Chapter Text
It was mid-July, a warm summer afternoon at Aoba Johsai. Iwa-chan and I were sitting together on the rooftop having our lunches laughing and joking about the little irrelevancies in our lives. Irrelevancies that I now wish I had paid more attention to so our conversations would have lasted just a little while longer.
“Oikawa, what do you plan on doing after high school?”
I nearly choked on my bean sprouts. I coughed and cleared my throat. “What makes you ask that, Iwa-chan? Hm?”
“Well,” I glanced up to see him leaning back on his hands and looking up towards the clear blue sky that was flecked with white, fluffy clouds. “We’re already halfway through our second year, aren’t we? We should at least be thinkin’ about that kinda stuff, right? Before we know it we’ll be graduated and out in the world...trying to find our place or whatever.”
That hit me.
The realization of just how close we both were to becoming full adults with responsibilities and jobs and lives of our own hit me hard.
It was harder than a volleyball to the face.
“You’re right, Iwa-chan,” I replied, pinching a piece of katsu between my chopsticks. “We’re already halfway through our second year. Just a year and half left…” I didn’t complete that thought before putting the katsu into my mouth. The flavors greatly pleased my taste buds and soothed my appetite by a fraction, but there was still much more of my bento left.
“What do you want to do after graduation, Iwa-chan?” I turned the question onto my friend. Maybe his answer would inspire something in me. Spark an epiphany that makes me realize what my life’s purpose is or something.
Iwaizumi looked at me with the blankest stare imaginable, then shrugged and said, “I wanna be an athletic trainer.”
I looked at him with wide eyes. ‘He already knows what he wants to do?’
“I think...yeah...I’ll go to America to study. I wanna see what other places are like, I don’t wanna stay here in Japan all my life. I wanna…” Iwaizumi leaned back and smiled at me, just a little. “I wanna have an adventure! I wanna explore and see new things and meet new people!”
“Wow,” I chuckled and looked away, my brown eyes fixating onto the sky. That day I realized just how big the world was, and how small I had pictured it to be. “You really have it all planned out then, huh? You’re going to leave me all alone?”
I heard him scoff, which made me chuckle.
“Don’t be ridiculous! I’d never leave your shitty ass behind! We’re friends ‘till the very end, got it?”
I nodded. “I hear you loud and clear, Iwa-chan~” I sighed and lifted my chopsticks again. “As for me...I think I will continue with volleyball. I want to go for another team outside Japan I think.”
“Oh? What team?”
“...Brazil, maybe. I heard they had a decent team,” I replied. “We better make the most out of the time we have together then, right? Soon enough we’ll be saying goodbye and we’ll be embarking on our own separate pathways through life.”
“Of course we will!” Iwaizumi clenched his hand into a fist, I could see determination written all over his face. “We’ll make every moment count, don’t worry about it!”
A soft wind blew across the rooftop. It tussled our hair and ruffled the leaves of the nearby trees.
“Iwa-chan?”
“Hm?”
I turned and faced my friend. “Can you promise me something? Pinkie promise?”
Iwaizumi then faced me. Angling his head to one side, that oh-so-familiar look of intrigue blended with confusion crossed his features; his eyebrows furrowed just a little, his eyes were slightly wider, all of his attention was on me. “Depends on what you want me to promise you, Crappykawa.”
I snorted at the crass nickname. “Don’t call me that…” I sighed and raised my right hand, extending my pinky finger. “Promise me that no matter what happens, we will always be friends?”
I expected him to shrug me off, or to call me stupid for proposing such a childish thing. However, I saw his hand extend towards mine and his pinkie twisted with my own.
“Pinkie promise…” He smirked. “Crappykawa.”
“Don’t call me that!” I huffed. Iwa-chan always did have an affinity for crass nicknames for me. There was Crappykawa and Shittykawa, his favorites. Then there were others such as Loserkawa or Lazykawa, those were reserved for special occasions, I think. He used them rarely, but still loved them just as much as any of his other nicknames. There was Trashykawa and Assikawa, which were rarer than the first two but not so rare as to fall in line with Loserkawa or Lazykawa.
