Quiet / m.atsumu

13. hate

THIRD POV

"Y/n, do you wanna grab lunch with me before my team returns to Tokyo?" Bokuto excitedly asked her.

The practice match ended a little longer than usual and both teams did heated rallies from left and right, but Fukurodani still won. Inarizaki's coach offered Fukurodani to rest at the school and the clean showers—so they won't watch a cold when they leave.

Bokuto made sure he finished first in able to ask Y/n to hang out before their departure. Fukurodani gave him frowns, obviously wanting their captain to focus more on priorities rather than Y/n. Sure, she's a nice person and had helped as manager when she was a first year in Fukurodani–but it's not enough reason for the owl to give excessive kindness and attention, getting distracted as he did so.

The girl pretended to fix notes on her clipboard, "Ahh, Bokuto-san. I can't. I'm really sorry. Maybe next time?"

"What? Why?" He sadly asked.

She looked up from the clipboard and to him, "I'm busy."

The boy gulped, an idea came into his mind.

"B-But...Akaashi will be there too...? And it'll be just us three..," He desperately tried to convince her.

Her eyes brightened up though not very obvious at the mention of Akaashi, "...He'll be there?"

"Yeah," He gave a fake smile, obviously hurt at how she insisted on coming just because of Akaashi.

She pretended to think about it though she already made up her mind, "In that case, of course I'll go. Miya could learn a thing or two from Keiji as a setter anyway."

He frowned, "I thought you were busy though?"

"I can always finish it by the end of the day."

Lie. She only told him she was busy because she didn't feel the need to hang out with him. Only for Akaashi. At least that's what almost everyone in the room thinks.

Bokuto gathered courage, "Y/n, why do you hate me? You only care about Akaashi—what about me? Aren't we close? What happened to the 10 year old Y/n I knew?" He asked, feeling of hopelessness laced in his tone.

"Bokuto-san, you ask dumb questions," She sighed and rubbed her temples with her fingers.

He felt a little annoyed, "Dumb how? Come on—work with me here Y/n. I'm doing my best, please answer me honestly."

"Honestly? Fine," She put the clipboard down on the bench and crossed her arms.

"I don't particularly hate you—but I don't like you that much either, you're a little clingy sometimes, Bokuto-san. We're still friends. But there are just boundaries that you can't seem to stay put from," She said with no pauses, not an unnecessary movement shown.

Speechless. He couldn't believe what he just heard. The boy could feel his heart pumps slowly decreasing, a disheartened expression was threatening to explode on his face.

He felt like the girl he liked and almost loved just bluntly told him face to face that Akaashi is more superior than him.

"And you used to call me Ko, too," He sadly smiled before his head hung low, from embarrassment and hurt, "Do you even remember how we hung out when we were kids?" He whispered to himself.

The girl couldn't take it anymore, "I changed my mind, I'm not going anymore. Go back to your team," She gritted her teeth. Inarizaki was done showering and got changed, she needed Bokuto to flee before they saw her talking to him.

Y/n walked away before Bokuto could even say a proper bye.

Stop. I need you to stop. Please, Ko.