#« ᴍ ɪ ɴ » / 「 & ava. 」

[becameundone]

“All I said was that I wasn't stupid,” Min said, shrugging. “But if the shoe fits.” It was a jab obviously made in jest and his playful tone should have suggested as such, if the way he stuck out his tongue at her didn't. Now, to Min's mind, gutsy was just another word for stupid, with the sole thing setting the two ideas apart being whether or not you succeeded at the end of it. Min wasn't sure he had succeeded at very much but it was hard to say he'd failed either. Where did that leave him? “Then maybe I'm insane for coming here all the way from London, of all places,” said Min, with a slow, emphatic shrug. “Well, I mean, you're here so it's not all bad but it's hardly a step up in the world.” Yet the closer to ground he remained, the softer the fall would be. He'd been chased all his life by a fear of failure so great that it had caused him to stumble at every hurdle, like a self-fulfilling prophecy. He dressed up nicely and stood tall so as to give the impression of certain confidence but he wasn't someone with a whole lot of pride in himself. Anyway, he was no at accepting compliments that weren't purely superficial so, to save himself the embarrassment, he moved on.

Min finally stood up straight, moving to act rather than lounge around offering sarcastic remarks. He looked about himself, as though the ideal hiding place would just spontaneously reveal itself somehow. They couldn't leave it out anywhere too open because that was a theft risk; the chances of it actually happen, particularly without anyone noticing, weren't high but anything above impossible was best avoided. Even leaving it in the usual private places for staff seemed difficult. It didn't seem like Ava wanted anybody else asking questions, not from the way she'd conspiratorially revealed the bag to Min. He took a few trips up and down the main room of the salon before finally giving up right in the centre “I could put it inside my bag?” he offered, finally, as he turned to face Ava. “I don't know if it'll fit but we could give it a go?” This had actually been his very first idea but, for whatever reason, he felt a little strange about anyone seeing the contents of his work bag. He always felt the contents of a person's bag told a story, at least if you thought about it long enough. Although Ava likely had no way of knowing this, Min was making quite the sacrifice for her. (Or, maybe, just maybe, this was more of his usual overthinking.) He hurried off to retrieve his bag from its proper place and returned with a decently-sized leather backpack, which he dropped down on the counter in front of Ava. “See if you can cram it in.”

Narrowing misty brown eyes in the direction of her fellow hairdresser, the brunette was caught between feeling childishly desperate to be rescued from her little financial blunder and stubbornly defending her thoughtless actions—otherwise known as The Ballad of Ava Adler, a song she knew by heart. "Hey, I'm not stupid! Okay, so maaaybe this wasn't the smartest decision ever... which would imply some stupidity on my part. But you're not helping either," she reiterated through gritted teeth, her look of irritation quickly replaced with a overly dramatic pout to get him on her side. For as much as they bickered and playfully tugged on each other's nerves throughout their long days at the salon, Min was someone that Ava trusted wholeheartedly. And even though she was well aware that her impulsive actions often stressed him out (a fact that she occasionally delighted in), it always made her feel better to rant to him about her woes—and right now, she needed some reassurance that everything would be okay.

"I don't think moving to another country's stupid. If you ask me, it's gutsy. I've never lived anywhere other than this town. After over two decades, it's enough to drive anyone insane." She grumbled out the last part, though her initial statement had been uncharacteristically sincere, her gaze softening to begrudgingly confirm her admiration for the dancer. "Nope... sadly, I charged this expensive little beauty to my personal card. Which is probably a good thing if I want to remain employed," she sighed, eyeing the leather temptress in question, still nestled on her station chair. In her panic to seek counsel from her more level-headed co-worker, in a place that felt like home to both of them, Ava hadn't even considered the potential dangers of bringing such a nice purse into an establishment full of chemicals. "Ohmygod, what was I thinking?" she wailed. Clearly, she hadn't been thinking. Snatching up the bag by its handle, she turned to Min in a panic. "Is there anywhere I can hide this until closing?"

[littlebadger]

@bystcrdust​​ asked:

           “listen, asshole. i’m gonna carry you home whether you like it or not.                          you’re not in any condition to get there yourself.”

-`👻´- 【  “  I look worse than I feel.  It’s okay,  Ava—  really, ”   Stubborn as ever, he pushes her hands away, feeling himself lose his control over his ghost form. s ᴛ ᴜ ᴍ ʙ ʟ ɪ ɴ ɢ  back,  he barely catches himself before he falls on his ass, finally allowing his tired human form to take over.

