Monochromatic: Haikyuu Fanfic

Chapter 17: Three

Three phone calls.

The first one is back in the Foothill store. Fukui remembers this clearly, and she quite dispirited after the storeowner gives her a confused look at her request. Ukai leans on his counter lazily, elbows perched with a small frown on his face. He takes out the cigarette in his mouth.

"Sorry kid, but we don't sell red roses here." He says.

And Fukui just deflates. She sighs heavily and slouches over in dejection. However, something catches her eye as she contemplates on just leaving - a stack of fresh, clean letter sets.

She approaches the stack with pliant fingers, careful and cautious as she lifts up one set, sealed in a thin plastic. Slowly, she glances at the price tag. Eyes widening, a triumphant smile etches onto her features.

"It - It's only fifty yen...! Much less than the ones I buy across from here!" She whispers. With a content smile, she places the item on the counter, and the storeowner shrugs her cheery demeanor off, placing the item in a plastic bag. She hands him the money, however she remembers - remembers why she was here in the first place.

"Can I - uh - use your phone? Mine ran out of battery..." She points at the rusty old-fashioned telephone glued to the wall of the shop. Ukai nods, and she dials Oikawa's number, quite lucky that she had written his phone number on the palm of her hand - he merely gave her the number in a rush before all of this happened, so there was no time to formally exchange numbers and what not.

It beeps three times before someone picks up.

"Hello?"

"Oikawa - it's me, Fukui. They don't have red roses here."

"Ah... Is that so?" He says, a bit disappointed, but he recovers quickly, "I'll just have to win her over with my pure smile and charms!"

"Your smiles are never real though."

"How dare you...! My smiles have always been genuine and -!"

Beeeeeeeeeep.

"Thanks for letting me use the phone. I'll be on my way now." Fukui bows curtly and rushes out of the store, excited to put the letter set to use.

***
The second phone call is at twelve in the noon. Fukui is busy - er - well, busy watching the television when her phone rings. It vibrated against the kotatsu table, and soon returned to Fukui's hands. She accepts the call and holds it up to her ear.

"Do you need somehting?"

"Yooo! I want your opinion on which shirt I should use - I'm sending you the pictures right now!"

Fukui opens her messages, Oikawa still on the line, and sees photos of two different shirts: one is a shirt with an olive green shade - faded and casual, while the other is blue - nearly black, however this one is a V neck, the color is dim and it looks like a fitted shirt. Fukui hums consideratingly.

"I have to say... The blue one. But - you should maybe wear a button up shirt over it. Just leave it open and you should be fine. Girls like that sort of thing."

"Oh?" He glances as the closet quickly before adding, "I think I found the perfect shirt! Thank you Umeko-chan!"

"Sure, no problem." Fukui replies, "tell me how it goes afterwards! I wanna hear about it, alright?"

"Umeko-chan, you have to stop comparing me to your little shoujo mangas! It's obvious that I'm much more attractive than just a stereotypical school-prince guy!"

"Heh? Well, I have to disagree to that...There's definitely prettier bishounen out there that could easily surpass you..."

"Hey- !!"

Beeeeeeeeeep.

She hangs up on him yet again.

***

The third call is completely off-beat. It is unlike the rest for Fukui is caught completely off-guard on it. In the end, she didn't receive a call from Oikawa after the date - perhaps he was too tired, or simply forgot about the report. Fukui kept a reminder that he owes her a detailed explanation of how the date went with the Ayame in hopes to find some entertainment in the whole 'tsundere-girl-falls for-school-prince-during-date' trope. Oh well. It could wait on Monday.

It is a heavy night, the darkness of her room surrounds her bed, only the alarm clock that glowed dimly. It reads, 2:43 AM. Fukui is in dreamland, curled up in nothing but her underwear under the sheets. She is snoring softly, breathy noises escaping her slightly parted lips. There is drool on the side of her mouth, and some crusted dry remains of it as it trails down.

Then she began to see the light.

It's too early for me to go to heaven... She thinks drowsily, but then she realizes what it is when hears a vibrating noise. Forcefully, she shuts her eyelids tighter, but the light penetrates through it stubbornly. With a groan, she slowly reaches out to her nightstand, eyes squinting hard to readjust to the blindingly light screen of her phone. It is vibrating, a tiny chiming tune escaping from its speakers. She presses the green 'accept' button.

"Oikawa?" She says with a rasp voice. Her voice is throaty, ragged with sleep it is barely above a whisper.

Oikawa doesn't say anything at first. Fukui can hear faint shuffling noises of him tossing over the sheets. It remains silent - as if contemplating on something. Now this really got Fukui curious, for Oikawa is not one for being so unnerved or uneasy - or perhaps nervous? Wasn't he just boosting with confidence before the date with Ayame?

"Oikawa? Are you there?"

"Ah. Yeah." He finally answers. His voice isn't heavy or sleepy, in fact, his voice is silver - clear and pure. It's not like him to speak without a honeyed edge. Maybe he hasn't even slept yet? No... Sleeping late is definitely not healthy of him. But even so, his voice doesn't have a drop of drowsiness.

He shuffles yet again, sighing before speaking hesitantly and nervously:

"What do you do when you're in love?"