Lecture Days!

3 | Hajime Iwaizumi

Funnily enough, Iwaizumi didn't expect himself to be one of the first to arrive at the Forest Fairies Cafe. Sure, Assikawa showed up five minutes later, but still. Iwaizumi didn't expect himself to be the first; he'd thought he'd get to either meet new friends or to greet old ones, not stand awkwardly outside in the wind. He was glad to see Oikawa though. And surprisingly on time. But with companions he'd never seen before.

"Iwa-chan!" Oikawa burst out in a greeting once he saw his childhood friend. The brunet's arms were outstretched to give him a hug, and the setter ran up to the spiker to grant him a hug. He was stopped when Iwaizumi held up a hand to Oikawa's face to make sure his hyper friend kept his distance. Oikawa pouted. "Iwa!"

Rolling his dark green eyes, crossing his arms when he backed away. "Hey Assikawa. You're on time, wow," Iwaizumi pointed out bluntly.

This caused a wail to erupt from Oikawa's vocal chords. "Aw!! Iwa-chan, you're so mean!"

Once again, the spiker rolled his eyes to peer back behind the former Seijou captain. None of the people behind Oikawa were familiar to him personally. He only knew a few faces from a few of his early orientation lectures. But Iwaizumi wasn't too surprised. Oikawa did mention that he was going to be bringing a few friends with him, didn't he? To both grab Oikawa's attention and to stop him from embarrassing him even further, Iwaizumi punched his best friend's arm. "Oi, Oikawa," he asked his friend, "Are these the new friends you said you'd be bringing along?"

Oikawa stopped his loud bickering to nothing and switched his foolish expression to a cheerful and welcoming one. "Yeah, that's them," he said with a grin. He walked up to his new friends and stood behind them, placing a hand on each of their shoulders as he introduced them.

"This is Koutarou Bokuto from Fukurodani High -- he's one of the top 5 aces of the country and was their volleyball captain last year," Oikawa introduced. He patted the shoulder of a tall boy, with unnatural white hair with black streaks, styled in a strange shape that made him resemble two horns. Along with the boy's amber eyes, Bokuto resembled an owl in a way.

Bokuto grinned. "Yo! Nice to meet 'ya, you must be Iwa-chan, right?"

An irk mark appeared on Iwaizumi's forehead. Is this what Oikawa called him behind his back? The dark-haired boy gritted his teeth and crossed his arms, fingers clenched into fists. "Don't call me "Iwa-chan," Bokuto," he warned.

"Ohoho? A little feisty spiker, are we now?" Bokuto teased.

The girl next to him rolled her eyes. "Don't annoy him, Bokuto. What a bad impression," she stated coolly. Her slim, pale arms crossed, and her chilling pale blue eyes relaxed in a bored-like expression. Her pale blonde hair was cut short-- only reaching her ears in a sleek pixie cut. Although her focus was on Bokuto as she lectured him about impressions for a moment, she shifted her gaze to Iwaizumi. "Sorry for the bother, Hajime-san," she said formally. "Bokuto here can get a little reckless." Carefully, she held out a slim hand, which he noted to be calloused and worn. "I'm Isobe Gina (1), former captain of Niiyama Joshi Girls' High," she introduced herself.

Iwaizumi's jaw slacked as he took her hand and gave it a few firm shakes. "The Queens?"

"She's the Ultimate Queen," piped up another person. "Ironic, since she gets annoyed by the Grand King Oikawa there."

"Hey!" Oikawa argued.

Iwaizumi smirked as he let go of Gina's hand so that he could transfer his attention to the new speaker-- a [Height] person with [Hair Length], [Hair Texture], [Hair Colour] hair and clear, [Skin Tone] skin. A smile graced their face, accentuating their bright [Eye Color] pools that reflected the fairy lights behind Iwaizumi. Of course, they didn't stand out in any particular beautiful way, but somehow, Iwaizumi was drawn to this curious character. Normally, he could read a person's character quite easily, but it was hard to tell with this one. It was intriguing to him...

This new speaker scoffed. "Oikawa, you dweeb," they teased, shifting their weight onto one leg.

"You're so mean to me, [Last Name]!" Oikawa pouted again, draping an arm on one of the person's shoulders. The former Seijou captain turned to Iwaizumi, grinning. "This is [Last Name] [Name]! They coached Co-Ed teams for the little ones in just about any sport you can imagine!" He bragged.

[Name] shyly shrugged. "I don't play every sport, Oikawa!" They turned to Iwaizumi. "Just call me [Name]."

Iwaizumi nodded, offering [Name] a cheerful smile, which they returned. But being the man Oikawa was, he laughed.

"No way! You play tons of sports! Let's see, there was volleyball... and swimming, right? And a couple more..?"

"Volleyball, swim, soccer, tennis, track, and badminton," [Name] confirmed. "But I'm not trying to brag or anything!"

"Of course you weren't," Bokuto teased. Suddenly, his attention was pulled away from [Name] and the others, and his eyes lit up. He opened his mouth to let out a loud and annoying crow, "KUROOOO! OHOHO! I didn't expect to see you here!"

Peering behind Oikawa and the others, Iwaizumi craned his neck to view a group of six, all of which he recognized: Daichi Sawamura of Karasuno, Sugawara Koushi of Karasuno, Asahi Azumane of Karasuno, Kiyoko Shimizu of Karasuno, Kuroo Tetsurou of Nekoma, and Ushijima Wakatoshi of Shiratorizawa.

Oikawa jumped at the chance to greet them. "You guys! You came! I'm so touched."

"Of course they would come if they said yes to your text, Assikawa," Iwaizumi pointed out blatantly.

"Well, I know that," OIkawa pouted as he tapped his fingers together. But he pulled it together and shot his group of friends a quick smile. "Anyways, let's go inside. We can all introduce everyone to each other once we get our table," he reminded everyone. He was answered with nods and interjections of agreement, so Oikawa led his group of friends in.

Without even meaning to, Iwaizumi fell into the same pace as [Name]. And knowing how awkward things could be with blooming friendship, he quickly tried to start up a conversation as Oikawa stopped them all in the lobby of the cafe/restaurant. "So... you play a lot of sports, huh, [Last Name]-san?" He asked.

[Name], who was silently admiring the decor of the place with wonder, waved it off. "I won't respond unless you use [Name] instead of [Last Name]-san~" They singsonged.

The Seijou ace blinked. What an easygoing person. Kinda like Oikawa in a way. "Sorry, [Name]," he chuckled. "I'm just a lot more used to calling people by Last Name-san instead of by First Names," he explained. "You can call me Iwaizumi if you want." Having two people call each other by their first names already seemed kind of weird and foreign to Iwaizumi, but he didn't question it.

"I was already planning on calling you Iwaizumi instead of Hajime-san from the beginning," [Name] laughed. "Don't seem so self-righteous, I do that to everyone."

An irk mark appeared on Iwaizumi's forehead, but he quickly relaxed. It was only a tease, and for some reason, it didn't actually make him that mad. Actually, it felt nice to be teased by someone other than Oikawa. "Man, you've got some guts, [Name]," Iwaizumi complimented.

With an eyeroll, [Name] crossed their arms and grinned as Oikawa finished with their reservations, following a waiter to their table. "Of course I've got guts, or else I wouldn't be able to handle you guys," she stated as a matter of factly.

(1): I called her "Gina Isobe" because although Niiyama Girls' High is a canon high school, not much is known about them. Most of their members are unknown and unknown, only making a brief showing in one of the Haikyuu!! chapters. Her name translates to "Silvery Seashore" which is quite strange, since I picked her name randomly ^^;