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3.2

"hey," iwaizumi said, surprised at the sight of matsukawa and oikawa together on the couch.

"hey iwa-chan," oikawa replied, smiling at him.

matsukawa and iwaizumi's eyes met — and silence followed. they hadn't really spoken in a long time, convenience store encounter excluded, and even there hanamaki did most of the talking.

"iwaizumi."

"hey, matsukawa, uh... how are you?"

"i'm okay. how's the boyfriend thief?"

"mattsun, i thought..." oikawa started, but he was quickly cut off.

"yeah, i support you. not him. he's the one that's been fucking all of this up and it's pretty fucking annoying, because everyone's messed up now."

"matsukawa, you know i love him. and i'm sorry for the shitstorm. but come on, give me a break."

"no," he said, "i will not. i get it, you love him. but this insanely incomprehensible breakup of yours that nobody even understands was your faults, and you could have easily salvaged it. instead, you waited until tooru was involved with a perfectly nice boy who was nothing but sweet, kind and honest. and your actions broke his heart."

"we all know tooru and i were ending up together eventually."

"so? then you should've taken initiative earlier on."

"mattsun, it was my fault," oikawa mumbled, "i cheated. i'm the jerk here. not iwa-chan."

"you are a jerk. but he's on a whole other level." he looked at iwaizumi. "nobody asked you to come back. he was doing fine without you. we all were. you just barged in here and messed up so many people, and all for your own good. you're so fucking selfish."

"oh, like you're such a saint," iwaizumi spat, "wanna know how shitty life was for me after you broke taka? i spent months trying to get him back on his feet."

matsukawa looked away angrily. "yeah. well, you're not me. you were always more mature and wiser. nobody expected shit from me."

"so why are you lecturing me?"

"because i learned from my mistake. and i apologized a million times."

"yeah. but that doesn't make it right. and it doesn't give you the right to lecture me about this shit."

"yes it does," oikawa said quietly. both of them looked at him.

"what?" iwaizumi asked.

"taka's still in love with mattsun," he whispered, "i, uh... we texted each other on and off after our relationships went to shit. i promised i wouldn't tell but he's still in love with mattsun."

matsukawa looked at him, shocked. "but he said..."

"he lied. he hates you but he's still desperately in love with you. wether he likes it or not. and even though he's angry... he blames himself too. for not being good enough."

"fucking hell. i should have known. i should've said mor—"

"mattsun, it's best to leave it. it's good that you apologize, but... he's just going to hold on to hope. he's just going to hate you and himself more. and he wants to end this so badly, because he knows he can't have you." he looked at iwaizumi. "he's still in love with him because of how he changed. so advice from him should be taken."

"i have to go," matsukawa said abruptly, pushing himself up from the couch, and heading straight for the door.

"issei, don—"

"i have to!" he called out. they heard the door slam, and then, silence.

"that jackass," iwaizumi muttered.

"what? he's not. he's the only one who's on my side in this one."

"so what? did you hear how he talked about me? about us?"

"maybe you should start realizing that it was the truth. tadashi was a perfectly amazing guy and we screwed him over. you did, by coming back when you did. i did by sleeping with you. he's hurting the most. yet you still can't seem to realize."

—

"where's hanamakki?"

"i don't fucking know. gone, hopefully," tsukishima mumbled, caught up on his laptop.

"what?"

"i told him to fuck off back home. that's what."

"why would you do that?!" matsukawa exclaimed, one hand tangled in his hair, gripping it, "kei, i need to talk to him, when did he leave?"

"don't know and don't care." he closed his laptop and looked at him. "why do you? what is it you need to talk about?"

"he's in love with me," matsukawa breathed.

"no shit. are you in love with him too now?"

"no, i—"

"look, issei," he said, standing up, laptop under his arm, "there's only so much shit i can take. my best friend is in shambles and my boyfriend is running after some selfish idiot, all because you four couldn't keep it in your pants years ago and had to go and fuck it up. i've seen you what, three times in the past week? because you're always going out of your way for hanamaki."

"kei, i—"

"no, it's my turn. i'm done. if you guys can't figure this out, i don't want to be a part of it."

"i'm going to tell him that it won't ever be the same again," matsukawa said. tsukishima looked at him, surprised.

"what?"

"i thought i was being nice. apparently, i was just feeding him hope. i'm going to tell him that we're done. that there's no chance of reconciling." he bit his lip. "it's tough on me too, you know. he was my best friend for years two. everyone views it as illegitimate, because of tooru and iwaizumi as a comparison, but it's hard. i mean..." he laughed, sitting down on the severely damaged black chair in the living room, "i'm going to have to accept that i'm never going to see him again. that's a whole part of my life that i'm putting away. but i don't love him. for him and for us i have to do this."

silence followed. then, "good luck."

he looked at tsukishima, sparkles in his eyes, butterflies in his stomach and copious amounts of love in his heart. "thanks. i need it."

"i know. he's a real bitch."