strawberry pocky | tsukishima kei [SLOW UPDATES]

aftermath

Hey guys, long time no see!
I'm so sorry for not updating!!  Your dear author has been doing a lot of traveling recently and is therefore quite busy, and she has also kinda lost motivation to write :( I'm not really into Haikyuu anymore but I don't want to disappoint you guys so I'm going to complete this story if it's the last thing I do!! I want to thank you all for not constantly asking me to update :) that can be so annoying and pressuring to the writer so thank you all for being kind and respectful.

P.s. Yachi's interpretation of the situation is courtesy of a comment on the earlier chapter interpreting what Tsukki might've meant :)

"He said WHAT?" exclaimed Shoyo, throwing the volleyball into your awaiting hands.

You caught it. "You heard it the first time," you replied. You lowered your voice and put on a false stuck-up tone, repeating the blond's hurtful words to you. Shoyo guffawed at your impression, while Hitoka laughed as well, but not as boisterously. You tossed the ball to her.

"Well, maybe he didn't mean it the way you thought he meant," offered Hitoka, catching the ball and throwing it back to Shoyo. You quirked a brow at her. She continued: "I mean, you did tell him you thought that he liked you too. So maybe he was genuinely asking you what gave it away."

You paused to consider her point of view. One thing you loved about Hitoka was how she saw the good in everyone, and this point that you had failed to consider due to your own sense of hurt proved that. But one thing still didn't make sense, even after considering her words. "He might have meant that," you said evenly, "but if so, his wording was pretty weird. Why did he say someone like me and someone like you? To me, that definitely feels like a rejection. He was calling our personalities incompatible."

"I'm with f/n. I think he was just being a jerk. His attitude can be so nasty sometimes!" agreed Shoyo.

"But that's just the thing," Hitoka reasoned. "Maybe it's because his attitude is so bad that he didn't know how to express himself nicely. He might not have meant to hurt your feelings, but since he's not used to talking in a super nice way, it might've just come out like that."

It was unsurprising that Hitoka could be so insightful, but your mouth was still in the shape of an O. Perhaps this was all just a misunderstanding, and if you'd given Tsukishima the benefit of the doubt, you might have been dating by now. Perhaps he was too proud to call after you and explain what he really meant.

But did you really want to date someone with too much pride? If he didn't call after you, that also meant that your relationship or friendship didn't mean enough to him for him to explain what he meant. That might have been equally as bad as him purposely hurting your feelings since they both resulted in the loss of your friendship.

You had a lot to think about when you got home. "I don't know, Hitoka," you sighed. "Maybe you're right, but I honestly feel like he was just being mean. Or else he would've explained to me what he actually meant when he saw I was upset." Hitoka nodded in agreement, saying nothing else. "Can we please talk about something else now? This topic is getting kinda depressing," you added, not wanting to ruin everyone else's time with your friendship/relationship drama.

The other two launched into a discussion about Shoyo's upcoming volleyball match while you thought of yet another thing that was on your mind recently.

Shortly after what you'd aptly named in your brain "The Confession Incident", Ichika had called you to ask how it had gone. In your sour mood, you had reluctantly picked up the phone and tersely cut off her excited questions about Tsukishima with one sentence: "He rejected me." After launching into an explanation detailing exactly what had happened to her, she'd expressed her sympathy towards you like any decent friend would have done, but ever since that phone call had ended, it was largely radio silence from her end of things. She didn't seem nearly as eager to hang out with you or speak to you at school, electing to spend her time with her more popular friends, with whom she'd started the school year. This confirmed a sneaking suspicion you'd had that she only wanted to be friends with you because of your possible budding romantic relationship. Now that the chances of you ever dating Tsukishima were slim to none, so were the chances of Ichika wanting to spend any time with you.