Chapter Text
Fate. It wasn't something I believed in. Was it because my life was some big hell hole itself? Or that things that other people had considered fate ended up turning into one big disaster for me. I didn't know. All I knew was that I didn't believe in fate.
That's why I was confused when I met Uozumi. I was a confused, stuttering mess when I met him, unaware of how big of an impact he would make on my life.
Was meeting Uozumi fate? I'm still not sure. Uozumi is this big 183 cm ball of mystery, and to this day, I still don't have him figured out. All I know that meeting him was one of the best things that has happened to me in a while.
It all starts with an angsty, hormonal fifteen year old me. I was angry at my grandmother for convincing me to go to Samezuka for high school and angry at myself for agreeing. I stood tall and proud, though, making sure that no one would see through my exterior. Come to think of it, I looked very awkward with my fake smile and my chest puffed out.
That's when fate... or whatever it was called, beckoned my call. I was so focused on looking tough and proud (even though I looked as intimidating as a puppy) that I didn't even notice I ran straight into a wall.
...A 6'0" brunet wall.
"Oops!" I shouted, the sheet of paper with my room number and schedule flying to the ground.
"Hi," the wall says, looking down at me. His words seemed friendly, but his appearance would say otherwise. His brunet hair was pushed off to the side, leaving a large tuft of hair sticking out at the top of his head. I my face reddened in embarrassment. It was my first day, and I had already probably pissed off a third year. I cursed myself for the seventh time that day as I looked up at him.
"S-sorry," I squeaked, my intimidating-ish exterior almost automatically breaking. Instead of looking like a puppy trying to look tough, I just looked like a puppy.
"It's fine," he waved it off. I almost sighed in relief. My palms began to sweat as I bent down to pick up my paper, just to find that he beat me to it. The wall stared at my paper. I breathed in nervously. Gimme back my paper, I need to get to my room.
"Whaddya know," he looked back at me and smiled. I knew my face was as red as a tomato and I almost wanted to put my hands up to cover it. "We're rooming together."
"Wait, w-what?" I asked, shaking my head. I grabbed my paper back and stared at it in confusion. "I thought first years couldn't room with senpais."
He gave out a lengthy laugh, which just put me into more confusion. I furrowed my eyebrows.
"I'm a first year," my apparent roommate said as he finished laughing. My eyes widened. This guy had to be at least 183 centimetres. He was so tall for a first year, and towered over my mere 173 centimetres.
"You're so tall," I said to myself under my breathe.
"I get that a lot." He heard what I said. I blushed immediately, looking down at my shoes.
After about a minute of awkward silence, he finally spoke up.
"Uozumi."
"Huh?" I said in confusion as I looked back up at him.
"My name. Uozumi."
"Oh." I shifted side to side on my feet. I guessed this is when I'd have to introduce myself. "Minami Kazuki. You can just call me Minami..."
"Minami." He repeated as he rubbed the nape of his neck. Through his Samezuka polo I could see that he had really muscular arms. It made me wonder if he was a swimmer as well. Samezuka was a school for athletes, and judging by his physique, he was definitely cut out to be a swimmer.
"That's my name," I giggled nervously as I ran a hand through my hair. It reminded me that I'd need to cut it eventually and my grandmother wouldn't be there to do it for me any more.
"Well, Minami, could I escort you to our room?"
"Uh, sure?"
"I promise I won't try anything." He added while he stared at me with a smart grin.
"Oh," I looked down at my feet in an attempt to avoid any awkward eye contact. I didn't know what he meant by 'try something', and a gut instinct told me that I didn't want to know.
With my eyes locked on the ground, I noticed the Converse next to me shift a little and eventually begin walking.
"You coming?" Uozumi asked. I gulped and nodded, catching up to him. I wasn't too sure what I thought of him yet. He kind of made me nervous, but then again, who didn't?
"Are you a swimmer?" he asked me as he began walking backwards to face me. "You kinda look like the swimmer type, or maybe a volleyball player."
