Silence Sat Between Them

3.

Both setter and manager were now on the train, which was still buzzing with lots of passengers, when Akaashi broke the silence.

"I just hope they don't start rumors," he sighed

"Mmh" 

Haela had already finished eating her meat buns and was now staring at the ground, still too uncomfortable to look at Akaashi.

He glanced at her, "Knowing them, I doubt they'll do so. Anyways I'm pretty sure most people at school thinks you're dating Bokuto"

She raised her head, voice full of panic, "We're not dating!!"

"That's not what most people think though"

"..."

Akaashi was a little taken aback by this sudden outburst, and felt bad for saying such a thing. Though her reaction proved that there was nothing going on between them, a part of him felt relieved for that.

A moment passed before Haela added, "Well they're wrong"

She looked at him, before returning her gaze back to the ground.

Silence went back between the two, making Akaashi quite uncomfortable. Usually, when Haela was with Bokuto, she was cheerful, talkative and always with a bright smile on her face. But now that she was with him, she wasn't smiling and barely tried to make a conversation with him, despite having been on the same team for almost a year.

It's not that they were on bad terms or anything. In fact Akaashi thought they had a pretty good chemistry. Though the more he thought about it, the more he realized that it was probably because Bokuto was with them. Now that they were alone together for the first time, everything made sense.

Knowing she acted differently with the both of them made Akaashi feel uneasy and somehow envious. He wanted her to be her usual talkative self and act the same way she did with Bokuto.

He decided to shave those greedy thoughts in the back of his head and slowly directed his gaze on Haela. She was so petite that she couldn't grab onto the train's hanger. Unfortunately, there were no seats available for them to sit. A thought crossed Akaashi's mind as he analyzed the situation.

It would be safer if she grabbed onto my arm instead of standing there without holding anything.

He voiced his idea to her.

"If you want to, you can grab onto my arm, it'll prevent you from falling"

The little girl raised her head, hesitated for a moment, nodded and proceeded to grab his left arm. This caused them to both be embarrassed by this situation, as they were looking away in order to avoid each other's gaze.

After what seemed like an eternity, the train finally reached Haela's stop. Now walking towards her house, Akaashi felt glad that he decided to accompany her while they made their way in dark empty streets.

Silence was still floating between the two, neither knew what to say to the other, as they walked side by side, each focused on their own thoughts. Once in a while Akaashi would give the shy girl a few glances and would sometimes open his mouth as if wanting to say something but didn't. After a while, Haela stopped walking and turned around facing him.

"Thank you for accompanying me home. I live in this apartment building you see."

"I see, it was my pleasure"

Silence came back as soon as it left, while they both awkwardly stared at each other.

Akaashi was the first to speak, "Well then I guess this is good-"