•𝐁𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐥𝐲 𝐆𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐧• ~𝘒𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘬𝘢𝘨𝘦

2.

"Some walks. . . You have to take alone. . ." A soft, comforting voice had once spoken to a young boy with short raven hair. "My dear Tobio. . . Always remember that I love you."

It had been almost thirteen years since he had heard those words. . . yet, he remembered them perfectly. . . Too perfectly. The scream of agony that had come after the feeling of being carried away by two hands.

Tobio wiped the sweat off his temples and paused for a moment to grab a quick breath. The morning air was fresh and cold and crisp with the sweet smell of freshly mowed grass.

A light breeze blew past his face, soothing him. Tobio looked up and ran towards the left, following the similar pathway he had tried exploring on Friday.

A few picnic tables that tourists usually used to have lunch, came into view. It wasn't that surprising, given that Miyagi did have the biggest celebration of Tanabata Matsuri, this attracted a huge population of people from outside Miyagi and the country to come here.

"Kageyama!"

Tobio turned and spotted a silver-haired boy standing next to a picnic table. He took a deep breath and walked towards the boys' direction, jumping past a puddle. What did Suga want to talk to me about?

He stopped as he stood next to the older setter.

"Didn't expect you to be awake right now," Sugawara said and slipped his phone into his pocket.

"Oh. . . I usually wake up around this time," Tobio said, stuffing his arms in his pockets.

"Why though? Don't first years usually enjoy sleeping in and all?" Sugawara asked as he began walking towards the forestry area. "I usually come here to go on those trails."

"Me and my friend usually came here back when we were young to collect dry leaves," he added.

"Daichi-san?" Tobio eyed the third year.

"No."

"Oh. . . then Daichi?" Tobio asked, his brow rising.

"Oh! You didn't catch it? Me and Daichi hugging, me kissing Daichi on the cheek?"

"Don't friends usually do that too?" Tobio asked, earning a peculiar look from Sugawara.

The older stared at Tobio, studying the raven-haired boy's expression to find any signs of joking—which. . . he couldn't. "What do you mean friends also do that?"

"Don't Tsukishima and Yamaguchi do the same occasionally?" The younger furrowed his eyebrows.

"EH?!" Tobio flinched as Sugawara facepalmed.

"It's not like that, Tsukishima just doesn't have the personality to openly condemn love, he rather has an indirect way of showing it—but truly, he loves Yamaguchi beyond what I had expected," Sugawara looked at Kageyama. "Why? Want some tips on how you can kiss or cuddle with your soulmate?"

"Um, no? I usually have to work and uh- just personal things," Kageyama replied.

Sugawara curiously raised a brow but said nothing about that matter.

"So Suga-san, what are you doing this early?" Kageyama asked.

"Oh, Tanaka messed up with my alarm yesterday--not to mention that he hid another alarm in my room! So when I finally got up, closed the first alarm, and was on my way to falling back on the bed, the second alarm rang. It gave me five minutes of torture before I finally found it buried under the bunch of clothes," Sugawara let out a sigh and rubbed his eyes a bit. "Talk about yourself every once in a while too."