey, in my defense, my squadron wasn’t camped at a river.”

“......fine.”

I guess I can’t fault him.

“Still, I don’t think long hair’s that bad an idea. You have plenty of classmates that let their hair grow.”

“Doesn’t mean I should join them.”

I grabbed some scissors and took them to my hair.

“Wait wait wait, you’re just going to cut it just like that!?”

“Yes?”

“Have you done this before?”

“No.”

I always had the barber in town to do it for me in exchange for some cake.

“What if you hurt yourself!?”

“I’m not five, you know.”

“Doesn’t matter, even if you don’t get hurt, that hair will definitely end up uneven!”

I put the scissors down. He has a point.

I shouldn’t go ruining my hair when people have been joking about me being a witch. I need someone else who can cut it, and I doubt the barber here would take cake for payment this time.

Now then, I know just the person who can help me with that.

I knocked on Heather’s door.

Huh, she’s not here.

“Are you here for Heather?”

A voice called to me.

I turned to find a blond girl staring at me with a bag in her hands. I think her name was... Amy was it?

She probably has something to give to Heather, books maybe? It could also be that she’s sharing snacks with her.

“Ah yeah, but she doesn’t seem to be here.”

“What do you want from her?”

Well, she’s probably just curious that the quiet girl’s at looking for Heather of all people, but she didn’t have to be so cold about it.

“Ah, don’t worry about it. I’ll be on my way…”

I turned around and went back to my room.

“Weirdo.”

I heard her mutter as I closed my door.

I leaned on the door.

Was she one of the girls that Heather mentioned?

Probably? Or she just found it weird how abruptly I left.

Oh well, I can ask Heather some other time, hair doesn’t grow much in one day after all.

Come to think of it, that Amy person had hair similar to mine…

“Ah!”

“Huh!?”

“That girl back there, she had the same hairstyle as I did back then, I can ask her who cut hers.”

I creaked my door open slightly and peaked out at Heather’s room to find her still there, waiting.

Before I could open the door and approach her, I froze, my chest beginning to tighten.

Am I afraid?

But of what? Her laughing at my face? She probably has the courtesy not to do that though.

To begin with she might just go to the barber to get it done as well.

Waiting for Heather’s probably just the better idea, even if she might not know how to do it.

And besides, do I really want to ask the girl who's been talking behind my back for a favour?

“What’s the holdup? Aren’t we going to ask her?”

“Didn’t you just hear her call me a weirdo?”

“So? Just means she doesn’t have the balls to say it to your face.”

“She’s probably really cautious of me though. Heather did mention some of her friends talking about me.”

“Then this is the perfect time to ease her up a bit, leave a better impression.”

“But she looks like she has to wait for Heather to come back before she could leave the door. I could just wait for H-”

“Now you're just making excuses.”

“Fine….”

He’s right, though. All I’m doing is making excuses.

Ultimately, I’m just afraid of talking to someone new, especially when they already have a bad impression of me.

Of course, waiting for Heather’s probably the better decision, all it takes is waiting an hour or two. That certainly would be more in my comfort zone.

It’s always been like this, huh. I could have hung out with my friends back then, tried to close the rift that had formed over the years, but I didn’t.

I had gotten used to being alone and I just didn’t want to venture through the awkward ordeal, so I just stayed in my shell, where it’s safest.

It’s fine to do that, but do I really want that? I came to this school to leave everything behind, right? That includes my old self.

Hah…. I guess I have to start somewhere. Besides, what's the worst that can happen?

I steadied myself and went out the door.

“Excuse me, but can I ask you a question?”

“What?”

She turned to face me, her tone showing a bit of contempt.

“How do you cut your hair?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“As in do you have someone else do it or do you do it yourself?”

“Um, I cut it myself, but why do you want to know?”

“I really like your hairstyle so I wanted to cut my hair a bit shorter to match. But I’m scared of messing it up, so I was wondering if you could teach me how to do it.”

Like wouldn’t really be the word I’d use here, but I hope that butters her up a bit.

She stared at me a bit before saying:

“Sure… not like I have anything else to do. But can you return this to Heather when she comes back?”

“No problem.”

I took the bag and placed it on my counter.

“Alright, grab some scissors and follow me.”

Huh, that went a lot more smoothly than I thought, given how wary she seemed.

“Was this what you wanted to ask Heather?”

She asked as we made our way to her room.

“Yeah, she did seem more fashionable than me whenever we went out shopping, so I thought she’d know a thing or two.”

“You two go out shopping?”

“Just for some food.”

“I see.”

She looked at me, still fairly on edge.

I paid it no mind.

“What about you? What was in that bag?”

“Just this book series she lent me.”

“The title?”

“”The Girl and the Woods.””

Huh, that’s a bit of a surprise.

“You like horror?”