"I'm a swimmer," I told him, finally working up the courage to make eye contact with him. I noticed his eyes were green, or maybe hazel. I couldn't really tell from my distance.
"Butterfly?" He asked again, his eyes leaving mine to examine me. He was really good at making me nervous. I nodded feebly, and brushed a hand through my wild brown hair. It shocked me that he was able to guess just like that. I didn't think I was a very readable person.
"How did you know?"
"I can just tell." He smiled and began walking beside me again. Samezuka was so large, I didn't even know if we were going in the right direction, and to be honest, without Uozumi I probably would've been even more lost.
"You seem to be a pretty good judge of character," I said, more to myself than to Uozumi. I shoved my hands in my pockets and let out a sigh, hoping we'd arrive at our dorm soon.
"What's that?" I looked up at him. He had his head cocked to the left slightly. It reminded me of a puppy.
"I said, you seem to be a pretty good judge of character," I repeated, a little louder. Uozumi looked up at the sky, his lips curved upwards into a smile.
I almost sighed of relief when we passed by a large sign that stated 'SAMEZUKA DORMS' in large, bold letters. I wasn't sure what to expect from our dorms. Someone else had delivered my luggage and insisted that I explored the campus, which just resulted in me getting lost, and accidentally running into my new roommate.
"We're in 423," Uozumi told me, and I confirmed it by nodding. Our walk was quite silent, which I was thankful for. Not that I didn't want to talk to him, I was just so awkward that I was afraid of saying something wrong that would make him think badly of me.
Our dorm, thankfully, wasn't that far from where we were on campus. We arrived in no time. The size of the dorm surprised me. I expected it to be much smaller than it was. The bunk beds were larger than my bed at my grandmother's house, at least a double twin, at least more. I knew this was a prestigious school - I just didn't expect it to be this large. There was also a lot of closet space for just two people. I didn't know about Uozumi, but I didn't have a lot of clothes.
"Wow," Uozumi stated in awe, stealing the words right out of my mouth. "I wasn't expecting a dorm room this fancy. We should bring a mini fridge in here."
"It's bigger than my room at home..." I admitted, as I took a seat at the bottom bed. I felt around the fabric of the bed. It was soft, but it smelled of an unfamiliar detergent unlike the gentle flowery smell of my sheets at Grandma's house.
"I can have the top bunk?" He asked, more of a statement than a question. I nodded as I felt the bed creak under the weight of him pulling himself up onto the top bunk.
"Where are you from?" More creaking. I saw his face poke out from the top bunk, facing me on the bottom bunk.
"Tochigi... it's a small town on the outskirts of Iwatobi," I answered. My suitcases were tossed against the floor, but I felt too tired to unpack at that moment.
"So you went into Iwatobi lots?" I nodded in response. I noticed his cheeks were beginning to flush red, the blood rushing to his head. He must've noticed too, because he disappeared back over the bed. The bed creaked some more and he hopped off. "I grew up in Iwatobi."
Our one-sided conversation continued until we heard a knock on the door. We both looked at each other confusedly - I, for sure, didn't have any visitors, and judging by the look on his face, neither did Uozumi.
He opened the door slowly, peering through to make sure it wasn't an ax murderer. The door slammed open, making me jump out of my skin, slightly startled.
"Hey, neighbours!" A curly haired blond boy jumped into the room, completely uninvited. I narrowed my eyes at him nervously. A redhead boy walked in behind him, pinching the bridge of his nose like he was stressed.
"Sorry. It was his idea," the second boy said as he rubbed the side of his temple. I looked over at Uozumi, who was biting his lip with a distressed look on his face. Then, I looked down at the ground, and avoided all eye contact with the three.
It wasn't that human interaction scared me. It was more the thought of my words not processing properly and accidentally saying something I didn't mean. I knew, more than anyone else I knew, the blow of being offended by someone unintentionally. The thought of doing that to someone else paranoid me to no end.
By that point, I had also realized that trying to make myself look confident and tough was pointless. There's no way that anyone would have fallen for it. Uozumi had proven it himself.
