𝓽𝔀𝓸 𝓲𝓷 𝓸𝓷𝓮 ~~>𝓫. 𝓴ō𝓽𝓪𝓻ō

6- Familiarity

In the three weeks following my first day of school, I spent my free time learning more about Keiji, Bokuto, and Konoha. I had especially learned a lot about Bokuto since we had to walk home together every day following our classes. In these after school interactions, he often offered to buy snacks for us, had it been ice cream from a nearby booth or coffee and donuts from one of the corner stores.

Walking, we talked about the most random things. At times, we would talk about what we hoped to become in the future or about his volleyball career, while other times we would find ourselves arguing whether cereal is soup or if a hotdog is a taco or a sandwich, resulting in some playful arguments. A hotdog is a taco sandwich, end of discussion.

The more I spoke with Bokuto, the more I felt myself slowly being engulfed in a trap I wouldn't be able to get out of. A trap of emotions, a trap in which I would find myself falling in too deep. Being around him made me feel safe, but more than safe. He gave me a sense of belonging, one similar to the feeling Karasuno gave me, but with a fuzzier feeling. He made me feel warm inside- I felt butterflies in my stomach whenever we spoke. At first, I tried denying that feeling and convinced myself I was just nervous, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized something. In just three weeks, I managed to develop feelings for him, the one and only Bokuto Koutarou.

This morning, I woke up to my mother blasting music downstairs. This music she played wasn't like the music that seemed to be popular in the area these days; it wasn't in Japanese or English but in Spanish. Growing up, I found that she seemed to enjoy listening to specifically Mexican music. Since she wasn't fluent in Spanish and only knew some basic phrases, she didn't understand what the music was meant to say, and so she would turn to my father, who was fluent in three languages and would ask for him to translate the words in the song. They didn't make much sense in English or Japanese since most Mexican music is based on old tales and stories or silly little things like cockroaches, but she enjoyed listening to them either way.

Unfortunately, ever since my father passed she had not once tried to play that kind of music and spent her time moping around drinking when she was free from her job as an English Professor in a University not far from here, a different one from when we lived in Miyagi. I wonder what made her listen to this music again after so long.

Checking the time, I realize that it is way too early to play this music. We'll probably get another complaint from our neighbors, but there's nothing stopping this woman when she's drunk. She must be out of her mind. Playing music this loud so early in the day isn't something a sane person would do... but then again, I don't think my mother's in the right headspace at the moment.

Since my mother didn't seem to have any plans for turning down her music any time soon and would most likely kill me if I tried to, I decided it was best to plug my ears and made my way to my bathroom to get ready instead. This morning felt like a good one- aside from the blasting music. The sun looked like it would rise at any second and the temperature outside seemed like a comfortable one, it didn't look too hot or too cold. I felt the need to take advantage of this beautiful day, so I thought- what better way to start my day than with a bath. My phone's clock showed it was 4:25 am, meaning I have 2 hours before my alarm rings for school, so I have plenty of time to relax. I'll just have to put my uniform here and-

Oh.

I guess the earplugs still couldn't muffle the noise of loud drums.

Silly, silly me, bumping my phone into the bathtub... The bathtub that just happened to be full of water...

Splashing the bubbles on the surface of the water, I tried looking to where my phone might be at the bottom of the tub. Catching a glimpse of it, I stuck my arm in the water, not caring about my pajama shirt's sleeve getting wet, and pulled the phone out of the water as fast as I could. I grabbed one of my towels and dried the water off of it. Thankfully, the darn thing still turned on, so I looked for an audio recording that helps the water get out of the phone's speakers. This method had been proven successful many times in the past with my other phones, so I have almost no doubt that it'll work this time as well.