𝑇𝐻𝐸 𝐶𝑂𝑁𝐶𝐸𝑃𝑇 𝑂𝐹 𝐵𝐸𝐺𝑈𝐼𝐿𝐼𝑁𝐺 ┊ 𝐻𝐴𝐽𝐼𝑀𝐸 𝐼𝑊𝐴𝐼𝑍𝑈𝑀𝐼

𝟮𝟭 - 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲

┅ ┅ ┅

Naomi and Oikawa couldn't stop looking at each other. Every single glance they could steal, they'd take it.
She made sure to keep to Iwaizumi's side as they traveled the boardwalk, following their teacher chaperone.

Iwaizumi and Naomi had snuck out the night prior where he propped her up against a wall and tasted her lips.
Now, lovestruck, he didn't think twice about her action.
Naomi and Oikawa were speaking with glances, giving out an unspoken dialogue that made her heart shake.
The sun blared in her eyes whenever his head shifted to see her. Just trying to notice the look in his eyes was blinding.
"Oikawa!" Riko gasped, shaking his arm. It surprised him as he hadn't been paying attention to her. "it's a bakery!"
The group immediately followed her pointed finger, the sweet smell of bread rising towards them.
"Milk bread," he whispered to himself.
"Milk bread!"

They ran into the building, tripping over each other to be the first to step inside.
Shrugging, Iwaizumi and Naomi followed their friends, exploring the bakery.
Naomi didn't really care for it as she was unable to eat a lot of their products.

"It smells so much like milk in here," she groaned silently, scratching at her throat.
"We can wait outside."
"It's fine, it's fine," she insisted, catching Oikawa's face while Riko was distracted by a tower of fancy chocolates. He winked before getting his attention pulled away again.
Iwaizumi stood over the pastries, adoring the colorful cookies and loaves of bread that were beautifully decorated. She groaned, a weight tugging on her shoulders.
"This smell reminds me of Tobi too much."
Iwaizumi knew that Naomi and Kageyama had been good friends. He saw them everywhere together, which he was thankful for at the time since it gave him more chances to see her. Iwaizumi also knew that she became sad whenever she spoke about him for too long.

"Despite being such a good tutor, I think he was too obsessed with volleyball," Iwaizumi joked, unable to make her smile.
An employee offered a sample of a cookie, which Iwaizumi was the only one to accept.
Naomi looked like she was about to throw up, her face becoming more green by the second.
"Itsu?"
Her foot tapped uncontrollably against the hard floors. The repetitive beat shaking her bones.
"Naomi?"

She rushed off, running outside where she crouched against the wall.
She felt so sick. The entire time she had been here, all she had felt was sick. It was torture. Every thought, every glance, pure torture.
Iwaizumi joined her outside, rubbing circles on her back.
"Should I get the teacher?"
She shook her head, hiding her face in her arms.
Naomi wanted to forget about Tobio, but his smells were so common that it was hard to. Milk, blueberries, that dumb cologne that she had to throw away behind his back.
Her stomach twisted when remembering the smell of his blood.

"It was my fault," she mumbled, her words hard to understand.
"What was your fault?"
"Tobio."
Iwaizumi grimaced, leaning back with a deep sigh. He remembered the smell too.
"It was an accident," he insisted, "it wasn't anyone's fault."
Naomi knew at least the truth of this.
When Kageyama first joined the team back in middle school, Oikawa was at his peak. That was until he started getting swapped out due to Tobio's genius plays.

Naomi was deep into her crush by then, trying everything to get Oikawa's attention.
When he became angry and depressed all the time, she felt like she had to do something.
Naomi tutored Kageyama, despite it not doing much for him. Kageyama admired her very much, always following her around and listening to her advice, just not her lessons.
When she had realized that Kageyama was the source of Oikawa's depressed moods and outbursts, she felt conflicted.

She wanted to help. She wanted to show how much she cared. Naomi didn't mean for it to happen the way it did.

"Naomi, you helped him so much. You can't blame yourself for what happened in the process."
"He cried so much," she whimpered, "Tobio never cries."
Her breaths became choppy.
"I couldn't get him to stop crying."
It was a Friday after practice when Oikawa and Iwaizumi were still in the gym. She had caught up with Tobio just as he was packing up because he had forgotten his homework.

Naomi remembered watching him pack his stuff up, placing things into a locker, and fiddling with a zipper on a gym bag.
He bent down to his own bag to pull out a lock and she remembered the thumping of her heart and the churning of her stomach as she observed his hand gripping onto the locker.
It was an easy equation.
Naomi didn't remember the feeling of slamming the locker with her shoulder, trapping Kageyama's nimble fingers.

His scream was so loud but the cracking of his bones was louder.
The door dug deep into his skin, droplets of his blood falling to the floor.
"Tobi!" She had called out, immediately regretting it, "I'm so sorry!"
Naomi had pulled the locker open, falling to the floor with him as he cried, his hand looking twisted and becoming covered in deep crimson.
Iwaizumi and Oikawa entered the room, helping her as she patched up his hand.

"Naomi," Iwaizumi cooed, trying to get her to stop crying.
"He bled so much."
Kageyama had begun drinking milk every day after the incident. He assumed that it would heal his hand faster since he couldn't play until his bones were fixed.
"Naomi, you can't blame yourself for the past. It was an accident."
Naomi didn't think she could tell him the truth. He wouldn't understand. How would she explain something she struggled to understand? How would she explain the despicable action she took for the person she wasn't supposed to love?
She quickly wrapped her arms around his neck, crying into his shoulder.

"I love you," she coughed, "so much."
"I love you too," he smiled, continuing to soothe her. "We all make mistakes. We just have to grow from them."

"I love you," Naomi whispered, stunting her growth.