"I wanted to say hi to all of my new neighbours. I'm Toru, and this is my roomie, Shouta," the blond boy, whom I now knew as Toru, gestured to his "
roommate who was still sporting an annoyed and bored expression.
I looked over at Uozumi, who's confused expression had soon turned into a cheerful one. He sent a look my way (making my cheeks turn the slightest of pink) before answering the greeting.
"Uozumi," he took another expectant look towards me. After realizing that I wasn't going to introduce myself on my own, he added, "...and this is my roommate, Minami..."
"Minami? That kinda sounds like Minnie Mouse. Can I call you that?" Toru bounced towards me with a large grin on his face.
"N-no..." I moved farther up the bed as Toru invited himself up on it. I pulled my knees to my chest and hugged myself. Toru was still completely unaware of my obvious discomfort in this situation. I looked over at Uozumi as a plea of help. Uozumi frowned, whispered something in the redhead's ear, and looked over at me with what I thought was a sympathetic look.
"Toru, you still need to unpack your things... and we still have a lot more rooms to go to if you want to introduce yourself to the whole first year dorm." Toru groaned and jumped off of the bed, bouncing next to Shouta again. My tensed muscles calmed once he jumped off the bed, away from any possible physical contact. He waved enthusiastically at Uozumi and I. I wondered if my roommate had said anything to Shouta for him to suddenly want to leave. He seemed like a follower, not a leader.
"Alright, Shouta... bye!" The two boys left and shut the door behind them, leaving Uozumi and I alone in our room. We both let out a collective sigh of relief.
"They were both swimmers, for sure," Uozumi said as he pulled up a chair from the desk, sitting on it backwards. It amazed me how he could know such details about a person with only knowing so little about them.
It made me realize that even I knew so little about Uozumi, too. I knew he was born and raised in Iwatobi, not very far away from my small town of Tochigi. He went by Uozumi - but I had no idea if that was his actual name or his family name, or hell, even a nickname.
I assumed he was a swimmer as well. I wouldn't guess a non-swimmer would know much about the world of competitive swimming, let alone have the ability to even correctly guess what stroke was my specialty.
"Were you nervous?" He asked as he leaned against the frame of the chair.
"A little," I replied, the answer surprising myself a bit. I didn't know why I was opening myself up to him so fast. His lips were pressed into a thin line.
"I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more of them lately," he emitted a breathy sigh before slumping his head down on his elbow.
"Well of course, if they make the swim team..." I unwrapped myself from the fetal position I was in and slumped myself against the pillow of my bed.
"Wait," he said, straightening his posture, "How did you know I'm a swimmer?"
"I... I figured since you were able to figure out that I swim butterfly. You kinda look like a swimmer, too."
"Wow," he pressed a finger to his cheek with his lips curved upwards, "Perceptive."
I smiled lightly at him and thought that maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't be such a bad roommate.
---
Our next encounter with Toru and Shouta was the next day, on our first day of classes.
It relieved me to find out that Uozumi was in my homeroom class. I had no idea how to get to our class, and at least if I got lost, I would be with someone I some what knew.
Thank the lord, we didn't get lost. My roommate charmed a third year into pointing us in the right direction. We arrived just a minute before class started, but we were still on time nonetheless. We occupied to seats next to each other in the middle, my first day nerves on the edge as usual.
The teacher arrived about thirty seconds after us, and didn't hesitate to begin to lesson. The teacher introduced herself as Ms. Karamorita. She was a tall, young teacher. Her thin blonde hair was pulled up into a ponytail, and she had really nice green eyes. I knew right away that she was going to be the teacher that all the boys who were into girls would be crushing on.
"I understand how nerve wracking being at a new school can be, especially one like Samezuka. So many of you are far from home, and making friends can be difficult for a lot of people. I've decided to take it easy for the first few days. I want you to get into groups of six, and from there I'll tell you your next assignment." Ms. Karamorita flashed a grin, revealing her perfect straight teeth.