I believe that dumbass is his favorite nickname because it isn’t just for me, it’s for everyone. He doesn’t have to try and modify it to fit others, he can use it in reference to anyone he pleases.
I love his nicknames. It’s something that I’ll miss deeply when we graduate.
“Okay, Shittykawa then.”
“Ugh!” With a sigh, I dismissively waved my hand before allowing my head to fall into it. “Fine...Crappykawa it is.” I lazily picked up a bean sprout and instead of eating it, I looked at it intensely. I stared at it as though it would give me the answers to my biggest question.
What the hell was I supposed to do with my life?
It was clear Iwa-chan had been planning. He already knew where he was going and had narrowed down his options. My answer was vague and thought up on the fly, I didn’t even know the first thing I needed to do to join Brazil’s team, let alone any other national team.
Plus, there was the matter of my knee issues. While I had found ways to work around the persistent pain that I was faced with on the daily, I had a slight worry that any team I attempted to join would see my knee issues as a major problem and not even give me a second glance.
How was I supposed to defeat Kageyama in a match one day if the big leagues saw me as a weak link for something out of my control?
“Iwa-chan?”
“What is, Crappykawa?”
“Tch,” I rolled my eyes, but it was a fond gesture. “Do you think I have what it takes to make it onto a national team?”
There was silence for a brief period, then he erupted into laughter.
“Are you kidding me? Like, is that a serious question?” Iwaizumi guffawed. He was laughing. He was laughing. Out of all the reactions he could have. Why he did so was beyond my understanding.
I frowned and tilted my head. “Did I say something funny? I don’t understand…”
“Oikawa,” Iwaizumi managed through his chuckles and laughs. “You are one of the best setters this school has ever seen. You could easily make it without even trying. Whatever worries you have goin’ on in your head?” He pressed a finger into my brown hair, which I swatted away.
“Iwa-!”
“I’m not finished, dumbass!”
I fell silent and put my hand down.
“Whatever worries you have goin’ through your head right now? Get rid of ‘em. Your skills are incredible. It’s hard to believe that you have so much raw talent. I mean, in middle school you won the Best Young Setter Award, didn’t you?” I felt Iwa-chan’s hand slap my back firmly. “You can do it. I know I make fun of you and tease you a lot, but I think you stand the best chance out of anyone else on our team of making it to a National Team like Japan or Brazil.”
That was all I needed to hear. A warmth filled me head to toe. I already felt a little better.
Iwaizumi’s hand then moved to my knee and he squeezed gently. “Don’t let anything hold you back, okay? Nothing.”
“Right,” I nodded my head. “I won’t.”
After discussing such a tense and important topic, a comfortable silence settled between the two of us. For a while, we sat in silence and enjoyed our lunches until one of us cracked a joke over a small occurrence during our volleyball practice.
“Shido really is unintentionally funny sometimes. Just wish he’d lighten up a bit, y’know?” Hajime chuckled, and it sounded sort of...melodic to me.
In reply, I nudged his ribs with my elbow. “Just like you, Iwa-chan?” I laughed too and raised my hand to shadow my smile and conceal it from view. It was a subconscious movement, an action that I often made without even thinking.
“Shut up, dumbass!” Hajime shoved me while we both laughed. We laughed, and laughed and laughed. My stomach hurt from laughing so hard.
“You know I’m right, Iwa-chan!” I retorted. “You’re too grumpy, lighten up a little!”
He snickered. “What am I doin’ right now, idiot? Isn’t this ‘lightening up’?” He laughed again.
For some reason, I felt butterflies stir in my stomach when I heard that sound. It was a bit of a raspy laugh, but it was full of joy. It was like music to my ears. “Y-Yeah, I guess it is. You got me there!” Our laughter finally died down after a while and we relaxed.
With my worries at ease, I was able to focus on the present and enjoy my meal as well as the time I had with Iwa-chan. It was surprising how easily distracted the mind was, but at the same time? I was grateful for the distraction.
Sure, it was halfway through the year, but I was still young. I had only just turned seventeen a few days prior, I still wanted to be a kid for as long as I could. Time was precious and life was short, so I had to live it to its absolute fullest.
Never did I expect time to go by so fast...