Two Dollars - Hotpot Dipping Head (1)

The hotpot restaurant was a hubbub of noises. Anyone who entered the restroom, however, would only hear one constant sound: running water. The smell of sesame paste and garlic would then enter their nose, followed by the sight of a man's head tucked under the faucet of a sink.

The people who walked into the restroom would quietly glance at the scene before quickly averting their gaze and leaving.

Chu Zhi's little face was pale as she watched the man wash his hair.

Five minutes ago, she had genuinely believed she would lose her life in a hotpot restaurant, but the man was more tolerant than she expected. She thought he would press her face into the bowl of sesame paste beside her and was wholly prepared to hold her breath.

But the more tolerance he showed her, the more guilt and unease she felt.

The sound of running water from the faucet seemed to resound in the empty restroom. Chu Zhi stared at his broad back for a while before speaking up.

"You missed a piece of cilantro. It's on the left side…" she said weakly.

"..."

The man was silent for a few seconds, then he turned his head so the water could reach the hairs of his left sideburn.

"Thanks."

Chu Zhi immediately shrunk back. She didn't feel a single ounce of sincerity from his voice.

The height of the sink was a bit too low for the man; even she could tell it was uncomfortable to hunch down there with his head under the faucet. Chu Zhi stood there awkwardly and thought, 'Should I offer to wash his hair for him?'

After some hesitation, she opened her mouth again. "Umm…"

He paused, then with one hand holding the edge of the sink, he lifted his head.

Translucent beads of water threaded his hair and speckled the skin of his face and neck. The collar of his black hoodie was soaked.

His dark eyes and slightly pursed lips greeted her through the mirror. Waiting for her to continue.

The man's expression was indifferent but imposing. Chu Zhi sensed that he was trying to hold back his temper; his scalp-numbing, skin-peeling stare made her hair stand on end.

Chu Zhi gulped. Her eyes flitted around the restroom before stopping on a dispenser of hand soap.

"I don't think you can wash everything out like this. Would you like to use some hand soap?" she asked tentatively.

Her suggestion exasperated the man so much that he started smiling.

"How about you go to the back kitchen and ask for a bottle of dish soap?"

She looked at him in surprise. "Do you want me to?"

Immediately, she straightened up and prepared to go to the back kitchen.

"..." He ignored her and bent down to continue washing his hair.

Time ticked away as more and more people entered and exited the restroom in bewilderment. In this awkward atmosphere, not a single word was spoken.

Chu Zhi suddenly remembered a Japanese drama she had seen. The male lead was a monk. When he met the female lead for the first time, she scattered a handful of bone ashes on his bald head. Instead of killing her, the male lead fell in love and followed her around every day like a happy little pup.

'Did she help him wash his head afterward?' Chu Zhi wondered absent-mindedly as she leaned against the wall.

When she finally snapped out of her daze, she noticed the man had turned off the water and was looking at her through the mirror. The minced garlic and whatnot were gone from his hair, but the oil seemed impossible to remove without the help of shampoo.

"What do you want?" he suddenly asked.

Chu Zhu didn't move from the wall. As she stared at the man, she noticed several oil stains on his black OFF-WHITE^[1] hoodie. She didn't know if this particular design was still available in stores.

[1] OFF-WHITE is an Italian luxury fashion label said to be on par with GUCCI.

"What?" she said distractedly.

The man took two steps closer and looked down at her with a slight smirk. "What do you want? You didn't need to go through all this trouble. Just tell me directly."

Though his hair and clothes were a mess, the man's face looked just as attractive as usual. His slender eyes were a beautiful blend between the peach blossom and phoenix eye shapes^[2]. Despite the warm glow of the ceiling lights bearing down on him, the frosty tone of his skin remained undeterred.

[2] The author actually wrote a very detailed description of his eyes, but I decided to cut it out and explain using pictures instead. You can find them in the tl's note.

His smile was cold yet flirtatious, giving him the impression of a careless rogue.

As soon he stepped closer to Chu Zhi, the smell of garlic wafted into her nose. She wondered if it was a psychological effect caused by her guilt.

'Probably not… I mean, the ingredients in this restaurant are pretty fresh...'

Chu Zhi pursed her lips and thought for a moment before taking out her phone. "Can I have your contact information?" she asked softly.

The man cocked his lips and gave a long, slow "Oh." As he recited a string of numbers, Chu Zhi carefully keyed them in one by one and pressed DIAL.

When she heard his phone ring in his pocket, she canceled the call and lifted her head. Just as she was about to speak, her own phone rang. It was a call from Lin Tong.

"Where did you go?" she asked.

Unsure as to how she should explain, Chu Zhi brushed over the situation with a few simple sentences. As she spoke, she looked at the man's clothes and frowned.

A flood of guilt crashed over her at all once. After she hung up, she bit her lip and continued to stare dejectedly at the man's clothes. A moment later, her expression turned serious.

"I am Chu Zhi, a first-year Class B advertising major at University A," she reported.

She looked the man in the eye and vowed solemnly, "I am very sorry for today. Rest assured, I will take responsibility for my actions."

"..."

VIN: Can't say I've ever seen/been inside a unisex restroom before.

[2] While these pictures are of females, their eyes belong to the same slender and "cool" category as the ML's. According to the author's description, his inner corners are elongated while his outer corners are slightly raised and flare out to a rounder shape (see pictures of Xu Jiaqi). He also has a bit of aegyo sal (natural eye bags for anyone who doesn't know; they're trending in South Korea and represent youth + eye smile), as seen in the pictures of Seunghyo.