His First Friend

A distant memory

There was this huge summer camp for middle-schoolers, held each year in Hakone. Since he was in his first year in middle school, Makishima's parents had him to participate in order to make friends. But he didn't particularly like to go. He thought the type of children that went to camps, weren't kids he could be friends with. They were irritating, always wanted to challenge each other in stupid games, and above all very, very loud. "Yo, Makishima! Over here!" His teammate caught him by surprise and he didn't have enough time to locate the boy or even kick the ball toward him before someone of the opposing team took it from him - scoring a few seconds later. This caused yet another deep sigh from the rest of his team. "Alright! I think we clearly have a winner! Congratulations!" The group leader enthusiastically handed a plastic trophy to the winning team. "You all did a very good job. Now let's head to the showers everyone!" The walk back to the dorm was annoying as ever, especially after losing a game due to him. He had to deal with other boys whispering mean things again, usually insulting his appearance. It's not that he didn't mind losing, but soccer was simply not his thing. He couldn't focus on that many teammates at once, and he didn't kick that far either. The rest of the walk he fantasized about the high school his parents had picked out for him, and its cycling club. In a few years, he would show them.

There were only 4 separate showers and since he had the longest hair and would have to shower longer (or so the others told him), Makishima was asked to go last. But he absolutely didn't mind. At least now he could get 20 minutes of silence a day, which he very much appreciated. After showering, when he almost made it back to his room, he realized he forgot his comb in the shower. Again. Since his previous combs always seemed to disappear after a night in there, he decided to go back this time, even though it was a long while to the outer side of camp. There was a little hall (barely a square meter) that connected the main hall with the showers. This was the place everyone could take off their shoes to keep them dry. Makishima sneaked past the first door and tried to feel his way to the door to the showers without turning on the light, because he really didn't want to get caught this time. That one was locked. Like an undercover agent he pulled out two hairpins to try to unlock the second door.

"Who left this door open again?! Didn't I tell them a million times to always lock all doors!" The loud voice of one of the group leaders made Makishima drop his pins. He quickly tried to collect them from the dark floor when the first door slammed shut. Followed by a metallic clicking sound.

Makishima's eyes enlarged as he stood frozen for mere seconds. He struggled back up and desperately tried to open it again, even though he already knew how screwed he was. "No way..." he whispered to himself. The doors directly to the main hall could only be opened or closed from the outside. And as if that wasn't enough trouble already, no one would usually come across this door after shower time - except for the group leader on guard, which was the one who just passed through. Makishima's hands shot up to hold his head, which was still draped in a towel. "No, no no!" Tears glistered in his eyes as he realized there was no quick way out of this, and he had no choice but to stay in here for what could be the entire night. He shrunk to the floor and with a deep sigh he let his head fall in his arms.

After what seemed like forever, Makishima lifted is head as he suddenly heard the sound of footsteps running down the hall. Whoever it was, seemed to stop right in front his door, and it sounded like he had a key. His sense of time was questionable at this point, but he guessed it had to be way past midnight already, which meant it couldn't be one of the group leaders. The door creaked open, and a black-haired boy snuck into the room with him. The boy let out a relieved sigh, turned around, and almost crawled up the wall when he noticed Makishima. "Wha-what are you doing here?!" he tried to whisper. "I could ask you the same thing!" Makishima bit back. They looked at each other for a second, both trying to figure out if they were caught or not. Eventually the black-haired boy slowly closed the door behind him and continued to stare at him before breaking the silence. "Wait... how long have you been in here? This door was locked for a long while before I came in... wasn't it?" Still sitting on the floor, Makishima turned away his eyes. "Did you get stuck here?..." The boy hesitantly tried again. But when Makishima only responded by starting to tear up and hiding his face in his arms, the other boy kneeled down before him. "Hey, are you okay?..." He put a hand on Makishima's crossed arms when he kept ignoring him. "Are you scared to be alone?" The green-haired boy took his time to answer, only just realizing what was making him this uneasy himself, and eventually muttered "Claustrophobic..." The other nodded, moving away a little. "It's alright, I'm here now and I have the key, okay? Let's get out." He patted Makishima on the head and stood up, completely forgetting what he had came here for himself. "My name's Toudou Jinpachi by the way, what's yours?" Makishima stood up as well and took off the towel on his head since his hair was most likely dry by now. "Ohh!" The pointing finger startled him and he subconsciously tried to hide his hair with the towel again. "I know, it's wei-" But Toudou gasped loudly before he could finish his sentence. "It's green!"

Makishima stared at Toudou. "Um... Yeah." He slowly replied as he scratched at the beauty mark under his eye. "Can I feel?" Without waiting for a response, Toudou had tangled his fingers in the shoulder-length locks. "Oh. It's softer than I thought it would be." Toudou's fingers kept combing through his hair while he kept stepping closer, up to the point where the confusion from earlier started to feel slightly uncomfortable. "Uh... Maybe I should... head back..." Toudou looked up and Makishima averted his eyes. "Oh right, sorry!" Toudou smiled as he dropped the green strands. Makishima put his hair behind his ear as he walked past Toudou. "Wait! I didn't catch your name?" Toudou said as he grabbed his arm before he could get out. "Makishima." He replied while opening the door. "Aaand first name?" Toudou grinned and Makishima raised his eyebrows. He pulled back his arm and got out the door while mumbling: "Thank you for letting me out, Toudou." "See you around... Maki-chan." Toudou whispered after Makishima passed him, which made him stop in his tracks and glance back over his shoulder. "Don't... call me that." Makishima said - the first time of a couple of hundred yet to come - and he started to walk back to his room. That night he didn't yet realize he just made his first friend, but he would turn out to treasure that moment for a very, very long time.