Love Me Harder // MatsuHana.

four

The days blended together in the way that only high school days can—predictable yet fleeting. Hanamaki and Matsukawa fell into their usual rhythm, showing up to school together, hanging out during breaks, and surviving the monotony of classes with their sarcastic banter. The tournament was still on the horizon, but Hanamaki wasn’t thinking much about it. What mattered was the time they were spending together. After all, there wasn’t much time left before the year was over.

One afternoon, instead of heading straight to practice, Matsukawa suggested they skip their usual route and take a detour. Hanamaki raised an eyebrow but followed without question.

"Where are we going?" Hanamaki asked, adjusting the strap of his bag as they veered off the school’s path and into a side street that led toward the quieter part of town.

"You’ll see," Matsukawa replied with a cryptic smile, hands shoved in his pockets.

They walked in comfortable silence, their shoes hitting the pavement in sync. Hanamaki liked this—their easy, unspoken understanding of each other. It wasn’t the kind of friendship that needed constant chatter to fill the spaces between. Matsukawa could say more with a simple glance or smirk than most people could with words.

After a few blocks, they turned a corner and ended up in front of a small park, tucked away in a residential neighborhood. It was quiet, except for the occasional rustling of leaves and distant sounds of kids playing.

Matsukawa led the way to an old bench near the edge of the park, sitting down and gesturing for Hanamaki to join him. Hanamaki plopped down next to him, raising an eyebrow again. "This is it?"

Matsukawa shrugged. "Yeah. It’s peaceful, right? I used to come here a lot when I needed to get away from everything."

Hanamaki looked around. The park wasn’t anything special, but it had a kind of calmness that made it feel like a hidden gem. It wasn’t far from the hustle of their school life, but it felt worlds away from the noise and the routine.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, both of them just watching the trees sway gently in the breeze, neither feeling the need to fill the quiet. It was one of those moments where time seemed to slow down, and Hanamaki found himself grateful for it.

“You know,” Matsukawa finally said, his voice quieter than usual, “it’s weird thinking about how things are gonna change soon. This... us, hanging out like this—it’s not gonna last forever.”

Hanamaki didn’t respond immediately. He had been thinking about it too. Graduation wasn’t that far off for Matsukawa, and the reality of it was starting to creep in.

“Yeah,” Hanamaki said after a moment, leaning back on the bench. “But that doesn’t mean we won’t still hang out, right? Just… different.”

Matsukawa chuckled softly. “Guess so. But it’s weird. We’ve been doing the same thing for years—just showing up, messing around, playing volleyball. Kinda hard to imagine what it’ll be like without all of that.”

Hanamaki nodded, feeling a pang of nostalgia even though nothing had ended yet. They had been through so much together—the ups and downs of high school, the grind of volleyball practices, the stupid inside jokes that only they understood. And it was all going to change soon, whether they were ready for it or not.

Matsukawa stretched his arms over his head, breaking the tension. “Enough of that depressing talk. I brought you here for another reason.”

Hanamaki raised an eyebrow again, curious. “Yeah? What’s that?”

Matsukawa reached into his bag and pulled out a small, beat-up volleyball, tossing it into Hanamaki’s lap.

"One-on-one. You and me. Let’s see if you can still keep up with the great Matsun." He smirked, standing up and walking toward the open grassy area in the middle of the park.

Hanamaki grinned, immediately getting to his feet. “Oh, you’re on.”

They spent the next hour or so in an impromptu game, the kind that was more about messing with each other than actually winning. Matsukawa’s long arms made him nearly impossible to block, but Hanamaki had speed on his side, dodging around him and returning serves with a cheeky grin every time he managed to score a point.

“You’re getting slow, old man,” Hanamaki teased after a particularly successful serve that Matsukawa missed by a hair.

"Old man? I’ll show you old," Matsukawa shot back, lunging at him with a playful tackle that sent them both sprawling onto the grass, laughing.

They lay there for a moment, catching their breath and staring up at the sky as it began to shift from the bright blue of the afternoon to the softer hues of the early evening. The sounds of the park faded into the background, and for a while, it was just the two of them and the open sky above.

“Thanks for this,” Hanamaki said quietly, breaking the comfortable silence.

Matsukawa glanced over at him, a soft smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “For what?”

“For… I don’t know. Just for being you, I guess,” Hanamaki replied with a shrug, feeling a little embarrassed but not caring enough to take it back.

Matsukawa’s smile widened as he looked back up at the sky. “Right back at you, Makki.”

They stayed like that until the sun began to set, neither of them in a rush to leave. It was rare to have moments like this, where they didn’t have to worry about anything—no school, no volleyball, no tournaments or graduation looming over their heads. Just them, lying in the grass, enjoying the simplicity of the moment.

When they finally got up to leave, the sky was a deep shade of orange, and the air had cooled significantly. Matsukawa slung his arm around Hanamaki’s shoulders as they walked back toward the main road, their bags bouncing against their hips in sync.

“You know,” Matsukawa said, his voice light but serious, “no matter what happens after this year, we’ll still be us. Nothing’s gonna change that.”

Hanamaki looked at him, feeling the weight of those words sink in. He knew Matsukawa meant it, and for the first time in a while, the uncertainty of the future didn’t feel so overwhelming.

“Yeah,” Hanamaki said, smiling. “We’ll always be us.”

And with that, they walked home together, the sun setting behind them, and the world feeling a little less scary than it had before.