TRAGEDY | Shouyou Hinata (Murder of Crows) ✓

CHAPTER EIGHT

WARNING: MORE ANGST AHEAD. AND YES, THE STORY DOES ESCALATE QUICKLY...

The body was found the following morning by the school's janitor.

Apparently he'd stumbled over it while he was cleaning the drains, hidden beneath the holly bush that clung to the back of the school building. The boy had been reported missing last night after he didn't make it home from school, but nobody had thought to check the school since it had been closed and he'd had no reason to be there.

There was a lot of blood, according to the rumours already crawling around the school, like snakes, twisting the facts of someone's death into a morbid curiosity that had everyone talking about it. Weren't people ever told to respect the dead?

A lot were pinning it on suicide. A desperate attempt to escape, throwing himself off the school's rooftop.

You knew better. You knew different.

Koushi Sugawara did not kill himself.

You knew Koushi, perhaps not for very long, but you'd grown close in the year you'd spent with him. And you knew there was no possibility of him being the cause of his own death. Daichi was closer to the boy than anyone else and he'd never raised a suspicion that Sugawara had been suicidal. He had his quiet days, as everyone did, when you felt a bit more tired or stressed than usual, but there was no giveaway to warrant he'd go this far.

But then, who's to say if you ever truly know a person. Sometimes lying becomes such second nature that it's easier than telling truth.

Maybe Koushi Sugawara had been living a lie the whole time, and you'd all fallen under the spell.

***

"I can't believe he's gone," you said as you sat curled up on the sofa at Daichi's house, your head resting on the Captain's shoulders.

Daichi stayed quiet, you could feel him trembling underneath you, struggling to keep his emotions in check.

Your world had become filled with so much grief in such a small space of time that nobody really knew how to handle it. The loss of two people at such a young age was so rare that it had taken everyone by complete surprise, and the effects on everyone, emotionally and physically, were unprecedented.

Daichi had been closer to Suga than anyone else. The boy's death had hit him harder than anyone else in the volleyball team. You'd gone round to his house after finding out the school was closed pending an investigation and discovered him hunched over on the sofa still in his pyjamas, staring at the floor as if he wanted it to swallow him up and take him away from there. He'd been unresponsive at first, but gradually he'd acknowledged your presence, shuffling up to let you sit next to him on the sofa, tossing crumpled tissues to the floor.

He hadn't said anything yet. It reminded you of Hinata when you first saw him after his sister's death.

"He didn't do it." His voice was coarse, like dry hay, when he spoke, in barely more than a whisper. He turned his hollow eyes to you, crumpled around the edges, and shook his head. "He didn't kill himself, [F/N]."

You felt a small pang of relief that someone else shared your suspicions.

"I know, Daichi. I know."

"So why would someone do this?" He cried, gritting his teeth against the words. "Why would someone want to hurt Koushi?"

"I... don't know. I really don't. He was the loveliest boy I've ever met. Why someone would do this to him... I don't know."

Daichi sniffed, scrubbing away the tears that rested on his cheeks and trying to keep his face straight. You wished he wouldn't try to pretend, you wanted to tell him that it was okay to grieve, that it was normal, but Daichi was the kind of person who stayed strong for others. He was staying strong for Koushi.