Splash of Color

6: A New Angle

As Monday rolled around, you almost forgot about Oikawa sticking around to hang out with you in your club until he called you out in the hallway.

"Rudolph-chan!"

You keep walking.

"Rudolph!" You notice he doesn't seem to be letting up and people were starting to stare. You took a deep breath to calm yourself before you finally faced him. "Finally! Did you not hear me?"

Your eyes narrowed at him. He knew exactly why you didn't want to turn around and he was playing dumb. "I guess not. What did you need?"

"Oh, I was just reminding you that I'll be visiting your club after my practice is finished!"

You raise your brow. "I thought you didn't practice on Mondays?"

He gives you his usual smile. "Oh I don't, but I still watch on the sidelines to stay informed."

"Oh, okay." You weren't all that surprised. You knew he was pretty dedicated to the sport. "See you after then." You begin to turn back around to go to your original destination.

"Oh!" He calls out. "And leave the door open!"

You just wave back dismissively at his comment, hoping to not stir anymore commotion.

~~

You didn't notice that talking with Oikawa was a bad thing until you saw the situations it lead to.

One, the girls in your class seemed to have decided you didn't exist over the weekend.

Two, your desk didn't look that messy when you left it.

Your brows furrowed in thought. You only knew of things like this happening in mangas but you didn't know these gestures of bullying were real and very in your face. You felt more confused than upset at the situation, really. I mean, doing this seems like more effort than actually just talking to the guy and from those few interactions with him, he would more than happily welcome more girls in his arms. Having no thoughts on how to solve this unneeded dispute as of now, you just begin by cleaning off your desk almost absentmindedly, brainstorming solutions. You were interrupted by a couple pairs of hands that began helping you. Looking up, you see Oikawa's friend Iwaizumi and your art club member Tadashi.

"Man, girls are scary." Tadashi muttered as he helped you organize your papers.

"That idiot..." Iwaizumi grumbles under his breath, taking a napkin and wiping down some unflattering words written on your desk.

"Uh..." You were taken aback by their sudden appearance before you composed yourself again. "Thanks guys, but I can take it from here." You hold out one hand for the papers Tadashi organized and the other hand for the napkin Iwaizumi was using. They seemed unconvinced by leaving you as is until you shot them a confident smile, a smile that showed that this definitely had not brought you down. They then went ahead and gave you your papers and a napkin to clean the rest of your desk.

As you finished fixing up your desk, you sat down and began to observe who would have the drive to pull a stunt like this.

It doesn't take long for you to see a couple of the same girls you saw with Ami huddled around the desk. The same girls who seemed to glance back at you once in a while as they did back in the gym were looking at you with such distaste that you didn't notice was possible until now.

Well, mystery one solved.

You looked back down and continued to brainstorm in your head. The main thing was the fact that their strength was in numbers. If you could weaken the foundation that seemed to spur their actions, this unnecessary dispute will be resolved. Now the second mystery would be figuring out what that foundation is...