mixtapes ; tsukishima kei

1.01

"play me a song that you like
you can bet i'll know every line"

LET'S FALL IN LOVE FOR THE NIGHT - FINNEAS

students gathered around each other's desks chattering during their lunch period. yamaguchi sat next to his friend tsukishima, both boys focused on eating the bentos they brought. neither of them spoke, not wanting to break the comfortable silence. tsukishima gently placed his chopsticks down and stood up.

"i'm going to get a drink from the vending machine," he said while checking that he still had his wallet in his uniform pocket.

the freckled boy nodded and smiled, "okay tsukki! hurry though, class is about to start."

tsukishima nodded back and walked out of the classroom. he strolled through the long hallways occasionally making turns to get to his destination. his hands reached to pull up his headphones over his ears but realized they weren't around his neck because he took them off before class started. tsukishima sighed as he realized that his walk would have to be in silence.

once he spotted the vending machine he was searching for, he fished out his wallet and pressed the buttons to get a bottle of water. while inserting the money into the machine, he heard the sound of a guitar strumming, making his ears perk up.

the water bottle tumbled into the receiving slot and tsukishima briefly wondered, "who's playing music during lunch?"

the music was calm and tsukishima could hear a voice singing, but he couldn't make out the words. the guitar's sound suddenly got faster and more upbeat, while the voice got louder and more passionate.

tsukishima dismissed his thoughts and was about to go to class, but when he turned around he saw hinata and kageyama walking together while arguing (unsurprisingly). not wanting to get involved, tsukishima speed-walked the opposite way, which happened to be towards the music. as he got closer, the music got louder and finally, the tall blond stopped outside the classroom it was coming from.

"well," tsukishima thought. "might as well be nosy while i'm here."

he hid his body behind a wall and peeked his head through the door to see a brown haired girl sitting on a stool with a guitar and singing. she was fully focused on moving her finger to the correct strings, only closing her eyes to hit the high notes. tsukishima was instantly entranced by the brunette; something about her singing was enchanting.

tsukishima didn't know the song but recognized that it was in english. he was trying to quickly translate the words she was singing to japanese, so he could understand what the song was about.

the song got slower again as the girl sang the final lines "i know better, i know better, i know better than to ever call you mine". all of a sudden, she looked up from her guitar and made direct eye contact with tsukishima, catching him by surprise.

"can i help you?" she asked in japanese. she hopped off the stool she was sitting on, and slid her guitar back into the case.

tsukishima stepped out from the wall he was hiding behind and gave a tight smile. "sorry to eavesdrop. i was trying to mind my own business, but your music was so loud i couldn't help but notice" he answered.

the brunette raised an eyebrow at his snotty answer. "i'll keep it down next time." she sarcastically said, throwing her guitar case on her back. the girl then walked out the door, in the same direction tsukishima needed to go.

tsukishima tailed behind the girl, noticing her black guitar case was covered in colorful stickers. "so, are you following me now?" she asked, not even turning to look at tsukishima.

"why would i follow a weirdo like you? i'm just trying to get back to the first year hallway before i'm late for class," he said while rolling his eyes.

"so you're also a first year? my name's imai aika, i'm in class three."

"i'm tsukishima kei, and i'm in class four. you have an accent– where are you from?"

imai paused for a second, waiting for tsukishima to catch up so she could look at him while talking. "i grew up in tokyo and lived with my dad before moving to the states to live with my mom. then, my mom decided that she wanted to come back to japan, but she didn't want to live in the city again. so, here i am." she explained while fiddling with the strap of her guitar case.

the pair walked in silence back to their shared hallway. once reaching classroom three imai said, "anyways, it was nice to meet you tsukishima. i'll see you around." the smaller girl turned around and walked towards her assigned seat.

tsukishima strolled into his classroom and instantly headed towards his desk. yamaguchi turned to the blond once he sat down. "what took you so long? you're not going to have enough time to finish your lunch!"

"shut up yamaguchi."

"sorry, tsukki!"