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Haru often thinks of fairytales, thinks of princes and princesses, of dragons and kingdoms.
He thinks about how the ancient, old stories depict love, how it always conquers everything, how true love's kiss will awaken even the deepest emotions, bring forth a new life of happiness and love and peace.
He remembers how his grandmother used to tell him these stories, how Makoto and the twins would rope him into watching movies of knights and damsels, movies about strong women and dreamy woman who always manage to fall in love with some handsome prince in the end.
He also remembers being unaffected by all these, unaffected by dumb feelings of love, unaffected by watching some poor princess prick her finger to fall in a deep sleep, to be awoken by some true love's kiss that all these movie and stories and myths talk about.
Haru never understood what it was about these stories, about unrealistic turmoil and gallant men fighting dragons, or songs being sung with dry words of romance and impossible standards for any sense of romantic affairs.
He thinks that they are impractical, there is no sense for them in the real world. There are no dragons to fight, no spells that need a kiss to wake someone up, there are no fairies to wave their wands to help the hero along their journey, and there is no terrifying evil queen at the end of it trying to get in the way of true love.
While Haru realises that these are all just placements for real world things, for real life romances, he still thinks that there is a lot of high expectations going on for real life romance, for precious girls who want to be saved by brave men and pretty words whispered in their ear, and perhaps some ill placed dance sequence.
He knows this because he is not a prince, he could not sweep a girl off her feet with graceful words or some captivating song, not some quip that could have them fall into his arms.
He does not to get to be a prince; he does not get to be charming and appealing, he does not know how to speak the language of princes; the murmurs of beauty and love, enchanting tales of tenderness and emotion that spark up even the littlest bit of flame within a girl's heart.
He does not get to be a prince in his story, not this time. Because princes do not get their princess stolen from them; there is no story for that.
There is no story about how another prince swoops in and saves the princesses first, no story about a love lost and a love broken before it could begin.
But Haru does not blame this princess, does not blame Kou, for choosing a much better prince over him, because Haru is not one -- he is no smooth talking, charming man that could easily give her all the love and devotion she deserves.
He thinks that this is okay though, that Haru is not the one she looks at with such affection, does not get to see that face light up with the light of a thousand suns when she's happy and in love, does not get to see her secret smiles or comfort her in her sorrows -- does not get to save her from any fictional dragons or to be the guiding light like the knight that he isn't.
Haru does not get to treat her like the princess she is, does not get to shower her with everything that she deserves and he thinks that's okay, because while he's not the biggest fan of Yamazaki, of Sousuke, he knows that he's the good candidate to be the man that Kou needs and is entitled to.
If anyone gets to be the prince, it is Sousuke -- it is strong, dependable Sousuke that does not have to try to be brave and charismatic, does not have to remember what mannerisms to do on the first date or many dates afterwards, and knows Kou like the back of his hand and knows what she needs and when she needs it.
Haru is okay not being a prince to his princess, because she is not his and while he is not okay with that fact, he is okay that she gets her fairytale in the end -- even if he is merely a background character to the royal love story of Sousuke and Kou.
He does not get to be the prince, but she is a title to her own story, a beauty in her own right, and he is happy to sit on the sidelines and make sure that she is treated as she should be -- as the princess that she is.