Thin Walls ~ SakuAtsu Short Story

2. Notes

In the morning, Atsumu woke up to his alarm and the abrupt stopping of music. Not like a record or anything but whoever this neighbor was had been practicing. At six in the morning. 

What the actual hell.

Atsumu turned off his alarm and laid there for another few moments. Finally, he managed to get up and get changed. Today he grabbed a pop tart and his bag before walking out of the door. 

The person had stopped playing and had seemingly gone off to bed or something. 

Atsumu got to work, went through a typical speech to the HR woman about respect for him and that he was indeed still a gay man. Some guys laughed at the idea while others looked away, trying to ignore everything going on. 

Today it had started raining when he got in his car so everyone was grumpy. Either that or they were gossiping. It sucked. Everything about this job sucked. 

For some reason though, there was something slightly off. Atsumu's fingers itched for his keyboard and his ears strained for anything slightly sounding like music. 

Whatever that neighbor of his caused was not helping him. 

"Atsumu. I need those files ready in fifteen!" 

Atsumu groaned quietly and tried to speed up. He brought the floor manager the papers before going to his desk where someone had put a sticky note asking for him to cover a few of their papers. 

He sighed and picked up the folder the note was attached to. Fifteen records. 

He started on them, focused. In the zone as Hinata would say. 

Atsumu finished those, his own, took his lunch break which he spent a cigarette on even though he was supposed to try to quit. Something about his links getting damaged or second-hand smoke or something. 

It wasn't like moms didn't do that around their kids. Why should he stop if he was damaging his own body? 

He went back inside and kept working on everything he was given until it was time to go. He headed to the fast food shop close to home where it was packed. 

People were complaining and kids were crying. Orders weren't being passed fast enough. Atsumu hurried to the register and got people cleared out quickly. His mind felt rushed and he felt exhausted but he kept going. Hinata and he were all smiles and nice sayings. 

It was hours before they'd gotten everyone out and the store cleaned up. Atsumu needed another break and he took it before going home and collapsing on his bed. 

The neighbor was playing again, this time it was a faster piece and seemed slightly happier. 

Atsumu got up and tapped a few keys on his keyboard and the playing stopped. He went halfway up the scale before hearing the next notes from his neighbor. Oh, that wasn't too bad actually. 

He started to go through scale but stopped when there was a deeper cough from the other person. He got up and grabbed some sugar-free cough drops and an envelope. He slid the drops into along with a sticky note that had the simple phrase of "I like the way you play". 

He walked next door and knocked on the door before dropping the letter and going back inside. 

There was a soft chuckle from the other person and he smiled. He opened his window and leaned out slightly to finish the rest of the cigarette from earlier. 

There was louder coughing and then cursing before a window shut. He heard a knock at his door and there was his envelope, two papers in it. The first one was sheet music. 

The second one was a thank you and… Something more interesting. A simple question. The other person had asked him to not smoke through the window because it made it hard for them to breathe. 

Fair enough. 

Atsumu sat down at his keyboard and put the sheet music up. He tried his way through it once or twice, smiling. Next door his neighbor played along as if guiding him, a bit slower than Atsumu. 

"Ah, this isn't too bad..."

Again, next door the other person stopped playing to the music and there was loud coughing. Atsumu knocked on the wall and the coughing got worse. There were a few mismatched notes and wheezing before it went quiet. 

Atsumu got closer to the wall and hoped the other person could hear him. "You okay?" 

There was one knock on the wall and Atsumu smiled. 

"Are you scared to talk to me? Eh?"

There was shuffling and knocking on his door. He checked and there was a note. 

"It's difficult for me to talk loud enough for you to hear. I can talk at a normal level but you won't be able to understand it."

"That's okay!" Atsumu went back to his keyboard and started to play a happier song. "Two taps if you're a guy." 

There were two taps against the wall. 

"Nice! Tell me if you wanna come over so we can chill out. I can make you tea." 

Atsumu glanced at the note again and noticed a number. He put it into his phone and texted it. 

He received another text back that gave a name. 

Sakusa Kiyoomi.

What a pretty name. 

Atsumu sat on his bed and texted him, trying desperately to get more information out of him. 

He liked volleyball. He was twenty-seven. He's been playing the piano for twenty years. He has asthma. 

That's all he would tell, but it was nice to know new things about a new person. This person was somewhat mysterious.