Chapter Text
Saturday, 20/7:
Hinata lets out a long yawn and looks around the store before going back to his book. Unlike other co-workers, he doesn’t mind working night shifts at the university’s 24-hour convenience store at all. He normally doesn’t have many customers to serve, so he can focus on studying to make up for the time he spends on the volleyball club. Hinata checks his phone, it’s almost 2 am, maybe he should start cleaning the store soon. Just when the ginger is about to reach for the mop, the door opens, and walks in a tall guy with his hood and mask on. Hinata sighs under his breath and sits back down at the counter, waiting for his customer to do his shopping. The other guy walks around the aisles normally, but what Hinata notices that is not normal about this guy is that he keeps stealing glances from the ginger. But whenever he confronts the other guy’s constant gaze, he immediately looks away and pretends that he is looking at the ceiling.
Hinata’s alarm mode activates. He has heard on the news too often about convenience stores being robbed at around early morning. The ginger feels cold sweat starts forming on his forehead as he secretly searches for a weapon. Ugh, why does the knife have to be so far away? Hinata curses as he slowly reaches for his volleyball in the bag, maybe if he hits the ball hard enough, he could knock the guy out and run away. But much to Hinata’s relief, there is no robbery happens and the other guy just walks out of the store after finishing his round trip along the aisles. Hinata sighs, another day, another survival.
Sunday, 21/7:
Kageyama has a huge crush on the orange-haired cashier at the university’s convenience store. From his fluffy hair to his sparkly eyes to his adorable laugh, everything just makes Kageyama’s stomach do a complete 360-degree flip. But will he ever tell the ginger about how he feels or at least asks for his name? Probably not, especially after that awkward visit he made yesterday. Kageyama groans and slams his forehead on the table before turning to Yachi, who is most likely to be his only friend. “What should I do?”
“Go there again, this time make sure you actually buy something rather than creeping him out,” Yachi says as she flips the book, not even looking at her friend. The raven sighs loudly before finally, nodding his head
And there Kageyama is, standing at the counter with a bunch of stuff he grabs from the store without even paying much attention to. Kageyama wants to start the conversation, don’t get him wrong, he really does, but nothing comes to his mind. And the fact that his adorable crush keeps looking at his awkward sweaty hands doesn’t help much either. After the ginger finishes scanning, Kageyama quickly pays him and scrambles to take the stuff in his hand before heading out
“Wait, your milk,” the ginger calls
“Um, you can keep it,” Kageyama says without looking back as he could feel his cheeks starts to heat up, “It’s for you”. Not waiting for the ginger’s reply, the raven quickly heads out of the store with his heart banging loudly in his chest
Kageyama would call today a complete success, at least he gets to hear three words from his crush and get a…, wait, what did he buy again?
Monday, 22/7
Hinata sees that guy again, the blueberry-haired boy that he mistook for a robber but was actually nice enough to give him a box of milk. Now that he has his mask off, Hinata could say that he is pretty attractive with those deep blue eyes, sharp jawline, and thin lips. It has been the third time in a row this guy shows up at 2 am, so Hinata thought, it wouldn’t be too bad to befriend him, especially when he has been Hinata’s only customer lately
“What’s your name?” Hinata asks and looks at the raven while checking out
The taller boy blushes slightly at Hinata’s soft smile and scratches his hair awkwardly, “Kageyama Tobio,” he mutters, eyes avert from the ginger’s curious stare
“My name is Hinata Shoyo, nice to meet you Kageyama,” Hinata laughs, and immediately, he sees the light red color on the raven’s cheeks deepens. Kageyama quickly nods his head and makes his way out of the store, totally did not almost trip at all.
Tuesday, 23/7:
Kageyama touches Hinata’s hand! From having no hope at all with his crush to knowing his name and now touching his hand? He must have been using all the lucks that he has stored for 20 years of his life for this to happen. It’s only a slight touch when he gives Hinata the cash but still, a touch is a touch, and Kageyama calls that progress.
“Are you okay Kageyama?” Hinata’s sudden question kicks Kageyama out of the moon and back to earth. He realizes that he is laughing way too hard and the ginger is giving him a concerned look
“Oh, yeah, I’m fine,” he scratches his head out of habit, already feeling the awkwardness rising to his chest, “Thank you, I’ll see you,” he says as he quickly grabs the food and heads out. Today has been too freaking awesome and Kageyama wants to leave it at that. If he starts talking too much, he might just fuck this up.
