Hak pounded on the bathroom door " HOW MUCH LONGER CAN YOU TAKE IN THE BATHROOM, YONA?"
"I'm almost done!" She cried from inside.
"Are you roasting a pig in there? What's taking so long?!"
"It's called a hair straightener, Hak!"
" Are you at least dressed?"
"Yeah,"
"Then I'm coming in"
" No, don't!"
Hak pushed open the door and the smell of burnt hair assaulted his nose. Yona stood in front of the sink wearing the pink dress her father gave her, and she looked stunning...but for the fact that she held a third of her hair in her hand. Detached from her scalp. There were tears in her eyes. He swore. They were going to be so late for graduation.
" Hiryuu Himself, what did you do?!"
"I burnt my hair off with the straightener and I tried to make it even."
" It's okay, don't panic, we can fix this." Hak had no idea how to fix this.
"Don't tell me what to do, I will panic, you're not the one who burnt their hair off!"
"I was saying that to myself, Yona, we're not going to graduate at this rate, let me help you."
He reached for the scissors in her hand but she pulled away.
" You don't know how to cut hair! You are going to chop my face off swinging that like a sword!"
He scoffed.
" I've had 15 years of martial arts training, I know how to hold back. Just let me do it. Do you want to have half a bob AND be late?"
She wiped her tears away and straightened, setting her jaw. " I'll cut this side, you can cut the other." Yona faced herself in the mirror.
Hak rummaged through the sink drawers and found child scissors. Well, it's better than a knife, he thought, and began separating her hair. Secretly he was relieved her violet eyes weren't digging into his soul anymore. Yona had hellfire for eyes when she was impassioned and he swore he was going to literally melt under them one day.
" Is that what you're wearing to the ceremony?" she asked.
" Yeah, is there a problem with it?"
" No, it's just… well, I wanted to match." Yona pouted at him in the mirror. "l'm wearing pink and you're wearing blue."
" I don't have anything pink," he raised an eyebrow at her, then gently pulled his fingers down the length of her hair and snipped. He admired the color though it pained him to cut off her fiery waves. There was nothing more beautiful than the light bouncing off them as it stirred in the wind. But Yona would be beautiful no matter what she did, they had gone on enough impromptu backpacking and hitchhiking trips where they had gone days without showering, so they had seen each other at their worst. And Yona's "worst" still amazed him.
" I have a headband with pink and blue beads and feathers on it that you can borrow." She carefully snipped a lock.
" The one we used to use to play Indians when we were little? You do realize that was racist."
" Your Cherokee grandpa gave it to me!"
" Wait, Gramps gave you that? I had no idea!"
She smiled, measuring out another length of hair. Snip snip.
"He gave it to me for my 10th birthday, said I had the heart of the warrior and the spirit of a leader."
" Pshh, you believe that senile old man! You couldn't fight to save your life." Snip.
" I am holding scissors you know," she threatened.
He combed his fingers through her hair, making sure it was even, before deciding it was as good as it was gonna get.
" Fine, I'll wear the headband. But only if you wear something blue."
" I don't have anything blue." She gave a few final snips and her haircut was complete. She fluffed it out with a hand.
" I'll let you borrow something of mine." He pulled the necklace he was wearing out from under his shirt and held it out to her. Yona stopped mid fluff and turned to face him, eyes wide.
" You kept it?"
He smiled." Of course, it's my protection charm. I always wear it." I always keep everything you give me.
Yona accepted it and slipped it over her head. The blue sea glass hung over her heart. He liked the way it looked on her.
She beamed. " It's perfect. We match."
" We match," He agreed tenderly. "Now let me brush my teeth and we can get going."
Yona pulled him into a hug. She was so short that her head barely reached his collarbone. He wrapped his broad arms around her, savoring her warmth. Her newly cut hair prickled his cheeks, and he breathed in her scent. Yona gently rubbed his back with her thumb. He really wished she'd stop doing that, or he was going to think she might actually feel something more than just friendship.
He and Yona had been friends so long, they were practically family. She stayed over at his house so often that she had her own straightener, toothbrush, blankets and clothes here. Ever since her mom died she started staying over more and more often, not wanting to go home to an empty house, with her father away on his business trips. They'd play ninjas and indians, dragontag, doctor and patient ( which they played an awful lot since one of them was always scraping a knee or getting into poison ivy), and for a long time it felt like it was just a chore for him to do, spending time with the sad next door neighbor because his gramps made him. His gramps adopted so many kids Yona was just another addition to the mix. But when did he start to look for her head in a crowd, when did he start sneaking onto her roof to scare her, send her memes 24/ 7? When did he start really looking at her?
She never would look at him that way, despite his best efforts to flirt with her he was just a brother.
This graduation would be good for him, this would be his chance to finally finally get over his feelings for her. She would go off to college and he would stay and work for Gramps.
But despite his resolve to let her go she was the first one to pull away from their hug.
When Yona left the bathroom Hak carefully brushed the severed locks of her hair into his hand, figuring she might want to keep it. He slipped a coil into his pocket, telling himself it wasn't weird.
Fifteen minutes later they were speeding down the road in his jeep, jamming out to their favorite anime opening,
HEY ko SHITE wo …
The air from the open windows was flapping their red graduation robes
"Hey Hak? What do you think we'll be doing in five years?" Yona asked.
" Well, I'm going into Gramp's bodyguard service, so. I'm gonna be raking in the dough."
" No, I know that, but will we, will…. will we still be together? Will we still get to be with each other like this?"
