SEASONS | [HAIKYUU] ▼

[ AUTUMN ]

FALLEN LEAVES AND SNAPPING TWIGS.
Sweetness and sweat, the lingering scent of summer unwilling to leave despite the shift of seasons, still shrouding the first few shadows cast by the myriad of multicolored leaves, swerving from sweltering greens to subdued sands, opaque oranges, and finally rash reds, settling in only once every shred of the previous uncircumspect calidity. Shuffling throughout nature and temperature, and likewise throughout the natures and temperatures of all those observing the oddity of autumn.

Audacious adolescents heated with the luscious lusts of the first break spent with the first someone, the first anyone, the first love and first kiss and first lingering memory, the first spark in the fire of new love, raw and uncontained, were forced to face the flickering embers of their flames, which had begun to tremble and quiver with the approaching events. No longer could every moment be spent alone together as though they were the only two beneath the innumerable, immeasurable stars. Elations of new relations were shoved back upon the shelf in place of studies.

The one time of break had drawn to a crawling, scraping close.

For most it marked the return of a schedule. A pattern as familiar as eat, sleep, work, breathe, repeat, because, as far as the preliminary basics were concerned, that was precisely what the pattern in poll was. Sit for eight hours, study for another eight or more. Shove in time for fun whenever it could be allotted. Fall back under the shroud of okay days with parents and small talk with classmates despite feeling the neverending tug of the loss of freedom at the corners of the heart, calling from windows and doors and roofs and begging for a release from the four walls that bound one to a fate as plain as day.

And for others it marked the beginning of something entirely new.

At least, as you walked through the doors of your new school, that was precisely what autumn meant to you.