Mitsuko didn't know what she expected when Hikaru declared he'd be having one more friend than usual over during the week of the fourth Hokuto Cup Tournament.
Least of all did she expect the other invitee to be the charming first board of Korea's team.
Like most mothers, she worried a significant amount for her son and the social circles he would find himself in. It was no secret to her that Hikaru bore a fondness for the Touya boy, but it might have been beyond her to speculate any further than close friendship and concluding it at that.
But the Korean boy… Ko Yeong-ha his name was, she recalled. This one made her head spin. Was this an attempt at "friendly rivalry"? She wasn't sure, but from what she'd observed, both Touya and her son seemed to be at complete ease around him to the point of not even caring if they accidentally brushed up against each other when moving about the bedroom and setting up their futons.
Then there was dinner. Mitsuko had called the trio down to eat, interrupting their loud-mouthed arguments that she had already become accustomed to anytime Hikaru invited Touya over.
What then followed had puzzled her for hours and she could not for the love of god make sense of it. When the trio took their seat at the dinner table, Hikaru was seated next to Yeong-ha-kun, diagonally from Touya-kun who sat adjacent from the latter.
Immediately after everyone gave thanks for their food, Hikaru seemed to tense up redden slightly. Mitsuko wondered if he'd caught a fever, but it would've been impossible in May weather. Unless it was heatstroke. Still doubtful. He remained still like that for several minutes until Touya-kun calmly but tersely cleared his throat and told Yeong-ha something in an undertone in Korean that made the boy frown like a child whose candy was taken away. Soon afterwards, his right hand, which Mitsuko didn't even notice was absent from view, suddenly reappeared from underneath the table.
This sudden change made Hikaru let out an oddly strong exhale, and shoot Yeong-ha a glare that the Korean only responded to with a mischievous grin and a quick compliment to Mitsuko about how great her food was. At least he had some sort of table manners, Mitsuko decided.
When the boys were done their food, they bolted straight back into the bedroom, where more yelling was heard from up above, followed by a deafening silence that was only interrupted by various gasps and groans.
It was none of her business, she told herself. Whatever those three got up to up there would be between them alone. She made this her mantra which, oddly enough, did not prepare her for the final occurrence as nighttime approached.
She crept her way up the staircase to let them know that it's almost time for bed, when she came within earshot of more peculiar noises coming from Hikaru's room.
"Argh, careful there, its too tight," echoed a voice that she recognized as Yeong-ha's.
"If you hold still it won't hurt as much Ouji-sama!" came Hikaru's annoyed retort.
"Shindou you're going for the wrong spot, let me do it," Akira let out impatiently.
"I can do it if I just… move this over… here!" Hikaru let out an exhale of satisfaction. "How does it look?" he asked eagerly.
"Like a donkey if it had an ass for a head," came Yeong-ha's dull reply.
"Hey, I worked hard on that!" Hikaru cried out indignantly
"You ruined 6 hours worth of hair treatment, Shindou."
"Well maybe if you cut those hours short this would have been easier and you wouldn't be complaining!"
"Come back to me when your hair reaches your shoulders and we'll see how you deal with it, Hachi!"
"Will both of you quit fighting? Here, Yeong-ha, let me help you fix that." As always, Akira seemed to be the mediator in these arguments.
"Gladly," Yeong-ha acquiesced with a sigh. "Hachi, you should watch the way Touya handles hair. At least he's got some taste and experience with it."
"I'm fine with my hair the way it is, Ouji-sama… Not my fault I never thought to do anything else with it.." The last part came out as a mumble.
Mitsuko exhaled as she approached the door, composing herself before knocking.
"Hikaru, may I open the door?" she asked cautiously.
"Uh – er –" A brief pause. "Sure."
"I just wanted to let you all know that it's almost time for… bed." The sight in front of her was a spectacle to behold.
For starters, all of them were wearing soft pastel-colored pajamas with Sanrio characters emblazoned on the front of the top and in patterns on the bottoms. Their music player was faintly playing upbeat music from a girl group. Cosmetic cases and their contents were gracing the floor, all thankfully locked away from making any messes.
Touya was perched on top of the bed on his front, his own hair done up in a high bun with a braid coming down, eyes tinted with dark liner, and one hand holding Yeong-ha's hair in a bunch. Yeong-ha was seated at the base, reading a Korean girls' teen magazine, his manicured nails gleaming with polish and a mildly bored look in his eyes.
Hikaru looked like a mess. His hair was sticking out in two tiny pigtails while the eyeliner was haphazard and messy, and made him look more like he'd attempted horror makeup for a zombie film. The red-polished nails that seemed to be bleeding all over his fingers seemed to encourage this theory further.
"Bedtime?" he finally managed to croak out. "Right…" An awkward pause followed wherein he looked over at his two roommates. "We'll – er - be done in a bit," he finished with a nervous looking smile.
"Don't be too long now," Mitsuko said. "and uh… remember to clean up after you're done, alright?"
"Yeah… right," Hikaru replied weakly.
"Okay… good night then, boys."
"Good night, Shindou-san," Touya and Yeong-ha chorused.
