"Sir," said the hairstylist, though Sunny didn't hear him at first. "Excuse me...? Sir?"

Sunny suddenly heard him. "Yes, sorry?" he replied, clearing his throat.

"It'll be about this shade," asked the stylist, showing him the bowl of hair dye he had been rapidly mixing for the last few minutes.

"It's going to be that bright?" asked Sunny, somewhat concerned but extremely fascinated at the violent orange shade.

"Maybe a little less neon?" the hairdresser said. "Other than that, pretty much the same."

"Good," Sunny said, nodding. It would match his jersey perfectly. He sat back in the chair and closed his eyes, thinking he could rest a little while the stylist applied the dye. He opened one eye so he could laugh at his reflection in the mirror in his head. Why did everyone always look so pathetic in hair salons? It must be the cape they make you wear.

His mind wandered to random thoughts. Hmm. There was that pigeon...

He did take the bird to the vet after the meeting on Monday, and the vet said she was fine, but actually had been previously domesticated. Thus, Tilly, which he had named after the color teal (because of the order he had been working on at the time he found her), had a "docile nature". That explained that.

It was a weird place to find a pet pigeon anyways, what kind of bird just wanted to lay around in paper bags?? He wouldn't have even seen her if he hadn't needed to go back out and add some stuff to the pile. He wouldn't have expected any house pigeons to have found their way behind the shop. I should have named her "paper bag".

Well, he supposed he'd have to just feed her until he figured out what to do about it.

Did anyone in the club know about birds? Pideulgi was named "pigeon" but Hyeonmi said he didn't even look at pigeons and that was just clickbait he made up. Hmm.

Now, about tomorrow... he had already put the rest of his signs up. He hoped other people chose orange also, then he could blend in a bit better. It was going to be weird actually wearing a color at school.. he was sure everyone was going to make a massive fuss about it.

He could already picture Daisy chortling with glee.

Surprisingly, he wasn't that annoyed by this, so he satisfied himself with the thought that his friends at least would appreciate his commitment to the color orange. He dozed off a bit until the stylist announced he was going to wash his hair; he was looking forward to seeing the result. A few minutes of shampoo and drying afterwards, and his pale blond hair was now a deluxe shade of carrot.

"It's finished," said the stylist, critically brushing a few bits of hair into place.

"Thanks for your efforts," said Sunny, nodding approvingly. "It's great."

This was going to be fun.

*******

He was right about Daisy, of course.

"Bro? Bro?? I'm going to collapse—" Daisy clutched his heart dramatically. "Your hair.. you... oh my God..."

"Hey, I was forced to be orange," said Sunny moodily, squinting at everyone as if he was thinking about zapping them with orange lasers.

"You really went all out," Daisy exclaimed. "I didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't this— you have an Orioles jersey??"

"Yes," said Sunny gravely. "I never wear it normally but I got it because my favorite Korean player was on the team."

"Kim Hyunsoo, right?" asked Daisy. "I remember he was on the Orioles team at one point."

"You know MLB baseball?" Sunny asked, surprised.

"Not really," said Daisy, "I think I just heard it somewhere."

"Good... yellow," replied Sunny vaguely, gesturing at Daisy's outfit. He had worn a knit butter-colored cardigan over a t-shirt and black jeans with sunflowers on them. He had a yellow bracelet, too, and pale yellow Crocs. With his personality, it was like walking next to a flashlight.

"It's good?" asked Daisy, walking backwards and spinning a bit. His cardigan flapped a bit in the breeze.

"Good, bro," said Sunny, following him across the main campus. Everyone was desperate to see everyone else's outfits, so they had decided to meet up in the morning.

Or, at least, Won Do was desperate, he had repeatedly texted the group chat that under no circumstances was anyone to miss meeting in the morning or he'd find the offending person's class and go spy on them himself.

"Everyone's going to lose it," said Daisy, glancing again at Sunny and bursting into incredulous laughter. "Your hair— you are so pale, you need some sun—"

"I have sun," he insisted. "It's my name."

"Uh huh," said Daisy doubtfully.

Sunny grabbed his arm suddenly. "Look, look, those people over there did it!"

