Strangers Like Me [Haikyuu OC]

Chapter 1

The pink clashed with the blue sky, creating a palette of color. The fresh spring breeze ruffled the unbuttoned blazer, causing goosebumps to appear across the skin of her thighs. Akemi continued walking towards the classroom, slightly bopping her head to the music streaming through her headphones. She knew her surroundings, barely stepping aside when an energetic kid ran past her.

He managed to shout a quick sorry over the noise of the schoolyard. Akemi observed the boy, watching how he dashed towards the school gymnasium, with volleyball shoes peeking from his schoolbag. Stepping inside the school building, she opened her locker room, exchanging the outside shoes for her indoor ones. If this were like her previous years, this would be the part where she would stuff her gym bag and complain about how tiny the lockers were while her brother—

No. Akemi wasn't allowed to think about him.

Instead, she shoved the thoughts to the side, shut the metal door close, and headed towards the classroom marked 1-4. The song River of Darkness by The Midnight played through her headphones as she scanned the room for the nearest open seat and located one towards the back, right behind a tall blond boy. Shrugging, she walked around the scattered groups of conversing teens and plopped herself down, letting her head rest against the desk as she looked towards the left. Her left side had a window that allowed her to see the freshly bloomed cherry blossom trees, along with the various specks that resembled students of Karsuno High School.

"Your music is too loud," Akemi didn't move her head from the position, but her eyes glanced up toward the source of the voice. The tall boy was the one who spoke with his head tilted so that he could look over his shoulder at her.

She glanced at her phone and lowered the volume, "Happy?"

"Whatever. Next time play some good music," the boy retorted, shoving his headphones on. With him no longer looking, Akemi mocked his words, grumbling about how her music was good and people lacked taste. Still, she knew it wasn't wise to pick a fight on the first day of school.

With no more interruptions, the day began as her homeroom teacher took attendance and launched into a speech about classroom rules and the importance of the dress code. Akemi didn't pay much attention, too caught up watching small cherry blossom petals float away and land on the ground. She's aware of the eyes, her purple-dyed hair a clear violation of the school rules, and yet her eyes continued to focus on the floating petals.

That occurred throughout the entire day, and when lunch rolled around, she stood up in a zombie-like manner and shuffled towards the nearest vending machine, pulling out the coin purse that her brother—

Nope.

Angry with how easily her mind drifted to him, Akemi jammed the coins into their slot and hit the button for the milk option. Maybe it was her lucky day as two cartons fell instead of one.

"Sweet," she stabbed one with the straw and slurped the drink, stepping aside for a boy with a scowl to move forward in line. Before she could walk away, she heard him mumble to himself.

"There's no more milk. Great," the boy said sarcastically, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his uniform pants.

Akemi looked down at her hand, where she clutched the free milk she got. Should she hand it over? Let the boy enjoy the goodies? Or should she be selfish?

Sigh.

"Here," she dropped the free milk into his hand, "I got two, but you can have this one." Akemi turned around to walk away, opened the door to head inside, and left behind a confused boy.

Kageyama Tobio wasn't used to acts of kindness like these. He was used to people talking about how coldhearted he was or how he always demanded to be in control of everything. They called him various names, from King of the Court to Tyrant of the Court. Many heard the rumors and stayed away. Whenever they spied his dark hair and tall figure, they would plaster themselves against the walls of the hallways and ignore his existence. High school should be different, and yet rumors seemed to follow him.