Observant || Oikawa Tooru ff

7. The selfish and the dumb

They were once again, like many other times sitting opposite each other in complete silence. Like always Ume waited for Ushiwaka to start the conversation. It was him who needed help so he asked for it. As for how to start, he had always been a straight to the point person. Ume still remembered how he used to first talk- complete sports terms.

' I feel like somebody's spiking volleyballs inside my chest.'

' It's like my stomach decided to do stretches on it's own.'

' My legs feel like they have been over exerted after an intense match.'

Ume did not know to laugh or to cry at this clueless person. She had to question him long and hard about these occurrences. That was when he realised that it happened only when a certain girl was in vicinity. Ume had taught him in a very patronizing tone," Ushiwaka kun..."

" Nobody's spiking balls, you are experiencing tachycardia."

" The stomach does not do stretches on it's own, you're having butterflies."

"Your legs aren't getting exerted, they're becoming jelly."

"Ushiwaka boke, you have a crush."

And then Ushiwaka had gone and become confused as to how butterflies could reside inside of his stomach or how legs could achieve the consistency of jelly. After much effort he had to be explained that they were mere phrases. Phrases that were used to describe one's nervous state. 

Apparently adamant on adding misery to her agony Ushiwaka had refused to believe that a mere girl could make him nervous.

'Ah! How difficult were the days gone by.' Ume thought as she almost gave in to a urge to wipe away a fictional tear. ' You've worked hard.' she told herself.

She stared at the boy across her noticing that he looked less confused than usual. She wondered if that was what it was or a trick of the light.

"I did feel better when I finally got to see her in school." His deep voice echoed.

"And?" Ume urged.

"And what?" He looked confused again.

Ume suddenly had a violent urge to flip over the table. 

"You- you've got to go and talk to her or something! Are you going to just keep watching her with lusty eyes for the entirety of your highschool career?" She asked exasperated.

"But I'm fine with the way things are right now." He sounded very convinced with himself. Ume let out a tired sigh.

"That is not how things work Ushiwaka kun. When people take a liking to somebody they ask the person out. If the person agrees, they start dating. Then she becomes your girlfriend, do you get it?" She asked. He nodded in response.

"But what happens when she becomes my girlfriend. What after that?"

"You take her on dates! Like to a go-kart track or maybe to an arcade. You get to spend time together and make lots of memories." She stared at him wondering if the thick head could follow. When she saw him nod his head again, somehow she was not very sure that he understood.

After a long pause he suddenly said, " You should have come to Shiratorizawa. You are very smart." Ume smiled dryly, already too tired to tell him that he was somehow denser than most. She only gave him a perfunctory nod. But surprisingly, he had other reasons.

"You are very perceptive. I usually present you with very strange situations to make sense out of." 

'Oh, so he knows he does that.'

"Yet you are observant enough to give me helpful advice. If you'd been the manager of our team we could figure out ours as well as our opponent's strengths and weaknesses in a matter of time."

Ume only raised her eyebrows in response. But apparently he was rather talkative today.

"You as well as the setter on your school's volleyball team, Oikawa. If we had two receptive brains working for Shiratorizawa our engines would work smoother than usual." Ume was even more surprised by the strange turn the conversation had taken.

"Shiratorizawa is like the fertile lands that could have made the both of you flourish. You could only wallow over your poor choices now." He sounded so convinced himself again that this time Ume wanted to throw all her Vanilla milkshake all over his face. 

But she could only restrain herself, since she was such a civilized person. With a cavalier smile she retorted, " I don't know about Oikawa, but I think I'm more of a fertiliser. Whether the grounds are fertile or infertile does not matter, I'm only there to nourish. Nothing more nothing less."

Ushiwaka's gaze fixated on her as he tried to make sense of what she said. He'd definitely caught the strange mocking glint her eyes. The conversation had died down after that and Ushiwaka left early since he had practice.

When Ume finally came out of the diner, she stared up at the darkening sky with sad eyes. "Fertilizer sounds about right...highly artificial, highly toxic." 

Wrapping herself closer the warmth of her clothes she shuffled towards the bus stop.