He nodded over to a group of friends that were taking pictures in front of one of the buildings, a blue friend and an orange friend and a green friend.

"Oh yessss," said Daisy happily. "This is great."

"Do we get coffee too?" asked Sunny curiously.

"You don't even drink coffee," laughed Daisy. "What you drink is not coffee—"

"It's just got a lot of ice—"

"Bro—" Daisy just laughed. "Besides, we organized the event, I don't think we get coffee."

"Tired," answered Sunny, looking at various other people on campus as they walked. He forgot his sleepiness again as they saw another yellow person off in the distance.

"Yellow!!!" he said, jabbing Daisy in the ribs with a finger to get his attention.

"Wait, is that Won Do?" asked Daisy suddenly, pointing a little farther off in the distance. Someone with silver hair was jumping up and down, waving, dressed head to toe in light blue. He even had a pale blue scarf tied around his neck.

"Could it be anyone else?" sighed Sunny.

Daisy enthusiastically waved back. They passed a few more of their signs, stuck on lampposts and signboards, purple and green ones repeatedly stuck next to each other, an indigo one (but only twice), red ones taped over "outdated" ads. They were supposed to be outdated, anyways.

(Make sure they're outdated, Jjim, Skip had said. They'd like this better anyways! Jjim had protested, adding Eyy, don't worry, I know, as he took the stack of red flyers. Sunny recalled this with amusement.)

"What is so funny," asked Daisy, who apparently took his tiny smile to mean he was in the throes of death by hilarity.

"You can tell who everyone is by how they put their signs up," he said, pointing to a yellow one at the top right corner of a signboard, held up by exactly two pins. "You're so classic," he shook his head.

"Hey,," Daisy said, bumping into him on purpose.

"Won Do hung all of his around the math and arts buildings, I saw them on Tuesday," Daisy laughed. "Where'd you do yours?"

"I was unorthodox," Sunny sniffed.

"What?"

"I handed most of mine out to people," said Sunny proudly.

"Well, nobody said we had to hang them up," Daisy reflected. "It worked, there's a lot of people who did it. I'm kind of surprised."

At this point, they were close enough to Won Do that he had heard everything and replied. "With our marketing? Who could expect us to do any less?"

Daisy laughed. "Hi, Smurf."

Won Do made a cute face and posed so everyone could appreciate his outfit. He looked a bit like a paperboy from a village where everyone wore blue, but Sunny didn't mention this.

Won Do suddenly looked hard at Sunny and started losing it. "Oh my God," he said "Oh my God—" He ran his hand through his hair as if he could manifest some clarity. "Sunny— I thought you were wearing a hat—"

"Evidently you need your glasses checked," Sunny informed him.

"Oh my God, this is so weird," marveled Won Do, walking around Sunny as if he was from outer space. "You're so orange, your hair is orange.. didn't you think we'd go into shock???"

"Are you going into shock?" asked Sunny, only mildly concerned. "The symptoms are: trouble breathing, tunnel vision, chills—"

"You look like a character from a manga." Won Do decided. "Man, this is weird—"

"Where's everyone else?" asked Daisy.

"Not here yet, I guess—" started Won Do, but he was interrupted by a dry cough from behind. Deulgi had shown up as he spoke, coming down the sidewalk to the small area with benches where they all were gathered. "You guys look like a flock of birds this time," said Deulgi. "Tropical birds."

He alone seemed unfazed by Sunny's lurid orange hair.

"Go Orioles," Deulgi added; turning to him. "Everyone's a bird. You're an oriole. I'm a pigeon."

"Oh, what are you doing about Tilly?" asked Won Do, suddenly remembering. "You can keep her as a pet, right?"

"I guess we'll see, I'll ask her when I get home," said Sunny emotionlessly.

Daisy doubled over laughing. "What is she, your landlady??"

"The Pigeon Landlady," said Deulgi, raising his binoculars to see if he could spot anyone else. "Suspicious."

"Your outfit is so fancy," said Won Do, looking at Deulgi in his emerald green ensemble. Sunny wondered if he just casually kept satin shirts for normal wear or if he had bought it for the occasion; this one was emerald green, and he had decided to wear a tie with it as well, albeit loosely. The tie was dark forest green with little yellow specks.

