Silent || Kagehina

F o u r t e e n

Oikawa's POV

I still feel awful about rejecting Shouyou, but at the same time, I know he doesn't need me. It hurts to know this, but I'm glad I realized it before he did, otherwise we could've rewritten our fates for the worst.

I ultimately decided to give Tobio-chan a few days to settle in with Shouyou since they have four weeks of winter break. I knew in advance that his parents had gone away for the break through Iwa-chan, but I waited to find that out for myself when I brought the shrimp over to Tobio's house.

Three days after I allow them both to get comfortable with each other, I hesitantly knock on Tobio's door. I felt somewhat nervous, but I was clueless to why I felt this way. Before I could really look prim and proper, the door swings open to reveal Tobio.

"Tobio-chan!" I exclaim in my happiest tone. He furrows his brows in suspicion, but I could tell he easily shrugged it off.

"Come in, but be quiet. Shouyou's sleeping." The black haired boy muttered in a warning resonance, beckoning for me to come upstairs with him. In return, I follow him up the stairs and see Shouyou lying in his bed, fast asleep.

"So, calling him Shouyou now, huh?" I tease the first year and unsurprisingly, he looks down, and I notice his face is flushed red.

"O-Only when he's not awake," he murmured in reply, slowly looking up again to keep an eye on the ginger.

I let out a small chuckle and followed it up with a smirk afterward. Tobio looks at me a bit confused and I say, "You're oblivious, aren't you?"

"W-What?" Was his only reply, indicating he was genuinely confused. I couldn't resist snickering at his pathetic response.

"You're acting the way Shouyou acted around me. It makes me wonder if he's realized that you're the one for him."

"O-Oikawa-san, what're you trying to get at?"

"I think it's best to let it happen naturally."

"Never mind."

Silence settles between us for a few minutes. I lay on Tobio's floor and stare at the ceiling fan, watching it spin repeatedly in the same motion. After those few minutes pass, he says, "Oikawa?" which interrupts my ongoing thoughts. I hum in reply and allow him to go on with speaking his mind and curiosities.

"Have you ever felt that feeling before?"

"What is that feeling? You've sparked my curiosity."

"Y-You know, the one where your stomach feels queasy as if a bunch of butterflies are flying around inside of it. The one where you feel your face heat up and your heart race at a rapid pace; the feeling is indescribable."

"Tobio, you're a dumbass."

"You're the one to talk," I heard Tobio mutter under his breath, but I decided to not pick a fight with the first year. I sighed and added onto with my sentence, saying,

"What you're feeling is love. That feeling isn't indescribable, it's love, it's something you haven't felt previously until what I assume is when you met Shouyou."

He froze in place. I notice him freeze up and I gaze at him amusingly in return. "I'm not wrong, am I? What a shame because—" I was stopped unexpectedly by the formerly unheeding boy.

"I don't doubt my feelings for him. To be honest, I'm terrified about how he feels about me."

It was definitely a reply I wasn't expecting to receive. The former king of the court, the most petrifying human being in the Miyagi Prefecture, confessed to being afraid of something?

I was stunned.. mentally. Of course I did my best to not show any of these surprised and suppressed feelings to my inferior, but I was genuinely shocked.

I give Tobio a small smile and say, "So, you do fess up to being in love with someone."

He doesn't give me his attention in reply and keeps his eyes on Shouyou. He lays his head down on the end of his bed and I notice his face radiating a gentle blush, indicating that he's simply admiring the middle blocker.

You both need each other desperately, but not because you two are just teammates, I think to myself while keeping an eye on Tobio.

It's because—

you both need to lean on each other to move on from your tragic pasts.