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Haru hears it before he sees it.
"...Tachibana-kun, please accept this." A decidedly feminine voice makes Haru’s footsteps pause as he walks back from the toilet to meet Makoto.
He thinks that a polite person would wait for them to finish their conversation before showing up, but then again, Haru has never paid much attention to social cues.
However, Haru pauses after taking two steps towards his friend, because — Makoto’s talking to a girl.
She’s tucking a strand of blond hair behind her ears, a pink tint to her cheeks, and holding out a box of something.The way she’s looking at Makoto, through her eyelashes, instantly makes Haru's hackles rise.
He steps back behind the wall, annoyed by how it feels like he’s intruding on something.
Haru isn’t that oblivious. He knows what is going on, and he can understand why. Makoto is popular, with his caring, friendly and nice personality.
Too nice, sometimes, Haru thinks.
He forces his fingers to unclench as he waits, tapping his feet on the rough, gray cement impatiently.
He waits for few moments, looking away, not particularly wanting to see the scene unfolding before him. When he looks back, the girl is gone
"Haru!" Makoto notices him, but his forehead creases and he looks—not exactly sad or worried, more like a mix between the two. Like he’s thinking of something else.
Or someone else.
Haru also notices that Makoto’s hands are empty.
He pretends he doesn’t, though.
Later, Haru and Makoto sit on the rooftop for lunch, eating the bento that Makoto’s mother packed for them.
Makoto’s eating slower than usual, picking at his food absentmindedly, and glancing at him once in a while.
Just as Haru wants to ask him what’s the problem, Makoto speaks up.
"Haru…" He sounds unexpectedly serious, and Haru immediately tenses. What’s wrong?
"Do you…want to go out tomorrow? We can swim, or go to the shopping mall and eat dinner, or anything actually."
That’s what Makoto wants to ask?
Why he seems so nervous about this, Haru doesn’t understand.
"Sure." Haru shrugs.
This gets Makoto to look at him, green eyes reflecting surprise.
Then, lips curving up, Makoto looks so happy that it makes Haru feel embarrassed, for no reason.
It’s stupid, how Makoto always gets so happy over the trivialest of things.
(After that, Haru doesn’t notice how Makoto seems to eat much faster again, while chattering animatedly about what the twins did yesterday after dinner.)
━━━━━━━━━━━━
The next day is a Saturday.
"Excuse me—I’m coming in!"
Haru shakes the water droplets out of his hair, and looks up into the green eyes of his best friend, who greets him with a crinkly-eyed smile.
"Good morning, Haru-chan."
Haru takes hold of Makoto’s outstretched arm. “Drop the -chan.”
They go to the shopping mall. Haru buys new, fitting jammers and Makoto buys a pair of goggles.
(“Should I get the green one or the blue one?”
"Which one fits better?"
"Both fits just fine."
"…Then get the green one. Matches your eyes. "
Makoto looks at him with such surprise that Haru instantly regrets speaking his mind.
[The pleased flush that takes over Makoto’s face a few seconds later makes it okay, though.])
They try out the swimming trunks and goggles at the Iwatobi Swimming Club.
(The new jammers feels good against Haru’s skin, well-fitting to give him a more streamlined body to glide through the water.
When Haru looks at Makoto, he feels a rare sense of self-satisfaction.
The goggles really brings out the green of his eyes.)
“Here you go, Haru.”
"…Thanks." Haru looks down at the lunchbox Makoto's mother packed for him. Green vegetables, egg, some meat, rice and most importantly, a large piece of mackerel.
After lunch, they go back to the Tachibana’s house to play video games in Makoto’s room.
“Ren! Ran! Time for a bath!” Makoto’s mother calls, shooing the twins out of the room.
"Huh… I want to play with Onii-chan and Haru-chan!"
"You’ve already played enough, now come on, get ready.." She signals to Haru to close the door, and the small smile on her face as she looks at him and Makoto makes him wonder if she knows something he doesn’t.
(“Haru, that’s cheating!”
"No, it isn’t. Nobody said we can’t take the shortcut."
"But — you’re supposed to take the proper route!"
Makoto doesn’t like to lose, either.
"…Fine. Whatever." Haru turns back towards the right route. Anything to stop Makoto from pouting.
[Makoto wins the game, turning to Haru with a wide, happy smile, and Haru finds that he doesn’t really mind losing.])
“Thanks for the dinner, Tachibana-san.”
"Oh, Haru. It’s not a problem; you’re practically part of the family…"
Family.
Haru doesn't know quite what to say to that
"Mom, you're embarrassing Haru-chan!" Makoto points out helpfully, amusement shining in his eyes.
"I told you, don’t call me that." Haru ducks his head, and Makoto's mother laughs.