Hiryuu I hope not he thought. "Of course we will, granted that you aren't married to Soowon by then," he teased.
" Oh."
He looked over at her in the passenger seat. She was fiddling with his charm.
" What?"
" You think I'm going to abandon you for someone else."
"I'm sure your boyfriend won't appreciate you hanging out with me everyday."
" A new boyfriend wouldn't own me! I'd still hang out with who I want to, even if we're not together."
Hak rolled his eyes."You're not going to even be thinking about me once you've got him. You won't need me anymore."
" What do you mean I won't need you? I'm always going to want you by my side." His grip on the steering wheel tightened.
" Well if that's true then why aren't we dating?"
"What?"
" Those are the kinds of things you do with your partner. You love each other, you trust each other, you're always there for each other. You can't have two guys doing that for you. You gotta let one of us go." He stared straight at the road ahead.
" Hak,"
"I know. You're never gonna date me so we'll just grow apart. That's what friends do after a while.
"Hak."
"But it's okay, you don't have to feel bad about it, that's just life." He turned into the parking lot.
" Hak, listen to me! Are you serious right now? I thought we already were dating!"
He screeched to a halt.
"SACRED DRAGONS HAK YOU NEARLY GAVE ME WHIPLASH!"
"WE'RE DATING?" He gaped at her.
"We've been dating for the past 2 months!"
"WHAT? I WAS NOT INFORMED OF THIS."
"Remember when we went to prom and Soowon stood us up for Joo-doh so we just went together, and we stayed up 'til 7 am talking in the abandoned CVS, and I said it was the best date ever and you said we should keep doing it, and I said yeah and that I liked you, then you put your arm around me and I leaned on your shoulder and we fell asleep."
"That happened? I thought that was just a dream!"
"No, you idiot, we're dating!" she paused, and a look came on her face." I mean, if you want to."
"Yona, I have been in love with you for the past four years, trying to get you to think of me that way. Of course I want to date you."
"You're staying with me?" Her eyes were wide and shining.
He really was totally screwed. He nodded. "I'm not giving you up."
He pounded his head gently on the steering wheel groaning. "I can't believe we've been dating for months and I never even knew," he groaned
"I guess that explains why you never kissed me." She said.
He shot straight up Wait is this really happening? He looked over at Yona
" You want to kiss me?" he breathed.
" I do." Her face was bright red, but she didn't avert her eyes. They were burning with something he had seen every now and then but never knew the word for. It was want. She unbuckled her seatbelt and brought her hands up to cup his face. He froze. This was really happening, she wanted to be with him, and her face was so close and she looked so perfect oh no what if this all was just another joke she was playing and it turned out she didn't like him -
Then she kissed him.
She drank him in slowly, kissing his lips like they were hers. They were. His eyes were still open and he saw her eyelashes with mascara and eyeliner, her freckles that she always hated but he wanted to trace with his fingers for years.
Yona let out a small gasp when he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer. She tasted like the sunrise, like the sky in a cloudless day. Or maybe it was her lip balm. She broke away to look at him, smiling. She giggled and pushed his hair out of his eyes, and he met her in a kiss again. She shifted to get a better angle before an angry honk startled them apart.
" Quit making out in the middle of the road!" someone yelled. They remembered just why they were in that parking lot.
"Graduation! WE'RE LATE!" Hak pulled into the nearest open spot and the pair jumped out of the car, sprinting toward the gym doors. They fell in line with the rest of their classmates. Luckily they were standing next to each other, courtesy of last names.
"Today is the start of the rest of our lives, numberless possibilities await us," the commencement speaker drawled.
"You like me," Hak whispered, flicking his eyes to her.
"Yes, I thought we established this," she bumped her shoulder against him.
"You want to be my girlfriend,"
"I AM your girlfriend."
" Does than mean, I mean you don't have to, can we hold hands?
Yona made a small noise and nodded furiously. She turned her hand up on her lap and Hak slipped his long fingers through hers. She liked how strong they were and how safe they made her feel. They rested there for a moment before Hak began drawing circles with his thumb on the back of her hand. Yona retaliated by tickling the inside of his palm. They grinned at each other and their inside joke. The speaker concluded their remarks with, " but no matter what happens, we will always be together in our hearts. Congratulations Kouka class of 2018"
They all threw up their caps, and Hak bent down to steal a kiss from Yona, which she readily gave. She tweaked his feather headband.
"We match,"
"We match."
"Guess what everybody? We're dating!" Hak said as they walked up to their friends, holding up him and Yona's interlocked hands. Zeno enveloped them both in a hug. " Congratulations! I'm so happy for you!"
Kija looked up from his book. "I thought you two were already dating."
"Did everybody know this but me?" Hak cried.
"Well, yeah. You guys are like, relationship goals," said Jeaha, leaning against Kija's shoulder.
"We've only been dating for 2 months, how can we be goals?" asked Yona
"I thought you were dating for two years," whispered Shin-ah.
"wHAT?" the couple shrieked in unison.
"He's right, I could've sworn you were dating for years with how you act around each other. And Hak is so obviously lovestruck by you," said Kija, pushing back his white hair.
"And Yona never shuts up about you," Jeaha added, gesturing to Hak.
They both turned red.
"Well I could say the same for you and Kija but you're not dating" Yona spluttered.
"Ha, I wish," said Jaeha.
"Wait we're not dating?!"
Hak and Yona made eye contact and busted out laughing. What a start to the rest of their lives.