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"Oi! Haru! Hurry up! You're gonna make us late!" Rin yelled, an irritated expression on the redhead's face.
Makoto smiled stiffly beside his short-tempered friend, albeit nervous about today.
The three of them promised to wake up early to prepare for today's coming of age ceremony, but apparently Haruka took too long in the bath. Figures. Although to be honest, it was only Makoto and Haruka who agreed, Rin just joined in when he heard from Gou that the two of them would be heading over to Tottori for the national holiday.
"HARU!" Rin repeated, voice rising slightly higher than before, making Makoto flinch.
"I heard you the first time." Haruka replied, appearing from one of the shoji doors.
Makoto and Rin turned to appraise their friend, pausing when they saw him.
"H-h-ha... H-Haru, what... Oh god... What happened to your hair?!" Rin laughed, pointing to the said swimmer as he clutched his stomach.
Haruka frowned, disliking his friend's reaction, but ignoring it nonetheless as he approached the brunette.
"Makoto. Let's go. Leave this idiot."
"W-wait... Ha.." Rin called after them, still holding his stomach and trying to stiffle his laughter.
Haruka slammed the shoji doors shut much louder than usual out of irritation before turning around and walking past Makoto in a brisk motion. Makoto's watched his every move, feeling guilty somewhat and the need to speak up about his childhood friend's appearance.
"H-Haru."
The prodigy swimmer turned around to face Makoto, a small scowl adorned on his face. The two just stared at each other in silence, and Makoto's breath caught when the sun rose, catching every curve of his friend and defining every feature Makoto loved about the male infront of him.
Haruka's hair was combed to the side, sweeping that rebel strand out of his face. It was a strange sight at first, since Makoto was so use to his childhood friend's usual hairstyle. He could kind of understand why Rin burst out laughing; Haruka's forehead was now visible and somehow that made the male appear more childish, it was endearing.
His new hairstyle also revealed his full face more—his cheekbones more prominent and eyes brighter now. Even his face looked fuller and should he dare say, cuter. His friend's sharp features were now more softer with his hair unveiling. Makoto thought Haruka looked more handsome, instead of his typical pretty look.
Makoto's thoughts stopped abruptly when he heard a loud sigh and door sliding shut. Rin walked forward with his hands shoved into the pockets of his pants, stopping to stand right next to Makoto as his eyes directed themselves at the haloed form of Haruka. Makoto could've sworn he heard a sharp intake of breath from the redhead next to him and was proven correct when the said male approached Haruka.
Makoto watched as Rin stood infront of Haruka, hands cupping the shorter male's face and tilting it up towards him. The brunette was too far to hear what his friends were saying, but the backstroker could tell it was bordering on an apology cause Haruka's lips lifted into a soft smile. Although a bit jealous of their intimacy, Makoto couldn't help but smile too. Haruka's smile's were always contagious.
Rin had commented about how good Haruka looked, face blushing madly afterwards as his hands scrambled to fix the prodigy's kimono.
"Your kimono is all wrong!" Rin scolded, trying anything to cover his embarrassment up.
Haruka smiled at his friend's behavior and watched as redhead rearranged his clothes. Rin straightened his silver date-eri, smoothing it afterwards to remove the crinkles from his juban and montsuki kimono. His hands continued to even out the ridges of Haruka's kimono until he reached the haori himo, playing with it a little before moving on to press down the creases on the lapels of Haruka's dark gemoetric haori jacket, unconsciously lingering a bit on the Nanase family crest.
"Rin," Haruka whispered, capturing the competitive swimmer's attention, "It's time."
The redhead swallowed and nodded, glancing over his shoulder at Makoto and gesturing him over. The brunette walked forward and smiled timidly at his friends, "We set?"
Rin and Haruka nodded.
"Let's go."
OMAKE
"But really, what was up with the hairstyle?" Rin asked, laughing as quietly as he could as to not anger his friend.
Haruka frowned and crossed his arms, his gaze returning to the passing scenerey out the window.
"My grandmother... She said it would be nice, if I styled it like this..." Haruka answered softly with a far off distant look.
Rin almost pressed on the break harshly out of sheer surprise and guilt, but gathered his bearings before that could happen.
"..Oh..."
Makoto turned to look at his childhood friend from the passenger seat, smiling softly, "It's a good thing we took lots of picture then."
"...Uhn.." Haruka hummed, head tilting to rest on the window glass as he drifted off into a distant memory, distant past.