#150: Haircuts (2) — The Archmage's Restaurant

Rurin was watching the scene intently from a slight distance.

She was meticulously following Jont’s scissor movements with her eyes, from various angles.

She watched from the front, then suddenly moved to the back, then to the side, resting her chin and observing the scissors. Her gaze was intense, almost jealous of the scissors.

Then she went up to the ceiling.

“Hey?”

“Oh, sorry.”

As I followed Rurin’s actions and raised my head, Jont was startled and stopped the scissors.

When I returned my head to its original position, the scissors continued.

Rurin is driving me crazy.

Is she a lizard?

Why is she hanging from the ceiling?

Ah, well. Are they similar species?

Comparing a dragon to a lizard is a huge insult, though.

Anyway, Rurin was hanging upside down from the ceiling. She seemed intent on watching the haircut from a bird’s eye view.

The fortunate thing is that Jont didn’t look up. He was focused on cutting the hair on the side.

What Rurin is doing is not something humans can do. It’s exactly like a vampire hanging upside down from a tree.

“Hehehe.”

Then she came down again, got closer, and looked at the direction of the scissors and my hair as if inputting it into her eyes.

I was very curious about her reason. Rurin usually doesn’t show this much interest in what other humans do.

Crash!

And then, the moment Rurin came down to the floor.

A loud noise came from the inner room. It sounded like something fell.

Startled, Jont stopped cutting and ran to the inner room. I also stood up in surprise. Because of that, the cut hair on the gown fell messily to the floor.

“Hey! Oh my, dear!”

It seemed that the one who fell was his wife, so I threw off the gown and ran into the room.

Surely, she didn’t fall because she saw Rurin hanging upside down and got scared, right?

“Hey, Rurin…!”

No, this isn’t the time to blame anyone.

I quickly picked the old lady up.

“There’s a clinic up ahead, so I’ll run there. Follow me.”

“Oh, okay?”

As Jont nodded, I started running. Rurin followed me, and the old man hurriedly followed as well.

However, they couldn’t keep up with our running speed, and soon I ran into Elena’s clinic.

As a result, the old lady had only fainted from the shock of the fall, according to Elena’s explanation. The old man looked greatly relieved.

“Stay here until she wakes up. I’ll close the shop up for you.”

“Would you do that for me? I’ll trim your hair tomorrow. Sorry about this.”

“No problem.”

Jont held his wife’s hand tightly and couldn’t leave her side. So, I left them there and returned to the barbershop. I had to close up the shop and pick up the coat I left behind.

Looking in the mirror, my half-cut hair looked very funny. The right side was short, making it completely asymmetrical.

I just need to endure until tomorrow, so I’ll wear a hat or something.

So I picked up the coat I had thrown off.

“Yap!”

Suddenly, Rurin slapped my wrist as I picked up the coat.

Because of that, the coat fell back onto the waiting seat.

“What are you doing, Rurin?”

I looked at Rurin, wondering what she was doing. She looked at me with a very serious face, devoid of her usual smile.

“You.”

“Huh?”

Why is she so serious?

She approached me in that state, grabbed my wrist, and dragged me. Curious about what she wanted, I let her drag me to the chair in front of the mirror.

She pushed me down onto the chair with both hands, making me sit down unexpectedly.

“Hehehe. You!”

She gave her trademark strange smile, which she shows when she’s about to cause trouble, lifted the scissors Jont had left, and looked at me with a clanging sound.

“You, why the scissors…?”

Clang, clang!

The blades of the scissors clanged together again. And Rurin shouted in time with the sound.

“I’ll cut your hair!”

“You?”

“Yes.”

“My hair?”

“Yes!”

Rurin’s eyes were clear without a speck of doubt. They sparkled with strong determination, like they contained the Milky Way of the night sky.

Looking at her endlessly clear expression, I just wanted to let her do whatever she wanted, but I still resisted for now.

My hair is precious.

“No…there’s really no need for that.”

“Yes, there is.”

“Why?”

Rurin ignored my question.

She just grabbed the comb and scissors in both hands, looked at my hair this way and that, and started talking again.

“You know, I’ve watched closely when you got your hair cut last time and today. So I’ve learned the method. Don’t worry.”

Cutting hair isn’t something that can be mastered just by watching a few times.

But, given her keen interest in the scissors earlier, she must have wanted to try it herself.

It seemed out of character for her to show such interest.

“Wait a minute, if you make a mistake, I’ll have to shave my head. Give me a moment to think…!”