                                         “ ᴏᴋᴀʏ;  MAYBE  . . .you have a  point. . . ”

[becameundone]

"No, never," said Min, teasingly, "I'm not dumb." It was a joke, of course. Min wasn't pompous enough to say stuff like that and mean it, at least not without thoroughly disliking whoever he was addressing first. And, at least for a moment, he'd been happy to leave it at that...until he began to feel a little bad because, well, Ava wasn't someone he disliked at all and he doubted the sarcasm was helping anybody. "Unless coming here counts. I only went and moved halfway across the world on an impulse," he said, eyes still fixed on the bag, as though it were some grand archaeological artefact. "But usually, I'm not doing daft shit with my own money." Oh, sure, he was dodging the real question. That was true. But Min wasn't very good at making other people's decisions for them. He'd hated to be the one to make Ava keep the bag and have it somehow mysteriously drive her to financial ruin.

"I'm also not convinced being saved from disaster – well, greater disaster than this – by your card company is much of a defence?" he said, finally tearing his gaze from the evidence of Ava's dilemma du jour to focus on tidying his own station. "That might actually make it worse." He probably wasn't in any position to comment or pass judgement. Anything expensive he'd owned had been given to someone else. Apparently, it paid to have rich friends – Min would never dare to even consider that or think about his friends in such a shallow way but the end result was still the same. He did try to use those gifts sparingly, saving them for special occasions or times he felt like showing off a little. This, of course, led him to his next point. "Are you sure you should've brought this here? A place that's full of, uh... bleach?"

Letting out an unbecoming and bratty whine of protest, Ava started to pace frantically in front of the chair, front teeth gnawing on her lower lip as she desperately thought of a way out of this. The brunette wasn't particularly thrilled with the idea of getting rid of her new designer bag. It was by far the nicest thing she owned, and she was enamored by how sleek and gorgeous it was, the luxurious smell of real leather that filled her senses when she held it—not to mention the fact that it was one of the few purses she owned that wasn't secondhand. But when she thought of the credit card bill that awaited her next month, coming to collect for her temporary lapse in judgment, she felt a twist of dread in her stomach. "Okay, you're officially not helping," she groaned, playfully narrowing her eyes in Min's direction as she continued to bore a hole into the floor of the salon, pacing at a steady pace. Maybe if she kept moving, she'd eventually stumble across a solution to her predicament. "I mean, I could have done waaay more damage! It's not like it's Dior or YSL," she attempted to reason, anything to make this decision seem less stupid. "And trust me, it easily could have been. You know... if the limit on my card was higher." Sagging against her station in defeat, Ava attempted a last shot to commiserate. "You've really never done anything dumb like this?" she wondered, unable to keep the disbelief out of her tone.

[becameundone]

Now, to his credit, Min was trying his best not to judge. He had made enough impulse purchases throughout his life for judgement to render him some kind of hypocrite. But the back seemed to stick out on that chair like a sleek, leather beacon of questionable choices. He had crouched himself down so that he was eye level with the bag. It looked well-made, at least, and he knew there were brands out there who started off at this one's highest price point, but he had a pretty good idea of the sort of cash Ava took home. He ought to, they had the same job. Min had landed himself, however, in the cushy situation of living with a cousin who didn't charge rent and yet he still couldn't afford something like this. Again, he really was trying not to judge. It just wasn't that easy. "Oh, it's definitely too late," he said, pulling himself back to full height (a height needlessly bolstered by the thick sole of the boots he'd taken to wearing, their impracticality standing testament to his own poor judgement). A short pause was left, just long enough that she might try to interject but not long enough for to get anywhere with it. "I mean, it's too late for you. You've lost your mind and I'm out of my depth."

( coyote hair salon, morning, mid-april ) @becameundone, min

"Listen, I know it was an irresponsible thing to do. But you promised that this was a judgment-free zone!" Ava whined, already anticipating Min's reaction as she finished recounting the story behind her latest impulsive decision. While a lot of people had the tendency to reach for hair dye and scissors when they were feeling the restless itch to make a change, Ava didn't really share the same rush of excitement when it came to experimenting with her look. Sure, she loved making other people feel beautiful, and she was always the first to urge a client to go bolder, to try something fresh and new with their hair. But when it concerned her own raven locks, she liked them just fine the way they were. Therefore, when things in her life started to feel uncertain, her methods of proving to herself that she was the one in control involved making... less than intelligent impulse purchases. And if the treat in question was small enough, the youngest Adler had no qualms potentially risking a misdemeanor to shoplift a shiny new toy for herself (if anything, it offered double the rush), but this time, she had nearly maxed out one of her credit cards just to secure the luxury item in front of them. Chewing on her lower lip and staring at the black leather Tory Burch handbag in her station chair, its gold accents sparkling beautifully under the salon lights, she managed to ask in a feeble voice, "Do you think it's too late to return it?"