Uozumi and I exchanged looks. Then, he leaned over and whispered in my ear, "I can practically hear the sounds of straight boy's dicks rising." My eyes widened, and although my cheeks flushed red, I couldn't help but stifle a giggle at his comment.
"Partners?" He asked, tilting his head slightly to the left in a way that reminded me of a puppy. I nodded, and together we stood, and looked around the room.
"Can we join you guys?" A voice from behind us asked. We both turned around to face a pair of boys. They were an odd pair, considering the taller boy had about a foot on the shorter boy. Uozumi nodded, and our group of two increased to four. We only needed two more.
"Hey, Shouta, we should join them!" A familiar voice shouted across the room, causing a hiss of 'shh' from multiple people. It didn't take long for me to recognize the voice as Toru as he bumped into multiple desks to get through to our group of four.
"Can we join you guys?! Please...?" The hyper blond boy put his hands together in a pleading motion. Before we could give him a proper answer, our teacher clapped to get our attention.
"Okay! So, for your assignment today, we'll be doing the very cliche get to know your peers quiz. I will give you a piece of paper with a chart on it. Your job is to compare your interests and favourite things to your peers. Any questions?" As her eyes scanned the classroom, Toru's hand shot up almost right away.
"When is this due?" He asked, causing an uproar of laughter in the classroom. I even giggled a little too. Toru seemed to be oblivious to the commotion of his classmates. I stopped laughing when it came clear to my mind that he wasn't being ironic.
"Uh, well, actually... I was hoping this would be done by the end of class. It's a simple assignment, really. It shouldn't take you much time to complete," she giggled nervously, "any other questions?"
A murmur of no's was heard across the classroom and she began handing out the sheets to everyone. Our group, which now consisted of Uozumi, the really tall and short guy, Toru and Shouta, received our papers.
"Our teacher is REALLY pretty," Toru admired, looking over at Ms. Karamorita with his read eyes filled with puppy love. He just confirmed my suspicions correct. The two nameless boys nodded in agreement.
"I-I really like her green eyes..." I mentioned, following Toru's gaze over to our home room teacher. She had a very nice dress on, the same colour as her eyes. It complimented her very well.
"So you like green eyes?" Uozumi spoke up, looking over at me with wide eyes and a grin. That's when I noticed his eyes. Sparkling, pretty green eyes that matched Ms. Karamorita's pair. My own brown eyes widened at the realization. I shrugged and bobbed my head up and down, despite the hue of redness that I was sure my cheeks were.
"We should get started on this..." I muttered under my breathe, focusing on the sheet. It was a chart with six columns and ten rows. Each row had a question, such as our favourite movie, colour, sport, and so on... the top row was where we were supposed to put our names.
"Let's start with names..." Uozumi suggested, tapping his pencil against the desk he was occupying. "Uozumi Takuya, but you can just call me Uozumi." That made me look up at him. So his family name was Uozumi. I wondered why he went by his family name rather than his first name, but I didn't question it (mostly because I did, too). After Toru asked how to spell his name, we began introducing ourselves counter-clockwise.
"Minami Kazuki... I just go by Minami..."
The short guy, who also had a black bowlcut, introduced himself next. "Oinuma Hisashi."
The taller boy who had joined Hisashi spoke up as we all scribbled down his name. "Hayami Sekien."
"Nakagawa Shouta," our redhead neighbour greeted with his same annoyed expression. I wondered if he had just resting bitch face or if he was actually annoyed all the time.
"Iwashimizu Toru. And of course, you can call me Toru!" I wasn't sure how I felt about Shouta's hyper blond companion being in our group. He made me anxious yesterday by sort of kinda but not really invading my personal space, but I figured if Uozumi's suspicions were correct, I'd be seeing a lot of him and I'd just have to get used to that.
Once all of our pencils hit the desk, we moved onto the next question, which was our favourite sport. We all knew this was a code word for what sport we played. My roommate and I exchanged glances, knowing this is finally when we'd be able to find out our neighbour's respective sports.
"Competitive Swimming," Uozumi said with ease, relaxing back into his seat.