Wednesday, 24/7
“So, how has your day been Kageyama?” Hinata asks when he sees the raven jitters more than normal, hands squeezing onto each other and lips pursing
“Oh, it’s good,” The raven seems to relieve when Hinata starts the conversation when he doesn't know how to, “I got a castration today,” he says
“Oh, you did?” Hinata asks mindlessly while still scanning, then suddenly, the meaning of Kageyama’s words hits him and he slowly looks up at the raven, mouth wide opens, “You got a what?” he asks again loudly
“No! no! I mean my cat! My cat got a castration today, not me! I still have them! Wait, no, that’s not what I meant, sorry! Um, what I meant is that, you’re cute…wait no, that’s not it! Not that you’re not cute…but I mean, not like that!” Kageyama answers frantically and his words are everywhere. In the end, he just gives up and lowers his head, trying to avoid Hinata’s stare
Hinata sees Kageyama’s face, ears and neck turn scarlet red and he laughs out loud, not at how awkward the raven is, but because of how cute he is. After a minute of dying from laughter, Hinata wipes his tears and looks back up at Kageyama who seems like he just walks through hell, “You don’t need to be so tensed Kageyama, I’m not gonna bite you,” Hinata says teasingly
‘Yeah, sorry,” Kageyama says as he scratches his hair again, giving the ginger a soft smile that is almost too pure to exist
“You’re cute too, by the way,” Hinata says, amazed by Kageyama’s smile. And not surprisingly, the raven immediately blushes even harder and scrambles his way out of the store
Hinata shakes his head and reaches for a tissue to clean his eyes before hearing a loud “thud” on the door, which is made by Kageyama’s forehead kissing the glass. The raven covers his head and quickly runs out, leaving Hinata falling back to his chair and wheezing from his accident.
Thursday, 25/7
“YOU SAID WHAT?” Yachi screams out of her lungs before falling back to her chair, body trembling violently out of laughter. Kageyama quickly stands up to cover her mouth as people in the café start giving them weird stares
“I freaked out okay?” Kageyama releases his hand when Yachi makes a promise sign that she won’t be too loud anymore, “It was awkward as fuck. Ugh, just kill me already, I will never go back there anymore”, the raven says as he sits down again, shoulders slouching and palms slamming his face
“Hey, at least he told you that you’re cute too, that’s some progress, my dude,” Yachi says, still snickering. “You think so?” Kageyama asks, eyes peeking at his friend now using the tissue to wipe away her tears from laughter
“Positive, trust me on this, you got a chance with him Tobio”
And Kageyama trusts Yachi. He comes back to the store later that night, just to be welcomed by an unfamiliar guy with silver hair. Kageyama sighs, he knows it, Hinata is probably weirded out by him that he even changes his shift with someone else. And there it goes, his chance with Hinata got castrated just like his cat’s balls, Kageyama thought painfully
“Are you okay?” The guy at the counter asks tentatively as he sees the exaggerated somber expression on the raven’s face
“Yeah,” Kageyama nods and heads out of the store.
Friday, 26/7
It’s almost 4 am, Hinata finishes cleaning up and is ready to clock out from his shift. The ginger pouts while putting his notes and books in the backpack. He has been waiting for more than 2 hours and Kageyama is nowhere to be seen. Hinata knows that he cannot expect the raven to show up every day during his shift, it’s super late anyway, and he’s pretty sure that Kageyama has better things to do than buying milk at his convenience store at 2 am. And yet, he does expect him to come. Kageyama coming to his store has been the only highlight of Hinata’s shift, and now that he’s not here, the ginger starts to wonder why his shift feels like it’s endless. Hinata shakes his head and stands up from the chair, trying to ignore a tiny sense of emptiness that he’s feeling
Hinata’s co-worker soon comes and takes over the shift. The ginger walks out of the store and stretches his arms when suddenly, he catches eyes with Kageyama who is walking toward his way. The taller boy quickly walks over to Hinata, his face is filled with surprise and hand scratches his hair as usual, “Oh… I thought you don’t work night shifts anymore,” Kageyama smiles awkwardly
“Hmm?” Hinata looks at the raven questioningly, but then he remembers that yesterday is Suga’s shift, “Oh, I don’t work on Thursday since I have morning class later”, Hinata says, then proceeds to investigate Kageyama’s relieved face closely, “Is this why you come during morning shift? To see me?” The ginger smiles mischievously
Kageyama blushes at Hinata’s question and his body freezes as if he is a kid who just got busted for doing something sneakily, “I…um…going for a run actually,” he says. If it weren’t for Kageyama’s panicked eyes and red cheeks, Hinata might just believe him. The ginger giggles at the raven’s clumsy excuse, “I’m walking back to the dorm, do you want to come with me?” Hinata asks and watches pleasingly as the blush starts to spread down to Kageyama’s neck
The raven nods and follows Hinata. The two boys stay silent for the whole trip, just enjoying each other’s company and watching how the sky slowly lights up from the dark. After around 5 minutes of walking, they reach Hinata’s dorm. The ginger looks at Kageyama teasingly, “Let’s go running together next time, Kageyama,” Hinata says and winks at him before making his way into the dorm, leaving Kageyama standing there dumbfounded.
