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Makoto wandered around the halls of Hope’s peak academy searching for a certain blonde. When he reached the library, he spotted Togami silently reading with a lamp at his side.
Makoto cleared his throat and waved his hand to catch the attention of the blonde. “Hi, Togami-kun! ”Makoto said, a bit louder than he intended due to his nerves.
“Hm? ”Byakuya hummed, looking up from his book. “What are you doing here? ”He said, closing his book, using his thumb to keep his page.
Makoto sheepishly scratched at the back of his neck, realizing that it’d be a bit embarrassing to admit that he deliberately looked for the blonde.
“I was just wandering around, haha,” he trailed off, seeming to realize that his excuse can be easily seen through by someone as perceptive as Togami.
He breathes in, deciding to get to the point, "Actually, I wanted to gift you something.”
The blonde raised his eyebrow, curious about the gift, but controlled his expression so as to not appear too interested. Makoto took Togami’s expression as a sign to show him what the gift was.
He fished around inside his hoodie’s pocket before pulling out a red and yellow bracelet, looking as if to be handcrafted with needle and thread. He placed this bracelet into the hand of the blonde to let him have a closer look.
This was no ordinary bracelet; it’s a specific bracelet one would usually give to their lifelong best friend or even their loved ones. They say that this specific bracelet, once worn, would never be taken off again. This was of course dubbed the “Everlasting Bracelet.”
Togami looked almost surprised with the gift in his hand; however, he quickly masked his expression with a frown, which made the other boy worry. Togami’s thoughts were running rampant; there was no doubt about it.
This was an everlasting bracelet. He speculated whether or not Makoto even knew the implications of this gift.
“Hmph. What is this? ”Togami said with his usual unfriendly tone, though if you could read his thoughts, you’d realize that this is all a front to hide how pleased he actually is. He continued with a harsher tone, “I don’t need something like this.”
Makoto looked almost distraught at Togami’s response, though he felt as if he should have expected it given Byakuya’s attitude towards sentimental gestures.
“Ah,” he laughed awkwardly at himself, finding it a bit humiliating that he expected any other reaction from Togami.
“I’ll take it back then-” But before Makoto could reach out and take the bracelet back, Togami quickly prevented him from doing so, moving the bracelet away from Makoto’s grasp.
“No, don't do that,” he said, cutting off Makoto’s words. He cleared his throat to compose himself so as to not stumble over his words. “... You gave me the gift already; it would be offensive to return it. You should know this by now.”
“Eh..?” Makoto looked confused for a second before it finally clicked.
“Ah, Of course Togami would use such a roundabout way of saying he wants to keep it”. When he realized this he let out a smile, causing the blonde’s cheeks to redden a bit at that reaction.
“What’s with that look? Don’t look so happy that I decided to keep it.” Togami muttered, hiding his embarrassment by turning away and pretending to focus on his book again. Makoto let out a sigh and smiled at this, “I’ll leave you to your book then..Goodbye, Togami-kun”
Later that day, Makoto would see a red and yellow string on the blonde’s wrist as they ate together with classmates.