Love Hurts (Haikyuu) (Boyxboy)

Chapter 9

I tidied my room up while my guests ate, putting away anything that could possible hint at any of my feelings. I didn't do this with Nishi since he already knew.

I think Asahi would think me weird, if he saw the gay porn magazines in my room. Gay stuff bothers other guys, something I learned a long time ago. Most of the time, I never told anyone about it. Of course, some of the volleyball team knew, like Suga and Daichi. Tanaka just thinks I like seeing people naked and taking pictures of guys from behind. He's a bit dense.

I return downstairs to find Asahi and Nishi in the living room, homework spread over the coffee table. It's both a familiar sight and an unfamiliar one. I'm used to seeing the table covered in books and notes, but I normally saw it from the point of view of someone helping out a friend. I grab my own schoolbag and sit down, getting out my work for the day. We all sit in languid silence for a bit, until Nishi suddenly flys back from the table. I blink, looking over at him weirdly.

"You scared me, Shiki! Say something when you come downstairs!"

"My heavy footsteps down the creaky stairs don't do it for you...?"

I narrow my eyes, sticking my tongue out at him. He sticks his own out at me, going back to his seat. A soft, masculine laughter surprises me, as I'd forgotten Asahi was even present. I put my tongue back in my mouth, quickly turning back to my mathematics homework to cover my embarrassment.

"You guys certainly get along well."

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I didn't ask for any help with my work, though I needed a lot of it. Nishi was already struggling and taking up Asahi's attention from his own work. It didn't feel right to butt in.

My many attempts ended up only as failures, doing nothing for my self-confidence and only adding to the pile of emotions building up in me. I found myself holding back tears as I erased my work for the 11th time.

"Hey, Shiki, can you explain this?"

I looked up at the sound of Nishi's voice, my eyes falling upon the math problem that Asahi held out towards me. I stared at it, my brain not even attempting to solve it. Since it was Nishi's work, it was a level down, but even so... Why couldn't I do this? I'd been able to help him with anything math-related before. Unable to think properly, I did the first thing that came to mind.

Run away.

I stood, going upstairs and into my room. I stood there numbly, thinking about nothing.

>>>>>>>>>>>

"Is he alright...?"

Nishinoya didn't answer me, besides a shrug. He seemed a little confused.

"Maybe he blanked out and went to go refresh his brain?"

I frowned a little at the pile of work spread out. I knew how to do the problem, but Nishinoya hadn't been grasping it, so we'd turned to him. Thinking back on it, he hadn't said a word since we started. Had he even moved? Normally I would've been able to tell if he was staring at me, so that wasn't it.

"Oh! Let's look at Shiki's work! Maybe that'll help!"

"Okay..."

I looked over to where his work sat on the table, books piled neatly in contrast to Noya and I's mess. The paper on top caught my eye, while Nishi went through what I could only assume was his math workbook. Since he was distracted, I grabbed the paper and took a look at it.

It kind of... scared me. It was a well-known fact that Sato was smart, he'd made the top three in test scores every time. But this... something didn't seem right. For someone so smart, how could he be erasing again and again... on the first problem?