Saturday, 27/7, 2:10 am
Everything goes back to normal as Kageyama shows up at the convenience store at around 2 am again.
“Are you looking for something?” Hinata asks as the raven has been looking around the store for a while. Kageyama nods although he isn’t specifically looking for anything, he is just nervous. He then takes in a deep breath before breathing out and looking straight into Hinata’s eyes
“Yeah, I’m looking for your phone number, can you help me find it?”, he says, voice cracking at his cheesy pick-up line that he just found on the Internet not long ago
Hinata is dumbfounded. He stares into Kageyama’s blue eyes for a few seconds before slamming his hand on his mouth and starts wheezing. The raven looks at Hinata’s whole body bending from laughter with a blank expression on his face. Ah, there it is, there is the sound of his heart breaking into pieces and be gone with the wind
“Sorry, sorry,” Hinata says in between coughs from laughing too hard, “That was smooth,” he says teasingly. Kageyama facepalms as he knows how awkward the pick-up line is and Hinata probably says that just to make him feel better. But much to his surprised, the ginger leans over on the counter to reach for Kageyama’s phone in his hand and swiftly type in his phone number. As he returns it to the raven, Hinata gives him a playful grin and says, “Call me, okay?”
Kageyama grips onto his phone and walks out of the store unconsciously, still not believing what just happened, did Hinata give him his phone number, and ask Kageyama to call him!?
Saturday, 27/7, 3:30 am
“He still gave you his phone number after that pick-up line? Sheesh, he’s a keeper Tobio,” Yachi says. Even though they are on the phone, Kageyama can already see his friend’s shocked face.
Kageyama stares at the number without blinking and his hands start to get all sweaty, “What should I text him?” he asks
“Start with something simple,” Yachi suggests
Kageyama thinks for a while and starts typing on his phone before finally hitting that send button, “I asked him “How was your day?”, does that sound okay?”
“Dude, you just saw him an hour ago, why did you text him that?” Yachi groans and slams her hand onto her forehead, “And don’t be so basic, be more specific, be different, be bold!” Yachi says as if Kageyama is about to take the most important interview of his life, “And remember to tell me what you want to text beforehand!”
“Wait, he replied,” Kageyama says as he read out Hinata’s fast response: /Hasn’t changed much since we last met an hour ago :)/
“Okay, he’s cool,” Yachi sighs in relief, “Now Tobio, think about your reply carefully”
Kageyama hums in acknowledgment. Alright, he has to be different, he has to be bold. The raven does a little dancing thing with his thumbs in the air for a while before typing hastily. “Okay I think I got it, I'll text him “you’re super cute, please go out with me”. How does that sound? Different enough?”
“NO!” Yachi screams out of her lungs. Kageyama flinches at the aggressiveness of his friend, which makes his sweaty fingers do something that could immediately end his life: he just accidentally hits send. Kageyama remains silent for a while before whispering dryly “…I accidentally sent that text already”
“You have my deepest condolences,” Yachi whispers back, “Shit, I just woke Kiyoko up, sorry, gotta go,” she says then quickly hang up, leaving Kageyama staring blankly at the screen
The raven throws his phone away after one minute of no response and covers his face with his blanket. That’s alright, Kageyama thinks, now all he needs to do is to transfer to a different university and never come back here again, ever! As he is planning about forging a fake identity and living a new life, his phone lights up, signifying a new message
Kageyama tentatively reaches for his phone and looks at the sender, it’s Hinata. He takes in a deep breath and opens the message, hands shaking from nervousness, /Sure, I’m free on Sunday afternoon so we could have our date then? Say 2 pm?/
A date? A date?? A DATE??? Kageyama immediately stands up from his bed and just stares speechlessly at the text. He then paces around the room with his hands slapping his flushed face and lips smiling way too hard that his cheeks hurt. After around a minute of rolling around on the mattress, scratching the wall, and squeezing his cat, Kageyama jumps on the bed again and grabs his phone shakily to reply to the text: /Cool/, he sends
And that my friends, is how you flirt with a cute cashier, awkwardly.