ᴍᴏɴᴏᴛᴏɴᴇ | ɴɪsʜɪɴᴏʏᴀ ʏ.

[3]

Nishinoya Yū dreamt of a black cat by the window.

It was a day after his eight birthday and despite of the years that had passed since, if something were to remind him he would still remember the dream vividly.

He recalled standing in front of a house and had his eyes fixed on the window on the second floor. The house in itself was nothing special, just a simple two-storied building that was painted in beige with its only unique trait were the vines that had wrapped itself around it. Its curtains were drawn and a cat was curled up on the windowsill and its tail dangling lazily.

The house's gate was tightly locked though and no matter how many times he tried to climb over its walled bricked fence, it just seemed to grow higher and higher.

He remembered the frustration that bubbled in his chest every time his attempt didn't bear any fruition.

The boy needed to reach that window. He needed to cross that wall. And the strangest part was, he didn't have any idea why.

He remembered screaming something but his words were muffled and the cat stayed in its spot. It didn't make any motion of moving nor did it even acknowledged his presence. It just stayed there seemingly trapped in time. He watched as the world changed before it, watched as each season passed by and yet it continued to slumber.

Then a strong gust of wind suddenly attacked him and the next time he opened his eyes, the black cat wasn't there anymore.

Instead he saw a girl about his age from where the cat was originally sleeping. Much like the feline, she slept soundly and was completely unaware of his presence which left him to admire her beauty. Even as a little boy, he understood why his cheeks started to color and why his heart started to beat hard in his chest. He wouldn't call it love (he was still too young to understand how that worked) but seeing her made him feel emotions he couldn't put a name on.

As a child he was afraid of a lot of things.

He felt that in each corner lurked a dangerous beast ready to devour him whole. He was afraid to take any risk just in case it would lead him to his death. But strangely enough, that fear wasn't present as he gazed at the little sleeping beauty. He wanted to meet her. He wanted to talk to her, ask her for her name, and most importantly he wanted to have her open her eyes and look at him.

But in the end he never did accomplished any of those.

He dreamt of being able to successfully climb nearly half of the wall only to be pulled down by a shadowy figure. He then woke up with his face planted on his bedroom floor.

Yū never did saw her again in his dreams. She was like a fleeting memory he slowly forgot as time changed.

It was when years later that he remembered her again. The volleyball team was having its afternoon practice and Shoyō was chattering about his sister and how she's suddenly having an interest towards the story of Sleeping Beauty. The memory didn't instantly came back to him until his lowerclassman came to the part where the prince climbed the tower to kiss the princess and break the curse. And ah! He did had that kind of dream.

The boy was very surprised of how clear the memory was despite of having it buried for a long time.

Of course he didn't waste any chance of telling the younger his dream, which in turn earned him that look of complete admiration. Most of it was due to him tweaking with the story a bit. He told Shoyō that he indeed managed to climb the wall, saved the princess, and gallantly ran toward the setting sun with her in his strong arms.

Tsukishima took a jab at him by saying not only was his height that of a middle schooler but so was his dreams. Yū screamed at him to "shut the fuck up!" and "respect me, I'm your senpai!"