(He ignores the warm feeling spreading from his chest to his toes at the thought of being part of Makoto's family.)
━━━━━━━━━━━━
There’s school on Monday.
"Are you serious?"
"I’m not kidding! I’m telling you…"
This is one reason why Haru doesn’t care for school, besides learning things of no interest to him.
Usually, he just shuts out the noisy chattering of other people during the breaks, but today a crowd of girls gather at the table right in front of Haru’s, gossiping.
Makoto isn’t even there to distract him from the noise by talking about other things; he’s in the bathroom. Just as Haru contemplates about escaping to the bathroom, too, he hears—
"I did… But Tachibana-kun didn’t accept it!" A girl is saying. Suddenly, Haru is alert.
"Seriously? But you bake the best cakes!" Another girl pipes up.
"Aiko-san, Teika-san from Class 2, and Chisa-san from class 3, and a few other girls from other classes also confessed to him!"
"Wow, so many?"
"It’s hard to blame them, Tachibana-kun is so tall and strong…" A girl sighs, cupping her cheeks, mind obviously fluttering to the thought of Makoto’s muscles.
Makoto is so much more than his muscles, Haru thinks.
(He doesn’t realise he’s scowling.)
"But there’s something that I don’t get, you know?" The first girl says covertly.
"What?" The crowd of girls lean in towards her, like a horde of bees.
"I asked around, and all the other girls that approached him were all rejected, too! In the nicest way, though."
This part, Haru can believe.
"Oh my goodness, really?"
"He doesn’t like any one of them? Does he have really high standards or something?"
"I don’t know! All I know is, he didn’t accept any Valentine’s gift or any invitations for a Valentine’s date!"
Valentine’s?
That explains the lovey-dovey atmosphere in the school recently, pink and red decorations subtly hung around classrooms.
Huh, Haru thinks. He has never cared for such things, it all seemed unnecessary and bothersome—the hearts, the candy, gifts and confessions.
The first girl seems to notice Haru listening to their conversation—not that he meant to, and her eyes light up.
Haru braces himself.
“Nanase-san, do you know if Tachibana-kun went out with anybody on Saturday?” The question comes as a surprise as about 7 pairs of eyes turn to look at him.
"Saturday?"
"Yeah, Valentine’s Day. Did he go out with anybody?" The girls seem impatient, but Haru doesn’t care, because —
Yes, Makoto went out on Saturday. He went out on Saturday with Haru.
His mind whirls. Girls don’t interest him at all, but he knows that’s not the case for other boys, so he has never assumed that Makoto’s not interested in girls. But it seems that Makoto has rejected all those girls…only to spend his Valentine’s Day with Haru?
At this moment, the object of his confusion walks into the class.
He’s not the only one that notices, as the girls immediately turn away, bustling about pretending not to have been interrogating him.
Moments later, Miss Ama-chan comes into class for their English lesson.
Haru glances at Makoto at the corner of his eyes. He looks…normal, listening attentively to whatever philosophy Miss Ama-chan is saying.
(Haru finds that he pays even less attention to the lesson that day than usual.)
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Haru focuses on how the sand shifts under his feet as they walk home from school, offering nods and the occasional short-answer replies to Makoto telling him about the twins' latest antics.
“Makoto.” Haru says eventually, pausing his footsteps.
"Hmm?"
"Saturday was Valentine’s Day." Haru blurts, much less eloquent than he'd intended.
But the effect is instantaneous; Makoto’s slight smile drops, and he blinks at Haru, colour draining out of his face.
Just as Haru begins to regret saying it, because clearly Makoto didn’t care —
"I know," Makoto worries his lip between his teeth like he does when he's nervous.
"Why didn’t you go out with any of the girls who confessed to you, then?" Haru doesn’t mean for it to come out quite so accusing, but he can’t really be bothered to care.
"I..." Makoto swallows, and Haru waits for an explanation. "... wanted to spend it with you, not anyone else..."
What.
Haru knows that he’s staring, because Makoto’s words, although distressed, are honest and they hit Haru like a blow.
Makoto wants to spend Valentine’s Day with him, Haru thinks. Even just doing ordinary stuff.
Something bright and happy curls in his chest, and Haru struggles against a smile that threatens to manifest itself.
“…You should’ve just said so.” Haru mutters. Idiot.
Makoto looks at him, really looks at him, and Haru thinks that he can pinpoint the exact moment that hope bleeds into Makoto, brightening his features.
"Let’s go home." Haru says, turning away to hide the answering flush on his cheeks as Makoto starts to smile.
(Maybe Haru brushes his hand against Makoto’s on the way home, multiple times, until Makoto finally takes the hint and interlaces their fingers together.)
━━━━━━━━━━━━
They spend many, many more Valentine’s Days together after that.