fallingforyou ꨄ Tooru Oikawa fanfic

one

The dreading sound of the whistle echoes through the air.

"Shit."

I look down at my hands, struggling to figure out why I can't get the ball to where I want it to go.

"Just a little tighter to the net next time." I feel a hand rub my shoulder with sympathy, I look up at Nanami who is giving me a small smile. 

You don't have to hide that you hated my set.

 I nod, "I'm sorry I'll fix it next ti-."

I cringe at the sound of the whistle blowing again.

 This time it's for a substitution. The new transfer student stands in by the sideline, her head held up high and her dark eyes glowing with confidence that I wish I could have. She is holding up my number, signaling to switch with me. I smile sadly at her as we switch and walk towards the bench.

The girls on the bench all look at me with deadpan expressions. Are they sympathizing with me? Are they happy that I get to feel the shame of being benched? Or do they just not care?

I take a big gulp of my water and wipe my forehead with the towel the manager gave me. 

My tosses lately have been terrible. I struggle to push it far enough for the outside hitter, and I just can't seem to connect with my hitters. 

..Or maybe it's always been this way, and I've never cared this much about it.

The Aoba Johsai girl's team has always just been mediocre. Well, that's because most of the girls who tried out were just there to get closer to the boys from the volleyball team, or to just have something to do.

And the boy's volleyball team? They're a whole different story.

A powerhouse team led by the 'Grand King' (or the narcissist) Oikawa and their ace Iwaizumi. They usually get very high in their prefecture while we could only dream of getting into the quarterfinals.

"Nice set, Maia!" Yuki, the libero, cheers as they make a point right on the first play. Maia actually is in a second year but she came last week when school started. She became friends quickly with the team, especially Yuki. Being a foreigner made her the talk of the school too, adding to the fact that she literally stands out, being 5'9 and all.

I stare off into space, deep in my thoughts, until the last whistle brakes my trance.

Seems like we won.

 I should've watched the game, learned from Maia, or maybe just helped out in some plays. I could've taught Maia our hand signals when they got confused and helped her with her rotations. I could've just watched for the sake of cheering them on.

But I didn't. 

We get into a team huddle and the coach gives us his usual after-practice pep talk, except this time its more devastating than motivation to me: "amazing job today girls, I have been thinking about this for a while, but we should make some changes into our lineup that will greatly affect our team."

I glance at Maia quickly to see her with her chin up, beaming. Her bleached hair is up in a bun that has almost completely loosened and her mascara was smeared beneath her eyes, making a stark contrast to her bright smile.

 Coach continues with the words that I have been dreading to hear, "From now on, Maia will be our main setter."

 He then faces me with a sympathetic smile, "don't get discouraged, Suzuki, if you work harder you will be able to gain playing time back."

What a nice way to tell me that I suck.

I nod and look down to hide my disappointment. I can feel Nanami glancing toward me in the huddle, but looks away to congratulate Maia. As the team walks to the girls' locker room, my ears blur out all the cheering.