“You read it?”

“Not the latest book, but I’ve read most of it. Still, I’m surprised you read it. I always thought horror was a guy thing.”

“I’m fine with it, but Heather just wouldn’t shut up about it so I had to check it out.”

She laughed.

Guess I'm just out of touch. Nothing new there.

“But still, I can’t imagine Heather of all people talking about a horror novel.”

“I know, right? That’s why I just had to check it out.”

“It’s a good series though, so I can see why someone would get excited… just not her.”

“Yeah.”

We reached her room and she went in as I waited by the door.

“See? It wasn’t that hard. All ya had to do was grow a pair and ask her.”

I tapped him twice.

She’ll actually think I’m crazy if she happens to come back and see me talking to nothing.

And he was going to act all smug about it later anyways.

The rest went on without much of a hitch. She led me to the bathroom and showed me how she cut it, we talked a bit here and there, and that was that.

“Thanks for your help.”

“You’re very much welcome.”

“Is there anything I can do for you in return?”

“Huh? No need. It’s not that big of a deal anyways.”

“If you want, you could come to the kitchen this s-”

“Really! There’s no need!”

“Ah, sorry….”

I was being a bit pushy there, huh.

“Just take it as my apology…”

“Huh? For what?”

“For calling you a weirdo earlier. You heard me back there, right?”

“Yup.”

Maybe I should’ve just said I didn’t. That way she wouldn’t feel as guilty.

“Yeah… sorry about that. I also wasn’t exactly friendly…”

“It’s fine.”

“For you, maybe.”

Hm? I tilted my head.

“Is there anyone else to consider here?”

“Wellllll….. I guess not.”

I guess Heather’s the only other person that would mind.

“I’ll be going then.”

We went our separate ways.

After reaching my room, I immediately collapsed on the bed.

“That was exhausting…”

“Good work!”

“And now for the peanut gallery…”

“Hey hey, if it wasn’t for me you wouldn’t have even made it a step out that door!”

“Nor would you without me.”

“Watch me!”

Huh?

“I’ve been practising in the kitchen! Lay me on the floor.”

“Wait, pracitsing wh-”

“LAY. ME. ON. THE. FLOOR.”

I put him down. Was he going to grow legs?

“HNNNNNNGH!”

………….

“HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGH!”

……………………….

“HNGH!”

“I don’t think anything’s happening.”

“No, no, I clearly moved!”

“I…. think that’s just you moving your line of sight.”

“Shut up! Don’t crush my dreams like that! Hngh!”

“I really don’t think you’ll m-”

Suddenly, the tip of the sword moved to the left ever so slightly, by just a hair.

“Huh!?”

“What happened?”

“I…. I think you moved…”

“See? I told you!”

“Wait, that might have been a fluke, do it again.”

I rubbed my eyes.

After another five minute or so of Al sounding like he’s constipated, he did in fact move by another hair.

“Yeah, you’re moving.”

“Ha! I can make it out the door just fine!”

I moved him to the other side of the room.

“Okay, do it.”

“That’s cheating!”

“Really? I don’t think so.”

“Not nice!”

“Oh yeah, I have to deliver something to Heather.”

I took the bag.

“Don’t just leave me like this!”

“You can move, can’t you?”

“That doesn’t mean I want to!”

I left and knocked on Heather's door.

“Coming!”

She opened the door.

“Oh, you cut your hair!”

“You noticed?”

“Of course!”

So Al’s the only oblivious one.

“Amy wanted to return this to you.”

“Oh! She gave it back!”

She said excitedly.

“I’m surprised to hear that you liked it though.”

“She told you? Wait…. You guys talked!?”

“Yes?”

She put a hand to her mouth.

“Uh… did she like, do anything weird?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, just anything!”

It’s not that I don't get what she means. Amy was clearly cautious at first but it’s not like she’ll just blatantly show her contempt.

“Don’t worry, all we did was chat a bit, she was wary at first, but we got along just fine. She even apologized for calling me weird.”

“That’s a relief…”

“So are we meeting in the kitchen today?”

“Ah, I have something to do, so sorry.”

“No worries.”

I went back to my room to hear Al panting.

“Haaaah… hah…..”

“You get tired?”

“Of course I do!”

I picked him up and holstered him.

“Yeah, I don’t think you can move on your own yet.”

“One day, it’ll happen!”

“Sure sure.”

That day’s probably pretty far away though.

I thought as I laid on the bed and stroked my newly cut hair.

Maybe I’ll try growing it out next time.

Author’s note: Sorry for the late chapter again. My manager sent me to work on Tuesday and I got sick on Wednesday and Thursday. Next chapter’s also going to have quite a delay as I work out some personal stuff. Sorry. Will be back in maybe two weeks? maybe less. who knows. Thank you all so very much for reading.