"Competitive Swimming as well," I added, looking over at Uozumi. He smiled at me and leaned back into his seat.
"Competitive Swimming," Hisashi said with no hesitation. I nodded. He was too short to do anything else, aside from baseball or maybe even track.
"Baseball." Sekien had a slimmer physique with strong looking arms, so it didn't surprise me.
"Competitive Swimming, same with Toru-"
"Hey, you're supposed to let me introduce myself!" Toru interrupted, punching him in the arm as punishment, causing a gasp from the taller boy. This continued for the next few questions. We all knew that Shouta was just trying to piss the other boy off, which made it all the more funny.
I sensed that they would become really great friends in the future.
"Last question... what's your favourite movie?" Uozumi tapped a finger against his chin and sighed. "I guess Forrest Gump..."
"Come on," Seiken groaned, looking at Uozumi, "That's like everyone's favourite movie. Be original."
"Shut up, it's a good movie." He death glared at Seiken, and although I knew he was just kidding, his death glare was scary. Remind me never to piss him off.
"Uh... I guess The Shining?" I said with uncertainty. I didn't really have a favourite movie. I kinda just loved horror movies in general. I had no idea why, because I'm scared of pretty much everything else in real life.
"Oh god, horror movies." Uozumi shuddered next to me. I glared over at him. Uozumi didn't really strike me as the type to not like horror movies. He seemed really macho and tough and like the type of person to keep collections of classic horror movies or to marathon old creepy animes on a rainy night.
"Horror movies are great," I muttered quietly, chuckling nervously. I suddenly wanted to see how he'd react to a horror movie. I could just picture him nervously hugging a pillow, tightening his grip on it as the opening credits came on. He would hide his face and cry out mercy when the first jump scare popped up.
Just like Toji did, I thought.
I mentally cursed myself for thinking of him. He's in the past, back in Tochigi, I added to my thoughts, gripping the edge of my desk hard. I wasn't even paying attention to the other's discussing horror movies. He's part of the reason you even came to Samezuka in the first place. To get away from him.
The thoughts of my life before Samezuka was even in consideration were interrupted by a tap on my shoulder. It was Toru, with a bright smile on his face that looked just the slightest suspicious.
"Are you up for it?" he asked, cocking his head to the right. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. Serves me right for not paying attention, and thinking about stupid Toji...
"For what?" I asked stupidly, rubbing the spot where he tapped me on my shoulder slightly.
"A horror movie tonight. The six of us. You up for it?" I exchanged glances with my roommate again to make sure it was okay with him, because there was no way in hell I was going to a social event without someone I didn't somewhat already know. Uozumi just shrugged. I mocked his gesture.
"I-I don't see why not..."
All of us exchanged our phone numbers and just like that, the bell rang for class to end. I couldn't believe it. I thought I accomplished the impossible.
Making friends.
---
"It's your fault, you know," he said from the top bunk as I finished unpacking the last of my clothes. My red jammers hung on the knob to the dresser, awaiting for the first day of swimming.
"You agreed to it," I retorted, putting a hand on my hip and putting all of my weight on my right foot. I didn't speak my mind very often, but when I did I made sure I was super sassy about it. Uozumi groaned, and flopped against his bed. Uozumi was yet again complaining about having to watch a horror movie. Toru insisted on choosing the movie, so we had no idea what to prepare ourselves for.
"Minami?" He asked in a quiet voice, the mood suddenly changing.
"Yes?" I asked as I kicked my suitcase underneath the bed, and groaning when it didn't fit. I got down on all fours and attempted to shove it under the bed, using all of the strength I had built from years of swimming.
"Why do you call yourself M-" the ringtone to my phone interrupted him. A Cruel Angel's Thesis blared. I apologized as I pulled out my phone. I recognized the caller I.D. right away as my Grandma's home phone. Crap, I was supposed to call her yesterday.
I picked up the phone and answered, hoping that Uozumi wouldn't mind that I totally interrupted his question so that I could talk on the phone with my Grandma.
