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Hirose had a pretty good morning.
He woke up on time, ate breakfast with his sister, and walked to school. The nice weather made it a great day for walking. It was chilly, the type of cold that kept hanging on after winter break. He could see small puffs of his breath as he walked.
Oomori couldn’t walk with him today. He didn’t mind that though. The quiet was nice too.
Hirose walks down the hall with two things on his mind - lunch and friends. His mom made one of his favorites. Lunch was going to be good.
He also hasn’t seen Takeuchi and Makai since the last day before winter break. It felt like that’d been so long ago.
It’s all he’s thinking about as he’s turning into the classroom before he almost bumps into someone.
“Woah,” Hirose startles, stepping back. “Sorry about that!”
For a second, Hirose blinks at the stranger. He’s dressed in their school uniform. His hair’s short, neat, and cleanly cut in a dark blue shade. It shows sharp black eyes he’s not sure he's seen before.
“It’s no problem.” The stranger says with a small smile before stepping past him, heading down the hall.
Hirose watches him go. The more he processes, the more familiar the stranger looks. Hirose looks at him longer as he goes down the hallway. He thinks harder. Then it clicks. Nakamura?
That was just as startling as almost bumping into him. He looked completely different. He could see his eyes properly now. They were dark and focused in a way Hirose’s never noticed before.
The haircut almost changed him completely. It made Nakamura look… really good, actually.
Hirose swallowed, suddenly aware of himself standing in front of the door. He tears his gaze away. The image is stuck though - the clean line of Nakamura’s haircut, the way it framed his face, and how his eyes showed softly when he smiled. It was nice.
During class, Hirose tries to sneak a look at Nakamura again. He’s right - the haircut does look good on him. More than good.
He can see Nakamura’s slight pout as he works on the class assignment, jotting in his notebook with a focused, stubborn expression. Without the curtain of bangs in his face, Hirose can see it. There’s a tiny crease between his brows. His lips are pursed in thought. There’s a slight narrow in his eyes.
He likes seeing this side of him. It’s different.
Hirose turns back to his notebook, absentmindedly drawing circles in it. His hand moves but his mind is somewhere else.
Nakamura looks good. Really good.
He sneaks a few more glances. It’s hard not to. Every time he looks, he catches another detail he’s never noticed, like the way Nakamura’s hair sits neatly and the light hits his eyes. There’s small shifts in his expression he’s never seen.
It felt like he was seeing someone completely new.
Hirose keeps sneaking glances, but then there’s a moment - Nakamura looks up.
They lock eyes. Nakamura tilts his head and blinks.
Hirose gives him a small, quick smile before snapping back in his seat. He doodles faster, pretending to be fascinated with the circles he draws more than Nakamura’s new appearance. That was weird.
He really should try to pay attention.
Hirose sits down at his usual spot in the classroom, opening his lunch box. Lunch finally came, which he’d been excited for this morning. Normally he’d be thrilled.
But instead he just stares at it. Takeuchi and Mukai sit across from him at another desk, already halfway through rice balls.
Mukai raises an eyebrow, pausing in the middle of his bite. “Hirose? You good?”
Hirose blinks. “Huh? Oh, no, yeah, I’m fine.”
He picks up his chopsticks, but his brain is still stuck on Nakamura’s haircut. Nakamura’s eyes. Nakamura’s face. The way he tilted his head when they made eye contact and blinked with a small, confused look.
He pokes at his food. He hasn’t taken a single bite.
Takeuchi squints. “Did something happen?”
“No,” Hirose says too quickly. “Nothing really. How’s your guys’ day been?”
They start talking about things that happened over break, but he barely hears it over his thoughts. He tries to eat, but every time he lifts his chopsticks, his mind goes back to Nakamura. How good it looks.
Takeuchi leans in. “Are you even listening, dude?”
He slightly shook his head, trying to get out of his thoughts. “Sorry, I’m just… thinking,” Hirose says.
“About what?”
Hirose weirdly panics, latching onto what he was thinking about this morning. “Lunch.”
“You’re not even eating your lunch, bro.”
“Yeah, I am.” Hirose forces a bite into his mouth. “See?” It tastes fine. It should taste amazing, but all he can think about is how he wants to look at Nakamura again. Just one more time, to confirm he didn’t imagine it or something.
He glances.
Nakamura is talking with a classmate - Kawamura, he recognizes - smiling at something she said. His hair falls neatly, framing his face instead of hiding it like it used to. He looks bright. Different. Almost like a new person.
Hirose’s not the only one who notices it. A few students nearby whisper to each other, glancing over. Someone else nudges their friend and points not-so-subtly.
His stomach twists in a weird way.
He finds himself wanting to keep staring, but pulls himself away, going back to his lunch.
He shouldn’t look again. He really shouldn’t. But the urge to sits with him the whole time.
By the end of the day, Hirose is tired of himself. The only thing on his mind all day was Nakamura’s change. He didn’t have any negative feelings toward it. If anything, he felt a weird happy feeling looking at it so much, which confused him more than anything.
He’s packing up his bag when he hears something drop. A pencil rolls, tapping against his shoe.
Hirose looks behind him.
Nakamura’s hand is reaching over the desk, leaning forward in his seat. There’s a small furrow in his brows.
Hirose picks it up, walking over to him. The closer he gets, the more details he picks up - the way his eyes widen, lips part in surprise. The way his ears tint pink with his cheeks.
“Hey, Nakamura,” Hirose greets, handing over the pencil. “You drop this?”
“Yeah!” Nakamura takes it, looking at it with a small smile. It’s quick and soft. “Thanks.”
Maybe he should tell Nakamura. He always believed that if he had something nice to say, it was better to say it than not. But something in Hirose held back. It tightened his throat and made his heart beat faster.
Nervous? He shouldn’t feel nervous. Why was he nervous?
Hirose decides to do it anyway. “I like your haircut, Nakamura.”
The reaction is instant. Nakamura’s face turns redder, eyes widening and shoulders tensing. He fiddles with the pencil. “O-oh, really? I - I thought I’d try something new!”
Hirose nods. He likes the new haircut. He does… but the more he thinks about it, the more he realizes he likes Nakamura’s old one, too. It was soft. Even though it covered more of his eyes, it fit Nakamura.
Nakamura had small habits. He liked when Nakamura would peek through his bangs to look at him. Sometimes he fiddled and twisted with a strand in the front when he seemed nervous. He’d brush back a few stray pieces behind his ear when he was concentrating.
Hirose never really thought about those things until now and he didn’t realize how much he got used to seeing that.
The new haircut was sharp and clean, but the old one was soft and gentle.
“The new one’s good,” Hirose says. “But I like your other one, too. I think you look good in both, actually.”
Nakamura goes quiet. He stares down at his pencil, cheeks still pink. “Thank you.”
Hirose feels satisfied. Nakamura looks happy enough with that. Maybe a bit embarrassed if anything. He gives Nakamura a smile. “No problem,” Hirose swings his bag over his shoulder. “I’m gonna get going now. See you later!”
He’s glad he said it.
Later, he’s in bed, staring at the ceiling.
Nakamura comes back into his head. The flush in his cheeks, widening eyes, the way he looked at him. It was like seeing him in a new light.
Hirose’s heart flutters and his cheeks heat up.
That was weird. He didn’t know why he was feeling like this for something so small. It shouldn’t cause so much of a reaction. It wasn’t a big deal.
He just looked good. That’s all.