"I have a lot of ties, it's a shame to never wear them," sighed Deulgi. "Here come the Gym Bros.. Hyeonmi looks better in purple than I imagined. Jjim looks normal, but he might get a lot of marriage proposals today—"

Won Do started laughing. "Wow. Very accurate reporting here at this news station."

"You look great in green though," Daisy said, impressed. "Everyone's going to think you're a celebrity."

"What about celebrities?" came Jjim's voice from behind the group. They all turned to see him finally walking up, trailed by Hyeonmi who for some reason looked like he was going to shoot a commercial for Adidas. Meanwhile, Jjim was wearing a bright red cardigan, a t-shirt with a red heart that had a face on it, matching shoes, and skinny jeans. With this, the most elaborate outfit he'd worn in a while, he looked like the lead of some drama.

"Deulgi," said Won Do, looking back at his best friend reproachfully, "He's looking like going to the Met Gala or something—"

"The Met Gala," Sunny laughed incredulously. "Wow—"

Hyeonmi had not said anything whatsoever as he was still trying to take in everyone's outfits. He suddenly looked in Sunny's direction and just looked at him disbelievingly. "That's your HAIR?" he said finally. "Oh my God, you're like straight up from a comic book about those kids who like play basketball in high school—"

Deulgi snorted with laughter. "—so accurate—"

Finally Hyeonmi got a good look at Deulgi and seemed immediately embarrassed about something. "Why do you always have to look so good," he grumbled.

"I never wear my ties," said Deulgi mournfully, "I have so many, too.." He trailed off (he had presumably been trying to see Skip coming through his binoculars), but then looked at Hyeonmi, eyes glinting above a wry smile. He cocked his head. "Why don't you wear colors?" he asked finally. "That's still a set that requires no coordination, if that's your complaint.. brings out your eyes."

Jjim choked on the coffee he was trying to drink at this comment and started losing it. Won Do was already cracking up at the exchange.

"I don't have purple eyes," said Hyeonmi, rolling his eyes from under the lavender bucket hat and crossing his arms, refusing to look at his friend.

"That doesn't mean—" said Deulgi firmly "—that it can't bring them out." He walked over and poked Hyeonmi in the cheek with one finger.

"You know, everyone is like a warm, neutral, or cool version of one of the four seasons of colors, based on personal color theory," interjected Won Do, recovering from his fit of giggles. He looked critically at Hyeonmi, contemplating. "You.. maybe cool summer? Either way, Deulgi's right."

"Of course I'm right," sniffed Deulgi. His eyes briefly flicked over to Hyeonmi's outfit and back; he gave a small satisfied smile to himself.

Hyeonmi laughed, and looked up at Deulgi from under his hat. "I kinda like it," he admitted. "Thanks to Daisy for letting me borrow it."

"It's a really sick fit," agreed Daisy, looking at him through his fingers that he had raised to look like he was taking a snapshot of him through a camera viewfinder.

Sunny suddenly remembered what he had made a mental note to harass them about later. "Hey—" he said suddenly, pointing between the Hyeonmi and Deulgi, "It's so obvious you guys hung up all your signs together—"

"They're colluding," groaned Won Do.

"I told you everyone would think it was weird," sighed Hyeonmi to Deulgi accusingly. "Too much green and purple in one place."

"They're opposite on the color wheel," Deulgi informed him. "They're supposed to be together, to give contrast."

"I'll give you some contrast," said Hyeonmi, pretending to swing at Deulgi. This, of course, turned into the famous handshake again.

Skip showed up at that moment, also in a matching set, though his were loose dark indigo pants and an oversized short-sleeved shirt. He looked amusedly at Deulgi and Hyeonmi's elaborate antics, then announced after a brief look at everyone, "You guys look dope. This is a success even if it's only because we get to see Sunny not in black. I can't believe you dyed your hair, Sunny."

"Don't get used to it," sighed Sunny sourly. "It's semi-permanent. Thinking about orange hurts my brain."

"I think it's the hair dye," said Won Do, patting him on the shoulder. "Maybe it'll all fall out now."

Sunny scowled.