I Won't Let You Wilt

New city, new haircut, new life

I guess plenty of employers and teachers still care about the way people style their hair, but I'm disappointed in them.

"Is this length okay?" Basil asked, showing Sunny where he intended to make the first cut.

"A bit shorter than that," Sunny suggested, feeling brave because his appearance was in the hands of someone he trusted.

Basil moved his scissor further down the strand of hair. "What about this?"

"Try between the first and second."

"O—Oh, like this?"

"Yeah, that's good."

With a snip, a strand of black fell to the bathroom floor, tiny little hairs sticking to his shirt.

"Basil, when did you learn to cut your own hair?"

"That's a long story."

"Feel free to tell me if you don't mind."

Sunny gazed at their reflections in the bathroom mirror and saw the soft light that grew in Basil's eyes, a mixture of sadness and that gentle yearning happiness from reaching far back into the past.

"When I was six, I started wearing flowers in my hair," Basil began. "My grandma helped cut my hair back then. But once, she cut it too short. I started crying because I couldn't put a flower in my hair anymore.

"She told me everything was going to be okay, and we made a promise. The next day, she taught me how to cut hair by giving her a haircut. I cut her hair to just the right length for her to wear a pink daisy when I was done. For some reason, that made me feel a lot better. I still couldn't wear a flower in my hair, but from then on I could always cut my own hair and make it look exactly how I wanted it."

Sunny smiled hearing about how Basil and his grandma always had such a good relationship.

If only I'd asked you to cut my hair instead of my mom when we were kids...

"Have you tried cutting your own hair, Sunny?" Basil asked.

"Nah, but Mari did once. She cut my hair all unevenly and my parents got really mad at me."

"Oh...was that before I met you?"

"Yeah, I was only seven or eight when it happened."

Aubrey introduced Basil to our friend group when I was eight and a half years old. I still remember the exact day.

February seventh, a couple of weeks before your birthday.

"It looks great so far," Sunny said, finding his new frontal bangs to be at just the right length. "Much better than my mom cuts it, anyways. She always cuts my hair too short."

"Oh—oh, thank you."

As Basil trimmed the sides, top, and back of his hair, Sunny felt himself transforming into a whole new person. Each lock of hair that fell represented his past, both sad and happy memories from Faraway and his childhood.

Their cutting was his resolve to leave all that behind and become a new person with new goals and aspirations, a life lived to its fullest potential by the side of the boy who made his every day shine with irreplaceable brightness.

"Thanks for doing this," Sunny said. "I really appreciate it."

"It's no problem at all! To tell you the truth, I've always wanted to cut your hair."

"Huh, really?"

"Ahah...it's embarrassing to admit this but, when we started being friends, I wished you were part of my family," Basil said. "It sounds selfish, but...I didn't want to be an only child without my parents around, and you were my closest friend..."