"You're Not Alone"

Tell Me

Lunch break came.
Akaashi walked up to me and immediately grabbed my hand, pulling me out of the classroom and to a quiet, secluded area.

We sat down. Akaashi pulled out a bento, of which I didn't have cuz I really only ate dinner if I was hungry for it. He opened it and looked at me.

"Um... do you have anything?"

I shook my head. "I don't have lunch."

His eyes widened slightly. "Oh..."
He grabbed something with his chopsticks, it looked like sushi? He put it up to my lips, his hand under the sushi. "Here. Have some."

I looked him, surprised and unsure of what I should do. He didn't move, so I guess he wanted me to eat. I opened my mouth and let him place the sushi on my tongue. The moment his chopsticks were away from my mouth, I closed it and started chewing.

He smiled, whereas I refused to make eye contact again. "You should eat lunch, you know." He chuckled lightly.

'Again- that weird feeling in my chest. What is it?'

I smiled slightly, barely even noticeable. Once I swallowed the sushi I spoke very softly. "Thank you. I don't usually eat till dinner, but only when I feel hungry..."

He looked deeply into my eyes, shock filling his own. "Do you not eat everyday?"

I shook my head. "I'm not usually hungry everyday."

He lightly grabbed my hand with his own. "Please eat at least once everyday. I can feed you at lunch, if you want. But you seriously need to eat. It's not healthy to just eat every once in awhile."

I looked down again. "I haven't had much of an appetite for at least ten years.... And whenever I tried to force myself to eat everyday, I'd throw it all up within an hour."

His worry only seemed to grow. "That's not good. Have you told anyone else about this? Have your parents taken you to see a doctor or get treatment? Help of any kind?"

I flinched at the mention of 'parents'. And he seemed to have noticed.

"What's wrong?"

I shook my head. "My parents... died when I was five... in a house fire. Only I survived." My voice sounded so small, I thought he wouldn't hear it.

But he did. "I'm... I'm so sorry. I didn't know..."

"It's fine. They weren't good parents..."

"What makes you say that?"

"They hit me all the time, didn't feed me enough, let people come in and do whatever they wanted with me. He even raped me... let many other men do it to me, for money..."

Before I had any time to react, Akaashi pulled me close, my head on his chest. He was trembling, his breathing seemed unsteady as well. Was he ok? What happened?

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that... and at such a young age. You've suffered beyond anything I could've ever imagined. I-I'm so sorry."

I felt tears fell on me. 'He's crying?'
"Why're you apologizing?"

He backed up slightly, tears still falling from his eyes. "I just feel so bad for you."

'No. Don't. If you do this, I'll jump from the roof. I swear. Please don't start pitying me. Not you... not you of all people.'

"Don't..."

He looked at me, slightly confused. "Don't what?"

"Don't pity me. Please. I don't want anyone else to know if they're just gonna pity me..."

He seemed to understand right away. "Then, I wont. But I want to help you. Can you let me do that?"

"I'm already on medication for anxiety and depression..."

"Therapy?"

I looked away, not really wanting to tell him that I quit therapy. "I... don't like going so I don't."

Akaashi frowned. "You should go. If you want, whenever you have an appointment, I can go with you. I'll be there for you to help you, support you through whatever you're going through."

I finally looked back into his eyes- his beautiful, mesmerizing deep blue eyes. "Promise?"

He smiled, a sweet smile that made my stomach do flips, my heart skipping at least one beat. "I promise."

And with that, we exchanged numbers. I told him everything about me- whatever either of us felt he needed to know, I told him. He fed me at least half his lunch. And we just talked.

I got to know about him as well. He's the setter for the boys' volleyball team. It impressed me. I thought he was so cool. To me, he's the only person that can gain my trust this easily, the only person that deserves all my attention.

Right after school, Akaashi came up to me, reaching out for my hand. I grabbed his without any hesitation, a very (extremely microscopic, barely even existent) smile appeared on my face.

"Y/n... do you have any free time after school?"

"I don't usually work till much later... like around 6ish. Why?" My voice was still extremely soft and only Akaashi heard me.

He looked at me and smiled. "Want to come to practice with me? You can just sit and watch, unless you wanna be a manager. We do have one already, but it wouldn't hurt to have another. This is only if you want to."

I nodded. "Sure."

Yeah, I didn't expect him to offer or ask anything like that. But he did. He's so unpredictable, always surprising me by doing the unexpected.
But they do say to "expect the unexpected."
And Akaashi wasn't a bad kind of unpredictable, it was comforting in a way. I was definitely feeling... happy?
It was nice. I don't think I could ever say no to Akaashi Keiji.

The moment we stepped into the gym, it went silent and all eyes were on us. I looked up just a little to see so many people staring at us. With so many pairs of eyes on me, my anxiety started rising again. I instinctively started hiding behind Akaashi, tightly gripping the back of his shit in my hands.

He immediately noticed my change in behavior. "Everyone, this is L/n Y/n. She's quite shy and not too good around people, so please don't give her too much attention or be too loud and energetic around her."

I was thankful for Akaashi being there for me. Even though we just met, it feels like we've known each other forever. He knows what to do for me, it's like he knows everything about me. It's so comforting, I feel like I just want to be in his arms for all of eternity.