Monochromatic: Haikyuu Fanfic

Chapter: 37: Silence

"Nice save, Kindaichi!"

Those words comes in one ear and out the other in Oikawa's ears. Although his eyes remained glued on the ball, it seems that his mind is on another place. A troubled, confused place. Every thought is muddled, like murky puddles of water from the rain, blurry and leaving him very, very confused.

Oikawa is not bothered of what's there, but rather what's not there.

It all started this morning. He remembers the exasperated tone of Sensei this morning during roll call. The gap of silence after a certain name broke after Sensei spoke.

"Fukui's absent? Again? She must've caught it really bad..."

That sketchy melon pan she ate the other day took a heavy toll of Fukui. But something's still odd, Oikawa thinks, because when Matsukawa ate the same thing, his stomachache only lasted a couple hours with trips to the bathroom to puke out his breakfast. No big deal. After that he moved on like it was nothing. The effects were not this prolonged, since the extremity of scrarfing down expired melon pan should not last this long.

To be numerically specific, Fukui stayed home for three days now. Catching up on absent work will be living hell once she attends school again. You would think Oikawa Tooru would know what's up with his pretend cousin, however Fukui hasn't spoken to him lately either. He assumed she didn't want him to catch her sickness, but even with that conclusion, he hasn't received any texts from her either.

Last time her name was in his contacts was when he called her a day prior to her sickness, congratulating and wishing her the best on finally arranging to meet her mother in a dinner.

Maybe she ate something bad at the restaurant... But wouldn't that just last a day...? Or maybe they went to one of those really bad ones that serve sketchy looking meals... Her mom wouldn't be the type to take her there! Or maybe... Maybe... Maybe she isn't really sick? Instead, something happened between the both of them?

Thunk.

"Oi! Asskawa! Get it together!"

Iwaizumi's voice snapped the setter awake. Oikawa blinks, feeling his numb muscles shake awake and looks at his surroundings, the volleyball just right at his feet. The rest of the team members all noticed Oikawa's lack of focus for the last five minutes, and only proved them correct when their captain only stared dumbly at the volleyball in front of him fall down from a clean pass.

His mind that spun with musings stopped still to a quiet hum.

High pitched fweeeeet! of the whistle breaks the silence of the court, dispersing the club members to the side benches for break.

"Iwa-chan," Oikawa jerked his thumb at the storage closet with an uneasy smile, "can we talk for a bit?"

-*-

"...You're telling me that something's up with Fukui?"

"Yep. I bet you she's playing hookey all this time."

"Or," Iwaizumi proposes, brow arching, "you're just worried she's sick for so long. Go pay her a visit if it bothers you so much."

"But Iwa-chan!" Oikawa protests. "I'm not kidding! Do you really think Ume-chan is the type who talks about her problems openly?"

"Obviously not," Iwaizumi admits, "that kid would just keep it to herself."

"My point exactly! Reserved people like her always play their problems off as some kind of fever - or tired." He says, "and I'm going to find out what's up."