Once he started spending more time behind the camera, his eyes became trained to notice little things, and after a while, he started seeing the world differently. More than anything else, Take thought this was probably what caused him to develop a slight infatuation for his friend. 

Take started noticing how Haruki’s eyes would light up to a warm, beautiful, amber color when he was excited about something, or the way the sunlight would kiss Haruki’s hair making it look like molten gold. He would find his eyes drawn to Haruki’s sensual mouth at the most unexpected times, especially the way he would bite his bottom lip when he was in deep thought. The intense longing he felt was confusing, so he kept it to himself, not wanting to complicate a friendship that was important to him.

He spent more time working on his music and his videos. He found girls he could take on double dates with Haruki, even though his feelings only continued to grow stronger. 

Things between them remained good until the day Haruki met Akihiko Kaji, and everything changed. 

Haruki invited Akihiko to create a band with him, and they soon recruited Uenoyama to join them. Little by little, Haruki started spending more time with his bandmates and less time with him. Take tried not to resent it, his life had gotten busier too now that he had a full-time job at the video editing company. But it didn’t help that he disliked Akihiko immensely. From the moment they were introduced, he knew the drummer was no good for Haruki, even as a friend. 

With time Take was shocked to learn that he didn’t know Haruki as well as he’d thought. For it wasn’t hard to recognize that Haru was infatuated with Akihiko. And it hurt to see the longing in his eyes, crashing all the hopes Take had ever held. Especially when Kaji was so obviously a player,  stringing his friend along with nothing more than empty words and loaded glances. 

But there was nothing he could do, he’d wasted years hiding his feelings, and now Haruki had made his choice. And though Take knew he could make him happy if given a chance, he wasn’t what Haruki wanted. 

If he valued their friendship, Take had no choice but to face that and move on. This time for real.

He just hadn’t expected it to be so hard to watch Haruki fall in love with someone else, knowing he’d never see him as anything more than his best friend.