"I'm so sorry I didn't call yesterday, I was so bus-"
"Kazuki, calm down. It's fine. I understand," she laughed cutely. I could just picture her resting by the fireplace with a cup of tea in her hands, watching the latest episode of a new drama like she usually did on Monday nights.
"Oh... okay. I was worried that you were going to be upset, or something like that. I'm so glad. Er, um. How's empty nesting going?"
"I miss you lots, but Chiyeko and I are already planning a trip to Australia. Her grandson just graduated high school."
"Wow, Grandma, I feel so loved." I dramatically clutched at my chest although I knew she couldn't see me. I sat down on my bed. "Already planning to leave Japan, and I've only been gone for a day."
"I can't help it, empty nesting is harder than it looks!" She let out a hearty laugh and continued, "How's Samezuka so far?"
"It's decent, I guess."
"Have you begun swimming yet?"
"We start next week."
"Have you seen any cute boys yet?"
"Grandma," I warned. She knew that it was a touchy subject for me. She sighed through the phone.
"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. What's dorm life like? Do you like your roommate?"
"The dorm is really big. I think it's bigger than my room at home. And yeah, he's great, he's in the room with me right now."
"Are you talking about me?" A deep voice asked from above me. Before I knew it, a tuft of brown hair was sticking out from the top of my bed, and pretty green eyes met my brown ones.
"Hold on, Grandma," I said as I covered my phones receiver with my hand. "I'm not saying anything bad." I put the phone back up to my ear and smiled. "Sorry, I'm back. He's starting to annoy me now." Uozumi crinkled his eyebrows together and sent me one of those deathly glares I was terrified of.
"He's annoying you? Do I need to give him a piece of my mind?"
"No, Grandma," I laughed.
"Let me talk to him."
"I don't thin-"
"Let me talk to him or else I'll hang up this phone right now.
"But Gran-"
"Let me talk to him."
I sighed and looked at Uozumi and raised my eyebrow. Slowly and carefully, I offered my phone to him with a frown. "She wants to talk to you." It didn't take long for my roommate to snatch my phone and disappear back up to his bed.
I couldn't really make out what he was saying because he was speaking in a muffled voice for some reason. I hid my head in my hands, blushing majorly over what they may be talking about. I knew they were talking about me, even though I couldn't make out his words.
It didn't take long for him to hop off the bed and head towards the door to the hallway. I looked up at him expectingly. "Where you going?" I asked, standing up to follow after him. He just smiled, disappearing off into the hallway and closing the door behind him.
My roommate just took my phone while he was talking to my grandma and disappeared to have a leisurely conversation with her. I wasn't sure whether to laugh, cry, or worry. I really hoped Grandma wasn't too worried about me. I was fine. At least, I thought I was.
I knew with my grandpa gone for about two years now, I was the only person left she had to worry about. I loved her, and I completely understood her worry. It wasn't easy raising a teenage boy when you were in your elder years, especially one like me who was scared of his own shadow and anxious about pretty much everything.
I began pacing. What if she told him about Toji? Or my father? I could feel my palms begin to sweat. I rubbed them against my jeans in a desperate attempt to wipe them off. I didn't know him well enough to disclose that information to him.
I just about began crying before Uozumi began walking through the door, my phone in his hands. "Are you okay?" He asked as he took a seat at our desk.
"Oh, um. Yeah. I'm fine," I lied, running a hand through my hair in a desperate attempt to calm myself down. "What did you two talk about?"
"I can't tell you." I can't say I didn't expect that answer, but it still didn't make me feel any better.
"Please?"
"As much as I'd like to... I think your grandma would have my head if I did." He sighed and fixed the tuft of hair on his head, avoiding eye contact with me.
"Fine," I gave in and sat back down. I didn't want to press the situation further and end up upsetting my roommate. Or something like that. "Oh... and Uozumi?"
"Yeah?"
"What w-were you going to ask me? Y'know... before... before the whole Grandma incident..." I asked, suddenly remembering that he was about to ask me something before my Evangelion ringtone interuppted him.
"Don't worry about it. It's not important."