eternal

different / qianru

not much qianru here; is actually focusing on their firstborn, hana :>>

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as you may have guessed, oikawa and qian were happily married. they were 'meant to be', as quoted by matsukawa and hanamaki, and when they got their happy ending, the seijoh team couldn't be more than happy for both their ex-captain and his then-girlfriend.

so it was not a surprise that they had two children a few years into their marriage: a daughter named hana and a son named haru. matsukawa and hanamaki rejoiced, because they finally had 'young blood' to play with, despite iwaizumi's and belinda's only son, ivan, being just two years old at the time and was still pretty much a toddler.

as hana began to grow older and subsequently attended junior high (haru was three years younger and was attending elementary school at that time), she began to feel more self-conscious of herself: she began to take care of her appearances more and used skincare products since her face was starting to break out in pimples. (sometimes, she wondered how her father managed to have such youthful and clear skin. clearly his genes were not passed down to her!)

this one day, she was just minding her business in class: taking out her math textbook and preparing for the next class, which was mathematics. suddenly, she felt a presence beside her, and she turned her head upwards to look at whoever it was. it was watari, the bad boy and bully of her grade. despite his handsome looks, hana was not one bit attracted to him since he proved himself to be a jackass.

"yo, oikawa," he said, staring down at her with a little smirk in place, "do you happen to be half?"

half, or basically half-japanese people, were not very common in japan, making up two percent of the overall population. yet, they are the people whom some of the 'pure' japanese tend to look down upon.

hana squinted at watari, anxiety somewhat climbing up her spine. he should have already known she was half. her father was rather well-known in the volleyball field, and almost everyone knows that his wife was chinese.

"yeah, what about it?" she asked, trying to remain composed and unaffected.

his smirk got even wider, and he yelled, "i knew it! you're just a foreigner, aren't you! you clearly don't look japanese, and you look kinda ugly. you don't belong in japan; you're just a fake. go back to where you came from, half." he spat out 'half' like it was some kind of disease. not to mention that his loud proclamation attracted the attention of virtually everyone in the classroom, so all eyes were naturally on her.

tears began to bubble furiously in her eyes and she clenched her fists tight, hiding them under the desk. no, no, no. she should not cry, she should stay strong and brush him off-

no. she bit her lower lip and was about to cry when she felt a hand rest on her shoulder. she turned her head to look - it was her best friend, sakura. their parents being close friends equated to them being friends as well.

"go away, watari," sakura said, frowning at the much taller boy, "you're a jerk, you know that? that was totally uncalled for." however, with her now steel-like gaze and intimidating aura, she caused a chill to run down the boy's spine. watari simply laughed and backed off, clearly thrown off by the smaller brunette.

once he slinked back to his seat, sakura turned to hana, eyes wide with concern, "you should just ignore him. he enjoys getting a kick out of stuff like that."

hana gave a small smile, "i know. thanks, sakura."

however, she could not just shake off the fact that she really was what watari said she was.

+

"welcome back, hana-chan-" tooru was immediately cut off by the quick shutting - almost slamming, actually - door of hana's bedroom.

tooru was definitely surprised. he had never seen hana slam her door that forcefully before: she had always been a bit of a princess, closing doors gently and never got upset, so this was something new for tooru. maybe because she was hitting puberty soon? tooru wanted to find out.

he walked towards her door and raised a fist up, rapping against the wood sharply, "hana-chan? i'm coming in."

broken sobs and protests of "tou-san, no" fell on deaf ears and tooru easily let himself in to his daughter's room. his pretty daughter, usually all smiles and perfect wavy hair, was lying facedown on her bed, face buried in a fluffy pillow.

"hana-chan, what's wrong?" tooru asked, immediately sitting beside his daughter and running a hand through her hair.

slowly, the teary-eyed oikawa raised her head to face her father's. between sniffs, she asked, "tou-san, is it bad that i'm half?"

tooru's eyes widened, "no, not at all, hana-chan! in fact, i think it makes you really unique." were kids these days really still hung over the whole half thing?

her eyes widened, "r-really?"

he smiled, nodding as he immediately picked her up and pulled her into his arms, "you've got the best of both worlds, hana-chan! you've got a handsome japanese dad and a beautiful chinese mom! you've got a pretty dense heritage, hana-chan. not a lot of people in japan are like you, you know."

hana sniffed, "i know, tou-san... it's just that this boy in my class started making fun of me because i'm half and he said that i don't belong in japan and-" she broke off mid-sentence, tears falling down her cheeks again and she started choking up once more.

clearly disturbed by the mentioned bully's words, tooru frowned and immediately reached out to his daughter's face, wiping away her tears, "the guy is being a prick, hana. you shouldn't listen to boys like him; he's not a real japanese boy. i'm japanese, and i'm telling you to be proud of yourself and your heritage, got it?"

he smiled, rubbing hana's head. she smiled, giggled, and nodded.

"see!" tooru said, "that's my girl. you look so much prettier when you smile, just like tou-san!"

she immediately wrinkled her nose, "ew, that's narcissistic of you, tou-san."

at that precise moment, both father and daughter heard a loud and cheery "i'm home!", indicating qian's return.

"now smile for me, okay?" he said, and hana immediately grinned at her father, "there you go! now let's go greet kaa-san and we'll go get haru-chan from school."

she nodded, and hand-in-hand, they exited out of her bedroom.

hana was more than grateful for her family. as her mother spread her arms out to give her a welcome hug, and her father joined in, hana never felt more than happier. they were home, and her vibrant heritage was meant for her to stand proud and tall for.

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i'm starting to get sick of quarantine 🤢 tell me how are y'all surviving, i need some tips!

i enjoy messing around with the ship kids' appearances. at this point, i don't even remember who's supposed to look like which parents, lmao. one thing's for sure, sakura (shonnon's kid) definitely has hinata's scary face.

also, yes, japan is rather ethnically homogenous and 98% of its population is ethnically full japanese. there is somewhat racism against the half-japanese (aka 'half') and the japanese tend to shy away from them. which makes me mega sad since when was ethinicity ever an issue in making friends?? racist japanese jerks can suck my toe!