“Don’t you trust me, you?”

She asked with a fierce expression, as if she would cut my throat with the scissors if I said I didn’t trust her….

“You!”

Feeling that the fierce expression wasn’t working, her eyes started to fill with tears.

Ugh.

She looked like a child about to cry if I didn’t believe her. Since when did she learn to use such diverse expressions for psychological attacks?

“And you know! I don’t like the idea of leaving your hair to another guy. I hate that. I endured it because I didn’t know how, but now it’s different. I won’t let any human touch your hair!”

Come to think of it, wasn’t she the one who blew up the salon in Korea because she hated someone else touching my hair?

But the fact that she moved around and even climbed the ceiling to study hair-cutting because she hated others touching my hair was a form of jealousy, yet in the end, it was all for me. So it didn’t feel bad.

In fact, it was quite touching. A feeling that tugged at my heart.

I was going to scold her for climbing the ceiling in front of people, but now I couldn’t say anything.

She got up to that while showing passion for learning something, so it wasn’t intentional at all.

I can’t help it.

“Then…be careful and do it.”

Even if I end up bald, it was impossible to refuse when Rurin, who usually finds everything bothersome, showed interest in something.

I resigned myself and leaned back in the chair.

Then Rurin gave a bright smile, like she had the whole world. Her lips curved like a crescent moon.

“You.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t sit crookedly! Sit straight!”

Then she immediately corrected my posture with a strict face. This is scary.

“Oh…yes, okay. Please take care of it.”

She held the power over the life and death of my hair. I had no choice but to bow my head and comply.

“Alright! Hehe.”

I had no idea where her confidence in the unfamiliar act of cutting hair came from, but Rurin started caressing my hair with the clanging scissors.

The cold tip of the scissors touched my hair. She held my head with one hand and brought the scissors close.

Rurin’s warm hand and the cold scissors. The contrast was exquisite.

-Snip.

Soon, with a tickling sound, the hair was cut.

The ends of my hair fell under the gown.

Rurin didn’t say anything. She was fully focused on my hair.

Then, carefully again,

-Snip.

The ends of my hair were slightly trimmed.

When an inexperienced person cuts hair, it can sometimes hurt. But there was none of that.

“Whoa, it’s cut.”

She said that and grabbed my hair again. It was very cautious and precise, unlike her usual self.

And it felt much more ticklish than when Jont cut my hair.

A ticklish yet tingling feeling.

-Snip, snip.

Again, the slow movements. And the hair in Rurin’s hand was cut with a snipping sound.

Is it safe to be relieved at this level?

Before I knew it, Rurin had approached my face.

Rurin’s face came close to mine. Close enough to feel her breath.

In that state, Rurin grabbed my bangs with the comb and her hand.

“Is it going well?”

“It’s hard.”

“Really?”

“But it’s fun. Your hair is becoming my style!”

“You have a style?”

“Hmm, you yourself are my style, so anything you do is my style.”

“……”

Here she goes again. This silly dragon occasionally says things that make my heart race.

Rurin laughed and held my bangs with the scissors.

-Snip.

Rurin’s face was right in front of me. Because of that, the ticklish and tingling feeling enveloped my whole body more than before, even though the scissors just cut my hair.

Her movements were so careful that it felt like her breath was touching my skin.

“Phew!”

She blew on the hair that had fallen on my face. Her breath smelled of lip balm.

A sweet scent.

“Wait, Rurin.”

“Stay still! This is a very important part.”

I kept feeling a strange, subtle emotion, making me want to hug Rurin, but she was strict.

Thanks to that, the funny impulse disappeared.

Come to think of it, isn’t this the first time Rurin has scolded me?

Living, you see days like this too.

Looking in the mirror, it didn’t look too bad. After all, Rurin is a dragon, so she doesn’t like doing things and finds them bothersome, but she rarely fails when given a task.

A dragon is a dragon.

They seem to unravel the logical structure of any skill faster than humans. Even mastering it.

While I was thinking that, Rurin had already moved to the back.

She seemed to have started cutting the back of my hair.

I could hear the snip, snip from the back.

It’s better to leave the cleanup of baby hair and stray hairs with a razor to a professional. While I was thinking that, Rurin suddenly shouted.

Thanks to that, I snapped back to reality.

“Hwaak!”

“What is it? What’s wrong? Don’t scare me like that?”

“Nothing!”

It didn’t seem like nothing.

“You. I’m going back first. Something urgent came up!”