Mitsuko closed the door on the horrendously awkward scene.
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"That... was the most uncomfortable five minutes I've ever had to live through," Hikaru let out with an exhale of breath.
"Hey, at least she was cool about it," Yeong-ha reassured him. "When I was at one of my cousins' place doing this exact thing with her, I had to clean everything up before my auntie came in, or else I'd have her lecturing me on 'proper gentlemanly behavior'."
"Ugh she sounds like a real hit at parties," Hikaru said with a wince in his voice.
"Oh you'd be surprised," Yeong-ha snorted. "Don't ever believe anyone when they tell you aunties keep things to themselves cause by the end of each family outing no one is safe from the dirt they have on them."
"Jeez… From the way you describe it, having a big family sounds like a nightmare," Hikaru replied in mild horror.
"It's got its good sides sometimes, mostly on the social capital front – argh, careful there Touya-kun – "
"Oh sorry," Akira said, loosening his grip on the lock of hair he was attempting to manoeuver.
A peaceful silence came upon them as the beats of Girls' Generation continued to play faintly on the stereo.
Hikaru then moved closer to the bed and laid his head on Yeong-ha's shoulder, nuzzling into his neck.
"Are you almost done, Touya? I'm getting tired…" he let out with a small yawn.
"I'm getting there… Just need to figure out this last loop," Akira muttered, eyebrows furrowed in concentration.
"You can fall asleep right here, I don't mind," Yeong-ha softly replied, putting his magazine down and wrapping his arms around Hikaru.
"You ready for tomorrow?" Hikaru asked, sleepiness slurring his words.
"Yeah," Yeong-ha lulled back at him. "Today's training was enough for all of us, I think."
"Today would've gotten better if you hadn't touched me like that at the dinner table," Hikaru jabbed at him.
Yeong-ha sighed apologetically. "I know, time and place. I'm sorry."
Hikaru looked up at him. "Forgiven, for now. Just don't do it again, please, it's humiliating."
Yeong-ha held his gaze and a corner of his lips quirked up. "Deal," he said, softly kissing Hikaru's forehead.
"And… we're done!" Akira let out triumphantly, descending down from the bed to join the other two. He fetched the mirror from the corner of Hikaru's nightstand, where Yeong-ha had tossed it earlier out of dissatisfaction. "Well? What do you think?" he asked, holding it up to Yeong-ha and practically bouncing on his knees in seiza position.
Yeong-ha examined his appearance, taking in the details and intricacies of Akira's styling job. He ran his fingers over the two small braids on either side of his head that extended their way around a twisted bun in perfect symmetry. He let out a hum of appreciation.
"Expertly done, Touya-kun, I love it!" Yeong-ha finally let out with pride in his eyes.
"Ah well… I did practice a bit on my own hair beforehand after finding various instructions on the internet," Akira stammered bashfully, blushing at the praise.
"It looks amazing, you really have a knack for styling hair, unlike this lump right here," he continued, nudging Hikaru jokingly.
"Oi, I did my - " he yawned " - best, Ouji-sama..."
"Touya-kun admits to having practiced, you could use some if you don't want to wreck my hair again. I have a cousin who makes wigs for a living, maybe I should send you a few in different textures that you can…" Yeong-ha trailed off when he saw Hikaru was sound asleep, utterly spent from the day's activities.
He looked over at Akira, who softly giggled, and put a finger to his lips. He then brought up Hikaru's sleeping form, quietly cursing the sheer amount of ramen he ate that made him hard to lift. Akira hurried up to help carry Hikaru over to his bed, where they gently flopped him onto the covers.
Akira laid himself down beside Hikaru, nestling against his body in a comfortable position.
Yeong-ha undid his hairstyle with a pang of guilt. Akira had worked hard on it but he knew it that would not survive overnight and he needed to look presentable at the tournament. He then flicked the lights, plunging all of them into a velvety darkness. Sliding himself on the other side of Hikaru's bed, he did what they should've done in the first place and tugged the duvet from underneath Akira and Hikaru's sleeping forms, tucking them all in properly.
"Good night, Touya-kun; night, Hachi…" he whispered to them, his own eyes falling shut to the rhythm of their soft breaths.
The light of the moon beamed at them pleasantly through the window.
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Author's Note 1: Yeong-ha calling Hikaru "Hachi" is a wonderful little headcanon of mine and there are three reasons for which I found him doing so:
1) Hikaru always wears black and yellow and Yeong-ha finds his loud outbursts to be similar to the buzzing of an angry bee; moreover, the kanji 蜂 (hachi) translates to "bee" from Japanese
2) 八, the alternate kanji for hachi, translates to "eight," and Yeong-ha uses that as a jab at Hikaru constantly wearing clothes with the number five emblazoned on them
3) Yeong-ha likens Hikaru to an excitable dog, and doesn't waste an opportunity in calling Hikaru by the same name as the famous Shiba Inu named ハチ公 (Hachiko)
Author's Note 2: Hikaru calling Yeong-ha 王子様 (Ouji-sama) is actually an addition I'd like to credit touyadadjokes for, from a short-lived RP thread that we'd attempted and left in the dust
